Favourite Albums of 2018

Always hard to pick my top ten albums of a year, so here I list my favourite records of 2018 in no particular order.

* Titus Andronicus - A Productive Cough

* Dean Ween Group - rock2

* Neil Young - Roxy, Tonight's The Night Live

* Parker Millsap - Other Arrangements

* Father John Misty - God's Favorite Comedy

* Lucero - Among The Ghosts

* Mike Plume - Born By The Radio

* Adam's House Cat - Town Burned Down

* Jason Isbell - Live From The Ryman

* Bob Dylan - More Blood, More Tracks The Bootleg Series Vol.14

* Real Sickies - Get Well Soon

* Mark Knopfler - Down The Road Wherever

* The Longshot - Love Is For Losers

* Stephen Malkmus - Sparkle Hard

Favorite Concerts of 2018

Went to 47 concerts this year and tried to come up with a list of my top ten.

My top ten, ok eleven concerts I saw in 2018. I had an extremely hard time picking only ten shows. But this is what I came up with. All shows in Edmonton unless otherwise noted.

* Apr.4th - The Bronx and No Parents @ Starlite Room
* Oct.19th - Mike Plume @ Loulou's in Vancouver
* July 22nd - Courtney Barnett @ Interstellar
* Feb.15th - Dan Bern @ The Almanac
* May 16th - Paul Simon @ Rogers Arena in Vancouver
* Sept.30th - Paul McCartney @ Rogers Place
* May 20th - David Byrne @ Jubilee
* Nov.2nd - Jack White @ Rogers Place
* Aug. 11th - Ry Cooder @ Folk Fest
* Oct.17th - MC50 & Starcrawler @ Commodore in Vancouver
* Sept. 14th - Leeroy Stagger @ The Station

So many other great shows like TPOH, Mac Sabbath, Altameda, Jr.Gone Wild, Dave Hause, Uriah Heep blah blah blah, the list could go on til I've named them all.

Real Sickies Live in Edmonton Dec.22nd 2018

Last Saturday Cuz and I went to the Real Sickies show at The Temple. This triple bill which also included the bands Tee-Tahs and The Mandates was in celebration of the release of THIS IS POP! Canada Vol.1 record release. This album was put together by Ben Disaster who not only fronts the Real Sickies but also runs the label THIS IS POP. The record which is Volume 1 has seventeen bands on it from coast to coast including all the bands that were playing this show.

The first band of the night was the Tee-Tahs from Edmonton. This band is an all female band fronted by Jessica Jalbert who also fronts the band Faith Healer. Caity Fisher also shared vocal duties. Their style of music would be best described as garage punk. I found their set to be kind of lifeless and boring.

Tee-Tahs.

Next up was a band out of Calgary called The Mandates who released their newest album Dead In The Face in August on This Is Pop record label. I really enjoyed their set of power pop punk. The band had lots of energy and a 70's punk feel. I'd buy their album and see them in concert again for sure.

The Mandates.

Headlining the night was Edmonton punksters The Real Sickies. This was my second time seeing them live and again they were awesome. Led by Ben Disaster on vocals who has so much energy, as do the rest of the band. Their old school punk rock (Ramones, Teenage Head like) is fun, full of energy, with lots of hooks and sing along vocals. The crowd lacked energy on this night but the band made up for that. Playing songs from their debut album Get Well Soon on This Is Pop Records. They played lots from the Get Well Soon album, songs such as the title song "Get Well Soon", "I Don't Wanna Be Here", "Cool Club" and "C'mon Baby". They also played some new songs which sounded great too, looking forward to hearing the new album.

This only being my second time seeing them I love the energy and fun of watching lead singer Ben Disaster perform, from the swinging of his mic all over the place, and really not being very good at it but that doesn't stop him from doing it, it's actually quite funny. His between song banter, on this night he went on about how he had diarrhea and was really de-hydrated, all the while he slammed back beers on stage. At one point during the show, someone threw a cupcake and smoked him in the face with it. Ben took it all in stride. The Mandates had been giving out cupcakes at their merch booth. This was a very fun show. Good times!!!

The Real Sickies.

Bill & Joel Plaskett Live in Edmonton Dec.6th 2018

Last week Janis, Buzzard and I went to the Bill & Joel Plaskett show at the Myer Horowitz Theatre. This would be my ninth time seeing Joel Plaskett in concert. Bill & Joel were playing two shows in Alberta to cap off their Solidarity tour. Solidarity being the name of the album that Joel and his Dad Bill put out in February of 2017. The tour didn't come through Alberta when they originally did the tour as Joel had done a few shows with the Edmonton and Calgary Orchestras. So I really wasn't expecting to see the two of them perform together. But much to my surprise JCL Productions brought the two of them to town for a show.

