Stevie Wonder
Arcade Fire
Kanye West
Coldplay
My Morning Jacket
Fleet Foxes
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Nas & Damian “Jr Gong” Marley
Cee Lo
Bright Eyes
Social Distortion
Empire Of The Sun
Cut Copy
Santigold
Pretty Lights
TV On The Radio
Skrillex
Big Boi
Randy Newman
Iron & Wine
Ray LaMontagne
Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
Broken Social Scene
Chromeo
Old Crow Medicine Show
Death From Above 1979
Cold War Kids
The Airborne Toxic Event
Elbow
Gillian Welch
Fitz and the Tantrums
Delta Spirit
The Walkmen
Foster The People
Smith Westerns
Court Yard Hounds
Young The Giant
Alexander
Chiddy Bang
Mavis Staples
Gomez
J. Roddy Walston & the Business
Jack Ingram
Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Del McCoury Band
James Blake
Sara Bareilles
City and Colour
Twin Shadow
AWOLNATION
Wild Beasts
Hayes Carll
Brandi Carlile
North Mississippi Allstars
The Antlers
Wanda Jackson
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
The Head and the Heart
Mariachi El Bronx
Abigail Washburn & The Village
Joseph Arthur
Gary Clark Jr.
The Secret Sisters
The Belle Brigade
Aloe Blacc & The Grand Scheme
Bomba Estereo
Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub
Phosphorescent
MONA
The Vaccines
Charles Bradley
Reptar
Fool’s Gold
Beardyman
The Greencards
An Horse
Nick 13
Asleep at the Wheel
Futurebirds
Theophilus London
Patrice Pike
The Moondoggies
The Cave Singers
Ha Ha Tonka
Francisca Valenzuela
Miniature Tigers
Cowboy and Indian
Ruby Jane
Little Hurricane
Tyler Bryant
Hudson Moore
Bobby Long
The Kingston Springs
Jon Pardi
Chancellor Warhol
MilkDrive
Seth Walker
Courtney Jaye
Leroy Powell
The Lee Boys
The Durdens
The Warrior Gospel Band
Endurance
The Bells Of Joy
Disciples Of Christ
Tyree Morris & The Hearts of Worship
Sara Hickman
Peter DiStefano & Tor
The School of Rock
Heidi Swedburg
Mariana Iranzi
Brady Rymer
Recess Monkey
The Q Brothers
Quinn Sullivan
The Barton Hills Choir
Fresh Millions

Check out the rest of the photos.

On a side note, Arcade Fire winning best album earlier this year also spawned one of my favorite memes: WhoIsArcadeFire.tumblr.com.
People were mad about this “unknown” band, apparently.

The biggest complaint I get about the site from people is that the music coverage is all over the place, in more ways than one. One week there’s nothing but Wilco or Times New Viking, the next week it’s all about hip hop. But while this is something some people find distracting, personally I love it. I love being surprised as to what the writers have posted on the site as much as you do. Sure, maybe we could spell check more or when we embed photos more than 1500 pixels wide for no good reason it calls for a heavy load time, but that’s just how we roll. As a famous man once told me, “My typos are a lifestyle choice.”

So after getting a few submissions from the staff, I realized that there was no good way to put all the lists together into one cohesive thing. Seriously, how do you compare Kriegshog to Kanye West? We’re still going to keep them separated because quite frankly each writer comes from such a unique perspective I can’t rank them in any way. So this is the beginning of the list parade. Hope you discover something new, or are maybe reminded about a record you meant to check out but forgot about.

So that brings us to my list, I guess. I typically keep a running list once it gets closer to the end of the year of what I really loved, and then I go to my iTunes and Last.fm libraries to see what I listened to the most…. to see, what the fuck did I even listen to this year in general? I’m getting old.

If I was being honest to myself and to you, the stuff I listened to the most this year was not music but comedy podcasts. WTF with Marc Maron twice a week, Comedy Death Ray, Ricky Gervais, etc etc. And as for live shows, I’ve seen Eugene Mirman perform more times than any other band this year… It helps that he does a somewhat weekly show in my neighborhood, but you see where I’m going with this. Maybe I should be writing for The Laugh Button.

But, music! I still love music. This blog is turning eight years old in a few weeks, I must still love music… Right?????????? Am I writing this list to talk myself into the fact that I still love music? I don’t know. No, I do love music. CANT WAIT TO SEE THE DECEMBERISTS ON MY BIRTHDAY NEXT MONTH… But seriously, I have slowed down a bit on musical discovery and have circled the wagons on albums that I really love… The idea of retaining lyrics, song titles and even melody is a novelty post-MP3 but I would love to start remembering the names of songs without having to use the Shazam iPhone App. The hard drive in my brain is getting full, and I need to make some decisions on how I approach music. If you try hard, you CAN listen to albums during your day to day that haven’t officially been released yet. (That sentence would have confused a lot more people even just three years ago).

2010 was a goddamned great year for music. Here’s my list.

#10 Grinderman, Grinderman 2
Watch: Worm Tamer

If I were 10% of the man that Nick Cave is, I would be a total badass. Right now I’m at about 0.0004 Cave, but I keep hoping that I can pull it off one day.

