in: tens

The Rob Scrawl: The 10 Best Tracks of 2010

in: heavy rotation, in: tens

Hoorah! What a marvelous day – a dual (a double, not a challenge) post. It’s a Dunce Cap top ten, the best tracks of the year (in my personal opinion). It’s a Rob Scrawl with a twist: An in tens (too cheesy?) playlist capturing the best songs of the year (as determined July 19, 2010). And, of course, WordPress still isn’t permitting users to embed 8tracks into a new post, so hosting on the other site’ll have to suffice.

Click the photo or link below to listen.

The best font ever!, courtesy of Core77

The Dunce Cap Special Edition: 10 Best of ’10: It’s a Hollywood summer. You never believe the shitty thoughts I think. We belong in a movie. (listen to mix via 8tracks)

My 10 favorite tracks of the year:

1. “O.N.E.” – Yeasayer
2. “Factory” – Band of Horses
3. “Good to Be” – Magic Kids
4. “Conversation 16” – The National
5. “Someday Soon” – Harlem
6. “Don’t Look Back” – She & Him
7. “Excuses” – The Morning Benders
8. “Crazy for You” – Best Coast
9. “Gold Skull” – Miniature Tigers
10. “Pretty Melody” – Butch Walker

This isn’t a playlist in need of too much explanation, so give the pretty list a whirl. 2010’s been a fair year for music, and a lot of my favorite artists were back in full force. The rest of the year is sure to be kind to my ears, with upcoming releases from Arcade Fire, Wavves, Klaxons, Of Montreal, Belle & Sebastian and many, many more (Pitbull!). And that Miniature Tigers album is going to be bomb. I fell in love with Tell it to the Volcano after seeing the band open for Bishop Allen, and the early sounds of Fortress, which hits stores Tuesday, seem even more mature and catchier than their first full-length.

And speaking of albums, I do, as a matter of fact, have a list of my favorite albums of the year thus far!

Critical darlings The Hold Steady, whose sonorous Heaven is Whenever made my Top 10 list.

My 10 favorite albums of the year:

LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
The National – High Violet
The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever
Beach House – Teen Dream
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
The Morning Benders – Big Echo
Jonsi – Go
Marina & the Diamonds – The Family Jewels
Phantogram – Eyelid Movies
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

And a hilarious piece from Saturday’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! featuring The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn: Craig Finn of The Hold Steady Plays Not My Job

What do you think?
What are your favorite tracks/albums of the year thus far?

The Rob Scrawl: Top 10 Laaadies

in: tens
wayne

Image courtesy of Paramount

As you may or may not have noticed, The Girl with the Dunce Cap is rather fond of regulars. Y’know, posts you’re expected to expect – Book Club, Dunce Flash, The Dunce Cap (TK tonight). And now, I’m launching just one more. The Rob Scrawl is a series of top ten lists. These lists consist of, like most other things on this blog, things I like. The things I like most or least or that remind me of something peculiar. Don’t pull that face – they’re fun! Wayne & Garth loved ’em too – scha-wing!

The Rob Scrawl is modeled after, even more than Garth & Wayne, one of my favorite fictional characters, Rob Fleming from Nick Hornby‘s High Fidelity. Rob was a list man. He made top five lists to chronicle the things he loved, from films to TV episodes to tracks to memorable moments. He is also a mix tape man, another thing we undoubtedly have in common. Rob is a Music Man, as I am a Music Girl, and he is a Romantic. I can’t deny that I am too. But, most of all, we’re loudmouths about the things we love, and that is, after all, what all of these lists are really about.

So without further ado, the first Rob Scrawl.

The Rob Scrawl: Ms. C & The Women

My internship today brought some pretty laughter-ridden culture conversation, which led to the usual rant about Kristen Stewart, Megan Fox and my obvious distaste for both. In response, my coworker accused me of being a bit anti-woman. So, to prove that I am not, in fact, anti double-X chromosome, I constructed my top 10 women list. These are women with charm and class, without the vacant eyes of Stewart or the half-assed performances of Fox. These are women I do have nice things to say about after all.

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This Rob Scrawl is in alphabetical order. In the future, there may be some preferential order.

Anna Quindlen: My favorite teacher once insisted to me that I had to be the next Anna Quindlen. I guess I took it to heart. I just finished her most recent novel, “Every Last One,” a heartbreaking work of stagging genius (ch’yeah).

Betsey Johnson: Don’t call her Cyndi Lauper. Betsey has an incredible style with a flair for color, and her clothes are gorgeous pieces for tea parties, proms or house romping.

Daria Morgendorffer: The classic high school misanthrope, Daria made braininess (and glasses! and sarcasm!) cool for girls, too.

Ellie Kemper: Sure, Ellie plays a sweet if hapless secretary on NBC’s “The Office,” but she’s a real comedy hotshot. Her video launched on Funny or Die (link NSFW), blowing (punny) into the common comedic consciousness. Now she writes for McSweeney’s and The Onion.

Judy Blume: Judy Blume defined girldom for most preteens, tackling the tough issues most fiction writers wouldn’t even begin to address.

Kate Nash: Kate Nash is darling with a kick. She’s a British songstress with a really hilarious personality and a pretty voice to match. That girl is sass.


Kate Nash, “We Get On”

Katey Sagal: Katey is the voice. So, okay, a lot of people know who she is, she of bouffant hair and leopard spandex, Ms. Peggy Bundy. But there’s more to Katey than just that. She’s a comedy legend. Leela? Spinelli’s mom? SMART HOUSE? It’s that voice. It’s the most soothing sound in the world.

Maura Johnston: Maura is an incredible woman. She’s tough, really, a girl in a boy’s town, finding music in the deepest recesses of the grimy big city. God, she’s cool. And incredibly talented. She isn’t editing for Idolator anymore, but she’s still writing. Something tells me she’ll never stop. Thank god for that.

Natalie Portman: This one is a total no-brainer. Natalie is gorgeous, brilliant, talented – and vulgarly hilarious? Who knew. The Israeli-American princess is one bad ass bitch.


The Lonely Island, “Natalie’s Rap”

Zooey Deschanel: The queen of gorge, Zooey is a star. Her beauty continues to stun me, and she is such an utter delight. Yo, she went to NU (for two quarters!), and that only makes me love her more. She’s an accomplished singer (with M. Ward in She & Him), actress and smile-r. Yeah, it’s almost an obsession.

honorable mentions: lisa simpson, jenny lewis, crystal renn, liv tyler, mindy kaling, christiane amanpour

Who would be on your top ten women list?
No Mileys here, please.