Nobunny’s collection of old demos, alternative takes, and the like came out as Raw Romance in 2009 in cassette form. Flash forward to February 2011 and you will be able to buy that same collection of recordings, but in VINYL. Burger Records — one of KLYAM’s top record labels of the year (and in general)…more on this later — will be releasing it!
Bright Eyes – “Four Winds”
On Friday December 17 tickets go on sale for Bright Eyes on March 10 at the House of Blues, I bring this up for two reasons, one, I am a big Bright Eyes fan, but also for the past couple of years there have been rumors about Bright Eyes breaking up so Conor Oberst can concentrate on other projects. Will this be the final go around, maybe-maybe not, in any case I am hedging my bets and going, better to play it safe then miss out.
Top 20 Albums Of All Time
20. Oasis – Don’t Believe The Truth
19. Army Of The Pharoahs – Ritual Of Battle
18. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The Understatement
17. Kasabian – Kasabian
16. Death From Above 1979 – Your A Woman, I’m A Machine
15. Justice – †
14. Swedish House Mafia – Until One
13. Mando Diao – Ode To Ochrasy
14. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
12. Radiohead – Kid A
11. Mando Diao – Never Seen The Light of Day
10. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
9. Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein
8. The Beatles – Abbey Road
7. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free
6. Deadmau5 – Random Album Title
4. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
3. Daft Punk – Alive 2007
2. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of The Moon
1. Daft Punk – Discovery
Glen’s Best of 2010: Songs
Rock and Roll/Pop/Etc
1. “Linus Spacehead” – Wavves
2. “Walk In The Park” – Beach House
3. “Cum Stain” – Cum Stain
4. “Gay Human Bones” – Harlem
5. “Motorhead With Me” – Nobunny
6. “Fresh” – Devo
7. “My Sunshine” – Ty Segall
8. “Chem Trails” – No Age
9. “Be Brave” – Strange Boys
10. “Candy” – The Magic Kids
Honorable Mentions:
“Roxanne” – White Wires
“Sea Lion Goth Blues” – The Growlers
“Girls FM” – Happy Birthday
“Broken Dreams Clubs” – Girls
“He Would Have Laughed” – Deerhunter
“Summer In The Kitchen” – Prismo Perfect
“Chem Trails” – No Age
“Angela Surf City” – The Walkmen
“Waiting For Me” – Mark Sultan
“It Only Takes One Night” – Dum Dum Girls
“Ambling Alp” – Yeasayer
“Brian Eno” – MGMT
“Broken Up” – Wheels On Fire
Rap and Hip-Hop
1. “Power” – Kanye West
2. “Black and Yellow” – Wiz Khalifa
Who Did it Better? “I Fought The Law”
A unknown musical fact I came across today (uknown to me anyway), The Clash’s classic song “I Fought The Law” was not a orginal song from the band, it actually was an old song from a band called The Crickets from 1961, who at one time played with Buddy Holly. So for this edition, we are going to look at the original song, The Clash’s cover, and just for the sake of argument, a couple of other covers.
First up, The Crickets:
Next The Clash
Here is A Green Day cover:
Lastly a Dead Kennedy’s cover:
Just going by what was on Youtube this is probably this most covered song KLYAM ever did, so there was actually some selective editing on my part. I went with a punk heavy rotation though because at its heart I think it is a punk song, and I think the Clash do it best. Although the original has some charm to it and I like the edge of the Dead Kennedy’s version (I wasn’t feeling Green Day, I haven’t been feeling them since American Idiot to be honest with you).
Glen’s Best/Worst of 2010: Albums
With over one hundred reviews in the books (108 to be precise), I think I’m all done with reviewing music in 2010. Going forward, I plan on exclusively publishing reviews of music that I like. I’d rather not be an influence in turning away people from music. If someone likes something that I don’t, that’s just how it is! Ain’t nothing I can do. It turns out that I liked most of the music I heard this year; the mean score for a CD Review was 84. In the grand scheme of albums that I’ve heard over the course of my lifetime, there weren’t any top-to-bottom gems. A top-to-bottom gem, in case you are wondering, is an album with at least 75% “A+” songs. Such albums would be considered instant favorites. That said, I gave out “A-” or better to 23 albums.
