Music roundup

This roundup is a rough round up of what I've listened to this year. now it's not necessarily music that came out this year just what I've been listening to in a rough order of how bomb I think it is.

So here we go a rough top 15 (with a runner up!) albums I got into in 2008

Runner Up!. The Basement Tapes. By Bob Dylan and The Band
amazing unreleased material by the most amazing artists I've ever heard

15.Discovery. By Daft Punk
I hated techno until this. it contains Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger for those of you who only know a bands most popular song but it also has so much more. It reminds me of Tokyo at night time.

14.Moment of Truth. By Gang Starr
This year was defiantly a year that got me out of my usual rock and roll and into some serious Hip Hop. Gang Starr's got that old school flavor that I have come to love in Hip Hop.

13.LaDeDa. By Joel Plaskett Emergency
an album I got a while ago that I never really paid attention to until I saw Joel Live and I realized how many amazing tracks this album contains

12. The Cool. By Lupe Fiasco
amazing hip hop by my favorite rapper. Very original in a world of cut and paste hip hop great concept album.

11.Feed the Animals. By Girl Talk
very unique album that's free to download. it's made up completely of samples from other artists and is very fun to listen to. It also takes a stand on copyright in music and all that jazz.

10.Sky Blue Sky. By Wilco
Amazing easy listening album. I really got into it after seeing Wilco live at NY. great album I recommend it to everyone.

9.Alive 2007. By Daft Punk
Daft Punk live. amazing mixes of my favorite Daft Punk songs. really gets you in the mood for serious party/dancing.

8.Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. By Wilco
crazy noises and sounds all coming together to make beautiful music just the way I like it.

7.Magic Potion. By the Black Keys
Amazing album I really got into it it's got some quality blues-rock and maybe the most air-guitarable album ever

6. Food and Liquor. By Lupe Fiasco,
This album is easily one of my favorite Hip Hop albums ever to be released it's not something you'd expect to hear in today's hip hop (it even criticizes modern rap videos) great album I'd recommend it to anyone even people who don't like rap/ Hip Hop

5.Stage Fright and The Last Waltz. By The Band,
A tie between these two incredible Band Albums Stage Fright has some incredible band songs. Now keep in mind The Last Waltz would easily be #1 if it weren't for me reading Levon helm's book and learning what a rip off it was but it's still amazing and still one of the best thing's I've ever heard

4.Enter the Wu, (36 Chambers). By The Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu is the first and best (in my opinion) Wu Tang album. It has such a genuine sound to it and it really opened me up to some heavier Rap.

3. The Mouse and The Mask by DANGERDOOM.
The mouse and the mask is a great collabaration between MF Doom who has become one of my favorite rappers and Dangermouse who is and incredible producer/beat maker. Doom is a lyrical genius and Mouse knows how to make some sick beats together they make an incredible Hip Hop duo

2. Real Emotional Trash. By Steve Malkmus and the Jicks
one of the few albums that where I love every single track. Steve and his crew of Jicks have a unique indie rock sound that I've never really heard but I've fallen in love with. It sweet simple and amazing.

1. Things Fall Apart By. The Roots
This is my favorite Roots album. It is not number one because it is nessicarily the best album on the list it's number one because it introduced me to Rap and Hip hop. Before the Roots I was your every day rock and roller with a narrow vision in music and little respect for the rap world let alone any other genera of music but because of the roots I've been introduced to so many rap albums that I've fallen in love with and some that I thought were bomb. So thank you The Roots for opening my musical doors and introducing me to new artists and new music.

So there you have it a list of albums that I got into heavily in 2008 I recommend every single one of these albums for anyone reading this blog.

Happy new years everyone
-Grant Hawkins

PS: here's a quick list of my favorite albums released in 2008

5. Feed The Animals. By Girl Talk
4. Flight of the Conchords. By Flight of the Conchords
3. Rising Down. By The Roots
2. Attack and Release. By The Black Keys
1. Real Emotional Trash. By Steve Malkmus and the Jicks

Wilco

Just before I get to say what i have to say, I would just like to comment about my last post. It was really hard to pick 10 albums that were released in 2008, there were MANY that I discovered this year but where older. So my list isn't perfect, its just a rough outline of what i listened to. Okay... back to the topic;

