My picks for Best of 2012

Here's my annual list of my favourite albums of 2012. I'll start recapping them from #10 to #1 in the next couple of days here. Tune in to CFBX on January 11th, 2013 at 8 PM Pacific, for the radio countdown. It was a great year for Canadian music!

1) Eight and a Half - Eight and a Half (Arts and Crafts)
2) PS I Love You - Death Dreams (Paper Bag)
3) Shrouded Strangers - Lost Forever (Izniz)
4) Tanlines - Mixed Emotions (True Panther Sounds)
5) Purity Ring - Shrines (Last Gang)
6) David Byrne and St. Vincent - Love This Giant (4AD)
7) Daphi - Jiaolong (Merge)
8) Ringo Deathstarr - Mauve (Sonic Unyon)
9) Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)
10) Parallels - XII (Marigold)

Honourable Mentions: Men Without Hats - Love in the Age of War, Dirty Ghosts - Metal Moon, Gang Signs - Gang Signs, Grimes - Visions, Howler - America Wake Up

Who We Lost in 2012

Larry Reinhart (Iron Butterfly)
Bob Weston (Fleetwood Mac)
Dave Alexander
Robbie France (UFO)
Jimmy Castor
Johnny Otis
Etta James
Whitney Houston
Michael Davis (MC4)
Pierre Juneau
Billy Strange
Red Holloway
Roland Bautista (Earth, Wind and Fire)
Davy Jones
Mike Hossack (Doobie Brothers)
Eddie King
Eric Lowen
Nick Noble
Jerry McCain
Earl Scruggs
Andrew Love
Graham Simpson (Roxy Music)
Greg Ham (Men at Work)
Levon Helm
Tommy Marth (The Killers)
Charles Pitts
Adam Yauch/MCA
Donald "Duck" Dunn
Belita Woods (Parliament)
Doug Dillard
Donna Summer
Robin Gibb
Doc Watson
Herb Reed (The Platters)
Bob Welch
Maria Cole
Kitty Wells
Larry Hoppen
Bill Doss
Tony Sly (No Use for a Name)
Hal David
Joe South
Andy Williams
Raylene Rankin
David S. Ware
Bill Dees
Natina Reed (Blaque)
Bob French
Martin Fay (The Chieftains)
Billy Scott
Ian Campbell
Earl Carroll (The Coasters)
Mickey Baker
Sarah Kirsch (Pinhead Gunpowder)
Dave Brubeck
Ravi Shankar
Willie Ackerman
Jimmy McCracklin
Lee Dorman (Iron Butterfly)
Mike Scaccia (Ministry)
Ray Collins (Mothers of Invention)

Boyd Rice Returns

Whenever someone asks me to describe what experimental music is, I usually end up talking about the early pioneers in industrial music: Throbbing Gristle, Z'ev, Monte Cazzaza and Boyd Rice, aka NON.

Rice began recording back in 1975. This year, Boyd Rice returned with a new record on the Mute record label, called "Back to Mono". While many industrialists have hung up their boots, Rice continues on.

What is experimental music. NON is experimental music. Experimental music is about non-conventional approaches to music, often from very strange or entirely oblique angles. For example, using non-musical things as musical instruments, like a high tension wire sampled into a synthesizer to create backbeats, or using feedback as a part of a song. What happens to music when you take away the basics of what makes it music, such as melody, beat or rhythm? Or replacing pleasant sounds with harsh ones?

NON did all of these. He works almost exclusively with noise, and used tape-loops extensively (that's a reel to reel tape machine rigged to play repeated passages). He was one of the first to experiment with using the turntable itself as an instrument, playing with off-centre drilled holes in his second single to allow the record play at different oscillations, making the music different depending on which hole the record was played from. He also used lock-grooves. Normally, records spin from the outside in, playing an entire side of a record as it spirals into the centre. Lockgrooves lock the needle into one rotation, creating a repetitive noise that can only be stopped or changed by moving the needle to another part of the record.

The live experience of music was also an important part of the industrial movement. Throbbing Gristle was legendary for playing sounds thought to incite their crowds into uncomfortable mental states, and goading their audience from the stage into violence. NON used a shoe polisher as an instrument on stage, and an instrument called a "rotoguitar", a guitar with an electric fan attached to it. They often used multi-media in their stage shows, projecting movies or still scenes on the back of the stage.

NON's music is not easy to listen to, but that's the point. Does music need to be pretty or easily accessible to? What about making it difficult to listen to, or even uncomfortable or impossible to listen to? Is it still music? This is what experimental music is.

http://youtu.be/U4TmBf_cVLo

Same as it Ever Was: The Rolling Stone Best of 2012

It's time tos tart seeing lots of best of lists from music critics. Rolling Stone usually goes with a safe list, full of old, reliable favourites, eschewing innovation in preference of propping up established stars. This year sees little change to that formula.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-albums-of-2012-20121205

Yes, that's Bruce Springsteen at #1. He's been making the same album for 25 years, and it's at #1 this year. Other fossils filling out the Top 10: Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Green Day. Admittedly, noise rockers Japandroids are in at #9, but most of the Top 10 is old rockers and modern hit makers.

Cruising down the charts we have more of the same: Jimmy Cliff, Leonard Cohen, Dr. John, Dave Matthews, Donald Fagen? Really, Donald Fagen? And there's the modern guys paying tribute to older styles (John Mayer, Mumford and Sons), and your established hitmakers (Nas, Taylor Swift).

Interesting picks are there, but their further down the top 50, like Grimes, Grizzly Bear, Amadou and Mariam, Titus Andronicus and Escort (disco!).

2013 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

Today, we got the inductees list for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here's what a predicted, previously:

My picks for the Hall this year are: Donna Summer (she's been nominated the past few years, her death earlier this year should make her a shoo-in), The Marvelettes (there's almost always a 50s and 60s act inducted, this is the best act here), Albert King (trail-blazing bluesman), Rush and Chic. Kraftwerk, PE and NWA will all get in, but probably not this year.

Our inductees are: Rush, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Albert King, Randy Newman and Heart.

So I got 3 out of the 6. Not bad.

Donna Summer, I think, was the only shoo-in. Her death earlier this year and her previous nominations made it a no-brainer. I suspected Rush would get in, but I also could see an anti-prog rock backlash there. I'm a bit surprised that Public Enemy got in, but there has been a run in present years on hip-hop, with the Beastie Boys getting in last year, and Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash going before them. The rest are all solid picks.

Kraftwerk next year!

Earshot Reviews - November 2012 Part 2

Some original content is coming soon... I think...

The Glorious MoonRockets - S/T EP

The Hoot Hoots - Feel the Cosmos

Parallels - XII

Latest Earshot Reviews - November 2012

Motel Beds - Dumb Gold

Tusks - Total Entertainment

Whitehorse - The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss

Guest Blog - Cygnets - Dark Days

My latest for RMD Music Blog. I will never stop singing the praises of this band. Go Cygnets!

http://rmdmusicblog.com/2012/11/13/album-reviews-cygnets-dark-daysprophets-new-wave/

Covers Courageous #5: Elvis Costello - Pouring Water on a Drowning Man

In 1995, Elvis Costello released his second album of covers, called Kojak Variety. While his first covers album, 1980's Almost Blue, was a straight up country album, Kojak Variety covered a number of Costello's favourite singer songwriters, often using obscure takes from them. For example, his choice for a Bob Dylan cover was "I Threw it All Away", not exactly the best known Dylan song.

