*Compiled by festival producers Andre Perry and Tanner Illingworth who are furiously booking the next Mission Creek Midwest Festival in Iowa City March 28 – 31, 2007.

10. Beck — The Information
The Information seems to be an album that slipped by most people upon it’s release this year, although I am not sure why. It could be that people thought a follow up to Guero would be disappointing, or maybe people are still stuck on the melancholy appeal of Sea Change. Whatever the case, this album still has more to offer than a fully customized sticker cover and a DVD with homemade videos for each song. Look no further than the album’s opening track, “Think I’m in Love,” to see that Beck is still doing what he does best: seamlessly fusing styles better than anybody in the business. — TI

9. Cursive — Happy Hollow
With the release date for Happy Hollow fast approaching, I found myself listening to copies of The Storms of Early Summer and Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes, trying to remember what Cursive sounded like without a cello. This would prove to be a mistake. The space once occupied by cellist Gretta Cohn is now filled by a barrage of horns, accordions, and even gospel singers. When combined with Kasher’s lyrical catharsis and the signature sound of Cursive’s dissonant guitars, we are left with an album not necessarily better than The Ugly Organ, but one that is much more evolved. It would be a mistake to try and predict what Cursive will sound like in the future, but after hearing Happy Hollow, I am certain that it will be something fresh. —TI

8. The Walkmen – A Hundred Miles Off
A Hundred Miles Off is the most under-appreciated album of 2006. Critics flexed lukewarm reactions upon its release. Perhaps they were looking for more accessible nuggets of rock n’ roll passion like the “Rat” and “Little House Of Savages” or maybe the dreamy moments of “No Christmas While I’m Talking” or “Hang On Siobhan.” Instead, they got the Walkmen standing in their most vicious and unapologetic pose yet. While 2004’s Bows & Arrows was a tight, focused affair, this year’s A Hundred Miles Off is loose as hell. It is the sound of the Walkmen rocking out with carefree abandon, a hint at the sonic detonation that is their live show. Everything about the sound is rough around the edges from the Dylan leanings on “Lousiana” and “All Hands and the Cook” to the nods to 80’s DC hardcore on “Tenley Town.” What people forget about the Walkmen is that despite their tendency to pen a couple of universally catchy tunes on each album, they are still a very arty band. The Walkmen take a little work to love but are often worth the careful listening. Furthermore the songs on this album are quite well written and Hamilton Leithauser’s lyrics are still clever as hell. Even their fragment-songs like “What’s Good For You Is Good For Me” or “Brandy Alexander” are still more creative than a lot of other stuff out there. As the band preps its 2007 LP with a horn section in tow one can only assume that it’ll be more user-friendly than A Hundred Miles Off. But it’s not because they’re conceding to fair-weather critics, they’re just doing what they want to do, which is what they have always done best. In due time A Hundred Miles Off, with its dense volume and great songs, will get its propers. — AP

7. Built To Spill – You In Reverse
Built To Spill certainly isn’t afraid to revisit the vast feel of Perfect From Now On on this new record, but that’s okay. I spent my summer in California, driving, sometimes endlessly, on the various bridges of the Bay Area and the freeways of Los Angeles. You In Reverse was there for me. In the Cali sunshine and behind the wheel with the windows down, these jams are hot. And when you’ve got nothing but forty-five minutes of traffic to look at from Oakland to San Francisco, you’re just that much more willing to listen to a nearly nine-minute opening track. Amidst all of these tight new wave and post-punk sounds coming from other bands, Built To Spill’s expansive arrangements are refreshing. “Conventional Wisdom” is a towering track, offering us both the band’s knack for catchy pop and full-on explosive jamming. In the spirit of Crazy Horse the guitars run wild this on You In Reverse. Some people argue that band leader, Doug Martsch, is simply perfecting the same album over and over again. If that is indeed the case then at least he has chosen a killer formula. — AP

6. The Mall – Emergency At The Everyday
This album could be titled “Concision.” The Mall doesn’t waste any space here with 13 tracks clocking in at less than 20 minutes. Picking up, sort of, where the Coachwhips left off – vox thru a telephone receiver, brilliant Casio keyboard lines, playing live in the audience rather than onstage – the Mall is both a fun and serious band. The beats are often dancey but certainly not dance-rock and the songs, which are comprised of numerous movements that play out in 90 seconds, reference the intelligence of classical music. There is no coming up for air on Emergency At The Everyday: every song crashes into the next like a highway pile-up. Moments of intense noise-rock freak-outs are balanced with warm keyboard passages giving the album an accessible appeal for such a loud band. It’s slightly unbelievable that the Mall, one of the best live bands from San Francisco, was able to achieve such success on 2” tape but this album is as intense and as charming as it can be without having the actual band in your living room. — AP

