California dreaming with post punk love music from Oakland, CA's EMA
Best New Band of 2011
#4 Hummingbird Award – EMA
I had a very hard time choosing this spot. There are about 10 bands that deserve to be in our Top 10 Best New Artists of 2011, but truly, we can’t fit them all. The Hummingbird Award is special. It’s for those bands that make a dent in the universe. Do something extraordinary…create a stellar record, great series of singles, great live artist, whatever it is, the artist needs to make an impression, much the like the loveliest bird on Earth, the Hummingbird. EMA made her mark early in the year. She’s a little bit country, a whole lot of 80’s industrial goth and a layering of folky noise that will make you regret falling in love with her. I think she’s the type of woman that just makes you feel regret, but addiction at the same time. You know what I’m talking about. We just adore EMA here at NBD, and by the way, I’m writing this on BART as I pass by her exit here at West Oakland, so take that EMA.
Vitals:
Hometown: West Oakland … originally from South Dakota
Members: Erika M. Anderson, Nicole Anderson, Nicky Mao, Leif Shackelford
Sonic Soulmates™: Zola Genius, Sleigh Bells, Early Hole
Trackables™:
“The Grey Ship”
90's dirty basement rock, Sleigh Bells vocals and a new record...GOOD STUFF!
Band of the Day (5.4.11) – EMA
EMA – Erika M. Anderson, former lead of the California noise-folk band Gowns, a band she led with her BF, brings a celebratory record. She was the darling of SXSW this year and she is the darling of our eyes. By the way it’s been over 20 years so it’s safe to use Nirvana chords without being ridiculed, but now it’s cool. She cleverly creates self harmonies, layered with those 90’s rock riffs, piano notes and snare drums. She makes me feel so dirty with “Milkman”, but soothes me and clears my guilt with “Breakfast”
It’s cool shiat and I think you’ll find her busting through on 2011 best of lists.
Vitals
Hometown: West Oakland … originally from South Dakota
Members: Erika M. Anderson, Nicole Anderson, Nicky Mao, Leif Shackelford
Sonic Soulmates™: Zola Genius, Sleigh Bells, Early Hole
Trackables™:
“Grey Ship”
That’s right, 22 New.Band.Day featured artists are playing Coachella this year. Did you see Saturday’s line-up? Tallest Man on Earth, Cults then The Radio Department. Hells yeah…The Muse, The Turk and I will be going! By the way our all-time fave Death From Above 1979 is back! F’ YAY!
So this is it. The final post of 2010 and it’s MY list of albums. Yeah that’s right, an entire ALBUM. That’s what bands and artists do, they go into the studio and create a record for us to enjoy. The art of crafting a story and telling it to us through poems, notes and melodies. I love a record because it’s what makes a band. Nobody would read a chapter of a book and say that an author is great, you need the whole art form. An album tells you the story of a band, not a track. These are the albums that changed MY world in 2010. Albums ONLY from the bands that debuted in 2010. Some of our favorite bands only released EPs…boohoo, hopefully 2011 will give us records from these bands. Damn it’s been a great year musically. If you said this year in music sucked, then you weren’t listening or reading. If you have a friend and you’re a friend then pass along NewBandDay.com to them. It’ll be their New Years Resolution, or yours if you’re looking to be a better friend. The albums are here. So go download them…NOW! See you next year.
Other things we loved and Who we’re scoping in 2011…new LPs:
We loved Karkwa and their passionate fans
We loved Canada
We loved Sweden
We loved XX/XY duos
We loved the Pet Sound but we’re over it now.
We loved The Walkmen Lisbon
So these are my picks of 2010. We posted the Top 20 Bands of 2010 and gave them The Hummingbird Award, we posted Arizona Turks favorite gems from 2010, now I’m posting my Gems, the songs, the ones that will forever stay on my shelf to admire. You listened to a ton of our tracks from the best new bands, but these were your faves as well. I challenge you to find a year where there were 10 tracks better than this!!! Wow.
Best New Bands of 2010 Hummingbird Award: #9 Sleigh Bells
Altering the landscape of music isn’t easy. 2010 was a year of passive, derivative drivel, made by machines and not musicians. But in saying that, we have answers and hope. We found at least 20 bands that have changed music and one or two that stand alone. Sleigh Bells is one of those bands, fusing searing guitars, fractured vocals and deep beats. It’s the XX/XY duo redefined. It’s the Slayer of our age. It’s angry and Alexis Krauss is our top Indie Hottie for 2010.
We made bold predictions for Sleigh Bells and we’re still waiting for the tipping point. We’ve seen the TV commercials, we’ve read all the “hipster” blogs, but we’re still waiting for that moment. We’re proud to have been the ones to introduce them to you and we’re even more proud to put them in our Top 10 Best New Bands of 2010. We might even say they are the Most Important Band of 2010. Their three best tracks are posted below.
Vitals:
Band Members: Guitarist/beatbox Derek Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Sonic Soulmates: MIA, Slayer, Your high school cheerleading squad
Tracks of the Year:
“Crown on the Ground” – This is the best song of the year. Check back on 12.28.10 for the full list.
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 