1000 Songs: Jay Anderson

1000 Songs: Jay Anderson

I have now posted one thousand songs from my live recordings to this blog. My introductory thoughts on that landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

This little project is now starting to wind down. There's a couple folks out there that still might be working on their lists — hopefully they're still forthcoming — but as a sort of interim concluding thought I also have this non-list, which I almost feel too embarrassed to run — like Professor Lombardo, I don't take praise very well.

Jay Anderson drums or otherwise hits things in an almost-uncountable number of local bands, so it's no surprise that we cross paths often. Besides the technical skills that keep him on the speed dial of local and international stars alike, he's also one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I'm sure he'll have about fifty gigs in the interim, but his group Steamboat will be releasing their debut full-length Rules on April 27 at Sneaky Dee's. It promises to be a dance party spectacular and is not to be missed.

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Its seems fitting to be talking about this momentous occasion just after the fallout of The Grid's Toronto music article. Most know about chart-topping artists from this town. Those in the scene know about heavily-blogged hometown talent. But even fewer know what Joe knows. A true musical tourist in his own town, Joe seems to be one of the few who knows every micro scene in this city. He covers each with well thought out explanations that transform the sound that he hears into words. To top it all off, you can see how right he is by moving from the text into the sound clips on his site. And that's what this is all about.

1000 songs. This is a true testament that Toronto has a deep, rich music scene that doesn't get covered anywhere else to this extent. Free-Jazz, Hip-Hop, Indie-rock, Metal, Noise, Afro-beat, Garage — it's all just music.

To choose five tunes is just too cruel to do. I suggest you to blindly jump into this site head-first. You'll be amazed what is going on just down the street. Thanks Joe.

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Have there been four or five songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.