Choosing 25 albums from the past year proved to be a difficult task. 2011 produced a whole whack load of great music and it was tough to come up with and order the list below. Other than the albums below, there were a bunch that I couldn’t fit in my top 25. Those albums include Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes, Adele 21, Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues and The War on Drugs Slave Ambient.

2011 proved to be another fantastic year for Canadian music. Leading the way was Drake with his second album Take Care. Other Canadians with good albums this year include City And Colour with Little Hell, Austra with her debut Feel It Break and Arkells with Michigan Left.

Hope you enjoy these albums as much as I did and as always if there was an album you really liked that I didn’t mention, please let me know!

Similar to 2010, this year has been a fantastic year for music. We saw debut albums from both Gallagher brothers, Cults, and Grouplove. We also heard some of awesome singles from M83, Lana Del Rey, and The Weeknd. Mixed in with these catchy singles and debuts were a bunch of solid albums. Some of those include Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life and Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

As is the case with every year there is always this one song that gets to me that becomes my guilty pleasure. This year that award goes to Katy Perry. Her single ‘E.T.’ was so catchy and was played everywhere I turned that it got tattooed in my head. Also on my playlist are two tracks from Canadian rockers The Sheepdogs. Although their album ‘Learn & Burn’ was released in 2010, they really hit it big this year thanks to winning the Rolling Stone Magazine contest.

The 80 songs below is pretty much a soundtrack to my year. From songs that were released in January right up until December every song on here was played countless amounts of time. Hope you enjoy the list and let me know if there were any songs you really enjoyed that I should check out. Happy Holidays!

Back in February I wrote about a Toronto based hardcore/metal band, Dreamers, that covered Wiz Kahlifa’s smash hit ‘Black And Yellow’. Well last week I finally had the chance to see them at the Hard Luck bar in Toronto. Opening the night for a Roadrunner Records showcase, Dreamers set the the tone early and only got better as they went through their six song set.

Opening their set with the lead off track from the independently released EP ‘Shenanigans’ was ‘Your Outcry’ followed by ‘Dreameater’ and ‘Shadows Burn’. Not only was their set great but their intensity and energy on stage is fantastic! With their mix of hardcore and good old fashioned metal, Dreamers bring a fresh new sound and energy to the hardcore genre.

Their next show is tomorrow night (November 4th) in Hamilton at Doors Pub in Hess Village. If you get a chance go out and catch one of their shows, well worth it!

Setlist:
Your Outcry
Dreameater
Shadows Burn
Tideturner
So Yeah… About Last Night
No Place To Hide

Links:
Official Site: www.dreamerswtf.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/DreamersWTF
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DreamersWTF

Photo By Samantha O’Sullivan

AC Milan were crowned Serie A champions Saturday May 7th with a draw against Roma. Going into the game Milan need at least a draw to secure their 18th Serie A title and first in seven years. The 2010/2011 season was a long and exciting one with plenty of highs and unfortunately lows. With Max Allegri signing on as the new manager last summer no one knew how this team was going to do. With off season signings of Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Brazilian Robinho and midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng Milan quickly became one of the favourites to win the league along with city rivals Inter, Juventus and Roma.

By the half way mark of the season it looked clear that Milan were the heavy favourites to win the title with Inter, Juventus and Roma all struggling. Napoli and surprise Lazio became the bigger clubs to rival AC for the scudetto. While holding the top spot, Milan decided to reinforce their strikers and depth by signing troublemaker Antonio Cassano. Besides his antics Cassano can prove to be an impact player and showed that throughout the rest of the season. It is no doubt that the off season and mid season transfer signings helped Milan but also coaching and style of play helped them win their 18th title in franchise history.

Milan can capture a second trophy this season if they beat Palermo and advance to the Coppa Italia final. If Milan are able to capture the Coppa Italia it’d be their first since winning it back in 2002-2003 season. Also this scudetto is Milan’s first in 7 years when they won it last in 2003-2004 when Carlo Ancelotti was managing the team.

With the way Milan played this year there is no doubt in my mind that Milan can repeat as champions next year but we will all have to wait until next season and see which players Milan will buy in the off season transfer market.

Until then Forza Milan!!

Image from acmilan.com

The past couple of weeks have been quite eventful for the beautiful and talented British songstress Ellie Goulding. Late last month the most talked about wedding between Prince William & Kate occurred and they both had asked that Ellie Goulding perform at their reception. This is huge considering the amount of media this wedding attracted and definitely helped Ellie get her name out there. With her name now floating around in the media it came to no surprise that she was the musical guest on this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live. Ellie performed her hit ‘Lights’ and ‘Your Song’ from her 2010 album Bright Lights. Check out her performances below and after the jump, enjoy!

With the end of the week approaching, this week has proven to be a great week of music for myself. With that I’ve decided that the following five tracks are ones you should give a listen to. They have been on a constant repeat all week and hope they do the same for you. Enjoy!

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX – Take Care Of You [listen]

Yuck – The Wall [listen]

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Belong [listen]

Manchester Orchestra – Simple Math [listen]

Fucked Up - Ship Of Fools [listen]

There is a lot of talk going around right now about the new Foo Fighters album ‘Wasting Light’. Scheduled to be released on April 11th we have heard the official single ‘Rope’ and ‘White Limo’, with a guest appearance by Motorhead’s Lemmy in the video. And now today we are blessed with yet another new Foo Fighters track! Brace yourself because this is AWESOME! Have a listen and when you’re done pick up your melted face from the floor because this track will, well melt your FACE!

LISTEN HERE

The Strokes are taking over my life and I for one don’t mind! After releasing a video for ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ and performing a killer set on Saturday Night Live we are treated to more goodies from the New York rockers. Two more tracks from their upcoming album ‘Angels’ have been leaked and you can listen to them here.

The two tracks ‘Machu Picchu’ and ‘Taken For A Fool’ have a refreshing sound to them and are a little more “poppy” than their older stuff but are still great. From the catchy hooks to the guitar work of Albert Hammond Jr. & Nick Valensi these two tracks, along with ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ and ‘Life is Simple in the Moonlight’, is an indication that ‘Angels’ is going to a solid album cover to cover!

British rockers Arctic Monkeys released a new video today to a single of theirs titled ‘Brick By Brick’. It is believed to be the single of their yet to be named fourth album that is rumored to be released this spring/summer. The track has a slightly different sound from their previous work but it still is catchy and good! Have a listen below!

Not only did they released a new song/video but they also announced a summer 2011 tour that kicks off May 17th in Washington DC and ends August 21st in the UK. The lads are scheduled to appear in Toronto May 21st at the Kool Haus and in Montreal the following night at L’Olympia. Those are the only Canadian dates on this tour. If you’re in town and want to see a good show check these guys out live as it is one hell of a show!

For now enjoy their latest ‘Brick By Brick’.

This past Saturday (March 5) The Strokes capped off a busy week. It started one week ago when a 30 second preview of each track from their upcoming album ‘Angels’ leaked online, listen here. Then they released ‘You’re So Right’, which is scheduled to be part of the b-side that is going to be included in the release of ‘Under Cover of Darkness’, listen here. Following that they released the video for their single ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ where we see frontman, Julian Casablancas on his way to meeting up with the rest of the band and performing what looks to be in a opera house. The video itself is well done and fits the song, watch here.

Following three straight days of releases the guys stayed quiet until Saturday. The guys performed their single ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ and an unreleased track ‘Life Is Simple In The Moonlight’ from their new album. Their performance was great! Seeing these guys back together and playing their music was great to watch, even better was how good they sounded. Check out their SNL performances below and let me know what you think!