I knew all along that I was right at the start

Now I come to the extremely difficult task of picking my top ten songs of the year. Some of them were easy - for example, my #1. I heard it in January, and I knew even then. But some of the others were hard, and a few are in grey areas since they're not official releases, and so I have to use the almighty "/" to pair them with a "real" song.

Without further ado...

Top 10 Songs of 2005

#1: Maxïmo Park - "Apply Some Pressure"

What happens when you lose everything?
You just start again.
You start all over again.

How do I love this song? Let me count the ways. I love it in the album version. I love it in the inferior single version, in all formats, original and rerelease, and on the US EP. (I'm not obsessed. I'm just thorough. Honest.) But most of all, I love it in the original demo version.

This song just fits me. It defined my year. Perhaps it will define my life? We'll see, but I'm pretty sure it will be one of the favorites of my lifetime. It speaks of loss and renewed hope, of the push/pull of life, and of getting up and starting again. It is an anthem for life.

#2: Battle - "Tendency"/"Demons"

Cause I mean everything that falls out my mouth,
I love you like family,
Yes, I love you like you don't know,
I’m moving on and up,
But I’m still the boy you knew;
I'm the boy who threw his arms around you.

I've previously waxed poetic about "Tendency." From the opening guitar chords, it gets under your skin and haunts you. Jason Bavanandan growls with urgency and passion, and it makes for the kind of song you get passionate about. Hearing this song was one of the pinnacle moments of Leeds festival for me. I'm a bit worried since they were having trouble laying it down for the single, and I've heard things about a string quartet being added. But since this song was not released this year, my backup choice is "Demons," also an excellent song, deceptively upbeat, though it hooks you with lyrics like:

I'll stick a fork into your side
Just to make sure you're alive
It'll jeopardize our friendship
But you've always hated that.

It looks like "Tendency" might have a shot at making this list two years in a row.

#3: Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)"

People say that your dreams
Are the only things that save you
Come on baby in our dreams
We can live our misbehavior

I think haunting is perhaps the keyword for my year, because this is another song that lulls you, starting off soft and melodic, and then exploding into accusation.

Every time you close your eyes
LIES! LIES!

Betrayal has never sounded so good.

#4: Arctic Monkeys - "Fake Tales of San Francisco"

His bird thinks it's amazing, though
So all that's left
Is the proof that love's
Not only blind but deaf

This song could have made my list for that line alone, but aren't we lucky, because it comes with oh so much more. From the begining guitar riff that can be described as nothing short of funky, through Alex Turner's piss-take of the posers and scenesters that we all run into and take the piss out of. This song is the one song of theirs I remember from their Leeds set. I remember everyone screaming, "Kick me out! Kick me out!" The breakdown before the bridge is some of the best guitar work I've heard in years. Except no imitations, though - the album version is inferior to the demo.

#5: The Futureheads - "Hounds of Love"/"Area"

...that I am afraid to be running away
From nothing real
I just can't deal with this...

When do harmonies become poetry? When they're put in the hands of The Futureheads. When does a cover become original? When put in the hands of The Futureheads. This song should be called a re-creation. It is impossible to hear this song and not have it get stuck in your head. But it's not a bad thing.

While "Hounds of Love" was re-released this year, "Area" was an original release. As infectious as any track on the self-titled album, it bodes well for album #2.

#6: Babyshambles - "Fuck Forever"
Happy endings they never bored me
Happy endings they still don't bore me
But they, they have a way
A way to make you pay
And to make you toe the line...
You're so clever, but you're not very nice

Zane Lowe version for me please. The single version was overproduced, and just generally didn't sit right with me. It's rare you can remember the exact time and place that you've heard a song for the first time, but I can with this one. It was the first song of Babyshamble's I had heard, just when I was getting into The Libertines and the Shambles. I stopped in my tracks. And I listened to that song on repeat. Another great moment at Leeds was being caught up in this mass of humanity all jumping and pumping their fists in the air, all singing along.

Oh Peter. Forever's not overrated.

