2009 in Music Albums 11-15

11. Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic
Two years ago Young Galaxy were number two on my year end list, only behind Radiohead. Fast forward two years and the band has released a second album that is quite different from the first one. The first single Long Live the Fallen World showed great promise, a track that starts with the typical dreamy atmospheric Young Galaxy sound, but in the end it rapidly speeds up and almost sounds like the Millennium Falcon will go into Hyperspace. But quickly after that the album is grounded again into the familiar Young Galaxy sound again. Both Catherine McCandles and Stephen Ramsey deliver vocals that work well together, providing a sound landscape that is dreamy but at the same time delivers a sense of urgency as it reflects on the present state of the world. It is about lovers surviving in these disposable times. Not for the faint of heart.

Favourites: Dreams, Queen Drum, Long Live the Fallen World



12. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Indie hipsters unite! This album was met with open arms by Pitchfork.com and deservedly so. It contains a wonderful mix of songs with male and female vocal parts, bursting choral background vocals, hand claps, choppy guitars, fuzzy guitars, tambourines...you name it, its there. And it sounds great together. The album also features two of my favourite songs of the year: "Stillness Is the Move" and "Useful Chamber."Useful Chamber features a song that keeps changing all of the time, alternating between chilled beats, rocky vocals, and then a huge burst of awwwww's as the song rapidly changes direction again.

Favourites: Useful Chamber, Stillness Is The Move, Fluorescent Half-Dome



13. The Most Serene Republic - ...And the Ever Expanding Universe
The album title and song names such as "Bubble Reputation", and "No One Likes A Nihilist"give you a rough idea of the creative force behind this album. A listen through confirms these suspicions. Smart, intricate, and creative lyrics are met with smart, intricate, and creative musicianship. One highlight of the album is the instrumental "Patternicity". Instrumental doesn't do the song justice though, it is an epic song that sounds like it should be performed by a symphony. By the end of the album, we're met with "Don't Hold Back, Feel A Little Longer" which makes it hard to not dance and sing along, at least a little. The album shows that this band are truly students of music and have an ever expanding knack for putting together diverse songs. The video for Heavens to Purgatory is rather awesome.

Favourites: Phi, Patternicity, Bubble Reputation



14. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
The album Wilco (The Album) opens with the song Wilco the song. The cover of this album features a two humped camel with a party hat beside a table with six empty chairs. It is a little hard to take things too seriously with such an over the top and silly presentation. But by the time you get through One Wing three tracks in it is pretty evident that there is some seriously good songwriting taking place. Jeff Tweedy delivers a stellar performance right through. What drew me to this album was the collaboration with Feist for the song You and I. Both of their voices work perfectly together resulting in one of my favourite songs of the year.

Favourites: One Wing, You and I, I'll Fight



15. Jenn Grant - Echoes
Another breakup album, how original right? At the time of writing, Jenn was still in a relationship and didn't realize it was a breakup album right away. This leads to some honest and soulful songwriting that is easy to follow and listen to. An artist using her creativity to express herself. Seeing her live as part of Halifax Pop Explosion was a bonus. She has a charming and engaging personality, and this flows right throughout her album. The strength of this album lie in the vocals and the wonderful instrumentation that accompanies them.

Favourites: Heartbreaker, Where Are You Now, Sailing by Silverships

Concert Archive

This is a working list. Still a few shows I have to fill in.

