So this is one of those end-of-the-year lists.
Most of the time you see stratified lists, which, I think, are kind of arbitrary. I am too indecisive to ascribe a hierarchical fashion to things, like species of North American pinnipeds or, especially, my favorite records, songs, “musical moments” of the year. Not that my list is perfect or, you know, devoid of inevitable pretensions, like crass comparisons and overt generalizations, but I like to keep things open. My list is comprised of simply the top five musical moments of 2010 for me, in no particular order.
For this list, I reviewed recent recordings and shows by local musicians, in addition to those that are relatively popular. I’m in a "band": the Eureka, Ca-based Dreamgoatz, for which I play synths n’ stuff. Touring throughout California and the Pacific Northwest, we share venues with many obscure but insanely talented musicians. In the interest of sharing their sounds with more people, I included some of these artists and their recent accomplishments on this list.
- In lieu of album covers or photographs, fellow Dreamgoat Knot They’re provided some lovely illustrated “interpretations” of my picks.
- Two of my favorite Humboldt County-based musicians contributed lists of their own, which you can read right here.
- On another, less tactful note: There was a maliciously abbreviated version of this article in the HSU student-run magazine The Osprey, where a mighty pantheon of jaded copy-editors stripped my article of stylistic and grammatical consistency. Needless to say, shit has been restored to the cosmic order.
But, yo, first, here are my five favorite musical things of 2010:
Janelle Monae: The ArchAndroid 
This is one of the most ambitious and musically diverse pop albums of the year. How many genres, like lush sequin hats, Monae and her gifted group of
producers and performers try on during the course of the album (let alone a song) is dazzling and hard to quantify. Songs like “Faster,” “Oh Maker” and “Wondaland” are genius in their hypnotic fusions of phat Prince beats, David Bowie-esque vocal sensibilities, orchestral arrangements, and hip-hop sampling sunshine.
Tobacco: 
Maniac Meat
Many hyperbolic and absurd descriptions have been affixed to this album throughout the past few months (for example: “a big heaping psychedelic-hop mindfuck” – Speed of the Pittsburgh Sound) and now it’s time for me to craft one of my own: Deliciously distorted hip-hop-junk-flop slathered with castrated cassette tape hiss, animalistic anxiety and vintage monophonic synthesizer slime.
Peace Season: Peace Season (EP) and Live @ the Duck House in Arcata, Calif.
For all intensive purposes, Peace Season is Arcata, CA resident Kelley Donahue. A recent HSU Studio Art graduate, she also just released a self-titled seven-song album into the universe: Peace
Season, a pure, primal pop masterpiece.
“My intention is to make music that is happy but honest,” says Kelley, aptly describing her music, which is a soulful synthesis of raw acoustic sounds, soaring vocal harmonies and buzzing keyboards a la Animal Collective or Portishead. “I want to craft a ‘pop’ sound that people can grasp,” she says, “but I try to follow through by making sounds I didn’t think were possible.”
Throughout the past few months, Kelley has integrated other musicians into the fold for live shows, expanding on a unique sound. However, during her initial performances in the spring of 2010, Kelley was accompanied not by a muscular backing band, but merely a laptop, a loop machine, and a microphone. Despite the lack of live instrumentation, these performances transfixed me. Swaying, singing to a crowded room of people (“inches of distances turned into strides of miles and miles” from “Crying at The Border”), Ms. Donahue can enchant the listener all by herself; sheer aural seduction with a minimal but colorful palette of sound.
The Books: The Way Out
This is the fourth album by New York City-originated sound-collage maestros Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong. For The Way Out, Zammuto and de Jong expanded on their innovative sound by incorporating a more expansive low-end (808 kick-drums!) synthetic percussion and more nuanced melodies, all amidst the chaos of intricately chopped-up samples. The standout is “A Cold Freezin’ Night:” demented clips of young children yelling disturbingly violent threats behind a pounding 4/4-techno beat and an orgiastic palette of banjo breaks and oddly segmented bass melodies.
Treasure Mammal:
“Real Talk” (Single) and Live @ Backyard BBQ in Los Angeles 6/27/10
When the Dreamgoatz went on tour to LA this summer, a backyard BBQ show w/ Arizona-based beat-masters Treasure Mammal yielded one of the most poignant, definitive images of the summer... Nay, the year: that of T. Mammal ring-leader Abelardo Gil, decked out in a torn-up rainbow spandex body suit, rubbing mayonnaise onto his testicles and throwing said mayo at some enthusiastic dancers (the positively undulating and zebra-spandexed Dave Driscoll and Miguel Valencia) while big beats and Gil’s yelps thundered through the courtyard and down West Pico Blvd.
“I believe the simplest, most straightforward way of entertaining almost anyone is to truly enjoy what you’re doing and let people see and experience that joy in some way,” says Driscoll. “It works for everything from dancing to brushing your teeth.”
