TVD's 2010 | A few of our favorite things...

All Top 10 Lists are bullshit.

There - I said it. Yours, your favorite blog's, Pitchfork's, Stereogum's, Rolling Stone's, your local City Paper - whatever. Who cares how you've numbered and ordered things according to your collective taste from the past year? (Especially if you've given Kanye's latest a 10.0 or 5 stars—your taste is bullshit.)

Man, that feels good to say, hm?

If you're to navel gaze then, why not spotlight the folks who actually affected you over the previous year, who dropped a little ear candy and some good wishes along the way. A dose of insight perhaps? We're going to have a bit of a go at that this week as the year winds down.

Looking back, TVD had quite a number of 'Takeover Weeks" by some lovely ladies this year. So, we thought we'd kick off our lil' 2010 retrospective this morning with the women who made us look forward to turning on the lights each morning at TVD HQ and come to work:



The Submarines | The week of January 11, 2010

"...I just came inside from making this little mp3 with John from an old 78 of Billie Holiday's, "The Very Thought of You." John gave me a beautiful old phonograph, a Columbia Graphophone, for my birthday a couple of years ago. This is one of the nicest 78s we've collected.

Most of the others are cheapies from the flea markets—Tahitian recordings, Hawaiian guitar music, strange old jazz tunes with naughty lyrics. It's a little rough actually listening to them because they're quite harsh. The phrase 'put a sock in it,' comes from muffling the cone of the phonograph, which we usually do. But, it's fascinating to think you're hearing these recordings just as people did back when the records were pressed—there's a real connection to that time period, in the decades before the technology evolved to give the players a richer sound..."

The Submarines - Tugboat (Mp3)



Exit Clov | The week of January 25, 2010

"...This unilateral intervention is warranted by a momentous occasion for the band—namely the release of our brand new record, Memento Mori. Latin for "remember your mortality," Memento Mori is a departure from our previous material. It's a little on the heavy and melancholy side, but it's not without its moments of hope, brilliance and happiness...".

Exit Clov - District Menagerie (Mp3)



The Watson Twins | The week of February 8, 2010

"...We spent our childhood listening to records, staring at the sleeve for hours while listening to each track intently... there is a ritual that comes with flipping each side and so seeing this resurgence brings what I call the nostalgic tidal wave. A large beautiful sonic wave that we hope people will explore..."

The Watson Twins - U-N-Me (Mp3)



Jesca Hoop | The week of August 2, 2010

"...I'll never forget listening to Joni Mitchell's 'Song for a Seagull' on vinyl one a misty morning while sitting on the covered porch in a rocking chair amidst the redwood trees.

The songs, the mist, the tea, the trees all became the same thing a total environment. We listened to the record like it was a movie. And again and again. That record (and on vinyl) signifies those days of a gorgeous simplicity... of unfettered youth... of freedom..."

Jesca Hoop - Feast Of The Heart (Mp3)



The Mynabirds | The week of September 20, 2010

"...The long drive between Toronto and Montreal included a long conversation about great lyricists. I realized three of my all-time favorites are Canadian: Joni Mitchell, for knowing how to set a scene; Leonard Cohen, for his Zen way saying the most with the least; and Neil Young, for his jazz standard strength in simplicity. Then we all wondered aloud about the great lyricists of today. Who's our Dylan? Who can turn a phrase and get the zeitgeist of our whole generation? Do we have a zeitgeist? Or are we just the dregs of a non-movement, content with our bougie coffees and fancy phones while the world turns to shit?

I'd like to think not, to hope that the good voices will rise above the top 40 radio crap and redeem us. Sorry for the rant. Probably just preaching to the choir anyway. (Good that we've got a choir on the good side.) But seriously, who moves you these days, lyrically? How do you feel about politically - and socially-minded music? I, for one, eat it up. Reminds me of being a kid with pink hair and combat boots, my friends in bands with high ideals and punk patches, all of us excited about the world we were about to make our own. I say let's do it. There's still time. We'll tear it down and build it back up one lyric at a time..."

The Mynabirds - Numbers Don't Lie (Mp3)



Kitten | The week of October 18, 2010

"...Sometimes you're on and sometimes you're off. We were off. The nicest way to say it is that I just never hit my groove but to be honest it just felt like it was our first time playing these songs. We didn't do what we do. Usually if the world's shit, I can get on stage, rock it out and forget about it but we must have brought the B.S. with us 'cause it wasn't happening up there..."

Kitten - Kill The Light (Mp3)