The Animal Show

Is It Time For An Audio Safari Again? Yes, Yes It Is Time For An Audio Safari Again.

Edward — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:45:56 +0000

There comes a time in every man’s life when he must own up to the fact that he is 100% mailing it in. And I’m not going to lie about it. For weeks now I’ve been circling in my car around the e-block, passing my virtual domicile — this website — repeatedly, slowing down each time while I debate whether I can summon the strength to come in and act like things are normal with my e-family inside before speeding up and driving out of sight to the nearest Motel 8 to spend another night on a bumpy, crumbling mattress watching HBO on a fuzzy, boxy old tv. I can’t do it. It’s not the same. I’ve changed, you’ve changed, the internet’s changed.

I guess I should make one thing clear: I’ve left. Skipped the country to broaden my horizons with a semester studying abroad. What does this mean for the blog, you ask? Well, things may be weird for a while. Mommy and I still love each other very much, but sometimes that’s not enough, or so that heartbreaking flashback from Juliet’s childhood in the finale of last season of Lost informed me. But I promise to visit every other weekend, and maybe uncle DFJ can take you to the zoo every now and again.

Realistically, what this changes is that I have a genuinely good excuse for not posting. Internet here is sketchy at best. I’m also 6 hours off real people time (yes, Eastern Time is “real people time”), and uploading is stupid hard. Also, my downloads are capped pretty aggressively, so even promos are hard to receive. I’ll try my best, but a week will, at most, contain 3 posts. Sorry, duders. I’ll start you off right with an Audio Safari, whose last iteration I’m far too lazy to look up. Enjoy “BedRock,” a stupidly adorable Young Money single you’ve undoubtedly heard, “California English, Pt. 2,” a Contra b-side that takes the auto-tune all the way to the top, and Caribou’s infectious “Odessa,” which should keep you smiling even as you talk to your internet psychologist about the abandonment issues I’ve spawned in you.

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BedRock – Young Money ft. Lloyd (YSI)

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California English, Pt. 2 – Vampire Weekend (YSI)

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Odessa – Caribou (YSI)

Throw Some Mash On That Tok

dfjacobs — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:16:54 +0000

These Pandas Look at Home at the Show

From what I have discerned about the Show in my brief tenure here, we collectively and not-so-secretly love a catchy pop song. Clearly we are not too ostentatious to concede the undeniable charm of modern day classics like “Party in the U.S.A.” As our estimable leader, Edward of Roma, said in the best Songs of 2009 article (I had to link it because otherwise it may have been hard to find amidst all the new material since), “Party in the U.S.A. was that… guilty pleasure you didn’t have to hide. Everyone loved this song. Everyone loves this song.”

Thankfully, the hullabaloo caused by our most recent guilty pleasure song has finally begun to subside. As it turns out, my lengthy and assuredly much-appreciated absence in mid to late January was actually due to the severe injuries I sustained when I was senselessly beaten by “Tik Tok.” I would describe Ke$ha’s first single now, but if you haven’t heard it, then you must have stumbled onto this blog by mistake. So for those of you who need to scratch at that uncontrollable “Tik Tok” itch but are too embarrassed by the actual song, you’ve lucked out. The Ke$ha bug has also bitten some of our favorite DJs and mashup gurus.

We’ll start with “Doo Tok” the Chambaland mashup of Ke$ha and demigod Lauryn Hill. While my brother referred to this mashup as “sacrilegious,” I simply cannot rebuff anything that could be mistaken for new Lauryn Hill. Chambaland removes Ke$ha’s suspect verses and chorus, leaving Ms. Hill to do her thang all over the club shattering beat of “Tik Tok.”

The White Panda, a mashup group surely deserving of an article of their own, contributed an even better mash. Like Chambaland, The White Panda realized that the major flaw of “Tik Tok” is probably Ke$ha herself. So they too remove all evidence of her voice, and instead leave us Rich Boy. “Throw Some Tik on that Tok” is everything “Tik Tok” isn’t on its own. Rich Boy adds some much needed masculinity to the Saturday night crowd pleaser. And for those of you without Versus (The inaugural White Panda release) head to http://www.thewhitepanda.com/ stat and get your hands on it for free.

Finally, I’ll finish with my least favorite of the numerous variations. The Hood Internet (the brains behind 3 of my 5 favorite mashups of last year) sadly mailed one in with “Summer of Tik Tok.” They were the only one of the three to leave Ke$ha and her bottle of Jack in tact, and remove the best part of the song. While “Summer Song” has a funky electronic beat of its own, it’s certainly no match for “Tik Tok,” and without her fantastic accompaniment, Ke$ha’s sound is even more lacking.

All in all, I apologize for the tardiness of this article, but hopefully its delay will allow you to listen to these tracks having already recovered from all injuries sustained from the original track.

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Doo Tok (Chambaland Mashup) – Lauryn Hill vs. Ke$ha (YSI)

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Throw Some Tik On That Tok – The White Panda (YSI)

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Summer of Tik Tok – The Hood Internet (YSI)

You guys, I think R. Kelly likes sex.

Edward — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:03:39 +0000

Sweet God, is he watching me?

Last August, R. Kelly released a new single off his then-upcoming sure-to-be-great album Untitled, “Number One,” a song whose beat was so cringingly bad, Robert Sylvester Kelly provided his own dj drops as a half-assed gesture at a chorus. It would have just been bad, but its lyrics (and accompanying music video, though that’s a discussion for another day) salvaged the musical wreckage. The first time I heard it, I laughed out loud — and it turns out that’s the best barometer for judging R.’s songs. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but keep your ears perked up towards the end. Turns out he’s got a Latin lover. Aye papi!

