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Grayowl Point’s 2010 Year in Review

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by Michael

2010 has been an exciting year, in that this is the first full year of Grayowl Point’s existence. Lots has happened since January 1, 2010 rolled around.

One of the first releases reviewed in 2010 was the Novels EP which was equal to or under fifteen minutes. It’s a brilliant recording because:

  • It was free and the guys of Novels told others to burn the EP onto blank discs and give them to strangers
  • The songs were all short and made you want more, making the EP infinitely listenable.

In February, We Are The City became the first band to answer our Grayowl Questionnaire, our fifteen questions we pose to all bands chosen as our Parliament’s Choice pick for the month. February also had reviews of great albums from Woodhands and Leif Vollebekk.

In March, Grayowl Point (sort of) covered its first Canadian Music Week. The coverage featured a list of almost every show playing during that one hectic week and an interview with Jon Janes of The Mountains and the Trees. Notable March album reviews included Ghostkeeper‘s self-titled LP and Versicolour by Aidan Knight.

April saw the launch of our Audible Hoots section which features one song by an artist to be reviewed later on the blog. You can check it out here. The month also featured reviews of a slew of fantastic 2010 LPS including Denim on Denim by Library Voices, This is Good by Hannah Georgas and Young Rival‘s self-titled LP.

Our rating system changed in May. It also had many great releases from Holy Fuck, Final Flash, Elephant Stone and Long, Long, Long.

June was an insane month, jam-packed with tons of new content but also lots of info on North by Northeast (NXNE). The coverage of the event featured interviews with Hollerado, Ghostkeeper and Volcanoless in Canada among others. On top of this there were also reviews of Wilderness of Manitoba‘s When You Left the Fire LP and the unexpectedly zany and wonderful The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today by Krupke.

The Polaris Prize shortlist was revealed in July, spawning the first few essays on why Owen Pallett, Tegan and Sara and Dan Mangan should win the prize. A host of great albums were also reviewed including I Made This For You by The Mountains and the Trees, the 2010 EP by Bravestation, Would You Please by Boxer the Horse and finally …And The Sky Opened Up by indie-folk duo The Reckoners.

Grayowl Point turned one year old in August and also had some much-lacking show reviews as well as a review of one of my favourite albums of 2010, the self-titled LP by Halifax trio It Kills. One of my favourite bands ever Winter Gloves released their sophomore record All Red as well.

In September, the leaves changed as did Canada’s perception of how the Polaris jury feels about the artists it nominates- francophone band Karkwa took the prestigious prize. As well, on-hiatus-sort-of Women released Public Strain (perhaps an eerie omen of things to come) and there was a review of Meet Me At the Muster Station by Kingston rock duo PS I Love You.

In October there wasn’t any big change in the blog but there were a few great albums reviewed during the month including David Vertesi of Hey Ocean!’s intensely personal album Cardiography, Gianna Lauren‘s Some Move Closer, Some Move On and also Dawn Time Riot, the album by The Gertrudes that seemed to guest star every musician making a living in Kingston.

November saw the first ever Christmas album review of Silent Night & Other Cowboy Songs by Ox and strong albums from The North Lakes, Diamond Rings, The Ruby Spirit and Construction & Deconstruction.

December just flew by and featured several “best of 2010″ lists as well as this post, along with a few new reviews, with Hamilton’s Harlan Pepper‘s Young and Old probably being the most surprisingly strong alongisde Ben Everyman‘s Iconoplastic.

Overall a fantastic year that saw a lot of growth in the number of artists reviewed, the number of team members and the number of show reviews that were severely lacking beforehand. Here’s to an amazing 2011.



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