Thursday, December 20th, 2007
So the polls are closed and my second annual reader’s poll in the book. The results were completely predictable but still entertaining to tabulate. Just to recap, I solicited your top six albums of the year – ranked – and from those submissions, applied a weighted scoring system that’s probably not at all scientific. Six points were awarded to first place albums, five points to second place and so forth. Total votes regardless of ranking for each album were also collected to be used as tiebreakers if necessary.
Not that it was. The top ten shook out as you’d expect with the top album of the year, as voted on by you, taking the title by a wide margin with 28 first place votes (the #2 album got only 6) and appearing on 61 lists out of 124 submissions. I’d call that a landslide. 252 albums in all were nominated and only three of the top ten made my own personal list. Not that that means anything.
Anyways, without further ado, the top ten albums of 2007 as voted on by chromewaves readers. Total points noted beside each entry.
1. The National / Boxer (Beggars Banquet) – 284 pts
2. Radiohead / In Rainbows (independent) – 145 pts
3. Spoon / Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) – 115 pts
4. Okkervil River / The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar) – 110 pts
5. Arcade Fire / Neon Bible (Merge) – 82 pts
6. LCD Soundsystem / Sound Of Silver (DFA) – 69 pts
7. Feist / The Reminder (Arts & Crafts) – 60 pts
8. Of Montreal / Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Polyvinyl) – 54 pts
9. Jens Lekman / Night Falls On Kortedala (Secretly Canadian) – 50 pts
10. Wilco / Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) – 48 pts
If you want to see the whole list, you can download the Excel spreadsheet with every single entry, ranked. I can’t imagine why you would, but whatever.
And, of course, the reason most of you entered was the promo swag giveaway – so congratulations go out to Aubrey, Kevin, Eva, dB, John and Phil who will be getting something (hopefully) interesting in the mail over the next few weeks. The rest of you, thanks for playing and contributing to yet another meaningless year-end list.
Elsewhere, David Byrne interviews Radiohead’s Thom Yorke for Wired. Topics of discussion include the In Rainbows experiment (duh), the future of the album and music industry in general, the size of their carbon footprint and tea cozies. Okay, not tea cozies.
Shearwater offers up a slideshow of scenes from the recording of the follow-up to last year – and this year’s – lovely Palo Santo I see strings! And woodwinds! And a harp! And Thor cutting down tree branches! Sweet. Matthew Barnhart, engineer on the record, has also been keeping a recording diary of the sessions. The new album is entitled Rook and it will hopefully be out sometime in the Spring.
PopMatters talks to Tim Bracey about the end of The Mendoza Line.
JAM! Q&As The Weakerthans. They’re playing Nathan Phillips Square on February 2.
Chart congratulates Feist on being declared their artist of the year while Billboard finds out what she’s doing with her downtime whilst on the road. Recording. There, I ruined the piece for you. But her mention of the Red Hot + Indie compilation being curated by the brothers Dessner from The National has my interest.
Richard Hawley has released another video from the lovely Lady’s Bridge.
Video: Richard Hawley – “Valentine”
The Long Blondes’ sophomore album will be entitled Couples and is out in the UK on April 7.
Couple more show announcements as the year winds down… Plants & Animals return to Toronto for a show at the Drake on February 21, a month before their Avenue Parc hits stores five days before the Canadian release of their debut full-length Parc Avenue, and The Most Serene Republic trundles into the Mod Club on March 1.
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
This past year has been a kind of crazy musical wayback machine for me, what with seeing live so many of the bands that were crucial to developing my tastes back in my salad days. What with shows from Sloan and the reunited Buffalo Tom earlier this year and just this past month, an epic Neil Young show and the final Lowest Of The Low gig. If nothing else, it’s confirmed that I had some pretty kick-ass taste for a 17-year old.
Capping it all off was Monday night’s super-intimate show from Toronto roots-rock stalwarts Blue Rodeo at the Horseshoe as part of the bar’s 60th anniversary. To give you a sense of scale, the ‘Shoe holds around 350 and Blue Rodeo have two nights booked at the 2750-capacity Massey Hall for next February. That’s how big this band and small the club is. So yeah, it was pretty packed.
But before I get into the gig review, the obligatory personal content paragraph. I was actually surprised to find I’d covered some of this over four years ago but I’ll recap the key points – they were my first big rock show and the setting for the formation of my first band in high school (to the roar of them covering Neil’s “Like A Hurricane”, I might add) and we covered a number of Blue Rodeo songs during our short run and were probably our best tunes. In short, they were huge for me for a good long while though I gradually lost touch with them around the turn of the century. They seemed to have settled into a musical comfort zone and didn’t seem to be offering much on their new records that I couldn’t get from the eight or so already in my collection.
