Who I Saw in 2008 - Kaiser Chiefs

The Mod Club, November 18

I arrived at the Mod Club from the CNMAs just in time to get a beverage and squeeze myself into a small place in the capacity crowd near the back. I still haven't got a clue who was, or if there was an opening act. The Mod Club was sold out and ready to roll when the Kaiser Chiefs took to the stage opening with Spanish Metal. I hadn't had much time to absorb their new album, Off With Their Heads so like everyone else I was waiting for the big hits.

High energy, lead singer Ricky Wilson ruled the stage and seemed to be everywhere all at once, including an early run through the crowd - somehow coming within about 10 feet of where I was standing and then getting back through the crowd to the stage in record time. The hits kept coming - Never Miss a Beat, Every Day I Love You Less and Less, Ruby and Modern Way.

Near the end, Wilson crowdsurfed his way through I Predict a Riot - and ended up running the length of the Mod Club bar and helping himself to a drink during Take My Temperature. By the time the show closed with rousing sing-a-long Oh My God the crowd and the Chiefs were spent. Definitely one of the best shows I've seen.

Smithistory

The Smiths were one of the most influential bands of the 80s and onward. With Morrissey's new album Years of Refusal due for release in February, I (naturally) started making a list of my favorite Smiths songs in my head. So, here they are... agree? Disagree? What are your favorite Smiths songs?

1. How Soon Is Now
2. Girlfriend In a Coma
3. Is It Really So Strange
4. This Charming Man
5. Panic
6. Sheila Takes a Bow
7. The Queen Is Dead
8. William It Was Really Nothing
9. Please, Please Let me Get What I Want
10. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Music y'all should hear - The Black Angels

I love discovering a great band on a casual recommendation, such was the case when Brian Carter twittered about a great Velvet Underground-influenced band that he was enjoying listening to today.

The Black Angels are (another) great band out of Austin. Seriously folks, what is in the water there? I haven't visited Austin yet, but have always had a plan in the back of mind to hit the Austin City Limits festival in September. Anyways, back to the band. Formed in Austin in 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground song The Black Angels Death Song. Even their logo of a reversed image of Nice speaks loudly again to the Velvet's influence.

The Black Angels have released 2 albums: 2006's Passover and 2008's Directions to See a Ghost. They've been featured on the soundtrack of Kevin Bacon's Death Sentence and on the TV show Fringe. Nothing on their site about any current touring right now, but I will be keeping my eye out for them if they decide to venture this far north. But, I'd be happy enough to go to Austin to see them also.

Check out their site here.

Black Angels - Young Men Dead from Death Sentence

Music y'all should hear - GlasVegas

I was turned onto GlasVegas by a coworker with great taste who passed on their debut CD to me. I fell in love immediately with the heavy sound, the singer's thick Glasgow accent and specifically the songs Geraldine and It's My Own Beating Heart That Makes Me Cry.

Glasvegas was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 2003 led by cousins James (guitar & vocals) and Rab Allen (lead guitar) alongwith Paul Donoghue (bass) and Caroline McKay (drums). Their name is a tongue-in-cheek play on words of their home town. After releasing 4 independent singles I'm Gonna Get Stabbed , Go Square Go , It's My Own Beating Heart That Makes Me Cry , & Daddy's Gone - they became the subject of a label bidding war. Eventually they signed to Columbia and flew to New York to record their debut album. The debut album went on to peak at #2 in the UK, leading to a brilliant Christmas EP entitled A Snow Flake Fell (It Felt Like a Kiss).

They are set to appear on David Letterman on January 6th, and their first two US dates in Boston and New York are already sold out. Still no news on a Toronto date, but miracles have happened before.

Check out their site.

Music y'all should hear - The Airborne Toxic Event

Discovered this band earlier tonight when I saw that 'Sometime Around Midnight' had been added to this week's BBC Radio 1 playlist. Gave it a listen on Blip.fm and now I'm digging their album 'The Airborne Toxic Event'on my iPod. The group was formed in 2006 in Los Angeles by fiction writer Mikel Jollet, who began writing a series of songs after being diagnosed with Autoimmune Deficiency. Mikel was joined by keyboardist Steven Chen, bassist Noah Harmon, drummer Daren Taylor, and keyboardist and violinist Anna Bulbrook. Last year the LA Times tagged them as one of the Top 3 LA Bands to watch in 2008.

Their name The Airborne Toxic Event was taken from the 1985 book 'White Noise', in which a poisonous chemical cloud is released from a railcar. In 2006, they released an Ep titled Does This Mean You're Moving On? In 2008 they released their debut album The Airborne Toxic Event.

Much to my chagrin I just recalled that The Airborne Toxic Event performed on the second stage at last September's Virgin Music Festival here in Toronto. I must have been camped out in the Bacardi dance tent or forcing my way to the front of the crowd at the main stage for Oasis at the time. After checking their tour schedule I see they will be back performing at Toronto's El Mocambo on March 9th, 2009. They are also scheduled to appear on David Letterman on January 16th. Check for more tour dates in your town here.

My Favourite Albums of 2008

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
2. Stay Positive - The Hold Steady(Vagrant)
3. Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
4. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT (Columbia)
5. Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket (ATO)
6. Furr - Blitzen Trapper (Sub Pop)
7. Youth Novels - Lykke Li (LL/Atlantic)
8. Death Magnetic - Metallica (Warner Bros)
9. Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie (Sub Pop)
10. Attack and Release - Black Keys (Nonesuch)
11. Rook - Shearwater (Matador)
12. Saturdays = Youth - M83 (Mute)
13. Kensington Heights - Contantines (Arts & Crafts)
14. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)
15. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver (Jagjagwar)
16. GlasVegas - GlasVegas (Columbia)
17. The Stand Ins - Okkervil River (Jagjagwar)
18. Santogold - Santogold (Downtown)
19. Dear Science - TV on the Radio (Sub Pop)
20. Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne
21. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
22. No Age - No Age
23. Skeletal Lamping - Of Montreal (Polyvinyl)
24. Off With Their Heads - Kaiser Chiefs (B-Unique)
25. Carried to Dust - Calexico (Quarterstick)

Movies I Love: 24 Hour Party People

The story of 'Tony Wilson', host of 'So It Goes' - the only place people in late 70s Manchester could get a their fix of upcoming punk and new wave bands like The Jam, Sex Pistols, Stranglers and Siouxie & the Banshees. He and others are inspired by seeing a Sex Pistols concert in 1976 - and Wilson decides to abandon the tv show and open a club and manage artists full time. The first act he is involved with is Warsaw, soon to be re-named Joy Division. The film documents their beginnings, and the tragic suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. They go on to become New Order and Wilson creates Factory records. The second act of the movie features the rise of the Hacienda club, rave culture and its leading purveyors: the Happy Mondays.

I could watch this movie a hundred times and probably will now that I have purchased the DVD. Steve Coogan is great as the late Tony Wilson and frequently breaks the scene and provides extra commentary to the viewer. Great cameos from Howard DeVoto (Buzzcocks), Mark E. Smith (The Fall) and Paul Ryder (Happy Mondays)



Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart



Happy Mondays - Step On