Episodes From a Struggle Against Capitalism in 2018

One of my biggest vices is buying T-shirts. I can't get enough of them. Even though I have two deep drawers that are overflowing with them, I'm drawn to them like a moth to a bug zapper and just keep buying them anyways. It also doesn't help that most of my main interests have turned into glorified T-shirt factories. Punk bands set up a mini-mall in the venue and the Jays have a store the size of an Olympic swimming pool designed to sell things with their logo on it.

Beyond the utilitarian aspect of having a shirt to wear each day, I like T-shirts as a sort of artifact. I think it's cool that when I wear a band's shirt it's indicative of my enjoyment of them, but is also a physical manifestation of my memory of seeing that band on that night. I love my Lifetime shirt because it reminds me of the one time that I'll have gotten to see one of my favourite bands. More than that, it's also an artifact from that specific iteration of the band. I love my Sidekicks shirt because it was from their tour right after Awkward Breeds came out and is a nice reminder of when all of my friends and I were mesmerized by what the band was doing and excited to see them play the legion in Guelph.

This all being said, I am drowning in T-shirts and I am constantly trying to consume less in my life, so I made a pledge to myself in January 2018 that I would not buy any T-shirts (or clothes, really) for the whole year. I know that it's a silly project, but I also think that its non-essentialness and stupidity is part of what makes it fun.

Episodes From a Struggle Against Capitalism in 2018

1. The 2018 Toronto Blue Jays Season

The mighty king of the sports T-shirt world is undoubtedly the "shirsey", a T-shirt with a print of the front of a sports team's uniform on the front and a player's name and number on the back. Since I'm far too poor to chase my dream of a walk-in closet filled with different jerseys to wear each day, shirseys area fun and economical secondary option. Since they are so much cheaper than an actual jersey, you don't have to put as much thought into which player's shirt you purchase, as you won't be saddled with an expensive monstrosity you hate to wear if the guy's production falls off a cliff, or worse, right after you purchase it. As such, getting obscure or silly shirseys is a fun thing to do if you like sports.

As I've already covered on IMU, the 2018 Jays were fucking awful, so names that you would be proud to wear on your back were slim. But what the team lacked in star power, they made up for in spades with "that guy?" options. Curtis Granderson? Steve Pearce? Aledmys Diaz? These all would have been elite additions to my collection of heroes past, but thanks to my extreme will power and personal sacrifice, those shirts will go to someone more in need.

2. Power Trip, w/ Sheer Mag, Fury, and Red Death

Thanks to the rise of large-scale music festivals in North America, the days of elite package tours that travel all over Canada and the United States are a thing of the past. Mid-level bands still come through Toronto regularly, but I long for my youth when it seemed like a band at the height of their powers with several other signed acts were a regular occurrence. I am by no means hating on watching local bands, but it's just not the same as when you would go to a show and see four really good bands who were all extremely tight from playing each night on tour and were diverse musically.

That longing for package tours was a huge part of why I was so excited for Power Trip coming through Toronto in May with Sheer Mag and Fury. The show was rammed inside and each band had an elite merch set up that was as diverse as their sounds. Power Trip do great pastiches of 80's thrash shirts, whereas Sheer Mag's simple logo shirts seem like a classic design from when the "band shirt" was still in its infancy in the 70's. This show was my hardest test. Both bands' shirts would instantly enter into my primary rotation and get a lot of reps during the summer, but I persevered and out-lasted my desire to get one.

Also, at this show I saw a huge hesher metalhead in a battle vest puke on a couple while they were making out.

3. Joyce Manor, w/ Vundabar, and Big Eyes

Joyce Manor has been a favourite of mine for the better part of a decade now, ever since I heard their self-titled first record. Despite my long-standing love and appreciation of their music, I somehow only managed to see them for the first time this year, touring on Million Dollars to Kill Me.

Sidenote: This long streak of missing them included a 2011 show featuring their first trip to Canada, Lemuria touring Get Better. What a show.

I would love to have a Joyce Manor shirt and proudly display my appreciation for a band who's put out 5 good records in a row, but instead they had the misfortune of scheduling this show while I was on my T-shirt exodus. It seemed like there were many good options from afar, but I opted to not put myself through torture and didn't approach the table.

4. Algernon Cadwallader annouce a reissue of their discography

One of the saddest experiences you can have as a music fan is getting heavily into an artist shortly after they break up. Me checking out Television for the first time this week certainly has an air of "I can't believe they were this good the whole time!", but it's not nearly as bitter as realizing Algernon Cadwallader were emo gods only a year or two after they broke up. To make matters worse, there were times I could have seen them, but opted not to! What an idiot I was!

I scoured the internet to see if any record labels or online stores still had stock of Algernon merch, but the band's staunch DIY stance, a huge part of why I love them so much, meant their post-career online presence was next to nothing. I was haunted my image of a t-shirt, long since sold out, in online stores that no longer shipped.

Then, in the fall of 2018, the band announced that they would be reissuing all of their music through Asian Man Records. Cool! On top of that, the band would be reprinting their first t-shirt design and selling that as well. WHAT. ON TOP OF THAT, they would also be printing that design on my other apparel weakness, a black pullover hoodie. It was like Algernon had reached into my mind and plucked out what I wanted most.

But this wasn't about what I wanted. It was about what I had promised myself. And that was to buy no T-shirts during the 2018 calendar year. Mody Dick ate my harpoon and swam away. The marlin decomposed while tied to the side of my boat. I lay on my couch thinking of an alternate world where I would have an Algernon Cadwallader T-shirt.

5. The Sidekicks, w/Gladie, Found Objects, and Wayfarer

Like all good dramas, my quest to buy no new T-shirts was expertly paced. After the climax of the T-shirt I had dreamed of slipping away, the plot resolved with a lesser event. Like how the big death always happens in the second last episode of a season in The Wire. I saw one of my favourite Ontario bands, Wayfarer, play with one of my favourite active bands, the Sidekicks. The Sidekicks came on strong with a white long-sleeve that said "America's Greatest Living Rock 'n Roll Band" on the front and "POWER POP" down the sleeves, but I had already won my war. No shirts would enter my closet this year.