Best Albums [Album, Band, Label]:
1. King of the Beach – Wavves – I listened to this pretty much non-stop during the summer of 2010. It was perfect listening material, whether it was blasting from the inside stereo as I chilled outside or blasting in the car radio on my way to work. I like my music loud and pretty much every instrument is mixed really loudly on this record. That might be annoying to some, but for me, it was pleasantly nice. A record that never gets boring despite numerous listens over a lengthy period of time is a sensational record. The songs (which I was skeptical of at first) that dabble in experimental rock/psychedelia (“Baseball Cards,”When Will You Come, and “Mickey Mouse”) fit right in with the warm vibes that is King of the Beach. This is the best.
2. Teen Dream – Beach House – Sub Pop – Let me give you a little history of my experience with this album. I first heard it in early December 2009…it leaked really really early. This was also when I was grading albums kind of funky. As a result, I really nit-picked this one to the bone. Early in 2010, I revisited this mainly after reading nearly universal acclaim. Could I have possibly missed something? Surely. There was a time in February/March when I obsessed over Teen Dream. It’s a powerful mesh of dreamy tunes that are extremely uplifting, yet direly haunting. The atmosphere that surrounds the album is truly what wins me over. It’s unlike anything I really heard before.
3. The Maine Coons – The Maine Coons – Spent Planet – I have to really give a bunch of credit to The Maine Coons. When I first heard them open for Nobunny, I thought they were a great opening band, but not so noteworthy as to further look them up after the show. I then heard this album sometime later and thought, well, this is a good album! Upon further investigation, it turned out to be my most highly rated one. It’s garage-pop, at its finest. It’s almost as if the ghost of King Khan & BBQ Show past revived itself, but with a big ole’ keyboard on top of the traditional guitar/drums/tambourine set-up. This is 2010’s Invisible Girl.
4. Hippies – Harlem – Matador – Way back when, I was pretty convinced that this was going to sit at the top of the list. While it’s not #1, it is #4 and #4 is damn good. For a 16 track record, there’s surprisingly little-to-no rough patches along the way. Every song can’t be “Gay Human Bones” after all, but a whole bunch of them continue the spirit that commenced when Harlem released their fine 2008 debut LP Free Drugs ;-). While they sometimes get compared to some KLYAM-recommended contemporaries, these guys are pretty unique in their style of song and Hippies exemplifies that at length.
5. First Blood – Nobunny – Goner – Let me start off with something: Nobunny is a great songwriter. While he often (unfairly) gets lumped into the gimmick or rip-off-dead-punk-legend-wearing-bunny mask-and-nothing-but-underwear category, he’s got skills that allow him to successfully dabble in a variety of rock and roll styles. He can manipulate his voice to quasi-Joey Ramone on punk songs, while on others he toys around with a more country or power-pop twang. My favorite Nobunny songs are the fast ones, but he can get all romantically twisted and confounded on a lot of the slower ones. The enhanced studio production of First Blood should give the bunny-man more recognition than ever before and he deserves it more than anyone in music.
6. Cum Stain – Cum Stain – Burger Records
7. WWII – White Wires – Dirtnap Records
8. Memphis – Magic Kids – True Panther Records
9. Gay Singles – Hunx & His Punx – True Panther Records
10. Halcyon Digest – Deerhunter – 4AD
Honorable Mentions: Be Brave (Strange Boys), I Will Be (Dum Dum Girls), Melted (Ty Segall)
Worst Album
1. There Is Love In You – Four Tet – Domino Records – I might be the only one who disliked this album, but man was it painful. It’s like a bad hangover…it’s something you’d rather forget than ever bring up again.
CD Review: WWII [2010]
Band: White Wires
Release: 11/10
Label: Dirtnap Records
1. “Let’s Go To The Beach” – A
2. “Roxanne” – A+
3. “Did You Forget My Name?” – A
4. “I Can Tell” – A-
5. “Just Wanna Be” – A
6. “Be True To Your School” – A
7. “Popularity” – A
8. “Hands” – A
9. “Are You Mad? – B+
10. “Outta My Mind” – A
11. “Summer Girl” – A
12. “Bye Bye Baby” – B+
Comments: Power-pop — like music of all genres — has a tendency to tell tales of romantic failings, hopes, and dreams. It rarely forms substance over being popular or “true to your school,” but on this record it does. “Let’s Go The Beach” is packed from start to finish with hooks and a story-line of “running away” to California. The hooks and catchy parts outweigh their less interesting counterparts on WWII and this is precisely why this is a great album. The drums and chorus during “Roxanne” bring us back to simpler times when just an easy melody and a few chords were needed for greatness. The intensity and punch, at least from listening to the first two tracks, is similar to that of Atlanta pop group Gentleman Jesse and His Men. All these songs clock under three minutes, but this doesn’t inhibit memorable moments. There is a mixture of pure hitters (“Hands,” “Summer Girl,” “Popularity,” notably) and slower, more melodic tunes (“Outta My Mind,” the instrumental closer “Bye Bye Baby”), but this variation isn’t too dramatic. In other words, what’s thrown at us is very likable music. Despite this coming out pretty late in the year, it sticks and will have appeal lasting into the foreseeable future.
