2011 Year End Review

Let's talk 2011 for a moment. Usually as I stop and ponder all that happened during the course of a year, I'm left with the nagging suspicion that it really was nothing to separate it out from the previous 2 or 3 or 5. I worked a job that I really didn't give shit about, worked with people I hated and was making little to no money etc. Those years just blend together and the only thing that separates them out is what annual conference you attended. 2006? Cancun. 2005? Dublin. One would think that seeing some international locations would be pretty amazing and I'd be lucky to have done so. Well, you'd be 100% right. It was great, but that was a 5-7 days out of 365. Do the math and calculate a happiness quotient from those numbers. 2011 turned out to be one of those years that will be extremely easy to remember. I got a new job, one that (a) I like and (b) I'm good at. One doesn't get those two in balance very often so at this point, I'm ready to destroy lives in order to protect. Also, I bought a house and by house, I mean a domicile that is not sharing a wall with some piece of shit I'd rather see in a gas oven that outside my step. Does that sound harsh? Fifteen years of living near students and associated scum has elevated a loathing in me previously suspected but never realized. This probably sounds a bit elitist and perhaps I consider myself to be "better" than them. Well, once again you'd be 100% right. But I digress, that is slipping into the remote past and 2011 is near past and will be fondly recalled. The photo above is the fire that threatened my beloved domicile last month. 2011 will not be soon forgotten.

What about music? For the second year in a row my year end album list is populated largely by Canadian artists. This was, once again, not intentional but wholly welcome. My favourite album of 2011 is from Regina's Library Voices Summer of Lust is 32.35 minutes of pop perfection. Would this be my album of the year if I wasn't in a better place so to speak? It's a gloriously happy record or at least that's the affect it evokes, strongly I might add. 'Anthem for a New Canadia"? It rivals Martha & the Muffins' 'Echo Beach' for the elicitation of that aforementioned emotion. I love this record.

What about the others? A few highlights: Dirty Beaches' Badlands is the soundtrack for a very dark night, literal and figurative darkness. It's the soundtrack for planning a murder, but this is a murder of necessity and not desire. 'Lord Only Knows' sounds like something I've heard before in a THC induced hallucination where I depersonalized and stared out a window for probably 2 min but it felt like 2 hrs.

Cam Penner's Gypsy Summer is another absolutely wonderful record. 'Driftwood' might be my favourite Neil Young song not written and performed by Neil Young. 'It's gonna get worse before it gets better…'. That's a universal truth if there ever was one. He recorded it here in southern Alberta and you can kind of feel that in here. This is beautiful country, so I'm not surprised it inspired a beautiful album.

I heard Imaginary Cities on CBC3 at some point in 2011 and immediately bought the record. It's another nearly perfect pop album. This band and LIbrary Voices just decided to nail the pop song this year and write some great melodies, amazing hooks and keep it under 4 min 99% of the time. They're like Navy Seals, they're in, they're out and it's over before you even realize it, leaving double taps of pop shrapnel in our brains.

I should probably mention all the Attack in Black alums on the list as well. Shotgun Jimmie, Daniel Romano and Marine Dreams all released some stellar albums as well. Sleep Beneath the Willow feels like it sprang fully formed from the late 60s country. Two artists immediately spring to mind for me when i hear this record and that's Don Williams and Bobby Bare. The latter in particular. At one point I half expected to hear "(Margie's At) The Lincoln Park Inn". A stunning record. To turn a previously used comparative point, I'd say Shotgun Jimmie released one of my favourite Pavement albums not released by Pavement. Actually if it was a Pavement album it would be up there with Slanted & Enchanted. Marine Dreams released a minimal album that recalls something I've heard before but I can never really put my finger on completely. Is it old R.E.M.? No, that's not it. It's definitely feels from that early 80s college rock but that doesn't quite work either. I don't think it really matters actually. It's just good stuff.

Shuyler Jansen, Sunparlour Players & The Gertrudes. These three artists seem to straddle an area where Spoon meets My Morning Jacket, where power pop rubs elbows with country and folk. This is a fine area to be in.

