Stranger Than Paradise

The Top 20 of 2009 (with videos)

Physical State: chilly
Mental State: spacey
Music: Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains Passing By
Fashion sense: jeans, polar fleece

As is the custom on a lot of blogs, in magazines and in the newspapers this time of year, here are 20 releases that made a difference to me in 2009. I have included links to youtube videos for the standout tracks below to add another element to this year-end list (in no particular order). Enjoy!

01. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest - Two Weeks

The Brooklyn quartet signed to the mostly electronic label Warp are back again with an amazing follow-up to their spectacular Yellow House. Veckatimest builds on their previous experimentation with vocal pop structures, intricate and sophisticated instrumentation and the whole history of music it seems but much bigger this time. Beautiful musical swells and a unique vocal choruses made this an easy choice for the top 20, if not my album of the year.

02. Atlas Sound - Logos - Walkabout

The ringleader of Atlanta marvels Deerhunter, Bradford Cox may be one of the most prolific guys in indie-rock these days. His constant experimenting with kaleidoscopic sound collages, electro-acoustic melodies and voice layers ensures that Atlas Sound, his solo side project, continues his domination of the sub genre of space folk on experimental Chicago label Kranky. Walkabout with Noah Lennox of Animal Collective was easily one of the best tracks on the album.

03. Ohbijou - Beacons - New Years

The band that holds court at the centre of the Bellwoods indie-rock community blew up in a large way this year for me with Beacons. The sweet overlapping vocals of sisters Casey and Jenny Mecija, always the beating heart of Ohbijou, are now surrounded by incredible orchestrations and a band that seem to have finally hit their stride. We’ll be hearing from them come Polaris nomination time, my prediction.


04. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster - Cool Yourself

San Francisco by-way-of Washington DC songstress Thao Nguyen turns in her second album for the mighty Kill Rock Stars. As a trio now, Thao and The Get Down Stay Down boys have done a lot of touring with the success of their previous We Brave Bee Stings and All and that time spent together has paid off. This spirit of improvisation and performance has driven them into a totally different stratosphere in my opinion. True entertainers, in a live setting they were amazingly consistent and energetic.

05. Girls - Album - Laura

The San Francisco duo of Chris Owens and Chet White live in that neat area where Elvis Costello, Buddy Holly and The Rock*A*Teens could share a couple of drinks at the local smoky tavern. The greasy pop of Girls owes as much to Memphis, TN and Sun Records as it does to the rougher-hewn 45s of early Beach Boys and the immediacy of New York punks The Ramones.


06. Sonic Youth - The Eternal - Sacred Trickster

The godfathers of the New York no-wave/noise scene for 30 years are back once again with a new home Matador who seem to have given them carte-blanche. Not since Daydream Nation and Goo have they been this great in my opinion. Lee Renaldo faces off against Thurston Moore in guitar improvs while the thundering backbone of Steve Shelley’s drumming is always on point. A true return to ass-kicking form.

07. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs - Nothing To Hide

Anyone who knows me well knows there’s always a spot for Yo La Tengo in any year-end best of or desert island disc. The Hoboken, NJ trio just continue to set the bar high and have since the ’80s. Ira Kaplan has fully embraced the spacey organ à la Air and Stereolab pitted against bubblegum soul and straight-ahead rockers like this one Nothing To Hide. Their musical canon continues to be one of the most dynamic expressions in indie-rock.

08. The Thermals - Now We Can See - Now We Can See

Portland, Oregon’s power couple Hutch and Kathy, now on Kill Rock Stars, turned in one of the best of their career so far. Here they channel the classic sound of Pixies and Buzzcocks while Hutch continues to sound like a over-caffeinated John Darnielle.



09. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - s/t - Young Adult Friction

This NY quartet seemed to come out of nowhere to unleash one of the most dynamic debuts by an indie-pop band. Marrying the classic sounds of C86, Sarah Records and the jangle of The Smiths with a new slant on a poppy shoegazer sound straight out of a John Hughes movie (RIP John), they were easily a top choice.


10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career - French Navy

Tracey-Anne Campbell still has the bubblegum pop revival scene cornered along with her Scottish cohorts yet again this year. Their sweet melodies and melancholy orchestrations from the British 60s and Spector are out in full force this time out.



11. Friendly Fires - s/t - Photobooth

This St. Albans, UK trio were one of the funkiest dance-punk parties out there in music this year and this debut garnered them a spot on the coveted Mercury Prize shortlist. Photobooth was the single that started it all off as an ep before they recorded this very danceable full-length. Originally released in the UK in 2008, their debut this was re-released in North America this past summer with extra tracks.


12. The xx - xx - Crystalised

What were you doing at the age of 20? Picking up beers and getting blotto with your buds? Easing into university with no real purpose? Well this London quartet (now a trio) were hard at work recording a collection of dark moody indie-rock with smart beats that belies their young age. An interesting vocal trade off between Romi Madley Croft and Oliver Sim also made this debut quite remarkable to me.


13. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns - Pearl’s Dream

Natasha Khan grew by leaps and bounds on this sophomore release building on her layered mystical sound only hinted at before on the previous Fur and Gold. At times it felt like an interesting moody hybrid of Cat Power, Bjork and especially Kate Bush on this standout track on the album, Pearl’s Dream. Mercury prize winner?


14. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - People Got A Lotta Nerve

What can you say about Neko except that she has one of the greatest voices in rock and while she cut her teeth in alt-country in the early days, on Middle Cyclone she has transcended her humble beginnings to create a beautiful pop record. The dense production and complexity here from Neko in 2009 is some of her best work yet.


15. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels - Pulling On A Line

After many years Tony Dekker has finally reached the apex of his career with a solid backing band, a move to Nettwerk and a distinct vocal confidence after many live shows. Once a solo troubadour, he’s now the ringleader of a strong and dynamic ensemble of classic musicians that frame his sensitive and heartfelt songs.


16. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle - Jim Cain (live in-store solo performance, Used Kid Records)

Now dropping the Smog moniker Bill Callahan has moved from his simple sparse lo-fi of Julius Caesar to lush orchestrations and big production many albums later. The sound is epic now but at the heart there are still the trademarks that have made Bill one of my faves of all time: that dark baritone and incredible songwriting.

17. Timber Timbre - s/t - Demon Host

Taylor Kirk of Brooklin, ON sounds like he comes from the swamps of the Deep South or spooky Appalachia circa 1930. Alan Lomax would have liked to have met this guy. This was released in 2009, believe it, its true. This guy is way out there man!



18. The Antlers - Hospice - Kettering

This concept album from the inventive Brooklyn trio tells the “fictional” story of a man lamenting the slow decline of a partner to bone cancer. Pete Silberman wrote the album over a two year self-imposed exile. One of the most moving and poignant cds of the year.



19. Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind - Follow the Map

This epic instrumental album from Japan’s Mono is their most ambitious work ever. Teaming up with a 28 piece chamber orchestra and the skillful hand of Steve Albini, this was a beautiful film for the ears that I kept coming back to all the time.



20. Chihei Hatakeyama - Saunter - A Stone Inside The Box (no video)

I discovered this Japanese electroacoustic artist’s debut Minima Moralia earlier this year and greatly anticipated this follow-up. Built of layered and processed guitar, this might be the most beautiful organic ambient work on Kranky in years.

The Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast


The godfather of ambient, Brian Eno / a still from Kim Ki-Duk's "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring


Physical State: draggy
Mental State: cloudy
Music: Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast
Fashion sense: jeans, black Coachella concert t-shirt

I discovered this online ambient internet radio station which can also be accessed through i-tunes, called Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast. To say that this is a sleepy ambient station is an understatement but that's a good thing. The mandate of this website and station's founder is to provide a 24/7 instrumental broadcast of electronic ambient music with the intention of helping you sleep. There is also an extensive archive of information about ambient music as well at the site under the Ambience For The Masses link.

"The official radio service of Ambience for the Masses. Peaceful streaming audio featuring a random cycling of some of the most sleep-worthy tracks ever created. Live on-line sedation is available 24 / 7 / 365 and all without a doctor's prescription."

A lot of it is quite zen and at times like a soundtrack to an arctic landscape or something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But it is also great to listen to if you just want to have some interesting drones and long stretches of minimal electronic music to zone out to or while working on your computer. Brian Eno, not surprisingly, is well represented on the jukebox here, ditto Steve Roach, Harold Budd and others. There are no interruptions, no ads, no commentary...just an immersive ambient experience. The last "song" I listened to was 35 minutes of a background brook sound with 4 Tibetan singing bowls played periodically. Sometimes relaxing, other times moody and atmospheric but always meditative.

The strange case of the flashing Christmas angel ornament



Physical State: sleepy
Mental State: noggy
Music: No Love For Ned - Christmas 2005 compilation
Fashion sense: pajamas pants @ 4pm (whoo hoo!), grey sweatshirt

For many years my family would decorate our Christmas tree and we had one traditional angel that would go on the tree every year. This angel was on our family's tree before I was even born. Indeed as you can see from the pics above it is pretty ancient. I think it was made in the early 60s out of some toxic vinyl ha ha. Inside it has a lightbulb to light up the whole angel when you plug it in. You can also just simply have it on the tree without the internal illumination. Well after many years this historic ornament started doing something that was truly bizarre. When you plugged it in it was supposed to stay on but as long as I can remember growing up it didn't stay illuminated all the time. It would flash on and off, but not continuously. It flashed on and off in an intermittent pattern. One year my dad and I talked about how it resembled morse code because there were long stretches of illumination and then quick bursts. I have joked, somewhat darkly, many times over the years about how these were probably morse code signals from the dead. The more time goes by the more I think that this is a strange phenomenon that only someone like George Noory could explain on Coast To Coast AM. Sometimes it freaks me out. I have even sat for long stretches of time trying to see if there is a distinct repeating pattern and the flashes are ALWAYS random, combinations of "off" and "on" for long "dashes" and short "dots," all the time! This is one of those things that makes Christmas truly memorable in my family in an X-Files kinda way. Weird but cool.