In the City There's a Thousand Things I Wanna Say to You

One of the few benefits of working a desk job in an office is that it allowed me ample time to check out music, whether it be new releases that friends are hyping up or old things that I haven't gotten around to yet. It was nice to let my interests wander and devote full days to checking out things I wouldn't have guessed that I would like, like as well as giving things a chance and knowing that it's not for me, like Todd Rundgren.

I don't have as much of a chance to do that anymore, now that I'm not on a computer for the entire day. As a result, it feels like my 2018 listening is starting to lighten (it's not, really), but there's been a bunch of newer releases that I've been into that I thought I would share.

Nothing, Dance on the Blacktop



I don't really have time for most gaze anymore, but since I loved Tired of Tomorrow so much, I figured I would be into this as well. I was right and am returning to this one regularly lately. I like that the band's interest in early British stuff isn't just limited to My Bloody Valentine; the volume, layers, and space is there, but so are Britpop hooks and a big Factory Records vibe too.

Doe, Grow into It




Punk and emo's obsession with grunge blindsided me when it happened. Doesn't everyone else realize that Pearl Jam and Soundgarden suck? That being said, I do appreciate that it made some bands centre their songs around big overdriven guitar riffs. Most make that boring, but this band Doe does it great. Nice, tight package of poppy rock songs.

Joyce Manor, Million Dollars to Kill Me




Yet again, Joyce Manor releases another gem and move further up my list of all-time favourite bands. As much poppier as Cody was than Never Hungover Again, this one is that much poppier than Cody. I purposely didn't listen to any of the songs they released ahead of the album, to save the surprise, but they announced on Instagram that they had been working with Rory Phillips (who played in two big-time Timbo favourites The Impossibles and The Stereo) as a songwriter and produced, I was bursting with anticipation. I really feel the Rory vibe on the album and love it so much. Just keep cranking 'em out boys, and I will keep loving them.

Living With Lions, Island




The older I get, the harder it is to listen to pop-punk. I find I can still return to old favourites like blink, Fireworks, or Set Your Goals, but find that most of the stuff I was an ardent supporter of in 2009-ish, I just can't get into at all anymore. Every now and then though, I get an itch that only big production, catchy pop-punk can scratch. When that comes, I like returning to a band who were once my favourite. LWL are back with, yet again, a new singer, but it still works.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, one of the best parts of having time to check out music is not just staying up to date on new things, but also getting around to old stuff that has been deemed significant in hindsight. The latest case: The Jam! Lifetime recently posted a live video of them playing "In the City" and since then, I've been on a kick, with In the City and All Mod Cons getting the spins.

The 2016 I, Musical Genius Musical Revue

Once more, we are about to embark on an engaging journey through my year in music. As usual, I'm not going to number the releases, because I feel like the degree to which I enjoy my 7th-ranked album over my 8th-ranked is pretty negligible. If you really need a #1 pick, let's give it to Joyce Manor, with Crying as a close second.

Joyce Manor- Cody

Every time Joyce Manor puts out a new record, I remember how much I love everything that Joyce Manor has put out. Cody continues the trend towards a polished sound started with Never Hungover Again and is certainly their most poppy material yet. The band leans huge on Weezer, Big Star, and Cheap Trick sound-wise and I fucking adore it. This is a record I wish I had written. I've come back to it many times and love love love it. Easily my favourite release of theirs.

Crying- Beyond the Fleeting Gales

I started listening to Crying last year and found their emo/shoegaze/chiptune hybrid really fun and catchy. While I was excited for new music, I wasn't expecting this huge of jump in quality at all. Crying has catapulted themselves up list of favourite current bands. The emo parts of their sound has been layered with more spacey indie influences and the chiptune side with more synth-pop. A phenomenal and impressive in songwriting ability and a fucking great record. 

Nothing- Tired of Tomorrow

I was pretty late to the party on Nothing and only started listening to Guilty of Everything shortly before Tired of Tomorrow came out, so this album has really been my main introduction to the band. The emo/shoegaze/vaguely-grunge thing is everywhere right now and if every band did it as well as Nothing, I probably wouldn't roll my eyes at it the way I do. Perfectly heavy, spacey, and dark. A tight and accessible album that will surely be a great time capsule of punk in 2016.

The Hotelier- Goodness

I seem to be much higher on this album than all of my friends, kind of like how they were all way higher on Home, Like No Place is There. Goodness and HLNPIT are way more alike sonically than any other two albums in their catalogue, so I guess the reason that I like this one more is the songwriting. Imagine that. The last song on this album kills me.

Childish Gambino- Awaken, My Love!

I'll be honest, Childish Gambino's music up to this point has done nothing for me. I've tried to get into it because of how much I appreciate everything else that Donald Glover has done, but I just couldn't. The short film that he made hinted at a direction that I would enjoy and that change happened this year with the combination of his TV show Atlanta, which is 100% my favourite thing I watched this year, and this album. I love seeing artists take gambles like Glover has this year. He's making things that are unexpected, biting, and important and I couldn't happier about it.

Daniel Romano- Mosey

Easily his best solo effort since Sleep Beneath the Willow. This is a huge change in sound, dabbling in some of 60's more obscure musical styles like, big band pop, and further showcases that DR can basically work in any genre he chooses to.

Diarrhea Planet- Turn to Gold

I only started listening to Diarrhea Planet this year. They have the best band name of all-time. A band that's equal parts Van Halen and punk with four guitar players? Bud, it sounds like drew it out of my skull.

Har Mar Superstar- Best Summer Ever

I only discovered who Har Mar Superstar is this year. Apparently that was a trend in my listening this year? I didn't notice. He also came up in the book Army of Lovers, which I was reading shortly after finding out who he is. This album is a fun cross-section of R&B and dance music since the 60's. "Anybody's Game" is especially great.

