Danko Jones
Danko Jones may be hard rock’s Rodney Dangerfield in Canada, but in Europe he’s the king. So much so that when The Raconteurs, the band led by Jack White and Brendan Benson, were over there in 2006 they were covering Danko’s “Samuel Sin” in concert.
Danko was in Europe at the same time, in the same cities. Unfortunately he never got to see The Raconteurs perform his song — he had to be in bed.
To find out why head over to Spinner by clicking here.
Filed under Concerts, Photos, Shameless Promotion
Teen Crud Combo
While doing some research for my interview with Allyson Baker of the way-awesome Dirty Ghosts I came across this snippet about her old band Teen Crud Combo in my concert diary. I figured it was worth sharing…
Teen Crud Combo @ El Mocambo, June 8, 2000 — I remember them being way obnoxious in a funny, Dan Burke-loves-‘em kinda way. I think they also came out with wrestling belts on. Danko came out and sang a couple songs with them. People were throwing buckets of water on them, which was kinda weird.
The Dears No Cities Left
This is my official Top 10 album list for 2003:
1. The Dears No Cities Left
2. Songs: Ohia The Magnolia Electric Co
3. Metric Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
4. The Coral Magic And Medicine
5. Sixteen Horsepower Olden
6. Danko Jones We Sweat Blood
7. Gord Downie Battle Of The Nudes
8. The Organ Sinking Hearts
9. Radiohead Hail To The Thief
10. Geoff Berner We Shall Not Flag Or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End
I must say, this is a mighty great year.
My #1 record this year was No Cities Left and it still holds up just as well all this time later. “Lost In The Plot” was the big single, a signature song which I love, but it was the double-shot epic tracks “Expect The Worse/Cuz She’s A Tourist” and “Pinned Together, Falling Apart” which really did it for me. They’re epic, sophisticated and they rock, all while maintaining their uniquely “Dears” narratives. These two songs done live at the time were particularly amazing, as they’d get stretched out into trance-like adventures. “Don’t Lose The Faith,” “Warm And Sunny Days,” “Never Destroy Us”… I know these songs inside out. Within the confines of “Canadian rock” or “Canadian indie” or whatever descriptive you want to use this remains one of the best records of the last decade.
The Dears “Pinned Together, Falling Apart”:
It would’ve been a heated internal debate for me at the time to put Songs: Ohia The Magnolia Electric Co. at #2. This was the transition record where Jason Molina, the mostly one-man band as Songs: Ohia became Magnolia Electric Co., a down-to-earth trucker-rock band in the vein of Crazy Horse. The change was weird to take at first, but over time the songs on this album emerged and they’re heart-striking works. There’s an internal struggle going on in this album that’s both intimately personal and universal to the human experience.
I love the playing around with the classic song trope of John Henry doing something. Songs: Ohia “John Henry Split My Heart”:
Ah, Metric’s Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? We were so young and innocent and unaware of Emily Haines’ prickly fits back then. It was all about dancing along to “Dead Disco” late at night. If time had stopped and Metric never did anything else ever the world would’ve probably been a better place.
Metric “Dead Disco”:
The Coral’s Magic And Medicine remains a totally slept on record here in the North of America. This record’s so hard to define. It’s sort of triangulated by the works of The Boo Radleys and Space, but at the same time remain totally outside of their worlds.
The Coral “Talking Gypsy Market Blues,” their slight Dylan return:
Clearly 2003 was the year I finally understood Sixteen Horsepower. Olden was a compilation record made up of a few different EPs, which usually makes for uneven listening, but I was completely shook and I now follow the works of band leader David Eugene Edwards closely. Olden is also one of the records that has helped me become more self-aware about the music I like. It’s not necessarily about genre anymore, but rather about intensity, purpose, gravity. I no longer care about half-measures and comfortable singalong songs. If I can’t see through to your soul in your music you’re just a circus performer.
