With 2010 a little over a week old, I have finally gotten around to posting the fourth part of the speed of the pittsburgh sound’s Top 70 Tracks of the Year (actually it’s 71 due to a last minute addition).  In lieu being sick of the way I write (especially when doing track reviews) I have decided to release my top ten tracks without commentary.  Frankly, these songs speak for themselves and half of them have been have been written about literally hundreds times on scores of year end lists.

I will say that I am fairly proud of my top ten.  Some of the tracks are obvious, some are not.  Regardless, I am considering this to be my final word on the music of 2009, the first proper year of speed of the pittsburgh sound. It’s been fun as hell and the site hasn’t ruined my love of music (which, for a hot minute this summer, I totally thought would happen).  Hopefully speed of the pittsburgh sound and all those great Pittsburgh music blogs out there, you know who you are, can keep the momentum going into the new year.  Goodbye 2009, you were too good to me.  Onto the tracks after the jump.

10 (tie)  “Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear

speed of the pittsburgh sound’s Top Tracks of 2009 continues with tracks 30-11.  Check the list after the jump.

30  “I Knew” – Lightning Dust

“I Knew,” off the band’s latest Infinite Light, merges the proto-techno synth lines from Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” with a fast paced, toe tapping r&b romp that evokes an other worldly sense of cohesion.  Familiar and alien in the same breath, Webber and Wells mash up the two genres so well they are hardly separated by song’s end. “I Knew” quickly makes a case for some revisionist history, an alternate universe where the Stones or Zeppelin could have collaborated with Alan Vega in some dirgey basement in the Upper East Side circa 1978, backing up all that hedonistic rock god fury with some petulant, confrontational nihilism.  Sounds a little too heavy? Let Lightning Dust handle the big questions, its easier said than done.

29  “Searching” – Speech Debelle

But yes, it is a pop song, a staggeringly epic one at that.  Hearing this song pour out of a car radio was one of the true pleasures of my morning trysts with top 40 radio.  As cliche as it sounds, this song really is like a magic fucking ray of sunshine, showering any shitty mood or terrible day in a hopeful glow of positive energy.  “Halo” flaunts that hazy moment in pop music when a particular song has a mood or feeling or gesture that makes you realize the best things in your life really are the best things in your life.  Transcendence, Beyonce, transcendence.

18  “Basic Space” – The xx

Anonymity is a favorite pastime of underground UK garage DJ’s (Burial being the most mysterious of them all) and Forest Swords’ sole member, known simply as M. on his MySpace page, takes full advantage of his shadowy persona. Dark, cryptic and almost terrifying, Forest Swords should be making some major waves in 2010.

12  “Dominoes” – The Big Pink

11  “She Wolf” – Shakira

It doesn’t hurt either that she embraces Latin belly-dancing in her choreography, twisting and gyrating in ways that are seriously foreign to American audiences.  Basically, “She Wolf” is the whole package, a strange, sexual, italo-disco mindfuck that will never lose its power.

Before we get to the second part of our year end track list, a little Pittsburgh music scene house cleaning needs to get done.

Good Night, States just released a free download of their rendition of the Christmas classic, “The Christmas Song.” Download the track here from their website, and try your damnedest to get into the Christmas Spirit.

Black Moth Super Rainbow’s frontman Tobacco is making his bid for the most challenging hip-hop remixer in the game right now with a head spinning version of The Anti-Pop Consortium’s “Get Lite.”  I love that even from the first moments of the song, you know its Tobacco working the production. Check it out.
Anti-Pop Consortium – Get Lite (Tobacco Remix)

Oh, and last but not least Donora hits up the Brillobox this Friday with Morgantown upstarts The Librarians and Satin Gum. Tickets are six bucks, so there is not reason not to go.

Anyways, speed of the pittsburgh sound’s Top 70 Tracks of 2009 continues  after the jump with tracks 50-31.

50  “Day N’ Nite” (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi

Caveman funk? Can I call it that? Let’s just put it this way: years from now (2012), when the world is a post apocalyptic shell of its former self, White Denim will still be pounding out “I Start To Run” in a forest turned to ash, getting a damn good sound out of the dying world.

