Our favorite 15 Non-Canadian albums of 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a list of my favorite 15 Canadian albums of 2010. I had a pool of about 23 new releases in my library to work from, so it wasn't too difficult to narrow it down to 15. The non-Canadian list was tougher I have about 40 in that pool of new releases. A couple were added to the pool at the very last minute, and one even snuck into the top 15 with a late entry. Some of the ones that didn't make the final cut will come as a surprise or even a shock, but it is what it is. This is the stuff that was playing in heavy rotation at my house in 2010.

Sometime in the very near future, I'll compile a composite top 15. I'll also do a quick write-up about some of the omissions (cough, cough, Sufjan Stevens, cough) from both lists.

So let's cut to the chase

15. Beach Fossils -- "Beach Fossils"
Not quite surf-rock. Not quite indie-pop. Not quite dream-pop. Not quite any of these, but close enough to draw comparisons to Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. And with enough low-fi street cred to make Robert Pollard blush. I'm not sure what draws me so much to this Brooklyn band, but this is one of those records that grabbed me with the first 15 seconds of the first song on the album. Judging from the youtubes of these guys' live performances, nobody has told them that they're not from Manchester and it isn't 1991 anymore. Still, they're clocking in at #15. Here's "Sometimes", which is the first song from the album:


14. Glasser -- "Ring"
This isn't so much a band as it is one woman with a laptop, a drum machine and a bunch of synths. Cameron Mesirow is American and that's all I know about her. Because of the diversity of influence, one could just as easily classify this as "world music", "electronica", or any mashup of the words "dream", "synth", "goth", "pop" and "weird". This woman does some seriously amazing things with her voice, and that's what makes me like this more than I probably should. That and the fact that there's quite a bit of vibraphone on the record. Here's the video for "Mirrorage":


13. School of Seven Bells -- "Disconnect from Desire"
This is the second record from this NYC three-piece, and it was my introduction to them. It's unfortunate that people often describe them as "like My Bloody Valentine" because I don't get that at all. When I listened to this record all the way through the first time, I got the impression that it was heavily influenced by "Dopplegänger" by Curve. This band is fronted by identical twin sisters, and one of them cuts her hair like Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star. She has apparently left the band and I don't know what their future holds. The standout tracks "Babelonia", "I L U" and "Windstorm" all come from what would be side A of the album, but the whole thing is really good. This video for "I L U" is really steamy:


12. Tamaryn -- "The Waves"

The recurring theme in this non-Canadian list, so far, is "it sounds like a new record that I loved in 1992", and this one is no different. In a lot of ways, this record reminds me of "Blow" by English dream-pop band Swallow. On paper, Tamaryn is pretty much a one-woman show, but has a full band on tour. She's New Zealender by birth and living in San Francisco by choice. This is her first record, and it's super-dreamy and super-awesome. The vocals are so washed out that it's almost impossible to tell what's going on lyrically, but it doesn't matter. There's a lot to like on this album, and one of my favorites is the song "Sandstone":


11. Peter Wolf Crier -- "Inter-Be"
This Minnesota two-piece is 2010's answer to Bon Iver. I don't have a parallel for this. Almost, though. In all the live videos I've seen, frontman Peter Pisano's voice sounds like Jeff Buckley's. And really, the music isn't that much different than what Buckley would have done. I'm not sure why the vocals are treated differently in production, but he doesn't sound like Buckley on the album.
Here's a pretty great live performance from South by Southwest. It's "You're So High", one of the standout tracks.


10. Sharon Van Etten -- "Epic"
This one snuck in the back door. I only got it on December 30, but it warranted multiple listenings right away and after it had time to percolate in my head, it muscled its way onto the big board. This is her second record, and it clocks in at a tidy 32 minutes and seven songs. By most standards, it barely qualifies it as an "album", but there's no reason to have a semantics debate about this extraordinary recording. She says that these songs, which are chiefly about some form of heartache, are written from experience, and were penned as if they were letters. She sounds a bit like Chan Marshall from Cat Power, and there's not much of a stylistic difference. This New Yorker, though, seems much more comfortable in her own skin. And she's okay with "sad".
Here's my favorite song on the record, "One Day", which is one of my very  favorite songs of the year.