It turns out that detail is just the sort that R. Kelly uses to spice up his songs (as if they could get any spicier!). Because, as the singles continued to roll off of Untitled, the innuendo multiplied to such a point that the man has legitimately become a pastiche of himself. I’m sure that everyone remembers back in 2002, shortly after R. Kelly had been indicted for child pornography, when Dave Chappelle unleashed his hilarious and a little too close-to-the-bone R. Kelly parody music video, “I Wanna Piss On You.” It was crass and a little too direct. So, it turns out, is R. Kelly.

Single number two, which you’ve certainly heard regardless of whether or not the dulcet drops of “Number One” have made it to your ears, was “Echo.” You know, the one with the yodeling chorus? Well, I counted, and he says “sex” 17 times in that song. Also, he has a very obviously censored swear word 3 times, plus one “hit it” in place of that curse which this blog is too delicate for. That makes 21 in total. Almost double the 11 times the word “sex” is used in “Number One.” Impressive, or just pathetic?

Well, it would be hard to make an informed decision before evaluating all the evidence, because the next single off the album makes “Echo” and “Number One” seem like material appropriate for a Baby Einstein developmental tape. This song’s title is “Pregnant,” and its opening line may be enough to turn you off of popular music altogether. In the first thirty seconds of the song, R. Kelly says “girl, you make me want to get you pregnant” or some variation thereof 4 times, while the background vocals of “knock you up” play twice.

Truth. Beauty. Grace. R. Kelly has it all, ladies and gentlemen. I probably would try not to stand too close to him, though.

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Number One – R. Kelly (YSI)

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Echo – R. Kelly (YSI)

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Pregnant – R. Kelly (YSI)

“How Many Gentlemen Does It Take To Screw You In?” – The Milkman’s Union’s Roads In in Review

Edward — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:46:29 +0000

There’s a delicate balance struck in the best writing between excessively stark and overly florid. In cinematography, there’s a tension between too dramatic and too impersonal. Visual art ranges between too inexpressively vague and disinterestingly matter-of-fact. In music, however, comes one of the thinnest wires to tread. All popular songs exist on a spectrum: at one end, there are the catchiest melodies whose lyrics are essentially meaningless — the “ra ra ah ah ah, ro ma romama”s of the world — and, at the other, are the Leonard Cohens, whose words are the true meaning, and whose tunes exist only as subtle enhancement of the written word underneath. It is in the center of this spectrum that the very best of popular music falls. Every musician, whether consciously or not, seeks to make a song such that the lyrics are enhanced by the music and vice-versa. The ones who succeed are the names probably most familiar to you — precious few artists are capable of passing with one or the other, and only then by the overwhelming merit of their one strength. Henry Jamison’s compositions straddle this line perfectly, creating an album in his Milkman’s Union’s Roads In that is both deserving of listen upon listen and which asks for it of its own musical merit.

It seems almost unfair to compare Roads In to his earlier works — indeed, based on the availability of the previous albums released under the name the Milkman’s Union (now no longer available on either CD Baby, the iTunes store, or Amazon), it would seem that he’s tried exactly to distance himself from those previous albums — and necessarily so, since both were released some 3 years ago, a significant chunk of lifetime to a 22-year-old. Yet it’s easy to assert that this is by far the most varied and mature work that Jamison has released, even without those previous points of comparison available to the hoi polloi. The songs are fantastically diverse, ranging between experimental and familiar, raw and polished.

The Milkman’s Union have created an album which is truly the best sort of collection of songs an album can be. Each is different than the previous, each leads elegantly into the next, each shows a band who have taken more time and energy into sculpting a fantastically finished product than most college groups would ever find or make the time for. (It should be noted that this, unlike previous “The Milkman’s Union” songs, represents the work of more than just Henry Jamison, but rather of 5 musicians, whose influence is undeniable when compared to the home recordings Jamison had previously released.) The result is so overwhelming that I almost feel as though each time I allude to the age of the band I do them a disservice, as I know well that each time age comes up it is read a compensation for a lack in something.

It really is in Jamison’s lyrics that the Milkman’s Union find what makes them as a band so undeniably well-rounded. He has certainly found the balance between florid and sparse, and does so in a way that’s delightfully witty and literate without much baggage of pretension. Yes, I could complain about how the instrumental “A Kidney for Bloom” comes off as a little show-off-y, but would anyone other than the son of a Joycean really find a bone to pick with a Ulysses reference, most of all having that bone be about how obvious the reference is?

There are lines scattered throughout Roads In that I keep returning to, or find myself thinking of in conversation. My favorite of these is probably “How many gentlemen does it take to screw you in?” a deft put-down from “Emerald Flares.” Another comes in “St. Petersburg,” where Jamison works in a pairing similarly shocking: “She has her way with words / and then she has her way with me.”

In my opinion, the album highlight comes in “America,” a song whose stark lyrics are perfectly counterpointed by the slow build of its instrumentation and harmonies. Its lines find a simple beauty in the mundane, and create a perfect nostalgia in few words:

It occurs to me that I am America

That I am your front yard, your tree

It occurs to me that I am America

and everything from sea to shining sea.

