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Last post of the year prolly...
40 Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti "Butt-House Blondes"
Side B kicks off with some balls trippin' shit, with the intro sounding almost as abrasive as MBV's "Only Shallow" before leading to a verse section that crosses Radiohead's The Bends LP with Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" (keeping with the AM Gold flavor)...
39 Janelle Monae “Cold War”
Seems like it's much longer than only 3:23, with so many hooks and ideas packed inside it's almost ready to burst, (possibly) matching up with the (possible) paranoia suggested by its lyrics (which might possibly be what this song is about but haven't really analyzed it enough to know for sure). When her band opened for Of Montreal like 2 years ago, I recall being impressed by the Jimi Hendrix looking guitar dude who played a nasty solo with his teeth while holding the guitar behind his head all at once, which required some crazy head acrobatics in order for him to get his teeth to the back of his head.38 Nachtmystium “No Funeral”
It’s blackmetal for non-blackmetal fans, or more adventurous “outside of the box” metal listeners, or maybe for Rammstein fans who are more accustomed to darkness and church burning with a heavy injection of pop structure and techno beats.
37 Japandroids “Sex And Dying In High Society”
Remember when b-sides meant something? Leave it to Japandroids to breathe new life into the double-sided 45. (Is it worth campaigning for a return to calling them 45's instead of 7-inches?) They're currently 3 for 3 with choosing outstanding covers that fit their noise perfectly. The only thing I knew about X prior to this cover was how they presented themselves in The Decline Of Western Civilization, so their cover choices are educational as well. Think about the kids.36 Katy Perry “Teenage Dream”
More guilty pleasures.. "Teenage Dream" is one of those that required a complete turnaround from "blah Katy Perry slutwave lol" to "holy fucking shit Single Of The Year?!" within the span of about 3 weeks back in September. Unsurprisingly, Katy Perry and her songwriting collaborator had a decent amount of help from Swedish uber-genius Max Martin when throwing this one together. After that point, a complete listen through the entire LP was considered, up until a month or two later when the abysmal follow-up single "Firework" flooded the airwaves. 35 Superchunk “Waiting For Something”
Much like the relief of Dinosaur Jr's reforming 3 years ago, the most refreshing aspect of the new Superchunk album is that it sounds just as good as the old school indie-kids who screamed out "The Question Is How Fast" and "Slack Motherfucker," although it's definitely more of an extension of the sound on their last few records circa-Y2K (the more "mature" sounding stuff) as opposed to the snotty immature stuff. Awesome video too!! Kinda bummed that "My Gap Feels Weird" just barely missed out on this list, but def check it out anyway because it's AWESOME.34 Jay Reatard “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle”
I’d rather not Google whether or not this is true, and just keep it part of Jay Reatard’s mythic legend, but someone told me that after receiving his $100,000 advance from Matador, he paid off his parents house and his sister’s college education before spending all that was left on white lines. At the end of the statement that was his music, “Frances Farmer” could be considered his exclamation point, a final gift to the fans, tragically sealing closed an asskicking decade-plus of widely assorted punkrock. He wasn't trying to become a legend, but it happened anyway.33 Earl Sweatshirt feat. Vince Staples “epaR”
“Wolf with a t-rex cock / Less talk while I invest stock in wet rock.” Reason #563 why Odd Future needs to blow up in 2011: The return of the 2-word rhyming scheme. Let’s make it happen, people.
32 Happy Birthday “Subliminal Message”
Just realized now that the lead singer from this band is also in Witch with J Mascis. Happy Birthday is also on Sub Pop. The grunge connections are there, but not as many as what any reviewers might suggest. With different production, this might have been an outstanding grunge album, with “Subliminal Message” potentially as some kind of sugary Smashing Pumpkins homage. But instead it's more fuzzy-guitar-based indie-pop.31 Gucci Mane “Lemonade”
Holy fuck, the chorus of this was stolen from an album track from The Turtles. That's some fuckin swag right there. There's a new king of mushimouthness. Treat your mixtapes like albums. Treat your albums like mixtapes. Blackanyellow blackanyellow blackanyellow blackanyellow. Fuck.|Continue to Page 8|
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Liars are the only modern band I can think of who reference both Can and The Jesus Lizard on nearly every release, any yet every album is so different. They're also like the David Lynch of rock, in that their songs are often the types that would probably be playing at some crazy warped concert in someone’s dream. How can you tell if you're dreaming or not? Are you dreaming right now? Wake the fuck up and turn this shit up LOUD.
