I hesitated with this one, primarily because this band has the buzz right now. But as we debated here we came to the conclusion that our list would be incomplete without DIIV. These Brooklyn boys lit up our headphones early in the year with their break-out track “Sometime”, we heard it all over the blog-o-sphere, Gorilla v Bear, Pitchfork, even in a Converse campaign. DIIV which was forced to change it’s name from Dive, belong in our top 5 of 2011, they have that beachy spacey sound that dominated the Animal Collective trail. They seem to have perfected it though. Zachary Cole Smith of Beach Fossils, a fan favorite of NBD years ago, has taken this band from experimental to the real thing. The greatest comparison we can make here at NBD is that of our band crush Real Estate and The Ark bands of Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, etc.
Vitals:
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Members:
Zachary Cole Smith
Andrew Bailey
Devin Ruben Perez
Colby Hewitt of Smith Westerns
Sonic Soulmates™: Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Real Estate
Trackables™ from her new LP Oshin
Past Lives”, “How Long Have You Known”, and “Doused” a
2011 is shaping up to be the year of second records. Or at least the “Next” record for many of our NBD favorites. Seriously, I think this new age of releasing EPs has helped turn these bands into better album makers. These records are great! Seriously better than we expected. Just download the new Girls record and you’ll hear for yourself. That’s right, albums from our favorite “Already Profiled” bands. Below find the links to these artists and the link to their new records. And yes they are in order of our favorite. Support the bands and their plans! If you click through to a Facebook link, it’s only because we featured those artists on our FB page before we launched the blog.
1. Widowspeak – The new album is here and it’s VERY VERY good. The two tracks on their profile are included on their self-titled record.
“Puritan” – If haven’t been listening then are you okay? Because everyone’s talking about Widowspeak.
Buy Now
2. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost is so good, I think I’ve listened to it about 1000 times. The bad is maturing and you can hear it in their sound.
“Vomit” – Heard this once and I’ve been listening to it on repeat for months. I hate repeat, but I don’t hate this track. Buy now
3. Yuck – Yuck S/TEverybody has them on their list now. It’s cool. At least we can say we profiled them over 18 months ago. Love these guys because they bring back what I loved so much about The Smashing Pumpkins, dual overlayed guitars and the Sonic Youth obsession. These Canadians may be the lone leftovers of last year’s obsession with the maple leaf. Great band!
“Georgia” – Wow. 90’s rock. Sonic Youth meets The Pumpkins meets Screaming Trees meets flannels and boots. Buy now
4. Balam Acab – Wander/Wonder – Alec Koone has been our obsession for some time and this full length is so worth the vinyl.
“Oh Why” – Haunting for your October chill. Just a great track. Buy now
5. Cults – Cults S/T – These tracks ended up in our inbox about 16 months ago. They were sly and anonymous, but everyone seemed to get the same mail. We called around and everyone said the same thing “Did you hear that track” we were all in shock, and we wanted more. Well we got a record and it is just as good. So good.
6. Washed Out – Within and Without – Chill summer music, perfect for the beach or a romp under the sheets. So shows the album cover. We loved him back in 2010 and 2011 has been a break-out year for him.
“Amor Fati” – Spacey dreamy track from one of our favorite digs. Buy now
7. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine – I’ve spent the better part of 35 years focusing on music and what I like. My tastes are my tastes, but I’ve never been more moved when I heard TYM for the first time. Now he’s three LPs and a few EPs in and his maturity is showing.
8. Nurses – New album Dracula is so friggin good. The Muse and I saw this Portland trio open live at the haunted Brookdale lodge in Santa Cruz for last years NBD #1 artist Tallest Man on Earth. The track is below and it’s good!
“Fever Dreams” – Hard to describe this track. Just listen Buy now
9. Real Estate – Days Really one of our favorite finds from 2009 that carried over to 2010 and has stayed with us. The album comes out next week, but we know it will be great.
“Green Aisles” – Can you see the excitement. Well you can at least listen to it. Buy now
Just in the nick of time, Music Muse sent us her favorite Top 20 songs from 2010. She’s been our inspiration all year long and she’s been reading and following since Day One! We love her and we love her picks.
