Best Finds of 2011 - #3 - The Kills - "DNA"

Summer Cuts is like the shadow of Summer Guide. Where Summer Guide is backyard BBQs, Summer Cuts is the late-night dance party. This lead off track to Summer Cuts, rips the top off and lets you know that the party has just started.

Back in May, out visiting White Rock, I got the sneak peek at Summer Cuts. With a single blow it got in my blood and my brain, and made me crave raw, sexy, bluesy rock, and heavily influenced Mixtape 10. It became kind of an inspirational theme song, getting me to add tracks by Brisa Roche and Grand Ole Party, but nothing quite captured the magnificence of 'DNA'. In the end I asked Regan if I could add it to Mixtape 10, only the second time in the history of Mixtapes and Summer Guides that this has happened. [This was the first.]

The Kills are a two piece outfit comprised of Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince. They seem like a bit of an odd couple, as Mosshart has a lot of charisma (and hawt!), and though Hince can lay down the licks, and I'd hesitate to call him dorky, he seems like he's lucky to have scored a babe like Mosshart. The two have been compared to the sound of the White Stripes (but then any minimalist two-piece co-ed band has to be right?). Mosshart did work with Jack White in the Dead Weather, but I'm glad that she didn't give up her main gig, as the Kills make magic together. This track was from their fourth studio album Blood Pressures that came out in April 2011.

When you're ready to rock out click on the track below!

Best of 2011 - #4 - Ages and Ages - "No Nostalgia"

Good music is good music. There are all sorts of musical genres, and within each genre there is mostly bad, some good, and a very few are excellent. I think some music lovers get caught up in the "Oh, that sound has been done before." But really, high-quality genre-starters are generational, with most being so out-there that a solid analogy could be made to them and the weird clothes that anorexic models wear on the NYC and Parisian cat-walks.

So, I don't buy the "it's been done argument" because ... well ... no one scoffed at John Williams for sounding like Beethoven, and no one's writing off the Mumford and Sons for sounding like the thousands of Celtic bands that came before them. And if they do, well, they're missing out.

Ages and Ages might not be creating a new genre with the few tracks they have released, but they have, with "No Nostalgia," reached the stratosphere. From the steady beat, rippin' guitar riff, fantastic chorus, to the studio clapping, this song reeks of good times and artistic confidence.

They say it best in the song,

And my stride sure will be long.
Choose your side, feel free to come.

... and rightfully deserve #4 in our Best Finds of 2011.

Best Finds of 2011 - #5 - Foster the People - "Pumped Up Kicks"

Almost a year ago to the day, I was watching "The Wedge" way-late at night (when the mainstream tunes sleep, and the potentially great stuff gets played), and this song came on. Since that early Feb night in 2011, this song has been on quite a media journey.

And you know, despite how the song's main-stream airplay over the past 4 months makes me want to downplay how much I fell in love with it (and for the record: airplay that didn't start until well after Summer Guide 11 was released), I have to admit that I played this song over and over and over ... to the point where I had to hide it so I wouldn't get sick of it come time for summer and the SG11 final cut.

A year later, my hunch is that Foster the People will be one-hit-wonders, but man! is this song worthy of the airplay and marketing it's received. Obviously the minds who signed the band and convinced the radio conglomerates to play them over and over feel the same way.

So, at #5, here's Pumped Up Kicks!

Best Finds of 2011 - #6 - Casiokids - "Fot I Hose"

Casiokids are a Norwegian electo-pop band. This tune, "Fot I Hose" from their 2010 album "Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar" (Top Mood At Local Bar) is their biggest hit to date, and no wonder! It's low end fat horn blasts, jangly guitar, thumping beat, and synth melody bring together lots of elements into a groovy whole. This tune appeared in FIFA '10 (a game I could probably still kick Regan's butt in).

They just released a new album Aabenbaringen over aaskammen in October 2011. Their adherence to Norwegian titles and lyrics may limit their North American appeal, but the sounds are universal. In 2010, they were among 4 bands who won a 1 million Kroner ($171,000 CAD) prize from legendary Norwegian pop band A-ha (my favorite band when I was 10) for being a Norwegian band with the most export potential. They also appeared on Mixtape 10 this year!