The fadeout from the radio broadcast into album-closer “Percy, Lost at Sea” create a mood more ideal than can be fully expressed in words, a perfect blend of all that the Milkman’s Union can do so well. It’s an ending that leaves the listener wanting more, and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that the place the Milkman’s Union is in at this point in time ought to be good enough to get them wherever they might want to go.

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The Milkman’s Union – Roads In (YSI)

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The Milkman’s Union – St. Petersburg (YSI) (Download removed at band’s request. If you dig the stream, follow the links below and buy the damn thing.)

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The Milkman’s Union – America (YSI)

If there ever were an album truly worth buying (you know, as opposed to “acquiring”), this is it. Find it at CDBaby, iTunes or Amazon.

Also, The Milkman’s Union is currently touring the northeast, with dates in NYC upcoming. Check the dates out at their website.

Rock is off to a shitty start in 2010

marquismeowmersiv — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:54:12 +0000

This guy was both an asshole and a musical genius. I choose to celebrate both of these personality traits in the wake of his passing.

Well, I hope that new Vampire Weekend album is REALLY good, because rock just lost one of its catchiest figures. Rest in peace Jay Reatard, and by “peace” I mean a hovel with lots of heroin and coke readily available for consumption. Despite your jerk-like character flaws, you managed to produce some of the most awesome punk music in your early career with the Reatards, and some of the catchiest and most lyrically aggressive garage-inspired rock in your later solo career. You and The Black Lips guided me down the path to 60’s and 70’s garage rock salvation. And despite buying quite a few of your albums, I feel like the most appropriate way to commemorate your career is to post a poorly written blog post about you and post some of your songs.

Jay Reatard: 1980-2010… I hope you get to meet G.G Allen in heaven.

Songs after el Jumpo

Jay Reatard – Not A Substitute (Blood Visions) (YSI)

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Jay Reatard – Hammer I Miss You (06 – 07 Singles Collection) (YSI)

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Jay Reatard – My Reality (Watch Me Fall) (YSI)

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Rock and Roll; Complete Control — Vampire Weekend’s Contra in review

Edward — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:41:29 +0000

It’s no small feat following up an album as critically acclaimed and overwhelmingly backlashed as Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut. Even in a vaccuum, expectations for sophomore efforts run rampant, and the challenge is to stay consistent to the sound present or impression given by the first album while growing and making something decidedly new and different.

In many ways, Vampire Weekend is the truest blogosphere buzz band. Back in the summer of 2007, when a blue CD-R with “Vampire Weekend” scrawled lazily on it began to make the blog rounds, it was almost universally accepted that this was the ever-elusive “next big thing.” Long before Vampire Weekend ever came out, bloggers were predicting it would be the best album of 2008. Naturally, the backlash coming the requisite 90 days after the album’s release was as overwhelmingly negative as the prereviews had been positive. And, when news of the followup broke, you could already hear the whispers of “overrated” creeping up from the formerly faithful fans.

The beauty of Vampire Weekend was that it grabbed you from the first line of the first song. It was undeniably catchy, a delicious assortment of pop-punk, afropop, and twee, and the erudite upper middle-class prep school bunch had never seemed so cool. The band had a persona too — they’d marketed themselves about as well as any quartet this side of the mophead Beatles, with their preppy do’s and keffiyeh lyrics. Contra spins out of that perfectly, popping the collars of their Lacoste polos and heading west into the sun.

I admit that I was very skeptical when I heard about the “California flavor” of Contra. It seemed like a cheap trick, an unnecessary additional buzzword to add to an already overblurbed band (see above for examples). But it turns out that the theme is only there as much as you want it to be — perhaps the better way to understand it is that Contra on the whole is more spread-out, experimental, and atmospheric than Vampire Weekend was. VW’s great strength was its power melodies; here, production reigns supreme. Rostam is the lead every bit as much as Ezra, having spread his wings on Discovery’s LP. The resulting product is more varied and mature than the debut — a gift as well as a curse.

The hardest part of Contra for me was the fact that it doesn’t have the same instant gratification that Vampire Weekend did. The first time I listened to it all the way through I wasn’t even sure if I liked it. But on listen two it began to click, and by the fourth time I spun it I was ready to put it on repeat. Ultimately, the growth the band has experienced in the whirlwind 24 months between releases has brought us a richer, more textural sound, a little less catchy and a little more beautiful. It’s a sound that’s decidedly Vampire Weekend, but a more refined and unique Vampire Weekend.

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Giving Up The Gun – Vampire Weekend (YSI)

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I Think Ur A Contra – Vampire Weekend (YSI)

Top 5 Mashups of 2009

Edward — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:04:16 +0000

It’s alright. You can lean back from the edge of your seat. Our year-end lists are coming to their long, drawn-out conclusion in the form of our favorite mashes of 2009. It was certainly the year of the long-form mashup, with not one but two fantastically different and perfectly executed albums dropping, both of which placed in our favorite albums.

The list sort of reads like it was intended to just be our favorite Hood Internet tracks, but I’m going to go ahead and blame that on the fact that there is no one out there executing as effectively or consistently as those guys, and I really do think they’ve earned all 3 of the spots on this list (and I should probably mention that my own list had “Comfortable Up In Here” filling out the #5 spot, so I’m certainly 100% behind anything and everything Hood releases). Anyway, enjoy, and then help me in looking forward to 2010’s exciting first quarter releases.

