2009.

[EDIT 02/05/2010: Most song links removed after a Blogger takedown notice, though at least they're civil enough to now simply revert the post back to draft mode instead of outright wiping it out...]

[EDIT 03/01/2010: Okie dokie, ALL mp3 links removed after another notice. I'm 90% sure I removed the offending mp3 previously since I only left up the mp3s that were hosted on the artists' website. Of course, the identity of the offending mp3 is indiscernible to all, but if you're curious how these complaints come about, here's the official complaint to Google as sent by the IFPI, a form letter with a long list of URLs attached in cluding this here year-end post. I'm guessing some sort of robot "read" my post and deemed it complaint-worthy.]

Time for my belated and bloated annual look back at the past year... yes, we're mere hours away from February, but I started a dangerous precedent last year when I posted my year-end review at the end of January. Last year saw a dramatic drop in my post count, less than half the posts of 2008 and my lowest total since 2006. I partially blame the lingering effect of that blogger crackdown, but another contributing factor is the new job I started around the same time in late '08. Now I'm more or less happy with one post a week with maybe some really short ones in between. I joined Twitter last February and I'm surprised to find myself still updating it fairly frequently. An unexpected side effect of joining Twitter is that it reinvigorated my interactions with Facebook since my tweets are automatically used as my status updates. Travelwise, I visited Chicago for the first time last March and due to a fortuitous set of circumstances, I'll be heading back there with parents in May for a quick jaunt. I hopped down to Seattle at least thrice for concert-related reasons (Jason Webley, Harvey Danger's last shows ever, Ben Folds + symphony) and went to San Francisco/Mountain View for the Bridge School Benefit concert with my dad. I also went to Vegas for my best friend's bachelor party and served as Best Man at his wedding in July. My new baby cousin was born in June and around the same time I welcomed a new fuzzy friend into my home, my cat Jaboo:

It's funny, after looking back through my old posts I realize that I inadvertently fulfilled my new year's resolution last year: reading more books. This has been helped by joining goodreads.com in November, which fulfills my obsessive compulsive need to quantify my existence by cataloguing everything I see or do. Typically, I have a more or less constant flow of incoming material through library requests, but last week for the first time in a long time, I found myself with nothing to read and was getting kinda anxious about it... like I was having reading withdrawal symptoms. Good sign, I suppose. I didn't exactly read up a storm last year, but it was probably the most books I've read in a while. Currently I'm reading the Chinese classic Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, translated and abridged as Monkey by Arthur Waley in 1942, which is the version I'm reading. I'm surprisingly well-versed in the tale based entirely on a book from the public library I loved and re-read constantly as a kid, Adventures of the Magic Monkey Along the Silk Roads, a comic adaptation by Evelyn Nagai-Berthrong and Anker Odum that was commissioned by the Royal Ontario Museum in 1983. A couple years back, I flukily ended up with my very own used copy of the comic long after I had forgotten about it... and it turns out I never really did forget it. Hopefully this year will see the publishing of the long-awaited non-fiction travel book by Neil Gaiman, Monkey and Me, which sees Neil follow the same path as Monkey's journey through China.

Top Covers/Cover Albums:

The Leisure Society - Something [originally by The Beatles]
As arguably the most covered act of all-time, I'm impressed when I come across Beatles covers that sound new to me. This pretty much proves that no matter how over-covered a song is, all it takes is one inspired artist to make some cover magic. This beautiful cover by The Leisure Society was the standout from Mojo's track-by-track cover tribute to Abbey Road, which actually featured a few other great covers too (Jeffrey Lewis's Octopus's Garden comes to mind). The Leisure Society also registered on my radar with a similarly wonderful cover of Gary Numan's Cars in '09. Definitely a band to keep an ear out for.

Adam Green - I Will [originally by The Beatles]
Last year saw the beginning of the epic Beatles Complete on Ukulele project, which will be providing a bountiful supply of Beatles covers for another 2 years. This irreverent but sweet cover by Adam Green reframes the song as a sort of warped lullabye to his love who OD'ed on pills and is in a coma...

Project Jenny, Project Jan - Self Control [originally by Laura Branigan]
Last year, the Buffetlibre DJs lived up to their name with their covers smorgasbord, Buffetlibre Rewind 2 (still available for free!). The sheer amount of covers is actually quite overwhelming, but I unexpectedly found myself singling out this cover of Laura Branigan's 1984 hit Self Control for repeated listening.

Marco Benevento - Friends [originally by Led Zeppelin]
Benevento's second solo album Me Not Me consisted mainly of jazz reinventions along the lines of The Bad Plus or Brad Mehldau. He covers Beck, The Knife, Leonard Cohen, and others, but it's his version of the rarely covered Friends from Zeppelin III that caught my attention. Benevento also does a brilliant rendition of Nobody Does it Better on his Live at Tonic album.

DeVotchKa - Hot Burrito #1 (I'm Your Toy) [originally by The Flying Burrito Brothers]
I hadn't heard of the original when I fell in love with this cover from last year's Sweetheart compilation from Starbucks. Say what you want about the coffee giants, but their music people manage to attract some major and sometimes unheralded talent to fill out these compilations. This year's batch was recently released and features the likes of José Gonzáles covering Kylie Minogue, The Long Winters covering ZZ Top, and The Shins' James Mercer joining his brother Robert for a Bob Dylan cover. Guess I'll have to make my way to a Starbucks soon to pick this up.

Chromeo - I Can't Tell You Why [originally by The Eagles]
Montréal-based electrofunk artists Chromeo do an modern, but faithful cover of The Eagles track from 1979's The Long Run. There is actually a surprising dearth of good to great cover of Eagles... I can't tell you why. [EDIT: You can get the free MP3 from their official site with your e-mail]

The Lost Fingers - Belleville Rendez-vous [originally from The Triplets of Belleville]
The Lost Fingers followed their 2008 debut of 80s covers with Rendez-vous Rose, an album of Francophone covers in the same gypsy jazz style. All the covers are, of course, great, though I suppose the significance (or humour) of some of the French pop song choices is lost on me. In some cases, they managed to recruit some of the original artists to join them such as Plastic Bertrand on Ça plane pour moi or Nanette Workman on Lady Marmalade (she had a hit with the same song in Québec in the 70s). I was absolutely thrilled to discover they covered the theme song from the animated film The Triplets of Belleville.

Anamanaguchi - Holiday [originally by Weezer]
8-bit cover songs, which have become their own subgenre, are hit or miss with me. They're cute in a retro sense, but then after hearing a bunch of classic rock songs performed as instrumental chiptune songs, I feel like I'm back in the 90s listening to midi translations of popular songs, novel but unexciting. The (free) 8-bit Tribute to Weezer, remakes a collection of Weezer songs as if they're the soundtrack to NES end boss fights, which syncs up nicely with Weezer's nerd aesthetic. My favourite of the bunch is Anamanaguchi's cover of Holiday, combining the sounds of a hacked NES with actual live instrumentation and singing.

Retro Remix Revue - Super Mario Brothers 3 - Overworld BGM, Athletic BGM [originally by Koji Kondo]
The brainchild of Davis Jones and Blaine McGurty, Retro Remix Revue revisits the music of classic Nintendo and Sega games such as Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and more. Retro Remix Revue, Vol. 2 was released last year and featured this brilliant and wonderful medley of a couple very familiar tunes from Super Mario 3 as performed by a jazz trio. Unfortunately, there aren't more jazz arrangements like this on the album which is a grab bag of styles favouring synth rock, though there is a Spanish themed guitar cover of the Gerudo Valley Theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that's very good. If you go back to Retro Remix Revue, Vol. 1, you can find another amazing jazz cover incorporating themes from Super Mario World.

Booker T. - Hey Ya [originally by Outkast]
Hey Ya has been covered numerous times but never as a Hammond organ instrumental romp backed by Neil Young on electric guitar. [EDIT: hey, the album won a Grammy tonight! And, uh, Neil Young won his first ever Grammy... for box set packaging]

Michael Bublé featuring Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Baby (You've Got What It Takes) [originally by Dinah Washington and Brook Benton]
I'm a big fan both Michael Bublé and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings so it's almost a given that I'd love this cover they did for Bublé's Crazy Love album last year. Coincidentally, they performed this on last night's Saturday Night Live, horn and string section intact.

