in 140 characters or less

20. The XX
XX (XL)

One of the best man and woman duets of all time. Their voices mesh together like delicious PB+J. Songs to groove or snooze to.

19. Consider the Thief
Signs and Wonders (Self-released)

Locally bred, brilliantly produced post-rock album that plays well in its entirety. Healthy dose of clever programming. Great vocal work.

18. Tides of Man
Empire Theory (Rise)

Soaring vocals, layers of swirling guitar riffs, solid rhythms. Almost enough to make Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria jealous.

17. Japandroids
Post-Nothing (Unfamiliar)

“Garage rock” is apparently what happens when production savvy meets a couple of punk kids intent on loosening up your bowels. A guitar tone dream date.

16. Liturgy
Renihilation (20 Buck Spin)

Black metal in its purest form, but spiritual ecstasy rises forth from its buzzing guitars, crashing cymbals and despondent growls.

15. A-trak
Infinity (Thrive)

A relentless hour of cheap thrills and kick/snare/hollas from one of Montreal’s most prodigious mashers.

14. Bright Light Fever
Meat Market EP (Self-released)

Five delicious tracks of foot tapping, head nodding, energetic rock brewed in Sacramento. Sing along, dance and have fun. RIP BLF.

13. Real Estate
Real Estate (Woodsist)

Clouds never quite break for this sunny-day guitar narrative; summer with a caveat, in a Jersey basement.

12. Dredg
The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (Ohlone)

Follow Dredg as they take you on an exuberant journey through 18 tracks of melt your face bliss blended like your favorite film score.

11. Thrice
Beggars (Vagrant)

A raw, stripped down Thrice go back to the basics: guitars, bass, drums, keys, vocals. Groovy, almost bluesy at times. Refreshing offering.

10. Ganglians
Monster Head Room (Woodsist)

Grooving surf-rock riffs and supple vocal harmonies, it’s the record that encompassed Midtown life.

09. Passion Pit
Manners (Columbia/DMZ)

A happy indie electronic album with some of the most high pitch singing out there this year. Yet still makes you want to turn it up to 11.

08. Sunn O)))
Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord)

Manages to segue from immense drone riffs to jazz-like passages without a stutter. 4 songs, almost 60 minutes, 4,000 tons of despair.

07. John Mayer
Battle Studies (Sony)

He took a step away from the blues-driven Continuum, but perfected the pop-rock song like it hasn’t been done since Fleetwood Mac in the ’70s.

06. Dan Deacon
Bromst (Carpark)

Deacon preaches the way forward with volcanic drums and fuzzy, twisted melodies—electronic music in its grandest, most sincere composition.

05. San Kazakgascar
Idle Ships (Lather)

A psych trip led by a snake charmer through a hipster bazaar in search of your hash dealer.

04. The Mars Volta
Octahedron (Warner Brothers)

Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala prove once again that they are the masters of creating weird, yet somehow easy listening albums.

03. Tegan and Sara
Sainthood (Sire)

The Canadian twins continue to bleed their romantic struggles into indie rock jams with substance, dueling vocals and sing-along melodies.

02. Baroness
Blue Record (Relapse)

Boulder-heavy but like an opera in its composition. A rare album that demands, through brute force, that it be listened to in its entirety.

01. Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)

Sublimely perfect and addictive gooey indie pop goodness. 2009’s album most likely to make people at your party say, “That’s my song!”

Dan Deacon
Luigi’s Fungarden, Sacramento, California
Monday, Oct. 19, 2009
Words by Vincent Girimonte
Photos by Samantha Saturday

Dan Deacon’s set at Luigi’s Fungarden on Oct. 19 reminded me of that saying, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Manifesting this was a state worker boogying next to some teenage princess probably 20 years his junior; and Deacon himself, pleading with us to imagine a “sky of hair” above the dance floor. Suffice to say nobody was caring.

The Baltimore-bred electronic artist owns one of the more egalitarian live spectacles you’ll come across, and it’s anything but gimmicky, despite the merch peddler performing interpretative dance (which was a little gimmicky). Dancing around isn’t compulsory, just highly encouraged. If that’s not enough to get you moving, peer pressure eventually kicks in to where anybody not sweating through his or her shirt may as well be the chaperone. The result was a Fungarden smelling “like a farm,” as one hooligan put it.

Deacon set up on the floor, caved in with lights, amps and a throng of impatient youths savagely bouncing around near his board, which looks like it was made on Sesame Street. This preferred dynamic may be his referendum on the typical live performance hierarchy (the artist being up there, and everybody else down here, having all the fun); or, perhaps being among his crowd he can more easily organize dance-offs and the ubiquitous “human tunnel”—each making an appearance at Luigi’s. There’s an element of wedding MC in Deacon’s shtick, the one that comes free with the venue and wants everyone to be happy while waiting for the buffet. Sometimes you need that guy.

I would hesitate to call Bromst, Deacon’s second full-length release and the primary source material for Monday’s set, “experimental” if he himself didn’t sometimes classify it as such. Admittedly, this is probably out of my own misinterpretation of the word “experimental,” as in you can’t shake your ass to it. Live, the tone is surging and rich, bringing to mind that “noise in tune” adage—but this is also pop music, implying some accessibility. Deacon plants playful, trippy melodies on the grinding rhythms and manic live-drum samples, and from there it just goes up and up at a breakneck tempo. It’s the music of frolicking optimists, and resonated well within the snug confines of the Fungarden.

He grabbed the mic every now and then for some cathartic chanting—not that he can sing, really, but nobody seemed to mind. By the end of the show he was Uncle Dan, commiserating with the Sacramento audience as a Baltimorean knowing what it’s like to live in a city consistently ignored by the hotshot indie tours. Though if this reputation is what brought Deacon here in the first place, it is one we can surely live with for a little while longer, at least until Uncle Dan returns.