9. Thrushes -- "Night Falls"
We're back to the 1992-ish theme with this one. These Baltimore shoe-gazers rocked my world with their first album a couple of years ago, and they got stronger with this, their second. This reminds me so much of Velocity Girl, with the heavily effected guitars and Phil Spector-esque production. Somehow, through the wall of sound, the vocals of Anna Conner take center stage. Here's the video for "Crystals".


8. Versus -- "On the Ones and Threes"
This one dropped on me like a bomb. I had no idea that, after a ten year break, this NYC indie rock juggernaut was putting out a new record. As the band members have entered their 40s and have families and all that stuff, they never quit making music. They just quit making it together. Until now. I didn't get to see them when they played in support of the album, and they weren't on the Unrest reunion show down here, but it's just great to know that they can still crank out great music. It's still all about the incendiary guitars and the great harmonies of Fontaine Toups and Richard Baluyut.
Sadly there aren't any decent quality videos of the new stuff, so here's a little interview they did for ABC News about the new record:


7. Bettie Serveert -- "Pharmacy of Love"
This is the seventh proper album in the Betties' discography and the first in six years for the Dutch indie-rock quartet. Not only was the wait worth it, but they made up for the previous LP, which was a mild disappointment. They've been making records for 18 years and they've had nine different drummers, but the core of Carol van Dyk, Peter Visser and Herman Bunskoeke has stayed intact. As much as I love this record, I love their live shows even more. I saw them again in the fall and I was completely awestruck. And as a nice bonus, the audience was entirely made up of people my age. The 9.5 minute "Calling" is my favorite song on the album, and while it takes a while to get off the ground, once it does, it's a dizzying song. The Betties don't "sound like" anybody. If you don't know them, you should. Here's another of the fantastic new songs "Deny All". For fun, look out for Peter rocking a Cat's Cradle tee-shirt in the video.


6. The Corin Tucker Band -- "1,000 Years"
The Sleater-Kinney frontwoman is out on her own (sort of), and made an amazing debut. She's had two babies and has described this band and the album as "middle aged mom music". Don't be fooled by that. This isn't for soccer moms. This is still very much punk rawk. Okay, if I'm honest, it's much more subdued than Corin has been in the past, and the songs are a bit more mature. She's not screaming for the sake of screaming anymore. Thankfully, she's still got that lovely tremolo in her voice. As a package, it's not as aggressive as some of the early S-K stuff, but it's still plenty of rock and roll fun. All that said, one of the highlights of the record is the closing song, which is just piano and singing. There's not a bad track on the album, and here's a video for "Riley"


5. Zola Jesus -- "Stridulum II"
In 2010, it was en vogue to compare a band to Siouxie and the Banshees, and this is one of those bands that got that. Really, it's just Nika Roza Danilova from Phoenix Arizona. With her thickly layered vocal tracks and the heavily effected guitars and the darkness of it all, it's easy to make that comparison. I heard a lot of buzz about this, got it and listened to it a few times and thought "that's quite nice". And then I listened to it on headphones and was breathtaken. This is a very good record that doesn't quite lend itself to classification other than "goth-y". It's big and dark and warm. And I love it.
Here's "Sea Talk"


4. The National -- "High Violet"
A rare appearance in the "favorite of 2010" list by a band fronted by a man. Not only is it all dudes, but this Ohio quintet is comprised of two sets of brothers. Evidently, they always dress well. Partly because they look damn sharp with their beards and their suits, and partly because they treat their band like a business. I get the sense that they don't joke around very much. It may not be very much rock and roll fun, but it sure is good. This record is on just about everybody's year-end list. A lot people are even picking "Bloodbuzz, Ohio" as their favorite song of the year. It's a great song, but it's my second favorite on the album. Here's a live performance of my favorite, "Anyone's Ghost":