Grade: A- (92)
Chris’s Top Songs of Twenty Ten
The Top Song of 2010 for this cat is none other than the Box Elders’ classic “Tiny Sioux” released on Hozac records. Being a massive fan of the Box Elders, I naturally elected this ditty as Song of the Year, but with all that excessive fandom aside, I think this tune has attributes that can be genuinely appreciated by “non-garage” fans: the sincerity of the lyrics and the heartfelt delivery of the vocals. The lo-fi, home recording insanely complements the overall innocence of the number, making it feel like a sad, but beautiful children’s song, as if to be heard before falling asleep. I didn’t think the Omaha boys could top themselves after “Atlantis” from last year’s LP Alice and Friends or at least do it so soon, but indeed they did and this is without a doubt my favorite BE number. Y’all have to hear this!
Okay, so the rest of this list will be in alaphabetical order and I have set it to a three song per artist limit. Here we go…
Sadly no A’s :(
B:
Best Coast:
“When I’m With You”
“Boyfriend”
“Summer Mood”
Box Elders:
“Tiny Sioux” :)
“Plenty of Room At the Bottom”
C:
Cum Stain:
“Cum Stain”
“Broke My Dick”
“Bachelor’s Life”
D:
Deerhunter:
“Basement Scene”
“Don’t Cry”
“Desire Lines”
H:
Happy Birthday:
“Girls FM”
Harlem:
“Friendly Ghost”
“Someday Soon”
“Gay Human Bones”
Hunx and His Punx:
“Cruisin'”
“Gimmie Gimmie Back Your Love”
“Hey Rocky”
Note: these songs had been released previously, but this year marked their official release (Gay Singles) on True Panther Sounds. So, I’m breaking my rule here by sharing two more rockin’ Hunx tunes.
“Lovers’ Lane”
“Too Young to Be In Love”
M:
Magic Kids:
“Hey Boy”
“Candy”
“Summer”
Maine Coons:
“Pull the Plug On Grandma”
“I Am a Motherfucker”
“My Kinda Luv”
Mark Sultan:
“Ten of Hearts”
“Misery’s Upon Us”
“I Am the End”
N:
No Age:
“Life Prowler”
“Glitter”
“Fever Dreaming”
Nobunny:
“I Was On (the Bozo Show)”
“Live It Up”
“(Do the) Fuck Yourself”
S:
Sex Beet:
“I’m In Love With You (So Shut the Fuck Up)”
Strange Boys:
“A Walk On the Beach”
“Be Brave”
“Laugh At Sex (Not At Her)”
T:
Ty Segall: need to hear more of this guy!
“Caesar”
V:
Vomit Squad:
“Burning With Beelzebub”
W:
Wavves:
“Post Acid”
“Linus Spacehead”
“Take On the World”
Remember This Show?!
Yo MTV Raps! back in the good ol’ days of mainstream hip hop. Speaking of which here is Ol’ Dirty Bastard being his usual, off the wall, crazy ass self. RIP brother.
Recommended Website: TuneGlue
This website isn’t really like Pandora or Last.fm in that you can’t actually listen to similar music. TuneGlue is set up to simply display a web of related bands and artists. For instance, I typed in “Jay Reatard” and I got six matches: Nobunny, Angry Angles, Terror Visions, Cheap Time, Lost Sounds, and the Reatards. If you then click to “expand” matches for say Nobunny, you will be given a list of more bands. So far I’ve found that the list of matches have a predisposition to previous bands that members of the band have been in or bands that come from the same label as the one that you initially searched for. Overall, TuneGlue is a great way to expand your musical palate and I think you should check it out. TuneGlue didn’t pay me to write this by the way. If it sounds like an advertisement, that’s purely coincidental. I’m just sayin’.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 