Hottest Bands in Canada, 2009 edition

Somewhat unexpectedly a few weeks back, I found a message in my inbox from Matthew — in charge over at the always well-informed i(heart)music — soliciting my opinions for his annual "Hottest Bands in Canada" poll. I spent some time thinking over the loose rules¹ and resolved to let it percolate a bit, so I could articulate a thoughtful list. Then, of course, I pretty much forgot about it until right before it was due and threw something together with as much haste as possible. I plagiarized myself pretty ruthlessly in coming up with some blurbs and sent out my list.

That list (or the top-ranking bands, anyways) are now posted, and of course, I immediately started combing through to see how the big list looks compared to mine. It's interesting, of course, to feel the push/pull of groupthink at work — that tension between not wanting to be the odd kid out, looking like I'm not in touch with what's, y'know, hot. But then there's that countervailing force of taste as distinction, where you want to be cooler than all the other list-makers — "oh, I see you still think so-and-so is hot. How quaint."

As it turns out, almost totally unsurprisingly, I'm not the avant-garde ahead-of-the-pack genius I might think I am, nor the the deluded outcast that I fear I am even more often. Six of my ten bands were in the top-ranking group, putting me firmly in the hive mind consensus — although only one of my bands was in the top five, proving, maybe, my deft hand at picking fellow misunderstood geniuses.²

Just a note on method: I basically went totally subjective with my list. I didn't construe "hotness" as the bands that have generated the most buzz or popularity. In that regard, I'm sure Arcade Fire could twitterize about what they had for breakfast and garner more attention in a morning that some of the bands I care about in a whole year. Instead, I had two key qualifications for my list: a live show that moved me and a 2009 release of consequence. Thus, bands that have been bringing it live and to ever-growing crowds but are still working older material (Rural Alberta Advantage, Kemer Yousef); bands collecting awards and plaudits (Fucked Up – 2009 Polaris Prize, catl – Toronto Blues Society Talent Search Award); or bands that brought it live but still have new releases in the pipeline (The D'Urbervilles or The Disraelis) ranked lower in my consideration. I guess I was thinking about bands that felt, to me, to be really in their moment, which is why their live presence was probably the most clinching factor. As it turns out, I have seen all of the bands on my list live in 2009 — nine of them more than once. So that was the highly unscientific ordering principle I was using.³

So anyway, without further ado, my list as sent to Matthew. Out of kindness, I suppose, I managed not to include any footnotes in my list. #1 is the top and working down from there:

1. Ohbijou

Releasing an album as good as Beacons — a compendium of all the warm hugs you've been missing compressed into musical form — would be enough to place Ohbijou highly on this list. But add to that stellar achievement their formidable live presence where they can bring it solemn-like or party-like as the situation dictates. And then add to that their principled community-building, putting out the Friends in Bellwoods 2 compilation with a little help from their friends as a fundraiser for the Daily Bread food bank and you get the full picture of this band as a fully-engaged force.

Check out my live recordings of Ohbijou here and here.

2. Gentleman Reg

Reg Vermue is having the sort of year that his fans have been wishing on him for awhile now. It's been a long gap and a lot of water under the bridge since '04's Darby and Joan so it's no surprise that Reg hit the ground running once he had a solid new album (Jet Black) to promote. Playing plenty shows and working some choice opening slots, the fabulous thing is that his crack band quickly surpassed the songs' recorded versions. Between all that, Reg has also had some time for collaboration, debuting a new dancefloor project with Woodhands' Dan Werb.

Check out my live recordings of Gentleman Reg here, here, and, urm, here. (So much Reg!)

3. Japandroids

Youth and energy are great rock'n'roll currency, and these lads have it in spades. This Vancouver duo (guit/vox/drums) are garage rock maximalists, filling up their songs with a young man's frenzy that owes as much to "Working For The Weekend" as to any punk antecedents. Their album (Post-Nothing) is filled with shaggy, buzzing charm, but live they really won me over, finding a sweet spot between sounding rough and sounding tight, and rolling somewhere between swagger and modesty. By the end of the set's end, first time I saw 'em, I was a convert, and the deal was sealed on the last song when guitarist Brian King lurched behind the drum kit, and then, while attempting to step out, tripped backwards over the monitor, and ended up sprawled out, still playing. As the song ended, he shouted, "we're going up the CN Tower, and you guys should come with us!"

