Best of: Top 50 of 2017: My favourite songs of 2017

During 2017 I've probably listened to the least music than I have in the past decade. Most of my favourite tunes of the year came from shows I've seen, bands I'm familiar with and many tunes that just happened to hit my ears the right way. Many of the loves of this year have not been deep and meaningful; they've been brief and fleeting one night stands of aural bliss. Forgive me.

Take a look at my other Best of 2017 lists: My 25 Favourite Concert Photos of 2017 and My 20 Favourite Albums of 2017.

50. "And Saints" Sleigh Bells

49. "Syncope" Bitch Falcon

48. "Love Stuck" Mother Mother

47. "Boyish" Hippo Campus

46. "Skyline" Broken Social Scene

45. "Slicked" Weaves

44. "20th Century Strategies" Public Animal

43. "Magnificent (She Says)" Elbow

42. "Play the Field" Partner

41. "Can I Sit Next To You" Spoon

40. "So True" The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

39. "On Hold" The xx

38. "Feel it Still" Portugal. The Man

37. "Humble" Kendrick Lamar

36. "Stars and Moons" Dizzy

35. "Arc of Bar" Japandroids

34. "Television Romance" Pale Waves

33. "Powerlines" Lowest of the Low

32. "Pharaoh" Louise Burns

31. "Violet" The Districts

30. "Glitter" Charly Bliss

29. "If We Were Vampires" Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

28. "Kills to be Resistant" Bully

27. "Ill Ray (The King)" Kasabian

26. "My Name Is Ruin" Gary Numan

25. "Kill for Candy" Dreamcar

24. "New York" St. Vincent

23. "Beautifully Unconventional" Wolf Alice

22. "Holy Mountain" Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

21. "Anti-Anthem" Sumo Cyco

20. "Hook, Line & Sinker" Royal Blood

19. "High" Sir Sly

18. "Day I Die" The National

17. "Brass Beam" Waxahatchee

16. "DNA" Kendrick Lamar

15. "Planet Hunter" Wolf Alice

14. "Near To The Wild Heart Of Life" Japandroids

13. "There's A Honey" Pale Waves

12. "Blood In The Cut" K.Flay

11. "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" The National

10. "If Before I Wake" The Districts

9. "Lingua Franca" Casper Skulls

8. "Don’t Delete The Kisses" Wolf Alice

7. "Freeze Me" Death from Above 1979

6. "Running" Bully

5. "Black Wave" K.Flay

4. "Never Been Wrong" Waxahatchee

3. "Silver" Waxahatchee

2. "Heavenward" Wolf Alice

1. "Sadboy" Wolf Alice

And if you want to check out my 2017 concert photos of the bands from by best of list, please click the following links:

Wolf Alice

Waxahatchee

K.Flay

Bully

Casper Skulls

Pale Waves

Japandroids

Sumo Cyco

Kasabian

Charly Bliss

Louise Burns

The Lowest of the Low

Partner

Elbow

Mother Mother

Bitch Falcon

And older shots of these awesome bands:

Wolf Alice at The Phoenix, Adelaide Hall and Drake Underground

Bully at Field Trip

Death from Above 1979 at Panamania and Riot Fest

Casper Skulls at Lee's Palace, again at Lee's Palace and The Garrison

The Districts at Lee's Palace, The Horseshoe and again at The Horseshoe

The National at Field Trip and at Riot Fest

Royal Blood at Lee's Palace

Sumo Cyco at Cherry Cola's

Kasabian at Sound Academy

Louise Burns at Handlebar

The Lowest of the Low at Toronto's Festival of Beer

Dizzy at Hillside

Partner at The Silver Dollar Room and The Garrison

Elbow at The Danforth Music Hall

Public Animal at The Garrison and The Horseshoe

Weaves at Lee's Palace

Mother Mother at NXNE

Best of: Top 20 of 2017: My favourite albums of 2017

I just have to have music in my life, especially live music. It makes my heart right and gives me balance, and helps me feel like a complete being.

Here are the albums that meant the most to me in a year when I have been sadly more absent from the care and feeding of this web site, and from music appreciation, than I’ve been in years.

There’s a melody that reaches into your soul, a voice that speaks to your values and your very humanity, a beat that makes you smile uncontrollably, and a hook that brings a tear to your eye; a joy that makes you feel whole. It’s love that comes through your ears from the unstoppable passion of another, through their music.

I can’t listen to everything; especially not in a crazy busy year like 2017. A year when work left me mentally exhausted most days meant I couldn’t get all the concert-going and photo-editing in that I wanted and much of my commute-listening was while otherwise mentally occupied with little things like driving. But undaunted I go into the yearly tradition of listing out the albums that made the biggest impression on me in 2017, in order, my absolute favourites at the top.

Take a look at my other Best of 2017 lists: My 25 Favourite Concert Photos of 2017 and My 50 Favourite Songs of 2017.

Wolf Alice Visions of a Life

Waxahatchee Out in the Storm

The National Sleep Well Beast

Bully Losing

Japandroids Near To The Wild Heart Of Life

K.Flay Every Where Is Some Where

St. Vincent MASSEDUCTION

The Districts Popular Manipulations

Kasabian For Crying Out Loud

Royal Blood How Did We Get So Dark?

