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Well, as always I find myself apologizing for the time between blogs and stories. I'd like to believe that each piece is better than the last and the time spent waiting is worthwhile. To that point, I'd like to welcome Sheena OhUiginn to the Lysten family. I got to know Sheena during the build up to the LMF last year and since then have come to truly appreciate her voice and perspective. I believe you, like I have, will welcome her unique and fresh insights. The goal is to hear from her once a week, so stay tuned!

It's always been the goal to have fresh and interesting voices from all over this great country speaking on this site. Sheena is hopefully the first of many to come. If you are interested in sharing stories about the great music in YOUR community or about your band, drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jennifer Higgs on her engagement.

Jennifer, I'm not sure where we would have been last year at the LMF without you. You were an incredible inspiration during a challenging time. Your energy and enthusiasm was a source of strength for many of us. We at Lysten wish you only the very best as you continue forward on your path. Ottawa's loss is PEI's gain. You will be greatly missed.

Chris

     It's been a few weeks now since THE festival and I'm still trying to get my head around the whole thing. When people ask me how it went I tend to stutter and stammer...I mean, on so many levels it was a massive success. It IS kind of hard to ignore the fact however that we took a huge financial hit. The stage, sound, lights, facility and the talent level were top notch bordering on world class. The attendance was...well...thank God we had to pay five cops to be there. At least the bands had SOMEONE to play to. About the bands. Amazing. Every single one of them went up there and were true pros, wether they played to one or one thousand, you'd not be able to tell the difference. I'm very proud of all those local acts that came out to support us and help out.

    I couldn't write this though and not address some of the fall out that's come from this however. I won't waste much time on this, but let me get it on the record now.

1. Lysten was acting as the Artistic Director and in exchange we received the naming rights.

2. The festival DID NOT receive one dime from anyone with any sort of government connection. Rumors that it got grants that were funneled away make me want to vomit.

    So. I took in Osheaga on Saturday, in theory it was a working trip..but really..I went for The National, because well, they are IT. However, I did get to see this little band called Arcade Fire (freakin brilliant show). Saw Beach House (went on a half hour late, so I did miss the last bit, but they were everything I'd hoped for). Had my mind blown though by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Had never even heard of them, but now I can't stop playing their disc.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this little write up is to share with you that we at Lysten have modified somewhat our festival plans (thank you Osheaga). Instead of three stages, we're going with two. Instead of three days, we want two (seems three IS NOT the magic number). Why? For you the fans. We don't want to offer you some diluted festival. We want to offer a quality event loaded with emerging talent.

So, it a funny thing happened on my way to global dominance (with respect to running a music website). I got a job. It has really, really cut into my time and energy and all of a sudden, it's been 6 months since I even wrote a lousy blog piece.

An even funnier thing happens when a guy who does trade shows, specializing in Lawn/Garden and a guy who knows a fair bit, but cares even more about, music have a beer. They decide they ought to throw a music festival together. In two months. How much experience do they have? They went to Bluesfest. Once. Separately. That should count for something. Right?

So my old high school buddy Steve and I recruit Jeff, my Lysten partner (you all know him right?) to run the technical side of this, because well...he's on Facebook, so he knows things. Right?

Collectively we decide we ought to have someone with a little experience on our side, and we recruit Chris White of Ottawa FolkFest fame. He knows stuff right? Sure does.

Just a quick note to inform you all that The National's new album "High Violet" is streaming on NPR until its release on May 11th.

So, head on over there and check it out as often as you wish ... I know I will be ...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126220062

Olympics are over. No more crap commercials that make me want to rip off me ears and poke in my eyes. I've always been very proud to be Canadian, but these last two weeks have really been incredible, even from a music perspective. VanOc and whomever else was involved seems to have done a killer job highlighting so much Canadian music. It was a real treat to see Hey Rosetta! live on CTV one morning doing an acoustic set.

Anyway..back to the thing I do where I talk about whatever I want musically...I just wanted to highlight a few things that have impressed me of late;

I'm From Barcelona - 27 tracks by 27 different members of this Swedish group. Check it out on their website (www.imfrombarcelona.com)

My Son The Hurricane - An 11 piece funk band from Toronto (check em on myspace)

Rain Machine - A side project from the lads in TV On The Radio

Joanna Newsom - a 3 disc masterpiece, much more accessible then her previous recordings

Check em out, let me know what you think.

C

So. Here I sit, burning from an Olympic fever, feeling little regret for not getting all worked up about it. Meh. I've prefered to write and listen to some new music, not that watcing people attempt to leap to their death isn't appealing. I digress however...

Hope you've checked out the (small albeit brilliant) article on Swedish band The Radio Dept. I just finished a "review" of the Sadie Hell album, I'll post that tomorrow. I know now why I don't like to do reviews. They're too damn small to make for good reading. Anyways. Not the size that matters.

I know I keep promising to redo the playlist. I don't know if it'll happen tomorrow or not, but Sunday for sure. I have a couple more "review" articles to write...so stick with us as I get this stuff up...the plus to my doing this slowly is that there's always reason to come back right?

Until then...?

C

So, after some thinking, I've decided to tinker with a brief departure from what this site has typically done. I've always avoided engaging in "reviewing" an artists work. Firstly, it's incredibly subjective, what I like, maybe isn't for all, and vice versa. Secondly, I have a difficult time, sitting in judgement of someone else's work, especially those who have a skill that I would love to have, but in truth have no gift for. There's also what I refer to as the "Homer effect", as I had no desire to stand at a pulpit and extol the virtues of my hometown talent. That one didn't work out all that well actually. It turns out there was/is a ridiculous amount of talented individuals in this city, so I'm still at my pulpit.

Listened to the Sadie Hell album over this past weekend. It's fantastic. Once I get my hands on a copy, I'll write more about, but suffice to say, I was very impressed. I, like everyone else in this city has heard and read the (very) positive reviews garnered for the band, but I've always tried to avoid the "Homer" syndrome (blindly and eagerly championing anything local, because it's, well..local). Now, I got to pass judgement myself and was pleased to be able to have done so. Those that know me know how I feel about My Dad vs. Yours (the cream of the Ottawa crop), well welcome Sadie Hell to that illustrious company.

The album is available at Endhits, Compact Music, Birdman Sound, Vertigo Records and at Planet of Sound. Buy it up eh!

I plan to meet with the man behind Sadie Hell, Mr Ben Welland, soon. Watch for the story that evolves out of convo soon. Hopefully he'll allow us here at Lysten to run a track or two on the playlist.

Cheers,

Chris

p.s. The poster used for the Sadie Hell cd release? Brilliant. I need to remember to ask who did that up.

"Courtesy" of CBC.ca it's a pretty good list, with links to videos. Enjoy

Illustration by Jillian Tamaki

Our musical tastes are highly subjective. What sound like chaotic bloops, squawks and skronks to one person might constitute brilliant free jazz to another; a metalhead’s awesome blistering riffs might strike a classical music aficionado as horrid unfocused noise. So as a rule, attempting to decide on the year’s finest albums is often akin to trying to herd a bunch of cats.

But somehow, when it came time to determine 2009’s best albums here at CBC News, we were surprised by how many overlaps appeared on our individual lists. (For the record, the listmakers were Arts feature writers Greig Dymond, Lee Ferguson, Andre Mayer and Sarah Liss.) Admittedly, each contributor made sacrifices in the interest of reaching consensus, but by and large, it was relatively easy to agree on a collective Top 10 list. Don't agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments below, or have your say in the Your View section.