John K Samson- Winter Wheat

I have accepted that I will not like John K Samson's current output as much I love the Weakerthans. Now I listen for the stories, as his songs have turned much more into fiction set to song. This album provides that in spades. Also, all of his songs about the mundaneity and frustrations of post-grad studies KILL ME.

Young Thug- Slime Season 3

2016 was pretty light on rap for. Young Thug continues to be the most interesting and innovative person in trap.

LVL Up- Return to Love

I saw LVL Up in 2014 and, to be honest, they didn't do tons for me, but this LP is wonderful. I get a big Neutral Milk Hotel vibe from their arrangements and melodies, except they're done with fuzzy guitars instead of acoustic instruments. Great catchy indie rock.

The Frightnrs- Nothing More to Say

I find it frustrating that there is so little contemporary ska music that I connect to, because there is nothing I would love more than to keep supporting good bands who work in the genre. This is the only ska record from this year that I really connected to. It's refreshing to see a band who isn't the Slackers or Deals Gone Bad work in older 1st Wave styles and even more refreshing to see them use old-style production. A great rocksteady release, it's the small stuff in the songs that makes them great.

TUNS- TUNS

I saw TUNS play a short 3-song debut set earlier in the year and wondered what their recorded output would be like, given the members' pedigree. This release is exactly what I wanted: Tight, to-the-point power pop that is heavy on jangle and melodies.

Japanese Breakfast- Psychopomp

To be honest, I forgot this came out this year, but I did listen to it a lot in the front half of the year. Great spacey and synthy shoegaze.

Can We Just Lie Here and Find a Way to Kill Some Time Here

This Friday marks the opening of the new fall exhibitions at my work and that means an influx of work to go along with it. That means longer hours and less time to write. I'm sort of short on ideas right now, but do have a backlog of topics in my drafts, so my current plan is to knock one of those out to get myself back on track and resume my life as a content mule.

In the meantime, I thought I would talk about some music I've been into lately because that is easy for me to do and it's also something I used to do a lot and I kind of wish I did more.

Oso Oso played Toronto last night and I made a point to go. I find it's easy to let shows fall by the wayside while I'm busy with work and I hate that that has become a habit. The last time I saw Oso Oso, they were opening for The Hotelier and they blew me away. They sit at a halfway point between current "emo revival" bands like The World is a Beautiful Place and The Hotelier et al. and Third Eye Blind's Self-Titled, which happens to be one of my favourite albums. They pull off this mixture perfectly and are big-time on melody, guitar riffs, and vocal harmonies. This time they were on a smaller headlining tour and were just as good. The band is tight as hell and great at what they do. I was ready to sing along to my favourite bangers from the most excellent Real Stories of True People, Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters... (DISCLAIMER: LISTEN TO THAT RECORD), but was instead greeted by a set that was like half new songs that were just as good, if not better, than what I had already heard.

I can't say enough great things about that band. They're going to be big shit soon and if they aren't, they deserve to be. Support them.

Since last Friday I've also been going hard on the new Joyce Manor album, Cody. Every time Joyce Manor puts out something new, it also causes to revisit everything else they've put out. This time was no different and I've been in full Joyce Manor Mode since Cody came out. I really appreciate and love when band's try to do something new for each record and Joyce Manor is a great example of that. They started with a wonderful debut album that was equal parts emo, hardcore, and pop-punk, but in a way that was completely different from the awful, whiney, breakdown-heavy version that most losers were into. Instead of building on that sound and cashing in on hype, they put out an abrasive 9-song, 14-minute follow up that weirded a ton of people out. Of the 9 songs, two are short acoustic songs, one's a (phenomenal) cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star", and one uses a lo-fi synth as its base. While I initially wasn't huge on the record, but loved the idea, I now find myself coming back to it a lot. THEN, they hit everyone with a polished 3rd album of pop-punk hits that remain short, to-the-point, and idiosyncratic.

I lovelovelovelove bands who aren't afraid to write short songs and albums. "Keep it simple stupid."

With all of this said, I've been thinking that Cody may be my favourite of their's yet and also probably my favourite thing released this year. The band has started to show a huge power-pop influence (a direct path to my heart) and Cody sees the band taking healthy doses of Blue and #1 Record, in addition to their usual influences. It's mature and a great take on a sound that I daydream about using myself a lot. A link to the album is at the start of the preceding paragraph.

Joyce Manor is a band whose sound and influences have grown along with me, which has really endeared them to me. Their music has stuck around with me and now, like 7 years later, they are all of a sudden near the top of my favourite bands and definitely one of the current bands that matters the most, IMO. An odd reason that I feel really attached to them is that if I were still really serious about writing songs, and I had continued writing and working them after I just sort of stopped a few years ago, then I think Barry and I would have very similar writing styles. It's cool to see the style I sort of worked within be taken and done extremely well and much better than I ever came close to doing.

Good record. You should listen!

Another record that has been in regular rotation during my work hours is the most recent full-length by LVL UP, Return to Love. I love me some poppy, fuzzy indie rock and this album delivers that in spades. The songs kind of sound like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea to me, albeit without the acoustic instruments and the distinctive lyrics. Does that make sense? Listen, and you'll get it. Good. A good record that will no doubt be on my end of the year list of favs.

Lastly, I've been hanging out a lot with Thin Lizzy's Fighting, which is the record before the one that everyone knows. I love Thin Lizzy and feel like they are unjustly overlooked in the revered pantheon of 70's rock band. They got riffs. Fuck do they ever have riffs. This record probably deserves as much attention as anything from the decade.

The IMU 2014 Musical Revue

I have a long (not really) and complicated (not at all) history with year-end music lists*. I used to look forward to writing a lot and considered them the marquee moment of the year here on IMU. Then I got a little jaded and tried to play off their importance and last year I didn't even do one^. You know what? Looking back on the year that was is fun, so here we fucking go. 2014 year-end music list. Hold on to your butts.

