House of Normandie

Three Thank-Jeff-it’s-Wednesday reasons to come on over and do the twist at Panchos tonight…

1. Chicago quartet House of Normandie have grown immensely since the last time I saw them in person. The band’s post-hardcore sound has been shaped and refined on its most recent EP Myth of a Town. On it, House of Normandie blends the best parts of bands like Cursive and Champaign-Urbana’s own Braid. There’s a sense of urgency found in each desperate scream, squealing guitar and pulsing back beat from the rhythm section that singles them out as a local band that is worthy of your time.

2. I’m not going to lie, I do tend to love things with my name on it (See: Helium’s “Leon’s Space Song”). So naturally, Chicago duo Tiny Manatee caught me hook, line and sinker with its “garagegaze” EP Leon Everything via Bandcamp. Singer Cully Johnston cranks out some earnest distortion-laced vocals over scuzzy guitar and groovy (but heavy as fuck) drum licks courtesy of Maggie Laleman. You might know Laleman from her day job as Bite Cafe’s pastry chef. She was just named one of “20 Chefs to Watch” by Time Out Chicago. Now that’s talent.

3. Ah, Rodeo, so we meet again. The sludge-pop trio with Neil Diamond tendencies continues its path of total Chicago-wide domination tonight at Panchos. You won’t want to miss the group’s wild, classic rock-inspired big guitar riffs courtesy of LLP editor Richard Giraldi, bash-your-face-in heavy drums by George Nisbett and eardrum shattering scream-singing by Jordan Servin. Opening this shindig are the gentle acoustic pop stylings of Stranger. Chicago bands FTW.

8:00 p.m. Wednesday, 10/12. Panchos. 18+ $7.

It’s no coincidence that both visits as of late have been on a Tuesday.

What looks to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Vocalo and Loud Loop Press, you’ll be able to catch Giraldi shortly after the 6 p.m. hour on the MusicVox every Tuesday chatting with the always great host Jesse Menendez about some of the biggest local releases of the week.

Tonight, Giralidi will talk about the new White Mystery record, Blood & Venom, of which you’ll see a written review of right here on LLP this Thursday.

Be sure to tune in tonight, and every other Tuesday, at 6 p.m. either at 89.5 FM or online at Vocalo.org, to hear some super rad local music talk.

• • Metal outfit MASTODON will release a live album that was recorded in 2009 at, um, the Aragon? Seriously.
• • Chicagoverseunited has a new Kidz In The Hall track from their Brain Candy A.V. project.
• • WindyCityRock.net reviews the latest EP from Chicago indie rockers Cains & Abels.
• • The Sun-Times’ Thomas Conner reviewed last night’s Dismemberment Plan show at the Metro.
• • If you want to hear our editor, Richard Giraldi, talk about Loud Loop Press, how we write reviews and our 11 Chicago Bands To Watch in 2011, here’s a link to his appearance on Vocalo’s MusicVox form a couple weeks back, which was hosted by the amazing Jesse Menendez.

Seeing how our staff has distinct tastes and opinions on music, it would be nearly impossible for us to determine a 10 Albums of 2010 list as a single entity without excessive bloodshed. Therefore over the past two weeks, we’ve been posting multiple Top 10 Albums of 2010 lists as determined by Loud Loop Press editors and contributors. Today, Loud Loop founder and editor-in-chief Richard Giraldi finally decides to get with the program and reveals his list for Top 10 Albums of 2010.

10. The 1900s – Return Of The Century
Every year there’s a beautifully constructed pop album that really catches the attention of my ear. In 2010, that album was The 1900s’ Return Of The Century. The record, while follows a pretty heady theme about a woman who leaves her life and man for adventures in the desert that’s loosely bases on a true story, is no concept album, so none of the songs need to lean on the others in order to unleash their full grandeur. From the fluttering guitar and loose beat that opens “Lions Fur” to the driving bass and lush guitars of “Babes” to the big orchestral introduction of “Jean Demon”, Return Of The Century is an incredible achievement in pop music that’s great whether it’s looked upon from local or national eyes.

9. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs was the big, bold statement we all expected from the Montreal outfit. However, this time around, the band really wanted to make such a statement without reaching U2-esque heights. And that they did. It’s a powerful piece of art that sounds like someone’s deep reflections on a wasted youth. I grew up in the suburban hell of west Houston – a part of town where there’s every single chain restaurant and discount store you could think of all within a two mile radius. Not to mention the hundreds of dilapidated strip malls. So, when I hear a song like “Ready To Start”, it conjures up the feeling I got when I escaped that place for college and could really begin to live. If there’s one small complaint about The Suburbs, it’s that it’s possibly about 10 minutes too long. That’s not to say that any of the songs aren’t good, however. Every track, from the sleek, new wave groove of “City With No Children” to the buzzing, raucousness of “Month Of May” resonates with urgency and importance. For the 2010 indie culture, The Suburbs is probably the closest thing we’ll get to a version of Born To Run we can call our own.

8. Spoon – Transference
When this album was released in January of 2010, it was instantly a contender for one my favorites for the year, but I reckoned it was far too early to make such a judgment. But as Audrey Leon already stated, though it’s not a drastic departure from Spoon’s other works – it doesn’t need to be. It’s just damn good rock music, and includes he band’s trademark clockwork rhythms, groovy bass lines and reverbed guitar rock that will indeed get your head a noddin’. What’s funny is that it’s so simple, you’d think there would be a million-plus Spoon rip offs these day. But no one does quite like Britt Daniel and Co. “Trouble” blows through with Beatles-like harmonies and “Got Nuffin” has probably the most killer guitar lead melody of any Spoon song yet. It’s not exactly groundbreaking. But Transference instead continues to improve on Spoon’s already honed sounds, and I’ll take it any day of the week.

7. Grinderman – Grinderman 2
There seemed to be a divide in 2010, it’s either sleekly produced pop or the over the top heaviness of metal. But Nick Cave broke the mold with his second installment from his project Grinderman, which oddly enough features a number of members from his primary outfit the Bad Seeds. When the album opening track, “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man”, begins with a huge hi-hat clash into a menacing, chuggin bass line, you know you’re in for the ride of your life. Grinderman puts the dirty back in rock n’ roll. Something that many of today’s groups miss out on. You can be heavy without being metal, but you can also sound well-produced without going the complete pop route. Grinderman 2 is a throwback to the good old times of rock – when singing about death and evil fit perfectly over demented, noisy blues riffs. Speaking of evil, the song of the same name, “Evil!”, sounds a trip through a schizophrenics mind after they’ve taken some bad acid. Yeah, the song and the rest of the record are indeed that good.

6. White Mystery – White Mystery
Speaking of dirty rock ‘n’ roll, while the White Stripes were no where to be found in 2010, leave it to a fire-headed, bro-and-sis duo from Chicago to take charge. White Mystery packs a punch that never lets up on their self-titled debut. You want mammoth fuzzed-out riffage, snarling, reverb-laden vocals and rapid-fire drums? Then White Mystery is your nirvana. Bigger national acts that have in the past used the same formula, looking at you Black Keys, could really learn a thing or two about rock ‘n’ roll from White Mystery. If the blizzard of wild guitar and tornado of drums as the start or “Switch It Off” or the maniacal riff at the start of “Halloween” doesn’t get your heart racing, I’m not sure you have a pulse. If this was just a starting point for White Mystery, I can’t wait for their next move.

5. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
After much hype and drama, Kanye West finally unleashed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. With all the hoopla surrounding West and his antics, the album could have easily been the 2010 music equivalent of TRON: Legacy. Pretty to look at, but not much underneath. Luckily, it was more like Inception. The record was both beautifully produced and found West having something to say to which was worth listening. He seems to reflect on his time spent as the nation’s enemy number one in 2009 when he disrupted Taylor Swifts MTV Video Awards acceptance speech. The fact that that one incident caused such media and public scrutiny is quite ridiculous in retrospect. And West aims to point out the ridiculousness of the whole ordeal in “Power” when he says, “They say I was the obamanation (abomination) of Obama’s nation/ Well, that’s a pretty bad way to start the conversation/ At the end of day, goddammit, I’m killin’ this shit.” And West speaketh the truth. He does indeed kill with “Power” which offers up an extremely bad ass King Crimson sample. Other songs on the album are just as epic, such as “All Of The Lights”, which features just about everyone under the sun of pop music from Rhianna to Fergie to Alicia Keys to Elton John. The there’s the nine-minute opus, “Runaway”, in which West sarcastically forgives his haters with a toast to the douchebags and assholes and lays down a big electro-vocal coda. Similarly to how Michael Jackson appealed most everyone in the late ’80s and early ’90s, West conquers indie, mainstream and everything in between with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

