Yeasayer – Old Blood

Probably my favourite record of 2010 thus far (but we’ve got a long way to go). Yeasayer’s Old Blood bursts with synth brilliance and never lets up. The Brooklyn-based trio give us 10 delicious tracks that will give any open listener multiple popgasms.

• Official Site
• Myspace

The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

On a scale of 1-10 of pure musical journey joy, The Besnard Lakes are my 11 of recent times. And who didn’t love 2007′s The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse? The single ‘Albatross’ is gloriously epic but to get the full on psychedelic/rock experience, you need to listen to the album all the way through. There’s mood aplenty. They’ve also scored Mark Ruffalo’s upcoming film Sympathy for Delicious. They still haven’t toured Australia but hopefully next summer? :)

• Official Site
• Myspace

Surfer Blood – Astro Coast

At first, I thought I was hearing a Shins record. You can’t deny the similarities in sound. There’s also shades of Vampire Weekend, Pixies and The Beach Boys thrown into the mix too. So if you love the aforementioned bands, chances are you’ll fall in love with Surfer Blood. Enough said. Would love an Australian tour too.

• Myspace

Frightened Rabbit – Winter of Mixed Drinks

Although the new album from the Scottish indie rockers hasn’t grabbed hold of me as much as their previous record The Midnight Organ Fight, it’s by far their most commercial effort to date. Hopefully Winter of Mixed Drinks will gain the band a whole new army of fans and if you get a chance to see them live, you’ll understand just how great these guys are.

• Official Site
• Myspace

The Middle East – The Recordings Of The Middle East

Hands down my favourite Australian band at the moment and holy crap do they deserve every accolade in the world. The track ‘The Darkest Side’ (which can be downloaded here) is haunting as it is beautiful. They just finished conquering the world over at SXSW. Looking forward to seeing them live on their return to Australia after their US tour.

• Official Site
• Myspace

Part 2 coming soon!

The highlights for me were first and foremost The Decemberists. On a smaller stage and playing to a surprisingly quiet crowd to begin with, Colin Meloy and co played a number of tracks across their back catalogue which highly impressed. Really kicking myself I didn’t catch one of their solo shows now. Passion Pit were perfect summer musical fodder and again, playing on a smaller stage, brought the entire showgrounds to their feet once their massive 2009 hit ‘Sleepyhead’ surfaced. Dizzee Rascal started slowly but came through in the end. Still, I expected more. Lots of cliches too. The biggest surprise for me was Peaches. I’ve seen all her video clips before and read show reviews online but seeing her live is amazing. She brings a crazy energy and not only that, but her music is damn polished live and much better than the recordings. Muse of course, closed the show on one of the larger stages and whether you love or loathe them, you have to give them credit for owning a large crowd. They also played material from across their catalogue which made me happy since I haven’t really liked much from their last couple of albums. In the end though, a very good BDO, not a great one musically. But for organisers and the punters that came in spades, a raging success no doubt.

Anyway, let’s go already!

• See Top 5′s of 2008.
• See Top 5′s of 2007.
• See Top 5′s of 2006.

Top 5 Albums

1. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Following the critical acclaim of 2006′s ‘Fur and Gold’, Bat for Lashes reach pitch perfect with ‘Two Suns’. This is a gorgeous record, sounding like it would be the soundtrack to a dark winter wonderland in a snow covered forest, full of tall pine trees and wolves howling at the moon. Natasha Khan’s stunning vocals guide you on this journey of perfection. The single ‘Daniel’ is also one the year’s best.

2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Like Fleet Foxes last year, 2009 was Grizzly’s Bear’s. ‘Veckatimest’ has been in many Top 5-10′s and there is certainly an undeniable elegance to their indie sounds. The single ‘Two Weeks’ is a great track, full of lush vocal harmonies but the record as a whole is a great listen. They also appeared on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack with the excellent track ‘Slow Life’ which no doubt garnered them a whole new legion of fans (although fans you’d want?). Catching them in early January. Should be great!

3. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

It was only last year that the instrumental, experimental beats of Fuck Buttons gave us the brilliant ‘Street Horrrsing’. Now they give us this excellent mindfuck that is ‘Tarot Sport’. There are shades of the mighty Tangerine Dream record ‘Phaedra’ in there too. This is EXCELLENT music to design to, especially when you need something to bring you home on that final stretch of a crazy all-nighter project. I imagine it would also be amazing to drop acid with. I cannot get enough of the tracks ‘Surf Solar’ and ‘Olympians’.

4. Passion Pit – Manners

It all started when Michael Angelakos wrote a few songs for his girlfriend in 2007 and now his band is an international sensation. It was ‘Chuck of Change’ that first got my attention but I’ve grown to admire Passion Pit the more I listen to ‘Manners’. We all fell in love with the track ‘Sleepyhead’ but when the children starting singing on ‘The Reeling’ it was completely freaking awesome. The band will be here for the BDO 2010 and I can’t wait to catch them.

5. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

I don’t think there’s another band in 2009 where you feel like kicking up your shoes than Mumford & Sons. When I first heard the title track kick in with the banjo, I just had to dance – boot scootin’ style of course. It was the track ‘Little Lion Man’ that got aaaaaaalllll the attention though with the lines “I really fucked it up this time. Didn’t I my dear!” I even heard the song on commercial radio! (a shame because (a) what was I doing listening to commercial radio and (b) now drunk CUBs are going to sing this at the top of their lungs at their favourite pub/bar).

Other Notables: Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Silversun Pickups – Swoon, Lonely Island – Incredibad, Decemberists – Hazards of Love, Whitley – Go Forth, Find Mammoth, Volcano Choir – Unmap, Throw Me the Statue – Creaturesque, Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer, Metric – Fantasies, Fever Ray – Fever Ray, Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Biggest Disappointments: Editors – In This Light And On This Evening (not a good change of tune), The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (I like your old stuff better than your new stuff), Doves – Kingdom of Rust (Title track is great but I didn’t warm to the rest of the album).

Most Overrated: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – It’s Blitz.

Top 5 Films

Note: All films were released in Australia during 2009.

It’s been a fantastic year for films with some of the best examples of storytelling that has ever been.

1. Up

Easily the year’s best film as this is cinematic storytelling at its very finest. Pixar’s motto has always been “story first” and they continue to nail that aspect of filmmaking. Then again, they also managed to make me sob like a small child within the opening twenty minutes of the film. Is this nominated in the ‘Best Picture’ category at the Oscars yet? Arguably Pixar’s best film (everyone has a favourite and this is probably mine although I do have an abundance of love for Wall-E).

(read review)

2. Avatar

For sheer “Holy shit that is fucking amazing!” factor, Avatar makes it into number two spot on my list for the year. So much was riding on the success of Cameron’s comeback film and so many people wanted him to fail or were thrown off by the trailers. But come release date, the critics were silenced like ‘that’ and he delivered a visual spectacle unlike anything we’d ever seen and did it in the best Hollywood fashion there is – big and bold. And it’s still breaking box-office records. The good news is that Cameron won’t take another 12 year hiatus from filmmaking. The bad – how’s he going to top this?

(read review)

3. Moon

Everytime I hear Clint Mansell’s perfect score to this film, it takes me back to Sam and GERTY and their isolation on the moon. I’m glad Sam Rockwell finally gets a role he can really call his own because I can’t imagine anyone else as the lead. Everything I love about cinema is contained in every frame of this movie. It’s also an incredibly moving experience. See it if you haven’t already!

(read review)

4. Samson and Delilah

Sometimes I feel like I don’t cover enough Australian artists on this site – music and otherwise. It’s not that we don’t create amazing art and pop-culture; it’s just there is a world outside our walls which constantly surprises and moves me. However Warwick Thorton’s Samson and Delilah is one of the best Australian movies I’ve EVER seen. It’s incredibly well directed, acted and brings a very serious issue to the forefront without ever jumping to cliché or manipulation. There is next to no dialogue in the film and when I hear some people didn’t like the film, it saddens me. If this film doesn’t flaw you, you don’t have soul. This should also be required viewing in all Australian schools.