Opening the show was the Mayhemingways, who are a folk duo from Peterborough, Ontario. Benj Rowland does lead vocals and plays an array of instruments from acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo and accordion all the while playing bass on a guitar pedal, part two of the duo is Josh Fewings on drums and harmony vocals. I had never heard them before but thought they were pretty damn good. A couple song titles I recall them playing were "Bad Old Days" and "Frances The Truck", both were good. Overall I enjoyed their set.

Mayhemingways.

Next up was Bill and Joel Plaskett. I always enjoy seeing Joel in concert as he is a great songwriter, guitar player and always entertaining. I had seen his dad Bill play in Joel's band once before when Joel came through town in 2009 on his tour for the album Three.

This show started with just the two of them playing about a half dozen songs together, which of course included a few songs from the Solidarity album. The only problem with this show is that they struggled with monitor problems through out the show, but they soldiered on and still put on a wicked show. After the first six or so songs it was time for Joel Plaskett to play some songs by himself.

A couple of the songs that Bill and Joel did from the Solidarity album were, the title song, "Dragonfly", "Blank Cheque" and "On Down The River". Joel's solo songs were great too, with im playing a rare acoustic version of "Drunk Teenagers", "Ashtray Rock" and "Fashionable People" from his Ashtray Rock album, and a good selection of songs from his Three album "Rollin', Rollin, Rollin", "Pine, Pine, Pine", "Wishful Thinking", "Through, Through, Through" and "Deny, Deny, Deny".

Other songs played were "I'm Yours", "I Love This Town", oh man I wish I could remember them all. He did play one new song I believe was called "Memory Complete Me". So many great songs in this two hour show. For the last part of the show he had the Mayhemingways join them for about 6 songs. All in all this was a great show. Good times!!!

Bill and Joel Plaskett.

The Devil's Voice Live in Edmonton Nov.25th 2018

So what do you do on a Sunday night? Why, you go to a punk rock show, that's what you do. So it was last Sunday I made my way to The Buckingham on Whyte Avenue for a triple bill of music.

The first band of the evening was a Madball cover band fronted by JFK of E-Town Beatdown, also featuring members of Run With The Hunted and Sleeping Girl. Madball is a hardcore band out of New York, but this was Edmonton's version. I thought they sounded great, JFK certainly had the vocals down and the rest of the band were damn good as well. A great set.

Madball cover band.

Second band of the night and the surprise guest was a band called Seas out of Brampton, Ontario. This band is made of two former members of the band Moneen. Led by Chris Hughes of Moneen, he with the long ass dreads. Chris is a crazy front man whipping his air around and jumping around all the while singing and playing guitar. Also from Moneen was drummer Peter Krpan. Sitting in on bass was Clay Shea whom used to be in the Edmonton band Choke. Their music is a mix of pounding heavy shit shifting to psychedelia all in the same song. I rather enjoyed their set.

Seas.

Headlining the night was The Devil's Voice which is an SNFU cover band made up of members Jesse Zaraska from (Misery Signals/Compromise) on vocals, Brent Connolly (Sleeping Girl) on guitar, Garrett Heath Kruger (Fire Next Time/The Allovers and more) on drums, Braden Sustrik on bass (Compromise) and Shawn Moncrieff on guitar (Choke). of course The Devil's Voice is an SNFU song title from their If You Swear, You'll Catch No Fish album.

The Devil's Voice came together for a Halloween show where local bands did sets of bands being bands. These guys chose the iconic Edmonton punk band SNFU. It went over so well that they have now played a hand full of gigs since. This was my first time seeing them, and knowing most of the guys in the band I was looking forward to seeing them perform. I thought they did an excellent job. Lead singer Jesse might not have Chi Pig's (Kenn Chinn) voice but he did it justice and he had Chi's moves down good to his prancing, dyed hair, high kicks and the way he held his mic. You could tell Jesse was having a blast as were the band cranking out these old punk hits. Songs like "Cannibal Café", "She's Not On The Menu", "Where's My Legs" and "Time To Buy A Futon". Their 30 or so minute set was full on punk rock, I just wish I could remember what other songs they played but I am drawing a blank. I guess that's what you get when you don't write a review in a timely matter. I had a lot of fun at this show. Good times!!!

The Devil's Voice.

In concert news...The Devil's Voice will be playing their last gig on New Years Eve in Edmonton at The Temple in the Starlite Room, Also, Jesse Zaraska's band Misery Signals are working on a new album and touring Europe in 2019 with a couple of warm up shows in Alberta. One of them being at the Starlite Room on Sunday March 17th.