4. No Age – Everything In Between
No Age’s punky guitar-and-drums attack reached new heights of accessibility on their 2010 release Everything In Between. Instead of adding additional instrumentalists, their sound is fleshed out with noise samples. In songs such as the speeding, “Fever Dreaming”, a weird, almost robotic yell, fills in the gap when drummer Dean Allen Spunt’s vocals end. At first it’s a little odd, but it really makes the song more than just a guitar-and-drum rocker. It gives it depth, which is why Everything In Between works so well. The songs are smartly and tightly written and are built for those who haven’t always been a fan of No Age’s noise-rock assault. “Skinned” offers up a groovy, clean guitar shuffle that’s nearly delectable before breaking down to a chorus that features digitized gear sounds. While the use of soundscapes really takes over the majority of the album, No Age know when to step back. “Shred And Transcend” is back-to-basics surf, garage rock at its finest and doesn’t once let up off the gas. Everything In Between is a garage rock album that’s 21st century-ready. Sure, guitars and drums are fun an all, but No Age know that at some point the sound needs to shift, so why not make that shift a bit unconventional?

3. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
I’ll be honest. When this year began, I was an LCD Soundsystem naysayer. I pulled one out of the ol’ snobbery book and proclaimed them overrated when This Is Happening was released just because everyone (critics, fans, etc.) loved the album. I had only heard bits and pieces and wasn’t very impressed. Then came Pitchfork Music Festival in July 2010. LCD Soundsystem closed on Saturday night, and only a few minutes in I realized what a terrible mistake I had made. LCD Soundsystem were not only the good, they were great. Like really, really great. A few weeks later, I found myself owning their entire catalog including This Is Happening, which is no doubt one of the best of the year. It’s fun dance rock that’s genuinely smart. “Dance Yourself Clean” will indeed make you dance whether you want to or not with it’s quirky synth play and funky beat. “Drunk Girls” is probably the most FM radio ready anthem that we’ve heard in years, and “I Can Change” features James Murphy doing his best vocal performance of, like, ever and gives most everyone on the so-called “Top 40″ a run for their money. LCD Soundsystem aren’t the Talking Heads and the Talking Heads aren’t LCD Soundsystem, but they’re in the a similar arena of being consistently good while carving out their own wonderful, exciting niche.

2. High On Fire – Snakes for the Divine
You didn’t think I was going to have a Top 10 list without some true metal on it, did you? After I gave the top spot to Mastodon in 2009, you had to know this was coming. 2010 in metal belonged to High On Fire. Snakes For The Divine simply crushes skulls, massacres villages and destroys cities without even a hint of shame. Plus, the fact that the album opens with the titles track, “Snakes for the Divine”, is possibly just too much of a good thing. It’s hard to listen to the whole song and not instantly hit the back button on your iPod or discmas or walkman or whatever when it’s over. It’s eight-minutes of pure unadulterated kick ass metal. But the record isn’t one track long. The rest is just as good. From the murky sludge of “Bastard Samurai” to the wicked leads of “How Dark We Pray” and the lightning double bass of “Frost Hammer”, Snakes For The Divine is nearly unbeatable. Nearly. Obviously if just the thought of metal makes you queasy, then steer clear. But for those of us that enjoy massive riffs, pummeling drums, paint-peeling basslines and devil horn-ready shrieks, Snakes for the Divine is it. I think Ross Meyerson probably agrees.

