End of 2010

So we’ve come to the end of another year, and I thought it would be right to sign off by taking a look back at all the fun we’ve had and the music we’ve enjoyed. 2010 has seen Dead Young proudly release our second 10” compilation record: the Dead Young Club Volume 2 featuring The Cubical, Gringo Star, Paul Thomas Saunders & We//Are//Animal. We also went on a short tour to celebrate the release back in May travelling to Bangor, Leeds, Brighton and Liverpool having lots of fun on the way.

In Leeds we put on shows for tons of great acts such as The ABC Club, Blue Roses, Gregory & The Hawk, Insect Guide, Let’s Buy Happiness, The Lucid Dream, Lupen Crook, Mirrors, Moody Gowns, TeenagersInTokyo, Thomas Truax, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, Young Rebel Set, Zoey Van Goey & many more. From October onwards we were especially busy, promoting at least a gig a week at Oporto, ontop of The Gaslight Club acoustic nights every Monday.

2010 has been a brilliant year for music all round, with so many great new bands coming through and great records being released. Best Coast supplied the soundtrack to the summer with their California sunshine filled guitar pop. Sleigh Bells grabbed our attention by making music louder than anyone else.

Locally we’ve also done well with two great debut albums coming from Leeds bands Dinosaur Pile-Up & Pulled Apart By Horses. These two have clearly had a significant impact across the country as Niall Doherty, editor of The Fly, noted that 'Leeds is singlehandedly saving British Rock music' in reviewing the DPU record. I also took much pleasure listening to the latest efforts from Archie Bronson Outfit, The Black Angels, Black Mountain, Foals, MGMT & Weezer.

It was also a strong year for electronic music, with brilliant releases by Caribou, LCD Soundsystem & many more. Check out Club Mariachi’s review of the year on the Neon Cactus blog HERE.

… but here are my favourite albums of 2010:

Surfer Blood – Astro Coast

Released waay back in January, Astro Coast is the debut album from the five Floridians known as Surfer Blood. The record is full to the brim with catchy guitar riffs and hooks, from which hang the vocals doused in reverb, with lyrical themes of loneliness and confusion. Mixing the African melody & rhythm used by Vampire Weekend, and the powerchord rock of Weezer, Surfer Blood play a fun fusion of American alternative guitar music, and do it well.

Videos for ‘Floating Vibes’ and ‘Swim’ can be seen on previous posts HERE and HERE.

Tame Impala - Innserspeaker

This great record was described quite accurately by one reviewer as having the sound of a 21^st Century Sgt. Pepper’s. Whilst not as eclectic for some it was dismissed as 60s throwback psych rock. But for me Innerspeaker’s hazy slacker feel, and fantastic production enhance Tame Impala’s joyus songwriting to create a brilliant psychedelic rock record. It was self-produced, and mixing duties were handed to Dave Fridmann, who also worked on The Flaming Lips phenomenal record from 2009 Embryonic, to bring some sonic modernity to a record otherwise inspired by the past. A modern approach was also taken to their imagery and media as their latest video for ‘Expectation’ shows. Directed by Clemens Habicht in a forest just outside of Paris on a day off during Tame Impala's European tour, the video shows the band spending a day in the autumn wild with a 360 degree camera and a few flares for company.

Additionally the video for 'Solitude Is Bliss' can be see on a previous post HERE.

Warpaint – The Fool

This is four women from Los Angeles making ‘experimental art rock’. To be honest it doesn’t seem particularly experimental, but while I found The XX a bit boring, Warpaint create a sexier, more interesting, psych-rock influenced version of their style of delicate guitar music which has become popular this year. The ethereal female vocals also remind me of School of Seven Bells, who’s debut I enjoyed hugely in 2009, but Warpaint are a straight up guitar band so I’m sure it sounds just as great live with no over-reliance on electronics that I thought hindered SoSB’s live show. Hugely regret missing them live this year, must catch them in 2011. One thing they could do better with though is their videos, I was going to put one up here but they’re all a bit boring!

We//Are//Animal – Idolise

If you’re reading this you’ll probably be aware Dead Young is no stranger to the //Animals. We’ve featured their track ‘1268’ on our Dead Young Club 10” series which came out earlier this year, and put on shows for them several times. I heard early demos after getting a Myspace friend request before Owain had even recruited his band. Between that and fully releasing their album in November their sound hasn’t changed much. Recording to a broken Boss 8-track machine infused their sound with a raw punkish energy, and the lo-fi production goes without saying. All finished by April (less than 5 months into their existence), Idolise may be the sound of a band in their youth, but the tenacity & creativity it captures is truly exhilarating. Their progression can be heard in their prolific output, new tracks are regularly made available online, and a free EP will soon be posted up here.

Check out videos for ‘1268’ and ‘Black Magic’ on previous posts HERE and HERE.

...and you can listen to these four albums as a Spotify playlist HERE.

Happy listening!

What are your favourite records of the year?