"Pouring Water on a Drowning Man" has a nice pedigree for a song. The song was written by Drew Baker and Dani McCormick and has been covered by David Allen Coe, Ry Cooder, Percy Sledge and, most famously by James Carr, amongst others. Elvis' take on the song is pretty stripped down, mostly an acoustic guitar with a slick blues singer vocal take. It's a highlight on an overlooked album from Elvis' catalogue.

 http://youtu.be/0oxDW1LO1Jw

The 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

Just announced today, the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2013:

Albert King, Chic, Deep Purple, Donna Summer, Heart, Joan Jett and Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, The Marvelettes, The Meters, NWA, Paul Butterfield, Procol Harum, Public Enemy, Randy Newman, Rush.

The last few years of nominees have been an interesting batch, with punk bands, disco acts and hip-hop finally coming of age to be considered for the Hall. And, there's still many classic pop and rock bands from the 50s and 60s that deserve to be inducted.

The one nominee on everyone's lips is Rush, finally nominated after being eligible for the last 12 years. As one of prog rock's giants and one of the most successful bands from Canada ever, their exclusion has been noted by many music critics.

For me, the most interesting nominees are Kraftwerk and the dual punch of NWA and Public Enemy. Kraftwerk are easily one of the most influential bands ever to exist. Without Kraftwerk, there would be no electronic music and no experimentation into adding electronic instruments into popular music. Kraftwerk's experiments with pop-melodies from a pure electronic standpoint, and their concept of being able to pack up their studio and take it with them on tour, pioneered the way for many electronic bands today.

If there was every a band that would stand up the Hall, it would likely be Public Enemy. Chuck D remains an iconoclast, fearlessly calling out any hypocrite he sees and expousing an aggressive style of politically conscious hip-hop. NWA, on the other hand, were pure anger and hedonism. Their style of hip-hop was aggressive, but in a more violent and anti-social way, paving the way for gangsta rap and most modern rap styles.

My picks for the Hall this year are: Donna Summer (she's been nominated the past few years, her death earlier this year should make her a shoo-in), The Marvelettes (there's almost always a 50s and 60s act inducted, this is the best act here), Albert King (trail-blazing bluesman), Rush and Chic. Kraftwerk, PE and NWA will all get in, but probably not this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzXUmbU58ME

Guest Blog: Dusted - Total Dust

It's been a while. But here's a guest post from over on RMD Musicblog. My review of the new Dusted album, Total Dust.

http://rmdmusicblog.com/2012/09/10/album-review-dusted-total-dust-indie-rockfolk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yifZZKbAccg

Reissues - Sugar's "Copper Blue" and "File Under: Easy Listening"

Bob Mould is probably one of my favourite musicians ever. It's funny though, I seem like more of a casual fan of his work. I'm happy to sample his work here and there and don't collect it obsessively like I do with the Elvis Costello back catalogue. Mould has a sense of what makes a great pop song, but also knows what it takes to truly destroy a song with fuzzed out, over-distorted guitar. He's truly a multi-dimensional musician.

Back in the 80s, Mould was the lead singer for the seminal post-punk/hardcore band Husker Du. After that band broke up in the mid 80s, Mould tried his hand at a solo career, releasing two solo albums for Virgin (most notably, the mostly acoustic Workbook in 1988, still an amazing album). But, the lure of being in a band was strong for Mould, and he formed the band Sugar with David Barbe and Malcolm Travis. The band only put out two full lengths, Copper Blue in 1992 and File Under: Easy Listening in 1994, with an EP called Beaster filling the gap in 1993, then a posthumous double disk b-sides collection called, appropriately, Besides. All the albums came out on the Rykodisc label.

Sugar was largely Mould's reaction to grunge. While Sugar was chunky and growling like grunge, it had Mould's penchant for pop melodies that grunge lacked. Copper Blue is a near perfect slab of pop-tinged rock, tinged with punk's fury. "Helpless" was the lead off single, a smooth but snarling power pop gem. Mould crafted soaring pop tunes like "Hoover Dam", and the plaintive "If I Can't Change You're Mind", along with more menacing tunes like "The Slim". Copper Blue is easily in my top 10 albums released in the 90s, and I consider it one of the most important album released in the 90s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUf1sObmhr8



The follow up EP Beaster was a very different animal, if you excuse the pun there, from Copper Blue. just 6 songs long, the EP weaved a vague narrative of a world dominated by the religious right, with grinding Husker Du style guitars behind it. The single "Tilted" was pretty representative of the sound here:

 http://youtu.be/0H0bNt9_Znw



File Under: Easy Listening was a stab at a more polished sound, with more shimmering pop tunes with less of a punk edge. The album is less enjoyable than Copper Blue and seems to lack a bit of the fire that's usually in Mould's belly. Several songs are worth the time to listen to though, including the whimsical "Gee Angel" and the more acoustic "Believe What You're Saying".

http://youtu.be/RPT251GNbBI



Sugar broke up soon after FU: EL and Mould was back at his solo career, which continues on to this day. He's released many great albums under his own name, espeically 2008's District Line. Sugar finished up with Besides, a two disc compilation of rarities and live takes.

Merge Records have lately been a home to many of the great of the 90s indy rock explosion. They've remastered and re-released both Sugar full lengths, tacking Beaster onto Copper Blue, and including many of the better songs from Besides with the discs as well. Check them out for a great look at a band that deserves a bit more time in the limelight. Mould's latest solo effort, Silver Age, is out in October on Merge.

http://youtu.be/dDnNr6lNxvc

Forgotten Bands of Grunge - Tad

As with almost every music scene, for every band that bursts out of a city, there were five bands toiling away with little or no recognition. It's a combination of talent and catching lightning in a bottle, a random factor that influences the music tastes of the time, that makes a band famous. It was Nirvana's combination of slugdy 70s rock, punk sensibilities and distortion that made them famous. And it was Eddie Vedder's voice, good looks and his bands sense of melody that made Pearl Jam starts. But what about bands like Tad?

Tad was one of the many incestuous bands that roared out of the Seattle grunge era. Featuring members from historical Seatlle bands like Bundle of Hiss and Skin Yard, Tad was fronted by vocalist and guitarist Tad Doyle. They formed in 1988, just as the Seattle scene was starting to explode. They served as Nirvana's opening act on their Bleach tour, and shared space on the legendary Sub Pop label with Nirvana. Tad had more in common with Nirvana in their love of 70s sludge metal and melodic punk, though they were much heavier than Nirvana. I always loved the band's early tagline, "Tad puts the sheet back into metal."

Tad's first album was 1988's God's Balls, was produced by Jack Endino, who produced a lot of early grunge albums. It was a crunchy and loud effort that flew under the radar. It featured the wonderfully sludgy "Sex God Missy", which also appeared on the scene-setting Sub Pop compliation Sub Pop 200:

 http://youtu.be/ryDelBsVSDY



Their second album, 1990's Salt Lick, produced by the legendary Steve Albini, began to get the band noticed. By 1991, the band had a solid, melodic, heavy sound, and they produced 8-Way Santa, which included the track "Jack Pepsi", which is a good encapsulating of the band's sound: Heavy, abrasive and decidedly redneck.

http://youtu.be/il066mCId1s



As grunge began to go mainstream, Tad found themselves unlikely major label signees, signing to Warner sublabel Giant, and putting out 1993's Inhaler. They served as Soundgarden's opener during this time. While the album failed to turn the band into stars, it had several well received songs, including "Leafy Incline", heavy and melodic at the same time:

http://youtu.be/f97blSGbM_4



They were dropped from Giant due to poor record sales, then released Live Alien Broadcasts in 1995, then followed up with Infrared Riding Hood for Elektra Records. The album was melodic and sludgy, typical for the band:


http://youtu.be/4focJ9et2sY



Grunge was well past it's expiriation date by the mid 90s. Tad released a single or two before finally breaking up in 1998. Tad Doyle went on to form Hog Molly in the early 200s.

