Omgigosh, 2011 is almost done. This is the music that got me through.  Here’s our best album / ep picks!!!

25. Radiohead – King Of Limbs

Radiohead surprised fans with a new album in February announcing it five days before it’s release with out any press following it because they don’t need to.

Radiohead – Morning Mr Magpie

24.Lil B “Based God” – I’m Gay

The living meme, rapper Lil B has one of the biggest outputs in the rap game releasing two albums and more mixtapes than I can keep track of, including one with 676 tracks over the last year. That’s not even counting all of the twitter feeds he fills @lilbthebasedgod. Despite not being a house hold name yet he is one of the most prolific and fascinating artists of our time with his personality outshining his often rough but hidden gem ridden music.

Lil B – Neva Stop Me

23. Tony Castles – No Service (ep)

Brooklyn’s next Yeasayer?

Tony Castles – Black Girls in Dresses

22.  Metronomy – The English Riviera

Metronomy’s third disco tinged album will transport you to the English Riviera with a cocktail in hand.  Still bummed I missed their recent trip through town.

Metronomy – The Look

21. Wild Beasts – Smother

I didn’t miss this show and it was spectacular.  There were fellow Wild Beast fan boys/men singing their falsetto songs before the group went on; it was beautiful. It was one of my favourite shows of the year.  Definitely not for those who don’t like melancholic music or people who get uncomfortable by men singing in falsetto.

Wild Beasts – Lions Share

20. Sean Nicholas Savage – “Flamingo”

Montreal’s DIY pop label Arbutus Records, home of Grimes and Braids’ latest release was up as free download.  Sean Nicholas Savage brings you to a smokey Las Vegas lounge to great effect.  In “Days Go By”, below it’s almost as if he’s channeling late 70′s Lennon.

Sean Nicholas Savage – Days Go By

19. Cults – Self Titled

Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin of Cults have put together one of the best pop albums of the year with their debut borrowing heavily from Spector-esque 50s and 60s pop to pleasant effect.

Cults – Most Wanted

18. Hercules & Love Affair – Blue Songs

A retro disco album with hints of early house thrown in to help you dance away the pain.

Hercules & Love Affair – Falling

17. Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

Vice Records rocker darlings. At-lana’s Black Lips teamed up with producer Mark Ronson on this album. He proves his talents really filling out the Black Lips garage rock sound into a riotous party.

Black Lips – Family Tree

16. Born Gold – Bodysongs

Formerly known as Gobble Gobble which they deemed to silly of a name to continue on as, Born Gold have been tearing up every place they touch from basement to festival main stages around NA. Touring their butts off they have been building a very solid young fan base.

Their name change makes sense perhaps isolating them from older / new fans? They shouldn’t be put off, Born Gold are the modern dance party.  It’s almost like it’s the electronic version of the Pixies as reinterpreted by the children of the late 80′s.

They happen to play Fortune with Grimes for the soon to be sold out show February 18th. Advertise with Winnie.

Born Gold – Eat Sun Son

15. Lost Lovers Brigade – Little Skeletons

A late Vancouver entry with a November release.  A compilation of singer / songwriter Elisha Rembold’s songs written over the last ten years finally being released.  Little Skeletons is a beautifully haunting play from start to finish.  It will take you away to a windy cabin the woods.  At times surf rock-ish with two of the Apollo Ghost gents in the band backing Elisha’s country / Wanda Jackson-esque vocals.

Lost Lovers Brigade – All the Stars

14. Oh No! Yoko – Pau Pau (ep)

Wtf is a Pau Pau? Our favorite high school grads will take you back to that time in between childhood and adolescents when the world seemed like it could be yours and maybe it will be.  They need to get to work on their follow up asap.

Oh No! Yoko – Go Alien

13. ASAP Rocky – LiveLoveA$AP (Mixtape)

Speaking of which, Odd Future may of created the most hype by a long shot for a new hip hop act but as far as listen ability goes ASAP takes it.

ASAP Rocky – Get Lit (feat. Fat Tony) (prod. Soufein3000)

12. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine + Freaking Out (ep)

Toro Y bro ditches the chill wave moniker for a full band disco sound.  He still satisfies his old fans with the more electronic 80′s influenced Freaking Out EP which is just as boss as the full length. He reinvented himself opening up his sound.

