Best of 2010: Songs

This has been one of the best years of music in about the last half decade for me. It started somewhat slowly, but over time most of my musical fancies were more than satisfied. There's been so much good music that this list has taken me months to write, and been revised more times than I care to remember. And this whole time, relistening to these songs over and over and over again, I've just come to love them even more.

So here it is, my ten favourite songs of 2010 (each title includes a link to hear the song).

11. Pink Robots - Curly
I included this at number 11, as I needed my cliché Scandinavian pop-band entry for 2010 and this really just missed out. A beautiful back and forth between a female and male singer with synth-pop music. Gosh the Scandinavians do this well.

10. Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
Greys Anatomy: destroyer/overplayer of good quality alternative-pop songs. Yet despite the thrashing Greys and Channel 7 has given this song, it’s been almost a year of listening to it and it’s still such a cheerful little indie-folk song that you just can’t help singing along to.

9. Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Levi Johnstone's Blues
Their collaboration album seemed too much for me. The lyrics were over worked, which is what happens when an author tries to write music. But holy hell, this song is just so goddamned funny in it’s American political/celebrity satire that I had to put it in.

I'm a fuckin' redneck, I live to hang out with the boys
Play some hockey, do some fishin' and kill some moose
I like to shoot the shit and do some chillin' I guess
You fuck with me and I'll kick your ass

8. Chemical Brothers - Escape velocity
This album came out of nowhere and floored me. I was expecting more crappy dance-pop from the Chemical Brothers but instead I got epically long electronica tracks like this.

7. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - U.S. 41
Tom Petty takes a break from his continual songs about drug use and makes an excellent road trip country-blues-rock song. Possibly in my top 10 purely for the use of slide guitar.

6. Comeback Kid - Because of All the Things You Say
It’s a hardcore song that could almost be passed off as a mainstream rock song. I’m not sure what about it makes it like this, it’s still hard and heavy, it’s got very shouted/gravelly vocals, but this song just makes you want to sing along every time you hear it.

5. Menomena – Taos
That driving bass line. It just worms its way into your head and sticks there. The guitars at times sound disjointed and sampled, but so do all of the instrumentals in this song (probably has to do with their much lauded recording method). Yet it all comes together superbly.

4. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
The title track of their new album, it sums up everything I love about this band. Great sing alongs, male v female vocals, slightly poetic and jaded lyrics you can identify with, noisy guitars, keyboard and synth and all wrapped up in a dance-along pop package.

3. Dangers - Stay-at-home Mom
The perfect start to a crushing hardcore album. “Why didn’t you kill yourself today?” it asks, before exploding into a deconstruction of a stepford-wife existence while her kids run wild listening to bands like Dangers. Halfway through it breaks down into an almost circus-like musical ditty, before closing off rather hard and rapidly. This song has been stuck in my head all year, so much that I named my blog after a lyric in this song.

2. Ceremony - Into The Wayside Part I/Sick
A post-punk guitar riff and musical feel slowly builds up into an almost classical 80s hardcore style song, lamenting everything that the singer is annoyed at in modern life. It’s Ceremony’s cry about what has become, their sound channels the music they used to love from a better time (musically) while this happens:

Sick of living
Sick of people dying
Sick of the buying
Sick of trying
Sick of television
Sick of telephones
Sick of homophobes
Sick of condos
I'm sick.

1. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
Their album, the Monitor, is a concept album about a man leaving New Jersey to join the American Civil War. This song, the opening track, introduces us to the story in the most ass-kicking garage-rock way possible. Full guitars build this up into a classic rock anthem, with parts challenging Springsteen and Mellancamp of old. This is a modern classic American rock anthem. This song, every time I listen to it, gives me such goosebumps and patriotism for America, and I’m not even American! “Rally around the flag boys!” Their music video is only about half of the song, right before it builds up to the full patriotism.

One sentence album reviews (#7)

As always, you can get these regularly on my Twitter.

