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Top picks of ought-six So much of the best—and a taste of the worst—in music this past year |
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Rupert Bottenberg Top 10 albums Girl Talk Night Ripper (Illegal Art) Bottom 3 albums Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (Decaydance) Best song: Gnarls Barkley, “Crazy”
Lorraine Carpenter Top 10 albums The Dears Gang of Losers (MapleMusic) Bottom 3 albums Graham Coxon Love Travels at Illegal Speeds (Parlophone) Best song: CSS, “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” “La Sala Rossa sometimes feels like a church basement when it’s half empty, but when Supersystem’s spiky, funk-inflected nerd rock warmed up a cold Monday last January, the thin congregation behaved more like a hearty gospel crowd than polite pew-warmers. On stage, singer/gadget-ist Pete Cafarella swayed to the sound and cast bemused glances at the crowd’s dancing and flagrant drug use, while singer/bassist Justin ‘Destroyer’ Moyer’s twitchy outpatient theatre was a spectacle unto itself.”
Scott C Top 10 albums Bugz in the Attic Back in the Doghouse (V2) Bottom 3 albums Pharrell In My Mind (Star Trak) Best song: The Hot 8 Brass Band, “Rock With the Hot 8”
Johnson Cummins Top 10 albums Tom Waits Orphans (Anti-) Bottom 3 albums Rockstar Supernova self-titled (Epic/Sony) Best song: The Bronx, “Shitty Future” “The ultimate triple bill of heaviosity was at the Spectrum with the Bronx, Converge and Mastodon. The Bronx were a bit shakier than their previous time through with High on Fire, but Converge easily beat their own stellar show at l’X a couple of years back. It seemed that Converge were going to steal the night from the headliners, but Mastodon did the near impossible by stepping up to the plate and leaning into each swing for the next hour. Taking sonic ballast to new plateaus, Mastodon easily crowned the night, pulling off the epic heights of Blood Mountain and Leviathan without a bead of sweat on their brows.”
Gerard Dee Top 10 albums Anthony Hamilton Ain’t Nobody Worryin’ (So So Def) Bottom 3 albums Ruben Studdard The Return (J-Records) Best song: Luther Vandross, “Shine” “At this point, Madge is more spectacle than show—just the announcement of her first Montreal tour dates in 13 years pushed the hype machine into overdrive. In fact, the fan frenzy was just as entertaining as the show itself. Sure, there was La M on a cross during ‘Live to Tell,’ or gyrating to the pounding grooves of ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor,’ with a body that mocked her 48 years. But hell, it’s not every day that you can experience a packed metro chanting ‘MA-DON-NA!’ at the top of their lungs, either.” Erik Leijon Top 10 albums Clipse Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up) Bottom 3 albums Jet Shine On (Atlantic) Best song: “Weird” Al Yankovic, “White and Nerdy”
Erin MacLeod Top 10 albums Keak Da Sneak Kunta Kinte (Sum Day) Bottom 3 albums Rihanna A Girl Like Me (Def Jam) Best song: Tanya Stephens, “These Streets” “Either I’ve been drunk a lot or I’m just feeling generous and kind, but I’ve pretty much been happy with all live music this year. Ghislain Poirier’s made me really happy on numerous occasions, and I don’t think he’s about to stop. If people are yelling and jumping up and down, you’re doing something right. Now, if we can get more soundsystems up in here, things’ll just get better and better.”
Lateef MartinTop 10 albums Tariq Khan and the High Breed High Class (HighBreed) Bottom 3 albums Tool 10,000 Days (Volcano) Best song: NYOIL, “Y’all Should All Get Lynched”
Jack Oatmon Top 10 albums The Knife Silent Shout (Rabid) Bottom 3 albums Killers Sam’s Town (Island) Best song: Justice vs. Simian, “We Are Your Friends” “I wanted my best show to be Hot Chip, Soulwax, the Juan Maclean, Supersystem, the Ed Banger posse or some other gigantic outta-town act, but I have to be honest. Ark was like DJing, playing guitar, dancing, smoking and stripping all at the same time. It was off the chain. Honourable mention goes to the girl from Land of Talk when she stood in for the Slip in the park. Strangely enough, both gigs were on the same day. If you were at MEG, I was that crazy guy drunkenly screaming French profanities at Teki Latex. Bring back the stage hook!” |
“Okay, the psychedelic blowout of the Flaming Lips at Osheaga—with the tail end of Holy Fuck’s nearby set as the cherry on top—was pretty damn impressive. But the underdog prize has to go to Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. Gillis didn’t only bust out the best album of the year, a maniacal metastases of the mash-up principle that crammed a dozen-plus tunes into each jam. He also jiu-jitsued his limiting dude-and-his-laptop live set-up (and lack of pyro, animal costumes etc.) but getting just about buck naked, bugging out and summoning a collective bum-rush of the stage by his second tune. Crazy shit!”
“I caught U.K. soul singer Omar Lye-Fook in the flesh at Jello this year, almost 12 years overdue. Omar, backed by Montrealers Fredy V and Black Soil, made the whole thing a serious soul affair. Even though the show was great, I soon realized that all I could think about was how much better it would have been with proper sound and the right stage. I finally saw Omar, but the whole thing was tainted by the wrong venue.”
“On Super Bowl Sunday at Club Lambi, Juan Maclean went apeshit at everyone and everything, giving the most angrily passionate show of the year. He wasn’t Less Than Human, he was a vet of the electronic scene, proving you can still create more than static robot rock with a few consoles and a cowbell. He was in a foul mood, but his band sucked it up and renewed my faith in good ol’ fashioned electroclash. Gomez can be great, but were arrogant, didn’t play an encore, ignored their old hits, and a Jazz Fest scheduling conflict forced them to play at 6 p.m.”
“After some serious soul searching, I’ve concluded that Tool’s 10,000 Days blows. Boring, predictable and with no headbangers, it was a lazy-ass effort. Plus, they skipped Montreal on their tour. And all y’all who think Les Claypool and Flea are the shit obviously haven’t seen Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten, who packed the Spectrum on a cold-ass Monday night. I’ve only one word: showmanship. And Oneself (DJ Vadim, Yarah Bravo & Blu Rum 13) pulled a miracle out of Montreal’s ass by packing la Sala Rossa on a cold, windy, icy Dec. 1. They warmed us all from the inside out.” |
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| MIRROR ARCHIVES » Dec 21-Jan 3.2006: INSIDE - COVER | ARCHIVES INDEX | CURRENT ISSUE SITEMAP | STAFF | WEBMASTER |
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