Category: 2010 Rock Songs

Tens of thousands of music lovers will converge on the gigantic meadows of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this weekend to see dozens of headlining and popular artists and bands, including The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, Social Distortion, Phoenix, Kings of Leon, Al Green, Gogol Bordello, Nas & Damian Marley, Cat Power, Wolfmother, Tokyo Police Club, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Chromeo, Freelance Whales, The Soft Pack, Pretty Lights, The Temper Trap, Wild Beasts, and Further with former Grateful Deads members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.

While the line-up for the weekend fest is impressive, Outside Lands does not have the same breath of performances as it has enjoyed during it’s first two years; instead of three days, the festival has been shaved down to two days, mainly as the result of a swell of angry citizen groups who complained about everything from noise to parking (failing to credit the revenue it brought into the same neighborhoods adjacent to the city’s massive park). The area where the fest is held covers approximately 30 city blocks long and about 10 blocks wide.

Also, you can see our coverage of Outside Lands 2008 (with Radiohead and Beck!) and 2009 (Pearl Jam, Modest Mouse and more).

The following is a schedule of the performances we plan to cover this weekend (some set times are rounded off; stage names are included; here’s the fest map):

12 – The Whigs – Panhandle
“Right Hand on My Heart” – The Whigs

12:30 – Freelance Whales – Twin Peaks
“Hannah” – Freelance Whales

1:25 – Dawes – Panhandle
“Love Is All I Am” – Dawes

2-3 – Pretty Lights – Sutro
“Look Both Ways” – Pretty Lights

3-4 – Gogol Bordello – Twin Peaks
“Pala Tute” Gogol Bordello

5-5:30 – My Morning Jacket – Lands End
“Friends Again” – My Morning Jacket

5:30-6 – Tokyo Police Club – Twin Peaks
“Gone – Tokyo Police Club

6:30-7 – Wolfmother – Sutro
“Far Away” – Wolfmother

7-8: Cat Power – Twins Peaks
“Cross Bones Style” – Cat Power

8-8:30 – Wild Beasts – Panhandle
“Through The Iron Gate” – Wild Beasts

8:45 – 10: The Strokes – Twin Peaks
“Take It Or Leave It” – The Strokes

Sunday – August 15

12:45-1:25 – The Soft Pack – Twin Peaks
“Answer to Yourself” – The Soft Pack

2 – 3 – Temper Trap – Lands End
“Disposition” – Temper Trap

3:30-4:30 – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Twin Peaks
“River of Love”(Live) – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

4-5 – Al Green – Lands End
“Let’s Stay Together” – Al Green

6-7 – Phoenix – Lands End
“Girlfriend” – Phoenix

7-7:45 – Social Distortion – Sutro
“Ball and Chain” – Social Distortion

8-9:30 – Kings of Leon – Lands End
“Sex on Fire” (live) – Kings of Leon

Clearly one of the most popular indie bands of the past six months, LA’s surf pop band Best Coast drop their new album this week, Crazy For You. The LP is filled to the brim with edgy, quasi-garage style indie pop rock that creates the framework for the the female equivalent of Brian Wilson‘s golden vocals. Best Coast will likely be on one or more of our favorite bands, songs, albums of year near the end of 2010. And, if you get to see Best Coast in concert, you’re won’t regret it – solid live show.

“Boyfriend” – Best Coast from Crazy For You

One of our favorite break-through rock bands of 2010 so far is Milwaukee‘s very own Jaill (formerly known as simply Jail). We love their creativity, energy and enthusiasm – all of which are expressed remarkably on their new release, That’s How We Burn. If you dig these two songs from Jaill, you may want to get more of the trio’s music;

from what we can hear in listening to Jaill over the course of the past few months, they are one of those bands that  don’t really have ‘throw-away’ tracks.  Afterall, the best indie record label ever, Subpop Records, signed Jaill late last year. The latest Jaill single, “The Stroller” is further evidence that the band has enormous talent and potential rolled into one.

“The Stroller” – Jaill from That’s How We Burn

“Everyone’s Hip” – Jaill from That’s How We Burn

“New Noise” – Jaill

After a three year wait following Menomena‘s terrific 2007 LP, Friend and Foe, the Portland trio has returned with their latest album, Mines. Even though the album was originally expected to be released in 2009, Menomena’s extra time allowed the band members to perfect the songs on Mines, which is evident by listening to it online for free. Would love to hear your opinions on Menomena’s lead single, or any other artist featured in today’s Best New Releases. The album is currently No. 1 on Amazon’s album charts.

