Archive for the ‘Women’ Category
AWmusic’s Top Songs of 2008 pt 2: #51-75
I forgot to mention that these top songs are still very personal opinions despite trying to take as many suggestions of the rest of the writers. I’m not sure how people will respond to the list, numbering isn’t quite as important as inclusion. I like taking suggestions as there will be millions of tracks I likely missed. As is the goal with this list, 10-limit descriptions included.
Previously:
#76-100
Next in the series:
Part 3: #26-50
Part 4: #1-25
Numbers #51-75:
#51 Creator by Santogold w/ Switch and Freq Nasty (myspace/video -unofficial was canceled?)
The intro is risky, brave and wildly effective.
#52 Crystal Stilts by Crystal Stilts (myspace)
A song should be good if it’s your band name.
#53 I Wish I Could Keep You by Little Pictures (myspace/live)
This song makes me wish I was a kid again.
#54 In The Kitchen by The Pomegranates (myspace/live -poor visual quality)
A song I want to play on the guitar.
#55 Never Miss A Beat by Kaiser Chiefs (homepage/video)
The kids on the street, are scary! Shiiet.
#56 Death To The Los Campesinos! By Los Campesinos! (myspace/video)
“I’ll be control-alt-deleting your face with no reservation”.
#57 Marry Me Annie by Matthew and The Arrogant Sea (myspace)
Hey Annie, I’m serious, MATAS is a great band.
#58 Whiite Fantaseee by Slim Twig (myspace)
How about an Asian fantaseee?
#59 Dance Dance Dance by Lykke Li (myspace/live with Bon Iver)
Lykke Li’s hips lie and she’s shy. I’m in love.
#60 Galaxy Of The Lost by Lightspeed Champion (myspace/video)
Emmy The Great makes this song gold. Weird video.
#61 Skinny Love by Bon Iver
Bon Iver should try BBW. Morbidly Obese Love anyone?
#62 Good Time by Brazilian Girls (myspace/video)
I just want to have a good time too.
#63 Can’t Shake It by Kate Miller-Heidke (myspace/video)
I can’t dance either though this song is danceable…
#64 New Soul by Yael Naim(homepage)
I’m a new ipod product with a new catchy song.
#65 Boneless by The Notwist (homepage)
Great song off a slightly disappointing album.
#66 Shadow Falls by Hello, Blue Roses (myspace/live)
Awesome duet, too bad they were bashed by Pitchfork.
#67 Get Better by Mates of State (myspace/video)
“Forget your politics for awhile”. 2008 was a tough year.
#68 Xavia by The Submarines (myspace)
The Submarines don’t let me down in this song.
#69 Home Sweet Home by Those Dancing Days (myspace/video)
A perfect holiday song.
#70 Not Your Savior by Peasant (myspace)
Peasant keeps it honest, leave him alone.
#71 Call It A Ritual by Wolf Parade (myspace)
I enjoy Spencer Krug’s metaphorical writing.
#72 Black Rice by Women (myspace/live)
Best Song that ends in a whimper.
#73 The Rip by Portishead (homepage/video)
Just beautiful.
#74 That’s Not My Name by The Tings Tings (myspace/video)
Wait..what is her name again?
#75 Gila by Beach House (myspace/live)
Giiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
The Best Categorial Songs of 2008
Best Song To Play On A Road Trip
Deerhunter- Nothing Ever Happened
Apart from the fact it has an obvious motorik rhythm and the song’s thrust is the perfect aural accompaniment to watching cars eat up the white lines in the middle of the road, this Deerhunter track manages to represent the essential dichotomy of travelling in a motor vehicle. The contrast between the moving world outside and still world within a car is significant, like a song called “Nothing Ever Happened” that has a lot happening within it.
Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened
Best Song From A Band Named After An Animal
Animal Collective – Seal Eyeing
Putting Animal Collective in this category may be a little too literal, but once again Animal Collective release an arresting stopgap EP between albums and the Water Curses EP will maybe seem like the ideal bridge between Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion when we have the benefit of hindsight, but beneath the aquatic bubbling sounds that introduce “Seal Eyeing” there exists a fragile reverberating piano odyssey made for moments of graceful meditation.