Toro Y Moi – Go with You

Toro Y Moi – All Alone From the Freak Out Ep.

11. Tiger & Woods – Through The Green

An obvious play/extended joke on the sexiest man in the golf game perhaps? It has been a big year for the return of house music, not “electro” or “club” but warehouse.  Tiger & Woods sound how I would love the next Daft Punk album to be.  A crisp loopy filter house sound with an 80′s electro-funk feel created by two Germans.

Tiger & Woods – Gin Nation

10. Holy Ghost! – Self Titled

I feel like there is so much good music made these days and so much less money in the industry to properly push the top acts that an album like this can slip by and not be even bigger than it is.  Holy Ghost’s debut is quite accessible. Their live show was one of my favorites of the year. If you are looking for someone to fill in for LCD Soundsystem this is your band.  They managed to sell out Fortune Sound Club but they deserve to be filling at least something twice that size especially with the amount of analog gear they haul around.

Holy Ghost! – Some Children

9. Elite Gymnastics – Ruin (ep)

Minneapolis’ Elite Gymnastics reinvent dance music sounds of the past yet their music sounds fresh, new and unlike anything else.

Elite Gymnastics – m i n n e a p o l i s   b e l o n g s   t o   y o u

8. Tennis – Cape Dory

Tapping into the pop sounds of the 50′s and 60′s Cape Dory is a pleasant melody driven “jingly jangly” pop album.  I love every song on it but perhaps it’s not for everyone? Best bro / @Beatroutebc’s @glennalderson can’t stand them.  Different strokes.

Tennis – Pigeon

7. Austra – Feel It Break

Pronounced “Oh-stra” not “Ahhstra” as I had at least been saying.  I still can’t believe we hosted this act in a tiny basement show. I was trying to tell people they would be the next Fever Ray thanks to a hot tip from fellow Toronto act Diamond Rings.

Austra – The Future

6. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne

This album has a raw feeling to it as if two top of their game rappers are at play rather than at work. Does that make any sense? Either way it’s a classic that people will listen to and rap heads will discuss many years from now.

Jay-Z & Kanye West – Ni**as in Paris

5. No Gold – Self Titled

Local Vancouver chill bro act, No Gold are a pitchfork nod away from big things.  You can hear the wealth of diverse influences from world music to house and disco and a willingness to experiment in their bizzaro pop gem of an album.

No Gold – Council Jam

4. Gil Scott-Heron And Jamie XX – We’re New Here

A very odd remix album from one of the best new producers, Jamie XX (Of The XX) of the legendary Gil Scott-Heron’s 2010 album, I’m New Here, his first in 16 years.  Gil is best known for his spoken word work and is arguably one of the biggest pioneers of rap. The forward thinking album really grew on me as the year went on and I think became even more important with the passing of Gil right after the albums release and bringing to light his amazing although troubled life and body of work.

Gil Scott-Heron And Jamie XX – Ur Soul And Mine

3. The Weeknd – House of Balloons

Releasing an entire trilogy of work, it was a big year for an act that started the year out as a mysterious unknown act posting videos on youtube. They are now one of the biggest acts I still havn’t heard on the radio. Perhaps still under the mainstreams radar releasing all of their material through their website for free? Or maybe it’s all of the singing about sex, drugs and after parties?

The Weeknd – The Morning

2. James Blake – Self Titled

James Blake brought the underground UK electronic sound to the masses with his ethereal voice.  One of the big breakout acts of the year.

James Blake – Unluck

1. Drake – Take Care

Y U SO SAD YOUNG DRIZZY? YR number 1 bb.

For years the highest selling Canadian hip hop act has been late 80′s / early 90′s Maestro (Fresh Wes). Big ups Maestro but twenty years is a long ass time to be the highest selling Canadian rapper. Drake has finally changed that.  I can’t find anything else to say about Drake that doesn’t make me sound like i’m riding his shit so i’m going to leave it at that.

Drake – HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin Right)

posted by @tristanorchard

Sean, wtf. Come back to Vancouver and do a show with us again pls. People are asking.

This is from his new album, Triple Midnight Karma.