Best Finds of 2011 - #7 - Noah and the Whale - "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N."

Noah and the Whale may have been the best new artist/band I came across in 2011, with seemingly no end to his catchy tunes and sing-along lyrics.

It's not often that you find artists consistently good like this (example), and my prediction is they'll be the next indie rock poster band. 

In 2011, L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. found me at a time when I wanted to escape from the weekly grind, and escape many nights I did to a wonderful pub full of characters like Lisa:

Lisa likes brandy and the way it hits her lips,
She's a rock 'n' roll survivor with pendulum hips,
She's got deep brown eyes,
That've seen it all.

Inevitably, I came to think of this song as their anthem. The good-timer's anthem. 

And while it was fun visiting their church on many occassions, I concluded that I don't want the end of my line to to be like theirs:

On my last night on earth,
I'll pay a high price,
To have no regrets, and be done with my life

Best Finds of 2011 - #8 - German Error Message - "Reaching Out"

It's easy to write a good loud song, but it's difficult to write a good quiet song. I don't know why this is, but it just is. Sometimes I think it's because artists aren't comfortable with warm, gentle, or sad emotions and the song seems awkward of forced as a result, while other times I think it's because the artist allows the emotions to come pouring out, and the song sounds like a sob-session-meets-cheese-fest as a result.

While the great artists/bands usually release one or two amazing slow songs at some point in their career (classic example), most of these are even loud in their slowness.

German Error Message's "Reaching Out" is one of the best quiet songs I've heard in a long time ... maybe since Sufjan Steven's Seven Swans album. This band is super indie (they just performed at a coffee shop a couple weeks back in TN), their music is fantastic, and I'm so happy I stumbled upon this track last spring – it deserves to be in our Top 10 ...  up with some pretty remarkable company.



p.s. I really hope these guys land a record deal ... please share them with others.

Best Finds of 2011 - #9 - Family of the Year - "Feel Good Track of Rosemead"

Family of the Year are a band from Boston, who formed with frontman Joe keefe (vocals, guitar), brother Sebastian Keefe (drums, vocals), Buckey (guitar, vocals), and Christina Schroeter (keyboards, vocals). They've released a couple of EPs on their own Washashore Records label, and are prepping their second full length release for early 2012.

This song captures kind of a universal tension between the sexes of "I just wanna party all the time/I just wanna get stuff done". Growing up and settling down is hard to do. When I heard this song it immediately reminded me of Regan, and emailed it to him. I was pumped that it made Summer Guide 11. I don't think in particular it speaks to anything about Regan, but he's been a strong advocate for the differences between men and women for a long time.

Feel Good Track Of Rosemead by Family of the Year

Best Finds of 2011 - #10 - Flight Facilities ft. Giselle - "Crave You"

I heard this song last year. It was in a mix by Aeroplane [the Belgian DJs who's incredible track Paris appeared on Mixtape 7] and it just got stuck in my head. It was the first track I threw into the folder for Mixtape 10, and I knew it was a ringer. It made me wish I was still DJing, because it is one of those sultry tracks that just oozes desire, perfect for lubricating the dance floor.

Flight Facilities are a couple on anonymous DJs who claim to be from Trinidad and Tobago, but are actually from Sydney Australia. This was their first single.

Best Finds of 2011 - #11 - The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio

I love The National. Matt Beringer's vocals are elliptical and vague, and allow space to find new meanings in them. The rest of the band are two pairs of brothers Aaron (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), and Scott (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). They are all amazing musicians. As their last album High Violet was coming together Aaron and Bryce were commissioned to write an piece for the Brooklyn Academy of Music to be performed with visual artist Matthew Ritchie. Matt Beringer had just welcomed a new baby into his life. The orchestral elements of their Academy project, and the depth of feeling of Matt's life changes coalesced into this amazing record.

I was slow to get around to 'High Violet'. It was released in March 2010. I did finally get into it, and I really got stuck on this track. There is a real yearning to it. It's both upbeat and melancholic. And like everything by the National, you find your own meaning in it.

