A bunch of records

I think 2005 was a great year for music. Narrowing a list down to a Top 10 would be too much of a chore, so I'm going to make you do all the hard work by wading through all this blather about the tidal wave of cool sounds I submerged in this year ...


Black Mountain at Babylon

To start things off, 2005 was definitely one of the best years for music in Canada in a very long time. I liked critical faves Wolf Parade'’s Apologies To The Queen Mary and The New Pornographers'’ Twin Cinema, but my ears were more attuned to another West Coast crew, Black Mountain. They put on a storming show of drugified psyche at Babylon; the band's self-titled debut deserves all the plaudits aimed in its direction.


Martha Wainright at Ottawa Bluesfest 2005

I just noticed my Top 10 list for pennyblackmusic.com leans heavily toward Canadian women in music: Toronto's Jeen O'Brien released a killer album of fuzzy alt-rock, The Sixties. Super melodies, and I find Miss O'Brien's cat-cry singing most appealing. I wish I could have caught her gig at Irene's, but alas it was on the same night as the equally hot Kiss Me Deadly. My favourite discovery of the year was the debut from Vancouver's Blackavar, which I bought purely on a whim due to its release on the Transsiberian label. The self-titled album is only about 23 minutes long and is primarily the work of singer Laura Cartwright. She's been compared to Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and Nico - the music is minimalist narco-folk. Martha Wainwright's self-titled long-player and follow-up EP I Will Internalize also struck me with their visceral emotional punch and 1970s singer-songwriter sonics. Wainwright and Co. also put on a fine live show at Bluesfest.


Parades Against Parades at Club SAW

On a somewhat smaller scale, four lads from Saskatoon, Parades Against Parades, wowed me with their live show; their self-produced CD There's No Riot Like A Tonality Riot is also excellent. Elevator continued its winning ways with August, and if that wasn't enough frontman Rick White released a lovely solo album too. Elliott Brood spread a little goodwill with Ambassador, The High Dials made a major leap on their second album under that name, War of the Wakening Phantoms. Other Canadians rocked me in a major way with their fabulous live shows were The Hot Springs and Malajube at Club SAW; The Maynards at Irene's, White Cowbell Oklahoma at Barrymore's, Bloodshot Bill at The Dom, Whitey Houston, Demon Claws, Magneta Lane, Shikasta (yes, I know pointing out Shikasta put on a good show is like observing that Mt. Everest is a big mountain ...) and The Nymphets. Most of these folks have discs worthy of your attention as well.


Motorhead at Capital Music Hall

There was also some killer heavy music. My favourite metal moment of the year wasn't on disc. After years of idolizing Motorhead from afar, I finally got to see them live when the band crushed all opposition at Capital Music Hall. (Opening act Priestess is no slouch on disc and live, either.) As far as recorded music goes, Sunn 0))) has been scouring my eardreams for a few years now, and their latest, Black One, may be their best yet. If a howling Arctic wasteland could play guitar, it would sound like this album. The original Sunn-y boys Earth came back with Hex, where they twisted their heaviness into strange new forms ... have they been listening to Calexico albums or something? High on Fire's Blessed Black Wings was another high-volume stunner. I think my ears are still ringing from their show with Voivod (RIP Piggy) at Babylon a couple of years back. Reverend Bizarre's In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend is also a real crusher.


