2010 in music

2010 is over, and now... WE LIST!

First off, here is an hour of my favorite songs in 2010. Thank you, 8tracks!

And before we get to the present, let's have a look back at the future?

The future, Michael?

That's right, Kelsey Grammer! All the way to the year 2000!

Best of 2000

When I was 17, there still were no torrents. It was only Napster, and the few people who understood how to use Napster, and the even fewer people who were cool eneough to put cool stuff on Napster. So my exposure to music was still limited to who I saw at shows of my favorite punk and ska bands. 80% of this list I had not heard when I was 17, but the remaining 20% were a pretty big deal.

NUMBER TEN

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

Casanova Snake

TMGE never disappoints.

Enjoy: Revolver Junkies (Live)

NUMBER NINE

The (International) Noise Conspiracy

Survival Sickness

Excellent mix of raw lo-fi punk and old school R&B rock and roll.

Enjoy: Smash it Up

NUMBER EIGHT

Boredoms

Vision Creation Newsun

A lot of people have Kid A by Radiohead as their weird artsy pick of 2000. I have Vision Creation Newsun.

Enjoy: ○

NUMBER SEVEN

Hot Snakes

Automatic Midnight

Hot Snakes were pretty much my favorite punk band ever. Here is why.

Enjoy: Salton City

NUMBER SIX

Grandaddy

The Sophware Slump

This was the best release from a very unique band from Modesto, CA.

Enjoy: He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot

NUMBER FIVE

Deftones

White Pony

This was Deftones' best effort to break away from the nu-metal curse. This album was a real eye opener for the 17 year old version of me.

Enjoy: Digital Bath

NUMBER FOUR

Deltron 3030

My favorite hip-hop album. It's like Futurama - The Rap.

Enjoy: Positive Contact

NUMBER THREE

Number Girl

Sappukei

Yet another massive step up from their last release. I've never seen a band evolve on a record to record basis like Number Girl. Sappukei is practically like a genre of its own.

Enjoy: Tattooあり (Live)

NUMBER TWO

At The Drive-in

Relationship of Command

This was the only other album in this list I heard when it released. I had never heard music this wild and energetic in my entire life. It very much opened up my mind to more types of music.

Enjoy: One Armed Scissor

NUMBER ONE

Polysics

Neu

This is my favorite album of all time. It's a brain-melting audio alien death ray of new wave punk rock.

Enjoy: XCT

Getting closer: What I missed in 2009

Cymbals Eat Guitars

Why There Are Mountains

Every song on this album has a little surprise. They never seem to be the band you expect them to be. Pretty cool stuff.

Enjoy: And The Lazy Sea

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Didn't notice these indie poster children until this year. They're like if No Age was good!

Enjoy: Young Adult Friction

Memory Tapes

Seek Magic

Freaking groovy as hell computers + guitar jams. I actually like this more than Ratatat.

Enjoy: Stop Talking

Screaming Females

Power Move

First saw this band in March. Blew me away. As much as this album rocks, its only a fraction of what you get live.

Enjoy: Bell

Shatter: The Official Videogame Soundtrack

The best game I own on PS3, and it's mostly due to this incredible electropop soundtrack.

Enjoy: Kinetic Harvest

Now that we're caught up, here is The 2010 Disappointment Bin

Gorillaz

Plastic Beach

Ok, at least a half hour of this album is good. So when you chip away the crap, there is still enough there. But even the good stuff seems to be a very one-dimensional take on a once versatile Gorillaz sound.

Dan Sartain Lives

It's been four years since the last Sartain release, but this sounds like it was written in a afternoon. Very little of this album is interesting, and all of it is repetitive.

Buffalo Daughter

The Weapons of Math Destruction

Another release long in the making. The production is good, but this is not representative of their evolution over the past decade. A lot of tricks on this album are old hat.

Foals

Total Life Forever

2008's Antidotes was a post-punk masterpiece. For their sophomore jinx, Foals decides to go mature mumbo-jumbo, with a lot of boring build ups that hardly pay off and a bland vocal approach.

Britta Persson

Current Affair Medium Rare

Persson isn't the only Swedish pop songwriter to plummet in quality me over the past two years, but is the worst offender. Not a single interesting moment on this whole album and lyrics that range from pointless to eye-rolling.