Sixteen Horsepower “American Wheeze”:
It takes a lot for me to consider a song a match for the best of the Thin Lizzy catalog, but for simple balls-out rockers Danko Jones’ “I Love Living In The City” from We Sweat Blood is right up there.
Danko Jones “I Love Living In The City”:
My affection for Gord Downie’s solo work would continue with Battle Of The Nudes. It wasn’t quite the speak-to-me album that Coke Machine Glow was, but I still consider it a bold and brave work, complete with Sonic Youth moments and weird punk diversions. Downie could easily play out his career doing cash register rock in The Tragically Hip, but he continues to go for it. These are the ideals I respect in musicians.
Gord Downie “Pascal’s Submarine.” Not my favourite track on the record, but this album’s not well-youtubed.
I’m kinda bummed The Organ didn’t quite rule the world like I thought they would, but Sinking Hearts is still solid in a hey-it’s-the-girl-Smiths way. Haters on this EP were weird. It may not be perfect but it’s got passion.
Radiohead Hail To The Thief at #9? I think I let myself be run over by the hype train on this one. I never listen to Radiohead anymore and if I do, it’s certainly not this album.
Geoff Berner We Shall Not Flag Or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End was a pretty unexpected inclusion for me because, well, let’s face it, I’m not known as a klezmer-punk kinda guy. How We Shall Not Flag gets me is with the storytelling. “Volcano God” is brilliant and beautiful and “Maginot Line” is a valuable life lesson.
Geoff Berner “Maginot Line”:
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1
2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1
2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1
2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1
2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1
2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1
2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1
2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1
2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1
2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1
2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1
2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1
2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1
2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1
2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1
2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1
1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1
1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1
1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
Filed under Music, Recollections
Archive You All Look The Same To Me
This is my official Top 10 album list of 2002:
1. Archive You All Look The Same To Me
2. Cooper Temple Clause See This Through And Leave
3. Young And Sexy Stand Up For Your Mother
4. Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf
5. Danko Jones Born A Lion
6. The Guthries The Guthries
7. Songs: Ohia Didn’t It Rain
8. Lindi The Taste Of Forbidden Fruit
9. Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
10. Burning Brides Fall Of The Plastic Empire
Looking back at my Top 10 albums of 2002 I get an almost inverse feeling about most of them compared to my 2001 list. I look up and down and clinically go, yeah, these are good records, but few of them have actually continued to stick with me. The most damning thing? Only three of the 10 I had bothered to rip into iTunes prior to doing this exercise (Cooper, Danko, S:O).
Putting Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me at #1 is kind of embarrassing to me now. It’s purely a contrarian, better-than-you choice. At the time few people knew who Archive were, and fewer had actually listened to the sprawling Pink Floyd-inspired trance rock of You All Look The Same To Me. In a way, that kind of made them all my own, and that was apparently enough to make them toppers. I don’t hate this album by any means, and it’s still a Top 10, but it’s certainly no longer a #1 in my heart and I never go back to it listening-wise.
Archive “Again”:
Cooper Temple Clause’s See This Through And Leave is another album that I rarely go back to. I must have been in a bit of a new-prog phase with them and Archive topping this list, because they pretty much sound alike.
Cooper Temple Clause “Murder Song.” This is a heavy trip:
I’m reasonably certain I’m the only person in the world who declared Young And Sexy’s Stand Up For Your Mother the third best album of 2002. Almost a decade later I don’t know why I did this. Weakness of character?
Whoo! The Rawk! Now, this album maintains. Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf continues to be one of the few rare “mainstream” rock records of the last decade that doesn’t utterly suck. I don’t know if that’s the music industry’s fault, some sort of lowered expectations or what, but in my world, a great rock record’s got to at least compare to The Who’s Who’s Next? You don’t have to match it, but you at least have to try. Default records? Godsmack records? Those kinda bands, that’s not trying.
