by Margaret | Jan 15, 2015 | On My Mind |
Top Five Canadian Singles – 2014 Anyone who’s reading this is a fan of Mags (who isn’t?) so when she asked me to be a guest columnist on her blog, I was pretty flattered. Well, first I was kind of vomity, but then I was flattered. I’m not a musician and I’m not a music critic, I’m just a chick who likes her tunes and tries to keep an ear to the ground, but if Mags figures that’s enough, then I’m down with it. So, yeah, I know that “The Best of” or “The Top” lists are pretty much fraught with conflict, and you’re just setting yourself up for someone to say “You totally should have included this!” or “How could you have missed that?” I get it. Everyone’s got their faves, and these are mine. If it helps, just think of the title of this post more as “Krista’s Top Five Canadian Singles.” You’ll see that I have a bit of an alt rock / indie rock bent, but hey, that’s where I’m at. If you’re not there, that’s cool, just write your own list and don’t worry about mine. If you’re super lucky, maybe Mags will let you be a guest columnist sometime, too. 😉 There was a lot of great stuff that came out of Canada in 2014. Like, seriously good. So, here goes the Krista Countdown: #5. Mounties – Tokyo Summer Mounties is basically a Canadian indie supergroup, based out of Toronto and made up of Hawksley Workman, Steve Bays (formerly of Hot Hot Heat) and Ryan Dahle (Limblifter and, formerly, Age...
by Margaret | Jan 6, 2015 | On My Mind |
It’s almost a week into the New Year and I’m taking this time to reflect on the show with the Talia Denis Band. We played First Night in Saratoga Springs, NY and we played in a church right in front of the alter. I have to give a big round of applause to Talia’s Dad/Manager (the “Stan”ager) because he transformed the space into a mega-rock-church. It was so Sabbath. We had a Christmas tree, fog machine, DMX Lighting, a full sound board, a Christening Bath, a sound-man, monitors; I mean, it was a quite a production. Here are some photos courtesy of Jon Noble 🙂 See you on the low...
by Margaret | Dec 17, 2014 | On My Mind |
Charli XCX! For a bit the jury was out for me. I wasn’t connecting to the Iggy Azalea / Charli XCX collaboration, “Fancy”. Then “Boom Clap” came out, and I was thinking, “Ok, this is more interesting…I can dance behind this…” Then I read the Rolling Stone article behind her new album “Sucker”, and she comes across as smart, hardworking, confident, unabashed at loving pop music, and ready to arrive. Last night she performed on Letterman and this past weekend she performed on SNL. She nailed it. All my assessments seem to ring true. Here’s “Need Ur Luv” from Letterman. I love how her hair gets stuck in her massive eyelashes. Instead of brushing it off to the side immediately; she kind of savors the moment, and gingerly moves her hair as if saying “yeah, it’s part of my wardrobe.” See you on the low end!Love,Mags ...
by Margaret | Nov 13, 2014 | On My Mind |
KG* is a big massive Sloan fan, and she had a plus one to the show – so she invited me! I am not a big massive Sloan fan only because I haven’t heard that much from the band. My girl friend, Krista, at the IATSE Canadian Office has been sending me Canadian artists to check out; Grapes of Wrath, Bran Van 3000, Blue Rodeo…Prism! I know all about Jim Cuddy and Ronnie Hawkins! – but we hadn’t made it to Sloan, yet. I did know a few of their songs from college radio and WEQX, but I haven’t dug into their catalog…and I really wish I had. The band was great. Sloan is a true rock band with harmonies and riffs and catchy hooks and thoughtful lyrics. I bought two cds at the show – “Navy Blues” and “Pretty Together”. Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson both signed my cds. That was really cool. Here’s a live clip of my favorite Sloan song, “The Other Man”, at the CBC Music Festival at Echo Beach in Toronto. Notice that Chris Murphy is playing a really sweet Mustang bass 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyfejnBGtRk See you on the low...
by Margaret | Nov 6, 2014 | On My Mind |
Chrissie Hynde is so cool. She’s so punk rock, and rock’n roll, and the audience in the Loge last night at the Beacon was not punk rock and it was not rock’n roll. It was a bunch of dinosaurs who have lost touch with their youth, and had no realization that they were at a rock’n roll concert. They tried to get the two ladies in front of me to sit down and stop dancing by calling over not one, but two ushers to tell them to sit down. So, what did I do? After some choice words to the dinosaurs, I stood up and danced in a gesture of rock’n roll solidarity….and so did about a half a dozen youthful spirits around us… Regardless of the audience, Chrissie still has it. Her vibrato is as unique as it was 35 years ago. Set Highlights From the Show: – Vintage Ampeg amps – Chrissie’s sparkly telecaster – The album, “Stockholm” – “Night in My Veins” – “Back on the Chain Gang” – “Talk of the Town” – “My City Was Gone” – “Precious”!!!!! And she closed with…. – “TATTOOED LOVE BOYS”!!! Here’s something that I found yesterday on the YouTube. It’s pretty current with some Shirley Manson fairy dust… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0CndiljPQ See you on the low...
