Best of '09 part 3/2

Er, yeah. Just wanted to rap 'bout some of my favourite live moments from '09, which I had originally intended to do as part of my previous post(s). Oh well!

HANDS DOWN BEST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR/MY LIFE AWARD

All Tomorrow's Parties 2009 - Kutsher's, Monticello, New York

All in all, it was one of those events, one of those eye-opening, not-life-changing-but-certainly-uh-really-great experiences. Really, it was a bit of a dream come true: 3 days in New York (and actually only my second time out of this country), staying at a hotel with an absurdly fantastic line-up of artists, playing music all-day (hats off to Oneida, who holed up in the bar the last day of the festival and literally jammed all day). Boredoms, Suicide, Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, Melvins, Boris, Shellac, Circulatory System, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Feelies, Dirty Three, Grouper, Bob Mould with No Age, The Jesus Lizard, David Cross... it feels surreal just typing the [incomplete] list, but seriously... just, holy shit. I also left early on Monday morning, having bought bus tickets for the evening, so I could spend the day in New York City. Being the complete dork that I am I did spend half of it record shopping, but caught the essential sites by and large. Can't wait to do it again.

Highlight: My girlfriend asking Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient, and the owner of Hosptial Records, hands-down the best (er, only) store I've ever been to for noise/drone/whatever stuff - check it out if you're ever in the city) if he knew of any good ice cream places nearby, a question which he answered thoughtfully and politely, instead of screaming distorted S&M mantras at us like I had braced myself for.


BEST VALUE AWARD

Broken Social Scene - Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

Broken Social Scene is infinitely kind to their hometown. Last time I saw them in Toronto (the November previous to this show), they played for two-and-a-half hours, and the whole gang was there, even Emily Haines. And for some reasons, Brock Isaac from Modest Mouse was there too, and played a couple of his songs with the whole BSS crew backing him up. So how on Earth do you top that? How's abouts a free, outdoor show right on the lakeshore? And how about playing for two hours, bringing in literally every BSS collaborator (including the oft-absent Feist and filming the show for an upcoming movie? Hot damn!

Highlight: The all-too-rare performance of "Almost Crimes".



"OH MY GOD, IT'S REALLY THEM" AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD OF APPEASING MY FANBOYISM

SONIC YOUTH - Massey Hall, Toronto

I want to call Sonic Youth the most "solid" band I listen to, but "solid" carries with it impressions of overwhelming adequacy - I mean "solid" in the unwavering sense, like an old friend or favourite nightstand ("favourite nightstand"...?). Really, I can't flat-out say I "hate" any particular Sonic Outing: their occasionally ill-recieved early albums are incredible, Daydream Nation is one of very few records I dare call "perfect" (or, if you had talked to me in the month leading up to the show, "best fucking record ever goddamn recorded, motherfucker! SCREAMING SONIC LUV!"), their "pop" records are damn catchy and I think, in all seriousness and earnestly not just to be contrary to popular opinion and revel in my own fandom, NYC Ghosts & Flowers is a really great record (really). Ok, maybe The Eternal was just "solid" in the accepted meaning of the word ("Antenna" is grand, though), but they killed it live.

Sonic Highlight: "Death Valley '69". THEY DID "DEATH VALLEY '69".



DOUCHIEST AUDIENCE

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Sound Academy, Toronto

One part "recent superstardom", one part "inappropriate opening act", and one part "shitty venue" all came together into one decidedly unenjoyable mess of an evening, explained as follows:

Part one: I'm not going to be one of those "they suck since they got famous derp derp" asshats, it just so happens that Animal Collective changed as they got famous. Compare Merriweather Post Pavilion to Feels. Now imagine which would be more exciting live. The dancefloor-friendly anthems on MPP would probably be the obvious choice, but fact of the matter is that watching three young men fiddle with synthesizers for an hour isn't all that thrilling, and for some strange reason people only really got into the groove during "My Girls" and "Brother Sport", if "got into the groove" is taken as "spilled beer and stumbled in rhythm, sort of".

Part two: I like Grouper, I really do. I'd love to see her play in, say, a church or gallery, somewhere where the audience can sit and enjoy the atmospheric reverb-folk properly. Grouper should not be opening to a crowd with beer and "My Girls" and the inability to muster up the respect not to boo.

Part three: The Sound Academy is just the worst venue in the city, period. Nigh inaccessible without a car and stupidly laid out (if you're in the front row, it will literally take you 10-15 minutes to get out of the place). Blah.


