Best of 2007

No description on this one. But Seeing how this is the first post in like two months it's better than nothing.



1. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
4. Against Me! - New Wave
5. The National - Boxer
6. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
7. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
8. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
9. Tegan and Sara - The Con
10. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Album of the Month - October

SotD: The National - Mistaken for Strangers

I was supposed to see these guys two weeks ago.
I watched Chuck, downed a bunch of pills, and got arrested instead.

Song of the Day - "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"

Gotta love this song from Okkervil River

Song of the Day... err something close to it

So here's a new regular feature. At some amount close to daily I'll be posting a song I find to be worth posting. It might be a video, it be just an mp3, but it'll always be rocking.

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

So here' the latest single off of LCDSS's latest CD, Sound of Silver (a definite top album of the year). You might want to check out Franz Ferdinand's cover of it, which can also be found on youTube.

Minus the Bear Concert Review Finale

So on with the show!!!

We walk in and Ela is playing but I didn't really clue into what they were playing until a couple songs later. They were you're typical indie rock band with tinges of Dashboard Confessional emo. They seemed a little rocky on stage but aside from all those issue they were surprisingly good. I'm just going to go ahead and credit the sonic qualities of the Opera House; in any other venue they would have disappointed. So they left the stage and I continued drinking my gin and tonics.

Shortly thereafter, someone came on stage and placed a bust of a man on stage. To someone less versed in the way of Subtle might have run, but I had seen them before so such a sight got me ready for all the fun. Finally, Subtle comes on and their own brand of jazz-electronica-fusion-hiphop blew me away again. Take an electronic drum pad, a guitarist/live drummer, a cello player,a clarinet, a flute, an array of synths, and an eccentric lead vocalist/rapper throwing words out at 1000mph and you have Subtle. Its hard to describe here so be sure to check em out and if you happen upon the chance, see them live.

With Subtle, who really impressed the crowd, leaving the stage all that was left was a half hour wait till Minus the Bear took the stage. Their barrage of sounds really won me over. Before the concert I was impartial to them, they could go either way in my books. But they put on such a great yet humble show that they now rank among my Top 20 bands. Their set consisted of nice balance between classic fan favorites and tracks of their new album Plant of Ice.

The night concluded with us back at the Blue Moon, me giving 9 bucks to a homeless guy, a really gross hot dog with mayo being thrown in the water at Nathan Phillips square and spending the entire night at some cracked out coffee time till 5 in the morning. Life is good.

Concert Review - Minus the Bear w/ Subtle and Ela

Who: Minus the Bear
Opening Act(s): Subtle and Ela
Where: Opera House, Toronto
When: Monday

Prelude:
Showed up a litte early to the show and there was already quite the line forming. Not ones to recede into monotonous lines my group and I find a nice bar just down from the venue called The Blue Moon where we all enjoys double whiskeys on the rocks and a pitcher of Keith's. Once we're done that we head back to the venue where I sell an extra ticket I had, at cost of course. We get inside and looking through the tickets I realize I ended up selling the Ticketmaster receipt to the tickets, so buddy was out 20 dollars and a ticket. Didn't mean to and I still feel really badly about it, but meh.

The rest to continue tomorrow...

(Also, don't be too dismayed by the lack of quality in this writting. I'm just in a very laconic mood and I don't fee like using literary eloquence right now. Maybe tomorrow.)

Top 5 Albums July - September 2007

1. Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew - Spirt If...
Broken Social Scene co-founder Kevin Drew brings us his "solo" album that plays and reads like a BSS album. More solid than BSS's 2005 self-titled album, Sprit carries the sonic energy from "It's All Going To Break," the last and best track on the aforementioned album, through over an hour of music filled with many notable guets. A definite contender for album of the year.

2. Tegan and Sara - The Con
The wonder twins return with producer Chris Walla of Death Cab with their most mature offering. The songs have the emotional rawness of their earliest albums but a new found sense of restraint and subtle production that has been lack from their last couple of albums.

3. Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
So, honestly, I don't know much about this New York City band. But this album is great!

4. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
This fourth full-length album from these Austin, Texas rockers delivers the rawest emotionality to be seen seem from Okkervil River.

5. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
This album was the definition of "long-awaited." Thankfully the boys do not disappoint.

Here are Nymphophonics' Top 5 albums released from April - June 2007:

1. Boxer by The National
As The Onion A.V. Club put it: bleak, black diamonds—precious, glimmering, and lasting

3. Icky Thump by White Stripes
Jack White has perhaps conjured up the best protest song in the past 10 years - in part to the fact that it sounds nothing like one - and the rest of the album lives up to that standard

3. Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad
Think Snow Patrol but less... Grey's Anatomy montage... and more indie bitterness

4. Nux Vomica by The Veils
Take Nick Cave throw in some Jack White and sprinkle a little Arcade Fire on top and you have this delicious offering

5. New Moon by Elliott Smith
Posthumous offerings never tasted so good and, as rare as it is, never so right