Did I? Darn it. Though doing these things on your blackberry is so primitive I'm not surprised. I'm selling all of my remaining RIM shares (if only I could do that on my blackberry). re Derek's additional thought, agreed it's something of a fallacy in some cases to choose release date, but we have to draw the line somewhere. Not to scoop Derek's play list at all, but London Calling was released in December 1979 and so all of us were blown away by those songs in 1980 and thereafter (it really was the first record of the 80's in many ways), but for the sake of the comp, it;s 1979 all the way.

Posting on the (now-defunct) Filmfest blog? Totally Stu move.

Here's Brian's post:

"I'd be OK with formally released live versions, but I don't see a re-mix (unless it's truly different) or a remaster as creating a new song and therefore for these I'd say no. Agreed on comp's, it's the original release that matters."

Good to know. Am also fine w/ not playing a track that was played at the last one of these, even though it means bidding adieu to 'A Day in the Life' and possibly other hot tracks from '67. Hoping I still have enough to wup ass with.

I think the only thing I would add to Brian's comments which for some reason he has posted in the film festival blog is that we agreed to go by the year of an album's release. So in my case several singles were released by M.I.A in 2004 that subsequently showed up on her 2005 album release "Arular". As I have 2004 as one of my years I would not be allowed to play the songs released as singles in 2004.

Agree with Brian on compilations. As in 1979 which saw the release of the Who's "Quadrophenia" and also "The Kids Are Alright". Once again I would not be permitted to spin the tracks from either of these records.

Does anyone have an issue with us not being permitted to play any of the tracks that were played at edition #1 of this contest back in 2010. I don't want to hear Stuart play the same dozen tracks he played 2 years ago.

Since I missed the drunken luncheon at which the rules of this contest were finalized, I have a question about the qualification of songs for a given year. Using the assumptive close that I learned in a sales course many years ago, I'm going to phrase my question as a statement:

Presumably, songs re-released on compilation albums do not qualify for inclusion in the year of the compilation's release, but alternative versions of previously released songs (remixes, remakes, live versions, mashups, etc) are valid.

Also, am presently listening to Jango.com, a site I had mentioned last year, which is a Canadian-friendly version of Pandora. My M83 station is serving up some nice downtempo electronica to get me through some of the paperwork sitting on my desk this afternoon. Recommend you give it a whirl, esp if your last name rhymes with Ban Binkel.

Seems we're on now for the 20th, given mr. gaines' willingness to hit the highway early and brave gta reverse commute traffic on a friday evening. The 20th. Friday. The. 20th. Nobody make a hair, nails, or waxing appointment for that evening.

Also, your guide to 2012's coolest Canadian bands.

Ugh to date problems! Stu you have to make this one a priority! Mike, failing Stu being Being able to shuffle, is there any chance of you coming down early-ish on the Friday?

In terms of locale, yes it's chez me, and I'll have a nice new turntable in place for anyone crazy enough to bring vinyl. And genre is wide open.

Mike, Marc...genre thing is gone, as you suspected. Feel free to veer wildly from free jazz to fusion to klesmer. Stu, say it ain't so on the date? Can you participate via remote/blackberry? We can play your suggestion and then vote....We do have the technology.

. I had us down for the 20th and the 21st got booked up for me early in december unfortunately...well before the 23rd email. I checked this morning for a confirmation in November on metabeats and could not spot one but I may well have missed it....certainly dont change the date for me, since the 21st works for all of you.... no worries.......it will not be the last of these sort of events i am sure.....
....

Mind Games Derek? ...1973! John's finest work of his career!

update Mike ...genre thing got ditched on the 23rd ...guess you missed the news flash ...anyone else correct me if i am wrong.

I'm happy with my years - there are a lot of good albums from '72, and '97 was also a pretty great year. But I thought that the idea was to focus on a single genre, and that is going to be difficult. I think that the decision to limit ourselves to 2 specific years has placed the focus squarely on timeframe and relegated genre to a distant back seat. Indeed, reading the posts below, all of the discussion is about the year - nobody is mentioning genre at all. Perhaps that we change if we were all required to declare a genre in advance, just as we have identified the years.

I fear we will all end up picking very broad definitions for our genre (i.e. "rock" or "dance") by neccessity, given the dual year constraint. And genre will not be the focus of our battles. Anybody else having similar thoughts?

Brian's I believe? ...as V and the kids will be away?

This time around Brian is hosting and if you read the e-mail sent out from Bettys on December 23rd we are meeting on January 21st. The Saturday. I hate when Stuart uses big words. Let the mind games begin.

Don't think any of us is here falls into this trap, but it certainly brings to mind conversations I have with my boomer relatives or even gen-x acquaintances who stopped listening to music when they stopped going to school.

What, we were going to re-pick because people weren't happy with their selections? Pshaw. And now we're mocking selections from the 60s and 90s in a game of pre-tourney expectations management? Double pshaw.
Stu-man, I love it when you intimate. It just feels so intimate. At present, I'm fine with either the 20th or 21st. We doing this at Marc's again or elsewhere?

I thought we booked it in for the 21st back in November! I am open for the change if that is necessary.

Brian, I like the fact that some of us are having to dig a little deeper ...as was always my want. I think that our having to dig will change the dynamics of our voting and might be pitting obvious vs. obscure in an interest relationship.

