10. Dethklok - Okay, I'm kind of cheating on these guys as I first became familiar with their work at the end of last year. But I didn't know they were going to become enough of a real band to actually put out an album until only a few months ago, so I think they sort of count. Dethklok, you see, is the band that is the star of the TV show Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network. They are animated, and fictional. But that doesn't make their debut album, The Dethalbum, any less incredibly, mind-blowingly awesome. If there was a better metal album released this year, I didn't hear it. Sure, it's a parody metal album, but it's still a metal album, with more pure metal in it than a ton of iron - brutal, thrashing, hilarious, and full of hate. With song titles like "Bloodtrocuted," "Briefcase Full of Guts," "Hatredcopter," and "Castratikron," how can it fail to be excellent? Favorite lyric, from the track "Birthday Dethday": "Open up your dethday present/It's a box of fucking nothing." Ha ha ha! That cracks me up every time.

9. The Fucking Champs (MySpace) and Holy Fuck - Two instrumental electronic rock bands with the word "fuck" in their names that totally rule. That is all.

8. Grand Ole Party - An incredibly rocking indie trio out of San Diego with a female drummer lead singer (you don't see those every day). Their debut album, Humanimals, is ridiculously good. They remind me of Sleater-Kinney and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

7. The National - "We're half awake in a fake empire." "You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends." Lyrics from "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken for Strangers," two of my favorite tracks off The National's great Boxer, an album loaded with literate, slightly melancholy indie pop-rock.

6. TV on the Radio (MySpace) - This selection reveals how totally uncool I am. Not only did I just discover NYC indie rock band TV on the Radio—who formed in 2001—this year, I actually heard them first on MTV. How '80s, right? Anyway, I've finally seen the light and I own and enjoy Return to Cookie Mountain, with "Tonight" being my favorite track off it - although of course "Wolf Like Me" is a close second, because I can't resist songs sung from the point of view of werewolves.

5. Augie March (MySpace) - These guys win for best album title I've heard in a long time: Moo, You Bloody Choir. It's got a lot of great tracks on it, too, my favorites being "One Crowded Hour" and "Just Passing Through." Their brand of indie pop is a little more romantic than I normally like, but they sell it well.

4. Robbers on High Street (MySpace) - Check out their EP The Fatalist and Friends and their full-length Grand Animals and try to tell me they're not awesome. For "The Fatalist" alone, they win at life. "Married Young" is also excellent and rocking. They've got bounce, verve, and a pleasantly retro kind of sound.

3. Portugal. The Man (MySpace) - An experimental indie rock three-piece, from Alaska of all places, with a slightly Southern-fried, foot-stomping, classic rock vibe to them, and a lead singer who sounds quite a bit like Jack White. Their second full-length, Church Mouth, is what turned me onto them; it has maybe one song on it that's not excellent.

2. Rogue Wave (MySpace) - Not just another indie pop-rock band with an occasionally emo kind of sound. I don't love every track on Asleep at Heaven's Gate, but some of them—like "Phonytown" for instance —are truly fantastic.

1. Celebration - An experimental alt-punk-indie band in the tradition of The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Everything off their recent release The Modern Tribe is amazing, with "Pressure" being my favorite.


http://phillyist.com/2007/12/06/countdown_to_20_2.php