“Five Little Rooms” – Menomena from Mines

They are not from India, and are not a bicycle club, but the Bombay Bicycle Club have one of the catchiest band names we’ve heard so far this year. Based in Couch End, London, BBC have carved out a fairly significant following in over the past three to four years, and it’s likely their new album out today, will add to the numbers of their fans.

“Ivy & Gold” – Bombay Bicycle Club from Flaws

“Bullfighter Jacket” – Miniature Tigers from Fortress

Other Singles from Best New Releases of the Week

“Permanent Record” – The Golden Dogs from Coat of Arms

“Make It Better” – The Knocks from Make It Better

“Holler Boys” – Social Studies from Wind Up Wooden Heart

“Queen Drum” – Young Galaxy from Invisible Republic

“Sun Body” – Chris Willits from Tiger Flower Circle Sun

“Johnny Utah” – The Future Birds from Hampton’s Lullaby

“Collectors” – My Other Friend from Burn Bright Tonight

“Judas” – The Shimmies from To All Beloved Enemies

The Fu*k Yeah Fest for 2010 just announced one of the most amazing line-ups we’ve seen for any fest yet this year, particularly because it is so indie dominant with a lot of break-out 2010 bands.

Headliners for FYF Fest 2010 include The Rapture, Panda Bear, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Wavves, Washed Out, Titus Andronicus, Delorean, Sleep, !!!, Man Man, Best Coast, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Cold Cave, Abe Vigoda, School of Seven Bells, A.A. Bondy, Magic Kids, The Mountain Goats, Thee Oh Sees, The Growlers, and many more.

What! Yeah, that’s what we said too!

“A More Perfect Union” – Titus Andronicus

“Slow Motion” – Panda Bear

“Round and Round” – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

“Post Acid” – Wavves

“You and I” – Washed Out

And it doesn’t end there; also scheduled to play at the FYF Fest are Sleep, Dead Man’s Bones, Cults, The Soft Pack, Warpaint, Off!, Vetiver, Ceremony, Screaming Females, Lower Dens, Let’s Wrestle, and others.

“Oh My God” – Cults

“Arm Over Arm” – Screaming Females

“Hospice Gates”  – Lower Dens

All of those bands for just $25. While the Early Bird tix, at $20 a pop, are gone, the second tier $25 are still available as of the publication of this post. A fest
with a line-up like this is bound to sell out. Here are a few songs from some of the bands set to hit the stage at Los Angeles State Historic Park on September 4th, Labor Day weekend.

The Drums have been picked by a huge margin by readers in the latest polling of the ‘break out artist of 2010 (So Far)”. Of the ten choices, Freelance Whales came second to The Drums, with rather low scores for the remaining eight artists in the poll.

For the past six weeks, hundreds of people have been taking our latest group of polls in a quest to find the ‘break out’ band of 2010 (so far). In the first round of ten bands, Local Natives were picked by 1,000 readers over nine other hot bands, including Surfer Blood, Crystal Castles, Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian.

In this latest poll, featuring another ten artists, 309 people voted. It was strikingly apparent from the first 100 votes that The Drums and Freelance Whales were the real competition of the latest poll. After 200 votes, the margins remained relatively the same, with The Drums receiving an impressive 43% of the vote.  This is not surprising considering the huge amount of blog love and mainstream press accolades The Drums having been enjoying, especially in the month’s leading up to the June release of their terrific debut.

“Forever & Ever Amen” – The Drums

“It Will All End in Tears” – The Drums

“Let’s Go Surfing” – The Drums

Brooklyn’s Freelance Whales followed rather far behind The Drums with 18% of the total votes. The remaining 39% of the vote was divided up among the other eight bands in the poll: Placing far behind Freelance Whales, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Villagers both took 7%, Warpaint, Smith Westerns and Washed Out with 5% each, Wild Nothing and Ganglians (4%), and Magic Kids (3%).

“Hannah” – Freelance Whales

“Generator First Floor” – Freelance Whales

Staten Island’s indie rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars broke through last year with their debut LP, Why There Are Mountains, one of the best debuts of the year. As 2010 rolled around, CEG were on a roll that continues to this day. The band will perform at a number of festivals this summer, including Lollapalooza and Lowlands in the Netherlands.

