Nathan Williams, of Wavves fame, has teamed up with his own brother to record a beat tape. They’re calling the side project thing Sweet Valley following the lead taken by Elizabeth Sankey and Emmy the Great’s Wakefield Twins collaboration. For those that don’t know, the Wakefield twins were the main characters in the Sweet Valley books. A friend told me.

The first track is called ‘Total Carnage’ and is available as a free download below. I think it sounds pretty fucking awesome. It precedes the full release that comes out on 7th August on Fool’s Gold.

The track is also notable for what is probably the best comment I have ever read on SoundCloud. “lol how come people be makin all this sweet ass chill beach music but then you know it mainly gets played in dark sleazy clubs/bars where most the action is in the bathroom? im a make a jam u can wisper in a stall to”. I was going to say the same thing myself and in the exact same way.

I feel like Adam Buxton.

as you’ve probably noticed, posts have become a bit sparse on here in the past few weeks. i’m fucking busy at the moment. all i can do is apologise. i have a plan though. over the next month (probably a bit longer) 99% of posts will just be bringing your attention to new videos. it is a whole lotter quicker for me to do these little video posts that it is to do anything more as i don’t need to get anal about the image and i can just write a quick paragraph rather than go into more depth. i might get the chance to do the odd post now and agin with a bit more going on, but don’t hold your breath. once work calms down i’m going to redesign this place and get going properly again. i’m not going to bother going down the whole heap of writers route. i think i’ll keep this a one person blog and be happy with that. i only ever started it as a bit of fun anyway and a way to tell people what music i like. that’s the way i’d like to keep it. i also have another plan but i’m going to keep that quiet for now. so today please enjoy the wonderful ‘bug’ from the brilliant wavves.

it may have been out for longer than beethoven’s symphony no. 1, but wavves have finally premiered the video for the brilliant ‘king of the beach’. it features fifa (possibly pro evo. i’m no longer an expert i’m afraid), tattoos and bling on the beach. and cats obviously. the perfect antidote to the shit weather outside? i think so.

by the way. this is another scheduled post while i’m working at an exhibition. apologies if the video has been taken down or any shit like that. tomorrow’s post of also scheduled, but it has some great within so make sure you read it.

coming up over the christmas period i’m with the family and all that jazz for most of the time so posts might be a little irregular. i’ll be trying to do a couple of features though and a few spotify playlists. first off, this one. i’ve chosen my favourite track from each of the 2010 albums of the year i picked, other than those that aren’t on spotify. as an extra bonus i’ve put in my choices from my favourite three eps from 2010 as well. what’s more, my two favourite singles that aren’t on any of those records (still with me?) are here too… that’s ‘the sea is a good place to think of the future’ and spanish sahara’ by the way.

sockformation’s top ten albums of 2010 and then some other tracks as well (spotify)

the above is a picture of how i prepared myself to decide on my favourite ten albums of the year. i’ve sort of been thinking about it for a while and in the end sat down, made a list off the top of my head and by checking itunes and my last.fm from the past twelve months. that sort of thing. a few i’d forgotten about came back into the running and i got down to a short list of 30something. i succeeded in getting it down to ten. sort of. i have given an honourable mention to one outside the top ten as well because it just wouldn’t have been right not to. you’ll probably understand why when you see what it is. rather than a chart, this is a collection of the top ten in no order (actually, fuck that – i’ll post them alphabetically) other than number one. there always has to be a winner. one other thing to note is that this is just albums. three of my favourite records of the year are eps but i decided to exclude them. i expect i’ll make a post about some of my favourite things of the year in general over the next fortnight and summer camp, spectrals and girls will all feature heavily in this.

with apologies to those that just missed out, including but not restricted to mount kimbie, los campesinos!, kele, yeasayer, abe vigoda, blood red shoes, sleigh bells, girl talk, janelle monae and (the last album to be dropped) foals, here is the albums that are between my second and ninth favourite of 2010.

arcade fire. the suburbs. august.

brilliant story telling album, that just reaffirmed arcade fire as one of the most reliable bands for delivering quality with every record. buy here.

bombay bicycle club. flaws. july.

i cannot tell you just how many time i have stuck this on during my journey to work on a miserable morning and it has cheered me right up. buy here.

the black keys. brothers. may.

one of my gigs of the year and, to me, their most accesible album is also their best. buy here.

crystal castles. crystal castles (ii). april.

another band that excelled live. maybe not quite as good as the debut, but ‘celestia’ is one of the most beautiful yet thrilling things i have ever heard. buy here.

flying lotus. cosmogramma. may.

he’s in even more experimental mood than usual and when flying lotus experiments, the results are always both interesting and superb. buy here.

gayngs. relayted. may.

there is no way this album should work. ever. it does though. now you get twenty odd mates together and write an album inspired by one track from 35 years ago and see what you come up with. buy here.

mystery jets. serotonin. july.

the eel pie island boys have now made the perfect indie pop album. this is. fuck knows how they’re going to improve on this, but i can’t wait to hear them giving it a go. buy here.

no age. everything is borrowed. september.

a cleaner offering than nouns hasn’t meant that no age have lost any of their edge. this may be clean, but is also wonderfully dirty. buy here.

wavves. king of the beach. august.

the best of the lo-fi chill wave type albums that all but took over the world this summer. josh’s favourite album by the way, since you ask. buy here.

let’s have a bit of a drum roll then. the best album of the year isn’t even an album in the regular sense. it is a combination of previous eps and releases from a teenager with a talent for making the unlistenable listenable. when you can’t really make out the guitar, it doesn’t matter because you’re enjoying his voice. when the lack of production and lo-fi sound cracks through the speakers it doesn’t matter because that tune is perfect. i have listened to so little else over the last few weeks that even now as i write i can hear ‘water turns back’ in my head so perfectly that it is as if i have the album playing now.

cloud nothings. turning on. november (i think?)

if you don’t already own this, you need it now. let’s see if first album proper, due next year, will hold the same position this time next year. buy here.

and finally the special mention. i couldn’t leave this out, despite it not quite reaching the heights i hoped it would. i’m seeing the film on tuesday, and i’ll let you know if this goes from an 8/10 album to 10/10 like i hope it will. i love you thomas bangalter and guy-manuel de homem-christo.

daft punk. tron:legacy soundtrack. december. (buy here)

what have i missed? what shouldn’t be there? let me know in the comments. by the way. i am fully aware that the ’0′ at the end of the ‘top10′ text on the cover art graphics is slightly cut off. i noticed after i’d done the last one and couldn’t be fucked to fix it, so live with it.