Sean Nicholas Savage – Getting To Know Myself

This past weekend was like one of those dreams in which you wake up and you’re still inside but it’s different etc etc, it’s wonderful and horrible and surreal and there are always stairs with no walls and no infrastructure and broken elevators and smells from when you were 2. much of this had to do with still being in another time zone spiritually and also physically, some drugs, and being very busy to the point of upsetting others with blatant flakiness and write-off attitude (mine, i mean, not theirs). and my version of the story is trivial as compared to the people who put on the “real” shows, the logistics experts, social handlers and also somehow finding time to come and get lifted with plebs, who are mostly plebs in some capacity themselves, the Pop Montreal staff.

these people give away a piece of their body each year to this shit, selflessly. i myself had done it several years in a row before i realized it conflicted with my plan A;  12-16 hour days of delivering really heavy shit/screaming/being screamed at/bartering/peeing in alleys/borrowing traffic signs/trying to please everybody/saving someone’s day with a fucking capo/and so on, for enough money to buy the amount of food you need to stay functional. the kind of things that would stall you in your tracks if you envisioned explaining to someone that at 25, this is why you were raised. finding stools for burt bacharach’s band that are ‘classy’ but ‘not antique’, djing from 1-6am five successive nights on a ‘borrowed’ sound system for 400 out-of-towners seeking the ‘montreal feeling’ via shitty, fatty, sugar foods and complex chemical drugs, sleeping for an hour and a half before ‘reporting in’ at the Pop office only to be told that all the times you thought you were getting away with looking the way you do have been obliterated by this one instance of you looking like you just got off a plane that came from where your friends force at you crushed up orange and white things and little tiny pieces of blotter (“its cool it’s super weak bro dont get mad…”) and then play remixes of popcorn/yingyang and genesis at halfspeed before someone throws an (actual) flaming pumpkin into the dancefloor and punches a volunteer lady-bouncer (hi didi) in the jaw.

HIGHLITES OF THIS YEAR are almost n/a because i almost saw nothing. Postcards and Tonetta got jammed by the cops halfway into the headliner’s 2nd song. I made selections on the thursday night with Cadence Weapon (roughshape) at the Eastern Bloc and we confirmed that 25 years later, nabisco still sucks. GRIMES pushed herself further up the echelons of distinction at the Arbutus Showcase, which was ‘classy’ but not ‘antique’, unless you count the fucking waterfall coming down at the back of the stage which sent the techs scrambling to put all the high-voltage lighting on chairs and other innovative life-saving non-show-stopping solutions. One of them told me “the roof is leaking”. I was accused of being unprofessional and banned from the soundboard.

Here is a new single from Sean Nicholas Savage’s new record, which has got some of the tightest musicans in the neighbourhood (think nyc 1978 fusion), two of the most sincere producers (dv carrier of silly kissers/s cowan), and a team of generally weird youngsters who are all committed to doing things from time to time. It’ll be out November – his homecoming show (dudes been awol for months, rumoured to be in europe somewhere, not alone) is at Club Lambi w/Silly Kissers & D’eon on Nov. 5th. So start saving your tips, my bro.

karn

Sean Nicholas Savage – Misery Mountain

Tonetta – 777 – My Bro

Tonight! Sean Nicholas Savage is playyying our night with pal Jasper Baydala and superpals, MakeoutVideotape.  I’m excited.

Some music for you.

Sean Nicholas Savage – She’s the Sun
Sean Nicholas Savage – I’ve Got the Worm
Jasper Baydala – Flat Tires

I’ve been slacking with my Pop Montreal update. In all honesty it got way to hard to keep up with while trying to keep up with the festival and shoot as much footage as I could. I also stuck with a handicapped macbook (the generation) where Apple decided to not include a firewire and I havn’t been able to load any of the glorious footage we shot. Not to fret it will come.

One of my fave bands we met were the Silly Kissers. We posted a song of by them and were contacted by GOBBLE GOBBLE of Alberta who sent these amazing tunes over! The first is a remix of Silly Kisser bff Sean Nicholas Savage (oh my).

Sean Nicholas Savage – Baby It’s You (GOBBLE GOBBLE’s Pop Manslaughter)

GOBBLE GOBBLE – Meteor Eschat

And this is the original version of the first song.

Sean Nicholas Savage – Baby It’s You