Galkin’s Top 115 of 2009, Part 3 (of 4!)

February 17, 2010

We all really want to finish this list out for a number of reasons (time to move on in earnest to 2010, several of you have told me need to find out what’s next, etc.), but I thought posting the final 55 songs all at once was too much.  Look for the final posting later this week.

Enjoy the rest of the Top 115 list/playlist, and now you have more new stuff to listen to at work!

55. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – “Around The Bend”
Best song used in an Apple commercial

54. Regina Spektor – “The Calculation”
Distinct voice makes for refreshingly good songs

53. Karen O And The Kids – “All Is Love”
Sweetest song of the year

52. Kid Cudi – “Dat New New (Viking Remix)”
Random song not on the album, but found it on Hypem.com

51. Swimming With Dolphins – “Sunset, 1989”
Synthesizer? Check. Autotune? Check. Still awesome.

50. The Very Best – “Warm Heart Of Africa”
Basically a Vampire Weekend song on someone else’s album

49. Thao And The Get Down Stay Down – “Cool Yourself”
High school friend continues blow up – great live show

48. Miley Cyrus – “Party In The USA”
Guilty pleasure of the year. Don’t hate.

47. Cobra Starship – “Good Girls Go Bad”
Soft spot for both Gabe and Leighton

46. Chiddy Bang – “Truth”
Anything featuring Passion Pit is bound to be catchy

45. La Roux – “Bulletproof (Redial Remix)”
Excellent beat somehow improved by the remix makes this a fun listen

44. Camera Obscura – “French Navy”
Late on the bandwagon, but recently shot up my list. Lead singer’s voice reminds me of Zooey D.

43. Discovery – “Osaka Loop Line”
Best duo side project song of the year

42. Flight Of The Conchords – “Hurt Feelings”
Funny, yet sad…hence, sad clown song of the year

41. The Lonely Island – “Motherlovers”
Could not get enough of this song – Justin and Andy need their own album.

And the incredible video, via hulu (you have to have a [free] account to see the uncensored version btw):
Saturday Night Live: Digital Short: Motherlover (Uncensored)

40. The Hood Internet – “Good Ol Fashion Rump Shaker”
Favorite mashup of the year….and I like my mashups

39. Florence And The Machine – “Kiss With A Fist”
Shortest song on the list, but sure does pack a punch (haha…get it?)

38. Ingrid Michaelson – “Everybody”
With respect to Karen O, Regina, and others – Ingrid is my indie sweetheart of the year

37. Metric – “Sick Muse”
Sound a little like Stars. They more than hold their own, however.

36. Passion Pit – “Little Secrets”
Could have put the entire Manners album on here (and I almost do – keep reading)

35. Snob Scrilla – “Chasing Ghosts”
Sweet drums, good rapping in this random one

34. Weezer – “I Want You To”
While Weezer has gone downhill, they’re still catchy and I still like this song

33. Matt And Kim – “Good Ol Fashion Nightmare”
Biggest, Longest Continuous Smile Award goes to…Kim

32. fun. – “All The Pretty Girls”
Ex-Format member, Nate Ruess, excels with his new band

31. Vampire Weekend – “Horchata”
If the new songs are any indication their sophomore effort coming out in January that came out in January will live up to the large expectations

30. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings”
Hello again Passion Pit. Sit down, stay awhile.

29. Chromeo – “Night By Night”
More Canadians on the list make some electrofunk magic with this one

28. Kid Cudi – “Day N Nite”
My most played rap song this year

27. Empire Of The Sun – “Standing On The Shore (Dirty Disco Youth Remix)”
Favorite remix of the year – which is saying something

26. Animal Collective – “Summertime Clothes”
Second best song on the album still beats most everything else

25. Phoenix – “1901”
Ditto

24. Thao And The Get Down Stay Down – “Know Better Learn Faster”
Maybe I’m biased, but song is undeniably good. Expect big things.

