The Best of Music 2010
(At your discretion: This is an almost comprehensive and fully attention deficit attempt at a review of the year of music and is as long as ever. Ignore or skim if you’d like otherwise grab a beer or orange juice if you are contemplating reading. I can’t believe I figured out how to set this website up for this year. I also can’t believe I finished this list! Well over 100 of the years best songs are here for you to listen to, and I can’t wait. It’s been and will be a good year. So many words and I’m still upset because there is so much more to talk about. Okay, grab two drinks.)
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Why hello my friends and friends of friends! Welcome to another year of life and music. I can’t believe we are into and onto a new decade already. As I listened to as many albums I could this past year, I realized I’ve been doing these best-of music lists for myself since 2004 and for the past few years I have been posting them online in random places to share with whomever may care. This is my happily self-indulgent musical countdown, rant on life, and review of my favorite albums from this past year. Hopefully we can revel in it together, even if it ends up being awkward and embarrassing, like the guy that breaks champagne bottles at your New Years party and then throws up on his brand new copy of Zelda.
I started doing this as a hobby of a hobby because I blindly spent all my time and money on albums and going to shows. When it came time for the new year, I realized I had no idea what I had listened to over the past year and why I did or didn’t like what I had heard. So I started writing. And writing. Trying to figure it all out. It still all has not become clear to me and I don’t know if it ever will. But I love it. Beyond that, I don’t know why or what the fuck I’m doing. I love music and I love writing about it and I love talking about all that it is and isn’t with other people in non-pompous environments…hopefully like right here. Going along with that, I don’t do these lists for money, I don’t care if you agree with who is or isn’t on the list(please remember it’s simply my opinion), this isn’t a branch off or regurgitation of some paid website telling us what we should or shouldn’t be listening to. I do care about what albums and artists you loved this year and why, no matter how random or obscure they are. I love discovering everything I missed any way possible. So please do share with me and everyone else you know what you loved. We often don’t realize that we hold the real power in taste and marketing. Not the suits, not the sites, not the ads. This list is only for fun and hopeful entertainment and should not be taken seriously. But seriously, keep the music industry alive. Whether it’s buying or pirating the records…just as long as you go to the shows of the artists you like and buy a shirt and maybe shake a hand and buy the album from them directly even if you already have it downloaded.
I truly believe that music is the greatest form of art because it encompasses all the other forms of creativity and entertainment into one tangible package and is the most relatable in terms of human emotion and is the easiest to share. This my attempt to sort it all out, boil it down, and express to you whatever I enjoyed discovering musically over the year and why. To warmup, here is a reminiscent list of my #1 albums from when I started these countdowns from over the past half decade. It’s crazy how we change in our interests and tastes but also stay the same.
2004 - Say Anything - …Is a Real Boy
2005 - Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift
2006 - Phoenix - It’s Never Been Like That Before / As Tall As Lions - As Tall As Lions
2007 - The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
2008 - The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
2009 - The Antlers - Hospice
2010 found itself in my grasp picking up where the previous year left off, with a lot of new up and coming indie/dance/rock bands similar to Phoenix(who had my #2 favorite album of 2009). As the new (now old) year bled on, I discovered a lot of really really really awesome folk artists too. And of course a bunch of other good shit that fell in the middle of it all. I didn’t keep up with much hip hop, so if anyone knows the goodies from last year, please let me know. There is usually a lot of love and hatred expressed in many different facets towards our often wonderful land of America. I noticed a lot more of that this year. It’s been an American year so they say…even though some of the best albums happily snuck in from across the seas.
I’m also trying to incite a different way of posting songs for you to listen to while you read this fucking babble for an hour or more in other ways than what I’ve done in the previous years. I would usually just post links to two songs you should check out after each description. This year, try listening to the first posted song off of the album while you read about each artist (don’t forget to open each song in a new tab or window so you can still read), and listen to the second song afterwards if you are still interested. We’re going to make this last all night baby!
In other news, if you want further enrichment through reading on rock n’ roll and life from 2010 - read the book “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornsby. It perfectly recreates the actual lives of the musicians we look up to as well as the idiots like myself that are digging for the meaning in the music and blindly sharing their findings on the internet. “A Visit From The Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan is another intertwining saga of numerous characters throughout a subculture of punk rock, the music industry as a whole, and the lives that get caught in between. Also a great one I’m working on now that coincides with the love/hate life of rock n’ roll.
As always, I’ll leave you with my favorite quote about music from Elvis Costello.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.”
Read on and listen on my friend…
All the albums and songs you need to check out that I wish I could talk about longer and deeper much deeper than these less awkward than what I just typed parenthesis filled run on statements of fawning remembrance that cant’t hold your attention long enough let alone my own:
The Acorn - No Ghost (so funny live - two drummers - fire - Dylanesque creativity) “Bobcat Goldwraith”http://db.tt/z0jRNUS
The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers (calm, epic, post-rock perfect for all) “Until The Last” http://db.tt/8YHUfee
The Armorist - The Armorist EP (it’s free. get “Boot Legger” then lets headbang) http://db.tt/DZaMpZe
Anais Mitchell - Hadestown (so angry I missed herrrr craziness by 20 minutes at the Union!) “Gone, I’m Gone”http://db.tt/kQqmKDn
The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (come on…it’s great, but - you’ll read about it and hear it everywhere) “City With No Children” http://db.tt/62qeMSl
Band Of Horses - Infinite Arms (a favorite, I’m pissed I didn’t put them further up so I could blab about them more, finally getting the mass recognition they deserve! yes!) “NW Apt.”http://db.tt/VgnkUiG
Belle & Sebastian - Belle & Sebastian Write About Love (the masters of cheesy duo indie pop) “I Didn’t See It Coming”http://db.tt/9TuUwuW
Best Coast - Crazy For You (“Boyfriend” is. the. cutest. song. of. oh ten. a kitten on the cover for a kittens anthem.)http://db.tt/iEUYAZ3
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil’s Tattoo (whew, a band I always heard of and never listened to till recently - one that finally makes me feel like a badass and almost want to get into bar fights. my drinking anthems) “Beat The Devil’s Tattoo”http://db.tt/fH1YKhI
The Books - The Way Out (honestly, the coolest, most fucked up-out there-creativity you’ll ever experience as a package musically and artistically) “Beautiful People”http://db.tt/qwKnwD9
Broken Bells - Broken Bells (hip hop and indie rock never meshed so well…this song reminds me about working at a mall, not that I work at a mall) “The Mall & Misery”http://db.tt/JoNWhT0
Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise (heavy rock led by a shrill falsetto so bone crushingly good you’ll curse) “Get Out” http://db.tt/0sKz9Gz
Film School - Fission (all right, it’s cheesy synth pop you’d expect to hear at the Gap, but I was hooked for awhile. then I came back to it and realized I thought it sucked. if you’re actually reading - gotcha!) “Nothing’s Mine”http://db.tt/VJPY25W
The Fling - When The Madhouses Appear (everyone, everyone, everyone will be talking about how incredible these guys are soon. again, shoulda ranked em higher. coolest album cover, great live show, too many good songs to talk about. i love singing along to this song) “Strangers” http://db.tt/bHrjYre
Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing (cause it’ll remind you of being 12 and having easy simple fun and kissing girls for the first time and being awkward and getting made fun of by your supposed friends but not giving a shit cause you got headphones a walkman and geeky songs like this and oh yes you’ll show them all some day when you’re all cool and stuff and they are all old and fat and ugly and stuff) “Bang Pop”http://db.tt/rWjVIRV
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (it’s Springsteen reincarnate - so badass, you know it.) “Boxer”http://db.tt/WRhvIfZ
Gayngs - Relayted (you don’t even need to know the names of who’s in this band to know it’s a mashup of great Wisconsin musicians and more - creating great R&B soul) “Cry”http://db.tt/LPQltN0
A Great Big Pile of Leaves - Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex? (causal, shreddy, guitar pop. almost 50’s style bop pop mixed with Alkaline Trio and Smashing Pumpkins.) “We Don’t Need Our Heads” http://db.tt/Ymt5mFb
The Head and the Heart - The Head and The Heart (thanks for the find Abby! Awesome Fall-esque rainy day Seattle folk rock) “Honey Come Home” http://db.tt/sEx8sjI
The Henry Clay People - Somewhere on the Golden Coast (new soul for the everyman, the aging punk rocker, the accidental soccer mom, the drowning accountant. hey, life! it’s almost funnnnnn!) “Working Part Time” http://db.tt/fqw9bRk
The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever (wow, speaking of, if you liked Henry Clay, they get their nod from the post-punk storytelling masters. every lyric is vivid enough for a story book. they are old and new and awesome and will still get in your face) “Hurricane J” http://db.tt/nqCDHed
Jenny And Johnny - I’m Having Fun Now (the most badass music couple we would all be jealous of. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. you can hear the love and fun in each song and inevitable bob of the head. too cute.) “Scissor Runner”http://db.tt/KpxIMUj
Jimmy Eat World - Invented (after all these years of pitch perfect pop, touching lyrics and melodies and somehow thought provoking guitar work-they still got it. still one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen. a special place in many callous hearts.) “Coffee and Cigarettes” http://db.tt/wbWEiV3
Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away (cause time is the one thing we all love and hate as we are slaves to it and the one thing we can all relate to. will take your breath away) “Change of Time” http://db.tt/jodfE06
Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues (his dad is famous, he lives in big ol’ NYC, he’s from the dirty down south, he’s a hipster, sadly he’s a drug addict, he also writes ridiculously, ridiculously good n’ classic country songs.) “Move Over Mama”http://db.tt/0kYo9XX
Kaki King - Junior (no one. no one. plays guitar like this girl. writing semi-pop songs now) “Falling Day”http://db.tt/2nEtg2P
Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You (she’s got that bloody cute Brit accent - sexiest female musician alive, cutest style, meanest man hating lyrics around…okay, besides Emily Haines.) “Paris” http://db.tt/Qkk75HN
Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown (maybe not as fully arresting as the last album but man oh man can they write, sing, play a good fucking song. chock full of Southern soul. that falsetto SOARS! those choruses EXPLODE!) “Radioactive”http://db.tt/76Ep3sO
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening (often overrated, but still a fun time) “Drunk Girls” http://db.tt/vEKli78
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring (it might be, but this album is not. at all.) “Straight in at 101” http://db.tt/QxTKauI
Man Overboard - Real Talk (old school pop punk and emo…I digit. perfect presentation.) “Fantasy Girl” http://db.tt/iYsosfl
Matt Pond PA - The Dark Leaves (features some of my favorite songs of the year. rest in peace. all things come to an end. believe in happiness and you will find it like its found in this song.) “Specks” http://db.tt/bmBEhlE
Minus The Bear - OMNI (as trippy and catchy and dancy as ever) “My Time” http://db.tt/3ELgeeC
The Morning Benders - Big Echo (exactly that, great hungover morning tunes while you stumble around like a fucking idiot scratching your head as you look for coffee, that one missing sock) “Hand Me Downs” http://db.tt/IwhUhUI
Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life (I might not be in the music videos, but some of the songs almost live up to the old classic MCS and aren’t as pompous as I…still love this band more than words could say.) “Pulp Fiction”http://db.tt/7jG2GYc
Murder By Death - Good Morning, Magpie (heartfelt - badass whiskey soaked folk. catch em live and catch em drunk.) “As Long As There Is Whiskey In The World” http://db.tt/9pUNtZ8
Nada Surf - If I Had A Hi-Fi (my personal favorite band made a cover album! you’ll discover a lot of great artists you might not have heard of from their renditions) “Love and Anger (Kate Bush)” http://db.tt/ZxLJzc1
Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard (probably my biggest let down of the year, it’s no The Rhumb Line but it’s still pretty good.) “Do You Remember” http://db.tt/J2TnbvP
The Radio Dept. - Clinging To A Scheme (if you don’t know what dream pop sounds like, start here and you’ll have it on repeat soon. this album is out of this world.) “Domestic Scene”http://db.tt/uFUfEGF
Ratatat - LP4 (the absolute best dance/chill/thinking music for any and every occasion. put it on and you’re guaranteed to get at least one, “whats that? it’s really good.”) “Bob Gandhi”http://db.tt/etUj3CR
Rocky Votolato - True Devotion (still my favorite solo folk artist.) “Fragments” http://db.tt/buxP85M
Rufio - Anybody Out There (our teenage speedpop-punksters are back and better than when they left) “The Loneliest”http://db.tt/yQSB1cg
Sad Day For Puppets - Pale Silver And Shiny Gold (I still don’t know who the hell they are either, but their album is so good. start to finish. love her voice. they saved my end of summer. bop it! pass it! beat it! bop it! these choruses will redeem your aches!) “Shadows” http://db.tt/hLkoYAz
She & Him - Volume Two (the most famous girl/guy do…quite good too.) “Brand New Shoes” http://db.tt/Kh0EsWZ
Sleigh Bells - Treats (there is no way this song or album will not give you a quick, happy, heart attack) “Tell ‘Em”http://db.tt/3abQCx5
Spoon - Transference (many love their songs but few people love their production quite like…) “Is Love Forever?”http://db.tt/M3SUnw3
Stars - Four Ghosts (another personal favorite…cheesiest synthesizers ever. every album they make is so fucking good!) “We Don’t Want Your Body” http://db.tt/6mIaVvX
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz (the master is back. some of the songs might give you a headache - but the orchestration, the lyrics, the beauty are all there as always.) “I Walked”http://db.tt/Fuzy3Lm
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast (I still think it’s the Silversun Pickups reincarnated with a cooler name and better songs. undeniably good indie powerchord arena anthems.) “Swim”http://db.tt/gX3eolR
The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt (a commanding one man live show, with a casual, relaxed folk album destined to be a classic. he always does weird shit that I question at times, but actions such as these are to be commended) “Thousand Ways” http://db.tt/8sWcF5U
Telekinesis! - Telekinesis! - (awesome, genuine, up and coming indie…produced with Chris Walla’s stamp of approval!) “Coast of Carolina” http://db.tt/iIrenSV
Tera Melos - Patagonian Rats (raw guitar and deranged songwriting talent. crazy songs that’ll catch you and lose you and get you ready to eat like putting your head in the worlds most beautiful microwave) “Kelly” http://db.tt/qbQWSnH
Thirty Seconds To Mars - This Is War (yes, it’s actually good. really good. man that guy can sing!) “This Is War”http://db.tt/I51QFpy
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (fuck I wish I had more time and space and fists to talk about the slow, dirty, violently fun anthems these guys produce.) “Four Score and Seven”http://db.tt/5SAqJog
Transit - Keep This To Yourself (happy hardcore? is that still a word? type of music? either way, this is the best beer pong soundtrack if that is still a game any more you jerks) “Dear Anyone” http://db.tt/kslPt7j
Vampire Weekend - Contra (I love Horchata. Don’t you? It’s like binge drinking the milk after you just ate a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch. don’t get me sued.) “Horchata” http://db.tt/J1aVdGE
Wakey!Wakey! - Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You… (cause we don’t know how you feel, but we know how you feel.) “Almost Everything” http://db.tt/O7qZqMr
The Weepies - Be My Thrill (heartfelt and heart wrenching male/female rock. the best.) “Hard to Please”http://db.tt/V4fEKfW
Wintersleep - New Inheritors (I recently spent an hour writing a lot about this album, a lot. It’s really good. I like it. A lot. Kinda reminds me of The Weakerthans and The Decemberists if they rocked just a tit harder. However, I just deleted all of what I wrote, so don’t take my word. what do I know anyway? thats right, jack shit. the bridge in this song is so good you will poop your pants) “Trace Decay” http://db.tt/qF3uoO3
Yeasayer - Odd Blood (I’m not gonna lie, the poppy songs are catchy and good as hell, the ones that aren’t in the same vein…are really too fucking far out there sometimes. some tunes make you want to dancing till you sweat others feel like you’re burying your head in sand. check it out!) “ONE”http://db.tt/QibQsND
65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway (speaking of far out, by far and away my favorite post-rock/electronica band. one of the coolest album covers of the year. one of the best live shows I’ve ever been to, period. epic anthems. you’ll dance, you’ll wish you were high. but you will not have to partake to feel high - it gets in your lungs, your blood, your brain, to your toes its that trippy. they build and build until you can’t take it. explode.) fuck you you get two and each are 8-10 minutes long…“Come to Me” http://db.tt/cUBEDlQ and “Tiger Girl”http://db.tt/g0s1iAY
Close Calls!
Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s - Buzzard
My favorite vile chamber rock band with the most wildly creative/vulgar lyrics around. Their last album, Not Animal, was a top five favorite of 2008. While almost all of the eight members quit because the lead singer moved away to be with a woman (whoops), the remainders still managed to make catchy, memorable songs, while not quite reaching their previous transcendent musical heights.
If you can only check out one… “Lunatic, Lunatic, Lunatic”http://db.tt/xPo65nN
Pomegranates - One of Us
Up and comers from Cincinnati, OH, Pomegranates have been underdogs in the “we’re very, very, very, strange but also very catchy” indie-pop arena. Each album has gotten progressively better, with the ability to craft creative songs along side extremely poppy, radio friendly songs. They have hit their stride on One of Us, and hopefully we’ll hear a lot more from them in the future, they are young, theysagonnabehugeasomedays! This song is absolutely, by far and away one of the best of the year.
If you can only check out one… “50’s” http://db.tt/R8LF7h8
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
They are The Beatles for the 2000’s. One of the happiest live shows around. If someone invites you, you go. If you don’t know what to put on at a casual party for something everyone can agree on, try this. Cause even a foo’ will dig it.
If you can only check out one… “Shadow People” http://db.tt/qjn2bVt
Alright, the countdown!
20. Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
If you can only check out one… “Sigh No More”http://db.tt/iqxaSMg
This is the beauty of discovery of music and moving at your own pace. It doesn’t matter when or how you get around to listening to something, only that you eventually do. I’ve honestly only heard this album in it’s entirety once. It’s been on pretty much everyone else’s “best of” lists (probably not the most convincing way to start my own off, but I digress). Everyone was saying how good it is, and I never got around to checking it out. ‘Sigh No More’ by Mumford and Sons was actually released in Europe in 2009, but here in the states of February oh’ 10. It wasn’t until I was working…literally a week ago, slowly fixing a computer when a co-worker (thanks Jess) turned it on. I literally did not stop saying, “Oh man, oh man, this is soooo good. Did you hear that line? That kick drum? Those strings? So good!” For the entire hour that it played. Another colleague said, “Yeah it’s soooo good, but if you don’t stop saying that, we’re going to turn it off”(sorry Brian). So my one-full-listen-through of this album and my synopsis is - it’s like listening to the best of early porch music, modernized (for lack of a better description). Complete with foot stomping, hand clapping, mandolins, violins, shouts and disgustingly good n’ earthy harmonies, kept in the ground with lyrics of friendship, family, love and life, just simple songs about the way our lives really play out. I absolutely loved that one fateful listen, and by finally discovering this already world-wide gem that is closely related to my #12 and #1 entries, it definitely kicks off this list right. (PS - Since the majority of my freaking out came from that feeling of new newness on the first two songs and happiness of relative late revelation, please forgive me for choosing the first two tracks off the album, because the whole thing is fucking ridiculous.)
