Top 8 of 2008

Alrighty. It's the end of the year, so if I want to call myself a 'blogger', it's about time I submit the obligatory best albums of the year list. As I sit down to write this, I have NO idea what is about to pour out. I don't think I've listened to THAT many new releases this year. I meant to, but didn't really get around to it. For instance I still haven't listened to the new Mogwai record. Which is ridiculous. So, I'm not sure how exactly I will work this out....

While I'm thinking, I shall distract myself from the task for a little while longer and give you various other 2008 JB favourites lists to look over....

Best 8 Shows, 2008
1 - Leonard Cohen. May. Rebecca Cohn, Halifax (1st night). Best show of the year. and tied for my very favourite show ever. A-MAZING
2 - Neil Young. November. Metro Centre, Halifax. Wilco opened. prettay pretttayyy good. nay, great.
3 - Wintersleep. January. Phoenix, Toronto. Technically, they walked off stage at midnight Feb 1st, which made it Tim's birthday also. I've seen many a Wintersleep show, but they KILLED it this night like i'd never seen before. Runner up Wintersleep show(s): February. Cyclone, Tokyo.
4 - Daniel Lanois. October. Marquee, Halifax.
5 - Boxer The Horse. June. Baba's, Charlottetown. My first time seeing Boxer. I walked in hoping and praying that they were as good as I hoped they'd be. They were better.
6 - The Sadies. May. Marquee, Halifax. Ah, The Sadies. Just so good.
7 - Steve Poltz. July. The Carlton, Halifax. I wasn't even going to go to this night #3 of 3 show, but am I ever glad I did. this dude knows how to entertain. Go for the tunes, stay for the insane stories. including the one that goes with this: http://www.poltz.com/blognews/stevejewel23.jpg
8 - Inbreds. October. Marquee, Halifax. Inbreds. live.

There are a bunch of other good ones... Runners up include Black Keys at Summersonic, MMET at the q104 show and NG Jubilee, Boxer's first Seahorse show, Ryan Cook at NSMW, Hayden at the Metro Centre, David Myles CD release in the casino ballroom, Bloodsport and the Lodge on some wharf in the country, um... oh yeah, and Bob Dylan at the Metro Centre. i didn't really love that show, but I do love Dylan.

Best Trip of 2008.
Most definitely Japan.
"What are you going to do tonight?" "go to karaoke with you..."



Runner up: Junos in Calgary. Just because I liked being there to see the boys win. I jumped up and yelled with arms raised high in the air if I remember correctly. Then came lots of champaign and beer.

Favourite Songs of 2008.
These weren't all necessarily released this year, but they are likely the ones I've listened to the most this year. Or rather, 8 of the ones I've listened to the most this year.

1- Fleet Foxes - Mykonos. From the Sun Giant EP. So very good. see #12 on their myspace
2- Boxer The Horse - Rock n' Roll Band. Smart. catchy. cute. Just like the band. AND it's my ringtone. hear it on sonicbids.
3- The Replacements - Alex Chilton. Honestly, I've been on a HUGE Replacements kick in the past 6 months or so. I have all 8 albums on my ipod (or HAD.. now they are just on my iTunes as i managed to lose my ipod), and listen to 7 of them all of the time. I chose "Alex Chilton" here, but I could have also listed "Seen Your Video", "If Only You Were Lonely", "Buck Hill", "You Lose", "Can't Hardly Wait", "Anywhere's Better Than Here"... you get it. Love the 'Mats. everyone should listen to them WAY more.
4- MGMT - Electric Feel. My summer dance party song.
5-Neil Young - White Line. From Ragged Glory. An oldie but a real goodie.
6-Beyonce - Single Ladies. I became a little obessed with this song. I don't know how it happened, but I don't think I'm really over it yet.
7- Snailhouse - Salvation Army. mmmmm.
8- L'il Wayne - Got Money. I only just started listening to this two days ago. but i like it. i like it a lot.

Others: Black Mountain's "Stormy High", Mays' "Stand and Deliver" (it do), "Oh My Darling" by Basia Bulat, Superfriendz' "Come Clean", "Sometimes" by Lanois...

Best 8 Albums of 2008
1- Boxer The Horse - The Late Show EP (Like you didn't know I was going to say that...)
2- Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize (Love. love love)
3- Contrived - ___,___,___. (Contrived!)
**the other 5 in no particular order**
- The Roots - Rising Down
- Black Mountain - In The Future
- The Streets - Everything is Borrowed
- Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Mostly because i don't want to be the only blogger not picking this as a top record of the year. Just kidding. sort of. "White Winter Hymnal" makes it worth it.)
- Smothered In Hugs - The Healing Power of Injury

Others: Matt Mays & El Torpedo - Terminal Romance, Hayden - In Field & In Town, Lay Low - Farewell Good Night's Sleep (mellow and pretty), Portishead's Third...