One of the great bands I was introduced to this year was a band by the name of Wilco. It was my friend Ian that let me borrow their CD Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. He had told me how great it was and so i was eager to give it a listen. At first I didn't really get it, a lot of random noises, and affects that seemed to take away from the primary instruments. I put it on the back burner and moved on to other albums. It wasn't until the countless nights driving around with Ian with YHF playing through the car speakers that I started to understand it. The album is to complex to understand after hearing it just once. But once it becomes clear, you can truly understand the extraordinary musical harmony that Wilco creates. The album evenly covers all of the bases of tempo from soft folk, to upbeat rock and everything in between. Not to mention their lates album Sky Blue Sky (but that's a post for another time)

It was simply fate that they happened to be opening for Neil Young at the concert I attended in Halifax. In the film about Wilco "I am trying to break your heart" Rolling Stone's David Fricke is quoted by saying 'I truly believe that later on down the road Wilco will finally get the credit they deserve.'

That's all I have to say, I don't know if any of it made sense... because I can't really explain what I want to say, but what is important is that in my opinion Wilco is one of the best bands of it's time.

Thank you

-Brendan

Top 10 Cd's of 2008

Good afternoon avid readers,

As you all know 2008 is coming to a close so I thought I would give my top 10 favourite albums of the year. This is not necessarily an order of the best albums, just which albums I listened to and affected me the most.

10.Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

9. Attack & Release - The Black Keys

8. Love at the End of the World - Sam Roberts

7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

6. The True Love Rules - Dave Marsh

5. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT

4. The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Bob Dylan

3. Gloryhound & the Skyhawks - Gloryhound & the Skyhawks

2. Terminal Romance - Matt Mays & El Torpedo

1. Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Thanks and Have a happy New-Year!

- Brendan

Happy Birthday Santa!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Spin-off / Common Courtesy

Hello, I just read my comrade Grant's post and decided to add to it, like a sequel... or a spin-off. But not a cheesy, bad spin-off that gets canceled after 4 episodes, a good spin off like Fraser, or Joey... actually just Fraser. Any way, this story takes place not with I, but a friend of mine by the name of Colin. Colin woke up this morning at 8:30 to the site of his buss driving passed his house. Instead of explaining to his mother that he had slept-in and missed the bus and having to endure a huge lecture, he decided to just walk to school. This would not be that big of a deal, but Colin lives a good 40 minute drive from the school. So Colin sets off into the cold. After walking for about and hour he is stopped by a young couple in a car who were quite lost and need directions. They were very grateful and just before driving off they asked him if he needed a ride. He was very cold and accepted their offer. When they came to a fork in the road and Colin was headed one way, and the young couple were headed the other way, he got out of the car thanked them, they thanked him, and he was on his way again. After walking for about another half of an hour another car stops along the side of the road, this time it is an elderly lady and a baby. She asks Colin where he is headed and he replies 'Lockview'. Her only reply was "hop in". Again, These random acts of kindness helped my friend Colin arrive at school.
*INTERMISSION*
Lunchtime... The snow is coming down really hard and for some reason Colin and I decide it would be fun to walk down to Monster Pizza. So we set off, Colin, Matt, Tyler, and myself. We arrived frozen to the bone. I sadly realized that i had no money and so I could not buy anything, however, my friend Matt treated me to a slice. We get a hold of our friend Mike, who had his car with him, but he only had enough seats for three of us. Instead of just one of us walking back in the snow storm, Colin and I both decided to walk back. We were both in a good mood, talking about common courtesy and random acts of kindness when we had an idea. We decided to shovel this elderly lady's drive way. This driveway is on a corner of two streets and is often used as a shortcut by hungry teenagers. The old lady who lives there is very nice and so Colin and I thought it would be nice to shovel it for her. There were two shovels on her front porch that we grabbed and went to work. The entire thing took about an hour, in which we got a lot of funny looks from people passing by. In the end we were very proud of what we did. I'm assuming the lady was not home because she did not come outside. Its a great feeling knowing you've done something nice for someone. In this story I just told you their are at least five acts of kindness, you would be surprised how giving someone a drive or paying for someones meal will affect others around you. So that's my post, and that's how it connects to Grants through "common courtesy" So I hoped you enjoyed reading about our Day.

