2010 Top-Whatever Lists

December 30 2010, 10:39am

The past couple of years it seemed like I was listening to as much or more non-local vs. local music, but 2010 was definitely dominated by local releases for daily listening. Go team!

These lists are unordered, and are presented without pithy commentary, apart from the titles themselves, I guess.

7 Nonlocal Contenders:

• Janelle Monae – The Archandroid
• Quasi – American Gong
• Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
• Moneybrother – Real Control
• Solex Vs Cristina Martinez And Jon Spencer – Amsterdam Showdown, King Street Throwdown!
• Gayngs – Relayted
• Harvey Milk – A Small Turn of Human Kindness

Top 10 Local Releases:

• US Christmas – Run Thick in the Night
• Last Year’s Men – Sunny Down Snuff
• Whatever Brains – Trim Jeans and/or Gross Urge + 10
• Dirty Little Heaters – Champions of Imperfection
• Tender Fruit – Flotsam & Krill
• Double Negative – Daydreamnation
• In the Year of the Pig – Jamon
• Le Weekend – DBLSCRT
• Honored Guests – Into Nostalgia
• Black Congo NC – Live in Miami 1984

Plus 10 More Local Honorable Mentions:

• Bustello – s/t
• Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
• Portastatic – Make it Sound in Tune
• Shit Horse – They Shit Horses, Don’t They?
• Spacelab – s/t
• Love Language – Libraries
• Felix Obelix – The Tick of the Clock, etc.
• Veelee – The Future Sight
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig
• Filthybird – Songs for Other People

2010’s Memorable Live Shows:

• Wigg Report – every time I saw them
• Last Year’s Men – every time I saw them
• Joanna Newsom – Carolina Theatre, Durham, March 25, 2010
• tUnE-yArDs – Local 506, April 16, 2010
• Quasi – Cat’s Cradle, April 26, 2010
• Double Dagger – Floristree, Baltimore, April 30, 2010 & Hopscotch Music Festival, September 2010
• Mount Moriah – Duke Gardens, June 9, 2010 & Troika Festival, November 6, 2010
• Hopscotch (all of it) – Downtown Raleigh, September 2010
• Megafaun & Friends – Sounds of the South, Hayti Heritage Center, September 17, 2010
• The Babblers – Reynolds Industries Theatre, Duke University, December 4, 2010

3 Bands who put out records that weren’t quite as good as their last records but are still worth mentioning:

• Girls
• Bonnie Prince Billy
• Capstan Shafts

Bands who should’ve released brilliant records in 2010 but got postponed to 2011, aka sneak preview of my 2011 list:

• Mount Moriah – s/t
• des_ark – Don’t Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker

Albums that showed up on everyone else’s lists, and which I also heard at least a few times, and which were probably even great, but which just didn’t sink in:

• LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
• Grinderman – Grinderman 2
• Sharon Van Etten – Epic
• Best Coast – Crazy For You

Annotated Top-10 Albums

December 30 2010, 1:15pm

My friend Glenn is running a ripoff of the Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, so I actually whittled my list down to 10 and put them in order.

Then I tweeted the results, which I’m posting here for posterity:

#10: Champions of Imperfection by @dirtylittleheat [ers]. If you knew ‘em, you already knew they loved Sabbath & Deep Purple. This proved it

#9: Daydreamnation by Double Negative. If I didn’t do so much listening while sitting still, this likely would’ve placed a lot higher.

#8: Into Nostalgia by @honoredguests. It’s funny, because I’ve never paid much attention to Radiohead, Wilco etc, as these guys clearly have

#7: DBLSCRT by Le Weekend. This band is from outer space, or someplace where it’s normal to record every song in 2 vastly different versions

#6: Jamón, by In the Year of the Pig. Live, they pile on a groove ’til it collapses. On record, they pile on a groove ’til YOU collapse.

#5: American Gong by Quasi. No album got more in-car spins than this one; I’m not ashamed to admit it was an endless “Repulsion” singalong.

#4: Flotsam & Krill by The Tender Fruit. I try to avoid RIYLs, but if ½ the people loving @sharonvanetten heard this record …

#3: Live in Miami 1984 by Black Congo NC. Not Miami, not 1984 – but even less probably Charlotte 2010. Yang to the Dirty Projectors’ Yin.

#2: Sunny Down Snuff by @lastyearsmen. Would I still love this SO MUCH if I hadn’t seen ’em live? Probably, but thankfully ’tis moot.

#1: Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom. Before I heard it, maybe I thought: 3 CDs? Excessive. Now: Can’t imagine it being any shorter. Perfect.