It’s Christmas Eve and the festive-booze is about to start flowing. The next few days are likely to be packed, so I thought I’d better get the second part of my favourite Canadian songs of 2008 done before the holiday fun starts.

If you missed part 1, here it is. Otherwise, on to the second half. Once again, these songs are arranged in a mixtape order that I found pleasing (download the whole thing in a zip file here):

Human Highway - The Sound (Moody Motorcycle, Secret City)

The Paper Cranes - I’ll Love You Until My Veins Explode (Halcyon Days, Unfamiliar)

Forest City Lovers - Don’t Go (Haunting Moon Sinking, Out of This Spark)

The Magic - No Sound (The Magic EP, Independent)

Shad - The Old Prince Still Lives at Home (The Old Prince, Black Box)

The Great Outdoors - Sping Flower (Spring, DDG)

The Wet Secrets - Get Your Own Apartment (Rock Fantasy, Independent)

Peter Project - Fair and Square (Peter Project, Fuzzy Logic)

Valery Gore - Shoes of Glass (Avalanche to Wandering Bear, Do Right)

Paul LInklater - Hard Time of Year (Smooth Sailing and How, Jibcut)

Hey Rosetta! - There’s an Arc (Into Your Lungs, Sonic)

Snailhouse - Dollar Signs (Lies on the Prize, Unfamiliar)

The Violet Archers - Sunshine At Night (Sunshine At Night, Zunior)

Culture Reject - Inside the Cinema (Culture Reject, White Whale)

Elliott Brood - Miss You Now (Mountain Meadows, Six Shooter)

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Seriously, I took time putting these things in order, so download all of part 2 in a zip here and go back for part 1 here.

I’ll try to be back with more of my favourites from 2008 shortly, but for now it’s time to kick the Christmas shindigs into high gear. Happy holidays!

It’s about damn time I got around to looking back on 2008. What can I say, December’s a busy month. That said, I’ve spent the last few weeks pouring over the music that passed my way this year and am finally ready to divulge my favourites.

There’s nothing like diving in head first, so here are my 30 top Canadian tunes of the last 12 months. For ease of posting I’ve divided this list into 2 parts—essentially two mix-tapes, each subjectively arranged in a way that I thought would make a nice listen all the way through. Here’s the first half (grab it in a zip file here):

Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree (Soft Airplane, Flemish Eye)

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Don’t Haunt This Place (Hometowns, Independent)

Sleepless Nights - Got Caught (Turn Into Vapour, Forward Music Group)

Tricot Machine - L’ours (Tricot Machine, Grosse Boite)

Bells Clanging - The Law of Averages (The Law of Averages, Independent)

Plants & Animals - Feedback in the Field (Parc Avenue, Secret City)

HILOTRONS - Lovesuit (Happymatic, Kelp Records)

The Bicycles - Once Was Not Enough (Oh No, It’s Love, Fuzzy Logic Recordings)

Construction and Destruction - Ring Around the Moon (The Volume Wars, Independent)

Final Fantasy - The Butcher (Spectrum, 14th Century, Blocks Recording Club)

Old Man Luedecke - Proof of Love (Proof of Love, Black Hen Music)

Entire Cities - Dancing with my Brother (Deep River, Independent)

The Human Soundtrack - Babies Are the New Pursedogs (Organs for Sale, Independent)

Born Ruffians - I Need a Life (Red Yellow & Blue, Warp)

The Rest - Apples & Allergies (Apples & Allergies Single, Auteur Recordings)

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Enjoy part 1 (once again, here’s a zip of the whole thing). Check back tomorrow for pt.2 and keep an eye out later in the week for my favourite Canadian albums, EPs and international albums of 2008.

I should also mention that I was to lazy to bother with the whole “Best Songs” list until I saw the one posted by cvilleMUSE and that got my motor running—thanks for inspiring me to get off my ass, Shaun!

It’s December, so that pretty much means fighting through crowded shopping malls, going crazy with last minute work before the holidays and trying to convince your mom that they should by you another guitar pedal (ok, maybe that’s just me).  Whatever the case, we’re all busy this time of year. Thankfully, the good folks at Pop Echo Records are making it a bit easier for me to get off my lazy butt and post by announcing a free compilation in honour of the holidays.

Available here for a limited time, the compilation features a song from each of the first 10 releases by the growing the Edmonton, Alberta label.  These are the guys who brought you The Whitsundays, Tim Gilbertson and The Golden Hands Before God, so this is nothing to sneeze at!

