My Indie World

The main reason I make lists like this is so that I can keep track of what I liked at certain points in time. That way, I can go back and read them again in a few years and rediscover what my tastes were. If I were still the me of 10 years ago, this list certainly won’t look like this, and if I were to run through this exercise again in 10 years (i.e. make a list of my favourite albums that were released between 2000 and 2009), there’s a good chance that it won’t look exactly like this either. But at the end of 2009, these are the records that I have dubbed my favourite releases of the past decade.

In addition to the release-date restriction, I’m also only picking 1 record from each artist. This is to prevent having 4 or 5 Decemberists records show up, which would not really be informative to Future Me as I don’t think I’ll soon forget how much I love them. Because narrowing lists like this down is always difficult for me, I’ve also listed 10 additional records — 5 Canadian and 5 non-Canadian — that didn’t quite make this list. This has allowed me to name-check more albums without ruining the whole 37 thing I’ve got going.

I feel that this list really captures my preferences as a consumer of music at the end of 2009. It’s pop-heavy, girl-heavy, and early-in-the-decade leaning. In fact, no records released in the last 3 years made the list, which says to me that I haven’t discovered very many new bands that I’ve been really excited about in the past 3 years. Am I going to become that guy who insists that contemporary music is inferior to records from the past? Only time will tell.

Aside from This is list roughly 1/3 Canadian without me having to try to include CanCon deliberately. It also doesn’t look very much list many of the decade-end lists that you’ve probably seen (alas, Kid A did not make my list). This is all Ho, and frankly, it’s rather predictable.

So here it is. I might post some additional commentary on my list in the coming days, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. May the next 10 years be just as kind to my record collection as the last 10 have been!

Canadian Honourable Mentions:

Final Fantasy – He Poos Clouds (Blocks Recording Club, 2006)
Feist – Let It Die (Arts & Craft, 2004)
The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site (Epitaph, 2003)
You Say Party! We Say Die! – Hit the Floor (Sound Document, 2005)
The Organ – Sinking Hearts (Global Symphonic, 2002)

Non-Canadian Honourable Mentions:

Phantom Planet – The Guest (Epic, 2002)
Haley Bonar – Size of Planets (Chairkickers’ Music, 2002)
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love, 2006)
M.I.A. – Arular (XL, 2005)
Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward (Ecstatic Peace, 2008)

Top 37:

** Denotes Canadian artist

01. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism (Barsuk, 2003)
02. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife (Capitol, 2006)
03. Mirah – C’mon Miracle (K, 2004)
04. Bright Eyes – Fevers and Mirrors (Saddle Creek, 2000)
05. The Postal Service – Give Up (Sub Pop, 2003)
06. Annie – Anniemal (697 Recordings, 2004)
07. Stars – Heart (Paperbag, 2003) **
08. Tilly and the Wall – Bottoms of Barrels (Team Love, 2006)
09. Metric – Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (Last Gang, 2003) **
10. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005)
11. Eisely – Room Noises (Reprise, 2005)
12. Arcade Fire – Funeral (Merge, 2004) **
13. Rilo Kiley – The Execution of All Things (Saddle Creek, 2002)
14. Elliott Smith – From A Basement On the Hill (Anti, 2004)
15. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – Shake the Sheets (Lookout!, 2004)
16. Azure Ray – Azure Ray (WARM, 2001)
17. Pretty Girls Make Graves – The New Romance (Matador, 2006)
18. Belle and Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Rough Trade, 2003)
19. Pedro the Lion – Control (Jade Tree, 2002)
20. The Pipettes – We Are the Pipettes (Memphis Industries, 2006)
21. Lily Allen – Alright, Still (EMI, 2006)
22. Patty Griffin – 1000 Kisses (ATO, 2002)
23. The Blow – Paper Television (K, 2006)
24. Kathleen Edwards – Failer (MapleMusic, 2002) **
25. The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (Mint, 2000) **
26. The Shins – Oh, Inverted World (Sub Pop, 2002)
27. Sarah Slean – Day One (Warner, 2004) **
28. Sarah Harmer – You Were Here (Cold Snap, 2000) **
29. Emm Gryner – Girl Versions (Dead Daisy, 2001) **
30. The Wrens – The Meadowlands (Absolutely Kosher, 2003)
31. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (Arts & Crafts, 2002) **
32. Spoon – Kill the Moonlight (Merge, 2002)
33. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – The Dust of Retreat (Artemis, 2006)
34. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender (Drag City, 2004)
35. Pony Up – Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes (Dim Mak, 2006) **
36. Maplewood Lane – Maplewood Lane (Anniedale, 2003) **
37. Immaculate Machine – Fables (Mint, 2007) **