Kyle, diggin' the Grooveshark mix ...have not recognized a single tune as of yet, (that's good) ...like the cover of The Suburbs by Mr Little Jeans ...I think that might be the first AF cover i heard to date ...goes to show that a good song can easily have legs with another artist.

not to complicate things but i dont think a final date was chosen for the showdown... i had intimated friday night 20th is bertter for me and still is... i ahve the saturday booked... is the friday still the night?
s

Marc, Funny thing, in that I sent an email to Derek last night decrying my choice of 1978 - apparently many of the songs / artists I was thinking of are from 1979 - and suggesting a trade. Dman replied saying he had the same thought, but about 1980. Ha. So it would seem that nobody is happy, unless of course you took the uber-safe choice of a 60's / 90's combo. Booooooo. But rather than create utter chaos by suggesting we re-draft, I'm of the mind that we soldier on and find the nuggets in these years. I've spent a night (post-denial of my choice) focusing on 78 and think I have a fair bit to work with now. And I can't help but think that the votes may be harder to come by for those who opted for the safe choice this time round :). A Day in the Life will get a backlash-thumbs-down, who knows? And anything off of Let if Bleed will likely be boo'ed out of the room. Game on!

Oz is 26 degrees and a perfect mix of beach and tropical rain forest in northern New South Wales.

It's not your fault, Marc. I seem to recall that someone put a gun to your head and made you pick 1973 so...wait a minute...you chose that of your own volition. Fool!

2011 still rocks, though. A nice playlist I found on grooveshark today.

1973 sucks! ...and why is there an "L" on my forehead?

Itunes and classical music: is it getting better?

Happy New Year!

To celebrate, a nice New Order cover by Destroyer:

ok 2011 best of :

( liked best in no partticular order))
Bon Ivor: Bon Ivor
PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
Josh T Pearson: last of the country gentleman

(Liked next best in no particular order)

Within and Without: Washed Out
Beirut: The rip tide
Antlers: Burts Apart
Danger Mouse / Luppi: Rome
Kurt Vile: Smoke Rings for my halo
Kate Bush: 50 Words for snow
Decemberists : King Is Dead

best reissue by far for me : Mickey Newbury: American Trilogy...check this one out....

My favourite new releases from 2011, in order of preference, are:

The Decemberists: The King is Dead

Over the Rhine: The Long Surrender

The Rosebuds: Loud Planes Fly Low

Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What

Radiohead: The King of Limbs

The only other 2011 albums that I own are Blessed by Lucinda Williams, which I really didn't like, and Like a Man by Adam Cohen, which I bought for my wife. That one's OK, but I'm not ready to put it on a list of favourites.

The truth is that I haven't actually heard a lot of the albums that the rest of you are citing. I haven't signed up for rdio because I rarely find time to sit and listen to music at the computer. Most of my listening is done while driving. I've recently re-subscribed to Paste with their new mplayer format - it offers weekly issues with half a dozen or so downloadable tracks for $2.99 per month. I'm hoping that'll help me catch up!

Top Ten PopRock: I've been stewing over this for a while, moving bands and albums off and on. Silliness really. So, some that I enjoyed this year were:

Maritime - Human Hearts
Veronica Falls
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (likely my favourite album, liked it a lot more than their debut for some reason)
Real Estate - Days
Anika
Yuck
Yellow Ostrich (Whale is one of my favourite songs)
The Feelies - Here Before
Hello Echo - Hello

Honourable Mentions to Widowspeak overcoming their their Mazzy-Star like derivativeness with great songs, Cymbals Eat Guitars for a strong follow up record, Malkmus's latest for sounding good again (and not sounding like Cymbals Eat Guitars), the Wire for making great music in their fifties, Sloan for the lifetime achievement award after 20 years (and Double Cross is very good) , and Iceage for rocking out with vim and vigour. Others that D and K have mentioned I also like - Lykke Li e.g.,

I'll throw a few jazz albums up later.

Taking a precious moment out of my extremely busy day here are my choices for my favourite (ie most listened to) records of 2011 in no particular order:

Mirrors - Lights and Offerings
Destroyer - Kaputt
Austra - Feel it Break
EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Charles Lloyd - Mirror
Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

There done my bit.

More year end polls, this time w/ respect to film. Trying to follow the train of thought around the selection and ranking will likely do your head in but I thought you'd appreciate the list of films you missed this year and might want to rent/stream/buy me for Christmas.

Also, thank you all for taking the time out of your busy day to post your own favourite music from 2011. I've really enjoyed reading through them. You're all awesome. Truly.

Also, latest GBV, streaming at NPR.

(Btw, I loved the ad for the Complete Collection of Tony Bennett that precedes the live stream, particularly the number of cds in the collection. You gotta really love Tony.)

The tagline for Metabeats now reads 'Musings about music or whatever amuses'. As such, book recommendations are allowed. Also, Sarah quite liked The Sisters Brothers as well, so I'm not convinced gender should be a barrier to enjoyment. Just started it myself last night but only a few pages in so can't really comment further yet.

Apologies to all if a book related post seems out of place here but I wanted to reiterate my my belief that The Sisters Brothers is the best novel of 2011. It's not likely a book any of the women are going to want to read so this seemed as good a place as any to recommend it. If you don't trust my instincts you can read here.

I think it was Derek who pointed out the lack of consensus among critics this year as to the best or most accomplished releases of 2011. Here's a nice summary of those scores across publications/blogs that really underscore that observation. Apart from Polly J and Justin V, not even much commonality in the top 10s.

