Here are our faves of 2010. IT WAS A GOOD YEAR ya?

Let us know yrs / wut we missed…

20.Crystal Castles “Crystal Castles II”

Still love you Crystie Castles.

Crystal Castles – Baptism

19. Four Tet “There is Love Inside You”

Bleep beep herp derp. For what ever reason I always link this album with the Caribou album. They came out around the same time and both artists have both been ahead of their time coming perfectly into fruition in 2010.  The prefect blend of lofi organic samples and dance’y beats

Four Tet – Sing

18. Javelin “No Mas”

Kinda reminds me of The Avalanches but way less annoying, maybe a dash of early cut copy too and some dj shadow. It makes me feel like im eating cotton candy.
Javelin – Vibrationz

17. How To Dress Well “Love Remains”

“Love Remains” sounds like it was recorded in the middle of the night underneath the bed to not wake sleeping parents upstairs.  Faint Whisper’y threads of 90′s rnb-esque hooks over lofi riddims.
How To Dress Well – Mr. By & By

16. Drums (self titled)

Surfy / maybe a little bit of the Cure / the new romantics kinda sound.  Drums opened for Surfer Blood at the Bilty and were by far the better act + the lead singers dancing is pretty great.

Drums – Let’s Go Surfing

15. Earl Sweatshirt “EARL”

Free Earl.  16 year old from Cali. His Mom sent him off to boarding school after she heard this.

Earl Sweatshirt – Couch Featuring Ace Creator

14. Diamond Rings “Special Affections”

Epic pop anthems crafted on garage band.
Diamond Rings – Something Else

13. Caribou “Swim”

This album feels like it is tapping into old school house / rave music and makes me want to lose my shit.
Caribou – Odessa

12. Yeasayer “Odd Blood”

This was definately one of the songs of the year and one of those albums people who think about music too much start to hate after a while for being too poppy / accessible.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

11. El Guincho “Pop Negro”

Can’t get enough of this Spanish isht. Oh and the music video… thank you for that.

El Guincho – Bombay

10. Salem “King Night”

Rape Gaze / witch house #prayforjack. Lets get frickin dark.

Salem – King Night

9 Kanye “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”

Kanye I forgive you for being a douchebag.

Kanye West – Lost In The World (feat. Bon Iver)

8. Harlem “Hippies”

Thissss

Harlem – Tila And I

7.Surfer Blood “Astrocoast”

Yeah it’s super poppy and most people are over it because it came out at the start of the year or something. I say it rules. There was a reason it was one of the most anticipated albums of 2009 and it didn’t let down.

Surfer Blood – Harmonix

6. PS I love You “Meet Me At The Muster Station”

From Kingston Ontario. Stadium sized hooks / rock anthems.

PS I Love You – Facelove

5. Black Keys “Brothers”

There was a reason why Black Keys tickets were being scalped for $200 during their last visit to town and this is it.

Black Keys – Next Girl

4. Twin Shadow “Forget”

This album is pure sex.  A little splash of Morissey / The Cure and some serious hits.

Twin Shadow – When Were Dancing

3. Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”

The Arcade Fires killed it this year.  Their live show might be one of the best shows ive ever seen. This “concept” album is epic, full of solid hits that flow so seamlessly into one another.

Arcade Fire – Modern Man

2. LCD Soundsystem “This Is Really Happening”

Murph bro. I love you. Pls do not let this be the last Lcd Album. You never let me down. Yr like a role model and stuff.  When ever I played this album out djing pretty much every time some1 would come and ask what it was. Oh and not to nerd out but the mixing on this album is really bold and amazing too. It pretty much deserves it’s own award. The way that synth comes in on “Dance YrSelf Clean” a minute and a half in or whatever it is. omigowd. I could go on….

