The in crowd lives for these bands… get tix to Crocodiles, The Fresh and Onlys, and Magic Bullets at Slim’s 1/15. Tell us your fave Crocodile Dundee moment. This is so obvi ours:

Dawson Ludwig – Noise Pop

I’m the marketing manager of Noise Pop Industries, the folks behind the Noise Pop Festival, and Treasure Island Music Festival. I also host the The Noise Pop Podcast, a monthly podcast that features new music from the indie and underground scene.

A note about the selection process:

Often times when people choose their best-of-the-year lists, they make decisions that have nothing to do with what they think is actually the best. They consider: “Is this record too obvious?,” “Is this too mainstream?,” “Is this too esoteric?,” “Does this record make me look self conscious?,” “Does this make me look like I’m trying not to be self conscious?” It’s an exhausting process. So, I’m attempting to come at this with a completely blank slate. These are my favorite records of 2010, motivated only by how much I like them, no other factors:

1. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
2. The National – High Violet
3. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
5. Four Tet – Angel Echoes
6. The Walkmen - Lisbon
7. Magic Bullets – Magic Bullets
8. Twin Sister – Color Your Life EP
9. Vampire Weekend - Contra
10. Suckers – Wild Smile

Have yourselves a happy Thanksgiving and feast on this oh so cool show! How about a FREE pair of tickets to see Dominant Legs and Magic Bullets at Cafe Du Nord on November 30th? Heck yes!

Just post a comment below sharing what you are most thankful for this year! Bitches, money, or fame sound familiar?

You know it’s going to be an awesome show when the bassist and the keyboarder are both ecstatically dancing along with the singer onstage, which is exactly what happened at the Magic Bullets show at Pianos in New York this past weekend. The San Francisco-based band fleshed out their breezy, fuzzy pop wonderfully live, instilling a happy and excited energy into their performance that spilled over into the dancing audience below. After all, how can you manage to keep your feet still when the musicians in front of you are all shaking themselves silly with smiles on their faces?

Magic Bullets, for all the obvious comparisons to the Smiths that they seem to be fostering these days, set themselves apart from their predecessors at shows like this because of their unique and apparent enthusiasm for playing music to a live audience. After an already-solid lineup that featured Blood Orange, the Cinnamon Band and Beachcombers, the band brought the night to an end on an especially high note by taking many of their melancholy songs and elevating them through a genuinely heartfelt delivery that was at once charming and energizing. Drummer Alex Kaiser was particularly impressive, maintaining a cool and calm demeanor while briskly matching his bandmates with tight, fast beats that never faltered or fell flat.

It’s always a treat, too, when a band proves themselves capable of versatility through shifting their tone in a live performance. Listening to their dreamy and moody new self-titled album, you would expect a much more subtle and moody performance, and yet throughout the entirety of the show Magic Bullets managed to successfully twist their sound into something much more playful and exuberant. Maybe it’s the excitement of coming to New York, or maybe it’s just the way they do things all the time, but whatever it was it was a happy surprise to have a band that has songs titled like “Sigh The Day Away” hopping up and down all over the stage. Perhaps lead singer Philip Benson summed it up best when he turned towards the audience before playing the last song and explained how the a lot of the album is really melancholy because he used to feel down a lot; he then countered that statement with a smile, saying that in the end you really can’t feel that way about life, because “it’s big!” It sure is, Mr. Benson, it sure is, and we hope that in the future Magic Bullets will continue to offer their fans some equally satisfying gems of wisdom as well as the music to match.

Photos by Hailey Desjardins

Usually we’re caught up writing about the headliners and how they live up to the hype. We’re not so sure that this show went that direction.

Kicking off the stage on Thursday night, low-key instrumentalists, El Ten Eleven absolutely blew away the crowd with their very unique stage presence. Wielding a double neck guitar with a fretless bass (a la Robert Plant, although tweaked to El Ten Eleven standards), the duo harmoniously looped extremely difficult drumbeats while playing the guitar and bass at the same time. Even though the sound system was a little overcompensated at Bottom of the Hill, these guys pulled out some of the best sliding bass rhythms and loop sequences that we’ve ever seen. They were so good in fact, that the crowd begged them to play an encore. When was the last time you saw an opener play an encore? Exactly. Most comparable to big-timers, Ratatat, but without the big hype, mainstream recognition, El Ten Eleven is greatly under-appreciated and we expect them to pull out of the underground circuit into some big time success in the near future.

Next, up were local sweethearts, Magic Bullets. Their stage presence is incredible and up beat, and the tunes something akin to old-school British pop. We loved the erratic dancing and catchy rhythms. We’d definitely be willing to check them out again.

After the build-up, iTunes superstars, Chairlift, took to the stage at Bottom of the Hill last night with a very specific goal in mind. Blend their new brand of raw artsy noise-rock with a teensy bit of their old indie pop that we all know and love so much. With a completely unexpected sound and very straightforward show, we’re still pondering if the message came fully through, but Chairlift does provide some talented musicianship in addition to their occasionally catchy tunes. Their new edgy material will definitely take some getting used to, but we are looking forward to witnessing the next direction that they take this in.