The Best of 2010

It's time once again to round up my favourite albums of the year. There's a bit of a twist in this year's list: I'll say one thing for 2010 - there was a big pile of sensational heavy music on offer. I buy a substantial amount of music across a wide range of genres, but this year the high volume crew really tipped the scales in terms of quality crunch.


Cauchemar at the Avant-Garde Bar, November 13, 2010

I could easily make a Top 10 list that was only metal. My favourite album of the past year was Darkthrone's Circle The Wagons, which ably combines the two kinds of metal I most favour right now: Motorhead and black metal. Also getting frequent spins were Dawnbringer's Nucleus; High on Fire's Snakes For The Divine;  Agony + Opium from Christian Mistress, Cauchemar's La Vierge Noire; Ash Pool's For Which He Plies The Lash; Slough Feg's The Animal Spirits; The Body's All The Waters Of The Earth Turned To Blood; classic metal fanatics Hammers of Misfortunes' The Bastard (I must also mention Ludicra's The Tenant, as the band feature Hammers guitarist John Cobbett); and Bison B.C.'s The Dark Ages makes an even 10 (not counting The Tenant). I could have switched plenty of places with offerings like The Enforcers' Diamonds, Torche's Songs for Singles, The Scorpions' excellent career-capper Sting In The Tail, Nachtmystium's Skinny Puppy-worshipping Addicts: Black Meddle Part II, Harvey Milk's A Small Turn of Human Kindness, Agalloch's Marrow of The Spirit, Kylesa's Spiral Shadow, Gnaw Their Tongues' L'Arrivee De La Terne Mort Triomphante, Tryptikon's Eparistera Daimones and Ratt's Infestation and on and on.


Ty Segall at Babylon, October 18, 2010

Phew! Well, it can't all be metal ... when I'm not inflicting permanent damage on my eardrums with metal, I'm inflicting permanent damage on my eardrums with fuzzy pop and psychedelica. If I were forced to nip my list down to Top 3, Best Coast's Crazy For You would undoubtedly be up there. Ty Segall's Melted was also up there. Also getting spins: Royal Bath's Litanies, Sonny and The Sunsets Tomorrow is Alright, Nobunny's First Blood, Wavves' King Of The Beach and Ariel Pink's Before Today. From a similar headspace I enjoyed Wild Nothing's Gemini, Perfume Genius' Learning, Girls' Broken Dreams Club EP,  Jaill's That's How We Burn and The Dum Dum Girls' I Will Be. No Joy's Ghost Blonde and Happy Birthday's self-titled release also tickled my fancy.


Mother's Children at Ritual, July 11, 2010

I have to say that this year was a very good for local bands, with standout releases from Year Zero and Mother's Children. The bands will just have to arm-wrestle for top spot (Michael Haddad can wrestle himself). The winner may have to go up against Jack Pelletier and The Battle of Ontario though - Friends and Lovers was another local triumph. Also making a big splash, at least as far as my eardrums were concerned were The White Wires' WWII, Peach Kelli Pop's debut, The Holy Cobras seven-incher ... and I would add the Steve Adamyk Band but strangely enough I haven't managed to get ahold of his album yet. On the freakier side of things were The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol's Biker Smell and Mark Alexander McIntyre's Situs Inversus Totalis. I also really enjoyed area expatriate Carlangas' Soul Stalker. I'm also eagerly awaiting the vinyl for Tokyo Sex Whale's Slammed.


Gramercy Riffs at Mavericks, August 26, 2010

There was also a bunch of top-notch recordings from Canadian bands in general. My favourite Canadian recording this year (aside from local folks) was another slit decision: Quest For Fire's Lights From Paradise really stuck with me, but so did Gramercy Riff's It's Heartbreak. I'm not going to attempt to decipher the discography of Red Mass, but I'm sure they released something this year I listened to and enjoyed. The Sadies knocked it out of the park with Darker Circles, and C'mon once again kicked ass with Beyond The Pale Horse. In a dancier vein I thought Diamond Rings' Special Affections lived up to the hype. Women's Public Strain was also great.