First off, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my band Beat Noir put out our first full-length this year. It is free here. If you would like a physical copy or a t-shirt, they are here.

All right, here's all the stuff I liked from this year:

Riff Raff- Neon Icon
All hail RiFF RaFF. If you aren't down, you're just TOO BASiC TOO UNDERSTAND AND i CAN'T FIX THAT.

Hard Girls- A Thousand Surfaces
The song-writing on this album is fucking next level. The album's sound is coherent enough that you can immediately tell they are a part of the same collection of songs, but different enough to separate themselves. The riffs, oh lord the riffs. It's a guitar manifesto for the ages.

You Blew It!- Keep Doing What You're Doing
I've always just kind of dabbled in twinkle, but got real into this year. This release has all the riffs and all the angst you need, stuffed together in a poppy package that I've been revisiting constantly this year.

Antartico Vespucci- Soulmate Stuff
I've always been a Fake Problems fan and obviously am devoted to the church of Rosenstock as well. This one has songs that make me feel things about the person I'm currently with ("100 Years", both parts) as well as people I used to be with ("I'm Giving Up On U2"). This was probably my most played release during the summer.

(It is free at that link.)

Hostage Calm- Die On Stage

I was a huge fan of Please Remain Calm, so I was pretty hyped on what Hostage Calm would do next. The band keeps going with the power-pop they started with on the last album and really go all-in here. This isn't big of an idea as PRC, but I won't complain about a great power-pop record in 2014.


YG- My Krazy Life

I love west coast rap. I love G-Funk. This record is pretty much all of my favourite parts of rap music in one place. A perfect balance of great beats, humour and to quote YG "mothafuckin' gangsta shit". This probably one of my favourite rap releases ever and it is hard for me to find a way to describe it without sounding like the whitest dude ever.

Wayfarer- Sleep Through To The Light

Don't tell Kyle I like his songs. He'll probably make fun of me.

The Hotel Year*- Home, Like No Place Is There

A damn good release. It didn't really hit me like their last one did, but a really well thought-out album and great collection of songs front to back.

The Both- The Both

I was confused why more of my friends weren't into this release, considering how many of them like Ted Leo. Here he collabs with Aimee Mann and the results are fucking stellar. A bunch of guitar-driven (obvi, it's fuckin' Ted Leo) pop songs. I like it as a substitute for a Pharmacists record because it's different enough to be something new, but also has enough guitar godding to tide you over until the next Ted Leo release. Also, Aimee Mann is really fucking good at writing songs.

Lights- Little Machines

I didn't expect to like a Lights record this much, but here we are. It's catchy and it's a great pop record.

Puig Destroyer- Puig Destroyer

Baseball-themed powerviolence/grindcore written by some stat-minded SABR nerds. Gimmick bands aren't supposed to work this well.

Moldmaker- Dark Chambers Demo

I'm really sad that more people will never get the chance to see this band because it's basically The Decay with two lead guitars and a wall of noise that somehow even bigger than The Decay's.

(Free at that link)

Junior Battles- Rally

A great followup to the wonderful Idle Ages. Different enough to set it apart from the album that came before it, but still sounds like Junior Battles. This definitely has some of their best songs.

Joyce Manor-Never Hungover Again

One of my favourite parts of Joyce Manor was they were able to take the harshest parts of 80's hardcore and combine them with pop-punk in a way that doesn't diminish either. Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired was an extremely ballsy second album and is something that I didn't really get until this year. Never Hungover Again is by far their poppiest album, but the change in sound pays off, as I love all the songs on this release.

The Bruce Lee Band- Everything Will Be Alright, My Friend

Being a huge ska, it really sucks that the amount of relevant releases per year is pretty minimal. B ut when a band who puts something out roughly once every ten years returns out of nowhere to put out a rock-solid ska-punk release I get so giddy that I can't even deal. Why can't this happen more? Also, JESSE MICHAELS SINGS ON ONE OF THE TRACKS!

The Canyon Rays- West Coast Babes

This one came out of nowhere. They were described on bandcamp as equal parts Beach Boys and Katy Perry and while that isn't the perfect description, it's pretty close. Full band pop music that's as heavy on dreamy synths as it is hooks. Great bass playing too.

Alvvays- Alvvays

I was listening to this while skateboarding to work one day this summer. A woman drove through an intersection when she wasn't supposed and almost destroyed me, as I was going full-tilt. I gave her the finger and yelled "What the fuck?!" When I got to work I told the kids what happened and they asked if I swore and I said no, but winked to some of the older kids so they would know that I did and think I'm cool. This has been a story from my life that involves the Alvvays album in some way.

It was a great year for music.


*I use cliches (damn my lack of shortcut knowledge) a lot. I like to think that they are a signature aspect of writing, even in school. But I also like to think that I use them in more of a Dan Harmon way, than a US remake of Lol way. Do you hate my cliches? Too bee-ad, because I love 'em.

^IMU: On Music. The Essential Year-End Lists of I, Musical Genius. 2008. 2009. 2010. 2011. 2012 I thought I had previous ones up on here as well. Know that 2006 and 2007's respective #1's were The Arrogant Sons of Bitches' Three Cheers for Disappointment and We Are The Union's Who We Are. Two big time jammers.

*Yeah, I'm gonna be that dick who reinforces that he liked the band when they had their original name.

Lying Awake Intent On Tuning In On You

You know what I really hate? "Ironic" pop song covers by punk/metal/hardcore/whatever bands. Hell, I am going to expand that to include "ironic" covers of any kind.

Whenever a band covers song for any reason other than "I like this song and would like to play it myself because I like it so much" that performer places themselves above the original performer, even if they're doing it subconsciously. I think that is outrageously pretentious and also incredibly disrespectful. Even if it is just the most simple, dumb pop song ever released, it still involved a very long and arduous process in its production. Making music and then releasing it is REALLY HARD and REALLY STRESSFUL. Demeaning another person's effort in that process seems like a real shitty thing to do, in my opinion.