NP: (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia)

My first real post in nearly 10 months will be my last Top XX of the decade. In years past, the list was meticulously calculated, culled from the nearly 100 records released in 2009 that I’ve listened to over the past year. It would involve scoring and ranking each record, comparing and contrasting records with tied scores, then coming up with the final list. Needless to say, it was a terribly time-consuming effort, one that befitted a music-obsessed and rather self-indulgent blogger who can take ‘over-analytical’ to a frightening extreme.

Appropriately, my list of top 37 records of the first year since 2001 in which I wasn’t blogging regularly was created on a ferry. In less than an hour. On my iPhone. Instead of obsessing about “getting it right” by re-listening to every record — sometimes more than once — I just got it done. Fast. Ironically, this will be the first year in which I post this thing in its entirety BEFORE the year ends. Maybe it’s my tweeting that gave me this new-found “just get it done” attitude. Or maybe I’m just getting too old to care that much.

There are several that I haven’t heard yet which didn’t make the list (e.g. Tegan and Sara, Volcano Choir, etc.), not to mention some major let-downs (Immaculate Machine: I’m looking at you). Noticeably absent are many hipster faves (you know what they are). This is partly due to my personal tastes, which always drift more towards MOR pop rather than the challenging arty stuff. But this year especially, I just haven’t listened to that many new bands, Port O’Brien being my only real musical discovery this year. Not surprisingly, this drop is correlated with the amount of blogs I read regularly.

Perhaps this is the reason why I thought this year’s releases were a bit weak, in general: the fact that I just haven’t paid as much attention to “the scene” as I used to. In fact, none of the records listed here have made it into my top 37 of the 00’s list (mostly because I’m limiting myself to 1 record per band). So is it me or is it the music? I’d say a little from column A, and a little from column B.

But enough of this… this blogging. Here it is, unannotated, my favourite LPs of 2009 (no links, because I’m too lazy now, in the age of Twitter):

01. Decemberists – Hazards of Love
02. Annie – Don’t Stop
03. Mirah – (a)spera
04. Metric – Fantasies
05. Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
06. The Lonely Island – Incredibad
07. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You
08. Port O’Brien – Threadbare
09. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches
10. Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light
11. Garfunkel and Oates – Music Songs
12. Laura Veirs – July Flame
13. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
14. Various – Dark Was the Night
15. Maria Taylor – Ladyluck
16. Owl City – Ocean Eyes
17. God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl
18. Sally Shapiro – My Guilty Pleasure
19. Built to Spill – There is No Enemy
20. Emm Gryner – Goddess
21. You Say Party! We Say Die! – You Say Party! We Say Die!
22. Mindy Smith – Stupid Love
23. St. Vincent – Actor
24. Art of Time Assembly feat. Sarah Slean – Black Flower
25. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
26. Marissa Nadler – Little Hells
27. A.C. Newman – Get Guilty
28. Mew – No More Stories…
29. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
30. Lou Barlow – Good Night Unknown
31. Amy Millan – Masters of the Burial
32. John Vanderalice – Roman Names
33. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
34. Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
35. Dragonette – Fixin to Thrill
36. The Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going Away
37. Melissa McClelland – Victoria Day

NP: (nothing)

2008 was a year of recession for more than just the world economy. Musically, my growth and exploration has been stunted. My daily blog-list has shrunken dramatically, and my own blogging has trickled to a Chinese Democracy pace as well. This might have something to do with the fact that I’m spending more time in meeting rooms and much less time in front of my computer with my headphones on. No matter the reason, the raw amount of new music that my brain has processed in 2008 fell starkly off my usual rate. In some other dimension, the 22-year-old me is kicking my ass right now.