#7: Nine Black Alps - "Unsatisfied"

So come back down from your daydream high
Lost for words when you sympathize
There's a million ways to believe you tried
Well I'm unsatisfied

Another song that gets you from the first few chords. There's a word that I'm looking for to describe the beginning guitar riff that eludes me. Ubiquitous is not right. But it's so good, I'm excited to be taking guitar lessons so that I can learn how to play it. This song is more subtle than many of the other Alps' songs, and maybe that's what makes it so remarkable. Sam Forrest shows restraint in his delivery, while conveying the dissatisfaction with life, and people,and their excuses that seems to be so universal.

So long since the one lit up your life
So long since you've heard from the world outside

#8: The Rakes - "Open Book"/"Retreat"

You are not an open book
I can't do nothing about that
But I'm worried
I'm overdrawn
What am I doing up at the witching hour?

Yes, dammit, I picked an album track. To me, all the other songs pale in comparison, though I know I'm in the minority. This song sneaks up on you. It starts off with synth, snaps, and simple drum beats, and then fills out with Alan's croon.. and then WHAM! Guitars! Drums! Woh-oh-ohs! And suddenly you're dancing around your room like a maniac.

It's hard to pick a single to round it out, but for me, the others were pipped at the post by "Retreat." The refrain is legendary.

#9: Interpol - "Evil"

You've come to love me lightly
Yeah you come to hold me tight
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shudders pass in the night?

Is there anyone who doesn't know the first word of this song? Sing it along with me... "Rose-ma-ry..." This is one of the few Interpol songs that I like. And I more thank like it. It's literate, it's lyrical, and melodical. And the chorus makes you just want to jump up and down.

You are weightless, semi-erotic

I don't know how one is semi-erotic, but it sure sounds alluring.

#10: Franz Ferdinand - "The Fallen"

Some say you're trouble, boy
Just because you like to destroy
All the things that bring the idiots joy
Well, what's wrong with a little destruction?

What's wrong with a little destruction, indeed. Destroying their assurance that their songs would never be too wordy, Alex Kapranos fits more words per square inch of song than Britney Spears even has in her vocabulary. I don't know if this has officially been released in the US yet, but the video's done, so it's being counted. It's hands down the best song on the album, and is such a leap ahead from their first album. Even if I'll never be able to learn all the words to sing along.

You are the word
The word is destroy

Apparently work on their next album is starting imminently.

So much to look forward to in 2006. Bring it.

Oh tell me, what did you expect?

Since every band worth talking about seems to be on hiatus over the holidays, I'll do some typical year-end roundups. Because I know you all really care how I rank the musical events of my year. Don't lie.

I've just recently compiled the list of gigs I went to this year (50+), so I'll start with my top 5 gigs of 2005. This does not include Leeds festival or Matt Nathanson because he falls out of the genre I usually write about. (I will one day right a massive entry on him, though.) Well, without further ado...

#1 gig of 2005:
Maxïmo Park at Bowery Ballroom, September 25, 2005


Do you know those gigs you go to, when it's a band you've seen a few times before, stating out from when they were small and unknown, whose music you absolutely adore? And then you're at this gig, and they play more music than they ever have, but they also play it better than they ever have. It's like they have coalesced, right before your eyes, into this professional and kick-ass live band, and you are completely blown away, even though it doesn't come as a surprise to you.

Yeah, it was one of those.

(Although, they'd better play "Acrobat" the next time they come through, which they've been doing at UK gigs.)

#2 gig of 2005:
The Futureheads acoustic set at Pianos and full band set at Webster Hall, June 6, 2005

The big deal about these was that I didn't really like The Futureheads up until them. My friends adored them, and I really liked "Hounds of Love," but I couldn't get into the album at all. It was interesting going to the acoustic show first. I think if a band is talented, it shines through in that sort of setting. And it works so well with their harmonies, because so much of the music of their songs is produced by their own voices. And I had so much fun at the full band show, which is saying a lot considering that I didn't know most of the songs very well. It made me walk out of there liking The Futureheads. In fact, I started to crave listening to them. And lo and behold, I liked the album (minus one or two songs) afterwards. Even loved it.

