Tk’s Top 10 Albums of 2010

23Dec10

2010 in music was marked by a few things: *It was the year that Americans finally learned how to party like the rest of the world. That’s right… trance/dance beats and riffs have taken over pop music charts and every self-respecting party animal and nightlife layperson is better off because of it. Hell, even Enrique [...]

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Tags: amelie, arcade fire, auto-tune, caribou, enrique iglesias, gold panda, jack rose, javiera mena, joanna newsom, local natives, pitbull, steve reich, sufjan stevens, t-pain, tallest man on earth, these new puritans, vampire weekend, wildbirds & peacedrums, yann tiersen

ck’s top ten albums of 2010

22Dec10

Another year, another top 10 list. The biggest change in the way I experienced music since 2009 is the death of lala.com. Fortunately, I was still able to find places online to listen to most albums that I was curious about. The public library has also become my friend. Unfortunately, that means I won’t have [...]

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Tags: 2010, b.o.b, band of horses, big boi, bob dylan, broken social scene, cee-lo, elliott smith, hayley williams, hot chip, janelle monae, john cage, kanye west, lala, local natives, outkast, paramore, rivers cuomo, sufjan stevens, talking heads, tallest man on earth, u.s.e., vampire weekend, weezer

Fatal Omissions: 2010

18Dec10

The music industry is a battlefield. I realize that’s an easy metaphor to pull out of your back pocket, but it’s more true than ever. However, it’s no longer the sort of battlefield where two opposing armies walk toward each other until they are close enough to swing swords. No, this battlefield is the kind [...]

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Tags: 2010, acorn, against me!, alkaline trio, anberlin, animal collective, annoying abuse of alliteration, annuals, antoine dodson, arcade fire, band of horses, belle and sebastian, bjork, bleach, bloc party, brandon flowers, broken bells, caribou, ceo, christina aguilera, chromeo, coheed and cambria, danger mouse, david byrne, dead weather, deconstructionism, dinosaur feathers, dirty projectors, double rainbow, dr. dog, eclipse, fatboy slim, five iron frenzy, free energy, freelance whales, fun, games, ghoti hook, girl talk, gregory brothers, gym class heroes, hold steady, imelda marcos, jack johnson, joanna newsom, jonsi, kele, laura veirs, lcd soundsystem, los campesinos!, m.i.a, mars volta, mates of state, maximum balloon, mgmt, michael jackson, mortal kombat, motion city soundtrack, my chemical romance, national, peter gabriel, phantogram, plants and animals, ra ra riot, rihanna, robyn, rocket summer, roots, sasquatch, sasquatch! music festival, she & him, shins, shout out louds, sigur ros, something corporate, spoon, stupid personification tricks, sufjan stevens, taking back sunday, thermals, travie mccoy, tv girl, tv on the radio, twee, twilight, vedera, wale, weekend, weezer, white stripes, wolf parade, yeasayer, young veins

The 2010 “House of Trophies” awards

13Dec10

We loved a lot of records that came out this year. Others… well… not so much. This is the beginning of our 2010 coverage, the first-ever “House of Trophies” awards. Why name it “House of Trophies”? Well… remember when you were a kid and you’d get a participation trophy at the end of t-ball season? [...]

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Tags: andrew wk, angels and airwaves, antony and the johnsons, archie bronson outfit, avey tare, balmorhea, best coast, big boi, black keys, blitzen trapper, carolina chocolate drops, childish gambino, crystal castles, daft punk, deadmau5, devo, dominique young unique, drake, drums, dum dum girls, flying lotus, foals, growing, here we go magic, hives, how to destroy angels, I can make a mess like nobody's business, interpol, jaguar love, jimmy eat world, jj, katy perry, kid cudi, knife, m.i.a, mark ronson, morning benders, neon trees, new pornographers, nicki minaj, oOoOO, owen pallet, pantha du prince, punch brothers, sleigh bells, sufjan stevens, surfer blood, t-ball, tumbledown, wavves, we have band, write this down, zola jesus

20 Second Reviews

18Oct10

A new series in which CK and Tk present album reviews that will take (depending upon your kindergarten teacher, guardian figures, genetic code, and personal history with words) about 20 seconds to read. This time, Tk takes on Maximum Balloon and Sufjan Stevens. Maximum Balloon (self-titled) Disclaimer: My enjoyment of a dancey album tends to [...]