Atlas Sound - Logos (2010): Very soft and quiet shoegaze crossed with electronica; very dream like. 2.5/5

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010): Bieber(-1), Raekwon(+2), autotune(-1), Bon Iver(+1), samples King Crimson(+1) and a "I'm gonna let you finish" joke(+1)=3/5

UNKLE - Where Did the Night Fall (2010): One track features Mark Lanegan. #swoon. Apart from that, great relaxed electronica. 4/5

Less Than Jake - TV (2010): ska covers of tv tunes, may confuse many with American TV references. Worth it for the Animaniacs theme alone. 3.5/5

Bomb the Music Industry - Adults!!!... Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!! (2010): As always, just fun ska-punk. Bonus point for being free. 4.5/5

Tigers jaw - Two Worlds (2010): everyone is raving about this, but I find the lead singer's voice too whiney. 2.5/5

Underoath - Disambiguation (2010): The loss of the singer/drummer has somehow steered them towards a more awesome and heavier direction. 4/5

Grinderman - 2 (2010): Dark, brooding garage rock which sounds like a culmination of Nick Cave's entire career. 3.5/5

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue (2010): The author's lyrical contribution just makes it seem Folds is trying too damn hard 3/5

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush to Relax (2010): excellent home grown garage rock; surprising number of long songs. That's not the garage rock way. 4/5

Nas & MF Doom - Nastradoomus Vols. 1 & 2 (2010): The 'best of' Doom's beats with new Nas' raps. Most of the songs aren't as good as the originals. 2.5/5

Ben Folds

When I was 15, Heather, my girlfriend at the time, made me my first ever mix tape. It wasn't much of a mix tape, just a bunch of Ben Folds's songs. And ever since that day, I've been in love with his music.

Ben Folds Five - Army (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Ben Folds Five

He's got style. He's got class. He's got humour. He's an amazing musician. And a bloody good songwriter. I've been lucky enough to see him a few times now, including playing with a symphony orchestra and even playing with a Tegan and Sara. He is just such a good performer with such great songs that I recommend everyone go see him at least once in their life.

Luckily for you, you can go and see him again very soon. May 17th at QPac. A great venue for the great performer. Unfortunately, tickets will be pushing past $100, but it should most definitely be worth it. This tour will feature a lot of his new album, which he co-wrote with author Nick Hornby. But you can guarantee he will pull out all of his hits, and hopefully some covers too. I'm still waiting to see him play his Dr. Dre cover live.

Tegan and Sara headline shows

The Canadian sisters are out here supporting Jack Johnson in December, playing the Riverstage on December 13th. As an early Christmas gift to us, they've decided to do a few headlining shows as well.

I was lucky enough to see them about a decade ago, when they opened for Ben Folds, in one of my first concert experiences. Their indie-pop music is beautiful, despite whatever NOFX says about them.

Catch them the day after their Jack Johnson show, playing the Tivoli. December 14.

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90's Mixtape #4: Bands that got big

As many one hit wonders as there were in the 90s, there were plenty of bands that became huge, from genres that would normally not have gotten big. Imagine in 1990 seeing Green Day and thinking how huge they would become? It just boggles the mind. This selection is of bands that have become huge since then, maybe not to the level of being played on Nova, but to the level of being considered gods of their genres.

1. Ben Folds Five - One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces (3:54)

Ben Folds was the sound of university students of the 90s. This track, one of his heavier ones, was the opening track to the album that made him huge, the one that had that sobby song Brick on it.

2. Alice In Chains - We Die Young (2:32)

Nirvana was the biggest band in grunge, Pearl Jam possibly the second. And the third, without a doubt, was Alice in Chains. I still remember when the lead singer Layne Staley died in high school, most of my friends had to go home to mourn. It was a huge moment for us, as Alice in Chains was the working class rock music of our area.

3. At the Drive-In - Metronome Arthritis (4:01)

Probably one of the best bands, ever. They had a massive hard working ethic, and apparently gave the most legendary on-stage performances. This was a track that was recorded just before the sessions that gave them their critically acclaimed, and unfortunately last, album Relationship of Command. Before this song they were scrappyish post-hardcore. After this track they defined a style. They then broke up to form the bands Sparta and the Mars Volta.

