songs that are good

#9. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:15:59 -0500

#9. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

Texan crescendo-wranglers EiTS and Scottish flange-junkies Mogwai are in constant contest over the title of Number One Post-Rockers. While they may be neck and neck overall, there is no disputing that Mogwai’s greatest triumphs came in the previous century, and they have never again risen to the heights they did as a ‘young team’.

The Explosions however, are the sound of the new generation. Combining rockin’ riffs, superhuman drumming, and melodies that will warm the cockles of your heart before erupting in gut-wrenching, ear-busting crescendos, EiTS are the mutes to beat, and TEINACDP is their crowning achievement.

#10. Bob Dylan - Love & Theft The excitement mounts as we...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:09:17 -0500

#10. Bob Dylan - Love & Theft

The excitement mounts as we round the bend into the final stretch. Who will take the crown, reign supreme, top the decade? (Radiohead (Sorry (SPOILER (Wait, I think that should have gone first)))).

But I am getting ahead of myself. Ending the double digits is venerable elder statesman Bob Dylan showing us all that counting him out is a very silly thing to do indeed. His prior album, Time Out Of Mind, was hailed as his first good album since his last good album, but I don’t think anyone was quite ready for a record that gives even his classics a decided run for their money. While he would spend the rest of the decade mostly being old and strange, Love & Theft assures Uncle Bob permanent relevance, even in these modern times.

#11. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver LCD Soundsystem’s...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:54:12 -0500

#11. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is a grumpy old man. He likes things that grumpy old men like (the ‘old days’, his hometown, a good sammich), and dislikes things that grumpy old men dislike (‘whippersnappers’). He is also basically the main man responsible for most people ever hearing of ‘techno’ (he played Daft Punk at CBGB before you did. I mean, you probably still have never played Daft Punk at CBGB have you? It’s not even there anymore, so you lost your chance. Way to go).

The songs on his second album, Sound of Silver are mostly not quite the kind of dancey, thumpy songs he usually makes. There’s even one that’s just him on a piano (until it gets loud and crunchy and awesome at the end). They’re mainly about getting old, and maybe not seeing your friends around anymore, and missing all the fun you had when you were a kid, and yet nobody should want to be a kid again because kids are stupid and to hell with them.

We should all aspire to grow up to be James Murphy. But in the meantime he will thank you to boogie on off his yard.

#12. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele Staten Island...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:58:13 -0500

#12. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele

Staten Island drug-leprechaun Ghostface may not be the greatest emcee (though he’s close), or the biggest selling, or even have the best lady-butts in his videos, but he is easily the absolute weirdest dude in hiphop*. Honestly, what the hell is he even talking about? Does anyone know? His songs are dizzying, bewildering flurries of words, lines from old kung-fu movies, soul samples and basically whatever else may be bouncing around his head at the moment. His albums should be incomprehensible piles of crap. Instead they’re incomprehensible piles of unexplainable brilliance, and Supreme Clientele is the best of them**.

*Deep down we all know Lil’ Wayne only seems weird because he is so high all the time.

**Honorable mention to Fishscale, because The Champ is my favorite single song of his

#13. Sleater-Kinney - One Beat Somewhere in between...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:06:20 -0500

#13. Sleater-Kinney - One Beat

Somewhere in between Sleater-Kinney getting sick of the long-meaningless label ‘Riot Grr(r?)l’, and going full-Stooges on The Woods, came One Beat, their last album on their longtime label/assassin-school Kill Rock Stars. Packing all the wild-eyed, giant-riffed, air-guitar-friendly good times of classic rock (but leaving out the self-indulgence and sex-obsession), One Beat sounds like something from an alternate universe where the 60’s never ended and The Who were all ladies.

#14. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica While nobody can...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:39:00 -0500

#14. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica

While nobody can quite decide how they feel about Modest Mouse anymore, one thing we can mostly all agree on is the brilliance of The Moon & Antarctica. So, while it’s a joy to listen to, talking about it is pretty boring. Complex themes, intricate melodies, yadda yadda. Let’s talk about the band instead, those dudes are crazy.