2010

02-11- Owen Pallett/Basia Bulat (St. Matthew's Church, Halifax NS)

02-08 - Halifax for Haiti (Joel Plaskett, Classified, Rawlings Cross, Christina Martin, Rebekah Higgs, and others) (Halifax Metro Centre, Halifax NS)

02-05 - Joel Plaskett/Luke Levy/Steven Bowers (MSVU, Halifax NS)

02-01 - City and Colour/Two Hours Traffic (Rebecca Cohn, Halifax NS)

01-30 - Jim Bryson/Justin Rutledge/Catherine MacLellan (St. Patrick's Church, Halifax NS)

01-22 - Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees/Grahm Zilla (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)

2009
12-12 - Hey Rosetta!/La Strada/Jon Mckiel (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)
12-11 - Hey Rosetta!/La Strada/Jon Mckiel (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)
11-27 - The Most Serene Republic/Mardeen/First Aid Kit (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)
10-24 - Japandroids/You Say Party! We Say Die! (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)
10-24 - Jenn Grant/Timber Timbre (St. Matthew's Church, Halifax NS)
10-23 - MSTRKRFT (The Palace, Halifax NS)
10-23 - Hey Rosetta!/Oh No Forest Fires (The Grawood, Halifax NS)
10-22 - Herman Dune/Julie Doiron (St. Matthew's Church, Halifax NS)
10-21 - Bruce Peninsula/Valleys/The Got To Get Got/York Redoubt (The Seahorse Tavern, Halifax NS)

10-05 - Rich Aucoin/Windom Earle/Ryan Hemsworth (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)

09-20 - U2/Snow Patrol (Gillette Stadium, Foxboro MA)

09-18 - Hey Rosetta!/The Novaks/Boxer The Horse (Bridge Street Tent, Sackville NB)

09-11 - Joel Plaskett Emergency/The Mark Inside (Dalhousie University, Halifax NS)
07-04 - Virgin Festival: Metric, Dinosaur Jr, Hey Rosetta!, Plants and Animals, Handsome Furs, Arkells, In Flight Safety (Citadel Hill, Halifax NS)

06-19 - Matt Mays (The Seahorse Tavern)
05-28 - Joel Plaskett and Friends (Rebecca Cohn, Halifax NS)
05-16 - k-os/Lioness (Cunard Center, Halifax NS)
05-01 - Hey Rosetta!/Rich Aucoin (The Paragon Theatre, Halifax NS)
04-26 - Joel Plaskett (+ Emergency, Bill Plaskett, Ana & Rose, Adam Baldwin) (The Carleton, Halifax NS)
04-18 - Record Store Day: Joel Plaskett, The Superfantastics, Laura Merrimen (Taz Records, Halifax NS)
04-03 - Death Cab For Cutie/Midway State (McInnis Room Dalhousie, Halifax NS)
03-12 - Great Big Sea/Spirit of the West (Halifax Metro Centre, Halifax NS)
03-11 - In Flight Safety/The Superfantastics (Grawood, Halifax NS)

2008
11-19 Coldplay/Sleeper Car/Jon Hopkins (American Airlines Center, Dallas TEX)
11-12 The Joel Plaskett Emergency (Grawood, Halifax NS)
11-07 Feist/Hayden (Halifax Metro Centre, Halifax NS)
11-02 Stars/Hey Rosetta! (St. Matthew's, Halifax NS)
11-01 Stars/Hey Rosetta! (The Marquee Club, Halifax NS)
09-21 Jason Collett/Rebekah Higgs (Seahorse Tavern, Halifax NS)
09-14 Bloc Party/Apostle of Hustle (The Marquee Club, Halifax NS)
09-13 The Trews/Shelter with Theives (The Marquee Club, Halifax NS)
09-03 Wintersleep/Dog Day (Sexton Field, Halifax NS)
07-19 Summersonic: City and Colour/The Weakerthans/Tokyo Police Club/In Flight Safety/Rebekah Higgs (Garrison Grounds, Halifax NS)
06-26 Jose Gonzalez/Rebekah Higgs (St. Matthew's, Halifax NS)

2007
11-02 The Contact/Air Traffic Control/The Pact (The Attic, Halifax NS)
10-18 Apostle of Hustle/The Most Serene Republic/Young Galaxy/Grand Theft Bus (The Marquee Club, Halifax NS)
06-16 The Contact (Birch Cove Baptist, Halifax NS)