So lame is the 2008 me, my big discovery of the year — years in the making — is already a huge band (TV on the Radio), and I didn’t truly find anything on my own. Most years, I can usually point to one or two records that: a) aren’t Billboard Top 10s; b) aren’t Pitchfork-reviewed; and c) aren’t from an artist I already love.

But not this year. No surprises this year. Other than the comeback-of-the-year Phantom Planet record, this list is purely Blog-By-Numbers. Insert one cup mega-indie-star-bands, two cups cute-girly-pop, a splash of singer-songwriter LPs (heavy on the ladies), stir, and voila — you have Hanson’s year end list. The usual secret ingredient that makes this a little less predictable is absent this year.

Meh. It’s not that I care less; it’s just the way it is. In fact, I can’t even fill up my usual top 37! With no EPs, live albums, and compilations, I can probably fill it out with LPs that I merely found decent, but I just can’t do it. Unless I can truly classify it as being “good” — 7.5 rating minimum — it just ain’t going on the list.

I’m sorry Ladytron — Velocifero is blah. Vivian Girls — I don’t get the hype. High Places — I see where you’re going, but I don’t follow. Weezer — please stop. My Brightest Diamond — what happened?? Dido — zzzzzzz. Hercules and Love Affair — I really wish you hadn’t hooked up with Antony.

So here it is — two months late – Hanson’s Top 37 31 Records of 2008. Remember the days when I actually annotated this list? Maybe I’ll do it next year…

01. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
02. Tilly & The Wall – O
03. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
04. Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
05. Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward
06. Haley Bonar – Big Star
07. Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers
08. Sarah Slean – The Baroness
09. Bon Iver – For Emma
10. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
11. Jeff Hanson – Madam Owl
12. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
13. Mirah – The Old Days Feeling
14. Land Of Talk – Some Are Lakes
15. Phantom Planet – Raise The Dead
16. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
17. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
18. Tift Merritt – Another Country
19. Chris Walla – Field Manual
20. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – Animal/Not Animal!
21. Earlimart – Hymn And Her
22. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer
23. She & Him – Volume One
24. Nada Surf – Lucky
25. Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell
26. Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns
27. Laura Cantrell – Trains and Boats and Planes
28. Islands – Arm’s Way
29. CSS – Donkey
30. Brendan Canning – Something For All Of Us…
31. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

Year-End mix CD to follow…

NP: (nothing)

Mother frakkers. It’s been half a year since I last blogged. I really need to get back into it unless I want to officially retire — which I don’t.

NP: (nothing)

Tilly and the Wall w/ The Clips
Friday, July 4, 2008 – Richard’s

This is going to be a short post – I like Tilly and the Wall but I’m no where near the fan that Hanson is.

The Clips [http://www.theclips.ca/] opened the show. They were better than I was expecting them to be, very upbeat.

Tilly and the Wall [http://tillyandthewall.com/] was interesting. This was my first time seeing them so I went in with no expectations – I was pleasantly surprised to find that their live show is lots of fun. I didn’t realize they had a tap dancer with them for percussion but it was really unique. I’m not sure if her dance platform was properly mic’ed because it was hard to hear her tapping over the crowd and music. For their encore they took requests from the crowd – I was hoping for “Fell Down the Stairs” but I was out of luck.

Great show, good crowd expect for the punk who showed up late, pushed his way to the front and pushed me out of my spot (that I had been standing in for about 2 hours). It’s official, good manners are dead.

Next up – Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band!!!

Forever yours,
Marlon
NP: (nothing)

Stars w/ Curtis Santiago and My!Gay!Husband! at Malkin Bowl
Saturday, June 21, 2008

Well, if you’ve seen Stars before, you know how hard they hit it in their live show – I probably don’t even need to blog about them.

This was an all-ages show so the crowd was all kinds of crazy. There was everything from drunken cougars dancing as if they were at a Bon Jovi concert to wee babies with giant headphones on to protect their ears. At one point, even a bald eagle also showed up for the festivities.

My!Gay!Husband! opened the show, spinning a wide range of songs for those of us who stood in line from 4:30 pm. Curtis Santiago was up next – I don’t even know if I can accurately describe his set. Mix equal parts kooky stage presence and slightly off-putting lyrics about robots (?), underage love affairs and crystal meth-like love and you’ve got Curtis Santiago. It was truly bizarre.