Lcd Soundsystem – You Wanted A Hit

1. Best Coast – “Crazy For You”

Bethanies, sometimes people criticize your music and say it sounds real needy, all your songs are about being unhappy without boys ect ect. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being needy. Feminsts and uptight a-holes who are uncomfortable with weakness r teh worst and are the actual weak ones. Sometimes I feel needy, then I play this album and feel better.

Best Coast – Bratty B

Four Tet – Sing

The new Four-Tet album, “There is Love In You” is out today. It is pretty awesome. 8.6 via P4K.

Four Tet – Love Cry (Joy Orbison Remix)

Oh mang, it’s Monday again.  At least the sun is out.  Bring da doom.

MF Doom – Money Folder (Four Tet Remix)

Dan Snaith admits that he is a complete nerd. (He has a PhD in Mathematics.) But more importantly, he makes electronic music strongly influenced by the Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys sound. A few years ago, most people knew him as Manitoba. But a strange lawsuit put an end to that. Snaith is tired of talking about the whole ordeal in interviews, so I avoided the subject. However, it is an interesting story, so I lifted it from exclaim! magazine below.

From exclaim! magazine…

When electronic psych-pop wizard Dan Snaith was greeted by an email from someone who (sort of) shared his nom de plume Manitoba (under which Snaith released two well-received albums, most notably the creative breakthrough of 2003’s psychedelic wonderwall Up In Flames), little did he know that this stranger was in actuality a hater intent on taking his name away from him right at a time when the buzz was spreading like wildfire. But with one simple click of the mouse, Snaith was looking head-on into the malicious wishes of a man named Handsome Dick Manitoba.

“He was like, ‘You gotta change your name,’ and we were just like, ‘Are you kidding? This is the most ridiculous thing ever,’” recalls Snaith.

No stranger to the realms of the ridiculous, Handsome Dick Manitoba (real name: Richard Blum) achieved a small amount of recognition in the mid-’70s with his New York-based group of bratty upstarts the Dictators, which The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll describes as “much closer to brazenly amateurish heavy metal than punk.” In 1976, Handsome Dick had a famous near-death experience at CBGB after heckling transvestite rocker Wayne/Jayne County, who retorted to Dick’s comments by planting a microphone stand into Manitoba’s skull. You’d think the man would’ve learned right then and there — being a hater doesn’t make you friends.

At the time of his email encounter with Handsome Dick, Ontario’s Manitoba was juggling writing his PhD thesis and the Up In Flames tour. “I consulted a lawyer in the UK and he was like, ‘No, this will be fine, and it’ll be fine in Canada,’” says Snaith. “Then we did a show in L.A. and I got called to the door with like, ‘Somebody’s here to see you’ or whatever, and [Handsome Dick had] hired a private investigator from the other side of the country to come to the show and serve me with a subpoena. I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ That’s when I started realising, as funny as this is, it’s serious shit.”

After consulting American lawyers about the situation, Snaith was informed that it would cost him about $500,000 U.S. to fight the lawsuit (an amount Snaith obviously couldn’t afford), and that he still stood a good chance of losing if he decided to go through with it. It became a huge source of frustration for Snaith, but his kind nature won out in the end.

“It got to the point where I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter that this case is ridiculous, it doesn’t matter that in some sense I should fight this because he’s getting away with murder.’ I just realised that if I spend all my time thinking about this and dealing with this annoying little guy, that’s just such a waste of my time, so I was like ‘Why don’t I just change my name and move on?’ Immediately upon realising that, it was kind of this release, like, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t matter buddy. Do whatever you want.’ Out of principle it would’ve been good to be able to say, ‘No, no, no, you can’t go around bullying people with lawsuits,’ but at the end of the day I don’t want to have spent all my time arguing with some guy.”

Instead Dan Snaith took some acid and went on a hike in the woods with some friends. While trekking through the woods, he stumbled across a bear. The bear told him to call himself “Caribou” and that was that.

Dan Snaith aka Caribou on the interview show

Caribou – “Melody Day” (Four Tet remix)

Caribou – “She’s the One” (Hot Chip remix)