Frank Yang

Well this was certainly a better year than last year, on pretty much every level. Of course, it would have required something on the scale of low-yield nuclear detonation in my bathtub – while I was in it – for it to have been worse, but I’ll take it. Musically, it was actually something of a banner year with what seemed like every active artist that I liked not only putting out new records, but good to great records. More hiatuses ended than started and despite intending to slow down the show-going, I ended up going to even more life-affirming, if not -changing, concerts than in any calendar year I can recall. In short, 2010 brought it.

So you’d think that with such a wealth of great records to choose from, assembling a short list of ten faves should have been easier than a year without as many worthy candidates but if anything, it’s tougher. Acts that release records that meet expectations, however high, are held to extra scrutiny; it’s like, “yeah this record was good but so was the last one – where’s that next level?” which of course is completely unreasonable. And conversely, acts heretofore unknown to me had the element of surprise on their side when it came to triggering the ineffable “wow” reflex. All of which is to say that, like past years, there’s nothing scientific nor quantitative about these selections – they’re alphabetical by artist and represent what I could get behind as of the first weekend of December, 2010, and strongly motivated by a desire to get this list over and done with.

So here they are, after the jump, or if you want to peer closely at my little photoshop project above (click for a bigger version) you can try and guess who made the cut before seeing the answers. Because I know the suspense is delicious.

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Steven CohenIt didn’t take a lot of digging to find this San Francisco Chronicle interview circa 2006 wherein Gary Louris definitively closed the book on Minneapolis alt.country heroes The Jayhawks, the band he’d fronted for over 20 years, the first decade with Mark Olson and after his departure, on his own. Of course, by the time he declared The Jayhawks done, he and Olson were again performing together not as The Jayhawks but as those guys from The Jayhawks. So even though the band’s principal creative forces were playing together again for the first time in nearly 10 years, the band itself was being put on the shelf.

Post-Jayhawks, Olson worked with with wife Victoria Williams in The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers and began releasing solo works in 2007 while Louris finally put out a record under his own name in 2008 with Vagabonds. They kept playing together, though, and in 2008 gathered the 1995-era Jayhawks lineup for a show in Spain, followed by a couple more last year and left the door wide open for more. At the same time, they began digging through the vaults and put out a career-spanning best-of in 2009 and this year, reissued their long out-of-print self-titled debut as The Bunkhouse Album. But when Olson and Louris inevitably went back into the studio together, the fruits of those sessions – Ready For The Flood – came out under the name Mark Olson & Gary Louris, because as it stands – or at least as it did in 2008 – the name “The Jayhawks” was still under contract to American Recordings.

So while lawyers will keep any new recordings from coming out under The Jayhawks moniker for the time being – and you know that the urge to bring the whole band back into the studio has to be there – they’re still able to perform as The Jayhawks. And surely as a precursor to more consistent touring in 2011, eye reports that it’s as The Jayhawks that Olson, Louris and company will be returning to Toronto for the first time with any lineup since January 2004. We got the Louris and Olson sit-down acoustic show at the Mod Club last year, but The Jayhawks are country-rockers and you really do need the rock in there to go along with those unmistakable harmonies. This will be happening on January 18 at The Phoenix and the occasion is the release of deluxe edition reissues of their most seminal records, Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow The Green Grass, that same day and I’ll tell you, I’ve spent the evening revisiting both of those albums on disc, and its been grand. I can’t imagine doing the same live could be anything less.

PopMatters has reviews of the reissues and tallies up some of the bonus material included therein.

Video: The Jayhawks – “Blue”

Almost a year to the day since they were there this year, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven will roll into Lee’s Palace on January 15 of next year, tickets $24.50.

Video: Cracker – “Low”
Video: Camper Van Beethoven – “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”

Frankie Rose & The Outs, whose namesake served time behind the kit in Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls before going solo, have set a date at Parts & Labour on January 21 behind their self-titled debut.