Kyliep's 2011, for what it's worth (and in no particular order)

albums
Several Shades of Why J Mascis
Let England Shake P J Harvey
Within and Without Washed Out
Fading Parade Papercuts
Yuck Yuck
Civilian Wye Oak
C'mon Low
Hurry Up We're Dreaming M83
Looping State of Mind The Field
The Harrow & The Harvest Gillian Welch

honourable mentions: Wounded Rhymes Lykke Li, Burst Apart The Antlers, Days Real Estate, In Love With Oblivion Crystal Stilts, Bon Iver Bon Iver (growing on me, Stu), No Time for Dreaming Charles Bradley, Art Deco Smiles Bela

songs

"Ritual Union" Little Dragon



"Need You Now" Cut Copy



"Midnight City" M83


"Rolling in the Deep" Adele


"Belong" The Pains of Being Pure at Heart


"Amor Fati" Washed Out



"The Altar" Wye Oak



"Piste 1" Galaxie



honourable mentions:
"Second Song" TV on the Radio, "Whale" Yellow Ostrich, "Video Games" Lana Del Rey

If anything, the usual year-end lists are at least prompting a revisit to some of the releases I previously had neglected or forgotten about entirely. My Morning Jacket released an album this year? Was surprised to read that. Even more surprised when I searched my library in Itunes this morning and discovered that I actually own it.

The good news: Magnetic Fields coming. The bad: Sound Academy, though. Sigh.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Okay, I decided to start from track 4 onwards this morning on the Austra disc and it's working better for me. The vocal style and more polished production on the front-loaded tracks are what were causing me some problems.

Tuneyards (mixed case, but not in the jumbled mix anyone writing about them is supposed to either remember or look up) do suck. Or at least, they never get past the 'kind of fucking annoying' stage for me. I have read tons of good things about Austra but haven't made it past the first few songs, which sounded alarmingly close to Evanesence, at least on first listen. Will revisit, though.

One I'm enjoying right now, and was featured on the Guardian list I linked to a couple of weeks ago, is Jonathan Wilson's 'Gentle Spirit'. Info on him here and streaming at Rdio.

Looked at the Stereogum list and have a few questions and comments.

1. Do you know anyone who likes TUNEYARDS? (block caps on purpose)
2. Cold Cave is crap. It's the kinda crap I usually like but it's still crap.
3. I'm likely never going to listen to Drake or any Fucked Up record (well at least until they get a guy who can actually sing)
4. Has any one of you listened to a Ryan Adams record in the last 10 years?
5. If I'm being honest Austra's "Feel It Break" is my fave album of 2011.

2011 Listing....
Stereogum
No real surprises.
After re-listening to a few albums over the weekend, should have my list together online tomorrow, hopefully ahead of some other end of year lists.

I could go on and on about how much I loved the Wye Oak/Neko Case/The National show last night at the ACC. How I'm consisently amazed at how such a rich, expansive sound can come out of such a tiny framed Neko. How the National's live performance exceeded anything I've enjoyed on record. How it was almost guilding the lily to have a second opening act in the form of Wye Oak, a band whose latest album is hitting the very top of some year end Best Of lists.

But you knew I'd gush about these anyway. More interesting was how each act handled the venue itself which, to be honest, almost put me off going in the first place. I hadn't attended a stadium/arena concert since the 1990s (U2, The Tragically Hip) and wasn't all that keen on on watching stick figures battle with an acoustically hostile environment for three plus hours.

Credit to the ACC, which seems to have figured out how to make the space sound-friendly, halving the available seating and creating a semi-circle of seating around one of the goal ends.

Wye Oak, whom we'd all seen last year at the Horseshoe, actually benefited from the larger space, where the band's frequent, sudden quiet-loud-distortion transitions can ripple out like a wave into the bigger space. The only drawback was that, taking the stage around 7:00pm (or just before then, we arrived around 10 minutes past), they played to only a few hundred people at best.

Of the three, Neko was the most uneasy in the space. She made several jokes about being in a hockey arena that came across as slightly nervous or maybe resigned to the absurdity of being there. When she lamented that the sad ballad she was about to launch seemed ill suited to a place that's usually filled with joy and celebration, the ensuing audience laughter was likely less an agreement with her assessment but a collective howl at the absurdity of the notion that a space whose tenants include the Leafs and Raptors could be incongruous with lamentation. Still, the strength of her vocals and set carried her through her approximately 1.5 hour set.

Even The National initially seemed to have trouble connecting with the audience, at least for the first third of the show. Their performances were great--polished but with a more dynamic urgency than one might expect from the often laidback vocal delivery one hears on the album--and the audience seemed appreciative, but there was an almost unspoken tension or distance between the performers and audience. As if sensing this, though, the lead singer completely took the entire dynamic into his hands, or rather, to his feet, by venturing into the aisles and inviting the audience down to the area in front of the stage. He'd return later during the encore to walk through half the lower seating area, while handlers scrambled to keep track of a microphone wire, its sheer length almost impossibly long or perhaps designed specifically for the occasion. From that point on, the whole mood of the place transformed from reserved appreciation to full on, rousing glee. It was amazing to witness.

Needless to say, no such reservations about future shows, especially if they feature this type of line up. Oh, and I liked it.

Kyle, lol.

Hey anybody out there listening to the remastered Some Girls? it was such a record for me as a kid, and the new maters sound sound mighty crisp. Nice. The second record of unreleased material has some quality songs on it as well, though in most cases it's obvious why the songs were excluded from the record......good insight into how to piece together something cohesive sounding from a process that at one stage must have felt pretty disparate, based on the longer list of 20 tracks. I've renewed my 30-year old fascination with some of those songs (hello Before they make me run) and the sound of the band overall.