But considering I hadn’t seen them live since that pivotal June evening back in 1993 and a gig at the ‘Shoe was far more my speed than their usual amphitheatre-scale venues, there was more than a little anticipation on my part for this show. The format for the evening was to be no opener and three sets from the band – a marathon by anyone’s standards. They were also calling it an “’80s Throwback” show, in reference to the days when Blue Rodeo were the kings of Queen St and spent many a night plying their trade on the Horseshoe stage and which boded well for me since I don’t know hardly any of their more recent material.
And sure enough, after opening with a track from their latest album Small Miracles (which is pretty much Blue Rodeo by numbers which is good or bad depending on your POV) , they went right into “Diamond Mine” and yeah – I knew I was going to enjoy this. All the albums I knew by heart – Outskirts, Diamond Mine, Casino, Lost Together and Five Days In July – were well represented and they even drew on one of my personal faves though less highly regarded records, Nowhere To Here. 1997’s Tremolo seemed to be completely overlooked, though, which is a shame since it’s the last of their albums I spent any real time with and I’ve always been fond of it.
I don’t know how far they delve into their back catalog when playing regular shows, but from the reaction of the crowd to some of the older material I’d guess it’s not nearly as deeply as they did on Monday. In fact, it seemed the band – which had a couple of relatively new members in steel guitarist Bob Egan (ex-Wilco) and keyboardist Bob Packwood and when the band agreed to play “Rebel” from Outskirts – a request that came with a $1000 donation to the local food bank to which all proceeds on the night, over $10,000 total, were going – it was fun to watch original members Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and Bazil Donovan show the new guys the chord changes. Special guests were also on hand for the occasion. Dallas and Travis Good from The Sadies – without their suits, no less – and local singer-songwriters Luke Doucet and Justin Rutledge all sat in for a few numbers, playing both their own songs and Blue Rodeo’s all coming onstage at the finale for “Lost Together”.
You’d expect a band that’s been at it as long as they have to have their act together and Blue Rodeo delivered the goods with gusto and polish. Cuddy and Keelor’s voices sound as smooth and gravelly, respectively, as they did over 20 years ago – maybe moreso – and still go together in perfect harmony. Similarly, the songwriting recipe of weepers from Cuddy, rockers from Keelor and country-pop gems from both is as effective as ever. If there was a complaint, it’s that the band was too polished. On more than a few instances, songs were dragged into jam band territory with solos that were unnecessary at best, unpleasant at worst. Keyboardist Bob Packwood was the worst offender with his excess of notes and keyboard face (like guitar face but worse) but even bassist Bazil Donovan, who used to be the very epitome of the solid, non-flashy player, took a few solos that only served to remind why there is never a need for a bass solo. The band, whomever has been in it, has never had a shortage of musical prowess on tap but it’s always been about the songs. Maybe when you’ve been playing the same songs for so many years, this is how you keep things interesting but I for one found it unnecessary.
But that’s one negative against an evening full of positives. It was great to get to see my one-time musical heroes live for the first time in thirteen years and still be as swept up in the music as I was way back when. All told – three sets (with predetermined setlists which were pretty much ignored wholesale) and an encore – the band played for over three hours and there’s something to be said for staggering out into the cold December night all sweaty-like and warm with nostalgia.
CityTV has a quick video interview with Jim Cuddy and some video footage from the show and The Globe & Mail reveals why Stompin’ Tom wasn’t one of the guests.
Photos: Blue Rodeo @ The Horseshoe – December 17, 2007
Video: Blue Rodeo – “Five Days In May”
Video: Blue Rodeo – “Lost Together”
Video: Blue Rodeo – “Til I Am Myself Again”
Video: Blue Rodeo – “Diamond Mine”
Video: Blue Rodeo – “Trust Yourself”
MySpace: Blue Rodeo
Of course, if this year had really been about me reliving my high school days, I’d have found the opportunity to see R.E.M.… though I don’t feel especially bad that I didn’t. Hmm. Spinner reports that Stipey announced their new album as coming out on April 1. Yeah. It’s a Tuesday. Could be legit.
Spinner Interfaces with Film School.
Wireless Bollinger talks to Juanita Stein of Howling Bells. She also gives Gridskipper a list of a half-dozen things she hates about Sydney, Australia. It’s okay, she’s from there. She’s allowed to complain.
FilterTV offers up a video interview with Nicole Atkins and talk Hallowe’en, hot dogs and The Lost Boys. She’s at Lee’s Palace on February 17.
Shows – Au Revoir Simone say bonjour Lee’s Palace on January 16, Sia is at the Mod Club on March 2 and on April 16, the Horseshoe plays host to Kelley Stoltz and The Dirtbombs.
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Oh god, the clips episode!