Welcome to the present! 2010's best music videos

Zach Hill - The Sacto Smile

Liars - Scissor

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls

The Birthday - Digzero

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork

Almost there.... Best cover art of 2010

TOP TEN OF 2010

NUMBER TEN

Asian Kung-Fu Generation

Magic Disk

Nothing eye opening about this record, but one of the most solid start-to-finish releases of the year. They know how to write a song that sticks in your head all day.

Enjoy: Magic Disk

NUMBER NINE

LCD Soundsystem

This is Happening

Going out on a high note. Murphy seems to never run out of ideas to put into his songs. I hope he continuities solo, or as part of another act.

Enjoy: Pow Pow

NUMBER EIGHT

Club 8

The People's Record

2010's most improved band. Nothing this year sounds like the calypso dance party Club 8 cooked up. Wonderful summer pop.

Enjoy: Western Hospitality

NUMBER SEVEN

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

The Brutalist Bricks

Ted's best since Hearts of Oak (2003), and the best use his harder sound. "Gimme The Wire" is my favorite song of 2010.

Enjoy: The Mighty Sparrow

NUMBER SIX

The Bithday

STAR BLOWS

This would have been my number one if the year was only 6 months long. Since better stuff has come out, and I've realized the Engrish lyrics are quite distracting, this album has dropped; but it's still some of the best classic rock jams I've heard.

Enjoy: 愛でぬりつぶせ (Live)

NUMBER FIVE

Screaming Females

Castle Talk

They've mellowed out, but it seems to be for the better. There are songs on this album that are timeless. Wonderful bass and guitar work, as per usual for this band.

Enjoy: I Don't Mind it

NUMBER FOUR

Zach Hill

Face Tat

This is my new favorite noise rock album ever. I love it more than anything by Hella. Zach is continuing to cement himself as the coolest motherfucker on the planet.

Enjoy: Green Bricks

NUMBER THREE

Hot Hot Heat

Future Breeds

Reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated. The Canadian new wavers return with a noisy vengeance to be the band I always wanted them to be.

Enjoy: YVR

NUMBER TWO

The Radio Dept.

Clinging To A Scheme

Worth the wait. The Radio Dept. has achieved an immersive collection of songs with enough versatility to make you want to get lost in it over and over again. You can't turn away after only one song.

Enjoy: Memory Loss

NUMBER ONE

GO!GO!7188

Go!!GO!GO!Go!!

It was tough to choose between the more scholarly option (The Radio Dept.) and this surf-punk extravaganza of an album. GO!GO! edged this one out. It just digs right into the pleasure center of my brain and rests there.

Enjoy: ええじゃないか (Live)

Ten videogames that I have played in 2010

Happy Christmas, internet!

I'm still throwing together my 2010 list of music. Lots of images and formatting to work out. It takes a whole to get it all looking somewhat respectable, and that's apart from the bad taste.

Giant Bomb has a list format that at least saves me from doing the same for videogames. So here is a top ten list of games for 2010!

album of the week: 12.3

The Octopus Project

Hexadecagon

Peek-A-Boo Records (2010)

why you'll love it: Adventurous upbeat instrumentals

why you'll hate it: Not much more than just background music.

Phew, one more good album left in the year. I was afraid for a moment I would have to dig out a stinker to fill in the last review of 2010. The Octopus Project is an instrumental band. Usually they lean on a very positive upbeat, almost video-gamey keyboard to set themselves apart. This time they throw their range out a lot more. There is a tinge of post rock on this album. I think that is mostly a consequence of their broad experimentation.

Hexadecegon is as ambitious as the title suggests, although it never feels like the group is up their own ass. There is a general feeling of adventurous exploration to keep in line with their general positive mood. At times, this album sounds like it could have been the soundtrack to something like the Spike Jonze Where The Wild Things Are film adaptation. This album isn't unique by any means, but it isn't derivative either. The problem is there are bands that have changed the landscape by making music similar to this;. By comparison, The Octopus Project may seem like small potatoes; but they are much too colorful and expressive to be given that kind of treatment.

It's my favorite time of the year

Holiday cheer, sleigh bells ringing, hot coco, giving gifts - FORGET ALL THAT

Icy roads on youtube is why I love the winter time.

album of the week: 12.2

Polysics

eee-P!!!