Stars [http://www.arts-crafts.ca/stars/] were great as usual. They had the stage decorated with roses again, which they tossed out to the crowd over the course of the night. I really like the way Torq and Amy interact on stage, her shy presence is balanced out nicely by his theatrics – also, they both have gorgeous voices. Unfortunately, Amy was unable to crowd-surf this time as a barrier was set up between the crowd and the stage – too bad!! No suit of light either.

The set list covered their three albums -”Heart”, “Set Yourself on Fire”, and “In Our Bedroom After the War”. I was hoping to hear “Barricade” off “In Our Bedroom After the War” but I think the song is probably too intimate for the large, open space that is Malkin Bowl. Stars always put on a good show, it’s impossible to leave them without a spring in your step.

Next up – Tilly and the Wall!

Your new BFF,
Marlon

NP: (nothing)

Shout Out Out Out Out w/ Ravens & Chimes
Commodore Ballroom

Shout Out Out Out Out played the Commodore last night as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and my ears are still ringing from the sheer awesomeness of it!

The night started off with the lovely and charming Ravens & Chimes from Brooklyn, New York [http://www.ravensandchimes.com/]. They are a fine indie rock band and I feel bad for them that the crowd was kind of crappy. Hardly anyone paid attention to them except for those of us in the front row and even then there were people being loud and talky. Anyway, R & C played a good mix of upbeat and quieter songs and they even did a cover of “Say It Ain’t So”, that really got the crowd going. The lead singer looked like a younger, more awkward Conor Oberst!

After Ravens & Chimes, it was time to have our minds blown by Shout Out Out Out Out!! [http://www.shoutoutoutoutout.com] Two drummers + four bass players + two samplers + five synthesizers+ two vocoders + high kicks = pure awesome! The dance floor filled up the instant the Shout Out guys came on stage, everyone seemed to be having a great time. There was a surprising amount of room to dance which was great, I expected it to be the same as the last time I saw them (meaning, I would be covered in sweat that was not my own by the end of the night). We were treated to some new songs as well as old favourites like “Chicken Soup for the Fuck You”, “Forever Indebted” and, “Dude You Feel Electrical”. One of their new songs that I really like was “In the End, It’s Your Friends That Will Fuck You Over” – Hanson got the beer-soaked play list from the stage so maybe he’ll post it later.

Next up – Stars at the Malkin Bowl!

Yours,
Marlon

NP: (nothing)

Parenthetical Girls, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Los Campesinos! at the Plaza.

I would never say that I’m too old to enjoy music and going to shows but I think I’m too old for some kinds of music (Parenthetical Girls I’m looking at you!). I don’t want to come down too hard on them, I guess I’m just not that into shoe-gazing songs with whispery, warble-y vocals but I’m sure there are plenty of young hipsters out there that are.

You Say Party! was great as always. They’re nothing if not consistently entertaining performers. The sound seemed wonky and the vocals were hard to hear but I think that’s the Plaza’s fault and not theirs.

Los Campesinos! were lots of fun too. They seem to have good chemistry on stage and were having a good time – I’ve never seen such enthusiastic xylophone playing. The crowd was having just as much fun as the band, there was much dancing, singing, and fist pumping. There were sound problems during this part of the show too, so it was definitely the Plaza and not the bands. Over all, charming kids, these Los Campesinos!, so if you have the chance to see them live do so, it’ll be a crazy fun party.

Next up – Stars at the Malkin Bowl.

Yours,
Marlon
NP: (nothing)

I’m sitting in a Starbucks at the corner of Yonge and College right now, taking in the pedestrian traffic of Toronto while catching up on some work and interwebs time. If it all goes according to plan, I’ll get checking out No Gold tonight at Wavelength. It’s funny that I have to go all the way across the country to see a Vancouver band that I’ve already heard read a good deal about. I guess that speaks to how few shows I’ve been to recently, especially local acts.

Perhaps in my overly-caffeinated and sleep-deprived state, I’m a bit too reflectively for my own good. But it seems to me that over the last year or so, I’ve had much less time for keeping up with the music scene. The volume of music I’ve acquired recently has declined dramatically, as have the number of new acts that I’ve been able to check out. Not surprisingly, these downward trends have also been correlated with a massive drop off in my blogging as well. (Massive thanks to Marlon Bookcase for picking up the slack recently!)

