Top Thirty 7″ Records of 2010 (part 1)

As you know, we’ve covered a ton of music this year. Now comes the time at the end of the year when we take a look back at all of the things that stood out the most. For the first of the “End of the Year” lists here at the Styrofoam Drone, we’re going to strictly look at 7″ records. Throughout the year we’ve covered most of our music on 7″ format, so this should definitely be interesting to see how it all turns out. We’ve started with the Honorable Mentions list below, and then we’ll work our way up to the top spot of the year. Expect part two (records #15 to #1) to come tomorrow.

So without further to do, we are proud to present to you our favorite 7″ singles from the year of 2010.

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A good place to start would be the list of Honorable Mentions. While the singles included on this were still highlights from the year, they didn’t quite register like the rest of the singles below in the countdown. Not only that, but it’s just way too hard to keep it limited to exactly 30 singles considering we covered over 100 unique singles this year. So here we go:

– Spider Bags – Take It Easy Tonite 7″
– Burnt Ones – All Night Long 7″
– Jeff the Brotherhood 7″ – Mellow Out 7″
– Chain and the Gang – (I’ve Got) Privilege 7″
– Beach Fossils – Face It 7″
– Vermillion Sands – Something Wrong 7″
– The Boom Bang – Bummer Camp 7″
– Party Photographers – Let the Red Lights Riot 7″
– The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Say No to Love 7″
– Deep Sht – Weird You 7″

And right below starts coverage for the top 30 singles of 2010.

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30.)
Levek – Look on the Bright Side 7″
Label: Father/ Daughter Records
A-side:
This debut 7″ from Levek only produces hope that this Disney-loving bus-driving dude will have much more of the funky sexiness to come down the road. Fingers crossed.

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29.)
Pocahaunted – Threshold 7″
Label: Not Not Fun
A-side:
The final installment to the Pocahaunted name. Rest in peace, and thanks for this last solid before finally calling it quits. Their bizarre full-length from the year is also something worth listening to.

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28.)
Christmas – Metal 7″
Label: Highfives and Handshakes
B-side:
Freakishly awesome and definitely relentless, Christmas will probably scare your children. Proceed with caution!

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27.)
Traps, PS – Prove It to You 7″
Label: Papermade
A-side:
Fast paced and frantic, it doesn’t get much crazier than this. Scrappy, noisy guitars and fierce energy only mean one thing: this stuff is reckless!

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26.)
Brainstorm – Beast in the Sky 7″
Label: Lasercave
A-side:
This just may be the only band that we covered this year that had a tuba listed in the credits. Highly ambitious and creative while taking on an ethnic approach, Brainstorm shall please any listener willing to take the spiritual journey.

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25.)
Creepoid – Yellow Life Giver 7″
Label: Phonographic Arts
A-side:
Philadelphia’s finest! With a new full length in the works for 2011, these guys (and girl!) are only gonna turn heads with their strung out and slowed dream jams. Stay tuned for more information on that in the near future…

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24.)
Fungi Girls/ Indian Wars – Split 7″
Label: Psychic Lunch Records
B-side:
Texas adolescents Fungi Girls and Vancouver’s own Indian Wars paired up for this awesome split. We’ve heard a bunch from the Fungi Girls this year, so maybe it’s Indian Wars time to shine in 2011. We’ll find out soon enough.

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23.)
Girlfriends – Gov’t Seizure 7″
Label: Aurora7 Records
B-side:
Bostons own surfer garage punks came out of nowhere this year and totally tore it up. Believe it or not, there’s a shit ton of awesomeness coming from Boston lately, and these guys are right in the middle of the mix. Let’s hope it sticks around for awhile.

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22.)
Tennis – Baltimore 7″
Label: Underwater Peoples
B-side:
This 7″ as a whole may have gotten more attention than any other individual 7″ that came out this whole year. Or at least from everything we have covered. Shouts from the New York Times are definitely good things, and having a story to go along with your music might work better than you once thought.

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21.)
Titus Andronicus/ Free Energy – Split Tour 7″
Label: XL Recordings
B-side:
Quite possibly two of the biggest bands from 2010 (see the internet) getting together on one 7″ means nothing but smiling faces, especially when they’re covering classic songs like these. Each also have the potential to put on the best live show you’ve seen all year.

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20.)
First Base – She’s Boy Crazy 7″ EP
Label: Play Pinball! Records
A-side:
Characterized by one word, and one word only – POP. No other band we covered this year even comes close to the friendly, poppy, girl-loving glam of First Base. Definitely looking forward to more from these Canadian pop-rockers come 2011.

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19.)
Pure Ecstasy – Voices 7″
Label: Acéphale
B-side:
Your favorite psyched-out haze rockers of 2010. Not sure if they even have a full length planned or anything of the sort for 2011, but let’s hope so. They also just may be one of 2010’s most under-appreciated bands.

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18.)
Dunes – Old Souls 7″
Label: Art Fag
B-side:
Creeping up from the darker parts of your dream come Dunes. These obscure and dreamy jams will hypnotize you until you’re playing them over and over again. The only problem is you can never quite put your finger on what makes them so great.

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17.)
Rare Grooves – Cause for Concern 7″
Label: Papermade
A-side:
It was a good year for Papermade Records. Punky vocals and a tropical island guitar vibe definitely make this release unique. Mike Watt’s bass playing is a whole different story. Totally awesome and totally unexpected.

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16.)
Girls Names/ Brilliant Colors – Split 7″
Label: Slumberland Records (US), Tough Love (UK)
A-side:
A killer split by two killer bands. Brilliant Colors and Girls Names might not seem ideal to be paired up on a 7″, but they quickly prove that statement wrong. Two A-side worthy tracks with the most significant difference being the singers of each band.

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Part two of the Top Thirty 7″ Records of 2010 will be here tomorrow. This covers record #15 and so on. Stay tuned! See part two of the countdown right here!