MP3: Frankie Rose & The Outs – “Candy”

Rolling Stone has a brief chat with Colin Meloy of The Decemberists about their new record The King Is Dead, out January 18 and according to the aforementioned eye piece, will be followed almost immediately by a tour which includes a February 1 date in Toronto at a venue to be announced. You’d think they’d be ready to graduate to Massey Hall with this record, but a little digging reveals that Wynton Marsalis is booked into the hallowed hall that night. Maybe back to the less-hallowed Kool Haus one more time?

MP3: The Decemberists – “Down By The Water”

Iron & Wine have assigned a release date to their new record Kiss Each Other Clean and further confirmed January 25 as the first big new album day of 2011.

January 25 has also been set as the release date for The Radio Dept.’s 2-CD Passive Aggressive compilation while the Never Follow Suit EP is out now. They’re at Lee’s Palace on February 7, tickets just $12.50, on sale tomorrow.

MP3: The Radio Dept. – “Never Follow Suit”

Exclaim has details on Asobi Seksu’s new record Fluorescence, which sees them over their acoustic phase and back into the glorious noise. A first MP3 from the album, due February 15, is available at Polyvinyl.

Pitchfork reports that J Mascis will be stepping away from Dinosaur Jr for a bit to release a solo acoustic record entitled Several Shades Of Why on March 15.

The 4AD Sessions with Blonde Redhead are now up.

While I commend MTV for helping create interesting videos as they did for LCD Soundsystem, geoblocking them so as to only be viewable in the US is a pure bullshit move – took me a while but I finally found a ripped version that those of us outside Fortress America can enjoy. MusicOMH has an interview with James Murphy and Pitchfork has details on their live-in-studio album The London Sessions which was made available on iTunes as of today and hopefully through other outlets eventually.

Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Pow Pow”

PitchforkTV has video of the acoustic performance Mac McCaughan and Jim Wilbur of Superchunk did at the Toronto screening of Passenger Side at The Royal back in April. Mac and Jim will be back with Laura and Jon on December 9 at Sound Academy with Broken Social Scene – rest assured, it will be plugged in, loud and awesome.

San Diego City Beat and The San Francisco Chronicle talk to Dean Wareham.

Interview interviews Local Natives.

Aquarium Drunkard sessions up with Lissie. She’s at The Opera House on January 24.

Spinner has an Interface session with Deerhunter.

Warpaint serves up a World Cafe session for NPR.

Filter has a two-part Q&A Liz Phair.

Pitchfork is posting up video footage – performance and otherwise – from Matador at 21 in Vegas last month. Ah, memories.

Caleb ByersIt’s been a half-decade since Kathryn Calder joined The New Pornographers in 2005, and in that time she’s gone from handling the impossible task of pinch-hitting on tours for Neko Case to appearing on their last three albums and becoming an as integral part of the band – her parts may not have the force of personality as Case’s, but her more delicate approach offers an important contrast and gives Carl Newman another invaluable tool in assembling his power pop symphonies. But prior to joining the Pornographers, Calder had her own creative outlet in Immaculate Machine and while she retains a membership card for the Victoria-based band, she’s largely ceded that outfit to guitarist Brooke Gallupe. Which basically meant that a solo album was pretty much an inevitability, but that doesn’t make Are You My Mother? any less of a surprise.

My experience with Calder as a songwriter goes back as far as the first couple Immaculate Machine records and while they were decent enough pop records, they weren’t particularly exceptional within the realm of Canadian indie. The years of apprenticing to Carl Newman have clearly paid off, however, as Mother is a remarkably fully-realized solo debut, and while it features plentiful contributions from various Pornographers and other Vancouver-based musicians, Calder is clearly in the driver’s seat throughout. One might be forgiven for assuming that given her role as singer and keyboardist in the Pornographers, Calder solo might turn out a record of singer-songwriter-oriented girl-and-piano material. And while at its quieter moment Mother does strip things down to just that, numbers like album opener “Slip Away” and the barreling “Castor And Pollux” are as grandiose pop as anything the New Pornographers might create and just as instantly memorable. Mother is rangy and engaging, built around Calder’s crystalline, pitch-perfect yet expressive voice and perhaps more importantly, her impressive songwriting chops.

The New Pornographers are frequently called a “super-group”, implying that each of their members are as equally accomplished on their own as they are in the band – with Are You My Mother?, Kathryn Calder steps up and makes that even more true.