1. MGMT – Congratulations
Everyone once and a while an album comes out that’s so divisive, it’s either truly absolute shit or absolute genius. This year’s candidate for that album was MGMT’s Congratulations. My problem is that the record never got a fair shake from anyone except for a few critics. Fans instantly hated it simply because they heard from their Four Loko-drinking, croc and aviator-wearing friends that it “sucked” because it was “different,” and there wasn’t another “Kids” or “Electric Feel” on it. This is true. There wasn’t another club ready hit anywhere on Congratulations. But since when did that make it dismissable? Instead, this time around MGMT let their weirdness hang out with some extremely well-crafted tunes that teeter on the edge of ’60s-era psychedelic rock and ’50s-era surf rock. But let’s be clear, Congratulations is not derivative in the least. It sounds fresh, it sounds modern, but most of all, it sounds completely original. “Song For Dan Treacy” is either the weirdest folk song I’ve ever heard or the best cartoon theme song I’ve ever heard. “Flash Delirium” is a jam that wouldn’t sound out of place on Mr. Bungle’s Disco Volante and seems to be the band’s commentary about their sudden rise to fame with hits such as “Kids” and a reaction to it – an anti-single if you will. So, it’s ironic seeing how the song was the first single from Congratulations. But the record isn’t just reactionary, MGMT etch out some beautifully crafted pop moments, which are featured in the 12-minute psych jam out “Siberian Breaks” and the warm folk blanket of the album’s title track, “Congratulations”. This album earns my top spot for two reasons: First, it’s bold at a time when following up a hit debut record with such would be considered career suicide. Second, the songs are simply great. That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing complicated about this album, which is what I found many were claiming during it’s initial backlash. Congratulations isn’t even a huge departure from MGMT’s sound on Oracular Spectacular (see “The Handshake” or “Pieces of What”). So, if you haven’t, clear your mind and give Congratulations a fair listen. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

• • Jim DeRogatis goes back and takes a second look at his Lollapalooza tax math and if Chicago is earning what it should from the “Wal-Mart on the Lake”.
• • Chicagoist has a nice Riot Fest 2010 recap complete with some sweet shots of Circle Jerks, Bad Religion and more.
• • Over at the Sun-Times’ Via Chicago music blog, Thomas Conner gives his picks for 10 Chicago Bands on the rise.
• • Greg Kot gives his take on the new album from Belle & Sebastian, who play the Chicago Theatre tonight.
• • Our editor, Richard Giraldi, reviewed last week’s X Japan show for the Sun-Times.

We kid, of course! Yes, Lollapalooza returns! And once again, while catching bands you’re not all too familiar with, downing beers and grubbing it up on some Graham Elliot lobster corndogs, we’ll be frantically running around Grant Park trying to take it all in. Last year, when we were still a young sapling of a blog, I feel our coverage was pretty good. This year, we’re going to try and out-do ourselves once again. Here’s what you can expect from Loud Loop Press this year…

- Lollapalooza Preview: Our long-form, and I mean that in every sense of the phrase, preview will be up tomorrow morning. At this very moment, our writers are locked away in the Loud Loop dungeon basement typing away frantically about their top picks for Lollapalooza 2010. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, like our Pitchfork Fest preview, don’t plan on seeing any blurbs on Soundgarden, Lady Gaga or Phoenix. We stick to highlighting the other eight hours of your Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

- Live Blog: Boy howdy! It’s back! Pitchfork Fest was our first experience doing a LIVE BLOG from a major music festival, so we’ll try it once again from Lollapalooza. I’ll be posting LIVE from Lolla complete with my instant reactions and hopefully some photos as well. Of course, this is barring any wi-fi malfunctions, which happened almost every 15 minutes at the Pitchfork press tent. I’ll try and power through, however. Also, probably around 5 – 6 p.m. the LIVE BLOG will go un-LIVE until I get home from the fest. Then it will be updated in the early morning hours for a complete wrap-up you can read on the front page at 10 a.m. sharp.

- Tweeting: Yes! More tweets. I’ll mostly be using our official account @loudlooppress. So, keep it plugged in there. Not only will we be giving our thoughts live from the field and RT-ing pertinent info, I’ll try and tweet out some photos and video as well. Also, you can find me occasionally giving my ridiculous opinions that might be too much for the main account at @rgiraldi and also check in with Associate Editor Andrew Kahn at @andykahn, who’ll be doing his thang on Friday and Sunday.

That’s that! Should be fun. We’ll have another link at the top of the page which will link to everything tagged “Lollapalooza” in orer to find all our coverage easier. Also, I got a new camera – so expect some better shots this time around. Should be a heck of a weekend. The fun kicks off tomorrow! Be here! (or something.)