#5: Hathaway – “Party and Bullshit in the USA” – There are some mashups that exist only out of the hilarity of their titles — in fact, for a long time, that was what I thought the most of mashups were, due mainly to icebergxc’s constantly asking me (way back in 07) if I’d heard “Walking in Memphis Down The Boulevard of 99 Broken Problems” or “Kiss You Through the Bananaphone” or “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Panther” — and this one certainly exists out of the merits of its overlapping titles. The strange part is that it works. Really well. Maybe it’s because everyone loves the synth backing of “Party in the USA” or we all like to shout “I’m a bad boy” along with Biggie. Or both. Sometimes, though, it’s best not to question, and to instead complacently enjoy “could you be kicked, pushed, loved, and then take on me while running so far away.” – Edward

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Hathaway – Party And Bullshit in the USA (YSI)

#4: The Hood Internet – “Cult Logic Forever” – This is a great mashup without a hint of kitsch. “Forever,” on its own, is a disappointment. It’s got the right rappers, but the beat wrecks it mercilessly with sirens and other garbage noise. Stripping the mess off and bringing it up to speed with some talented instrumental from Miike Snow was the best thing that has ever happened to it. Now it’s as smooth as it is sharp and hangs together tighter than BFFs sharing a straightjacket. – icebergxc

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The Hood Internet – Cult Logic Forever (YSI)

#3: The Hood Internet – “Make The Loop Say Aye” — I’ll admit it: I was one of the Vampire Weekend fanboys who nearly peed his pants the first time he heard “Osaka Loop Line.” I thought Discovery’s LP was going to be my favorite album of 2009. And I swear to god, the tattoo pen was not inches from my upper thigh when I finished the cd for the first time and realized that it was definitely not ink-worthy. But, as the saying goes, those that can’t do teach. And those who don’t know that “who” is the personal pronoun probably shouldn’t be calling others inept. And those who may not have the force to sustain your interest on their own ought to be mashed up. Yes, the song ruled on its own. But this was the late-inning pep-talk it needed. In October, long after I had grown tired of Discovery (although the fantastically polyrhythmic “So Insane” even to this day continues to impress me), I heard this for the first time, and my faith was restored. The Hood Internet perfectly match breaks and builds in every song they assemble, though this may showcase it the best. Beauty, grace, Ms. Mashup #3 of 2009, ladies and gents. – Edward

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The Hood Internet – Make the Loop Say “Aye” (YSI)

#2: The Hood Internet – “Two Weeks of Hip-Hop” — As Matthew Whipple of the 2009 breakout Cymbals Eats Guitars said, “[“Two Weeks” is] pure ear candy… what a song… I want to be Chris Taylor’s bass line.” So when the Hood Internet’s ABX threw Dead Prez over one of the best songs of the year, chaos ensued in the form of “Two Weeks of Hip Hop.” The opening features two of my favorite intros of all time, the now classic keyboard progression of “Two Weeks” and Dead Prez yelling, “it’s bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop.” The track seamlessly combines genres in a strikingly natural fashion, one which I believe Ethan Ward once said was the ideal goal of mashups (clearly he’s the freaking authority on this matter). A few of my stunningly brainless friends even believed “Two Weeks of Hip Hop” to be the original (don’t fear, I no longer associate with those morons). But in their defense, this is because the two wildly disparate tracks come together like Ben & Jerry’s delicious and all-natural Half Baked to create earth-shattering awesomeness. -DFJacobs

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The Hood Internet – Two Weeks of Hip-Hop (YSI)

#1: E-603 – “If You Wanna” — On ‘If You Wanna’, international superstar E-603 saves a potentially generic mash-up affair from mediocrity by adding the only possible ironic element to a mash-up: a narrative. Mash-ups and bootleg, by definition, are anti-narrative, deconstructing source texts and transforming them into a work that is based in pure aesthetics. Taking a vocal sample and chopping out pieces and parts, as E-603 does at the beginning of the track, leaves you with nothing but a glorified DJ set. But by adding the song long crescendo, ending with the full story of City High’s gritty ‘What Would You Do?’, the song develops a more full structure that leaves the listener in awe of E-603’s ability to create true songs, rather than mere mash-ups. Bringing the song’s two distinct parts together is a fantastic showcase of technical ability, in what one internet critic called, “some of the most fluid mixing I’ve heard.” A sublime track in itself, it is by far the most accurate representation of E-603’s mature mash-up opus.- Marquis Meowmers

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E-603 – If You Wanna (YSI)

Top 10 Songs of 2009

Edward — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:27:39 +0000

It’s time to refocus, kids. Yes, we’re all excited that it’s finally 2010 and Lost will be returning soon and that maybe the Apple tablet will be released and hovercrafts, etc. But the Show is not done looking back. No, in vintage .org form, we have returned to the task at hand much later than promised. I would make another promise to continue to post regularly, but I don’t make promises I can’t keep (New Year’s Resolution 20-10, y’all). Today we bring you our 10 favorite songs of 09, and tomorrow you’ll get our favorite mashups. It was one smash-banger of a year, and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say I miss the hell out of it. Oasis, you may be gone, but you will never be forgotten. You and I are gonna live forever, Noel. Team Noel forever. Liam can go straight to h-e-double-hell.

