Best of 2014 #6: Viet Cong - Viet Cong (Flemish Eye)

This was an earlier pick for album of the year for me. Viet Cong were formed out of the ashes of the great Calgary-based post-punk band, Women. Women had been one of my fave Canadian bands for a while, in fact, their second album Public Strain made my best of list back in 2010 at #4. The band's style of post-punk is very similar to what Women were doing. Women had a more structured and subtle sound, Viet Cong is a bit more chaotic, noisy and gloomy. "Continental Shelf" is the stand out track here, channeling the moody traditional Joy Division style of post-punk through a beefy bass line. A couple of tracks, "March of Progress" and the closer "Death" have some nice, noisy electronic noodling in them. The album is short though, just seven songs. This feels like a teaser for something bigger.

Viet Cong caused some controversy over the summer, when they were accused of having an offensive name. I wrote about this back in September, and honestly, it still ticks me off a bit. The whole social justice movement really boils my potatoes in general. Viet Cong, wanting to focus on music, have decided to change their name, though they don't have a name nailed down yet. So, right now they're The Band Formally Known as Viet Cong.

DNTTA Playlist for January 22, 2016 - Best of 2014 Part 2

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Saxsyndrum* - Yardbird Flutter - SXD EP (Art Not Love)
UUBBUURRUU* - Cosmic Cannibalism - Swamp Ritual EP (Kapauno)
Dri Hiev* - Ohm - Contravirtual EP (Shake!)
Fist City* - Demon Birds - Greatest Splits (Shake!)
Catholic Girls* - Berlin - Psychic Woman EP (Independent)
Woolworm* - Evil Until I Die - Everything Seems Obvious EP (Hockey Dad)
Mauno* - Pulses - Rough Master (Independent)
Nap Eyes* - Make Something - Whine of the Mystic (You've Changed)
Jons* - Short Swim - Fifteen For Fifteen (Baffled Octopi)
The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night - Nuggets (Elektra)
Stump - Buffalo - Peel Sessions EP (Strange Fruit)
Visage - Fade to Grey - Fade to Grey (Sire)
Parallels* - The Kids Will Save Detroit - Civilization EP (Marigold)

Best of 2015 #7: Shamir - Ratchet (XL Records)

I'm a total sucker for styles of music that borrow from multiple genres, especially if it makes something that's totally unique. Shamir Bailey's debut full-length debut from the summer is such an album. Shamir mashes together high-energy electro, modern R&B, indy pop and hip-hop, then adds in his own oddly high, Prince-esque singing. His music doesn't sound like music of anything being created today. It's also insanely catchy.

DNTTA Playlist for January 15, 2015 - Best of 2015 Part 1

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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FFS - Johnny Delusional - FFS (Domino)
Conduct* - Fear and Desire - Fear and Desire (Public Tone)
Girl Band - Baloo - Holding Hands With Jamie (Rough Trade)
Shamir - Hot Mess - Ratchet (XL)
Viet Cong* - Continental Shelf - Viet Cong (Flemish Eye)
ttwwrrss* - I Need You - ttwwrrss_2 (Maisonneuve)
Tacocat - Bridge to Hawaii - NVM (Hardly Art)
Tacocat - Psychedelic Quinciera - NVM (Hardly Art)
METZ* - Spit You Out - METZ II (Sub Pop)
Faith Healer* - Fools Rush In - Cosmic Troubles (Mint)
The Soft Moon - Far - Deeper (Captured Tracks)
The Soft Moon - Wasting - Deeper (Captured Tracks)

Best of 2015 #8: Girl Band - Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade)

Ireland's Girl Band fill a void which sorely needed filling: unhinged, demented noise rock. Not since Mclusky broke up (I know we still have Future of the Left, but it's not quite the same...), no band has really fit the bill to take up the mantle for the sound they pioneered. Girl Band's debut, Holding Hands with Jamie, is a definite contender to follow up for Mclusky's style of noise rock. Girl Band entwine shouted and often undecipherable lyrics with shrieking walls of guitar noise, swirling vortices of feedback and occasional saxophone wails. They should appeal to fans of Mclusky, Shellac or The Fall. Given I like all of those bands, I love what this band is doing. Their second album should tell us the score, if they captured lightning in a bottle for their debut, or if they have the chops to keep doing what they did so well on their first album.

Video Playlist #3: The Best of the Rest 2015

I'm due for a new video playlist, plus I'm in the middle of talking about my favourite albums. So, I figured, why not combine the two ideas?

Every year I pick my 10 favourite albums, but I consider a lot more music than just those 10 albums I finish up with. There's also a lot of shorter EP's and compilations that come out that I never count in my Top 10. So, here's a bunch of other music that I liked this year that didn't make my Top 10!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc1htX3q-F0&list=PL0QOmyo1JgZcermv_mtQyWnmQV3t5fyDO