Pomplamoose - Beat It [originally by Michael Jackson]
When Cover Me's Ray tweeted Pomplamoose's Beat It as potentially the best post-death Michael Jackson (RIP) cover yet, I expected to hear a good cover but I wasn't expecting to stumble on a new favourite band. Pomplamoose has been around since 2008, building their fanbase through a series of "VideoSongs", youtube music videos that visually show every single sound, voice, and instrument you hear as they were performed live (example: Beat It). The duo of Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn reached a new apex of popularity when their VideoSong of Beyoncé's Single Ladies went viral with over 3 million views since September. I quickly discovered that all their covers, which also include Simon & Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson and Feist's Gatekeeper, can be downloaded for free from their myspace while their originals are $1 each. Even without the visual gimmickry, the songs more than stand on their own as great music. Their Christmas original Always in the Season cemented my appreciation for the music they're creating. Pomplamoose is officially on my music radar permanently.

Danny Michel - Straight to Hell [originally by The Clash]
With its sampling in M.I.A's Paper Planes in 2008, I couldn't help but notice a covers revival of The Clash's Straight to Hell in 2009. Whether it was Elvis Costello & Jakob Dylan teaming up on Costello's Spectacle, an acoustic version by Bill Janovitz for his cover of the week series, or Lily Allen (Joe Strummer's goddaughter!) covering it with Mick Jones for the War Child Heroes covers compilation, there was a definite, if unconscious, effort to let the kids these days know the musical origin of Paper Planes. This is my extreme bias showing, but my favourite rendition is by Danny Michel, a noted aficionado of The Clash and reggae. This comes from the Strummer dub tribute album Shatter the Hotel released in late '09 and featuring a number of Canadian artists.

Favourite Songs/Albums of '09:

• The Very Best - Kada Manja [from Warm Heart of Africa]
  The full length debut of The Very Best (AKA Esau Mwamwaya and Radio Clit), Warm Heart of Africa, more than lived up to the promise of the free mixtape they released the year before. I was super disappointed that their gig I was set to go to in San Francisco was cancelled... come to Vancouver!
  
  
• Sleepy Kitty - Gimme a Chantz! [from What I Learned This Summer]
  While it was bittersweet to say goodbye to Harvey Danger after their last ever shows in August, I became an instant fan of Chicago-based Sleepy Kitty, the duo of Paige Brubeck and original Harvey Danger drummer Evan Sult, who were playing some of their first ever shows as the opening act. This was my second most played song in 2009 and I can wait to hear what they've got lined up for 2010.
  
  
• Rodrigo y Gabriela - Buster Voodoo [from 11:11]
  On their third album 11:11, each of the 11 tracks pays tribute to one of Rodrigo y Gabriela's musical influences ranging from Pink Floyd to Pantera's Dimebag Darrell to virtuoso jazz pianist Michel Camilo. This one pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix and you might catch hear a quick riff from Voodoo Chile in there.
  
  
• The BPA - ToeJam [feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal] [from I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat]
  Technically this single was from '08, but the album wasn't released until the beginning of '09. The Brighton Port Authority was a project headed by Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) joined by a bevy of artists like Iggy Pop, Martha Wainwright, Danger Mouse, Jack Penate, and more. This track featuring David Byrne and UK rapper Dizzee Rascal kept randomly surfacing on iTunes shuffles until I was force to acknowledge and love it.
  
  
• Says She's Ms. Blat - Poseurs [from Says She's Ms. Blat]
  This was a blog submission that I never got around to writing about, but I definitely got hooked on the single Poseurs from the New York duo Says She's Ms. Blat. Lottie Leymarie (keyboards/vocals) and Bret Puchir (drums) perform in the vein of The Dresden Dolls evoking the vocals of Chrissie Hynde or Fiona Apple. [EDIT: download full album including Poseurs from bandcamp site.]
  
  
• The Dead Weather - So Far From Your Weapon [from Horehound]
  It's hard to believe that a year ago today The Dead Weather didn't officially exist and their second album is expected this year. Cool, yes, but will we get to hear a new White Stripes album anytime soon?
  
  
• Pet Shop Boys - Pandemonium [from Yes]
  It was a treat to catch the Pet Shop Boys when they came to Vancouver in September and hear them run through a setlist of some of my favourite all-time songs. While I haven't exactly been paying attention to their output since the 1991 Discography compilation of singles, after the show I became addicted to Pandemonium from their most recent release. The Smiths' Johnny Marr makes a guest appearance on guitars and harmonica.
  
  
• Zee Avi - Poppy [from Zee Avi]
  My favourite new artist of the year. I wrote more about Zee Avi here when she came to Vancity in December. An auspicious debut for sure.
  
  
• Andrew Bird - Oh No [from Noble Beast]
  What, Andrew Bird on a Fong Songs year-end list? No surprise. If he puts out an album, it's a guaranteed inclusion.

2009 in concerts:
2009/02/20 A.C. Newman with Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, BC
2009/03/13 Alice Russell with The O'My's Schuba's Tavern Chicago, IL
2009/03/14 Sammy Fender and others, featuring Buddy Guy Buddy Guy's Legends Chicago, IL
2009/03/27 JunoFest: Elizabeth Shepherd Rossini's Vancouver, BC
2009/03/29 Juno Songwriter's Circle 2009 (Hawksley Workman, Doc Walker (Chris Thorsteinson and Dave Wasyliw), Jim Cuddy, Jacob Hoggard, Sarah Slean, Ndidi Onukwulu, and Buffy Sainte-Marie) The Centre Vancouver, BC
2009/03/30 Serena Ryder Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre Vancouver, BC
2009/04/17 Unwigged & Unplugged: An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer The Centre Vancouver, BC
2009/04/25 54·40 Cambie All Access Vancouver, BC
2009/04/30 k-os with Jay Malinowski (of Bedouin Soundclash) Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
2009/05/16 Ellen McIlwaine St. James Hall Vancouver, BC
2009/05/28 Danny Michel with Carolyn Mark and Hannah Georgas Vancouver, BC
2009/06/24 The Tragically Hip Orpheum Theatre Vancouver, BC
2009/06/26 The Lost Fingers Performance Works Vancouver, BC
2009/06/27 Alice Russell Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, BC
2009/07/03 Jason Webley's 11 Year Elevanniversary Celebration with Amanda Palmer, Reverend Peyton, Andru Bemis, Jay Thompson, Jherek Bischoff, Michael McQuilken, Alex Guy, and more Town Hall Seattle, WA
2009/08/06 - 08/09 Edmonton Folk Music Festival (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Jill Barber, Chuck Brodsky, Neko Case, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Chumbawamba, Alex Cuba, Fred Eaglesmith, Steve Earle, Kathleen Edwards, Johnny Flynn, Patty Griffin, Hanggai, Sierra Hull, Danny Michel, Steven Page, Joel Plaskett, Boz Scaggs, The Wailers, Loudon Wainwright III, and many more) Gallagher Park Edmonton, AB
2009/08/21 The Dead Weather with Tyvek Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
2009/08/22 The Dead Weather with Tyvek Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
2009/08/28 Harvey Danger with Sleepy Kitty and Ships The Vera Project Seattle, WA
2009/08/29 Harvey Danger with Can You Imagine? The Crocodile Seattle, WA
2009/08/29 Harvey Danger with Sleepy Kitty The Crocodile Seattle, WA
2009/09/12 Summer Sessions with Sarah McLachlan, Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, Luke Doucet, Melissa McClelland, and more Ambleside Park West Vancouver, BC
2009/09/19 Pet Shop Boys The Centre Vancouver, BC
2009/10/20 Ben Folds & The Seattle Symphony Orchestra Benaroya Hall Seattle, WA
2009/10/24 - 10/25 Bridge School Benefit with Neil Young, No Doubt, Chris Martin, Jimmy Buffett, Adam Sandler, Fleet Foxes, Monsters of Folk, Wolfmother, and Gavin Rossdale Shoreline Amphitheater Mountain View, CA
2009/11/25 The Swell Season with Doveman The Centre Vancouver, BC
2009/12/09 Zee Avi with Christopher Smith & The Beckon Call The Media Club Vancouver, BC

I set a new record for concert-going in '09, albeit with a fair number of repeats even within the same year. I went from A to Z, kicking off the year with A.C. Newman and ending with Zee Avi. In between, I doubled up on Dead Weather, Danny Michel, and Alice Russell (in Chicago and Vancouver). Spinal Tap "Unwigged & Unplugged" was a treat, as were The Lost Fingers and The Swell Season (i.e. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, stars of the film Once). I couldn't pass t up the opportunity to see the Pet Shop Boys and was not disappointed. Same goes for Ben Folds who performed with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Of course, Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit shows were a once in a lifetime experience... that is, until the next ones. Probably the ultimate shows for me personally were the three final Harvey Danger shows. I mentioned this recently but it deserves re-mentioning... the best single song live performance I witnessed in 2009 was Hawksley Workman at the Juno Songwriter's Circle:

Hawksley Workman - Safe and Sound (Live at The Juno Songwriter's Circle 2009)

2009 in film:
See here.