5. Peter Bjorn & John — _ Writer’s Block_
These guys are step above other pop bands this year and by other pop bands I am specifically referring to Camera Obscura. Don’t get me wrong, Let’s Get Out Of This Country is rather awesome but I find that those songs’ arrangements lean heavily on pop traditions of past decades, namely the 60’s. While there is some occasional retro action on_ Writer’s Block_, more often than not Peter Bjorn & John kick out fresh sounds with cool use of synths (“Young Folks”), soaring guitars (“Objects of My Affection”), and straight-up folk-weirdness on (“Roll The Credits” and “Poor Cow”). Pairing those inventive arrangements with killer pop hooks make this the go-to indie-pop record of 2006. — AP

4. TV on the Radio — Return To Cookie Mountain
From the beginning, Return To Cookie Mountain seems like quite the departure from TV on the Radio’s last album. Opening up with “I Was a Lover,” the album gets off to a much less booming start than its predecessor, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. This isn’t to say that the album doesn’t pick up the pace. “Wolf Like Me” drives the middle of the album and shows us what TV on the Radio can sound like with a live band, rather than drum machines. Whether or not the live band is the reason, TV on the Radio shows a lot of growth on this release. — TI

3. Joanna Newsom – Ys
In an attempt to keep my manhood intact in this modern machismo society we live in, I’m not always willing to admit that I enjoy hearing a handsome elfin lady sing me songs on the harp about monkeys, bears, and meteorites. But on another level I can’t deny that this album is fantastical, mystical, and deeply magical. What I’m trying to say here is that it really reminds me of when my ninth grade English teacher took our class to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the esteemed Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Fairies, gods, and Nick Bottom with his horse-head hopping all over the impeccably designed stage: now that was some otherworldly shit. I was a little too-cool-for-school to let on that I liked it. But damn, I would pay some good coin to see that production again. My teacher loved it and she was like 50 years old. She probably had a better grasp than I did on Will’s killer language, but when you’re young there’s a certain magic to Shakespeare that is undeniable even if you don’t “get it” in the sense that you will “get it” when you take Shakespeare II or Topics in Renaissance Drama in college. I gave this Ys to both my sister-in-law and my four-year old niece for the holidays because Newsom invites all of us to consume her music as intelligent, literate chamber compositions or to just let it all go in a tipsy Peter Pan kind of way and be kids all over again. But I bet she’s more stoked about the latter reaction. — AP

2. Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped
It’s hard to believe that Sonic Youth is still this good after all these years. Bands that stomp through 20 years and keep going usually get boring somewhere along the way. But I think I understand what happened to Sonic Youth: they started off so left of center that their version of getting boring with age is just being normally awesome to the rest of us. Rather Ripped finds the band placing their penchant for experimental sounds within the structures of (relatively) straight-ahead rock songs. That exercise in form makes Rather Ripped an intriguing listen; more so since the songs are actually written well – Karen Gordon’s Nico-esque delivery on the standout track, “Turquoise Boy,” is fascinating while the instant pop hooks of the opening track, “Reena,” are stunning. But this album is also a crucial document because it continues to show how impressively cohesive this band has become as an instrumental unit. Every jam as intro or outro or in between verses and choruses is exploratory yet tightly played. They don’t waste one frickin’ note and when it does get weird, it’s intentional. In one sense it recalls listening to old Grateful Dead tapes from the late 60’s or early 70’s when that band’s jams were focused and noodle-free. In that golden period the Dead only went into space when it was a desired effect and not the result of careless noodling. On Rather Ripped, Sonic Youth appear to be on the same trip. Just ask Lee Ranaldo: he was a Deadhead before joining Sonic Youth. — AP

1. Bound Stems — Appreciation Night
Hands down, the best album of 2006. With Appreciation Night, Bound Stems have shown their willingness to experiment with the typical indie rock song structure. The startling thing is the level of proficiency with which they do this. With song structures ranging from scatterbrained to downright schizophrenic, it should be easy to get lost and feel disconnected, but it is done so well that it makes perfect sense (“Excellent News, Colonel” is a prime example of this). Whether they are sampling passages from “The Sirens of Titan” or playing some of the catchiest damn hooks I have ever heard, this album takes hold and doesn’t let go until the end. If Appreciation Night is a sign of things to come from this band, then it would be wise to keep close tabs on them. — TI

Album as ethnography of our hometown, of our collective psyche. More than just love songs. Enough love songs. Wait, they’re all love songs. The hometown is Chicago. Nothing stays in one place for too long. This groove is hot so let’s move to something dark. This part of the song is dark so how ‘bout we turn it into an anthem? Stitch it together with field recordings of the city. Evan get your tape recorder out. Walk the streets. Go record. So many voices – is that you singing or some guy you met on the street? Feeling schizophrenic we put these tracks down. How will we ever play this live? Don’t worry, it’ll work, it’ll work.

Dear Bound Stems: it worked. — AP