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!

Track Review: Interpol, Wavves, Admiral Radley

MP3 Interpol – Lights

Reactions to “Lights” have been understandably mixed, but our first taste of Interpol in three years has me cautiously optimistic. The band’s return to Matador after their tepid major label outing also finds the band back in their comfort zone, doing what they do best. “Lights” is a slow burn of a song, more in line with Turn on the Bright Light’s atmospherics than Antics’ hooks. It’s a full two minutes before the beat fully kicks in, giving the ghostly melody and Paul Banks’ cryptic, paranoid lyrics room to breathe. The song eventually blossoms, taking its time to full envelop you in its climax. It’s a hopeful sign of a return to form from a much-missed band. Then again, “The Heinrich Maneuver” tricked us all into thinking Our Love to Admire would be good, so we’ll just have to wait and see how “Lights” fits into thing when the band’s new album comes out in September.

MP3 Wavves – Post-Acid

I enjoy Wavves enough, but I always felt that, stripped of all the fuzz, Nathan Williams’ songs couldn’t stand on their own. I may be right (look up videos of him playing acoustic), but Williams has now recruited a band to flesh out his sound and it’s a welcome change. “Post-Acid” boasts a slightly (slightly!) cleaner sound, with Williams’ vocals tidied up and brought to the front of the mix. The song sounds great with a booming beat behind it and the chorus has a hook that won’t quit. It’s a great jam for the sweltering summer days most of us are enduring right now. I’m interested to see how Wavves new(ish) sound plays out over the course of their new album. If the rest of it is as good as “Post-Acid”, it might be time to take Wavves a little more seriously.

MP3 Admiral Radley – I Heart California

Admiral Radley is the new project featuring some former members of Grandaddy and Earlimart, and they sound exactly like that sentence makes you think they would. The band started dripping out teases late last year, but “I Heart California” is the first real song they have released. It’s a buzzy, melencholy pop ditty that, like either band’s back catalogue, takes a few listens to grow on you. The constant thudding piano holds the song together on its bedrock of distorted guitar and fuzzy synthesizer while Jason Lytle and his hazy drawl sing about the state he loves (or maybe doesn’t). Apparently not content just to tease us anymore, Admiral Radley is springing their debut album on us at the end of July.

Debut Album, Opening Track Mix

I was listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast last weekend and heard their discussion about the best opening tracks ever.  Much of the talk was about the first impression the opening track left on you and how that set the stage for the rest of the album, which got me thinking of the best opening tracks specifically for debut albums. Who made the best first, first impression? Interestingly, I’ve found some of these side one track ones are so good that the bands go their whole career without topping it. Others are just hints of great things to come. I left out some of the more obvious choices (“I Saw Her Standing There”, “Good Times Bad Times”) and picked out a few of my favorites. Download the tracks below:

MP3 Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning
MP3 Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter Version)
MP3 Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Like Honey
MP3 Arcade Fire – Tunnels (Neighborhood #1)
MP3 Talking Heads – Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town
MP3 Sunny Day Real Estate – Seven
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – The State I Am In
MP3 LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
MP3 Crosby, Stills & Nash – Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
MP3 Interpol – Untitled
MP3 Wu-Tang Clan – Bring Da Ruckus
MP3 King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man
MP3 The Sea and Cake – Jacking The Ball
MP3 New Order – Dreams Never End

Tell me what your favorite first album side one track ones are in the comments (and if you’re feeling especially Rob Gordon-esque you can list your top 5).

(untitled mix)

Often used to either open, close, or provide an instrumental interlude on an album, untitled works have long been a staple of rock music and director’s cuts of Cameron Crowe movies. Here’s a mix of some of my favorite songs that show great music doesn’t always need a title (just ask Beethoven).

Andrew Bird – untitled
Interpol – Untitled
Neutral Milk Hotel – Untitled
Smashing Pumpkins – Untitled
Sigur Ros – Untitled #1
Julie Doiron – untitled
Oasis – (Untitled)
Ted Leo – Untitled
The Cure – Untitled

50 Albums of the Decade

(photo by dcdead)

I told myself I wasn’t going to do a decades album list. I mean how can you really rank all your favorite albums over a period of ten years that isn’t even completed yet? Over the last couple of months though, I found myself slowly beginning to compile a list of my albums from the 00’s that I loved and I then I began chiseling the list down to around 50 albums. I guess my love for making lists got in the way of the logic and reasoning I had for not making a list. Also since, I started this blog around the middle of the decade I thought only fair that I share this list to acknowledge those great albums that I wasn’t around to write about or put into a fancy EOY list.