KRE (2010)

why you'll love it: glitchtastic hi-speed technopop

why you'll have it: Failure to progress from last two albums. bad mixing.

This is a release I've been anxious about all year. Just around this time last December, the synth player of Polysics (my favorite band ever) announced her plans to leave the band. Being a new wave band, this deals a heavy blow. Not only did Kayo contribute vocals to a number of songs, but she controlled almost all of the electronic sequencers, vocoding, keyboards; and provided a good deal of stage antics.

By summer, they were back in the studio again as a trio. Rather than find a replacement for a member many fans deem as irreplaceable, they basically promoted their sequencer. So, in other words, there is now a hard track that the band must follow, providing all the electronic bells and whistles - vocoding too, I think? Or is that something that must be performed live by an off stage 4th person? I don't know. This whole thing confuses me.

It just seems like a very far way to go just to make something that sounds exactly like Absolute Polysics.

I'd like to take a quick detour and diminish some of the criticism I had on that album last year. While I still think it was rushed, that is a tight album. I like it a lot, especially after seeing a lot of the songs performed live earlier this year.

Going into this EP, I was expecting a more stripped down approach. - with a few scattered electronic loops thrown into the middle eights or intros. It hasn't been rare to hear a Polysics song that depends more on guitar and bass than the electronics. Instead, the sequencer is firing at 30 beats per second here, and actually drowning out the rest of the band in songs like "Boil" and "How Are You?" That's crazy to me, that you wouldn't take this opportunity to showcase what kind of awesome hooks you can make with your core instruments. It's frustrating because Yano is actually an incredible drummer, and Hayashi has cooked up some wacky guitar hooks in the past. When I listen to these songs while trying to ignore the sequencer, I can hear some really good bass lines and guitar hooks. Good enough to sustain a song, but they're tough to hear under all the constant chirping.

Maybe these songs are holdovers from the past couple years, and not representative of their next album. None of these songs are bad. Despite the sequencer being way too up front, "How Are You?" is probably their best single in years other than "Young Oh! Oh!". "Mach肝心" is hells of fun to play in Audiosurf. "Rock Wave Don't Stop" is a tame "Electric Surfin' Go Go". Closest thing to a bad track on there. This isn't a bad EP, just a wasted opportunity to reinvent as a trio.

i keep forgetting to post about this

I bought a new computer last month and am playing computer games again for the first time since 2002. I think Max Payne was the last computer game I have ever played, just to put things into perspective. Relearning WASD controls is a real trail, and Frictional Games' Amnesia is a harsh mistress!

On sale last week for $10, Amnesia is a first-person survival horror game. It's reducing me to a quivering heap for the first time since Fatal Frame II. There are no weapons in this game. Your only ammunition are savaged matches and oil for your lantern, which don't fend off monsters as much as it does your character's sanity. In fact, wandering a well lit space basically plants a "tear here" label across your neck; so the game is a constant struggle of crawl about in the scary dark a dribbling mess, or ensure your gruesome death.

I haven't been killed by a visible being yet in the game, but I don't think I've feared such a thing as much in a video game before. These monsters look like the thing in Pans Labyrinth with eyeballs in its palms. I came within inches of one in an underground dungeon (why does it have to be a dungeon!?) last night, and got away despite these damn keyboard controls defying me when trying to slam a door shut behind me. I'm afraid to start the game again.

Maybe you too can play 2/3 of this game and stop! Download Amnesia from Steam!

album of the week: 12.1

Belle & Sebastian

Write About Love

Matador (2010)

why you'll love it: Richer sound on slower songs, modest fun pop songs

why you'll hate it: Not as iconic as previous albums. Still too cute for some people to handle

If you've reached album seven without splitting your fanbase between your current satisfied costumers and those aged fans with their arms crossed sneering "you've changed", then you're doing it wrong. From my experience, the story has been that the band has softened its edges; but Belle & Sebastian started out as soft as they come! Over the last decade, they have really swelled out their sound. To some old school fans, they've lost their humility and become a bit too clever and twee.