Sunburned Hand of The Man at the Avant-Garde Bar

This was a pretty good year for psychedelic records, with Gris Gris releasing a solid sophomore album, For The Season; the band's live show at Babylon was one of the year's best (shame they didn't repeat the feat). Dead Meadow smoothly integrateded a new member on Feathers. Italy's Jennifer Gentle mined similar psyche-pop meets Sabbath territory on Valende. The Acid Mothers Temple crew was also revitalized by their transformation into AMT and the Cosmic Inferno. I give Anthem of The Space as being marginally superior to Iao Chant. By now there are probably a bunch of other AMT&TCI releases to peruse ... in a few years I'll stop cursing the day I learned they wouldn't be playing Ottawa due to a tour cancellation. Also from Japan, Marble Sheep are led by Ken Matsutani, who was in White Heaven before Michio Kurihara. Where Michio was listening to Quicksilver Messenger Servie, Ken was mainlining Blue Cheer ... at least that's the impression you get from Gate of the Heavenly Body. I also recently grabbed a copy of the Marble Sheep's collaboration with Circle Triangle Square (that's not actually their name, which is a circle, a triangle and a square, but I can't do symbols, so I'm just calling 'em CTS), a dozen strong band of trance-folkies. Needless to say, Marble Sheep Meets CTS is one mind-expanding work ... it's like a Japanese Savage Resurrection working with The Incredible String Band. Sonic Prayer from psyche heavyweights Earthless didn't do much for me initially, but has proven to be a real grower. Similarly, Devendra Banhart's first album didn't impress me, but Cripple Crow pushed me to take a second listen. Sunburned Hand of The Man put on an amazing show at The Avant-Garde Bar; No Magic Man was my favourite of the three albums I bought from them afterward. Fursaxa put on a tantalizing show at the AvGab; I got her Mandrake in vinyl and have spun it many a time since; her Lepidoptera is on my discs-to-buy list and has received wide praise. The twisted villagers who make up Major Stars produced album No. 4, which they cleverly titled 4. And how 'bout them Finns? I bought three Circle albums this year, Forest, Empire and Tulikoira ... I marginally prefer the first; Lau Nau's Kuutarha is as freaky as freak-folk comes. Six Organs of Admittance's School of the Flower reaffirmed Ben Chasny's wonderful gift for psychedelic folk that travels way off the beaten path. He also released a CD along with Hiroyukui "L" Usui who served in both Fushitsusha and Ghost.


The Banditas at Irene's

Locally, we had a slew of excellent CDs. The Banditas' debut was probably the most eagerly awaited, and props to Last Drag's Neal Johnstone for finally getting the trio to lay down its energetic exhortations onto CD and vinyl. The Double Pumpers followed their fine debut with the even better II. Golden Famile also kicked things up a notch for album No. 3 - Nobody Loves a Growler - by recording at Montreal's Hotel2Tango. Clark the Band made it easy to get lost in The Woods; local expatriate Charlie Brooks released two albums as Carlangas. Both Blues and the Ivory Breast and The Judgment of a Throne are superb. Black Boot Trio returned from a decade layoff as sharp as ever with Eternal Return. The Fiftymen's Balances + Sums looked death in the face and did not blink. The Flaps released their debut - swell as expected; as did The Empiricals, who went to the wall on their own debut. The Hilotrons packed a bunch of good stuff into Bella Simone. The Polytones, As The Poets Affirm and For The Mathematics also grabbed my lugholes.


River City Tanlines at The Dominion Tavern

Let's talk rock, shall we? My second favourite city for music, Memphis, produced its usual high dosage of cool rock this year. After seeing the River City Tanlines at The Dom I had to pick up both that band's All 7 Inches Plus 2 More and frontwoman Alicja Trout's mostly solo album as Black Sunday, Tronic Blanc. The Family Oblivian worked overtime, with Jack-O and The Tearjerkers Don't Throw Your Love Away and Reigning Sound's Home For Orphans once again getting greasy rock all over my CD player. Other charged up rock'n'rollers who wormed their way into my heart despite not being from Memphis were The Heartless Bastards with Stairs and Elevators and The Bassholes' with a self-titled album on Dead Canary. The Hellacopters declared Rock'n'Roll is Dead, then proceed to prove otherwise by getting in touch with their inner Chuck Berry. Speaking of Scandinavia, not only did Motorpsycho make it possible for us po' folk get a copy of The Tussler without auctioning a kidney on eBay, they released one of their finest albums as The International Tussler Society. Dungen records, of which Ta Det Lungt is pre-eminent, keep trickling out in various forms over here, and I for one am glad. The Drones from Australia had two noteworthy releases; the first was their new album, the amazing Wait Long By the River ... and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (on ATP) the second was The Miller's Daughter (on Bang!) an odds'n'ends compilation that rounds up a few single tracks and unused stuff from album studio sessions. The Basques of Bang! obviously dig Australia, because the label also released two Brian Henry Hooper albums. As The Voyeurs he sounds quite a bit like old mate Kim Salmon; on his solo album, Lemon Lime & Bitter, he edges a little closer to Steve Wynn territory. Hooper also shows up on the booze-snorting live reunion document from The Beasts of Bourbon, Low Life.


