30. Metric - Dead Disco No, not Little Boots' former band, but a track by Canadian rockers Metric. Almost disco-rock in combining the synths and guitars, this was what broke them in the UK.
29. Goldfrapp - Strict Machine Back when I was at uni we used to spend all our lunchtimes in the Penny Theatre (a Scream pub) round the corner abusing their cheap burgers. On the video jukebox they used to play a random selection and on came this kaleidoscopicly surreal track. One of those songs that you can't help to dance to.
28. Dandy Warhols - We Used To Be Friends I remember downloading this in 2003 when it was originally released. It lay undisturbed on an old playlist CD for years before being dug out again when I started watching Veronica Mars - this being the extremely apt title song. Again, it dropped off my radar until September this year - walking into HMV in town I spotted someone from school who, let's say, the intervening years have not been kind to - just as this song came on the in-store PA system. Perfect timing.
27. OK Go - Get Over It Possibly the only music video to ever use the lyrics of the song as a starting point for content. Go watch it here.
26. Distillers - City Of Angels Way back in 2002, towards the end of the beautifulgarbage era, Garbage were supporting No Doubt on their USA arena tour. Kerrang magazine had an interview along the lines of women in rock (always a good thing with me) and interviewed Shirley Manson & Gwen Stefani, the lead singers of the two bands, as well as Brody Armstrong (as she was then) of the opening band The Distillers. As I sat down to read it at home this video came on Kerrang TV (I was themed back then). In 2009 I saw Spinnerette (Brody's new band) in London, and she's still as cool as fuck.
25. Donnas - Take It Off Four girls who grew up listening to classic rock bands such as Kiss, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, and AC/DC. If you were to analyse my entire music tastes from the last 25 years and portion them out between the various factors, this band would be the result. Now enjoying a resurgence due to Rock Band/Guitar Hero needing bands with female vocalists.
24. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing! A few years ago I was made to listen to this band by Katy. I'm glad I did. A hectic multinational seven piece, there's more imagination and variety in this one song than in the entire musical output of a lot of chart bands.
23. Glee - Don't Stop Believin' Most people reading this won't have heard of Glee. It's like High School Musical (no! come back!) if it were written by Tina Fey - full of snark and wit that holds up on repeated viewing. The pilot is showing on E4 on Tuesday 15th December at 9pm, and this cover of the Journey classic closes that episode.
22. Florence & The Machine - Kiss With A Fist I have to say that the rest of Florence's album didn't do it for me, but it's so different to the opening promise shown by this song that it's understandable. First promoted to me by Hannah, I lost the mp3 during a tidy of my computer, before hearing it again at Lounge on the Farm before Los Campesinos!'s set. It's not about spousal abuse, apparently.
21. Rose Elinor Dougall - Fallen Over As the Manics' song at number 61 was the oldest song on this decade list, this one is the newest, being released only three days ago. However, I've loved it since the first time I stalked saw Rose live back in April. Due to the low budget nature of the label, there's not even a video for me to link to, so check it out at Rose's Myspace.
60. She & Him - Why Did You Let Me Stay Here? She is a kooky indie actress who has been in several under-appreciated films (and sleep walked her way through M.Night Shyamallamadingdong's The Happening). Him is a renowned producer of the Bright Eyes/Rilo Kiley/Elected stable. Together they make sweet country songs. The video stars She (Zooey Deschanel) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt from the set of (500) Days of Summer.
59. Rolo Tomassi - I Love Turbulence And from light melodic country stylings to screamo northern metal. Not so much loud-quiet-loud as scary-sweet-terrifying. Rolo Tomassi are a bit of a Marmite band - people don't tend to feel indifferent about them, they either love them or can't stand them.
58. Miley Cyrus - Fly On The Wall I was sent the video embedded below by a friend who thought it was funny. Trying not to like anything Disney, I gave it a listen for the mistake (which proves she was singing live, and not miming either...) and to my dismay actually enjoyed the song. The album's not bad either. Give it a listen before pouring scorn.