Oooh! Oooh! Stomach pumped. Definitely. Wait, that was just an example. Right.

My suggestion for going forward: We dispense with the music entirely and pit potential contest formats against one another in a double-knockout elimination tournament. The winning format will not necessarily result in its adoption in an actual contest but will certainly earn the winner bragging rights that they can lord over the rest of the group until the next contest is proposed. The winner must bear in mind, however, that any acknowledgement of victory will be reluctant, begrudging, and qualified with the shared understanding amongst the losers that an unfair advantage, likely inherent in the format structure itself, was the primary reason for the win, not any skill, effort, or inspiration on the part of the victor.

Also, how many words are there for rain? Seems more suited to this December than any discussion of snow. Perhaps we need to consult someone in Vancouver.

Food for thought. I like Stuart's idea about the "completely open playlist" as Brian puts it, but, agree with Brian that we need to push it further. I think the completely open playlist makes some kind of great spontaneous casual game to accompany copious amounts of alcohol...that is if anyone can keep score.

I like the idea of exploring new territory but also like the idea of a fair game. How about we choose a series of sub-genres, say six for example (or focus more on fewer) , or a grouping of music that has some sort of significance, say a music "scene" or era or whatever. We then all dig around a little in all the genres spin the music off and score the tracks a la Dr D's description.

I find that the notion of pitting a track from one genre against one from other a little unfair because it becomes like saying which do you like more, wine or steak? Apples or butterflies? Oranges or a drive in the country? Having a tooth drilled or your stomach pumped?

To make things more complicated (or more significant) it might be nice to link the genres in some meaningful way. Say take five different genres that where all thriving over a five year period ...Or five genres that flowed from a single scene or city, say New York, the Northwest, Manchester, or Route 61 ...come to think of it that would be wicked; music's journey up the Mississippi. Might be a long evening but we could travel it's length from south to north. As well whoever is hosting will need to have the event catered with courses that follow the musical trek.

But seriously, I like the idea of Route 61, we could even keep the format "open" beyond limiting it to "Route 61" so that the evening has a nice flow to it. Something we might want to do is also allow tracks that were not actually produced within the focused "genre" or whatever we call it. Someone for example, might make an argument for the greatness of a track that was the first to introduce a significant sound of the blues to a whole new audience, as one could for Steve Ray Vaughn perhaps as he was from Texas and not from "Route 61" ....don't agree with the fit and significance of a track, you vote me down in part for bending the genre too much!

Derek, with all due respect (of which i have come to realise there is little around here) set me straight on something. The other night over beers you claimed to not be a fan of lyrics and exclaimed "who listens to lyrics?". That being the case how can you possibly like the new Kate Bush album in which the lyrics are so front and center; I call bullshit! Are the words just notes to you? Do you not hear the words? Do you not take meaning from them? If that is the case, that you do not take meaning from the words and have not thought about "50 Words For Snow" how can you disagree with me about my the offense to the song?

Ok Let's nail 'er down on the 23rd. There is evidence to suggest that this group has a high percentage of leaders, low percentage of followers. Ha. This is why I wrote a screenplay about you dudes.

Stu, unlike Stella and Amy and Dolores and Candy I'm not a
big fan of the completely open play lists....I like pushing us to go deep in an era or a genre, to find (to some degree anyway) some new and unexpected music.. Wide open will mostly mean playing our existing favourite music, and we've all been at this too long. The decades night was (mostly) a blast because it was different.

Also...a great question, whose answer is probably: because radio listeners either like or will tolerate whatever shit you feed them.

Not sure what's more impressive about your post, Mike: that it suggests you understand all the arcane rules and nuances that have been proposed thus far and are suggesting further improvements or the fact that you published it at 1:00 AM. Well done.

Again, think an all-options on the table, sitting at betty's with some pints in front of us, perhaps conferencing in mr. gaines for his input should he not want to make the 4 hour+ trek from the greater Ottawa area to join us in person, to finalize. propose this happen on december 23rd lunch or possibly sooner, schedules permitting.

In the meantime, and since we're in December and the throes of the season, a contemplation of the Worst Christmas Music. Much loved Band Aid does not fare so well but my favourite dig of the lot is,

"But for me, the nadir of Christmas music is the soulless keyboard-driven holiday cheer of Mannheim Steamroller. It sounds like the sort of music an Orwellian totalitarian state would pump into the air to help citizens dutifully celebrate the season. It baffles me that millions have embraced it by choice."

Amen.

The problem I have with the introduction of selected years (the undisputed cleverness of the 25 year rule notwithstanding) is that we would only be able to cover 12 years between us. That includes less than a quarter of the music produced between 1960 and 2011. If we want to avoid getting dragged back to the summer of love over and over again, why not stipulate that none of us can play 2 songs from the same decade until we've played at least one song from 4 other decades.

I do like the idea of selecting our own sub-genre, and I like the idea of frequent voting - many small setbacks rather than one crushing defeat (from a glass-is-half-empty perspective). And perhaps there should be some kind of bonus if everybody agrees that your song selection does indeed belong in the proffered genre. Or perhaps a penalty if the majority disagrees with the categorization. I see lots of potential for genre wrangling here.

Think this will need to be decided at lunch at Betty's on the 23rd.

Also, the Guardian's 50-11th best albums of 2011.

