2010 Highlights...Show # 332

There were a lot of good new music releases in the year 2010. I will outline ten of my favourites. There are many that were played on my radio program today that I also love and encourage you to check out on your own time, but for now lets take a look at the top ten.

1. Young Rival – Young Rival EP

The last release from Hamilton’s Young Rival was their 2008 Young Rival EP, which featured six songs and was self-released. The bands first self titled full length album has been a highly anticipated release, and it does not disappoint. The album picks up where the EP left off adding more of a Pop element, while still retaining their live sound and Garage styled past. This definitely one album you do not want to skip over. 

Favourite tracks:
Got What You Need
The Ocean
Can’t Just Stay Here

2. True Lovers – True Lovers

Put together by Dion Lunadon (previously of New Zealand Garage Rockers The D4), The True Lovers recorded their full length debut in 2009 in New York on analog equipment. The album is a mix of Soul and Blues inspiration for a Rock album with an undeniable groove. The album is still available via the bands website, but unfortunately The True Lovers are no longer together. Dion is currently playing bass in A Place to Bury Strangers. This is an album may not appear on a lot of top album lists of 2010, it seems to have slipped through the cracks, but it is yet another release that deserves your attention.

Favourite tracks:
Obsession
Guilty Pleasure # 9
Bang Bang

3. Harlem – Hippies

This sixteen track album is a gritty album from Austin, Texas band Harlem is the follow up to their 2008 release Free Drugs. The album mixes elements of Lo-Fi Garage Rock, Pop, and Surf Rock for a unique catchy album. Amongst the songs here to offer, (which there are plenty of) the band mixes in their quirky and sometimes strange humour to keep you captivated (“Gay Human Bones”, “Friendly Ghost”, “Faces”).

Favourite tracks:
Friendly Ghost
Gay Human Bones
Pissed

4. The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream

Starting in 2004, The Black Angels are a Psychedelic Rock band from Austin, Texas. Their name originates from the Velvet Underground song “The Black Angel Death Song”. They have had numerous releases (two full length albums, and two EPs), but in 2010 the band released their full length album Phosphene Dream on Blue Horizon Records (making it their third full length, but first full length on Blue Horizon). "Phosphenes" are flashes of light that are induced by sound or movement, therefore if you put "Phosphene" and "Dream" together you can get a good understanding behind the titles meaning. The album mixes elements of Garage Rock and Psychedelic Rock. It went to number 50 on the US Billboard Top 200 Charts.

Favourite tracks:
Bad Vibrations
Yellow Elevator # 2
Telephone 

 5. The Locusts Have No King – Come One, Come All

This is the third release from Windsor, Ontario’s The Locusts Have No King. The album is a five song mix of Country fried Rock and Roll. Capturing the energy of the bands fantastic live shows, Come One, Come All does not disappoint. Recorded in Windsor by guitarist Leigh Wallace, this is an example of some of the great offerings that Windsor has to offer musically.

Favourite tracks:
Come One, Come All
On My Way
Song 6

6. The Mark Inside – False Flag

This EP is a sample of what Toronto’s Mark Inside will offer up on their upcoming full length album, which is set to be released in 2011. The songs were recorded in the UK, and have a Post Punk flavour to them. Songs such as “There is Nothing to Admit”, and “Lime Green Monkeys” display a new direction that this excellent Canadian band is going in. The EP has a lot more to offer musically drawing on some Alternative influences and Punk influences as well.

Favourite tracks:
House of Cards
There is Nothing to Admit
Shots from A Broken Bottle

7. The Black Keys – Brothers

Recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals, Brothers adds more Soul and bass to The Black Keys mix. The album is a step in a new direction in the bands catalogue and features a slicker production style while still retaining the Garage and Blues elements that has made the early Black Keys records so good.

Favourite tracks:
Everlasting Light
Tighten Up
Howlin' For You

8. Wavves - King of the Beach

King of the Beach is the third full length album from the American Noise Pop band Wavves formed by Nathan Williams. This album as opposed to the bands previous efforts features a full rhythm section (members from the late Jay Reatard's touring band) and had more of a cleaner production style. The bands previous full lengths (Wavves and Wavves) had more of a gritty and distorted production based style. This album was released in August 2010 on Fat Possum Records.

Favourite tracks:
King of the Beach
Post-Acid
Linus Spacehead

 9. The Revolvers - Surfin' Apocalypse

The Revolvers who come from Toronto, Ontario independently released their debut album Surfin' Apocalypse in 2009. The album was re-issued on Optical Sounds this year. The albums title originates from the expression "fiddling while Rome burns" and this thrashy Rock and Roll album features a stripped back approach to Rock and Roll with strong harmonies, while at times mixes in other Rock elements. Influences can be compared to the likes of The Velvet Underground, The Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and T.Rex.

Favourite tracks:
Break it Loose
Shuffle
Rock y Roll

10. Square Root of Maragret - WYSIWYG

This band originates from Chatham, Ontario and has been around for over ten years and has released numerous full length albums. The band recorded and produced WYSIWYG (an acronym for "what you see is what you get") themselves and mixes elements of Psychedelic 60s Rock, featuring many long jam songs, but also several catchy Pop tracks.

Favourite tracks:
WYSIWYG
Hallucinate Your Holidays
Attack of the Giant Problem vs. The Creature from the Planet of the Incredible Shrinking Solution


Best of 2010 Play List:

1. Awesome Color - Transparent (Massa Hypnos, Ecstatic Peace 2010)
2. Johnny West - Intervals (My Hellhound Crooked Heart, Tosteestostas Music 2010)
3. Meligrove Band - Bones Attack!! (Shimmering Lights, Nevado Records 2010)
4. Vaselines - Ruined (Sex with an X, Sub-Pop 2010)
5. Jaill - Everyones Hip (That's How We Burn, Sub-Pop 2010)
6. Surf City - See How The Sun (Kudos, Morr Music 2010)
7. Vampire Weekend - Run (Contra, XL Recordings 2010)
8. Frankie Rose and the Outs - Candy (Frankie Rose and the Outs, Slumberland 2010)
9. Clinic - Lion Tamer (Bubblegum, Domino 2010)
10. Action Makes - Buddies (Action Makes, Optical Sounds 2010)
11. Neil Young - Walk With Me (Le Noise, Reprise 2010)
12. James OL & The Villains - Trainwreck of Thinking (Alive at the Colch!, Self-Released 2010)
13. What Seas What Shores - Islande (Cordyceps EP, Self-Released 2010)
14. Square Root of Maragret - Hallucinate Your Holidays (WYSIWYG, Self-Released 2010)
15. The Revolvers - Rock y Roll (Surfin' Apocalypse, Optical Sounds 2010)
16. Wavves - King of the Beach (King of the Beach, Fat Possum Records 2010)
17. The Black Keys - Sinister Kid (Brothers, Nonesuch 2010)
18. The Mark Inside - House of Cards (False Flag, MapleMusic 2010)
19. The Locusts Have No King - Song 6 (Come One, Come All, Self-Released 2010)
20. The Black Angels - Hauning at 1300 McKinley (Phosphene Dream, Blue Horizon Ventures 2010)
21. Harlem - Cloud Pleaser (Hippies, Matador 2010)
22. The True Lovers - Bang Bang (True Lovers, Altra Records 2010)
23. The True Lovers - Cougar (True Lovers, Altra Records 2010)
24. Young Rival - Break of Dawn (Young Rival, Sonic Unyon 2010)
25. Young Rival - Got What You Need (Young Rival, Sonic Unyon 2010)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 28th. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.