23. The Lonely Island – “I’m On A Boat”
Funniest song of the year. Hands down. Previously never thought I would want to own a nautical themed pashmina afghan

And another awesome uncensored video via hulu:
Saturday Night Live: Digital Short: I’m On A Boat (Uncensored)

22. The Thermals – “Now We Can See”
So simple, but so good. Evidence of what an amazing chorus can do for a song.

21. Metric – “Help I’m Alive”
Again from our friends to the north…best Canadian song of the year

20. The Temper Trap – “Sweet Disposition”
Perfectly matched for my favorite movie of the year, (500) Days of Summer.

19. Death Cab For Cutie – “Little Bribes”
Better than “Meet Me On The Equinox” – and not just because of my Twilight bias

18. Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”
Weird song with an even weirder video (look it up), but I dig it

17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Heads Will Roll”
Karen O rocks this like no one else can

16. Miike Snow – “Animal”
Best song use in a Gossip Girl episode this year


Galkin’s Top 115 of 2009, Part 2

January 23, 2010

Here is part 2 of Galkin’s list.  I know it probably seems sooo behind the times to keep talking about 2009 songs, especially while there is so much new music already out this year (Yeasayer, Hot Chip, Ok Go – dare I even say Ke$ha? – to name a few) but Galkin’s list is easily still my favorite playlist on my iPod right now, and it needs to be completed.  Besides, didn’t you need some new stuff to stream at work?  We’ll get to 2010 soon enough, don’t worry…

85. Eminem – “We Made You”
Much anticipated comeback was good, not great. Good to see he still likes to make fun of people though.

84. The National – “So Far Around The Bend”
On the Dark Was The Night compilation – check it out, seriously

83. Manchester Orchestra – “I’ve Got Friends”
Band that you can distinctly hear maturing over their last 3 albums

82. Muse – “Undisclosed Desires”
Need to see these guys in concert. Will be epic.

81. Say Anything – “Hate Everyone”
One of my favorite bands, but didn’t connect with the new album like previous ones

80. Paramore – “Ignorance”
Hayley Williams is adorable. That is all.

79. Anderson – “Trevor On The Dancefloor”
Fun electronic dance-y song you’ve never heard of from a band you don’t know. It’s my list.

78. Yes Giantess – “Can’t Help It”
Michael Jackson-like sounding lead singer makes me miss MJ…the non-crazy, black version

77. Pony Pony Run Run – “Walking On A Line”
Don’t care for the band name, good thing they make catchy music

76. Classified – “Choose Your Own Adventure 3”
White Canadien rapper, eh? I’m as surprised as you are. Also known as the Steve Nash of rap (may or may not have made that last part up)

75. Jay-Z – “Run This Town”
Excellent chorus by Rihanna along with Kanye kept in check made this a winner

74. Peter Bjorn And John – “Nothing To Worry About”
Including singing kids generally makes things better

73. Shakira – “She Wolf (Villians Remix)”
Heavy breathing also makes things better

72. Taking Back Sunday – “Sink Into Me”
A favorite band from high school still has something left in the tank

71. Flight Of The Conchords – “Carol Brown”
“…hoping that you’ll stick around” – would have enjoyed another season of FOTC

70. Harlem Shakes – “Strictly Game”
Good band that unfortunately broke up…luckily it was after I got to see them live

69. Neon Indian – “Deadbeat Summer”
Trippy.

68. The Sounds – “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake (Viking Remix)”
An already good song, but the additions in the remix put it over the top

67. Norah Jones – “Chasing Pirates”
Classiest song of the year

66. Wale – “90210”
Disappointing live, but still one of the top rappers IMO

65. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero”
Spin’s song of the year – not mine, but still really good

64. Simian Mobile Disco – “Audacity Of Huge (Dada Life Guerilla Remix)”
The ones who usually do the remixing get remixed themselves – what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

63. The Big Pink – “Dominos”
Methodically paced and catchy song about girls falling like dominos

62. Glee Cast – “Don’t Stop Believin’”
Best song by a fake Glee club

61. The Bird And The Bee – “Love Letter To Japan”
I feel like The Bird and the Bee are a hidden gem – have always enjoyed their quirky songs.

60. Jay-Z – “DOA”
Electric guitar and soprano sax make this much more than your regular rap song

59. Owl City – “Cave In”
Called Owl City a year and a half ago…you’re welcome

58. Parachute – “Under Control”
Charlottesville/UVA band that is gaining popularity – this should have been a bigger hit

57. Florence And The Machine – “Dog Days Are Over”
Florence’s haunting yet fierce voice make the first track of the album stand out

56. The Drums – “Let’s Go Surfing”
Old school sounding song of the year…think a modern indie Beach Boys


Flight of the Conchords

April 18, 2009

Approachability: High
(Hilarity: Very Very Very High)

It’s Business Time.

