Blog: Condemned to Rock 'N Roll

Well, here I am at the end of my first year doing this blog. I would love to be able to say something very profound at this point, but frankly, I'm just surprised I managed to keep it up for the entire year in a semi-regular fashion. Looking back at it now, I now realize why so many blogs litter the cyberspace as abandoned detritus - it can be pretty difficult to find something worth writing about on a regular basis. The bloggers who write daily or nearly daily are people to be admired. My sole aim when beginning this [...]

As the year winds down (or up, depending on half-full or half-empty glasses and whatnot), so does this blog. The Top Albums of 2008 countdown is over, and with this final installment, my weekly mix year-end round-up is now finished. This collection of mixes features themes on solo artists, travel, Scandinavia, autumn, 4AD, more synthpop, literature, more dance, more cover versions, Halloween, guilty pleasures, winter, celebrities, songs of 2008, and Christmas. Enjoy, and I hope I can fill 2009 with more quality mixes. It's not quite over yet because Tuesday will feature one last mix of the year for New [...]

And so we've reached the end of this year's journey through my top albums. Before we get into the top eight, I'll try to sum up which albums released in the last few months of 2008. September brought offerings from Jenny Lewis, Mercury Rev, People in Planes, Butch Walker, No and the Maybes, Glasvegas, Santogold, Jon Ryman, Metallica, Chairlift, Kings of Leon, and a sophomore record from former Suede frontman, Brett Anderson. There were also a few that have already made this countdown, including TV on the Radio, Ladyhawke, and Okkervil River. October's albums was jam-packed with records [...]

So, I was watching the news a few nights ago and this year it seems the Canadian news has bothered to report on the UK Christmas number one. Apparently, it's newsworthy this time because three versions of Hallelujah are competing for the top spot: the original by Leonard Cohen, the cover by Jeff Buckley and the cover by Alexandra Burke, some woman from X-Factor . The saddest part of the story was the fact that the X-Factor version was winning. To be clear, I don't ever really care what the Christmas number one is, especially when that type of [...]

Here's Part 2 of the Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love Year-End Round-Up. If you've just joined us, I'm putting up the my weekly mixes of 2008 for download, which will be available for about a month. This group of mixes' themes include Mother's Day, drugs, more cover versions, summer, psychedelia/fantasy, Father's Day, road trips, Canada, childhood/adolescence, France, more robots, Britain, synthpop and songs about love/lust. Next Sunday will feature the last of the year's weekly mixes. Monday - No and the Maybes [...]

So, we've come to the second last installment of my Top 40 Albums of 2008. Before plunging into the fray once more, I will attempt to remind you of what music the summer of 2008 brought with it. July kicked off with releases by Beck, The Black Ghosts, Ratatat, The Hold Steady, and an excellent Kitsune remix album by Digitalism. The month ended with albums from post-punk veterans Wire, CSS, Bodies of Water, Little Ones, Friendly Fires, The Black Kids, and The Great Northwest. Of course there was also a rather disappointing new album from Primal Scream and the debut [...]

I happened to be on London-based musician, frYars' MySpace page and discovered that a full-length album called Dark Young Hearts is in the works. After two excellent EPs, I was excited, and when I discovered how he was accomplishing it, I was intrigued. frYars is using Bandstocks , an organization that acts as a fairer middleman between fans and musicians, allowing fans to invest in the artists in return for both some of the profits and recognition. I signed up for a free download of the new frYars MP3 entitled Visitors (which features some vocal help from [...]

I'm a pretty big fan of The Mighty Boosh. Though I used to find Noel Fielding quite endearing, my favourite half of the duo is Julian Barrett and his character Howard Moon (with whom I share a kinship of cockerel eyes and surreptitious Chinese burns). Having said that, when I discovered there was a band out there named The Vince Noir Project, named for Fielding's character, I still stopped and took a listen. I only became aware of this Phillippines-based band a few weeks ago, but I was rather surprised at what I heard. Their self-titled album, which released earlier [...]

As promised, here is the first of three installments of the henceforth annual Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love Year-End Round-Up. When I first started this weekly mix business back in January, I had no idea what would come of it, or whether I could even keep it up. In fact, I originally thought I would do it for the year and then end it gracefully; however, after its relative success, I've re-evaluated and figured I will try it once more for 2009. It may become a bit harder once [...]

Welcome back. It's the third installment of the countdown of my top 40 albums of 2008, and by the end of this one, we're over halfways there. Here's a quick reminder of what got to our ears in May and June of this year. May was dominated by releases from Death Cab For Cutie, Spiritualized, No Age, and Alex Turner's latest project, The Last Shadow Puppets; outside of indie-blogland, Amy Winehouse replacement number two, Duffy, made her debut and thus Mercy became the bane of my existence. There were also releases from The Daysleepers, Zombie Zombie, The Very Sexuals, Titus [...]

