Friday, December 28, 2012

My picks for Best of 2012

Here's my annual list of my favourite albums of 2012. I'll start recapping them from #10 to #1 in the next couple of days here. Tune in to CFBX on January 11th, 2013 at 8 PM Pacific, for the radio countdown. It was a great year for Canadian music!

1) Eight and a Half - Eight and a Half (Arts and Crafts)
2) PS I Love You - Death Dreams (Paper Bag)
3) Shrouded Strangers - Lost Forever (Izniz)
4) Tanlines - Mixed Emotions (True Panther Sounds)
5) Purity Ring - Shrines (Last Gang)
6) David Byrne and St. Vincent - Love This Giant (4AD)
7) Daphi - Jiaolong (Merge)
8) Ringo Deathstarr - Mauve (Sonic Unyon)
9) Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)
10) Parallels - XII (Marigold)

Honourable Mentions: Men Without Hats - Love in the Age of War, Dirty Ghosts - Metal Moon, Gang Signs - Gang Signs, Grimes - Visions, Howler - America Wake Up

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Who We Lost in 2012

Larry Reinhart (Iron Butterfly)
Bob Weston (Fleetwood Mac)
Dave Alexander
Robbie France (UFO)
Jimmy Castor
Johnny Otis
Etta James
Whitney Houston
Michael Davis (MC4)
Pierre Juneau
Billy Strange
Red Holloway
Roland Bautista (Earth, Wind and Fire)
Davy Jones
Mike Hossack (Doobie Brothers)
Eddie King
Eric Lowen
Nick Noble
Jerry McCain
Earl Scruggs
Andrew Love
Graham Simpson (Roxy Music)
Greg Ham (Men at Work)
Levon Helm
Tommy Marth (The Killers)
Charles Pitts
Adam Yauch/MCA
Donald "Duck" Dunn
Belita Woods (Parliament)
Doug Dillard
Donna Summer
Robin Gibb
Doc Watson
Herb Reed (The Platters)
Bob Welch
Maria Cole
Kitty Wells
Larry Hoppen
Bill Doss
Tony Sly (No Use for a Name)
Hal David
Joe South
Andy Williams
Raylene Rankin
David S. Ware
Bill Dees
Natina Reed (Blaque)
Bob French
Martin Fay (The Chieftains)
Billy Scott
Ian Campbell
Earl Carroll (The Coasters)
Mickey Baker
Sarah Kirsch (Pinhead Gunpowder)
Dave Brubeck
Ravi Shankar
Willie Ackerman
Jimmy McCracklin
Lee Dorman (Iron Butterfly)
Mike Scaccia (Ministry)
Ray Collins (Mothers of Invention)

Monday, December 17, 2012

Boyd Rice Returns

Whenever someone asks me to describe what experimental music is, I usually end up talking about the early pioneers in industrial music: Throbbing Gristle, Z'ev, Monte Cazzaza and Boyd Rice, aka NON.

Rice began recording back in 1975. This year, Boyd Rice returned with a new record on the Mute record label, called "Back to Mono". While many industrialists have hung up their boots, Rice continues on.

What is experimental music. NON is experimental music. Experimental music is about non-conventional approaches to music, often from very strange or entirely oblique angles. For example, using non-musical things as musical instruments, like a high tension wire sampled into a synthesizer to create backbeats, or using feedback as a part of a song. What happens to music when you take away the basics of what makes it music, such as melody, beat or rhythm? Or replacing pleasant sounds with harsh ones?

NON did all of these. He works almost exclusively with noise, and used tape-loops extensively (that's a reel to reel tape machine rigged to play repeated passages). He was one of the first to experiment with using the turntable itself as an instrument, playing with off-centre drilled holes in his second single to allow the record play at different oscillations, making the music different depending on which hole the record was played from. He also used lock-grooves. Normally, records spin from the outside in, playing an entire side of a record as it spirals into the centre. Lockgrooves lock the needle into one rotation, creating a repetitive noise that can only be stopped or changed by moving the needle to another part of the record.

The live experience of music was also an important part of the industrial movement. Throbbing Gristle was legendary for playing sounds thought to incite their crowds into uncomfortable mental states, and goading their audience from the stage into violence. NON used a shoe polisher as an instrument on stage, and an instrument called a "rotoguitar", a guitar with an electric fan attached to it. They often used multi-media in their stage shows, projecting movies or still scenes on the back of the stage.

NON's music is not easy to listen to, but that's the point. Does music need to be pretty or easily accessible to? What about making it difficult to listen to, or even uncomfortable or impossible to listen to? Is it still music? This is what experimental music is.

http://youtu.be/U4TmBf_cVLo


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Same as it Ever Was: The Rolling Stone Best of 2012

It's time tos tart seeing lots of best of lists from music critics. Rolling Stone usually goes with a safe list, full of old, reliable favourites, eschewing innovation in preference of propping up established stars. This year sees little change to that formula.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-albums-of-2012-20121205

Yes, that's Bruce Springsteen at #1. He's been making the same album for 25 years, and it's at #1 this year. Other fossils filling out the Top 10: Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Green Day. Admittedly, noise rockers Japandroids are in at #9, but most of the Top 10 is old rockers and modern hit makers.

Cruising down the charts we have more of the same: Jimmy Cliff, Leonard Cohen, Dr. John, Dave Matthews, Donald Fagen? Really, Donald Fagen? And there's the modern guys paying tribute to older styles (John Mayer, Mumford and Sons), and your established hitmakers (Nas, Taylor Swift).

Interesting picks are there, but their further down the top 50, like Grimes, Grizzly Bear, Amadou and Mariam, Titus Andronicus and Escort (disco!).

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

2013 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

Today, we got the inductees list for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here's what a predicted, previously:

My picks for the Hall this year are: Donna Summer (she's been nominated the past few years, her death earlier this year should make her a shoo-in), The Marvelettes (there's almost always a 50s and 60s act inducted, this is the best act here), Albert King (trail-blazing bluesman), Rush and Chic. Kraftwerk, PE and NWA will all get in, but probably not this year.

Our inductees are: Rush, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Albert King, Randy Newman and Heart.

So I got 3 out of the 6. Not bad.

Donna Summer, I think, was the only shoo-in. Her death earlier this year and her previous nominations made it a no-brainer. I suspected Rush would get in, but I also could see an anti-prog rock backlash there. I'm a bit surprised that Public Enemy got in, but there has been a run in present years on hip-hop, with the Beastie Boys getting in last year, and Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash going before them. The rest are all solid picks.

Kraftwerk next year!