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Not convinced? Give Tim Gilbertson a try and quit stalling on some great free music:

Tim Gilbertson - Palm Trees & Postcards

A quick update before I run off to terrorize the stage at my local open mic: Megan Hamilton, friend of WHK and ethereal Toronto musician extraodinaire, recently announced the release of her sophomore full-length album. Called See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard, the album is set to come out on April 7, 2009. The press releases describes it as a combination of “Mazzy Star/Joanna Newson/Beach Boys/Velvet Underground/Chad VanGaalen” so it should be pretty interesting!

Of course, April’s still far away, so what is Megan Hamilton doing for you lately? Well, on Thursday, Dec. 11 she’ll be part of the Familiar Music Holiday Party at The Boat. In fact, that show was the entire basis for this post (the album announcement was a happy coincidence), as the evening is in support of the music therapy program at SickKids Hospital. Get off your butts and head to The Boat for some great tunes and an excellent cause!

Megan Hamilton - Detroit

Hear more at her Myspace page or grab digital copies of her albums here.

Around this time every year I start combing through my music library looking for albums that I can slip on in the background of those wonderful holiday-themed family functions. What can I say? No one should have to endure multiple spins of Céline Dion’s latest Christmas outing. Basically, the goal is to spike the musical punch with the perfect blend of tunes that are hip enough to be enjoyed, but not so audacious that they alert fellow party-goers to the fact that they’re drinking homebrew instead of eggnog.

One year I slipped on some Solomon Burke and, of course, Feist is an easy sell, but it’s always nice to inject the festivities with something family members won’t recognize. Selecting the right albums can be a subtle and patient art—as much as I may want to groove to Q-Tip’s latest (aaah, yeah) that would blow my cover in an instant. Turns out my work is pretty much done this year though, as Valery Gore’s latest album, Avalanche to Wandering Bear, is the perfect candidate to keep me thoroughly entertained while casually subverting Céline, The Neville Brothers and whomever else my mom will have on repeat this month.

With catchy melodies, jaunty rhythms and an understated vocal delivery that is the icing on the cake, I can listen to Gore ad nauseam. Album opener “Shoes of Glass” is simply undeniable and tracks like “Worried Head” easily follow suit—they’re upbeat and bright without being too bombastic.  Moreover, songs like “Great Lakes” and “Angorra” exemplify the sweet subtlety that taking over the family radio would require.

Sure, it may seem a bit self-righteous to force new music on one’s family, but I’m already a blogger and that assumes a certain extent of vanity. Of course, there’s also the self-preservation angle, as I’m just trying to save myself from “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”. Either way, all I’m trying to do is make sure there’s at least some bearable music over the holidays and with Avalanche to Wandering Bear I can’t go wrong.

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Valery Gore - Shoes of Glass

Hear more at her Myspace page or grab a digital copy of Avalanche to Wandering Bear here.

This evening I threw on a couple albums to keep me entertained as I finished up some work. I figured a few of them for good candidates to provide a song of the week that I could post when the day-job was finished. Little did I know what I was getting myself into, as Rah Rah’s Going Steady was among those chosen and there was no way the Regina band’s highly enjoyable debut was going to settle for a simple one-song post.

Diverse, melodic and engaging throughout, it became very clear to me as each song passed that Going Steady is an album that deserves a bit more attention than a “song of the week” can give. Thus, here I am at the mercy of spontaneous bloggerly inspiration, eagerly hyperbolizing Rah Rah for all to hear.

Be it the upbeat and ridiculous fun of “Tentacles,” the contemplative and alluring slow-burn of “Castles,” or the anthemic chanting of “Cuba/Peru” there’s a lot to like on Going Steady. Just when you think you’ve got the album pegged as an upbeat and explosive indie rock extravaganza (which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing) they throw in a curve-ball like the country-style romp of “My Guarantee” to keep you on your toes. Furthermore, the album is able to stay diverse without sacrificing an overall sense of identity. Throughout it all there’s an underlying  effervescence and intensity—like the whole thing is a stick of dynamite that’s actually made of crayons.

It’s easy to hear echoes of the usual suspects—all of whom are listed as influences on the band’s Myspace page—but Going Steady is anything but a tired run-through of indie-rock history. It’s playful (“If I shaved my head I would become a genius. So why don’t you shave your head? Too afraid that I’ll look like a penis”), and endearing, but also engaging and able to be taken seriously when it needs to be. Basically, Going Steady is a great candidate for repeated listens.

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Come to think of it, if Herohill gets around to making their Saskatchewan mixtape it’d be a real shame if Rah Rah weren’t on it (got that, Ack and Naedoo?).

Rah Rah - Tentacles

Hear more at the band’s Myspace page or grab a digital copy of Going Steady here.