4. Deftones - Root (3:41)

This track is off of their first album, when they were a burgeoning hardcore band. Still one of my favourite albums, I play this on guitar almost every day. Eventually they calmed down into an electronic/ambient hardcore band that they are now. They’ve become their own genre.

5. Blur - M.O.R. (3:27)

Woohoo! These guys made Brit-rock famous. Unfortunately they wrote the bogan anthem Song 2, but the rest of the album was full of amazing British rock. The lead singer is now the Gorillaz, amongst other bands.

6. Bush - Bubbles (3:02)

Another British band, but more of a grunge one. They hit the time huge in America with a song called Glycerine, but this song is off of the Mallrats soundtrack. The lead singer ended up marrying Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, got happy, stopped writing good music and is now an actor.

7. Fugazi - Give Me The Cure (2:59)

Fugazi formed from the ashes of the short-lived hardcore band that invented straight edge (they even wrote the song that NOFX covers): Minor Threat. Although not the relentless hardcore of Minor Threat, they introduced indie and melody to create some quiet, yet still hard songs. They still kept the hardcore ethic though, every concert they play is all ages and cheap as chips. That’s the only way they’ll play. They are truly in it for the music, even after 30 odd years.

8. System Of A Down - Sugar (2:33)

You know System of a Down. Their first album though, especially this song, was at the forefront of my drug days in the 90s. The album, this song too, was basically about bad drug trips. This one is about mushroom men.

9. A.F.I. - Malleus Maleficarum (4:01)

I also hope you know A.F.I. Before they were glam-punk, they were a great west coast hardcore band. I wish I had known them during these days.

10. Nine Inch Nails - Big Man With A Gun (1:36)

Nine Inch Nails were so huge in the 90s (and so feared) that I remember my teenage books (Animorphs in particular) always had the loners, the losers, or the trouble makers listening to their music.

11. Modest Mouse - Doin' the Cockroach (4:18)

Modest Mouse in the 90’s were a balls to the wall noise-rock band with existential lyrics that either made you think or got you lost. But halfway through each song the lead singer Isaac would just lose it, and play as much noise while yelling as he wanted to, until he pulled it up slow. Not as good these days, but still an amazing indie band.

12. REFUSED - New Noise (5:09)

The single off their groundbreaking album, the Shape of Punk to Come. They actually showed us in this album the music scene 10 years on, and like any great band releasing an amazing album, they broke up immediately afterwards. Oh, and Swedish. You should listen to this whole album, it is just hardcore royalty.

13. Poison The Well - Artists Rendering of Me (3:20)

There was nothing like the hardcore of today before Poison the Well. And they are still going strong.

14. Beastie Boys - Sabotage (2:58)

Yeah, they mainly do hip-hop. And got huge off it. But this is a great little track with an awesome video clip.

15. Incubus - You Will Be A Hot Dancer (4:17)

Incubus are now a pretty boring indie band. But when they started, they mixed together funk and metal in a brand new way. Their bass player is one of the few reasons I ever bought a bass guitar.

16. Maxïmo Park - Graffiti (2:46)

Ask girls my age about this band. They love them and so do I. But for some reason, their cabaret style just gets the girls.

17. Spiderbait - Shazam! (2:03)

Australia’s favourite band, whenever the drummer was singing they produced much better and heavier songs like Shazam!

18. Beck - Sexx Laws (3:41)

Beck is just one of those artists that is around a lot, and has been for years. He’s put out weird electronic music, he’s put out acoustic music, he’s put out rock music. But the album I best remember him for is where this track came from, full on big-band trumpet style music. Probably not your taste, but it’s just fun with a bit of a risqué subject.

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Mixtape volume 1: the break up

There's no getting around it, if it wasn't for love lost, there'd be no music industry (well, without drugs at least). In fact, some of my favourite albums have been completely set around break ups, including my newest-can't-stop-listening-to album, Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair by La Dispute. So, because it is very topical to me, I present to you, Chuck's break-up mixtape. Click on the title to listen to each song (Most of these songs don't reflect my situation or feelings, they are just good songs about breaking up).


