In Which We Count Down The 50 Best Songs of 2010

The Best 50 Songs of 2010 (So Far)

by DANISH AZIZ & BRITNEY HEREDIA

2010 marks one of the first years in which (our) music has started to feel like the future. Artists utilize the idea of heterosis more than ever, resulting in a natural selection of sound that chews up genres at breakneck speeds. Meanwhile nostalgia, the recession, and the democratization of music-making / listening / gate-keeping have led to aesthetic shifts, while increases in both supply and demand have created a more discerning consumer.

Where once genres defined us, we say more now by what we don't listen to than with what we do. The disparate elements of the music in our corner of the Internet nevertheless occupy a spectrum of more familiar and visceral responses to melody and rhythm, which we've attempted to simulate with our choices.

1 "Stay Close" - Delorean (mp3)

2 "CMYK" - James Blake (mp3)

3 "Good Intentions Paving Company" - Joanna Newsom (mp3)

4 "Round and Round" - Ariel Pink (mp3)

5 "The Suburbs" - Arcade Fire (mp3)

6 "Subliminal Message" - Happy Birthday (mp3)

7 "Blastit" - Shabazz Palaces

8 "Mouthful of Diamonds" - Phantogram (mp3)

9 "Summer Holidays " - Wild Nothing (mp3)

10 "Long Money" - Gucci Mane (mp3)

11 "In Heat (Javelin Remix)" - Health (mp3)

12 "Zebra" - Beach House (mp3)

13 "Static On The Wire" - Holy Ghost! (mp3)

14 "I Feel Better" - Hot Chip (mp3)

15 "Suckas" - Jay Electronica (mp3)

16 "Scissor" - Liars (mp3)

17 "Baby (El-P Death (Re)mix)" - Justin Bieber (mp3)

18 "I Am Dead (CFCF Remix)" - Jori Hulkkonen (mp3)

lemonade
19 "Lifted " - Lemonade (mp3)

20 "Dark Allies" - Light Asylum (mp3)

21 "On Top of The World" - Magic Bullets

22 "Hold On" - Rusko ft. Amber Coffman (mp3)

23 "Runway, Houses, City, Clouds" - Tame Impala (mp3)

24 "FILA" - The Dream (mp3)

25 "The Blues" - Primary 1 (mp3)

26 "Moondance" - Blondes (mp3)

27 "Odessa" - Caribou (mp3)

28 "Come With Me" - CEO (mp3)

29 "Empathy" - Crystal Castles (mp3)

30 "Inch of Dust" - Future Islands (mp3)

31 "Power" - Kanye West feat. Dwele (mp3)

32 "World's Ending" - Lil B (mp3)

33 "Lovesick" - Lindstrøm & Christabelle (mp3)

34 "Mind Reader (CFCF Remix)" - Kingdom ft. Shyvonne (mp3)

35 "Rude Boy" - Rihanna (mp3)

36 "Real Life" - Tanlines (mp3)

37 "Soldier of Love" - Sade (mp3)

38 "Go Outside" - Cults (mp3)

39 "Living In America" - Dom (mp3)

40 "Clawing Out At The Walls" - Dominant Legs (mp3)

41 "Bicycle (Tanlines Remix)" - Memory Tapes (mp3)

42 "Minors" - Toro y Moi (mp3)

43 "Carbonated" - Mount Kimbie (mp3)

44 "Little Freak" - Usher (mp3)

45 "Love Cry" - Four Tet (mp3)

46 "Love/Lust (Dark Mix) " - D/R/U/G/S

47 "Never Never (SBTRKT Remix)" - Little Dragon

48 "Glut" - Ramadanman (mp3)

49 "Boyfriend" - Best Coast (mp3)

50 "Heavy Deeds" - Sun Araw (mp3)

Thanks to Brendan, Mike, Junior, and Dan for their suggestions.

Danish Aziz and Britney Heredia are contributors to This Recording. You can find their tumblrs here and here.

 

In Which These Are All The Hot Places In San Francisco

Go West

by DANISH AZIZ

I recently read a piece on This Recording about "hot places" in LA, which Alex asked me to replicate for my adopted home of San Francisco. I agreed, but with the caveat that there are no hot places in San Francisco. The closest thing to a celebrity you're likely to encounter here is some dude who's "big on Twitter" or who perhaps even "founded Twitter."

The lack of celebrities is actually one of the better things about this city though, maybe second only to the fact that we have the most restaurants and bars per capita of any city in the country. 