2010:
With 2010 already well underway, some good stuff has already been released like new albums from Vampire Weekend and Hawksley Workman. Just last week the mailman brought new cover album Turn Ons from The Hotrats (AKA Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass). Other stuff I'm looking forward to this year:

• Debut from conjoined twin sisters Evelyn Evelyn (due in March). Produced by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley.
  
• Speaking of Supergrass, they've got a proper new album due in early 2010 called Release the Drones
  
• Out already but haven't picked up Corinne Bailey Rae's The Sea yet
  
• The surreal sounding Here Lies Love concept album from David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Guests include Sharon Jones, Alice Russell, Tori Amos, St. Vincent, and more. Due in late February.
  
• Muppets Revisited cover album... Fall 2010?
  
• Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back covers album and reciprocal I'll Scratch Yours
  
• possibly a new Mark Ronson album in 2010
  
• New Weird Al! Though honestly his parodies mean less and less to me as I lose touch with whatever current act he's parodying...

Concertwise, I'll be checking out cover stars Nouvelle Vague when they come to town next week. I'll also being seeing K'naan as part of the Olympic festivities and (don't laugh) Canadian children's icon Fred Penner playing at a pub on UBC campus! March will finally see my concert bucket list dwindle to near nothingness as Jamie Cullum comes to town.

Over and out.

Fantastic Heroes & Fantastic Villains

My unofficial new year's resolution (i.e. don't hold me to it) is to simplify my blog posts. One of many reasons my post count was at its lowest since 2007 is that I have a tendency to start working on posts that inevitably escalate as I get caught up in researching new covers in addition to getting lost on bizarre tangents as I make more and more trivial discoveries along the way. A covers-post on Quentin Tarantino's filmography and one on comic book artist/musicians are two fairly recent additions to blogger draft hell. Today's post is another one I started a few weeks ago after I saw Fantastic Mr. Fox, which got stymied as I went off on a wild goose chase to track down one particular cover. Well, no more, I say! If I'm inspired to throw together a post, I'm just going to go ahead and try to do it without my neurotic tendency to attempt comprehensiveness on some narrow, random topic.

Today's topic: Films of 2009. That's right, I'm not done with 2009 quite yet. I'm going to take a cue from Ekko over at Berkeley Place and do a quick rundown of everything I saw last year. By my tally, I saw 39 new films in 2009, which seems like a lot on one hand and not enough on the other.

The bottom 3:

3. New Moon (Ugh, don't ask)
2. The International (Terribly boring. Took 5 sittings to get through it.)
1. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (Don't even get me started.)

Meh:

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Ninja Assassin; Brüno, Kamui Gaiden, The Time Traveler's Wife; Taken; Angels and Demons; Terminator: Salvation

Worth a Peek:

District 9; A Perfect Getaway; The Box; Zombieland; Watchmen; Moon; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; 2012; The Princess & The Frog; I Love You, Man; Coraline; Sherlock Holmes; 9; The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus; The Hangover, It Might Get Loud (released wide in 2009, but technically I saw it in 2008)

On the never-ending, ever-growing to-do list:

Ponyo; Drag Me to Hell; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; The Informant; The Road; The Cove; An Education; Crazy Heart; Nine; Public Enemies; Funny People; Thirst; Duplicity; Whatever Works; Humpday; In the Loop; Knowing; Adventureland; State of Play

See, I've already blown my new year's resolution by spending half an hour going through wikipedia's 2009 in film to formulate these lists...


Top Ten:

10. The Hurt Locker
9. Up in the Air
8. Star Trek
7. (500) Days of Summer
6. Avatar
5. A Serious Man
4. Up
3. Where the Wild Things Are
2. Inglourious Basterds
1. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Less than an hour after seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox, I turned to my friend and said "That was probably the best movie I saw all year" and he wholeheartedly agreed. Conflicting schedules led to us going about three weeks after it had already opened and even though I'd been steadfastly avoiding reviews to that point, I couldn't help but notice the complete lack of buzz before or after its release. To date, the film has grossed just over $19 million of its $40 million production budget. If Avatar is earning a CEO's salary, Fantastic Mr. Fox is like a teenage kid flipping burgers for minimum wage (or worse). Heck, even Paul Blart: Mall Cop earned more in one weekend than Fantastic Mr. Fox in almost two months. Right now, it ranks 107th domestically for 2009 films, sandwiched between Under the Sea 3D and The Jonas Brothers 3D concert. Even though it's pretty much a given that terrible movies make a lot of money and great ones don't, to me this seemed like a pretty egregious box office offense. Sure enough, the theatre was nearly empty when we went. Other than our group of four, there was maybe ten other filmgoers, which made the cackling and giggling all the more pronounced in such an empty theatre.

I went in with mild reservations (mainly based on the lacklustre trailer), which is odd considering I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson, a big fan of stop-motion animation, and a big fan of Roald Dahl. So there was a lot at stake here, but I loved every second of this movie beginning to end. Fantastic Mr. Fox opens quite literally with the opening of the title book by little clay hands and I beamed as I noticed it distinctly carried a library spine label. Then a couple minutes later Wes Anderson sunk his meathooks into me when he underscored Mr. and Mrs. Fox's daring raid on a chicken coop with Heroes and Villains, my all-time favourite Beach Boys song. Not long after that, he even slips in Love, the Oscar-nominated song from Disney's 1973 animated Robin Hood, my favourite Disney film. The movie was barely underway and it was already resonating on a deep molecular level. You can feel the care and artistry that went into the impeccably detailed set decorations, handmade costumes, and props. The ringer cast of Anderson regulars is bolstered by George Clooney as the fast-talking title character who is always quickly thinking up schemes but rarely dwelling on the potential consequences. As the nefarious Bean, Michael Gambon (who has one of my favourite phonebook reading voices) gets probably the best and most quotable line in the movie when he chastises Jarvis Cocker, "That's just weak songwriting. You wrote a bad song, Petey!" and flicks a cigarette at him. The movie is filled with little moments like that, which is part of what I love about the script. These little asides are written as if it's a live-action film with little regard to the fact that each one probably took weeks to animate. You should definitely run out and see it before it leaves theatres. It's Wes Anderson's best since The Royal Tenenbaums, another all-time favourite.