’06 had Chicken Noodle Soup. ’07 had Soulja Boy. ’09 was all about jerkin. But ’10 was The Year Of Dougie. And I personally know zero people who can accurately perform any of these dances. That’s how white I am, people. P.S. Did you know the drums in this song are fucking ridiculous? P.P.S. Here's one of those rare jams with something to look forward to in both the dirty AND clean versions.. Dirty starts out with "You know why? Cuz all the bitches love me," while the Clean (posted below) has "errbody love me err errbody love me" in the chorus. It's WIN/WIN with Dougie.
Some truth regarding Of Montreal: 
I’d have to guess this is probably the first time since at least 2002 that a single Weezer track appeared in the top 100, let alone three tracks, all of which were (unsurprisingly) recorded between 1995 and 1998. 
Poor Robyn. When she’s not tortured by her love interest, she’s getting fucked over by her managers and fans pushing her around, or “killing” her, as it were. I understand; my job sucks too. I might feel more empathy if the beat of this song wasn’t so distractingly hot, or if it weren’t so fun to sing along with “my penis is killin’ me.”
DJ Drama & Pill wisely re-released this summer's outstanding mixtape 1140: The Overdose without the excessive and annoyingly loud DJ tags. The Youtube files below are unfortunately from the scarred 1st version. Word on the street is that Pill has been "taking his time" with the debut full-length, a very good reason why he did not blow the fuck up in 2010. The streets are ready for some real fire spittin' shit. As long as he keeps up with hooks like these, he’s set to become the next Ludacris or Big Boi. Pretty sure he's already signed to Warner Brothers, so yeah... Get fuckin' ready...
Ho Out:
Action:
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In these parts, the idea of the great JPNDRDS covering PJ Harvey can generate some serious chubbs action.* Luckily, they killed it, and the chubbs were justified.
This album just came out not even two months ago, and there’s already a huge disclaimer at their label's website under the album cover stating “SOLD OUT” in huge capital letters!? I'm not kidding here, I was all damn good and ready to make a $9 purchase with actual money to have this unit shipped to my doorstep so that I could own a physical copy and won’t have to feel like I’m stealing from an asskicking new rock band. But nope; "SOLD OUT." This is what it's come to. This is why illegal downloads exist. The good shit is not sold at Best Buy. However, the good shit is usually downloadable from blogs such as 
It’s 100% No Age, but it’s also 50% Ramones, 63% “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter,” 26% The Fall, and 19% Nuggets boxed set, which adds up to 158%, which is 58% more than the average song. I’m not sure what this means. Read Pitchfork’s review instead. It's equally nonsense, but .jpeg)
There’s a few Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown tracks that you can totally tell would sound that much better performed by Wolf Parade, for example when they took the Sunset track 
Hooray For Earth toured this year with Surfer Blood, which is really the only reason they're being compared here. When Surfer Blood was discussed back at #84, it was noted that their music suffers from wussy-production, whereas Hooray For Earth, with their spacey/dreamy synths, received a correct balance of wuss/rock ratio, one that serves their music adaquately. “Surrounded By Your Friends” is their best song yet, and there's a good vibe going around that there's more where that came from. New LP in 2011 hopefully...
Big Boi was clearly not choosing his guest-vocalists based on how "cool" they look. "Bewildered" might be an adequate term to describe a first viewing of the videos from Chico Dusty and realizing the extreme lack of "cool" exuded by the likes of Vonnegut and Yelawolf. In the case of "You Ain't No DJ," the beat was luckily so blazing hot (courtesy of none ofter than that genius mofo Andre 3000 himself!) that it pretty much made 0% of difference. Also of note: I thought the skit at the end of this one might have been the "David Blaine" one, but sadly that was from a different song. Sursly tho.. David Blaine: Skit of the year.