I got lost somewhere between the 14th and 15th clause.... the 25 years rule seems arbitrary to me...I prefer rules easily understood when under the influence..in short , no rules...I agree we dont want all our music from 1965 to 95 ....and in short we all want to be the winner of this contest, (OK maybe Derek wants to be the winner more then most of us) ...
so why dont we allow anything any year any genre... In short , we use Marcs system for the basic format:

6 participants – names in a hat at the beginning of each so-called round. Names are drawn at random and that person (let’s say Stuart) is required to play 1 song. The next name drawn (let’s say Brian) is also required to play 1 song. The 4 non-participants then vote on the song that strikes them as being superior. Another name is then drawn from the hat (let’s say Kyle) and he has to play a song that then is pitted against the song last played (ie the song previously played by Brian) and another vote takes place.

but after this no rules....

Each person comes armed with their favorite tunes form any genre any year..... The beauty will be to wacth Brian beat Kyles uber death metal song with a track by the Egolilies... In short you hear the challengers song and then you can try to beat it with any song from any decade or genre.....damn simple....and the art is listening to the opening tracik and thinking about what type of song is best to beat it , there on the spot...

you can coin toss to decide who plays first vs who challenges....no one can complain they were stuck with a crappy year or genre

s

I think we should have a random draw for the order of selection for everyone's 1st choice and then go in reverse order for the 2nd pick.

My vote is for #2 and the years, with the clever 25 year proviso that Derek has come up with, over #1, with the sub-genres. I like playing one song after another. More voting. Each song is potentially worth more. Only questions: How do we pick the year (s)? What if two people want the same year? If it's first come, first serve, can I take 1967 and 1992? :)

I’m having a hard time taking that “not taking northern culture seriously” line seriously. Philistines aside for the moment however as we should really kick into gear this upcoming music contest.

First the format. Marc has suggested, and others that I’ve mentioned it to seem to concur, that we should scrap the format of the last clash. Instead of having 3-song round robins where someone might not play a song for an hour or more and could also be eliminated from the contest before the night is half done we go with the following:

6 participants – names in a hat at the beginning of each so-called round. Names are drawn at random and that person (let’s say Stuart) is required to play 1 song. The next name drawn (let’s say Brian) is also required to play 1 song. The 4 non-participants then vote on the song that strikes them as being superior. Another name is then drawn from the hat (let’s say Kyle) and he has to play a song that then is pitted against the song last played (ie the song previously played by Brian) and another vote takes place.

And on it goes. Voting is thus taking place approx every 5 minutes so you need to be paying attention. Ties can occur with only 4 votes cast. That will result in a half point for each competitor as opposed to a full point for an outright win. At the end of the night total point tally wins the contest. This keeps everyone engaged and on their toes.

This was Marc’s idea so if I have misinterpreted your suggestion please chime in.

As for the content of the contest that is proving much more elusive. After another discussion with Brian last night let me throw out two ideas:

1) We stick with the sub-genre format (letting people select their own) perhaps from an approved list like Wikipedia’s which seems fairly exhaustive. It was suggested that each person have two sub-genres at their disposal and have to play a balance of songs from each of their selected categories.

2) Each person picks a particular year lets say 1976 and has to pick a second year but one has to be at least 25 years removed from the one first selected. So if you love 1976 you’re going to have to go back to 1951 or prior if working backwards or 2001 or later if working the other way. As with suggestion #1 a balance of songs from each year would be required.

Suggestion #2 arose as a result of my fear that with the sub-genre format we would once again be listening to the bulk of music coming from the 1965 to early 1990s period. Music in more recent times doesn’t seem to be categorized the way it used to be and I threw out some names (Sigur Ros, Beck, TV on the Radio) and wondered how these artists would be categorized under format #1.

Enough from me. Need to hear from everyone else so we can finalize this thing well before Christmas so I can spend the holidays ignoring friends and family and keeping my head firmly stuck up my musical ass.

Kyle, i'm sorry to disappoint, but i have to agree with you. I used to be a fan of hers back in da day but as for this work, i find it disturbingly MOR and i also find it disturbing that so many of the others have latched on to it like babes to teats. I fear they will be digging into Celine's back catalogue next as they exit their middle age. i'll give it another listen but not sure if i can make it through.

I find the title track somewhat offensive and disrespectful, but maybe i'm not getting something. I know that it is supposed to be playful but to me it come across as not taking northern culture seriously.

While you're scraping the last vestiges of my contact info from your address books, allow me to point you to this fun list of Pitchfork's Top Metal albums of 2011. I do so not to invite comment or ask if you've listened and/or enjoyed any of them but because the band names, album titles, and cover art are not to be missed.

The prevalence of occult symbols and skulls were no surprise but I was a shocked at the absence of umlauts.

I'm pretty meh on Kate Bush at the best of times. There are moments on her new disc that work, particularly the first few tracks, but the duet with Elton and the subsequent spoken word listing of the different words for snow strike me as pretentious twaddle. I realize that this may, in fact, be a contentious statement. I await your censure.

It appears that Big Boi is on your side(s), so I'm obviously in the philistinic minority.

Agreed...........Picked up madamn kate fri........ 10/10 somehow she has translated falling snow into a piano sequence.....completely conjures up the mood of a snowy day/evening...remarkable
Her last studio album aerial is highly underrated too if any of you missed that one...

