As I mentioned in my favourite songs of 2015 post, I somehow feel like I missed a lot of music in 2015. In spite of that, I was still able to pull together a pretty solid top 20 list for my favourite albums of the year.
All the best for 2016!
20. Northcote Hope is Made of Steel
19. Smallpools Lovetap!
18. El Vy Return to the Moon
17. Ivan & Alyosha It's All Just Pretend
16. Drenge Undertow
15. Screaming Females Rose Mountain
14. Wombats Glitterbug
13. Torres Sprinter
12. Grimes Art Angels
11. Dawes All Your Favourite Bands
10. Waxahatchee Ivy Tripp
9. The Maccabees Marks to Prove It
8. Surfer Blood 1000 Palms
7. Ron Hawkins and The Do Good Assassins Garden Songs
6. Wavves V
5. The Districts A Flourish and a Spoil
4. Speedy Ortiz Foil Deer
3. Frank Turner Positive Songs for Negative People
Surfer Blood from West Palm Beach, Florida have a whole ton of influences all wrapped up in their catchy alternative rock / power pop style. There's plenty of loud guitars, with rhythmic shifts, pop melodic hooks and I swear I heard shades of Boston in a few of the guitar harmonies. Overall, the band presented a very pleasing music package to their Toronto audience at The Drake Underground last Sunday night, November 22. To answer the band's question, no, the hotel is in no way, shape or form named after the Canadian hip-hop basketball mascot. I wonder if they got to stay in the hotel for the night?
They played a solid set featuring songs from Astro Coast, Tarot Classics EP, Pythons and their most recent release, 1000 Palms. This gig marked their new bassist Lindsey Mills' first trip to Canada. Hope she had fun. There was a point in the gig when singer John Paul Pitts gave a shout out to original guitarist Thomas Fekete who had to leave the band to fight cancer. All the best to him and his struggles with his health and the American health care system. And if you're a guitar player, practice up and you may get a chance to take the stage and borrow Pitts' guitar for some soloing.
Check out some of the highlight tunes from their setlist.
About a month ago, I featured the tune "Demon Dance" from Surfer Blood's forthcoming release called Pythons. Now you can check out "Gravity" below and you can stream the whole thing at NPR.
Surfer Blood put out Astro Coast in 2010 and Tarot Classics in 2011. Both have some cool songs on them that are well worth checking out if you like guitar driven rock with catchy melodies. Their new album Pythons is out June 11.
