Thanks for humoring me yesterday with my top #20-11 songs. Let’s continue with the exciting top 10 shall we?

#10- Under the Scene- CUSTODIAN
Buy Ultra-Fresh HERE

MP3: CUSTODIAN- Under the Scene

Riding a sample from the Blow’s Under the Sea, the persona of CUSTODIAN shares frustrations with economy, the tongue in cheek desire for a CUSTODIAN “world tour” and the limiting frustrations of a “scene”; a word that should be right up in the Hipster Runoff alt handbook of 2009 alongside “bro.” The simplicity of that bouncy bass sample and how live percussion and fruity loops are layered and layered makes this song hard to escape and utterly memorable.

#9 January Twenty Something- why?
Buy Eskimo Snow HERE

MP3: why? - January Twenty Something

I like to think of this as Yoni Wolf’s Kodachrome. With plenty of nonsensical imagery molded into melody and harmony, the song is elegant but has that hook that why? is so good at of taking a turn of phrase and making it a chorus or hook. The concise and catchy fever dream of a song from why?’s most mellow album to date Eskimo Snow truly sticks out in the prolific canon of songs.

#8 – Drumroll- POS
Buy Never Better HERE

MP3: POS- Drumroll

The never-ending drumroll sample says it all for me. This is such a good producing trick. Sorta like a thinking man’s A Milli. With the beat being part bebop jazz/part Fugazi and the insistent lyrics not once letting up; Drumroll is the gateway song into the glory that is Minneapolis’ wunderkind POS.

#7 Of the Mountains- Dan Deacon
Buy Bromst HERE

MP3: Dan Deacon- Of the Mountains

Dan Deacon returned this year with an album full of the high pitched garbage pail toy sounding equipment and the oddball vocals that helped make his name but also with some of the most amazing organic percussion I have heard.  He also brought with him what people refer to as “maturity.” In the past year he went from performing alone to performing with almost 20 people. A large chunk of that is percussionists. Here, we have odd time signatures, and expert production that reminds us not  to judge a goofy book by it’s goofy cover. This song is one of many standouts from the record Bromst because of the way it manages to bring to mind nature in such a strange, new fangled way.

#6 Daylight- Matt & Kim
Buy Grand HERE

MP3: Matt & Kim – Daylight

This is the breakout song from Brooklyn’s most lovable music making duo. The song has signified their success from playing small shows to cashing checks from NBC’s Community and Bacardi. I couldn’t be happier for the happy, loving couple. Daylight is uplifting, has an old timey piano sound, some heavy-duty drums and is an overall nice little slice of life. It harnesses visions of friends, summer fun and works even if you’ve never set foot on Grand Street.

#5- Save Me From What I Want- St. Vincent
Buy Actor HERE

MP3: St. Vincent- Save Me From What I Want

An uncanny song whose powers lie primarily in the awkward sadness. Lyrically, we have Annie Clark begging to be saved from what she wants, a contradictory and tragic plea of domesticity. In the repetition, her sultry voice is so infectious that not even 17 cold showers could rid it from ringing back and forth in your head.

#4- Stillness Is the Move- Dirty Projectors
Buy Bitte Orca HERE

MP3: Dirty Projectors- Stillness Is the Move

It has vocalists doing gymnastics on a tight wire of a weird-ass beat and manages to take that avant gardness and make a song that is appealing enough for Beyonce’s sister to cover. The Dirty Projectors have long had a weird edge to them but with this song they made something appealing to a more mainstream crowd while perfectly maintaining their off-kilter cred.

#3 My Girls- Animal Collective
Buy Merriweather Post Pavilion HERE

MP3: Animal Collective- My Girls

My Girls is 2009’s All My Friends in a lot of ways. It has that ‘growing up’ thing going for it that 20/30-somethings cling to when it comes from a critically indie praised band. This song has something magical about it in that it comes from an album of tribal Beach Boys dance harmonies, sequences and overall psychedelia managed to infiltrate the ears of people all over the world. Is it mainstream? Not yet- they will never be pop stars interviewed on the Today Show or have a song used in a Sara Jessica Parker/Hugh Grant fish-out-of-water romantic comedy. But yet their album will be high among most every critics Best Of lists. Do they have the perfect balance going right now? Complete artistic liberty to make whatever weird-ass noises they want and have it pass as high end art across the board critically? Maybe. Do I feel like a cliché for ranking this so high and falling head over heels for this song? Maybe.

#2 Eid Ma Clack Shaw- Bill Callahan
Buy Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle HERE

MP3: Bill Callahan- Eid Ma Clack Shaw

This entire record is so good it makes it hard to choose one song to sum up my love for it. Diehard Callahan fans would argue that there are 9 songs on the album so there is your top ten list right there (..and maybe add something that has autotune in it for diversity….) I went with this one because of it’s reflexivity about the perfect song in a dream, it’s connotation to Seinfeld and Tenacious D and for the impression I’ve seen the song make. I was lucky enough to get to go to the Billy C Waterloo Records show where he played most of the album solo. Before the performance started, the overhead speakers were pumping the record. A young couple was browsing the aisles with their young daughter who bounced up and down and sang along to the refrain “show me the way, show me the way…” and it was about the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. It was nice to see that the popularity and contagious melody of this song was transferred thru generations. Despite the f word being in the tune, it can practically be a fun kids song! That Bill Callahan loving little girl is going to grow up and defeat SkyNet. When she accepts the Nobel Hologram Peace Prize for her gift to humanity and thanks the fine prose of a songwriter named Bill Callahan, he will be awoken from his space sleep chamber and have dreamed up an even more perfect song. Hopefully he’ll have some scratch paper to jot down the jest of it…

#1 Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)- Das Racist

MP3: Das Racist- Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix)

What if Daft Punk is Playing at My House was even sillier? What if the only real lyrics are about trying to meet up with a bro at a cruddy fast food joint? It sounds ridiculous and brilliant all at once and it is. This particular version from one of the year’s best producer’s Wallpaper. is off the proverbial 2009 chain. The repetition of the phrases bypasses annoying early on and becomes devastatingly interesting. After countless listens, the eavesdropper on the call can marvel in their simple change of inflections and their neo-Bevis and Butthead-like confusion. I think there is some social commentary of our fast food nation in the song somehow, but I’m still too busy making cracking up at the ridic premise of the song to find it. How can I name a song that says “pizza butt” as the song of the year? I just can. It’s been one of those years I guess.