BestFirsts #1

So today is special. It marks the day that i finally begin my editorials, BestFirsts. Here's what it is: an album review, basically. But it's all about an artist's first album that trumps all the rest of the albums.

But with each editorial, i won't do just that. i'll also include an album review that's either not the first but an artist's best, or the first while the artist still doesn't have any left (but if they didn't make any more, i would be satisfied, although sad).

i know many bands produce their bests first, and this is often debated via the "sophomore slump", but i decided to take my own spin on it. Why are they better than their later albums? Are you often dissapointed with their second albums, thinking "whyyyy?" Well, i do.

Today's edition: This Day & Age and Plants & Animals. Two bands that win in the conjunction category.

BestFirsts #1:

The Best First: This Day & Age -- Always Leave The Ground

A band from Buffalo, New York who sadly don't exist anymore. This album was released in 2004 on One Eleven Records. i enjoyed this record for much longer than it seems until their second release, The Bell and The Hammer, in 2006, right before their unfortunate demise. i lost track of how many times i went to see this band play tracks off of ALTG, and every time i sang almost every word. (i'm not perfect). Anyways, this album contains tracks such as the fast and slow beats and ticks of "Hourglass," ('we used to be afraid / but we found our way'). There's the ballad of basementy-yet sophisticated keyboard laiden "Second Place Victory," (i heard you say it's enlightening to think of the breeze / to believe in things that we cannot see / so here we go / let's show them how to live, accept the pain, always forgive / watch the sun go down, learn the sound of following all that's complete). The happy but tinge of regretful "Slideshow," (in the movies / on the big screen / i'd make you mine / if this were high school or just homecoming / we'd dance all night). One of my favourites was "Seven-Eighty," because it got me going with it's quiet hand claps, cute lyrics, and great combination of the band's use of beats and heart-felt twinges. (if i was talking to you and not writing this / maybe i could show you something you haven't seen / my lips would fight my mind / i'd say things at the right time).

This album showcases Buffalo's short era of pop-almost-punk but love for happy beats while still calling themselves "maybe emo". It not only highlights the better of my high school days (while the lyrics are closer to my not so nice days) which made me love it that much more, it was something i could relate to for two very interesting parts of my life that were happening at almost the same time and it was music coming straight from my hometown. The reason why i like this album better than their second and last (by the way, the members minus singer Jeff Martin can be found in the band Reign of Kindo) The Bell and the Hammer is because every song on ALTG is memorable to the people who grew up with the band and myself, while TBATH has a few amazing tracks ("Always Straight Ahead," which i listened to every day for a long time and have recently just gotten back into, and "Second Star To The Right..." because of it's catchy piano paired with Martin's voice) but it falls short, and i'm even having a hard time recalling it right now.

This Day & Age is a band i miss with a huge pang in my being. But i am so grateful that i at least knew about them, saw them a crazy amount, and can hold onto albums like Always Leave The Ground.

The One and Only: Plants & Animals -- Parc Avenue

Whereas for my Best First i chose a band that wasn't very well kn0wn outside of their hometown community, for this edition's One and Only i've chosen a band that are succeeding in the pace of word-of-mouth in canadian press and others (blogs, ahem) and are hopefully destined for a long and pleasant journey. (Disclaimer: P&A have had EPs, but i'm counting this because it's their first full-length).

This album will most definitely be on my best of 2008 list, no lie. The goodness that drips from "Good Friend" for the pure sadness of (i wanna dance / i wanna dance / i wanna dance), to "Faerie Dance" because of its hypnotizing guitar sways and dream-like area that seems to encompass me wherever i go whilst listening to this track, to "New Kind of Love" and the beautiful lyrics (there's a river so we go where it goes / and get covered in dirt and rainbows / we're giving it up again / we're giving it up again/ we're givingggggg it up again), the bells, the breaths, and the euphoric yet slightly messy ending that seems to summarize its title, to the racing beats behind the sleepy vocals (and literal calls) of "Mercy".

i don't want to reveal too much about this album now though as i was able to get a ticket to their show at the Horseshoe Tavern on Thursday and you will for sure be hearing all about what i thought of it.