3. Kristin Hersh -- "Crooked"

This album from the Throwing Muses frontwoman was released in a really unique way. You had to buy a book, which contained some really beautiful photography and a series of essays. Each of the essays correlates to a song on the album. Within the essays is a code, with which you downloaded the album from Kristin's website. Like most of her solo stuff, it's driven mostly by acoustic guitar, lush production and some pretty unusual time signature that I'm not smart enough to figure out. The last year or so has been really big for her. There was the death of her best friend Vic Chesnutt on Christmas Day 2009, the release of this, her eighth proper solo record, the publication of her memoirs, she moved twice, and she's been very hard at work on a new Muses record. The title track is one of the best songs in her oeuvre, "Glass" is another from the top drawer, and "Krait" is one her most densely layered songs with some haunting sting section instruments over her guitar. Like the stuff from "Hips and Makers" but with much much better production. "Mississippi Kite" is unbelievable, but I think it's more suited to be a Muses song. That said, here's "Mississippi Kite":



2. Frightened Rabbit -- "The Winter of Mixed Drinks"
This is the third album from the Scottish group, but I had never heard of them before 2010. It kept coming up in those RIYL suggestions on eMu and lastfm and stuff like that. The first dozen or so times, I ignored the recommendation, as I had ignored the recommendation of Bear in Heaven (it was a mistake to ignore that!), but I finally got the album, and just like I did with Bear in Heaven, I smacked myself for taking so long. The album may have been available in other parts of the world in late 2009, but not in the US until sometime in 2010, so it's good to go here. It's not particularly dark (although there's a lot of burial imagery throughout), it's not at all folky and there aren't any women in the band, so I'm not supposed to like it this much, but this record is just too darn good. The opening track, "Things", starts off with a nice warm shoe-gazy feel, and I was reeled in after that. Without being particularly awesome in any one way, every song has its own incredible hook. The song " Living in Colour" has a ridiculously infectious rhythm, and for some reason it makes me think of some stadium show where the crowd is just going nuts over the song. Like "Sit Down" by James. I absolutely lurve the song "Swim Until You Can't See Land", and the simple but brilliant video. It's just plain fun. Here it is:


1. Warpaint -- "The Fool"
People often want to compare these California gals to Mazzy Star or to Siouxie and the Banshees, but I'm not getting either one of those. Whatever it "sounds like", this record has been in uber-heavy rotation at my house since I first laid ears on it after a brilliant recommendation by a friend. I guess the Mazzy Star vibe comes from the slightly psychedelic feel to everything, but it's much too energetic and the sex appeal of the whole package is on a much more primitive level. This record was recommended to me in the same breath with the aforementioned Zola Jesus record, so I'll recommend them as a bundle. Pay particular attention to the drumming on this record, which I find to be quite nice. At one time, actress Shannyn Sossamon was the drummer for Warpaint, and her sister is still the bassist.
It's not a perfect album, and it's not for everybody, but it suits me just fine.
Here's their self-titled song:


So there it is. Those are the 15 new records that I liked the most in 2010. There are some big-name omissions, and I'll get to that at some point. Just remember that this is what it is, my tastes are what they are, and I'm no genius.

A less detailed composite list will come soon, and also a list of the biggest disappointments of 2010. Some of your #1 records will be on my "biggest disappointment" list, just as some of my favorite records will be in your "pile of crap" list.

I hope 2011 is as much fun musically as 2010 was for me. I've already got a small handful of records on my radar for the 2011 lists.

you changed all the lead sleeping in my head to gold

It's been a massively long time since I've written in this thing, and I wanted to try to get the cobwebs out, so here I am.

To be honest, not much has been going on around these parts. I've been working two jobs and most of my free time is devoted to hockey.

This past weekend, I played in a Scrabble tournament in Raleigh: my second career tournament. I played well enough to take third place in my division, and although I felt like I should have taken second, and could have won, I'm still okay with third.

On the first day, players are randomly placed into groups of four, and they play a round robin. I easily defeated all three opponents (504-251; 441-290; 375-295) and had a cumulative point spread of +484 after three games. Unlike college football, the margin of victory is important. You never call off the dogs when you're crushing someone. You never play "third string" words. By the end of the tournament, cumulative point spread might be a deciding factor in whether you take home any prizes or how your rating changes.

On the second day, eight games are played using a modified Swiss pairing, followed by a king of the hill. I'm still not 100% sure about all the complexities of the modified Swiss system, but it basically means that players go against others players with similar win-loss records. The pairings are re-seeded after each game, and they are based on the previous game. To be more clear: While game six is in progress, the pairings for game seven are posted based on the results of game five. It isn't necessarily the case that winners play winners, but those who are doing well play each other.