Peace peacemakers!
- Brendan

A New Years Reslution

New Years is coming which means resolutions that will more then likely be broken. This year I decided that I'm gonna give myself a bit of a resolution. I don't normally give my self New Years resolutions cause I figure whats the difference between any other day of the year to start changing yourself? But since I coincidentally came up with this idea around this time of year I figured I'd slap it with the title of "New Years Resolution."
Pretty much what I plan to do is be more calm and more peaceful. I consider my self a very peaceful/calm guy already but even more peace and calm couldn't hurt I figure (It would be pretty ironic if it did hurt). I recommend everyone put this on their list of resolutions because I think if everyone followed it, it would make everyone a little happier and a little more nice . So next time you're stuck in traffic cause someone is being a bad driver or waiting in line cause someone can't make up their mind of what they want at McDonald's instead of yelling at the person or making a scene consider what it would be like if you were trying to make up your mind and someone started yelling at you. You probably wouldn't like it very much. So next time a random stranger is doing something that annoys you don't think "uggghh that son of a bleep-bleep-bleep-mcbleepidy bleepery bleeperson is being an idiot and I hate them and I'm gonna tell them" just try and focus on something else, think about how much you'd like it if that person freaked out at you or just keep your mouth shut cause yelling at random people makes you look like an idiot.
I'm saying all this because of something that happened to me a while ago that I remembered earlier today. It all started one day when I was talking to Brendan trying to convince him to let me on the loft at our school (this was back when B-ren was on students council) and some random chick who I've never seen before was like "hey are you in grade 9?" and I was like "...yeah" and she said and I quote "I can tell... Grow the fuck up" I just kinda looked at her and thought "...oooookaaaayyyy.........youcrazybitch" and walked away. But it was at that moment that I thought we all need to be a little more polite and even though I never took it very seriously from my parents "if you don't have something good to say don't say it at all" seriously it's a good idea.

Sending messages of peace and love,
Grant (The aspiring peacemaker) Hawkins

Boring Saturday afternoon.

Good Afternoon,
I am bored, so decided to pass the time by blogging. Lately I have been feeling more and more compelled to make music. It is really bothering me because I miss being in a band a lot. It is hard to form a band, you need many assets, first; you need to find people who are cooperative, are good at their instrument, and most importantly enjoy the same music styles as you. Its pretty damn near impossible if you ask me.
I've been bored lately so i have filled in my spare time with good music. Sometimes I forget how awesome "The Band" is. Which reminds me, there is a "The Band Tribute" concert at the end of the month at the Seahorse Tavern and I would really really love to go. However, I am not +19, so I can't go. It really sucks, all of these great musicians come to Halifax and I can't go because i wasn't born in 1989. It sucks.
Well. thats all I have to say for now, have a good one.

- Brendan

Dear Santa

Good morrow,

As you may know Christmas is just around the corner and today I have been getting in the festive spirit. I woke up to find out school was canceled due to a snow storm, I spent the morning decorating my Christmas tree and drinking hot chocolate and listening to Vince Guaraldi 's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. Christmas is a great time of year, that people begin to forget because they get caught up in the materiel things or the 'every thing has to be perfect' state of mind. I find to make the best out of the holidays is to go with the flow, spend time with your loved ones, listen to Christmas music watch Christmas movies and reflect on past Christmases. One thing that really grinds my gears is when church and state get mixed in with Christmas. For example: Every year of my elementary school life we would have an annual "CHRISTMAS Concert" and we would sing "CHRISTMAS songs". My younger sister came home from school the other day and invited me to her "HOLIDAY Concert". Turns out the school took out everything with the word Christmas and replaced it with holidays. Now that's just silly, i don't care what religion you are you can still celebrate Christmas. It has become more than the celebration of the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, it is a time to spend with family and friends. eat cookies, and exchange gifts. Call me Ol' fashioned but I believe Christmas has kind of gotten carried away, i mean some of the gifts that i hear people getting these days cost more than my house. And these spoiled children make lists longer than themselves with useless electric gadgets that they play with twice and than put on a shelf to gather dust. Maybe that is what is expected nowadays, maybe that is where this "Holiday" is headed. I sure hope not. What i love about Christmas is the traditions, the opening of one present on Christmas Eve, and the Advent calender leading up to that special day. And watching the best X-mas movies of all time; A Muppet's Christmas carol, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Rudolph the red nose Reindeer.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and in the words of Michael Scott "Happy birthday Jesus, sorry your party's so lame"