Yeah, copping out on the post today and taking a (brief) look back at my year in live music. It’s funny that a couple years ago, I think I was looking back at a year where I hit around 60 shows and thought, “that’s crazy. I have got to scale back”. And now, with 2007 almost in the books, I’m looking at having gone to almost 100 shows PLUS all the festivals. As I write this, the Flickr set that provides the images in the above slideshow – which is more interesting/goes by faster if you move the delay slider to, like, two seconds – indicates that I’ve seen 319 live acts this year (I only missed shooting three of them). That’s… a lot. A co-worker recently remarked he’d never seen me not tired. Probably true.
And with so much to choose from, you can understand why it’s near impossible to pick out which I’d consider the “best” of the year – I saw a lot of great stuff. Of course, if you regularly read my reviews you might be under the impression I only saw great stuff – I’m quite aware that many of my writeups dwell on the well-buffed side of shiny but you understand that I rarely go see anything I’m not already favourably inclined towards. I have much better things to do than see shows I’m not really interested in let alone review.
But if I had to pick out some top shows of the year, I’d have to go with…
Patrick Wolf @ The El Mocambo – May 11, 2007
Wilco @ Massey Hall – June 30, 2007
Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ The Berkeley Church – September 7, 2007
Okkervil River @ Lee’s Palace – September 21, 2007
The National @ The Phoenix – October 8, 2007
Neil Young @ Massey Hall – November 26, 2007
…and that doesn’t even come close to all the highlights. It was a good year. It was a very good year.
But before I sign off, a few noteworthy concert announcements for 2008… Cat Power brings her Jukebox (out January 22) to the Kool Haus on February 9, tickets $30 on sale Thursday, full tour dates at Tripwire. All of you who avoided the Phoenix shows because the venue was too big… what, you thought they were going to get smaller? Or cheaper? Nah.
Also official – Nicole Atkins & The Sea’s first headlining show in Toronto… once again on a Sunday night – February 17 – and once again at Lee’s Palace. Tickets $10.50 in advance. I believe The Cloud Room are supporting this tour but don’t know for sure. Either way. Attendance is mandatory.
And The Drive-By Truckers are rolling back into town with a date at the Opera House on March 19, tickets $18.50. A bit of a smaller venue than last time but that just means more concentrated rock. Their new one, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, is out January 22. Update: First MP3 from the album is also now available, more to stream on their MySpace.
MP3: Drive-By Truckers – “Zip City”
And finally, Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of the year. You know you were waiting for it. And the AV Club’s Worst Films of the year? You probably weren’t waiting for it but you know you want it.
Monday, December 17th, 2007
In hindsight, its kind of laughable that I was so torn about where to spend last Thursday night because, as it turned out (and with all respect to the Vampire Weekend-ers, who I’m sure were also lovely), ye olde Rancho Relaxo and the last Two-Way Monologues showcase for the year was the absolute best place to be. The lineup, featuring Amos The Transparent, Oh No Forest Fires and The Craft Economy, wasn’t necessarily one that looks impressive or rings many bells at first glance but come back in a year and run it up the flagpole – I bet a whole lot more people will be saluting.
The Craft Economy kicked things off with their illuminated bar graph t-shirts, co-ed frontpersons and breakneck New Wave/twee-pop/post-punk hybrid, they radiated relentless fun and came across as maybe the coolest Summer camp counselors you never had. The whole of their debut EP All In C is available to download from their website and as peppy as the recordings are, they barely capture the energy of the band live. Their next show is January 9 at The Boat, it’s recommended you be there.
The name of Oh No Forest Fires may stick with you at first by virtue of it being a really terrible band name, but after you hear them, you’ll remember them because they’re a rather amazingly good band. They’re a relatively new outfit but comprised of veterans, with members drawn from local acts like Five Blank Pages, The Most Serene Republic and Fox Jaws and if that sounds like a recipe for a fractured neighbourly setting (synonyms ahem), wait till you hear them. With glorious, guitar-driven anthems that make prog-pop seem like the most natural thing in the world and an energetic live show that the stage couldn’t contain (though the tiny Rancho stage can’t contain an awful lot), ONFF were one of the most impressive new things I’ve seen in a long time. That their four-song EP is as good as it is and is still just a demo is both exciting and frightening. I’m keeping a very close eye (and ear) on these guys. They’re playing the Gladstone on January 10 and, again, it’s recommended you be there.
