Lists! The Best of 09 by A Horse and His Boy!

Happy 2010!!! It's a little tarty, but I finally got a list from the band A Horse And His Boy! Apparently there was a lot of infighting over this, so I'm thankful I got it at all. For those who don't know, A Horse And His Boy are one of London Ontario's most exciting new acts. They're loud, danceable, and a great bunch of guys. Here we go... oh and due to some confusion, it's a top 12 list!

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest


Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom


Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion


Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca


Atlas Sound - Logos


Washed Out - Life of Leisure


St. Vincent - Actor


Dead Mellotron - Ghost Light Constellation


Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre


Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind


Flying Lotus - L.A. EP 3 X 3


Land of Kush - Against the Day

Top 10 albums of the year!!

Well here it is! My personal top 10 albums of the year. A couple notes, first of all, as I said with my top ten songs podcast, this isn't a definitive list. I haven't heard every album released this year, plus I have a horrible memory, so it's possible I completely forgot something. Another thing, I've been listening to far more Canadian albums than anything else this year, and my list reflects that, with half Canadian artists and half American. Ultimately I hope this list will give you a few things to check out in the new year, or if you have the albums, maybe you'll put them on again. Here goes.

10. Barzin- Notes to an Absent Lover


In the early half of the year I first heard Barzin's somber Notes to an Absent Lover. What really interests me about this album is how concise it is. There is nothing extraneous about it. Barzin incorporates a small band to support his stories, only adding a harmonica here, or an accordion there when necessary. A slow burning tribute to lost love.

9. Evening Hymns- Spirit Guides


I'm currently in the process of finishing my first full length album. Things are sounding fantastic, and I couldn't be happier with how it's turning out. But, there were two moments within the last few months when I felt like I was out my league. One was hearing Evening Hymns Spirit Guides for the first time. Where Barzin simplifies, Evening Hymns diversify. Strings, horns and choirs appear and disappear, but are never excessive. The music moves like the nature described in the songs. There are really only 7 songs here (track 7 of 8 is just the sounds of a storm), but they outline a career of great music to come. (Listen to "Dead Deer" in my Top 10 Songs podcast).

8. St. Vincent- Actor


Brooklyn is well represented on this list. I think 4 or the artists are based there. Including St. Vincent. What really keeps me coming back is front women Annie Clark. Her soft, angelic voice contrasts almost jarringly with her crunchy guitar tone. And who would have thought that the tastiest riffs of the year would be written by a women from Brooklyn? Well, they were.

7. Mos Def- The Estatic


Can Mos Def do any wrong? Why is it that everything he does is gold? Brooklyn is well represented again, Mos Def's 4th album may be the best of his already brilliant career. mixing elements of soul, afro-beat with hip-hop and rock and roll. it doesn't hurt to have producers Madlib, Oh No and J Dilla on your side, pulling some of their most exciting samples out of the crates.

6. Bruce Peninsula- A Mountain is a Mouth


There is a dark element creeping in a lot of the best music of 09'. Maybe it's just a fad, or a sign of the times. But if an apocalypse is coming, I want Bruce Peninsula as the soundtrack. They employ a large choir of voices, singing unison or simple harmonies, to create a sense of urgency in their songs. This is a band to see in a good venue. I got a chance to see them in a turn of the century Grist mill in Waterloo, and it was one of the best shows I'd seen all year.

5. Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca


What to say about the Dirty Projectors? Easily the most original act of 2009 (I know, bold statement), Dirty Projectors really need to be heard to be understood. I can't do it justice in print. Frontman Dave Longstreth has to be slightly crazy. His music is rhythmically and melodically all over the map, and yet somehow it manages to be accessible. The female harmonies are intricate and the band is tight, that probably has to do with the reported constant and lengthy rehearsals. Check out the track Two Doves on my Top 10 songs of 09 podcast.

4. Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest


Challenging and accessible is a difficult combination. Dirty Projectors do it to a point, but Grizzly Bear really acheives it on Veckatimest. Grizzly Bear manages to make one of the best pop albums of the year disguised as experimental Indie rock. The single "Two Weeks" is easily the catchiest song of the year. I'm also excited to see that intricate vocal harmonies were big this year (as they were last year with acts like Fleet Foxes). Check out "Two Weeks" in my 10 of 09 podcast.

