Best Bands of 2010
#19 Hummingbird Award – Miniature Tigers
From Phoenix, AZ to Brooklyn’s Park Slope, Miniature Tigers have been on the edge of major stardom for 4 years. This years Fortress could qualify as the record of the year. It’s a beautiful mesh of Supergrass and minimalistic electronic beats. At times the band vibes like it’s 2006, then at times they pluck and prod their way like Panda Bear or Toro y Moi.
Vitals:
Hometown – Brooklyn, NY
Members – Frontman-guitarist Charlie Brand, Rick Schaier on drums and vocals, Algernon Quashie on guitar, keyboard and vocals, and on bass and vocals.
Sonic Soulmates – Supergrass, Panda Bear, Toro y Moi and Vampire Weekend
Track of the Year:
“Goldskull” – I told you it would be on our list of top for 2010.
Best Bands of 2010
#20 Hummingbird Award – CROCODILES
Best 80’s retro re-love of our days in So Cal listening to Richard Blade and KROQ. It’s the layered sounds of Jesus & and The Mary Chain coupled with so cal skater vibes that bring Crocodiles to our list.
Vitals:
Hometown – San Diego, CA
Members – Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez
Sonic Soulmates – Jesus & The Mary Chain, Love and Rockets and Echo & The Bunnymen
Cocoon is a French pop folk duo made up of Mark Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud. Clermont-Ferrand is their hometown but I’ve found that Panda Mountain seems to be their hometown of choice. Neither Chinese nor of Panda origin, Cocoon has a fantastic sound. They’re not new to the “famous band” thing, they were huge success in My Friends all Died in a Plane Crash , so their following is massive. I don’t claim to be the first to find this band, but I do claim a love for their XX/XY sound. Their sound is clean acoustic guitars with back and forth love jockeying. They claim a desire to be a duo like White Stripes, but I can’t help but compare them to the great bands on Arts & Crafts like Stars or even Joy Zipper from 2006, The Submarines and the brilliance of Michael Penn with Aimee Mann duets will make you go back and download their entire catalog. But come one, really, they sound amazingly similar to Swell Season. We love their sound and I want to be the first to say it’s Time to Make Them Your New Favorite Band”
Hear:
“Hummingbird” – Joy Zipper with an upbeat sound.
“Mother” – Paul Simon? Great moving sound. Jose Gonzalez and Avett Brothers? Lovely song…still not convinced…well it’s the French Swell Season.
With the success of Florence and The Machine, there will be a slew of new female led, drama queens hitting the scene. Unfortunately, every single one will be compared to the “Oh I wish I was Siouxsie Sioux” vocals standards. I think our team at NBD has profiled at least 60 bands that I would consider far more inventive and stylish to that of Florence. Today is definitely one of those days.
Memoryhouse is so good, she actually gave me chills the first time I listened. I love The xx for one reason, it’s that simple solo guitar that intros Romy Madley Croft’s vocals. I find that so alluring and it really draws the emotion of the vocals. Memoryhouse is Guelph, Ontario’s Evan Abeele, classically trained and Denise Nouvion’s photographic mind, melded together to form a soulful Beach House/My Bloody Valentine. They don’t conjure sadness, but rather a sense of passion. They make me want to create. Their simple electronic drum beats never seem Yacht-like, or campy, they are better than The xx and I think you’ll find their music a great accompaniment to the blustery winter weather. Denise’s voice will warm your heart as your bearing the snowy winter doldrums. I think we’ll add them to the mainstage of our Inukshuk Festival
Avalanches meet trip-hop chill. Don’t you miss Avalanches? It was a publishers nightmare, but they were fantastic. Games are the Brooklyn Duo Daniel Lopatin and childhood friend Joel Ford getting their love from Stereogum and the BloggerBoys. Two tracks have been posted since September, both are below. That We Can Play, is an EP layered in purple juiced, slowed down R&B jams. Great work music and good good stuff for a bleary Friday afternoon. Tears for Fears or anything Richard Blade played on KROQ in LA would fit right into the same genre as Games. Second track is from their new EP, first one is not, but I love it more.