No one is really sure if she’s actually the heartbroken introvert she so convincingly plays on her albums, but Robyn’s brilliant Letterman performance of this song touched our hearts like almost no other TV performance this year. A few weeks later, someone decided to try and recreate this magic on the VMA’s, a program which hasn’t made a single correct decision in 6 or 7 years, so of course it was a bit frustrating to witness her 15 seconds of lipsynching and dancing like a crazy girl... as they segwayed into more Kia and Taco Bell commercials. Thanks for nothing, MTV. Stick to what you’re good at, a.k.a. sucking Snooki’s dick.
“Using great big words that they don’t understand.” The American Suburbs is not exactly uncharted lyrical or musical territory, which may have come to an alltime peak somewhere between The Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane” single. In this case, Arcade Fire have invoked musical elements from all three of these, most noteably the “chaotic outro” motif, signified in “Rococo” with some lovely, ferocious guitar feedback.
Both of these are from OFWGKTA’s Radical “mixtape,” which was far more of an actual full length album than a mixtape, their only release so far with contributions from all 10 members and for all intents and purposes should be considered their 36 Chambers.
No Singles acts as an examination of their songwriting tweaks, with “Darkness,” pulled from a 2008 EP, most directly pointing to the repeated fist-in-the-air punk rock call-and-response shit we now know as Japandroids’ calling card, with slightly more heartbreak than the living/in-love lyrics on Post-Nothing.
It’s been taking a while for this shoegaze-revival thing to amount to anything substantial, but Merchandise.... GOT DAMN. This is beyond almost anything else we’ve heard since the JAMC/MBV days. With regards to No Age, we have an unexpected winner of the “noise-pop artist of the year” title.
Emo-rap lol. It took a minute to realize he's singing about himself.. Calling himself a douchebag & a jerkoff who never takes work off. Egomaniacs aren't typically objective in their self-reflection. You don't see Billy Corgan writing shit like this. P.S. Just confirmed: Kanye and Taylor have already been booked for the next 6 VMA’s so that they can perform songs that refer to their performances from the previous year. Sponsored by Coke. It’ll be great.
The most frustrating rock band of all time revealed another handful of lost classics this year, 2 of which were tracks 5 and 7 on November's contractual obligation release Death To False Metal, marketed as an “odds and sods” collection encompassing all of Weezer’s 18 years of existence, even though 8 of its 10 songs were nearly unlistenable demos from the sessions of Make Believe, The Red Album and Ratitude. 
It’s like they never left, evoking the best and sunniest 60’s bubblegum and immediately showing the new-school hipster whippersnappers (hipster-snappers?) how it’s done. Sun shines in the bedroom when they play; the raining always starts when they go away.
Before Today gets held together by the “AM Gold On Acid” concept*, with approximately the same amount of subtle humor found in the amazing video for the b-side 
New sad statistic: 4 out of 5 rock reunions will be disappointing and depressingly shitty. In a year with new releases from Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden AND Alice In Chains (the most recent of which was STP’s 2001 LP), you’d figure there might be at least one good song amongst any of these, which was sadly untrue. The other proven statistic is that the bands who stick together fuck shit up together, and Deftones have yet to release an album without at least a handful of great songs. Chino may be coked up, but still delivers the goods, while the rhythm section still presents some of the darkest riffs and finest drumming out there. Please Deftones, for the good of rock, don’t ever split up. We need you more than ever.
Drake should never be considered a serious artist, even though all major music publications seem to enjoy massaging this dude’s ballsack to the point of pre-cum. Nobody I know in real life (aka real people, outside of the music press) takes this guy seriously AT ALL, especially those who remember him from Degrassi The Next Generation. One somewhat accurate comparison I heard this year was Alanis Morrisette, who also gained notoriety as an occasional cast member on a Canadian kids show who then later got her balls massaged by the likes of MTV, Rolling Stone and Top 40 radio. 