On that note, that also implies that your own music taste is so superior to other peoples that you'll just be condescending about it. If you do that, FUCK YOU.

Like any capable writer I should give examples to illustrate my point.

One of the worst offenders in the "ironic" pop cover category is Fearless Records and their "Punk Goes..." series of cover compilations. The first iteration was a bit of a mixed bag because it seems like some of the covers were completely genuine and featured bands cover metal bands who you could tell influenced them in some way, such as Bigwig's Slayer cover and the RX Bandits Megadeth cover. On the other hand, there were completely awful contributions by Less Than Jake and New Found Glory (See! I'm not biased, I'm being critical about bands I like too!), so who knows. "...Goes Acoustic" which was acoustic versions of songs, so again not that bad.

After these though, everything went to shit. "...Goes Pop", "...Goes 80's" and the worst offender of all "...Goes Crunk" followed and were filled with the type of covers that I started this post putting down.

For example:



At the time, Katy Perry was figured by most to be on the fast track to becoming a one-hit wonder because of "I Kissed A Girl", so I'm sure Attack Attack! was looking to capitalize on her moment of popularity to benefit themselves. Jokes on you shitheads, she followed that with an amazing single and then put out one of the best pop albums ever, while all you're known for is this and being the soup du jour on Warped Tour one year.

These types of covers are also really popular with local bands because they can be a really easy way to gain cheap popularity for a bit, which is something else that really bugs about these. People should like you because of the art you make, not because they recognize a popular song at your shows.

Now, this is not all to suggest that there is something wrong with covering pop songs, just in the fashion that most bands approach it. In fact, I downright love me some pop covers. When the band Joyce Manor (who are very good, this is one of my favourite songs) announced that they would include a cover of The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" on their second album, most people rolled their eyes because it seemed exactly like the kind of music bullshit that I have been describing so far. However, Barry Johnson was quick to point out that he's always wanted to cover the song and was a genuine fan of it. What a novel idea! Being a genuine fan? Who even does that anymore?! The first time I listened to Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired I didn't even notice the song was a cover the first time it came on. A funny thing happens when you actually like the song you are playing: Quality increases!



Now compare that to:



Another great example is the power-pop band First Base's cover of Abba's "Mamma Mia"



First Base covered this song because it is a GOOD POP SONG AND THEY LIKE IT. NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THAT.

I know that irony can be funny, by hell is it ever a slippery slope.

Also, a few years ago, Blogger totally revamped its platform. I've said it a few times, but to reiterate, I am completely committed to this site as a writing platform over Tumblr or other options because it is much more of a word processor and less of a "here's something to read for 1 singular minute before you scroll down and then forget it". One of the features they changed was that when you were embedding a video, for example from Youtube, instead of just throwing the whole code into the raw text of your post, you click a button that says "HTML" and put it there. I like this because it reminds me of my days on MySpace when I had to learn rudimentary coding to spruce up my amazing page. Because of that experience I have a kind of nostalgia for HTML. I thought of this wild-ass tangent because of how many videos I just had to put into this post.

All You Seem To Say Is Baby "How Could It Be You?"

So today I was listening to the Jonsi song "Sticks and Stones", which most people know because it plays during the credits of the most excellent movie How To Train Your Dragon (and man, it's an aweosme song), and when it ended my itunes went right into Joyce Manor. Like I said in my last post, I've been re-discovering a bunch of music that I haven't really listened to in the last few months and this is certainly an example of that. But while Lemuria gave me more of a "Wow! This band is so poppy and cute and makes me feel great! I can't believe I ignored them!" feeling, this was more of a "Hey Tim! Feel like getting ridiculously sad? Remember all those pent-up feelings from last fall? Well, here they are whether you like it or not!"


All their releases up this point sure are great though. Between an EP, a full-length and another full-length that is so short some people consider it an EP even though it's nine songs, there's not much filler and a whole lotta angst. I highly recommend checking them out.

Also, speaking of How To Train Your Dragon, I heard a lot of people rave about that movie when it came out but only ended up watching it yesterday. Holy shit a company that's not Pixar actually made an endearing, fun, touching and inspiring animated kids movie! (Siq use of adjectives brah) I really enjoyed watching it.

I've mentioned it a few times on here, but I joined a band with whack of my favourite homies in the world. We're called Beat Noir and are in the process of recording a whole bunch of music and we have a show in Toronto coming up in December! I'm excited for a number of reasons. 1: I haven't played a show in Toronto since my high school ska band The Pragmatics  (Oh, you know I still have that ASOB shirt I'm rockin' in that video) broke up on stage in grade 12. 2: The show is with Like Pacific, who I am pretty good friends with, are A+ dudes all around, just put out a new EP called Homebound and are what one could consider "on their grind".

I really think you should think about attending this show, so if you would like the info it can be found right here.

In hindsight I maybe should have not linked that Pragmatics video. It's really embarrassing man! That hair was such a bad idea!

I suppose I'll leave you with this because I want it so bad and it makes me smile:

Better Late Than Never

Best of 2011.

I decided to do something a little different this year. I found that when I was making my year-end lists in the past the hierarchy in which I placed the albums seemed to be pretty arbitrary (How proud of me for that sentence are you Susan Douglas?). Every year I knew what my favourite release was but I always end up listening to different albums at different parts of the year, so the ranking turns out to be just what my favourites are at the end of December. I spend way too much time thinking about if this album is better than that one, but worse than that one, etc. to the point that it turns out to be useless. Plus this is just a subjective blog, so why does it even matter right? Having said all that, for 2011 I decided that I would rank the top few because I know them for sure, after that I’ll just list my other favourites, without order. Cool? Cool.