-Brendan (Santa's little ginger) Morley

NYC

I also went to the Neil Young concert so let me give you my perspective on the whole thing. You're probably thinking "won't this be like the exact same as Brendan's post?" No because my post is from the perspective of someone sitting about a foot to Brendan's right. so The night opens up with Everest who were pretty good and kinda reminded me of a Matt Mays/Sam Roberts type band but all I can remember was when the lead singer got everyone to clap and it was like *clap clap clap clapclap clapclap clap clap* and Brendan had a slight struggle catching on. Then Wilco came on. At the time of the show I was a complete Wilco amature save a couple songs (the only one I recognized was Walken) but before the concert Brendan showed me a bunch of Wilco songs which happened to be almost the exact set list so when ever a new song would start I'd hear a "this is the song I just showed you!" coming from about a foot to my left. That live preformance lead me to get Sky Blue Sky and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot from Brendan which are amazing albums. now on to the real deal, the man himself, the shark among fish, the god among men, the god among fish.....? Niel Young! who burst onto the scene and rocked the house down! Ignoring the fight behind me the first song got everyone "rocking in the free world" if you catch my drift. he then went into Hey Hey My My which was conveniently written on the shirt I had just got from the roadies running the T-Shirt booth. Then after that he broke out like a tiger breaking out of a cage into "Everybody knows this is nowhere" followed by a personal fav. "Cinnamon Girl" After that he played Powderfinger and an amazing version of Cortez the Killer which was the cats pajamas if I do say so myself. Then Neil did a little Harvest section with such songs like "Needle and the Damage Done", "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold" (On Old Man Neil had a banjo player who had quite the stache) Then during a little break Neil started to strum his guitar and talk to his drummer for a second and Brendan goes "cowgirl in the sand" and whadda know? he started playing it! and let me tell you it was the best version I've ever heard of it. (sometime in there Neil played 3 new songs which were pretty damn good) at the end of it all Neil closed off with my personal anthem "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" I was rocking in out and all around the free world when he started to play that it was just spectacular! After that the big NY left the stage and the whole place started to yell his name until he came back on and put the cherry on top of the awesome sundae and played "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles which I think was a surprise to everyone.

all in all it was probably the best thing I've ever seen. if he ever comes back I'll be there front row to watch one of the few true rockers left today.

-Grant

This Note's For You

On November 29th Neil Young played a show in Halifax. Opening for him were the bands Everest and Wilco. This was an incredible concert, the best i have ever seen...EVER!
The night started out with Everest, who were pretty good for a no-name band, they played for half of an hour. Than Wilco came out, those of you who know me know that i am a HUGE Wilco fan. They did not disappoint, they were absolutely fantastic. They played all of my favourite songs from opening with "You are my Face" from their latest album "Sky Blue Sky" to finishing with "I'm the Man who Loves You" from one of my favourite albums of all time "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" At this moment in the night i could not imagine it could get any better... oh but it did.
At around 8:30 the man himself Neil freakin' Young, dressed in blue jeans a white t-shirt and a jacket with a pin saying "Hippies for Obama" walked out on stage, the packed crowed went insane! Just then, a fight broke out behind where Grant and I were sitting, i had to make a decision whether to watch the fight or Neil, I chose Neil. He opened with "Love And Only Love" followed by an energetic "Hey, Hey, My, My". I was surprised to see an ageing man like Neil Young rock out the way he did. He rocked Old Black until i was sure the 45 year old guitar was gonna break. Neil went on to play a lot of great rock tunes from the Crazy horse days "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" "Cinnamon Girl" and one of my personal favourites "Powderfinger". Then came the most epic version of "Cortez the Killer" i have ever heard, it was simply magical. As the night continued Neil switched it up a little and played some acoustic 'crowd pleasers' such as "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man". He also played some new material which was very good.
As Neil was getting ready to play the next song and lightly strumming some strings he was talking to his drummer, just then it hit me "Cowgirl in the Sand!" I shouted, and sure enough just after i yelled that the epic snare and ride intro to Cowgirl in the Sand broke out, great song. Neil's closer was the epic rock balled "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" awesome!
As Mr. Young walked off the stage the crowed began chanting "Neil! Neil! Neil! Neil!" Before i knew it he was back out for the encore which was the classic Beatles song "A Day In The Life". What a great ending to a great concert. I must have gave him at least 10 standing ovations.
All in all it was a great night that I will never soon forget, and it has revived my faith in good music. In the words of the great man himself; "Hey, Hey, My, My, Rock n' Roll can NEVER die!"

Keep on Rocking in the free world.
-Brendan