#9 Sharon Van Etten, Epic
MP3: Love More

This album lives up to its one word title. Simple, raw, and powerful, the record may only be 7 songs but you will hit replay till it bleeds.

#8 Phantods, Creature
Watch: Creature

With their latest album, Phantods have finally found the perfect balance of pop, heavy, and all around David Lynch spookie. This should replace most music on modern rock radio pronto.

#7 Best Coast, Crazy for You
MP3: Boyfriend

This record makes me nostalgic for my 13 months I lived in California. And the cat is cute.

#6 The Black Keys, Brothers

I always liked The Black Keys. Brothers made me love them.

#5 Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Watch: The Suburbs

Canadians.

#4 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Brutalist Bricks
MP3: Even Heroes Have to Die

The hardest working man in indie rock, with this album Ted delivers some of the best songs of his career.

#3 Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love

This band continues to bring me so much joy.

#2 The National, High Violet
Watch: Bloodbuzz Ohio

#1 Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Ignore the hype, ignore the tweets, this is a rare intersection of art and popular music and Kanye knew it all along.

Download: “Stop!”

Certainly joyful and colorful in the press photo, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir’s sound comes from a darker place. The band is built around the songwriting of former drug dealer Elia whose lyrics deal with issues of drug abuse, mental illness and sexual identity. It’s no wonder, then, that Elia comes off as a bit as the bastard child of Morrissey and Javis Cocker (Pulp) – go ahead, picture THAT consummation in your dirty, dirty mind!

While comparisons to Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, and Mekons make sense, to me, SYGC comes off as the drinking-and-smoking, younger troublemaking cousin of the limp-wristed Belle & Sebastian.

Benco Presents The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and Maza Blaska at Rumba Cafe. Cover charge is $5 and something tells me you can probably head over after Benco’s other show (Brendan Benson/The Posies) and still see a full set by SYGC.

Over the last few months, via the musical grapevine, the band Fanfarlo has kept reappearing on my radar. But it wasn’t until visiting the UK in October that I actually heard them for the first time. I was able to catch them at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, where I was initially only there to catch opening act First Aid Kit. After settling on the fact that I could walk away completely satisfied after their set, Fanfarlo took the stage. While on record they sound a bit harnessed and calculated, their live show illuminates their talent enthusiastically. Created by ex-Swede Simon Balthazar, the six-piece band is based out of London and has been actively touring Europe and the US on their debut record Reservoir throughout 2009. They also just played CMJ and have again been added to the SXSW 2010 roster.

Balthazar sings with a sweet and bold voice (similar to that of Beirut’s Zach Condon) and is backed by an amazing group who each play multiple instruments to form a big full sound, reminding me of the Arcade Fire. Have a listen, but more importantly, check out some live footage.

Fanfarlo has recently been recording a number of “Laptop Sessions” where they perform covers. You can find those here, as well as some music videos.

Full track listing, courtesy of Pitchfork. The album comes out April 7.

01 Quasi: “Beautiful Things” (3Ds cover)
02 Les Savy Fav: “Precision Auto” (Superchunk cover)
03 The Shins: “Plenty Is Never Enough” (Tenement Halls cover)
04 St. Vincent and the National: “Sleep All Summer” (Crooked Fingers cover)
05 Broken Social Scene: “Complications” (The Clean cover)
06 Ryan Adams: “Like a Fool” (Superchunk cover)
07 Bright Eyes: “Papa Was a Rodeo” (Magnetic Fields cover)
08 Lavender Diamond: “New Ways of Living” (Destroyer cover)
09 The Apples in Stereo: “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3″ (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
10 Laura Cantrell: “Cowboy on the Moon” (Lambchop cover)
11 Bill Callahan: “Santa Maria” (Versus cover)
12 Barbara Manning: “Through With People” (Portastatic cover)
13 The Mountain Goats: “Drug Life” (East River Pipe cover)
14 The New Pornographers: “Don’t Destroy This Night” (Rock*A*Teens cover)
15 Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman: “Yeah! Oh, Yeah!” (Magnetic Fields cover)
16 The Hive Dwellers: “My Noise” (Superchunk cover)
17 Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: “The Numbered Head” (Robert Pollard cover)
18 Okkervil River: “All You Little Suckers” (East River Pipe cover)
19 Death Cab for Cutie: “Kicked In” (Superchunk cover)
20 Times New Viking: “Neighborhood #1″ (Arcade Fire cover)

This time around, the crowd was a lot bigger. Playing to what seemed like a sold out crowd outdoors at The LC, it was obvious that Arcade Fire has transformed into a Big Deal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at a larger venue next time they’re in Columbus, which won’t be for a few years (according to the band, at least).

Discussion of the show going on in our message board. Here’s Arcade Fire’s Columbus set list, courtesy arcadefire.net:

Black Mirror
Keep the Car Running
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haiti
I’m Sleeping In A Submarine
Ocean of Noise
Cold Wind
Intervention
(Antichrist Television Blues)
The Well and the Lighthouse
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
——————–
Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Wake Up

We got there at 8:30PM, just as LCD Soundsystem was playing their last song. I couldn’t get their any earlier, and appreciate an early start time, but this seemed a little too early. Then again, we’re always complaining about start times for shows so pay no attention to my comment. Heh.