Now Future Islands. They Reduce Me To Pieces. They're The A-side On A Recent Release Of The Less Artists

Top Tracks of 2010

How appropriate that I'm kicking off my ALL NEW music blog with a highly subjective year-end top tracks list? My favorite kind of list! I'm keeping it short and sweet, until I regain my writing bearings. It's been awhile folks. 

10. Robyn -"Dancing On My Own" This song is so far up my alley I can't stand it. And because it elicits such a response it sits snugly at #10. Ugh.

9. Sleigh Bells - "Infinity Guitars" Crunchy guitars, thundering sub-worthy beats, and girl group chants. Do I really want anything more from the music I enjoy? Plus, the track's accompanying video is my favorite of the year. I can't stress enough what pretty girls with wayfarers and baseball bats (along with burning guitars) can do for a song's cause.

8. Zola Jesus - "I Can't Stand" This 21-year-old opened for the XX and Warpaint at Oakland's Fox Theater in September, and arguably had the best vocals of the night. Another beat-heavy, moody trip that doesn't sound too far off from anything on The Cure's "Disintegration."

7. The Black Keys - "Everlasting Light" Dudes, this rock 'n' roll grooves. It's soulful as hell, making you wish for summer's sunshine, with the windows down. In fact it feels a bit like a southern summer, and it's a bit sticky in this car. But alas, this track kicks off their album Brothers with a sweetness and fuzzy warmth that'll last you through the winter.

6. Gold Panda - "You" That beat drops at the ten second mark and the chirps come in and next thing you know, you're taking a trip around the world, stopping off in London and New Dehli, and you're back again in three minutes. p.s. Gold Panda's 2010 benchmark is a wonderfully perfect bike ride jam if there was one.

5. Deerhunter - "Desire Lines" I heard this track two weeks ago. You could confuse them with Deerhoof, another band I know close to nothing about (i know! I should do my research). But immediately, I wondered WHERE HAVE I BEEN? In the dark listening to dubstep, my good friend Frankie Burton reminds me. Oh yeah.

4. Florence + the Machine - "Howl" Florence killed it this past year. I was fortunate to see her perform in the somewhat quaint Mezzanine in April, and knew then this English songstress was too powerful of a singer, so striking in her style, to stay unknown for long. Next thing you know, she's doing the VMAs, being nominated for a Grammy, and "Dog Days..." is on Glee. I'm sorry, I totally called it.

3. Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce - "Telephone" I love pop songs. The really effing good ones too. The ones that give the hooks easily and plentifully. "Telephone" was a floor filler dance pop gift that keeps giving. Gaga has on point production, with songwriters behind her writing straight pop GOLD. Someone was a genius for telephoning Beyonce in for the best two-for-one in years. (Madonna and Janet never happened, mind you).

2. Class Actress - "Journal of Ardency" I don't know what this journal of ardency is. No matter. This song by Brooklyn trio, led by lady singer Elizabeth Harper is sexy, regardless of it's pretentious title. The beat, and that wholesale, yet killer synth line is where the goods are, and let me tell you, it's good. This track definitely should have a rightful place on any proper horizontal dance mix.

1. Arcade Fire - "Ready to Start" So glorious and right and earnest in it's goodness. These brilliant Canadians channel a little Tom Petty and a bit of their own "Rebellion(Lies)", taking their album The Suburbs where you so desperately want it to go. "Sprawl II(Mountains Beyond Mountains)" has been the favorite on other year-end lists, but "Ready to Start" does it for me. When Win simply states, "my mind is open wide, and now I'm ready to start," I can't not be moved. Now i'm ready.

2010 was also a fine year for remixes, and I will dispense of them now. You can thank me (and Aiden, king of all remixes) later.

Small Black "Despicable Dogs(Washed Out Mix)" Just lovely. Bought a split 7-inch on a whim from these chummy chillwavers at their show at the Rickshaw in March, and this was the b-side to the track I initially wanted (Small Black's mix of Washed Out's "You'll See It"). Absolutely my favorite discovery of the year.

The XX "Infinity(Flufftronix Dubstep Bootleg)" Oh dubstep. This now official remix of The XX sold me on the genre, on all the wah-wah-wah-wahs and zoops and blips and breaks and UGHHHHHHs.

Oh Land "Son of a Gun(Yuksek Mix)" One listen to the original and one realizes just how much a retake can elevate a track into the proverbial stratosphere. Sunday Girl "Four Floors(Diplo Remix)" The BEST remix of the year. Diplo takes this harmless pop track and makes it all dubby and grimy and completely satisfying. This track alone will make you go buy better speakers. 2010. Word. I'm out for now. Always, here's to good tunes and great times in '11. P.S. Props to Girl Talk for Rihanna over Fugazi, that ultra special Toadies moment, Skee-Lo and T'Pau, Weezy over New Order, and U2 with Twista. Props to Enrique Iglesias. I like that damn song. Ugh.

Layering the sweet, and infectious vocals of Whitney Houston's early smash "How Will I Know?" onto Robyn's likewise sweet and stellar floor filler, "Dancing On My Own," some guy who calls himself Zooash made an entirely appropriate tribute and ended up creating the best mash-up in ages. 

"Dancing In Houston" bridges generations of truly great pop music together in such a simple and beautiful way, it's disarming. You may just tear up out on that dance floor.  

I know these babes. All three of them.

#Volkswagen #vw #vwt25  #vwt3  #vanagon #westy #westfalia #t25 #t3 www.VolkswagenT25.com

"I never had the chance to write about the rooftop in Brooklyn. It was perfect in that after a whole day of sufficiently getting wasted, John's rooftop seemed like the best place to be of all time. This was the New York I'd been imagining for eons; with the M train's hum echoing along its elevated tracks and the Manhattan skyline hanging brightly in the western sky. I called my sister and left a drunkenly laughable, yet sincere voicemail. I had fallen in love, I said - with these people, with this place. With my youth. 

I hung up and stood quietly - the moment was wholly mine. I'm nostalgic for that night more than any other in my entire life." 

Don't play no game that I can't win...

Beastie Boys are back May 3rd with Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. This track featuring Santigold is what I wished Santi's new drop "Go" with Karen O was gonna be: SUPER DOPE. 'Dem analog infused horns do it every time. 

Some things are just between you and me.