MP3: Kathryn Calder – “Arrow”
MP3: Kathryn Calder – “Slip Away”
Video: Kathryn Calder – “Slip Away”
MySpace: Kathryn Calder

If you missed North Carolina’s Lost In The Trees when they played a free show here back in June (which I previewed but did not manage to attend), they’re back on September 27 at the Drake Underground in support of Mercury shortlisted Irish act Villagers. They’ve also got a new Daytrotter session up for grabs.

MP3: Lost In The Trees – “Fireplace”
MP3: Lost In The Trees – “All Alone In An Empty House”

Winter Gloves will mark the September 7 release of their second album All Red with an acoustic in-store performance at Kops Records that same night at 5:30PM.

MP3: Winter Gloves – “Plastic Slides”

Toronto power-pop aficionados The Golden Dogs will follow up their September 17 show at the Drake Underground with a September 23 in-store performance at Soundscapes at 7PM. Their new record Coat Of Arms came out last month.

MP3: The Golden Dogs – “Permanent Record”

The Great Hall will certainly be the scene of mayhem on October 12 when the tour teaming Lightning Bolt and Dan Deacon hits Toronto. Those wanting to be out of the line of fire can take refuge on the stage because neither performer will be setting up there.

MP3: Lightning Bolt – “Colossus”
MP3: Dan Deacon – “Get Older”

LA duo No Age will be releasing their second album Everything In Between on September 28 and have announced an extensive Fall tour to support – the Toronto date comes November 18 at the Polish Combatants Hall.

MP3: No Age – “Glitter”

The Toronto Star talks to Peelander Yellow of Peelander-Z, in town to make things silly at the Velvet Underground on September 1 and The Silver Dollar on September 2.

Spinner talks to Lissie about the attention her penchant for covers has gotten her and her debut album Catching A Tiger; The Independent also has a feature. She’s at the El Mocambo on October 19.

Spinner talks to Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino and Black Book solicits a list of the band’s favourite NYC hang outs. The band’s self-titled effort will be out September 7 and they’ve just released a second video from it.

Video: Interpol – “Barricade”

Ted Leo talks to Billboard about the making of the off-off-off-off-Broadway video for “Bottled In Cork”.

NPR is streaming a World Cafe session with LCD Soundsystem.

The Guardian salutes 4AD on the occasion of the legendary label’s 30th anniversary.

And a note to folks in Toronto that if you’re looking for something to do of the cinematic variety this week, you could do much worse than to check out No Heart Feelings at the Royal, where it’s screening through Thursday of this week. It’s a romantic comedy (but not really a rom-com) set in an eminently familiar Toronto from three local first-time directors and though imperfect – it suffers from the atmosphere-and-dialogue-in-lieu-of-plot vagueness that’s all too common in independent film – it’s still a winner thanks to its charm and authenticity (though I don’t do as much in and around the city nearly as much as their characters do, I have no problem believing that people actually DO these things and that I’m really just a shut-in). Don’t take my word for it, check out positive reviews in The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star and The National Post.

Trailer: No Heart Feelings

Frank YangHonestly, I’d thought that Tom Petty had retired. Between the themes of he and The Heartbreakers’ last studio record, 2002’s The Last DJ, and the victory lap of 2006’s 30th anniversary tour, I thought that he’d called it a day on active touring and my opportunities to see him perform had dried up. I don’t know how or why I had that notion, but it was clearly wrong as Wednesday night, there I was at the Air Canada Centre, ready to see Mr. Petty and company for the first time and, needless to say, excited about it. Update: And further proof I thought he retired – I completely forgot about the existence of 2006’s solo record Highway Companion. Oops.

Conversely, I’d never thought that Crosby, Stills & Nash had called it a day. Even though they’d not released a CSN record proper since 1994, they’d been touring constantly – sometimes with Neil Young, more often without – and though I had respect for their work and reputation, had never felt compelled to see them live. That said, I had no problem with adding another legendary act to my, “yeah I saw them” list. And that’s about all I got out of their almost headline-length opening set, as it was clear that whatever magic they had in their younger days was greatly diminished.