2006
05-12 Our Lady Peace/Neverending White Lights/Jets Overhead/Pedestrian (Metro Center, Halifax NS)
03-30 Halifax Play Hard: Garrett Mason, Jimmy Rankin, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, Matt Mays + El Torpedo, The Trews (Grand Parade, Halifax NS)
03-31 Pilate (Sam the Record Man, Halifax NS)

2005
05-26 U2/Kings of Leon (Fleet Center, Boston MA)
01-11 Concert for Asia:MIR, Crush, Lennie Gallant, Matt Mays, Bruce Guthro, the Jimmy Swift Band, and others (Metro Centre, Halifax NS)

2002
11-23 Great Big Sea, Crush

Concert Review: Feist

November 7th, 2008. At Halifax Metro Center
Fellow Concert goer: Jenni Richard
Headliner: Feist
Supporting: Hayden

Before getting into the nitty gritty details of the show. This was a show that I wanted to go to, but didn't want to pay $50 to see. I ended up buying tickets to other shows instead. But being a concert hound, and also a contest-to-win-concert-tickets-hound, I found one on the facebook event for the show. All you had to do to enter was write a creative way to get there. Well I didn't win. But Jenni won with her poor student entry. "I would close my nursing text books and take the night off. Meeting my friend we would either walk to or ride the Metro transit to the Metro Center. Seeing as that would be my only form of transportation for a poor university student. I am i huge fan of Feist but i don't have the extra money for tickets to see her show." She was kind enough to take me along with her.

The show started and ended with a lantern. First, projected onto a giant blank screen was the silhoute of a lantern hanging from a tree branch. She then grabbed the lantern and hid behind a smaller screen where all you could see was the silhoute of her body as she sang Help Is Aroud the Corner. She then played the first few songs off her Juno winning album The Reminder. With white dancing shoes, swift dancing moves, and a style that captivated the crowd. Throughout the whole show, there were visuals on the screen. But not just projected images. They were art works, playing with lights, shadows, and colour to make beautiful, interesting, and nifty images that went along with the songs. During the slower songs like Honey Honey, Let It Die, and many more, she was able to shocase her vocal and instrumental talents. But during upbeat songs like When I Was A Young Girl, she proved that she also knows how to rock out.
The only thing I didn't like about the show was the way that the crowd sat the whole time and clapped at the appropriate moments. It was also maddening to see people leaving during the encore! As Jenni put it, it was like being at a ballet.

Highlights of the show
-When I Was A Young Girl was amazing live. So much energy and well played. It was also neat the way that red and white lights were used to make "panicked" looking shadows.
-Sealion was awsome, just since I love that song so much.
-During 1 2 3 4, at the climax towards the end of the song, the stage exploded with colourful confetti. Unfortunately my camera died as this was happening.
-Having awesome seats and not paying for them

Setlist courtesy of ajsams.com
Help is on the Way / So Sorry / Mushaboom / I Feel it All / The Limit to Your Love / When I was a Young Girl / The Park / Past in Present / My Moon My Man / Gate Keeper / 1234 / How My Heart Behaves / Sealion // The Water / Secret Heart [pieced together from Chronicle Herald News Article]

Concert Review: Stars

Stars night two.
November 2nd, 2008. At St. Matthew's Church, Halifax
Fellow Concert goer: Jenni Richard
Headliner: Stars
Supporting: Hey Rosetta!

