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.

This is Hell/Rolo Tomassi/Comeback Kid/Architects, the HiFi, December 3 2010

The HiFi was surprisingly empty last night for such a high calibre international hardcore show, spanning bands from three countries. It may have been something to do with the price though, a paying $60+ for a hardcore show is a bit steep by the genre's standards, with even half of the bands repeatedly acknowledging the fact. Also, I think a lot of fans of these bands are under 18 and an all-ages show would have lead to a much bigger turnout.

First up where This is Hell, a hardcore punk band from New York. And boy, did they sound and look everything like the New York Hardcore bands I know and love. I couldn't help but think of Sick of It All, as I watched their shaved head, tattooed, muscle-bound, bandana clad guitar player shred while stamping across the stage. I enjoyed it, but no one else in the crowd seemed to, and the band looked very pissed off at the poor turn out. But that only seemed to fuel their set, playing half an hour of very loud hardcore.

The next band saw a very attractive female come out on stage in a slinky little black cocktail dress, pick up a microphone and then come out with an insanely good grindcore-style scream/growl. Probably like half of the crowd there, I was in love. The band was Rolo Tomassi, hailing from England, playing a very intense synthesiser driven mathcore. Most of the crowd didn't know what to do with it, but I loved it. It reminded me of seeing Genghis Tron a few months back in the same venue, but with a much more attractive lead singer and a much larger sound.

As Canada's Comeback Kid hit the stage, the crowd swelled to probably it's biggest size of the whole night. Still not large, but a crowd that finally found their feet and enjoyed the show. Comeback Kid themselves kept thanking the crowd for coming along, realising that the cost of the show was ridiculous.

The tore through a very quality set of hardcore punk, playing a great mix of songs, including a few off their brand new album Symptoms + Cures. But the highlight for me, was the second last song, Wake the Dead. They lead it in with a call and response from the crowd before I got the chance to tape this:

An excellent set from an excellent live hardcore band.

The headliners for the night were Architects, also hailing from the UK. Although the crowd numbers dropped off after Comeback Kid (including some of my friends), they managed to get an excellent response from the crowd with their fast and heavy music. I didn't know much about them going on, but I felt that their live show was just a little bit less heavy than their recordings, with a lot more singing than screaming. Still, they capped off a great night of bands, playing to a rather disappointing and lacklustre crowd. Good effort by the bands all around.

Comeback Kid/Architects/This Is Hell/Rolo Tomassi

On December 3 there is going to be an amazing hardcore show at the HiFi, featuring the all international line up of Architects, This is Hell and Canada's Comeback Kid. Well, we're going to get even luckier, as a fourth international band has been added: Britain's Rolo Tomassi.



Don't know Rolo Tomassi? That's a pity, you should. They are a female led, synth-driven mathcore. There's nothing about that description that does not make me instantly happy.

Last.FM

Comeback Kid/Architects/This Is Hell

One of my top albums recently released has been a hardcore album all the way from the snowy depths of Canada: Comeback Kid's Symptoms and Cures.

I caught this hardcore band at this year's Soundwave while I was waiting around for A Wilhelm Scream. And I was mightily impressed (but not as much as I was by the insane bass player in A Wilhelm Scream). Their new album seems to be a bit more thrashier than their earlier hardcore sounds, but to me it's still sweet sweet music.

They've decided to come down on a tour which has been the worst kept secret and most reschedule hardcore gig of the year. It's been announced in a few different forms, and then unannounced (is that a word?). But as of today, we know the full hardcore lineup: Comeback Kid, Architects and This is Hell. All three great hardcore bands that appeared on this year's Soundwave.

I'm not sure who the headliners will be, but this will be the hardcore tour of 2010. Wait, no, second best hardcore tour (Dangers/Graf Orlock will hold that special place in my heart).

This is Hell do the old-school melodic hardcore punk thing. Architects do a metalcore/almost mathcore sound and hail from Britain. I'm not as knowledgable of these two bands (at least in relation to Comeback Kid), so check out their music for yourself.

The HiFi, 3 December 18+

Comeback Kid
Architects
This is Hell