Right on. Done. Happy Holidays!
JB

The Archives, Vol. 1

I wannit.

"Enough about us, let's talk about me..."

For the Lemonheads fans in the house... It's About Time:


And now for something completely different (for all the single ladies):

Monday, Nov. 24th

Bonus: Elvis Costello - Watching The Detectives (top of the pops)



Happy Monday...

Tell Me About Her

Image: Anne-Marie Proulx

"Images call to memory and imagination. Everyone will make a different interpretation, will imagine a different story. Tell me about her"

Artist Anne-Marie Proulx has an exhibition coming up in Montreal. Her artwork, drawings of women in various scenes and situations, will be accompanied by printed captions submitted (anonymously) by YOU. Check out her website, browse through the images by clicking on them, and if one strikes you, stop and input your thoughts about the woman or women you see. I submitted a few and found it to be a really fun project. Participate!

Image: Anne-Marie Proulx

Metaform

I just got an email from this guy. Sometimes I will admit that I am leery of checking out random artist sites that have been sent to my inbox, but the email was convincing and the back story was good, so I went to http://www.metaformonline.com/ and found the perfect mix of ambient / electro / hip hop tunes that I was craving on this dark rainy friday afternoon. they're fun but not too over the top. And not too much of one thing. But a lot of good things. "Sunday" has taken the lead as my favourite track. I recommend the click.

BONUS VID - Metaform Live in Japan:

Arkells Can Perform While Driving...

The Arkells = a band from Ontario. they are out on the road with Matt Mays & El Torpedo for MMETs cross country CD release tour. Dan Griffin is in the Arkells band. You KNOW how much i love Dan Griffin, right? well, i now love this video just as much. If you need something to make you smile, this is it:

Happy Halloween from Bruce S

Thanks to Matt Charlton for bringing this to my attention.

A much higher quality version can be found here:

"Jersey Devil"

10 x 10 Interviews

A few weeks ago Norwood Cheek called and asked me to do an interview to use in the 10x10 music video competition at the Atlantic Film Festival. I said ok. I was nervous though as i've never done an interview. He said it was ok, and that other people I knew around here would be participating also. So we went up to the studio and I talked for a bit...



Other pieces:

Tara:


Campbell:


Yo Rodeo:


Charles:


All! http://www.youtube.com/user/polavision

Good Week of Shows...

I had the pleasure of attending Daniel Lanois, The Inbreds and tonight, Boxer The Horse (TONIGHT - Oct 23 at Coconut Grove) all in the same week. How lucky am I? Tired, yes. But lucky also.

This post is really a ploy to remind you that Boxer is great and that you should go see them. 10pm. $8. Jian Ghomeshi called today. He's going to try and make it. So, if you like Jian, or Boxer, or coconuts or groves... come out!

The Coast's write up (one of 10 picks out of the 125 bands playing popex this year):
Boxer The Horse
Coconut Grove, (1567 Grafton), 10pm, $8
Four barely legal PEI boys, Boxer The Horse have been on a slope of success ever since their first demo CD sold out at a Battle of the Bands show put on for Quebec exchange students last summer at UPEI's campus pub. "The prize was beer, which we couldn't even accept," says drummer Andrew Woods. "It was one of the funnest shows we've ever played…it gave us the incentive to make a new CD so people from PEI could hear." Since then, they've opened for acts like Jason Collett, Dog Day, Two Hours Traffic and The Museum Pieces, to name a few. Working classic rock and folk influences in with an upbeat contemporary indie rock sound, it's not bad for a few young musicians playing together for under a year and a half. Woods claims much of the band's music is inspired by "characters, weird people on the street," and chats excitedly about strange encounters on a trip to Montreal he and guitarist Jeremy Gaudet took by bus this past summer. The band is enthusiastic about Charlottetown's music scene and plans to stick around. "There are some nights now when you're like, 'Oh, there are two
options!'" says Woods. (LK)

BONUS: More Lanois.

I've been waiting 14 YEARS to say....

...TONIGHT, I'M GOING TO AN INBREDS SHOW. The real inbreds! mike and dave at the marquee! i can hardly believe it myself. they play at midnight.
The best thing about having to wait the 14 years to see them play is that i'm now old enough to decide for myself that going out for a midnight show on a wednesday (a 'school' night) isn't going to stop me from going out. no matter what my mom might say. and i'm allowed to drink beer now. beer AND the inbreds. yay.

Sorry office, but you will be hearing me play all of my inbreds records very loudly for the rest of the day. the rest of you - catch up with some of these:

You Will Know:


Interview from 1995:


Amelia Earhart vid:


BONUS - A nice Oneill solo song:

Lala Lanois

On Saturday afternoon and evening I had the pleasure of attending two Daniel Lanois events. The first, an interview / question and answer session lead by our friend Bob Mersereau. The second, a live show at The Marquee.