The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding

Charly Bliss Guppy

Diet Cig Swear I'm Good At This

Kendrick Lamar DAMN

Partner In Search of Lost Time


The xx I See You

Casper Skulls Mercy Works

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Who Built The Moon?

Sumo Cyco Opus Mar

Weaves Wide Open

And if you want to check out my 2017 concert photos of the bands from by best of list, please click the following links:

Wolf Alice

Waxahatchee

Bully

Japandroids

K.Flay

Kasabian

Charly Bliss

Partner

Casper Skulls

Sumo Cyco

And older shots of these awesome bands:

Wolf Alice at The Phoenix, Adelaide Hall and Drake Underground

The National at Field Trip and at Riot Fest
Bully at Field Trip

The Districts at Lee's Palace, The Horseshoe and again at The Horseshoe

Kasabian at Sound Academy

Royal Blood at Lee's Palace
Diet Cig at The Drake Underground

Partner at The Silver Dollar Room and The Garrison

Casper Skulls at Lee's Palace, again at Lee's Palace and The Garrison

Sumo Cyco at Cherry Cola's

Weaves at Lee's Palace

New St Vincent song Teenage Talk

Here's the full version of St. Vincent's tune for the HBO series Girls called "Teenage Talk". It'll change your life.

And here's her performance of the tune on Jimmy Fallon.

Way Home Festival Line-Up

There's a new festival coming to town. It's called WayHome and it's taking place north of Toronto, near Barrie, in Oro-Medonte, at Burl's Creek, July 24 through 26. All the details are on the festival site. It's put together by Republic Live and AC Entertainment who just happen to be the co-founders and producers of Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, so you know this is going to be a well-run festival. Tickets go on sale today, so check out the great bands that are playing, get excited, choose your camping options, and break out your credit card!

Here are a bunch of the bands that I want to catch at the festival:

Modest Mouse

The Decembrists

Passion Pit

St. Vincent

Vance Joy

Future Islands

The Gaslight Anthem

Walk the Moon

Hey Rosetta!

July Talk

Metz

Alvvays

Yukon Blonde

Broods

Viet Cong

Lowell

Just for starters.

Looking forward to this new addition to the Toronto area festival season.

Pic from Facebook.

New St. Vincent tunes Bad Believer and Del Rio

Annie Clark, St. Vincent, put out one of the best albums and some of the best songs of 2014 with her self-titled fourth studio album. This album is about to get the deluxe release treatment, which can be looked as at an opportunity to have the album with a whole bunch of extra tunes, or it can be looked at as a thinly-veiled attempt to get you to buy the main songs all over again. I'll let you be the judge. It comes out February 9.

The deluxe album features extra tunes like "Pieta" and "Sparrow" which I posted previously, "Del Rio", the Darkside remix of "Digital Witness" and "Bad Believer". "Bad Beliver" is a pretty awesome, high energy tune that's well worth adding to your collection. "Del Rio" is intensely quirky in the way we expect from Ms. Clark.

Check 'em out:


"Del Rio"

St. Vincent's on tour and comes to Toronto's Danforth Music Hall on March 3-4.

Also keep your ears open for another new track called "Teenage Talk" on HBO's Girls.

Pic from Facebook.

Video for St. Vincent's Birth In Reverse

Just after I put St. Vincent's brilliant eponymous album on my Favourite 25 Albums of 2014 list and the song "Birth In Reverse" at number 16 on my Favourite 60 Songs of 2014, she releases a cool video for that very song.

It's a cool clip that highlights Annie Clark's guitar prowess. If you get the chance, go see her live because her guitar playing comes across even more powerfully from the stage. As I put it in my post on her show at NXNE, "Her unique phrasing and off kilter but wonderfully brown riffs and sounds makes her a new kind of guitar hero for a new generation of guitarists."

So there.

Best of: My favourite 60 songs of 2014

It's the time of year for reflection. I say it was another great year for music. I think I saw more bands this year than any other year in my life. I had a great time taking pics of shows. Most of all, I loved the music. It's always about the music. And so without any further ado, here is my list of my favourite 60 songs of 2014.

60. Stars "From the Night"

59. The War on Drugs "Red Eyes"

58. Interpol "All the Rage Back Home"

57. Royal Blood "Come on Over"

56. Lowell "Palm Trees"

55. Blood Red Shoes "An Animal"

54. Band of Skulls "Asleep at the Wheel"

53. Elbow "New York Morning"

52. Temples "Mesmerise"

51. Alex Clare "Never Let You Go"

50. Split Single "Never Look Back"

49. Bob Mould "Hey Mr. Grey"

48. The New Pornographers "Brill Bruisers"

47. Death From Above 1979 "Trainwreck 1979"

46. Mounties "Pretty Respectable"

45. Ex Hex "Don't Wanna Lose"

44. PAWS "Tongues"

43. The C'Mons "Only Ghost"

42. Drowners "Luv, Hold Me Down"

41. Little Foot Long Foot "Mess"

40. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Simple and Sure"