There's a bit of a story to how Heroes and Villains inexplicably became my favourite Beach Boys song. Years ago, my dad had borrowed some sort of Best of the Beach Boys CD from the library and recorded it onto cassette tape. Like most greatest hits compilations, this had the usual familiar hits like Good Vibrations, Sloop John B, Wouldn't It Be Nice, and 5 songs about surfing. But this one had one that I'd never heard before and it would be years before I was able to find out what it was. You see, my dad had recorded it in such a way that most of Heroes and Villains was cut off by the end of side one of the cassette tape and when you flipped it over it continued with the next track as if nothing had happened. So I fell in love with the first minute of Heroes and Villains. I still have a distinct memory of scavenging the house, the basement, the glove compartment, trying to dig up this abandoned cassette tape since I all of a sudden needed OCD-style to find that song. My dad didn't know what the song was called and he helpfully did not bother to write any tracklist for the tape. I resorted to borrowing various Beach Boys greatest hits CD from the library and going through track-by-track but even this proved difficult since Heroes and Villains is not on the majority of them. Apparently, my dad had borrowed the one compilation album that considered it a hit. Then one day, I had the latest candidate in my discman and was dutifully listening/skipping through each track when the elusive track kicked off: "I've been in this town so long that back in the city I've been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long, long time". I immediately flipped the CD case over and read the back. Heroes and Villains. SUCCESS! And that same moment of revelation and elation filled my heart as I watched it grace the soundtrack of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The Beach Boys - Heroes and Villains
There are numerous incarnations of this song which was originally intended for their legendary incomplete Smile album. It was eventually issued as a single and released on 1967's Smiley Smile album. Brian Wilson would eventually re-record the "complete" version when he resurrected Smile in 2004.

Geraint Watkins - Heroes and Villains [originally by The Beach Boys]
The Apples in Stereo - Heroes and Villains [originally by The Beach Boys]
The Rubinoos - Heroes and Villains [originally by The Beach Boys]
Malcolm Ross - Heroes and Villains [originally by The Beach Boys]

Top Covers and Worst Film of the Decade

Decembers in pop culture land are always filled with a glut of year-end lists, but this year is even crazier with everyone tossing out decade-end lists left and right. I didn't want this to get out of hand, so I've really narrowed the scope to just a flat-out list of my personal favourite cover songs of the decade and THE absolute worst film of the decade.

Attempting to rank these would be an exercise in futility, so this is purely based on iTunes playcounts. I have 6000+ covers tagged as being in the 00's, but of course it wouldn't surprise me if some poor covers were left out of the running based on incomplete tags. While posting all 50 songs would be overkill, not to mention an open invitation for a blogger crackdown, I've randomly linked to a few covers, some of which I've probably never even blogged about despite their high ranking. Here we go...

Top 50 Covers 2000 - 2009:
50. Dick Brave & The Backbeats - Freedom [originally by George Michael]
49. The Breeders - Wicked Little Town (Hedwig Version) [originally from Hedwig & the Angry Inch]
48. Bowling For Soup - The Bare Necessities [originally from Disney's The Jungle Book]
47. Ben Folds - Songs of Love [originally by The Divine Comedy]
46. The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer [originally by Rush]
45. The Living End - I Get a Kick Out of You [originally by Cole Porter]
44. Tok Tok Tok - The Weight [originally by The Band]
43. The Phantom Of The Opera - Nightwish [originally by Andrew Lloyd Webber]
42. Rasputina - Rock and Roll [originally by Led Zeppelin]
41. Brad Roberts - Bette Davis Eyes [originally by Jackie DeShannon]
40. Pascale Picard - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
39. Devo 2.0 - Monkey's Uncle [originally by Annette Funicello with The Beach Boys]
38. The Wrong Trousers - Such Great Heights [originally by The Postal Service]
37. Lulu Hughes - Time [originally by Pink Floyd]
36. Hayseed Dixie - Holiday [originally by Green Day]
35. Fall Out Boy - What's This? [originally by Danny Elfman]
34. Mark Ronson - Oh My God (feat. Lily Allen) [originally by Kaiser Chiefs]
33. The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium [originally by Nirvana]
32. JerryC - Canon Rock [originally by Pachelbel]
31. The Bicycles - Cuddly Toy [originally by Harry Nilsson]
30. Serena Ryder - It Doesn't Matter Anymore [originally recorded by Buddy Holly; written by Paul Anka]
29. Motormark - Left To My Own Devices [originally by Pet Shop Boys]
28. Mark Ronson - Just (feat. Alex Greenwald) [originally by Radiohead]
27. Serena Ryder - Some Of These Days [originally by Shelton Brooks]
26. Chris Thile - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground [originally by The White Stripes]
25. PoZitive Orchestra - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd] [DIRECT LINK]
24. Daniel Bedingfield - A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes [originally from Disney's Cinderella]
23. D-Sailors - We Built This City (feat. Wick Slick) [originally by Starship]
22. Danny Michel - Lady Stardust [originally by David Bowie]
21. The F-Ups - All the Young Dudes [originally by David Bowie]
20. Phantom Planet - Our House [originally by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]
19. Blacklight Posterboys - Jet [originally by Paul McCartney & Wings]
18. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - Nothing Compares 2 U [originally by Prince]
17. Jon Brion - Play the Game [originally by Queen]
16. Days of the New - L.A. Woman [originally by The Doors]
15. OK Go & Bonerama - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide [originally by David Bowie]
14. Mint Royal - Singin' in the Rain [originally written by Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown]
13. The Polyphonic Spree - Wig in a Box [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
12. The Shins - Baby Boomerang [originally by T. Rex]
11. William Shatner - Common People [feat. Joe Jackson] [originally by Pulp]
10. Jamie Cullum - I Get a Kick Out Of You [originally by Cole Porter]
09. Harvey Danger - Oh! You Pretty Things [originally by David Bowie]
08. Manic Street Preachers - Can't Take My Eyes Off You [originally recorded by Franki Valli]
07. RLM & Katsuhiko Sakamoto & Ikuko Harada - 19th Nervous Breakdown [originally by The Rolling Stones]
06. Estradasphere - Super Mario Bros. 2 SuperBuckJazz [originally by Koji Kondo]
05. The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes [originally by The Postal Service]
04. Ben Kweller - BK Baby [originally by Vanilla Ice]
03. The Bens - Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version) [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
02. Ben Jelen - Wicked Little Town [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
01. Danny Michel - Young Americans [originally by David Bowie]

It shouldn't surprise any regular reader that Danny Michel's Young Americans tops this list since it's more or less my favourite cover of all-time. Perhaps a little more surprising, two covers by four Bens of two different versions of Wicked Little Town take the two and three positions. A third cover by The Breeders also made the cut, so quantitively you could say Wicked Little Town is my favourite song of all-time, cover or otherwise, and I wouldn't really argue. With five entries, David Bowie dwarfs the competition in having his songs covered lending some vague credibility to an argument I heard once that everybody does a better Bowie song than Bowie himself (not at all true, though he does inspire great covers).

======================

Thankfully, I managed to avoid almost all of Rotten Tomatoes' Worst 100 Films of the Decade, but a couple slipped by. While some bad films are merely boring or forgettable, these ones also inspired active hate.

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
4. The New Guy (2002)
3. August Rush (2007)
2. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
1. Titanic: The Animated Movie (2001)

No, I'm not joking. This exists and I have seen it. I came across the DVD multiple times in the Chinese section of the public library before morbid curiosity got the better of me and I took it out. Oh boy, did I regret it. This incomprehensibly abysmal movie can basically be summed up with this clip of a rapping dog:



When discussing decade-end lists, my co-worker says this doesn't count because it's not even a movie and he's kinda right. While Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is so terrible it's almost laughable, this abomination is so mind-blowingly atrocious that it makes you hate yourself for having watched it.

2008.

After a month of false starts and extreme procrastination, long after everyone else has already posted their "Looking Forward To" lists (and then some), I'm finally going to take my annual look backwards and sum up 2008 through the narrow lens of Fong Songs. Since this blog more or less serves as a diary of sorts, assembling the inevitable year-end post was an amusing exercise in sifting through the past year's posts to see where I was and what I was doing at any particular time:

2008 started with a bang as my first post of the year Pinball Number Count Revisited was (and is) the most popular post I've ever had. Then it was all downhill from there... just kidding. Like any year, there were big ups and big downs. 2008 was strange in that the ups were way high and the downs were way down. Last April, I was fortunate to be invited as a guest panelist on Coverville to talk shop with other cover bloggers. It was a fun experience, though it's very obvious why I stick to blogging over podcasting. 2008 marked my first travels to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Chapel Hill, the latter of which was part of an epic continent-crossing venture to see the reunited Ben Folds Five. There was a sad though not completely unexpected death in the family that I won't go into here, but needless to say it was a heavy-hearted experience. On the flipside, in September I flew to Toronto and met my 11-month old cousin for the first time, the first Fong boy in the family since me. While there, I got my first taste of the Toronto Film Fest and literally got to watch a film alongside Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. I made another appearance on the internet airwaves on the BreakThru Radio show Anatomy of a Blogger in November, blathering self-consciously about Fong Songs in between music picks ostensibly chosen by me (not entirely true).