And finally, 2011 also brought me a new Manvils EP with more on the way. The only thing that disappoints me about it is that since the boys moved to T.O., they won't be coming through town as much and thus will be able to see these songs get fleshed out in the Slice. I saw a couple of them played during their last swing through town and they were already great. 'Lions of a Lost Tongue' & 'Black Tornado' are a couple of my favourite rock & rolls songs of the year. Speak of the rawk, let's raise a glass for the motherfuckingly great Monster Truck. Let's all get as much as we can from Monster Truck before they get locked up for mass murder. No one who plays music like this can have much of a prefrontal cortex left. There's nothing inhibited, it's all out there. Also best song title of the year is hands down "Righteous Smoke".

Cheers to 2011.

30 Albums

LIbrary Voices - Summer of Lust
Cam Penner - Gypsy Summer
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Butch Walker - The Spade
The Strokes - Angles
Dirty Beaches - Badlands
Imaginary Cities - Temporary Resident
Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister
The Two Koreas - Science Island
Sloan - The Double Cross

Memphis - Here Comes a City
Arkells - Michigan Left
Marine Dreams - Marine Dreams
Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath The Window
Shuyler Jansen - Voice from the Lake
Sunparlour Players - Us Little Devils
The Gertrudes - Til the Morning Shows Her Face to Me
No Gold - No Gold
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
One Hundred Dollars - Songs of Man

American Babies - Flawed Logic
Little Foot Long Foot - Oh Hell
Wilco - The Whole Love
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
My Son The Hurricane - You Can't Do This
Drive By Truckers - Go Go Boots
The Luyas - Too Beautiful to Work
Yep - Once
The Darcys - The Darcys
Braids - Native Speaker


EPs

The Manvils - Black Tornado
Monster Truck The Brown EP
Mother's Children - Are You Tough Enough?

25 Canadian Songs from 2011 Plus Butch Walker & The Strokes

Why 25 songs by Canadian artists AND Butch Walker AND the Strokes? Because he's Butch Walker and he must be recognized for his unique genius, damnit!! And well the Strokes are just because. And while all the mixes I post I enjoy but this one in particular gels really, really nicely.

Summer of '89 - Butch Walker
(Baby You Ain't) Tough Enough - Mother's Children
Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes
Get In Or Get Out - Matters
Disco-Slave Songs - The Two Koreas
Good Day at the Races - Hollerado
Book Club - Arkells
Kill January - Shuyler Jansen
Apocalypse Pop Song - Memphis
Are You Gonna Waste My Time? - Zeus
Weird Week - No Gold
If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90s - Library Voices
Hummingbird - Imaginary Cities
Unkind - Sloan
Runner - Sunparlour Players
Driftwood - Cam Penner
Derby Girl - The Gertrudes
Ties That Bind - One Hundred Dollars
How Late How Long - The Sheepdogs
King of Kreuzberg - Shotgun Jimmie
We'll Get Her Back in Your Arms - Marine Dreams
Edmonton to Purgatory - The Darcys
Neko Case Hate Fucks Kurt Cobain - Little Foot Long Foot
Righteous Smoke - Monster Truck
Black Tornado - The Manvils
Sweet 17 - Dirty Beaches
Dr. Ruin-Yer-Life - King Khan Experience

Sweet 17 or 25

Sweet 17 because soon enough I'm going to be married for 17 years and am feeling sentimental about that. 25 because, I've got 25 songs to share and they're sort of sweet, I guess. Call it semi-sweet, better than baker's chocolate at least. But back to the 17 thing again. 17 has always been a very pleasant number for me. According to this numerology site (which I don't subscribe to but I always find it interesting how people can pull patterns) there is an incredible number of associations for the number 17 and it's variations (seriously, check it out. That was ONE number). Example, the ancient Greeks, 17 represents the number of consonants of the alphabet; it is divided in 9 (number of the dumb consonants) and in 8 (number of the semivowels or semi-consonants). These numbers were also in relation with the musical theory and the harmony of the spheres. Pretty cool, eh? And that's just the Greeks. For myself, I've always just liked the number. It felt harmonious. And also, who doesn't love the age of 17, Janis Ian excepted of course. The truth for a guy at 17 is that you can pretty much get away with anything and your constitution is superhuman. I can't speak of anything magical about the 17th marriage anniversary yet but then I've got weeks to go still.

