December 2010
20 posts
6 tags
The Best Record of 2010: Romance Is Boring, by Los...
Mike: Lead singer and lyricist Gareth Campesinos! cites Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu as his biggest musical influence, and it really shows on this record, both literally (Stewart sings on here…somewhere) and through the willingness of GC! to forget about inhibition and totally just go for it. He’s letting out stuff that I would be horribly uncomfortable putting out for the scrutiny of...
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Ben's Best Records 15-2
15-Frightened Rabbit-The Winter of Mixed Drinks
A record I never gave enough credit to until I was going through my year end songs list and realized that I liked this record alot more than I realized. It leans towards the emo side, but honestly these songs are touching and meaningful. So it’s a little reminiscent of Coldplay, but you know what? Sometimes that emotional heft is a good...
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It's the end of the year as we know it...Mike's...
(unranked tie):
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me + Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Shit, what a total double cop out right at the beginning of my list. Not only am I including unranked items, but I’m calling them a tie? BOO! Still, this is the best way I could think of to deal with the fact that I’m sitting on two albums that I’ve now heard on multiple...
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Mike's Favorite Show of 2010
Although I had many memorable concert experiences this year (honorable mentions to Ava Luna and Delorean who both played explosive little sets in Brooklyn after 2 am, and to YACHT…and to Fennesz…Grouper…), my show of the year goes to the Rally to Restore Sanity. Aside from being one of the largest events I have ever attended, and the political implications…man what a...
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Ben's Ten
10. This is a Flag There is No Wind-Los Campesinos!
Features my favorite opening line of the year by a mile. “CAN WE ALL PLEASE JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN!”. I say it in exactly that tone to my son when I’m trying to get him to sleep. It works wonders.
9. The Wild Hunt-The Tallest Man on Earth
I’ve always had a soft spot for singer-songwriters who have the balls to just...
25 tags
Ben Takes it from 50 to 11
I came darn close to having a hundred songs, but given the time constraints it makes most sense to stick with my favorite 50. Going through this list made me reconsider my albums list in some ways which were surprising.
50 - You Wanted A Hit-LCD Soundsystem
49 - Deep Blue-Arcade Fire
48 - Blue As Your Blood-Walkmen
47 - Who Knows, Who Cares-Local Natives
The first of several Local Natives...
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It's the end of the year as we know it...Mike's...
10. Andrew Cedermark - Moon Deluxe Better than any other track on his solo debut, Mr. Cedermark here employs his two-parts The Microphones, one part “Born to Run” formula to wonderful effect. At various points the song is chugging, windy, longing and anxious, but it always feels honest. There’s so many layers of instruments, it’s easy to miss the fact that there’s...
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It’s the end of the year as we know it…Mike’s...
Mike’s list of favorite songs continues. Certain songs are highlighted, but the list is definitely in order, leading up to the best toward the bottom. Mike used all the latest scientific methods, so you can rest assured that it’s right. Right?
50. Magnetic Fields - You Must Be Out of Your Mind So me and Russell are wandering around in AKA Music back in January and there’s some crazy...
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It's the end of the year as we know it...Mike's...
Welcome, everybody, to our official The Big Opus Year-End Extravaganza! 2010 was an extraordinary year for us as fans, as we often found ourselves drowning in exciting new releases from our favorite acts and plenty of new faves to boot (I know I still have at least a dozen new albums to check out once this year is through). This week, we tackle our favorite songs of 2010, followed by write-ups...
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Year-End Preview-Big Boi
Lets take a moment to appreciate the old guard. In a wonderful year for hip-hop one of its finest records was made by the standby. One of the best and most original party records in a long time. Sir Luscious still has it. Maybe we need to spend less time adoring his long-lost brethren and more time basking in the glow of what we’ve still got.
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Year-End Preview: Ke$ha
It would be a hilarious understatement to say it’s been a big year for Ke$ha. Her 2010 bests many pop icons’ careers; Two albums, a pile of killer hit singles, massive tours and smarts that are rare among humans, let alone dance-pop performers (she scored a 1500 on her SATs). She’s so omnipresent these days that people with general gripes about young music just complain...
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Year-End Preview: Girl Talk
Pittsburgh’s Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, has been recombining the best moments of modern pop music with his computer for many years now. But while he’s been pumping up crowds since being discovered by Pitchfork in 2006, I’ve was always left cold by his records. That is until a couple weeks ago…
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Year-End Preview-Mountain Man
Sometimes a band does something so wholly original it seems classic. Often times this draws from something that felt lost. Something from the deep past that we had forgotten about. Mountain Man managed to do that. To take classic, timeless folk and still make you think “Damn, I’ve never heard anything like this”. Out of nowhere and yet as if they’d always been.
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Year-End Preview: Andrew Cedermark
Having recently left Pitchfork darlings Titus Andronicus, New Jersey guitarist Andrew Cedermark followed up a pile of split 7”s and EPs with a debut album bringing together the noisy palettes of Bright Eyes and The Microphones with memorable guitar work and wonderfully spirited songs.
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Year-End Preview: Shad
Wait, what? Hip hop can be thoughtful and catchy? Its practitioners both self-aware and self-deprecating? Full of remarkable, meaningful statements with sticky hooks?
Oh shit! And also Canadian?
Nothing about this makes sense, but it is just simply, beautifully, breathtaking.
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Year-End Preview: Los Campesinos!
They arrived a scant four years ago as teenagers with an uproarious batch of spirited dance-rock songs. But last January, Los Campesinos! reemerged as a different entity altogether. An unruly beast of a group, they put hyper-personal lyrics against a Technicolor wall of screeching noise. It’s fucking brilliant, really.
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Year-End Preview: Local Natives
Indie band manages to do all things classically indie. Tight harmonies, catchy hooks, direct Talking Heads references; and pull it off with aplomb and flair. These songs, against all expectations, have survived and flourished. Out of nowhere a band narrates a year with a handful of magical hooks.
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Year-End Preview: The Arcade Fire
Staring down their diminishing youth, The Arcade Fire managed to grow up gracefully this year, without sacrificing any of their vast creativity. For their next trick, they turned into a bona fide chart-topping, arena rock powerhouse while simultaneously earning back their core audience. Impressive!
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Month in Review Day Two- And I'm like FOX News.
I haven’t had as much time this month to fully delve into many of new things. The main reason is the untimely demise of emusic. As they have now lost two of the major indies many, many things that I would want to get are unavailable to me.
As such I’m very much considering cancelling my subscription. In fact I just went through the cancellation process and got to the final screen...
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The Month in Review, Day 2: Pen Pals!
When my friend Bonnie from grad school moved away at the end of the summer, we decided to keep in touch by way of the music that we were listening to. These are my favorites that she’s sent so far. Since they have all been part of an ongoing e-mail conversation, I’ll include some of my reactions from the e-mails as well. Thanks for the tips, Bon-Fire!
Arvo Pärt - Summa for Strings -...