Fourth quarter '08 was marred by a blogosphere wide crackdown on MP3 blogs, the ripples of which still continue to this day, leading many to abandon blogspot for hopefully safer waters or outright pack it in. I haven't gone either route yet, but the number of posts I've written since this whole thing came down has diminished dramatically and part of it is a mental block, knowing that hours of writing can be flushed away by an online robocop. The file-host situation has also been nagging on my brain, but for now I'll be forsaking the bonus traffic of Hype Machine and Elbo.ws and going back to using Mediafire which (for me) has a fairly convenient interface and unlimited bandwidth (a feature lacking in other sites). In fact, throughout this post you'll find selected tracks only available via streaming, hopefully to prevent future headaches.

Top Covers/Cover Albums:

My favourite cover of 2008 was OK Go and Bonerama's cover of David Bowie's Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, from the digital EP You're Not Alone, which may also be one of the year's great underrated releases. Joining forces with New Orleans brass funk group Bonerama (look them up for many other awesome cover songs), OK Go recorded five songs for the EP benefitting New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Among those displaced was New Orleans legend Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, who also appears on the EP contributing lead vocals on another great cover of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. The other three tracks are OK Go songs with Bonerama adding some brass oopmh to the proceedings. The EP is only $3.49 from iTunes with full sales going to Sweet Home New Orleans and to building a new house for Al "Carnival Time" Johnson. Definitely add it to your iTunes cart if you haven't bought it already.

OK Go & Bonerama - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide [originally by David Bowie]
The cover follows the same slow build progression of the original, gradually adding elements one by one. The original acoustic guitar intro is replaced by twinkling piano, Bonerama takes the barely-there horns of the original to bombastic new heights, and OK Go singer Damien Kulash does a phenomenal job expressively building up to the show-stopping howl of "YOU'RE NOT ALONE!" The vocals remind me a little of Paul McCartney's go-for-broke vocals on Oh! Darling, one of my fave Beatles songs that wikipedia surprisingly mentions was influenced by New Orleans rhythm and blues... coincidence?

missFlag - Still Alive [originally by Jonathan Coulton & GLaDOS]
At first this cover didn't make much of an impression on me, but what struck me upon repeat listens is that there's not really any winking or elbow nudging by the band. They simply perform the cover naturally as if it's the latest pop rock radio single, albeit from the POV of a vindictive AI being.

The Polka Floyd Show - Hey You [originally by Pink Floyd]
The Polka Floyd Show's self-titled debut of polka Pink Floyd covers sounds like a conceptual joke, but it's not. Clearly the band is having fun with the tunes, but it never really devolves into novelty. They strike a perfect balance of paying tribute and making the songs their own, at least insofar as that's possible when one's entire repertoire is another band's songs.

Mirror Ball Associates - On the Road Again (Slow Ride) [originally by Willie Nelson]
I had never heard of Mirror Ball Associates when I stumbled upon their album Covers Volume I while cruising for covers on eMusic. Released last January, it turns out the Mirror Ball Associates are actually a side project of Paul Durham, frontman of Black Lab (whom I have also never heard of). There is a diverse range of songs including pop punk takes on Allan Sherman's Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh and If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz, a phenomenal update on Jesus Jones' Right Here, Right Now (posted a while back), an unironic cover of Paula Abdul's Promise of a New Day, and a whole bunch more. I'm pretty sure it's not my imagination that this Willie Nelson cover is played in the style of Radiohead's Creep. The whole album is only available digitally on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. Let's hope Volume I is a promise of a Volume II.

Max Vernon - All That She Wants [originally by Ace of Base]
Major kudos are due to Max Vernon who came out of seemingly nowhere (actually New York) to permeate internet consciousness beginning with his cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl this past summer. I was eager to jump aboard the Max Vernon bandwagon, championing his music over several posts (his When Your Body Breaks became one of my most played tracks of the year) and ultimately I was able to conduct a lengthy e-mail interview with Max that was posted in November. Definitely a major blog highlight last year. Max also stormed the 2008 Coverville Countdown, taking the 1st and 3rd overall spots, sandwiching Johnny Cash's Hurt. Congrats! Don't forget his I Kissed a Girl cover is available on the covers compilation album Guilt by Association, Volume 2 on iTunes and presumably on CD next month.

Speaking of Coverville, I was excited to find out that this year's Coverville Countdown included Danny Michel's cover of Young Americans, which I like to think I had something to do with. For the Coverville Roundtable, we were asked to bring along some of our favourite covers for "show & tell" and that was one of my picks. Even though I submitted my official cover nominations including Young Americans in early December, I'm horribly ashamed to say I forgot to vote myself. :( At least the rest of the Coverville listeners were out there to pick up the slack.

DisCOVERy '08:

PoZitive Orchestra - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
No doubt, my cover find of the year was the PoZitive Orchestra's stash of brilliant bossa/string quartet re-interpretations of the likes of Zeppelin, Beatles, Elvis, and more. Practice your Russian here.

Favourite Songs/Albums of '08:

The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout
The Raconteurs surprised everyone announcing their sophomore release Consolers of the Lonely just a week before its release and a month later I got to see their tour kick-off in my (new) hometown of Vancouver. It didn't instantly blow me away upon first listen, but it eventually became my most listened to album of the year. From the pure rock anthems of Hold Up and Five on the Five to a Zeppelin-esque cover of Terry Reid's Rich Kid Blues to the sordid tale of Carolina Drama, everything just seemed to click on this album even if it took me a few listens to soak it all in. For me, Many Shades of Black was the first instant classic. The Switch and the Spur is wonderfully dorky even if it's not intentional. The one track that simmered to the top was These Stones Will Shout, which is just acoustic guitars and harmonized vocals for more than half the song before flipping to electric and building up to a great finale reminiscent of The Who. On the whole, it's a better record than Broken Boy Soldiers. Sounds like their having more fun on this one too. My dad (a huge Beatles/Eagles fan) rarely comments on music that I put on, though I'm always greatly amused when he asks, "Who is this? I like this." This has occurred multiple times whenever I play anything by The Ditty Bops and the other time was when we were in the car and I popped in Consolers of the Lonely. So there you go, it got the Papa Fong seal of approval.

From my favourite '08 albums, a handful of my top tracks:

• The Ditty Bops - The Weeds Are Winning [from Summer Rains]
  
  
• She & Him - This is Not a Test [from Volume 1]
  
  
• The Wrong Trousers - Had [from One and Counting...]
  
  
• Amanda Palmer - Leeds United [from Who Killed Amanda Palmer]
  
  
• The Bicycles - Oh No, It's Love [ from Oh No, It's Love]
  
  
• Laura Barrett - Escape to the Sun Dome [from Victory Garden]
  
  
• Danny Michel - Sweet Things [from Feather, Fur & Fin]

Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit - 'The Very Best' Mixtape
One of the best albums from last year was FREE and forecasts one of the best albums of 2009. How is that? This 15 song bootleg/mixtape called The Very Best was released by Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit for download on their myspace site (get it here). Esau Mwamwaya's journey from his home in Lilongwe, Malawi to your computer speakers is a curious tale. Less than 10 years ago, Mwamwaya moved to London and ran a second-hand furniture store, which happened to be on the same street as the studios of the producer duo known as Radioclit. Etienne Tron, half of the duo, bought a used bike from Mwamwaya and eventually invited him to a housewarming party. There he was introduced to Radioclit's other half Johan Karlberg and they got to talking music (Mwamwaya was formerly a drummer), eventually inviting him to their studios and discovering his inherent singing talents. The songs that make up the album can't really be called covers since Mwamwaya and Radioclit radically transform the samples into new songs that are familiar, yet refreshingly new. Vampire Weekend's hit Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa gets a makeover, as does M.I.A.'s Paper Planes in Tengazako. The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Ruby Suns, Sweet's Love is Like Oxygen, and more are magnificently recontextualized. A proper debut release is due sometime in '09.

