Wednesday, November 29, 2006
All the lists have been compiled, so I think I'm all set for the big month-long countdown which starts...when, anyway? Friday! Yikes!
My top 20 singles list looks amazing...be sure to check that one daily, I'll have links to each song.
One last-minute entry to the big year-end dealy finally arrived yesterday, that being the highly, highly, highly anticipated reissue of Pavement's great Wowee Zowee, the third such deluxe edition put out by Matador, and one that's just as spectacular as the first two. Eleven years ago, I wasn't as big a fan of Pavement's third album as I was of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Slanted and Enchanted...like most naive people, I think I was expecting a logical follow-up to Crooked Rain, when in reality I should have expected the unexpected with this band, because they sure threw us all for a loop with Wowee Zowee. It was all over the place, sounding so disjointed; sure, there were great songs, like "Rattled by the Rush", "AT & T", and "Kennel District", but at the time they didn't seem on the same level as, say, "Gold Soundz", "Summer Babe", or "Box Elder". Critics were lukewarm (I remember Spin politely panning it), and the album was a commercial flop after Crooked Rain's minor hit status, but in retrospect, it was a brave move by Pavement, as they could easily have gone the predictable route (which they would eventually do two years later), but instead went off on a bunch of tangents at once. It wasn't so much self-indulgence as it was pure bravado; this was the sound of a much more mature band, one more confident than ever before, and though the music was often challenging, it went on to have a very good shelf life, going on to be deemed by many to be their best work. My personal favourites remain the first two albums, mainly because of how huge an impact they had on me when they first came out, but this homely little wallflower of an album is every bit as good, from the stately pop (almost chamber pop) of "We Dance", to the elegant country strains of "Father to a Sister of Thought", to the wonky "Flux=Rad", to "Kennel District" (Spiral Stairs' finest moment), to the languid "Pueblo", to the awesome, driving jam of "Half a Canyon". Yes, it's unfocused, yes, it's disjointed, but when it came to sounding lazy and brilliant at the same time, Pavement were the unequivocal masters at the craft, and they are at their loosey-goosey best on Wowee Zowee. Of course, there are a bevy of bonus tracks, including all B-sides, soundtrack contributions, and radio performances, the best moments being the wonderful "Painted Soldiers", from the Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy soundtrack, and a lively 1994 session for Australian radio. A glimpse at 1990s indie rock at its finest, it's absolutely essential.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Slow going, post-wise, as I spent the last week finishing up my huge year-end column, going over the 20 best metal albums of 2006. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, so watch for it soon.
"I got poetry in me."
Very sad news on Tuesday, as the great Robert Altman passed away. I'm a huge fan of the guy's work, especially his films Nashville, Short Cuts, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, three highly unique movies that flew in the face of convention and still hold up extremely well today. Altman was a revolutionary, a guy willing to stand up against the Hollywood establishment and do things his own way each time out (only Altman would have the guts to use Leonard Cohen songs in a Western). The way he handled ensemble casts was amazing (see Nashville, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park), he could toss in twenty primary characters, and make us care about each and every one, thanks in large part to his brilliant use of overlapping dialogue. And he could be wickedly satirical at times, whether skewering America in Nashville, criticizing the Vietnam War in M*A*S*H*, or the movie industry in The Player. He wasn't without his terrible movies (I saw Popeye in the theater when I was ten or so, and didn't like it at all), but his highs far, far outshined his good nomber of lows. This isn't much of a well-written tribute, but the least I can do is acknowledge the old dude's genius. His greatest moment? Probably the last shot of Nashville, that huge American flag wafting in the strong wind, as the crowd sung that memorable refrain that seemed either pathetic, optimistic, naive, or a combination of all three. Altman, maverick that he was, left the choice up to us...there are no easy answers in real life, but at least he made us think about it. You might say that I ain't free, but it don't worry me...
We're a little over a week away from my sixth annual Best of the Year countdown, and while I put together my top ten yesterday (for my PopMatters ballot) the rest of the list still looks hazy. And I haven't gotten around to the singles yet! Anyway, for PopMatters I also submitted my five favourite music videos of 2006, so I thought it'd be a good time to list them here today, so here you go:
1. The Pipettes - "Pull Shapes" (watch video)
The song was already great, a perfect little slice of sugary pop that combined old girl groups with indie rock, but the way they made the video exactly like Z-Man's party scene from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was pure genius. You have look-alikes of all the characters, but instead of the Carrie Nations, it's the three girls from the Pipettes, and the whole spectacle makes the song even more charming. Just brilliant. being such a huge Russ Meyer fan, I can't not love it.
2. Gnarls Barkley - "Smiley Faces" (watch video)
A cool example of someone using video mash-ups for mainstream consumption, you have Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse appearing seamlessly in 20th century archival footage, from Duke Ellington's big band, to the Velvet Underground at the factory, as Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell pretend to talk about the fictional Gnarls. Fantastic stuff, and a cool song, too.