Leatherface at Babylon, February 26, 2010

And then there's "the rest." My usual Top 10 list for pennyblackmusic.com also included stellar turns from Leatherface, whose Stormy Petrel was the equal of anything they've done before, Alejandro Escovedo's Street Songs of Love, Archandroid by Janelle Monae, Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot - The Son of Chico Dusty; the ever reliable Shearwater's Golden Archipelago and Sharon Van Etten's stunning Epic. On the weirder side of things was Barn Owl's Ancestral Stars. I got a review copy of Screaming Females' Castle Talk, and dug it quite a bit - as I knew I would from the evidence of their live show at Zaphod's earlier this year. I've been snapping up all I can find from Zola Jesus, and Valusia was well worth the effort. I seem to be getting into the cold-wave thing; The Blank Dog's Land and Fixed and Cold Cave's Love Comes Close (okay, technically 2009) landed in my player. Another good sign: Personal favourites Belle and Sebastien, Drive-By Truckers and Spoon all released strong albums in Let's Talk About Love, The Big To-Do and Transference. More faves: Circle's Rautatie, Emeralds' Does It Look Like I'm Here; former Hellacopters' chieftain Nick Andersson's Imperial State Electric; Foxy Shazam's ridiculous ebullient self-titled effort ... I could go on, but I'm going to stop there (I'm not going to even talk about re-releases) because I must sleep. Who knows, maybe I'll have a part 2 in a week when I wake up and realize all the stuff I left off ....

Everybody's got one

Every year websites and media outlets across the land trot out their "Best Ofs". I pride myself on being the last. On the one hand, I'm lazy - but on the other, at least I waited until 2009 was over. In actuality, every year I compile a list of my favourite 10 albums for pennyblackmusic.com, the British website for which I also write reviews. It usual sees the light of day in early December. Here it is again - the brief descriptions are a National Capital Rock deluxe add-on bonus web-only material:
1. Antlers, Hospice: This album of mournful bedroom pop is about a hospice worker and his relationship with a dying patient. Some of its impact is personal, since I saw my own father die in hospital last year, but it's a very strong set of tunes even without personal tragedy behind them.
2. Major Lazer, Guns Don’t Kill People ... Lazers Do: It's good to know that my taste in Jamaican music doesn't stop in the mid-1970s, this is a very fun set of dancehall tunes.
3. Cauldron, Surrender to the Nite: When I was going to high school the kids all listened to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. I listened to a lot of 1970s and 1980s metal these days (and kicking myself for not getting into Mercyful Fate earlier), so it's cool to have a modern incarnation of the classic metal sound.


Cousins at 443 Kent Street, September 11, 2009

4. Cousins, Out on Town: More lo-fi bedroom pop, this time from a Canadian performer. I bought the album when Aaron Mangle and Co. performed at 443 Kent St.
5. Girls, Album; I listened to a lot of stuff in the "shitgaze" vein (criminy, what a stupid name for a genre), including Kurt Vile, Night Control, Wavves and Sic Alps, this year. This was the catchiest of the bunch.
6. Iron Age, The Sleeping Eye: I like punk. I like metal. What's not to like about Iron Age?
7. Evangelista, Prince of Truth: Carla Bozulich sounds like she's undergoing some harrowing personal transformation over her albums, and she's found the perfect backing band in the Constellation Records crew.
8. Sylvester Anfang, II: Weird, spacey freak-out music from Belgium. It's described by some as "funeral folk." That's a mighty strange funeral, pardner.
9. Yoga, Megafauna: A confession - I bought this album because I thought it was by Megafaun, who performed in town with Akron Family a while back. As it turns out, Yoga is (allegedly) some kind of black metal home-recording outfit. I don't think of Megafaun as being all that black or metallic, just a weird psychedelic soundscape which repeatedly reveals intriguing new corners of sound.
10. Mastodon, Crack the Skye: I like these guys so much more since they started singing instead of growling. And I'm a sucker for duel guitar heavy metal (and also single guitar heavy metal, but that's another story).
It's an awfully peculiar list, because it omits releases from some of my favourite bands, bands who released excellent albums in 2009 (or albums that arrived in town this year). Consider the following to be added: The Drones, Havilah; Drive-By Truckers, Fine Print; Neko Case, Middle Cyclone; Big Pink, A Brief History of Love; Sunn o))), Monoliths & Dimensions; Reigning Sound, Love and Curses; Various Artists, Ottawa Gaga Volume 1; Marduk, Wormwood; The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart; Krallice, Dimensional Bleedthrough; The Gates of Slumber, Hymns of Blood and Thunder; there were also a bunch of awesome releases locally (apart from the aforementioned Gaga comp) - I think my favourite was Year Zero's No Tongue For Eros.


Year Zero at Atomic Rooster, August 13, 2009

Now, on to less contemporary music: Yes, every music blogger and their dog has inflicted a Top 10 of the decade list on their by now all-to-suspecting readership. And why should I let you lot off? I love music lists; mostly because sometimes there's an album I haven't heard (or hadn't considered before) of surrounded by a bunch of stuff that I have, thereby giving me something else to check out. It doesn't work so well for wrapping up a decade, since there are fewer surprises when you skim the top off such a large pool (which is why I bumped the list up to 20), but here goes anyway  ...