Modest Mouse got their start at the Evergreen Woodland Home For Fairie Folk (And Unicorns) in Northern Washington, under the tutelage of the Woodland King Calvin Johnson himself, and spent many years as one of America’s premiere ‘indie’ bands. Alas, chronic gambling on unicorn-races and the resulting massive debt caused the band to flee to Epic Records (wholly owned subsidiary of the Devil). All was forgiven, however, when they emerged from the studio with their masterpiece.

Then they let some car company use a song from the aforementioned masterpiece to sell minivans to Gen-X soccer moms, and everyone hated them again.

Then they released another album, got nominated for Grammys, and were generally inescapable for a while, further irritating some, but gaining many new fans.

Then they rescued Johnny Marr from The Morrissey’s sex-dungeon and asked him to be in their band, and now nobody knows what to think of them.

#15. Neko Case - Blacklisted Blacklisted is arguably...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:42:55 -0500

#15. Neko Case - Blacklisted

Blacklisted is arguably sometimes-Canadian sex-banshee Neko Case’s first real solo album. Unfettered by either the New Pornographers or ‘Her Boyfriends’, Case is free to be as gloriously odd as she cares to be (an oddness she expanded upon on her much stranger but ultimately less excellent followup). Highlights include Pretty Girls (an ode to female sitcom stars) and a cover of original sex-banshee Aretha Franklin’s Runnin’ Out Of Fools, a wailing, terrifying ‘fuck you’ to all jerks everywhere.

#16. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:43:00 -0500

#16. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

IANAOYAIWBYA is the result of a bet Yo La Tengo made with fellow Hobokenite Homeless Phil that they couldn’t make an album containing one of every single kind of song in the world. They lost the bet, and consequently had to let Phil name the album (it’s unclear if he was aware he was doing so at the time). Nonetheless, the diversity of the songs on this record verges on ridiculous, and the fact that they fit together so perfectly is well past incredible.

#17. The Delgados - Hate The Delgados were a band that liked to...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:25:12 -0500

#17. The Delgados - Hate

The Delgados were a band that liked to make sad, bittersweet songs about terrible things, and then stick a bicycle pump in them and make them bigger and bigger and grander and grander until they were on the verge of exploding. So it was inevitable they would record an album with famed volume-goblin Dave Fridmann. Between his loudness-machines and their desire to be the Wagner of mopey indie rock, it’s no wonder that Hate is the unstoppable juggernaut it is.

Tonight I witnessed Alt-Rock-Caligulas The Pixies perform their...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:25:16 -0500

Tonight I witnessed Alt-Rock-Caligulas The Pixies perform their masterpiece, Doolittle, in its entirity. I hereby proclaim it Best Album of Every Decade Ever In Perpetua. List over. (not really).

Their opener was some band called ‘the j retards’, who had absolutely no business opening for the Pixies, and should be given the Nobel Prize for Horribleness and exiled to Outer Mongolia.

#18. Shellac - 1000 Hurts Steve Albini (King of Everything), Bob...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:54:20 -0500

#18. Shellac - 1000 Hurts

Steve Albini (King of Everything), Bob Weston (Master of Mastering) and Todd Trainer (John Bonham’s illegitimate demon-baby) all have busy dayjobs where they spend most of their time dealing with idiots, buffoons and jerks. It would drive any reasonable person nuts, so they stave off madness by getting together every once in a while to write long, strange jokes and set them to searing, pounding rocknroll. 1000 Hurts is their finest comedy album to date, but don’t feel bad if you don’t get the jokes, I’m quite certain they’re on us.

#19. The American Analog Set - Know By Heart Sometimes even the...

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:32:14 -0500

#19. The American Analog Set - Know By Heart

Sometimes even the saltiest noiseophile needs to take a few deep breaths, relax, and listen to some soothing tunes about lurve and sleepiness. This is a universal truth, and mumbling sissyboys American Analog Set are among the sleepiest, soothingest lovetuners around. Their almost-monotonic placidity may be off-putting to some, but Know By Heart cunningly counters by featuring Ben Deathcab (the Cadillac of mumbly sissyboys) on a song, to remind us all how bad it could be.