3. Dan Auerbach- Keep It Hid


Black Keys Dan Auerbach goes it alone on Keep it Hid. A fine blend of all the best sounds of the 60's; Soul, folk and Psychelelic Rock. Dan shows a soft touch on ballads like "When the Night Comes", but then counters with dirty Psych rock like "I Want Some More". And although the songs on paper sound like they're on opposite ends of the musical spectrum, the production (mostly employing analog and vintage gear) ties everything together as the greatest 60's album never released. (Listen to "When The Night Comes" in my top 10 podcast)

2. Patrick Watson- Wooden Arms


I mentioned hearing Evening Hymns was one experience that briefly had me second guessing my own musical experience. The other was seeing Patrick Watson last month at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The man is a showman of the highest order. And he and his band deliver great music. Wooden Arms is the album that should have won the Polaris. Interesting percussion, and eclectic music supports Patrick's soring falsetto. Check out "Beijing" in the Best of 09 Podcast.

1. Timber Timbre- Self Titled


The moment I saw Timber Timbre for the first time, I knew this was an act to watch. Front man Taylor Kirk captivates an audience in a way I've never seen before. The album is a mixture of blues, Old time rock and roll, and dust bowl folk. Taylor is of a rare breed in this day and age, he's a storyteller, and his lyrics often send chills down my spine. For example take this verse from "Lay Down in the Tall Grass":

I dreamt you found me out in a field
You tripped over my site
And you dug me out of this shallow grave
with your Swiss Army knife
And only you could revive me, so badly decomposed
I was born white, dry, and scaly
but you still took me home

He knows what came before him, the album is full of homages to past masters, both lyrically and musically.
Check out "Demon Host" in my Top 10 of 09' podcast.

Honorable Mention (or, the next 10)

Sam Allen- Landscapes, A Horse and His Boy- Self Titled, Wilderness of Manitoba- Hymns of Love and Spirit, Bell Orchestre- As Seen Through Windows, Robert Hedge- The Observer EP, Fucked Up- The Chemistry of Common Life, Oubijou- Beacons, Kanaan- Troubadour, Sick Friend- Sleep Late, Brooke Manning- Bride and Loom

Best Compilation

Dark Was the Night
The folks behind 1993's No Alternative compilation (remember that?) out did their selves with Dark Was the Night. A collection of new and unreleased songs from a who's who of the current indie music scene raising awareness for AIDS/HIV. Unlike most compilations, this one if full of great tunes. featuring Grizzly Bear, Fiest, Dirty Projectors (with David Byrne!!), Decemberists, Conor Oberst (with Gillian Welsh), Yo La Tengo and many more. It also features Sufjan Stevens brilliant, epic cover of You Are the Blood, found in my top ten songs podcast.

Well that's it! See you kids in the next year!

List! Best of 09 by Nathan Noble

Here is a third entry into the guest top ten albums of 09! A Horse and His Boy is a great dance punk act out of London Ontario, a while back I sent them a request for a band-picked top 10 list. Apparently that is still in the works, but Keyboardist/singer Nathan Noble sent me his personal list AND his 10 ten concerts of 09! I love how diverse the three lists (other 2 by illustrator Andrew Patterson, and singer/songwriter Eddie Orso) are. Here we go!

Photo by Andrew Colvin

Top Ten Albums or EP's of 2009 late 08 (in no particular order)

St. Vincent - Actor



The Most Serene Republic ..And The Ever Expanding Universe



Pick A Piper S/T EP



Dead Mellotron - Ghost Light Constellation



Bruce Peninsula -A Mountain Is A Mouth



Fraser- House on a Hill



Timber Timbre -S/T



Foals - Antidotes



A Lending Library - Halloween



The Riderless- Auction



Nathan's top live acts of recent memory. (in no particular order)

The Winks
Braids
Fond of Tigers
Aleks and The Ramps
Sick Friend
Olenka & The Autumn Lovers
Birds Across Water
Nomo
Exit 2012
The Riderless
Timber Timbre
St. Vincent

Thanks Nathan! Well, folks tomorrow is the day that I finally get my top 10 albums list up!! So make sure you check that shit out. Talk soon.

Best Songs of '09 Podcast

Howdy folks. I usually put up a track of the week on Monday, but I'm doing something different today. I've put together 10 of my favorite songs released this year, in podcast form, and I believe you can download this one! Now, of coarse this isn't definitive. There are lots of songs I didn't hear this year, and I've probably forgotten a few good ones I have heard. But hopefully this will give you an hour of good listening. I'd love to know what songs all of you dug this year, so please feel free to list them in the comments section. Here is the podcast. I've posted the complete list below it, if you're too impatient to listen for your favorite song.



Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear

Tidal Wave by Whipping Wind

New Years by Ohbijou

Demon Host by Timber Timbre

Dead Deer by Evening Hymns

When the Night Comes by Dan Auerbach

Eazy Speaks by Apostle of Hustle

Two Doves by The Dirty Projectors

Beijing by Patrick Watson

You Are The Blood by Sufjan Stevens

Interviews! The Best of Birds

Hey folks! It's Friday, and I'm off to St. Catherines for a wedding (not very music related, I know). Anyways, since I didn't have much for you today, I've decided to take inventory of my Interviews for The website. It turns out I've done 10 so far, and hopefully there will be plenty more to come. So, just in case you missed one or two, here are links to all 10! Starting with my very first, an email interview with Olenka Krakus

Olenka Krakus (Olenka and the Autumn Lovers) 05/09/08

Olenka Krakus Part 1
Olenka Krakus Part 2


Ryan Ayakawa (music booker) 07/27/08


Nic Lefevbre (Birdsacrosswater, Hunt Chant) 08/04/08


Stacey Case (Trash Palace proprietor, Tiajuana Bibles drummer) 11/03/08

Stacey Case Part 1
Stacey Case Part 2


Nick Zubeck (Guitarist/singer) 02/10/09

Nick Zubeck Part 1
Nick Zubeck Part 2


Valery Gore (Singer/pianist) 02/23/09


Stagehands (Rock and Roll by way of Broadway) 02/23/09

Stagehands Part 1
Stagehands Part 2


Noah Zacharin (Toronto folk legend talks Dylan) 05/19/09


Barzin 06/23/09

Bazin Part 1
Barzin Part 2


Taylor Kirk (Timber Timbre) 06/30/09

Track of the Week: 5 Songs about Rain!

It's a pretty crappy day here in Toronto.... it's actually been a pretty crappy week. Rainy and cold. With that in mind, I did a search in my I-tunes for songs with "rain" in the title. Here are 5!

I picked up Colleen's album The Golden Morning Breaks on a whim one day at Soundscapes. For a while it provided a beautiful ambient soundtrack to my days, but I quickly forgot about it, time for a re-assesment!






Next up is an odd one. Beat Poet and author Jack Kerouac at some point recorded a few songs. One was a cover of "Come Rain or Come Shine". Kerouac is by no way a good singer, but this is definitely something worth hearing.





How about some Gordon Lightfoot? Here's a beautiful track from his album Don Quiote called "Looking at the Rain"






Another album I had picked up from Soundscapes on a whim (damn listening stations! I ALWAYS buy something!) was Richard Hawley's great country crooner album Coles Corners. This track is called "Just Like the Rain"





Tom Waits. I Love Tom Waits. Here is "Make it Rain"

Polling the Artists Q8 (the Dylan question) Part 2

Agh! I'm late! here's the second part of the Dylan Quesion:

What is your favorite Bob Dylan Song or album, and how did it inspire and/or influence you?

SHAWN CLARKE, MUSICIAN SONGWRITER, BLOGGER


When I was a pre-teen I developed a thirst for music older than I was. This was to include the music of Bob Dylan. I picked up a used copy of The Times They Are a Changin'. One song particularly stood out, mostly because, at the time, it was the only song to make me cry. That song was "Boot's of Spanish Leather". The last line, the character's final request to a far away lover who has fallen out of love, is truly devastating.

I'm instinctively drawn to artists who are constantly re-addressing and re-assessing themes of life. The themes that are universal, profound and ever changing: Love, Death, Justice, Sex, The existence (or lack there of) of God. Bob Dylan joins the ranks of influential searchers, a list that includes Tom Waits, Woody Allen, Leonard Cohen, Orson Welles, and countless (yet some how increasingly rare) others.

BARZIN, MUSICIAN, SONGWRITER


I would have to take the easy route and choose "Visions of Johanna."

I have been listening to Dylan for a very long time, and I still find
something new in that song.
I recently learned that is Scorsese favorite Dylan song as well.
So, I feel very secure with my choice. :-)


SAM ALLEN, THE SAMUEL MUSICAL


Ever since getting into Dylan, he has been a consistent influence on my life and music. He is able to create whole other worlds with his music and words, and even manages to weave himself into those worlds as his music and his identity changes from album to album, or period to period.

He has created so much music that it is certainly difficult to pin down one particular album which has had the largest impact on me. Every period seems to do something different for me, but some still stand out over others. 'Bringing It All Back Home' is brilliant, and might be better than 'Highway 61 Revisited'. Yes, looking at the track listing on the backs of the albums now, 'Bringing It All Back Home' takes this battle today... "Gates of Eden"! "It's Alright, Ma", "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"/"It's All Over Now Baby Blue" (the best part of 'Don't Look Back' has to be the sequence when he plays these songs). 'Highway 61 Revisited' is amazing, but, the live versions of the songs destroy my love for the album versions.

'Blonde on Blonde' is another obvious choice, the thin sound of the band, the brilliant chaos of the lyrics, and the emotion in his voice, all have easily found there way into my life. I spent a few weeks late in 2008 listening to 'Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' on repeat. This song is the weirdest, craziest, oddest, best, and strangely most beautiful love song I've ever heard. I am completely spell-bound by it. What a tribute! one song takes up an entire side of one of the best double albums of all time! The song is a tangled brilliance of a masterpiece.

