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.
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.
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