3. The Chalets - "Feel the Machine" (watch video)
The song is forgettable, but the video is quite inventive, as it shows the band performing on a computer desktop, and forced to deal with Windows icons, a pesky cursor, and other such silliness. I think it was the Anti-Hit List that pointed me toward this one, if I'm not mistaken.
4. Broken Social Scene - "Fire Eye'd Boy" (watch video)
It was refreshing to see a band like Broken Social Scene lighten up a bit and make a video that showed their lighter side. Not quite the Odenkirk/Cross genius of Yo La Tengo's "Sugarcube", but very cute nonetheless, the best moment being a cameo by Rush's Geddy Lee.
5. DragonForce - "Operation Ground and Pound" (watch video)
Bombastic CGI effects, wind machines, guitar noodling, camera mugging...it all seems to tacky, and it is, but when you couple that with the equally tacky song, which happens to be insidiously catchy (think Journey meets Dream Theatre), you get a video that perfectly complements the music, one that makes it impossible not to smile while watching.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American buds. Enjoy the four day weekend while the rest of the world wonders why the internet has suddenly become a ghost town. Seriously, I can see the tumbleweeds rolling by...
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Last night I dragged myself out of the house, tried to navigate the deep snow on my street, almost got stuck twice, but finally made it of there and got to the university campus to see one of my favourite Canadian bands, Raising the Fawn. I thought RTF was headlining on this night, but when I got to the venue at ten, they were already onstage, which was a mild disappointment, but I did manage to catch half an hour of their set. I've seen them three times now, and the trio never disappoints live, and John Crossingham delivered sumptuous layers of echoing guitars and his fine voice over the band's robust rhythm section. At times it can be spellbinding, especially on the longer songs, and they tore into the epic "Drownded", extending it a good five minutes with a blues-drecnched coda. I was hoping to hear more of the new material, but I clearly missed out on that, save for the terrific "Carbon Paper", the catchiest track from The Maginot Line, which I saw them play two years ago. They also pulled out reliable older tracks like "The North Sea" and "Home", and closed the set with a track from their out-of-print 2001 debut. Tantalizingly brief, but hugely enjoyable as always.
The headliner on this night was Halifax band In-Flight Safety, and I have to confess I didn't know a thing about this band untill yesterday afternoon, when I decided to check out their MySpace page on a whim. And whaddya know, but they were quite the discovery, some very good pop-oriented guitar rock with some real potential for mainstream appeal. They get compared to Coldplay a lot, and you do hear it when singer/guitarist John Mullane goes into his falsetto, but to me, I hear a big Doves influence in the music, more Lost Souls and less The Last Broadcast, with an uncanny ability to sound anthemic yet sincere at the same time. And they played a solid set on this night, not overly energetic, just letting the music do the bulk of the work, alternating from slower fare like "A Lot to Learn" and energetic set-closers "Surround" and "The Coast is Clear". What impressed me the most was how Mullane and keyboardist Daniel Ledwell were able to add cool atmospherics to the accessible music, epitomized nicely on "Lost (The Long March)". The songs are all so appealing, I couldn't believe I hadn't heard anything about this band until now...after the show, I picked up their CD and it's a good one. They have the hooks, they have the frontman (who sounds more like Jimi Goodwin than Chris Martin), and they have a complete lack of pretension...if they broaden their sound a little more, work in those dreamy tones more, then their already likeable sound might turn into something really special. I tell you, this was quite the Wednesday revelation.
This is hardly the cleverest, edgiest Family Guy moment, but it still makes me laugh.
And I might be late to the TV on the Radio party, but Return to Cookie Mountain is spellbinding. "Wolf Like Me" continues to grow on me in a massive way. Hello, 2006 singles list.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
A slew of new writing to mention today...at PopMatters, there's my big review of the great new collaboration between Sunn O))) and Boris, which I put together a couple nights ago. I'm glad I got a review done, because it's a very good album, and deserves to be heard. There's a cool balance between Sunn O)))'s evil-sounding drome/doom sound and Boris's more structured power trio sound, but the album is also not without the odd surprise or two, namely the lovely "The Sinking Belle". A year-end top 30 contender.
Over at Decibel, the site has been updated for the month, and I have a bunch of pieces for your perusal. I interviewed Maik from German metalcore band Heaven Shall Burn ages ago...actually, it was quite an annoying process, as I waited several hours for him to phone, only to learn he couldn't for some reason or another. So it had to be done via e-mail, and to the dude's credit, he gave some amazing answers, most of which I had to leave out of my dinky 450 word piece. But that's there in the article is still pretty good, I think. Smart guy, smart band, good album.
