Our favorite singer songwriter of 2013. Best New Band for sure!
Best New Bands of 2013 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #3: Dustin Tebbutt
Every year there is one stand-out singer songwriter that turns our heads here at NBD. We recognized Justin Vernon or Tallest Man on Earth in 2010 or 2011’s James Vincent McMorrow. All of them had one thing in common, they went into isolation, vacuum packed their sadness and record EPs or LPs of wonderment. Justin went to the Wisconsin hills and Dustin Tebbutt packed it up and moved from his home in Australia to Sweden where he isolated himself in his songwriting. I’m sure all of them had a sad break-up or some tragic failing in life, if I could bottle it and sell it I would be a millionaire. It’s amazing that across the globe men suffer sadly in isolation and they all record beautiful records, usually somewhere very cold. Dustin recorded an EP of beauty and we can’t wait to see what he delivers in 2014.
Founded: 2013
Hometown: Australia to Sweden
Members: Dustin Tebbutt
Sonic Soulmates™: James Vincent McMorrow, Justin Vernon, Tallest Man on Earth
Trackables™: The EP released in 2013The Breach
Listen to “The Breach” & “Where I Find You”
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.
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)
The Tallest Man on Earth changed our world that's why he is the Hummingbird
Best New Bands of 2010 Hummingbird Award: #1 The Tallest Man on Earth
Yep, this is it…the Number 1 Hummingbird. The voice, the songwriting, the perfection that is the final Hummingbird is The Tallest Man on Earth. Why, you ask? Well, the Swedes dominated music this year, with artists like The Radio Dept., Sambassadeur and Little Children being a key source of our favorite bands. Hell, two out of our top three Hummingbirds come from Sweden. Kristian Matsson is an exquisite songwriter/poet:
Why are you stabbing my illusion?
Just cause I stole some eagle’s wings
Because you named me as your lover
Well, I thought I could be anything.
His lyrics stitch together stories of potentially impeded regal dreams, the coming of Odin’s Wild Hunt, death, heartbreak and love diverted. His voice is ashy, with a nasal flare, similar to great Dylan tracks, but when you hear his live sessions, he loses the falsetto and you hear a pure beauty. His comparison to Dylan is not just of the vocal nature, but how he exposes you to the colors of words through song. You get lost in his words forgetting it’s just a man with a guitar, he’s a story-teller. This was a year that The Music Muse and I went to many shows, but no other show captured our souls more than seeing TTMOE at the Brookdale Lodge in the Santa Cruz mountains. He wrapped his words around the crowd of 200 and we were all shaken. He didn’t stop creating either, he did showcases, EPs, LPs, etc. He produced quality music the entire year.
He is the reason why I love music, why I love to share music, why we endure the crap…he is the gem that was excavated one Winter morning back in February, and now he is THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW ARTIST OF 2010. Thank you Kristian for making and creating.
Vitals:
Hometown: Dalarna, Sweden
Members: Kristian Mattson
Sonic Soulmates: Bob Dylan, John Vanderslice not too many others can be compared to him
Tracks of the Year:
“King of Spain” – Regal dreams are the best dreams, but not when you’re lover is trying to hold you down.
“You’re Going Back” – Seriously this is just one guy and his guitar.
“The Wild Hunt” – One of the greatest opening tracks of an album. He’s waiting for Odin to arrive and he’ll be leaving in the fall.
So you know we love Kristian Matsson and we’ve followed the trajectory of his career. In 2010, he’s taken off and we couldn’t be happier. Us NBDers who’ve been following the Band of the Days since the beginning know the brilliance of The Tallest Man on Earth. We even voted him the #2 band for the first half of 2010. Well a few weeks back, he released his newest EP — Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird on iTunes. A few tracks you already know, but a few brand new ones…they’re posted below for you to hear. Also posted a bonus track for you to enjoy.
NewBandDay 