I'm also very drawn to 'John Wesley Harding' for its forced simplicity and incredible religious references. I read somewhere that this album contains the most biblical allusions of any of his albums. Although I'm not extremely religious, I've always been intrigued by the power such references give music, and have used such things often in my own work. Country music has always been a part of my family, and so 'Nashville Skyline' fines it's way into this answer. I just like the idea of just deciding to do a country record, and doing it right with the best country session musicians at the time. "I Threw It All Away" is incredible.

Leaving the 60s, Dylan becomes a little more elusive to me. Still 'Blood on the Tracks' is easily one of the best albums of all time. This album is full of brilliance. For starters it is probably Dylan's best album performance wise that I've heard. The biggest problem with this early to mid 60s albums is the lack on interest in his performance (I would argue), but with this album, the emotion is clearly there (the content obviously leads to this). I've been completely enthralled with so many songs on this album... "Tangled Up In Blue" has an incredible story, "Simple Twist Of Fate" really first struck me after seeing it in sequence in the film 'I'm Not There'... the song just has this incredible, "it happened, it's sad, I wish I could go back and change it, hmph" feeling, but in the most beautiful way--a beautiful recount of a very sad time. "You're A Big Girl Now" is possibly the saddest song on the album, and really tugs at those heart strings... the song is so personal, it's incredible (the best song on the album?). "Idiot Wind" is just angry and intense and amazing. "Shelter From the Storm" works in similar ways to "Simple Twist of Fate". The brilliance of this album, thinking about it now, is how personal it comes across for Bob, but also how easily it can relate to your life on a equally personal level, while at the same time really allowing you to know Bob's position... you feel like you really know what he is going through, while at the same time you can live your experiences through it. This album is all over my work.

All this being said about Dylan albums, the best Dylan for me is his live work. The live albums from 1964, 1966, and 1975 are far and away his best work. He just brings the songs to a whole other level in his live show. The insane energy of his crazy gypsy-esque band on the Rolling Thunder Revue Tour is just incredible. Makes me want to jump up and down. Pound the earth. Scream into the air with my fists clenched. Buy a large feathered hat. "Isis" "Hurricane" "One More Cup Of Coffee" to name just three from the album.

'LIVE 1966' is probably my favourite Dylan album (although it might not be a proper album). The electric second half is filled with so much energy and fresh-ness. The best word to describe it is simply "ELECTRIC". To comment on what I said above about 'Highway 61 Revisited', the versions of "Like A Rolling Stone" and especially "Ballad of a Thin Man" are just unbelievably good. The amount of energy and quirkiness Bob commands on stage causes me to shake my head in wonder, eyes wide open. However, for the the acoustic side of the album really blows my mind. The man is completely lost in the songs. His entire essence is within the songs delivering them out to the audience who sit stone cold silent for the duration. This is where his masterpieces of the 1960s truly shine. Every song is amazing. "Just Like A Woman" is such an odd song, difficult for many to like, but it is so fragile here, so beautiful. "Desolation Row", "Mr. Tambourine Man", and "Fourth Time Around" become incredibly haunting, and "She Belongs To Me" becomes a very personal ramble. To agree with some other answers however, the best song is "Visions Of Johanna". Here stripped from the almost silly sound of 'Blonde on Blonde', the song floats on a whole other level. This song has easily had the largest impact on my life and music than any other Dylan song. It floats hauntingly from his voice, which places an incredible importance on every syllable, through fantastic images similar to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland". The song mixes beautiful poetry with silly images:

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze
I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

demonstrating the artists true abilities and brilliance. The song just hauntingly floats through incredible images for me.
Ever since hearing this acoustic version of the song this almost all I've tried to do with my music... make it float.

NICK ZUBECK, GUITARIST, SONGWRITER


Wow, what amazing responses! Sorry, I'm a little late on mine. I was also a little late on getting into Dylan - my brother's vinyl collection, which was the centre of my adolescent pop music schooling, while brimming with Bowie and Stones, had a conspicuous lack of Dylan records. I first really started digging in after hearing one of my favorite guitarists, Bill Frisell, doing a cover of "Just Like A Woman"... which is ironic, as it's an instrumental, and so much of the richness of Dylan is in the words.
My favorite album is either Desire or Nashville Skyline. A fave song is harder to pick, but "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is up there.

If you haven't see it, check out Dylan on 60 Minutes a few years back:

Bob Dylan on 60 Minutes

I like the part when he talks about his early work, saying: "I can do other things now, but I can't do that."
I think that sentiment is the inspiration behind a great tune called "I Used To Be Bob Dylan" by former Torontonian (now PEI-ian) Detective Kalita (aka Andy Swan)....