OTHER RAD SHOWS OF 2009


THE HAPPINESS PROJECT - The Music Gallery, Toronto
Warm-and-fuzzy music by hyper-friendly musicians, at one of the more intimate and well run venues in the city.

MV+EE with WOODS - Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto
Tiny space, tiny audience, but loud as hell and an all-around hippie-friendly, space-folky good time.

"TALES OF THE UNCANNY" - Yonge & Dundas Square, Toronto
Do Make Say Think, Final Fantasy and Robert Lippok joined forces to play a soundtrack to a silent horror film at a free outdoor show in the heart of downtown Toronto. Amazing, in concept and in execution.

FUCKED UP with WOMEN and VIVIAN GIRLS - The Phoenix, Toronto
Look, just go see Fucked Up if you ever get the chance, ok?


Ok, done reflecting - future ho!

BEST O' OH-NINE

Severely delayed, yes, I know, but life, as it is, tends to get in the way, so the holidays combined with various personal detours on the road to the grave bumped "blogging" down on my list of priorities just a smidge. But hey, new year, new attitude, GO TEAM.

So let's just get this out of the way:
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem



Thank you, Phil Elverum, for giving me one of the only albums this year to immediately give me that warm, fuzzy feeling right from the outset that says "Calvin, you're going to live this." Wind's Poem had me at its buzzsaw 'hello' with "Wind's Dark Poem", took my hand and dragged me into its dense foggy flaming forest home. An absolutely blissful union of black metal aesthetic with folk sensibility, it's the dirty little crossover that Elverum's been flirting with for a while and finally decided to embrace, with really stunning results.

(Side note: what is it with sensitive folk musicians and their black metal? Owen Pallett rockin' a Mayhem shirt, John Darnielle's oft-mentioned love of metal, and one of my favourite local artists, Wyrd Visions, who is quite literally plays acousitc black metal (and even did a cover of "Freezing Moon".)

So yeah, there it is, my album of the year. You can sleep tight now. Unless you wanted to see something else in the ol' top-slot, in which case, maybe some honourable mentions will sate your lust:

LIGHTNING BOLT - Earthly Delights



"Skull-fuckingly heavy" feels like a bit of an understatment when talking about
Earthly Delights, but severed head gangbang lead-ski biathalon borders on silly. This one really took me by surprise, and could very well be my new favourite Lightning Bolt album. Crushingly focused and engagingly experimental, it's really an exhausting listen, but ridiculously satisfying. I fucking dare you to not bang your head when the drums come in on "Colossus".

Lightning Bolt - Colossus

NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS - Shadow Kingdom



Yeah, ok, the cover is fairly hideous, and yeah, I'm a complete Natural Snow Buildings fanboy, but fuck, this is good, ok? Ok. Triple LP, double CD, comic-book... this thing is massive (and boy, was it priced accordingly). Maybe even a bit too big for its own good, but when the drones are as completely engulfing as these (see: "The Fall of Shadow Kingdom"), length is a bit of a moot point. Maybe not the best starting point for new fans, maybe not enough new to satisfy the grumpy old ones, but it's still an undeniably solid slab of thoughtful and charming (yeah, charming. Read the back of the comic, or listen to an interview with the band. Charming!) maelstorms.

RICHARD YOUNGS - Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits



I've already talked a length about how swell this album is, and whaddaya know, it survived the year and made it onto this list. Unfortunately released with a total pressing of less than 300, this is Youngs at his most overtly catchy and pop-oriented. Synth-heavy, layer-heavy, but positively skyward melodies. A depature, really, but which new Richard Youngs album isn't one?

LINK REMOVED. (but on the plus side, this is getting re-released!)

Part 2 coming much sooner than this part took to get here.

Kram Ran

I'm not patriotic in any sense of the word. As Bill Hicks once said, "my parents just fucked here, that's about all." But nonetheless, I can't help but be proud when two parents fuck in my country and produce some legitimately exciting musicians, the latest of which I've been introduced to is Kram Ran.

