50 Songs Of The Decade (2000 – 2009)

(photo by dcdead)

I released my 50 albums of the decade list two years ago with all intentions to follow it up with a matching songs list. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. No such list ever materialized and I kindof gave up on the idea. That is until earlier this summer when I took a weekend trip to visit some friends in Chicago and decided to soundtrack the drive with a playlist of my favorite songs from 2000-2009. I thought the mix turned out pretty good so I chiseled it down to my absolute favorite 50 songs, gave them a mostly-arbitrary ranking and now I’m sharing it with you. Of course, belating this list for two years has given me the necessary perspective to narrow this list down to only the essentials. These are the tracks that I play over and over and never get tired of, the songs that always make me turn the volume up when they shuffle on my iPod, basically the songs that are “really, really ridiculously good looking” and not just “so hot right now”.

A few words of about this list, I’m not claiming to have made an end-all be-all “greatest songs of the naughts” list, just my personal favorites. A few folks took offense to the lack of  some genres (ahem, hip hop) on the albums list but hopefully this one will counterbalance that woeful underrepresentation somewhat. Furthermore, I didn’t do full reviews of each track, because seriously, who has that kind of time, but I’ve created a Spotify Playlist where you can listen to all of the tracks (there’s also vimeo/youtube videos linked to each one). In keeping with my yearly songs lists I’ve limited myself to one track per artist.  If you scroll all the way down you’ll see some songs that “just missed” and some per-year stats (‘05 reins supreme again in my book). So here it is, the long overdue top 50 songs of the decade according to me. Feel free to dispute or agree with my choices in the comments. Enjoy!

music for kids who can’t read good presents: 50 Songs Of The Decade (2000 – 2009)

Most easily found on: The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

Most easily found on: The Execution Of All Things

Most easily found on: Bows + Arrows

Most easily found on: Veckatimest

Most easily found on: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets

Most easily found on: Black Sheep Boy

Most easily found on: White Blood Cells

Most easily found on: Let It Die

Most easily found on: Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Most easily found on: Give Up

Follow the jump to see the rest!

Listen: Mates of State – Palomino

Mates of State, the endlessly adorable husband/wife indie pop duo from San Francisco have been one of our favorites from the beginning of this blog (they were the subject of one of my very first posts six years ago) and although their sound has evolved a lot since those early lo-fi days of  just organ, drums, and vocals, I still look forward to any new material from them with the greatest anticipation. I’ve had their new album, Mountaintops, for a couple weeks now and it’s an excellent addition to their catalogue.

On Mountaintops, Mates of State transition from the stately, piano arrangements of Re-Arrange Us to a more upbeat, synth-heavy sound, which is evident from opening track “Palomino”. The track begins with the band’s best opening build since “Goods (All In Your Head)” starting the album on an exhilarating note. The duo have never had a shortage of extraordinarily catchy melodies, but this one is certainly one of their most memorable (the vocal hook has been stuck in my head for weeks). And of course, this wouldn’t be Mates of State without jaw-dropping tempo changes and there’s a fantastic one half-way through the song leading to the euphoric, sing-a-long climax. The song is streaming on NPR or you can listen to it via Soundcloud below.

Mountaintops will be out September 13th on Barsuk Records. Pre-order it here.

Lord Huron @ Outside Lands (8/14)

(photo by Morgan Schlesinger)

Lord Huron have easily been one of my favorite bands of 2011, and despite having only released two EPs, there isn’t a single song on either Mighty or Into The Sun that I don’t love. Naturally, I was thrilled to hear that they would be performing at Outside Lands, making it the deciding factor as to whether or not I was willing to venture up to San Francisco from Los Angeles in order to attend. The four-man group performed extremely early on Sunday afternoon, and much to my surprise, after rushing to get there on time, there was hardly anyone in the audience which I had expected to be packed. Due to the small number of people in attendance, we were able to walk straight up to the front, giving me the creme de la creme of viewing experiences.

The band started off slow with a song that I had never heard before titled “The Man Who Lives Forever”. Despite being unfamiliar with the song, it was no surprise who hear the quintets practically perfect instrumental skill. Unfortunately, the volume on the mics were a tad too low (a general complaint I had with almost every show throughout the entire weekend) so it was difficult to make out the lyrics. Regardless, the band had the audience clapping along in no time.

