MY TOP RECORDS OF 2009 PART 3

the lollipop shoppe- just color
fred cole is a god. the lollipop shoppe (dumbest band name ever?) was like his 4th or 5th band when this came out in 1968 and he's still going strong to this very day. i got to see pierced arrows twice last year and i can safely say that they rock harder than any other band i've seen and they're punk as fuck. anyway, this is a solid garage/psych album with a nice balance of rockers and trippy flower shit. "you must be a witch" is the jam.


lindsey buckingham- law and order
surprise, surprise... lindsey buckingham. creepy cover much? the first song FUCKING SUCKS, all i can think is that cocaine must have had a large part to do with it, but then it's "trouble", probably one of the best songs ever. the rest of the album rides that amazing/annoying line pretty hard. you're either into it or you're not.


ariel pink- anything
the best shit since old guided by voices made by a drugged l.a. adult-contempo midget.


nilsson- pussy cats
harry nilsson could've released an album of him farting and i would be into it. like any of his albums, not every song is awesome (why the fuck would you include a version of "loop de loop"?), but as if it matters. i think i almost prefer the destroyed vocals on this album to the total perfection of his earlier singing. him and john lennon used to get WASTED.


yellowman- mister yellowman
all hail the albino dancehall king. so good.


suicide- s/t
psychotic electro-rockabilly. this music makes me want to do druuuuuugs. so ahead of it's time this album isn't even out yet.


sports- drumheller
ryan and darcy hit a total slam dunk home run touchdown. all of ryan's other bands have been amazing (the mennonites, anyone?), but sports is the first to get heavy. and it slays. if you don't already own a copy of this record, shame on you. you should email triplecrownaudiorecordings@gmail.com and inquire, or if you live in vancouver just go down to scratch and pick one up.




wipers- is this real?/youth of america/over the edge
carrie brownstein once told me that ladyhawk reminded her of the wipers. my stoke has never worn off. very flattering, but AS IF! if i could make something even half as ripping as any of these albums, i could die satisfied.


television personalities- and don't the kids just love it
another band i'd never checked out until recently. a kind of first wave british punk/pop/mod lo-fi hybrid. great music for jumping on the couch. i think i'll go and put this record on right now...

i've got more, but i've got to go and force feed myself booze.

crappy new year!

MY TOP RECORDS OF 2009 PART 2

ramones- end of the century
fuck people that hate this record. what, you wanted them to just continue making the same record over and over again? well, actually i guess that's ok, too. sorry, nevermind. i think the pairing of the ramones with phil spector is genius. maybe it doesn't all work, but come on, the ramones ARE a bubblegum pop band. their version of "baby i love you" may just be better than the ronettes'.


b.b. king- live at the regal
trust me, i never thought i'd be into b.b.king. this shit is strictly for dads. and then i listened to this record a few times. i guess it's just a symptom of being over thirty. it's THE TONE, man, THE TONE... also, you gotta love the audience going completely batshit the whole time.


shotgun jimmie- still jimmie
yes, he's still jimmie and here's hoping he always will be. a modern canadian classic.


todd rundgren- a wizard, a true star
equally annoying and amazing, this is truly one for the heads. just get baked, put on side one and let "international feel" melt your skull. then have a nervous breakdown, because this thing is all over the fucking map.


the saints- (i'm) stranded
released in punk's year zero 1977, this album must have shredded people's faces off when they heard it. seemingly coming out of nowhere (a.k.a. brisbane, australia), the saints were louder, faster and rawer than the ramones or the sex pistols, but still managed to include a couple killer slow jams on their debut (you can't fuck with "messin' with the kid"). this record blows my mind every time i listen to it.


the reigning sound- too much guitar
i know they released a new album this past year, but this is the one that really does it for me. don't get me wrong, i like they softer, gentler, more soulful greg cartwright, but i LOVE the louder, nastier, dirtier greg. the greg from the oblivians. too much guitar? never enough.


japan- quiet life
i just checked out japan for the first time this year and soon became completely obsessed. i've always been a sucker for new romantic synth pop, but japan kind of stand apart from the rest of the pack. totally weird sounding. quiet life breaks from the glammy guitar-based bowie worship of their first couple albums (which are also good in their own way) and heads deep into icy synth territory. also david sylvian is hot.


the seeds- s/t
perhaps the ultimate primitive snotty garage punk masterpiece. songs so stupid (and catchy) they're genius. and that voice, oh THAT VOICE...

more to come...

MY TOP RECORDS OF 2009 PART 1

yup, it's that time of the year again. i can't fucking believe 2009 is already over, what the fuck happened? where did the time go? where am i?
you know, i'll be honest, i'm sure there were plenty of great albums put out by all kinds of lovely bands this last year, but i never heard them. well, i heard a few. anyway, these are the records that ruled my world over the last 12 months in no particular order.


the undertones- s/t
there is nothing wrong with this album, absolute perfection from start to finish. irish catholic pop punk with an adolescent billy goat singer and songs about girls and chocolate.



fleetwood mac- tango in the night/mirage
fleetwood mac is perhaps the only band from the 60's to not just survive the 80's, but to actually evolve and release some of their very best (and most commercially successful) material. don't get me wrong, i LOVE the peter green era and i practically worship the album tusk, but these days nothing does it for me like side 1 of tango in the night. lindsey buckingham's genius is on full blast, not just on his own songs, but on all the little touches he adds to christine and stevie's. mirage is more of a grower, but full of amazing songs and well worth checking out.