Top 20 Tracks of 2010
20. Miniature Tigers – “Goldskull”
19. The Mynabirds – “Let the Record Go”
18. Tennis – “Marathon”
17. Cocoon – “Hummingbird”
16. Lost in the Trees – “A Walk Around the Lake”
15. Ferraby Lionheart – “Harry and Bess”
14. PS I love You – “Facelove”
13. Breathe Owl Breathe – Swimming
12. Adam Kesher – Hour of the Wolf
11. The Fresh & Onlys – Waterfall
10. Foreign Born – Early Warnings
9. Chief – In the Valley
8. Slow club – Giving Up on Love
7. Harlem – Someday Soon
6. The Tallest Man on Earth – King of Spain
5. Morning Benders – Excuses
4. Real Estate – Beach Comber
3. Chappo – Come Home
2. Dark Dark Dark – In Your Dreams
1. Efterklang – Modern Drift
I know these are too mainstream for NBD, but these were two of my favorite tracks of 2010:
Broken Social Scene – “Ungrateful Little Father”
Black Keys – “Everlasting Light” – Umm this was a VERY IMPORTANT Song for us in 2010
Read our Music Excavators Picks:
Editor Gems (Albums)
Editor Gems (Songs)
Arizona Turk Gems (Albums)
Arizona Turk Gems (Songs)
Music Muse Gems (Songs)
June 1st marked the mid-year for 2010. We compiled our favorite bands from the past 6 months and posted them on our original Twitter and Facebook profiles. Now we’ll recap them here for your enjoyment.
10. Sleepy Sun BOD: (3.25.10) SLEEPY SUN –> SXSW’s darlings in 2010, SF via Santa Cruz dream core brings me my new favorite band.
9. Morning Benders BOD: (3.13.10) –> Berkeley residents, bring big indie sound to the SF scene.
8. Toro Y Moi BOD: (5.26.10) TORO Y MOI – Chazwick Bundick created a new sound, a new style and frankly a kick-ass set of tracks. Chillwave is now here and Chaz invented it.
7. Phantogram BOD: (5.18.10) PHANTOGRAM – A splendid electro-duo bringing street beat, trip-hop a little soul and a little Portishead sprinkled in. Promise that this will be the band you can claim for 2010. They are The XX of 2010.
6. Efterklang BOD: (3.1.10) EFTERKLANG—> bring an end to the February Winter blues with Efterklang. Denmark’sMads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer & Rasmus Stolberg bring us sweet music. Must have album “Magic Chairs”
5. Foreign Born BOD: (5.3.10) FOREIGN BORN – Rogue Wave and The Walkmen inspired these SF boys to make the trek to the shady side of LA. Silver Lake water has turned them into a damn fine band. Vampire Weekend should be worried, because they solve they out do them.
4. Sleigh Bells BOD: (3.23.10) SLEIGH BELLS –> Do not adjust your sound, it’s meant to blow the treble out of the water. CMJ darlings and NY/FLA finest. This is the band of all bands for 2010. Watch them rip “South of Heaven” into “Tell Em” Even more reason to love them.
3. Real Estate BOD: (2.18.10) Real Estate – Jersey/Brooklyn’s finest Mondanile, Courtney, Duguay and Bleeker bring their self titled beach sounds.
2. The Tallest Man on Earth…BOD: (4.22.10) THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – Must hear Dylan protege. His second album is a beauty. Bob Dylan’s protege hits the hills of Scandinavia and you must hear it. This is the best singer songwriter for 2010 and beyond. You must see him live and please buy his album.
Top New band of 2010 so far….The Radio Dept.
BOD: (3.2.10) RADIO DEPT. Yesterday the Danes, today the Swedes. They’ve been at it for years even on the Coppolla currated Marie Antoinette sdtk. This band melds fantastic 80’s space age synth with a unique sound that will surely make them your NEW FAVORITE BAND! We promise. We talked about them in March and we still believe they are the soul of New.Band.Day.
NewBandDay 