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Tags: maximum balloon, sufjan stevens

Live-blogging the American Idol finale tonight! COMPLETE (10:30 PM)

26May10

12:05 PM: Hey folks – I’m on the west coast, trying to avoid seeing who wins American Idol before it’s revealed tonight at roughly 10:07 PM. For most of this season, I’ve been live-tweeting each episode on my personal Twitter account, but I occassionally had details ruined by friends on the east coast. I’m not [...]

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Tags: aaron kelly, adam lambert, alanis morissette, alice cooper, american idol, andrew garcia, arcade fire, beegees, beyonce, blake lewis, bo bice, carrie underwood, casey james, chicago, chris daughtry, christina aguilera, clay aiken, crystal bowersox, dane cook, danny gokey, daughtry, david archuleta, david cook, david hasselhoff, didi benami, ellen degeneres, elliot yamin, fantasia, frank sinatra, hall and oates, idol finale, janelle wheeler, jason castro, jay-z, joe cocker, jordin sparks, justin guarini, kara dioguardi, katherine mcphee, katie stevens, kelly clarkson, kris allen, lacey brown, lee dewyze, michael lynche, michael mcdonald, paul rudd, paula abdul, reuben studdard, ricky gervais, ryan seacrest, simon cowell, siobhan magnus, sufjan stevens, super bowl, taylor hicks, tim urban, time zones, who

ck’s top 100 albums of the decade: #10-1

27Jan10

No analysis today; I’m letting the music stand for itself (which, of course, it does). As always, click on any album title to listen on lala. Read part I here and part II here. 10    The National – Boxer (2007) 9    Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends (2002) 8    Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (2009) [...]

Filed under: 2000s, ck, lists   |  7 Comments
Tags: brand new, death cab for cutie, dirty projectors, modest mouse, national, postal service, radiohead, saves the day, sufjan stevens, taking back sunday

ck’s top 100 albums of the decade: #50-11

25Jan10

Hey hey, here we go. I hope you spent the entire weekend evaluating the picks from the previous post. This has been quite the metaphorical trip down memory lane for me; I was 14 when the naughties began, and I’m 24 on the way out. Most of my music-listening life happened in the last ten [...]

Filed under: 2000s, ck, lists   |  2 Comments
Tags: 2000s, afi, alkaline trio, animal collective, annuals, antlers, arcade fire, brave saint saturn, death cab for cutie, decemberists, format, fun, girl talk, gnarls barkley, hives, joy electric, juliana theory, killers, knife, lindsey pool, m83, mars volta, muse, panda bear, shout out louds, spoon, strokes, sufjan stevens, taking back sunday, u.s.e., vampire weekend, white stripes, yeasayer

ck’s top 100 albums of the decade: #100-51

23Jan10

Welcome back. It’s that time again; time for another list pored over by one of your two founding listmaniacs. We’ve spent so much time reading top album lists over the past decade, we needed to give back. What follows are my thoughts about the greatest albums of 2000-2009. I won’t be doing any decade analysis; [...]

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Tags: beck, belle and sebastian, ben folds, coheed and cambria, coldplay, conor oberst, daft punk, dashboard confessional, decemberists, elliott smith, fall out boy, five iron frenzy, flaming lips, get up kids, girls, hives, jack johnson, jamie lidell, jimmy eat world, johnny cash, kings of convenience, matisyahu, mew, modest mouse, muse, of montreal, ozma, panic! at the disco, passion pit, phantom planet, phoenix, reggie and the full effect, rocket summer, shins, sigur ros, straylight run, sufjan stevens, taking back sunday, tv on the radio, u.s.e., vroom, weezer, white stripes

tk’s top 40 albums of the decade

03Jan10

I pity the poor suckers who unleashed their “Albums of the Decade” lists before midnight on January 1st, 2010, because they ALL MISSED THIS ONE! This album (the one that I linked with pink ink before the exclamation point and after the word “they”) did MORE than just convert me to Epistemological Luddism–it also reminded [...]

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Tags: animal collective, antlers, apr financing, arcade fire, bad plus, battles, bill callahan, brian wilson, broken social scene, decemberists, devendra banhart, dj tiesto, doves, epistemological luddism, fleet foxes, fuck buttons, iron & wine, joanna newsom, johann johannsson, jose gonzalez, knife, lcd soundsystem, liars, m83, murder by death, national, noughties, old crow medicine show, panda bear, radiohead, sigur ros, silversun pickups, strokes, sufjan stevens, tallest man on earth, tv on the radio, war on drugs