No Shame promoter Lauren Schreiber shares her favourite songs of 2009!

Think About Life – Johanna

This song was on repeat the entire 6 hour drive back from Pop Montreal. The addition of Caila to the band was brilliant – that girl has pipes like whoa and gives 100% every time. TAL has gone from my favourite live band to my favourite much music video dance party; I’m regressing, and I love it.

Thunderheist – Jerk It

What can i say? Isis is young, sexy and the song is catchy as shit. It’s like peaches, only I feel really hot listening to it, instead of just dirty.

Green Go – Put Your Specs On Boy

GG are old hat to me – I feel like this album has been out for about twelve years. But the fact that I’ve heard their songs for ages shouldn’t touch the fact that they are great… really really great songs from a really really great album. Get a drink in me and put this on, and I still squeal THEY’RE PLAYING MY SONG! Every time.

Everything All The Time – Lazy Days

Britney and Beyonce move over. Catchy as fuck quality pop has a new face, and it’s EATT. Welcome to the only indie pop band I know who has a real singer. Plus I love each and everyone of them… just delightful people.

Sports The Band – Castlots

Between the harmonies and the basslines and the interband drama, I always forget just how good Sports are. Until I walk into a room where they’re onstage and all I can do is beam.

Dirty Projectors – Remade Horizon

I had to move to the front of the sold out room to understand exactly what the hell was happening. Is it a keyboard? A guitar? No… its vocals. Wait, what?! Motown in a meatgrinder – groundbreaking.

Gentleman Reg – You Can’t Get It Back

Either you like his voice or you don’t, but there’s no denying guy can write a song. It’s like I couldn’t pick between my favourite frontman, and my favourite front woman, so I got both. Reg is sassy like a pop diva, he’s the best of all worlds.

Pick A Piper – Rooms

You’re a summer festival, you’re a boy with slight B.O., you’re a joint rolled in cinnamon rolling paper. I love you, let’s stare at the stars.

Akron/Family – Everyone is Guilty

I drove to Hamilton to see these guys because I’m didn’t grab tickets to their sold out 2 night stand at Sneaky Dees with Born Ruffians. Worth It.

Animal Collective – Brother Sport

Every time Fez from Green Go spins this at a party, I get all ‘This is great! Who IS this?’ And it’s always Animal Collective. I actually bought this album in a store. This is significant.

Patrick Watson – Beijing

When his first album came out, I described my heart school heartthrob as creating music that sounds like Montreal. Cinematic, decadent, urgent and idiosyncratic. And endlessly romantic. Somewhere between the pots and pan percussion and the lush string arrangements is my hometown.

Portico – The Battle of Duck Lake

My favourite songs of the 90s are reborn in this CBC radio 3 hit.

The Darcys – The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead

Sure it’s a cover, but what a cover! This is how you do covers, people, pay attention. Just listen to that guitar solo! This is a cover enough to build an entire tour around… which is exactly what they did. I expect big things from The Darcys in 2010.

Great Bloomers – Speak of Trouble

Full disclosure; I manage these guys. But there’s a reason – they are The Band as arranged by Queen, epic twangy roots rock with charm and soul for miles. The album is a slow burn – I like it more with each listen, and young frontman Lowell Sostomi will be writing songs for the rest of his life. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.

Evening Hymns – Dead Deer

I had to wait a year from the first time I heard these songs until the album was released. They almost didn’t make the 2009 cut off… Jonas! Way to build suspense. As expected, you were worth the wait.

Peter Wolf Crier – Down Down Down

A last minute discovery and one I’m still digesting. But the Minneapolis duo’s superlative Inter-Be may be my favourite album of the year.

Wooden Sky – Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)

For petty personal reasons, I REALLY didn’t want to love this album. But I do, and how. My opinion of Gavin Gardiner remains the same as the first time I heard him open his mouth… it’s a crime he’s not famous worldwide yet – every teenage girl should be mooning around her bedroom to this.