Now that that’s out of the way…

Seeing them for the 2nd time, this time in a much bigger venue, and from much farther away, I can still say that they put on one of the most entertaining shows out there. I said it the first time, and I’ll stand by it now.

They are so incredibly talented; they’re witty, intelligent, hilarious, and, somehow, they tie it all together into musically-competent songs. Their early songs, and subsequently their first season on HBO, were so incredible. I mean that season was one of the pillars of Sunday Funday. Unfortunately, I think they’ve faded considerably in what I’ve seen of the second season, but their live show was at least as good as last year’s.

Kristen Schaal (Mel) opened for Bret and Jermaine, and, while she wasn’t quite as funny as Arj Barker last year, her quirky, silly, awkward material definitely warmed up the crowd.

They played mostly older stuff (thanks!) but mixed in some of their [better] new songs, but usually played the newer stuff in a new arrangement. They screwed up a bunch of times, and I’m still not really sure if that’s just them, or if that’s part of the plan. Either way it worked. Very well. Here are some of the more hilarious mix-ups:

  • Jermaine’s omnichord wouldn’t play anything on the 2nd song of the night
  • Bret totally blew the first chorus on “The Humans are Dead
  • Jermaine apparently played his steel drum too early, and played “the wrong– different– notes,” in “You Don’t Have to be a Prostitute,” but the audience couldn’t hear the steel drum anyway
  • The sound guys ran out to mic up Jermaine’s xylophone – again so the audience could anything at all
  • Jermaine had to stall before his first part of “Hiphopapotamus vs. Rhymenocerous” in the encore
  • They played some new song about a desperado-esque, old-school, western gun-slinging outlaw. Neither of them knew all the words, and it was like 8 minutes long.
  • The crowd heckled so persistently that we were shushed like babies. “We did this for 45 minutes in Atlanta. Seriously, shut up.” (In their defense, they did actually play lots of what people were yelling out.)
  • Complaints because of the omnipresent “Freedbird” cat calls. Apparently kiwis don’t know that song.

I guess that’s just FOTC. My cheeks hurt by the end of the show.

Flight of the Conchords – The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room
Flight of the Conchords – Bowie
Flight of the Conchords – Ladies of the World

Sometimes you just need to see it:
Flight of the Conchords – Girlfriends from the Past (Carol Brown)
Flight of the Conchords – Jenny
Flight of the Conchords – I’m Not Crying

-Weird Jim


Dave Matthews Band

April 15, 2009

Approachability: Very High (obviously?)

My preppy roots are showing. I’ve been following Dave since high school, and this summer they’re putting out their first studio album since 2005’s (disappointing) Stand Up. It’s also the first album without LeRoi Moore, so that’s kind of sad. The album is called Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, and today they released the first single from the album, as well as the album artwork. The album name, and the artwork, is actually a tribute to LeRoi. “Grux” was one of his nicknames, and the artwork (hand-drawn by Dave) clearly represents his face in the center.

I think it sounds pretty good, but I also really like their newer-jazzier stuff – I know many of their fans do not. I didn’t hate Stand Up as most fans did, but it definitely wasn’t their strongest. Either way, I’m excited.

GrooGrux King is due out on June 2. We’ll see how it’s received by the masses.

Dave Matthews Band – Funny How It Is
Dave’s “sneak peak in the New Orleans studio” video

To end my crazy April concert blitz, Laura and I are seeing Dave this Saturday in Charlottesville at JPJ. Unfortunately it looks like they won’t be playing lots of stuff on GrooGrux, as was originally promised, but I’m excited either way. We’ll see how it goes.

I also saw Flight of the Conchords on Monday, so I’ll be posting about that as soon as I can. It was a hilarious show – incredibly entertaining to say the least.

One last note. Phoenix announced a June 21 show in DC this morning. Mark your calendars now. (I’ll also be posting about Phoenix very soon, don’t worry.)