#20. Boris - Akuma no Uta And so we move into the bestest twenty...

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:26:00 -0500

#20. Boris - Akuma no Uta

And so we move into the bestest twenty albums of the decade, starting with Japanese noise-fondlers Boris (Named after famed tennis player/dentist Boris Becker). Akuma no Uta is a fuzzed out ode to the Led Zepplins, Melvins, Ramones and even Mr. Pink Floyd (if you squint a little). Despite the obvious homages it is still an album of the future, essential for any youngster exploring the outer edges of modern rock and roll.

#21. Daft Punk - Discovery Martian funkbot duo Daft Punk are...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:25:59 -0500

#21. Daft Punk - Discovery

Martian funkbot duo Daft Punk are famous for being the thing that finally got hipsters to dance, although this isn’t actually true (it was the cocaine). However, the joyfully catchy samplefests of Discovery definitely helped usher in Electronica’s big comeback to Top Ten lists everywhere. A stunning series of live shows cemented Daft Punk’s status as the 2000’s Techno Team Supreme (Honorable mention to Alive 2007, since including it somehow seemed like cheating).

#22. Frank Black & The Catholics - Show Me Your Tears Frank...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:32:45 -0500

#22. Frank Black & The Catholics - Show Me Your Tears

Frank Black’s solo output is a frightening mass of post-Pixies weirdness, radio-issue alt-country, grizzled singer-songwriteriness and even occasional bursts of punk rock noisemaking. It’s scattershot, inconsistent and impossible to categorize. Yet somehow, he and his merry band of deviants the Catholics managed to cram it all into one forty-minute chunk of pure Frank-Black-ness. It’s quite impressive.

#23. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy Black Sheep Boy is the...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:05:00 -0500

#23. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

Black Sheep Boy is the result of Okkervil River hanging out with bespectacled word-nerds The Decemberists too much and deciding they too wanted to make a concept album. Except instead of some Victorian era poem about chimbley-sweep-pirates, Okkervil River chose an old song by celebrated dirty hippie Tim Hardin as their ‘concept’. The result: some very pretty songs about alienation, addiction, rape and death (HAPPY THANKSGIVING!)

#24. Nas - Stillmatic Nas is a man who once made one of the very...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:18:31 -0500

#24. Nas - Stillmatic

Nas is a man who once made one of the very best things anyone’s ever made, Illmatic. He has never been forgiven for this, and everything he’s made after has to deal with the stigma of not being Illmatic. In 2002 he threw up his hands in disgust and made a record that was almost as good as Illmatic, and called it Stillmatic (short for Still not Illmatic). Only Jay-Z got the joke.

#25. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights One of the more...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:28:34 -0500

#25. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights

One of the more tedious effects the internet has had on music this decade is the shortening of the ‘hype-frenzy-backlash’ process to the point that the whole thing can start and finish months before a band can even release any actual music. In the good old days of 2002, Interpol were able to extract entire months of critical adoration out of their first and best album. It may be mired in seven years worth of internet-horseshit, lame followups and horrific imitators, but it remains the dumb, glum, beautiful slab of moodiness (Twilight reference?) we fell in love with way back when.

#26. Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You Mojave 3 is a collective of...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:21:03 -0500

#26. Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You

Mojave 3 is a collective of rehabilitated shoegazers led by enigmatic beach bum Neil Halstead. They started out making sunbaked, melancholy country music, then one day after meeting Brian Wilson they decided their goal in life was to make the perfect pop record. Puzzles Like You is as close as they’ve gotten so far, and it’s a pretty good effort.

#27. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:54:31 -0500

#27. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Lift Yr Skinny Fists is a difficult choice for this list. For all it’s glorious, soaring peaks and heartbreaking melodies, it’s kind of…. (what’s a nice word for kinda douche-y?) well, sonically abstruse (and this coming from a person who just used ‘sonically abstruse’ in a sentence). Almost, dare I say it, proggy. Also, they’re Canadians.

Nonetheless, the big loud bits are among the biggest and loudest around, and the quiet fiddly bits are very pretty indeed, and listening to it end to end will cause you to experience every emotion possible several times over, for better or worse. That’s good enough for me.