Music
The top 10 songs from Toronto bands in 2010
The top 10 songs from Toronto bands is a difficult list to carve out in 2010. This year's best of the best list features a wave of talented local musicians, each offering something unique and compelling. But perhaps the greatest strength of a group like this is the degree to which all of these songs speak to something greater: that Toronto has become a nesting ground for awesome musicians and music culture.
#10 - Young Empires - "White Doves (Demo)" / MP3 via We Are Pajamas
Young Empires' "White Doves" opens with veering synths and then percussions gallop, taking you "back home" wherever it may be. Majestic hooks and rhythms form thick shoe-gaze that sparks nostalgia of youth swagger and the feeling of invincibility. Watch for the turn in the song as the overture of synths ascend for a vertical push.
#9 - Tokyo Police Club - "Wait Up (Boots of Danger)" / MP3 via ATL's A-List / [Buy]
Tokyo Police Club's "Wait Up (Boots of Danger)" is a feel-good track that rekindles joys of youth, stretches summertime feelings and makes us reflect on the year's "good times."
#8 - The Wilderness of Manitoba - "November" / Video / [Buy]
The quietest songs are often the loudest as the ensemble from The Wilderness of Manitoba sing the lyrical couplets of "November," flowing like a stream of soft breaths.
#7 - Holy Fuck - "Latin America" / MP3 via Beggars Group / [Buy]
Holy Fuck's four-minute classic "Latin America" builds like a lit fuse until dynamite percussion, guitars and synthesizers explode, creating a tapestry of sound - a soaring landscape to explore.
#6 - Caribou - "Found Out" / MP3 via Said the Gramophone / [Buy]
In "Found Out" Daniel Snaith adds and subtracts layers of sound, displaying his obsession with mathematical music creation. The sum: a dance floor-ready track that flows with emotion and fluid energy.
#5 - Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - "Not in Love (Remix)" / MP3 via I Guess I'm Floating / [Buy]
Music bloggers everywhere took note when Crystal Castles announced that they would remix their track "Not in Love" and feature The Cure's Robert Smith in vocals. The result is a screeching, catchy dance track that makes getting over someone something to celebrate.
#4 - Hooded Fang - "Laughing" / MP3 via Quick Before it Melts / [Buy]
Hooded Fang transformed themselves quickly from Toronto's hidden treasure to the city's newest most cherished multi-instrumental collective. The triumphant arrangements on their pop gem "Laughing" fulfills wishes and spills happiness all around.
#3 - Diamond Rings - "Something Else" / MP3 via Quick Before it Melts / [Buy]
In early November, I recall musicians from Toronto tweeting their congratulations to John O'Regan when his album Special Affections received high marks on Pitchfork. John O's David Bowie-esque "Something Else" was intended to do one thing: turn whatever you set your foot on into a dance floor.
#2 - Broken Social Scene - "Meet Me in the Basement" / MP3 via Ca Va Cool / [Buy]
When the core members of BSS created "Meet Me in the Basement," the track instantly became the band's epic anthem. Hearts blew out when they played this song at their dream concert at the Harbourfront. Now, when we listen to the song, we all want to hear Kevin Drew shout "one more time!" again and again.
#1 - Owen Pallett - "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" / MP3 via Said the Gramophone / [Buy]
Toronto's gifted fiddler gave us the warmest gift this year with his album Heartland, which included the magical track "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt." The track floats like a bubble through Pallett's ambitious musical storytelling and fluttering violin. We follow the bubble as it rises, rising to heights like a dream of flight.
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Also, "leans towards indie."
INDIE is not a genre insofar as naming a SOUND. These are all POP songs. Alternative in nature, sure, but it's pop. And it's easily Toronto's predominant scene. Can you blame media for picking up what's actually on its radar as opposed to what flies well below it at all turns?
bands like the creepshow, die mannequin, numerous others i would put on this list. I am sure there are many R&b bands that deserve to be on the list too. among others.
over on blogTO most of us on the music team are into Toronto's bustling indie scene as well as some electro and a dash of everything else that comes our way
the top 10 lists are a reflection of what we actually like listening to and bands we like seeing live
these lists are not all encompassing, and its barely even possible to scratch the surface of any music scene with only 10 picks. if you want a better all-around view of toronto's music scene, read the blogTO concert reviews, hot tickets and mixtapes. all those help to provide the musical diversity some of you are looking for.
thanks!