Latest Earshot Reviews

I'm finally back on the wagon reviewing more music for Earshot Online. Here's the latest reviews:

Bill Evans - In Good Company

Hermetic - Civilized City

The Plain Steel - Folk 'n Roll

S* + KK - Glyphs of Erebus Sublime

S.K. Robot - S.K. Robot

Solar Year - Waverly

Salmon Arm 2012 Redux

One of the yearly musical highlight of the year in the BC Interior is always the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival. Outside of anything in Vancovuer, it's the festival to be at during the summer. As usual, they had a stellar line up. Lately, the acts have been moving towards a younger crowd, but there was a lot to see and like this year.

I showed up on Sunday and headed straight back to the blues stage to catch the past part of Kelly Joe Phelps' set. He's a wonderfully soulful folk singer with a nice mastery of the folk guitar, and a veteran of the tour and recording business. I saw him play about 4 songs and he put on a fine understated show, mostly him sitting on a stool, picking and singing.

I stuck around the blues stage for the workshop coming up. Workshops are where 3-4 musicians are put on stage and are left to explore their music how they want. You often get some wonderfully inspired performances at these. This one had three member of the US/Canada blues act Floyd Lee Band (Lee himself was sick and didn't make it to the festival), Delta Blues player James "Super Chikan" Johnson and the mutant soul/funk/worldbeat of Hazmat Modine. Hazmat was one of the acts I'd hope I'd see. They're a seven piece that mixes every musican genre you can think off, and they have a brass section with a tuba. I love bands that can simultaneously pay respect to tradition while mixing the sound with other genres, and still make it listenable. Having seen them here makes me wish I had come on Saturday to see them do a set by themselves. Super Chikan too was another musician that impressed me. He, like so many of my musical heroes, is a junkyard musician, fashioning his own instruments from scratch and scrap. He was playing a cigar-box guitar with three strings here and sounded great doing it.

I hung around the blues stage again to catch a quick glimpse of soul legend Bettye LaVette, who, after starting in the 60s, fell into obscurity until Anti- Records picked her up for some recent work. I caught 3-4 songs from her before hunger got the best of me.

After getting some surprisingly non-greasy donair, I watched Calgary indy rockers Raleigh from the shade of a tent. This is the kind of band that the festival has been bringing in to attract a younger crowd. The three piece had a sombre, laid back style typical of today's indy rock, blending old time roots melodies into the mix too, mostly with a cello.

At the same stage, I saw the Black Pioneer Heritage Singers play a few songs. They're also from Alberta and do very traditional southern-style vocal gospel. I saw them down in Vernon a few years ago at the Rare Earth Festival, so I knew what they were about. I went to the Rare Earth festival with a friend who wasn't a music fan (beyond what's on the radio that is...) and I explained to her that I liked musicians who strive for authenticity and visit the old styles of music in a very traditional way. She said I was "weird" for liking music like this. Anyway...

I walked across the festival grounds to see Buckman Coe, a Vancouver based folk singer I had recently become interested in. His style immediately put me off. He had a huge back up band and played shirtless. His music wasn't like what he had on his albums either, instead moving in a more radio-friendly acoustic rock. I stuck around for 3 songs, then headed back to the blues stage again to be pleasantly surprised to find...

Coco Montoya! He's a contemporary blues artist with a powerful voice and a strong graps of blues rock. He did some nice up tempo tunes and a few slower one's. By the time Montoya finished, it was time for the main stage performances to start up.

First up was Cuff the Duke, a relatively new roots rock band from Ontario. They've been around to put out a handful of strong roots rock albums in the style of Blue Rodeo, making their sound familiar and distinctly Canadian at the same time. The festival showed their recent production sensibilities here. They had several camera operators on stage capturing everything, which was them put up on two big screen TVs, so everyone sitting way in the back could see what was going on.

The second act was another band I was hoping I'd get to see, The Shuffle Demons. The Demons are legends in Canadian jazz, and even had a couple of left-field hits in the 80s, most notably "Spadina Bus". They're a six piece, drums, trumpet, stand up bass and three saxophones. Their approach is fun and upbeat, melodic and raucous. The three sax attack leads to some awesome improvisation that most jazz bands can't approach, with all three playing off of each other, or taking turns soloing or doing call and response. And there's often spastic alto sax solos, which are great in my book. They did their standard funk-based jazz-rock style, but also through in a Mingus cover, which was also okay in my book. They were definitely the highlight of the festival for me.

http://youtu.be/q6_sLmuze98



 The sun finally began to set around 8 PM. The day was mercilessly hot, with only a short break in the heat with some clouds in the afternoon. The setting sun brought some welcome cool air, but also brought out the bugs: wasps, flies and mosquitos. Serena Ryder had just started her set. She's a Canadian singer with an acoustic guitar, her voice having an old jazz/blues feel to it. I caught two of her songs before the bugs got too bad, bringing my day to an end.

Overall, the festival was great as usual, I've seen some better acts at the festival, but the Shuffle Demons and Hazmat Modine were worth the trip for sure. I bought a Shuffle Demons t-shirt and Hazmat's new album Cicada, which I'll be digging into soon!

Redd Kross - Researching the Blues

Redd Kross didn't fit that well in the 90s scene they came out of it. It seems only fitting they return into the 2010s when they're equally as out of place.

Redd Kross (who started as Red Cross but were forced to change their name after a lawsuit from the actual Red Cross assocation), came from the vibrant Los Angeles music scene of the 80s, merging garage rock with bubblegum pop and 60s psychedelic rock. Mainly the front for brothers Steve and Jeff McDonald, the band released their first album, Born Innocent, way back in 1981. It wasn't until 1990, with the major label release of Third Eye on AtlanticRecord that the band became better known, bouyed on several strong singles, most notably "Annie's Gone".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN4kgQvHFTg

After a break with Atlantic, the band released Phaseshifter on Polygram, which had two more solid singles, "Jimmy's Fantasy" (the video featuring an early appearance by actor Jason Lee) and "The Lady in the Front Row"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7RPjsFRNM

The band was also known for wild covers, having released one covers album back in 1984 called Twin Babes of Monsanto, and an album under the name of the Tater Totz (a band that also featured psych-pop weirdos The Three O'Clock) called Alien Sleestacks from Brazil. They also contributed a cover of the Brady Bunch's "Sunshine Day" for a low-budget film called Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, and a version of The Carpenters "Yesterday Once More" for I Wish I Was a Carpenter, a tribute album also featuring Sonic Youth among others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJwjddKLec

Until this years Researching the Blues, Redd Kross hadn't released a full length since 1997. The new album is their first in 15 years and their first for stalwart indie-rock label Merge Records. The first single is a great tune called "Stay Away from Downtown", with a fun kabuki-inspired video.

http://youtu.be/ryh-tsPQsj8

Focus on the Local Scene - Bollokscraft Records

We introduce a new feature on Shellac and Vinyl today, focusing on the vibrant local music scene in Kamloops, BC.

Today, I stopped by the first Bollokscraft Bazaar, hosted by the good people at local record label and art collective, Bollokscraft Records.

Bollokscraft is a small label, only about a year old, and is the brainchild of local musician, artist and CFBX radio host Ronan McGrath. The label has a few releases under it's belt so far, mostly online releases, but they have made a few special physical releases.

I bought a nice copy of their latest release by noise/electronic act Kaleider called Denormalizer. The CD is blank, but richly illustrated with a colourful collage and features a download cars for the music online.

Next up for Bollokscraft is a release from All My Evils called The Rose Tree. Right now, it's just available online. You can check out this release and many others from the label on their website. Give them a donation and enjoy!

