2006 Top Ten

It's been a good year. And now that I'm a music blogger, it's my god-given right, nay duty, to summarize it (musically speaking) in a good ol' top-ten list. Here goes...

2006 Best Albums

1. Hot Chip - The Warning
2. TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
3. The Knife - Silent Shout
4. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
5. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
6. Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
7. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
8. Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk*
9. Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
10. Danielson - Ships

*Just a week into the new year, I really have to add Grizzly Bear's Yellow Houses to this list. Probably at the expense of Ladyhawk. Sorry guys.

And just cause I can't resist, here are my favourite songs of the year.

1. Never Be Alone - Justice vs Simian
2. Over and Over - Hot Chip
3. We Share Our Mothers Health - The Knife
4. Playhouses - TV on the Radio
5. In The Morning - Junior Boys
6. The Greatest - Cat Power
7. Beng Beng - Gyptian
8. Waters of Nazareth - Justice
9. Lowlife - Scanners
10. All Fires - Swan Lake
11. Launch Yourself - Adem
12. Chillout Tent - The Hold Steady
13. Ross Ross Ross - Sebastian
14. My Love - Justin Timberlake
15. Funeral - Band of Horses
16. LDN - Lily Allen
17. Ghetto Story - Cham
18. Notorious - Turbulence
19. The Dugout - Ladyhawk
20. The Devil - The Rapture

"Big Money" Lexicon

I gotta up my boys Lexicon from LA. First of all, they're brothers. Second of all, they've been plugging away at this shit for like ten years. Third of all, their new ep, Rapstars, kills. It's the same sharp, funny rhymes we've come to expect, but they're riding over classic-rock, punk and even disco inspired beats. Good one.

"Big Money" Lexicon

"Over and Over" Hot Chip (video)

I've been hyping Hot Chip since I started this thing but I hadn't seen this video until today. It's pretty much the best music video ever. My eyes were laughing and cumming at the same time.

The Pixies on SNUB tv (1988)

YouTube sure is fun for music fans. Search Guided By Voices or Pavement or N.W.A. and see how many videos come back. Or The Pixies. Well, I've saved you the trouble of sifting through the hundreds of mediocre cel phone recordings of their 2003 show in Des Moines by posting this little jem. It's an appearance on a late-night BBC show called SNUB TV, circa 1988. They play Dead and I Bleed in promotion of their forth-coming album, Doolittle. And there's some funny interview footage with Kim trying to explain the name of the band.

"Rick Rubin (White Girl Lust Remix)" Spank Rock

White Girl Lust is the best band name ever. You know I'm right.

"Rick Rubin (White Girl Lust Remix)" Spank Rock

TV On The Radio on AOL Music

AOL is the best. They're repping indie-rock till they fuckin die. They just have to unplug the guitars so the soccer-moms can get the kids to the game in one peice. For real though, this is a very nice recording from AOL Music's "alternative" platform, The Interface. Brooklyn's finest play three acoustic (almost psychedelic...) pieces and then have an entertaining chat with a star-struck host.

TV On The Radio on The Interface

"Don't Be Shy" Spektrum

I thought I was transitioning out of my disco phase. But alas, all it takes is a sick-ass bassline and a hot girl with a gap in her teeth singing about getting a facial (not like a spa facial...) to pull me back in. Oh well... Get used to it, Hitler.

"Don't Be Shy" Spektrum

"Burning" The Whitest Boy Alive

Thanks Matty. Another melancholy rainy-dayer. With a beat. The Whitest Boy Alive is Erland Oye's (of Norway's Kings of Convenience) new band. Do you think Canada will ever be invited to become part of Scandinavia? We could really use some new friends.

"Burning" The Whitest Boy Alive

"Are You The One" The Presets

One of my favorite things about this whole internet music movement is the crazy amount of remixing going on. I played a party recently where I mixed four different versions of The Knife's "We Share Our Mother's Health" together. How fun. Perhaps it's a phase but I don't think so. It's almost like there's no such thing as a finished product anymore. Everything is a work in progress, zipping back and forth as ones and zeros, evolving though time and space. To illustrate my point, I'll enlist the help of Sydney duo The Presets who have been at the centre of a flurry of re-edits. Their song "Are You The One" is a certified party starter. But why stop there? Throw a james-murphy-disco-beat underneath it. Or strip the drums right down to the raw hi-hat and kick and see if it still moves asses. It's like lego, except you can get laid doing it.

"Are You The One" The Presets

"Are You The One (club edit)" The Presets

"Are You The One (Van She NYC Tech Mix)" The Presets

"Are You The One (Simian Moblie Disco Remix)" The Presets

"Lazy Eye" Silversun Pickups

Here's a good one for a rainy vancouver afternoon. LA's Silversun Pickups have been described as a "90's revivalist" band (when is this shit gonna stop?) I guess because they sound a little like the Smashing Pumpkins. Yeah, and the Smashing Pumpkins didn't sound like anybody. Jerks.


"Lazy Eye" Silversun Pickups

Hornby Island

I'm on the enchanted island of Hornby (which the Haida refused to settle on because it was sacred but the white man had zero problem settling on)doing a music/writing session with my brother, Ty. So, sorry for no new posts. I'm a little obsessed with this old Cat Power song though, if you're interested. I'm also a little obsessed with the old, damaged, boozed-up Cat Power. She was so...bloated.

PS There was for real a rainbow over hornby on the fairy ride in. Good omen?