A few words of about this list, firstly, these are my personal favorites of the decade and not the end-all be-all of decade-end lists. I realize that some genres (ahem, hip hop) are being woefully underrepresented because of this. Secondably, I would have liked to do full-scale reviews for each album but life kept getting in the way so instead for each album I’ve linked reviews that I feel capture the spirit of the album (click the album cover to go to there). Scroll all the way down to see some albums that “just missed” and some per-year stats (if you want to know which year is best, it’s between ’02 and ’05). So without any further ado, here’s the top 50 albums 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 Albums Of The Decade

Key track: “Beautiful Dreamer”

Key track: “Two Weeks”

Key track: “Postcards in Italy”

Key track: “Hotel Yorba”

Key track: “Consolation Prizes”

Follow the jump to see the rest!

T.A.I.S.T.M. (The Acronym In Song Titles Mix)

Occasionally I like to make mixes that highlight eccentricities in song titles, and one of these that I come upon ever so often is songs with acronyms in or as their song title. I found nine songs, all of which I very much enjoy, that uses this unique titling method. I only counted ones that actually have a meaning (unfortunately that excludes D.A.N.C.E.). You can download the songs and see what the acronym means below.

Fun fact: The term “acronym” has only been around for a little over 50 years but acronyms are at least as old as the Romans, who would abbreviate the ancient Roman government (Senatus Populusque Romanus in Latin) as SPQR.

of Montreal  – Requiem For O.M.M.2

“of Montreal Mark 2” is a term used by of Montreal purists to describe the second line-up of the band which began after Aldhil’s Arboretum.

MP3 The Flaming Lips – The W.A.N.D.

“Will Always Negates Defeat”.

MP3 Outkast – B.O.B.

You know this one. “BOMBS OVER BAGHDAD” YEAH!

MP3 Wilco – ELT

“Every Little Thing”. (also Wilco is short for “will comply”, a radio term)

MP3 Justice – DVNO

DVNO is short for “El Divino”, which is the name of any night club where you have to be wearing a white shirt to get in.

MP3 Broken Social Scene – TBTF

As the chorus states this means “to beautiful to f–k”.

MP3 TV on the Radio – DLZ

Although not stated officially, but it’s been speculated it stands for “Designated Launch Zone”, a military aviation term.

MP3 Interpol – PDA

“Public Display of Affection”

MP3 Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.

“Cash Rules Everything Around Me”, dolla dolla bill y’all!

***

If you have any more good acronym song titles, post them in the comments…

Album Cover Look-Alikes Mix

Inspired by the whole U2-ripping-off-our-album-cover controversy (if you haven’t already heard, read about it here), I’ve decided to make a mix featuring album covers that have striking, and seemingly accidental, similarities to one another.  It’s like that movie where the Olsen twins run into each other at summer camp and discover they are “identical strangers”.  Except none of these albums feature the talents of Steve Guttenburg and Kirstie Alley, which is disappointing to say the least.  So here you are.  Enjoy!

MP3 Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine
MP3 Stars – Ageless Beauty

MP3 Broken Social Scene – Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)
MP3 Parts and Labor – Fractured Skies

MP3 Mountain Goats – Cubs in Five
Youtube: Coldplay – Shiver

MP3 Radiohead – Knives Out
MP3 Interpol – NYC

MP3 Ratatat – Wildcat
MP3 Against Me! – Borne On The FM Waves

MP3 Feist – Mushaboom
MP3 Eagle*Seagull – Your Beauty is a Knife I Turn on my Throat

MP3 Massive Attack – Teardrop
MP3 Flying Lotus -Parisan Goldfish

Credit to this message board thread to many of these finds. If you have some more oddly similar album covers I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments…

And hey I got a new post up at MTVU on Lily Allen.  Go, read now.

Why all the "new facebook" hate?

Those of you who use Facebook have undoubtedly noticed some changes in the site layout lately.  It seems like quite a few people have gotten together to voice their hatred of the new layout.  A couple of groups have over a million members, and some people are threatening to migrate to Myspace if they don’t change it back.  The only problem with their argument is that they don’t have one.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say, the new Facebook is considerably better and the changes make a whole lot of sense.  Some reasons why:

Unlike when Mini-Feed first appeared, the changes aren’t in any way harmful to user’s privacy or usability. Some items are placed in slightly different areas and you might have to make one extra click to see what your friend’s favorite TV show is.  Merging the mini-feed and the wall together is a fantastic idea, especially since you can now view both separate. The customization potentials are huge now with the tabs.  The design is altogether cleaner, better organized, and much more user-friendly.  They’ve even added Applications to the chat bar at the bottom of the page to make it even more accessible, which was the only legitimate complaint against the new that I heard.  In addition, the changes solve all the complaints people had that the Applications cluttering up the screen and having to scroll down forever.  This is solid site design.   See you guys, it’s not that bad! (Follow the jump for further explanation on why new facebook is better.)

