(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s song/video list is from CVLTS’ Gaurav Bashyakarla. Fuck YouTube embeds – these are Vimeo links!

Newest-oldest 2010 a/v discoveries:

- Daytime Television – “I Hurt So Much”

- Back To The Future The Ride – “CGI Fridays”

- The Sweethearts – “Burning Through the Night”

- Forest Swords – “Rattling Cage”

- Oneohtrix Point Never – “Ouroboros”

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s post comes from Brendan Hangauer, singer/songwriter for Fourth Of July, whose terrific sophomore LP “Before Our Hearts Explode!” came out this Fall.

i had three different songs that really stuck with me this year:

1. titus andronicus – “a more perfect union”

NEW JERSEY+THE BOSS+RANCID+BEING YOUNG AND PISSED OFF IN THE YEAR 2010= TITUS ANDRONICUS i like it!

my favorite lyrics:

“Because where I’m going to now, no one can ever hurt me
Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry
No, I never wanted to change the world, but I’m looking for a new New Jersey
Because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die”

2. gorillaz – “to binge” (mp3)

i really wanted to hate this band and for the most part i do.  the whole cartoon thing just seems totally lame to me.  anyways..my sister and nephew got into this album when it came out.  they would always make me listen to it in the car driving around in the summer.  finally this song came on and i have to admit: there is no better song in the whole wide world to have playing while you drive around in the summer time!!  after i heard this song it was the only thing i would listen to in her car.  we would turn the volume up as loud as we could and drive around downtown lawrence with the windows down singing along…..with no shame.

3. bruce springsteen – the promise

this song is a b-side on the reissue of darkness on the edge of town.  this song and video just kick ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQh8yxEkzrY

my favorite lyrics:

“Well now I built that Challenger by myself
But I needed money and so I sold it
I lived a secret I should’a kept to myself
But I got drunk one night and I told it”

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s list/underground weather report is by Tracey Trance, our main man in Washington.

TRACEY TRANCE TOP 11 RELEASES OF 2THOUSAND10
what i got passed and what i know of that rule(d) me: in sortof a particular order but not really too much, good for effect::

1. The Savage Young Taterbug (currently Timothy Wind) — Syrupy Evenings [cassette release on Night-People. halloween forever, a scarecrow's endeavor. neil cassady rhapsody]

2. Ancestral Diet — VITRIOL [LP release by Turned Word & Saxwand, mems Caethua, C-Section 8, flakmask. chill industrial stone-fest!]

3. Normanoak — Elixer [cassette release on Magnetic South, to borrow a term from the bad boys at Foxy Digitalis this tape has been, of yet, 'criminally limited' at 50 -- none of which ever made it out of the central Indiana area. some say it's too reverby but chris, seth, and the gang cranked out anther true time-testin' document]

4. Clear Leader — [self titled cassette (mems Crude Hill,...?) Gross Domestic Product # 008 ~ chorus on the bass and thin guitar dance 2 steps with the 1 step drums in the haunting way that it seems only providence folks can do stuff]

5. CAEN — STULSAFT [cassette release on Gutter Rash MMX... in a town in oregon there's a dude named Gordon who is involved w lotsa noise and metal and does it as well as anyone has or will]

5.5 CONCERN — Caesarean [Lp release by Arbor Gordon.]

*** 5 and 5.5 are the chill side of Gordon’s output which is all i happen to hav copies of so far.. haven’t heard knelt rote lp yet – heard it’s scarier than a lotta stuff, also plays as Oscillating Innards]

6. Nonhorse — The Fear of Infinity [cassette release part of the HYPNO/FEAR TAPE SYSTEM by G. Lucas Crane's Socialized Topic Logistics-- silent barn hero and member of woods.. mind melter... freakazoid meditator... The Fear of Infinity!!]

7. (Expressway) DJ Yo-Yo Dieting — Bubblethug [2xLP release by Weird Forest, a noise graduate's choppt & screwd masters thesis, classy and F'd, member of the dynamic duo Diamond Catalog]

8. Order Out of Chaos (comp.) [cassette release # 68 in the Mississippi Records tape series, packed with musicas the world over but, like, all the stript peaceful and weird versions; their well is deeeeeep and this stuff they selected for the tape (lotsa similar-veign vinyl from them now as always), no muscle only skeleton as some stuff has to be listened to on tape]

9. Meester Magpie — cassette in purple tied cloth traded for at Bitch Pork [self released chicago jammers and rippers, psychedelia sludge noise spray,, on MOSS tapes]

10. SHV / Swamp Tease / Russian Tsarlag — whatever ally and/or carlos did or are doing right now since it’s not 2011 yet.

