Top 50 Albums of the deacde

With the noughties coming to a close and NME giving us a terrible representation of the records they thought should grace the decades top 50 I decided to put my own list together in no particular order.

Top 50 Records of the Decade



At The Drive-In – Relationship of command

Anti-Flag – Underground network

The Bronx

The Slackers – Self-medication

Adequate 7 – Songs of innocence and experience

Justin Sane – Life, love and the pursuit of justice

The Cribs – The new fellas

White Stripes – White blood cells

Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – Fever to tell

Flaming Lips – Yoshimi battles the pink robots

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – Angles

Gogol Bordello – Gypsy punks: underdog world strike

Hell is for heroes – Transmit disrupt

Weezer - Maladroit

Beastie Boys – to the 5 boroughs

Los Copesinos – Hold on now youngster

The Rapture – Echoes

LCD Sound system

Radio 4 – Gotham

Bright eyes – I’ wide awake it’s morning

Ben Folds – Songs for silverman

Ben Folds Five – Whatever and ever amen

Soulwax - Any minute now

Frank Turner – Sleep is for the week

Captain Everything – It’s not rocket science

Alkaline Trio – Crimson

Howards Alias – Beat Heart Beat

Matthew Reynolds – Wreck of the Hesperus

Rival Schools – United by fate

Eels – Electro-shock blues

Rodrigo Y Gabriella

The Go Team – Thunder Lighting Strike

Moby - Play

Moldy Peaches

Capown – Civil disobedients

The Strokes – Is this it

Libertines

The Shins – Chutes too narrow

Rueben – Race car is race car backwards

Hot Club De Paris – Drop it like it pops

Sonic Boom Six – A rough guide to genre terrorism

AFI – Sing the sorrow

Hot Chip – The warning

Bloc Party - Silent alarm

The Macabees – Color it in

Queens Of The Stoneage – Rated R

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Madonna

Badly Drawn Boy – The hour of the bewilderbeast

Distillers – Sing,sing death house

Dandy Warhols – Thirteen tales from urban bohemia

Frank Turner, Fake Problems & Beans on Toast, Wulfrun Centre, Wolverhampton

Bean’s on Toast kicked off the night with an individual blend of lo-fi folk, politics and humour. Frank Turner repeatedly described him as ‘The future of music’ which is high praise from the man you are supporting.

Fake Problems from Florida, were the second support act. They warmed the crowd up ready for Frank Turner with an energetic set, filled with folk-punk and alt-country songs. Most importantly the band looked to be having a great time on stage, this energy soon transferred to the receptive audience.

Once Frank Turner took the stage the temperature within the venue increased as the diverse crowd filled the room. Frank balanced his set perfectly between songs from his early records, which generated his strong and loyal fan base, with songs from the critically acclaimed ‘Love Ire and Song’ and the new album ‘Poetry Of The Deed’ which have attracted newer fans.

Throughout his set the audience sang along to almost every word until the debut of an ‘old but new’ song which had not been played anywhere before, silencing the crowd as everyone looked on in awe.

It is rare to see an artist enjoy playing a show as much as Frank Turner, the pleasure and pride he takes in his work is truly inspiring. I am proud to be part of one of the audience’s that have made ‘his mother proud’. If you ever get the opportunity to see Frank Turner live you should grab it with both hands, if not you should look him up and buy his records

A Beginner’s Guide To Dance

I am no expert on dance music and only listen to a few artists mainly recommended to me by friends and reviews. I generally listen to relaxed styles mainly with real instruments involved; there have been plenty of artists developing styles incorporating a dance influence in differing styles.

The most documented style recently discussed has been the New Rave scene which started in the USA with the LCD Sound System and The Rapture both influencing the style that emerged in the UK last year with The Klaxons, Hot Chip and Enter Shakiri. The scene has obvious comparisons to the Radio 4 and Cooper Temple Clause but Test Icicles have been credited with starting the style. Recently NME described them as 'the most important influence to music in the last 10 years' (a comment to take with a pinch of salt).

As with any scene there are good artists and bands who ride the hype. The Klaxons were victims of their own success and released a great album but singles being forced into our ears made it hard to respect the creativity of the record. Hot Chip also got tied into the New Rave scene, although released one of the best dance albums of the year with a follow up that made my top albums of the year.