Wilderness of Manitoba – Evening

I wasn’t expecting to find one of my favourite albums in a backyard shed on Delaware street north of Bloor, but I did. And even though the music was coming from people I already knew and loved, I never could have predicted the delicate beauty of this album. Wilderness of Manitoba give me hope.

Timber Timbre – Demon Host

His Halifax pop showcase was legitimately frightening. Taylor’s talent is otherworldly…

NOTES

I would have included the Rural Alberta Advantage, Olenka and The Autumn Lovers, Tune Yards and Parlovr, but though they really saw acclaim this past year, their albums were originally released in 2008. And I would’ve included Bruce Peninsula, but I doan’t think the recording of Mountain is a Mouth , lovely as it is, reflects how magnificent they really are.

Leif Vollebekk

With a simplistic formula such as the “singer-songwriter” card, it’s tough to emerge as a standout in today’s sea of talent (and non-talent), but that is exactly what Montreal’s Leif Vollebekk does. Imagine a less hectic, stripped-down version of Patrick Watson – minimal instrumentation that’s still able to create a grand spectrum of emotions backed with a heartbreakingly beautiful voice to narrate every song. Vollekekk’s debut album, Inland, is a perfect collection of gentle melodies and harmonies that’s quite fitting for the current fall weather, in fact. If anyone should discover Leif Vollebekk, it should be now. Vollebekk takes the classic sounds of acoustic guitar and harmonica and fuses them together with modern violin loops to weave masterful arrangements, each one different from the other.

Last Wednesday night was my first time experiencing Leif Vollebekk’s music live (and just in general as I had never listened to him prior to that) and I instantly fell for him – musically speaking, of course. Okay fine, he’s undeniably handsome too but that’s besides the point! His live performance is even more captivating, especially when he starts to use his violin loops and builds a wall of sound, making us feel like there’s a full band backing him up. Definitely worth checking out if he’s playing a venue near you soon!

Inland was originally released in November ’08 but will be re-released via his new label Nevado Records (home to Bahamas and Yukon Blonde) on January 19th, 2010 on CD and vinyl (something tells me that vinyl would be mind-blowing).

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For more Leif Vollebekk,

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/leifvollebekk

Patrick Watson

Sorry for the late post but here’s what a couple of things I missed out on yesterday and today!

Patrick Watson has announced a new album called Wooden Arms. That is slated to be released on April 28th. Read more about it here!

Whispertown 2000 will open for Maria Taylor at El Mocambo on April 17th. Tickets are on sale now for $10.00.

So it’s settled, Depeche Mode will be playing at the Molson Amphitheatre. They’ll be there on July 24th.

Elvis Perkins will be in town on April 29th for a show at the Horseshoe.

And in big, exciting, no-way-they-actually-reunited news, No Doubt has announced a huge tour, which will thankfully include Toronto on June 16. They’ll be at the Molson Amphitheatre with opening acts Bedouin Soundclash and Paramore.

Passion Pit has finally released details of their debut full-length. Manners will be out in North America on May 26th. Read more here. Here’s the tracklisting:

Manners:
01 Make Light
02 Little Secrets
03 Moth’s Wings
04 The Reeling
05 Eyes as Candles
06 Swimming in the Flood
07 Folds in Your Hands
08 To Kingdom Come
09 Sleepyhead
10 Let Your Love Grow Tall
11 Seaweed Song

The Dirty Projectors have also announced a new album, entitled Bitte Orca. That will be out on June 9th. More info (and a picture of the wicked album cover) here.

And in exciting Singing Lamb news, we are proud to announce that we’re going to cover this year’s Canadian Music Week festivities! We’ve got our press passes and I just mapped out my schedule, so expect to see a very busy lamb running around the city!

Also, we apologize for our lack of shows updates on the shows page. That WILL be fixed soon! For now, please bear with us and check the news updates often as all concert announcements are made here too!

Happy listening!

Musically,
Melody