Night two of seeing Stars and Hey Rosetta!, and I must say I was very excited to see them again. It was another cold lineup waiting to go in. And unfortunately getting there at 6:55 meant being far back in the lineup. The one thing I don't like about St. Matthew's Church is the way that the stage is so low making it hard to see. Sound wise, the second night was much better.
It was definitely a treat seeing Hey Rosetta! again. They changed up there setlist, adapting to the new setting. There were more slower and softer songs that sounded great in a big church. There is nothing quite like hearing the beautiful sounds of the cello and violin filling a church with an awesome band.
Stars came out once again to "Maintenance Hall, 4am", a haunting song that opens up their Sad Robots EP. They then played the same opening songs as Saturday; The Night Starts Here, Take Me To the Riot, and then Soft Revolution. I didn't mind at all though as those songs are fun to just belt out at the top of your lungs. Torquil then asked if we wanted to hear a ghost story in his "under the influence" sort of way before they went into The Ghost of Genova Heights. They played a few more songs from the album Heart than they did on Saturday night, which I didn't mind. They also played Calander Girl which was also a treat, although I thought that perhaps Torquil's jugular was going to explode as he kept yelling "I'm alive!" over and over again even after the song was done.
The band seemed to really enjoy their time here saying that we were the best crowd all tour. I'm not sure if that was genuine or not. They did play a five song encore instead of a four song encore which was nice. Although I was slightly dissapointed not to hear Reunion again.
It was a little dissapointing too that I couldn't see that great, or get good pictures. But nonetheless, it was a Stars concert, and it was awesome.

Some highlights of both shows:
Hearing Amy singing the final lines of Going, Going, Gone. So much passion. On Saturday you could see tears forming in her eyes as she sang.
Just listening to Amy, she has such a lovely voice. Both her and Torquil sound great when they go back and forth singing.
On Saturday night I loved how they played two of my favourites: Reunion and My Favourite Book
Hey Rosetta! was a treat all around. I didn't expect them to be so good.
Getting to go to the show with good friends (Chantelle and Jenni), making new friends, and seeing old friends.

Concert Review: Stars and Hey Rosetta!

Stars night one.
November 1st, 2008. At the Marquee Club, Halifax
Fellow Concert goer: Chantelle Rideout
Headlining: Stars
Supporting: Hey Rosetta!

It was a little colder standing in line outside the Marquee on November 1st than it was the middle of September for Bloc Party. But it was well worth the cold shivers and the wait. When we got inside we went straight to the front of the stage and stayed there for the whole show.
Hey Rosetta! opened up the night with a lively set that got the crowd moving. If you've never listened to them: "ctrl+t" then type www.heyrosetta.com and listen to their album on their website. They were entertaining to watch as Tim Baker passionately sang every note, and the other five memebers played a variety of instruments including the violin and cello.
After the crew set up the stage for Stars, pounding bass pumped out "Begining After The End" across the club and then the band fittingly opened with "The Night Starts Here" before playing the lively "Take Me to the Riot." The stage was littered with roses and flowers. Roses on the drums, taped to the mics, on the keys, everywhere. Rose pedals and roses were thrown into the crowd quite frequently throughout the night. Torquil seemed to enjoy the positive feedback he was getting from the crowd throughout the night. They played a bunch of songs from In Our Bedroom After the War, their latest Sad Robots EP, and from Set Yourself on Fire. They also played a few from Heart. In terms of crowd noise, the Set Yourself on Fire songs seemed to garner the most attention and sing-a-longs. At one point during the deafening "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", Torquil turned the mic and let the fans finish the song off. It was fun to finally see Amy Milan live after enjoying not only her work with Stars, but also work with Broken Social Scene, and many of the extended Arts and Crafts family.
All I can say is bring on tomorrow!

Concert Review: Jason Collett

September 27, 2008 at the Seahorse Tavern.
Opening Act: Rebekah Higgs
Fellow Concert Goer: Jessie Christenson

This review is over eight months late. I don't really remember many of the specifics about the show. It was a good show though, he played a couple new songs as well which sounded fantastic with the full band that was playing with him. A highlight was definitely when Rebekah Higgs came onstage to sing Hangover Days with him.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the rest of this post be filled with pictures.

Concert Review: Bloc Party

September 14th, 2008. At the Marquee Club, Halifax
Fellow Concert goers: Owen Marchand and Lauren Allen.
Headliner: Bloc Party
Supporting: Apostle of Hustle

The second night of my Marquee weekend featured one of my favourite Canadian indie bands and one of the bigger U.K. Indie bands. I'll confess I'm not the biggest Bloc Party fan in the world, but the fact that a current band of their status was coming to Halifax made it a must see event. It was refreshing to get a big act that isn't just a has been, such as the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John, etc, but rather a band in their prime. Bloc Party released their new album Intimacy at the end of August online, and will be releasing a physical copy later on in October. So that meant some of the new songs were getting road tested including Talons which was just released the other week and played for the first time live at this show.