This blog is open up to discussion about both of these albums and i will gladly listen to every point of view! i also encourage comments to let me know what you think, to see how my first edition of BestFirsts went.

anew!

hooray for changed layout (or at least tweaked). check it out!


as for editorials, tomorrow I will be starting the first of the BestFirsts line. Make sure to come and visit again Monday night!

sincere apologies

i've decided that since i'm lame at blogging, i'm not going to even bother updating on much that's happened since my last post. i'll just hand you some links.

Final Fantasy show review here.

Boats! interview here.

An article about some guys in TIFF here.

And here's a video from a while ago (June) during North by Northeast (i actually wrote about it here) that i can be seen in a few times.

Oh, wait, here's a Q and A i did with Cute is What We Aim For a couple months ago that was just put up on (the new) ChartAttack.

ANYWAYS,
Life's been good. Tiring of course, this is me, but very good. It's the first time in my life that i actually have 99% of what i want all at the same time.

i am so grateful to have amazing friends who are there for me whenever i need and don't hesitate to put a smile on my face; a boyfriend who can't be any more perfect and has brought me so many things i've never had before and more; a great job at the campus newspaper as an Arts and Life editor that feels rewarding at the end of the day whether it's an article of mine or just creating a section my entire school can read and hopefully enjoy; and classes that might actually make me learn some things with teachers i actually appreciate. Not to mention just enjoying my time here for my first semester of my third year of university.

All of these things are what keeps me from updating this more often than i promise. But that's alright, I'm out enjoying life and even though sometimes it wears me to my bones, i don't regret anything.

However, when it comes down to the blog i must say this: i doubt anyone's really reading, but i still want to continue with it. Please let me know what you think. i still will create a new layout, do editorials (in the works!), and review concerts, etc etc. That's all still coming up, and more.

Such as this weekend i'm going to see Plants and Animals (hopefully!), The Swell Season, and Sigur Ros! Lots to tell you about!

P.S. i realize my grammar sucks in this entry, but fuck i'm tired.

P.P.S. Ryan took me to a TIFF movie this week, and it was awesome. If you ever get a chance to see "Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary", please do. You'll love me for suggesting this. It's the cutest movie ever.

lagging tales: New York, Teletoon and Radiohead

Time has come again to just make me realize on how far behind on this blog i am, AGAIN. Well, as i'm sitting on my couch almost-bored but moreso exhausted from doing nothing and everything at the same time, i decided now's as good a time as ever to fill you in on what i've been up to the last couple weeks.

New York

I headed back to Buffalo for a few days before my dad and i ventured together across the state to Huntington, Long Island. it's something we've never done before, and it was pretty great. my dad and i have bonded the last few years because of music, and the entire nine hours there was spent listening to tunes off of my iPod and discussing the bands that came with it. (On the way back less than a week later, we listened to his iPod and played the game of 'mine' and 'name that band' for almost every song the last four or five hours as half of the music on his player is from me, but i'm terrible at naming bands as i hear them right away).

Anyways, the trip in itself was great. i spent time with my family, visited a friend i haven't seen in two years, and above all, made two day trips to New York City. Now everyone describes the city as magical, and it is. Within twenty minutes of my first trip, I walked past Michael Ian Black in a subway station. Now of course I gaggled and turned into an utter fan girl afterwards, but celebrities you walk by in New York seem even a little bit more magical than they do in Toronto, and that's a hard feat as i've had plenty a chock-full-of-chance times here. Anyways, NYC firstly boggles my mind as i don't think i could ever not get lost there, but there's nowhere to unstick your eyes from. I've yet to take in a concert in that city, but it's always been a dream of mine. How will it feel different than Toronto, even Buffalo? I remember when i moved to Toronto, wondering how the concerts would feel after being so acquainted to the ones in Buffalo, and they are in fact very different in terms of crowds, how they act, and venues. What's the magic like in New York music?

Teletoon and Spiral Beach. The connection?