Oh, and here are the songs we liked:

#10: Drake – “Best I Ever Had”

The best thing about the year-end lists, in my opinion, is that it often gives us a chance to talk about guilty pleasures we would otherwise be too embarrassed to share. By my count, there are 3 such songs on this list; I’m writing about 2 of them. Drake has it all, ladies and gentlemen: the blessing of Lil’ Wayne and Kanye, the sort of street cred attainable only by appearing as a regular character on Degrassi: The Next Generation, and a voice that could make angels shit their pants (do angels wear pants?). “Best I Ever Had” is derivative, it’s repetitive, and it will stay with you, so that whenever anyone does anything you appreciate you find yourself saying (depending on whether you favor the radio-friendly version, or, like this foul-mouthed writer, the real version), “you da fuckin’ best” in your best Drizzy voice. It’s a hot jam, and leads me to believe that the R. Kelly signature only-somewhat-subtly-sexual-song approach to music may actually be the apex of musical composition. -Edward

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Drake – Best I Ever Had (YSI)

#9: Grizzly Bear – “While You Wait for the Others”

There are many reasons why a song is the most popular song off of the album, and many times, they are not the same reasons why a song is the best song off of the album. But, in the case of “While You Wait For The Others,” these reasons do seem to be in concert. I’ll explain. Veckatimest is a very good album. What keeps it from greatness is an inability to put together all of their skills—good orchestration, dynamic contrast, catchy melody—in the same song on a consistent basis. Incidentally, these are the same reasons that many songs get radio play, because put together, these traits form a sweeping melody with emotion to carry it along. “While You Wait For The Others” is one of the few places where Grizzly Bear gets it all together, and it sounds great. It makes it the best song off of a good album, radio worthy, and shoo in for top ten tracks of the year. -Dave

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Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others (YSI)

#8: Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros – “Home”

Look at them in that picture. They’re so happy! All that energy and excitement you see in that picture, I feel in this song. The driving backbeat under whistling and trumpets give the feeling of trekking over previously unchartered territory, but Edward Sharpe and the gang are willing to take you along for the ride. You’re in the wagon, and they tell you a story with folksy honesty, evident from the girl/boy interplay to the less-is-more philosophy in the simple chorus of, “Home/Let me go home/Home is wherever I’m with you.” You tap your feet, hum along, sing along, and before you know it, you’re smiling. “Home” is a prescription dose of happy pills shot right through your ear canals into your brain, and while you’re smiling, you’re thinking that there’s nothing wrong with that. -Dave

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Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros – Home (YSI)

#7: The Black Eyed Peas – “I Gotta Feelin’”

This song is completely retarded! But you knew that already; negative reviews, serious and comedic, abound for this track. Its inclusion in this list is thanks to the uncanny way that it touches any listener with the same reassuring and convincing message: tonight IS going to be a good night. Just watch the Oprah season opener again with any individual middle-aged or better — they’ve seen it already — and observe them boogie modestly to the inescapable beat. While you’re at it, notice that the Peas lack talent as live performers, but immediately forgive them because they gave the world a song that delivers unfailingly the message that it is now time to party. -Icebergxc

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Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feelin’ (YSI)

#6: Girls – “Lust For Life”

Late in 2009, Edward sent me a message that was like “hey have you heard of Girls you tend to like things that people desribe as ‘jangly’ so you might like this.” I was like “well yeah I’ve heard of Girls they’re all over Pitchfork’s best new everything list how could I not have heard of Girls numbnuts?” But the problem was, while I had heard of Girls I had not heard Girls. And so I went and got myself a copy of The Animal Show’s 8th favorite album of the year, ‘Album’. I listened to it. And the first thing I said to Edward after hearing the album in it’s entirety was ‘man, I wish they had just released a 7″ EP of Girls/Laura.” And that’s because every track after “Lust For Life” is totally forgettable due to “Lust For Life”’s greatness. You hear it, and its catchy jangling guitars rip apart any want or will to hear anything else. You must hear the bizarre croon of Christopher Owens over and over again as he sings about the harsh reality that clashes with our most desirable dreams. You must feel the beams of the sum hit your face as you travel about in San Franciso’s Mission District. And right as the repetitive garage-surf riffs start to get slightly annoying, the song jumps off the pool deck and into an aquatic sounding, finger-picked soft outro. Simply sublime. -Marquis Meowmers

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Girls – Lust for Life (YSI)

#5: Miley Cyrus – “Party in the USA”

Could every person who has never lost their voice singing to this at a party please raise their hand? If you’re raising your hand, congratulations, you probably look like a moron. I hope nobody’s watching. The nice thing about “Party in the USA” was that it was a guilty pleasure you didn’t have to hide. Everyone loved this song. Everyone loves this song. Everyone will continue to love this song. Oldies stations will devote entire hour-long blocks to this song in 2020, and we’ll still be sad when the hour’s up. This song reminded us that it’s cool to love our country. We stood and saluted Wal-Mart, KFC, and liposuction, and the tears rolled silently down our cheeks. We danced pantsless around a fire of Dixie Chicks albums, and we were glad. We tea-partied, surged, and gave shout-outs to God in our tweets. We stuck our thumbs in our belt-loops and hootenanied like there was no tomorrow. It was a damn good year, and it’s all thanks to Miley. (Oh, and also the poor nameless male-pattern-baldness sap stuck somewhere in a 1960’s office building who wrote the song under the flickering hum of a flourescent light.) We salute y’all. -Edward

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Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (YSI)

#4: Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”

