WYEP Music Blog

Every Wednesday at 9:13 am, one of Pittsburgh’s finest music writers joins me (Cindy Howes) on the Morning Mix to play a couple favorite new songs and share some insight. Today we welcome Justin Jacobs, contributing writer to Relix Magazine, AOL’s Spinner.com and Pittsburgh’s City Paper. This morning, Justin shares his top picks for 2010.

In case you missed it here’s what he played:

Suckers, “A Mind I Knew” -  This band, who made my favorite album of the year, creates off-kilter, exotic sounding anthems. Each song builds and twists unexpectedly, usually marked by a wild yelp of gang vocals or some explosive guitar. The weirdest, and most fun, record of the year.

Dr. Dog, “Where’d All the Time Go” – These Philly boys are the success story of the year – the band’s been toiling around playing mid-level venues for almost a decade, but with this year’s Shame, Shame, they’re finally among indie’s elite bands. This is my favorite jam from that album.

Cee-Lo, “No One’s Gonna Love You” – The man behind “Fuck You”/”Forget You” cut a cover of the best Band of Horses song this summer, and this version hit the internet (with a very NSFW video) by storm. Unfortunately, the version on Cee-Lo’s new album, The Lady Killer, is kinda lame, but no matter — this cut is utterly gorgeous and haunting. Who knew the best song of the year wouldn’t come from an album at all?

I was drawn to albums from all different genres this year – there wasn’t one trend that resulted in the most great music.

Here’s Justin’s Top 10 Albums of 2010:

10. Sharon Van Etten – Epic
9. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
8. Baths – Cerulean
7. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
6. Twin Shadow – Forget
5. Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame
4. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3. Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea
2. Janelle Monae – The Archandroid
1. Suckers – Wild Smile

Just barely missed the list:
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Leftfoot, The Son of Chico Dusty
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Liars – Sisterworld

Every Wednesday at 9:13 am, one of Pittsburgh’s finest music writers joins me (Cindy Howes) on the Morning Mix to play a couple favorite new songs and share some insight. Today we welcome Justin Jacobs, contributing writer to Relix Magazine, AOL’s Spinner.com and Pittsburgh’s City Paper

In case you missed it here’s what he played:

The Heavy, “That Kind of Man” – The word “heavy” in music usually describes some gutteral, brutal metal music. But somehow, this English band makes funky soul music that is undeniably heavy too, albeit in a much, much different way. This track came out in 2007, but The Heavy retooled it and yes, made it heavier, for an EP that just dropped last week.

Pomegranates, “Skull Cakin” – My favorite band you’ve never heard of. Dudes are from Cincinnati and make fun, arty dream pop. This jam, of their new album “One of Us,” out yesterday, is the rocking-est thing they’ve ever done, but it’s still weird and wonderful.

Dr. Dog, “Nobody Knows Who You Are” – A new Dr. Dog song! Everybody rejoice! The Philly pop-classicists have been releasing new songs online, and this one is too good. I’m admittedly a total fanboy, but Dr. Dog can do no wrong. Download this for free here.

Twin Shadow, “Castles in the Snow” – Being the latest band made famous by the Internet (thanks, Pitchfork!) usually warrants some sort of snarky, underhanded insult, but I don’t have anything bad to say about Twin Shadow. Dark and catchy, 80′s-reminiscent dance songs., not unlike The Cure. They stopped at Brillobox last month, and a buddy of mine kept yelling for “In Between Days.” Not nice, but very funnny.

Friday kicked off with an acoustic set by Dr. Dog — a good start to any day. O&B favorites Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros put on a standout performance that had the entire crowd singing and foot-stomping along to “Home.” Unfortunately, their set was unusually short — clocking in at just over half an hour. Read More..

O&B Best of 2008-ers Dr. Dog get more popular by the day, thanks to a solid discography and some of the best harmonies around. Despite their ever-expanding acclaim, the band wasn’t too busy to talk with us at this year’s Bonnaroo festival. We sat down with bandmates Toby Leaman and Zach Miller to discuss their latest release, Shame, Shame, and they even dropped some juicy details about new material that they have planned. Read More…