I appreciate that the ’60s are a long ways gone and all three had done more than their share of living in the interim, but hearing how shaky their once-pristine trademark harmonies had gotten was disappointing to say the least. They still performed with aplomb – more rock than their folk roots with Stephen Stills taking more than a few big rock guitar solos and Graham Nash chatty and charming as the group’s de facto spokesman – but the numbers that should have shone brightest, like “Our House” and “Love The One You’re With”, came off the wobbliest and they only got away with it because most of the audience was loudly singing along with all the old chestnuts and probably weren’t paying that close attention to the actual performance. One couldn’t help but think how this would have gone if Neil were along for the ride? He’d have probably kicked their asses backstage.

Petty and The Heartbreakers likewise came to give the people what they wanted to hear but did it almost perfectly, the way you’d expect one of America’s finest rock bands of the past 35 years to do. Petty, dapper in a duster and sporting a sharp-looking beard, was all smiles and Southern charm and opened with the big bold jangle of “Listen To Her Heart” before sliding effortlessly into a slightly greased-up “You Don’t Know How It Feels”. The band sounded nothing short of amazing as a unit – maybe not so surprising considering how long they’ve been playing together, but remarkable to see and hear nonetheless. The arrangements of the songs were largely faithful to the recorded versions, leaving their perfect pop structures and southern accents intact, but improvisationally pushing the edges just enough to let them stretch out and show off a bit. This mainly applied to lead guitarist Mike Campbell, whose economical solos on record serve the song perfectly but in live setting, allow him to inject that extra dose of flash and bang.

One gets the sense that letting Campbell better showcase his talents was a large part of the reasoning behind their blues-centric new record Mojo, which I should and do appreciate for giving them the excuse to head back on the road but not much else. The blues is not alien territory for the band, being an essential part of their Americana stew, but brought to the fore as it is on the new material, it’s just not interesting with their faithfulness to the genre coming at the expense of the hooks and melodies. The four-song set of Mojo material dropped in the middle of the set really put the damper on what to that point had been some terrific momentum though on the plus side, it did give Campbell some impressive solos and allowed a good portion of the audience to refill their beer.

That said, there wasn’t any better way to get things back on track than with a gorgeously stripped down version of “Learning To Fly”, followed by a thundering “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and a grand “Refugee” to close the main set. At this point the 11PM curfew was drawing awfully close, but there was no way the nearly-full arena was going to let things end without the encore, and so they returned for “Runnin’ Down A Dream” and what I thought for sure would be the coup de grace show stopper – and my favourite Petty tune – “American Girl”. But instead of the big ringing D chord I expected, they broke into the Wildflowers-vintage descending riff of “You Wreck Me” and while I like that song a lot, it’s not “American Girl”. And after the big linked-arm bows and the house lights came up, it became clear that there would be no “American Girl”. And as great as most of the show was to that point, it was and remains a bit of a bitter finish for me… In time I’ll be able to focus on the great 100 minutes they did play and not the three they didn’t, but y’know Campbell, you could have soloed just a little less and bought some time and it would have been perfect. Just saying.

The Toronto Sun, The Toronto Star, The Globe & Mail and eye all have reviews of the show.

Photos: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Crosby, Stills & Nash @ The Air Canada Centre – August 25, 2010
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Walls”
Video: Tom Petty – “You Wreck Me”
Video: Tom Petty – “You Don’t Know How It Feels”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Peace In L.A.”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “King’s Highway”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Into The Great Wide Open”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Learnin’ To Fly”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Yer So Bad”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “A Face In The Crowd”
Video: Tom Petty – “Free Fallin'”
Video: Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
Video: Tom Petty – “I Won’t Back Down”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Jammin’ Me”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Rebels”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Don’t Come Around Here No More”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “You Got Lucky”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “The Waiting”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Here Comes My Girl”
Video: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Refugee”
MySpace: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
MySpace: Crosby, Stills & Nash

As expected with such a massive tour already lined up, Sufjan Stevens will release his first new and proper album in ages on October 12, the day before he plays Massey Hall. Pitchfork has details on what to expect from The Age Of Adz and the first MP3 is up for grabs.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “I Walked”

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem clarifies (or makes vaguer) his intentions to retire the band to The Quietus.