The sad but sublime Polytechnique
(and the day I borrowed it)




Physical State: leaden
Mental State: foggy
Music: Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
Fashion sense: jeans, black t-shirt

This past Sunday I had been at the library looking up some books and ventured over to the dvd section to see if anything new was in. I ran across a dvd copy of a Quebecois film from earlier this year, the excellent Polytechnique. At the time of its release in the theatres it was quite a controversial film, even if the inspiration for it took place 20 years earlier. The film is a dramatization of the massacre of 14 young women in Montreal at the hands of a crazed misogynist in 1989. While deeply moving and sad, the film is also beautifully realized in black and white and quite poetic. It doesn't glorify Marc Lepine (identifying him simply as "the killer") or his madness, but presents the events from the perspective of two survivors, Valerie (the superb Karine Vanasse) and her fellow classmate Jean-Francois (Sébastien Huberdeau), both engineering students at L'Ecole Polytechnique. What struck me as truly bizarre is later on this week realizing that of all the movies I had to choose from I chose this one on that Sunday...December 6...the 20th anniversary of the massacre, weird. Polytechnique is a film that I think everyone should watch at least once if not more. Its message is an important one. A sobering memorial to those 14 young women. Villeneuve shot TWO versions of many of the scenes in the film, one in English and another in French (when will subtitled movies finally get some respect from English audiences huh?). The similarities between the two interpretations are seamless and a great testament to the acting skill of Vanasse and Sébastien Huberdeau. Maybe only a film nerd like me would watch both of the films back to back to compare.

I have to say by far Denis Villeneuve might be my favourite Quebecois filmmaker at the moment, matched only by Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.). Villeneuve's handful of films are incredible including Maelstrom, Cosmos and August 32nd on Earth. Canadian directors like Villeneuve are working in a very unique place that I would love to see represented more. To me Quebecois film has always been starkly European in its pacing and look. Karine Vanasse is also an exceptional actress in Polytechnique trumped only by her portrayal in Lea Pool's Emporte-Moi.

The Pocketology Project
One of the many reasons why I love Toronto.


"What has it got in its pocketses,
my precious?!!"

Physical State: COLD!Mental State: happy
Music: Girls - Album
Fashion sense: jeans, black long-sleeve shirt

I was meeting up with a friend for a Sunday afternoon beer at one of my old haunts in Parkdale, the sister to Mitzi's cafe, Mitz's Sister (which confusingly still has the sign out front facing west for the Tennessee Tavern). Next door to the Parkdale bar was a gallery/store that had an event going on this afternoon called "Pocketology." The art project played out like this. You go into the gallery space and are greeted by two "researchers" in lab coats, they sit you down and ask you to take an item out of your pocket and write a story about it. You write out this story and then you submit it to them in a coloured envelope of your choosing, from the table, which they then put up on a wall. In return you get to choose another envelope from the wall and get to keep someone else's story. My submitted story centred around my pack of Johnson & Johnson Stim-U-Dents in my pcoket (seen above) with some of these points below showing up in my story:

- I started carrying them over 10 years ago when quitting smoking
- they are good for gum health and recommended by dentists
- Bryan Ferry (ex-Roxy Music) said in an interview once that he was addicted to them
- I gave one to Canadian singer Sarah Harmer at a music fest in Yellowknife when I met her, and we compared notes about our love for them. Especially the mint-flavoured ones

These along with a few other points explained why I carry Stim-U-Dents in my pocket.

What a really cool idea. A chance to meet people in the community, to find out something unique about a stranger and also see what colours people love when they choose a random story envelope.

Here is the anonymous story that I chose from an "indigo blue" envelope:

Item in pocket: Mitzi's Sister receipt $53.20 (with $8 tip)

Message:

It was our first time eating at Mitzi's. We made the trek from the downtown core as I had read rave reviews on the kitsch atmosphere and delicious brunch. I always enjoy hanging out with my sister and girlfriends, my guests at breakfast. Good laughs, stories and overall a good start to a Sunday afternoon.

Pocketology is one of the many reasons I love Toronto. Such a cool idea and just another example of why this city is like nowhere else on earth. Be sure to check out the link below to find out more about this art project and their blog:

pocketstories.wordpress.com