Although I am not an expert there are plenty of ‘dance’ albums I love including Air’s Moon Safari which is an album that never fails to relax me but includes all the elements you expect from French dance music. New Forms by Roni Size and Reprazent is again a stunning record, made with a mixture between live instruments and electronic beats creating an individual sound. Mr Scruff’s Keep It Unreal displays a truly original take jazz inspired dance which is hard not to love.

The genre is far bigger than my knowledge but there are a load of important bands to be considered.

LCD Soundsystem

Radio 4

Mr Scruff

Roni Size

Air

Klaxons

Bloc Party (Particularly most recent record)

Hot Chip

Test Icicles

A Beginners Guide to Acoustic/Solo

This is another genre my Dad can take credit for me now enjoying so much, he has put the grumpy man with a guitar into my ears from an early age. Unlike him the artists I choose to listen to often come out of bands either as a side project or after the split of the band.

I particularly love the surprise element of artists who have come from this background . Most notably the difference between Lightspeed Champion and Test Icicles or Frank Turner and Million Dead is astonishing. Both have gone from making heavy music with shouty vocals to breathtaking beauty. Other fine examples of the element of surprise have been Albert Hammond Jr. and The Nightwatchman(Tom Morrello) both guitarists who came out with a solo record proving not only they can sing but they can also write a great record.

The inclusion of acoustic allows for a wider track selection including one of the tracks from the fantastic acoustic part of the most recent Hot Club De Paris and the incredible Rodrigo Y Gabriella who if you ever get the chance to see live you should. The fact they can make the level and depth in sound they do using only an acoustic guitar each is truly amazing.

This is a genre where more than one CD could be put together, there are some great artists that didn’t make it onto the CD but are more than worth a listen for example Babar Luck, Liam O’Kane, Jim Lockey, Matt Reynolds and Robb Blake.

Obviously as with the previous lists history plays an important part in the genre it would be a crime to not include Lou Reed or Iggy Pop and strong arguments could (and should) be made for Elvis, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and even Bob Marley fortunately there will be enough time for me to add them to the mix in due course.

Although I find the history of musical genres fascinating and important the solo scene is currently growing stronger than it has been for a long time so if there is one genre to get my sister into this is the one. The key artists included are:

Lou Reed
Iggy Pop
Moldy Peaches
Jeff Buckley
Lightspeed Champion
Ben Folds
Bright Eyes
King Django
Vic Ruggiero
Nightwatchman
Albert Hamond Jr.
Justin Sane
Badly Drawn Boy

A Beginners Guide To Indie

Indie music is a non-genre as it seems to include anything that is popular without being a boy/girl band or fitting into R&B, Hip Hop, Dance, Rock or Metal. Indie music seems to be defined by appearing in NME or being played on the radio. The genre doesn’t exist in the USA (it’s called Alt Rock or similar) but American bands fit the UK definition so get branded when they come over here.

This is the music my sister currently listens to, mainly because this is the genre that describes the taste in music my Dad now has. She particularly likes the Ting Tings and Razorlight’s bland take on the genre. I would like to show her there is more to Indie than that style and with any luck she can see them as an influence which helped her get into better music.

I’m sure part of the reason I dislike the popular Indie sound is down to my love of independent music. In my opinion there are far better bands not enjoying the success they deserve. With this in mind I will be including my favorite Indie bands that inspired me when I was younger along with the bands that still inspire me now.

When I was at school/college I listened to a lot of Radio 1 especially John Peel and Steve Lamaq in the evenings. This influenced my taste in music by putting bands like Ash, At The Drive-in, Radiohead, Supergrass, Beastie Boys, The Rapture and The Libertines in front of me. Each artist represents a different style categorized within the Indie Genre.

The current breed of UK Indie has given us some great bands including Hot Club De Paris, The Holloway’s, Dirty Pretty Things, Dead 60’s, Bloc Party, Klaxons, Dustin’s Bar Mitzvah and many more to accompany the bands that originally inspired me. The newer breed of Indie includes so many styles of music that would fit into many different genres, making defining the genre almost impossible.