Check out my live recording of Japandroids here.

4. Great Lake Swimmers

From one coldly analytical perspective, GLS have moved from being a nearly solo folk project to a fleshed-out rootsy, MOR band — the sort of stuff that Canadian A.M. playlists were filled up with a couple decades ago. But that overlooks the fact that main swimmer Tony Dekker continues to write incredible songs, each a little roadmap of closely-held desire that seems so recognizable. And when those songs delivered in his aching croon, he even makes the boys a little bit weak in the knees.

5. Julie Doiron

Her new album I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day follows on the heels of '07's Polaris shortlisted Woke Myself Up, but exchanges that album's dark explorations for musings on domesticity and gladness. It's considered, in some quarters, to be Higher Art to write about misery as opposed to happiness, which might account for this one getting a few less accolades, but it's not a lesser album. And add to that an enchanting stage presence — a ramshackle, figure-it-out-as-we-go-along spirit combined with her uncalculating, plainspoken sincerity, and you might float out of one of her gigs instead of walking.

Check out my live recordings of Julie Doiron here and here.

6. Kids on TV

A couple short years ago, Toronto's Kids on TV were a little easier to put in a box — something like hardcore rap meets General Idea. After some quiet time, they re-emerged this summer as something the same but different, suddenly re-establishing themselves as a dancefloor-ready pop unit. With a passel of new songs (some of which have now come out on the Shape Shifting Mutants digital EP) including two bona fide smashes in "Poison" and "Dazzler", KoTV have re-positioned themselves to catch some new ears while staying true to their art-queer roots. Out of the bathhouse and into your ears!

Check out my live recordings of KoTV here and here.

7. The Hoa Hoa's

The winner of this year's "let's take a trip" citation, garage-psych explorers The Hoa Hoa's have focused their sound and songwriting on a batch of new songs that figures to anchor one of the fall's most-anticipated releases (the perfectly named Pop/Drone/Pedals, forthcoming on Optical Sounds). Live, the band brings a rewarding mix of immediacy in their hooks and psychedelic drift in their layered extended excursions.

Check out my live recordings of The Hoa Hoa's here and here. Update: Also here!

8. Spiral Beach

This band's presence on my list would have surprised me a year ago. Perhaps a case of too much, too soon, I wrote this crew off when they started turning heads back in '06, finding their songs unfocused and undercooked behind an overexcited veneer. Catching them this year at NXNE it turns out that they've grown up some, found their sound and come up with solid songs, playing with a far darker, more psychedelic edge than I remembered. With songs that sound like Piper at the Gates of Dawn hooked up to a primitive drum machine, they've got something that suggests, "even if I'm dancing the Rock Lobster, I'm still in the middle of a bad trip".

Check out my live recording of Spiral Beach here.

9. Diamond Rings

How far can eyeliner, a fabulous video, a split single and a pocket full of songs take you? Surpisingly, giddily far, it turns out. It probably helps that Diamond Rings (aka John O'Regan of The D'Urbervilles) was something of a known quality — but managed to turn his persona on its head as his glammy rainbow-and-unicorn bearing alter ego. With a growing setlist of hummable, remember-the-eighties dance-pop confections, that rumoured album is looking to be stacked. And in the meantime, check him out live for an antidote to the dreary gloom in your heart.

Check out my live recordings of Diamond Rings here and here.

10. The Diableros

Don't call it a comeback etc. etc. The current lineup (containing only Pete Carmichael and guitarist Ian Jackson as long-time holdovers) has apparently stabilized this band and has led to a fine EP (Old Story, Fresh Road), five songs that are a logical extension of their signature sound — like all of us, growing less fuzzed-out and sound-saturated with age, but still powerful nonetheless. And still a knock-'em-dead live band. Maybe this will herald a productive next act for The Diableros. Whatever, we'll still have rock 'n roll.