Okay, two… “The Cave” http://db.tt/NcJB6AX
19. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
If you can only check out one… “Sentimental X’s”http://db.tt/mLB8Til
Broken Social Scene have been not so quietly pleasing music enthusiasts for the past twelve years since forming in 1999. The band was originally conceived by the two Canucks Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Since then, BSS have been known around the world for having a shit ton of fucking musicians play in their band and their live shows have a sprawling amount of various members. All of them are part of various other musical acts and come and go as part of the BSS sound. It is where they get such an expansive, distinct, and intricate sound.
Forgiveness Rock Record is no different. I think some amount of 30 musicians performing on this album. It was probably a shit show to record. I can’t even imagine how the songs came together, but it drips mood setting character, excitement, and fun just like their previous albums and all the contributing artists side albums. While maybe all this craziness leads to a certain loss of continuity to the record, that is where a large portion of its strengths lie. It’s an album you can listen to over and over again and still get something new out of it. There is a song here for absolutely everyone, no matter who you are, you are going to like a few songs. It’s that good. The wide reaching acceptance of Broken Social Scene thriving on collaboration is what give it such a beautiful character and sound each and every song that reaches to the corner of our earth for all of our earths and allow to breathe their rich, one of a kind musical textures. From the slow climax in “World Sick” to the simple, snotty, poppy “Texaco Bitches” to the reflective, longing, sexy wail of “Sentimental X’s.” Also, my charismatic personal favorite - “Art House Director.” Now, thats not to saying there aren’t a few songs that are God awful, cause there are. But hey, even the greatest achievements are never perfect, are they? Plus those are probably a few of the ones that you’ll love. If you see them live, expect a live show akin to an orchestra of rock n’ roll, with again, an unheard of amount of members. Prepare to be enamored.
Okay, two… “Art House Director” http://db.tt/U8fjlkf
18. Holy Fuck - Latin
If you can only check out one… “Silva & Grimes”http://db.tt/oPmFUrP
Sometimes you don’t want to talk. Sometimes you don’t give a shit about what everyone around you has to say. You just want to…dance. And not just dance to that fucking Michael Jackson song thats played for the 15th time this weekend that everyone still pretends to like. You want to dance to something no one has ever heard before. However, that unknown something has got to be guaranteed to make all of those stumbling upon it for the first time…move. You want dance music that is organic, analog, performed entirely by real human beings beating the shit out of cheap spaceship synthesizers and guitar pedals with live drums and bass providing the deep backbeat. You want a music video filled with kittens. Yes, kittens playing instruments and driving cars and setting themselves on fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhaRkWfaq10).You want something that’s going to rip your head off. You want something that’s going to make the pretty girls puke from all the distortion but come back asking for more. You want something that’s going make you feel like the high school quarterback with the unheard of ability to not be a fucking asshole to everyone. You want something thats going to shake the floor you’re shaking on. You want the best, the most real, honest, in-your-face live dance album of the year. You want Holy Fuck - Latin.
Okay, two… “Latin America” http://db.tt/sByC9BA
17. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
If you can only check out one… “Shape Shifter”http://db.tt/m4toYgK
Harmonies, percussion, pianos, guitars, production. In that order. Thats what sparks my fancy first and foremost. Local Natives have all of that in droves on Gorilla Manor (thanks for the recommendation, Nick Lou!). Creativity, excitement, universal like-ability, personable and unrelenting indie rock. The album starts, grabs you, and goes. It’ll leave you 52 minutes later with nothing other than a smile and frazzled hair. If you like anything along these lines, you’ll see why these guys have blown up recently and will only continue to do so. That’s all I have to say about this album…I’ll let the incredible music do the rest!
Okay, two… “Wide Eyes” http://db.tt/CsOvgcl
16. Beach House - Teen Dream
If you can only check out one… “Norway” http://db.tt/vuq4XKt
Easy and breezy summer pop, Beach House make their musical nostalgia stick with you like millions of pieces of sand clenched between your toes as you stumble along some shore somewhere. When a band can casually sum up their genre of music simply between the bands name and album title you know they are gonna have a confident, direct, swagger. The album Teen Dream by Beach House is just that. A band hitting their stride on a musical summer stroll down the shore laced with perfect dream pop only a teenager could imagine. The dirty guitars repeat the same few notes over and over while simple percussion accentuates the dynamic changes keeping the straightforward pop interesting. Its the soaring vocals and humming organs, keys, and synths that make the distinctive impact. Gorgeous male and female vocals washing in and out of memory as we move along our paths in life and bump into each other once in awhile. There is not one bad song on this album. It blends to every mood to every situation. Happy, sad, whatever the fuck. Reprise that feeling of always wanting to be young again and going to the beach on the weekends and spin it.
Okay, two… “Walk in the Park” http://db.tt/IzxoxTs
15. Nathaniel Rateliff - In Memory of Loss
If you can only check out one… “Shroud” http://db.tt/gfAIozn
Soooo, maybe this is what growing up feels like. Everything in life started out slow, so slow. All of the sudden you’re older and everything is rushing around you and all you try to do is hold on, hang on, slow down. Both have their benefits and disadvantages. Life and growing up is a lot like Nathaniel Rateliff’s full length album, In Memory of Loss.
It starts off relatively slow and uninteresting with a couple high points (like getting scared at Chucky e’ Cheese), I’m not going to lie. Once you hit midway into the album, it sweeps you up with catchy acoustic bass and guitar rhythms, harmonica, clever, touching lyrics ripping at your soul. Topped off with the best - the best - out of this world, one of a kind, send shrill chills down your brain and spine through your loins - wonderfully rich and emotional harmonies. If any of my friends wonder what I’m doing when I’m late (sorry) to a social gathering, I probably took am in my room taking a shot of scotch and am singing along to the harmonies of Nathaniel Rateliff and crew. Over and over and over again. Not that you care, but listening to these musicians harmonize is just plain pure joy to me, I can’t describe it, but it is cleansing. You won’t hear anything else like it, anything else that comes close. When those harmonies pop up throughout the album, they are high points not to be missed.
If you were lucky enough to be one of the few in April that skipped over Yeasayer in Madison and went to the Daytrotter Festival in Milwaukee, you would have gotten to see one of Nathaniel’s few Wisconsin performances alongside other great upcoming acts like Free Energy, Ra Ra Riot, Delta Spirit, and Pearly Gates Music. Granted, I was pissed because when they first came out in my excited ignorance I got confused and thought it was Delta Spirit. They started so meek and quiet such light dynamics that the hum of the crowd almost drowned them out. When their soaring harmonies kicked in…everyone shut up with that feeling of, “this is an experience not to be missed.” It is nothing but.
I recommend starting on track 7 and letting the album play from there, then start over at the beginning to take it all in, cause it’s still good…just not as good.
Skip the salad and go straight for the main course, it’s Prime.
Don’t pass through jail, please do collect $200 from wherever you can get it.
May we grow old, but remember to never grow up.
Please listen to this artist and see them live.
Okay, two… “A Lamb on the Stone” http://db.tt/GK9LnIy
14. Rogue Wave - Permalight
If you can only check out one… “Stars And Stripes”http://db.tt/GhqHSwZ
Rogue Wave are strange. Very strange. They have been one of my favorite and most listened to bands for the past five years. But every time they release a new album, I absolutely hate it. However, their limitless song writing skill allows them to evolve each time they step into the studio, and not giving a shit what anyone thinks…they let every song write its self. Each album is different beyond different from the last. Permalight is the fourth full-length release from the band. I don’t know if it is the guys getting older and trying to hit it big (it’s working), but this release is a much more straight forward effort. I think that’s what put me off at first. Inability to be detached from previous records and excitement for the new releases will always lead one to disappointment. Part of my original enchantment with the band was their quirky, strange, musically enormous left turns many of their songs would take. Those are toned down some on this record, but each song on Permalight still has more character than many bands full albums released this year. Rogue Wave are California indie-pop at it’s finest. Catchy, catchy, catchy, big and unique songs like the title track, “Solitary Gun”, “We Will Make A Song Destroy”, and “I’ll Never Leave You” lead the charge along with one of the most charismatic and drunk (well I was, so my already shitty journalistic integrity will not last long) live shows will keep me loving and hating Rogue Wave for years to come. They fill you up with honest ingenuity and excellent stories and thats something that’s missing in many corners of…everywhere.
Okay, two… “Right With You” http://db.tt/M2XXhIU
13. Laura Veirs - July Flame
If you can only check out one… “I Can See Your Tracks”http://db.tt/8i0yLO0
I love female musicians and vocalists. I’m not going to lie…2010 was not nearly as abundant of quality female artists as last year. At least ladies that I discovered. There never seem to be enough sparking with originality that don’t sound like another girl next door just a jump, hop, and skip a state or two away. Please share with me some good ones I missed. However, Laura Veirs really surprised and got me with her simple, casual, laid back pop sensibility. A howling, airy, salt of the earth falsetto focusing on acoustic dynamics and clever song structure. Think a one woman Fleet Foxes with cute, lovely, touching lyrics. I remember opening all my windows in the summer and smelling the July rain (coincidence, no pun intended) as I stared off into space watching that sweet, sweet, nectar of the Gods pummel the (then) green of the trees while listening to this album for the first time. It’s a mood album. Guaranteed to put you in an excellent one, at that.
Okay, two… “Carol Kaye” http://db.tt/VVQY0mE
12. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
If you can only check out one… “Come Back Home”http://db.tt/v6PNEZ5
The first time I heard Two Door Cinema Club in 2010 was in a cold and shitty January, similar to the one we are in the middle of. I knew immediately it was the first great album of the year. While it’s slid a little from its original crown, it’s still one of the best carrying on the crown of catchy dance pop from the excellent 2009 bands like Phoenix and Miike Snow while running side car to similar 2010 acts like Tokyo Police Club. There are already lots of comparisons to other bands. Simply put, I believe if you combined Block Party and Vampire Weekend…you would get this band. Thats not to say they aren’t original, they are - creating a perfect mix of dance beats and actual rock. “Come Back Home” was the first and only song to be repeated over and over in my car to get me through driving the icy cold winter streets. But that wasn’t the only gem from this band no one had heard of before blowing up in the wake of being on the same label as the epic dance-poppers, the aforementioned Phoenix. There is a laundry list of possible #1 singles from “Do You Want It All”, “This is the Life”, “Something Good Can Work”, “What You Know”, “Eat That Up, It’s Good For You”, and the list goes on. They are probably a love-it or hate-it affair but one way or another wonderfully digestible and a fucking good time any way you cut it.