Queens Of The Stone Age “A Song For The Dead”:
I’ve always been a Danko Jones supporter, but on careful consideration I’m more of a single song fan — cherry-picking specific tracks of his that I think rule, rather than digging his albums. I know why I put Born A Lion on this list, it’s because Danko finally had an album out after so many years of dancing around the idea of doing so. Most of these songs are DNA to me, I know them by heart, and I maintain this record is house party gold. Is it #5 of 2002, though? I wasn’t certain, but as of writing this and re-listening to the record, the answer’s yes.
Danko Jones “Word Is Bond.” This shit rips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iT-gG-H2nU
At #6 I put The Guthries’ self-titled album. This record’s most notable in Can-rock lore because it features Matt Mays. I never go back to it, though, and hindsight is telling me I put it on the list as a better-than-you pick. I hope I don’t do that anymore.
Now, at #7 I put Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain. This record has some talking points. If I was to retabulate this list today this would be my undisputed #1 album of 2002, but at the time I was somewhat sheepish about my obvious Jason Molina fandom at the time (nowadays, if I feel “fan-ish” at all over a record I ride that wave like nobody’s business — it’s proof I’m not dead inside).
Anyway, there’s a peculiar flipside to this album. When I first listened to it I didn’t really understand it all that well. See, Didn’t It Rain is close to one of the heaviest, gnarliest, deepest gut-wrenching journeys into depression ever recorded. I missed many of these very obvious themes when I first got this record and it’s only now over the years that I’ve been able to figure it all out.
Which brings me to another point — I rarely listen to this record any more. On purpose. I’ve come to believe it’s got a bit of a mystical hold on me where if I listen to these songs I get in a sympathetic mindframe and I start feeling a little darker in the soul. It’s a subtle, toxic chemical reaction, a dangerous audio drug that one has to be most careful with.
Songs: Ohia “Steve Albini’s Blues.” Consume this at your own risk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVcBaAy4A4
At #8 would be Lindi’s The Taste Of Forbidden Fruit. This would be Lindi Ortega, the now-country singer of (relative) little red boots fame. Back in 2002 she was a smoking hot cabaret minx who did songs with titles like “Naughty Little Thing,” “Lipstick Traces” and “Sweet Jezebel.” I liked this Lindi more than the one who’s taking advice on how to get her albums distributed in Wal-Marts.
I realize now why I’ve never ripped The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots into iTunes — it’s because it had copy-protection that used to prevent doing so. Shocking how I was able to live without listening to this record for 10 years because of a minor technical inconvenience. That’s why the music industry died.
The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize??”
Filling the last spot on the list was Burning Brides’ Fall Of The Plastic Empire. I distinctly remember being undecided about whether or not to include this on the list, but I can’t remember who the other potential choice was. Which I guess means I made the right decision.
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1
2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1
2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1
2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1
2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1
2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1
2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1
2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1
2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1
2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1
2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1
2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1
2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1
2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1
2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1
2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1
1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1
1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1
1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
Filed under Music, Recollections
The Schomberg Fair
Aaron was very excited to recently join host Barry Taylor on Hamilton radio station Y108’s “The Y108 Indie Show.”
The pair shared some stories and gossiped like little schoolgirls. They also played some cool new music, too. Namely the following:
Zeus – “Are You Gonna Waste My Time”
The Dirty Nil – “Verona Lung”
Monster Truck – “Seven Sea Blues”
Ox – “Out On The Weekend”
The Mark Inside – “There Is Nothing To Admit”
Rick Aucoin – “Dying To Live”
Danko Jones – “Mouth Yo Mouth”
Nordic Nomadic – “Summer Friends”
Schomberg Fair – “I’d Raise My Hand”
Bry Webb – “Ex Punks”
The Y108 Indie Show airs every Monday night at 9 p.m. ET and repeats the following Sunday at 6 a.m. ET. To stream Y108 click here.
Early risers and super-raging party people can catch a rerun of Aaron’s episode on Sunday, Nov. 27, at 6 .m.
Filed under Music, Shameless Promotion
I Overcame My Autism And All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir
Risky Fuel 