Full-Lengths

Copyrights- North Sentinel Island

I’m totally late to the Copyrights party. There’s a ton of punk bands around that seem to ape The Copyrights style and there is obviously a reason for that. So this album came out during the summer and good ol’ John Flynn gushed about it on Tumblr. I kept thinking “Man, I should really get that thing.” This happened for about a week. Then I got it and loved it. The heavenly vocal lines! The poppyness! The dreams of seeing the band surrounded by rad punk-rock friends while enjoying cheap beer! Seriously though, it starts great and doesn’t let up, there are memorable hooks fucking all over it. Bonus points for the transition between “Crutches” and “Hard-Wired”. Also one time I made huge breakfast while jamming the fuck out to this album.

So there’s that.

Dan Andriano In The Emergency Room- Hurricane Season

I know I’m in the minority when I say that I think Alkaline Trio still puts out pretty great albums. Not-only did I think This Addiction was “not-bad”, but actually “very good”. But I do think there’s a disparity in the level of skill with Alk3’s two song-writers. Matt Skiba can still turn out a really great song every once in a while and I find that his good songs are usually my favourite. But for every “This Addiction” or “Dead On The Floor” there’s at least one “Draculina”. Meanwhile, Dan Andriano does nothing but crank out awesome pop-punk songs. Considering all of this, I was decently excited for this release, figuring it would be all slower poppy rock songs like “Fine” off the last album. I was right, but liked the release way more than I thought I would. There’s a lot of acoustic guitars and this album isn’t as punk-sounding as the Trio, but it’s still really awesome and shows how good Dan is at writing songs.

Direct Hit!- Domesplitter

Loud, rowdy pop-rock. Fast and raucus. In Alternative Press it said “The Andrew WK of pop-punk”. Works for me.

FREE TO STREAM HERE!

Fucked Up- David Comes To Life

I’ve always enjoyed Fucked Up, but not to the extent that everyone else seemed to. Then this album came out. I was on a road trip to Montreal with some friends and also under the influence of a certain plant. We listened to this album all the way through and it was just a tour-de-force. That was really the perfect context to listen to it. It was ridiculously ambitious for Fucked Up to try something like this and it totally worked. You can barely call them a hardcore band now, but that certainly doesn’t mean they aren’t good anymore. I rarely listen to it unless I know I’ll have time to listen to the whole thing, but that speaks to the cohesiveness of the album, doesn’t it? Every time I do, it feels like the musical version of a John Hughes movie. And that is awesome.

GET INTO IT DAWG!

I Am The Avalanche- Avalanche United

Out of all the albums I knew were coming out this year, this was probably the one I was looking forward to most. Their debut self-titled album is fucking great and I don’t think it gets enough respect with most punk fans (the instrumentals sound Lifetime meets Fugazi for Chistsake!). I love The Movielife as well, so obviously I was anxiously awaiting the second album from this band. The pre-released songs “Holy Fuck” and “Brooklyn Dodgers” only did more for this. Finally it came out and I was definitely satisfied with it. It wasn’t the overpowering list-topper I thought it might be, but it’s a great second for this band. I found it took a much more “just punk” sound than their first album, but I enjoyed it still. I’m really looking forward to this band much more active again.

LISTEN TO IT FO' FREE!

Joey Cape’s Bad Loud- Self Titled

A lot of people love Lagwagon, but for some reason the same amount of support doesn’t translate to Joey Cape’s solo material, which I think is absolutely great. He took the next step in his post-Lagwagon career by forming this band this year and putting an album of full-band versions of his solo songs. I heard the new version of “Okay” and knew this was going to be something I enjoyed. I guess it might have been more exciting if it was new material, but I thought this was really great all the same. If you like his solo material, you’d love this. If you don’t like his solo material, you’d also probably like this because it’s just awesome pop-rock combo’d with great fucking song-writing.

FREE ALBUM. DOWNLOAD IT.

Junior Battles- Idle Ages

These guys are really moving up in the world. About two years ago I saw them open up an awesome show for the Shook Ones, Make Do And Mend and We Are The Union and now they’re on Paper And Plastick and doing pretty regular tours. This is good because the band works extremely hard and they are seriously the nicest guys around. For real though, it is impossible to not like them personally. Anyways, they put out a really great EP last year and I was interested to see how the band would follow it up. It’s easy for a band to put out a total banger of an EP with four songs but translating that skill to a full-length album is much harder. Luckily, Junior Battles are a very good band and made that transition very easily; this album is fucking great. It’s catchy, it has really interesting guitar lines, great lyrics and “whoa’s” in all the right places. I suggest you get this album as soon as you can if you haven’t already because they show no signs of slowing down.

FREEFREEFREEFREEFREE RIGHT HERE!

Lemuria- Pebble

For some reason, most people I know were disappointed by this album. This confuses me because I thought this was a great follow-up to Get Better and has pretty much everything I want in a Lemuria release. At first it seemed like just “another Lemuria album” as it was kind of in the style of their last album. Then one day I was really hungover going to work on minimal sleep. The combination of this album and a coffee saved me that morning and all I could think about was how much I enjoy this album. That statement still stands too, as I think this album has some of their best songs. Great fucking band.

Living With Lions- Holy Shit

Living With Lions’ first full-length Make Your Mark was something that I got really into upon its release. I enjoyed their debut EP just as much, so I was really looking forward to their follow-up. Then the band lost its singer during the writing and recording of what would become Holy Shit. They replaced him with Stu Ross, who I was already familiar with as the singer/guitarist of Lowtalker. This troubled me because these two are pretty different in their vocal approach. I’m always for bands experimenting and taking their sound in a different direction, but at the same time I don’t want a complete change in style. Fortunately the change worked out pretty well. Stu is different enough that the band sounds new and refreshed and not trying to make Make Your Mark volume II with a new singer. The album didn’t hit me like the first one did, but it’s still pretty awesome. It’s fast, melodic and catchy as fuck. To top it off, the guys are absolutely ace live and always a ton of fun. Unfortunately, the band met a ton of controversy when some dick in California got offended by the album artwork (Have you ever heard of Slayer?) and made complaints to a minister in British Columbia (I was going to link to the Vancouver Sun article which initially caused all of the problems, but it was taken down, hmmmm) and the band was forced to either change the artwork of their album or return the funding which they received through a Canadian government agency for the arts. They did latter and paid for everything themselves as well as through a Kickstarter campaign. Canada, you do rule most of the time, but this was really fucking lame. Still though, great pop-punk album.