Ronan is also a blogger and has agreed to be interviewed for a future feature on local experimental music.

Here's a jam featuring Ronan on mandolin and local noise/electronic/folky Sean Luciw on guitar!

http://youtu.be/ZFLoWbykt38

RIP Bill Doss

With several high profile deaths of music stars lately (Kitty Wells, Levon Helm), the passing of Bill Doss was easy to overlook. Heck, I only learned about it after a chance look at Metafilter a couple of days ago. Bill Doss was a musician and record label producer, responsible mostly for the Elephant 6 Collective.

Doss got his start as a musician in the band that would eventually become Olivia Tremor Control. OTC played an intriguing mix of indy pop, psychedelic and experimental, specializing in minimalist pop, often performing songs less than 2 minutes long. OTC, along with psych-pop bands Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples in Stereo formed the core of Elephant 6, a label that would become incredibly influential through the late 90s and early 2000s.

http://youtu.be/jUjd6DHAutU


As a musician, Doss was often doing side projects and performing with the rest of the Elephant 6 bands. In 2000, after OTC broke up, Doss formed The Sunshine Fix, a pop band with heavy psychedelic influences. He also was a member of the Apples in Stereo, joining the band in the late 2000s and serving as a main songwriter

http://youtu.be/JToCx0n0FlU

As part of the Elephant 6 Collective, Doss championed his own brand of indy rock, concentrating on spacy, psychedelic and experimental pop. He helped put out early albums from Of Montreal, Beulah, Elf Power and The Music Tapes.

http://youtu.be/B6gSSsCdFeA 



Doss passed away on July 30, 2012 at the age of 43. No cause of death has been announced yet.

Forgotten Music #15 - Dogs Die in Hot Cars - "I Love You 'Cause I Have to" (2004)

This band should have been huge. Instead, they're a footnote in history, Scotland's Dogs Die in Hot Cars take some obvious cues from some new wave legends, notably the quirky pop sensibilities of XTC and the manic energy of some of Scotland's greatest 80s acts like The Fire Engines and Orange Juice. The band took several years to bring their music vision together, forming in 1997 but not releasing anything until a single for One Little Indian Records in 2003. In 2004, they released their debut full length called Please Describe Yourself, a new wave influenced album full of classic jangly and upbeat British style rock.

The band had three singles of the album, the most successful of which was "Godhopping", which peaked at #24 on the UK charts. A second album never truly came together. After the band recorded some demos, they split up but released the album they planned on releasing free on the internet.

"I Love You 'Cause I Have to" is just one of several great songs on their only album. This is one is very worthwhile to track down if you love UK new wave.

http://youtu.be/AeywCfxYcas

Eight and a Half - Guest Blog on RDM Music

My first guest blog is up over on RDM Music Blog, on Canadian band Eight and a Half. This should be the first of a monthly guest blog on Canadian music I'll do for them. I've already got two more reviews in the works. Head on over and support them!

http://rmdmusicblog.com/2012/07/20/album-review-eight-and-a-half-go-ego-electronicexperimental/

http://youtu.be/mWnq8op-IN8

The Shadowy Men Change Their Hearts

Two nice surprises from the summer festival scene have been the return of two classic Canadian indy rock bands: Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Change of Heart.

Shadowy Men are much better known outside of Canada due to their penning and performing "Having an Average Weekend", the opening theme for the legendary comedy show Kids in the Hall.


http://youtu.be/CqmFspZqr34




The band formed in the late 80s and released their first album, Savvy Show Stoppers, in 1990. The band mixed surf rock and touches of punk and indy rock, performing almost entirely as an instrumental band (very few of their songs had singing on them). They released only three full length albums during their short existence, but the band is well loved and well known by Canadian music fans. After the band's break up after 1995, Don Pyle and Reid Diamond formed another instrumental band with Dallas Good (later a member of the much loved Canadian alt-roots band, The Sadies) called Phono-Comb. Guitarist John Connelly formed another surf-rock instrumental band called Atomic 7, who released several albums on the Mint label, and played in Neko Case's band for a while. Diamond passed away in 2001. The band returned for some dates this summer, most notably at Calgary's Sled Island festival, with Dallas Good filling in on bass for Diamond.

What's even better is that the bands back catalogue is being re-released by the Lethbridge, AB based Mammoth Cave Records, which will be a nice treat for anyone who was a fan of the band, but had a hard time tracking down their albums.

Change of Heart was a heavily psychedelic influenced band from out of Toronto and part of the Canadian indy rock explosion of the late 80s/early 90s that included bands like Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Jale and Eric's Trip. Fronted by Ian Blurton, the band put out 6 albums, their last in 1997, Steelteeth, on the major label Virgin. After breaking up, Blurton worked as a producer for a lot of Canada's biggest names, such as the Weakerthans, Cursed and Attack in Black. He also formed the short-lived Bionic, and his latest band C'Mon, which just broke up in the last couple of years.

Blurton announced last month that Change of Heart were reforming for several reunion shows, as well as putting out a long awaited retrospective.

http://youtu.be/JsmKSN3rBPM

Covers Courageous #4: Jesus and Mary Chain/ZZ Top - Reverberation (Doubt)

I was chatting online with a new friend the other day, who's also a music nerd like me, and got to talking about the early days of psychedelic music. She's got an opportunity to see Roky Erickson in a few days, and we talked about his legacy. That got me to thinking about an awesome tribute album that came out in 1990 called When the Pyramid Meets the Eye, which was artists covering Roky Erickson. Even in the 60s, Roky wasn't exactly a household name, and even less so in the 90s, so the compilation was very leftfield. It introduced me to his music though, which is a good thing.

Roky Erickson fronted a folk/psychedelic band called the 13th Floor Elevators, who started recording out of Dallas, TX in the mid 60s. Their biggest hit was a tune Roky wrote for a band called the Spades, called "You're Gonna Miss Me." The band had their following, but weren't terribly commercially successful. Instead, Roky's work was influential to those that came after him. Roky himself was plagued with health problems, from mental imbalances to general neglect, and constant drug use. He was also routinely exploited by record promoters, swindling Roky out of money owed him through a number of unauthorized releases.

More recently, Roky was embraced by modern musicians and began recording again, releasing an album with Will Sheff (aka Okkervil River) in 2010 called True Love Cast Out All Evil. He was also featured in a documentary about his career called You're Gonna Miss Me.

The range of artists on Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye is surprising. Given Roky's base of Dallas, it's not surprising that ZZ Top took on a song on the album, though ZZ Top isn't really a band you associate with psychedelic music. Regardless, they do a fantastic version of "Reverberation (Doubt)". Second, noted shoegazers Jesus and Mary Chain seemed like a natural match for Roky's work, and they take on the same song. Judge for yourself who does the best version.

http://youtu.be/KmiEC7G43OQ


http://youtu.be/buEGBtLsc1k

Forgotten Music #14: Ultra Vivid Scene - Staring at the Sun (1989)

Ultra Vivid Scene is yet another act that had to go to England to gain recognition and critical acclaim. A one man band, Kurt Ralske started in New York before jumping to the UK to sign with 4AD Records, who had jumpstarted the careers of fellow American bands like The Pixies. Ralske's style of music had very little to do with the noisy excursions of the Pixies, but was more in line with dream pop bands like The Cocteau Twins and The Sundays. "Staring at the Sun" wonderfully captures the ouevre of the late 90s style of dream pop, the sound of college radio at the time. This track comes from Ralske's second album as Ultra Vivid Scene, called Joy 1967-1990.

http://youtu.be/n7buuj1JWI8

Covers Courageous #3 - Die Krupps - A Tribute to Metallica

Back in the 90s, industrial music was a cool thing. After Nine Inch Nails and their followers brought industrial into the public consciousness, every bald dude with a sampler and a drum machine was making industrial music. While some bands cashed in during the 90s, there were bands like Germany's Die Krupps who were grinding out industrial in the early 80s, long before it was cool.