As a New Yorker, Jigga’s unendingly epic ode to the greatest city in the world was an integral part of my year. Getting to blast, “Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous than the Yankees can/ You should know I bleed blue but I ain’t a crip though” as I popped bottles to celebrate the Yankees was a fantastic gift. Who cares if it was played at Game 2, the ticker-tape parade, every other NYC event, and on every radio station in the country 237 times too many. Does that detract from how incredible it is? No way. This track has too many extraordinary rhymes to be ignored, from “Mommy took a bus trip and now she got her bust out/ Everybody ride her, just like a bus route” all the way to “MDMA got you feeling like a champion/The city never sleeps better slip you a Ambien.” Not to mention how Alicia Keys belts the inspired chorus, and Stephen Colbert’s rap debut for “Empire State of Mind Part 2″. All in all, this song will forever be associated with ’09 and its ass-kicking greatness. – DFJacobs

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Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (YSI)

#3: Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West and Common – “Make Her Say”

Every facet of the hella hot “Make Her Say” screams best rap song of the year. The beat, like the song itself, is catchy and imaginative, improving upon everyone’s favorite Lady, the Gagski. Cudi’s supporting cast is top notch with Kanyeezy and Common spitting sweltering hot verses. And while both are impressive, Kanye’s submission is possibly his best since he signed up late for college. “I’ve got seniority with the sorority/ so that explains why I love college/ getting brains in the library ‘cause I love knowledge” and “fuck the bus, the Benz is parked like Rosa(osa)” explode out of his mouth and into your ear like one of Weezy’s hand guns (too soon?). “Make Her Say” was indubitably one of the more iconic and quintessential 2009 songs, and is more than worthy of its place near the top this list. – DFJacobs

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Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West & Common – Make Her Say (YSI)

#2: Phoenix – “1901″

Tainted as it was late in the year by its appearance in a Cadillac commercial, 1901 shines as an anthem. When it first dropped, many were predicting that it would be one of the big songs of the summer. However, by avoiding a seasonal meteoric rise, it has settled into a hot slow burn that will keep it fresh for a long time to come, despite its dangling above death by advertisement. – Icebergxc

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Phoenix – 1901 (YSI)

#1: Animal Collective – “My Girls”

Are you shocked? If you don’t like this song it’s probably because, “hey it’s pretty good but it just got overplayed” which is my own pretentious diatribe about brilliant songs that get too popular, and thus are not cool to like anymore (’Paper Planes’, I’m sorry). So, yeah, Animal Collective isn’t making ‘Sung Tongs’ anymore. Bummer. And everyone (and I mean everyone) likes them now. Bummer. But you have to face the truth at some point: bands that are THIS good will almost certainly get mainstream exposure sooner or later. In the animal kingdom that is popular music, bands can either evolve or die. Part of evolving is exposure. And, yup, Animal Collective evolved. But what they have evolved into isn’t a shitty husk of their former greatness pooping out the same mediocre money maker after the other, its an unstoppable pop machine capable of ruling the earth with an iron fist of infectious rhythms, catchy hooks, and brilliant song composition.

The first time I heard ‘My Girls’ was when it was inexplicably leaked on various blogs in the last weeks of 2008. Having spent a solid month or two checking the internet twice a day for MPP leaks (and getting Rick Roll’d not once, but twice in the process), I finally got a hit around December 14th. I found a stream of ‘My Girls’ on a message board, and naturally, I listened to it. And then I listened to it again. And again. The first time had access to ‘My Girls’, I listened to it so many times that I was 20 minutes late to my first class. And then, in between classes, I listened to it two more times. Why? BECAUSE IT WAS THAT FUCKING GOOD. I wrote about it in my personal blog. I claimed that ‘My Girls’ would be the best song of 2009. And here we are. The best song of 2009.

I shouldn’t have to describe this song to you. You’ve heard it. You’ve rated it a ‘5′ on your iTunes and favorited it on you Last.FM. It was on every mixtape you gave to your crush, and it got played at least 3 times at every party you went to. It’s just that kind of song. The infectious bass brings together the layers of electronic melody in an amalgamation of ‘experimental sub-cultural capital’ and ‘pop accessibility’. In other words, this song has something for everyone: the synth nerd, the lyrics freak, the girl who ‘just wants to dance’, the guy who is trying to get with her, and all those people who have “everything” listed under the ‘music’ section of the Facebook ‘About Me’ page. And it’s because they all love this fucking song, regardless of whether or not it’s for the same reason you love it. So go ahead, give it another listen. But you and I both know it wont be your last. -Marquis Meowmers

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Animal Collective – My Girls (YSI)

BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 — #5-1

Edward — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:58:07 +0000

There’s usually a tendency for year-end lists to lean towards more winter-feeling albums — Bon Iver syndrome. I couldn’t be happier that our top 5 albums were all released before 2009 even hit its daylight apex. In hindsight, we probably could have predicted in January that 2009 would be a great year for music, but it’s hard to know these things. I can’t recall the last time I was so pleasantly surprised by a year in music — great debuts, strong followups, game-shaking mood changes. It’s a diverse list, and one which I couldn’t be happier with. Make the jump to see how they all shook out when push came to shove:

#5: Veckatimest – Grizzly Bear

Rarely have I ever heard an album that tried so hard to be perfect. Grizzly Bear clearly spent hours meticulously debating every sound and layer, and you know what? They came damn close to creating a perfect cd. Was the album hyped beyond belief last spring? Definitely. Was the hype completely accurate and warranted? I say yes. You know why, because although Grizzly Bear may have contested Sufjan for most hours spent in the editing room (surely an admirable distinction), they sounded just as polished live. Their performance at NYC’s Town Hall was just as mesmerizing and stunning as Vecky is on my Bose Companion II speakers. Ed Drost and Daniel Rossen were incredible, and their mic-less encore of “All We Ask” was truly mind-blowing. Grizzly Bear created one of the most sophisticated and striking albums of the decade, that also lent itself to the best mashup (“Two Weeks of Hip Hop” by the Hood), and the best remix/cover of the year (“While You Wait for the Others” by Michael McDonald and Grizzly Bear), which should count for something. – DFJacobs