Just listened to Jian's interview with the exceptional Kate this evening. Thanks Kyle. I'm loving the new album and I'm probably biased where Ms Bush is concerned but in my opinion she can do no wrong. At the tender age of 16 she had me firmly in her grasp with Babooshka and then with the release of The Dreaming 3 years later and songs like this there was no turning back.

Bjork, Tori, Gaga, Joanna eat your hearts out ladies. Suffice to say this is why my wall was bedecked with posters of the divine Ms. Bush.

Thought you cats wuld like this.

But will his passing be as mourned as deeply as hers?

Wow that was sudden. It seemed to me that Motian was healthy and active just recently. Some of his recent recordings with Joe Lovano were great. Check out this one sometime, I urge you. And yes, I saw him two years ago at the Vanguard when I was there with Gerald. Very good show.

Stuart easily has the coolest office. We're never allowed to drop acid, slow American holiday week or no.

Not sure if any of you saw that Paul Motian had passed away. Did you ever see him play live in any of your NYC trips, Bri?

In our office we are listening to our 2nd hour of "smile" beach boys on rdio... they have the whole box set version for your listening pleasure....in the last 20 minutes we have commenced making diverse animal noises and we are running around flapping our arms while cursing ( turrets like) intermittently....

...please help....

now....


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeee.........

Love the new KBush song, aka the single. Apparently every song is 8 minutes or longer.

FYI the Kate Bush album was released yesterday as I picked it up at HMV. Not sure why but new releases seem to be coming out on Mondays now instead of Tuesdays.

Alive and tinkling (so to speak)! He played 30 consecutive nights in honour of his 70th birthday. The man is a (small-Jewish-looking-though-I'm-not sure-of-his-racial-heritage-perhaps-middle-Eastern) monster! All those guys are about 70 actually, except for that Roney kid.

Loved the article about no-laying on the road. I always appreciate it when musicians de-bunk life on the road, or life in a "successful" band. It ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Chick Corea is still alive?!!! Hot damn. Well done, Bri.

Also, for those of you salivating over the new Kate Bush album's release today, I feel it's important to inform you that Jian will be interviewing her today on Q.

Hey boys, sat five feet away from Chick Corea Thursday night as he played a 90-minute set dedicated to Miles Davis at the Blue Note. An all-pantheon group of musicians made this one very memorable: Gary Bartz was a revelation on sax, Eddie Gomez on bass (first time I'd seen Bill Evan's long-standing partner), Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Wallace Roneya relative lightweight (well, contemporary player anyway, at 51) on trumpet. Yowza.

I continue to refrain from engaging in discussions around the pending battle of the genres. Why? Is it because I want to hold my cards close to my chest and not betray any potential strategies that would be evident in any request for clarification or suggestion? Is it because I don't completely understand what I'm going to be defending/promoting/arguing or why? Or is it because I'm simply content to let the pre-contest process play out before trying to figure how what I need to do to adequately prepare? The answer is....yes.

In the meantime, an amusing lament for the female musician, who, in addition to many other challenges faced in making it in the ever-shrinking biz, also apparently doesn't get laid.

I've been thinking about the battle of the genres. I'm leaning towards "Novelty Songs" - or possibly a sub-genre such as "Country Puns", "Ultra Raunch" or "Post Jankovic". I'm just not sure that my catalog has enough depth to do the category justice.

Actually, part of my problem in coming up with a genre to tackle is that I have a hard time sorting my music into anything but the broad categories that I mentioned earlier. For example, let me put this test to the group. How would you categorize this old favorite?

Oh - and as a response to the earlier question about favorite albums that are generally considered to be flops, one of mine is "The Final Cut" by Pink Floyd. And I agree about "In Through the Out Door".

All this talk of movements....a tad unseemly for middle aged gentlemen or inspired because it's music related? Discuss.

Yes, the new Field mainly works on the level of moving me out of my seat and onto a treadmill or dance floor, but I do find something moody and emotional about it as well. There's something Steve Reich-like in what you nailed as the metronomic structure to many of the tracks. Beauty, art possibly.

We're completely on the same page when it comes to Atlas Sound. Bradford Cox can really do no wrong these days.

Kyle, taking a listen to The Fields currently and although i find it kicks ass and is very groovy, it fails to "move" me, and would not do so unless i was, perhaps, on a treadmill and in need of a metronome ...don't get me wrong, i like it, but it doesn't move me. What did move me today was my first listen to Atlas Sound "Parallax" available on Rdio (of coarse)

10+ listens into the High Places disc, I'm still unmoved. I can only imagine how underwhelming their live show must have been. Another 'band' I wouldn't want to see live but who's new album/ep is pretty damn kickass, IMO, is The Field's 'Looping State of Mind'. Warning: NSFBaM.

If you be talkin bout the High PLACES, the company was good but the show was craaap (IMHO) ...still, worth getting out on a Monday night. The pair of them were un-animated, drum pad thwacking, knob twiddling automatons. Mary Parsons does have a nice voice but i thought it was too frequently lost in the mix. I do like the music and actually enjoyed the show more when we retired to the front of the hall, away from the stage, where we could talk but still hear the music and did not have to look at the two of them performing ...what does that say about a show!

how the high dials show was....you had good funnings?

ok Brian 10 points... you had me laughing out loud....next topic,
damn I love that new pj harvey album......tracks england and battleship hill just two of many standouts....certainly the greatest album ever created in the history....ok, I will tone down the hyperboly, but anyone who didn't see dereks tip on this...please indulge now...it really is quite unlike anything she has ever done, so dont be shy if you have not liked her in the past...