1. La Dispute - Why it Scares Me
This song is off their new split with Touche Amore and I actually listened to it the morning of my most recent break up. It's uncanny how it reflected my thoughts of the time exactly. Lyrics such as:

Have I been taking my emotional cues from a script I wrote at sixteen?
Maybe I just think about it all so much
That that the fear stays close to all the ghosts I’ve touched.
Makes me question
Was it love or just lust?

Maybe it’s just as much about what comes our way as it is about how we react.
Just as much about the things that we’ve still got as it is about the things we lack.
I know we won’t always keep around all we feel we need–
some are fading in frames, some were born to leave–
But if we’re still here, and we still breathe,
I guess we’ve still got time to figure it out,
To know what to do,
To know how to feel,
Know the things that I’ve been making up inside my head, and
To know what’s real.
I want to believe that the way I am is just the way things go.
For the things that came, not the things I chose
to come.
I want to know if I had any control.
I want to know if it’d comfort me.

If there's one thing I've learnt in life, it's that someone has already written a song about any feeling you could possibly ever have, and probably done it more eloquently than you.

2. Taking Back Sunday - You're So Last Summer
This entire album is pretty much about the lead singer getting dumped. This song is probably the most poignant, especially the line "these grass stains on my knee don't mean a thing".

And all I
Need to know
Is that I'm something you'll be missing
Maybe I should hate you for this
Never really did ever quite get that far

Cause I'm a wishful thinker with the worst intentions
This'll be the last chance you get to drop my name

3. Goldfinger - Fuck You and Your Cat
If there's ever a band to bring a smile to your face around a serious topic, that would be Goldfinger. And breakups aren't left out of it.

Now...
Its...
Gone
Away
So long, so long

The pictures in my head of what could never be
You cut me off, you let me down, you lied to me
I take you out, I rub you down, I sell you shoes
So fuck your trust, your perfume, and your mother too

Where's my T-Shirt?
Where's my money?
Fuck you and your cat

4. At the Drive-In - Give it a Name
Better known for their amazing live shows, non-sensical lyrics (and being one of the best bands ever) it's weird to think of them writing a serious song, especially about something so common as a break-up. But they did. And it's a corker.

Well I never thought this day would end
I walked the tired steps of latter day friends
And all because your stubbornness was
Smiling through your braces
Never thought this day would come
You threw the bricks that built this wall
"Amantillado!" at the top of your lungs
And I can't hear you anymore

So take your diamond band shaped tears
And maybe i'll see you in twenty years
And i will always wear your ring
You know the one that turned my finger green

It's not you, it's me

You don't know what
You've got 'til it's gone

You gave me a reason
To sing our last song

5. Brand New - Jude Law and a Semester Abroad
Another album almost purely about lost love, it was tough to choose which one to use. In fact, Brand New have created almost an entire career about break-up songs. This one wins purely because I still play it on guitar all the time.

Whatever poison is in this bottle will leave me broken sore and stiff.
But it's the genie at the bottom who I'm sucking at.
He owes me one last wish.
So here's a present to let you know I still exist.
I hope the next boy that you kiss has something terribly contagious on his lips. But I got a plan. Drink for forty days and forty nights.
A sip for every second-hand tick.
And for every time you fed me the line,
"you mean so much to me..." I'm without you.

Plus, it's pretty much my game plan.

6. Against Me! - Cavalier Eternal
This song doesn't really reflect on a situation I've ever been in, but it's a great song about a failed couple on multiple fronts.

This just isn't love, it's just the remorse of a loss of a feeling.
Even if I stayed, it just wouldn't be the same.

Double this drink up into the tallest glass you got.
You know, I ain't used to sleeping all alone.
Gonna make it to the moon tonight on a one-way kamikaze flight.
If I could get so high, I'll leave behind my problems,
Take 'em out with the empty bottles.

Oh girl, I'm sorry but I'm leaving.
We're both at fault, we're both to blame.

I might actually bust out my 7" record of this at some point during my drinking soon.