11. JOCK TORTURE — steam soak 1991 [harsh noise, REDNECK)]

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s post is by Steve Swyers aka Say My Name aka The Kid. His S/T EP came out earlier this year on Range Life.

Song: “Galaxy in Janaki” by Flying Lotus

Song Link: HERE (mp3)

I picture skeezy, strung-out aliens lazily swaying to this song in some decrepit Martian Studio 54. The combination of harp, syrupy strings, slightly off-beat percussion, spacey keys, and the wankiest bass playing this side of a Victor Wooten CD works beautifully, somehow. Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but I have a feeling this Flying Lotus kid is going places.

- Steve.

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s list of Siren Songs comes from Radical Fortress King, Cheesus Creator (scroll to the bottom) and Fuck Yeah! Go Team! Coach, Joey Gee. (mp3′s for all tracks can be found HERE)

“Girls, girls, girls.”

No, this isn’t about the band Girls, but holy shit how good was their new ep this year? Right? Right??

Girls: the gender. Seriously, while nearly every single human being did a great job in 2010 with writing music, it seems that women (how good was the Women record?!) put out the most creative and memorable songs of the year. Without further hype or delay, here are my 5 choice lady cuts:

1) Sure, Glasser’s “Apply” had shown up on a single in 2009, but it wasn’t until this year’s full length “Ring” that the song had reached it’s full potential. It’s completely batty and just pulses throughout your body, probably giving you some sort of deadly cancer with repeated listens. Oh well, it was worth it.

2) Choosing a song from “The Waves”, Tamaryn’s debut long player, was like choosing a favourite child: I love all of those mother fuckers equally and had a great time conceiving each of them. In the end it was down to this one and “Dawning”, a song that I suggest you download anyway. “Love Fade” is the first song that really got me, and as it should’ve: it is just polarizing, and a great example of making the shoegaze sound work within the ideals of pop. I know that making music listenable sounds like a crazy concept these days, but I think it’s an idea that might take off.

3) Did you see the cover to SLEEP ∞ OVER’s single for “Outer Limits”? It’s got a fuzzy gash right on it, which is entirely badass. Looking at that (staring even) while listening to the fuzzy sugar goodness on the a-side is truly a religious experience: Amen.

4) I will tell you a secret: Beach House’s “Teen Dream” is going to be my #1 record of 2010. I’ve been saying that all year, and shockingly (or not so shockingly) it stuck. It’s because it’s a testament to the dying art of making a full album of complete quality, which in turn makes it near impossible to pluck a track from it for posting purposes. However, I did and I went with “Silver Soul” because it is just so damn catchy, like an audibly delicious-nostalgia-laced-comic-included piece of Bazooka Joe gum for 5 cents at the Cornwall Bridge video store (RIP) and I’m giving it to you for free. How big can you blow your bubble, Joe?

5) Here is the dramatic conclusion: Buffalo Moon not only crafted a classic in “Beach Boy”, but it’s the summer song to end all summer songs. Sorry 2011, but it’s gonna be tough to touch this mother fucker. It was a sunny mix tape staple and even still sounds good with the fear of snow front and center in our minds.

Thank you 2010 for these songs. While there was no “riot grrrl” or “girl power” resurgence, it doesn’t matter because it’s the 21st century and all the beautiful babies of the galaxy are on the same playing field… except in music, where the dudes got slaughtered by the opposite sex. And I thank each and every one of them for it.

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s post comes from Jordan Geiger, of Minus Story and Hospital Ships (who put out a pretty sweet 7″ this year and for whom Say My Name did this enchantingly slanted remix).