On the album review front, there's my blurb on the new Stolen Babies album which is a really cool release from The End (probably my favourite label), a blend of circus themes, German cabaret, hardcore, post punk, goth, and metal. It might sound wacky, and it is, but the songs all hold up very well, especially the tune "Lifeless". I also reviewed the solo debut by Buried Inside singer Andrew Tweedy, an all-acoustic effort that has its moments, but lacks real passion and nuance in the dude's singing voice. Last, and definitely least, is Coldseed, which seems determined to give the term "Supergroup" a bad name. A terrible album, just awful.
I need jewel cases badly. I need about 100 or so clear single jewel cases, and about 25 clear two-disc jewel cases. Hmm.
Monday, November 13, 2006
My latest column appeared back on Thursday, a dissection of Mercyful Fate's classiv album Don't Break the Oath. It's an album I'd been meaning to write at length about, and I sort of made an attempt to do that a while back, but I took the idea and expanded it a great deal. It was done in a pinch, because frantic preparations for last month's trip derailed my schedule, and recovery from the trip took some time, so the best thing was to simplify this time around, and I'm very happy with the results. Next month's column is gonig to be my second annual Best Metal Albums of 2006 list, so while I'm doing my big year-end extravaganza here in a few weeks, watch for the link to it. Or just wisit PopMatters every day, like you should be doing.
When I first heard the solo debut from Metric frontowman Emily Haines, I thought it was decent, but I admittedly didn't give the thing a fair enough shot. Until last week, however, because while listening to the CD over and over in preparation for my review (which appeared at Static last Thursday), I was really struck by just how good the album is. It's not just melodramatic female piano pop, it's tender and intimate, sure, but there's a fair amount of bite and wit to the songs, which is typical of Haines's songwriting style. Anyway, what was originally a respectable six or seven out of ten title has become a modest contender for my year-end top 20. We'll see how it pans out when I put the thing together in a couple weeks. My top two are set, but aside from that, I have no idea how it's gonig to look.
Got to admit, playing "Freebird" on Guitar Hero is a blast, especially when the fictional band is playing at Stonehenge under a hovering flying saucer. Here's someone doing it on expert. Favourite songs to play, personally, have to be Anthrax's "Madhouse", Megadeth's "Hangar 18", Voivod's "The X-Stream", and Every Time I Die's "The New Black". The Living End's "Carry Me Home" and All That Remains' "Six" are nasty, I tell you. I still can't believe I got 94% on "Institutionalized", that's a small miracle. Okay, enough talking about this game.
Another year, another CFL season ends in devastation. So goes the sorry life of a lifelong Rider fan...
Crazy Writing Week begins. I foresee about 5,000 words in the next five days. I'll try to keep this page updated.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
I picked up Guitar Hero 2 yesterday, so that's pretty much it, my life as I knew it is over. With hockey season, CDs to listen to, reviews and features to write, and the unexpected pleasure of playing "Surrender" and "Message in a Bottle" perfectly, I don't think I'll be leaving the house ever again. Not likely, though. For one, dog will never tolerate that. "Berf! Walk me three times a day!"
More activity on the review-writin' front, as a pair have surfaced at PopMatters. I mentioned Polaris Music Prize revelation Malajube a while back (at least, I think I did), and the Francophone band's new album continues to thoroughly impress me. Anyway, my review is up, and I strongly suggest you read the thing, download the MP3, watch the video (both on the same page as the review), and hopefully you'll be convinced enough to go buy the CD. If you need more convincing, wait for my additional blurb on this page in mid to late December. You know, because that's when my year-end list's top ten should be kicking into gear. Oh, you knew that? Okay, then.
I've always kind of liked the Deftones, and I thought they were pretty cool when I saw them at Taste of Chaos this past March, but man, do I like their new CD. So much so, I gave it a very positive write-up. I'd even go as far as saying that Saturday Night Wrist might be their best album to date, edging out the much-lauded White Pony. It's all about the vocals of Chino Moreno...the guy has never sounded stronger, and finally the Deftones have some vocal melodies that offset the huge guitars. They always hinted at strong melodies, hitting sometimes, missing sometimes, but on this album, they nail it for the most part. The only negative is the track "Pink Cellphone", which is a complete waste of time, something that never should have made the album in the first place. Other than that, though, this sucker's a buyer, one of the biggest surprises of the year. I really didn't think they had it in them.
The current season of Family Guy has been on the inconsistent side (that interminable Brian and Stewie radio show bit was a new low), but this past Sunday, it was more of the same, save for the first two minutes or so, which they absolutely nailed. Near-perfect writing. Don't believe me? Watch it for yourself.