Best Finds of 2011 - #12 - Brothertiger - "A House of Many Ghosts"

The surreal sound of this tune is like a waking dream. The looping echoey sounds, the Snow White sampled intro, it's like an underwater dance party. John Jagos is the guy behind brothertiger, who started the project in 2009. Looking forward to hearing more from this chilled out artist.

Best Finds of 2011 - #13 - Iron & Wine - "Tree By the River"

Sometimes you stumble upon a song that you think might play at the end of the movie of your life ... that is, if your life story was ever to be made into a movie.

For me, in 2011, this is that song.

Enough said. I gave this song huge "top find" points ... it would have been higher if Marc did so too (which makes me want to jump ahead to the Top 10!).

 

And here's the super-cool "in-France" live cut produced by "A Take Away Show"

Best Finds of 2011 - #14 - Brett Dennen - "Sydney I'll Come Running"

This track earned a spot in the opening Summer Guide 11 sequence for its "turn-from-side-to-side-so-fast-ladies-that-your-hair-swings-back-and-forth-like-the-crazy-girls-from-a-1980's-Bruce-Springsteen-rock-concert-in-the-rain-MTV-video" pace.

I sure hope this track (and the accompanying album) is only the beginning of a long career of great tracks by Dennen ...  the world needs more steering-wheel-smacking-music in the years to come.

Best Finds of 2011 - #15 - Cake - "Palm of Your Hand"

For sentimental reasons, and given what transpired in my life in 2011, this really is my #1 find of 2011.  This track made Summer Guide 11, and it almost was the opening track for that compilation.

I didn't, however, give it #1 points for this competition for a couple of reasons:

1. I loved Cake in the 90's. Like I loved them. Like they gelled so many of the funk sounds with the alt-country sounds with the slack rock sounds I fell in love into one tight package ... how could you not love them?! In fact, I just don't think anyone could touch them in that regard. But, they are a 90's band. Not a 2000's band. And not a 201x's band.

2. This song came out in 2004 ... and ... well ... it's 2012. I hate to admit it, but I gave up on Cake in 2001. Too many other great sounds were coming out by then, and ... well ... Cake was just cranking out the same stuff, so I stopped listening. So last spring, when commuting a lot, I burnt a bunch of old albums to CD for the car rides, and I mistook Cake's 2004 album with their 1994 album. Needless to say, I didn't remember "Palm of Your Hand" ... but fell in love with it immediately. Everything about it, actually, from the sage-like lyrics to the deadly guitar riff that the song builds around to the well-used (and very timely) brass. This song made me want to sing from the mountain tops, and it still does.

3. There's some other kick-ass songs coming up. Stay tuned.

So, without further adieu, here's my sentimental #1 find of 2011. Enjoy!

 

Best Finds of 2011 - #16 - Jessica Mayfield - "Our Hearts Were Wrong"

A urban-folkie track by an up and coming indie pop/rock/folk artist with gorgeous vocals, steady strumming, and great accompanying guitar riffs and drum beats.

Not only was Mayfield invited onto the Letterman show to perform this song, but (and more notably) it made this year's "Leaves" compilation. It's very worthy of keeping company with the other 30 songs in this list.

Best Finds of 2011 - #17 - Ray Lamontagne and the Pariah Dogs - "Beg, Steal or Borrow"

This tune really caught my attention when I first heard it because of Lamontagne's voice. It has an androgynous quality and it really reminded me of Joni Mitchell's [sorry Ray...totally a compliment!]. This tune from the album "God Willing the Creek don't Rise", is a haunting meditation on throwing off the shackles of expectation that we have from parents, commuity, culture, or history, and following your own path.

Best Finds of 2011 - #18 - Great Lake Swimmers - The Chorus In The Underground

I really don't think you can find a better couple albums than the Great Lake Swimmers' first two if you want a melodic match for a tranquil and/or contemplative mood. For several years now they have been my go-to in that regard.

And then I download their latest album from iTunes, with all its bonus features and videos, and discover this song! And what can I say? A Canadian folk-band belting out a good ole, foot-stomping, sing-along, grass-roots country song.