2008 in concerts:
2008/01/24 The Watkins Family Hour The Largo, Los Angeles, CA
2008/02/29 Patton Oswalt Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, BC
2008/03/06 Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle Triple Door Seattle, WA
2008/03/07 Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle Triple Door Seattle, WA
2008/04/11 Tift Merritt with Sara Watkins The Plaza Club Vancouver, BC
2008/04/20 The Raconteurs with Birds of Avalon Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
2008/04/21 The Raconteurs with Birds of Avalon Neumo's Seattle, WA
2008/04/30 Danny Michel The Railway Club Vancouver, BC
2008/05/01 Danny Michel The Railway Club Vancouver, BC
2008/05/13 Cake with Paper Lions Vogue Theatre Vancouver, BC
2008/09/18 Ben Folds Five with Hotel Lights Memorial Hall Chapel Hill, NC
2008/12/10 Amanda Palmer with Zoë Keating and The Builders & The Butchers Richard's on Richards Vancouver, BC

My concert-going for 2008 was down compared to previous years (a trend that looks to continue), but against all odds I was able to check off number one on the concert bucket list: Ben Folds Five. Reuniting for a one-off gig, I flew down to Chapel Hill, NC in September to see the band that has pretty much been tops in my books since I first heard Whatever and Ever Amen, which you can read all about here. My concert bucket list was narrowed further earlier in the year when I took a bus to Seattle to be a part of Harvey Danger's 10th anniversary shows. They've got a small, but devoted fanbase that soaked up every minute of it as they played through all three of their albums in their entirety and more over two nights. Fantastic stuff.

2008 in film:

In Bruges surprisingly turned out to be one of my favourite films of the year. The terrible trailers were reminiscent of the utterly forgettable Mark Wahlberg dud The Big Hit (i.e. ironic hitmen, casual chatting during shootouts) and even the recently released DVD describes it as an "edgy, action-packed comedy, filled with thrilling chases, spectacular shoot outs and an explosive ending you won't want to miss!" (note: 95% inaccurate). Fortunately, unexpected praise from several trustworthy film reviewers led me to check this one out and I was not disappointed, in fact I was a little blown away. It was odd to watch a movie with less than 15 others staggered around the theatre where all of us were chuckling out loud, but that's a testament to the dark, dark humour and spot-on performances. For what it's worth, Colin Farrell picked up a Golden Globe for his role in In Bruges reminding people that yes, he can act (probably his most natural performance since Tigerland). Co-star Brendan Gleeson was also nominated and probably more deserving. There's a wonderful scene with just Gleeson (and the voice of scene-stealing Ralph Fiennes over the phone) that shifts from amusing to heartbreaking with one spoken line. I hadn't heard of first time writer-director Martin McDonagh before (apparently his stage plays are brilliant), but he's definitely on my radar for future projects. Even though this was his first feature film, McDonagh won an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter also starring Brendan Gleeson, something I've gotta track down. The impetus for this film according to McDonagh was a trip to Bruges in which he was both awed and bored by the picturesque Belgian town, which honestly was a similar impression I got from my own brief visit to Bruges a couple years ago. The only thing I really remember after walking around Bruges for two hours was some baby ducks I encountered jumping off a foot bridge (so cute!). Full of history, yet somewhat mundane, which is what McDonagh incorporated into the opposing reactions of the two main characters. I loved how the story unfolded in a way that's unpredictable, yet somehow inevitable.

The Dark Knight pretty much speaks for itself and as a huge Batman fan in general, this was the bee's knees. Other than TDK, Slumdog Millionaire was the only other film I saw twice in theatres last year. Though the hipster backlash started pretty much as soon as it was released (as it also racks up award wins/nominations), without a doubt this was the crowdpleaser of the year, in spite of the fact that one of the most disturbing scenes in recent cinema is also contained within. I often withhold movie recommendations from friends/family because more often than not I can predict in advance they won't like the movie even if I loved it, but Slumdog Millionaire is the first movie in recent memory that I've gone out of my way to tell everyone I know to check it out. Wall-E was pretty awesome, though I think I need to see it again. The first time around, I was vaguely distracted by the let's-pretend-we're-not-talking-about-obesity subplot and the human element in general. Iron Man was surprisingly awesome considering I had no prior childhood stakes in the character, unlike many other comic-to-film adaptations. I'm liking the master plan of Marvel since they've become their own movie studio. I enjoyed Indy 4 at first purely out of nostalgia, but upon further reflection it was way off the mark (death to CGI!). Same goes for Quantum of Solace, which was enjoyable enough while in the theatre, but the more I think about it the less I liked it. Doubly disappointing after the return to form with Casino Royale.

I saw three pretty good movies last year that, as of this moment, are pretty hard to see outside of a film festival and DVD releases are a long ways off (or in one case, "never going to happen").

• Largo was a fly-on-the-wall documentary of a night at the semi-legendary club in LA (I say "semi-legendary" because I seem to always have to explain the Largo when I mention it to people). Featuring performances by Largo regulars (Fiona Apple, Jon Brion!, Jackson Browne, Patton Oswalt, Aimee Mann, Sarah Silverman, Colin Hay, and more), I have to admit that the alternating between stand-up comedy and intimate music performances was a little jarring (although it's the club's M.O.). An exhilarating performance of Andrew Bird "constructing" A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left with loop pedals is probably the highlight of the film and an eye (or ear) opener for any unfamiliar with his work, as seemed to be the case with the audience I saw it with. Co-director Andrew Van Baal was in attendance to field questions, though it was somewhat awkward since many people had left during the credits even though the theatre was only half-full to begin with, leaving a handful of us to provide obligatory questions. A DVD and soundtrack are hopefully forthcoming since a ton of footage was shot and cut out, not to mention the end credits play over a beautiful instrumental version of Zeppelin's Going to California presumably by Sean Watkins and John Paul Jones that demands release (several recordings exist on the Live Archive but this version was pristine).
  
• Even better than the real thing, Indy IV was eclipsed by three determined teenagers in Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation originally filmed in the 80s. I lucked out seeing this early last summer (review here) and heartily recommend you do you... that is, if you ever get the chance! It only played a handful of dates last year and nothing seems to be planned for 2009 so far. Like most movies there are "other" ways to see it, though nothing beats a packed theatre experience for this one. Otherwise, you may have to wait for the long-in-gestation big screen adaptation of the boys' story (similar to last year's Son of Rambow) as written by Daniel Clowes.
  
• I scored a major coup while on a family visit to Toronto, the rock documentary It Might Get Loud had its world premiere with the film's subjects Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge all in attendance and I was literally first in line to see it. Read my previously posted summary of the surreal experience.

Lastly, just a shout-out to two awesome websites that cropped up in the past year (or at least came to my attention):

• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture, an always awe-inspiring, thought-provoking collection of hi-res photos from the associated press. A simple, obvious concept executed perfectly.
  
• Sporcle.com was introduced to me via Ken Jennings' blog (yep, I read his blog) and it's a must for any trivia lover. In presentation and implementation, it's simply miles above any comparable site. Since its debut, all it does it get better. Their feedback link that not only gets read, but actually results in change! I'm tackling the Jeopardy online test tonight to see if Sporcle increased my knowledge of US presidents and state capitals.

I'm already digging Andrew Bird's latest Noble Beast, but otherwise a lot of my favourite artists seem to be keeping a low profile this year. After plenty of touring over the past couple years, Bird's old compadres the Squirrel Nut Zippers have an as-yet-unannounced studio album in the works, so I am hugely anticipating that. But I've perused some 2009 release lists and nothing else really jumps out. Perhaps someone will pull some Raconteurs-like tactics (i.e. announcing a new album just a week before it comes out).

Over and out.

2007.