Saturday, November 4, 2006
The other day I reviewed the recent debut album by London band the Feeling, and lo and behold, it appeared over at Static yesterday. A decent album, one that's heavy on that MOR (that's music geekspeak for 'middle of the road') soft rock thing the UK audiences love, and they do love this band, as they have three top ten singles this year and an album that's charted high all year, remaining in the top 40 for 21 weeks and counting. I don't know if they'll make a similar impact over here (probably not), but despite some inconsistencies, there are a few good songs. Here's the video for "Never be Lonely"...try to name the Supertramp song they're ripping off. The singer drops a very obvious hint.
You know, the fine folks at Sonic Unyon never fail, every fall for three consecutive years, they've sent me an album by an artist I knew nothnig about, only to have the cd completely blow me away. In 2004, they sent me the astonishing debut by Jens Lekman. Last year, they sent me that charmer of an album by the lovable Magic Numbers. And just the other day, they did it again, sending me the jaw-dropping first CD by Sweden's Love is All. I've been playing it non-stop...an easy thing to do, considering the album is only a half hour long. They have all the trappings of an indie hipster/critics' darling, with a lo-fi sound, boundless energy, and a singer with a rather unique voice, but for all the production limitations, for all the idiosyncrasies, this is a band firmly rooted in classic rock 'n' roll, as songs are performed with reckless abandon, bolstered by unforgettable vocal hooks (with loads of reverb), and copious saxophone solos. You even get a hint of Phil Spector, not like how Johnny Boy did it, but focusing more on dense, sweaty energy, with a little ska thrown in. The whole album is terrific, as the songs just skitter past you, making you think, "what did I just hear?" as the next track starts. It takes about three listens, but once it gets you, that's it. "Talk Talk Talk Talk", "Ageing Had Never Been His Friend", the sweet "Turn the Radio Off", "Make Out Fall Out Make Up" (here's the video), the gorgeous "Felt Tip", the lovely "Trying Too Hard"...this CD is pretty close to perfect. My 2006 top ten list just got a little more crowded.
Oh, and Ponoka, Alberta has the greatest police blotter ever.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
I archived my September and October entries, so if you want to take a look at my recap of my Sweden trip, the link is over there on the bottom left. Or just click here, lazy person.
Anyway, it's back to business here. The next two months are going to be very busy, but that quick trip (and subsequent recovery time) was a welcome respite from the music and the music writing, and I'm all set. I think. My sixth annual albums countdown starts in a month, so until then, there's a lot to get to.
First off, my review of Goldfrapp's remix album appeared the other day. Goldfrapp has long been putting out superb remixes of their own work, which I always like to collect (in mp3 form, anyway), and such CDs as Utopia and Strict Machine each offered multiple mixes of the same track, but We Are Glitter is the first time remixes of different songs have been compiled on one disc. The CD focuses on last year's Supernature album (save for a bonus remix of "Strict Machine"), and overall, it works quite well as a companion to the original. Best track? Maybe the Alan Braxe & Fred Falke remix of "Number 1"...it's not the boldest reworking of a Goldfrapp tune ever attempted, but it tastefully adds some punch to the song while remaining faithful to the original arrangement. One can never have too many Goldfrapp releases, os this one is a welcome one, for yours truly anyway.
I was asked to contribute to i (heart) music's annual Hottest Bands in Canada list, which I did last week. Two of my top five picks made the cut, Junior Boys and Malajube, both of whose albums I adore, and will make next month's big list. Voivod, protest the Hero, and Raising the Fawn rounded out my top five, but they didn't make it. It's a shame that the critics aren't warming up to the wonderful story of Voivod's Katorz album, how the band used Denis D'Amour's guitar demos to piece together an album after he died, only to have it turn out to be their best work in nearly 20 years. Anyway, it's not a bad list, a little hipster heavy (no surprise, really), with copious praise for Owen Pallett again (and mostly deserved). I forgot to vote for Alexisonfire, though. I keep forgetting about how good that new album is, not to mention its Canadianness. Anyway, now I have to download me some Born Ruffians and Tokyo Police Club...
Two excellent, excellent UK pop singles compilations just came out (by that, I mean leaked), Girls Aloud's Sounds of Girls Aloud, and Sugababes' Overloaded: The Singles Collection. Both of them gems, but if I had to choose one over the other, it'd be Sugababes. They've always been more cutting-edge, from their stunning debut single "Overload", to the highly influential "Freak Like Me" (the first song to bring mash-ups to mainstream attention), they've always had the best producers (Richard X, for one), they have good, distinctive voices (four years now, and I still can't tell Girls Aloud apart), and they've always been very good at avoiding sounding tacky (let's face it, as fun as it is, GA's cover of "Jump" is a little tacky). If you have access to import CDs, both compilations are worth getting, but for the rest of you, download away, it's some of the best pop music of the decade so far. Though it's a shame that "Graffiti My Soul" isn't on the GA comp...but then again, it wasn't a single.