(photo by Morgan Schlesinger)

As the audience began to grow, the band then played fan-favorite “Into The Sun” as frontman Ben Scheneider took a quick break from his black acoustic guitar that he nursed throughout the entire performance to play with what I can only describe as gold jingle bells. Scheneider decided to bring out the snare drum for “We Went Wild” as all the members of the group began to dance along with the Carrribean-style melody. Throughout the performance the audience remained entirely captivated, not only with the music but also with how completely adorable the members of Lord Huron seemed to be.

“She Lit A Fire”, a song found on neither of the bands EPs, gave Schenider an opportunity to showcase his raw and buttery vocals against a backdrop of perfectly placed windchimes. Despite consisting of three guitars, the music never seemed guitar heavy, and surprisingly managed to maintain a tropical tone throughout the show. Closing the set, the band hit you with the ultimate-trifecta of “When Will I See You Again,” “The Stranger” (my personal favorite) and “Mighty” which had the audience singing and dancing the entire time along with the bands amazing energy. Overall the group of young men put on a truly tremendous performance, converting both of my friends who had never heard of them before into ardent fans, no doubt due to the undeniably outstanding thought and creativity put into each of their songs, making them almost magical to listen to. Although their somewhat mellow music may deter fans from seeing Lord Huron perform live, I would advise anyone with the chance to see them to go, as they surely won’t regret it.

MP3 Mighty
MP3 Into The Sun

(photo by Robert Redfield)

Video: Young Galaxy – Blown Minded

One of our loyal readers left this wonderful video for Young Galaxy’s “Blown Minded” on my facebook wall today*. Montreal artist and filmmaker Carine Khalife used an incredible stop motion animation technique to give the video it’s stunning visual look. As Carine explains, she painted each image onto a piece of glass fixed to a lightbox and captured the oil paintings frame by frame into a computer, all while carefully matching the motion to the rhythm of the song. The exhaustive-sounding process apparently took 4 months to complete and it results in one of the most amazing animated videos I’ve seen in a long time. Watch the video above and download the mesmerizing “Blown Minded” below.

MP3 Young Galaxy – Blown Minded

*Thanks Hayden!

Ivan & Alyosha

I was browsing the artists on the Pygmalion Music Festival line-up the other day and was introduced to Seattle folk duo Ivan & Alyosha (the name comes from the Dostoevsky novel, Brothers Karamazov) and I’ve had their EP, Fathers Be Kind on heavy rotation ever since. If you’re a fan of earnest, stunningly pretty folk songs in the vein of The Avett Brothers and Ferraby Lionheart, this will be right up your alley. The EP’s closing track, “Glorify” is a great intro to the band; a warm, intimate folk song with delicate acoustic guitar strums and gorgeous, layered harmonies. Like the band’s namesake, the track explores religious ideology with a refreshing honesty giving it the feel of a modern-day hymn. Download “Glorify” as well as the lush title track below and get the full EP at the band’s website.

MP3 Glorify
MP3 Fathers Be Kind

You know how to whistle, don't you?

From “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” to “Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard” to basically any song by Andrew Bird, there’s always something about whistling that that makes a track burrow deep inside your brain and stay there. Earlier this year, Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” turned a catchy melody and even catchier whistle into a massive crossover hit (it even inspired a cover version by Weezer). This is nothing new of course, if you look at the most popular indie songs of the past few years you’ll find that many of them feature a healthy dosage of whistles (see: “Tighten Up”, “Home”, “Young Folks”). In a tribute to fine artform of just putting your lips together and blowing, I’ve made a mix of some of my favorite whistling tunes, including ones you all know as well as a few that may have slipped under your radar. Enjoy!

MP3 Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
MP3 Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tick Motion of the Head to the Left
MP3 Chad VanGalen – Sara
MP3 Noah and the Whale – 5 Years Time
MP3 Rilo Kiley – Ripchord
MP3 De La Soul – Eye Know
MP3 The New Pornographers – Crash Years
MP3 Suckers – Roman Candles
MP3 Black Keys – Tighten Up
MP3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Simple Girl
MP3 Paul Simon – Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard
MP3 Radical Face – Glory
MP3 Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
MP3 David Bowie – Golden Years
MP3 The Maccabees – Toothpaste Kisses
MP3 TV on the Radio – A Method
MP3 Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Home
MP3 Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream
MP3 Loney Dear – I Was Only Going Out
MP3 Karen O and the Kids – All Is Love

Let me know some of your favorite whistling songs in the comments!