Sit down, tape your eyes open, and unplug your ears. This'll be a doozie of a post. I know, I know we've all been suffering through these year-end lists, but it's just blogger nature to think others care about what we think. I'm no different, so here are my picks of 2007 in no particular order because it's pretty futile to rank these. Also, these aren't the "BEST" of 2007 per se... I'm usually behind the eightball in terms of actually listening to things the same year they're released, not to mention I'm unreasonably biased so every year-end list is basically made up of my favourite bands/artists that happened to release an album that year. See, I can already picture next year's list: Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, new Ben Folds album, Zooey Deschanel's debut, Ben Lee's Mixtape, new Raconteurs album, The Ditty Bops, Supergrass... sigh, I'm so predictable. Alright, here we go:

Top Covers/Cover Albums:

One of my favourite albums of 2007, covers or otherwise, was Mark Ronson's Version. In early 2006, I put a mental checkmark next to Mark Ronson's name when his masterful cover of Radiohead's Just featuring Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald was making the blog rounds. I hesitate to call any one cover "definitive", but for now that will be the definitive cover of Just. Once I heard Ronson was working on a covers album, that immediately jumped up to one of my most anticipated releases of 2007. Ironically, I didn't know most of the songs being covered and I listened as if they were originals, so I was immune to claims of "Oh! He ruined this song" or "What a pointless cover of that song". I've read some pretty harsh reviews of the album-- "Pandering!", "Unoriginal!", "What a rich spoiled jerk!"-- which kinda baffles me but I guess to each his own. I've said before (possibly to myself) that Britney Spears' Toxic is a great cover song, which is to say it's been covered so many times in various styles that (for the most part) all manage to make it interesting. Mark Ronson's version is no exception, throwing in some Ol' Dirty Bastard vocals and somehow making it work. Other highlights are Amy Winehouse performing The Zutons' Valerie, Lily Allen on The Kaiser Chiefs' Oh My God, a b-side cover of Queens of the Stone Age's No One Knows, and this instrumental Coldplay cover:
Mark Ronson - God Put a Smile Upon Your Face (feat. The Daptone Horns) [originally by Coldplay]

A covers album that grabbed my attention out of nowhere in early December was Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra Hits the Hits. Similar to Mark Ronson, Shawn Lee (a multi-instrumentalist) has brought a retro sound to modern hits. Covers include choices as diverse as the Gorillaz' Clint Eastwood, Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way, and (surprise!) Britney's Toxic. I first heard of him when I tuned into KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic when Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings were performing. With a couple minutes to spare before the top of the hour, a groovy little piano-based cover of Hey Ya came on and naturally my ears perked up. Just when I thought I'd heard enough Hey Ya covers, this one comes along to re-inject some life into it. Snag the whole album from eMusic or Amazon.

Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Hey Ya [originally by Outkast]
Have you ever seen that online video of the Peanuts gang synced to the original Hey Ya? Originally created by some clever bear at Venis Productions, they got cease & desisted by United Media, though we all know once it's online, you can't stop the signal... It's pretty hilarious especially when Andre 3000 sings "we know we're not happy here" and it cuts to a grumpy Charlie Brown standing alone in front of an empty mailbox. Ha! Even though it can get repetitive with not enough footage to fill out the whole 4 minute song, the "Cooler than being cool" section is quite brilliant. Anyway, Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, unintentionally or not, takes this concept to its logical conclusion with a Hey Ya cover in the style of Vince Guaraldi's Linus & Lucy.

Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Rehab [originally by Amy Winehouse]
I was probably one of the last people to hear Amy Winehouse's Rehab sometime in November, so I totally missed the whole overexposure to it. Not surprisingly, I started digging the song after hearing covers by Girls Aloud and Paolo Nutini. While train wreck seems to be the phrase most often used to describe Amy Winehouse, it's disappointing since I actually enjoy her music & voice as opposed to say Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan who just won't leave us alone. While Winehouse has been making it on to best-of lists this year for Back to Black, the album was technically released in October 2006 in the UK and last December in Canada. So belated '06 kudos to that album.

The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer [originally by Rush]
Being Chinese-Canadian, I must be genetically inclined to love piano-based jazz covers of Rush. This so happened to be one of my most played covers of the year. Unlike some Bad Plus covers, this never derails into total chaos and unrecognizability.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Steady As She Goes [originally by The Raconteurs]
Once upon a time in August, I mentioned that BBC was putting together a covers compilation of 40 contemporary artists covering 40 tracks to celebrate 40 years of BBC Radio One. Well, I seem to have missed the whole release part of the equation. It guess it was released in November, though typing combinations of "BBC" "Radio 1" "40 Years" and "Covers" will hardly bring up any Amazon links. To find it, search for "Radio 1 Established 1967", which is available for the low, low price of $63.99! The Amazon 3rd-Party sellers seems to be the way to go if you're desperately seeking this album. After a fly-by listen of that plethora of covers, the most outstanding cover to me is Corinne Bailey Rae's take on The Raconteurs' Steady As She Goes. She continues to blow me away with her covers... first Zeppelin, then the Raconteurs? That's two years in a row that Corinne Bailey Rae has made my top covers. She could probably cover any song and I'd enjoy it-- love her voice!

MC Chris - Dare to Be Stupid [originally by Weird Al Yankovic]
This is interesting: a cover of a Weird Al original. Honestly, though I'm a big Weird Al fan I never really liked this song... until I heard this amped up electro version, which made me reevaluate the original as all good covers do.

The Quartertones - Here Comes the Fuzz [originally by DJ Format]
Somehow over the course of this blog I've never once mentioned DJ Format even though that's the closest thing to rap or hip-hop that I listen to regularly and thoroughly enjoy. The original from 2003's Music for the Mature B-Boy is an instrumental track based on a repeated guitar sample with horns. This cover from the b-side to DJ Format's The Hit Song is performed "unsampled" so to speak by The Quartertones, a Canadian jazz/funk outfit from Toronto. While in the UK last year I specifically went on the hunt for DJ Format albums, which (at the time) were notoriously hard to track down here in Canada for a reasonable price even though a regular collaborator is Toronto rapper Abdominal. Now you can get DJ Format quite simply on iTunes, though it's no match for a physical album.

You may recognize some of DJ Format's music videos such as We Know Something You Don't Know featuring breakdancing mascots (one of my fav all-time videos) or the arcade game-inspired 3 Feet Deep, directed by Keith Schofield who incidentally has a string of awesome retro music videos like Hard 'n Phirm's Pi and Wintergreen's When I Wake Up (telling the legend of the E.T. Atari landfill burial of '83). The We Know Something video was directed by Ruben Fleischer and I've always wondered if he and Kanye West went to the same bear costume shop (FYI, the music video released in early 2003 predates Kanye's debut album The College Dropout by almost exactly one year). Someday soon I'll write up that post I've been meaning to write for months regarding interesting cover/sample breakdowns of DJ Format's The Hit Song and Here Comes the Fuzz.

Same bear? Or just a coincidence?


OK Go - Don't Bring Me Down [originally by Electric Light Orchestra]
This fun acoustic cover comes from a live iTunes session.

Angélique Kidjo - Gimme Shelter (feat. Joss Stone) [originally by the Rolling Stones]
As Angélique Kidjo has done earlier on a cover of Jimi's Voodoo Chile, she transforms the Stones classic (which has been covered often) with latin beats and African chants. Joss Stone contributes guest vocals.

The Kleptones - War of Confusion [Genesis vs. Edwin Starr]
While the mash-ups fad has kind of worn off, The Kleptones have proved why the sub-genre was so exciting to begin with. From the 2007 internet release Live'r Than You'll Ever Be (available in its entirety for free here), War of Confusion seamlessly blends Edwin Starr's War with Genesis' Land of Confusion to create the best anti-war mash-up since George W. Bush sang Sunday Bloody Sunday. The whole live set (the logistics of a "live" show I don't really understand) is an example of some of the best-sounding mash-ups I've heard. This guy's a pro and he doesn't lazily fall back on simply overlaying rap vocals over instrumentals. Just look at the songs mashed together in Underground Hand: Queen's It's a Kind of Magic, Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like a Lady, Nine Inch Nails' The Hand That Feeds, and The White Stripes' The Hardest Button To Button. Other inspired combos include Jet vs. Stevie Wonder, The Doors vs. Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, Beck vs. The Eagles... all to a rockin' dance beat.