One of my MySpace friends is part of a band/musical project called Ear of the Rat , and listening to their work prompted me to think about experimental music and ask some important questions of myself that I haven't done in awhile. You see, Ear of the Rat produces highly experimental pieces, some more accessible than others, and provides them all for free download. Are these people the true artists? They aren't doing it for any financial gain whatsoever and they have uploaded their work to Open Source Audio , a site where music is truly shared for [...]

I first fell in love with The Clash, which led to a passion for political, intelligent lyrics, and eventually to bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Gang of Four and McCarthy. Then I fell for Joy Division, which led to an intense admiration for lyrics and music that documented a fraught inner life and the turmoil and starkness of reality in a minimalist monochrome never heard before. The Clash tore down what music was the first time with punk. And Joy Division did it again with post-punk. Now the Glasgow-based band Stroszek, having fused the power of both bands into [...]

Here's the last weekly mix of the year - not including the next three Sundays' weekly mix round-ups of course. It's also the fifth and last collection of cover versions for 2008. It's hard to believe this is number 46 already. Without really thinking, this compilation turned out to lean about 50% into the post-punk/new wave direction (I guess that the odds are that it would with my type of music collection). Several of the artists covered and doing the covering in this mix are post-punk/new wave with exceptions like Dragonette's version of ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man, [...]

Okay, here's the second installment of my Top 40 Albums of 2008. Before we dive into the countdown, I'll jiggle your memory over some of this year's releases in March and April. March came in like a lion with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! , Billy Bragg's Mr. Love and Justice , The Boxing Lesson's Wild Streaks & Windy Days , The Young Knives' Superabundance , Supergrass's Diamond Hoo Ha Man and Hercules & Love Affair's debut self-titled album. March seemed to go out like a lion as well with [...]

There are times when I actually forget how much The Clash means to me. They were the first band to show me that music could be intelligent and political, but that it could also be worth rocking out to, too. I finally managed to buy a copy of Live at Shea Stadium , albeit two months after its release, and it caused all those feelings bound up in The Clash to come flooding back to me, nearly making me cry. I suddenly felt younger and more idealistic again; I felt that I could fight with The Clash resonating in [...]

Luxembourg was an English indie band that lasted from 2001 to early this year, and I wish I had been aware of them before their split. They had the melodrama and vocal warble of Roxy Music paired with witty lyrics worthy of Jarvis Cocker, but after only officially releasing one album and before the second album was completely finished, they disbanded. However, lead singer David Shah went on to create a solo project called The Melting Ice Caps, an equally offbeat, but achingly genuine affair with an operatic, literate flair akin to The Divine Comedy. Thus far, The Melting Ice [...]

I really don't enjoy Christmas and haven't done for about fifteen years. It's pretty much one long capitalistic wank, and considering I only usually buy gifts for my immediate family, I avoid the whole shopping mall extravaganza as much as possible. Sure, there's all that supposed "Christmas spirit" about, making people do and think things they don't for the rest of the entire year. And there's that fantastic family time where you are forced to hang out with relatives who don't really know you at all and don't care to, and who inevitably have nothing to talk about. The only [...]

As promised, here's the first installment of my top albums of 2008. At the very beginning, I wanted to do a top 20; then it became a top 25; soon after, I made it a 35; eventually, it ended up as a top 40. Of course it now means that every Friday til the end of the year will feature a rather odd yet even eight albums. I will admit that I was still listening and arranging today. The inherent disclaimer in all this is that this list is of my top albums, in other words my [...]

I just received my IAMX Live in Warsaw album this morning in the post. Officially released on November 14, this recording of IAMX for the Polish radio station Trojka is an incredible reminder of how truly incendiary they are live. It features nearly an identical set to the ones I witnessed last year with an absence of Nightlife, but the presence of the stunning Mercy (which was played for the encore of some shows on that 2007 tour, but not for the ones I attended) and Missile. Mastered by Chris Corner himself, this live recording is a brilliant [...]

Though Masters of the Universe by Mikrofisch released last year, I only just discovered it. I actually only just discovered Mikrofisch, so that could be part of the problem. Apparently, Mikrofisch began in 2001 when Mawe N. Klave and Silvi Wersi met in Cologne. Though they intended to cover The Smiths, they ended up producing original material, and a year later, they released their debut album Gleichstrom/Wechselstrom . After Wersi moved to London, the duo ended up recording Masters of the Universe over a three-year period, and the product is a magnificent anti-hipster shot in [...]