48  “Moth’s Wings” – Passion Pit

Whether the narrator appears to be reciting a living will or contemplating his forced exile, Spencer Krug’s lyrics portray a truly noble departure with a cryptic beauty, “confetti floats away like dead leaves in the wagon’s wake/there were parties here in my honor til you sent me away/and now silver moons belong to you.”  Breathtaking in its scope, sadness and sophisticated pomp, “Silver Moons” is a stunning addition to Krug’s  robust body of work.

44  “Keep it Goin’ Louder” – Major Lazer ft. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze

Even with all the drama, the concert meltdowns,  rampant drug use,  constant beefs with indie icons and a snotty “live fast, die young” cliche of a personality, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, is writing better pop songs than Wavves right now.

41  “Warm Heart of Africa” – The Very Best ft. Ezra Koenig

Even with CMJ Superstars Sleigh Bells cornering the market on boy girl electro-rock duos, Sarasota Springs, NY natives Phantogram continue to make those unforgettable evenings last forever.  A full-length is expected soon, I hope.

37  “Treat Me Like Your Mother” – The White Stripes

So yes, 2009, speed of the pittsburgh sound’s first year of existence.  It was a learning experience, that’s for damn sure.  I went to more shows, absorbed more new music, and wrote more about that music than any time in my life. Trying to break away from the Pitchfork conventions of music review has truly been a struggle.  After writing countless  posts about videos, tracks, albums, music news and shows, I can now realize, for better or worse, how much that particular website has influenced my writing. Hopefully over the next year, I can become more comfortable in my own skin.  Regardless of that little meditation, I am excited to bring you the first 20 of my top 70 songs of  2009.

Why 70? No clue.  I edited down my iTunes “songs of the year” playlist t0 70 songs.  It’s that simple.  There is a mix, although not as much of a mix as I would like, of top forty hits, hip-hop and indie stuff.  I tried to be eclectic but the list isn’t very worldly by any means.  In the first 60 songs, I will be picking out highlights to review a little more closely, with the last 10  all getting the write ups they rightly deserve.  Every song will be available to listen to but not download.  And as for all you Pittsburgh upstarts pissed your band didn’t make this list, next week I will unveil my Top 20 Steel City Tracks of 2009, so hold your breath.  Anyways, enjoy the list after the jump.

70  “Ramona” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The song opens with a quiet, existential state of affairs (“Nothing to do and nothing to be done/So you go and stole your mother’s medicine”) only to be immediately followed by a romantic declaration (“I don’t need time/I just need you”).  At their best, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart can transform that  adolescent, cryptic yearn for something more into raw, elemental desire.

69  “Heavy Drops” – Lights

“Before you, my whole life was acapella,” Kelis croons on the towering chorus amid the grimey synth hits, layers of clock work beats and cavernous production touches that make “Acapella” (a tounge-in-cheek title in its own right) a truly immersive experience.  A club burner if there ever was one, ”Acapella” seems destined to fuel 36 hour, blacked out Ibiza dance parties for decades to come.

66  “Jake Leg” – Baroness

Muscular and melodic, ominous and complicated, the song is dynamic without being episodic, connecting a string of sophisticated compositions into a fully realized whole.  Lead singer John Dyer Baizley vocals have weight to them, but never cross into indecipherable howls. “Lady! Keep those hounds at bay!” he yells in the middle bridge, and proves to be a very insightful personality trait of “Jake Leg” and Baroness as a whole: an impassioned dedication to honor even in the midst of chaos (in this case honor means melting your face off with insanely precise, double guitar blitzkriegs every 45 seconds). Well played, sirs, my god well played. 

65  “The End is Near” – The Fiery Furnaces

Deliriously loud and affirmative, the track is a brilliant example of how the elements of a nubile (novelty?) genre can coalesce into impactful arse poetica. “Swim (To Reach the End)” isn’t inviting everyone to get lost in the sun and warmth of a magic hour beach party, its determined to be the end all be all of coastal anthems, pummeling listeners like a 15 foot swell punishing that surfer brah for having too good a time.

61  “Perfect Machine” – Big Spider Black

The speedy but distorted acoustic splashes and whirlwind percussion turn the entire track into a thrashing hail storm not 20 seconds in, complete with an apocalyptic kitchen sink of threats (“the fire in my chest will extinguish when you’re dead”) rusty horns, and enough quiet/loud buildups to make your head spin.  Listening to all of the RAA’s latest, Hometowns, you can’t help but get excited knowing these guys are carrying the torch for a whole new generation of listeners.

54  “Black Lake – Real Estate