Because this is the sort of thing we do, Matt Lemay and I have decided to rank our top 10 Destroyer songs. Without commentary, because we’ve been there before. Below are my picks. Here is where you can find Matt’s.

The Bad Arts (Streethawk: A Seduction, 2001)
Bay of Pigs (Bay of Pigs, 2009)
Beggars Might Ride (Streethawk: A Seduction, 2001)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Sea of Tears) (Streethawk: A Seduction, 2001)
Hey, Snow White (This Night, 2002)
Looters’ Follies (Destroyer’s Rubies, 2006)
New Ways of Living (Your Blues, 2004)
The State (Trouble in Dreams, 2008)
Suicide Demo For Kara Walker (Kaputt, 2011)
Your Blood (Destroyer’s Rubies, 2006)

(Photo by Josh Sisk)

“…it looks like I have a contender for new favorite band in the DMV.”

(Is it cool or lame that I know the image in the bottom right is Beck on the cover of Rolling Stone from 1997?)

This will be a good one. I can give an enthusiastic co-sign to Last Year’s Men, who released an excellent debut LP on Churchkey Records.

Foul Swoops - “Not That Funny”

Live last night at Velvet Lounge. Thanks to Nate for the video.

I think Jacky from Thee Lolitas summed up the show nicely:

“The best point of last night’s show was when devin took ten minutes to tune his guitar while facing his (rather large) ass at the audience with his underwear peeking, when he started playing the guitar was STILL OUT OF TUNE!

PUNK ROCK!”

All the info you need right there.

See the buzz band of tomorrow, tomorrow.

Broadcast - “Tender Buttons” (2005 Peel Session)

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a death blog…

Broadcast was truly one of the world’s great bands. Their November 2000 show at 9:30 Club remains an all-time favorite. They opened for Sea & Cake; we left after Broadcast’s set. How was anything going to follow that?

“Tender Buttons” ranked #7 on my best albums of the 2000s list. The scratchy buzz that was all over that album … it just burrowed into your brain, triggering weird electric impulses. And then Trish’s voice would just make everything OK.

This 2005 Peel Session the band did is one of my favorite things in the world.

RIP Trish.

“Dark Shadows” - Lost Sounds

We all loved Jay Reatard, of course. I went back and read a few of the things I wrote about him. In this one I suggested he change his stage name and record an acoustic album. Apparently he was going to do both! Here’s a 2008 interview I did with him at SXSW.

“Popular music is missing any sort of sense of spontaneity. It’s so contrived, it’s manufacturing a product. That’s why I’ve never recorded in a studio. I mean, how do you book creativity three months, four months ahead of time? How do you pre-pay for the moment you’re supposed to create something? Yeah, there’s no spontaneity to it, it’s boring”

Beers. Pizza. Rock-and-roll.

Be there.

Heads up on a show The Cheniers will be playing in a few weeks. I think it’s a benefit to buy discmen for underprivileged children, or something. Not too clear. Should be fun!