Song: “Conjunction Junction” by Cowboy Indian Bear

Song Link: HERE

Note: Cowboy Indian Bear plays this Saturday night, December 11th, at the Bottleneck in Lawrence

Each Other All the Time by Cowboy Indian Bear was one of my favorite records of 2010.  The album has many charms, one of the foremost being the almost overwhelmingly melodic catchiness of the songs.  It’s a really well-crafted pop record, each verse leading you effortlessly into the next verse, to the chorus, and so on.  In addition to the band itself, the skills of the engineer/producer Josh Browning surely have something to do with it.  (The engineering and mixing are some of the best on any Lawrence-produced record ever, in my opinion.)  It’s a very welcoming album, sequenced to draw you in and through it all the way to the end. The song that has ended up being my favorite, “Conjunction Junction”, however, took the longest out of all the songs to reveal its greatness to me.  First off, it’s more or less the same two musical parts, over and over until the end.  Second, C.J.’s (Is it C.J. or Marty?  Or both of them? I’m not sure, actually,) and Katlyn’s vocals are mixed really low, especially compared to the rest of the more immediately accessible songs. Third, while the singing itself is incredibly soulful, it’s more or less incomprehensible.  They’re sort of mumbled mostly, and at one point, I always imagine that C.J. was really angry or drunk when he did the take. That is, until the “chorus” which is crystal clear:  “So, get off your knees, look around you at what you’re gonna be.”  It’s a really powerful moment, which wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t just grooved along and mumbled for a few minutes.  The whole song up to that point is an unbroken tapestry of different sounds, none of which stick out in a conventional ‘lead’ role, except maybe the inventive drumming, a mix of electronic beats and real drums, something they do really well on the whole record.  Beau Bruns is one of the best drummers in Lawrence, that is for sure.  Go see them live, you will have to agree.  The only time I’ve seen them play was in Omaha, and I was really impressed as I watched Beau fucking wallop the drums the whole time and take chugs out of a PBR in between fills at one point.  It seems like he’s into prog-rock, which is a pre-requisite to being a good rock drummer in my book.  Do yourself a favor and download this song, then head to Love Garden and buy their record and see them live.

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Maybe it’s because our culture is in chaos, but 2010 was a particularly good year for what you could loosely call “ambient” music. am*bi*ent adj. Surrounding; encircling. The music that does this tends to forgo the pop structure of verses and choruses, is often instrumental, and succeeds or fails to the extent that it seeps into the cracks, fills the empty space, relaxes you, sends you daydreaming…  These tracks are instant escapes, mirrored-shades, stoned trips to the ear masseuse for a desperately needed rubdown. And, oh yeah, they’re happy-endings. — Zaguar

1. “Sparkly Portal” by Many Mansions // Song Link: Pitchfork Forkcast

2. “Flooded Forest” by CVLTS // Song Link: Altered Zones

3. “Soft Vision” by Tropics // Song Link: Pitchfork Forkcast

4. “Rafting Starlit Everglades” by Baths // Song Link: YouTube

5. “Lalibela” by Caribou // Song Link: aw music (mp3)

6. “Feeling Today” by Abacus // Song Link: Pitchfork Forkcast

7. “Dive” by Infinite Body // Song Link: Pitchfork Forkcast

8. “The Silhouettes” by Sam Prekop // Song Link: Stereogum

9. “Microrangers” by CVLTS // Song Link: Altered Zones

10. “We Have To Know” by Blackbird Blackbird and Neon Canyon // Song Link: Blackbird Blackbird tumblr

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Song: “Better Water” by Power Animal

Song Link: Weekly Tape Deck

Willie Nelson’s never sounded like more of a force than he does reverse-sampled and pushed to the brink in the verses of “Better Water”. His voice, weathered and warbly, takes the place of – and is more pleasing than – any keyboard, piano, organ, synthesizer, wurlitzer. It’s a new instrument, readily applied as choral ecstasy. Fuck. Yes.

This seems like the kind of song you’d make if you took a break-up road trip with your girlfriend. And then she decided to fly home. And you grabbed a few old Willie Nelson cassettes from a highway gas station and played the shit out of them, blaring them to distortion as you drove, closing your eyes – recklessly – for 5 seconds, 6 seconds, singing out at the top of your lungs just to feel that release, that relief.

You want to thank – and incorporate – Willie. You want to remember your feelings of scattered worth, the sadness you felt because you couldn’t fundamentally fulfill someone you loved. You write it and sing it and record it, playing almost all the parts. And then you drink half a liter of whiskey, get sad and mad all over again, sit down at the broken drums and play out your stumbling, pounding heart.

