The Whigs hit us with a new tune from forthcoming album Modern Creation

Straight ahead rockers The Whigs went into the studio for 2 weeks to pound out a bare-bones new album called Modern Creation. It will be out April 22 and we get to hear "Hit Me" now. Sounds cool!



And I missed the release of the video for "Rock and Roll Forever" from Enjoy the Company. Great tune and cool video. How many of the classic rock artists can you identify?

Whigs, please schedule a Toronto date on your next tour!

New video from The Whigs - Staying Alive

The Whigs released Enjoy the Company last year. Here's the latest single, "Staying Alive". No, it's not the Bee Gees song.

Fun video. Cool song. Love the horn parts.

And here's the clip for "Waiting". Great song.

My favourite albums: Awesome and cool albums of 2012: My best of list: 20 Albums of 2012

2012 was no different from previous years for me in that I'm still more of a songs guy than an albums guy. It just takes longer for a whole album to show its charms to me and I struggled with what to put on this list, how to rank it, and even whether to do an albums list at all.

So here are the 20 albums from 2012 that made the biggest impression on me. So far. Alphabetically.


2:54 2:54

Band of Skulls Sweet Sour

Blood Red Shoes In Time To Voices

Bob Mould Silver Age

Diiv Oshin

Dinosaur Jr. I Bet On Sky

Dirty Ghosts Metal Moon

Divine Fits A Thing Called Divine Fits

Fun. Some Nights

IAMDYNAMITE SUPERMEGAFANTASTIC

Jack White Blunderbuss

Japandroids Celebration Rock

Ladyhawke Anxiety

Nude Beach II

Stars The North

Sucioperro Fused

The Twilight Sad No One Can Ever Know

The Whigs Enjoy the Company

The xx Coexist

Yukon Blonde Tiger Talk


Check out the rest of my best of posts.

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

Free song from the new Whigs album

The Whigs are releasing their new album Enjoy the Company on September 18. You can trade your email address for the single "Waiting" here. It's a true Whigs rocker. A great three-piece rock song through and through. Trust me, if you like The Whigs, or straight ahead rock/alternative/indie/whatever-you-want-to-call-real-rock-music-these-days, you'll like it.

New Whigs

I'm a pretty big fan of The Whigs. Rolling Stone just announced that their new album is coming out September 18 and it's called Enjoy the Company. They've also put up a song from the album called "Summer Heat". It's a mid-tempo rocker with big, smoky guitar chords and those wonderful, familiar Whigs vocals and melodies.

Looking forward to this one for sure!

My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2010-2011: my best of list: #3: "Kill Me Carolyne" by The Whigs

The Whigs rock in a big way. Their album In The Dark is a solid piece of rock and "Kill Me Carolyne" is a fantastic tune. So good, that I think it deserves number 3.



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

My favourite albums: Awesome and cool albums of 2010-2011: Top 30 Albums: My best of list

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 albums extra time to germinate in my little brain. So this set of posts will cover 2010 and 2011.

One side effect of iTunes, smart playlists and listening to songs over albums is that I've really become a lot more of a "songs guy" over being an "album guy". I was more of an album guy back when I was buying vinyl and CDs in the 80s and 90s and I'd throw them on the turntable or in the CD player and listen to the whole things end to end.

That's my explanation for why my best albums list is so much shorter than my best songs list, anyway.

1. The National - High Violet
2. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
3. Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
5. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
6. The Whigs - In The Dark
7. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
8. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
9. The New Pornographers - Together
10. Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
11. Robyn - Body Talk
12. Hard Fi - Killer Sounds
13. John Grant - The Queen of Denmark
14. The Black Keys - Brothers
15. Army Navy - The Last Place
16. The Posies - Blood/Candy
17. The Kills - Blood Pressures
18. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
19. Telekinesis - 12 Desparate Straight Lines
20. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
21. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
22. Stars - The Five Ghosts
23. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
24. We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach
25. Kasabian - Velociraptor!
26. The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
27. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
28. Sky Larkin - Kaleide
29. The Thermals - Personal Life
30. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Check out the rest of my best of posts.

The Whigs are one of my favourite bands

Several years ago, a friend of mine recommended that I check out Kings of Leon. At first, I couldn't get past the singer's drawl, but after some time, I really liked what I heard from their first few albums. Then I saw an announcement for a show they were playing in Toronto with We Are Scientists and The Whigs. Well I thought that We Are Scientist's début album was absolutely awesome. But I hadn't heard of The Whigs, so I set off to investigate. While investigating, I hesitated in ordering tickets and the show sold out on me, but at least I ended up discovering The Whigs.

This seems to be their latest release. "So Lonely" from their 2010 album In the Dark.



And Here's "Kill Me Carolyne", also from In the Dark.



Here's "Right Hand on My Heart" from their 2008 album, Mission Control



I can't find any good videos to post, but their first album, Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip, has some great tunes as well.

And so I'm not accused of being a tease, here are some vids from We Are Scientists. I absolutely loved their first album, 2006's With Love and Squalor. I've been disappointed that their other albums have not had the same level of energy and consistency.

"Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"


"The Great Escape"


and "It's a Hit".


And one from Kings of Leon. Do you think that they got a stylist at some point after this?