1) Sleater-Kinney - "A New Wave", from No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)
2) Purity Ring* - "Bodyache" from Another Eternity (Last Gang)
3) White Reaper - "Make Me Wanna Die" from White Reaper Does is Again (Royal Mountain)
4) Foals - "What Went Down" from What Went Down (Transgressive)
5) Ought* - "Beautiful Blue Sky" from Sun Coming Down (Constellation)
6) Braids* - "Miniskirt" from Deep in the Iris (Flemish Eye)
7) Tame Impala - "Let it Happen" from Currents (Modular)
8) Tough Age* - "Snakes and Ladders" from I Get the Feeling Central (Mint)
9) Public Image, Ltd. - "Double Trouble" from What the World Needs Now (PiL)
10) John Grant - "Disappointed" from Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (Dine Alone)
11) Fake Tears* - "Second Wind" from Nightshifting (Mint)
12) Soak - "Sea Creatures" from Before We Forgot How to Dream (Rough Trade)
13) Algiers - :"Blood" from Algiers (Matador)
14) Weed* - "Muscles" from Running Back (Lefse)
15) Seoul* - "The Line: from I Became a Shade (Last Gang)
16) The Backhomes* - "The Chase" from Tidalwave (Independent)
17) Tanlines - "Palace" from Highlights (True Panther Sounds)
18) Low - "What Part of Me" from Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop)
19) Grimes* - "Nightmusic" from Art Angels (4AD)
20) Dri Hiev* - "Contravirtual" from Contravirtual EP (Shake!)
21) Mauno* - "Burn This" from Rough Master (Independent)
22) Tough Age* - "Nicolas Bragg" from Tough Age Play cub's Hot Dog Day EP (Mint)
23) UUBBUURRUU* - "Cosmic Cannibalism" from Swamp Ritual EP (Kapauno)
24) Odd Limbs* - "Shadow Drops" from Walking on Light (Independent)

RIP David Bowie

Bigger and better writers will be waxing poetic about the legacy of David Bowie. Instead, I offer the weirder end of his music for your listening pleasure!




 




 

Best of 2015 #9: Conduct - Fear and Desire (Public Tone)

Winnipeg's Conduct hit me like a suckerpunch. Fear and Desire seems to come out of nowhere and floored me upon first listen. With a hefty pedigree behind it (an American record label and the legendary noise-monger Steve Albini behind the boards), this band is poised for something huge. Conduct are a behemoth of sound, mixing part of noise-rock, post-punk and industrial into their wall of sludge. The songs are alternately brutally short to punishingly long. This band demands you to pay attention to them, and you will until Fear and Desire ends, and your brain feels like it's been pulverized to powder.

DNTTA Playlist for January 8, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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John Hornak* - Tarsand Lullaby - A Needle, a Feather and a Rope (Independent)
Paul Bley* - Walk Home - Basics (Justin Time)
Ben Monder - Zythrum - Amorphae (ECM)
Spike Jones - I'm Getting Sentimental Over You - Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones (Catalyst)
Pugs and Crows with Tony Wilson* - Under Water - Everybody Knows Everybody (Independent)
Harris Eisenstadt* - Let's Say it Comes in Waves - Canada Day IV (Songlines)
Ibrahim Maalouf - Elephant's Tooth - Red and Black Light (Impulse!)
Raoul Bjorkenheim and eCsTaSy - OLJ - Out of the Blue (Cuneiform)
Soul Coughing - Bus to Beezlebub - Ruby Vroom (Slash)

RIP Paul Bley

Canada and the music world in general lost a giant on January 3rd. Canadian jazz pianist Paul Bley was a major influence and musician during the 60s free jazz movement, and had over 100 recorded albums to his credit, both as a solo artist, and as part of a band and as a sideman. He was also a composer, producer and concert promoter. He was 83.

Bley started his career forming the Montreal Jazz Workshop in the early 50s, recording and playing with Charlie Parker and Lester Young, among others. His first album, 1953's Introducing Paul Bley, featured the legend Charles Mingus as part of his band

In the 60s, he joined Jimmy Guiffre's trio, the Jimmy Guiffre 3, for several albums. He also appeared on Sonny Rollins' legendary Sonny Meets Hawk album, with was a collaboration with free jazz giant Ornette Coleman. The late 60s saw him becoming one of the first jazz musicians to incorporate the Moog synthesizer into jazz ensembles.

The 70s saw him working with musicians like Paul Motian, Lee Konitz, Pat Metheny, Gary Peacock and Steve Lacy. He also began a long run with the influential ECM label, where is most recognized work was produced.

His biography, Stopping Time, was published in 1999. In 2008, he was awarded the Order of Canada.

Best of 2015: #10 - FFS - FFS (Domino)

We start this years countdown of my favourite music of the past year with two great tastes that taste great together. FFS is a collaboration between modern new wave band Franz Ferdinand and veteran new wave legends Sparks. At first, this seems like a collaboration that won't gel, but the more you think about it, the more it make sense. Apparently, this project had been in the works since 2004, when the Mael brothers of Sparks wrote "Piss Off" for Franz Ferdinand, and then sat on the backburner until 2015. "Piss Off" finally sees light on this album, and it's pretty spot on in terms of how the bands would come together. Sparks brings a lush, quirky and melodic weirdness to Franz Ferdinand's spiky and punchy new wave/dance rock stylings, and FF chop up the smooth and rounded edges of Sparks' style of orchestral new wave. No one band takes precedent over the other, with both bands pitching in equally on the sound, the lyrics and the music. The Maels shine early in the album, with "Johnny Delusional" and "Call Girl" having the Sparks piano-driven style of new wave, and the Maels more high-pitched and poppy vocals. "Police Encounters" has Franz Ferdinand's muscly punch and angular vocal style. The tongue in cheek, self-referential "Collaborations Don't Work" is a fun send up of people who thought the team up between bands wouldn't come together. It would be great to see these two bands continue with FFS, but even if it's a one-off collaboration, it's still worth the time to dig into this album and enjoy it!