halloween 2006

Who’s throwing a Halloween party this year? Well, I’m not; but for those of you who are, here is a list of music you should consider rotating:



Scott Walker: The Drift
This is one of my favorite records of the year so far. It is a 60 plus minutes journey of weird, dark, and vastly experimental music. You can read my review on The Drift here.

Cossacks Are [wicked-cool song]
Jesse [wicked-cool song]
Hand Me Ups [wicked-cool song]
The Escape [wicked-cool song]


My Chemical Romance: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
Vampires, murders, suicide, ghosts... a Halloween essential and MRC’s finest.

Vampires Will Never Hurt You [wicked-cool song]
Headfirst For Halos [super-wicked-cool song]


Alkaline Trio: Good Morning
All Alkaline Trio records are prefect for Halloween, but Good Morning deserves a mention solely for the violently opening track, "This Could Be Love".

This Could Be Love [wicked-cool song]
One Hundred Stories
Blue In The Face


Suicide: Suicide
I think I have mentioned this record, in particular the song Frankie Teardrop enough times on this blog… in case you are a new reader, go here to read about "Frankie Teardrop"... the absolute scariest song of all time!

Ghost Rider
Cherree
Frankie Teardrop [super-wicked-cool song]


Hilary Duff
Basically anything by Hilary Duff, she scares the crap out of me!


Boys Night Out: Trainwreck
This concept album disturbs the line between nightmare and reality, kind of like Lacan’s concept of real and reality... it involves killings, doctors, drugs, mental hospital... it’s like a scary/thriller movie, but only in music form.

Dreaming
Medicating
Relapsing


Franz Schubert: "Erlking"
Here’s a fascinating early Romantic opera by Schubert. The text depicts the quest of an evil Elves King and his hunger for a young boy’s soul.

Erlking [super-wicked-cool song]


Sunn 0))): Black One
Black One is loud, noisy, abstract, extremely creepy and haunting, prefect music for late night drives out to the middle of nowhere.

It Took The Night To Believe
Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons)

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CMW... Day No. 1

Today is the first day of Canadian Music Week. (the festival runs from March 1-4) To celebrate CMW, I will devote a huge portion of this blog to Canadian artists and Canadian music from now on until the end of the festival. I will be posting one or two (or ever three) featured Canadian artists each day. Well, it all depends on what I can dig up from my iTunes and CBC Podcasts as my knowledge of Canadian music is not that great. So, with that being said, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and your recommendations of Canadian artists/bands in the comments section as it will be a great way to share and promote homegrown music! So, let me start off the first day with my favorite Canadian act right now...

Final Fantasy
I don’t even know where to begin with this band. I guess I’ll start by saying that Final Fantasy is not really a band, but it is a solo project by Owen Pallett. FF’s debut album, Has a Good Home was #4 on my 2005 top 20 list... if that means anything at all. Has a Good Home and the style of Final Fantasy is indie pop/rock influenced music and vocal style that features predominant violin instrumentation. (I think that is the best description I can come up with) Since I can only say so little about the musical style, I will tell you about my FF concert experience. I saw Owen perform twice so far, and I was blown away both times. In addition, the two concerts were completely different from each other. The first time I saw him, he brought along with him a string quartet. As a result, adding an orchestra feel to the songs. But really, he didn’t need any backups or extra members/players to accompany him because the second time I saw Owen, he performed solo for most of show. (with the exception of Lex Vaughn on drums for a couple of songs... oh Lex, she was so good!) The layers of violin music and the technicalities at this concert were just astonishing; I was staring in awe at Owen the entire time. He uses this foot pedal thing that loops his previously played musical phrases/melodies while he plays on top of that. (again, very hard to explain!) Final Fantasy’s second album He Poos Clouds is set for an early May release date.

Sounds like: nothing out there!

This is the Dream of Win & Regine
The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
Peach, Plum, Pear (Joanna Newsom cover)
Illusion Song (live)
buy Has a Good Home here


Boys Night Out
Like many hardcore bands from Washington, D.C. during the early 80s had done, Boys Night Out made the transition from being a hardcore band to an ‘emo’-ish band. Their album Trainwreck is one of the coolest and most interesting concept albums I’ve ever heard! I won’t go into details here because I don’t want to spoil the story for you. But basically, the album deals with the themes of love and murder, dreams and reality, freedom and restriction… very cool!

Sounds like: Blood Brothers, Cave In, Finch, Scary Kids Scaring Kids

Medicating
Composing
buy Trainwreck here