Check out my live recordings of The Diableros here and here.

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¹ The guiding principles were:

The only criteria you need to follow in making your list are:

1) the bands must be Canadian (however you want to define that); and

2) they had a good 2009 (again, however you want to define that).

² And, in another measure of how in/out of touch I am, I was mostly conversant with the names that other people had put on their list — there were only three artists that I'd cold not heard of yet, and a bunch in that vague category of 'know the name, haven't heard anything'.

³ And, lest anyone should happen to think I am immune from the selection bias of a short attention span, I should point out that I had seen, like, two of the bottom three bands that I filled out my list with in the previous week or so before I threw it all together, which was probably the tiebreaker that put them there instead of several other nearly equally worthy potentials.

In-store: Spiral Beach

Spiral Beach

Sonic Boom Records. Friday, October 16, 2009.

With some bad transit luck (two subway delays? Really?) heading down after work, I arrived later than I was hoping, the band already well on stage in the Sonic Boom basement. Nice crowd out, skewing a bit younger as expected. I'd come around on this bunch after back to back shows at NXNE in June, but it was interesting to see that they seemed to have sharpened their attack even a bit more than I remember. Perhaps just a bit more used to their new material, the songs I saw were presented with a knife-edge sizzle, and their upbeat-gloomy dance pop — think The B-52's on a bad trip — was presented with vigourous fun. Still visually sharp, too — vocalist Airick Woodhead was looking a little blonder than previous. I was fairly impressed with the chunk of the show I saw.

Arriving late, I chose to just settle in at the back and enjoy it as a spectator, so I have no media on this one. Check out a video from the show at Now to get a flavour of it.

Gig: Daps All-Ages & No Shame Afternoon Extravaganza

Daps All-Ages & No Shame Afternoon Extravaganza (feat. Ruby Jean & The Thoughtful Bees, Lightmares, Spiral Beach, Times Neue Roman, Pick A Piper, Laura Barrett)

Rolly's Garage. Saturday, June 20, 2009.

Despite a late night before, managed to get up on Saturday and head down for this all-ages matinée. The fact that it was put on by the capable folks behind the No Shame and Daps All-Ages series made it feel like the quality control had been taken care of and some good bands guaranteed.¹ Plus, I was interested in checking out the venue, a converted auto repair shop, on the happenin' Ossington strip. It was grey and drizzly out, but by showing up in time for the first act I managed to avoid the full-on rain that came a bit later.

It was also worth the early start to catch Ruby Jean & The Thoughtful Bees, a Halifax DOR outfit fronted by Rebekah Higgs. I'd seen Ms. Higgs in her solo incarnation at a CMW showcase in '08, and had vaguely enjoyed her tunes but wasn't particularly struck by them. So it was a surprise to see the magnetism that she unleashed in this context. Sampling and manipulating her own vocals, Higgs led the three-piece backing band (guit/drums/beats and effects) through an energizing set of 80's-flavoured dance rock.² She even stepped in front of the monitors to challenge the slight crowd at hand to get into it and dance. Good songs, good energy, and a lot of fun.

The all-ages element felt in effect for Lightmares, a young trio out of Sudbury who played a quick, five-song set of energetic rock'n'roll. Bassist Nicholas Millard — a dead ringer for Dennis the Menace — sounds like he's absorbed a Four Seasons compilation³ and put it to good use with his falsetto backing vox behind guitarist Jamie Millard's leads. The band bashed out their tunes with gusto, and it sounds like they're starting to get a handle on the songwriting process. Worth keeping an eye on.

Listen to a track from this set here.