Okay, two… “This is the Life” http://db.tt/fR13f5T
11. Cloud Cult - Light Chasers
“If you can only check out one… “You’ll Be Bright (Invocation p.1)” http://db.tt/kELfqXg
Ahhh, this is a tough one to sum up and talk about. Cloud Cult just need to be experienced. I was always told about how good they are and how they are all green and hippie and everything. I shrugged it off with a, “Yeah, that’s nice.” But when I gave them a chance and listened to their 10th full length album Light Chasers while enjoying a bottle of wine, I had no idea how much…they fucking rock. I fell in love with how unique this album is. The opener, “Unexplainable Stories”, kicked me in the dick but left me alone with a smile on my face. Songs are beyond schizo but with direct intent (“Room Full of People in Your Head”). Huge, multi-layered percussion, synthesized vocals, church-like harmonies, power chord raging guitars on choruses (“Today We Give Ourselves To The Fire”), numerous harmonizing strings and horns (“You Were Born”), a riiiiidicioulsy good bassist (every song) and the most expertly welded and constructed experimental pop songs(“The Exploding People”). They are literally the one and only band I’ve ever heard successfully pull of melding every last type of music into one album and have it not only be listenable, but really, really, good. And if you see them live, you’ll also be treated to two artists that paint on stage throughout the whole performance and then the works are auctioned off. You’ve never experienced a live show like this before. I’m probably the last person on earth to discover this band but am so glad I did. Their music and it’s structure enlightens with no clear path but is deeply poignant nonetheless. Their albums, live shows, art, ideas about life and living are honest to goodness transcendent in nature and should be experienced by every last living good person, immediately. Maybe I’m becoming a hippy. I’ll ride in that solar bus for sure! My highest recommendation. Lovely.
Okay, two… “The Exploding People” http://db.tt/TYHvmRF
10. Look Mexico - To Bed To Battle
Listen to this song while you read…
“You Stay. I Go. No Following.”
The kids to carry on Motion City Soundtrack’s throne of rule are here. Only a few of us permanent high schoolers remember what it was like circa 2002 to be one of fifteen seeing Motion City Soundtrack surprise and delight the few standing at the Union South in Madison, WI. That literal feeling of “I never knew a band wearing velcro shoes - jumping off keyboards could be so good live and then just as good on record - let alone from a band I’ve never heard of” feeling. Look Mexico are slowly - out of nowhere - creeping into the shoes of everyones favorite aforementioned indie geek punk heroes.
Look Mexico’s vocal melodies sound strikingly akin to Justin of Motion City Soundtrack. Clever lyrics too. Besides this, their old school pop punk appeal is led into the light by attention deficit creativity in all aspects - exactly the same way Motion City broke out. With an album so fresh, listenable, and exciting complete beautiful production throughout. This is old and new school coming at you.
‘To Bed To Battle’ kicks off with the epic, snotty, chorus of “Thank you for absolutely nothing” while spitting in the face of minimum wage but… how they can’t fight it forever on the opening track, “You Stay. I Go. No Following.” Look Mexico’s talent reigns abound track in and track out with math rock slinging guitar riffs and jerky technical drum beats blasting through tempo/time changes. Dissonantly catchy guitars breeze over tauntingly droning, reprising and encouraging falsetto lyrics spinning around vintage organs. Capitalizing on this with headline tracks like “Get In There, Brother!” and “They Offered Me A Deal, I Said No, Naturally.” These standouts lead into the conclusion and reprise of “Just Like Old Times” where the final song questions and flirts with eventual adulthood - a direct opposite of the opening track’s “Fuck it” attitude and barroom chorus. A stark wake up call of drums and vocals alone in a room that climaxes with the youthful lamentation and realization of “Wasting time you’ll be late for your own life. So why don’t you put on a tie and get a job.” A common musical topic but served on a million dollar platter of permanently delayed guitars following brass horns that are happy to wear the pants through other amazing experimentations and gang vocals panning in and out while chanting what we all are starting to feel in different variations of, “Too old for this.”
Despite words beyond their age - Look Mexico are not yet ready to face adulthood all the while they simultaneously see it staring them in the face, trying to decide how to tackle this realization musically with interesting experimentations while making sure to not lose their catchy appeal. A greatest hits of all of our twenties. Confident, cocky, hopefulness with that sinking sense of real life reality. Their youthful thoughts on adulthood aren’t always most original, but hit the ball out of the park in terms of presentation and perspective. How often are the things we do day in and out end up being completely original - even when we believe they are? They aren’t. They are. It’s all perspective.
Look Mexico aren’t afraid to copy the previous generation, albeit with a heavy helping of their own spin on the topics they choose to discuss. Their grasp of life and ability to translate it into a musically rich and interesting story that many of us can relate to. Their youth simply proves they will only get better if they don’t get watered down after they reach their destined popularity. Maybe they’ll avoid their fathers in Motion City Soundtrack’s small mistakes. Ah fuck it, we’re all gonna make em. Pop punk fans will love this, indie rock fans will love this, technical musicians will love this, you probably will too. Just let the hint of psychedelia settle in first before taking in Look Mexico’s portrait - and landscape - of an American twenty-something.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Just Like The Old Times”
9. The National - High Violet
Listen to this song while you read…
“Terrible Love”
At first, all the hype The National have been gaining over the past few years… I just didn’t get it. Now I can safely say that I do. Since their appeal lies heavily in Matt Berninger’s voice - if you don’t like it - you might miss your connecting flight on The National airwaves. A few times as a matter of fact for me. Berninger has such a deep, succinct baritone, it can be unsettling at first. Boring, droning, strange - are the words I first described them as. Somehow, maybe the timing, the new songs and their meanings, I don’t know - have slowly turned me into an addict for their latest album, High Violet. It’s all about the feeling, the setting, the stage that The National puts your ears, your brain, your soul on.
The only rightful comparison or description I can make to The National is that their music and it’s beauty seeps in like a sinking (or rising) depression. When the album opens with a line like, “It’s a terrible love that I’m walking with spiders” that leads into the eventual “It takes an ocean not to break.” It sounds like the guy is ready to jump off a fucking cliff. You know then that you are in line for a heavy-hearted album. And that’s just the start of it. That song, “Terrible Love,” you feel the depression and hopelessness almost like actual pressure on your chest. An album rife with such feeling of that inexplicable force, dreading, and wandering that if you let yourself - if you even want to - get wrapped up in the misery you can somehow actually see the beauty of it all.
Thankfully, there are a few breaths of somehow hopeful fresh air on High Violet like my personal favorite song, “Lemonworld.” It’s got some of the best lyrics on the album.
“I gave my heart to the Army, the only sentimental thing I could think of…but it’ll take a better war to kill a college man like me. I’m too tired to drive anyway, anyway right now do you care if I stayed? You can put on your bathing suits and I’ll try to find somethin’ on this thing that means nothin’ enough…you and your sister live in a Lemonworld, I want to sit in and die…lay me on the table, put flowers in my mouth and we can say that we invented a summer lovin’ torture party. You and your sister live in a Lemonworld, I want to sit in and die.”
Okay, maybe not.
As you can tell by now, The National tackle deeply personal topics like depression, drugs, death, solitude, lost souls, lost cities, lost love, and the questioning of everything. The point reached where you don’t care you don’t care that you don’t want to do anything or be anywhere at all or around anyone or have something interesting to say to people that aren’t listening or be the one with the most exciting job or family or lover or life goal or artistic vision or have the deepest pockets to spend on shit that doesn’t matter. But to do this with such simple, open, and unflinching honesty as the brilliant music accompanying slowly crescendos, it turns The National’s music into something truly transcendent and unique. Really. As shitty as you felt then, now, six months from now, whenever - High Violet stands as a knowing voice of what you’ve gone through or are going through. Almost like an anti-depressant in it’s own right, as very few albums before it have been able to recreate. Not necessarily even an intentional soundtrack to those feelings, just a reminder that as woefully alone any of us can feel at any given time for any given reason, that it does indeed happen to everyone at some point and that you are not alone…fuck it, your misery has company. Might be comforting, might make you feel worse. I don’t know. But it’s still somehow beautiful.
The National are blowing up and becoming a household name as we speak, because on some level - everyone can relate. It’s just that not everyone wants to admit it. Simple, great, unique, perfectly paced, planned, and executed songs for those that feel so much to the point they feel nothing. Or for those that feel nothing and need to breathe in heavy doses of the real and honest life exuding from these songs. It’s something I’ve never heard an album do before, and if you give it a chance, it just might do the same for you. Hopefully for the better than the worse. That is the magic in The National’s music and that is why High Violet is one of the best albums of the year.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Lemonworld”
8. Tokyo Police Club - Champ
Listen to this song while you read…
“Favourite Food”
Tokyo Police Club broke out of the indie pop dance scene a few years ago due to rave reviews, underground hipster appeal, and you might not have guessed it…really good songs. Hailing from almost literal nowhere (Canada) they suddenly became the go-to popcorn band of the everywhere spotlight. This faded to an extent with the legion of copycats that were all following but missing…something. Tokyo Police Club almost seemed to disappear in one album glory, overshadowed by those bands chasing. I really thought their follow-up, Champ, was going to be contrived. Trying to relive their original charismatic breakout glory. Their sophomore album is not trying to fit in or reclaim past success. They don’t appear to give a fuck about…well, anything. Except the simple pleasures of daily life. This more laid back, casual creativity enables Champ to surpass the previous album, Elephant Shell in all aspects. Yes!
