Stuff that was great in 2008 (HAR!)
Dear Internet,
Year end means list season. I am a fan of lists. Lists generally imply organization, but not here! So, with that in mind, here are some things I enjoyed in 2008
Music:
Ms. Waggoner's debut LP is strikingly confident, and with good reason. Her piano chops as remarkable, and her songwriting and arranging are dictionary-definitions of strong. This album is a constantly moving, fluid collection of songs which delight and surprise at every turn. Here's hoping that the digital release of Brooke's album gains her enough of a financial foothold that she makes it up north for a tour.
Link!
This release sees the harmony/noise-loving Danes take what they learned on Pretty in Black and apply it to their familiar biker-movie/blistering distortion sound, creating a number of songs that ride the border between songs you can and cannot ever play for your parents.
Bonus WTF content: Lust Lust Lust was ineligible for chart position in the UK because the packaging included 3D glasses. What?
Link!
This whole album is pretty much exactly what I would have expected from a Wolf Parade follow-up record, but one stand-out track provides six minutes and two seconds of rock-out, cathartic, anthematic, indie sound jungle. The almost militaristic drumming behind the chorus as Spencer Krug whoops "I thought I might have heard you on the radio" somehow simultaneously underlines and contrasts Dan Boekner's punching guitar chords. This song really allows you to hear the interplay between two fine (Canadian) songwriters
Link! (Sorry for the audio on this one! Turn your speakers down!)
This album came to me in France, investigated on the premise of an entertaining poster. Opening on a playful, gender-role challenging track with strangely Bjork-like vocals and a menacing synth underlying the whole thing, well... it was hard to know what to expect next. That it led into a fairly straightforward love song was just one of the album's tricks. Who could have predicted that 'At Last' and 'Queen Dot Kong' could have existed on the same album? Unpredictability is the name of the game for this one, ensuring that on every listen something new is discovered.
Link!
It is just surprising how well these guys can sing. When I finally get my record player all set up, I reckon this will be the first album I play on it. Only the quality of the recording points to this album being made in 2008 and not in some ancient cave somewhere. Along with Bon Iver, I certainly got my folk music fix this year. Which brings us to...
(Link!)
It's hard to believe that only one person made this album. And yet, it's so intensely personal that it couldn't have been created any other way than in that now famous (or at least "indie folk famous") cabin in Vermont. Bon Iver's success is one of those things tat just makes me feel lazy. But I can't fault his music. 'The Wolves (Act I & II)' may be my favourite song of the year.
Link!
Holy Crap! It's Sigur Ros, but happy! Joyful! Bursting with enthusiasm! I can't get over how infused this recording is with positive vibes. It's just so damn infectiously happy. I've long maintained that Sigur Ros is good driving music, because it's calming and can get one into a (good, driving-safe) kind of meditative state. So add a healthy dose of optimism to it, and you've got a good hour on the road (as evidenced by a successful road trip to Sudbury)!
Link!
My love for this EP is well documented. Olga Bell's bright, intelligent music has a fiery wit which is very winning. Over 6 songs, Olga & Co. deliver a wide variety of styles and moods, ranging from ecstatic dance ("Expanding File," possibly the only dance song written about stationary), to somehow bombastically introspective ("Brown Bear"), to a clandestine rallying cry ("Chunk"). Bell's Bjorkish vocals and electronic atmospherics somewhat overshadow her insanely competent piano skills, so you'll probably also want to check out her cover of Radiohead/Thom Yorke's "Videotape/The Eraser."
Link!
Live Shows
What a way to start the year! At the feet of the softly voiced poet laureate of indie folk at his first ever show in France, this was just super cool. Also, snagged a setlist, and got to meet the man himself
A nice shot of patriotism, it was a lot of fun to see Canada's most famous identical twins play a show in a small/medium Parisian club. Best banter of the year.
Also, best breaking up of a fight by the headliners
Another dose of patriotism from a woman who knows what showmanship is. In a brilliant response to a mediocre reaction from the crowd, Leslie F. quipped "Only half of you are ok? I guess I'd better get to work on the rest of you then." Also, Shadow puppets!
This was unlike any show I have ever been to. Sweaty, raucous, energizing like you wouldn't believe. Not to mention the unexpected sense of comradery from patrons of an electro-indie band. One girl just randomly came up to me and said "Aren't you just so excited?" We had a quick chat and she gave me a kiss on the cheek before returning to her friends. Definitely a highlight of the year, and the walk home in the pouring rain made it all the better.
How do these work? No idea.
Encounters with Famous People
I only really met one famous person this year, but it was a biggie. The first lady of Canadian literature, Margaret Atwood. Of course, no photographic evidence exists to support that I was ever in the same room as her, but I have many stories. My favourite includes why she wrote what she wrote in my book.
When I first hear I was going to get to meet Peggy, I had no idea what to say (being timid around celebrities and people I admire in the first place), so naturally my first thought was to sabotage the entire encounter by bringing her a copy of 'The Stone Angel' by Margaret Laurence and professing my love for it. Eventually I went with telling her about that idea, and she said "You have no idea how many people make that mistake," and wrote the following on the inside cover of my book:
Andrew,
I did NOT write 'The Stone Angel.' That was a different Margaret.
Margaret Atwood
That's going on my shelf of good stories.
Movies
I'm not going to do a movies section, because honestly I didn't see that may good movies this year, except for one with a clown or some such jazz. That one kicked ass.
Well, that's all (or at least some of) the media related jumbles that have filled my year. Of course, my year had more than just media. I spent the first half in Paris bloody France, making friends with some fantastic and awesome people who I still manage to keep in contact with! Now that I'm back in Canada (much as I missed it), I feel Europe calling to me in many different ways. Once I get a foothold on all this debt I am going back. Here are a few photographic highlights, because words cannot describe.
posted by Phinneas Q Jacksmith @ 1:16 a.m.
2 comments
2 Comments:
I assume that the "clown" one that you're talking about was Secrets of the Clown (www.secretsoftheclown.com). While technically released at the very end of 2007, I think that they were just trying to sneak it in there to get some Oscar nods.
You know, when I first heard Bon Iver's album, I decided it was boring. Then I listened to it again, again, again, again...eventually I decided I adored it. Skinny Love is my personal favorite. I have to admit though that wolves tends to annoy me as I find it's a slow build to nothing. I want a huge climax...instead I find a yelp then a whisper. Maybe I'm asking too much.
I think the part of me that is supposed to like Fleet Foxes is also the part of me that is supposed to like the Beach Boys. I'll listen to them and enjoy it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to put on the record myself.
Otherwise, I love pretty much everything else you've mentionned and would have loved to have seen those shows.
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