New York Magazine talks to Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal. Their new record False Priest is out September 14.

The Montreal Gazette and Chart have feature interviews with Land Of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell. They play Lee’s Palace on September 16.

alt.ohio interviews Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, complete video of whose show in San Francisco from this past May is available to stream in its entirety at Revision 3.

Rose Elinor Dougall has premiered a new video from Without Why over at The Guardian. Her debut album is out on Monday.

Video: Rose Elinor Dougall – “Carry On”

The Vine interviews Warren Ellis of Grinderman. Grinderman 2 is out September 14 and they kick off their North American tour November 11 in Toronto at the Phoenix.

The second part of Le Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows from NXNE is now up.

Frank YangEven though it barely counted as a half-slate of acts, day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival had left me feeling more worn than it should have. Chalk it up to not having done a proper outdoor festival in a few years, and having forgotten what it was to deal with the crowds and the heat. Oh, the heat.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it yet, but this past weekend in Chicago was hot. Damn hot. Maybe technical heat wave hot. And while it was enough to make most North Americans melt, one gets the sense that Barcelona’s Delorean felt right at home. Not only do they hail from warmer climes, but the electro-euro, get-naked party anthems from their debut Subiza are tailor-made to celebrate it. The quartet did their best to turn hipsterfest into Ibiza and while they succeeded in getting some of the crowd moving, most could only muster the energy to sway.

Photos: Delorean @ Aluminum Stage – July 17, 2010
MP3: Delorean – “Stay Close”
Video: Delorean – “Stay Close”

Over at the Balance Stage, set a little ways from the main stages and more importantly in a shady grove of trees, Kurt Vile was turning in a set of ’70s-ish art-punk/pop that wasn’t much to look at, with Vile generally keeping his face hidden under a heavy head of hair, but was great to listen to. I think I still have a copy of his 2009 release Childish Prodigy kicking around somewhere – I should get better acquainted with it. Vile comes to town for a show at the Great Hall tonight.

Photos: Kurt Vile @ Balance Stage – July 17, 2010
MP3: Kurt Vile – “Overnite Religion”
MP3: Kurt Vile – “Hunchback”
Video: Kurt Vile – “Freak Train”
MySpace: Kurt Vile

I’d mentioned that a lot of the acts at Pitchfork were performing in a setting far larger than they were accustomed to, and that it shouldn’t be a surprise if what works in a small club doesn’t translate onto an outdoor stage. Such was not the case for Titus Andronicus. Maybe more than any other band still living on the club circuit, the New Jersey punks not only rose to the occasion but used it as a launching pad for even greater things. Tearing through material from their excellent album The Monitor, they had the undivided attention of thousands who were more than up for screaming “you will always be a loser!” at the tops of their lungs. Though guest spots from tourmates Hallelujah The Hills on horns helped classy up the proceedings a bit, it was still all about the fury of Patrick Stickles’ grand and angry anthems. The first truly epic set of the weekend.

Photos: Titus Andronicus @ Connector Stage – July 17, 2010
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union”
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Four Score And Seven” (Part One)
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Four Score And Seven” (Part Two)
MP3: Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus”
Video: Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union”
Video: Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus”
MySpace: Titus Andronicus

Back at the mainstage, the throngs gathered for a little Wu-Tang action courtesy of Raekwon. Now no one in their right mind expects a hip-hop show to start on time, even at a festival where things had been running pretty damned smoothly, but this time the delays weren’t the fault of the performer – the DJ’s laptop was apparently overheating on stage and generally freaking out over the PA. I’m telling you, people, it was hot. Eventually they sorted things out sufficiently that Raekwon was able to come out and do his thing, and while my hip-hop education has been ongoing, his stuff seemed to have a harder, leaner aesthetic to the beats and backing than the more throwback, old-school (read: ’80s-style) hip-hop that I’d been listening to. But that said, his set had an extremely positive energy, buoyed by a sea of Wu Tang hand salutes from the crowd, and peaked with a performance from a quartet of pint-sized (child, not midget) breakdancers showing off their moves.