Joined by Amy Dittmeier of Heave Media, the trio talk about their respective sites, dish on Lollpalooza past and present and look forward to Chicago’s fall musical offerings.

Stream or download the podcast in its entirety right now at Chicagoverseunited.com.

- Live Blog: We’re going to be live blogging everyday and filing some reports from the festival itself. The live blog post will stay on the front page for the entire day, only to be moved down the next morning for live blog Day 2 and then Day 3. We’ll try our damnedest to update the entire live blog with all coverage from all our on-site contributors by 12 pm the next morning at the latest. If things go according to plan the live blog won’t just be our thoughts, but photo and video as well. (Maybe even some Spoken Tweets? We’ll see!)

- Tweeting: Yes, we’ll be tweeting from the festival. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled on our official account @loudlooppress. Not only will we be giving our thoughts live from the field and RT-ing pertinent info, we’ll try and tweet out some audio and video as well. Be sure to follow our staff who will be there:

Richard Giraldi – @rgiraldi
Andrew Kahn – @andykahn
Audrey Leon – @audreyleon
Ross Meyerson (If he can get that doggone thing to work!) – @bengrieve

- Festival Preview: The insanity will kick off bright and early tomorrow morning when we post our comprehensive preview of bands we think you should definitely check out this weekend. You’re probably familiar with Pavement and LCD Soundsystem, so we’re sticking with lesser known and local acts. I’m sure you saw our comedy stage preview yesterday. It will be like that, only more musical.

So, that’s it for now. Remember if you want to find our coverage, but are lost in the madness, simply hit that icon at the top of the page labeled “Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 Coverage”. It should take you to all posts tagged with “Pitchfork Music Festival”. Are you ready Chicago? We certainly are.

10. The White Stripes – Elephant
White Blood Cells might have been the White Stripes’ breakthrough, but Elephant thrust them into rock god status. The amount of rock produced by two people – one of whom isn’t the most technically proficient – is pretty incredible. From the low-end heavy, riff rock anthem “Seven Nation Army” and the balls-to-the-wall cover of the Burt Bacharach-penned “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” to the retro-garage romper “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine,” the album finds the Stripes’ at their most captivating. The songs are focused, raw, heavy and cleverly arranged. Jack White became a guitar hero with his virtuosic solo on the six minute-plus fire-y blues epic, “Ball And Biscuit.” And though I’m not too fond of Meg’s singing, “In the Cold, Cold Night” is definitely her best vocal effort yet. Elephant proved the band was out to prove themselves as a powerful and influential force in rock and roll.

9. Kanye West – Late Registration
It appears I wasn’t the only one who realizes this was Kanye’s masterpiece. What makes Late Registration such a success is how complex of a hip-hop album it is musically and lyrically. Every track is layered with precise orchestration and songs that could be two to three minute singles are stretched out to epic lengths to include bridge sections and false endings such as on “Gone” or “We Major.” Then we find Kanye West himself still young and hungry yet not completely jaded by fame yet with a tribute to his late mother, “Hey Mama,” and spouting off hilarious rhymes on “Gold Digger.” Not to mention all the killer soul, jazz and blues samples scattered throughout (Andrew Kahn lists some of the sampled artists on his list). Late Registration is the result of an over the top artist trying to top his masterpiece. And while it may not be as classic as College Dropout, Late Registration is far more entertaining and extravagant in it’s delivery.

8. Sleater-Kinney – The Woods
Honestly, if you ask what my favorite band is, four out of five times I’d say the Beatles. The other time, I’d said Sleater-Kinney. The girls of S-K did little to no wrong in their 12-year career. It culminated in their fuzzy coda masterpiece, The Woods. The album is heavily aided by producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) and his thought to turn the amps up. And by up I mean way, way up. The Woods is possibly the loudest album released from 2000 – 2009. However, the album shines because of its tightly sketched hooks over waves of feedback and arena rock antics. The album offers Corin, Carrie and Janet at their best with the frantic “Jumpers,” a creeper which builds on hushed anxiety until erupting in an electric freak out, and the 11-minute opus “Lets Call It Love” with its grinding-gear riff that could go bead to head with Sabbath any day of the week. If The Woods truly is the final Sleater-Kinney album ever, I can’t think of any band going out such a high note*.