5. (500) Days of Summer

Probably the best indie-romcom-that-isn’t-a-romcom. What makes this work so well is the leads – Gordon-Levitt embodies the character perfectly and Zooey oozes the ultimate indie pixie-girl factor to the nth degree. It could have easily been the most annoying film of the year with the indie soundtrack, the vintage clothes but it manages to hit all the right notes when it comes to falling in love in your twenties with someone who isn’t in love with you. Oh and you also happen to love indie music. Gordon-Levitt loved doing the dance sequence in the film so much he gave the SNL audience a knock-out opening performance (unfortunately NBC have removed the video from freaking everywhere!).

Just Missed: The Hurt Locker (would be number 5 but it’s not released officially yet), Let The Right One In, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Paranormal Activity, Frost/Nixon, The Hangover, The Wrestler, Doubt and Star Trek.

Also I haven’t seen Synecdoche New York, A Serious Man, Bright Star, Up in the Air, Ponyo, or Fantastic Mr Fox. Shame on me I know.

Biggest Disappointments: Terminator Salvation – Disappointment only if you feel like a beloved entity gets raped by a shlockmeister who doesn’t know how to handle the material. McG just isn’t the man for this series – he had the right technical crew with him but completely bypassed any of the emotional elements or likable characters that James Cameron is typically so good at nailing. Not really a disappointment if you knew McG would fuck this up. Knowing – Roger Ebert put this in his Top 10 films. Ebert should lay off the meth. Yet another Nicolas Cage snoozefest.

Most Overrated: Antichrist. You either go with and accept that Von Trier has made his masterpiece or delve into this wanky piece of self-obsessed tedium. Clearly I felt the latter and that opening sequence whilst looks amazing, could have been done by any commercial film director doing a fragrance ad except Von Trier throws in a hardcore porn insert.

Worst Film: Halloween II. Worst film of the year, worst film of the decade. Nice one Rob! (read review)

Best Film Podcast: Slashfilm. Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley deliver this weekly podcast in the best way possible – totally geeking out on film and TV with a good sense of humour and fun. They talk about what they’ve been watching recently first and then typically review a film or two afterwards. They also post an ‘after dark’ podcast which is just film ramblings that can be just as much fun as the first podcast. My favourite is Number 56 where they talk about movie food. The hosts also have extremely good taste for the most part and dissect films intelligently. If you love film, the slashfilm podcasts are must-listens every week.

Top 5 Gigs

Nothing can top last year’s best year ever for live music but there were some great moments this year.

1. Fleet Foxes (2nd Jan, Prince Bandroom)

2. Bon Iver (19th Jan, Forum)

3. Frightened Rabbit (9th Jan, Northcote Social Club)

4. Phoenix (3rd Aug, Palace Theatre)

5. Josh Pyke (29th Oct, Palace Theatre)

Had tickets to but couldn’t make it dammit!: Metric, Mogwai, Black Mountain.

Note: Sorry no photos from the above shows since I didn’t take my camera along to any and I got in trouble for posting a live photo on the blog (which makes no money) which I credited the photographer for. Granted I didn’t ask them first which you should all do kiddies but let’s face it, I was excited about the show and wanted to post a shot.

Top 5 Watched TV Shows

AMAZING year of TV this year. I’m going to cheat somewhat though since I’m going to list Top 5 shows I watched this year, not necessarily FROM this year. I know I suck. Sue me.

1. Six Feet Under (entire series)

This was my year to watch this life-changing series that will forever be with me for the rest of my days. So many moments in this show are classics but that finale was the absolute perfect way to end the series. You know those lists of “100 things you should do before you die”, one of them is to watch the entire series right away.

