Osheaga is coming with a stacked line-up - my picks

Osheaga seems to have really outdone itself with an absolutely amazing line-up this year. The festival takes place from July 29-31 at Parc Jean-Drapeau in always-amazing Montreal, truly one of my favourite cities in the world.

The stacked line-up includes several artist I have covered or would love to cover including: Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lana Del Rey, Death Cab for Cutie, The Lumineers, M83, Haim, Half Moon Run, Grimes, Bloc Party, Coeur De Pirate, The Arcs, Cypress Hill, Silversun Pickups, Foals, The Cat Empire, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Daughter, Elle King, July Talk (at Lee's Palace and at TURF), Jazz Cartier, St. Lucia, Lapsley, Dragonette, Jack Garratt, Borns, The Strumbellas (at The Horseshoe and at TURF), Frightened Rabbit, Lucius, The Struts, White Lung, The Wombats, Allie X, Dilly Dally, Busty and the Bass, Dear Rouge, and many more.

Radiohead

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Lana Del Rey, Summer

Death Cab for Cutie

The Lumineers

M83

Haim

Half Moon Run

Grimes

Bloc Party

Coeur De Pirate

The Arcs

Cypress Hill

Silversun Pickups

Foals

The Cat Empire

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

Daughter

Elle King

July Talk

Jazz Cartier

St. Lucia

Lapsley

Dragonette

Jack Garratt

BØRNS

The Strumbellas

Frightened Rabbit

Lucius

The Struts

White Lung

The Wombats

Allie X

Dilly Dally

Busty and the Bass

Dear Rouge

Pic from Osheaga.

Lots to like in this year's Wayhome line-up!

After a couple of mind-bending 360-degree YouTube videos, the actual line-up for this summer's Wayhome Music & Arts Festival has been unveiled. The festival takes place in Oro-Medonte Ontario on July 22, 23 and 24 and tickets go on sale February 16. Last year's fest got overwhelmingly positive reviews. I hope to be there this year to capture and share the bands and the experience.

As the headline reads, there's lots to like in this year's line-up. Here are a bunch of the bands that I'll be looking the most forward to seeing, starting from the top. As usual, I expect to make some great new discoveries further down the list. I've helpfully linked to my pics of any of the bands I've shot before.

LCD Soundsystem "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House"

The Killers "All These Things That I've Done"

M83 "Midnight City"

Haim "Don't Save Me"

Chvrches "The Mother We Share"

Ray Lamontagne "Trouble"

FKA Twigs "Two Weeks"

Arkells "Leather Jacket"

Gary Clark Jr. "Bright Lights"

Mac Demarco "My Kind of Woman"

Foals "Inhaler"

The Arcs "Outta My Mind"

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats "S.O.B."

Glass Animals "Gooey"

Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life"

X-Ambassadors "Renegades"

Bahamas "Stronger Than That"

Stars, Stars, Stars "No One Is Lost" and "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"

White Denim "Pretty Green"

Dilly Dally "Desire"

The Top 20: The best albums of 2013, according to me. The year's most awesome and cool pop, indie, and alternative albums.

As has become my habit, I'm not ranking my albums list. These are the 20 albums that made the biggest impression on me in 2013, alphabetically.

1984 Influenza

Biffy Clyro Opposites

Chvrches The Bones Of What You Believe

Cults Static

Frank Turner Tape Deck Heart

Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse

Haim Days Are Gone

Lorde Pure Heroine

Metz Metz

MS MR Secondhand Rapture

Neko Case The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

Sleigh Bells Bitter Rivals

Small Black Limits of Desire

Superchunk I Hate Music

Telekinesis Dormarion

The Darcys Warring

The Joy Formidable Wolf's Law

The Naked And Famous In Rolling Waves

The National Trouble Will Find Me

Young Galaxy Ultramarine

The Top 50: The best songs of 2013, according to me. The year's most awesome and cool pop, indie, and alternative songs.

As the year progresses, I'm usually not aware of whether it's a great year for music or not. By about mid-year, I'm thinking that I have no idea what I'd put on a "best of" list. iTunes certainly helps by letting me see my top rated songs released in any given year.

Overall, it felt like more of a year of pop than anything else. We got tons of great pop melodies, and I love it. There's lots of other stuff in here too, including lots of loud guitars, which I also love.

