Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4HD)
Before getting hold of Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest, I was afraid it was going be just another addition to the “Disposable Records of the Year” list (you know, those records you like for about a two week span, but quickly forget about as the calendar pages turn and other releases take their place). I have always been a fan of Bradford Cox and his many musical endeavors — and God, was I glad my apprehensions were quickly proven wrong. You could say I fell in love with the fluidity woven within the record’s prose; weaving between a soothing sound of self-destruction on tracks like “Earthquake,” to an elevated dreamy pleasure found on songs like “Fountain Stairs.” Really, it is the nonpareil subtleties of this record — like when Bradford’s voice reaches that crescendoing wail about two and a half minutes into “Helicopter” — that really makes Halcyon Digest my number one choice for 2010.
Deerhunter “Helicopter”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (XL)
The Monitor hit a particular chord for me in 2010. From start to finish, the album serves as a reminder of the naive days when we all felt invincible — looking for answers to questions we didn’t have and embracing friendships formed over long, liquor-quenched nights. Within the first minutes of listening to the album’s opening track, “A More Perfect Union,” Titus Andronicus sets the stage of sitting in the driver’s seat, as the windows are down, the volume is up and  your friends are in the backseat drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes. The brisk freeway winds are swallowing drags of cigarette smoke  as you race the beat of dawn, but you never quite manage to do so, and by the end of the record its all gone. It is probably my affinity towards North Jersey that draws me closer to Titus Andronicus with each release, but as a full-length follow up to 2008′s The Airing of Grievances, I could not ask for more from this album.  It is a look back on honesty and youth at its finest; reminding us we were not always as jaded as age may have made us, as we sit alone listening to records in a dusty Greenpoint lofts.
Titus Andronicus “A More Perfect Union”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Read more after the jump.

Continue Reading

Photos by Bill Shouldis

Although the lineup wasn’t the strongest and the heat was particularly brutal, hordes of people still made the trek out to Coney Island for the annual Siren Fest on Saturday. Broken Social Scene, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Beach House, Islands, Ra Ra Riot and Jaguar Love were amongst the headliners this year.

One of the highlights included Ra Ra Riot’s inspired midday set. The only way I can think to describe them is Moz meets The Arcade Fire, done by a bunch of model-esque indie rockers. They have a new album out on Barsuk in August so be on the lookout for it.

Having Stephen Malkmus and Broken Social Scene on at the same time? Bummer. So I had to split my time between the two but they were both exceptional.

Another observation: There were some serious assholes in the press area this year. I really wonder how some of these people got in to the area. I’m not trying to sound like a pretentious prick but I don’t like getting pushed by drunk, Buckcherry-esque doucheholes.

Assholes aside, I had fun and my ginger ass didn’t get sunburn so cheers all around from me.

So, will this be the last Siren Fest? Personally, I doubt it.

Check out more pictures after the jump.

Continue Reading