7. Saves the Day - Rocks Tonic Juice Magic
Another band (another emo band of the same generation... I see a pattern) that built over a decade of a career about break-up songs, but generally with darker and morbid lyrics.

Because all I can say tonight
is that I hate you
But it would be all right
If we could see each other sometime
If I could somehow make you mine
And if not I'll take my rusty spoons
And dig out your blue eyes
I'll swallow them down to my colon
They're gonna burn like hell tonight
Because you're beautiful
Just not on the inside
Light comes from within
And your beaming eyes don't seem so bright
My heart is on the floor
Why don't you step on it?
When I think of all the things you've done
Boardwalks and breaking waves
Made our Saturdays
I'd buy you lemonade right now
if you were here
But then I'd throw it in your face
And I'd listen to you cry
And I'd remember how I miss
our nights under ocean skies
You and I are like when fire
and the ocean floor collide.

See how it swings from morbidity to reminiscing?

8. Blacklisted - Skeletons
This one is also fairly morbid and must be about a really bad breakup. In fact, a lot of the album No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me seems to be about a very bitter divorce.

Those secrets that you’ve know
Well you’re the only one I’ve ever told

Make no mistake
I’m exactly
I’m exactly what you make me
And now I just want to dance at your funeral
Because I already paid the band
With the gold I found buried in the sand
Was I ever part of the life you had planned

(Sorry, but I can only find a legal sample of this)

9. Bouncing Souls - Break Up Song
It's weird to think that on my favourite happy-punk-pick-me-up album there's a song about breaking up, but even the Bouncing Souls make it seem ok.

"I don't want this anymore" is all I heard her say as I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.
With my music in my phones and my bike under my feet, things started to look different as I got out on the street.
Sometimes I see her face in the new people that I meet.
We're not who we thought we were when we saw this dream
Sometimes when I just can't sleep
I hear the words you said to me: How did you get so deep inside of me?
I wake up and I move on, I admit the past is gone, I wake up and I refine
Moving foward to the next lifetime, I leave it all behind.

10. Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped
This one has always been a classic for break-ups, and I've even heard it in Japanese.

Give me money back you bitch!
And don't forget...
And don't forget to give me back my black t-shirt

I don't think I'll put the whole lyrics up, everyone of my generation probably already knows it.

11. Reggie and the Full Effect - Get Well Soon
Even the music video for this song makes me sad. The poor Loch Ness Monster has to go on a bender to get over his loneliness.

You've got a lot to do before I let you stay
There's things you need to see and things you need to say

They say we won't make it
What do they know?
They say we can't do it
But I got to know

Is it getting better?
Is it getting worse?
Was it ever worth it?
was it just a curse?

you always talk too much, too little, too late,
for me to figure out

12. From Autumn to Ashes - Short Stories with Tragic Endings
Bands of this time and music scene tended to lace their lyrics with very Poe-styled gothic morbidity. Especially From Autumn to Ashes. However, this song, once you get towards the end of the epic, with the female singer, has some true feelings and emotions of loss.

Did you ever look, did you ever see that one person,
and the subtle way that they do these things and it hurts so much?
So much like choking down the embers of a great blaze.
It's that moment when your eyes seem to spread aspersions
and to scream confessions at the insipid sky parting clouds.
You let this one person come down in the most perfect moment.
And it breaks my heart to know the only reason you are here now is a reminder of what I'll never have...
I'll never have... I'll never...
Standing so close knowing that it kills me to breathe you in...
But this table for one has become bearable.
I now take comfort in this, and for this, I cherish you.

13. Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet
Like any good mix tape, you've got to finish strong with a memorable song, and this mix is no exception. It's a classic tale, that Mark Knopfler has turned into modern poetry. It encompasses a love so strong, so wrong that burnt out so spectacularly.

Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet when you exploded into my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry.
You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die".
There's a place for us, you know the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

I can't do the talk, like the talk on TV
And I can't do a love song, like the way it's meant to be.
I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you.
I can't do anything, 'cept be in love with you!
And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be.
All I do is keep the beat... and bad company.
Now all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme,
Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time!

I think I might actually burn this for my car!
Download it here