I walked into the bar on Tuesday night with a guitar case and a small piece of luggage brimming with pedals. Fully expecting to sound un-rehearsed, noisy and unimpressive, this was the follow-through on a vow I’d made to start working on a more than acoustic set involving loops and whatever else I could manage. There was a band on stage laying down some good ol’ rootsy rock & roll as I clumsily crashed through the doors. Not surprisingly, while the place was far from empty no one was really paying attention. This went double on this particular evening as everyone not on stage was glued to the coverage of the US election.

The band finished their set just as John McCain was working into his speech. He seemed dejected, but poised in defeat, though I heard more than a few whispers from people who just wanted the entertainment of hearing what celebrity-of-the-week, Sarah Palin, might have to say. Noticing a friend at the bar I made my way over to say hi. He, like most of the patrons, was in a perpetual trance of Obama-fueled disbelief and good-will.

The bar was loud, so the small television had subtitles on to help us make out the speeches. I squinted and watched the typed words carefully, trying to catch them in a screw up. Next to me a boisterously drunk blonde made eye-contact and screamed something along the lines of “Obama, man!” I couldn’t help but agree. Ah ha! There it was, McCain stuttered for a moment and the subtitles couldn’t make it out, inserting a random “id” into the sentence by accident. Victorious, I retreated to the entrance and stood next to my guitar case for fear that the previous band might mistake mine for one of theirs as they loaded up. Beside me the hostess of the open mic was busy informing a guy slumped over in his stool that he was too drunk to play, after which she assured me that I was on next. I didn’t recall her being so short.

Springing the latches of the little brown piece of luggage, I unloaded my mini-pedalboard and was set-up in seconds flat (it’s already pretentious enough of me to bring pedals to an open mic, I’d hate to take a long time getting ready too). I introduced myself with a loud “Howdy, folks,” to which the drunks in the crowd hooted back. I followed it up with some lame crack about how I brought some toys to play with and that it was about to get noisy.

Throughout my short set the middle-aged eyes of the previous band carefully studied the mysterious stomp-boxes at my feet. When I really started sloppily layering things with my loop pedal one of the guys exclaimed how he was witnessing “experiments in electronic music.” I didn’t know that was possible with an acoustic guitar and a couple pedals, but it was flattering enough that someone was paying attention to my noisy mess. After the third song I introduced myself again, thanked everyone for listening and unplugged.

The hostess admitted that they were taking another break because people wanted to hear Obama’s speech, which had begun just as I was winding down. Asking for feedback on the cacophony I’d just birthed, she told me to keep bringing the pedals, as it’ll sound better when I’m more practiced. She added that at one point, as Obama was getting started and I was going on about hot air balloons and submarines over a mess of loops, things took on a very cinematic and surreal tone, like I was playing the soundtrack to a political documentary. Hmm, I’ll take that.

As for Barrack Obama’s big moment, people in the small bar were overwhelmed and began to clap as his acceptance speech came to a close. I made a misstep by likening the prevalent “Yes, we can” mantra to televangelism, which was met with disdain from one of my compatriots. I didn’t realize we had all suddenly become such devout born-again Americans. Of course, my black friend at the bar was suitibly rapt with positive emotion at the election’s outcome. I think we all were to some extent. That said, my shit-disturbing Israeli friend quickly went into a rant about how it shouldn’t matter that Obama is Black as long as he’s the right man for the job. I saw his point, but pitied the fact that the empowering idea of positive change that had anesthetized the rest of us seemed lost on him.

I’m under the impression that the open mic resumed at some point, but for a little while we were all too taken by a solidarity and optimism to bother ruining it with vanity. On my way out the door one of the older guys from the previous band stopped me to compliment my set. He said he appreciated what I was doing. Surprised and distracted, I thanked him and left.

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Seeing as he’s much better at it than I am and was among those who inspired me to buy a loop pedal in the first place, here’s another clip of Culture Reject, this time performing “Beach” live for Zunior.tv:

Culture Reject - Fireflies Are Fading

My folks used to wait until after my birthday (late November) before decorating for Christmas. After that, all bets were off and we’d go wild with decorations—not to mention drooling over the Sears Wish Book…ahh, pages and pages of toys.

I (heart) music’s annual list of the hottest bands in Canada is somewhat of a similar event for me, as this mammoth list signals that it’s time to start thinking about my own year-end countdowns.  Of course, instead of looking forward to toys and holiday parties, it’s a time to look back over the year and take stock of all that was.