The band wasn't well known outside of Europe (save for die hard rivetheads), but they suddenly became relatively well known after their album called A Tribute to Metallica was released in 1993. Back in the 90s, it was quite common to see industrial bands covering rock or pop tunes and "industrializing" them up. Cleopatra Records probably made more from this concept than from anything else they released, and I'm sad/proud to say I have quite a few of their industrial tribute comps in my own collection. Some of these, like KFMDM's cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways", were brilliant in their own way. Most, however, feel flat as fads do.

As an album, A Tribute to Metallica has it's own  unique charms. Hearing Metallica's usual grinding, shredding guitars replaced by angular, pulsing electronics had a novel effect at one point. Sadly, this EP hasn't weathered the years well, but will remain as a neat touchstone when industrial music was being paid attention to.

http://youtu.be/FeoLnwM98aE

Adam Cohen on music

Last week, while driving later at night, I caught part of an interview on Q with Adam Cohen, son of the legendary Leonard Cohen, talking about his father's influence on music and on Adam himself as a musician. Adam talked about music losing it's "cultural relevance", telling a story that when some thieves broke into his car, they didn't touch all the of the great music he had lying around on CD, but they took everything else they could grab. He said this was, in part, to music not being valued.

Adam has a point, but not because the thieves passed up his awesome CD collection. Music, like most types of media, is around and available for free (or almost free) more than ever in the age of the internet. Not only is copyrighted and legally released music pirated as soon as it's released, and made available in very easy to find ways, more and more artists have been releasing their music with little or no expectation of being compensated for what they do. Part of this is a need for a fan base. A band can put out their music on bandcamp or other service for free and people can come by and check it out with no expectation to buy it. This makes new fans quickly. But, is there an incentive to actually buy the music after sampling it for free?

In 2007, Radiohead caused a controversy by offering their album In Rainbows up on their website for "pay what you want". Fans could download the album then, if they wanted, send the band some money for the music. There was no expectation to pay for it though. The album was downloaded 1.2 million times. While Radiohead never released sales figures, they have said they did quite well with the strategy. Some critics say that Radiohead were cutting off their noses to spite their faces, offering up a critical and financial success of an album for basically nothing. This probably set the ball rolling for the free digital download we all enjoy today.

It's a hard road for any up and coming musician. You need people to consume your music, by buying it or by coming to a concert, but few people will take chances on an unknown quantity. Offering up music for free may get you heard, but it takes food out of your mouth.

Adam Cohen was right about music being less culturally relevant, in as much as we've begun to consider music not as something we need to pay for, but as something that we are deserved for free. In addition, the age of the album is slowly starting to disappear. Music is much more ephemeral, with artists riding more and more on a hot single rather than a hot album, sometimes to disappear after they're not the flavour of the month anymore. One can't fault the thieves for not stealing his TV on the Radio CDs, not because they didn't know who they were or know how awesome their music was. Rather, the thieves were interested in monetary value, not cultural value. Making money on music is a hard slog now, both as a musician and as a thief. No one will buy something that they can get for free, unless the artist is offering something of quality, and something that is well known. It's less a cultural issue than a changing musical financial landscape. Until there's a better model of how to market and sell music in a digital age, the CD, the album and the physicality of music will be a relic to all but music collectors and avid fans, like me and Adam.

Canadian Indie Band Round Up #2

Has it really been a year since I featured three up and coming Canadian indy bands? Let's fix that right away. Here's three Canadian acts you need to check out:

1) Foam Lake

Foam Lake are seasoned veterans of the Canadian indy rock scene, having been in bands like The Blood Lines, Slow Down Molasses and The Warbrides. Foam Lake just put out their debut album, Force and Matter, in November 2011.

The band sound a lot like Wire crossed with Depeche Mode. They have solid post-punk and indy rock sensibilities, and add in a nice flourish of electronics in many places in their first album.

http://foamlakeband.com/

2) Rob Crooks

From Winnipeg, Rob Crooks plays a noisy mix of indy rock with plenty of experimentation. As a member of hip-hop collective Magnum K.I,, he made some intriguing hip-hop. Hearts, his 2012 release, sees him abandon hip-hop (for the most part) for oddball experimentation, feedback and singer-songwriter sensibilities. Thing of him as a low-rent, mosquito bitten Canadian version of Beck and you have a close approximation as to how he sounds.

http://www.robcrooks.com/

3) House of Daggers

From Vancouver, House of Daggers is a collaboration between DJ Tone and alt-pop singer Nothingilistic. Nothingilistic has released three albums of weirdly skewed pop so far, but House of Daggers is a dirty, dancable mix of electro-rock. Having been familiar with Nothingilistic's career to date, House of Daggers sounds like nothing he'd produce ever. It's a fascinating departure and the music is driving, noisy and challenging. Their debut EP is called Lightning Swords of Death.

http://www.myspace.com/565073443

http://youtu.be/_Vu7dExkmiI

Forgotten Music #13: The Cramps - "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon"

This is the last repost of Forgotten Music from my livejournal. The next installment will be all new content!
RIP Lux Interior.
---

The Cramps are one of the best bands ever to play psychobilly and horror-punk. Cited by some as the inventors of psychobilly, a style of music that merged rockabilly with punk, The Cramps formed in 1976 in New York City. The band had a rotating membership, but always used the core of vocalist Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy. Active in the early CBGB's punk scene, The Cramps released their landmark first album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, in 1979. They recorded and toured steadily up until Lux Interior's death early in 2009.

I became aware of this band late in their career, after hearing the 1990 album Stay Sick at CKUL. I fell in love with their sound and look immediately. They combined the visuals of 50s rock with B-movie horror film and sleazy erotica. Poison Ivy often posed in skin-tight vinyl and played her guitar in a sensual way. At the time, "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" was making its way up the college charts, but "Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon"'s manic approach really appealed to me. The video is one of the most playfully demented things I've ever seen. If you like this, go listen to "Human Fly" and especially "Garbage Man", featuring Ivy in skin-tight gold pants!

http://youtu.be/Zt4lf6aR15Y

The problem with Cancon

I complain about Cancon laws a lot, but I'm glad we have laws that protect Canadian culture. The problem with the laws is the way they're implemented, which encourages laziness, especially in the commercial radio sector. I got another clear indication of this in the past few weeks.

One of the problems is that Canadian commercial radio rarely throws its weight behind a genuine Canadian artist. The only time this happens is when American radio picks up on a Canadian artist, then the Canadian stations really start pouring out the love for the artist. Admittedly, this can be hard to track just from listening to a Canadian commercial station. The proof in the pudding comes in the Top 40 Charts.

Two weeks ago, Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen cracked the Top 20 singles on Billboard, the American Top 40 singles charts. Before this, Jepsen was a token Canadian hovering in the low teens on the Canadian Top 40 singles charts. It's actually pretty rare for any Canadian artist to crack the Top 5 in Canada. I know this because I log both the US and Canadian charts each week as part of my job, and for the last year, I've been blogging about the Top 40 Canadian commercial charts on this very blog. Now, once the US charts got behind Jepsen and started playing her, the Canadian charts immediately responded, The week Jepsen cracked the US Top 20, Jepsen shot up to #3 on the Canadian charts. Before this, it had been at least a year and a half since a Canadian artist cracked the Top 5 in Canada.