2. Breaking Bad (seasons 1 and 2)

My favourite and best show of 2009 period. Who hasn’t wanted to start their own meth lab to help support the family? Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are TV’s best couple if you ask me. “Wait.. Wait.. Are you building a robot?”. Ahhahahah just watch this already.

3. Eastbound & Down (season 1)

Danny McBride finally has material that only he can completely own and Kenny Powers is one of the year’s most hilarious characters. So many great lines and moments. Easily Jody Hill’s best work. Can’t wait for season 2. Buy now. You won’t be disappointed.

4. Dexter (season 4)

After a slightly disappointing third season, Dexter hits back hard with this excellent season due to the exceptional performance from John Lithgow as the Trinity killer. Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C Hall also excel but it’s the season finale that shocks the most. Season 5 will be a change but kudos to the writers for having balls.

5. True Blood (season 1 and 2)

Whilst season one was all about establishing the characters and settings, season two expanded the Alan Ball vampire universe with some interesting characters and developments. Although season two was a little uneven and the finale slightly anti-climactic, it was still my favourite of the two. Season 3 apparently brings in the werewolf factor (thanks Twilight!). Lyns and I threw a True Blood Halloween themed party this year too, complete with plenty of V.

Other Notables: Lost (Season 5) – If you’ve stayed with this show throughout the great and the slightly less great, most likely on DVD, then season 5 was another stunner and the whole time travel mechanism was a perfect shift the show needed. CANNOT WAIT for the final season starting in Feb! Californication (season 3) – Duchovny is so perfect as Hank and Susan Sarandon’s daughter shows off more than just acting talent. Curb Your Enthusiasm final season – I’m not quite sure the Seinfeld reunion was as good as it could have been but that second last episode addressing the Michael Richard’s racist tirade was fucking side-splittingly hilarious. SNL Digital Shorts – The Lonely Island videos are all excellent. They really need to release a DVD with everything they have done up until the end of 2009.

Slight Disappointing: Flight of the Conchords (season 2). After a stellar first season, the New Zealand boys have their work cut out for them after they used 90% of their material for season 1. Season 2 wasn’t bad it just wasn’t as great as the first. Still the Michel Gondry directed episode featuring – ‘Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor’ was a highlight.

Top 5 Personal Flickr Favourites

2009 was a year when I removed myself from band photography due to the countless gigs I shot for years for no money at all. You spend so much time shooting for various publications which make buck loads of cash and you get nothing in return. When people say “but you do it for the love”, that’s true but “love” doesn’t pay the bills when you reach thirty.

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Top 5 Moments

1. 1 Year Wedding Anniversary

Lyns and I clocked the one year anniversary in style. It was an amazing day. They say the 1st year of marriage can be the hardest but we must have beat the odds.

2. My 30th

I got old but at least I celebrated with my bestest of friends despite nasty bushfires raging throughout Victoria. It was a conflicting night. Turning 30 certainly puts many things into perspective.

3. James Sann Photography

I launched my photography business this year and I feel like I’ve grown as a photographer this year in particular. Shooting weddings is much harder and more creative than I ever imagined. I remember when I was younger that shooting weddings seemed so pedestrian but I can now say with absolutely certainty, not anyone can do it. I love continuing to refine my skills though and new gear and techniques certainly help too. Plenty of great clients in 2010 too!

4. Meeting new people

I met some truly amazing people this year and gained new friendships which I am very fortunate enough to discover. They say it’s harder to find friends the older you get but if you are open to it and not a complete knobhead, it’s really not that hard. Australian’s are a friendly mob.

5. Seeing Avatar

I had to tack this on at the end since I love film so much and well I had been waiting to see this damn film for years and years. An event movie doesn’t come along very often and whilst Michael Bay smashes robots on screen for nearly three hours of monotonous bore, Cameron turns that dial to eleven and leaves you wanting more. Hail to the king baby!

2010? WTF? Are we into the future already?