Top 10 Albums of 2010

Here are my top ten picks for albums released in 2010. Ranking them was not easy...

10. Disconnect from Desire by School of Seven Bells

Their second and possible final album since one of the twins has left the band. This album has really grown on me especially since they were amazing in concert.

9. Crazy for You by Best Coast

The Best Coast is a new band on my radar and I like them, a lot. Punky, raw, and fun. Can't wait to see them in concert!

8. Heligoland by Massive Attack

Thank you Patrick for turning me on to them. My dream is to write a TV show and use a Massive Attack song for the intro, can't fail (i.e., House or Luther).

7. Contra by Vampire Weekend

I still like their break out self-titled album better but this one, like the first, is full of some super catchy tunes. They were a lot of fun to see in concert too.

6. The Optimist by New Young Pony Club

My first reaction was that this new album wasn't as good their first album, Fantastic Playroom, but after a few more listens I now actually feel this one might be better! I hope I get to see them play some day.

5. Sidewalks by Matt & Kim

Their highly anticipated follow up. Their sophomore albums definitely keeps them on my map.

4. The Drums by The Drums

Happy sad music done beautifully. 

3. Antifogmatic by Punch Brothers

I've seen them play twice now and they're amazing. Truly talented. Chris Thile and the band really lay down some catching tracks. These are some truly talented musicians. Thank you Kristynn for turning me on to them. 

2. Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter

After their amazing last release, Microcastle, I thought it was gonna be downhill for sure but somehow Bradford Cox has done it again. SO GOOD in concert.

1. Broken Bells by Broken Bells

The entire album is phenomenal but I especially like "Mongrel Heart." I don't really dig the Shins but I love some Broken Bells.

*The best old band that I rediscovered award goes to The Cars!

15 Authors

You may have done this, and have probably seen it, but I thought it was sufficiently interesting to participate. Sorry for the fb spam if that's how it strikes you. Treat it accordingly.

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included, of course) who've influenced you and whose work has stayed with you. List the first fifteen (or so) you can recall, though we all want to list twice that. Tag a few literate friends, including me. Take it as an opportunity for self knowledge and self sharing. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.) Or simply reply to this note.



These authors have really changed my life. (No specific order & I'm gonna leave academic authors out of this list)

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest

(by far the most influential)

George Orwell - 1984, Animal Farm

J.D. Salinger - Catcher in the Rye

Joseph Heller - Catch-22

Neil Gaiman - Sandman, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Smoke and Mirrors <- I'm reading this now and it's good

Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Writing about the Bible <- I'm also reading this now and it's amazing

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden

Michael Crichton - The Sphere, Jurassic Park, Congo, The Andromeda Strain

Ken Kesey - One Flew Over's the Cuckoo's Nest

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment <- I have never been so anxious reading a book.

William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Noting, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, so many more.

Lois Lowry - The Giver

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince, The Wisdom of the Sands

Shel Silverstein - Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree!

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare <- I've read almost all of his works.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Eric's Top 10 Artists He Wishes He Can See In Concert

Here is a list of dead or gone artists that I wish I could see in concert. This list does not include bands that are still around that I want to see. This took a while. I actually have a ton of unfinished ones, haha.

10. Jimi Hendrix - You all may be surprised Jimi Hendrix is what got me into rock.

9. Alice in Chains with Layne Staley! - Layne and Jerry's harmony is hypnotic and beautiful

8. Joy Division - Ian Curtis. 

7. The Buzzcocks - So damn influential. 

6. The Ramones - Supposedly Johnny Ramone took their live performances VERY seriously and would throw off the rest of the night for a bad set.

5. The Clash - Punk rock legends

4. Queen - Supposedly the best performers ever.

3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin is not the son of a god on drums and three guys older than my parents.

2. The Beatles - Do I even have to explain?

1. Nirvana - To see Kurt in concert would complete my life.

Michael Jackson definitely belongs on here but I am ashamed to say that I would see all of these other artists first. Flame on! Stevie Ray Vaughan! So many more...

Eric's Top 10 Singers

I've decided to make random top 10 lists. Here is my first one.

ERIC'S TOP 10 Singers:

Obviously this is not a list of what I think the top voices in the industry are. They are what I consider the ten best voices I have encountered. Let me know what you think!

10. Ian MacKaye - There's something about his voice. It's so perfect. His painful screams and whines with soft melodies peppered in it's simply beautiful and I can't get enough of it.

Best know for his vocals in Minor Threat & Fugazi. Notable songs: Epic Problem & Full Disclosure.

9. Thom Yorke - It's fucking Thom Yorke. I know Radiohead fans aren't suppose to like Creep but, seriously, his range is incredible in that song. Very versatile singer. 

Best know for his lead vocals in Bad Religion. Notable songs: Creep & Fake Plastic Trees.

8. Ben Harper - I never really appreciated Ben Harper until I saw him perform back in 2005. The moment he opened his mouth to sing Oppression I was captivated until he left the stage. I've been a fan ever since.

Best know for being the lead vocals in Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Notable songs: Oppression & Diamonds on the Inside.

7. Josh Homme - Maybe the most versatile voice on this list. He's done everything from heavy metal to pop songs. I've always really enjoyed his voice.

Best know for his vocals in Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures. Notable songs: Like A Drug & A Song for the Dead

6. Julian Casablancas - That naturally sorrowful voice. He can be singing about Christmas or love and sound like he's going to kill himself right afterward.

Best know for being the lead vocals for the Stokes. Notable songs: Wish It Was Christmas Today & 12-15.

5. Matthew Bellamy - I have seen Muse perform 4 times now. Matthew does not miss a note and belts it out harder than anyone I have ever seen except maybe Steven Tyler. He's amazing. His range is awesome. I really think 30 years from now he'll be a rock legend like Tyler, Jagger, or Plant.

Best know for being the lead everything for Muse. Notable songs: Starlight & Stockholm Syndrome 

4. John Lennon - It's freakin' John Lennon. The first song I ever recall listening to and falling in love with was a Beatles song. His voice just brings me back to easier times. Simply amazing and versatile. He can scream, sooth, and profess his love with just the quality of his voice.

Hopefully I don't have to mention what he is known for, haha. Notable songs: Imagine, Twist and Shout, & Nowhere Man.

3. Tracy Chapman - Her voice is so damn silky smooth. One of the most soothing things I have ever encountered. They should harness it and prescribe it for rough times.

Best know for her 4 time grammy award winning singing and songwriting. Notable songs: Telling Stories & Give Me One Reason.

2. Eddie Vedder - Eddie Vedder ALMOST took the first place spot. His voice is simply amazing to me. As I mentioned to someone the other day, "It makes me feel all kinds of things." If I were married to him he could beat me everyday so long as he sang to me. That's how much I love his voice. I have to agree that his more recent recordings don't do him justice.

Best know for his vocals in Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog. Notable songs: Corduroy & Wishlist.

1. Kurt Cobain - I will never get to see Kurt perform live. I will never hear a new recording. Yet his voice has changed my life. The painful agony and angsty energy has fueled a decade and possibly a generation for reason.

Best know for being the lead guitarist/vocalist for Nirvana. Notable songs: Tourette's & Drain You.

*Vocalist that almost made the list: Robert Plant, Steven Tyler, Greg Graffin, Maynard James Keenan. I was really torn I couldn't add these people... I'm also probably missing a few others. I tried not to spend too much time on this.