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While You Wait for the Others – Grizzly Bear (YSI)

#4: Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors

No album of 2009 was quite so beautifully bizarre as Bitte Orca. Dave Longstreth squares up at the mound like your everyday indie fastballer, but every pitch he throws comes like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball, darting and flitting unpredictably with such efficiency that you’re still swinging blindly even deep into the 8th inning. The harmonies on album opener “Cannibal Resource” grab you on your first at bat, as they come somewhat screechily and eerily harmoniously, a little off-tempo and yet undeniably perfect in their own idiosyncratic way. The transition into “Temecula Surprise” is similarly jarring, hard to follow, and yet beautiful. And it’s that way through the album — each song is a twist from the previous one, each seeing a different genre getting Dirty Projected, from afropop to electropop to new age to R&B and back again. The highlight may come in “Useful Chamber,” where an explosive chorus of “Bitte Orca”s leaves me with goosebumps every time. Bitte Orca shows a band developing its own sound and hitting its stride as a cohesive unit. A real gem. – Edward

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Useful Chamber – Dirty Projectors (YSI)

#3: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

I listened to no album in 2009 as much as Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, an album so pop-perfect you can’t help but want to listen to it again by the time the synth riff of “Armistice” fades out of focus. Phoenix took their incredibly well-balanced formula from 2006’s phenomenal It’s Never Been Like That and inexplicably improved upon it, stringing together 9 songs which are each catchier than the previous one. I probably listened to “1901″ 50 times in the first two weeks I had it, and I honestly still get excited every time I hear the opening squelches of that synth line. That’s the albums real strength — each hook is brilliantly crafted, and each song in the album sequences perfectly with the previous and the next. Take, for instance, the slow build of “Love Like a Sunset,” which melts deliciously into the snare-kick pairing of “Lasso,” which itself snaps into the ticking guitar attack of “Rome.” Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is the kind of album where, by the time you reach the end, you realize your voice is completely shot from singing along. And, damn, it feels good. – Edward

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Lisztomania – Phoenix (YSI)

#2: Why There Are Mountains - Cymbals Eat Guitars

When discussing Cymbals Eat Guitar’s phenomenal debut album it is simply impossible not to mention the pastiche of influences that makes up their sound. Hints of Pavement, early Modest Mouse, Cap’n’Jazz, Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions In The Sky, Guided By Voices, Tullycraft, and other 90’s indie superstars can be heard, but only in snippets, which makes it difficult to call Why There Are Mountains ‘derivative’ or ‘a rip-off of [instert band here] like so many of 2009’s revivalist bands were (yeah, try and tell me that The Pains of Being Pure At Heart isn’t dependent on their 90’s Twee Pop derivation…). Instead, CEG take these influences and profoundly expand upon them, creating an expansive sound that is lead by singer Joseph D’Agostino’s amazing vocal range. So many of their tracks sample vastly differing sounds and genres that it’s amazing that the album retains cohesiveness the whole way through, never slipping into a song that sounds out of place or too reliant on its influences. In that regard, the album truly is, as Pitchfork describes it, ‘the ultimate road trip album’: Why There Are Mountains travels over hills and through valleys, creating spectacular soundscapes and epic transitions that takes the listener on a true emotional journey.

Exploding out of the driveway with “…And The Hazy Sea,” the album happily descends down through the upbeat hillsides of “Some Trees” and “Indiana” before continuing through the brooding distortion filled valley of “Share” and creeping up the depressingly steep hillside of “This Is What Dogs See” to the pinnacle of the album: the beautiful scenic overlook of “Wind Phoenix.” Along the way D’Agostino’s surreal poetry gives the album a meaningful narrative aesthetic, with his emotional crooning and energetic screams pushing the album through any potential muddy ruts. Why There Are Mountains is truly a masterpiece of baroque pop, and a prime example of musical talent being more important than connections. Cymbals Eat Guitar’s sound is currently so perfect that to press stop once the album has started should be a felony offense. Truly an unlikely gem in a year filled with great music. -Marquis Meowmers IV

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Some Trees – Cymbals Eat Guitars (YSI)

#1: Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

2009 began with a bang, as, on January 2nd, Marquis Meowmers and I received a delicious post-Christmas bundle of joy, which saved our own souls as much as any carpenter could: a zip folder containing 2 new Animal Collective songs. I can still remember the little shiver that crawled down my spine as I heard the first minute of “Brother Sport” for the first time. From the “ooh,” I was hooked. The other song was “My Girls,” and Marquis Meowmers and I argued for hours about which was the better song, him picking “My Girls”’s polyrythmic brilliance, and me pulling for “Brother Sport”’s undeniable catchiness. At this point, I probably agree with Marquis more, but we can both agree on this much: no album contributed as much to music in 2009 as Merriweather Post Pavilion. – Edward

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Brother Sport – Animal Collective (YSI)

BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 — #10-6

Edward — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:20:33 +0000

The trek towards our favorite album of 2009 continues, as today we give you numbers 10 down to 6, available after the jump.