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Still on the international front, New York's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah received such a mountain of praise from infamous music site Pitchfork, I decided to check them out when they came to town for a sold-out show at Zaphod's to see what could inspire such adulation. They put on a pretty good show (though they were overwhelmed by openers The Hilotrons), and that CD is actually very good. I won a double handful of CDs at The Birdman Sound festive party last week, among them another New York band's latest, Parker and Lily's The Low Lows. It's their breakup album, I hear, and it's a wonderfully hazy slice of dream pop. After Blackavar, my favourite discovery of the year was The Wedding Present - yes, I know they've been around for almost two decades, and I'm sure I heard them back when I was listening to college rock faves like The Smiths and The Trash Can Sinatras, but I managed to avoid actually buying one of their albums until this year when David Gedge and Co. made a comeback with Take Fountain. Another band I looked into when I was in my Britpop phase was The Longpigs, whose Richard Hawley has embarked on a much more interesting solo career. His 2005 release Cole's Corner has that fever dream crooner quality of Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Other Brits catching my ear were long-time faves Supergrass on Road to Rouen and The Clientele with Strange Geometry. I also got around to getting a copy of The Bees' Free The Bees which I like to an improbable degree. Neatly snagging the title of "Niftiest Release of the Year" is Maggi, Pierce and E.J.'s Silver album. It's been divided into three CDs; normally that would be a pretty lame conceit, but Silver actually justifies it by being both very good and separating the CDs according to style. The first, Morgen, is folky; the second, Mittag, is more alternative pop and psyche; the third, Nacht, features more hard rock and country.


The Dirtbombs at Babylon

Lastly, there was a slew of excellent rereleases; some of it was more recent stuff, like the compilation of The Dirtbombs' singles If You Don't Already Have Some Try It, Drive-By Truckers' Gangstabilly and Pizza Deliverance, The Dentists' Some People Are On The Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' B-Sides and Rarities, Orange Juice's The Glasgow School and Mother Juno from Sympathy For The Record Industry's ongoing series of Gun Club reissues. The aforementioned Bang! rereleased the first album by Bored! I presume the exclamation point had something to do with it ... I picked up Kaleidoscope's Tangerine Dream and Fairfield Parlour's From Home to Home. I greatly preferred the latter, which is a bit odd since it's basically the same group under a different name. If godly rockabilly is your thing, then you'll enjoy the Numero Group release of Fern Jones' Singing a Happy Song and a few bonus tracks under the title The Glory Road. The cats at Comet Records have just reissued Johhny Burnette & The Rock'n'Roll Trio's classic album with 16 bonus tunes (the track listing is very quite similar to Hip-O-Select's Coral Recordings comp). Water rereleased Baby Huey's The Living Legend in 2004, I shouldn't have waited to pick it up. Mike & The Ravens' Nevermore is a brilliant snapshot of an archetypical 1960s garage group, complete with contemporary "duck and cover" ads - nothing says Armageddon like cheery radio jingles! Radioactive has been doing a journeyman job of getting obscure psychedelic and garage music from the late 1960s and early '70s out to the masses. Their rerelease of The Flower Travellin' Band's Satori is probably the pinnacle of their catalogue; continuing my longstanding fascination with Japanese psychedelica, I grabbed it the moment I saw it. Morgen's self-titled album is another heavy psyche offering from the same label. Revenant pulled off their usual top-notch reissue work with the second volume in their American Primitive series. Most of it hails from the late 1920s and 30s, but one of the tracks, Old Mourner by Cousins & Demoss, allegedly dates back to 1897. Very little is known about most of the performers, apart from their names. Another interesting collection of little-known performers can be found on Guitars of The Golden Triangle Vol. 2, a collection of various artists from Burma's Shan state assembled by Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls. It's pretty fuzzy stuff, and not just because it's been dubbed off nth-generation bootleg cassettes. In the men-with-beards competition Gary Higgins' Red Hash squared off against Bill Fay's Time of the Last Persecution. I think the winner is Bill, by a whisker. Superlungs, a compilation of Terry Reid material, is a great introduction to the man who wasn't Robert Plant.