IMO, this ain't "indie folk" ... it's Good Country.

The Chorus In The Underground (Live at Default Venue) by I heart GreatLakeSwimmers

Best Finds of 2011 - #19 - Scattered Trees - "Four Days Straight"

Scattered Trees up and coming band from Chicago, they broke up for a few years and reunited this past year for a new album "Sympathy".
They made a bit splash with their video for "Love and Leave" which had a great video of the band playing as Stormtroopers. [It got me to watch a half hour of Episode One tonight, before realizing one again that it sucked.]

"Four Days Straight" is by far a superior song though. Why isn't this song on rock radio? It's catchy as hell! A testament to the unfairness of the world.

Best Finds of 2011 - #20 - Love Inks - "Blackeye"

Simplicity is a beautiful thing in music. Love Inks frontwoman Sherry Leblanc describes their sound as "Minimalist pop. It’s bass, guitar and a drum machine being played very carefully". This track is little more than a drum machine and vocals, and strikes a chord about the anxiety one might feel for a loved one in distress: "Baby/Tell me was it a from a fight?/Did it happen last night?"

Best Finds of 2011 - #21 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Round and Round"

Ariel Pink has been making self-produced psychedelic pop for a few years and has recorded over 500 lo-fi ditties. In 2008, after being signed to Animal Collective's Pawprint Records he recruited the boys of the band and "Haunted Graffiti" was born. Their album 'Before Today' came out in 2010, and this track topped the Pitchfork Best Tracks of 2010. This was hands down my favorite tune from the early part of 2011, and got some heavy rotation in my house, culminating with it's release on Mixtape 9 back in May.



Ariel Pink is a madman and a clown, tapping into the rock & roll hysteria of years past. He's both a musician, a showman, and insane, channelling the sound of early Bowie, and an uncanny resemblance to Kurt Cobain. This tune sounds like a lost AM Radio hit from the early 80s, and this fan-made video recutting the 1983 aerobics film "Perfect" starring Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta is a 'perfect' fit.

Best Finds of 2011 - #22 - Summer Camp - "Veronica Sawyer"

Summer Camp made some quality noise in the indie rock world in 2011, and this song, in my opinion, was their best. The lyrics are ones all of us who have lived the young and restless lifestyle can relate to ... I mean who hasn't "lost all my friends" and wondered "who are these people" I'm hanging out with now? And Elizabeth Sankey's rich and layered vocal tracks only add to the well-crafted, poppy angst.

But the reason this song made Summer Guide 11, as well as our Top 30 Finds of 2011 is because it's "so much more."  There are two killer guitar riffs in the song: the opening one which brings to mind a swirling down and down and down that plays with the thematically matching lyrics, and the fuzzy, discordant upward riff that goes with the lyrical repetition of "I've got so much more than this." And if you listen closely, Warmsely very subtly builds a mini-symphony of sounds by the end of the track. Pretty awesome for a two-piece band.

Really, though, no matter how I try and break down and analyze why this song is so cool, it just is, and makes me want to be 21 years old again, waking up to the fact that I need to get my sh!t straight.

Best Finds of 2011 - #23 - Burning Hearts - "Into the Wilderness"

Burning Hearts are a duo from Finland, Jessika Rapo and Henry Ojala that formed in 2006. They released a four song EP "Into the Wilderness" in 2011, and this is the shimmery and gorgeous title track from it.

Apparently the video for title track “Into the Wilderness”, based on a documentary about Alaskan grizzly bears.




They have full length album "Extinctions" coming out in Feb 2012.

Best Finds of 2011 - #24 - The Avett Brothers - "January Wedding"

This is one of at least three songs I selected for this Top 30 list where I was slow on the uptake, with it being released in 2009. While the Avett Brothers have "made" it onto my random playlists for the last couple years (as if everyone knows it's such an honor, right?), I didn't "discover" the band until I was over at a good buddies house projecting YouTube videos onto the wall with his laptop, in a fun evening of musical tradesies.

