My Top 5 records of the year:

Erase Errata – Nightlife – (Kill Rock Stars). post-punk/no wave with angular wirey  guitars. The trio has come together with their most concentrated effort and marked their first release on the highly respectable label Kill Rock Stars. If I had made it to CMJ then I think they would have been the highlight. I can only hope they're playing (or anyone on this list) is playing SXSW this year.

Isis  – In The Absence Of The Truth – (Ipecac)
Epic post-metal and their longest album to date.  I wanted to see these guys in Calgary but I ended up missing them. At least I have their DVD Clearing the eye so I have an idea of what they're like live.

Joanna NewsomJoanna Newsom – Ys – (Drag City)
The most beautiful thing I've heard this year. Her voice creaks and flitters over the harp and Van Dyke Parks' orchestration. I seen a good video of her and her five piece touring band playing Philadelphia. They played the entire album plus a couple old songs.

Venetian Snares  – Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms – (Planet Mu)
Intense breakcore with hardcore drum and bass. Chaotic and fast, almost gabber like.  I'm glad this guy's from Winnipeg.

Magnolia Electric Co. – Fading Trails – (Secretly Canadian)
Although this was a pretty short album for Jason Molina it was still always in my record player. Magnolia make some of the best in Americana rock. Jasons' stark and lonely vocals continually evolve with each recording and Magnolia Electric Co.s' sound has encompassed the sound of Americana perfectly. I seen them in Calgary this fall. I pretended to be their merch guy when they were away from the table.

Most under-rated record of the year:
Om – “Conference of the Birds” – (Holy Mountain)
Their sound is so cool. It's like 2 Buddhist monks left their monastery and picked up the bong and started making incredibly spiritual music. The main guys from the stoner-metal titans Sleep moved on to moody, exploratory music with chanted vocals and long meandering bass lines. 2 tracks on this album, side one is really good to fall asleep to.

Most over-rated record of the year:
MSTRKRFT. Everyone's been going nuts over this album but I just find it to be cheesy dance music. Pretty boring in my opinion.

Best local release – Lethbridge, AB:
Soy Captain! Merci Poo Poo (indie)
Mitz Takahashi and Emily Deimerts'  band. They just moved from Lethbridge and I hope they're doing well down in Montreal. Mitz said he found a place that sells hedgehog meat there. Mitz was the old Music Director at CKXU and it's so great to see him in a band finally. If you don't know them you should check them out: http://www.myspace.com/soycaptain

Best personal campus/community radio moment or experience of the year:
Well if our NCRC or the CMJ trip would've happened then probably those. I hope I have better luck next year. I guess our first annual fund drive at CKXU would be the best. We doubled our goal!

Record you are most anticipating for 2007:
New Hot Cross album! They had to re-record the entire thing again. I've been into Hot Cross since I first started doing shows at CKXU so I'm glad to be finally hearing something new from them. I'd say the new Shellac album but who knows when thats coming out, they've been pretty quiet about it.