But anyway the music, the semi-sweet 25 songs I gathered from the year 2011. It's kind of coherent, bunch of white folks playing guitars and drums (save for Dirty Beaches), but genre-wise it's a bit more varied, some indie pop-rock, some country-fried Stonesy rock & roll, and then some new wavey-inspired pop. More or less split into a side 1/side 2, so dump what you hate and keep what you love. There's a metaphor there I'm sure. Special props to The Two Koreas (track 17) for branding my new favourite subgenre name: Glacier Garage. Doesn't that sound cool, literally and figuratively? It even rolls off the tongue (17 muscles in the tongue, by the way) nicely. And Matters? Release the album already, the song is on repeat in my head constantly and it needs to be replaced.

25 from 2011

1. Stomp & Holler - Hayes Carll

2. Old Gin Road - Ponderosa

3. Kick Me Where It Hurts - The Booze

4. I Don't Get By - The Sheepdogs

5. Sunshine Love - Bing Ji Ling

6. The Rain Song - Yep

7. Time Spent in Los Angeles - D*wes

8. Alabama Pines - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

9. Cry Cry Cry - Nicole Atkins

10 Creep Me Out - Ruby Coast

11. I've Gotta Know - Sloan

12. King of Kreuzberg - Shotgun Jimmie

13. Tornado '87 - The Rural Alberta Advantage

14. Work - One Hudred Dollars

15. Holdin' Onto Black Metal - My Morning Jacket

16. Red Hunting Jacket - Little Scream

17. Disco Slave-Songs - The Two Koreas

18. Get In or Get Out - Matters

19. Baby Don't Dance - Mother Mother

20. Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes

21. I Want the Lights On After Dark - Memphis

22. Never Speak of It Again - The Holiday Crowd

23. Sad Song - The Cars'

24. Never Saw the Point - Cults

25. Sweet 17 - Dirty Beaches

The Last of the Unplucked Gems

This is something I've thought about putting together for awhile now. Let's face it, if you love the Tragically Hip and are looking to fix, you're grabbing Up to Here, Road Apples or Fully Completely. I'm not immune either, I've got every single album the band has put out along with a very healthy collection of boots and I still grab for one of those three because they're goddamn solid rock and roll and are also woven into the fabric of probably a thousand collective memories. Particularly those latter two albums; my god, if you were at a Canadian university in the early 90s those albums were inescapable, never mind just a few singles. And yes it is superbly great rock and roll, but lyrically how fucking odd that may of these songs became anthems? 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car' sure, when Gord is screaming 'LET ME OUUTTTTTTT', you're there with him, but it has always struck me as bizarre that '50 Mission Cap' also became one of the most beloved (and anthemic) songs. I mean, sure it's about hockey and, more specifically, the Leafs but still, when Gord just matter of factly lays out the song for you 'Bill Barilko disappeared, that summer..' and let's you know he stole the information from a hockey card, it's just great and everything that makes the Hip such a uniquely wonderful Canadian institution. They've also continued to put out some really great albums over nearly a quarter century. Sure some are better than others (no one really says 'hey, time for Trouble in the Henhouse!', not even me), but goddamnit, they have been consistently interesting, lyrically and musically, but for one reason or another, their rabid fanbase dropped off, pretty precipitously after Day for Night. I kind of considered this mix to be the first part in an Hip re-discovery for anyone interested (I'm also putting together a greatest songs you've never heard of post-Day for Night songs). I put together a mix recently of some lesser-known Hip tracks that I think are worth checking out, covering all of their albums. I kind of cheated on throwing 'Pigeon Cameras' on here, being that it's on Fully Completely it's still pretty well known, but I wanted to represent everything. I guess it's not really that surprisingly when you hear this because it tends toward low and mid-tempo moody introspection. Keep it for late at night and enjoy.

The Hip Low Mix

Impossibilium Day for Night

Coconut Cream Trouble at the Henhouse

Opiated Up to Here

Freak Turbulence Music@Work

Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park In Between Evolution

Chagrin Falls Phantom Power

Pigeon Camera Fully Completely

Rules Phantom Power

Pretend World Container

The Last Of The Unplucked Gems Road Apples

Scared Day for Night

Killing Time The Tragically Hip

Butts Wigglin Trouble at the Henhouse

Are We Family In Between Evolution

Toronto #4 Music@Work

Queen of the Furrows We Are The Same

The Dire Wolf In Violet Light

Stay Music@Work

Throwing Off Glass In Violet Light

World Container World Container