"Drop It Like It's Hot (DatA remix)" Snoop Dogg

Shameless, I know. But people dance to this thing like a thing that people really like to dance to. At first they humour it because they know the Snoop song and it's almost been long enough to like it again. But by the three-minute mark, they've never heard of Snoop or The Neptunes or rap music; they can't even remember their own name. All they know is that those bleeping, popping, whining synths and that boner-inducing bass-line sound better than Phillip Glass on acid. (you're on acid, not Phillip Glass) I'd like to learn more about DatA, but try googling them and you'll see how difficult that is.

"Drop It Like It's Hot (DatA remix)" Snoop Dogg

"Whites Only Party" The Dears

The Dears are finally getting fawned over like they deserve to be. No Cities Left got a little lost in the shadow of a record called Funeral by another Montreal band who's name I forget. But their new album, Gang of Losers, is topping college charts and LastFM lists the world over. They just released this clever little video for the second single, Whites Only Party.

"Whites Only Party" The Dears

"I Wanna Bite Ya" & "Bolton Wanderer" Planningtorock

Two Planningtorock posts in a row. What can I say? The spell is cast. Janine Rostron is a Berlin-based musician/ performance/video artist, with what can safely be describe as a singular vision. Like Bjork (or her hubbie Matthew Barney) her focus is on self-portraiture, twisting her body and voice into bizarre and uncomfortable positions to see where they break. She makes videos for most of her songs, which seem less like promotional tools than missing puzzle pieces. I highly recommend youtubing her when you've got about half an hour to kill. And here are a couple of tracks from her debut LP, Have It All.

"I Wanna Bite Ya" Planningtorock
"Bolton Wanderer" Planningtorock

"Heartbeats (planningtorock remix)" The Knife

The Knife are fascinating. Brother and sister duo from Stockholm, they've built quite a mythology though their reluctance to play live, their firm anti-corporate stance and their masked press photos. None of which would matter if their music wasn't brilliant; sprawling clickety dance beats, thick bass, insidious melodies and those angry/hopeful/scandinavian voices. A lot of people have had a go at this song. You may be familiar with Jose Gonzalez's simonandgarfunkeled cover which is better than warm milk for insomnia. Planningtorock (the new bjork, but british) gets all stringy and spacious on this remix. I'm amazed at how malleable The Knife's vocal melodies are. It seems like you can recast their songs in almost any key and it fits perfectly. Weird.

"Heartbeats (planningtorock remix)" The Knife

Here's a bonus link to a demo version of their latest single...

"Like A Pen (demo version)" The Knife

Justice Minimix

Admittedly, I’m a little bit obsessed with Ed Banger Records out of Paris. Especially Justice. I’ve been playing a lot of them at parties lately. About 15 people go nuts while the rest of the floor dances politely, waiting for me to play another Bloc Party remix. I don’t know about this DJ stuff. Here’s a nice little minimix of Justice material.

Justice Minimix

"Chips Ahoy" The Hold Steady

To celebrate the release of The Hold Steady's new album, Boys & Girls In America, here's the first single, "Chips Ahoy." I haven't heard the whole album yet but if the critics are to be believed, it's better than Dark Side of the Moon, OK Computer and Pet Sounds put together.

"Chips Ahoy" The Hold Steady

Also, I was pleased to find a free download of this instant classic from their last album on their website. Thanks guys.

"Your Little Hoodrat Friend" The Hold Steady

"Launch Yourself" Adem

Fridge was these two guys who started making interesting experimental (post-rock?) music in the late 90's when they were super young. They were very pretty and spacious and unpredictable and challenging, like Tortoise on valuum. When they broke up, one of the guys went on to become Four Tet, the brooding, chain-smoking, increasingly pretentious laptop star. I always wondered what happened to the other guy; the guy who didn't go on to become Four Tet. Well, it turns out, that guy (Adem Ilhan) went on to become Adem. This video is so up my alley I kinda want to strangle him. Great song.

"Launch Yourself" Adem

And if you like that, Hot Chip did a fun crazy little fun remix. Those guys...

"Launch Yourself (Hot Chip Remix)" Adem

"All Fires" Swan Lake

All fires have to burn alive. Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves that fire possesses 8 of the 9 characteristics of a living thing. But who's counting. Three of our most treasured countrymen and freak-out singers, Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes), have gone and cut theyselves an album under the name Swan Lake. It doesn't come out till the fall (on Jagjaguwar, who seem to own Vancouver now), but they released a sneak-peak to get the hype-machine warmed up. If this song's any indication, the cd will be a good one to break up with your girlfriend to. November 21st. Plan accordingly.

"All Fires" Swan Lake

Mad Decent Radio Podcast

Mad Decent is (hot shit Philly-based DJ) Diplo's label. He's been releasing these excellent podcasts for about a year. They're mostly just short little mixtapes with 6-8 songs on them but his taste is so diverse that you never know what you're gonna get. He breathes new life into R&B, Dirty-South, UK Grime, and Dancehall bangers while single-handedly hyping obscure sub-genres like "Baltimore Club" and the Brazilian ghetto music, "Baile Funk" to the Pitchfork crowd. You can subscribe to the free podcast here, download or stream them from the website, or hit the link below to hear my favourite episode, New Orleans Ain't Dead, Its Just Got a Limp. It's a mix of current New Orleans music and clips of the musicians talking about the state of the city after Katrina.

Mad Decent Worldwide Radio #5