Here is the reluctance of Canadian radio to play Canadian artists, and truly support them, laid out in black and white. It's very rare to see an truly Canadian grown artist get support on Canadian radio in the form of chart action. The last artist I can think of that we grew ourselves was Jann Arden. It usually takes US radio saying, "Hey, this is pretty good, we'll play it!" before we are able to say, "Hey, you know, this Canadian artist is pretty good! We'll play it too!". It's almost like commercial radio says, "We're not sure if we can support this Canadian act. Let's play some more American acts we know will work before we take a chance on this one." Why can't we say, "This is a great artist. Who cares if they're Canadian or not, we'll play them!"

My Top 20 Disks

I was talking with my girlfriend about this last night, I think it bears re-posting,

--

Not necessarily the best albums in the world, but 20 albums that changed how I view music:

Growing up, grade school and junior high

1) To it and At it - Stompin' Tom Connors (1973): I grew up on old classic country like George Jones, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Porter Wagoner and Loretta Lynn. But this was my favourite as a kid. It's just a fun album and sing song enough to appeal to a kid. The title track is absolutely infectious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVjWCwZ8MI8

2) Highway to Hell - AC/DC (1979): I got this in Grade 7 as a secret Santa Xmas present from a friend I figured traded in the classroom to get my name for the gift (Thanks Andrew!) This was one of the first albums I ever owned and started me down the road to liking metal, if you call this and Def Leppard metal... I'll admit, my cousin who was living with us at the time also influenced me into metal. The funniest thing I remember about this album is how I didn't understand anything anyone said. I listened to the album on headphones many many times trying to figure out the lyrics, then suddenly, something clicked and I understood them.

3) The Cars - Heartbeat City (1984): In junior high, I started reviewing music for the school newspaper. The Cars were one of the first albums I reviewed and one of the first albums I owned on tape. I count this album as my introduction to new wave and the start of my life long love of the genre.

4) Rush - Grace Under Pressure (1984): This was the soundtrack to my junior high days. I never really enjoyed Rush's progressive stuff, but their synth-drenched stuff from the 80s appealed to me. I loved the video for "Distant Early Warning".

Senior High and Early College

5) Devo - Freedom of Choice (1980): I heard this for the first time in 1986 and it changed my life. I learned a lot about music during my grad years in 1986-87. New wave at it's finest. This album taught me that music didn't have to be generic to be good and that I didn't have to like everything else my peers liked. Devo's anti-establishment, geek-culture style appealed to me deeply at the time, and still does to a certain extent. Some of what they say becomes truer as each day goes by.

6) Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks (1979): More music I heard for the first time in my grad year. I had never heard music so angry before. This, along with #7, got me into a brief punk phase which I grew out of really quickly.

7) The Ramones - Rocket to Russia (1978): More punk, this appealed to me because it was angry, melodic and kind of goofy. I'm less of a Ramones fan now, but this album affected me quite a bit.

8) Depeche Mode - Black Celebration (1986): Late 80s music was hair metal and the start of the shoegazer movement. Black Celebration spoke to this confused and depressed teenager a bit more than Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" which was also in high rotation at this time.

9) Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80s Part III (1984): My intro to synth-pop. Driving, insistent and insanely catchy. I still love this band dearly, despite them being seen as a joke by most people.

10/11) Big Black - Atomizer (1986)/Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel - Hole (1984): A friend of mine gave me an unlabelled tape with both of these albums on it. I had no idea who or what I was listening to, but it changed me. The music was offensive and talked about things that no normal human being would talk about. This was my first introduction to industrial music, though I didn't know what it was at the time.

University, College Radio and Beyond

12) REM - Green (1988): One of my go to albums during my first years of university, melodic, moody and a bit frothy. Not a great album, but it was a fave at the time.

13) Skinny Puppy - VIVIsect VI (1988): My other go to album from university. It was my solace against the constant crap music my roommate played, who liked Lee Aaron, Honeymoon Suite and Alice Cooper. Depressing and violent, fit my disturbed mood at the time perfectly and it was another step along the road to my love of industrial.

14) Ministry - Land of Rape and Honey (1988): If I could pick one album that changed my life, I'd pick this one. A friend introduced me to Ministry in my first year in university and I fell in love with industrial (thanks Craig!). This album had the perfect balance between primal rage and musical precision. It remains one of my favourite albums of all time.

15) Elvis Costello - Blood and Chocolate (1986): This is the other album that I'd pick that changed my life. A friend at the college radio station lent it to me and the earnestness of the songwriting and rawness and ramshackle nature of Elvis's music spoke to me like nothing had before. It really took me a while to twig onto his work, I didn't buy my first Elvis Costello album until 1993, and it was one of his lesser albums, "Spike", but now he's my favourite musician of all time. I own every album he's put out.

16) Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979): After I got into college radio, my tastes in music really expanded. I had discounted the Heads as a one hit wonder, but when I began to listen to their catalogue, I quickly changed my mind. The texture and feel of this album falls together so easily and flawlessly, it's hard not to love it.

17) The Pixies - Doolittle (1989): Not much needs to be said about this album. Perfect mix of quiet and loud. Shaped music for years to come.

18) The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1964): Hard to believe I didn't get into the Beatles until the 90s, but that's the truth. This was the first Beatles album I owned (given as a gift, thanks K!). I own every Beatles album after it now, but nothing before it. It's beautiful in it's own oddly structured way. Abbey Road is my fave Beatles album, but this was my first.

19) Pan Sonic - Aaltopirii (2001): My first real excursion into electronic minimalism. This album is stark, composed mainly of static, sparks and drones with no lyrics. Altered again the way I look at music and how it's constructed

20) Polysics - Hey! Bob! My Friend! (2001): Polysics are my current obsession. They take the oddball new wave sound of Devo and add in the energy of hardcore punk. Both Dadaist and rump-shaking at the same time.

Honourable mentions: Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon, Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A., Beck - Sea Change, Cub - Betti-Cola, They Might Be Giants - Flood.

RIP Christopher Reimer

His name may not be well known, but Chris Reimer put his stamp on many western indy rock fans souls. Reimer died in his sleep at the age of 26. Reimer was a member of the much loved, noise and drone rock band Women, who had released a landmark album back in 2010 called Public Strain.  I named it one of my favourite albums of 2010. He was also a member of the electro/noise/rock band Azeda Booth.

It's not know what Reimer died of, but he did have an irregular heartbeat and sleep apnea. His family have set up a blog and music bursary in his name. If you have anything to add to remember the legacy of Reimer's contributions to the Calgary and Canadian indy rock scene, please post:

http://christopherjohnjosephreimer.com/

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/christopher-reimer-tributes/

http://youtu.be/-LElqwoBOJE

RIP Pierre Juneau

I talk a lot about Canadian music on this blog, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. But, Canada wouldn't even have its own music if it weren't for Pierre Juneau. Juneau died today at the age of 89.

Juneau was the first president of the CRTC and championed the idea of Canadian Content. For those not familiar, Canadian Content (or Cancon) laws dictate that a certain amount of Canadian content must be broadcast on Canadian stations, either radio or TV. It also concerned itself with the ownership of Canadian stations, ensuring that Canadian media would be created by Canadians for Canadians.

Under Juneau's watch, in 1970, Canadian music radio was required to broadcast at least 35% Canadian content. He was also an early supporter of the National Film Board, which produced a huge amount of Canadian-oriented short and long films. In 1982, he took over as president of the CBC, forming the cable news channel CBC Newsworld and mandating that 95% of CBC's radio content be produced in Canada. Juneau also held 4 honorary degrees and was an officer of the Order of Canada

Through Cancon laws, Juneau allowed the Canadian music industry to establish itself and to grow into what it is today. Without Cancon laws, we wouldn't have the thriving Canadian music industry, both the big names and the tiny bands working out of their garages. Nor would we have a Canadian movie or TV industry. There would be no chance to hear new Canadian music on a Canadian radio station.