So lets get this out of the way. The intro to this album on “Favourite Food” is the best of the year…ok, second best, following one of the upcoming top 10 albums intros. Featuring monstrous synthesizers and growling dirty organs that are caked with the most promising and creative use of stereo panning. It’s the kind of skilled production that goes unnoticed in many circles. Not here, no, not here. Hopefully you’ve already heard it if you are following along and listening then reading. You’ve got to just start this album even if you don’t get past that intro. It’s that good. The rest of the song carries the feeling of placing a time capsule in the ground and letting go knowing one day you’ll realize you were still holding on all along. Which is a perfect way to start this phenomenal album.
There is something so casual, nonchalant, and confusing about Tokyo Police Club and Champ it is hard to convey. These are early morning songs that can coddle you awake and soothe your brain with simple but clever lyrics and enjoyable melodies. These are driving songs. Dancing songs. Drinking songs. It glides like butter on bread and then is done, melted away with nothing more than a good taste left in your memory - where you are fulfilled but still always want more.
Dave Monk‘s slightly gruff and nasally voice leads you from line to line of each picture setting lyric and makes your head swirl and smile with inadvertently cute and clever style. It doesn’t make you jump for the ceiling by rocking out too much, it doesn’t make you think too hard or question your life beyond trying to decipher the cryptically simple lyrics. It reminds me a lot of a younger, equally clever and nonchalant version of The Weakerthans. It’s music for everyone, all the time, day or night.
Following the epic intro of “Favourite Food,” comes the best song on the album, “Favourite Colour,” that plays out like an inquisitive first date. Each song masterfully places you in its intended atmosphere, you just won’t recognize it at first. “Breakneck Speed” showcases just how good the guitar and synths play off of each other and the casual beats blend perfectly into a dance-anthem like “Wait Up (Boots of Danger)” questioning the only recurring theme throughout the album of not knowing what to do.
The skittish “Bambi” laces your ears with attention-deficit-arpeggiated guitar snorted with exploding synths that sounds complementary alongside Two Door Cinema Club (who definitely are one of those bands taking a heaping portion of inspiration from these guys) while beginning with vocals centered around a cocky baritone and happy falsetto in the chorus. The best part is the conclusion. Simply telling you what we all want to say but most have too much pride to actually spit out, if we can say anything at all. “Tangled up tongue tied - tell me what to do” like an easy lover following your lead, it doesn’t matter where you go or what happens. Cause you’ll both be able to get through, get on and along and will always be all right together.
Next is a happy-go-lucky swagger anthem (and nod to any Strokes song), “End of a Spark” that would also fit well alongside a classic like, yes, The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979. The album is topped off with “Not Sick.” I’m a synthesizer geek, I’ve got a soft spot for catchy one-key-at a time leads that spark (pun somewhat intended) the old-school character and attitude that coats this record. This song captures the nostalgic feeling perfectly.
Tokyo Police Club just do what they do. Forget about the worries of past success, future success, or that everyone is trying to rip off what they perfected. We are left with clever, casual indie rock songs that have hints of pop and some dance pop too. I almost forgot about the close to post-rock shredding of guitars throughout. There’s so much character in every note, every distorted, delayed, arpeggio climax. Again, the vocals have just the right amount of baritone mixed with airy falsetto and friendly attitude.
Never too abrupt about the message they want to convey makes Champ slightly confusing in an “I’m here, take me as I am, don’t be confused” sort of way. It’s backwards, it’s forwards - but it works - it’s so damn good, so damn enjoyable. Champ is the perfect place to start if you never heard good indie pop before and need that one album that will fit in with whatever your mood, whatever you’re doing, wherever you are. You won’t know - you won’t care. You’ll be too busy digging up that time capsule all over again while retaining that casual confidence and character only Tokyo Police Club can bring to your currently-panning stereo.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Not Sick”
7. The American Dollar - Atlas
Listen to this song while you read…
“Fade In Out”
Sometimes the best things said are the things you leave unsaid. Sometimes you don’t need to say anything to express exactly what you’re thinking. Sometimes you speak up and instantly realize you altered something that was so natural and just made it, shit, whoops, awkward. The silence of just knowing what is happening allows yourself to feel…everything. To discover what other people have in store for the world, and to exude all you have to offer. Including just absorbing your own simply complicated existence around you. Even if it’s just for a few seconds. Possibly seconds later, you might forget. But those moments, thoughts, and feelings are all together in one realization, whether it’s happy or sad, whether it’s fleeting or permanent. It was there. Something you never thought you’d feel, a third person experience, something that sets itself under your skin with faceless emotion. Euphoria or pain - it doesn’t matter. However, this emotion you know is nothing other than beautiful compassion, silent empathy. Something you can’t explain like I’m poorly trying to do here. The American Dollar prove all this to be aurally possible without a single word. Not only is Atlas the best instrumental album of the year, but it is one of the best records of the year (it’s also the best for studying and reading to when it comes down to it).
Formed as a high school duo in 2005 and still performing that way today, John Emanuele and Richard Cupolo combine perfect atmospheric textures while keeping the energy and expression fresh like a wound. Sequenced beats, twitchy clicks and pops overlaid by both smooth and arpeggiated synthesizers, delay delay delayed pianos and organs lead by arms wide stereo drumming, blankets of bass, stringed instruments weaving and tangling you in their web, snowy television interludes and fuzzy guitars. All whilst never losing the important and chill inducing appeal of a live rock show featuring the exciting dynamics that come with being there in that moment. The songs start so simply and build into the largest symphonies imaginable. The American Dollar combine almost every style of music and instrument as they melt together from our different lands, faces, and places into the most capable expression of every feeling and emotion all at once. Again, without a single word spoken.
The reactions of the handful of other people I know that have listened to this album is important to note as well. They range from ecstatic, expressing that feeling of their mind being blown away by something they would have never seen coming. I think that’s the pleasure in discovering art like Atlas. You wouldn’t ever expect it to get under your skin so much, but it’s always been there waiting for you. It’s here now and it comforts you all the while pushing yourself to focus, to question every last fucking thing you’ve been taught while it knowingly plays out on your stereo.
The other reaction I’ve heard is that it’s just too sad of a record. I can also agree with that. It’s honest. I don’t know if this next statement is in defense of the album or in agreement with those sentiments. Life is sad. However, we can pull beauty out of those moments of vulnerability and loss. Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between happiness and sadness but there are truth and lessons in both. Without the bad, without the sad, you won’t ever know the good, you won’t ever know the great, the love, the slow achievement, the things you had, the things you have right now, the things you’ll have later…and be able to hopefully not worry about all of it and keep yourself and those around you smiling and content in the moment. Without opening up to those feelings you won’t ever become stronger, you won’t ever learn the shitty important lessons we each learn at different times, you won’t ever have the chance to become the person you want to be.
This, this is the sadly hopeful soundtrack to those feelings. If you want beautiful, if you want a challenge that is also a friend, if you want something you’ll always come back to and never forget without ever needing another faltering spoken word of explanation…check out The American Dollar - Atlas.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Equinox”
6. Suckers - Wild Smile
Listen to this song while you read…
“A Mind I Knew”
Ah, hipsters. What makes one? What is hipster music? Their generalizations of everything and our generalizations of what people are or aren’t. It’s a strange kind of funny. All right. Lets face it. We’re all mostly normal gals and guys. We are not as cool as we like to pretend to be. Hip, unhip, the people that always have to outdo whatever you do…are never cracked up to this facade. What does that get us anyway? More bullshit to wade through. Take our many differences as presented and mash em’ together and hopefully you’ll get something amazing. Case and point, Brooklyn’s Suckers. I saw them open up for Menomena this year and they almost-almost stole the entire sold out show and it seemed no one (myself included) knew who the fuck they were at the time. The only hints to their sound beforehand were from a conversation I overheard in the crowd that they were “hipster music.” Again, Lord knows what that equates to.
Not hearing their songs beforehand or knowing who they were before playing and taken at face value, Suckers are comprised of some of the most random and unconsciously eclectic looking musicians without showcasing an actual theme to their personal visual display. Maybe that’s where their musical generalization came from the crowd, I don’t know…but it was indeed humorous to watch at the time. Featuring a guitarist that was damn near seven feet tall and looked like a mix between a third grade english teacher and raging serial killer (sorry my friend). The lead singer and second guitarist looked like the accumulation of ten Pete Wentz’ strung out on heroin. He had his face covered in sharpie hieroglyphics that began to tear and streak with his sweat, while adorning his neck in Mardi Gras beads, complete with a Michael Jackson t-shirt and jean jacket. A bass player that looked like he was perma-pooping his pants while staring down the devil that stole his bowl of cereal and left the crumbs in his hair. Finally, in this case - a surprisingly regular Joe Schmo on drums. Terrible generalizations, but again it was a funny counterpoint to what I had heard about them being hipster music from the crowd prior to their set because they looked like they all stepped off of a spaceship. Each member was so vastly different from the next in simple appearance, I had no idea what the hell was going to come out of their musical collaboration. I guess this is what you do when you are at a show and have nothing to do while waiting for a band to setup and play that you’ve never heard of. Generalizations of what they sound like based on what they look like before they even played a note. Regardless, that feeling of anticipation of wondering what the hell a band is going to sound like while they set up has always been exciting for me and even more so when it pays off.