So the holiday is over and life has changed for New.Band.Day. A new XX/XY duo was officially wed in Kansas and life has never been better. So with that we celebrate another fantastic XX/XY duo MNDR, pronounced Mander. Forming in 2009, Amanda Warner and Peter Wade have two EPs under their belt and hopefully a full length on the way. Warner is a fellow Bay Area resident, having moved to NY to get her music career on the right trajectory. Hey we might be the only MUSIC BLOG based in Berkeley, but we know where bands break.
They’ve toured with Yacht and Deerhoof and now with Chromeo. With a resume like that, you’d think MNDR would have a gigantic following or at least a full length. Never-the-less, MNDR’s Warner sounds like Berlin backed with the most minimalistic of electro-clash sounds. She may sound like Santigold, she has a trajectory not supported by MIA, but rather Mark Ronson and the entire Bay Area and New York. We love the sound and we want MNDR to be your new favorite band.
Lakes of San Luis Obispo are great. The new record “The Agreement” is nothing more than a good old fashioned love record. Sometimes I get exhausted listening to music that drains my emotions. I need a feel good record and Lake’s completely delivered. Today I’ll call this band cool, but I promise they will get so big, we will all look back on this post and say “Remember when Lakes was a cool Indie band from San Luis Obispo?” Or maybe not. The record is strong with several “playlist” love tracks that your girlfriend will surely appreciate. The lyrics are clever and the music is good. I think you’ll all agree that what makes a GOOD band is great songwriting and a set of pipes. Where Lakes excel is where most local bands fall flat on their face. Seth Roberts can sing and the tracks are great. Take a listen.
Hear:
“Loose Fix” – Not the pop driven single but a good The Alarm type track. Who didn’t love The Alarm!?!
“Broadlyn” – The single…again, this band will be MASSIVE, so enjoy their Indie status now. This track is poppy….
“The Heart is an Anchor” – A little DCFC sounding.
Fuzzy surf rock is the best description I have for our band of the day, Pomegranates. Cincinnati, Ohio is home to this fab four, not a huge coastal city, so the surf is only because the other self-proclaimed non-surfers Surfer Blood sound very similar to the Poms. The best part of the Poms is that as you dig deeper into their new album One of Us, you start to hear a deep brit-rock influence. Maybe a little Blur, the searing guitar riffs of early Oasis and even a tab bit of Boy U2 bass lines. They remind me a lot of our early 2010 fan fave The Radio Dept. Not as synthy, more guitars but very similar track structure with again…more guitars. Great guitar work on this record. Thank you Arizona Turk and glad to hear the baby is home safe.
Hear:
“Prouncer”
“One of Us” – Spacey, shoe-gaze love track. Might be my fave. A little U2 bass line
The boys did another Daytrotter session…haven’t been to Daytrotter yet? Why? Well go now
Band:
Joey Cook: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Isaac Karns: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Jacob Merritt: Drums
Daniel Lyon:Vocals, Guitars
It’s not a coincidence that Victoria’s Bankrobber shares the band name with The Clash’s famous track of the same name. The band shares the same diversity of sound and a sonic similarity with its vocals. Bankrobber has stumbled on a sound that is a step ahead of Vampire Weekend. I’ve only heard their BandCamp EP and I think these guys are the real deal. They may need to work on their harmonies a bit, but overall their songwriting is good, the arrangements are GREAT and the music has massive appeal. I love when they get folksy and add the reggae kick. Listen to their folk flavor, with banjos. Bankrobber is Blank, or just Jordan Minkoff if you want to go with the birth name. The five song EP MidJuly is available here.
Moto Boy is Oskar Humlebo from the coastal town of Malmö, Sweden. He’s a “Swedish ice cream loving francophile musician with the ability to grow goosebumps on your body with my voice, melodies and romantic arrangements.” His voice is marvelous and it reminds me of Jeff Buckley a sprinkle of Rufus Wainwright and a splash of Wild Beasts. Not as bombastic as WB, but clearly in a league all by himself with the voice. If you want your heart ripped out and gently placed back into your chest, then Oskar is your man. His arrangements are sophisticated and heart-wrenching without taking away from his pop appeal. I find Moto Boy to be the high-brow choice for artist of the year. Thank you to our Nordic Music Excavator Bristian for uncovering this masterpiece.