I run down Cancon laws a lot, mostly in the way they are used to homogenize commercial radio. But, without Cancon laws, I wouldn't have any complaints about Canadian music. I'd likely be complaining about how many American artists are on our radio waves.

The Canadian music award, the Juno, is named after Pierre Juneau. There were few men more passionate about Canadian culture than Juneau. His presence in Canadian culture was towering and he will be sorely missed.

When does classic rock become classic?

I just took a trip down to Vancouver with my awesome girlfriend and her kids last weekend. We took a quick stop to let the kids go to the bathroom and I stayed behind in the car. The satellite radio was on, and it switched to Beck's "The New Pollution". The display said it came out in 1996. Hearing this song immediately took me on a little trip, back to the person I was in 1996. I remember exactly how I felt when I first heard Beck's Odelay, what was going on in my life at the time and how the album affected me. I had an instant cultural and personal touchstone to the song.

This got me thinking about how we react to music, especially music that we were alive and able to appreciate.

Take this example. I love the Beatles. I love all of their albums and love their music. But, I wasn't alive when they were making music, so I have no cultural or personal touchstone to the music. The 60s were a culturally vibrant and politically volatile time. What experience am I missing when I listen to the Beatles? I get a similar reaction when listening to progressive rock or disco. I was alive during their heyday, but I don't like the music, nor do I understand the time it came from. Is it because I have no cultural touchstone to tie it to?

Another example. I was alive and heavily into music during the grand days of the late 80s when hair metal bands roamed the Earth like shaggy dinosaurs. I really dislike hair metal, but I understand why it came about and why people loved it. I was there when it happened, and when I hear a Def Leppard song, it invokes a memory or emotion in me.

I wonder now, I feel visceral emotions and solid memories when I hear Nevermind or Devo's Freedom of Choice. The kids riding with us weren't around for Odelay's unveiling. They might as well be the Beatles to them. Or Beethoven. An album so important to me would have no meaning, no context for a four year old. Even when they grow up, they might appreciate Odelay, but will they really *understand* or *feel* it? And will someone like Rihanna do the same thing that Odelay does to me?

http://youtu.be/uxugaMpt1vU

Best of 2012? Howler - America Give Up

These are the doldrums of the music release year. Only in the first couple of weeks of February does the bulk of music releases begin to be released. But, the early part of a year can also bring some wonderful overlooked gems. Last year, it was Braids. This year, it just might be Howler.

Howler hail from Minneapolis. MN, which has given us such left-field brilliance as Prince, The Replacements and Husker Du. Howler are more in the Husker Du camp, playing a wild but angular style of rock and roll, with healthy 60s garage influences. There's not much that's fancy about Howler. But, it's rare to hear a band come along with a solid embrace of the spirit, if not the sound, of classic rock and roll. Check the term "rock and roll" too. Howler aren't a "rock" band (that is, the safe, commercial-safe and neutered form of music that's masquerading as "rock and roll"), they're dangerous and raw like classic rock and roll used to be. That said, they also have an arty, post-punk side, with some of their album clearly cribbing notes from bands like Wire and Public Image Ltd.

Check this out and tell me I'm wrong:

http://youtu.be/swg9X1LcXm8

Best of 2011 #1: Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip

When I first heard Ringo Deathstarr, I thought that I was listening to a reformed and refocused Jesus and Mary Chain. As I said with the entry for Male Bonding, this was a great year if you loved shoegazer rock. Ringo Deathstarr take the fuzzed-out, feedback-drenched guitar esthetic of classic shoegaze ca. 1987 and merges it with a more modern pop sensibility, with a slight nod to the psychedelic rock of the 60s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3xATi5s9-A



Once the drugged out guitar loop of the opening track, "Imagine Hearts", kicks in, the album hits you like a woozy and figurative tonne of bricks. The music swirls and disorients, the vocals fade in and out of comprehension. As the album progresses, the guitars get loud and fuzzy and the vocals become even more unintelligible. You are carried along in a wave of feedback and static. Then, this hits:

http://youtu.be/z6J-qS4eLWY



"So High" merges the sing along qualities of a 60s pop song with the feedback of a 90s guitar. Here is where the band truly coalesces its sound. Simultaneously playful and deadly serious, "So High" is the pinnacle of this stellar album. Every song on the album hits the right note, and this album deserves to be my #1 album of the past year. It also deserves more of your attention.

Best of 2011 #2: Braids - Native Speaker

Only a couple of albums this year truly made me emotional from the power of their music. Braids are a great band from Calgary, AB that didn't get the proper attention for album of the year from other critics, in my opinion. One, they released their debut album Native Speaker on the tiny Flemish Eye record label (Kanine Records in the States), and two, the album came out in the doldrums of music releases, early January. I had been paying attention to this band since they started their careers in 2008 as The Neighbourhood Council. Their debut EP as that band, Set Pieces, was a slow burn of spacy post-punk. The EP simmered and sparkled but never seemed to coalesce. With Native Speaker, the band truly found their places as musicians and the result was a lush album of sprawling post-punk with pop and goth tinges. Their sound is quite similar to how Animal Collective sounded like before they started listening to their own hype.

http://youtu.be/1RnfroBOgO0

Best of 2011 #3: Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts

I've loved Sonic Youth ever since my first listen to Daydream Nation way back in the early 90s at CKUL in Lethbridge. Their sound totally rewired my brain and made me rethink a lot of what I thought about rock music. Their unique "wall of guitar noise" approach to music appealed to me, as did their later experiments in more textured indy rock. The members of the band are ruthlessly and unapologetically experimental. Guitarist and vocalist Thurston Moore's latest solo effort is an often subtle album of understated guitar-based indy rock. Producer Beck Hansen's handiwork is apparent all of this album. Often the music less Moore's penchant for guitar skronk and more Hansen's tendency to layered, dense poppy rock. The collaboration produced some fantastic tracks though. If you're a fan of either Sonic Youth or Beck, you deserve to give this album a listen.

http://youtu.be/5wllPXb4lkI

Cancon Round up for January 26, 2011

Cancon on the Canadian Top 40 Charts this week: Carly Rae Jepsen (top Canadian at #10), Victoria Duffield, Mia Martina, Marianas Trench, Hedley, Nickelcrap, Hedley (again), Martin Solveig and Dragonette, Dru, Drake, Anjulie (11/40= 28%, still below the nationally legislated 35% for Cancon)

Notes: I've been doing the Cancon column on my blog for about a year now and never has the Top 40 quota for Canadian content met the 35% needed for Canadian broadcast radio. This is pretty telling about the will of Canadian broadcasters to air Canadian music. It's not like there's a shortage of it, more a lack of will of broadcasters to seek it out and play it. Moreover, it seems to be the same acts each week. A lot of the songs played over the past year spend more than 9 months on the Canadian charts.

The only thing of note on the Canadian charts this week is the Black Keys, lurking around the low 20s for the past few weeks. On the US charts, Adele gets her third #1 song from her second album, and electro-rockers Breathe Carolina get their first Top 40 single.

On a side note, does anyone else think that Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" sounds a lot like Cee-Lo's "Forget You"?