As for the big list itself, it’s an impressive and fairly comprehensive rundown of everyone who’s anyone in Canadian indie music.  I’m sure there are people who will bemoan the position of their favourite band, but if you ask me the top 3 of Caribou, Plants & Animals and Chad VanGaalen is pretty spot-on.  I was also very pleasantly surprised to see Bruce Peninsula take #5.  Sure, they’ve only released 2 songs so far, but there’s a fire brewing behind these guys & gals and its going to explode in 2009.

Of course, as is the nature of the beast, half of my picks didn’t make the final top 30, but Matthew’s rounded up all the straggler’s here.  I was particularly surprised that Old Man Luedecke wasn’t represented, but judging by the comments below the list I’m not the only one who wanted to see the renowned banjo troubadour given some attention.  Other picks of mine that didn’t make it included Culture Reject, whose self-titled debut is definitely one of my favourites from this year, as well as Jenny Omnichord, The Burning Hell and Sunparlour Players.

Check out the mighty list for yourself right here and let the year-end madness begin!

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Speaking of Culture Reject, here he is performing “Inside the Cinema” for Zunior.tv:

Culture Reject - Inside the Cinema

Old Man Luedecke - Proof of Love

There are so many ways I could twist the title of this EP into a cheesy tag line of praise (see above for one example…). Fortunately for you, I’m going to resist the urge to rejoice in puns as best I can (no promises). The fact is that The Law of Averages, the debut EP from Bells Clanging, is simply an excellent outing.

Made up of members of Plumtree and Bontempi, Bells Clanging come to the table already equipped with a knack for sweet sounding addictive indie pop. In fact, you don’t have to look any further than the title track for a perfect example of the band’s mastery of the craft. Follow that up with the driven and ridiculously intoxicating “Even Stars Burn Out” and you’ll be hooked. Seriously, I’ve been listening to these two tracks nonstop for a week.

That’s not to say the remaining 3 songs are slouchers. Put it this way, I was going to choose one of the previously mentioned two songs as my song of the week, but the entire EP is so damn enjoyable that I couldn’t justify focusing on one tune alone.

In case I haven’t articulated this point well enough yet, Bells Clanging have an innate ability to craft excellent and compelling melodies. The result is an EP free of misteps. Whether it’s the sugary-sweetness of the excellent title track, the arpeggiated intensity of “Morning Episode” or the slowed-down ease of “Little Star” and “Undone” (the latter of which is currently envelloping me with its seductive rhythm), The Law of Averages is a must listen.

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Bells Clanging - The Law of Averages

Hear more at the band’s Myspace page or grab a digital copy of The Law of Averages here.

Sure, I’m a little late to the party (pun intended), but as the smoke of last night’s federal election clears there are a number of issues cropping up.

Before I begin, allow me to address any confused time-travelers from the past or people waking up from 2 year long comas: no, this isn’t January 2006. Furthermore, to all our friends in other nations: no, Canadian television isn’t so bad that we’ve taken to repeating election coverage to fill our Tuesday night programming. It just so happens that the results of last night’s vote are just incredibly similar to our last one and, for all intents and purposes, we are right back where we started. I prefer to call it a recount…two years later…and costing millions of tax dollars…

Of course, arguably one of the biggest talking points regarding this election is voter turnout, or lack thereof. In fact, a record was set last night for weakest turnout in Canadian history, with less than %60 of people voting.  I know a few people who were on the fence about voting whom I tried to convince that sitting in their basement in lone protest does not a movement make. Looks like I could have been wrong, as it would appear that around 10 million Canadians did just that. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if that sends a message…

The other issue that seems to be raising tempers everywhere is that Harper broke his own rules to call an election early (he had put it in place that there would be a fixed vote every four years) only to end up with the same minority government (albeit marginally stronger) that he had in the first place. People are wondering why the hassle (not to mention millions of tax dollars spent), especially as it’s already been predicted that this “new” minority government won’t last long at all.

Unfortunately, Harper was the last choice for artistically minded people and musicians all over the country made that known in songs of protest prior to the election. A prime example is the AVAAZ collective made up of the likes of K-OS, Jason Collett, Hawksley Workman, Sarah Harmer and others. The song (posted below) is pretty bad and, as is mentioned here and here, will likely never be listened to again now that the election is over, but the message was clear: Harper=bad. If you’re looking for a more tongue-in-cheek offering, then Hooded Fang’s “Arts Gala” is the tune for you (also posted below). It paints a lavish and decadent picture of the sort of artistic event that Harper wants to cut funding for, arguing that Canadian artists are all just rich caviar snorting elitists who don’t need the money (I don’t know about you, but I can’t even afford to look at a caviar…).

In any case, we’ll see how long Canada’s third minority government in a row lasts. Oh politics—you wily and unruly beast.

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Avaaz - You Have a Choice

Hooded Fang - Arts Gala