This Was 2010

The internet has given me the power to put my favorite music of 2010 out there for at least three people to see.

First, the songs that didn't make the cut but were damn close:




The single song that tugged right at the heart strings:




Second runner-up video of the year: The Black Keys - Tighten Up:




Runner-up video of the year: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork:




My favorite video of the year: Das Racist - Who's That? Brooown! Das Racist are deadly serious about not taking hip-hop seriously:




A special award for amazingly bizarre album of the year that somehow works: Here Lies Love, a disco-opera collaboration between David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about Imelda Marcos; featuring Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Jones, Martha Wainwright, Tori Amos and many more. I'm not making this up, it's completely ridiculous and awesome:




Second runner-up album of the year: The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever:




Runner-up album of the year: Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry:




Album of the year: LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening:




Second runner-up song of the year: Hot Chip feat. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I Feel Bonnie:




Runner-up song of the year: The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio:




Song of the year: Los Campesinos! - A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me to Charlotte:




And the moment you've all been waiting for, my discerning taste in music combining like Voltron with my mind-blowing mix making skills, kids, This Was 2010:




If you want a copy of that CD, let me know and I'll drop it in the post or bring it to your house or break into your car and put it in the CD player so you'll have perhaps the best of all possible surprises upon getting in in the morning. A broken driver's side window!

Recent Driving Songs

I do a lot of driving for work. Thousands of miles of driving. These are some songs I've been listening to obsessively recently.

The Weakerthans - Relative Surplus Value



I really need to see these guys live. They're Canadian.





Bibio - Lovers' Carvings



Don't really need to see Bibio live, to be honest with you. But still excellent.





Los Campesinos! - This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind.



Another band I badly need to see live. They're Welsh!





Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You



Need to see them live too. They're Scottish.

Video Time! The Strokes - Someday

Probably my favorite music video of all time. I think looking back nearly a decade later, in the wake of the death of this kind of New York cool personified by the Strokes, Interpol, et. al., it's easy to forget a) just how amazing the Strokes were, and b) what a huge shock they were to music. But that's all beside the point. I love this video. I want to be in this video.