Photos: Raekwon @ Aluminum Stage – July 17, 2010
Video: Raekwon – “New Wu”
Video: Raekwon – “House Of Flying Daggers”
Video: Raekwon – “Ice Cream”
Video: Raekwon – “Canal Street”

I’m not sure if Jon Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell Simins were going by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or just Blues Explosion, but I suspect the former was more appropriate as they had taken the project out of mothballs to mark the reissues of the albums which came out under the JSBX name and not the ill-received Damage which was credited to just BX. Whichever it was, they clearly hadn’t let any rust settle because while Spencer wasn’t quite the unhinged blues prophet from their ’90s heyday, he still fit into his leather pants pretty well and those blues still exploded on cue, delivering big guitar jams and plenty of rock’n’roll swagger. Ever the showman. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion plays Lee’s Palace on July 31.

Photos: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ Connector Stage – July 17, 2010
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “She Said”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Sweet N Sour”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Wail”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Dang”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Flavor”
Video: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Talk About The Blues”
MySpace: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Wolf Parade have always hung around at the periphery of stuff I like – I enjoy the live show but the albums never stay in rotation that long – but with their latest Expo 86, they may well have made an album that I can really get into though it may be for the reasons that some fans like it the least; to my ears, their many quirks and tics have been dialed down and they’ve just made a big rock record. And as such, they were more than suited to play the next-to-last mainstage set for the day, coming as close as the festival would to stadium-size rock anthems. Their live show still relied heavily on Dan Boeckner for stage presence, but it was good to see Spencer Krug not only moving his keyboards to centre stage – last time I saw them he was off to the side – but also contributing some serious hair whipping. JAM has an interview with Wolf Parade.

Photos: Wolf Parade @ Aluminum Stage – July 17, 2010
MP3: Wolf Parade – “Ghost Pressure”
MP3: Wolf Parade – “What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)
MP3: Wolf Parade – “Language City”
MP3: Wolf Parade – “Call It A Ritual”
MP3: Wolf Parade – “My Father’s Son”
MP3: Wolf Parade – “Shine A Light”
Video: Wolf Parade – “Modern World”
Video: Wolf Parade – “Shine A Light”
Video: Wolf Parade – “I’ll Believe In Anything”

I have never counted myself as an Animal Collective fan, but was still curious to see what Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear, had up his sleeve for his Connector stage-closing set. As it turns out, he had pretty much nothing. Taking the concept of “solo act” very seriously, he was set up on a platform positioned well towards the back of the stage, standing with a guitar behind a bank of keyboards. And from this position, he played tuneless drones and random beats seemingly designed to test peoples patience. It was hard to tell if it was a deliberate anti-performance or if it simply hadn’t occurred to him that what he was doing was extraordinarily dull to watch, but from the faces in the crowd, the reaction seemed to be somewhat blissful but mostly bored and a few confused. If Panda Bear ever goes on tour, I’d like to suggest that he keep the same wheeled platform, but have it spew flames while being pushed around by armoured dwarves. Or something. Anything.

Photos: Panda Bear @ Connector Stage – July 17, 2010
Video: Panda Bear – “Take Pills”

The Toronto stop of LCD Soundsystem’s supposed farewell tour was an unqualified slice of amazing, but somehow I knew that this setting would potentially provide an even greater high, to say nothing of extra personal space for dancing. After all, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the party, right? In this case, absolutely right. James Murphy and crew seemed to be feeling extra loose and riding the vibe from the audience, as though their set list read much like that in Toronto, the rockers seemed wilder and the dance numbers groovier and Murphy’s between-song banter extra droll. It was 90 minutes of steady, throbbing good times with the highlight of many highlights being, unsurprisingly, “All My Friends”, which just sounds better and better the bigger and louder it’s played. I may have come late to the LCD party, but I’m not leaving till they kick me out.

Photos: LCD Soundsystem @ Aluminum Stage – July 17, 2010
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Drunk Girls”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Someone Great”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “North American Scum”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Tribulations”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Daft Punk Is Playing”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Movement”
Video: LCD Soundsystem – “Losing My Edge”
MySpace: LCD Soundsystem