"Oh, it’s totally perverse. " -Hannah Epperson on competition in music. It is with this in mind that I have decided to forgo the traditional "Best Of" list to end the year. Instead I will bring an ongoing series of updates on the most memorable musical experiences of the year, be they concerts, records or even just songs. Today I bring you my year with Pigeon Hole, maybe the best hip-hop I've heard from my homeland of Vancouver Island.

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A few years ago I was at Philip’s Brewery during Rifflandia, (The music-hipster Super Bowl that has become Victoria’s biggest festival) awaiting super-nice guitar champion Tommy Guerrero. Before Guerrero came out and treated us to a set of Burgandy-level class, my brother and I watched the entirety of Pigeon Hole’s set. All we knew going in was that they were affiliated with Sweatshop Union – a good start. We were mystified by what we saw from Marmalade and Dusty Melo. They weren’t necessarily good or bad, but their bravado was through the roof. It didn’t seem to matter if they were good or bad anyway, Pigeon Hole was going to force us to like them, whether we chose to or not.

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