*Exception to the rule may be the band in the number three spot

7. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots…
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was for many suburbanite teenagers the beginning of their fandom with those psychedelic Oklahomans The Flaming Lips, a band who was already roughly nineteen years into their career. But it’s not the fault of their fans as the Flaming Lips were relegated to more of a cult and small fan base before the 2000′s. The band began as a pretty intensely psychedelic rock group having on minor success with a couple of singles along the way such as 1993′s “She Don’t Use Jelly” and 1995′s “Bad Days.” In 1999, the band shifted gears again to record the symphonic pop masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. Yoshimi… takes the Soft Bulletin sound to a new level with more use of the studio as an instrument, trip-hop elements and integrating more electronic and computerized instrumentation. Not to mention some of the bass lines are absolutely gorgeous such as on “In The Morning Of The Magicians.” Everyone who considers themselves a Flaming Lips fan obviously know the group’s two biggest songs come from this album in “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1″ and “Do You Realize??” I mean “Do You Realize??” is currently the official rock song of Oklahoma! How’s rad is that?

6. Radiohead – Kid A
To this day I still don’t understand all the hubbub about this album and how it possibly could divide a fan base. Was it simply because Radiohead weren’t using the guitar as their primary instrument on Kid A? Was it because it was a bit slower than their previous albums? Fans should have guessed that after OK Computer the band were more than your average brit-rock, grunge-era knock off. Radiohead were pure musicians. So, why to this day does it seem Radiohead’s fan base is so split? Those who love Kid A and those who either like every thing before Kid A or hated the putrid sounds emanating from Kid A so much that they vow that Radiohead is overrated or crappy or all their fans are pretentious. Because Kid A really isn’t too out there. Bands have taken greater chances in the past than the more subdued and organ/synth-driven bliss that is Kid A. Opener “Everything In Its Right Place” is a hymn for the digital age and sets the tone for the melancholy Kid A story concept which is pretty out there. But the album also provided some of Radiohead’s best rockers like the call-to-attention booming bass of “The National Anthem” and the lucid “Optimistic.” And aside from the brief-yet-meandering “Treefingers,” Kid A really has no filler or throwaway tunes. The songs compliment each other, and it works best as a whole. I really love Amnesiac as well, but seeing Kid A came first, I think it gets a higher rank by default.

5. Queens Of The Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf
Josh Homme took his little stoner rock project to the next level with 2002′s “Songs For The Deaf,” which featured current Them Crooked Vultures band mate Dave Grohl behind the kit. This was, unfortunately, the last QOTSA record with former bass player Nick Oliveri. Say what you want, the Songs For The Deaf version of QOTSA definitely was their strongest incarnation yet. Oliveri’s piercing shriek was the perfect foil to Homme’s sleek, at times lounge-y singing style and Grohl’s machine-like precision. “You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar But I Feel Like a Millionaire” is an absolute stoner romp, while hit singles like the swagger-fueled “No One Knows” and thrashy desert-folk recollection “Go With The Flow” put Homme on the map as one of rock’s top songwriters and guitar gods. Queens Of The Stone Age (or any Homme project for that matter) are still one of America’s best rock bands, but Songs For The Deaf really found them at the top of their game.

4. The Strokes – Is This It
In my review for Julian Casablancas’ solo debut, Phrazes For The Young, I wrote, “Say what you want about the Strokes, it was Casablancas’ vocals that made them such a success. The music wasn’t anything to write home about. It was garage rock and early punk riffage on top of a basic drum beat.” Maybe I was a bit too critically on the band because going back now and listening to Is This It, the riffs sound tighter and just as smart as ever. Yes, I still think that Casablancas’ dirty; occasionally in tune ramblings were really what gave The Strokes that edge. But musically, the band were equally impressive at writing short and concise journeys that shifted keys or tempos so quickly that it was hard to notice. “Take It Or Leave It” is a perfect example with its bouncy opening section that gives way to a waltz-y chorus until shifting into a moody punk-riff bridge. What made the Strokes so great is they delivered these brilliant, sweet throwback pop and soul tunes so damn effortlessly. Everything sounds so tossed off, as many of their tunes are not-quite-perfect, but ultra-confident first takes. “The Modern Age” magnificently gallops along like a beaten up old’ Volkswagen van that’s on it’s last legs, and “Hard To Explain” was retro-space folk-rock before retro-space folk-rock was cool. It’s funny to look back now and think of The Strokes being lumped in with all th hype and with the other “The [Blank]” bands at the time. But The Stokes, and the White Stripes, transcended the label and are now at near legendary status.