But none of this mattered as each of the four members picked up an additional random instrument (sometimes two) and started playing. And, well, whistling. In four part harmony. They kicked off the show with my now-favorite, “Roman Candles.” They didn’t stop rotating multi-instruments, at times each member was playing three while also singing and harmonizing. Even the fucking drummer was playing piano and singing while keeping the beat. Quinn Walker, the crazy looking lead singer had the best, craziest, mind-bendingly unique falsetto that I’ve ever heard. Like three octaves higher than the average female singer. He was not afraid to get in the crowds face and use it. I was completely floored. They played that show like they were the headliners. Body surfing while playing guitar and screaming in the crowds face. Blown away. It was out of left field and their musicianship was unparalleled. Throughout their all too short 45 minute set, the amount of extra instruments, percussion, synthesizers, horns, continued four part harmonies ravished the crowd as previously unheard of pop-friendly, experimental, crowd-surfing ready, head bobbing, ass moving songs continued. It was an unknown revelation unfolding in front of the crowds eyes and ears.
Given that they are from Brooklyn and friends with both MGMT and Yeasayer, the sonic similarities would initially be apparent. In my opinion, they blow both of those bands sky fucking high out of the water of the short list of interesting and catchy experimental indie-pop bands. Mix in a little Queen and a lot of the Clash and you’ll have a good idea of what Suckers sound like. Each completion of each song and musical chairs of multi-instrument symphonies left the crowd literally erupting with explosive, surprising-to-the-band applause.
I bought the CD and hoped against hope I wouldn’t be disappointed after such a strong live display. I wasn’t. The first time through was almost a direct to brain hi-fi recreation of being in that moment and feeling of discovery of something new where everything in the world feels to be happening right here, right now, and nowhere else. All the while having all generalizations being thrown out the window all over again. The first song, “Save Your Love For Me” is a muddling, strange, off-putting attempt at experimental start to what is otherwise an album that just goes on wonderfully like a deranged bull through the streets of Spain gorging all those lucky enough to listen. The entire middle of the album is filled with five star songs like “Black Sheep”, “Before Your Birthday Ends”, and “It Gets Your Body Movin’ ”. Interesting takes on reggae, dance, pop, huge harmonies, repetitious guitars that carry pace and set the mood perfectly, the whistles, the horns teaming with synths during the succulent (yes, succulent) mid-tempo sequenced indie rock. Again, that falsetto, damn man, it would make Prince proud. Suckers slap your face left and then to the right with lovely, catchy, creative songs over and over again. They flow together so well, while not a single song sounds like the last. The passion is so apparent you can, no, you will - listen to Wild Smile over and over again.
At the end of the day, experimentation, collaboration, and creativity will overrule generalizations of who you are or are not - no matter your visual presentation. I’m okay with that. The truth comes out sooner or later. Suckers will win you over with how unexpectedly good and refreshing the whole experience of seeing them live and listening to their album is. They definitely did not get enough hype or promotion for how excellent they are. Wild Smile was my favorite surprise of the year.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“It Gets Your Body Movin’ ”
5. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Let It Sway
Check out this song while you read…
“Back In The Saddle”
Who made pop music fun and interesting again? Who kept it geeky and charismatic? Well, lets just cut to the chase because we both have no idea who or what we’re talking about. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin have been quietly releasing records for the past few years that have generally flown under the radar of most radio stations, blogs, magazines, and music enthusiasts. And that’s okay. Their hidden charm comes from simple and catchy song structure, lo-fi sensibilities, and clever lyrics. However, there was always something about their albums that was…missing. But what is it?
Step into (or rewind back to) 2010 and pick up a copy of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s third full-length release, Let It Sway. The albums production was led by Beau Sorenson and Chris Walla. You’ll discover that this, this is what was missing. Taking the great, classic, creative, catchy songs from SSLYBY and teaming them up with two of the absolute best producers (honestly out of this world and simply one of a kind unique production) in modern indie and pop music and you’ll just…get it. Immediately.
Starting with yes, here it is, my favorite effect of 2010 on the intro song, “Back In The Saddle” where singer John Caldwell kicks the record off with lo-fi guitars and vocals crackling in the distance similar to previous Boris records. It’s not until the panning guitar kicks in around your stereo head with swirling notes accenting each sustained chord that the feeling for the entire album is set. I had chills. I had a smile ear to ear all by myself. I drove faster and slightly more recklessly. I can’t remember but don’t recall anyone being hurt. I couldn’t believe modern music could be the fresh, exciting, fun. The dancing in the panning, the simple beginnings of the song leading to eventual epic rock euphoria. It’s the feel-good album of the year. It’s a summer blockbuster. It’s windows down driving music, singing along. It’s cheesy, like this summary. It’s a breath of fresh air in the cookie cutter music industry.
Beau Sorenson and Chris Walla take Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and their song structure, recording quality, instrument choices and effects to the next level and it can all be heard in the just described epic opening track. This is where nerdy indie pop-punk reaches the heights of Queen style arena rock. With soaring gang vocals and the most perfectly placed synthesizer effects, it’s undeniable. Following tracks like “Sink/Let It Sway” and “Stuart gets Lost Dans Le Metro” are more straightforward but are just as pleasant, happy, euphoric. A calming feeling of how desperate daily life can be and how to get your ass in gear while keeping cool in your own fashion. Throughout the entirety of the album, so many creative instrument palates and effects are drawn from to create these unique feelings and situations that are sometimes barely audible unless listening with headphones. All while some others get right up close and personal in your face like on the hilarious fan favorite, “All Hail Dracula!”
The other huge selling point of this record in our modern area is that Sorenson and Walla allowed for the band’s human performances to shine through. Amps will hum in the background as they should, dirty synth bass will swell and distort, vocals and harmonies are not auto-tuned, guitars, drums, and pianos will catch you off guard at times because they will be ever so slightly out of time (and monkeys screech in the background?). SSLYBY get all this right by summarizing both love and the music industry on “Made To Last.”
The creativity of the band and these new found helping hands from their world class producers offer an entirely unique, clever, simple (don’t forget epic), experience while creating an endlessly listenable album. Over and over and over and over again. You’ll bob your head. You’ll sing along. You’ll dance alone, you’ll dance with whomever is around but you’ll dance like no one is watching. You’ll sure as hell remember their name. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are here to claim the throne of perfect indie pop rock that Weezer has long since abandoned over a decade ago. This is the new “Blue Album” or “Pinkerton” fans never got back. I can’t recommend Let It Sway to each and every last one of you enough. Please enjoy it with headphones at least once and many more times in your car after the midwest weather gets nicer. You won’t regret it.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Everyln”
4. Menomena - Mines
Listen to this song while you read…
“Tithe”
Menomena is (probably) doomed. Mines, their 3rd full length album, was a laboring process that bestowed upon our ears one of the most ravenously creative and enjoyable albums of the year. However, it might have killed them as a band. This impending doom is obvious throughout it’s time connected to your ears.
Mines was a process three years in the making where the trio literally created their own experimental recording software to record their own experimental album. And maaaaaaaaan oh man is it good. Put a pair of headphones on and it sounds fantastic. Led by three part alternating vocals, saxophones, pianos, synths, toe tingling bass, and some of the most selectively creative, crazy in your face drumming (especially live). Don’t forget the hundreds of other random instruments they probably just found on the street that give Mines it’s completely unique feeling and sound. Morose lyrics that are catchy as shit, strings panning, dancing back and forth across your brain, chorus style vocals recorded in their own cathedral (yep) and dueling sax solos where normally you’d expect a shredding guitar solo. It works much much better than you’d think. Notes, chords and progressions rarely last more than a few flickering appearances on songs that definitely have pop appeal and are catchy but unfold more like a storybook than a structured radio hit. You’ve never heard a band that sounds like Menomena before. Trust me. They hit their unique stride on Mines, it’s just a shame it might be their last record together.
Each of the three members are very different in their song writing and talents they bring to the table. The ideas crash and fight and melt until you get a little bit of each gentleman’s musical character. The thing is, none of the guys can stand talking to each other anymore after almost ten years of collaboration, touring, writing, arguing, living, and during the process of recording Mines (so I heard).
Two had marriages evaporated during the three year recording process as well. This disparaging event is captured raw and painful on “Dirty Cartoons” in numerous forms of the lyrics. “Go home, I’d like to. Stumble to bed. And lay beside you. Until we’re even. Or romantically bored. Whichever comes first.” Followed by, “You’ll keep me honest for old times sake.” And reprised over and over so desperate - so pleading - “I’d like to…go home.” Can beauty be found somewhere in all that wandering and haunting sadness? We can only hope.
On tour Menomena hardly talk to each other or spend time in the same room. On the stage, it’s another story. Their live show brilliantly captures their raw talent, creativity, and energy displayed on Mines. They play off of each other like a well structured Marine platoon, or just an apparently happy family. Maybe they are just more like real life than any of us would like to admit. It was beautiful, it was a blast to see here in town at the High Noon Saloon. Let’s just hope it’s not the last we see of them, but I wouldn’t count on it.
In other news, I just realized how boring and uncreative this whole description of Mines is as a whole - but I don’t think any amount of words can capture the character, experimentation, creativity and dark beauty that Menomena…fucking ooze. I’ll leave you with some words of theirs. “Spending the best years of a childhood horizontal on the floor. Like a bobsled. Minus the teamwork. And the televised support. Nothing sounds appealing.”
Just listen.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Dirty Cartoons”
3. Fang Island - Fang Island
Listen to this song while you read…
“Life Coach”
(Sorry to the two of you that already read this write up back in June)
The appropriate way to start a review is probably by not quoting a self-description from the artist themselves. However, Fang Island describe their music to sound like, “everyone high-fiving everyone”. The Providence, Rhode Island based quintet also mention that their goal is to, “make music for people who love music.” Their self-titled album speaks on it’s own, but they are right on with both descriptions of themselves.