Standing in the front row, I was indeed threatened with much mayo splashback, but in spite (or perhaps because) of the willfully administered egg-and-oil-based emulsifier, I was also privy to some pretty damn engaging Dionysian revelry. Overwhelmed but ecstatic, I dance-dance-danced, thanks to the combined forces of Gil’s mayo-and-Tecate-derived antics, his rant-raps about unicorns, white supremacy and Arizona SB 1070, the ridiculous beats blasting out of large amps, and Driscoll and Valencia grinding up against jaded LA hipsters.
“The finale of the show is usually us taking the crowd to a beautiful climax where happiness is exploding everywhere and the crowd reflects on the liquid beauty and truth that has been splashed on them by these three men in spandex,” says Gil. “Next time I dip my balls in anything, it will probably be a bucket of the new KFC ‘Double Down’ sandwich.”
For sure, one of their more recent hits, “Real Talk,” is my favorite track of the year: An anthem of sorts, sporting a mid-90’s hip-hop groove, burbling electronics, some wonderfully cheesy orchestral synth stabs and a particularly memorable chorus (“Real talk/ I wish I had no dick, no balls”). A lot of balls, indeed. And the future of pop music.
Another List: Phil Kumsar from thelittlestillnotbigenough
thelittlestillnotbigenough is a local Arcata-based band. Their music is dark, inscrutable, and stunningly arranged with a smattering of seemingly disparate genres such as freak-folk, hip-hop, jazz and avant-garde sound collage. Check them out @ www.honorificabilitudinitatibusrecordings.blogspot.com/
-Dirty Projectors @ Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz, Calif. 9/26/10...this was a once-in-a blue-moon type show I spontaneously drove to with bandmates through the swervy-as-fuck Santa Cruz mountains to get to. DP played to a small crowd of savants and hipsters (everyone trying to be the most genuine person there, myself included) in a room of this 'haunted' hotel which has a natural creek FLOWING THROUGH THE FUCKING MIDDLE, with cathedral ceilings and amazing acoustics. You could hear the babbling brook in between songs, which were stellar! DP play shit that no one has ever done and with a vocal technique dubbed "hawking." The female members of the band provide almost alien harmonies and patterns to what are essential simply constructed songs performed with impeccable instrumental skill.
-Sister Suvi "Now I am Champion"...distorted ukulele pop music from Canada with a track
entitled "American" which rips a new one in the collective ass of these Dirty United States.
-Big Days of Tundra...mckinleyville math-metal-post rock, instrumental madness with sweet sweeping riffs and thumping guitar dialog
-Pattern is Movement "All Together"...probably my favorite overall album of the last few years from this Philadelphian drum and rhodes duo. Gorgeous falsetto vocals, hip-hop swagger and perfect arrangements. They are also two burly bearded men who resemble myself so I am narcissistically biased.
-Mt. Mountain "s/t"...technically this isn't released yet but I'd be hard pressed to hear a more elaborate and layered composition coming outta our own Arcata. This will hit like a fucking brick in the face once it drops.
...And Another List: Kelley Donahue from Peace Season
Power Animal – “PPL Songs” – Power Animal are from Philadelhpia, Pa. PPL (People) Songs was released on March 23, 2010. The group played at Kelley’s house in Arcata earlier this year.
Kelley: “This is everything that I want in a collection of songs: it has really cool samples, a wide range of instrumentation, and the songs take you to so many different places – from sad, melancholy moments to upbeat, positive ones, all done in a very smooth, cohesive way... Their performance at my house was one of the best live shows I’ve seen.”
No Kids @ What the Heck Fest in Anacortes, Wash. – No Kids are an indie-pop band based in Vancouver. Kelley caught them at What the Heck Fest, which Peace Season also played at.
Kelley: "Really fun music, kinda minimal."
Kimya Dawson @ What the Heck Fest in Anacortes, Wash. – Renown indie pop-star, her songs were featured prominently in the film "Juno".
Kelley: "Kimyas very...real, very genuine. Sometimes, she makes you feel like you're sitting in her living room. Her songs start out lighthearted enough but then they become very wry and philosophical, very intense. During the middle of the show, I suddenly felt like I was in a church, listening to a prophet or a teacher or something. She comes from a very real place."
L'Orchidée d'Hawaï @ the Duck House in Arcata, Calif. – L’ Orchidée d'Hawaï are from Chambry, France and have released stuff on K Records. They are, musically, very diverse.
Kelley: "Their sound is so innovative! They referenced so many musical traditions (surf music, gypsy folk, middle eastern intonations, punk rock) but they show off also a lot of very modern sounds and have a very high energy...I've never heard anything like it."
Dreamgoatz @ The Lil Red Lion in Eureka, Calif. The Lil Red Lion is a particularly seedy dive bar in Eureka that we perform at regularly, much to the acclaim (and dismay) of the bar's particularly seedy patrons.
Kelley: "The way that the samples, tones, and references cover such a wide range of feelings makes you feel good, liberated - even when the music is taking you to a dark place, it's still a safe place."
Me: "I suppose we try to encourage folks to dance above all else, even when we are incorporating really dark stuff."
Kelley: "Yeah and I mean, you know, there's a very hallucinatory, experimental aspect to the way you guys arrange your sounds. But it's still really catchy...it takes the audience to a really childlike place."