57. Metallica - The Day That Never Comes Metallica have only released two albums this decade, and St. Anger was utter tripe, so have the epic lead off single from Death Magnetic. It's one of those songs that starts off like Fade To Black and finishes like One. The video is worth checking out too, as it uses the song like a film score to build up tension and can be found here, but as they're on a major label embedding is impossible. So, have the band performing live on Later With Jools Holland.
56. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl You know the one. It was everywhere last summer. Good, fun pop music from a girl who counts Shirley Manson as one of her heroes.
55. Alphabeat - Fascination I had this song stuck in my head throughout pretty much the whole of the Lounge on the Farm festival last summer. As I had a great time there, the song's got good connotations. There's an awful lot of pop songs on this list, isn't there?
54. Paramore - Crushcrushcrush Hot female redhead singer, rock band. Of course this would appeal to me. Not only did I get to see them for just a fiver at a tiny fan club gig earlier this year, but being a good half a foot taller than everyone else in the crowd and able to pick up on new lyrics easily, me and Hayley had a moment of connection.
53. Operator Please - Leave It Alone More bands need a violin section. OP would be a fairly normal indie band without the strings accompanying this song. Granted, they're all about 13 so they're not that normal, but still it adds something to it.
52. The Pipettes - Really That Bad Of all the possible Pipettes songs I had to choose from, I've gone for a b-side. It's a song about the bad boy in class and wanting to tame him, and Rose takes lead vocals. Pretty obvious why I've chosen it. The video is from April 2007, almost a year before Rose left to pursue her solo career, and Becki was fired. The band's gone through more lineup changes than the Sugababes.
51. My Chemical Romance - Teenagers Gerard Way plays a lead singer/fascist leader of a band. The Nazi style arm bands have two crossed hammers on. The video shows a rush of teens breaking through the door at the beginning. Now you may have read that and thought it sounded familiar. As Way has stated several times that the album this song is taken from (The Black Parade) is heavily based upon Pink Floyd's The Wall, even to the point where the album loops (the album starts with the second half of a sentence found at the end of the album) it's obviously a loving homage rather than a shameless ripoff.
As I've not done massive big long updates for any of my gigs this year, I thought I'd squeeze them all in to one.
February 4th - Amanda Palmer (Electric Ballroom, London) I didn't really have much time to get excited about this gig as most of it was spent arranging to meet up with Hannah. Once that was done I realised that there was still a main performer to see, and it was much better than I anticipated. It wasn't like your usual straightforward gig in that there was a LOT of audience interaction - an auction mid set, actors in the crowd, some fucking strange people beforehand with masks on giving out playing cards.
And then we got the rant about how none of the UK radio stations would play the jaunty upbeat song making light of abortion/date rape as it might offend someone, so she played a slow tempo version. And couldn't keep a straight face.
Great fun, especially with the Dresden Dolls songs played unexpectedly. 8.5/10
February 13th - Rosie & The Goldbug (Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, London) I had been looking forward to this gig for two months ever since I got the album. It took place in a bowling alley, which is still a very strange place to see a gig - with bowling and karaoke taking place behind and to the side of the stage. The pre-gig DJ (VV from the Kills) played some excellent tunes - Bikini Kill's Rebel Yell and White Stripes - Hand Springs being the highlights. Unfortunately, due to the band not coming on stage until 10:15 and having to get the coach home we missed some of the set, but what we did see was absolutely excellent and I would see them again in a heartbeat.
Superb live band, on top of their game. 9.3/10
February 23rd - Spinnerette (Islington Academy, London) After two great gigs, Spinnerette had a lot to live up to. Given that I'd seen the Distillers in their prime comparisons would be inevitable, no matter how hard I tried not to make them. Support band Future of the Left weren't as bad as I remembered them to be, and Steve and Laura from Blood Red Shoes came up to us and had a chat between the two. Once I'd got it into my head that these weren't the Distillers I had a great time, Brody's still as cool as fuck even after six years away from performing live, and the new stuff sounds good. Even though one song had a note for note identical intro to Manic Street Preachers - Judge Y'rself which had me singing along to the wrong song.
