Feist loves counting...

My buddy Brain sent this to me the other day...



and my favourite Feist video, and maybe one of my favourite music moments of the last several years...



and... the video I took seeing her live at Christmas....

If Bands Were Ballers....

Last week, I wrote a post on my new favourite band of the moment, the Golden Hands Before God. In the post, I compared them to UCLA forward Kevin Love, and Black Mountain to Gilbert Arenas. I was quickly corrected by Bryan of Herohill, who suggested that a better comparison for Black Mountain was probably Dirk Nowitzki (a big stats guy, who pretends to have an edge - Dirk's infamous scowl). And while I thought I was being particularly original, apparently I wasn't, since, when I emailed them to get an opinion on my comparisons - they gave me some helpful feedback and sent me the text of their June 2007 post.

Either way, here goes my best shot at picking out some of the best comparisons I can think of, with some sort of explanation where possible. This was the best I could do, but would be interested if there are other suggestions out there....

Kobe Bryant is Kanye West.

Both are hands down the best (shooting gaurd and rap producer) around, get a lot of attention and deservedly so, but they both know how good they are and carry themselves thusly.

Chris Paul is Feist.

It took a little while for people to figure out how good they actually are, and even if they don't/didn't win the prize (NBA Championship/Grammy) at the end of the year - they certainly demonstrated that the attention is well deserved.

Ron Artest is Amy Winehouse.

Because you could hear just about anything about either of them, and you'd believe it was true.

Dikembe Mutumbo is the Besnard Lakes.

They both look a little too old to be doing what they've been doing, but lately, they've been awesome.

Joakim Noah is the Sunparlour Players.

Energy, intensity, and passion. Just getting their grounding, but both will be very successful in their own ways.

And, as always, Chris Bosh is the Toronto Raptor.

A Mix CD For Your Sister

I think I've got some good stuff for next week, including a story about hip-hop yoga, and some thoughts (hopefully photos and video as well) from Hayden. For now, just a tracklist for a MixCD that I made for Liz's friend Jenn for her birthday. Usually these CDs turnout being music that I think should be played on Muchmusic, MTV, Muchmoremusic, but don't make the cut for whatever reason. Until we acquire mp3 hosting my suggestion is, that you try and track these down from the Hype Machine, and support the artists (although neither Bob Dylan nor Rihanna really need your money).

If I was more ambitious or artistic, this would have been the cover art:

A Birthday Kiss for Jen P.

1. Bon Iver “Skinny Love” For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Patrick Watson “Luscious Life” Close to Paradise
3. Hayden “Message from London” Folk Music for the End of the World
4. Chad Van Gaalen “After the Afterlife” Infiniheart
5. Lupe Fiasco “Superstar” The Cool
6. Bodies of Water “We Are Co-Existors” Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink
7. Jenn Grant “White Horses” Orchestra for the Moon
8. Handsome Furs “Hearts of Iron” Plague Park
9. Broken Social Scene “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” You Forgot It In People
10. Great Lake Swimmers “Back Stage with the Modern Dancers” Ongiara
11. Jim James & Calexico “Going to Acapulco” I’m Not There OST
12. Bob Dylan “I’m Not There” I’m Not There OST
13. Great Bloomers “Catching Up” Great Bloomers EP
14. Jens Lekman “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig” Night Falls Over Kortedala
15. Crime Mob vs. The Shins “Rock Yo Sea Legs” thehoodinternet.com
16. Rihanna “Don’t Stop the Music” Good Girl Gone Bad
17. Feist “Intuition” (unreleased version)
18. Jose Gonzalez "Down the Line" In Our Nature

Best Videos 2007

7. Carleton Singing Knights "Chicago" (Sufjan Stevens cover)
This acapella version was good enough that I felt compelled to share it even though it happened last year. For fans of Soofyan Stevens, and Andy Bernard's 'Here Comes Treble'.



6. K'naan "KickED PushED"
The story of yet another hardship for K'naan.



5. The Besnard Lakes "For Agent 13"
Very moving, even if Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas aren't really 'video people'.



4. Bat for Lashes "What's a Girl to Do"
Donnie Darko meets BMX bikes.



3. Kanye West "Stronger"



2. Destroyer w/ Final Fantasy & Cadence Weapon "An Actor's Revenge" (live @ Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX)
How excited is Cadence Weapon to be on stage with Dan Bejar (the New Pornographers, Destroyer)? I think, very excited.



1. Feist "I Feel it All" (live on Jimmy Kimmel, on a moving city bus)
Reason #1,032 why I love Feist.

Feist @ Centennial Hall, London On w/ Great Lake Swimmers

Feist was great last night. She started out with this really neat acapella behind a white screen, so all we could see was her silhouette, and then powered through a set that included covers of Tony Scheer, Sarah Harmer, Ron Sexsmith as well as a big chunk of her 2007 release The Reminder (which, I think, is a lock for at least a couple of grammys). I was also thoroughly impressed with the production of the show - the lighting in the video should give you some idea, if you can see Feist (she's the really skinny one) or the band with the heads that are in the way.

The show closed with a particularly energetic version of 'Mushaboom' that had the crowd really going (which kind of made me feel like I was at Mama Mia). The highlight of night was the encore featuring a cover of, the legendary Nina Simone's, 'Sea Lion Woman'.

I was a little disappointed that no Broken Social Scene tracks made the set, but, you can't win 'em all.

I think I've made a point before of mentioning how much I like Great Lake Swimmers, and they were great last night also.