Hey Stu, yes i would say you need to get very specific about your folk sub-genre, given the expansiveness of that genre overall. So something like English late 60's/early 70's folk revival, Protest folk, Folk Rock, etc, each of which has fairly distinct boundaries. Then I would suggest that you need to state what your definition is to the group, and we would agree or question the sub-genre. So come smackdown time, your playlists would need to align to the definition that you're provided. Easier for me to think of this in jazz sub-genres, for example cool jazz, or west coast jazz. Make sense?

Frankly I will miss seeing Brian do country.....but I will park my sadist views and agree whole heartedly with you all..... I have already started with folk so if no one minds ( and I realise Derek has been pining for this category but too bad) I will stick with it..... I was wondering if we should try to define the category we have selected a bit ie with folk music does that mean folk rock is in? country infused folk?hard to say...If i do bring folk rock, perhaps a song like wooden ships would not be appropriate as no acoustic guitars at all, but suite judy blue eyes would be acceptable??/ also some electric guitars ok if the song and songwriter is promarily acoustic? Something like that maybe works or else not much separation between my category and rock...
what do you think?

It's your baby Brian. I'm quite happy to let you decide how we should set it up.

Having mused on this for a few days, I'm tempted to say that we should each pick a sub-genre that we're most interested in exploring - likely therefore within the major genres of pop, rock, or jazz - vet it with the group, and run with it. Keeping in mind you'll potentially have to play 20 tracks over the course of the night, so the genre would have to have some depth / breadth, while also still being a true, containable sub-set of the major genre. How does everyone feel about that?

Mike needs a category sop perhaps he should do country / or blues leavi8bng Brian to the do the other....or he takes country blues and Brian takes garage bands...or the like...
re the albums that are not really so bad link.... I never new In through the outdoor was dissed...always loved that record...
s

Food for thought on smackdown 2012. I think that Country and Blues are disparate enough that they should not be in the same grab basket and would thereby propose that Brian draws for either Blues or Country and the genre that he does not draw, would then be taken up by either Kyle or Derek (let them pull straws for it amongst themselves).

I think that we also need to be proposing some sub category for the last remaining Pop Rock category...perhaps something like Christian Death Metal? ...seriously, perhaps something like Experimental? ...it has a long history to draw on but is a tough nut to crack in a crowd.

...other suggestions? ...perhaps Garage and it's post 60's revival?

...any thoughts on my thoughts?

Found this to be quite an interesting article about albums that are generally dismissed by fans and critics alike but on further listen might have more going for them than most would think. Not sure I ever need to hear anything again by Living Color though.

Do any of you have albums that rank high on your list while being written off by most.

In your words Derek, "there will be blood!"

After some discussion with Marc (great food man) tonight I am more than happy to let all but Kyle and I run with the full on category that's been assigned to them. I'm not sure that country, blues, electronica, or jazz (in Mike's case) need to be sub-divided any further. In the sake of fairness it makes sense for all but the rock categories to be given the full-on scope from which to choose from to state their case.

If there is still a gripe factor to be parlayed then state it now. Otherwise I think we should proceed with the assigned categories. I'd like to hear all of you chime in with your thoughts on what's about to go down.

Ah, now the engagement!! Hmm, why do I get feel like you only just read some of my earlier blogs Mike :)

In truth I'm all good with whatever is agreed upon. I'd certainly rather research an obscure jazz sub-genre than country music (sorry Stuart), but we took this approach so as to challenge us to (similar to the Decades event) to evolve our breadth of music and support a (in this case) genre that you may not have a strong connection to. It worked quite well for the Decades - I've often decried the 80's as a lost decade of music but really enjoyed obsessing about /re-discovering that period for a month - it may work less well, or be less fun for all, when the theme moves from Decade to Genre.

So back to the drawing board? We all just choose genres we love?

So it appears that I committed a little too late, and I missed the draw. Luckily, we have over 2 months before the actual event, so we should be able to react. We need a taxonomy that includes 6 categories. We could go with broad categories such as rock, pop, dance, folk, blues, classical, jazz, country, opera, showtunes and world. Or we could go with very specific sub-genres such as avant-garde metal, breakbeat hardcore, freak-folk, gypsybilly, punk jazz and tin pan alley (all of which are included in Wikipedia's comprehensive list of music styles). Whichever way we do it, I think it would be more interesting if we were able to choose the genre we wish to defend, rather than having one thrust upon us.

You’re just making me out to be your whipping boy ...set me up to be trounced in the first round once again ...what did I do to deserve this ...I will rise to the occasion and bring honour to the genre ...either that or just end up annoying the hell out of the lot of you.

Ah yes, well, looks like some hard cheese on this one given Mike's note. We may need to re-visit this approach, or at least this assignment of categories. So.....Derek and I randomly drew categories the other night at Betty's (ah, what an establishment) as follows:

Rock and Pop 1 - Derek
Rock and Pop 2 - Kyle
Folk - Stuart
Electronic - Mark
Country / Blues - Brian

Arguably it's pretty clear who will be having the most and least fun preparing for this event. If it's entirely untenable let me know. My heart would not be broken if we were to switch it up, as I am somewhat lukewarm to blues and country. And Mike, well, I believe I've heard him refer to jazz as "just random noise" more than once over the years. Once we settle on genre assignemnt, then we'll need to choose our own sub-genres, subject to group approval.

And now the bad news....Brian?