This live version of January Wedding was one of the songs he played, I said I knew it, but seeing the passion and energy that these guys play with, I conceded that he "won" the best song of the night, and, as a result, coupled with the fact that another friend (that same week) told me Bob Dylan thought they were the best artists he'd heard in the past 20 years, the Avett Brothers sky-rocketed into the stratosphere of my personal ranking list.

Best Finds of 2011 - #25 - The Monday Mornings - "Shotgun Smile"

There are some songs that make you lighter and happier and help melt away all those mountain-tops of snow weighing on your shoulders with their sunny sound.

As an amateur guitar player, I know how hard it is to build melodic vocals around a melodic guitar riff. Most musicians have a melodic instrumental riffs, or melodic vocals, with the other serving to support the other in the background. Why? Because composing one is tough enough, and most artists stop with one. This song pulls off both, sorta like Matthew Sweet made a habit of in the 90's, and does so without going over the top prozac-like. In fact, it's lazily melodic ... which is even better.

And the lyrics totally bring alive its kindredness, starting with ...

"Darling I've been drinking all night long, I don't even really know what's wrong ..."

(track starts at 21 seconds, FYI)


Actually, now listening to this song over and over as I write this post, I think it should have appeared higher than #26. Enjoy.

Best Finds of 2011 - #26 - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "Bottled in Cork"

While I didn't give this rippin' highway road trip song the top nod as my #1 find in 2011, it won (at least in my heart) maybe a more prestigious honour: the opening track of 2011's Summer Guide compilation.

Listening to it in early January seems almost sacrilege as it's easily the song from 2011 that conjures up the most memories of sweet summer nights and everything warm and alive.

"Tell the bartender, I think I'm falling in love!"

FYI: this was Ted Leo's second track that opened a Summer Guide.

Best Finds of 2011 - #27 - David Myles - Simple Pleasures

I posted about this song back in August. David is a singer-songwriter presently located in Halifax, but hails from Fredericton, and has spent some time in Calgary also. This tune is from his 2011 album "Into the Sun".

Best Finds of 2011 - #28 - The Arcade Fire - "Culture War"

While Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning Suburbs album was released in the summer of 2010 (so glad they got the credit they deserve!), the band waited almost a full year to release a single which I think should have made the album cut. Maybe the song hadn't been completed by album release date, or maybe they thought it wasn't good enough, but I think it's a contender for one of the best songs off the album it didn't make.

The clapping beat is steady, Butler's Neil Young-esque vocals (while singing about - what I think - is the cultural tumult of the late 60's and Vietnam) fits brilliantly with the tepid lyrics, and the layers upon layers of instruments that build up to the "You want it, you got it!" ending is awesome!

I gave this more points than Marc did, and was hoping it would rank higher in our overall results, but I'm glad it made our Top 30 finds of 2011.

Best Finds of 2011 - #29 - Fitz and the Tantrums - "Breakin' the Chains of Love"

Next up, the neo-soul group Fitz and the Tantrums. Their debut album "Pickin' Up the Pieces" was released mid-2010, but really picked up steam this year with them being named "a band to watch" by Rolling Stone magazine.

Best Finds of 2011 - #30 - Grand Analog - "I Play My Kazoo"

We're excited to present the 30 Best Tracks that we loved in 2011!

My family still teases me about my religious/psychotic dedication to the Top 100 countdowns from my youth. I would always stay up until midnight on New Years Eve to get to hear the #1 song. I was inevitably disappointed, as my tastes didn't usually intersect with mainstream radio very often (630 CHED, in Edmonton). In 1988, Def Leppard scored three hits in the Top Ten, including #1 and #2 (Pour Some Sugar on Me, and Love Bites), and I almost packed it in for countdowns I was so pissed off. Nevertheless, I would trek to the Red Rooster to get the poster of the Top 100 and they were prized possessions.

Anyways, times don't change that much. Except with the collaboration of my collaborator we completed a very mathematical analysis of our favorite songs of the year, which we'll be posting daily for the month of January, so keep coming back!

Starting at #30 is Toronto hip-hop crossovers Grand Analog with "I Play My Kazoo". This tune wasn't released in 2011, but it really caught my ear this year. I hope these guys continue to make great tunes and find greater success in 2012.