New Music Thursday...

I thought I should make up for the obnoxiously nerdy blog post I threw up in the wee hours of the morning. While I'm clearly not ashamed of my uber nerdiness, I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea. But you know what is? MUSIC.

Now, I know it isn't the end of 2010 yet - but I thought I'd post my top five favorite bands of this last year, mainly because I've done a poor job of sharing music with you recently. And music, like a good wine, needs to be shared to be enjoyed. The joys of this life, after all, are not for the covetous.

Gas Light Anthem - The down-and-out, bad-things-happen-to good-people working man that The Boss first shared with the world, is kept alive and well in Gas Light Anthem's breakthrough record, The '59 Sound. Throw in some classic '50's guitar riffs (some lovely Buddy Holly homages), and you have yourself a really interesting, gritty, soul-bearing band; a refreshing relief from the emo-laden "rock 'n roll" that haunts the aisles of what used to be "alternative" rock. These guys are the real deal.

Sample of brilliance:
"Everthing has a price/everyone has a price/nothing is free, not even me."



Oh. And they played with Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. I just died a lot.



The Avett Brothers - I know I wrote a whole post about these guys on Monday, but they deserve repeating. Perhaps you, like me, have heard magazines, critics, and even musicians proclaim cynically that "Rock n' Roll is DEAD!" No, it's fucking not. And so long as bands like the Avett Brothers exist, it won't ever die. What Rock n' Roll needs to get away from is the over-produced, badly written simplicity of "the music industry." Music requires musicians who have musicianship. Not suits with glasses who sell bullshit to the masses. But thankfully, the Avett Brothers have the market CORNERED on musicianship. Long live North Carolina!

Sample Brilliance:
"Keep your clothes on/I've got all that I can take/teach me how to use/the love that people say you make"



Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - I've written about these guys too. I think they're one of my favorite bands of this year solely because of their originality. They're encapsulating an entirely new culture in their music, one that is suddenly getting a lot more attention - the neo-hippie, burning man attending, peace-loving, love-loving slightly hipster kids of my generation, who are trying their hardest to shake off the materialistic, "stuff"-mongering 80's childhood they were raised with - the kids who are creating sustainability, not just in farming, but in every aspect of their lives. A free-spirit, a need to change the world, and an optimism that will never die. The Zeros are the sound for this generation. And thank goodness.

The sound on this video isn't great ... but the spirit captures what I'm talking about ...



The National - I don't know if I've talked about this band before, but I love them. Love, love, LOVE them. I can't even really articulate in words the awesomeness of this band ... so I'm just going to give you the video, so you can listen for yourselves.

Sample of brilliance:
"We're half awake in our fake empire..."



Arcade Fire - The upside of bands who take time between albums, like the Arcade Fire, is that their albums tend to be the most thought-out, well-executed, and musically diverse in the market. And this is certainly true of the Montreal band. Their third major album since 2004, Suburbs, tells of the homogenized plasticity of the middle class, their fall from "American Dream" glory, and relationships left in the ruined aftermath. Highly intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics, paired with organ riffs, optimistic guitars, and a killer rhythm section - Arcade Fire is keeping it real. Not bad for a bunch of Canadians, eh?

Sample of brilliance:
"I feel like I've been livin' in/a city with no children in it/a garden left for ruin/by a millionaire inside of a private prison"



There you go, kids. Download at your own discretion. Or be totally hipster and go buy them in vinyl.