The reasons could probably all be grouped under the umbrella of my ascending/descending into oldness. The considerable time and money I used to devote to my musical pursuits have been slowly slipping away. In their place, I now have increased increasing responsibilities and a mortgage to keep me company. I suppose most hardcore music geeks reach this stage at one point or another in their lives; I just thought I wouldn’t hit it until I’m at least 30.

So how do I cross this chasm, this earlier-than-expected sea change in my life? In the words of Buffy, I just have to deal. Human beings have an innate ability to adapt, and there’s no reason why I can’t make this work for me. Maybe I could explicitly schedule time in my calender to scour the internet for new music, sampling one track at a time from new artists instead of always insisting on getting the full album so as to not make a rash and uninformed judgment. And instead of writing long-ass reviews that go into the minutia of a show or a record, I could simply thrown down a couple hundred words and leave it at that. There’s more than one way to butter my toast!

Yes, I can deal. If Mariah Carey can pull a comeback from her increasingly-exposed ass, so can I. Metaphorically speaking, of course — there’s no way I can rock those booty-shorts.

NP: (ambient chattering)

Hahaha! First! I post first on the show!!

To begin with, I’d like to offer a postscript to my earlier post about Beirut. I feel that I didn’t show enough love for the band, saving all my praise for Zach himself. Today, we ran into three members of Beirut at Jackpot Records in Portland and I was my typical calm and collected self (and by that I mean gasping loudly and then announcing in a loud whisper to Hanson that “Beirut’s band is here!!”, so uncool Marlon!). Later on I realized that I should have just gone up to them and thanked them for the awesome show they did in Vancouver because they are all amazing musicians. So, to all members of Beirut – you guys are amazing, please come back to Vancouver soon!

Now, onto the post. This weekend, Death Cab for Cutie played the amphitheatre in Bend, Oregon with Mates of State and the Decemberists opening. It was a mind-blowing show! Mates of State aren’t one of my favourite bands but they are very adorable the way they make goo-goo eyes at each other while they play. They have a new record out and I think they mainly played songs from that – don’t take my word for it since I’m not familiar with their catalogue. They had their kids with them so it was a family affair.

The Decemberists brought the house down, then built it back up and then brought it down again! It’s been about a year since I last saw them and they had plenty of new songs mixed in with old favourites (including “Billy Liar”, “O Valencia”, “Culling of the Fold”, “The Crane Wife 1″, “The Perfect Crime 2″, and “A Cautionary Tale”). Colin Meloy seemed in an especially charming mood and played with a lot of energy, as did Jenny, John, Chris, and Nate. At one point during “Culling of the Fold” Colin jumped into the crowd, took a lap around the amphitheatre and then crowd-surfed back to the stage! There was also more audience participation later on when they performed “A Cautionary Tale” and John Moen and Chris Funk came out into the crowd with drums and cymbals to re-enact the founding of Bend, Oregon. Their set was short but sweet and I would let Colin Meloy lick my face any day. That is all.

Death Cab for Cutie were the night’s headliners and they transported the crowd to another dimension with their songs of adoration. It was the kick-off show of their new tour and Ben Gibbard and Co. were in fine form. They played songs off their new album “Narrow Stairs” including “I Will Possess Your Heart”, “No Sunlight”, “Long Division”, “Cath“, and “Bixby Canyon Bridge” and a good mix of older tracks from “Plans” and “Transatlanticism“. It had been pouring rain (hence the hobo raincoats) for most of the afternoon and, during one of their more epic songs, the clouds broke and we saw a gorgeous sunset, it was pretty mind-blowing. I had tears in my eyes twice when they played “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”. The crowd was also pretty good, once we moved back from the stage a little, and pretty much everyone sang along to every song. With the night sky full of stars they closed the show with “Crooked Teeth” and “Transatlanticism“. All in all, it was a solid show from start to finish and a great way to spend a weekend – hopefully Death Cab and the Decemberists will be back for shows in Vancouver before too long.

Next up – Los Campesinos! at the Plaza.

Marlon out.

NP: (nothing)