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Favourite songs/albums of '07:

The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Icky Thump is one of my top albums of 2007, which should come as no surprise to any regular reader since I seem to talk about the White Stripes every 5 posts or so. Even ignoring the Conquest cover (which is hard to ignore), the album is full of nuggets such as the Effect & Cause, Rag & Bone, Little Cream Soda, Catch Hell Blues, I'm Slowly Turning Into You... OK, so I'd better just stop there before I list the entire album. I am under the impression that almost nobody has heard the original Corky Robbins Conquest, except for possibly Jack White.
The White Stripes - Baby Brother (Icky Thump B-side) [originally by Bill Carter & The Rovin' Gamblers]


The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
The Arcade Fire is topping many best-of lists this year and conspicuously missing from many lists in my opinion is The Polyphonic Spree's The Fragile Army. More than a few times I've seen The Polyphonic Spree unfavourably compared to the Arcade Fire. I've read, for example, that they're "The Arcade Fire's hippie cousins" or they're "trying too hard to be the Arcade Fire", which isn't really fair to either band, especially since the Spree predate the Fire by a few years. The Polyphonic Spree seem to inspire either adoration or extreme hate. I think some people just have a hard time with the Spree's earnestness. Lack of irony doesn't go over so well these days. Anyway, I don't mean to get all defensive here. The Fragile Army was one of my favourite albums of the year. Plans to see them on tour this year clashed with my White Stripes roadtrip, but hopefully I'll see them in 2008. My desire to see them has boosted significantly since I heard they added a cover of Live & Let Die to their repertoire.
The Polyphonic Spree - Guaranteed Nightlife

Coconut Records - Nighttiming
I was completely enthralled by Coconut Records debut album Nighttiming. In case you didn't know, Coconut Records is Jason Schwartzman. Yes, the actor and former drummer/founding member of Phantom Planet, here playing every instrument on the album which is not as pretentious as it may sound. From the disco groove of the title track to the melancholic West Coast to the Tom Petty-esque rocker Minding My Own Business to the dreamy Summer Day, Schwartzman features a range of music, none of which really feels out of place. It took me a long time to disassociate him from his role as Max Fischer in the brilliant Wes Anderson film Rushmore. With an insignificant performance in the underrated CQ and an obnoxious turn in the god-awful Slackers, I was ready to just write him off completely as a one-hit wonder. A few years later, my sister and I would rent I Heart Huckabees and proceed to laugh hysterically throughout. In the process, I was finally able to view Jason Schwartzman as an actor and not Max Fischer. 2007 must have been a good year for him since he released this solo album independently and also reunited with Wes Anderson in the wonderful film The Darjeeling Limited (and the preceding short film Hotel Chevalier). I found out about Coconut Records quite by accident while investigating the limited music samples of Zooey Deschanel (remnants for a future posting), who is a guest vocalist on two tracks on the CD. The album, which I bought directly from Schwartzman's Young Baby Records, came with a "surprise gift" that turned out to be one of hundreds of polaroids he took. These will supposedly be used in a future music video (my polaroid seems to be of clippings/photos on his fridge or wall). I guess he ran out of polaroids since now there's a new surprise gift offered with each order. In fact, I just went ahead and ordered another copy for someone's belated x-mas gift.
Coconut Records - West Coast
Coconut Records - Slowly (featuring Zooey Deschanel)

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
This year I got to check off Mr. Bird from the list of must-see acts after finally catching his show in Vancouver. Armchair Apocrypha was another solid record of indie goodness as only Andrew Bird can do it, this time 'round with some electric guitar in the mix. Here he revisits the track "I" from his earlier album Weather Systems with new lyrics and arrangement.
Andrew Bird - Imitosis

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings put out another awesome record of old school funk soul that's even better than her last album. Nobody's Baby has got "AH-ooh's" that would do Aretha Franklin proud and Let Them Knock is a perfect showcase (as is the whole album) for Sharon's wicked soul vocals.
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Let Them Knock
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Nobody's Baby

The Ditty Bops - Dead and Gone
This was from their 5-song Pack Rat EP, a nice gift to tide us fans over until the next album due early in '08. No one sings retro harmonies as beautifully as these girls.

Danny Michel - In the Belly of a Whale (live)
On Danny Michel's live DVD from this year that he released independently, one of the extras was this version of In the Belly of a Whale, one of my favourite of his songs.

Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha Man (live)
This live track released towards the end of 2007 is a sneak peek at the direction they're taking with the new album expected in March 2008. Diamond Hoo Ha Man sounds like it's borrowing from the heavy fuzz riff of the White Stripes' Blue Orchid, but that's not altogether a bad thing.

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Cover finds of the year:

Tok Tok Tok - The Weight [originally by The Band]
This incredibly groovy head bobbin' cover of The Band is from the 2003 release It Took So Long. This was on constant repeat as I discovered it shortly before departing for China.

Doug & The Slugs - Nobody But Me [originally by The Isley Brothers]
For years this had been on my list of covers to track down. I remember this from an old mixtape my parents had on our family roadtrips. My sister and I loved to sing the lyrics, which are basically "No no no no-no no-no-no-no-no no No No No no No no NO NO no No no no" etc... which makes for some difficult google searching. A couple years ago I finally found out the song was called Nobody But Me, originally by The Isley Brothers and a hit for The Human Beinz in the 1960's. Except neither of those were the version I had heard as a kid. Over the years I would track down covers by George Thorogood, The Dickies, a non-cover of the same name by Blake Shelton, and more, but never that exact one. Then a few months ago I dug up that old cassette tape and recorded it to mp3 with the tag "unknown artist". In a move that should have been obvious from the get-go, I asked my mum if she knew the song, seeing how she originally would have made the mixtape from an LP. She didn't know immediately, but I was inspired to dig through old records in the basement looking for an LP with that cover. As it turns out it was taped off an LP from the library (gee, how times have changed) and my mom remembered it was Canadian rock band Doug & The Slugs from an album originally released the year I was born. Mystery solved!

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2007 in Film:

The best film I saw in 2007 was Zodiac, David Fincher's brooding meditation on the Zodiac killer and the individuals heavily involved with the investigation. Even though it came out early in the year, that was the one film I saw that completely engrossed me and left my jaw on the floor as I left the theatre. Last year it was Children of Men, this year it was Zodiac. Of the summer of blockbuster sequels, only the old school action throwback of Live Free or Die Hard and the visceral thrills of Bourne Ultamatum (best of the series) stood out. I hated Transformers, Ratatouille was a delight, The Simpsons Movie was surprisingly not terrible, but Stardust was a disappointment. I caught the Danny Boyle sci-fi thriller Sunshine on the flight home from Hong Kong and it was riveting even on a teeny-weeny seat monitor. I really liked Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, which had unintended extra pathos in light of the real-life turn of events surrounding Owen Wilson this year (hopefully he bounces back in '08). The absolute worst movie I saw this year was August Rush. Gag! Vomit! I saw it at a free screening and felt totally ripped off. No Country For Old Men was excellent, but I didn't love it.

2007 films I really want to see still: Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood, and Gone Baby Gone.

Most anticipated for 2008:

• Be Kind Rewind (new Michel Gondry film with Jack Black & Mos Def)
  
• 21 (long in the works adaptation of Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House about the MIT blackjack team)
  
• Shine a Light (Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert film; Jack White is a guest star)
  
• Iron Man (never really a fan of the comic, but the crew/cast involved seem to trying really hard to make it a worthy comic adaptation)
  
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (George could have called this anything and I'd show up)
  
• The Happening (new Shyamalan film... Lady in the Water was his first film I outright disliked; hoping he returns to Sixth Sense/Unbreakable form)
  
• Get Smart (probably going to suck, but hopefully not)
  
• The Dark Knight (THE film of 2008)
  
• new X-Files movie (I don't have much expectation, but I'm definitely intrigued)
  
• The International (Clive Owen + Naomi Watts with Run Lola Run's Tom Tykwer directing)
  
• Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze directing the children's classic with a screenplay co-written by Dave Eggers??? Sold!)
  
• Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (love the books; movies not so much... but I'll check it out anwyay)
  
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher re-teaming with Brad Pitt)
  
• new Bond film (no brainer)

Phew! After that post, I wouldn't expect to hear anything from me for a while! Happy New Year!