Which leaves headliners Amos The Transparent, whom I’d seen before and whose album Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget I have and have been enjoying, so you’d think they’d be the most known quantity to me. As it turned out, not so much. At Pop Montreal they were legion, a many-headed beast of guitars and drums and keys, adding eloquent bombast to Everything‘s already grand arrangements but on this night, there were only four of them and they took a more conventional tactic for making an impression – volume, alcohol and rock. And it’s a testament to both the writing and the players that songs that seemed made for widescreen presentation translated so well in a smaller format. The melodic melancholy that rests at the core of Amos’ sound remained intact but was delivered with an extra visceralness that may have previously been hidden behind the layers of sound. Remarkably though, for all the rawness of the set the crucial little details of the record – the keyboard flourishes, the vocal harmonies – were still there and if there was extra angst in the air you wouldn’t have known it from frontman Jonathan Chandler’s cheery disposition. Or maybe that was just the drink. Either way, they capped off as a stellar night of music that could go down as one of this bills you look at in a couple years and think, “man – imagine seeing those bands in a tiny club”. It could happen. It certainly should.
Photos: Amos The Transparent, Oh No Forest Fires, The Craft Economy @ Rancho Relaxo – December 13, 2007
MP3: Amos The Transparent – “Title Track”
MP3: Amos The Transparent – “After All That Its Come To This”
MP3: Oh No Forest Fires – “We Fit Our Charm”
MP3: The Craft Economy – “Drag-On”
MP3: The Craft Economy – “The Crash, The Wagon, The Dying Horses”
MySpace: Amos The Transparent
MySpace: The Craft Economy
For The Records has a couple of the acts for this year’s free shows at Nathan Phillips Square as part of the WinterCity Festival – Tokyo Police Club on January 26 and The Weakerthans on February 2. Hopefully next year will be warmer than last year – I bloody well froze my ass of seeing Sloan.
Incendiary interviews Kevin Drew.
Young & Sexy talk to Chart about the joys of Christmas and set a target of mid-April for the release of their next album, working title of Sunrise On The Shazzie Bazzie.
Acoustic Guitar features Steve Earle, in town at Massey Hall on March 4.
Band Of Horse-man Ben Bridwell talks to Drowned In Sound.
Neu! speaks to an unnamed member of British Sea Power about their new album Do You Like Rock Music?, out February 12. They’ll be visiting our fair continent thereabouts as well – dates still to be announced but they will be at Noise Pop in San Francisco around the last weekend of February, so look for more dates around then. There’s also a preview track from the new album kicking around. Sounds like BSP has made up their minds how they feel about rock music… they like it.
MP3: British Sea Power – “No Lucifer”
Whilst putting up this week’s MP3 of the week featuring Charlotte Hatherley, I was pleased to see that another video from The Deep Blue has been released – and for one of my favourite tracks from the record, no less. Not crazy for the hairdo, Charlotte. Gotta say.
Video: Charlotte Hatherley – “Siberia”
Elbow tell NME their next album, due out in March, will be entitled The Seldom Seen Kid.
NME reports that their latest single, “Flux”, is not a sign of things to come for the next Bloc Party record. The vocoder is going back into the closet, thankfully.
It’s big gun time in year-end list-land. Pitchfork has their top 100 songs of the year and PopMatters their top 60 records of 2007. Neither, thankfully, is milking them by posting a portion of the list every day. And I spent a better part of the weekend tabulating Reader’s Poll results and the outcome is very interesting… and by very interesting, I mean almost exactly what I expected.
Hey, I just realized something. Post-I’m Not There, you could think of The Dark Knight as starring Bob Dylan versus Bob Dylan. Hmm. And oh yeah, the new trailer is up. Woot.
Trailer: The Dark Knight
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
So this’ll probably be the last giveaway of the year, and it’s a bit of a different one. Portland’s Menomena started the year with the release of their third critically-acclaimed album Friend And Foe and capped it off with one of those hallmarks of artistic achievement, a Grammy nomination.
Okay, the nomination wasn’t so much for the music as the packaging, which apparently featured “an intricate packaging layout consisting of Die-cut shapes, decoder rings, and hidden messages” (via) with artwork courtesy of Craig Thompson (ever read his Blankets? Emoest. Comic. Ever). I’ll have to take Wikipedia’s – and the Grammy committee’s – word for it as my copy of the album was artwork-less… Sounds impressive though.
And it’s this artwork that graces this giveaway. Courtesy of Outside Music, I’ve got three Menomena prize packs consisting of a copy of the album on CD – with Grammy nominated artwork – and a funky mobile (yes, mobile) featuring samples of the art. Grok here and here. What will you do with such a mobile? I have no idea. If I had one, it would drive my cat nuts. If you have a small child, perhaps you can hang it in their room or over their crib and hopefully inspire them to a life of interesting artistic endeavors. Or give them nightmares. Either way.
To enter, fire me an email to contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want Menomenamemobile” in the subject line and your full mailing address in the body. Apologies, contest only open to Canadians and it closes at midnight, December 19 so as to hopefully have these suckers in the mail before the world shuts down for the holidays.
MP3: Menomena – “Wet And Rusting”
Video: Menomena – “Wet And Rusting”
Video: Menomena – “Rotten Hell”
Video: Menomena – “Evil Bee”
MySpace: Menomena
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