In the original announcement the next band up was Swirling Shores, listed as "An unforgettable showcase of fearless performance style and sophisticated songwriting skills". Given that there's a million bands out there I've never heard of, it didn't seem strange that that didn't strike a chord, although as it turned out, I was apparently the only one not in on the open secret that this was an undercover show for Spiral Beach, concealing themselves from the NxNE authorities. So, after having seen them the night before and being entertained beyond my expectations, it was a nice turn to have a chance to reinforce my new disposition. Opening up with an improvised goof to call bassist Dorian Wolf to the stage, the band played a half-hour set that semi-overlapped with the previous night, although the first part of this show had more of a gently swirling vibe until kicking things into dancing gear with "Made of Stone" and "Dominoes". All told, the sort of lucky chance that really turned me around on the band.

A pleasing change of direction after that, with hip-hop crew Times Neue Roman taking over. Consisting of Rob Bolton's raps backed by live keys and DJ augmenting their well-produced tracks, the band had a variety of musical flavours, ranging from electro to reggae.⁴ I'd broadly put Bolton's flow into the broad category of "post-Eminem" — though to say much more would put me seriously out of my depth and probably reveal my ignorance about contemporary rap music. The band did a good job of bringing it live, with the keys and turntables adding a spontaneous feel, and the crowd that had assembled by this point were fully appreciative. They even had a fair number of fans out, calling, at set's end for a track called "Hands" to cap things off. I had no expectations coming in, but was fairly impressed.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Next up were the rhythmically intense Pick A Piper, with two drummers at the centre of a frenzied squall, towering over the guitar and bass in front of them. The songs were built up from pre-recorded synth lines and juxtaposed the tribal pummeling against more gentle and rhythmic elements. I recognize the band's talents, especially in keeping two drummers going full-bore without them stepping on each other, and having strongly defined dynamics allowing the songs to build up and ease off. There were some undeniably good moments when everything simmered nicely in a groove, but sometimes I got the impression that, with the drums pounding away, there was no other gear to shift into. A powerful band, but not necessarily with a strong power over me.

The show was completed with the highlight of the afternoon, a set from the always-awesome Laura Barrett, playing solo but bearing a fancy new bass pedal.⁵ Playing a mix of old and newer material, she managed to charm those hearing the songs for the first time as much as the older hands. By the second song, most of the audience was sitting down and paying close attention. In a spontaneous moment, during "Robot Ponies" Rebekah Higgs started to throw in some harmonies and was quickly invited up front for a do-over duet version. The set closed with the lovely "Deception Island Optimists Club", ending a most pleasing afternoon's proceedings.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Not to mention the work that had gone into the funky art decorating the space. And the barbeque.

² Revealing cover: Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted".

³ Or possibly a whole lotta Weezer.

⁴ Though I wouldn't've picked them as a bunch to have a band name based on a font joke. I wonder if anyone has broached the issue of them starting a beef with noise-punks Times New Viking?

⁵ And also bearing biscotti, showing that entertainer's knowledge that the surest way to an audience's heart is through their stomach.

Recording: Spiral Beach

Artist: Spiral Beach

Song: Unknown^*

Recorded at Whippersnapper Gallery, NxNE Festival, June 19, 2009.

Spiral Beach - Unknown>

My notes from this gig can be found here.

^* Do you know the title of this track? Please leave a comment!

NxNE: Friday

NxNE — North by Northeast Festival, Toronto 2009.

Friday, June 19, 2009. Featuring: Spiral Beach, Matt and Kim, Parlovr, Zeroes, Golden Triangle, Mika Miko, The Homosexuals, Experimental Dental School

7 P.M.: Spiral Beach @ Whippersnapper Gallery

Making my way through a College Street under siege, booths busily being set up for Taste of Little Italy, found a bit of a queue in front of the Whippersnapper Gallery as ID's were busily being checked. Still managed to get in a few minutes before seven and found a patch of floor not too far back from the stage. For the "big time" of NxNE there were a couple lighting rigs flanking the stage, adding a bit of visual flair to the venue.

