The Power of Ten: 10 Albums for 10/10/10

It’s 10:10 AM on 10/10/10. A perfect 10. These tri-numeral dates come around once a year and this year it falls on the number 10. Is it an auspicious day or a bunch of hullaballoo? There is a certain completeness of order with the number 10. For the Chinese the number is lucky, representing perfection or completion. We’re born with 10 fingers and 10 toes after all. Perfect beauty is measured on its scale. Top 10 lists are ubiquitous. And any respectable album contains at least 10 songs.

If you’re technologically-inclined, today is a “binary” day. The ones-and-zeros representing the binary code or the mathematical language “spoken” by computers to create all things digital. Converting the date 10/10/10 to binary code gives us 101010. And in the binary counting system, that number translates to 42, which means…absolutely nothing.

But hey, it’s a nice theme for a post isn’t it? And everyone loves a top 10 list. So, here’s mine.  The 10 albums I’m obsessed with on this month, this day, this year. The albums I have on heavy rotation right now and keep coming back to again and again. Ten, in a long list, of albums you should most definitely own. Listed in no particular order, they are:

Artist: Royal Baths
Album: Litanies
Track: “Nikki Don’t”

Artist: Deerhunter
Album: Halcyon Digest
Track: “Desire Lines”

Artist: Sea of Bees
Album: Songs for the Raven
Track: “Marmalade

Artist: Sonny & The Sunsets
Album: Tomorrow is Alright
Track: “Lovin’ on an Older Gal”

ArtistLower Dens
AlbumTwin Hand Movement
Track: “A Dog’s Dick”

ArtistTame Impala
AlbumInnerspeaker
Track: “Vital Signs”

Artist: Future Islands
Album: In the Evening Air
Track: “As I Fall”

Artist: Ty Segall
AlbumMelted
Track: “Cesar

Artist: Tamaryn
AlbumThe Waves
Track: “Mild Confusion”

Best of 2009 by Ben Van Houten of The Bay Bridged

Who: Ben Van Houten, Co-founder
Blog: The Bay Bridged
Twitter: @thebaybridged

The OCMD Best of 2009 Questionnaire

  1. Best Album: Girls – Album / The Fresh & Onlys – Grey-Eyed Girls
  2. Most Overlooked Album: Sonny & The Sunsets – Tomorrow is Alright / Former Ghosts – Fleurs / Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard – ‘Em Are I
  3. Best Song: Girls – “Hellhole Ratrace” / Garrett Pierce – “Can I Stop Breathing?” / Odawas – “Harmless Lover’s Discourse”
  4. Best Live Show: The Mountain Goats at the Swedish American Hall for Noise Pop / Every time I see Thee Oh Sees
  5. Band/Artist I am most happy to have discovered: Grizzly Bear (I finally get it with Veckatimest)
  6. Band/Artist I kick myself for missing: Cass McCombs/Papercuts/Girls show at Great American Music Hall.  Catacombs is an unreal album that I just started getting into a month too late.
  7. Band/Artist everyone seems to love but I just can’t get behind: Girl Talk. He puts on an energetic live show, but I just can’t get into the albums.  I appreciate the technique and skill involved, but I can’t really sit down and listen to a Girl Talk record.
  8. Favorite SF Band: THEY’RE ALL MY FAVORITES.
  9. One to Watch in 2010: Adam Stephens