alex chilton- like flies on sherbert
this album is a total abortion. being a big star fan (who isn't?), the first time i heard alex chilton's first solo album (if you don't count big star's 3rd) i was admittedly a bit confused and bummed out. is it SUPPOSED to sound like shit? ya, i guess it is. after my initial shock, i became completely OBSESSED with this little hot mess. i dare anyone to listen to "hook or crook" twice and not think it's the best fucking song ever recorded. period.



bob dylan- saved/shot of love
christianity is stupid. i feel like i have a right to say that because it was a big part of my life for a long time. i'm not sure what it is, did i force myself to listen to and like these albums because i'm such a huge dylan fan and i feel like i have to accept anything and everything he puts out (including his recent christmas album. barf.), or is it just that these albums are actually deeply awesome? even if you don't believe or agree with the message behind a lot of these songs, it's hard not to see the passion and intensity (and strange anger and bitterness) he's putting out here. i get the impression bob's been full of shit and kind of hiding behind himself on a lot of his earlier albums, but on these there's a real openness and honesty that's hard to deny. praise the lord!


wire- chairs missing
sure it's not as front to back amazing as pink flag and it's definitely more experimental and "difficult", but it's got "outdoor miner" and i could listen to that song all day.


felt- gold mine trash
chorus guitar + funny tom verlaine-esque vocals + 80's british college rock artiness + good lyrics = awesome. apparently lawrence hayward was straight-edge, but he prefered to be known as "new puritan". that's funny to me.


various artists- hipsville 29 b.c.
i LOVE old garage comps and this is one of the best i've heard. the best part about old garage bands is that sometimes the more generic and obscure they are the better. the title track by the sparkles and the song "morning" by some other band whose name i forget rule.

anyway, gotta run, i'll post more tomorrow...

XMAS

WOULD YOU RATHER...?

OR

BRAINDEAD (1992 a.k.a. DEAD ALIVE)

good stuff.

BRAIN DEAD (1990)

starring bill pullman AND bill paxton. awesome.

WOULD YOU RATHER...?

OR

PUPPIES!

how fucking cute is THAT shit?

just a reminder:
if you live in the toronto area, we will be out there playing a couple shows with canada's finest the constantines to celebrate their 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! can you believe that shit? 10 years and they're still talking to each other... and ROCKING with each other! anyway, those guys are some good shits. so, we'll be playing a "secret" show somewhere within the city limits of toronto on thursday night (the 17th) i have no idea where, then we'll be driving out to swinging london for a show at call the orifice on friday (always a great place to get yelled at by frat boys), before returning to toronto and playing the grand and storied halls of lee's palace on saturday evening. oh, did i mention that we'll ALSO be playing with canada's other songbird (other than anne murray, i mean) julie doiron? yup, boy howdy. obviously it's gonna be killer and you should come to one or all of the shows if just to say that you were there to witness a piece of canadian music history unfolding. or not. it's gonna rock whether you're there or not.

you'll have to excuse me, i'm at work and i have to go clean up human feces now.

D.A.T.D. ALBUM TEASER PART 3

CHASING SLEEP (2000)

WOULD YOU RATHER...?

OR

CHILDREN BY THE MILLIONS SING FOR ALEX CHILTON

anyone who's hung out with me has probably heard this story before. twice.

so , we were on a tour a couple years back with a band called saturday looks good to me, both bands on the way to south by southwest in austin. we were in phoenix, waiting around to play at a kind of art gallery/venue space, just sitting in the van drinking beers, wishing we had some weed. lo and behold, like some fucking weed angel sent from heaven, this kid walks up to the van and asks us casually if we want to smoke a joint. being in the states with drug paranoia on full blast, we dragged the kid into the van, closed all the doors and windows (in the dry arizona desert heat), scoured the street for signs of cops and lit up. after a bit of small talk, it came out that the kid was originally from memphis so we quizzed him with the usual elvis/graceland rap ("you ever get stoned and hang out at graceland, man?" shit like that. "you think elvis smoked weed, man?" and so on...), lot of good music from there, bla bla bla. i mentioned big star and the kid, cool as a fucking cucumber, says "i smoked weed with alex chilton once." of course i immediately shit my pants. the kid then tells us the following tale:
some buddies and him were out at some show when they noticed alex chilton standing in the shadows watching the bands. after a while they finally scraped up the balls to go over and talk to him (i'm not sure what the fuck one would say to alex chilton if one were to see him at a show, "so, big star... pretty good band." i would maybe die.). anyway, i guess they didn't nerd out too hard on him, because he ended up asking them if they wanted to go smoke weed with him at his place (i would TOTALLY DIE!). they go back to his place where he has large amounts of various strains of weed stored in big film canisters on the mantle from which he proceeds to roll joint after joint, passing each joint around once before putting it out in a huge overflowing ashtray underneath the coffee table and lighting another. of course things got weird. he looks at them and asks the big question: "you guys wanna see something cool?". now, obviously the first thing any of them are thinking is "ok, here comes the porno" or "out come the handguns" or "nazi paraphernalia time". he reaches under the couch and pulls out a large box full of carefully labeled videotapes. not a good sign. well, it turns out that they were tapes of EUROPEAN FOOTAGE OF THE O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL ("you know, so you get the full, unbiased story")! bet you didn't see that one coming. neither did they. how fucking weird is that? i'm not sure if they watched any of that shit with him or if they just awkwardly tried to get the fuck out or what. truth is, my mind was so blown i don't remember the rest of the story.

anyway, after completely blowing our minds clean out the backs of our skulls, this kid (like he's fucking clint eastwood or something) calmly says peace and hops out of the van and into the show, never to be seen again. maybe that kid really was an angel.

wild.

"EMILIO ESTEVEZ WAS THERE AND IT DIDN'T PHASE HIM"

THE POWER AND THE POP

BRAINS