The band used alot of strobe lights and there was lots of movement and dancing all show long. By the end of the show I was completely drenched in sweat from all the movement and heat caused by that many people. And I was right up at the very front so you don't exactly have that much space around you unfortunately. The crowd was really into the entire show

The band opened with One Month Off from their new album before moving into Hunting For Witches. I did enjoy the first six songs, but it wasn't until they played Songs for Clay and Banquet together that I really got into the show. You could also tell that Kele was more comfortable with the crowd and more into the show at that point. I'm also more familiar with songs from Silent Alarm and the first few off of Weekend in the City (shows I'm not that hardcore of a fan), and the later part of the setlist was more weighted towards those songs. It was funny listening to Kele between songs talking to "hell-E-fax". I guess I'm not used to hearing British bands.

After the main set the crowd obviously cheered quite loudly for an encore which they got. This is when Talons made its live debut. They then played Price of Gas with everybody loudly singing and dancing along before going into the dance song Flux. And then finally playing crowd favourite Helicopter which if you weren't singing and jumping up and down at this point you didn't know how to have fun. After this encore the band came back out because "we haven't played a show in a place like this for a while and we're having fun".
They played She's Hearing Voices as their final song. At this point the barrier between performer and audience was completely torn down as Kele went out into the crowd; crowd surfing, taking pictures, dancing with fans, etc. All in all a great show and I'm glad that I was able to go.

Apostle of Hustle did a great job opening up the show, although I wish they could have played longer. They only played 3 songs off their studio albums, and then played 3 or 4 other songs. Luckily they played Folkloric Feel which is one of my favourite Apostle of Hustle songs. Andrew Whiteman also held up a bra that was thrown on stage the last time they were in Halifax last October.

Here is the setlist:
One Month Off
Hunting For Witches
Little Thoughts
Waiting For The 7.18
Halo
Signs
Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Better than Heaven
This Modern Love
The Prayer
Like Eating Glass

Encore 1
Talons (first time played live)
Price of Gasoline
Flux
Helicopter

Encore 2
She's Hearing Voices

Concert Review - Arts & Crafts showcase

October 18th, 2007: The Marquee Club, Halifax
Fellow Concert Goers: Bethany Draper
Bands: Young Galaxy, the Most Serene Republic, Apostle of Hustle

Halifax Pop Explosion, a week long music extravaganza around the city took place this past week. Some of the larger names included Teagan and Sarah, Matt Mays, and Joel Plaskett. The show I was interested in was the Arts & Crafts showcase. First of all I have to say that the Arts & Crafts label has to be one of the best record labels out there featuring amazing talent like the bands listed above along with Feist, Stars, and Broken Social Scene. All the artists on the label pour out alot of creativity and passion into their music. And this was apparent on Thursday night.

The first band to play was Grand Theft Bus who aren't on the Arts & Crafts label and I didn't really care for. The main band I was looking forward to was Young Galaxy. There latest album has been in heavy rotation for me the past few weeks. The passion they poured out into their set was incredible, the highlight for me was when they sang Swing Your Heartbreak, more particularly the bridge of the song.

Next up was the Most Serene Republic who I also really enjoyed all though it was a little loud and too many sounds going on for me to fully appreciate their songs. They had an awesome intro as the band launched their set with the song Humble Peasants with much pot and pan clanging along with violin and trombone. Frontman Adrian Jewett alternated between vocals and trombone the whole set.














The main act Apostle of Hustle, the band I have listened to the least, also put on a very good live show as well. Andrew Whiteman came out wearing a jacket that he must have painted himself. He is definitely a little eccentric, and was definitely under the influence of mind altering substances.