Animal Collective – Seal Eyeing
Best Song Influenced By Pet Sounds
Department of Eagles – No One Does It Like You
The ghost of “God Only Knows” echoes through this track but Department of Eagles deliver pleasing layer after layer of ornate sounds, which only reveal themselves fully after repeated listens. Like many of the tracks on In Ear Park, the rich production values seem to offer an opportunity to get lost in a world of detailed instrumentation, which is surely the intention behind the same techniques used by Brian Wilson, all those years ago.
Department Of Eagles – No One Does It Like You
Best Song To Contemplate The Fragility Of Existence With
Chad Van Gaalen – Rabid Bits of Time
Chad Van Gaalen sings about death on Soft Airplane, sometimes with cheeky abandon in chirpy sounding songs that are designed to get under the skin, but nowhere is the flimsy thread of mortality personified so appropriately than on “Rabid Bits of Time.” When Gaalen sings in his quivering voice, “No one knows where we go, when we’re dead or when we’re dreaming,” it’s like listening to someone telling you something you already know, but never really understood until it is disclosed as simply as it is here.
Chad Van Gaalen – Rabid Bits of Time
Best Song That Ends With A Whimper
Women – Black Rice
“Black Rice” clangs along like a lost art rock classic from a late 60s, which for once doesn’t sound like it is an amateur appropriation, reshaped and regurgitated into a diluted version of the original music that influenced its creation. Glockenspiels tinkle with the guitars to lead to a climax that never comes as the momentum abruptly ends with a limp strum, and after all the musical pay-offs that have become so commonplace it’s refreshing to hear a song that causes you to listen to its journey because it doesn’t conclude with a bang or a fade.
Women – Black Rice
Canada’s Hottest Bands of 2008
I contributed to last month’s blogger compilation to vote for the Canada’s Hottest Bands of 2008 edition on I Heart Music. In brackets is where the band was placed. I only contributed the top 10 as well and I included 5 more bands that should be at least considered.
1. Crystal Castles (11th)
Crystal Castles were ones of the hottest bands of the year after their debut release and at times the most controversial e.g the Chiptunes controversy and the “stolen” artwork on old EP. They seem to have survived the criticism and are stronger then ever putting on crowded live events all while laying low in the media. I think they were easily the big winners when it comes to Canadian artists.
Magic Spells by Crystal Castles
2. Fucked Up (8th)
Fucked Up’s Common Chemistry of Life has been receiving good reviews from most places. From a critical standpoint the album has been Canada’s most successful artist in terms of being liked critically. They also played a cover of Blitzkrieg Bop with Moby…. Even if we didn’t think too highly of Fucked Up ourselves doesn’t change the fact that they have taken some people by storm.
Looking for God by Fucked Up
3. Black Mountain (T13)
Black Mountain released In The Future at the start of the year and was on the shortlist for the Polaris Prize. Bloggers and publications lauded the band calling it one of the year’s best despite the year just kicking off. They definitely kicked things off with a bang.
4. Chad VanGaalen (1st)
He looks like the front runner for next year’s Polaris Prize. He’s released a top notch album which most bloggers have enjoyed. Other then Now Magazine which has delusionally given the album a poor score (and continues to call it a weak outing in subsequent mentionings), it’s been a general consensus that Soft Airplane should be making our year end lists. Other then some magazines liking his work and all around blogger praise, I felt like he could’ve been bigger and of course is much more deserving. I think it’s one of the first times I’ve been criticized for giving a 4.25 out of 5.
Bare Feet on Wet Grip Tape by Chad VanGaalen
5. Wolf Parade (22nd)
Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer was released to a high level of anticipation as they made their followup to the great Apologies To The Queen Mary. While the press wasn’t as good for Wolf Parade, their newfound art-rock direction and the lack of hits still won over many critics and fans for a solid year by one of Canada’s top bands. I especially enjoyed the album.
The Grey Estates by Wolf Parade
6. Cadence Weapon (T27)
I personally thought Cadence Weapon’s Afterparty Babies would make it in the short list as the rap representative but then I was introduced to Shad’s The Old Prince. While Shad was soaking in a lot of the publicity, his album was still a success after years of anticipation..