I should respond to the invitation to come down and join another musical playoff. First, I have to say that I've never liked genres - or perhaps it's sub-genres that I don't like. I accept country, blues, rock, classical and jazz. But I've never had any use for alternative, art rock, roots rock, pop, new country, etc. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the battle of the decades, and I'd like to participate in this next big event. Barring something unavoidable and undeniable, I'll make the trip to the big Smoke on the weekend of Jan 20-21 armed with an ipodfull of choice selections for whatever piece of the music pie I am assigned. I should point out that my music collection is ill-equipped to handle jazz, classical or blues. I have lots of rock and folk, and some country, all of which spans innumerable arbitrary classifications.

I like it but don't love it Brian ...like so much music these days. I picked up the cd way back then ...perhaps one the more recent that i have purchased; I Met Up With the King has still not worn out its welcome. We have spoken at length about the changing music scape and part of me wonders how much of my lack of enthusiasm is due to the changes in the musical landscape, technological and otherwise, and how much of it is due to me getting old and jaded ...they do, after all, have very sweet voice!

On a brighter note, i did go see Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris by the coc back in October. It resonates with me to this day and pulls at my heart strings. I think that i would have to say that it is my favourite Opera performance that i have seen to date. It bridged its era with its antiquity past as well as alluding to our present torments ...it was curiously timeful and timeless at the same time. Brilliant staging, stripped down and contemporary, clever and yet not annoyingly so. I would encourage anyone to see it next time it comes around in the COC cycle. I was astounded. The use of water on the stage was breathtaking. The opening aria was accompanied by a peculiar sound ...it was only when the light slowly came up that you realize there is water cascading down the backdrop and towards the front of the stage ...can you use the word wicked to describe an opera?

Hey Marc, really?? Oops. Was it any good? Ahem. Well, I like it. Thanks for sharing. No takers on comments on the F/Foxes?

why do i even bother bringing stuff to the club nights!

http://metabeats.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-response-to-marc-will-take-form-of.html

....just kidding Brian.

Derek, yes, yes and again yes. I'm in. Let's get together soon to drin...er....draw names and genres. Others may join.

Incidentally, has the group at large spent any time with the latest Fleet Foxes record? I listened to it front to back at high volume yesterday - it's remarkable. Such clarity and soulfulness. The vocalist sounds a bit too much like Graham Nash but that's not his fault.

Another folky band I happened upon that is very nice weekend morning listening is First Aid Kit - a sister duo from Sweden. Incredible harmonies and some good songs, considering the lasses are only 17 and 20. Any lauders or dismissers among you?

Not sure that it was a cabal more like a coterie truth be told.

As it was about 5 days ago and a few pints in to a typically rambling discussion at the Rex late on a Sunday evening the details are now rather blurred. Brian has more or less outlined the proposed change in the setup.

Given that the original format of genre competition encompassed huge swaths of music under the terms rock, jazz, classical etc Stuart and I felt that it would make more sense and be a fairer contest if we made the categories much more refined.

First off we lop off the whole idea of classical and opera from this particular go around.

Let's keep the idea of rock, jazz, country, folk and electronic on the table. However rather than making it that simple and quite likely hearing many of the same tracks that were played 2 years ago I (we) propose that each of us has to select a "micro-genre" that perhaps spans a period of around 3-5 years so that one has to dig a bit deeper than the obvious candidates for this type of playdown.

So we could choose from the likes of post-punk, early 70's glam, bebop, the Manchester scene, acid house, alt-country, new wave, IDM, chill-wave, fusion, prog etc. I'm not really up on my categorization of the country and folk scenes per se but you get the gist.

I think it would be up to each individual to select their own sub-genre (perhaps one that they are less familiar with) and then let the group as a whole give it the stamp of approval over the next week or so.. We wouldn't for example want someone to pick 60's pop. Far too broad.

Anyway that's a rough sketch and I think it would be quite fun to hear some nuggets from genres that I am quite unfamiliar with.

What say the rest of you?

I've heard rumours of a late-Sunday summit of a small cabal of music men, who would like subversively (drunkenly) to re-introduce the notion of a sub-genre level (slightly varied from Marc's orignal, brilliant idea) to the proposed Genre night. Intriguing.

Would anyone care to elaborate?

all good.... i agree with everything......russian opera thats my vote

My vote is Stuart. Leave it at that.

OK boys, it seems we have consensus. Ha. To be honest, I'm not sure what your vote is for Stu (you're a madman and I've come to accept that) - do you mean you'd like to have Rock as your category? OR you'd chose to eliminate Rock if we needed to eliminate one?

Mark I like your idea, and we did have a discussion along those lines the other night. The reason we proposed a competition at the higher level (versus subcategories) is that (a) I quite like the idea - the goofiness if you will - of pitting Jazz or Folk against Pop or Classical and declaring one the winner (yes! finally we know! lol) (b) it gives the "player" tons of leeway and will make for some interesting choices and (c) not everyone is all that interested in the major genres, so to have an entire night of folk or classical or electronica might be less appealing to some. Happy to continue to consider this if others feel different. Majority rules.

In terms of categories, we spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out what to do with Rock/Pop (likely too big and dominant on its own), and came up with the idea of Soft Rock / Pop and Hard Rock as two categories. Thoughts?

Another question wrt categories was that there could be a challenge by a competitor against the other competitor if he didn't believe that selection belonged in the category (ie he played Led Zeppelin as Soft Rock/Pop), and if the majority of the non-players in that round agreed, he would have to skip the track.

Mike - any chance of you coming down for the Saturday night of that weekend?