Hailing from Winnipeg (a city fondly reflected upon by many in the Canadian music scene), Kram Ran is a one-man affair culling influences from... well, shit, everyone according to his Last.fm page: "A Silver Mt Zion, The Robot Ate Me, The Microphones, Radiohead, Xiu Xiu, Tim Hecker". Which isn't entirely inaccurate, really. The beginning of "A Death & Kill" tricks you into thinking that Silver Mt Zion influence is at the start of the list for a reason, before segueing into a jumpy piano riff and positively manic vocals calling to mind Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart quite handily. Kram Ran seems to channel Xiu Xiu fairly often, actually: "To Dance With Your Dear Dread" opens with a searing wall of keyboard destruction and the buried, desperate vocals and, later, "And Once Upon a Time" recalls a certain singer's quiet, barely-in-tune whimper; it also reminds me of the brilliantly naive vocals on Our Brother The Native's latest, if that's a point of reference for anyone of you (and if not, get the newest Our Brother The Native, goddammit). But hell, the comparisons are started to piss me off, so I imagine anyone associated with the Kram Ran camp was tired of it since I brought it up.

What probably wasn't clear in that last paragraph is that this actually, truly is an excitingly original EP. I'm not going to go into detail because I really want you folks to hear this yourselves, but definitely grab this thing; it's free, and completely worth your time. With equal parts fraught desperation and contemplative crooning (check out "Kill Then Give" for a good mix of both; the falsetto breaks halfway in give me the shivers, I tells ya), and, appropriately, a lush blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, A Brief Affair of Limping and Gathering of Clipped Wings is one of my favourite home-grown EPs of the year.




Download the whole thing and/or buy yourself a copy here (only $5)

You’re either crazy or dead, you just weren’t well bred.

Curious circumstances tend to breed curious albums, and generally the results are charming, unique, and can give an added layer of distinction to an already great album. Take, for instance, Ariel Pink beat boxing the drums on The Doldrums, or With Throats As Fine As Needles holing up in an abandoned bunker to record their self-titled album. Not that these quirks can save a bad album, but it’s always an added pseudo-sentimental bonus in an age of Pro Tools and recording budgets that could drag a third world country out of debt.

What is so remarkable about Our Brother The Native is their youth: releasing their 2006 debut on FatCat Records at the ages of 16 and 18 is incredibly impressive, and makes this now-trio either almost or barely 20, barring any sort of time machine-related accidents. What is equally remarkable is the rate of maturity and refinement of their sound, which results in Sacred Psalms being an early contender for one of the albums of the year.



Immediately clear from the opening “Well Bred” is the impeccable production: there is no studio-based “fullness”, but rather an entirely organic feeling lushness about the whole record; in fact, “lush” (in the “pleasantly full-bodied” sense of the word, not the colloquial bastardization) is probably the best adjective to encapsulate the feel of the album. Perpetually layered (and yet somewhat subdued) vocals and organ drones form the basis for stuttering acoustic percussion and all matter of idiophones and stringed instruments including guitar, banjo, mandolin and probably more and probably some I identified incorrectly and probably instruments I’ve never heard of. All ten tracks are positively flourishing with this feel, this cherry-blossoms-and-sunset sort of colourful je ne sais quoi, this mood which I’m going to stop wasting adjectives on because it’s meant to be experienced and not talked about.

Also set forth in the opener are the clumsy, though frequently lovely and often clever, lyrics. And “clumsy” is not meant here as an insult, but in the sense that they weren’t penned for metre or rhyme, but to fit with the song (or vice versa?). Though as odd as the chorus of “Ph. D, BA, I am your doctor, so listen to what I say” may seem, Our Brother The Native make it as restrainedly catchy as their timid vocals will allow. The rest of the hooks in the album are omnipresent, no doubt, but require some work on part of the listener; Sacred Psalms is a textbook “grower”, with each additional listen revealing some eccentric chorus buried so deep it takes five listens to uncover.



If there is any critique to be brought against the album it’s that this all-pervading feeling is truly all-pervading, with most every song having the same super-layered, faux-catchy vibe. Tracks that break this mould are unsurprisingly the standouts: the sample-focused, reverb-drenched “Dusk” brings to mind a lost Set Fire To Flames track, while “Sores” brings its chorus to the forefront and serves as one of the more immediately memorable numbers.

That being said, the quality of the album is such that any feelings of repetition are quickly pushed aside by feelings of “well hot damn, this is a fantastic record!”. At this rate, I’m impossibly excited to hear what Our Brother The Native will be doing five years from now, and quite honestly, a little scared about how brilliant another morsel of maturity could make their next album. Until then, we have Sacred Psalms, and we have one of the year’s best.

Our Brother the Native - Well Bred
Our Brother the Native - Someday
Our Brother the Native - Sores

As always, buy what you like. Pick it up here if you're in North America, or click here if you're across the pond.