When other people write about SF they generally focus on the BoBoBo© (boutique bourgeois bohemian) side of things and/or the Mission. It almost cannot be argued that the Mission is the best place to go out in the city for the non Ed Hardy crowd, so I've included a few of my favorites from the NorCal Silverlake, but the "I'm a contrarian, just like you" spirit of the Mission (cf. Williamsburg) influenced me to settle in a slightly less cliché neighborhood (Nob Hill/The TenderNob/The Tenderloin) for a mid-20s non-bro which I've tried to sort of focus on here.   

Drink

THE ATTIC I never really thought of the The Attic as anything more than another dive bar until my girlfriend pointed out that they have a capable DJ in house every night. Since "discovering" this fact, it's quickly become my favorite place to hit up when I make it to the south of the city.

EL RIO Hot days are rare in SF, so when they do arrive people flock to drink outside. Of course you can always hit up the Hipster Hamptons for free, but many people prefer Zeitgeist. On a recent 90 degree day, though, I actually witnessed a NYC/LA club line outside of Zeitgeist and after pointing and laughing decided to hit up El Rio instead, which boasts both a music stage and friendlier bar staff along with a spacious outdoor patio. 

geary clubPHONEBOOTH/AMBER/GEARY CLUB Bars that allow smoking in SF are kind of like cities with winters, they weed out the wimps. If you want to know what it's like to hang out in a bar before the year 2000, these three establishments are able to skirt the smoking ban by virtue of their cooperative ownership/bartending.

UPTOWN/KNOCKOUT/POPS Along with the above Phonebooth and the aforementioned Attic, these bars form the Mission's "frat free corridor" where you likely won't find any Marina refugees on the weekends.

TONGA ROOM This place is like Disney Land for old people. Located in the historic Fairmont Hotel, Tonga Room is the ultimate in Tiki Bar experiences. Not only are there endless tropical drinks in bowl-sized servings, but on some nights there's a cover band that floats out into the middle of the artificial lagoon and plays in the "rain" while empty nesters get their grooves back. Ex-This Recording CFO R. Rutherford once had the time of his life here. 

Listen

BOTTOM OF THE HILL Shows here are usually under $12 and whoever handles their booking here is very good, usually landing acts that are still in their blog hype stage.

RICKSHAW STOP Similar to Bottom of the Hill in terms of landing great acts early in their careers, although with a slightly more electronic/pop leaning.

HEMLOCK Like El Rio, this is a bar with a separate but attached venue. Great place to catch local bands with national followings, or visiting bands with cult followings.

EAGLE TAVERN This place is usually a gay bar with a great outdoor space, but on Thursdays it transforms into an all persuasions live music venue. 

Dance

CEREMONY OR BOOTY BASEMENT AT THE KNOCKOUT The 90s alternative night every first Saturday of the month at The Knockout, is fun but you can't go without ruining a pair of shoes. For similarly well-curated but slightly less sloppy fun check out Ceremony every third Monday for New Wave/Industrial/Dark Pop or Booty Basement for Hip Hop every third Saturday.

SHUTTER AT THE ELBO ROOM Goth and New Wave night. When I went Davey Havok was there...

DIARY AT POPS Named for the Sunny Day Real Estate album, this Emo/Screamo/Pop Punk night isn't actually one you're likely to dance at, but the nostalgia's deep and the booze is cheap every first and third Tuesday.

Eat

SHALIMAR Food like your moms used to make, if your moms is Pakistani.

ON THE BRIDGE Yoshuko style Japanese food for when you're in search of authentic inauthenticity.

CORDON BLEU Vietnamese chicken joint with excellent imperial rolls. 

YAMO The hole in the wall alternative to Burma Superstar for Burmese cuisine, though it will always be Myanmar...ian cuisine in my heart.

The vegan "chicken steak" sandwich with everything on it is warm, fresh and satisfying.LOVE AND HAIGHT SF is notoriously lacking in sandwich shops, but this family-run spot in the Lower Haight gets it right. I'm no a vegetarian but their fake chicken sammich is off the hook.

EL TONAYENSE Best known for their taco trucks scattered throughout the Mission, I find the goods at the brick and mortar location just as delicious. San Francisco burritos are wiki-famous, but the tacos are where it's at.

Danish Aziz is the senior contributor to This Recording. He tumbls here.