Here we go:

**#10 – Circle of Fifths – Milkman**

The two greatest mashup albums to date were released this year. While this is excellent news for mashup addicts and college-aged partiers alike, it’s quite unfortunate for Circle of Fifths. Because Milkman’s sophomore release arrived in the same tragic year (think Billy Mays and Tiger’s career) as Ethan Ward a.k.a E-603’s Torn Up, the Show has designated Circle of Fifths second best. Milkman is truly a master of his craft, and he creates some of the most seamless and technically sound mashups ever made. The album is perfect for those diagnosed with “musical ADD,” filled with eclectic, “Prius-shaking” tracks galore. The standout of the cd is definitely “Rap Music is Beneath Me,” featuring an unbelievable mash of “Still D.R.E.” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that WILL bring tears. – DFJacobs

Milkman – Rap Music is Beneath Me (YSI)

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#9: Hospice – The Antlers

The first time I listened to this album, I was struck by how pleasing it all sounded, and yet, no single song separated itself from the rest. I figured that eventually this feeling would fade, and the continuous fabric of the album would turn into patches woven together. Even to this day, though, this has not come true. Sure, I have songs that I like on the album more than others (the song “Bear” comes to mind), but I can’t sit down and listen to one song on Hospice without letting the rest play out. As the title suggests, the album lyrically tracks the care of a terminally ill patient, and as the content would suggest, the narrative goes from care, to love, to death, to the deep contemplative haunting that only death can provide. It provides it all at once, with impressive subtlety.

But it doesn’t limit itself to its own lyrical constraints. I found out for myself one day when I was at the South Orange, NJ train station on Halloween, waiting for a train to take me into New York. The day was gray, and all were sullen faced except for one woman in her mid-twenties on a cell phone who possessed a voice so sharp MacBeth may have effectively used it to stab Duncan. Eventually, more people eventually filed in—groups of college age girls dressed in slutty maid costumes giggling in noisy clusters, even happier looking couples waiting with weekend suitcases. Everybody there, from the sullen, to the content, to me, at the train station waiting to be transported somewhere else. I watched this entire scene form before my eyes, and Hospice provided me with the perfect soundtrack to such dynamic discord. It chronicles not only death, but a clarion clear message of displacement—a struggle to hold on indicative of today. Its sounds echo through those train station walls as support for all of those in transit somewhere or towards something. These days, isn’t that everybody? – Dave

The Antlers – Bear (YSI)

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#8: Album – Girls

The new Girls cd was so wild that it was rumored to have been produced by Joe Francis (I apologize for making a “Girls Gone Wild” joke, but this was too easy). Indie critics and fans alike have “gone wild” for the aspiring lo-fi group who made bursting onto the Indie scene quite easy for themselves by making a truly great record. The standout for me, was the “Costelloesque” vocals of Christopher Owens. I was able to convince almost every prehistoric (over 35) family member that Girls was really a new Costello-helmed project. And really, that’s a huge compliment. I love Elvis (Costello), and Girls really took the sound so much farther than simply Costelloesque, creating a fun and promising debut. – DFJacobs

Girls – Lust For Life (YSI)

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#7 Ray Guns Are Not Only Just the Future - The Bird and the Bee

It’s a clunky name, and it’s not even true: ray guns don’t exist—yet. I voted this album as the best album of the year. It is not. Not even by a long shot. But I think that The Animal Show’s scoring methods nicely balanced out my folly, and this album landed in the seventh place, where it more or less belongs. This is me, cheating the system (and grammar rules). In any case, this album is definitively good, in my opinion. My only regret is not doing this for Hospice instead. In a year where I feel as though music tried way too hard without commensurate reward, I found Ray Gun’s sound really quite pleasing, and I would much rather listen to it than, say, Merriweather Post Pavilion (and I realize this discredits my opinion and all future opinions I offer in life). Listening to it is like transporting yourself into the opening credits of a Sean Connery-era James Bond film, and you never have to put yourself out too far to gain this experience. While some pieces of the album have their more melodramatic moments that are worth listening to, it’s really at its strongest when you don’t necessarily think while listening. Songs like “Diamond Dave” and “Love Letter to Japan” are great fun, and the title track “Ray Gun” has an electro-lounge cool that’s not necessarily innovative, but it’s extremely well done. - Dave

The Bird & The Bee – Ray Gun (YSI)

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#6 Torn Up – E-603

It would not surprise me if, at some point in the future, I were to look back on 2009 as the year in which I last had any interest in long-form compositional sampling. There are certainly serious restrictions on the genre — namely, that there is an alarmingly finite number of good acappella tracks, and one can only hear a mashed up version of “Jump Around” so many times. However, the biggest nail in The Coffin Gillis Built may be this monsterpiece of an album, which nailed the rollercoaster ride every good mashup cd should be. Others may point to Feed the Animals as mashup’s finest hour, but I’ll hold tight to Torn Up. No mashup artist has E-603’s fine-tuned command of pairing up emotional peaks, and every ounce of tension and release possible in a song is present in Torn Up. While Something For Everyone perfectly played to the typical mashup elation of “hey, I know both these songs! And they work surprisingly well together!,” Torn Up creates a new rhythm and drama for the genre, teasing samples in and out and making the climaxes that much more example. From top to bottom, the album weaves magnificently through genres and years, all while maintaining the professional sheen and personal grace we’ve come to expect from E-603. It’s hard to imagine the genre getting taken much further. – Edward

E-603 – Lights Out (YSI)

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