RethinkPopMusic Best of 2009

RethinkPopMusic’s Top 10 Singles, Albums and Videos of 2009… don’t mind our bias.

Top 10 Singles of 2009

1. Empire of the Sun – “Walking on a Dream”

2. Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”

3. Animal Collective – “My Girls”

4. Mumford and Sons – “Little Lion Man”

5. Florence and the Machine – “You’ve got the Love”

6. White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”

7. Passion Pit – “The Reeling”

8. Manchester Orchestra – “I’ve Got Friends”

9. White Lies – “Farewell to the Fairground”

10. New Villager – “Rich Doors”

Top 10 Albums of 2009

1. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimist

4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

5. Bat for Lashes – Two Suns

6. N.A.S.A. – Spirit of Apollo

7. Fever Ray – Fever Ray

8. The Antlers – Hospice

9. Paper Route – Absence

10. Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Top 10 Videos of 2009

1. Ambassadors – “Tropisms”

1.The Aviation Orange – “Radio”

1. The Vanguard – “Both Sides”

4. Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Heaven Can Wait”

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Heaven Can Wait from Charlotte Gainsbourg on Vimeo.

5. Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”

6. Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”

7. Fever Ray – “Triangle Walks”

8. The Walkmen – “On the Water”

9. MGMT – “Kids”

10. Miike Snow – “Black and Blue”

RethinkPopMusic Covers CMJ

New Villager review through the eyes and ears of Alex Beninato of The Aviation Orange

New Villager – Bowery Poetry Club – 10/21/09

New Villager must pride themselves on their stage ingenuity to pull off their dense sound. The fact that the band is only a duo (made up of Ben Bromley & Ross Simonini) must have forced them to get creative with their stage instrumentation. They don’t take the easy backing track way out that is the downfall of many bands now a days. The pair actually play their drum parts with their feet as they interchangeably play keyboards, bass, guitar, and sing. This combined with looping pedals allows the band to create a sound that seems like it would take about 4 people to make. It also keeps the set from getting stale and lifeless. We’ve all heard horror stories of MGMT’s live shows, I can assure you this is not a problem with New Villager. Although their style is a bit similar to MGMT, New Villager comes off a bit trippier. They move from pop to soul to psych. Their playing at Bowery Poetry Club was extremely tight and the band had great energy. I enjoyed their set tremendously. Despite this they didn’t really get the crowd into it. It seemed as though the audience didn’t know how to react to their music. There were a lot of blank stares. Maybe everyone was too enthralled with their show to move or maybe they were all waiting for the next band.

After Bowery Poetry we made are way to the Purevolume house where massages almost distracted from the amazing music of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson.

MBAR hit the stage with a brand new band and made us very excited for a hopefully upcoming follow up to his epic Self Titled debut.

Bowery Ballroom with Temper Trap and The Postelles reviewed by Bob Berman of RethinkPopMusic.

Already familiar with both acts I was in attendance as more of a friend/fan than angry journalist. The Postelles play straight forward pop/rock very much the likes of their obvious predecessors The Strokes and The Ramones. However, The Postelles add a sexy element that obviously gives them more mainstream appeal and rock much more lighthearted singalong choruses. While The Postelles are New York favorites and definitely in the running as the new LES torchbearer a little more refinement and variety in the setlist would definitely expedite the process.

Following The Postelles was Temper Trap who are riding on the epic single Sweet Disposition. Unfortunately, that was the only song worth hearing. While frontman Dougie Mandagi has a voice that is unparalleled their songs seem to blend into each other leaving the audience unable to differentiate. Nevertheless, riding the buzz off the first single will definitely allot for a plenty of ears to give a follow up a fair shake.