Music was pretty weird this year. Not weird, just content to chug along without making too many waves. As always, here’s a few things that stood out in the world of music from CiTR’s messiest office.
Best reason to not throw out your black-light poster:
Black Mountain- s/t
Put Sister Ray on your 8-track, Tusk on your cassette deck, and a banged-up copy of Sabbath’s self-titled on your turntable so the record skips over and over. Listen to all three simultaneously. Now: hot-knife two grams of hash. Now you’ve got it. The best release out of Vancouver this year, or any year. What year is it again? I’m soooooooo hungry.
Best proof that International Pop Underground wasn’t such a
bad idea after all:
Diskettes- Weeknights at Island View Beach
5 000 000 CiTR DJs can’t be wrong. The trio of Emily Belliveau, David Barclay and Maggie Livingston remind us of the time when twee was hip, love was lovely, and singing about it was cuter than two bunnies fucking. Also throwing in a 16 minute long sound-walk piece of the beach to end the disc somehow just isn’t pretentious.
Best reason to see bands outdoors and not have to shit in the
woods:
Terminal City Victory Square Block Party
Gorgeous day, DJ Sipreano spinning psychedelic platters that go for $200+ on eBay and a line-up of some of the best bands this city has to offer. The Pink Mountaintops’ encore of Flipper’s “Sex Bomb” was unreal. Too bad the MC was a fucking goof. On the upside though, the event also proved that Vancouver could have a public event without stabbings! Yay! Our city now has the status of coming in third at a Special Olympics marathon!
Best example that it is possible to ‘lounge’ up a song without
irony:
Paul Anka-Black Hole Sun
Sorry Seattle. Did you ever see The Jazz Singer? This is how it’s supposed to sound. The bluest fuckin’ skies you ever seen…
Best tune to BBQ to:
Rogue Wave- 10:1
The best tune to crank on a sunny day, with a beer in your hand and a smile on yer mug. It’s like Wayne Coyne and Bob Pollard decided to stop their hate on, took E, and jammed on Rhodes keyboards. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood when you hear this song.
Best box set to pick up if you can’t afford the Merzbox:
Bunny Brains- Box the Bunny
It’s pretty damn ambitious for a noise band to release a five CD BOX SET. It’s also pretty ambitious to sit down and listen to the damn thing all the way through. Despite its girth, this is a pretty entertaining listen. Recommended for the strong.
Best pick-up line to use at a
Sunn 0))) show:
“Are your clothes vibrating,
or is it just me?”
“Wolf” is to “super” as _________ is to “wolf”.
Orange. Sure, this year we were bombarded by: Wolf Eyes, Wolf Parade, Raised by Wolves, We are Wolves, Wolfsblood, and The Wolf Note. But for some reason, this year CiTR was inundated with CDs by: Orange, The Oranges Band, The Orange Peels, Oranger, The California Oranges, Orange Park, and
a re-issue by Glasgow’s finest, Orange Juice.
Best example that
Grindcore wasn’t just a
phase:
Jesu – s/t
At age 17, Justin Broderick proved he was one of the worlds most insane axe slingers during his tenure with Napalm Death. He then quit to start Godflesh and single-handedly create a new genre: Grindcore. Then nothing. For fi ve years. He returned this year with his two man project Jesu and, in doing so, released one of the most beautifully feedback-laden, distorto-drone records since Metal Machine Music.
Best WTF album of the year:
Cleopatra- extraterrestrialmonstrositymultigenremegasuperstargreat
estspectacularshowinouterspace
No shit. That’s the actual title. There is something so delightfully terrible about Cleopatra’s ‘music’ that it almost defi es description. In fact, it does defy description. Don’t take my word for it, check it yourself. https://www2.emusic.com/album/10853/10853129.html