So I started game four as the overall #1 seed in my division. I had good games for games 4-6, beating everyone (including both players who eventually finished ahead of me) and building my point spread to a stout +745 after six games. I was drawing well, I was "seeing the board" well, I was bingoing with ease, I was hitting hot spots. I was doing everything right.

In game 7, my opponent, who had a reputation for being an ass (and a bad player), didn't show up. He broke for lunch early. Or he was scared to play me. I don't know. Anyway, I sat there while his timer ran down to zero, earning a forfeit win. I think I would have beaten him by a bunch if we had actually played, but the rules are that a forfeit is a 50 point win. I took it, and at the lunch break I was still undefeated and in first place.

After lunch, there were four more games. As the leaders started to separate themselves from the pelloton, the games got tougher. The people who had ended up in the top four by freak accident got beat down. There would be no more easy victories for me. In those last four games on Saturday, I won two and lost two. One of the losses was bad, but they were both to the guy who ended up winning. Even after losing two, I was still in first place at 9-2. However, I knew it wouldn't be easy to keep it. I knew I would have to play Jeffrey at least one more time. Although I had gone 1-2 against him, I felt like he had an upper hand.

I played the #3 guy, and lost a very close game that went back and forth for the whole game. In the later portion of the game, he played ROUX for 57 points (x on the double letter, the whole thing tripled). He told me later that he would not have known that word except that he was forced to study his list of short words ending in -x after I played ILEX against him for big points the previous day. A well played game for both of us, ending in a 403-383 loss for me.

Next, I played the #4 guy, and had another barn burner. Back and forth for most of the game with a really closed off board. Very late in the game, with a very favorable rack, and in need of a bingo, I took a big gamble playing off a single letter in a place that made my intentions obvious. Because I was tracking the tiles, I knew what was left, and I knew that my opponent couldn't block my set-up (AL - to which I wanted to hook an E). I was left with AEEINR0 . Since I study dorky lists, and memorize mnemonic devices, I knew that my options were to make that blank either a T or a G. If I made it a T, my options were ARENITE, RETINAE and TRAINEE. All of those are very common to Scrabble players. I knew that if I made the blank a G, the only valid seven letter word is REGINAE. The last E hooks on to the aforementioned AL. REGINAE is a pretty uncommon word, and I guessed that it might draw a challenge, which would give me more breathing room. After some consternation, there was no challenge. The play put me barely in the lead. Fortunately, I was able to play off the last three tiles on my next turn, winning the game 412-382.

I was 10-2 and Jeffrey was 11-1. I would have to beat Jeffrey twice in a row to get first place. I would have to win the first game to guarantee a second place finish. I was already locked into no lower than third, but the pressure was on. Jeffrey and I both played poorly, but thanks to a strategic error on my part where I was greedy, I left the door open enough for Jeffrey to win 352-313. Meanwhile, John lost to Mark, leaving me with a chance to finish second.

They tried to make me play Jeffrey again, but I demanded that he be Gibsonized so that I would have a chance to win second place. Jeffrey had already secured first place. The 15th round game was moot for him, so it doesn't make sense for him to play the #2 guy. He could go in collusion with the #2 guy, and lose on purpose, which helps the #2 guy and screws the #3 guy out of his chance. Gibsonizing means that the #1 guy is taken out of the mix. The #2 and #3 guys play each other, and the #1 guy plays the highest seeded person who is out of the money. In this case, there were only three prizes, so he played the #4 guy.

After all that commotion, I lost my final game badly. I got behind by a bunch early and played like a desperate player trying to get it all back on one play.

Still, getting third out of 19 isn't bad. I walked out of there with $90 in prize money, and after all the red tape is taken care of, I'll have a better rating with the NSA than I did before. Most likely, I'll get to play in one more tournament in the low "novice" division before I get moved into the next highest division. The competition will be a bit tougher there, and It'll take me several tournaments to work my way up those ranks. So my last shot to win some money will be in late January in Charlotte.

Up soon : a post about a crazy set of dreams I had on Friday night.

Now playing:

Bettie Serveert Palomine