The best local CDs of the year
No shortage of great sounds from both new discoveries and old favourites
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Feb. 9: 54-40: La Difference
For nearly 40 years, Neil Osborne and Brad Merritt, the dual hub of 54-40, have reliably been producing incisive melodic rock. It’s tried all kinds of things in the name of business, but wherever that’s taken the band, 54-40 has always come back to a simple, warm rock. La Difference is kind of proof of its consistency and its growth over those years.
May 3: Bad Beats: His Vengeful Hand
A lot of music starts in the garage and then moves out when it’s ready, but, over the years, garage rock has become a term in itself with loads of implications. Bad Beats are unapologetically garage rock, which manifests itself in dirty but simple guitar hooks, trashy rhythm, snotty sentiment and the wails of the disenfranchised. It’s also fun. Fun tends to be missing from modern music.
May 10: Black Mountain: IV
This is hip despite itself, meaning songs based on science fiction, pagan ritual or religious mysticism should be passe, but Black Mountain makes them cool again. Relegated to the psychedelia of the late ’60s or progressive rock of the early ’70s, nobody is doing this kind of rock these days, which makes IV audacious.
July 19: The Top Boost: Turn Around
To some people, pop-rock is a dirty term, too light to truly be rock, but just heavy enough not to be fluffy and inconsequential. So it doesn’t satisfy. Enter The Top Boost and its EP. It’s clearly, blatantly based in ’60s pop-rock, with strong melodies and lots of reference points — Byrds, Association and The Beatles.
July 26: White Lung: Paradise
Streaming this album and looking at White Lung’s videos reveals a band that’s still exploring its range. It’s tempting to refer to the band’s music as punk, as it’s fast and abrasive, but there is an intelligent awareness at the base of it that enables the band to experiment.
Aug. 30: Petunia And The Vipers: Dead Bird On The Highway
There is irony here. The album was heard via a link sent by Petunia’s publicist, but the music was rooted in something much older. It was a modern situation easily predating it and got new life because of it. Petunia’s songs go back to old-timey country, delta blues, the roots of folk and ragtime jazz. Petunia thrives in a mystical environment dating from the 1930s.
Oct. 11: CR Avery: All The Angels Didn’t Scare Me
Avery knows his music history, which is why the current album isn’t one but several things mashed up. He first was known as a rapper, but throw in blues, country, theatre and the dynamics of the spoken word, and an adept, gripping storyteller emerges.
Nov. 8: Harpdog Brown: Travelin’ With The Blues
The Garage played a lot of blues CDs this year — see below — and most of them were good, but Brown’s was a little better because it was tied to a tradition. Brown is a classicist and therefore his blues are timeless. He isn’t adding anything new, but still finding novel ways of expressing the old. Yep, it’s old-fashioned, but there’s something comforting in that.
Nov. 29: Zombie Roof: Zombie Roof
For a number of reasons reunions can be disappointing, but here’s one that is as good as the Whistler band ever did. Perhaps because Zombie Roof wasn’t successful the first time it doesn’t have to meet expectations. About a dozen years later, the band surprises by sounding like it’s just getting started. This is plain-old rock rife with guitar riffs and bristling
with attitude.
More than most, blues is an established, standardized genre. The better CDs rise above the standard. The Garage received a lot of blues CDs this year and all were above standard, but ultimately had to be judged for other reasons — of personality, believability, skill and versatility, etc.
Take a bow Michael Kaeshammer and Colin James, but hear (Sept. 13) Bill Johnson whose Cold Outside had all those things; (June 7) David Vest whose Devestatin’ Rhythm was less inhibited than previous releases by him; and (June 14) Kenny (Blues Boss) Wayne, whose Jumpin’ And Boppin’ bore a stamp of authenticity. He’s earned his nickname.