And sorry to beat a dead horse, but the Toronto music scene is much bigger than the 'alternative rock pop' (leaving out the word 'indie' intentionally) listed here. Normally this blog is very good for that, but hey.... nothing gets people debating like a definitive list.
All this crap is the same, derivative malarkey! How do you or these bands tell each other apart? You're all the same kind o' dipster.
as marge simpson once pointed out on a clever australian t-shirt, 'pobody's nerfect'
2) Caribou is a citizen of the UK, and was originally from Dundas, ON
3) Owen is deserving of #1
4) Toronto currently has the best run-of-the-mill generic pop scene in the world right now.
5) Toronto has not had a "bustling indie scene" since Three Gut went under and took most of what was good with it. The only thing musicians from T.O. seem to aspire to do nowadays is to create a market friendly mix of pop and electronics that may sell well enough to afford them a nice fix-er-upper near the Drake.
Eh? Eh?
*elbows you into the ground*
I'm still rockin White Lies, Black Truth from SlikToxik!!! 1992!! Still my 2010 song of the year!!!
He's not from Toronto. Just cus an artist is from Ontario does not mean they are from Toronto. He's from London!
This list is missing some of your choices? Well then why don't you suggest some in the comments? And if there's a youtube video to go with the suggestion, all the better!
Collaboration kids, it's what the interwebs is s'posed to be about :)
(also it would help if you didn't make your suggestion all snarky-like and indignant...that tends to put people off :)
People get so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to see the sameness in what they all like. The bands and artists too. In 10 years - and like it has always been with every other era of music - we'll all look at these bands as trying WAY too hard to be cool and fit in. It never fails. You'll have a couple, honest bands, but the rest are just jumping on the wagon and doing the same shit. It's not apparent WHILE it's happening, but it comes out years after the fact. Mark my words. "Why were all those bands trying to sound like some 80's, alternative mish-mash?", someone will ask. "That was the thing back then!" The THING. It's all just one big THING.
People get so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to see the sameness in what they all like. The bands and artists too. In 10 years - and like it has always been with every other era of music - we'll all look at these bands as trying WAY too hard to be cool and fit in. It never fails. You'll have a couple, honest bands, but the rest are just jumping on the wagon and doing the same shit. It's not apparent WHILE it's happening, but it comes out years after the fact. Mark my words. "Why were all those bands trying to sound like some 80's, alternative mish-mash?", someone will ask. "That was the thing back then!" The THING. It's all just one big THING.
People get so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to see the sameness in what they all like. The bands and artists too. In 10 years - and like it has always been with every other era of music - we'll all look at these bands as trying WAY too hard to be cool and fit in. It never fails. You'll have a couple, honest bands, but the rest are just jumping on the wagon and doing the same shit. It's not apparent WHILE it's happening, but it comes out years after the fact. Mark my words. "Why were all those bands trying to sound like some 80's, alternative mish-mash?", someone will ask. "That was the thing back then!" The THING. It's all just one big THING.
People get so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to see the sameness in what they all like. The bands and artists too. In 10 years - and like it has always been with every other era of music - we'll all look at these bands as trying WAY too hard to be cool and fit in. It never fails. You'll have a couple, honest bands, but the rest are just jumping on the wagon and doing the same shit. It's not apparent WHILE it's happening, but it comes out years after the fact. Mark my words. "Why were all those bands trying to sound like some 80's, alternative mish-mash?", someone will ask. "That was the thing back then!" The THING. It's all just one big THING.
People get so wrapped up in themselves that they fail to see the sameness in what they all like. The bands and artists too. In 10 years - and like it has always been with every other era of music - we'll all look at these bands as trying WAY too hard to be cool and fit in. It never fails. You'll have a couple, honest bands, but the rest are just jumping on the wagon and doing the same shit. It's not apparent WHILE it's happening, but it comes out years after the fact. Mark my words. "Why were all those bands trying to sound like some 80's, alternative mish-mash?", someone will ask. "That was the thing back then!" The THING. It's all just one big THING.
As was said, Caribou is not from Toronto.
Tokyo Police Club is from Newmarket.
There are a lot of good bands ACTUALLY from Toronto you know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_toronto_area_map.svg
With the exception of (overplayed) Drake, are the bands on the list ever played on Toronto radio???
All I ever hear on our only "alt" radio station is Billy Talent, Linkin Park & Nirvana.