MP3: Cymbals Eat Guitars – Definite Darkness

As I pointed out in my Best Albums of 2011 (so far) list, this has been an amazing year for sophomore albums and from what I heard from Cymbals Eat Guitars, I have no reason to expect that their second album will be anything less then exceptional. The latest track released from the Staten Island indie rockers is the explosive “Definite Darkness”. The band takes everything I loved about their debut (powerful loud-soft dynamics, sweeping guitar, angst-ridden vocals, massive wall-of-sound production) and crams it into this monster of a song. For all the epic guitar wankery, what really makes the track succeed are the moments of cathartic beauty like the multi-part vocal harmonies of the outro.

MP3 Cymbals Eat Guitars – Definite Darknesss

Get the new album, Lenses Alien on 8/30 via Barsuk Records.

TV On The Radio @ Pitchfork (7/17)

After the awesome performances from Cut Copy and Deerhunter, there was a lot of momentum going into TV on the Radio‘s festival closing slot and the band delivered an absolute barnburner of a set. The Brooklyn quintet slayed from the get-go, opening with the one-two punch of Dear Science tracks, “Halfway Home” and “Dancing Choose”. The band’s latest album, Nine Types of Light, which favors tender ballads over dance-rock jams may have been interpreted as the band mellowing out, but that was no way indicative of their electrifying performance. They continued with brass-heavy performances of “Wrong Way”, “New Cannonball Blues”, and “Caffeinated Consciousness” and when they did slow it down for the soulful “Will Do” and “Keep Your Heart” the songs were performed with enough muscle that they were still bursting at the seams (it was telling that even during their slow jams their was a steady stream of crowd-surfers).

The second half of the set began with the TV on the Radio reaching back in their catalogue to play amazing renditions of “Young Liars” and “Staring At The Sun”. The kinetic, funk of “Repetition” followed which led them seamlessly into their most endearing and beloved classic “Wolf Like Me”. The propulsive thrust of the track whipped the audience into a frenzy lunging me into a huge mosh pit that enveloped the crowd. The group brought out Shabazz Palaces for a percussive take on “A Method” before busting out one of the biggest surprises of the weekend, a cover of the legendary punk anthem “Waiting Room” which the band ripped through at breakneck speed. The set proved just how diverse and genre-defying TV on the Radio can be, satisfying a swarm of music fans with widely varying tastes, making them the perfect band to close out Pitchfork. In it’s sixth year, the festival is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

MP3 Dancing Choose
MP3 Wolf Like Me

Follow the jump for more TV On The Radio pictures. Click here to see the full set.

MP3: Fair Ohs – Summer Lake

Posting a song called “Summer Lake” at the start of autumn may seem seasonally inappropriate, but I’m not going to let arbitrary date restrictions stop me. I don’t care what the calendar says, it still feels like summer to me and this track by Fair Ohs certainly helps that feeling. (Well, that and Cheryse’s still-wonderful summer mix.) Apparently “Summer Lake” has been floating around for a while, but all that means is that you should be bummed you didn’t get to blast this last summer too. Or autumn. Whatever.

MP3 Fair Ohs – Summer Lake

Cut Copy @ Pitchfork (7/17)

Cut Copy sounds fantastic on record, but it’s clear after their Pitchfork Festival sundown set that the Aussie synth-pop band truly thrives in a live setting. The band played for the most captive audience of the day and singer Dan Whitford led them in an outright dance frenzy, all while performing his own awkwardly awesome dance moves. The band kicked the party off with the uplifting, sun-soaked “Feel The Love” and charging electro-psych jam “Where I’m Going” (which just happened to be released the very same weekend the year before). The song that really sparked thousands of fans bouncing up and down though, was “Lights and Music”. It was amazing to see everyone (even the fellas hanging to the side of the stage like myself) pogo-ing up and down during the ravishing performance.

Although Cut Copy could probably incite a dance party with just one guy and a laptop, they don’t skimp on stage presence. Their set-up included a five-piece band to reproduce all the synths, guitars, beats, and drums; a stunning light show and synchronized dancing which all contributed to the celebratory atmosphere. The biggest highlight for me was “Hearts on Fire”, the band’s best marriage of melodic songwriting and crazed disco energy. Whitford commanded the crowd to let loose and go crazy with him during old-school track “Saturdays”  to which we zealously complied (as if they weren’t already) before they crushed the triumphant dance-anthem “Need You Now” to close the set on a huge high. I would pity anyone that never gets a chance to experience the mind-blowing euphoria of a Cut Copy show.

MP3 Need You Now
MP3 Lights And Music

Follow the jump for more Cut Copy pictures. Click here to see the full set.