Material sounds good, but they'd only played 3 live gigs and it showed. 7.5/10
March 10th - Blood Red Shoes (Chinnerys, Southend) Firstly, I never want to visit Southend again as long as I live. It makes Margate look beautiful. If Garbage announced a one off final gig there supported by the original Pipettes and Rilo Kiley, I'd still have reservations. That said, the gig itself was fun. Was good to see people again, the alcohol was reasonably priced (which may have contributed to my enjoyment), the new songs sounded good and I got a t-shirt. The stage invasion was actually rather funny - Southend crowds aren't as enthusiastic as London ones.
They can always be relied upon for a good gig, but as nothing stuck out in my mind, 8.0/10
April 5th - Rose Elinor Dougall (The Old Queens Head, London) This was a spur of the moment gig - literally the night before I was talking to Dana about her and idly wondered when Rose was playing in London next. As it was the following day and I had the Monday afterwards off I took myself off to London to see her. After sitting in the beer garden near to her reading my book while eating my dinner (and being the only person outside not smoking) I took myself upstairs to the venue, and nabbed myself an amazingly comfortably leather armchair with a great view of the stage. It was the most comfortable I've ever been at a gig and being in a relaxed seating position worked well with her music. Every song was great, especially the live version of May Holiday.
Probably what kick started my crush on her. 9.8/10
April 25th - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Shepherd's Bush Empire, London) I was not excited about this gig at all beforehand. The Gills had ground out a 0-0 draw that ended our automatic promotion hopes, and I was not impressed with the material from the third album. In the end I was only going up for Laura and Rob but I'd forgotten one crucial thing - the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are always good live. Every single thing about the set crackled, especially hearing Pin and Art Star. Really glad I went.
Another fantastic live set. 8/10
May 18th - Johnny Foreigner (Flowerpot, London) Random free gig that I entered for the hell of it. Wanted to see them again as I hadn't seen them since September and it was the longest I'd gone without seeing them since I first heard of them. The new stuff was great, Kelly looked hot as a redhead (but then again I would say that, wouldn't I?) and I'm really looking forward to the album. The JoFo fangirls over on Kelly's side actually freaked the band out too.
By the numbers - good, but nothing special. 7.5/10
May 21st - Rosie & The Goldbug (Water Rats, London) After Johnny Foreigner I was too shattered to go to Metric the following night, and so wasn't too up for this gig either. Another late stage time for the band but I timed my travel well enough so that I arrived down the centre just as the band got on stage, saw a brief 8 song set, then buggered off home again. Still, Rosie was pleased to have someone to sing along with (having someone that pretty singing "you and me, lets fuck forever" to me was a definite highlight) - I just wish they'd played for longer.
Still want to see them again, another gig left unfulfilled. 8.0/10
June 8th - Rose Elinor Dougall (Luminaire, Kilburn) I was in a strange mood before this gig. A can of super strength Strongbow on top of a can of Relentless left me shaken, and the proggy sounds of the support band combined with the heat in the venue sent me back outside for fresh air and to calm down, where Rose was having a fag. I ended up having a conversation with her which at times veered dangerously close to Jeff Murdock territory. Back in the gig and another excellent set, which was closed by a very guitar led Falling Over - not the sort of song you'd expect given the previous half an hour of a more psychedelic Rilo Kiley style music. That was followed by her first ever solo encore.
Given that as soon as I got home I was straight on the myspace looking for her next date in London, 9/10
June 9th - Rose Elinor Dougall (Puregroove records, London) Well, it just happened to be the day after. Half day of holiday booked and I was up off to London to see her again. I popped in to Forbidden Planet on the off chance they had a copy of the Pipettes based comic book that I bought a few months previously, and luckily they did. I picked up a copy, still unsure as to how well it would go down, and walked from Covent Garden to Barbican to find a cafe masquerading as a record shop. There were only about a dozen people there to see her, it having been announced very late on, but she remembered me from the previous night and thanked me for coming two nights in a row (fnarr) and then found out I was from Canterbury, so was even more impressed with my attendance. I don't know if it was put upon or real but it was nice that she said it anyway.
The gig was way more stripped down than the previous night, but just as fun. 9/10
