Future of the Left - I Am the Least of Your Problems.
Somewhat obssessed with this track.
0 plays
Darkstar - Deadness.
Caribou - Sun (Altrice’s “Only What You Gave Me” Remix)
My Top Music, 2010
UPDATE: Please forgive the bad language and wanton drug references (I don’t do drugs outside of coffee and crack) as I wrote this in the street lexicon that I use as interlocutor with my f’ing homies. Btw, this post is part of the epic 5-person PSB year-end recap.
UPDATE 2 (December 8): I thought I’d update the songs that I slept on or forgot or just plain overlooked for my top 50 list. So far I have Delorean’s Real Love, No Age’s Glitter, Tennis’ Marathon, jj’s My Way, Washed Out’s You and I, Gold Panda’s You, Girl Unit’s Wut.
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You know what, I’m not going to even do my favorite albums this year since my list is going to look like everyone else’s — Arcade Fire, Deerhunter, No Age, LCD, Delorean, Cee-lo, Kanye, Kylesa, etc etc. That’s not at all to say there wasn’t a ton of great music this year. After what I felt was a relatively dry 2009, 2010 nailed it. So many good songs and albums across the metal, electronic, and Tea Party butt-rock landscapes. I even thought I was done with hip hop for good until Big Boi, Yeezy, and Gucci reminded me that I will never leave my rap-listening-suburban-white-boy-in-Office-Space roots behind.
So anyways, here’s what I did: instead of listing out the albums you already know about and are into, too, I’ve made a (long) mixtape of my favorite songs from the year. I’ve culled my list down to what I feel like are the most essential tracks from 2010 that I’ll be listening to in 2011 and beyond. To help me winnow down to 50, I only gave each artist 1 spot (otherwise Crystal Castles, Kanye, Big Boi, and especially Arcade Fire would have dominated the list). I agonized over the first 10 and had to make some Rosemary Baby’s choices over who got into the number 25 slot.
Btw, you can download the entire mothershittering mixtape here! Yeah you can. And I even spent a little time doing hand-written liner notes/collages/mixed-media notebooking/key art that no one will read, here! I decided to do the notes because I thought it would be fun (it was) and because I thought it would maybe bring back a few good memories from the first year of what will be the best decade ever (it did). So here we go:
01 Health - USA Boys
02 Crystal Castles featuring Robert Smith - Not In Love
03 Apparat - Sayulita
04 MIA - XXXO
05 Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
06 Skrillex - Kill Everybody
07 Deadmau5 - Some Chords
08 Freestylers - Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix)
09 Arcade Fire - Ready to Start
10 Warpaint - Undertow
11 Borgore - My Favorite Tingz
12 Swedish House Mafia featuring Pharell - One
13 Autolux - Supertoys
14 Cee-lo Green - No One’s Gonna Love You
15 Robyn - Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do
16 Big Boi - Fo Yo Sorrows
17 Lady Gaga - Telephone
18 James Blake - CMYK
19 Kanye - Hell of a Life
20 Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars
21 Caribou - Odessa
22 Breakage - Foundation
23 Bonobo - All in Forms
24 Klaxons - Echoes
25 Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
26 Rusko - Hold On (Sub Focus Remix)
27 Das Racist - hahahaha jk?
28 Miami Horror - Holidays
29 LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
30 Holy Fuck - P.I.G.S.
31 Terror Danjah - Grand Opening
32 Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar
33 Xx - Crystalized
34 Salem - King Night
35 Chase and Status - Pieces
36 Deerhunter - Helicopter
37 MiM0SA - The Higher Consciousness
38 Daft Punk - Derezzed
39 Magnetic Man - I Need Air
40 Lloyd Banks - Make Money
41 Red Sparowes - A Hail of Bombs
42 Kid Cudi - The Mood
43 Kingdom - Fogs
44 DOM - Living in America
45 Souvenir’s Young America - Vanishing (Remaining)
46 The Chemical Brothers - Escape Velocity
47 Crookers - No Security
48 Broken Social Scene - All to All
49 Pantha Du Prince - Welt Am Draht
50 Daughters - The Hit
666 Yolanda Be Cool - We No Speak Americano*
* Actually this song was literally the bane of my existence and became a bit of a joke among my friends this year. It inexorably followed me to clubs in London, Germany, Shanghai, Mexico City, Tokyo, and back to San Francisco throughout what seemed like all of 2010. I have to admit it’s impressive a song could be that global and lodge itself that deeply into the global DJ community’s collective brain stem. But I still hate it. In fact I think it’s the devil (QED in my liner notes). The chorus in this song drives me up a wall, like fingernails scraping down a chalkboard multiplied by sand being rubbed across my eyeballs.
BONUS DLC UNLOCKED: since I really didn’t have the time to spare to agonize over my top 10 favorite videos of the year, I decided I needed to make a bad decision and do this anyways so I could have at least one traditional top 10 list in this post. In doing some pretty exhaustive research (and sourcing the best, most official possible links which would have the longest estimated half-life before the authorities 404’d them and pulled them down; ur welcome biotches), I fully came to realize that people who say the music video format is dying are re-dick-a-luss. Case in point:
06 Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce - Telephone
07 Swedish House Mafia Vs Tinie Tempah - Miami 2 Ibiza (reminds me of this epic sequence in Rules of Attraction)
08 Diplo featuring Lil Jon - U Don’t Like Me
09 Ebsen and the Witch - Marching Song
Just missed the cut: Duck Sauce, Earl Sweatshirt, How to Destroy Angels, Caribou, LCD Soundsystem, OK Go (should have made the top-10 but their videos get enough love), Dancing Pigeons, The Japanese Popstars featuring Green Velvet
Honorable mentions: Massive Attack, Kanye featuring Zach Galifianakis, The Hundred in the Hands, Cee Lo (typography v1), Yeasayer, Shy Ronnie featuring Rihanna, Willow Smith (remix), Flying Lotus (really hard to pick only one Flying Lotus video this year, dude murdered it), Hollerado, MIA, Royksopp, Chase and Status, Daft Punk, Holy Fuck
New Cut Copy!
10 plays
Warpaint - Undertow.
