My Faves for 2014

  

This year, I left the little island of Montreal and travelled to Texas with DJ Kelly from Les Femmes En Question! We spent three awesome days on the Carson Creek Ranch at Austin Psych Fest where I got to see some of my favourite bands and musicians, including Kadavar, Dead Meadow, Earthless, Shannon & the Clams, and Mikal Cronin... but the biggest dream come true for me was finally getting to watch Acid Mothers Temple perform. They LITERALLY set the stage on fire! Another stand-out was Kikagaku Moyo from Tokyo, Japan. I only caught the last 3 minutes of their set, but that's all I needed to immediately fell in love with the band. I ran to the merch table to buy their album, Forest of Lost Children, which got a lot of spins on my turntable since my return. My fondest Austin memory has got to be the people I met there. I feel so lucky! Here's a big shout out to Raul, Eric, Nathan, Karina, Chad, Sarah, Andreas, Bobcat, Zeek, Michael, and David. VC is good. Vinyl Community forever!

BEST RELEASES

PyPy - Pagan Day
Small Teeth - Small Teeth Tape
Nancy Pants - Total Nancy Pants
Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
Hound - Out of Time
Obliterations - Poison Everything
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Kikagaku Moyo - Forest of Lost Children
Allah-Las - Worship the Sun
Hamish Kilgour - All of It and Nothing
David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights - End Times Undone
Habibi - Habibi
Ariel Pink - Pom Pom
Owen Pallett - In Conflict
Aphex Twin - Syro
Self Defense Family - Try Me
Mogwai - Raves Tapes

BEST VINYL REISSUES

Built to Spill - Ultimate Alternative Wavers
The Clean - Anthology
They Might Be Giants - Flood
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone
All the Belle and Sebastian reissues on Matador Records, OMG

BEST COMPILATIONS

Various - Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles
Various - Eccentric Soul: Capitol City Soul
Various - Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966 - 1985
William Onyeabor - Box set, Vol 1. & Vol. 2

MEMORABLE SHOWS

Neutral Milk Hotel + Elf Power @ Olympia
Everything @ Austin Psych Fest!
Black Angels + Roky Eriksson @ Corona Theatre
Hanson Brothers @ Il Motore (when it was still Il Motore)
Kid Kongo & the Pink Monkey Birds @ Le Divan Orange
Ronnie Spector's Behind the Beehive + Bloodshot Bill @ The Rialto (POP Montreal)
Ty Segall + The Nymphets + La Luz @ Club Soda (POP Montreal)

YOU WILL BE MISSED

RIP Robin Williams. Thank you for your talent, and the kindness you showed to all your fans.

A fond farewell to The Record Room. Thanks for all the 45s!