Sunday Monday Playlist #42b: Favourite Recordings of 2013 — Pop (Part 2)
Well, all things considered, I don't have enough of a grip on 2013 to do a full on "best of" list. (Hell, at my pace, I'm still not ready to pronounce on 2011.) But there have been a few of the recordings that I've posted that have stuck with me for one reason or another. The first half of this list is here. Still to come: not-pop.
Recorded at The Music Gallery, February 25, 2013. Hille's score for this new Peter Pan musical is based on lyrics by a teenaged boy — which maybe explains why CSI and Macbeth show up. Absurd and wonderful.
Hussy [a/k/a HSY] - Ladies Nite
Recorded at Steam Whistle Brewery ("Steam Whistle UNSIGNED"), May 24, 2013. Just as the band contracted their name, they boiled their sound down to pure, high-grade sludgy menace.
Recorded at 961A College St., September 13, 2013. "Hey baby, do you like it manic and confusing?"
Maylee Todd - I Can't Stand It
Recorded at The Great Hall – SummerWorks Festival ("Maylee Todd's Musical Planetarium"), August 17, 2013. Playing in the round underneath planetarium projections, Maylee Todd showed her softer side could be as attention-demanding as her full-force funk workouts.
Moonwood - Trans Martian Express
Recorded at Handlebar ("Crosswires"), April 14, 2013. Wherein self-professed musical weirdos merge onto the autobahn and create their own version of pop tunes.
Recorded at Double Double Land ("Punchclock Showcase"), November 30, 2013. DIY-core/clatter/shout.
Pachamama - Fuck The Entertainment Industry
Recorded at Holy Oak Café, June 22, 2013. Conscious jammers of the year, separately and together.
The Replacements - Bastards of Young
Recorded at Garrison Common ("Riot Fest" – Day 2), August 25, 2013. There's no way this should have been as good as it was. Even the losers get lucky sometimes.
Recorded at Double Double Land, July 27, 2013. Very possibly my #1 fave recording of the year. The restless ghosts of Santo & Johnny are free from the fetters of this world now.
The Saffron Sect - Phosphorous Flash
Recorded at The Silver Dollar Room ("MINOR Fundraiser"), October 4, 2013. I was waiting a couple years to hear this band, but the music is pretty timeless.
The New Mendicants - She's Gone
Recorded at The Dakota Tavern, August 26, 2013. I'd say my fond memories of this are skewed positively because this was a sit-down + listen start early/end early show, but maybe this is what happens when you put two talented songwriters on a stage together.
Recorded at Saving Gigi ("The Ballads Reimagined, Part Three: Voice"), March 17, 2013. This tune about the insistence of memory managed to imprint itself somewhere that I just couldn't shake it.
Recorded at Holy Oak Café, August 20, 2013. "Was it the way he tied his shoes, the careful way he placed them in my hallway?" The beauty of the little details at the heart of big changes.
The Wooden Sky - An Evening Hymn
Recorded on the back of a truck being pushed down Stokes St. Spreading a concert out over a parking lot, back alley, park, street and loading dock is definitely one way to imbue a night with a sense of place.
Young Guv - Crawling Back to You
Recorded at The Garrison ("All Toronto's Parties"), November 22, 2013. Besides touring/recording with Fucked Up and producing what might be a couple of next year's best albums, Ben Cook managed to find time to toss off few pop gems in a couple of his side projects. The way that the start of this gives me the same shiver I get from, say, the best Buffalo Tom singles makes it the cream of the crop.
Recorded at Double Double Land, July 27, 2013. A triumphant fanfare to the future.
P.S.: It looks like the exfm widget that I've been using to make the music streaming go (I think that's the technical term) is going to disappear shortly. If anyone knows of an simple, easy-to-implement alternative, please let me know — otherwise, I'll be losing some functionality here.
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