The Aviation Orange Top 10 of 2009

RethinkPopMusic sat down with The Aviation Orange to find out what were their Top 10 Albums and Singles of 2009.

Albums:

Grizzly Bear – Vecktamist
Wild Bests – Two Dancers
The xx – The xx
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amedeus Pheonix
Passion Pit – Manners
The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – It’s Blitz
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
Built to Spill – There is No Enemy
Islands – Vapours
Bat For Lashes Two Suns

Singles:

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
Wild Beasts – All the Kings Men
Karen O & The Kids – All is love
Phoenix – 1901
Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
Miike Snow – Animal
Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move
The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – Heads will Roll or Soft Shock
Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Everything with You
Pitbull – Hotel Room Service

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”

Passion Pit on Jimmy Fallon

I am a huge Passion Pit fan, however don’t record something if you can’t play it live. I hear bass, but don’t see a bassist. Do they really need all three guys on keys? Also, is it just me or does Michael look lost as he wanders around the stage without his keyboard in front of him?

Some things just sound better in the studio

So, NPR just did a nice article about the Passion Pit live show but failed to mention one very important fact… Michael can’t sing.

Now I am not one to criticize without warrant and I am honestly a fan of Passion Pit. I have known the guys for a couple years now and even got Sleepyhead on MTVU when I worked there. But this new album, Manners, has the guys sounding far different (too good honestly) in comparison to the Chunk of Change EP. And I have a feeling these new Passion Pit fans are going to be gravely disappointed with what they get with the live show.

Obviously I have no remedy for this paradigm, but I thought Passion Pit had a great thing going and I know too much studio tweaking really hurts a band when they can’t reciprocate the sound live. Check out the NPR article below and a link to the set they played in DC. Also, read some of the article comments… not very nice.

NPR.org, June 9, 2009 – Passion Pit is poised to be one of the year’s breakout bands. Hailing from Cambridge, Mass., the brash and high-energy electronic outfit received a ton of hype thanks to last summer’s single “Sleepyhead,” a concise burst of blissful electronic pop. A year later, Passion Pit follows up its debut EP, Chunk of Change, with its first full-length album: Manners pairs that glossy, ebullient music with dark, soul-searching songs. Hear selections from Manners and more in a full concert recorded live from Washington, D.C. The show includes an opening performance by the Brooklyn-based band Harlem Shakes.

Passion Pit’s fun and danceable music is crammed with soaring synth leads, propulsive beats and rhythmic computer blips, falsetto vocals and relentless hooks.

The band originally began as the one-man effort of singer-songwriter Michael Angelakos to create a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend. Angelakos soon formed the full group in late 2007, adding Ian Hultquist (keyboards), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth/samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums).

The breezy rock group Harlem Shakes started generating buzz for its sparkling live shows in 2007 and released its full-length debut in March of this year. Technicolor Health has drawn comparisons to The Elephant Six Collective and Paul Simon. Harlem Shakes have toured with Deerhoof, Vampire Weekend, and Beirut, and opened for bands like Wire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Arctic Monkeys.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105109499

The National Falceto Championships

Another night and another sold out show at Bowery Ballroom. I must say that I am biased when it comes to Passion Pit and Paper Route and I like to take credit for introducing the bands to each other. Nevertheless, it was apparent that this tour may be getting the better of these two immensely talented groups.

Some observations from the night:

The crowd was crazy young… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “I keep getting older, they stay the same age.”

Ayad is going to be a star in his own right. Something about a kid who jumps up and down in excitement after receiving his green card is enough evidence for me to make such a statement.

Paper Route is an elite band with vocalists who never disappoint despite shitty cuban food.

Michael loves him some grilled peanut butter and banana sammies.

Overall, the show was excellent. Passion Pit played a couple new tunes and I was informed that this Bowery show is the last of the old set. I won’t name my source, but this is definitely incentive to go check them out when they tour in support of the new album.