Zaguar

Song: “Hey Cool Kid (Memoryhouse Remix)” by Cloud Nothings

Song Link: Pitchfork

I got hooked on this Memoryhouse remix long before I listened to the original and so I heard the tone of “Hey Cool Kid” as wistfully admiring.
But, uh, no…
The Cloud Nothings original is a pissy, pithy “Positively 4th Street” – a feather-ruffling retaliation against an insufferable someone.
It’s really a marvel, then, how copacetic Memoryhouse makes things, sonically spiking the Mountain Dew with smuggled Absinthe. All that angst gets blown like hot air through a fog machine; friction meets flanger.

Thinking back to my first listens where I thought “Hey Cool Kid” was a soundtrack for cool kid glorification, I couldn’t shake the memory of some footage I’d shot one Halloween of my friend Priest.
He was dressed d.i.y. Cirque du Soleil – a mask,wig, silver bodysuit, spring-loaded stilts. Over the course of the night he revealed himself and then proceeded to put on a solo dance clinic at an after hours party. It was one of the coolest “cool kid” performances I’d ever seen, a chess-like guessing game locked in check-mate.

I wound up finding the footage and putting together a video, which you can see HERE, and sent a link to Memoryhouse.
“Thanks for the video!” they responded.  ”It kind of weirded us out but it’s definitely appropriate for the track, haha.”

(This is our 3rd annual “Favorite Songs” series. It’s a forum for Range Life friends and family to share and celebrate the songs that moved us and meant something to us in 2010. Songs are presented in no particular order. We’re posting weekdays until we’re spent, so keep checking back. Submissions are welcome! Send a song link and whatever you want to write to zach@rangeliferecords.com)

Today’s post is a Top 10 from our man E*ROCK, who runs the Portland labels Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat

“Motorcycle, I Love You” by Moon Duo
Links: Hype Machine or YouTube (Live)
One of my favorite and most listened to bands from 2010 would have to be Moon Duo. I had their Escape album on repeat for weeks. A great fuzzed out minimalist drug-rock sound with really great tones. Minimal repetitive guitar riffs over basic floor tom+tamborine rock roll beats and buried vocals along the lines of Jesus & Mary Chain doing covers of Suicide, or chopped and screwed versions of The Gories mixed with Neu.

“Balagan” by Turk Disco
Link: Plugged Not Thugged (mp3)
After my obsession with Dj Mujava’s “Township Funk” (2008) I’ve been on the search for more of this type of thing. “Township Funk” was dubbed South African Kwaito as far as genre, but any other Kawito I’ve found sounded more like African hip-hop than weird, catchy, African electro house, which eventually led me to going more Global Bass, and then finding house tracks with a more folk/Balakan/rock influence. One night I was searching youtube for “Turkish Disco” and landed on this gem of a track and also very weird video.

“FanfareOne” by Riva Starr
Link: Rcrd Lbl
Continuing my theme of strange house/folk/Balkan/rock, Riva Starr has been doing some great tracks and I loved this killer dance track with atypical latin swing, mostly I love on the horn hooks! Free download via Rrcd Lbl, great deal there. If you have favorite house tracks based on horn samples please email me.

“Neckbrace” by Ratatat
Link: YouTube
The weirdest and catchiest song on LP4; tweaked futuristic vocoder disco with string flourishes!? I can’t get tired of this song.

VRIL LP by The Dangerous Boys Club
Buy Link: Fast Weapons
I don’t actually have a copy of this record (yet), but I did go to see them live whenever possible in 2010 and was at the record release party, so I know its out!

Totaled LP by Indian Jewelry
Link: iTunes Preview
As long as were talking about experimental, dark, rock bands, I don’t have a specific song to mention here either but Indian Jewelry always come to mind. I like these guys and they had a new record in 2010 and they are ALWAYS on tour.

“Covered in Bugs (2010 Feeling without Touching 12inch version)” by Glass Candy
Link: Turntable Lab
Glass Candy gets new age with surrealistic spoken word lyrics and sax solos. Getting so weird on this one, and its great.

“Panther” by White Flight
Link: FADER (mp3)
Finally released! The most epic pop track ever about the aliens that live inside of Mount Shasta. I’m not just saying this because its Zach’s blog!

“Bed Intruder Song” by Antoine Dodson
Link: YouTube
The best viral video remix of the year; I actually bought the mp3 on iTunes after seeing this video. Really great hook!

LIl’ Wayne (I can’t even pick a particular song)
Still the best rapper of 2010. You can keep the Kanye and Drake albums. Kei$ha is embarrassing, no matter how you look at it.

E*Rock