Top Ten Songs of the Week 8/9/10

Here’s this week’s version of what Billboard should be paying attention to: we try to mix it up, offer a little something for everyone, sad songs, funny songs, upbeat songs, quieter stuff, you name it. This time we’re cheating a little: a whole concert along with the funniest, most vengefully satisfying youtube clip we’ve seen in awhile. If you don’t like one of these, you can always go on to the next one: every link here will take you to each individual song. As always, the #1 song here will appear on our Best Songs of 2010 list at the end of the year.

1. Rick Barry – Atlantis

Nightmare apocalyptic scenario set to artsy folk-rock, kinda like the Strawbs, from this Asbury Park songwriter.

2. Norden Bombsight – Help Desk

Cool video (a mini-movie, actually) set during the Depression: a woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder searches for her missing husband. Great song, too, from these darkly ornate Brooklyn art-rockers.

3. JD Allen live at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival

Has anybody besides us noticed how many unbelievable live shows are archived up on NPR’s site? You can get lost in this one: practically a whole hour of this era’s preeminent tenor sax player/composer and his ferocious, mind-melting trio with Gregg August on bass and the phenomenal Rudy Royston on drums. If you have the equipment, you’ll want to hook up your machine to a recording device of some kind because you’ll want to hear the whole thing again.

4. Kreptatka Bar Band – Kreptashaqula

Amazing Balkan punk rock.

5. El Pueblo – Legalize It

Latin-tinged rocksteady version of the Peter Tosh classic. It’s not on their new cd Isla, one of the best reggae albums to come out in a long time.

6. The Builders and the Butchers – Down in the Hole

Creepy Waits-ish noir.

7. Fyrepyle – The Age of Unlightenment

Woozy hypnotic Mogwai dirge as done in somebody’s bedroom on protools. Hang with it, it grows on you.

8. Robin McKelle – Everybody Knows

Aretha-style soul version of the Leonard Cohen classic – not as good as Penelope Houston’s version but still cool.

9. Grace – Wonderful

JP Jones’ band before he met Chrissie Hynde – snarling lyric, good post-Radiohead anthem.

10. Justin Bieber gets hit by a water bottle

You’ve probably seen this. At least he doesn’t cry – on camera at least.

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