7. Chromeo (no rating – seriously?)
Though technically not fully Canadian. Chromeo had an awesome year despite Fancy Footwork being released last year. They had a breakthrough year with the release of the Double CD Deluxe Edition as well as stealing the spotlights from festivals by being one of the better live bands. They are planning to release some stuff and even now are creating some news by remixing some Vampire Weekend.
The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance (Chromeo Remix) by Vampire Weekend
8. Women (12th)
Women’s record was produced by Chad VanGaalen and enjoyed by many, including Christian. I personally wasn’t introduced in checking them out after hearing Black Rice and that may have been a major mistake because it isn’t so bad after another listen. From what I’ve heard from everyone it seems that their debut record is worthwhile and has blown people away.
9. Tokyo Police Club (#6)
I actually kind of dislike TPC. They are quite famous though receiving mainstream radio and television airplay in addition to being loved by teens and being utterly annoyed by various fans during Rogers Picnic. It was our goal to stay objective by including TPC even if I dislike them.
Nature of the Experiment by Tokyo Police Club
10. Shad (9th)
Shad released The Old Prince last year however he really broke out with the video of The Old Prince Still Lives At Home. The parody of the Fresh Prince of Bel- Air Intro. He looked like the runner-up in the Polaris Prize sweepstakes (I thought he was going to win) and I was a little disappointed personally he didn’t take it.
The Old Prince Still Lives At Home by Shad
The honorable mentions:
11. Caribou (3rd)
12. Woodhands
13. Holy Fuck
14. Plants and Animals (even if I’m in the only one who hates Parc Avenue)
15. Feist – She didn’t really do anything…
Women – Review
Numerous associations spring to mind when coming across a band named after “the fairer sex”. Primary ones being that this could be a group of agitprop feminists, satirical jocks or even lovers of the Charles Bukowski novel of the same name. In fact, Women are an all male four-piece from Alberta who have just released a hissing and vibrating 29-minute lo-fi tour de force called, erm… Women.
Recorded in the same basement that produced this year’s wonderful Soft Airplane album, with the help of Chad VanGaalen and an arsenal of wonky old tape machines, and centred around the nucleus of the 60s art-rock clang of “Black Rice” or the spiky guitar squabbles of “Shaking Hands”, Women (for a debut) contains an uncommon mastery of the kind of dissonant tangents that usually make you want to press skip on your music player (but don’t) and the type of melodies, that make you feel like you’ve heard them before (when you haven’t.) In its most transparent and over zealous classification Women by Women is the sort of album that could be placed between that legendary white record with the banana on it and that famous green one showing awkward looking non-surfers feeding animals at a zoo, that is if you like put your music collection in an anal chronology of pop versus the avant-garde.
Voices crack with patented punk ennui, drums beat like the hearts of hyperactive children and guitars chime away like unholy church bells, but nothing on this record seems out of place or wilfully perverse. Even the de rigueur ever-present lo-fi tape-hiss, so often used as a misplaced form of authenticity, is happily overwhelmed by the sound of songs being played, rather than just being recorded. “Group Transport Hall” with its vocal harmonies and sweet glockenspiel or “Cameras” in its pleasing metallic chug are perfectly delivered in a mere minute, with little room to contemplate the hiss and thud of wonky recording techniques. The ends justify the means when the ends comprise the sound of a band that is willing to experiment, include three instrumentals on a debut and finish an album with a great big squall of noisy nonsense.
Pretty melodies may turn into ugly noises and an ugly racket may become something beautiful, but that’s ok, it’s all part of the same compelling potential. There is a lineage of the immediate and the not so immediate co-existing quite happily on most of what has been called classic, at one time or another, and maybe Women will one day belong to that lineage? Right now, your internet search engine may not be able to find the name of this band without dredging up a deluge of inappropriate material, but after hearing this record you’ll probably want this moniker to permeate beyond the lexicon of Pitchfork related blog/websites and maybe even end up on top of the first page of a Google search, as unlikely as that may be.
Women – Black Rice
Women – Group Transport Hall