So why are people coming out in droves to complain.  Well, I guess tradition for one.  Everytime there’s been a significant Facebook change, people have protested and eventually they accepted it and learned to like it.  Also a lot of Facebook users are just whiny and/or lazy and don’t want to learn new things, even if it’s better (that’s why they’ve kept “old facebook” as an option, for the gradual switch).  And you got the whole Diffusion of Innovations thing that says that about 16% of people will be early adopters of technology, and about half will only adopt a new technology when it’s already accepted by a majority.  In that latter half are people called “laggards” who are obssessed with tradition and are extremely resistant to any change. Unfortunately for Facebook, it’s the laggards that are speaking the loudest (the 1 million users in anti-new groups make up about 1% of Facebook’s population) while the silent majority have already accepted the new, better Facebook and have gone on with their lives.  Anyone else with me?

MP3 Interpol – The New
MP3 Elbow – Some Riot
MP3 Postal Service – Suddenly Everything Has Changed

I have listed below one of the groups “top twenty reasons to hate new facebook” and why they are completely wrong with their arguments. Follow the jump to see it.

Nano-approved Party Mix / Chairlift's "Bruises"

The new rainbow-themed iPod Nano advertisements on Apples website and the new commercial feature the next generation of Nano’s hot new color scheme and show off the bigger screen’s album art-displaying-skills.  I think beyond the cool visual of the whole thing the music choices that appear on these Nanos is very interesting.  In fact, if you put these songs (minus a couple) into a playlist they could very easily pass as a mix for any pitchfork-reading hipster’s dance party.

You’ve got a some Justice, some Interpol, you throw in a big mainstream hit like “Stronger”, add a couple of relative unknown electro blog-buzzed acts like Calvin Harris and Datarock, and provide a sappy ironic sing-a-long song like “You’re Beautiful” to top it off. You could even use some mellow, folky stuff like Matt Costa for a cool-down song in between all the dancing. Don’t know if this is what the Apple folks were planning, but I got to hand it to them for again delivering with some good tunes in their ads.

MP3 Calvin Harris – The Girls
MP3 Interpol – C’mere
MP3 Justice – D.A.N.C.E
MP3 Matt Costa – Sunshine
MP3 Datarock – Fa Fa Fa
MP3 James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
MP3 Kanye West – Stronger

***

Commercial Watch:

On a related note, I found that song on the new Nano commercial because it’s a nice song with a cool Casio synth beat and I’m sure some of you will also be looking for it.  It’s called “Bruises” by a Brooklyn band named Chairlift who is actually going to be on tour with Yeasayer pretty soon.  I’m definitely getting a Feist/Cat Power vibe from the vocalist here. I try to do handstands for you…

MP3 Chairlift – Bruises

***

Albums spotted in the iPod Touch guided tour:

Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Datarock – Datarock
Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Digitalism – Idealism
Duffy – Rockberry
The Go! Team – Proof of Youth
Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords
Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Jimmy Eat World – Jimmy Eat World
Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
The Kooks – Konk
Ladytron – Velocifero
LCD Sounsystem – Sound of Silver
M.I.A. – Kala
M83 – Saturdays = Youth
Matt Costa – Unfamiliar Faces
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
MSTRKRFT – The Looks
New Young Pony Club – Fantastic Playroom
The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
Ray LaMontagne – Til The Sun Turns Black
Rogue Wave – Eyes (Single)

Any iPod that’s playing M83, The Go! Team, and Cut Copy is fine by me.

Favorite Human Giant sketches

I’m very excited tonight because one of my favorite shows, Human Giant, is returning to the air. If you’re not familiar with the program, it’s a sketch comedy featuring three of the greatest comedic minds known to humankind: Aziz Ansari, Paul Scheer, and Rob Huebel. From the clips and teasers that have leaked, this season looks like it’s going to be crazier, bloodier, more star-filled (Will Arnett, David Cross, Omar from The Wire), and more hilarious than ever. So in honor of the season premiere, here’s my favorite Human Giants sketches in descending order of hilarity (with embeds!). Click ahead to see the whole list.

MP3 Death from Above 1979 – Romantic Rights

Catching A Predator

All of Rob and Aziz’s interactions are hilarious. Two favorite lines = “Fiddling knobs, touching keys, having fun with a full grown man” and “Come on, I got a full beard.”

Other Music (Indie Clerk Assholes)

This was the one that started it all. It has the perfect mix of indie name dropping like Sudgefan Stéphens and Carlos D (he celebrates black history month in November) and quotable lines like “just going to be an intimate little gig in the dumpster”. Too bad Rob and Paul aren’t in it…

MP3 Interpol – NYC

Indian Burial Ground

Watch Here

This sketch is so hysterically politically incorrect. Highlights: “I wish that Indians never came and invaded our country in the first place, but they did, and now we have to deal with it”. “I want sunglass huts, I don’t want teepees”.

Click below to see my top 5.