Adios 09!

What a great year to be a Canadian music fan! Here is my best of 2009 list:

1 Years: Years
2 DMST: Do Make Say Think
3 Apostle of Hustle: Eats Darkness
4 Metric: Fantasies
5 The Happiness Project: The Happiness Project
6 Bahamas: Pink Strat
7 Gentleman Reg: Jet Black
8 Tegan and Sara: Sainthood
9 Timber Timbre: Timber Timbre
10 Amy Millan: Masters of the Burial

The lack of international artists is not intentional - this is my honest assessment of the year that was. And I have rethought my whole “I’m a Torontonian who doesn’t LOVE Toronto” sentiment – if great art is not a good enough reason to be proud of and in love with Toronto I don’t know what is.

Best of 09

The Shit

Everyone should know this chic. Listen and be jealous (I certainly am).









By the way - her name is Tal Wilkenfeld and she is 23 years old and did not start playing until she was 16. Like I said - jealous. . . life ain't fair man.

Borq borq borq

So when I was growing up, kids TV was AWESOME (even though at times politically incorrect and wildly inappropriate for kids). I am longing for a time when life was simpler and this was my solution . . . After spending yesterday evening watching classic Muppet Show clips of the Swedish Chef, at 11:45 pm as I was singing along with the 'borq borq borq' part of his theme song, I decided that I was cut off and should call it a night.










Saved the best for last:

Sucky day

Becase Amy's voice saved my sanity today, and because I am hoping that as usual, the Whitey show tonight will inspire me - listen and be saved and inspired.

Wish I had been there

Don't know if anyone else knows about this, but last Thursday and Friday night the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a humongous concert that boasted a lineup so huge they needed 2 nights to fit everyone in. After having seen the videos and heard the collaborations, I would have sold all my internal organs on the black market to be there. Seriously? The list included appearances from Tom Morello, Billy Joel, CSN, James Taylor, Mick Jagger, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith, John Fogerty, Sam Moore, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Beck, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Rait, U2, Sting, and John Legend. On Thursday the 'House Band' was The E Street Band and on Friday it was Metallica. I have scoured the web to find footage and audio of whatever I could and this is the result. Some of the audio is sketchy (in particular the Simon & Garfunkel stuff), but I'll take whatever I can get. Highlights for me were Metallica and Lou Reed doing Sweet Jane, Tom Morello and Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band with Steven Van Zandt on vocals covering London Calling, Jeff Beck's guitar solo in Superstition and Metallica and Ozzy doing Iron Man. My ears are still smiling. I particularly love how Hetfield noted that when initially approached about the collaborations - his thought was that Metallica are not really a 'jamming' kind of bunch but they had put aside their reservations and gone for it anyway.
The one unfortunate finding is that despite the fact that everyone else sounded in fighting form, Art Garfunkel sounds like shit - he has lost it, which sucks cause he had an awesome instrument.

This is going on my list of Top 10 things I missed in life. Really - Lou effing Reed and Metallica - does life get any better?

A girl can dream

I hope I'm still this fuckin good at my job after I've been doing it for 30 years.

We used to leave the blue lights on

So it took me a few years to 'get' Metric. It wasn't until I saw them live for the first time during the Live it Out era that I fully understood what they were doing. This week, I was lucky enough to see Metric 4 times and I want to go back to the me I was years ago and say "What the hell do you not get?".

Massey Hall is by far Toronto's best live venue. Yes, being tall I get squished in the seats - but the acoustics make it more than worth the discomfort. Metric had 2 sold out nights at Massey Hall this week and the only word for it is brilliant. Not that all 4 members of the band are not ridiculously talented - but I think I have isolated the source of their brilliance, and it's Joules Scott-Key.

Following those 2 marvelous Massey Hall nights, I attended the CASBY awards (Metric won 2 by the way) where Metric played live. The actual awards were awkward for me for unrelated reasons, but Metric were the obvious stars of the night and their performance was, again, brilliant.

Last night I went to Hamilton to see Metric for the 4th night this week. Again, performance - brilliant, venue however - shitty. The Hamilton Convention Centre gives Toronto's Sound Academy a run for it's money as shittiest Ontario concert venue.

If you get a chance to see them on this tour - I suggest that you do, hell, I suggest that you do 4 times.

So by this point, I am exhausted and hating the fact that I do not posses the ability to sleep in. I am now going to attempt to go back to sleep, cross your fingers!


Combat Baby acoustic Massey Hall