Acid Mothers Temple at Babylon, April 30, 2007

1. Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO, Universe Zen Ou de Zero a Zero (2004). No surprise that a band I own upward of four dozen albums by gets a nod. But in terms of scorched earth psychedelica it doesn't get much better than entree Electric Love Machine (with guest guitar from Hiroshi Nar of Les Rallizes Denudes), while monster raga Soleil de cristal et lune d'argent is for me the band's finest moment.
2. The Drones, Gala Mill (2006). I think every album by Australia's heart-shredding roots rockers The Drones is ace (with the exception of the live Spaceland recording), but Gala Mill stands out for the uncanny invocation of dread in Sixteen Straws.
3. RTX, Western Exterminator (2007). I did not have high hopes for Jennifer Herrema's post-Royal Trux project, but I have to say she sounds like she's having a lot more fun than her ex-partner Neil Hagerty does on his albums with her streetwise L.A. hair metal update.
4. The Wrens, Meadowlands (2003). Sounds suspiciously liek the fuzzy rock I listened to in college grew up, got a job settled down and generally grew older and wiser. Now will someone just rerelease their other material, for Pete's sake?
5. The Hellacopters, High Visibility (2000). Some people prefer The Hellacopters's early hot rod punk - the stuff on the singles and up to Payin' The Dues, but for me their best came at the turn of the millennium when they finally succumbed to outright Thin Lizzy worship.


Neko Case at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 12, 2009

6. Neko Case, Blacklisted (2002). My favourite voice in music, and a tough one to choose a favourite for since her Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is also magnificent.
7. Marissa Nadler, Bird On The Water (2007).Nadler is a lovely guitarist and singer, but what really sets her apart are her lyrics, which manage to be diamond hard even when they're utterly oblique.
8. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2008). This album made me seek out and buy every Spoon album I could (apart from the one I already owned, Girls Can Tell). Fractured guitar rock and Britt Daniel's laconic drawl make a great combination.
9. Electric Wizard, Dopethrone (2000). The finest stoner rock band going, to my ears.
10. Reigning Sound, Time Bomb Highschool (2002). I always loved The Oblivians, but I think I like Greg Cartwright's take on Memphis soul rock even better.
11. Sunn o))), Black One (2005). A fine album to listen to when you want time to stand still and the rafters to shake.
12. Shearwater, Palo Santo (2006). I like sad songs, and few sound sadder than Shearwater.
13. High On Fire, Surrounded By Thieves (2002). I bought their first album on Man's Ruin at a time when I was buying just about everything on the label. I think of them as being like Sleep, Matt Pike's old outift, with a serious Motorhead injection.


Martha Wainright at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 13, 2008

14. Martha Wainright, Martha Wainright (2005). I'm glad I landed a review copy of this album in a slow week, because the musical output of other Wainrights has failed to move me. The 1970s style singer-songwriter music works well with Wainright's blunt confessional lyrics.
15. Psychic Paramount, Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural (2005). I prefer my post-rock to also be post-"the musicians losing their mind and listening to a lot of Faust's weirder moments."
16. Spencer P. Jones, Fait Accompli (2003). I like all of Jones albums, and his comically gritty tales of being down-and-out in Australia get superior backing from even grittier guitar.
17. Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Behind The Music (2000). The first time I listened to this album, my reaction was lukewarm. The second time I thought it was amazing. Their latest, Communion, had a similar effect.
18. Outkast, Stankonia (2000). I think of Outkast as being the true heirs of George Clinton's Parliament, in their willingness to be the funkiest oddballs on the block.
19. Comets on Fire, Field Recordings From The Sun (2002). My favourite band of skronked out space jammers. Could use a bit more Echoplex, though.
20. Sloan, Never Hear The End Of It (2006). A double-album turned out to be the best thing for the journeyman pop-rockers, particularly since they don't dawdle over any individual song.
I'm leaving off a ton of stuff that really should be on hear - I never thought I'd make a list like this without any Mick Collins albums on it ... I could have mentioned the Marked Men, Joanna Newsom, Robin Hitchcock, Drive-By Truckers, Six Organs of Admittance, Nikki Sudden, Queens Of the Stone Age, Devendra Banhart, Pleasure Forever, Starlite Desperation, David Picco and on and on and on ... but I won't because writing Top 10 lists is really dull.