Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Best* o' the Decade

The 30 best songs* of the decade that ends Friday, ordered only by year, one song per band. Actually I should say the best songs THAT I'VE HEARD, it's why I put the asterisk, because the way I get around to stuff, I'll be hearing the real best of 2010 sometime in 2015. But, anyway, these are good . . . .

 
British Sea Power the Decline of British Sea Power CD cover Panic! At the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out CD cover
 
2001:
Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"
2001:
System of a Down - "Toxicity"
2002:
The Reverend Horton Heat - "Galaxy 500"
2002:
Songs: Ohia - "Blue Factory Flame"
2002:
90 Day Men - "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life"
2003:
British Sea Power - "Apologies To Insect Life"
2003:
Cat Power - "He War"
2003:
Killing Joke - "Asteroid"
2003:
M83 - "0078h"
2003:
Metallica - "Frantic"
2003:
The White Stripes - "Black Math"
2004:
Arctic Monkeys - "Cigarette Smoke"
2004:
TV On the Radio - "Bomb Yourself"
2005:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Heavy Metal"
2005:
The Dead Hookers' Bridge Club - "Hung Like Whales"
2005:
Kylesa - "Eyes Closed from Birth"
2005:
Panic! At The Disco - "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"
2006:
Boris - "Woman on the Screen"
2006:
Disappearer - "Crownfire"
2006:
Neil Young - "The Restless Consumer"
2007:
Queens Of The Stone Age - "Battery Acid"
2007:
The Raveonettes - "Hallucinations"
2007:
Spoon - "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case"
2007:
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb"
2008:
Russian Circles - "Youngblood"
2009:
Assjack - "Smoke The Fire"
2009:
Pelican - "Ephemeral"
2010:
High on Fire - "Fire, Flood & Plague"
2010:
MGMT - "Brian Eno"
2010:
Violent Soho - "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend"
 
 
Ted Leo Living with the Living CD cover MGMT Congratulations CD cover


The list as an iMix at Itunes, you can quickly preview and/or buy 28 of the 30 songs

The other two:

Dead Hookers' Bridge Club were probably the best South Florida band I heard during the aughts. They've long since broken up, and of course iTunes knows nothing about them. They were great though. I went up to one of the band members after a show this one time, and asked him if they'd heard of Pussy Galore. He said yes. "Hung Like Whales" is audacious, the way the best punk rock should be.


DHBC-Hung_Like_Whales.mp3

160 kbps mp3, up for six weeks

File under:Rock and roll



"Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" is 90 Day Men's best song of their latter day Whiskey Bar phase, and for some reason is not available on iTunes. It's probably not as good as "Methodist," but regardless of when it was recorded, "Methodist" seems to belong more to the 1990's 90 Day Men than to the 2000's version, don't you think?

90 Day Men - To Everybody - 08 Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.mp3

192 kbps mp3, up for six weeks

File under: Stuff that's Inexplicably Titled

5 comments:

Marcel Feldmar said...

good picks, nice idea - but wasn't the end of the decade last year (2000 - 2009) ? new decade would be 2010 - 2019, then 2020 - 2029. or maybe i'm wrong... or maybe there are different options. now i'm confused. regardless, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Josh Love your Blogs. xoxo Jan

rastronomicals said...

Justin Crash -- I guess there are different options, because you can't deny it does make sense to consider 2000-2009 together.

But I always think that there never was a year 0. 1 AD was the first year of the common era, and the year before that was 1 BCE.

So the first decade was 1 - 10, and the most recent decade, the one we'll be in for two days further, is 2001 - 2010.

Not that I'd argue with those who thought different. But considering the decades in this way isn't any more wrong than the other way, it suits my purpose today, and besides, I didn't think to make this list last year. :-)

Jan thanks for reading of course

TAD said...

R: The only 1 of these I've heard is Panic at the Disco, which DOES hava pretty amazing vocal on it, tho I think it wears out about 1/2way thru.... Jeez, I am SO outta touch.... -- TAD.

TAD said...

R: Would U consider additional nominees? How 'bout My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" ("scare the living shit outta me....") -- a great, hilarious song that coulda bn a huge hit if they'd mayB downplayed the lyrics a touch -- ya know, "crap" rather than "shit"? It's the only thing of theirs that ever really grabbed me as far as I know -- all their other work seemedta hava big dramatic climax every 30 seconds.... -- TAD.