Hear:
“When My Heart is High” – Clearly the most POP worthy track from his new album Lost In The Call
Okay, I’m writing this and watching Brian Wilson win the city of San Francisco their first baseball championship. Quite a night for our city. We felt it appropriate to focus on a band from a city that gave the Giants the NL West, Crocodiles of San Diego. 2008-09’s meteoric rise of the “Neon Jesus” single catapulted Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez to almost-fame. They’re still on a tear with a sound that is a tribute to the early 80’s indie rock/electronic of Jesus and the Mary Chain, Love and Rockets and even a little Echo. In 2010 they released Sleep Forever and our good friend Bristian reminded us of our most giant band crush…with two great tracks. Love them like we do. Please let us when you get back on tour, hope everything is okay guys.
HEAR:
“I Wanna Kill” – Love and Rockets garage synth sound.
I love 60’s and 70’s classic Americana rock. I’m a kid of the 80’s and my parents loved music. Sitting in the back of my mom’s Vega listening to America, The Band, Bread and even a little CSN are memories that will live on forever. When a band comes along and recaptures that sound, not in a carbon copy way, but in a modern upgrade of that classic Americana driven folk, you need to acknowledge it. It might not be your thing, but for any child of a baby boomer, it’s part of your DNA. I can say that the Pet Sound is a modernization of the sound, but it misses the harmonies of two or even three lead singers. Fleet Foxes and Panda Bear do the old Boston, Black Sabbath self-harmonizing. Ozzy did it best in Sabbath, singing with himself. That’s some good music, but it’s the CSN, multiple leads harmonizing about love, loss, drugs, the road, that do it for me.
When you combine the mastery of soul folk from the Felice Brothers and one of George Clinton’s P. Funk All-Stars, you get The Duke and The King. This new elixir of the classic CSN/70’s soul rock sound come from the Catskills and are driven by SIMONE FELICE, BOBBY BIRD, SIMI STONE and NOWELL HASKINS. The Duke and The King have serious fame ahead of them. The tracks are a combination of The Band’s spirit with a layer of soul vibe. It’s a great album and one that will last a lifetime on my shelf. It’s worth a physical LP purchase.
The year is shaping up quite nicely. Let us know who you think should be the New.Band of the Year! I think The Duke and The King deserve some accolades. Comments start now!
Hear: Three very Diverse tracks from the bands new LP Long Live The Duke and The King
“Children of the Sun” – Classic re-invention of late 60’s folk
I don’t care, I know they’re not a new band and I know that every blog in the world is talking about Foals, but my level of care is at 0. I love Total Life Forever and I hope that A). you already do or B). you will after this post. Frankly, I’ve been listening since 2008 and to the current album non-stop on BART and I’m feeling like this album could be the Best Album of 2010.
We here at New.Band.Day have been in the music industry for a long, long time and when one of the your colleagues is taken away from this Earth at an early age, you can’t help but embrace life a little harder. It makes us even more grateful that we can listen to great music…all because of those hard working people. Foals is a SubPop band and when I heard the news that our good friend Andy Kotowicz, a staple at the label, was killed, I was devastated. It was only because of Andy that Foals has been a passion of mine.
So today’s post is a tribute to our good friend and lost soldier of great music…Andy. For more information on how to help Andy’s family, please go here.
If you don’t know Foals, here is the DNA…. Band: Yannis Philippakis (Vocals, Guitar, Live Drums), Jack Bevan (Drums), Jimmy Smith (Guitar), Edwin Congreave (Keyboard, Backing Vocals), Walter Gervers (Bass, Backing Vocals) From: Oxford, England Albums: 2010 Total Life Forever // 2008 Antidotes Mercury Prize nominated Origins: 2004 Oxford, The Edmund Fitzgerald // Youthmovies Sound-like: A fusion of Fleet Foxes and Bloc Party but add a little Catherine Wheel and Battles.
Best Bands of 2010
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