Check out the list of my 50 favourite tunes of 2013.

50. "California" Mazzy Star
49. "Silent Treatment" The Joy Formidable
48. "Tendons" The Joy Formidable
47. "Fantasy" MS MR
46. "Out of My League" Fitz & the Tantrums
45. "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo" Superchunk

44. "Empathetic People" Telekinesis

43. "Maze" 1984

42. "All The Days" Haerts
41. "Tennis Court" Lorde
40. "I Kill Giants" The Naked And Famous

39. "Middle Sea" Yuck

38. "New Summer" Young Galaxy
37. "Hurricane" MS MR
36. "Lies" Chvrches
35. "Spider X" California X
34. "Power Lines" Telekinesis
33. "All The Time" The Strokes
32. "Black Chandelier" Biffy Clyro
31. "Let The Day Begin" Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
30. "Little Blimp" The Joy Formidable
29. "Ways To Go" Grouplove
28. "Mind Your Manners" Pearl Jam
27. "Change" Mikal Cronin
26. "San Francisco" The Mowgli's
25. "Pretty Boy" Young Galaxy
24. "Gun" Chvrches

23. "Sex" The 1975

22. "Man" Neko Case
21. "You're Not The One" Sky Ferreira
20. "Loud Like Love" Placebo
19. "Backyard Skulls" Frightened Rabbit
18. "Forever" Haim
17. "Climbers" Mansions
16. "Bitter Rivals" Sleigh Bells
15. "Too Many Friends" Placebo
14. "I Love It (feat. Charli XCX)" Icona Pop
13. "Royals" Lorde
12. "High Road" Cults
11. "Hearts Like Ours" The Naked and Famous

10. "Sea of Love" The National

9. "I Can Hardly Make You Mine" Cults

8. "Headphones" Mounties

7. "Holy" Frightened Rabbit

6. "Cholla" The Joy Formidable

5. "Dead Now" Frightened Rabbit

4. "Plain Sailing Weather" Frank Turner

3. "The Mother We Share" Chvrches

2. "The Woodpile" Frightened Rabbit

1. "This Ladder is Ours" The Joy Formidable

This year, I've linked out to YouTube for checking out most of the tunes. I've even made a playlist of this year's list. Previous years' lists took too long to load and often caused flash to crash.

Great tunes from Haim's forthcoming album Days Are Gone

Haim, the Los Angeles quartet who released the earworm "Forever", which came in at number 35 on my top tunes of 2012 list, have finally given us a release date for their début full length. The album will be called Days Are Gone and it will be out September 30.

Here's a smattering of songs from the album:

The new single "The Wire",


The official audio for "Let Me Go",

The video for "Don't Save Me". I posted this song late last year.

The video for "Falling",

And if you've never heard "Forever" check out this post or check out the great performance of the tune on Letterman below.

My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2012: My best of list: Top 60 songs: #40-21

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 two featuring songs 40-21 of my favourite 60 songs released in 2012.

40. "Ropes That Way" Dirty Ghosts

39. "Lost Kids" Blood Red Shoes

38. "Are You Gonna Waste My Time?" Zeus

37. "Little Talks" Of Monsters and Men

36. "In Came The Flood" Wintersleep

35. "Forever" Haim

34. "Waiting" The Whigs

33. "Cold" Blood Red Shoes

32. "To Nothing" Sucioperro

31. "I'm Just Me" Diamond Rings

30. "Stereo" IAMDYNAMITE

29. "Keep Believing" Bob Mould

28. "The Mother We Share" Chvrches

27. "All of Me" Tanlines

26. "Hold On" Alabama Shakes

25. "Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It" Stars

24. "Chained" The xx

23. "Sixteen Saltines" Jack White

22. "Anna Sun" Walk The Moon

21. "Runaways" The Killers

Check out the rest of my best of posts

New tracks from Haim

Back in the hot and heavy days of summer, I posted the track "Forever" by Haim. They've recently put out another single, the A side is the catchy and fun track "Don't Save Me" and the B side is the more intense "Send Me Down".

Haim with Forever

NME put up their 20 Best Songs Of 2012 So Far and while I've already had a number of these bands and tracks on my radar, Haim was brand new to me. They play cool guitars and I like the track "Forever" so maybe you'll like it too. Sounds like a good, summery single.