So let’s get into it. As previously prescribed, this is rock for the geek inside of us. This is rock for the snooty elitists. The ones that need to press the restart button and remember what it was like when we were kids and first heard rock and roll music that made us feel joy. It’s for the young and the old. If you don’t believe me, watch this video of the band playing at a school on youtube…you need to see it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUA6vWLBn8k)
Fang Island have constructed one of the most technical, fresh, exciting, and tightly wound rock albums from this year. It falls under a wide gamut of different sounds and sub-genres. Indie pop-punk/power pop mixed with post rock, math rock, metal, classic rock and island/reggae themes? We can start there.
The album explodes with literal fireworks and sparklers popping and cracking to tape in the distance while leading in huge dueling keyboards and guitars in the intro, “Dream of Dreams.” A chill-inducing four part harmony comes in over the top harkening to the days of church and epic classic rock a’la Rush or Thin Lizzy…which in theory is pretty hilarious but it sounds incredible. “They are all within your reach.” When hearing this sung in a four part harmony you are transformed to a plain of happiness, inspiration, and motivation even that fucking great guy Anthony Robbins can’t touch. Euphoria, some might call it? You are then quickly and powerfully kicked in your goods by “Careful Crossers”, which upon first listen would lead you to believe this album is going to be mostly post-rock. It carries on for the next three minutes with no vocals completely making you forget about the earth shattering harmonies you just heard.
“Daisy” and “Life Coach” are the first two singles off of the album. Arena rock, pop-punk, and that island music I was talking about? “Daisy” is one of the strangest mashups of music that works wonderfully. Organs that swell alongside arpeggiating synths with shredding harmonizing guitars over gang choruses featuring huge ‘whoaaaahhhh’s with a reggae theme that is carried into “Life Coach”, which is my personal favorite tune on the album. It reminds me of walking down the stairs of daily life and with each step you take it slams the biggest power chord into the floor and after you’ve crushed through to the bottom you throw out your arms in joy as you rise back up. (Dorky and ineffective visual of audio? Definitely.) The album does not let up or let down throughout the rest of the continued summer/car/window down altering guitar solos and enormous breakdowns mixed up with the pleasant and tastefully placed reggae songs.
I’ve honestly never-have-I-ever been so enthralled or excited upon first listen of an album. Or twentieth. This is a record that will keep a smile plastered to your face throughout any of the brief periods you aren’t dancing, head-banging, air-guitaring, or singing along.
Is it the new age of pop-punk and power pop? If you took Four Year Strong and had them grow up a little bit, you might be in this vein. The lyrics on the album are positive, happy, and constructive. Nothing overly deep or poetic, but enough to get their message of vitality and fun across. Is it math rock? You could also mention it sounds like the Mars Volta if they didn’t take so many mind altering substances and wrote slightly simpler pop songs. You could say the same thing if you compared this album to say, Dragonforce. It really makes you awe at Fang Islands’ technicality, but this is far more palatable for the average listener. You can enjoy the entire album without feeling like you just took PCP and drove your car into a brick wall while playing three Super Nintendo’s at the same time.
In the end, however, Fang Island didn’t get it completely right in their self-description. This is not merely an album for musicians that can understand and appreciate their technicalities, years of practice, and raw skill. This is not only an album for people that love music. Fang Island’s debut full-length album is one for everyone, one that celebrates the joy of being alive and the culmination of exuberant moments that fill each day with endless possibilities. This is the soundtrack, an ode to life and those moments that keep us trudging through all the rest of the other mundane days. Listen to it, feel it, love it. Then go high-five everyone.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Daisy”
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Listen to this song while you read…
“Swim Until You Can’t See Land”
Thank the Lord. Someone finally got Scott Hutchinson some prozac or maybe just enough good alcohol to numb his prior pain away. The Winter of Mixed Drinks is the beautifully catchy and unmistakably Scottish follow up to the “as close to perfect as you come” 2008 release The Midnight Organ Fight (#4 on my list from that year) from Frightened Rabbit. But dammit my friend, their breakout album was one depressing trip through a mans dismal relationship past. Sooooo good, but downright sad and self deprecating. However, it’s painful honesty made it one of the most memorable albums of well…what the hell do you call it? Memory! It embeds itself into your brain well after its completion, forcing you to unconsciously hum the catchy pop lyrics that are undeniably some of the toughest to digest because they are so demeaning to a mans self worth.
Jump ahead two years into the now of The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Frightened Rabbit’s sophomore album doesn’t just dance around the musical discovery and tone set by the prior record. It jumps, stomps, raises it’s hands shouts to the heavens of the ceiling and rolls around bare-ass naked in it’s refreshing, newfangled and - dare I say it - happy, glory and rebirth of its own. Hutchinson and Co. prove it’s not masochism if it means getting to a place where you can honestly be content with the way things are.
These songs are powerful, introspective, revelatory, and challenging to ones own self - your inner core. You are forced to ask yourself “Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?” from one of the best pop songs of the year, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land.” It’s the perfect challenge to yourself to stand up for what you want from yourself in life. This, following the all-out crunchy fog of delayed distortion on the introductory track, “Things.” This song sets the tone like flipping through a modern day magazine of your past as you simultaneously clear out your closet for an impending move. Whether its a move to get out of bed, across town, across the country, or out and across this world. Maybe simply a life change, realizing the shit you don’t need anymore, the things you never did…all the while discovering those few things and people you really do need to keep in your pocket.
Frightened Rabbit beckon you throughout the album to realize this simple fact of life: It’s not what happened to you. It’s how you recover from it. So many of us miss or ignore this downright painful discovery. But once you do, and if you can be strong enough to conquer whatever your ailment, you’ll be worlds better off than before, and no one can take that discovery and newfound strength from you. Fucking brilliant.
The Winter of Mixed Drinks is such a testament that music doesn’t have to fit a certain formula for success or sort of artistic continuity. What if Radiohead decided to do an uplifting and happy album instead of the normal awkward morbidity? That’s what Frightened Rabbit did. They got a good level of success with their prior work from a deep, painful album. However, as art thankfully and hopefully mimics life instead of a paycheck, Hutchinson got over his troubles, so he started singing and writing hopeful, happy, percussive and enormous gang vocal chorus sing-along anthems that spring out of slow, meek, and unraveling beginnings.
One thing that really stands out about Frightened Rabbit’s creation of their albums is that each record has always had an over-arching theme with songs that loosely tie together. Beneath that core is always one catchy lyric that shows up initially in one song. Then there is an interlude at some point in the album that reintroduces that lyric and melody in a completely different light via a new style and composition (“Man_Bag of Sand”). I love this, taking music to somewhat of a more thought provoking place. It’s like a chorus within an album instead of just a single song. It makes you revisit their musical and lyrical themes, thoughts, ideals, and rethink them instead of just hitting play and having everything web and weave without making you stop and think of the package as a whole and offer new introspection to the conveyed message. I wish more bands did this.
Since I have fairly shitty rhythm, it’s hard for me to discuss drumming. Except that I love it. Frightened Rabbit have some of the best percussion around. When they first started, they had no bass player. They were a three piece composed of two brothers. Huge drums were necessary to fill in more as an instrument than just simple rhythm because of the lack of bass as there was primarily acoustic guitars leading the melodies and no other instruments were electrified. So Scott’s brother Grant provideed the backbone necessary to achieve a full sound. Something only attainable from simple foot stomping beats similar to a rowdy dance only a Scottish family could bring. Now that their lineup has branched out to more members, this type of drumming might not be necessary…but it is still there and it has been expanded tastefully to the nth degree. Most songs begin building the layers of simple, non-intrusive rhythms and branch out into percussion so full, thick and intricate while only being supplied by different types of sticks and drums creating bass Dr. Dre would be proud of and Girl Talk would remix(probably not). See “The Wrestle”, “The Loneliness and the Scream”, and “Not Miserable” as prime examples of this clever style.
Speaking of - “Not Miserable” - this song shows the core of Scott Hutchinson and how he’s grown from a loving, albeit hurting human being. It is as apparent as looking through Caribbean water. It’s one of two songs to ever bring a tear to the eye. Musically, it begins wading through the hopeful murk of self imposed amnesia with reversed and rewinding pianos while he begins to reminisce how shitty he felt during his previous emotional trials and how it almost killed his core. Then distinct, deep, single piano keys begin to play…forward. Like life, there is only (should be) one direction. They sneak up in the background but sound like the first disgruntled hammer smash to a house you are going to tear down. And rebuild. Hopeful, euphoric, chorused vocals tap their toes in and out of the aforementioned crystal clear water. Finally, this crescendos to an all out epic percussive symphony and head banging anthem for it’s conclusion. So vibrant - so full of life and new love for ones self as well as everyone around them - that you can‘t avoid feeling uplifted from all-out self imposed destruction and the following recreation. I writhe wildly pretending to know how to play drums every single time I hear the end of this song while singing along like a fool. All with the catchiest drum beat complete with sirens, a symphony, and gang chorus. I don’t think a song could describe a year more perfectly. Chills. No other word than chills. The process is beautiful and we all win. It makes me so excited and happy to see Scott’s personal change as well as musical change for the band and have it be such a successful one.
If that wasn’t enough, the next track “Living In Colour,” arguably the albums strongest - bursts out like a drunken graduation party or imagination of Calvin and Hobbes melting across the pages to hang out, get drunk and dance crazily with Snoopy, Woodstock, Schroeder and Charlie Brown at the local pub - all in fast forward. I don’t know why I always imagine that when listening to this band. Whatever. When life invites you with its arms open, you fucking go. Happiness.
Frightened Rabbit prove there are people you’ll never know or never know again. But when or if you get the chance to witness their transitions from darkness to happiness, you can only smile and think of them in positive light as you know they are someone that deserves to be in the aura of being content and happy with who they’ve become. Don’t miss The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Soak up both records if you haven’t heard their prior album. Hear a man dig himself out of his grave and build himself a world-wide home full of handshakes and smiles. Accents or not, hope you can make a transformation like that when you have to and do it with your head held high. Nothing, nothing, nothing makes me more uplifted, happy, and hopeful than when listening to this album. You feel every quivering-but-now-strong lyric, sing along anthem and perfectly placed drum beat right down, down to the bone. Drink up, it’s winter time. Get through it.
