While the calendrical division gets blurred by demo’s, singles, and self-releases, it’s safe to say these artists emerged from relative unknowns to fairly familiars through the past 12 months via proper album releases. It seems a bit asinine to try to select an arbitrary number of 15 awesome new acts, and moreover, put a numerical categorization on them. But gotta draw lines somewhere. We’re just thankful they decided to provide beautiful mp3’s during 2010.
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15. Team Me
I met Team Me’s manager, Thomas, at a speed meeting for the Oya Festival in Oslo, Norway. Of all the hand-shaking and card swapping that went on, Thomas’ excitement for his newest band was head and shoulders above anybody else’s. He first pitched Team Me as a Norwegian blend of Animal Collective and Sufjan Stevens. Sounded awesome to me. Sounded better in concert. The young group put on an incredibly passionate and alluring set in a small tent to the side of all the main stages at the Oya Festival. Yet that seemed perfectly fitting, as they are one of a handful of bands that have already been announced for next year’s festival.
“Weathervanes & Chemicals” | Team Me
14. Smith Westerns
Technically, The Smith Westerns formed a few years back and released their first album in 2009. But it took a while for Fat Possum to get a hold of the record and re-release it. Since then, the young teen-spirited Chicago band has done quite well for themselves including tours dates with Girls and a current jaunt around Europe with MGMT. The garage rock gang pulls influences from Marc Bolan/T.Rex, Bowie and Nuggets tapes in an awesome meld of medleys.
“Girl In Love” | The Smith Westerns
13. Freelance Whales
My housemate Katelin tuned me onto the Freelance Whales last spring. About 60 seconds into “Hannah” I was pretty well converted. I also had the pleasure of watching them at Sasquatch, where they oogled over fellow bill-sharer Pavement. Since, they released their debut album Weathervanes in April, their songs have been picked up by NBC’s Chuck and a partnership with Twitter.
12. Glasser
On first listen, Cameron Mesirow’s electronic music project Glasser very much reminded me of Fever Ray, which is pretty awesome. But with Glasser’s full album debut Ring, she introduces her own blend of the trademark Fever Ray ethereal ambience, with these organic, tribal elements that feel really good. If you’re a fan of The Knife, My Brightest Diamond, Joana Newsome or dreamier electronic music, you’ll probably enjoy Glasser.
11. Free Energy
The first line of Free Energy’s Wikipedia file describes them as “an American rock band of hippies from Philadelphia”. While that description alone is sweetly sufficient enough, it’s worth adding they’re an American rock band of hippies from Philadelphia that were catchy and rockin enough for James Murphy to sign them to his DFA Records. Like LCD Soundsystem, their tunes have that immediately dancy catchiness about them. If you’re into hook-drive, good ole guitar based indie rock, they’re probably right up your alley.
10. Perfume Genius
After the Fleet Foxes stormed Planet Earth in 2008 with two immaculate albums, tour dates across the world and a reinvention of folk (at least as I knew it), 2009 was comparably a quiet year for the Seattle music scene. Seattleite Mike Hadreas is also fairly quiet–cue the bad joke cymbal crash. But Hadreas aka Perfume Genius warmed things up in the PacNW with his album Learning earlier this year. Learning offered a number of beautifully honest, delicate, piano laden pieces that fit quite well into the long Seattle winter.
“Mr. Petersen” | Perfume Genius
9. Wild Nothing
Wild Nothing is the solo project of Blacksburg, VA native Jack Tatum. Amongst the dime-a-dozen solo recording projects that emerged in 2010, Tatum’s 2010 album Gemini rose above the rest with a mix of sentimental, nostalgic dream pop. Gemini resonated with a number of heartfelt tones without ever trying too hard. And while the album found a simple mix between yearning for yesterday and apathy, their live show was very much a different experience itself, broadening the horizons with much more energy and volume.
“Live In Dreams” | Wild Nothing
8. Dom
Not a lot is known about Dom. He doesn’t offer a last name. His song “Bochicha” may or may not be the unofficial fight song for the Worcester Sharks, a minor league hockey team. He may or may not have outstanding debts from his time as a foster child. But we do know he makes awesome music. You should listen to the track below.
7. Gayngs
Justin Vernon has been a busy man since the Bon Iver release of For Emma, Forever Ago. He’s worked with Volcano Choir, Kanye West and a new Minneapolis collective called Gayngs. But to spotlight Vernon would be to miss the majority of the gist of Gayngs, 22/23rds to be precise. See Gayngs is a 23-musicians strong collective ranging from Vernon to Rappers to Solid Gold members. But the final results is a sultry, sweet sound that’s much more than the sum of its parts.
“The Gaudy Side of Town” | Gayngs
6. The Drums
The Drums rose out of the Brooklyn zoo with a self-titled LP earlier this year. They’re blend of 50’s surf pop and punk created quite the single with “Let’s Go Surfing”. I was fortunate enough to see their show in Austria and the energy and danceability of their live translation set them far above any of the other new-birds. Sweat-stained, sweet, surf serenades…
“Let’s Go Surfing” | The Drums
5. Sleigh Bells
If you’ve heard Sleigh Bells tunes, you probably didn’t forget. Their extremely dancey, brash, noise-pop is pretty addicting. Derek Miller’s heavy production is met with Alexis Krauss’ boiling vocals. Also hailing from Brooklyn, the duo dropped Treats on Mom + Pop Records. They’ve nailed dates at Coachella, Pitchfork Festival and Primavera in Spain in the months since then.
4. Surfer Blood
Last Spring, I learned to Surf in San Diego. Twas a pretty monumental experience in my life and, most conveniently, I had Surfer Blood to soundtrack that period. Additionally, I had the pleasure to catch Surfer Blood open up for Morning Benders at a little record shop. The guys delivered a passionate live show even after a late arrival. Check out the auxiliary drum they’ve added live. He turns it up to 11.
3. Best Coast
Following the aforementioned Southern California vibes, I was pretty partial to Bethany Cosentino’s sunny, surf pop under the moniker of Best Coast. After heading to school in New York, Bethany got bummed out by the weather and flocked back to LA. Upon her return, she captured her elation with the place via 2010’s Crazy For You. While the sound might have difficulty with staying power down the road, BC’s debut album definitely made its mark on 2010. And check out our interview with her.
2. Das Racist
You might have heard Das Racist’s “Combination Pizza Hut & Taco Bell” before. As hypnotic of a joke song (or are they joking? jk they’re not joking) as it was, one wouldn’t expect the duo to make a career out of it. Luckily, they knocked out two mix tapes this year (Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man) that were just as entertaining and sly as “Taco Bell”, but offered infinitely more depth than one might have expected they had under their belt. Suppose it was all part of their ploy…
1. Local Natives
In case you didn’t catch the Southern California bias already, I’ll keep reiterating it. Though I would love Local Natives regardless of their geographical grounding, the fact that their roots resided just up the I-5 from me made it much sweeter. In fact, my roommates’ beau partied in the Gorila Manor house that they named their debut album after (-10 point for trying to indirectly me cool…). The Natives forge a sound pulling similarities from the Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses and Vampire Weekend and their own uniqueness that put’s them atop this list. And seeing after several live shows, I can attest their performance is even greater than the record. Check out our interview with them as well.
“World News” [Daytrotter Edition] | Local Natives
And absolutely worth checking out if you need more new tunes:
Zola Jesus, Magnetic Man, Forest Swords, Dale Earnhart Jr. Jr.
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