Best of 2011 #4: Wild Flag - Wild Flag

Sometimes, I long for the crunch of a rock guitar. But only when it's done well. Sleater-Kinney were the best rock band around until they broke up a few years ago. We've been bereft of the awesome sound of Sleater-Kinney since then. Sure, Corin Tucker brought out an album with her own band, but her unearthly blues wail just wasn't the same without Carrie Brownstein's guitar and Janet Weiss's drums. Enter Wild Flag. This band is about the closest we'll get to a Sleater-Kinney reunion in a while, and while they don't exactly capture Sleater-Kinney's wild abandon, they get pretty close. Brownstein and Weiss are joined by Rebecca Cole of The Minders and Mary Timony of the obscenely underrated noise pop band Helium to form Wild Flag. If you like your guitars crunchy and melodic and your music just a touch snotty, Wild Flag are for you. And if you've never heard Helium, check them out too.

http://youtu.be/8J8n9R8rnB8

Best of 2011 #5: Austra - Feel it Break

Toronto's Austra made a heck of a splash this year. Propelled by the startlingly expressive and operating voice of Katie Stelmanis, Austra have the sheen of a classic 80s new wave act combined with the tautness of a modern indy rock band. Feel it Break seems a bit unfinished in places, but it is a shockingly powerful album. As a debut album, Feel is Break is strong, but I have a feeling that their next album will be the one that defines them and puts them on the international radar.

http://youtu.be/8LJtMrhb558

Best of 2011 #6: Brian Eno - Drums Between the Bells

Those of you that know me know I'm a frothing Brian Eno fan. The man practically invented whole genres of electronic music, and continues to reinvent himself every time he puts his musical knowledge to work, whether as a musician himself or as a producer. Since jumping to Warp Records a few years, Eno's output has increased and his experimentation has also expanded. Drums Between the Bells is a collaboration with poet Rick Holland, who's words are sung by Eno and a number of guest vocalists. The result is an album full of glitchy ambient music the way only Eno could produce. Whereas lesser artists embrace a droning tone as a simple background, Eno uses the drone to construct immense castles of sound.

http://youtu.be/RMQXm4etRhU

Van Halen - "Tattoo"

Let's take a little break from the 2011 countdown and talk about Van Halen

The music world is abuzz about the return of the (kinda) classic line up of Van Halen, and their new song "Tattoo". Check it out here:



Overall, this song is pretty disappointing. The thing that made Van Halen interesting was they were dangerous. Rock and roll, especially the beer-fueled, testosterone laden arena rock that Van Halen espoused, should be menacing. The band was burly, theatric and, more importantly, listenable. And, their appeal went beyond the casual rock fan. Eddie Van Halen was legitimately one of the best guitarists in the world at one time, and appreciated by both serious and casual music fans. Alex Van Halen was a decent drummer. David Lee Roth's theatrical stage persona was perfect for drawing in a casual listener. But, where has this band gone?

This new version of Van Halen is the first time that Roth has recorded with the Van Halen brothers in more than 25 years. Given the volatile nature of their relationship over the years, there was potential for something dramatic to happen, something to spark the creative juices and make their music dangerous again. Something far from the radio-friendly rock that Sammy Hagar's years as singer brought to the band. But that hasn't happened. "Tattoo" is just limp.

First, Eddie's guitar playing is pedestrian. There's no virtuouso style solos, no burning, driving guitar punch. His playing here is merely competent. he sounds like very other rock guitarist around. Same with Alex, his drumming lacks flair and he seems just to be keeping a beat. David Lee Roth's singing is on par with his early work with the band, but the theatrics are gone. No high kicks, just jazz shuffles. It's sad really.

Rumour has it that the rest of the coming album is more gritty, but I can't see it from this early single. You're supposed to lead with your strengths. If this is the strongest song on the album, the rest should be very underwhelming

Latest Earshot reviews - January 2012

Not a great batch, but the Kathryn Calder is highly recommended!


Glenn Chatten - Where You Need to Be


Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid

Cloudsplitter - Cloudsplitter

Dixie's Death Pool - The Man With Flowering Hands


Lord Bubba's Nu-Jazz Project - The Nu Standards


Ox - Tuco

Pomegranate - Ahead and Behind

Vesely Couture - Nerd Party


Yukon Blonde - Fire//Water

Best of 2011 #7: Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years

Cold Cave's last album, 2009's Love Comes Close, was one of my favourite albums of that year. This past year's Cherish the Light Years was another good outing for this band, perhaps a step or two behind Love Comes Close, but engaging nonetheless. Whereas Love Comes Close was more textured and more electronic based, Cherish the Light Years is more rock and pop based. The electronics are a bit more subdued, in favour of more guitars and vocal styles. What's more is that the band sounds a bit more like a band and less like a side project. Hopefully, Cold Cave will continue to blossom and make more great music.

http://youtu.be/686K_X9C5qU

Best of 2011 #8: Small Black - New Chain

Yes, I know this album was released in 2010, but I didn't hear it until spring 2011, so I'm counting it. Small Black are one of the leading bands of the "chillwave" movement, a hit and miss style of music that borrows heavily from the analog electronic pop of the 80s and adding in the looping and sampling of the modern electronic world. Small Black's style of chillwave is a lush, looping style of electronics and vocal effects, trance inducing but noisy at the same time. Their dirty sound is a big draw for me, making them much more interesting than the more sterile Washed Out, whom I was very disappointed by this year. New Chain is an exciting and forward thinking album, but one that still pays homage to the artists that paved the way for them.

http://youtu.be/C_llci-C7hc

Best of 2011 #9: Dreamboat - Buddies

My #9 pick goes to a band that is very independent, so much there isn't even any of their music on Youtube. Dreamboat is Aaron Bergunder, a member of the Victoria based indy rock band Colourbook. Dreamboat is a pure synth-pop, straight out of the early 80s. Think a more minimalist Depeche Mode and you get the idea. I'm a sucker for retro sounds, and no album sounded more retro than Dreamboat.

http://dreamboat.bandcamp.com/album/buddies

Best of 2011 #10: Male Bonding - Endless Now

2011 was a great year if you liked shoegaze. London based Male Bonding have only been around since 2008 and Endless Now is only their second full length album, but the band already has a great handle on the British style of noise-rock. They sound a bit like a mix between The Wedding Present and Ride, with jangly, ferocious hooks laden in a fuzzed out guitar mess. I considered Canadian band Shimmering Stars for the #10 spot as well, but Male Bonding grew on me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXrwKOOacEw

Who We Lost in 2011

Gerry Rafferty
Mick Karn (Japan)
Margaret Whiting
Don Kirschner
Charlie Louvin
Gladys Horton (The Marvelettes)
Doc Williams
Gary Moore
Bad News Brown
Sir George Shearing
Mark Tulin (The Electric Prunes)
Eddie Kirkland
Johnny Preston
Mike Starr (Alice in Chains)
Joe Morello
Big Jack Johnson
Nate Dogg
Ferlin Husky
Pinetop Perkins
Zoogz Rift
Carl Bunch (The Crickets)
DJ Megatron
Mel McDaniel
Scott Columbus (Manowar)
Gil Robbins (The Highwaymen)
John Bottomley
Billy Bang
Hazel Dickens
Poly Styrene
Phoebe Snow
Jack Richardson
Seth Putnam
Carl Gardner (The Coasters)
Kenny Baker
Amy Winehouse
Bill Morrissey
Fred Imus
Marshall Grant (Tennessee Two)
Jani Lane (Warrant)
Jerry Leiber
George Green
David "Honeyboy" Edwards
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith
Johnnie Wright
Sylvia Robinson
Bert Jansch
Mikey Welch (Weezer)
Bob Brunning
Moogy Klingman (Utopia)
Paul Motian
Ross McMahnus
Gary Garcia
Hubert Sumlin
Dobie Grey
Myra Taylor
Billie Jo Spears
Cesaria Evora
David Gold (Woods of Ypres)
Jim Sherwood
Dan Terry