Bart McPherson Weblog

Here are my top 25 albums of 2007. They are the albums I think were the best from this year. These are items I’ve actually listened to, so there are probably a ton of artists/releases from this year that belong on the list that I just never got a chance to hear. You can always send your stuff to the station for me and the rest of the programmers to spin if we like it.

25. A Place to Bury Strangers - self-titled
24. The Cave Singers - Invitation Songs
23. Tunng - Good Arrows
22. Wooden Wand - James & the Quiet
21. Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
20. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
19. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
18. The Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
17. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
16. The New Pornographers - Challengers
15. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - self-titled
14. The Afternoon Naps - Sunbeamed
13. Boris - Rainbow
12. Caribou - Andorra
11. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
10. Dreadful Yawns - Rest
9. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
8. Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
7. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
6. Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara
5. The Sadies - New Seasons
4. Arthur & Yu - In Camera
3. José González - In Our Nature
2. Frightened Rabbit - Sing the Greys
1. Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Honorable mentions go out to the following bands. (Sorry, good stuff. I just can’t fit it all in.)
Buffalo Tom, Citay, John Doe, Dungen, Feist, Meat Puppets, Robert Pollard, Two Cow Garage, John Vaderslice, David Vandervelde, and Mary Weiss.

This weekend we went to Toronto. It’s a great city to visit, and I imagine a great place to live.

The main reason we went up was to see Elliott BROOD at Lee’s Palace. They were great. Much louder than I expected them to be, but they still sounded great. They played their “hits” and a few covers (Johnny Cash, White Stripes, and Neil Young). The opening bands were rather disappointing. Plants & animals and Corb Lund.

Before the show we had dinner across the street from our hotel at the Beer Bistro. Had a great Quebecois beer Blanche de Chambly.

The next day we explored the city taking the subway and street cars. Visited the shoe museum and their Little Italy neighborhood. I picked up some CDs at Soundscapes.

The people in Toronto were very nice. Very polite. It seems to be a “live and let live” type of town. Where in the U.S. it’s “I live at your expense” or “I’ll sue you for making me feel bad”. Workers looked you in the eye and said thank you instead of grunting and wishing you weren’t bothering them.

And of course coming back to the U.S. you’re treated like a criminal right at the border.

Canada, I miss you already. Still don’t understand the appeal of Tim Hortons, but I can get past that.