3. At The Drive-In – Relationship Of Command
I was ever so pleased to see that our own Audrey Leon had Relationship Of Command in her top 10 from 2000 – 2009. In my opinion, it’s one of the more overlooked albums of the past 10 years. Finally, At The Drive-In made a great sounding album after a number of albums where the production left much to be desired. At The Drive-In too often get lumped into the early days of fast emo-post-punk that was made famous by Sunny Day Real Estate and carried on my many bands to this day. But their sound was too distinct – it ranged from frenzied punk to electro-dub to soulful Latin balladry to everything in between. “Arcarsenal” opens the record with such intensity as tribal drumming gives way to an even more frantic beat and a connect-the-dots guitar line. “Quarantined” gets moving via a big Jane’s Addition bass roll and “One-Armed Scissor” finds singer Cedric Bixlar-Savala at his most perturbed. The members of At The Drive-In keep busy in their current projects (The Mars Volta, Sparta), but nothing they’ve done so far has has the same fiery energy of their old Texas outfit. In recent interviews, the members of Mars Volta are beginning to warm to an At The Drive-In reunion. Make it happen. Now.

2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Yep, Wilco – again. I really can’t write much more about this album seeing how much has already been written. From the opening wobble of “I Am Trying To Break Your heart” to the sprawling narrative of “Ashes Of American Flags” and the Neil Young guitar flourishes of “I’m The Man Who Love You, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is so great that it almost instills a sense of national pride in the listener. Sure, Britain’s got their Radiohead, and their admittedly brilliant in their own right, but the United States of America has Wilco. And that may be just as well. Radiohead often play too far to the serious side of the coin, but Wilco walk the fine line between serious musicians and silly rock band. Radiohead could never write a song titled, “Radiohead (The Song)” and even use “Radiohead” in the lyrics. They’d be torn a new one by the post-pitchfork music blogosphere instantly. But Wilco can. And did. And it was great. But back to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the fact that their label dropped them because this album wasn’t marketable is laughable now. I hope all those record execs that passed on this got fired. Seriously, I do. Wilco is consistently great, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was their greatest of all. And if there aren’t enough reasons to be a Wilco fan, just remember, they’re from Chicago.

1. Fugazi – The Argument
Okay, so we’ve talked about a couple of bands going out on a high note…Sleater-Kinney, At The Drive-In…Fugazi’s last album before their indefinite hiatus was a bit different. The band were pretty much already solidified as post-hardcore legends with their popular underground songs like 1989′s “Waiting Room” and or 1990′s “Repeater.” They were known for their DIY attitude and staunchly in favor of easily accessible shows and low ticket prices. If there ever was a band constantly fighting ‘the man,’ it was Fugazi. Then beginning 1995′s Red Medicine, the band began doing a bit more experimentation and incorporating other elements besides heavy and fast punk-riffs into their music. This gradual move culminated with the classic 2001 album, The Argument. The album is so musically brilliant that it’s hard to believe it’s actually Fugazi. “Epic Problem” opens with a start-stop noise verse section before unwinding into a melodic power-rock bridge. Fugazi even experiment with strings on the album’s centerpiece, “Strangelight,” while “Nightshop” offers whimsical synthesizer breakdown that’s practically electronic jazz. But it’s not just the amount of genres they easily glide through, the songs are so tightly crafted that all the changes sound effortless and completely organic. However, in the end the heaviest and gritty songs are the album’s highlights such as the bass groover “Oh” or the anti-gentrification anthem, “Cashout.” Like our own Andy Kondrat stated in his list, it’s a shame that the band called it quits when they had opened a new musical chapter in their storied careers. But who knows? Maybe their hiatus will eventually end and Fugazi will once again treat us with something fantastic. Until then, The Argument is a powerful testament that getting older doesn’t mean a band has to phone it in. A band can challenge themselves into creating something new and unique to them, and that’s exactly Fugazi did on The Argument and that’s why it’s my top album from the last decade.