#3 gig of 2005:
Art Brut at Mercury Lounge, November 10, 2005

Modern art may not make me want to rock out, but these guys sure do. Another band I couldn't really get into prior to seeing them - though I loved a few songs and generally liked the songs, I just couldn't listen to them a lot. Frontman Eddie Argos turns the concert-going experience into a wry, jumping-around-like-an-idiot experience. Something for your mind, and your body.




#4 gig of 2005:
Bloc Party at Webster Hall, June 15, 2005


While I am still waiting to hear "Always New Depths" live, we heard just about everything else that night. The boys played two encores, smashed some stuff, stage dived and almost had to be dragged off stage. We almost had to be dragged out of there.








#5 gig of 2005:
Nine Black Alps, Hard-Fi, and The Cribs at Mercury Lounge, July 19, 2005

The great thing about living in NY is that we get to see bands that are big or are getting there in small venues. In this case, three of them on the same bill for only $10. The only band I really knew any music from was the newest band on the bill, Hard-Fi. I knew about two songs from The Cribs. But I came away loving Nine Black Alps, liking Hard-Fi, and thinking that The Cribs are fun. (I now really like them.) I've seen the first and last a few times more, and am seeing Hard-Fi at Bowery Ballroom in January.

Honorable mention:
Arctic Monkeys at Bowery Ballroom, November 16, 2005

I may be a bit down on the Monkeys for the attitude they showed, but I also really like a lot of their music and find it a bit addictive. This was the better of the two shows, and it was a good time all around.

More lists to come before the year's over...

This Is...The Next Band That You Need To Hear

And if I said this is my only tendency... to really like the bands I like, and to talk about them incessantly...well, then you’ll just have to bear with me. Because you need to hear this band.

I first heard Battle when someone posted the demo of “Tendency” to a LiveJournal music community. It’s the kind of song that you listen to and go, “Wow.” Really. In fact, out of all the bands I saw at Leeds festival, the established ones and the unknown ones, I think hearing “Tendency” live goes down as possibly the best moment of the festival for me. People asked me which band I thought was the best, and even though I didn’t get to see the whole set, my friend and I both automatically said Battle. It’s the kind of song that people unanimously say is their favorite of the band’s songs. And Tim Battle nearly caused a riot when he hinted in a message that they hadn’t been able to get down a recorded version they liked and might drop it. SAVE TENDENCY, the campaign, began. Even Tarts of Pleasure, Ultragrrrl and KarenPlusOne’s dj duo, have listed “Tendency” as one of their top 10 essential songs.

And the song hasn’t even “officially” been released. Battle’s first single, “Isabelle” was released on Fierce Panda, and their follow-up, the sublime “Demons,” was released on Transgressive Records. Now, I’m supposed to tell you to buy these singles. They’re not readily available due to their limited release, though I’ve managed to procure them, living on another continent. However, there are other ways to hear these songs. I won’t tell you, though I’ve provided the means in this entry. Hey, if I do everything for you, where’s the fun in that?

Next up for Battle is “Wicked Owl” which will be available for download on their website starting December 19, but you can hear it at their MySpace page now – but finish reading this before you go listen! They’re also currently recording their much awaited, greatly anticipated first album (they are guessing on a May 2006 release...sigh...) Allegedly “Tendency” will be the next single, out at the end of February. Which leads me to believe that Tim Battle is just a big tease and likes causing people to have heart palpitations. Not funny, Tim.

And do you know what else they’ll be doing early next year? If you guessed gracing our fair shores with their exalted rock presence, then you get a cookie. They are scheduled to hit the South by Southwest music festival. Even better, they have said that they plan on dropping by New York City in early March, on their way I suppose. Watch this space for updates on any planned appearances, and let’s show them a welcome that’ll make them think twice about leaving for Texas!

Ok, now you can go listen to the song.