TOP 10 OF '10, YA'LL.

so i wrote up a list of my top ten releases for the year for the chirp website. it'd been on my to-do list for quite some time, and the fact that it took me as long as it did to get around to it kinda bummed me out. i had been thinking about the list all year, as i always am a nut with music and wonder, 'but does this have any longetivity? will i listen to it to death for the next 2 weeks and then shelf it into oblivion?' kinda bums me out to say 2010 was a bit lackluster of a year for releases. sure, there was shit i dug and listened to to death. like, the new nicki minaj album and even girl talk, i like them both immensely now - but did either of them make the cut for this list? negatory.

plus i guess i spent a lot of time this year revisiting older shit, like my massive siouxsie and the banshees phase this summer. oh well. ramble rant aside, i did manage to come up with a list of ten albums. this isn't to say i didn't enjoy additional records, i guess i could say some honorable mentions would be peter wolf crier (inter-be), yeasayer (odd blood), atmosphere (to all my friends/blood makes the blade holy), and stars (the five ghosts). but man, here's to hoping 2011 has some more 'blow my face off' ammo than this. too bad kanye only dropped one record this year, otherwise he'd have all ten of my slots fo sho.

1) Beach House/Teen Dream/Sub-Pop


No other album could possibly come close to the heavy rotation Teen Dream got on my iPod this year. The combination of Victoria Legrand’s lush vocals and dream pop instrumentation is seriously too good to be true. Tracks like the dizzying “Norway,” epic “Zebra” and the surreal “Silver Soul” are twistedly abstract, romantic and damned enchanting.

2) Kanye West/My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Def Jam

Love him or hate him, Kanye knows how to get your attention. After a pretty rough couple of years, West came hurdling through the haters with his most epic release to date, dropping My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his musical redemption. West proves he’s got power with his sleek beats, addicting hooks and rhymes (seriously, who else can get the masses singing toasts to ‘douchebags’?) and featured partners in crime ranging from Elton John, Jay-Z to Bon Iver.

3) Robyn/Body Talk/Cherry Tree

Released just in time to secure a spot on my top 10 of ’10 list, our favorite Swedish pop princess compiled her Body Talk trilogy into one cohesive album. Body Talk as a cumulative whole, vs. the three separate eps, rivals the greatness that was her breakout self-titled 2008 comeback. Dropping dance party anthems like “Hang With Me,” “Dancehall Queen” and “Indestructible,” girlfriend proves she won’t be dancing on her own any longer.

4) Arcade Fire/The Suburbs/Merge

While we will sadly never again experience the epic greatness of another Funeral, Win Butler and crew made a damned fine attempt with The Suburbs. Blowing away their sophomore release Neon Bible, The Suburbs was one consistently memorable collection of epic instrumentation and overall indie goodness. Tracks such as “Month of May,” “Sprawl II,” “Ready to Start” and “The Suburbs” are undeniable examples of awesomeness.

5) GAYNGS/Relayted/Jagjaguwar

Not such Broken Social Scene has the indie music scene witnessed such a superhero line-up. The debut release from Midwesterners GAYNGS, Relayted is such an irresistible compilation of sleek, synth heavy, 80’s throwback baby making music that George Michael was pretty much forced into retirement. Who knew the dudes from Bon Iver, The Rosebuds and Solid Gold had such a seductive side to ‘em? Burning hot.

6) Phantogram/Eyelid Movies/Barsuk http://goo.gl/cHLwl

The majority of male/female duos are shiny, happy pop music. (See YACHT, Mates of State, Matt & Kim, etc). Phantogram is not one of those bands. Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter make musical love into mystery, driven with their synth and bass driven melodies and gaspy, seductive shared vocals. Eyelid Movies is eleven tracks of electronic indie dance bliss.

7) Gorillaz/Plastic Beach/Virgin

Anything Damon Albarn touches turns to gold (or at least it should). Even after just releasing the greatness that is Plastic Beach in 2010, Albarn has already announced his intentions of a follow-up album, which was recorded on their current tour—on an iPad. Not sure how he’ll get guest artists like Snoop Dogg and Lou Reed onboard with this current method, but by now I’m pretty sure whatever Albarn’s got up his sleeve is destined for greatness.

8) Vampire Weekend/Contra/XL Recordings

Who knew some random Polaroid photo from the 80’s would blow up into the biggest indie lawsuit of the year? Luckily for the gentlemen of Vampire Weekend, it turns out there’s much more to Contra than their obscure album art. Tracks like “Giving up the Gun,” “Cousins” and “Holiday” are just a few of the album’s upbeat pop ditties, proving these prep rockers are more than a one album success act.

9) LCD Soundsystem/This is Happening/DFA

James Murphy is a pretty righteous dude. This is Happening was one of the year’s biggest hypes, and if you’ve listened to the record, you’ll see why. “You Wanted a Hit,” “Dance Yrself Clean” and “Home” are several exemplifications of how Murphy and co. have raised the bar on electro-indie bangers once again.