I'd only seen Spiral Beach once before, December '06, when they opened for Tokyo Police Club at the Horseshoe. Though I'd sampled and enjoyed their first alb, the live show left me feeling unimpressed — I recall thinking this was a young band with more spirit than songs. After that, they'd sort of been put on my mental backburner while they continued to garner a lot of positive vibes. But let it be said I'm willing to give second chances, so I came to the show with an open mind to see what'd changed in a couple years. As it turns out, although the band still looks shockingly young, there's been a whole lot of development. Although still usually pitched as a good-times-party kind of band, Spiral Beach's music had a darker, psychedelic edge than anticipated. Even on the faster numbers — including a new one that sounded like Piper at the Gates of Dawn hooked up to a primitive drum machine — there was something that suggested, "even if I'm dancing, I'm still in the middle of a bad trip". Interesting stuff, and it brought me around enough that it occurred to me I'd see 'em again.¹

Listen to a track from this set here.

8 P.M.: Matt and Kim @ Whippersnapper Gallery

Stayed on — hell, I'd gotten here early for — Matt and Kim, a band I was curious to see live. Despite the fact that the album didn't quite sit right with me, I'd gotten a notion that there was something to this Brooklyn duo. They took the stage with an instrumental fanfare and Matt was soon oozing positivity ("it's a beautiful goddamn day in Toronto") to the enthusiastic crowd in the stupidly hot room. Kim, meanwhile, was fighting the aftereffects of some bad Thai but still put in a spirited performance. It wasn't a visually satisfying experience, what with both musicians playing while seated on a low stage, I only caught a glimpse of either when they stood up. But musically, it was a worthy effort. Though there might have been one too many instrumentals in the short set (including a quick run through "The Final Countdown") the band's irrepressible gusto was impossible to deny, so I can say I left liking them more than I did when I came in.

Listen to a track from this set here.

9 P.M.: Parlovr @ Supermarket

After that, walked over to see Parlovr ("one of Montreal's most talked-about unsigned acts") at Supermarket², part of a showcase for Nevado Records. The three piece featured a dual-guitars-no-bass setup, though Louis Jackson's guit had a split output into the guitar and bass amps to prop up the bottom end. On a stage decorated with traffic signals, the band played a reasonable set of post-Strokes indie rock with a Montréal twist, guitars cleanly intertwining around slightly howl-y adenoidal vox. They were entertaining and brought some pleasantly goofy banter (including an onstage argument over Heath ledger versus Val Kilmer) but the songs weren't so memorable. There's a good base here, and I wouldn't write this band off, but I wasn't totally convinced by what I heard.

10 P.M.: Zeroes @ Silver Dollar Room

Wandered over to the Silver Dollar to see Zeroes, another Montréal band. Which made for an interesting compare and contrast, I guess. Zeroes had a bit more of a colder, post-punk edge — the guitars more menacing and the keybs icy — hints of, maybe, Magazine and bands of that ilk. I liked the band's textures, but found their stage presence to be a bit lacking in charisma: even when, say, grinding a guit against an amp, it seemed a little rote. That's petty, sure, but given the onslaught of bands I was in the middle of, the marginal things tend to stand out a little more. Interestingly, on listening to the playback of my recording of this set, I found myself liking it more than I remember, which might indicate that I was hitting a bit of a wall at the time. Possibly a good soundtrack for wandering the city while the drugs aren't quite doing enough to squelch the voices in your head — which may or may not be your idea of a good time on a Friday night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

11 P.M.: Golden Triangle @ Velvet Underground

By this point, I was definitely looking for something outside the broad category of "boys with guitars", so, looking over the listings, grabbed the streetcar down to Queen and walked over to Cameron House, thinking that The Hank and Lily Show would be a good change of pace. But inside, I found about a dozen people in line waiting to get in to the back room. That didn't seem entirely promising, so I ducked back outside and looked at the listings again and decided that the answer was just a bit further down the street at Velvet Underground. Got in with Brooklyn's Golden Triangle already on stage, a repeating riff echoing through a thick layer of reverb. When the drums, muffled like they were being played in a room a couple doors down the street, kicked in, I felt at home. This band's sound could probably be captured with a fairly reductionist blurb like "imagine if The Vivian Girls had convened as a surf band". Which might sound like pithy snideness save for the fact that, to me, that sounds like a bloody marvelous idea. With dual female vocalists up front, those snake-like guitar lines, and the primal drumming, I was totally into this — just the right mix of murk and sass. One of the best sets I saw at the festival.