FREE STREAM! (BUT WITH SOME PRETTY LAME ADS)

Saves The Day- Daybreak

I got really, REALLY into Saves The Day this year. I don’t just mean I started to like their records a lot, I mean that they’ve got 500 plays over the next artist on my Last.fm for the last 6 months. It started by me liking Can’t Slow Down because it sounds like Lifetime. Then I got into Through Being Cool because it’s a great example of late 90’s pop-punk. Then Stay What You Are started to dominate my life with its quirky pop-rock. Then the floodgates opened and I threw myself on the mercy of their discography. Most fans of the band have written them off but I think this is the best album they’ve put out since SWYA. It’s a totally new line-up for the band and the first time in awhile (since their first album) that they haven’t had Dave Soloway on guitar, so I was wondering how that would affect the sound of the band. The answer is not that much, but new guitarist Arun Bali’s spacey leads are the perfect addition to the band. Opening the album with a ten minute song is pretty ballsy, but it definitely worked and really draws you in and makes you listen to the whole thing. As with every Saves The Day release, the lyrics are mostly about love, which I like. It’s obviously not the best thing the band has ever put out, but it does take them in an interesting direction while also using the elements from their older albums which won them all the fans in the first place.

STREAM AND ENJOY!

This Is Hell- Black Mass

Most people really don’t like that This Is Hell has moved towards a much more metal-influenced hardcore sound on their last two albums. However I love both hardcore and thrash metal, so I’ve welcomed this evolution with open arms. Rather than producing metal-core in the vein of Madball or Biohazard, they take all of their metal influence from the 80’s and turn the trash up to eleven. It’s fast as fuck and the riffs make you wonder if they listen to anything other than Anthrax and Megadeth in the van. Combining that with hardcore shouted vocals and I’m over the moon. I love bands who can still turn an absolute rager of a thrash album that recalls the East Bay in the 80’s rather than newer bands and This Is Hell definitely did that with this album.

Title Fight- Shed

The Last Thing You Forget by Title Fight is a really awesome compilation. The whole “pop-core” thing has gotten pretty big and pretty out control in terms of how shitty some of the bands are. Title Fight are definitely NOT part of the latter and I wouldn’t even place them alongside bands like Four Year Strong and Hit The Lights even though everyone else does for some ridiculous reason. The aforementioned compilation showed that Title Fight was very in touch with their hardcore scene while still making melodic, poppy-but-still-rough music and a debut album from them had me champing at the bit. And they really hit it out of the park on this one. They show a wide variety of influences from North-East hardcore like Suicide File or American Nightmare combined with 90’s emo like Texas Is The Reason and Sunny Day Real Estate to make an awesomely melancholic “I guess you can call it pop-punk” album. They’re absolutely great live and I’m very interested to see what they do with their sound, considering how much they evolved between their last two releases.

STREAM IT HERE AND GET SAD MOTHERFUCKER.

Wonder Years- Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing

The Upsides was a pretty big deal for me (Obvi brah, it was number one last year) and I was worried that to follow it up The Wonder Years would put out a bland and generic follow-up to, hoping to continue the success that that album brought them. However, they did just the opposite! This album didn’t hit me the way that The Upsides did (It would be very hard to do so) but it’s still fantastic and I really like the direction they took with it. It’s more mature and darker, but still very melodic. I think that the best part about it is that it shows the influence of regular old melodic punk bands that most bands in the genre miss. After this the band is poised to keep putting out solid pop-punk releases for years to come and I’m pretty stoked about that.

4. Joyce Manor- Self Titled

I have a bad habit of hearing people talk about how awesome an album is and then never getting around to listening to it. Eventually I do much later and ask “Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?”, even though everyone did. This album is an example of that. Everyone I know could not stop talking about this album at the start of the year. Then I missed them when they came through Toronto as part of a really awesome tour with Lemuria. Finally one day I heard “Constant Headache” and was instantly hooked. The songs are all fast and aggressive and have awesome rough and dissonant guitar lines, but at the same time an awesome poppy feel. And of course the deciding factor; lyrics about being heart-broken. It’s a quick affair (10 songs in about 19 minutes!), but that just it means it won’t take long for you to check out the entire thing! “Leather Jacket” will forever be one of my favourite songs.

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING RIGHT HERE! IT'S REALLY FAST AND AWESOME! IT WON'T TAKE YOU TOO LONG.

3. The Swellers- Good For Me

Very key to my listening habits is the commute to my job in the summer. I take the GoTrain to and from my lifeguarding job at an amusement park. During this commute I obviously listen to music because it’s either that or listen to everyone in the rat race down to Bay Street describe their ridiculously boring lives in the suburbs (Yes, I realize that makes me sound like an asshole.). So as a result I end up listening to a pretty huge amount of music in the summer and that is generally the time period that shapes this list the most. This Swellers album was one of the albums that I turned to most during the summer. I was pretty indifferent towards the release of this record as I had more or less written the band off after their last effort Ups and Downsizing. Then one of my friends described Good For Me as “skate-punk meets 90’s alt”, which sounded pretty interesting to me. I follow the members of the band and twitter and I notice they talk about Weezer, Nada Surf, The Foo Fighters, etc. on there pretty often and it seemed like a really good thing to me that the band was trying incorporate new elements to their sound regardless of if they were congruent with their older material. Most people would assume that mixing those types of influences with the fast, technical skate punk they were known for before would be a recipe for disaster, but it really works well. The album really shows a band who is completely comfortable with their musical style as well as the Diener brothers becoming pretty damn good at writing songs. During the summer it eventually boiled down to me making coffee, leaving my house and trying to decide if I wanted to put on this, Stay What You Are by Saves The Day or the new House Boat album.

