My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2012: My best of list: Top 60 songs: #60-41

It's been a great year for indie-alternative music. Maybe it's because I've been putting more emphasis on seeking out great music for the blog, or maybe it's just intergalactic forces. Whatever it is, I'll take it.

Just to avoid consistency of any kind, I've abandoned last year's idea of doing 2 year best of posts, like doing "The Best of 2011-2012".

Here's post number one featuring songs 60-41 of my favourite 60 songs released in 2012.


60. "Dollar Chills" DZ Deathrays

59. "We Were Children" Tribes

58. "Anxiety" Ladyhawke

57. "My Girl" Yukon Blonde

56. "Youth Without Youth" Metric

55. "Awakenings" The Junction

54. "Tomorrow" Parakeet

53. "It's Time" Imagine Dragons

52. "Sleep Alone" Two Door Cinema Club

51. "Blood for Poppies" Garbage

50. "Radio" Nude Beach

49. "45" Gaslight Anthem

48. "Settle Down" Kimbra

47. "What Makes A Good Man?" The Heavy

46. "Follow Baby" Peace

45. "Savage" Hacienda

44. "Met Before" Chairlift

43. "Took a Walk" Passion Pit

42. "Lets' Boot and Rally" Iggy Pop and Bethany Cosentino

41. "Two Feet Stand Up" Cookie Duster

Check out the rest of my best of posts.

Kasabian melt the Kool Haus

Kasabian put on a fantastic show. They were originally supposed to play The Phoenix here in Toronto. That sold out so fast they were booked into Kool Haus. That sold out as well. I was lucky enough to be a ticket holder from the Phoenix show.

And they did not disappoint. Even for a short guy near the back who could only catch glimpses of the band when the tall people's heads aligned to give me a sight line they were thoroughly entertaining. They had a good light show, they displayed the tight playing of a seasoned band, and they squeezed really good sound from a concrete box of a venue. I should mention that based on past experiences, I usually try to avoid the Kool Haus for the venue's many not-so-stellar qualities such as the sight lines and not-so-wonderful sound.

They played a great mix of tunes from across all of their releases and were so engrossing that when they wrapped up the main set, I remarked, "Wow. Short set". In fact it wasn't a short set, it was just so well paced and performed that went by effortlessly. The lads came back and rocked us through an encore and the night was done.

I would definitely see Kasabian live again.

We only caught the end of the opening act Hacienda, but I like this song on their site.  It's called "Savage" and it's from their upcoming album, expected this spring.

Here are some of my favourite Kasabian toons.  One from each album.

"Club Foot" from their eponymous début 

"Shoot the Runner" from Empire

"Underdog" from West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

"Switchblade Smiles" from Velociraptor!

The photos in this post are original pics by me, not the usual professional pics stolen from some other web site.  You can tell the difference original art makes.