Write About Love is almost the record longtime fans have been waiting for. It's impossible for the band to return to the limited scope of The Boy With The Arab Strap (1998), but only very briefly do they repeat the tongue-in-cheek upbeat pop popularized in Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003). Instead, we are met with a compromise. The easy going modesty of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000) is given the production range of The Life Pursuit (2006).

While this album may do no more than frustrate opposite camps of the B&S fanbase, I think it's their most well rounded and accomplished album. They've written a few songs like "Come on Sister" in the recent past, but not with as much restraint. "I Want The World To Stop" is a wonderful example of taking their old songwriting into a new era with a bigger sound. Then there are a few gimmes like "I'm Not Living in The Real World" for newbies, and "Read The Blessed Pages" for the mainstays.

For those new to the band, start here. If you like the louder pop songs, keep working backwards down the discography. If the humble songs do it for go, shoot back to the beginning.

the point of no return

This is the single nerdiest thing I have ever found myself into, but I LOVE these podcasts where the writers of Penny Arcade and PvP play a game of Dungoens & Dragons. I have never played DnD before, and fantasy culture as a whole turns me off, but these are three of the funniest people around, and can improvise a lot of great wit out of the material. One of them is a newbie to the game, so it's fun to hear his impressions and reactions to it.

If you can tuck away the part of your brain that resists all things DnD just this once, and listen to these podcasts from the first campaign, you won't regret it. If you do, and enjoy it, there is video of the latest campaign played live in front of an audience at PAX. (thanks to Boing Boing for pointing this out yesterday)

album of the week: 11.5

Buffalo Daughter

The Weapons of Math Destruction

Buffalo Ranch (2010)

why you'll love it: some driving instrumentals. Pleasing moog heavy sound.

why you'll hate it: Aimless, flat, uncharacteristic childish moments.

A new Buffalo Daughter album is one of those things to come across my media radar as an absolute gift. Something that I didn't even bother crossing my fingers for because it seemed so improbable. Over the past couple years, musings over twitter, rumors, and a couple leaked songs here and there, have finally led to a real-life physical release by the progressive krautrock pop act.

While trying my best not to turn my nose away from this "gift", I gotta say, The Weapons of Math Destruction falls short of the inspiration left by most Buffalo Daughter albums. Many of the songs have a disappointingly simple, even sophomoric, delivery to them that you wouldn't expect in a 4th album. There are a lot of outdated Shibuya-Kei tropes (of which I feel the band has never had a significant relationship with in the first place), like Microsoft Sam/Speak-N-Spell vocals, a flat G-rated rap, and some badly placed show-tunes samples. It's not just the presence of these cliches, but the flippant and insignificant use of them that make me stunned that this was the same band that made such fantastic progressive works like I (2001) and Psychic (2003).

While the album does spend a good chunk of its time suspended in air flailing, there is at least a good half hour of solid music (which is all I ask of any album really). Most of these moments of joy come from instrumental tracks such as "Two Two" and "Run". bd still can build an hypnotizing beat better than more popular party-driven krautrock acts like !!! and Fujiya & Miyagi. "A11 A10ne" is one of the few impressive tracks with lyrics. Other songs I'm on the fence with are "The Battle Field in My Head" (very Tom Tom Club inspired) and "Unknown Forces" (which never quite emotionally manifests itself as intended).

This is sort of the same situation I ran into with this year's releases by Gorillaz and Hot Chip. It's a good album; but with all the filler, and comparing it to their back catalogue, it's hard not to see it as a failure. Hot Chip was trying something new, Damon simply doesn't care about the Gorillaz universe anymore; but bd's case apparently seems to be incompetence. I mean, they released a song last year ("Galactic S-O-U-L") that is dramatically better than anything on this album. They certainly aren't over the hill, or out of ink; it just seams as if this time they fumbled the ink and spilled it all over the canvas.

I heart Labrador Records

2010's most improved band, Club 8, has a new single called "Closer Now". It sounds like the rest of The People's Record, which means it's fantastic. You can download the song here

album of the week: 11.4

Marnie Stern

Kill Rock Stars (2010)

why you'll love it: A surprisingly mature approach, crazy good drums/guitar

why you'll hate it: not enough wild unpredictability.

