Here are my Top 10 albums of 2010. This year’s list seems decidedly “mainstream” compared to the other lists I’ve seen. Nothing particularly surprising if you’ve been reading Drawer B over the course of 2009. I clearly missed out on a lot of great records this year. Looks like I’ll be [...]

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1. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)
What I love most about Phoenix is its unabashed celebration of pop music. There’s no hidden agenda here. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a pure pop record. Catchy hooks, big multi-tracked choruses, retro synths, and an almost primal sense of rhythm make this record an undeniably infectious listen. Perhaps, over-played by [...]

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When he’s not getting lap-dances, Patrick Wall writes about music with a passion second only to his obsession with making exceptions to his list of exceptions. He is also the Music Editor at Free Times, a contributor to Shuffle Magazine, and a blogger at Weekendsofsound.
Knee Meets Jerk: In Which a Beleaguered Music Journalist Attempts to [...]

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An infrequent contributor, Kevin Foster Langston has a love-hate relationship with listmaking and damn-near everything else. He longs for the time when vampires weren’t such sissies, Black Eyed Peas were merely a side dish and Auto-Tune was nothing but a function on your car radio. He also thinks Meryl Streep is fugly.

1. Dinosaur Jr., [...]

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Tug Baker is the proprietor of the mp3-blog About Today. Tug hearts Tyra from Friday Night Lights. Also, Tug is Team Jacob.
1. Bat for Lashes, Two Suns (Astralwerks)
2. jj,  jj n° 2 (Sincerely Yours)
3. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glass Note)
4. White Denim, Fits (Downtown)
5. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest (Warp)
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz (Interscope)
7. Various [...]

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Logan K. Young is a morally ambivalent freelance writer with a penchant for Disney tween superstars and Jews.

1. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Loyauté/Glassnote)
2. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca (Domino)
3. Passion Pit, Manners (Columbia/French Kiss)
4. Nirvana, Live at Reading (Geffen)
5. Sonic Youth, The Eternal (Matador)
6. Washed Out, Life of Leisure (Mexican Summer)
7. Eric Copeland, Alien in a [...]

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“I don’t think I like this planet without Vic“

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You’ve heard it before, but this is the official(?) release…

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As a general rule, my list of favorite singles of the year doesn’t include any tracks that are included within my Top 10 Albums of the Year list. This prevents the obvious potential overlap of the lists. These tracks were released in 2009 and listened to innumerable times at some point over the [...]

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And the award goes to… (cheeky)

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Please do yourself a favor and go read the conclusion of The 50 Worst Songs of the 00’s, F2K over at the Village Voice’s blog. I’ve read it several times already today, and I laugh harder each time. It’s a vicious deconstruction of Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carleton covering Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” There’s [...]

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Murder By Death has emailed its fans a link to download a free (or name your own price) holiday themed mp3, entitled “Pizza Party (at Gloria Estefan’s House).” The song is only 39 seconds long and sounds like, well, a pizza party quite possibly taking place at Gloria Estefan’s house. So, well done on the [...]

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In a battle for the #1 spot, a grassroots campaign puts Rage Against the Machine’s classic ahead of the x-factor winner’s debut single. Riotous.

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The trailer for The Runaways starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning looks and sounds equally amazing and cheesy: “In 1975, Rock was a man’s world.” Consider me there. And I take back anything I may have ever said about Kristen Stewart playing Joan Jett. She looks awesome. And Sadie over at Jezebel is spot on [...]

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The video for I Blame Coco’s new single “Caesar” has just debuted on MySpace. The physical version will be officially released on January 25th in a limited edition 10″ format with a special remix by Miike Snow. It’s a jolting change of direction from the reggae-influenced pop of her demos that have been floating around [...]

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Reading this interview between The Guardian and George Michael, one comes away with the impression that Michael is kind of a paranoid loon. And not just your typically famous, crazy-person-musician-type loon, either. This goes beyond most self-absorbed celebrities and their notoriously dysfunctional behavior. I mean, I knew Michael was a bit off, having repeatedly seen [...]

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Although, he may look a little rougher than he did 25 years ago (who wouldn’t?), Ian McCulloch’s voice still sounds amazing. Rolling Stone has footage (which, annoyingly, is un-embed-able) of the Echo & the Bunnymen frontman performing a few new songs from the band’s latest, The Fountain, as well as a killer version of “The [...]

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Tim Kasher, frontman for both Cursive and The Good Life, has abandoned life in Los Angeles for the anonymity of Montana, where he spends every Wednesday at a local bar’s open mic night. Kasher recently spoke to Spinner, explaining the motive thusly:
“The locals don’t know I’m in a band. It’s great. It gives me a [...]

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