Canada: 2007

Happy New Year, everyone, and thanks for making 2007 a blast. QBiM rounds out the year that was with a look at our favourite music from the Great White North in 2007. Some of these artists and albums have already appeared on our other lists (albums and songs) for 2007, but here they get recognition with their fellow countrymen. True patriot love, indeed. See you in 2008!

Sensing the numbness

So I’m sitting here at my kitchen counter, staring outside as the cold air wraps its grip around all inanimate objects and leaves a crusty layer of frost that needs to be chiseled through. I have to head out there soon; first to go to the gym, then to go to the grocery store, and then back home to prepare for an ill-conceived housewarming/holiday party which I’ve been duped into hosting.

How do I feel about this? This, this is how I’m feeling right now:

The Killers (featuring Lou Reed) “Tranquilize”
~ from the album Sawdust, 2007 (Island)

I’ve had a copy of The Killers‘ Sawdust sitting on my desk for awhile now, and hadn’t been able to give it a proper listen until a few days ago. I’d heard the Joy Division cover thanks to the Control soundtrack, but had avoided hearing “Tranquilize” until the moment I put the CD in. I lost interest in the Killers after hearing the Sam’s Town album, but on this collection of b-sides and covers the spirit of invention and creativity runs strong again. I always thought “Who Let You Go” was a great pop song that never got a chance to be a hit single, and there’s some other interesting moments here: “All the Pretty Faces” would have been a welcome addition to Sam’s Town, and “Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll” has a tongue-in-cheek fun about it that too often gets overshadowed by Brandon Flowers’ facial hair.

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Indie Canadian goodness: Born Ruffians have unveiled the artwork for their debut album, Red, Yellow And Blue. It’s a thing of beauty. Stereogum has it here (plus a link to the BR track “Humming bird”).

More indie Canadian goodness: The Russian Futurists are releasing The Weight’s On The Wheels in the spring. See their Myspace for more.

the blahs

It’s still quiet on the blogging front, but here’s a few item of note today:

Part 2 of the Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty is available now. Some interesting choices, indeed. I’m curious to see what ends up being on next week’s final Part 3.

Blog Fresh Radio’s weekly podcast is a look back at 2007 with a number of prominent bloggers from The Daily Growl, Lost In Your Inbox and Quick Before It Melts (smile).

If you have a few days to spare, Marathonpacks has posted its year-end recap/novella.

There’s a tonne of artists and songs I never got to post about this year, and I’ll sincerely try and compile some of them in upcoming posts, but I didn’t want this post to go by without including at least one sonic nugget to download for the day. The Terrordactyls are a fun-loving duo who take quirky to the nth degree. we’ll get to them soon enough, but for now here’s a sneak listen:

The Terrordactyls “Devices”

Radiohead on Current TV

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Ruby Isle rework “Gila” by Beach House as the next cover in their elbo.ws cover song project.

4 Ever Delayed reaction

All this talk of Led Zeppelin lately has put me in a pensive mood. I’m not interested in a Zeppelin reunion myself because they’ve never been a part of my musical life–big arena-rock is just not my taste. However, the reaction of the fans to the second coming of Zeppelin has got me thinking: who would I want to see reform? The obvious answer would be The Smiths, followed by New Order, and… then who? The Clash would be cool, but seeing as this weekend was the anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death that’s never going to happen. The Stone Roses, perhaps, but the chances of them being able to match or better that debut album is pretty slim.

This then brings me to Manic Street Preachers, who haven’t ever really broken up, but who had fallen off my musical radar for awhile. My love affair with the Manics is sort of similar to an upright prude’s obsession with his expansive and dog-eared collection of porn: it’s dirty and out of character, but that’s why we love them. I’m a sucker for a classic pop song, but the Manics made rocking out and rocking hard fun because of the level of intelligence they brought to it. The Holy Bible (1994) was my real introduction to the band, and I quickly went back to pick up their previous two albums (Generation Terrorists (1992) and 1993’s Gold Against the Soul) which I had erroneously dismissed as being derivative and vacant. Then once Richey Edwards went missing in 1995, I became fascinated with his disappearance and how the band would cope with a member–and life-long friend–who simply disappeared off the face of the earth.

Everything Must Go (1996) was their attempt at exorcising the ghosts from the house as it were, and the beginning of phase 2 as a three-piece. Some early fans lost interest as the band began to gain more recognition and mainstream success with their post Richey albums (Everything… and 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours). I started to lose interest around the time of Know Your Enemy (2001), which felt flat in comparison to it’s predecessors (we’ll discuss 2004’s Lifeblood another time).

When Send Away the Tigers was released earlier this year, I was a bit hesitant to pay it any real attention. Last year’s solo albums from James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire were huge let downs, so I didn’t hold out much hope for anything that would reignite my interest. In fact, I didn’t really give it a fair chance, even though I ran out and bought it he day it came out. The album sat on my shelf, ripped to the computer and slotted away; tracks were skipped over on the iPod’s shuffle in favour of the flavour of the moment.

I didn’t give Send Away The Tigers any consideration for my end of year list and didn’t expect to see it on any other list, but there it was on Q’s Best 50, sitting at 16. As I read the write up for the list I was struck by this passage: “Their eighth album found the Manics reigniting their rage, introducing a generation who have never heard of Richey Edwards to the joys of explosively intelligent arena-rock…” That’s when I realized that Manic Street Preachers are kind of like my Led Zeppelin: a group of hard rocking guys from the (not too distant) past who have returned to show the young ‘uns how it’s done, and remind us older guys of why it had to be done in the first place. They don’t mean the same thing to the young new audience who ’s first introduction to the band is “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” as they do to me, but they’re not expected to. So in the last few weeks, as I’ve gone back to give Send Away The Tigers another chance, I’ve come to appreciate the Manics all over again, and have had the spark of rage, passion and honesty set aflame in me anew.

You just can’t get that from a Camera Obscura record, can you?

Manic Street Preachers (with Nina Persson) “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”
~ from the album Send Away the Tigers, 2007

The band has made a Christmas song available via their website for the holiday season:

Manic Street Preachers “Christmas Ghost”
~ from Manic Street Preachers official site, 2007

I just couldn’t let this post go without this one, too:

Manic Street Preachers “Last Christmas (TFI Friday Performance)”
~ from the compilation Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of Manic Street Preachers