“Wind Phoenix (Proper Name)” – Cymbals Eat Guitars

The Irish indie rock band Villagers are definitely one of the ‘break-through’ artists of 2010. The recent release of their debut album, Becoming A Jackal, has been widely hailed by critics and fans alike. Frontman Conor O’Brien said his lyrics are “transcendental darkness” and “dark imagery or feelings alongside really mundane domestic everyday things.”

“Becoming a Jackal” – Villagers

“Billie Holiday” – Warpaint

“Be My Girl” – Smith Westerns

“Feel It All Around” – Washed Out

“My House” – Ganglians

“Your Rabbit Feet” – Wild Nothing

“Hey Boy” – Magic Kids

Everybody likes a good cover song. They are coming out all of the time, but only receive scattered coverage on blogs and mainstream music websites. Our approach has been to build up a solid mix of indie cover songs over time, and publish them in less frequent, but more extensive, playlists.

There are some terrific cover songs from Cymbals Eat Guitars of an Elliott Smith classic, indie folksters Deer Tick covering a Rolling Stones’ oldie; Jens Lekman of Paul Simon; Radiohead covering Neil Young; Ruby Isle’s
interpretation of The Decemberists’ “The Rake Song”; and The Morning Benders tearing a page from the 80s to cover The Smiths.

“On The Beach” (Neil Young) –Radiohead

“I Won’t Share You (The Smiths) – The Morning Benders

“Ballad of Big Nothing” (Elliott Smith) – Cymbals Eat Guitars

“The Rake Song” (The Decemberists) – Ruby Isle

“Across The Universe” (The Beatles) – Rufus Wainwright

“Dead Flowers” (The Rolling Stones) – Deer Tick

“You Can Call Me Al” (Paul Simon) – Jens Lekman

“Dedicated To The One I Love” (The Shirelles) – The Bromheads

“I Shall Be Released” (Bob Dylan) – Jeff Tweedy

I’m On Fire (Bruce Springsteen) – A. A. Bondy

“Two Headed Boy” (Neutral Milk)- Robin Pecknold

“Two Weeks” (Grizzy Bear) – Ruby Weapon

“Donna” (Ritchie Valens) – The Dimes

Because there is so much music coming at us from every direction every day, we need to diligently filter the emails to keep only our favorite songs that we in turn share with all of you – something we’ve been doing for almost four years now. Ordinarily, the mix below would be part of the In Dee Mail series, but some of the tracks below came from social media or were discovered on other music blogs we like.

This new playlist series makes it easier and faster to share songs with you that do not necessarily fit into our regular playlists, including Best New Releases (every Tuesday), In Dee Mail, What’s Hot Right Now, Feetz to Da Beatz, One-Man Bands, Summer 2010 Mixtapes, and so on.

Kicking off this mix is the Italian indie rock band, A Classic Education, brought to us from Holiday Records, the same label that launched two of the most popular bands of 2010, The Drums and Surfer Blood. Earlier this year, Spin magazine online picked A Classic Education as one of the “must-hear bands” to see at South By Southwest last March.

Also, we have the first single release by Small Circuit, the moniker of Andrew Verner, a Los Angeles indie dance artist known for his tight remixes and dynamic live shows.

The songs are, as the title implies, wrapped into this random playlist, and represent all kinds of genres within the gigantic indie rock spectrum (since ‘indie’ has also become regarded as a genre without boundaries, adding to its growing appeal). You can click the first song and the built-in Yahoo player will stream automatically all 12 tracks non-stop. If you want to keep a song, just right click and save it to your computer. Enjoy.

“What My Life Could Have Been” – A Classic Education

“Let Go” – Short Circuit

“Bastard (The Sequel)” – Metal On Metal

“Henry Miller Is Dead” – Mommyheads

“Jungle Love” – Hitchhikers of the Galaxy

“Saturdays” – SCREENS

“Bright Bright Bright” – Dark Dark Dark

“Salesman in Love” – Vinegar Socks

“Road Rage” – John Frazier and the Eight Year Olds

“Lady Kiss Me” – Noel Carlon

“Let Me Keepy My Heart” – The Cajunga

“Mescaline” – Robert Francis

“Lucky Day” – Tomas Doncker

In case you missed any of the music from last week, you can click any of the following links to go right to the post and listen to and download free, legal MP3s from Best New Releases of the Week (June 15th) with We Are Scientists, The Gaslight Anthem, Devo, Light Pollution and many others; plus, Local Natives Selected ‘Break Out’ Band of 2010 (So Far) in round one of our poll – see all top ten artists poll results with songs from each; Five Anticipated Summer Releases from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Arcade Fire, Oberhofer, and other artists.