Visual creativity, and lots of it. Spiral Beach has become one of my favourite bands within the last season, and you can see that from previous blog posts. These kids never cease to amaze me, and last week I got to partake in a little of the fun with them. Teletoon has a new stop-animation show coming out September 1 called Life's a Zoo about seven animals that are picked to play in this reality show to win a mansion in a wheatfield in Saskatchewan. It may not sound thrilling to you, but where it comes at you is the catty amount of swearing, dirty jokes, and unexpected ones too. Where Spiral Beach comes in is the first episode. Each episode has a music video from a Canadian indie band, and SB were lucky to be the first. The show will later on showcase bands like Joel Plaskett, Attack in Black, and Plants and Animals. I wish i had Teletoon. Anyways, I got to go to visit the studios that is working on the show. It was the nicest studio i've ever been to! (er, none, but still, so nice!) they were warm in their greetings, made me the best coffee i've ever had, sat me down on a couch in the swanky lounge next to a television playing the channel, and soon after i was interviewing Maddy and Daniel of Spiral Beach with a girl from Dose.com. Maddy and Daniel were fun, classy in their own way, and interesting, and the Dose girl was nice. After our half an hour, the four of us went on a tour of the studios with two Australian creators. We saw everything from how they fix the broken puppets and all the different pieces to each different scene an animator works on. Each person is only expected ten seconds of stop-animation today! Their jobs seem so amazing yet demand very hard and skilled work that only the most dedicated can do well. That day was one that made me rethink of the magic of Toronto.

You can read my news story about this here, and watch a preview of the show here.

Radiohead

How can i NOT say this was epic? It was and in more than just the band, but the proportions of people and rain. this was a concert my dad and brother were both looking forward to so much so, more than i was, and i was pretty damn excited, but it was so surreal right up until the end. radiohead is this huge band in my head, and of course in reality, but to see them felt like i had an exclusive ticket to walk by a roman god or something. the masses of people, however, disproved this, and made me wary on the ridiculousness of exiting the molson ampitheatre. they put on this amazing light show that i couldn't take my eyes off of; a crazy amount of tubes hanging from the ceiling all the way until the floor radiating colours between red, pink, green, and blue. behind and to the side were screens that have shown the most beautiful shots of a concert i've seen. each screen focused on a different musician; up close, personal, from angles you wish you've seen of thom yorke's head before. the cooing, the drawls, the electronic noises that throw shivers up and down your spine repeatedly. it was a beautiful experience even if i was being bitter because of how drenched i was since getting lost in the Ex and waiting in line. it was an experience of concerts to help finish off my 2008 summer.

(this is five minutes of the same thing, the encore Everything In Its Right Place, but i didn't have the greatest view, so relish the sounds my friends.)

Coming up: Tomorrow I interview Boats! and next week I'll be covering Final Fantasy's show at the Danforth Music Hall.

Also to look forward to: I'll be starting some editorials soon and making a new layout! Funfunfun.

a light goes out before your eyes

returning to my hometown of Buffalo, New York is never exactly an exciting time for me. nothing has lasted long enough to keep me there once i discovered Toronto, and each time i spend my days comparing the two polar opposites. after this two-and-a-half day adventure, my biggest observation was how suburban drivers are far worse than any urban pedestrian i've seen. driving is one of the things i look forward to the most upon my returns, but it was completely dampered last week as countless drivers pulled out in front of me on the busiest streets of my suburb. another observation: the ridiculous amount of blonde-haired, hummer-driving, whiny voiced, Hills mentality that exists in Western New York. what the hell? this is almost the top reason why I don't like it there anymore. yes, this species definitely exists in toronto, but they're much easier to avoid.

Anyways...

my main reason for this short return was to see Sam Roberts Band play at the beautiful ArtPark in Lewiston (pretty much a town named for me.) It wasn't as fun as the first time I saw them (also happened to be another free show in buffalo last summer, but at thursday in the square) but it was still mind-blowing. that's a standard for you! the concert was on the gorge, just above the river that connects america to canada. it happened to be so close my phone went back to Rogers, so of course that was a plus. Brooklyn band Hymns opened, who looked just like Kings of Leon. they were pretty good, but their set got tired after a while. by the time SRB came on stage, the entire gorge was full (probably mostly Canadians) but it filled me with pride. They played a great balance between their three records (however the latest still isn't out in the States) but missed a few of my favourites. i think i'll forgive them. For their shows, it's mostly Roberts and guitarist Nugent that are the show, as the other members are more stationary but find pocketed times to burst. all in all, the performance lasted around three hours with two encores.

the next day, i read a review in the Buffalo News, and one thing that caught my eye was about how SRB have yet to blow up in the states. i don't think they will, at least the way they have in Canada. yes they're getting bigger as they go, and that performance gathered a heck of a crowd, but we're close to the border. Do you think they'll ever get huge in the states, or is their sound an acquired Canadian-esque?

Here's a video of "Brother Down."

More videos can be viewed here.