The Get Up Kids also chose 2010 to release their first new shit in fucking forever. And while they might have an awesome LP lined up, we haven’t heard it yet, leaving Superchunk to anihilate their reforming associates. “I can’t hold my breath anymore. I stopped swimming and learned to surf.” Going from drowning to surfing seems to be an acceptable metaphor for immediately resurfacing after nine years as one of the best bands making rock music today.
Can't believe it took 12 songs before getting to an Odd Future track, this one taken from the Radical mixtape, where the abrasive noise-rap of “Leather Head” segues into smooth r&b sampling “Up,” getting our vote for OMGWTFLOL moment of the year.. up until about halfway through the track, when you realize the 2 songs have a lot more in common than the surface would indicate.
Who could forget this one?! Oh wait.. Okay, I hardly remember this one at all... I just turned it on. Sounds hot. On a completely unrelated note, how does My Chemical Romance honestly get no chicks as a result of their stardom? I mean, I’m introverted too, but they’re in fucking My Chemical Romance and can’t figure out how to use that to their advantage? This news saddens me. And there I was a few years earlier thinking these dudes were the new Poison. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fuck.
Proven fact: Over the past few years, one of the most negatively influential records was The Shins’ 3rd album Wincing The Night Away which seems to be the entire basis by which Surfer Blood built their sound. The album has also influenced the sound of bands like Best Coast and a string of other recent acts who would ALL sound about 100x better with standard ROCK production instead of drowning out the vocals in reverb and turning up the estrogen levels to eleven. Also please stop comparing Surfer Blood to Japandroids, because they’re not even close to being sonically similar to each other. Yeah anyway, “Harmonix” includes lots of guitar harmonics (no, really!) which also sounded cool on 
“Too rich for my blood” as Reginald Vel Johnson used to say. “Girls FM” combines (what might be) glockenspeil, rock music’s most annoying musical instrument, with fuzz bass, which is possibly the most badass. I recently re-discovered The Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb” where Bill Wyman lays down some similar fuzzy bass technique*, adaquately cutting up the sugar with some white lines. Cut that shit up.
There’s a shit-ton of throwbacks on this list, and starting out with a recently uncovered demo from 1998 may not be the best sign for what’s to come, but yeah, whatever. "Everyone" probably would have ended up as a throwaway b-side, but compared to Weezer in 2010, it sounds like fucking Abbey Road. A kickass outro bass lick (courtesy of Mikey Welsh) saves this one after a decently embarrassing middle section, almost equally as embarrassing as the meaningless lyrics (although reasonably no more embarrassing than those in “Butterfly”). Pretend that Weezer still sounds like this and pump it while driving around. Should be a blast.
The “Danger Mouse” sound is officially stale as fuck. Guessing “Howlin’ For You” is the last case in which fleeting glipses of freshness will emit from this dude, although the "Rock And Roll Part 2" drums got old right around the time of "I Kissed A Girl" which was roughly 2.5 years ago at this point. P.S. The Black Keys somehow blew the fuck up with that whistling song appearing in like 15 TV commercials in 2010, so good for them I guess.
If this guy sang like the dude from Underworld, this might have been an “album of the year” contender. But unfortunately, he turned up the vox a little too much and barely missed out on the top 3. Caribou’s production is still tight as fuck though. We're banking on a return to “Melody Day” form on the next record, but Swim is still his best LP so far.
YG, you have the ugliest tattoos I've ever seen in my entire life. There's no guilty pleasures list this year, but this would have been a fucking HUGE one. YG was discussed here back in September, regarding how nice it was to see that his Hot 100 debut was higher than Cee-Lo Green's "Fuck You" (a song that will NOT be appearing in this top 100, thanks). At one point, "Toot It And Boot It" was wrongly considered for this year's top 10, so there was no way it could have been left out altogether. Out of all the recent "jerk" anthems, this is the only one that seemed to evoke 70's Motown with that "whoa-ohhh-whooaa" section. Earl Sweatshirt would not be happy to see this here.
Just discovered approximately 30 seconds ago that "Losercore" was not written at any point within the last year or 2, but was actually originally from something called 