It was during these two events on Saturday, between the hours of 5PM and 11:30PM that I became slightly obsessed with Daniel Lanois. I would marry him tomorrow if he so asked. I'll leave that there...

A fan-in-the-crowd video of the messenger. More for me than for you. 2 minute mark on is my favourite...

"I'm in love with that song"

How long has it been since you've listened to The Replacements' "Alex Chilton". An hour? A Day? A year? Never? ... no matter the answer, here's your chance to do it again (or for the first time). We all know the quality of you tube videos, so if you really want to do yourself a favour, do listen to your CD/ ipod / mp3/ tape / vinyl copy of Pleased To Meet Me really really loud. It's track 2, incase you lost the sleeve/case/digital track names. Happy Friday. And whether it be for the reminder or the introduction... you're welcome.

Best sound quality:


The video:


BONUS - P.W. Live:
"I Will Dare"


"Can't Hardly Wait"

Lay Low

There's a girl from Iceland who has a band called Lay Low. The new album "Farewell Good Night's Sleep" is so good. She's sometimes poppy sometimes folk sometimes country and sometimes that adorable kind of soundscapey weird / pretty that only true Icelanders can be. While the latter sound isn't really represented on her myspace, you can check her out at http://www.myspace.com/baralovisa. There is a nice cover of Dolly's "Jolene" there as well.

live - in a living room with the flu (so youtube says)


live - full band


older video

Vote Ryan Cook

Choose: Ryan Cook for 2008 Nova Scotia Music Week New Artsit of the Year. Love his country tunes, but really, the video below is reason enough.



Also: Vote for the next Hockey Night in Canada theme song. Guest stars on certain themes include members of Rush, The Hip and BNL.

AND: Vote for your next Prime Minister. The pickin's may be slim, but you should still take part.

Drive With Buck 65

Troy, our new Concerts guy, said he was on a drive with Buck 65 through the US and was more than happy to let Rich play DJ because he'd play great stuff. Now we all get to drive with him; every week day from 3 to 6 pm Atlantic on the new CBC Radio 2. He plays a lot of cool artists and tons of Canadian and Nova Scotian stuff. He plays rock and hip hop and soul and blues and folk tunes...and tells some good stories.

Listen online. Learn some new musical things. Dance, groove and / or rock out. Now we can all be cool like Troy...

APPRECIATION POST: Keep It Like A Secret

Built to Spill has released some good songs, true. but album-wise, I really believe that no complete work of theirs is stronger than this one, released in 1999. Pitchfork gave it a 9.3 which is probably the only thing that Pitchfork and I have ever agreed on. That's probably a higher rating than they give their moms and dads. or music in general. In fact, it's the same rating given to In Rainbows, so .... there you go.

It seems that until recently the band never made a video, so see below for another lovely 'video' of a song playing in the background while nothing interesting happens on the screen. While i do make fun, we should probably thank the creator of the 'video' below. without him / her, i'd have nothing to post.

"Carry The Zero"

I'm TOTALLY going to see neil young + cool youtube vid

Seems I haven't blogged since July. Oops. Fortunately I'm back with a piece of exciting personal news. after november i will be able to say that i've finally made it to a neil young show. so cool. even better - wilco is opening. wilco and neil young in one night in my own city. after also seeing leonard cohen, bob dylan and daniel lanois here in the same year. and people say no one ever comes to halifax...

as an apology for being away for so long, I present you with Wilco / Fleet Foxes covering "I Shall Be Released". i like it. yes i do.



And how about some Neil for good measure. And because i'm feeling lucky to be able to see him in 2 months. Don't Let It Bring You Down:

It's A Shame About Ray

I found this sitting on my CD shelf at work. It was exactly what I was looking for.



It's also a shame that early 90s johnny depp can't be in EVERY music video...

Horse, Foxes

The Boxer The Horse EP, The Late Show is now available at Zunior.com! The write up pretty much says it all:

"The new Sloan? The new Pavement? Boxer The Horse! - Tuesday 15 July, 2008
Okay, so we may be laying it on bit thick but we really like a new band from Canada's East Coast called Boxer The Horse. The new ep is like Pavement fronted by Bob Dylan with Jay Ferguson on tambourine. A great band that you can see for yourself right here on Zunior.tv. Their new EP is only $5.55 on Zunior."

I also really love this quote from a review on the Wolves, Hawks and Kites blog: "Simply put, with its six diverse tracks The Late Show exhibits more potential and vivacious know-how than most bands can fathom. " Not. Too. Shabby.

Other than just loving Boxer in general and spreading the good word where ever i go, i've also been listening to the Fleet Foxes Tunes on myspace. They're so pretty...