Marnie Stern is one of those personalities where superficiality is enough. She's a Hella fanatic, has an amazing finger-picking guitar talent, has a charming bubbly vocal delivery, and writes a lot of songs about math and time-traveling. 2008's This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That was a triumph of organized chaos. Its as if she can just coast on "insanity with talent" for an entire career… which makes an introverted self titled album a bit of a surprise.

There are no corny acoustic ballads, but a distinct change in tone. To accommodate this outpouring of the heart, no songs truly explode with "Woah, what am I listening to?" levels of insanity. There is a steady flow of rocking provided by Marnie's guitar playing and Zach Hill again on drums, but the music structure isn't priority, thus rendering some of this album forgettable.

The rest adapts well in subtle ways. "Risky Biz" is a catchy little number. "The Things You Notice" and "Transparency is The New Mystery" mirror her humbling lyrics well. After a few listeners, I started to see interesting vocal progressions in "For Ash" and "Female Guitar Players Are The New Black". To be honest, the only song that feels like the Marnie Stern I had became enamored with in the first place is "Nothing Left"

I enjoy the fact that this album exists; and it's nice to hear Marnie show us a more personal side. None of the songs are bad at all. Zach Hill is along for the ride, how can the quality possibly slip? It just isn't very representative of what she does best.

DDD

A lack of embedding makes the reveal much less exciting, but the first post-Kayo Polysics song is online!!

At least I can embed this!

album of the week: 11.3

Zach Hill

Face Tat

Sargent House (2010)

why you'll love it: out of this world noise rock. chaos chaos chaos!

why you'll have it: Some will find it to be hardly music. Not as imaginative as last album

Becoming a relevant rock act today is quite hard. Not only is mainstream success about as likely as winning the lottery while being struck by lighting, but the indie world has the internet to compete with, where anyone can get 15 minutes of fame. It takes a lot of hard work, practice, and patience. That or just align yourself with Zach Hill.

Since gaining notoriety as 50% of Hella, the SoCal ultra-drummer has worked on about a dozen side projects with the likes of Boredoms, Marnie Stern, and Omar Rodriguez (of The Mars Volta), to name just a few. in 2008, his gonzo prog influenced solo album, Astrological Straights, proved he can do more than just trash a drumset into rubble.

Face Tat starts off along the same lines as Astrological Straights. Apart from the noticeable increase in volume, the Frank Zappa vibe is strong and still welcome. Suddenly, with the song "Ex Ravers", we get a taste of the Zach Hill that made Hella famous. Face Tat is NOISE ROCK, and "Ex Ravers" is only the tip of the iceberg. If noise rock isn't your bag, "The Sacto Smile" and "Green Bricks" will send you running.

This is probably the best noise rock album I've ever heard. A complete attack on the eardrums. Even at minimal volume, it still sounds loud on my headphones. Aside from the last track, none of this album drags or repeats. Every song (if you can call some of them songs) hits a different nerve.

While I still prefer Astrological Straights simply because it was so unexpected and different, Face Tat is pure genius. Not much of a surprise from the guy who improves the quality output of whoever he associates with.

the same series of signals, over and over again!

I fulfilled one of my life goals this weekend and saw Man or Astro-Man? perform live. The show was a total blast, and thankfully, some other fans filmed it. Check out the ass kicking below.

album of the week: 11.2

Fake Problems

Real Ghosts Caught on Tape

sideonedummy (2010)

why you'll love it: another new side of a talented band

why you'll hate it: way softer than the last album, bad intro/outro songs

It's Great To Be Alive was my favorite album of 2009. It was a whirlwind of Swami Records style rockabilly punk with a dose of southern Baptist mumbo-jumbo. Good edgy fun. If Real Ghosts Caught on Tape proves anything, being an east coast junior Rocket From The Crypt is has never been this band's intention. Just as last year's album shed away the sophomoric cow-punk of How Far Our Bodies Go (2007), Real Ghosts trades in the high energy and grit for a fresh coat of Americana pop.

This year's softer and warmer Fake Problems are sure to repel older fans, but I've found the change of pace to be refreshing. Few bands shake things up with every album. They seem to nail every genre they take on, with only a few stumbles. The songs of Real Ghosts Caught on Tape are good clean fun, and like the past two albums, sometimes lean over the edge of "gimmicky". "Soulless" starts off making you think you're listening to something like The Foundations. It's a sugary album for sure, but an honest and well made one.