Listen to a track from this set here.

12 A.M.: Mika Miko @ Sneaky Dee's

A bracing walk up Bathurst gave me a bit of a second wind. I'd been a bit eager to check out Mika Miko and was a little worried, given some buzz, that I might round the corner on College to find a line-up. Turned out to be no problem — possibly the demand had been spread out, given that this was the band's second set of the night. Veterans of the same Smell-based L.A. scene that has produced No Age, Mika Miko have a more straight-up punk feel — the rapid-fire songs came with shades of Liliput, Wire, Undertones and so on. But as with all first-class rock'n'roll bands, their energy made it all seem new and spontaneous. The duelling vocals of Jennifer Clavin and Jenna Thornhill were the most powerful weapons in the arsenal, but the whole band was on fire. I can't really say if this was objectively good, but in the moment it felt ferociously vital — which kinda means it seemed fantastic.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1 A.M.: The Homosexuals @ Sneaky Dee's

Oh my. I guess I could pull cred and say I was familiar with original-wave British punks The Homosexuals, but, quite honestly, I'd never heard of them. I had no idea what to expect from this set, but from the moment I saw the blazer-clad older British chap pulling his carry-on towards the stage, I was guessing this was not going to some rote re-hash of the glory days. Instead we got a tour through the mind of Bruno Wizard, who claimed to have fired his crack band after catching them listening to Bruce Springsteen and was now backed by "the future of fucking rock" in the form of Fiasco³ — or at least two-thirds thereof. After some introductory comments, Bruno moved behind the drum kit to give a history lesson about how all rock music is derived from African rhythms before picking up the guitar and playing a couple songs. He was then joined by Jonathan and Julian, who backed him sympathetically and ably, even if it was evident on occasion that they had as little idea as the rest of the audience what Bruno was going on about. Songs were interspersed with free-association digressions on cosmology and history (what was that about riding on a beam of light with Einstein again?) until Bruno deigned to start a song or Jonathan could sneak in a count-in. Fortunately, Bruno seemed to be canny like a fox and I think — I think — that to be entertained by his erratic tangents was more like the sort of sharing vibe he was encouraging, and not a case of "let's laugh at the nutter". The set ended with an extended version of "You're Not Moving the Way You're Supposed To", which was pretty fantastic — in fact, all of the tunes on which the Fiasco lads got a groove on were pretty hot. Bruno announced that when Fiasco's bassist was done school, they come back for another gig, which would be free for anyone in attendance "with love in their hearts". A baffling and unique experience.

Spend a few perplexing minutes with Bruno here.

2 A.M.: Experimental Dental School @ Rancho Relaxo

Well. One could imagine anything'd be a letdown after that but I felt like I had one more set in me, so walked over to Rancho to see Experimental Dental School, who, possibly fortunately, were really neither. That is, not so much experimental per se as a minimalist pop act using a double-decker rack of guitar effects to stretch out their sound some. Drummer Shoko Horikawa and guitarist Jesse Hall traded off vocals and took the songs out on little excursions, but didn't drag things so far away as to crumble the foundations. They also exuded a cool, positive vibe from the stage, seeking high-fives from anyone digging the sounds. I'm willing to concede by this point of the night I was more just surfing on the vibe rather than listening carefully, but this was enjoyable. A nice vibe to end the night and head home, a little exhausted.⁴

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¹ Which, as it turns out, came to pass a bunch sooner than I'd expected.

² Slogan: "Kensington's least grungy venue".

³ Recently in town at the Over the Top festival.

⁴ It looks like the band is offering a free album for download on their website — which I'm now going to check out and recommend to you as well.