The USA also has some of the best Indie bands around at the moment all of which have a completely different sound to the UK scene. Bands like The Shins, Strokes, Dandy Warhol’s, Weezer, MGMT, LCD Sound System, Moldy Peaches and Radio 4 are keeping the genre as diverse as it has ever been. The American style often has noticeable comparisons to influential artists such as The Velvet Underground, Stooges, Ramones, Johnny Cash, Bruce Spingsteen and Elvis Costello.

It is hard to have an essential list of artists for a genre that is so diverse with influences from almost every scene that took place before the definition was decided. The list below features as many of the bands that inspired me as a teen and important bands of the current scene. I can leave the early stuff to my Dad who I'm sure already has brought the Smiths, Pixies, Blur, Pulp and Suede to my sister's attention.

Supergrass
Bloc Party
Ash
Eeels
Weezer
The Shins
Hot Club De Paris
The Strokes
White Stripes
Flaming Lips
Radiohead
Rival Schools
Shout Out Louds

A Beginners Guide to ….

These next few posts follow on from last week where I mentioned educating my little sister in good music. I am hoping to nurture her into listening to a varied diet of music with as many genres as possible. As an education each genre will start from the beginning and will pretty much become a musical history lesson. If you think I have missed any artists give me a shout and I will get them on the list.

The only thing to remember is my sister is an eleven year old girl so I need to find tracks that are free of swearing and risqué themes. It is safe to say there will be no beginners guide to gansta rap and I’m not sure she is ready for New York hardcore (or any hardcore for that matter) just yet either.

Keep your eyes peeled for the play lists in the next few days.

Help Save The Youth Of Today From Exploding

Please excuse the Less Than Jake misquote in the title, I took the title for this post from the Album one of the most influential records I owned as a teen. I bought the double pack which included ‘Hello Rockview’ and ‘Loosing Streak’ in one box, after recent rediscovery I still can’t decide which is my favourite as they are both fantastic albums.

The shuffle feature on iTunes has a habit of reminding me of great albums I have not heard for a long time, I recently rediscovered ‘Milo Goes To College’ by the Descendents which is one of the best punk albums ever made. However the record is not the best value for money considering all 15 tracks are over within 23 minutes with only 3 tracks over 2 minutes on the whole album. I also recently rediscovered my two favourite punk albums of the 90’s (‘Underground Network’ by Anti-Flag and Rancid’s ‘…And Out Come The Wolves’) looking back on albums I loved as a teen made me wonder if taste in music is nature or nurture.

As a kid I listened to the music my Dad played me, luckily this was pretty good mostly the Clash, Jam and Stranglers all of which I still listen to now. My Uncle also had a huge influence with Lou Reed, The Specials, Velvet Underground and Ramones. As I grew up popularity influenced my music tastes, as most peoples Dad’s were older than mine Dad music was known to be shit so I didn’t want to disagree. When I was about 12 I went through a stage of listening to gansta rap mainly because my older cousin from USA was into it and I wanted to be ‘cool’ like him. After that my friends at the time who were all NME/Melody Maker readers had an influence on me and lead me to Indie, Steve Lamaaq and John Peel. Through this I discovered the Ska and Punk scene that was developing mainly through going to local gigs.

At this time I saw some of the best gigs I have ever seen with line ups I still dream about, my personal favourite was an all dayer featuring Captain Everything, Adequate Seven, Howards Alias and Kenisia. This gig blew me away so I pledged allegiance to Household Name Records and got myself to a barber for a Mohawk. As I grew older and wiser I realised that music was so broad it was crazy to stick to one genre and developed into the well rounded music snob I am now.

I often feel my music taste is superior and try to nurture people into listening to my favourite bands to mould them into better people. This musical arrogance tends to surface after a few pints but the thoughts are constantly at the back of my mind. I am lucky enough to have a sister who is 11 and as with my youth I want to be a positives influence on her musical choices. So when she realises that Dad music which she currently listens to is un-cool with her friends she can look to the ‘cool’ older brother for an escape from terrible pop music.

With this in mind to save her from the chart dance or any other rubbish I want to introduce her to the music I love genre by genre. I believe with any kind of music you have to start from the beginning or at least include the influential old stuff. For example what would a ska compilation be without the specials or punk without the Clash.