Fleet Foxes – Grown Ocean
The Strokes – Under Cover of Darkness
La Sera – Devils Hearts Grow Gold
Cloud Nothings – Nothing’s Wrong
Junk Culture – Summer Friends
Morning Teleportation – Expanding Anyway
Parenthetical Girls – The Pornographer (NSFW)
Cults – Go Outside (SuperVideo)
And, for the throwback:
The Knux – Bang! Bang!
Instead of a “Best Of” list, M|H is presenting you with a favorites list. There were too many purportedly great albums, songs, and shows we didn’t get around to hearing/seeing. The albums are listed chronologically, but other than that there’s no particular order to our selection. Please point out our glaring omissions.
[ALBUMS]
Spoon – Transference – 01.19.10
-Essential Track: Written in Reverse
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More – 02.16.10
-Essential Tracks: White Blank Page, The Cave, Sigh No More
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor – 02.16.10
-Essential Tracks: Wide Eyes, Airplanes
Horse Feathers – Thistled Spring – 04.20.10
-Essential Track: Cascades
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs – 08.02.10
-Essential Tracks: Suburban War, We Used to Wait
The So So Glos – Low Back Chain Shift EP – 10.12.10
-Essential Track: Lindy Hop
[SONGS]
Courtship – Ride
Delta Spirit – Bushwick Blues
The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
Cults – Go Outside
The Love Language – Heart to Tell
Yeasayer – O.N.E.
Let’s Wrestle – We Are the Men You Will Grow to Love Soon
Broken Bells – The High Road
The Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard
Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime
Vampire Weekend – Run
The Black Keys – Tighten Up
The Soft Pack – Answer to Yourself
Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land
[ARTISTS WORTH PAYING TO SEE]
Paul McCartney
Owen Pallett
Janelle Monae
Yeasayer
The Antlers
Matt & Kim
Sleigh Bells
Horse Feathers
Great Lake Swimmers
Want a more in-depth analysis of some of 2010’s best? Keep an eye out for Jonk Music‘s Best Songs of 2010 list. Jon was kind enough to ask us to weigh in on some of year’s best songs.
Special to Mixtapes|Heartbreaks, Chelsea Sutton reports on the fest.
Taking the stage in sweatpants, cutoff flannel shirts, and sunglasses on Saturday afternoon, Wavves had a slow start to their 3:30 spot. While the band worked on getting a replacement pedal and tweaking the tuning of a Telecaster Thinline, a restless crowd eagerly waited for the surf-inspired noise punk band to deliver. When they did, it was a sound different than one would expect from the highly lo-fi release that put them on hipster radar. Their live show was a youthful punk approach to the beachy indie pop dominating music lately.
Best Coast took the same stage the following evening. Frontwoman Bethany Cosentino, throwing sunglasses into the crowd as the sun set on Austin, took the stage as a confident woman in charge and filled the air with strong vocals that could give Emily Haines a run for her money. But instead of delivering the biting songs one might expect from a west-coast, mostly female band, Best Coast brought to the table stripped down songs about longing and boys, reminding us that we’re not so removed from those rudimentary emotions and core experiences. In a state that celebrates rich, early pop roots that run through Lubbock, these themes are dear to our hearts. Before wishing the front woman of Cults, who played dreamy throwback pop directly before Best Coast, a happy birthday, Cosentino told the crowd that their bass player was eager to see the bands on the metal-heavy Black Stage later that night and continued, “Poor guy has to play in a girlie band.” Also celebrating a birthday at Fun Fun Fun Fest was Chazwick Bundick of southeastern act Toro Y Moi, whose chillwave sounds were an excellent complement to the previous night’s headliner MGMT.
Highlights of the Black Stage included Mastodon, Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Religion, GWAR, and Floor. Japanese band and local favorites Peelander-Z were a huge draw, entertaining with a stage show that extended into the crowd and included props, costumes, and audience participation. Rock fans were forced to choose between gruff Municipal Waste, whose anthems “The Thrashin’ of Christ,” “Bangover,” and “Beer Pressure” always warrant pause for respect, and Israel’s Monotonix, who have set the performance bar high by continuing to perform after their frontman broke his leg earlier this year. Both bands played at the same time on neighboring stages.
Mixtapes|Heartbreaks 