…and listen to this one on the road.
“Not Miserable”
1. Delta Spirit - History From Below
Listen to this song while you read…
“Bushwick Blues”
Well, will you just look around. Here we are. You, me, and three hundred and five million six hundred and eighty nine thousand people living, loving, hating, questioning, answering, running, dancing, sitting, (not)sleeping, wandering, wondering, fleeing, fucking, flourishing, and floundering in the three hundred and sixty five days we share together this year. America today. Delta Spirit - History From Below is both a lyrically epic and simply understated reminder and reprise of our daily life. Road trips. Tumbling governmental systems. Dust n’ dirt(y memories). Beaches. Jean jackets. Coffee. Cigarettes. Stains. Friends both foreign and domestic met and mingled with on city streets. Kitchen floors. Vans headed cross coast. Life outside the internet and backlit screens. Businesses both booming and busting. Ragged cathedrals and choirs you’ll lose yourself in. Bedrooms and barrooms. Parties until 6AM. Home here and home there. These are the songs from the common man trying to get by and keep his head up in a sprawling corporate land of invisible boundaries and bullshit.
History From Below is the sophomore album from Delta Spirit and are a collection of songs from salt of the earth (read: badass) men that rise above and beside all pretense of current contemporary music many of us are enjoying semi-blindly. There’s nothing at all wrong with this, we all love it in some shape or form. However, at the end of the day it’s that one album, whatever it may be that speaks to you like this one does to me - authentic and genuine, cool and true. An album that grabs your heart and ears and whispers to your core like a great novel or a simple secret you want to shout but are trusted to keep to yourself. It’s a slow burner. I was so excited after seeing them at the Daytrotter Festival in April and being blown away by their live performance. I got this record after it came out and at first I felt heavily ho-hum about it. Disappointed after the epic live show. If you let it get under your skin a couple more spins you won’t want to come out from beneath the billowing landscapes portrayed simply in Matt Vasquez‘s raspy, “I don’t give a shit but I do”, almost out of key, slightly vibrating vocals and bleed-you-out lyrics. Charles Bukowski once said, “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” Never has an album and its content beautifully echoed that sentiment so perfectly. It lifts you up and beats your heart back down simultaneously while not making you dig it’s poetry out of muddled lines of code. Here are songs sung from a man that got his start from singing on the side San Diego streets with just his voice and guitar. It shines with a genuine careless love not seen in today’s up and coming artists.
Songs of the passing of people, the passing of daily life, both grandiose and mundane, to personal and profane. The shallow futility of doing things you hate and wondering if money really is or will be your salvation and your happiness. If these crazy lovers that mean the world to us for inexplicable reasons will be our downfall. On both accounts, lets hope not. Nothing that emanates from this album can be said to be anything other than pure and true. Born in memory from the history of the American soul. Even if pure and true is gritty, ugly, once beautiful, painfully honest. Its the feedback that every last one of us is looking for in life but far too often are afraid to attempt to attain. Instead we dodge and sugarcoat with heads hung demurely low or forcefully high. Kind of like what our country is doing. Anyway! History From Below is relatable to on all the most simple and complex levels of human emotions.
Such as the differences in the personality of love - past, present, future. Displayed best between “Bushwick Blues” and “White Table.” The first is a straightforward and distorted rock n’ roll classic that is a reminiscing story of lost and hopeful love left searching through pain. “Bushwick Blues” is my favorite song of the year. That mesmerizing bass, the lyrics, the chorus, the imagery, the pompous honesty - oh my. The latter displays exactly the opposite sentiments which features blatant knowledge of not giving a damn about someone else feeding and buying into your carelessness for love throughout the percussive anthem of “White Table.” The two songs are stark in contrast but still blend the colors of a visual, audible painting that turns into something cohesive and tangible. Present with nothing hidden in the lyrics but just hinted at enough so that you’ll miss it if you don’t fully digest each line of words. This theme carries on throughout the record. It’s a beautiful balance. Love is and love isn’t. No one knows why but we all feel it circumstantially at some point. Love is a hopeful relationship in heaven (“Vivian”) dodging the grasp of the devil (“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”). Love is taken from you when you are in Scotland by another man who took his shot on your girl and won (“Scarecrow” - the most surprising and engrossing song of the year you’ll skip at first then become enamored with. Er, well, I did. It is also one of my favorites to sing along to - loud and crass. “Well I gave my love to a harlot I’m told and the blackness of a scarecrow no one knows”). Love is a trip with your best friends along the coast (“Golden State” - God bless the PCH/Highway 1, I miss you). Love is not “9/11”, but somehow, it was found there too. It was found yesterday, it was found today, it will be found tomorrow.
Delta Spirit aren’t going to win you over with their musical technicalities. It’s their structure and composition that stand out. Tasteful and nonchalant as the simple message portrayed is what gives it deeper meaning that will slowly sink into your pores. They are smart enough to realize this as a whole and let specific instruments speak when they need to but allow Vazquez’s voice tell his simple message that nuzzles into your brain and sleep next to your heart with enough punch that you’ll sing along whenever you yourself feel like it, even after the album has left you to your life. Crescendos from just a vocal and acoustic guitar in cathedral choirs on songs like “Ransom Man.” Followed by “Devil Knows You’re Dead” with simpleton lyrics that are so genuine they are to be cherished - “May good luck find you at your worst and bad luck lose you at your best.” These songs and melting lines of words follow the instrumentation of precise acoustics, harmonicas, hum of old amplifiers, and pianos that were stolen from church and sing to you just as pure as from whence they came.
These were not songs written to top charts. They were not written for the disappearing record labels dollar. They were not written for any type of scene or buzzword or blogs approval (sorry, I started one too) or whatever the fuck. They were written for the sake of that fleeting classic American feeling; fun, friendship, honest and blunt expression with those loved ones we choose to spend our small amounts of time off with. It shines through without effort on each track. Something I believe is missing in many places, something I’m slowly discovering myself this year - community and solidarity. If we don’t have each other we don’t have anything and we’ll never get anything done (but solitude is damn necessary too). These songs were written because they had to be, for all the right reasons. History From Below is a radiant, deep, poignant tip off your hat to the way rock n’ roll used to be. Americas favorite underground-gone-mainstream past time that used to not always follow formulas and fashions (okay, maybe it did). Delta Spirit rain hints of classic Dylan and Creedence with the deranged grit of Waits and the catchy honesty of Clapton. This record has got more substance to forgive and fulfill all us wandering vapid souls that our earth struggles to sustain itself for day in and day out. Like love and life, to get it right you just have to follow that gut instinct to know where to start looking and where to stop looking.
Delta Spirit have proven themselves to no one and everyone all at once while quite possibly becoming the most important rock band of 2010. They have the lingering chops to remind us when we look back on this decade and forward to the next just how good music can be: something old, something familiar, and something entirely new and exciting all at the same time. Don’t forget to catch them live, or you’ll miss that ever disappearing moment where a band leaves you reeling, swirling, in the glory of honest -live and raw - American rock and roll. Delta Spirit - History From Below is the best album of the year.
…and listen to these.
“White Table”
“Golden State”
Thank you very much for reading, I hope you discovered a new song or band. Please hit me up with your favorite albums I missed. There’s always too much and never enough.
Until next year.
Love and rock,
Jeff Bobula
(If you made it this far, thank you. If this list were an actual album, this is the dorky secret track. I’m not going to lie. These next few seconds you read here and possible next 45 minutes of your listening contain my very favorite moment of each year. The time when I get to sit down and remember - rediscover my absolute favorite songs of the past year. The songs I have stuck in my head, the songs I sing out loud like a fool, the songs that when I first heard them gave me chills up and down my spine. An audible diary of sorts - the soundtrack of my 2010 as it webbed and weaved as each year does. Every band was seen, experienced, loved, every album a revelation. Like I said, every song was sung along. Every melody is one that was stuck in my head and kept me motoring through the daily days and some of the lyrics describe certain parts of the year as it passed or the general environment as a whole. It’s a crazy connection that I highly recommend you try. It is nothing other than pure, genuine fun of the discovery, the unknown as the days pan out. It’s a nod to the happy/sad nostalgia of mix tapes disappearing as another year vanishes in tandem. And simply the best tunes. They are absolutely the songs I would give as a mix tape to every last person I know as the year of my favorites. Not that anyone should really care about this final countdown of songs…but give it a shot. It puts a tangible image into the flow of the year, where you can transport back in time, look around to touch, smell, and feel exactly as you did in those moments. So here we go - a mix tape, a countdown of my favorite songs to the year in fast forward and reverse. Click the link to download, extract the songs, then enjoy. There is a list included if you want to just selectively listen, some are redundant from each of the “two songs” throughout the writeup, some were saved specifically for right now.)
2010 Mix Tape
files.me.com/jeffbobula/7uj7y7
11. Cloud Cult - Unexplainable Stories - http://db.tt/emjArAJ
10. Nathaniel Rateliff - Shroud - http://db.tt/gfAIozn
09. The Radio Dept. - Heaven’s On Fire - http://db.tt/mogjGbK
08. Murder By Death - Foxglove - http://db.tt/4mTG0TO
07. Suckers - Roman Candles - http://db.tt/kvulEBM
06. Delta Spirit - Scarecrow - http://db.tt/DjPxLri
05. Two Door Cinema Club - Come Back Home -http://db.tt/v6PNEZ5
04. Frightened Rabbit - Not Miserable - http://db.tt/SE9ChWs
03. Frightened Rabbit - Living In Colour -http://db.tt/y69T7TW
02. Pomegranates - 50’s - http://db.tt/R8LF7h8
01. Delta Spirit - Bushwick Blues - http://db.tt/2pEuLCp