Although it isn't a lack of rock that weakens this album, it's a few instances of corny songwriting. Chris Farren is in some ways still stuck in a high school mentality. His melodrama in the past two albums seemed to complement the genres well; but "ADT" comes off as a by the numbers young hopeless romantic pop song. Worst of all, it's the very first track. Fitting that the only other bad track "Ghost To Coast" is the closer. It's a needless ballad, especially after the perfect closer, "Grand Finale". Everything else in the middle makes for a great album, but I can imagine a lot of people switching off after a fatiguing bad start; or coming away with a bad taste in their mouth with a shrug of an ending.

Real Ghosts has just as much heart as other Fake Problems albums. It just comes down to how much you can get into the genre. Although this album is nowhere as resonant to me as It's Great To Be Alive was, it makes me respect them all the more for being such a versatile act.

album of the week: 11.1

Screaming Females

Castle Talk

Don Giovanni Records (2010)

why you'll love it - Garage rock lives!

why you'll hate it - not as raw as earlier albums

Back in March, I caught Ted Leo and The Pharmacists in NYC. Despite Ted Leo and Rick Froberg, two of my modern rock idols also performing that night, it was the opening band that stole the show. In a modest Amish looking dress, the diminutive guitarist soon exploded with sound. A solid 45 minutes of old school rock followed and what felt like an endless supply of guitar solos.

Castle Talk doesn't provide that sledgehammer feeling one's first Screaming Females show does, but that doesn't stop if from being an absolute killer of a rock album. There are a few nitpicks you could jab at this album with, like a complete abandon of Marissa Paternoster's unique screaming voice, or one or two instances of corny lyrics (the chorus to "Sheep"). None that matters. The songs are that good, and get better with each play through.

Without resorting to any attention getting hooks or gimmicks, this is already my favorite Screaming Females album, and one of the best albums of 2010. Loud or soft, gritty or danceable, the band is talented enough to corral their range into a tight package that never loses momentum to the very end. Just one track, "Deluxe" sounds a bit too much like a demo, compared to the rest of the album; but this is yet another invalid complaint that gets swallowed up in the surrounding wonderful. If you love bands like Television, Wipers, or The Birthday, this is a must listen.

replemishing

An Idiot Abroad is in full swing, but you can still never get enough Karl Pilkington. A free half hour podcast went up this week. Grab it.

album of the week: 10.4

Bad Religion

The Dissent of Man

Epitaph (2010)

why you'll love it: Strong honest album that doesn't stray far from Bad Religion's range

why you'll hate it: folk punk is getting played out. Do you really need more Bad Religion?

2001 was a remarkable year for Bad Religion. Reunited with once-estranged founding member, Brett Gurewitz, brought forth a new era for the band, which included a series of releases immediately reminiscent of their late eighties heyday. I remember passing by the TV in my college dorm one night, and a roommate snidely remarking "Shit man, Bad Religion, I'd expect them to be in walkers by now." That was damn near ten years ago! Now that Bad Religion's "nostalgic" era is also old news, where can the band go now?

Going into The Dissent of Man with this kind of mentality, and thinking I didn't really need anymore pessimistic societal lectures from Graffin & co. I ended up being pleasantly surprised! Rather than venture down into the No Control (1989) well yet again, there is a much more personal folk and blues style to the album. Folk punk has been a bit of a overstocked commodity as of late, but the group's age translates the sound much smoother than up and comers like The Gaslight Anthem. Gurewitz has a more graceful way of songwriting too that never comes off as Springsteen fan service. Hell, all the band needs to do is say "Yo, Recipe For Hate (1993). We did back then, and we're finally doing it again."

There are few things that will never change. Lots of backup melody vocals, familiarly tuned guitars, and intellectual dissections of religion. Aside from the standard 100mph opening track, this album is very mature and well paced. There are a couple lyrically embarrassing tracks like "Where The Fun is", but just as many new classics such as "Only Rain" and "Cyanide".

So yeah, I can't think of a better 30th anniversary release for this band. This is no landmark release for music in general, but Bad Religion seems to be exactly where they want to be right now. It's undeniably Bad Religion, and honestly mature without compromising either halves.