The Friday Five

Hold Your Head High – The Heartless Bastards, The Mountain

Yeah, I’ve been waiting for this band to pop up!  Let’s get this straight…I love the Heartless Bastards.  They’re one of my favorite discoveries and I don’t mind taking a little credit for spreading the word amongst anybody that’ll listen me.  I read about them on some website under an “Up and Comers” type article and decided to seek them out based on what I read about them.  Hit the nail on the head with these guys!  Lead singer Erika sings hard and emotionally.  She is definitely the centerpiece in an otherwise tight band.  They came through Edmonton last year and played the Starlite as opener for Gaslight Anthem.  I didn’t give a crap about Gaslight, but was giddy as a kid to see the Bastards!  We chatted for a while with the bass player, Jesse, outside after the show over a couple of smokes.  He told us the strange story of earwigs in his hometown that Julie and I continue to reference as an inside joke.  Earwigs!

Party In A Forest – The Wombats, A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation

In February of this year, Julie and I went to the Dominican Republic with a couple of friends of ours, Rob and Victoria.  On the plane ride back, sitting side by side but for the aisle separating us, Rob leans over and hands me one of the ear buds that’re plugged into his shiny new iPod.  The song was “Let’s Dance To Joy Division”, which is good tune.  I was sure I had heard it somewhere before.  Anyway, based on that, I bought the album when I got home.  Meh.  I’d say on the whole it’s average.  It's funny...you know that weird phenomenon where Brits, etc. lose their accents when they sing?  Yeah, these guys don't.  

Boyfriend – Best Coast, Crazy For You

This was actually one of the more hyped albums I read about this past summer.  After making a post on my Facebook status asking my friends if anyone was listening to it, the return messages were favorable, so that sealed it’s addition to my CD stand.  And yes, believe the hype.  It’s a great summer album that has been characterized as surf-pop.  I don’t know if I’d agree with that term, as it kind of conjures the Beach Boys for me, and this is pretty far from that.  It does however have kind of a dreamy, etheral vibe to it...not totally unlike the feeling you get from laying in a boat and letting the waves just take you along.  Okay, I get it.  Lead singer Bethany Cosentino, formerly of Pocahaunted, sounds an awful like Neko Case, who I like a lot.  It’s one of those albums that gets better with every listen.  Having said that, it’s in my car CD player right now.

Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie, Changesbowie

This isn’t just a song…this is an era defined!  This song, indeed the entire record, was a concept album from the early 70’s that also spawned a live concert movie.  Bowie created a whole persona around this character, Ziggy with his Spiders from Mars, and took it to the road in what I can only imagine would have been one of the most memorable tours of the time.  I haven’t seen the movie yet, myself…but always intend to.  I’ve seen him play live twice myself…once was at Commonwealth Stadium for the Glass Spider tour, which lives on as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.  Neato fact from that show, Peter Frampton was the guitar player in his band for that tour.

Crystalised – The xx, XX     

The xx kind of came on the scene last year.  A lot of people have been digging them as another up and comer.  A number of sources ranked them well on “best of the year” lists.  They grabbed my attention as one of the band member is an alumni of Four Tet, who I’m a fan of.  For me, this was another average album.  They played at 2009’s Sasquatch Festival and everyone I know that saw them gave rave reviews, so I have to guess that their live presence is a strong one.  Maybe that’s one descriptive word I find missing from how I view their album; strong.