RPM Participants:
BANDWIDTH GAUNTLET!!!
CHALLENGES FOR '09:
Autorickshaw wanted to find someone to cover this song "Dilbarra" in your own unique way (pop-punk is welcome)...
Here's a lyrics translation, although they might be best to get a Hindi speaking friend to translate for them...
Here are the Hindi lyrics.
Interested in the challenge? Email Alan
Don't like that challenge?
Masia One and Abdominal's challenge to you was as follows: get 10 fortune cookies from your fave local Chinese restaurant and use them as lyrics for a tune.
Plus , Masia added, you need to sample some sound from the Chinese restaurant in the song as well.
Again, the place to email to prove you're musician enough... Alan
Come on people! The gauntlet's been thrown down!
Twelve Days of '08...
...all right, so we could have done a better job with that title.
Alan got asked by a lot of peeps to come up with a Top Ontario Albums Of 2008.
He always finds that really hard to do, and invariably the second after it's published realizes someone he forgot (i.e. the band that's always on his I-pod, so he considers them part of the daily fabric of reality.)
But hey, here's a try... albums that came out in '08 that Alan loved.
In alphabetical order, and to keep with the theme of Christmas, there are 12 of 'em.
1/ Adam And The Amethysts "Amethyst Amulet".
Adam Waito's lo-fi loveletter to Thunder Bay... lovely pop songs and poetry mixed together, telling stories of his childhood and memories woven with piano, organ, trumpet and more... it's the ode that T-Bay deserves.
2 Jill Barber "Chances".
.. Jill travels back on time mixing together orchestral arrangements and modern-day pop-folk storytelling... I give the gal from Port Credit credit on this album, she took a chance and it's worth rewarding... Although the minute you hear her voice dissolve into the strings, one can't imagine it was a risk after all...
3. Matthew Barber "Ghost Notes".
Jill's big brother Matt deserves huge kudos for his album Ghost Notes. Delving into dark material that creeps to the surface the more you listen to it, it's gorgeously held together with strong lyrics and Matt's voice... back-on-track as one of our finest singer-songwriters.
4 The Born Ruffians "Red, Yellow And Blue".
There are those who love and loathe the album Red Yellow and Blue by The Born Ruffians out of Midland... I'm of the former category... the unique vocalizations sets it apart and the upbeat pop holds it together. Once any of these tunes works its way into my brain, it's trapped and I never want to let it run free.
5 Miss Emily Brown "Part of You Pours Out of Me".
.. now, in fairness, this isn't really an album from 2008... I just found out about it IN 2008... 'Part of You Pours Out Of Me' combines Miss Emily's gift for gothic lyrics with the creepy and beautiful music boxes... and a voice that sends chills up my spine.
6 Fred Eaglesmith "Tinderbox"
Probably my vote for the best of the year. Fred, and the late great Willie P Bennett, team up for a gritty soulful album that takes inspiration from churches of the deep south... the result gets under your skin and into your soul.
7 Kathleen Edwards "Asking For Flowers"
She already got nominated for the Polaris Prize for this album. Undoubtedly Kathleen's strongest work, with lyrical punches-to-the-gut and tales of women who are neither victims nor saints. She can embody the fragility of being at an all-time low, to the raucous defiance of an all-time high, and completely believable at either end of the scale. And quite frankly, it was time for Jim Bryson to get a tune written about him.
8 Elliott Brood "Mountain Meadows"
The grey ink-splotch cover does not convey the magic that's inside this CD... a beautiful, foot stomping, train-rumbling, banjo-strumming trek through different places and spaces that mean something to the band. The boys from Windsor outdid themselves.
9 Friends Of Skeleton Park
A collection of Kingston musicians, including The Lady Racers... Music Maul.. Sheesham and Lotus... The Gertrudes... Slaves Of Spanky... Nich Worby... all bands well-worth getting in their own right, but put them together and this compilation CD is one that summed up what made the limestone city rock.
10 Lynne Hanson "Eleven Months"
Roots music had a great year this year, and Ottawa's Lynne Hanson should be on the top of the lists. Worldly without being depressing and lyrics where the characters don't just complain about their lives, they take responsibility for where they stand... Eleven Months is worth every minute it took to spill out all those guts onto Hanson's kitchen table.
11 Zaki Ibrahim "Eclectica"
Normally there'd be more hip-hop on my list and I am sure there are brilliant albums I've forgotten about. But Zaki Ibrahim's Eclectica is one of those soul/hip-hop/jazz albums that shouldn't be ignored... messages from the heart not the soapbox with syncopated rhythms that Zaki and her team make flow effortlessly.
12 The Wooden Sky "When Lost At Sea"
Beautiful blending of piano, mandolin, guitar, glockenspiel and more with stark short-stories told with painful honesty. While so many of the songs seem to rotate around the idea of being trapped and unable to escape, there is also a strange sense of hope that emerges on the album as well.
Those are just a few ideas.
There are countless great CD's that graced my desk this year... not to mention the MySpace tunes that I am always listening to...
Any ideas? bandwidth@cbc.ca is where to reach me.
Happy New Year!!
Alan
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