Yearender Pt. 2

THE 20 BEST MYSPACE SELECTIONS OF THE YEAR

Which, as the fighting and misquoting shouldn't be immediately foisted upon a new band, is in strict alphabetical order only.

10Lec6: tense, nervous, schizophrenic French Slits in a centrifuge. Vocals pleasingly reminiscent of both Anabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow and Sue Tompkins of Life Without Buildings.

Anathallo: looking so good for their bewilderingly detailed Sufjan-meets-SMiLE we got in with a Friendly Chat early, then Pitchfork savaged their album and back to square one they went. Bah.

Bricolage: everyone else looted the post-punk, now someone's rerouting the funk of the Postcard sound into modern areas. The ever wise Memphis Industries have now picked them up.

Dartz!: discordant, sharp, yet you can dance to it. Like Maximo Park melded with Les Savy Fav, or a reminder that the Futureheads were as inspired by Fugazi as Gang Of Four.

Dragonflies Draw Flame: Nottingham's natural successors to the early Idlewild/Seafood lineage of barely controlled almost post-hardcore freneticism, but not without its subtleties.

Goodbooks: the very first Myspace featured band on these pages and one we've grown to love as the year has worn on, even if those round us haven't judging by the turnout of the recent gig we were at.

The Hellset Orchestra: good lord. Sparks meets The Sensational Alex Harvey Band meets Misty's Big Adventure meets Jesus Christ Superstar, or thereabouts. Nothing else sounds like them, deliberately.

Johnny Flynn: 2007's going to be a good year for dark UK (anti-)folkiness, and Flynn's literate, intricate resonance is a good demonstration of why. Single in late February on highly regarded Young And Lost Records.

Kat Flint: still on the acoustic Britfolk tip, subtly intimate world-weariness from Edinburgh-raised singer-songwriter, beauteous of voice, wise of lyric. Go and finance her album - you know it makes sense.

Los Campesinos!: what more can we, or anyone, say? Enormous scale on mini-budget happy go lucky (but not really) indiepop to bring joy to the senses, really. Just signed to Wichita, 7" in late February.

Lucky Soul: home brew Wall Of Sound/Dusty In Greenwich are your taglines; retro-garnish wide angle heartache the lead paragraph; album in March and free cover of Lonely This Christmas the bit in italics at the end.

Misterlee: not about to go big, but if you like your horribly warped, psychedelically inclined lo-fi dark and Waitsian/Beefheartian/Sydist you're on the right lines. When we last heard he/they were planning a trip to see Steve Albini.

Pagan Wanderer Lu: homespun lo-fi, electronically inclined splintered pop with satirical lyrical smarts and approaching a thousand ideas within each four minutes.

Popular Workshop: scratchy, ADD-afflicted artdiscopostpunk, equally blessed with melodic intensity and cursed with an inability to take a dynamic pop song without randomly cutting it to ribbons.

Proton Proton: punchy, threatening Brooklyn trio with homemade 'gass' (guitar-bass, yes)-driven controlled ferocity pitched between McLusky, Fugazi and Les Savy Fav.

Redcarsgofaster: Restless, quietly exhilirating, guitar pedal friendly Leicestrians invoke Bloc Party mixed with a slowed down ¡Forward Russia! You might even be able to dance to it.

Shimura Curves: louche girl harmonies meet Powerbook loops meet dirty guitar. Cleverer than it's letting on, as ever. Rumoured to have split this very month, the fools.

Sky Larkin: hottest in the land, reckoned the Nothing But Green Lights-summoned panel. We say: exciting melodic angularity, upbeat and with eyes very much on the prize. Releasing One Of Two on Dance To The Radio on 22nd January.

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names: prime members of The Great Swedish Indie Invasion Of 2006. Infectious and immensely likeable above all, and not afraid to stretch the parameters of what homemade tweecore should do

Swipe!: at times like the Postal Service on Saddle Creek, at others the Cure unplugged and, er, on the other track on their page reminscent of the singer's side job as James Dean Bradfield's solo bassist. This has all got to mean something.

THE TEN BEST ALBUM TITLES OF 2006...

Accidents Occur Whilst Sleeping (Lupen Crook)
As unsettling a concept as the best of his album is, and note that gramatically aware use of 'whilst'
Apologies To The Queen Mary (Wolf Parade)
Colin Meloy must have kicked himself when he saw this one
Breaking Kayfabe (Cadence Weapon)
Pro wrestling term ripe for picking (kayfabe is the portrayal of fictional events within reality) finally taken by hotter than thou Canadian rapper
Derdang Derdang (Archie Bronson Outfit)
Onomatopoeia in music - couldn't be anything else other than power chord blues-punk
I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (Yo La Tengo)
And the best bit is, do Ira, Georgia or James look the ass-beating type at all?
Let Me Introduce My Friends (I'm From Barcelona)
A bloke and 28 of his mates - how else will they make themselves known?
Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop (Luke Haines)
At last, the quintessential Haines pisstaking title
Schmotime (Absentee)
Should have put an exclamation mark on the end for best effect
Shut Up I Am Dreaming (Sunset Rubdown)
Spencer Krug can pick 'em - Wolf Parade side project sounds self-effacing while making out it's reaching for a higher plain
White Bread Black Beer (Scritti Politti)
Green Gartside still as un-white bread as ever, but there's a homespun charm here that matches the DIY of the album's origins

...AND THE TEN WORST

Alright, Still (Lily Allen)
Your honour, we believe Ms Allen to be a Londoner
Amputechture (Mars Volta)
The first time they had a title that was as awkward as their covers
Be He Me (Annuals)
The new Arcade Fire, they say. Not when heading up your debut with that sort of attempt at being cryptic
He Poos Clouds (Final Fantasy)
A play on 'sun shines out of his ass', says Owen Pallett. The fact he feels the need to explain it is reason enough
Inside In/Inside Out (Kooks)
Inside in what? Makes as much sense as Luke's singing accent
Light Grenades (Incubus)
Now that's an Industrial Light & Magic effect we'd like to see
Nine Times That Same Song (Love Is All)
Way to play your own diversity down
Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Morrissey)
And yet Tormentor Of The Ringleaders would have been really good
Stadium Arcadium (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Latin for 'Duran Duran spinoff play huge arenas'
Types of Wood (Whirlwind Heat)
Ah, the mystique of skeletal US indie rock.