2. House Boat- The Thorns Of Life

I liked House Boat’s last two releases A LOT. For this reason I thought that I would be over the moon with this release as well. Upon first listen I dismissed it as sounded “like House Boat”, if you know what I mean. Then I gave it another chance and fell fast and hard for it. This album, along with The Swellers and Stay What You Are by Saves The Day was pretty much all I listened to this summer. It really takes all the best elements of the first two releases and builds on them. The song-writing is better, there’s a greater difference between the style of songs (in that it’s not just one fast pop-punk song about being depressed after another, not to say I wouldn’t enjoy that) and the album has a way better flow to it. Everyone knows I enjoy a good love-ditty and Grath really knocks it out of the park on this release. Hey, I have a type when it comes to pop-punk and House Boat really fits
it.

FREEFREEFREE LISTENING! JOIN ME IN BEING INSECURE AND ONLY THINKING ABOUT GIRLZ.

1. Bomb The Music Industry!- Vacation

I know my gigantic Rosen-boner is no secret, so this album topping this year for me is probably no surprise to most. As soon as a new BTMI! Release comes out my first priority is to listen to the album all the way through while reading the lyrics on the album’s page on quoteunquoterecords.com. Every time I do this I connect to the song-writing instantly and immediately fall in love with the record. This has happened every single time this “band” (though they do have a pretty stable line-up nowadays) puts anything out. I was at work the day this album came out, but saw people shitting their pants over it on facebook and twitter the whole day. What? The synth-ska-pop-punk-nowgettingsortofaltyinagoodway band that I always loved and everybody thought sounded like shit? This release must be a barn-burner. By my own admission, I thought it was great at first but didn’t freak the way most did. It did click eventually though. I was in a pretty shitty mood for a few days and then put this on and thought to myself “Oh Mr. Rosenstock, you’ve done it again. I’ve said it before, but every Jeff-related release feels like he hangs out with me for a day and then writes an album about everything that I think, worry and obsess over. This one is no different. Thanks for coming out, everyone else.

THE BEST RECORD OF THE YEAR IS FREE? YES IT IS. GET IT. JEFF'S WORDS WILL MAKE YOU FEEL ALL FUZZY INSIDE.

EPs

All Teeth- Summer Sessions

A really fast hardcore band doing all Specials covers? Are they deliberately pandering to me? Even though it sounds like it would be a car-crash of an EP, it works really well.

Dopamines/Dear Landlord Split

Do you like punk rock music? Do you like cheap beer? Why don’t you come over and listen to punk rock music and drink cheap beer? And then we’ll put on jorts and plaid shirts.

Decay/Wayfarer- Decayfarer

These two bands are definitely among the best in the local Ontario scene right now. This EP shows both bands growing in maturity and making more complex tunes than their previous material. It’s a great recorded example of how rad both are live and makes me super stoked to see what they do in the future.

THIS IS FREE. PICK IT UP AND SUPPORT THEM PLEASE.

Mixtapes- Companions

This EP came when prolific pop-punk band Mixtapes (Seriously though, they have an asinine amount of not just releases, but good releases over the last two years.) made the decision to re-release their debut full-length Maps (Hey! That was on my year-end list last year and is free right here!). It has two new songs and four full-band versions of songs which were acoustic upon their initial release. Honestly, next to Maps this is probably my favourite release by them. The full-band versions definitely top the originals and it sounds like they should have always been that way. Both new songs are also killer and are up there as my favourite tunes by them. CATHCY AND POPPY AS FUCK. CUTE AND ADORABLE. The band just signed to No Sleep Records and are moving up in the world! Good on them, they work hard, are incredibly nice people, are some of the only other people in the punk rock world who know what Baller Blockin’ is and few people deserve it more.

We Are The Union- Graveyard Grins

We Are The Union has always been a band that I find myself much more interested in than everyone around. I have never understood why this is the case. Though I think that Great Leaps Forward didn’t quite match the level of gnar that Who We Are did, it was still a really good album. The band has a pretty unique sound that puts them right on top of the fence between ska and pop-punk and people still don’t give them enough recognition! This EP is the first noise they’ve made in a while and continues right where their last album left off; fast beats, face-melters and upstrokes. Just for good measure they throw in an ace Descendents cover at the end. Of my favourite song! I really think the band is great and works really hard to tour as much as they can and stick to their ideals. You should check them out because they deserve more than they get. Also, Trailer Park Boys reference on one song? Ya damn right.

CHECK IT OUT. FOUR FAST SONGS!

Teenage Bottlerocket- Mutilate Me

I went through a pretty big Teenage Bottlerocket renaissance this year and became a way bigger fan of the band than I was before. Just like Saves The Day, they really clicked with me like they never had before. This EP continues in the bands usual style (Obvi brah, it’s Ramonescore.) and the song-writing is as strong as it’s ever been, with the title track being especially great. It’s very brief as it’s only three songs, one being a Bad Religion cover, and the band’s style lends itself to short songs, but it’s still great and definitely worth listening to.

2.Mikey Erg- Heart 12”

I fucking love The Ergs! a whole lot. So when I saw that Mikey was putting a solo 7” (on Valentine’s Day!) I was logically extremely stoked. Rather than the usual acoustic-folky route that most frontmen take with solo releases, Mikey made it a full band affair, playing all the instruments himself. Two guesses as to what the lyrics are about. In all seriousness though, Mikey is absolutely fabulous at writing pop songs about love and both songs on this 7” are evidence of that. HOW CAN YOU HATE MIKEY ERG? IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!

1. !ATTENTION!- Another Year

These guys are hands down my favourite band in the Southern Ontario scene right now. They’re fast and catchy and still awesomely rough-sounding. Their last EP was absolutely great and I was really excited about getting some more tunes from them. This one definitely doesn’t disappoint either. It’s four more songs in the vein of their previous stuff. I cannot recommend checking this band out enough and go see them if they come near your town, as they are the best dudes around.

LISTENLISTENLISTENPLEASE. THE BEST POP-PUNK AROUND.