10) Caribou/ Swim/Merge

Daniel Snaith is a mathematician by trade, but he’s better known to the masses as the indie electro composer Caribou. Swim is his best release to date, bursting with formulaic layers of samples, reverb, synth, bass and whatever other magical components he throws into the mix. Impossible to stand still while listening to, this album is consistently mind bending from start to finish.

p4k : day two

let's see how my memory serves me for two days back. . . saturday, saturday, saturday. not the strongest of the three days (that would be a toss-up b/w fri and sun, for sure), but not a horrible day either. there were a few good surprises.

luckily for me i was well rested after opting to go home early friday night, but unluckily for me it turns out i was on the darkroom's guest list for dickfork (i found this out through dj stv slv of the hood internet who i ran into sunday night - when he asked why he didn't see me, i told him i had run outta dough, 'but i saw your name on the list!" woops. fail. oh well.)

flew solo sat for the most part, arrived in time to check 3-4 of delorean's tracks, which were ok. it's never really a good idea to throw in a dance crazed indie sesh at 2 in the afternoon, so it was a bit lackluster. i got to hear 'stay close' which is prob my fave track by them, so that was ok. strolled to meet mr. handsome joe and crew over on the b stage for a bit of kurt vile - never had heard of/or heard this dude, but his shit was ok. stood in the sun,got heated, but sought refuge in the shaded tree area in the back until dam funk went on. dudes, no matter what i ever say about music, for the sake of your earbuds please hear this: DAM FUNK DAMN SUCKS. it was so bad. i think he was supposed to be hip hop or something but it just sounded as if the-dream and lil jon got wasted on some new wave acid shit and made some wackass 'GANGSTA' pussy beats. so fucking bad my ears bled. so gross. hated it. the sound was gross. the back up band in their shitty white tuxes were gross. dam funk was gross. i don't think i've ever seen so many ppl hightail it out of an enclosed area ever. it's painful to even think about. no dam funk. no no no.

so instead we opted to go check out some real hip hop and strolled to the a stage to check raekwon. raekwon sounded MUCH better than dam whats his face, but encountered a crapton of technical sound difficulties, halting the show in increments. which sucked, cuz like, you can't hype the crowd with C.R.E.A.M and then just stop for five minutes. but he did. it was cool to hear a handful of 36 chambers joints for sure, specially with brews and such, but the interruptions were distracting.

post brew and pizza break, i reconvened with my hippie friends to check jon spencer blues explosion. not so much by choice, but b/c i wanted to stick around the area for wolf parade who played next. jon spencer and crew are getting up there in age, but for what they do, actually surprised me. they weren't that bad. just a bunch of bluesy grandpas i wouldn't mind boning jamming away on their harmonicas and whatnot. although i kinda did wanna punch jon spencer in the face everytime he squealed in his auto tune BLUES EXPLOSION!

made it kinda up front for wolf parade. wasn't sure what to expect. didn't want all new stuff, didn't want any mount zoomer stuff, didn't want all apologies. i was pretty happy with their chosen set list. from apologies they played 'i'll believe in anything,' 'dear sons and daughters of hungry ghosts,' and 'this heart's on fire' (my fave). from mt zoomer they played a couple tracks, but made the mistake of closing out with the way too long and jammy 'kissing the beehive' which really started to confuse me towards the end, but that's just because i was kinda fucked up at the time and was thrown off by the repetitious chords at the end. noone should play 10+ minute long songs at a fest, c'mon. outta new stuff, i picked up on their singles 'what did my lover say (it always had to be this way)' and 'ghost pressure' and i know more new and old stuff was interwoven, but like i said, jodi had indulged in some silly juice and didn't take notes. i know dancing commenced though, and the overall sound quality was pretty righteous.

then it was time for panda bear. well, i don't want to wind up sticking my foot in my mouth 2 months down the road if i wind up worshipping dude's new record, but for the sake of the festival it was basically souped up animal collective. lots of reverb and crazy electro noise with an occasional yelp "oooooh!" thrown it. liquid neon visuals on the screen. thank god i was stoned. good lord i was confused, though.

and then lcd soundsystem. well, it's their last tour. and james murphy rules. and the new album, well, you can take it or leave it but that's what we've got. i think it's a grower and half decent. the crowd was condensed as fuck for this particular set and my biggest beef was that p4k is quiet as fuck for all headliners. at one point b/w songs the crowd even started yell/chanting 'LOUDER LOUDER LOUDER' and james murphy just kinda awkwardly smiled and shook his head. at one point later in the show he even was shouting out about how members were spinning at an after party with details, but then stopped and realized, 'you guys probably can't even hear or understand a word i'm saying right now, can you?' not really. but we still love you for it. homeyz busted out 'sound of silver,' 'all my friends,' 'get innocuous,' 'time to get away,' 'daft punk is playing at my house,' 'yeah yeah yeah,' 'drunk girls,' 'you wanted a hit,' 'i can change' and closed things off with 'new york i love you but you're bringing me down.' fun dance party. for realz. just man, shit should have been louder.

post set i waited like a fool for not 1, not 2, but 4 ashland busses full to capacity with fest goers before i realized i was prob better off on foot to go meet some non-p4k pals. strolled up to division and grabbed a brew at gold star b4 shoving my face full of brats at a pal's aptmt on grand. so exhausted, but i made it home after another long, sweaty, 90 degree dancey brew filled day.

jodi is getting too old for music festivals.