"Buried In Ice" - The Felice Brothers (mp3)

"Boy From Lawrence County" - The Felice Brothers (mp3)

"Sailor Song" - The Felice Brothers (mp3)

In Which We Describe The 50 Best Musical Items of 2009

The Best Fifty Singles of 2009 (So Far)

by DANISH AZIZ

Plenty's been written about the changes in the way we consume media due to the Internet. As a friend and former colleague recently wrote, "‘content’ does not have to sit in search engine indexes waiting to be found. Instead, it can be moved quickly through networks of people by highly-developed technologies. The use of these networks has created a new, granular unit of information: the item, which is best understood as part of a series, or ‘feed’ of many items."

While you might be subscribed to a feed for new apartments in neighborhood X for less than $1000, or new blog posts from political blogger Y, there's no reason why this "itemization of everything" can't extend to music. MP3 blogs -- and, ultimately, individuals -- are the future record labels, except what they're "selling" isn't records, it's items, and the price is merely the time you're willing to devote. This model may pose a problem when we start to charge advertisers money to beam commercials directly into our heads.

Anyway, here are the 50 best musical "items" of the first third of the year 2009. This list is close to perfect, so please refrain from leaving critiques, suggestions, or omissions. Two things to note: each artist was allowed only one entry and hip hop is dead.

1. Animal Collective - "My Girls" BALTIMORE
2. Grizzly Bear - "Deep Blue Sea" (mp3) BROOKLYN
3. Here We Go Magic - "Fangela" (mp3) BROOKLYN
4. Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is The Move" (mp3) BROOKLYN

papercuts

5. Papercuts - "Future Primitive" BAY AREA
6. Beirut - "Venice" (mp3) SANTA FE 
7. Junior Boys - "Parallel Lines" (mp3) ONTARIO 
8. Jamie Foxx - "Blame It" DALLAS
9. Metric - "Help I'm Alive" (mp3) TORONTO
10. Night Control - "Star 131" (mp3) SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

the juan maclean

11. The Juan Maclean - "One Day" (mp3) NYC
12. Deerhunter - "Game of Diamonds" ATLANTA
13. Peter Bjorn and John - "It Don't Move Me" SWEDEN
14. Telepathe - "So Fine" (mp3) BROOKLYN
15. Royksopp - "Happy Up Here" (mp3) NORWAY

little boots

16. Little Boots - "New In Town (Fred Falke Remix)" (mp3) UK
17. Whitest Boy Alive - "High On The Heels" BERLIN
18. Ganglians - "Valiant Brave" (mp3) BAY AREA
19. Black Lips - "Short Fuse" (mp3) ATLANTA
20. Kurt Vile - "Freeway" (mp3) PHILADELPHIA
21. Micachu - "Lips" UK

passion pit22. Passion Pit - "Moth's Wings" (mp3) BOSTON
23. Crocodiles - "I Wanna Kill" (mp3) SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
24. New Villager - "Rich Doors" (mp3) BAY AREA
25. Dan Deacon - "Build Voice" (mp3) BALTIMORE
26. Atlas Sound - "Springtime Instrumental" (mp3) ATLANTA

heartless bastards

27. Heartless Bastards - "The Mountain" (mp3) CINCINNATI
28. Demon's Claws - "Trip To A Clinic" MONTREAL
29. Desire - "If I Can't Hold You" (mp3) MONTREAL
30. Basement Jaxx - "Raindrops" UK
31. The Field - “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” SWEDEN
32. Suckers - "It Gets Your Body Moving" (mp3) BROOKLYN
33. Richard Swift - "Lady Luck" SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
34. tUnE-YaRdS - "SUNLIGHT" (mp3) MONTREAL

woods35. Woods - "Rain On" (mp3) BROOKLYN
36. Nodzzz - "Is She There" (mp3) BAY AREA
37. Fever Ray - "If I Had A Heart" SWEDEN
38. Bat For Lashes - "Daniel" UK

39. Jenny Wilson - "Wooden Chair" (mp3) SWEDEN
40. Phoenix - "Listzomania" (mp3) PARIS
41. Wavves - "So Bored" SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
42. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Skeletons" NYC
43. Bill Callahan - "Jim Cain" AUSTIN
44. Sleigh Bells - "Ring Ring" (mp3) BROOKLYN
45. St. Vincent - "Actor Out of Work" BROOKLYN

Obits46. Obits - "Pine On" (mp3) BROOKLYN
47. Crystal Stilts - "Love is A Wave" (mp3) BROOKLYN
48. Camera Obscura - "Other Towns and Cities" (mp3) UK
49. Tiga - "Luxury" MONTREAL
50. Datarock - "Amarillion" NORWAY

Danish Aziz is the contributing editor to This Recording. He lives in San Francisco, and he tumbls here.