Random Ten #3 - Happy New Year!

iPod on shuffle - first ten songs.

1) No Age - Boy Void
2) Bell Orchestre - Stripes
3) Justice - DVNO
4) Cat Stevens - Sitting
5) Parlour Steps - Mad Mad Day
6) The Fall of Troy - The Hol[]y Tape
7) Sonic Youth - Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style
8) Propagandhi - Purina Hall of Fame
9) Black Sabbath - Lords of This World
10) Radiohead - Black Star

As always, these songs will be added to the player on the top right-hand side, unless they are unavailable on that site. Feel free to add your own random ten (no cheating) to the comment section and I will add them to the player as well.

Album Review - The William Blakes

The band is called The William Blakes and the album is called Wayne Coyne of all things. Still, it is rather listenable and full of particularly stong hooks.

Even though to be completely candid I may never listen to this record again, something tells me it'll really strike a chord with some people. So check out my review here, check out the video while there, and decide for yourself.

<<< The offensive album art

Parlour Steps album review. Meh.

So I put off this review for months just because this album is SOOOO unremarkable but still not actually terrible. I'm so glad "meh" is a word now.

So click right here for my review on Parlour Steps' Hidden Names. For the record, even though this album may be all kinds of "sigh", the first song - "As The World Turned Out", is incredible.







More reviews soon! Up in the next few days is Wayne Coyne by The William Blakes.

My piece on La Roux's single "Bulletproof" + SoundProof's Year-end Extravaganza

SoundProof's year-end and decade-end list extravaganza is now neatly rounded up into a huge package which you can access by clicking right here. There's a lot of stuff on there and anyone wanting to catch up on the more important releases of the year/decade would do well to spend some time checking out any of the music they haven't heard, and reminiscing about the music they already love.

Also, my write-up on La Roux's track "Bulletproof" didn't make it into the week's "Honourable Mentions" so I get to post it as a blog exclusive (probably...).

Read it after the jump.

Top 20 Albums of 2009 + Wheat Pool LP Review

So, finally the Top 20 Albums of 2009 list has been posted on SoundProof. A little less epic than the top 50 of the decade but still oh so important and oh so lacking in anything released in December '09.

Ah well, I contributed two reviews - Them Crooked Vultures' self-titled debut at #11 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz! at #2.

I also did a review for Wheat Pool's Hauntario which was posted today.

More to come in the following week!

Top 20 Tracks of 2009: #1 - My Girls

Well, yet another list is up and I contributed the words about the number one track - Animal Collective's "My Girls".

Reach the list here, and my contribution here.

I was just looking through some other blogs today, and consequently I can see why people don't read these too often. I'm fine with it, especially after reading a blog called Hip-Ster-Krit. I don't think I use this thing the regular way.

I've had a lot of stuff that is to be published any time now, I'll post as seems appropriate.

Top 50 Albums of The Decade + By Divine Right Album Review!

The list was posted on Soundproof.com throughout the week and is finally complete so I shall now post links to the main list and the four blurbs I wrote for it:

Soundproof's Top 50 Albums of The Decade
#5. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
#25. Santogold - Santogold
#34. Joanna Newsom - Ys 
#39. Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica

I also wrote a rather glowing review of By Divine Right's brand spanking new Mutant Message which you will find here.

Random Ten #2

I posted a second one of these before but then accidentally deleted it.

First ten songs that come up when my iPod is put on shuffle (in this case that includes a track from a comedy album):

1. Sage Francis - Dance Monkey
2. Maria Bamford - Super Confident People (Stand up comedy)
3. The Virgins - Teen Lovers
4. Zombies - Brief Candles
5. The Dead Weather - No Hassle Night
6. Slayer - Snuff
7. Sloan - I know You
8. Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
9. Weezer - Getchoo
10. Bad Brains - Regulator

Feel free to post your own random ten, as always, in the comment section. I'll add the ones that I can to the music player.

~ALSO~

There is a Soundproof Top 50 Albums of the 2000's list out this week that I wrote a few blurbs for, on Joanna Newsom, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, and Santogold.