LOOKING BACK…

Using a combination of my Last.fm data and my own memory, I’m going to try to rattle off a list of some of my absolute favourite bangers from 2009. I’m not going to count down a list of my favorite albums of the year, because anybody who knows me can probably guess that I would just say Enter Shikari’s Common Dreads was the best album of 2009, because it was. Hopefully the rest won’t be as predictable or obvious, but this music was crucially important to the success and positivity I enjoyed in 2009. Some of this is off the dome, because I can’t scrobble to lastfm from my car and that’s where a lot of my jamming took place.

Best music videos of 2009

Wale – Chillin’ (feat. Lady Gaga)

I rocked this song in my car too many times to ignore it in this list.  Rife with sneakers, BAPE hoodies and outstanding wordplay, Chillin’ set the tone perfectly for Attention: Deficit, Wale’s debut LP and one of my most highly-anticipated albums of 2009.

MGMT – Kids

Kids isn’t a new song this year, but the video just came out in the summer and truthfully I didn’t mess with MGMT when their album was first out, so it’s all new to me in 2009! I like the added instrumental bit at the beginning, and the monsters are too scary for me to want to do any interpretation on the theme of the video. What do you think is going on?

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up

This video perfectly captures the tone of the song, and I actually wasn’t even aware of Fever Ray as a solo artist until I stumbled across this video. One thing led to another and her self-titled debut album wound up being one of my favorites of 2009.

Mr. Hudson – Supernova (feat. Kanye West)

My favorite music video of the year, Supernova starts off with a sound that’s completely different from anything on Mr. Hudson’s previous album, and then Kanye comes in and makes it shine (literally). This crazy special effect is pretty indicative of Mr. West’s production on the “Straight No Chaser” album as a whole – they put out an album that is polished-until-shiny, refined and completely addictive.

Live shows

I got to see some pretty grand concerts this year, which is a fairly new thing that I’m very happy about.

My favorite show of 2009: Girl Talk @ Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom, Sept 2009 with Junk Culture and Brother Reade
I managed to find some clips of the show on Youtube to enrich this single line of text. Fun as hell! What more can I say? Somebody threw a battery at his head and he started bleeding at one point, but he soldiered on and it was a delightful evening.

Honorable mentions: Daega Sound System & Max Ulis @ Element, Cat Empire @ Sugar. Also tons of fun, the Daega concert was actually supposed to be headlined by Rusko but he cancelled at the last minute.

My least favorite show of 2009: Misfits @ Victoria’s Element nightclub, Nov 2009 with Haddonfield and others
Haddonfield was actually really good, but the headliners were a bit of a let down. It wasn’t an awful show by any means but it was too loud, and I was disappointed by the trio with Only on vocals, playing Danzig-era songs at 1.5x speed.

LOOKING FORWARD!

I hope you guys had an outstanding year, musically and otherwise. Weekend Bangers moved to a new host and got its own fancy-schmancy domain name this year and it’s starting to almost look like a real website, haha. I could basically talk about music all night long, and I’m still having a ball posting about it online so I promise we’ll be even bigger and better in 2010 … somehow!

Happy holidays, stay safe!

Let’s start with a video from Victoria’s own Immaculate Machine, this is called C’mon Sea Legs, and it’s pretty clearly about dealing with changes in one’s life. They use a lot of nautical metaphors to get their point across, which is fitting for a band from the BEEE-YOOTIFUL coastal city of Victoria.

Melissa Czarnik is a talented lady-rapper from Wisconsin. I know not everybody here likes to mess with hiphop too much, but I urge you to give her some attention. Her tracks are light and lyrical, Thunder Summer Storm is closer in style to the work of Regina Spektor than, say, Ice Cube. Download Melissa Czarnik – Thunder Summer Storm @ Zshare.

I missed the chance to share musics last weekend because I was in Vancouver, sweating with Girl Talk. Raw!

Mr. Hudson – White Lies – video for the new single, album out Oct. 22!
XV – ADD – easy to spell, off the Everybody’s Nobody mixtape
Birdy Nam Nam – Absesses

Seeya next week. Make bedroom eyes, not war.

Download mc chris – Japanese Maid

It’s sooooo embarrassing to like mc chris, but I’ll tell you without an ounce of shame that the last track on the album is a skit where a guy is just saying names for 6 and a half minutes, and it made me laugh like an idiot.

THE JANITORIAL STAFF AND THEIR MOTHERS

Mr. Hudson – White Lies – Straight No Chaser out Oct. 5!

Sharam – She Came Along (Doorly remix) (feat. Kid Cudi) – word to Chanelle Fiddy

Mastodon – Oblivion (Troublemaker remix) – I didn’t think much of Crack the Skye when I heard it, but this is fresh. Word to Hypebeast

Update: By the way, “Feelin’ so good, I think I might run for mayor” is a lyric from the Pac Div song Mayor, which is on their Church League Champions record which you can download for free HERE.

Tonight’s first thing is by N.A.S.A.  It’s called Gifted (Steve Aoki remix feat. Kanye, Santigold & Lykke Li). For some things in life there are no words, so let’s just enjoy the music in eachother’s company.

The Hood Internet also did a raw mix with Dialogue Inc., you can check that magic out here.

And a double-shot of Dizzee Rascal; check out Dance Wiv Me (Shazam remix feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome) (via hypemachine)

and Bonkers (feat. Armand Van Helden) on youchube:

THEN HIT’EM WITH THE YA’MEEN

Mr. Hudson – Supernova (feat. Kanye West)

Santigold – Your Voice

Maino – All the Above (remix feat. Young Jeezy) – This one’s for Ben

Drake – Still Drake – off his “Friends With Money” mixtape, which has some big fire and a few misses.

That’ll do! At ease.