39. Dum Dum Girls "Rimbaud Eyes"

38. The Pack A.D. "Big Shot"

37. Augustines "Weary Eyes"

36. Elbow "Charge"

35. The Districts "Funeral Beds"

34. Dinosaur Pile-Up "Peninsula"

33. The Both "Milwaukee"

32. The Balconies "Do It In The Dark"

31. Band of Skulls "Nightmares"

30. Royal Blood "Little Monster"

29. Lykke Li "Gunshot"

28. Spoon "Rent I Pay"

27. Kasabian "Eez-Eh"

26. Jimi Goodwin "Oh! Whiskey"

25. The Jezabels "The End"

24. Lykke Li "No Rest for the Wicked"

23. Bob Mould "The War"

22. Kasabian "Bumblebee"

21. Owl John "Red Hand"

20. The Balconies "The Slo"

19. Public Animal "High Pony"

18. The Hold Steady "I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You"

17. Blood Red Shoes "The Perfect Mess"

16. St. Vincent "Birth In Reverse"

15. The New Pornographers "Dancehall Domine"

14. Augustines "Cruel City"

13. Split Single "Monolith"

12. Lowell "Cloud 69"

11. Haerts "All The Days"

10. St. Vincent "Digital Witness"

9. Mounties "Headphones"

8. Little Foot Long Foot "Woman"

7. Strand of Oaks "Goshen '97"

6. Lowell "The Bells"

5. Royal Blood "Out of the Black"

4. Bob Mould "I Don't Know You Anymore"

3. The Balconies "Boys and Girls"

2. Public Animal "Careful"


1. Augustines "Nothing to Lose But Your Head"

Check out my Favourite 25 Albums of 2014 list, too.

St. Vincent releases Pieta and Sparrow for Record Store Day: Listen

St. Vincent has released two new, previously unreleased tunes for Black Friday Record Store Day. Check them out below.

"Pieta"

"Sparrow"

St. Vincent's on tour and hits Toronto's Danforth Music Hall on March 3-4, 2015. I hope to be there.

Pic from Facebook.

St. Vincent at NXNE

I remember noticing that St. Vincent was coming to London, Ontario on their 2014 tour. I remember thinking that I could drive to London to see them. I even knew some folks I could crash with. But I thought it was peculiar that they were playing so close to Toronto but not actually hitting a Toronto venue.

Then I remembered NXNE.

Turns out that I was right not to make all the arrangements to go to London to see St. Vincent, although that would have been cool. Annie Clarke and the band played one of the free headlining shows at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto.

I experienced St. Vincent along with several thousand Toronto music fans who packed the square and surrounding streets to catch her unique and wonderful show. They were in fine form and the setlist hit up some big tunes early on, which I hope snagged some more casual fans. Her guitar playing was inspiring. There aren't as many guitar heroes as there used to be, and even fewer unique artists like Annie Clarke who put together quirky pop music with vintage guitar tones, angular riffs and fusion-like solos.

Her unique phrasing and off kilter but wonderfully brown riffs and sounds makes her a new kind of guitar hero for a new generation of guitarists. As I tweeted not long after the show, Annie Clarke is my new favourite guitar player.

At one point she poured herself down the stairs backwards. The guy next to me exclaimed, "Annie, what are you doing?" A question that I'm sure came up a few times during the unique show. I loved the performance and would travel as far as London to see St. Vincent again. Here are some of my favourite tunes she played during the show.

"Rattlesnake" opened the show

"Digital Witness" is an amazing tune that gets stuck in my head for days at a time

"Cruel" is one of the tunes that first really made me appreciate the genius of St. Vincent

"Birth In Reverse"

"Cheerleader"

"Marrow"

"Bring me your Loves" closed out the main set.

The band returned to the stage with "Your Lips Are Red" and

"Krokodil"

Another new St. Vincent tune: Prince Johnny

St. Vincent's eponymous album comes out February 24-25. We've already heard "Birth In Reverse" and "Digital Witness". We now get to hear "Prince Johnny". Cool.

And since I'm writing a St. Vincent post, here's the official video for "Digital Witness".

I have that exact same hairdo.

Another new St Vincent track: Digital Witness

Here's another new track from the exquisite St. Vincent. It's called "Digital Witness" and it's from her forthcoming eponymous album that hits the web February 25.

In case you missed it, I posted "Birth In Reverse" a few weeks back.

New self-titled album on the way from St. Vincent

Back in the olden days, a band would often self-title their début album. Lately, it seems the fashion to self-title your second or third album. Or fourth album, as is the case with the new release from St. Vincent. It's coming out February 24-25 and we get to hear the track "Birth In Reverse" now.

St. Vincent's Cheerleader video

I hope you liked the 4AD session with St. Vincent that I posted the other day.  I've liked her ever since I saw an interview with Annie Clark where she talked about playing the riff from "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden on guitar.

Here's the video for the latest release from 2011's Strange Mercy.  It's called "Cheerleader".



And here's "Cruel" if you haven't heard/seen it before.  It was #36 on my top songs of 2010-2011.

4AD Session with St. Vincent

Here's another 4AD Session, this time with St. Vincent.