Wayhome Line-Up - My Picks

Wayhome Music & Arts Festival has announced their 2017 line-up. Headlined by Imagine Dragons, Frank Ocean, Flume, Justice, Solange, Marshmello, Vance Joy, Schoolboy Q, Tegan and Sara and The Shins, plus a cool list of others and more TBA, it looks like another great festival.

Festival passes go on sale this Friday February 17! Don't miss this summer festival highlight!

Who would I most like to see from this stacked list of artists? Thought you'd never ask.

Click on the artist names for my shots of these artists from past shows!

Solange

Vance Joy

Tegan and Sara

The Shins

Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires

Constantines

Darcys

Death from Above 1979

Jagwar Ma

Magic Giant

Phantogram

Pup

Royal Blood

Tanya Tagaq

The Dirty Nil

The Drums

The Naked and Famous

The Naked and Famous at The Mod Club - Concert Pictures

I've written a bunch about Auckland, New Zealand pop band The Naked And Famous on this site, dating back to when I first posted about "Punching In A Dream" in December of 2011. They featured prominently in my Favourite Songs of 2013, Favourite Albums of 2013, Favourite Songs of 2010-2011 and my Favourite Albums of 2010-2011 lists. Their hit singles have peppered my playlists and have never failed to put a spring in my step and a smile on my face. However, it was last Friday night, April 1, that marked my first time seeing the band live. They played a sold out show at The Mod Club in Toronto's Little Italy.

The band sounded great and delivered their perfect pop tunes with enthusiasm and professionalism. Singer Alisa Xayalith sounded magical as her voice soared through the hall. They ​thanked us for being so patient waiting for new music and to reward us for our patience, they played two new tunes in the form of "Higher" and "Runners". They're both very cool sounding tunes that are unmistakably Naked and Famous, with danceable beats and soaring choruses.

They played all my favourite tunes from  2010's Passive Me, Aggressive You and their most recent release, 2013's In Rolling Waves. They hit up "Punching In A Dream" early as the second song of the set. "Rolling Waves" was a crowd favourite. "I Kill Giants", "Hearts Like Ours" and show closer "Young Blood" were all strong highlights for me.

Here are some highlights from their setlist:

"Punching In A Dream"

"Girls Like You"

"Rolling Waves"

"The Sun" NSFW version

"All of This"

"I Kill Giants"

I love the grinding bass in "Frayed"

"Hearts Like Ours"

"Young Blood" marked the end of the show.

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.

The Naked and Famous Kill Giants

I wanted to see these guys when they played The Phoenix last month but couldn't make it work. Next time.

Check out the latest video from The Naked and Famous' latest ablum In Rolling Waves. The track's called "I Kill Giants" and it sounds like this:

Great tune!

New song from The Naked And Famous: Hearts Like Ours

The Naked and Famous rocked our world with such alt-indie-pop hits as "Punching In A Dream" and "Young Blood" from their 2011 début Passive Me, Aggressive You. Their second album In Rolling Waves is being released September 16, and they've offered up this beautiful, hooky tune "Hearts Like Ours" to enjoy.

Do you think those are the same cyclists that were in Bat for Lashes' "What's a Girl to Do?" clip?

My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2010-2011: My best of list: Top 70 songs

Since I didn't put up a post for my favourite tunes and albums of 2010, and since it takes me a while for things to grow on me, I'm going to be a little different than other music writers. I'm going to do "best of" posts for 2 year periods. This will allow me to be late to the party, and give songs extra time to germinate in my little brain. So this set of posts will cover 2010 and 2011.

1. "Whirring" - The Joy Formidable

2. "Heartsink" - Blood Red Shoes

3. "Kill Me Carolyne" - The Whigs

4. "Conversation 16" - The National

5. "Lonely Boy" - The Black Keys

6. "The Smidge" - The Hold Steady

7. "Let's Get Out Of Here" - Les Savy Fav

8. "Rill Rill" - Sleigh Bells

9. "Old Fangs" - Black Mountain

10. "Fuck You" - Cee Lo Green

11. "Tighten Up" - The Black Keys
12. "Not At All" - Emily Warren & The Betters
13. "Punching In A Dream" - The Naked And Famous
14. "Hang With Me" - Robyn
15. "Good for Nothing" - Hard-Fi
16. "Swim Until You Can't See Land" - Frightened Rabbit
17. "Belong" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
18. "Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster the People
19. "Crash Years" - The New Pornographers
20. "The Glitter Prize (Feat. Kay Hanley)" - The Posies
21. "Hit The Ground Running" - These Electric Lives
22. "Medicine" - We Were Promised Jetpacks
23. "Anyone’s Ghost" - The National
24. "Dancing On My Own" - Robyn
25. "Please Ask for Help" - Telekinesis
26. "A Heavy Abacus" - The Joy Formidable
27. "Dear Rosemary" - Foo Fighters
28. "Terrible Love" - The National
29. "Satellite" - The Kills
30. "Naked Kids" - Grouplove
31. "Forced To Love" - Broken Social Scene
32. "Our Whole Lives" - The Hold Steady
33. "Light It Up" - Blood Red Shoes
34. "The Body" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
35. "Chicken Bones" - John Grant
36. "Cruel" - St. Vincent
37. "Future Starts Slow" - The Kills
38. "The Spirit of Jazz" - The Gaslight Anthem
39. "Cradle" - The Joy Formidable
40. "Romance" - Wild Flag
41. "Love Song" - Hard-Fi
42. "Called It Off" - These Electric Lives
43. "Rock Problems" - The Hold Steady
44. "So Lonely" - The Whigs
45. "Crossed Wires" - Superchunk
46. "Fixed" - Stars
47. "Abducted" - Cults
48. "It Is Happening Again" - Blood Red Shoes
49. "Young Blood" - The Naked And Famous
50. "Year Dot" - Sky Larkin
51. "Helena Beat" - Foster the People
52. "Country Lane" - Telekinesis
53. "Heart In Your Heartbreak" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
54. "Don't Ask" - Blood Red Shoes
55. "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
56. "Blue Cassette" - Friendly Fires
57. "Under Cover of Darkness" - The Strokes
58. "Behold the Hurricane" - The Horrible Crowes
59. "Lights" - Ellie Goulding
60. "Tired" - Chikita Violenta
61. "Euphoria, Take My Hand" - Glasvegas
62. "Colours" - Grouplove
63. "Get Away" - Yuck
64. "Dirty Thing" - Telekinesis
65. "World Sick" - Broken Social Scene
66. "DNA" - The Kills
67. "Dressed Sharply" - An Horse
68. "Holing Out" - Yuck
69. "Get Some" - Lykke Li
70. "Lotus Flower" - Radiohead

I'm going to tease out my Top 10 by posting a song a day over the next couple of weeks!

I've decided to update this post with my top 10 so my full list is in one place.

Check out the rest of my best of posts, including my favourite albums of 2010-2011.

The Naked and Famous are Punching in a Dream

I recently discovered the New Zealand band The Naked and Famous. They put out groovy, instantly likeable pop tunes and their latest release is Passive Me, Aggressive You.



Stay tuned to the blog to see if their songs end up on my year end lists, which are coming out later this week.