Merry Shananigans!

 

Merry Christmas to all!  No Shanie award today, however to console you, my band has provided you with 3 free tracks to download and listen to on Xmas.  Click the link above and enjoy!

And to all a good night.

Shanies: Video of the Year

Much to do in preparation for Santa's arrival tomorrow, so I'll keep this brief. It simply wouldn't be the Shanies if somewhere in all this madness, Hollerado didn't make an appearance.  Considering nearly 4 years of fan-boy-ism, I'm almost contractually obligated to fit them into my annual review at least somewhere.

This year, while the boys did their usual workhorse load of touring and also put on some fantastic live shows, the thing which best captured my heart was their second video for the song Americanarama.  While I loved the original video in all of its Dave Foley-creeping-around-a-bunch-of-scantily-clad-individuals-ism, the new video was a fantastic, original, and fun idea.  More and more bands are taking on incredibly ambitious music video projects in an attempt to be the next viral internet video and while Hollerado may not be as big as Star Wars Kid or Dramatic Chipmunk, they're video has well over 700,000 views.

Enjoy!



-Tell me what I want to hear but not what I need to know

Shanies: Concert of the Year

2010 was an incredible year for live music in my life.  Given that I had just moved to Toronto - a city which gets more live acts than anywhere else in Canada and has an incredible indie scene - and was really not working that hard, I spent a lot of time in various venues.  I saw Ian Blurton destroy The Dakota with Huron and lay down layers of riffs which had me lost in a daze.  I was licked by the frontman from Trigger Effect while screaming along lyrics at the Bovine.  I saw tiny dots which resembled Them Crooked Vultures at the ACC.  I witnessed act after act own the stage at Hideout during NXNE.  I really did see it all this year (except for White Cowbell Oklahoma... stupid scheduling issues).

Yet, my award for concert of the year came from a Dark Horse.  One fine evening, I ventured on down to the Horseshoe tavern to watch one of my favorite TO bands: The Speaking Tongues.  Don't get me wrong, these guys are amazing and put on a standing-O worthy set.  However, the were the opening act for a show which was the most unique, entertaining, and awe-inspiring thing I've ever seen one man do on stage.  Bob Log III is an absolute mystery to most.  Dawning a velvet jump suit and a spaceship helmet with a phone receiver attached to it, Mr. Log takes to the stage to entertain the crowd by doing the following:

• Playing some wicked stompin blues licks on his electro-acoustic guitar
• Keeping a kick drum shaking your soul with his right foot
• Providing a wonderful musical garnish on the high hats with his left foot
• Screaming out the most ridiculous lyrics into the phone receiver firmly attached to his helmet in songs such as his famous "Boob Scotch"

I wish I could make this shit up.

Let's just say I've seen a lot of live music in my life.  While Bob Log may not have been the best concert I've ever seen, he is by far the most impressive individual I have ever seen on stage.  I would continue to describe what I saw, but this is a hell of a lot easier:




-You don't have to love me anymore, but you've got to love this lullaby

Shanies: Artist of the Year

No, I am not shooting my proverbial blog-load to early (man, the word blog does nothing to help that sentence) by announcing the Shanie for Artist of the year.  Let me explain: still to come are award for song of the year, album of the year, etc.  However, Artist of the year is an award I wanted to give to a group who I saw make a remarkable leap into the mainstream this year and help define what music was for the past 12 months... not necessarily by having the best song, album or video... but simply be being EVERYWHERE.

And this year, that group is The Black Keys.  Besides being one of my favorite bands in the world for the past decade, the keys have had an astounding year.  After finishing up 2009 with their Blakroc project, the twosome just decided that they would continue to define cool.  They are popping up on just about everyone's top 10 list for the end of the year, Brothers has been heralded as a masterpiece, it seems like every second commercial on TV this days is a keys song, and their music is being played, and loved by everyone... seemingly regardless of what scene they're into.  All in all... these guys have found a formula that is heroin to the masses and I for one say, "don't hold out on me man... just one more hit... you know I'm good for the cash... COME ON I NEED THIS!"

All the same, there is no denying that The Black Keys have been on every radar known to man for the past year and as such, they easily walk away with the Shanie for Artist of the year.  Keep it bluesy, boys.



-Keep my head above the water, but never let me climb too high

Shanies: Biggest Dissapointment

For any of you longer term readers, you may remember me making the argument that the Gorillaz 2001 self-titled release was one of the top albums of the noughties (2000-2009).  I still would defend the argument that this album was one of the most influential pieces of work to come out of the decade.  However, one of the things I hate the most in this world is betrayal.  As such, you can imagine that after the release of Plastic Beach, Damon Albarn and the rest of his long armed cartoons, have fallen out of my favour and the Gorillaz, have dropped more than a few rungs on the ladder of musical awesomeness.

So, why was Plastic Beach so bad?  Part of it was definitely that the incredible pieces of work that preceded would have made anything seem abysmal by comparison.  Still, that same argument could have been made about Demon Days, yet it was fantastic.  Part of it could have been that the group became too caught up in the gimmickry of it all and departed from the importance of the music (just look at the video below... 3D rendered animation and Bruce Willis... necessary?).

However, I would argue that Albarn was simply trying too hard.  He's dug a musical hole in his mind so deep that he couldn't possibly escape himself.  Listening to the album again from start to finish, this record contains no singles, and barely any moments of catchy hooks.  In short... they made a pop record without making it popular.  The record is exceptionally diverse and contains a huge variety of sounds, instruments, guest appearances and concepts.  Yet, somewhere in all of this noise, the primates appear to have forgotten to actually write songs.



Fortunately, after this disappointment, Albarn et al. are considering retirement.

-I hear it again, I heart it again... you're always screaming in my sleep