I've decided to make a list of my 40 favorite local songs of the
last decade! I decided to stick with the smaller acts for this list. I
love bands like House of Heroes, The National, The Devil Wears Prada and
Relient K, but I wanted to focus on smaller acts here.
#s 40-31 can be found here
#s 30-21 can be found here
#s 20-11 can be found here
10. The Wet Darlings - Used To Be Better
Album: Beautiful Things (2015)
Location: Columbus
One of the best albums released in the decade from Columbus, the Wet Darlings have been on somewhat of a hiatus for the last year or so. Jenny Lute has a voice that will knock you off your feet, and the band flat-out rocks. I need them back in my life, but in the mean-time there's always Beautiful Things. The line "I'm good, but I used to be better" is a rallying cry that keeps me sane to this day.
9. Curse of Cassandra - Dragon on a Leash
Album: Cult of Cats (2016)
Location: Dayton
It was this album that started my love affair with Curse of Cassandra. If you know me you've read plenty about it. Coincidentally, this wasn't even my favorite song from Cult of Cats until after their most recent record, Nekonomicon was released. It is what it is, I suppose. You've got pulsing beats, sultry meows, and a drop that'll kick any dance floor into a frenzy.
8. Jocef Michael Band - My Door
Album: Gray Matter (2016)
Location: Columbus
Joe has since become a great friend of mine, but this was the song that hooked me the first time I saw him perform live. Every time I've seen him live he's had a different show, but the passion you feel on this album is always there. This song is split into two parts; the piano-driven love ballad for the first 4+ minutes, and the throw-down dance outro, which he NEVER plays live. Hopefully there will be new JMB in 2020!
7. Lydia Loveless - To Love Somebody
Album: Somewhere Else (2014)
Location: Columbus
Lydia Loveless is a huge deal these days, but in the mid 2010's she was cutting straight through my heartstrings with her country-twang voice and tremendous songwriting ability. "I never did want you to be mine, well, at least not all the time... but I wanna be on your mind" gah, this song especially rips me to shreds. What a jam. I'm not much for any type of "country" music in the 2000s, but I cannot avoid how great Lydia is. She's one of the few artists on this list that I've never actually seen live, and definitely the highest of them.
6. Curse of Cassandra - Re-Bind (Retro Binding Mix)
Album: Nekonomicon (2017)
Location: Dayton
What, did you think there'd only be one Curse song in the Top 10? Heck, with how much time I spend with the band, I could've had Falling, Bastet, and Carpe Noctem on the list, but I'm sticking to one song per release to be fair. This song makes me happier than any other song in the Curse catalogue, which is filled with jams that pick me up at my worst of times. If I'm not mistaken, they've played this song live at every live show I've seen them at, which is now in the double digits. I did some number crunching earlier this year, and I've now seen Curse perform more times than any other band in my life. That's pretty friggen great, for a random band that I only found after scrolling through 10 pages of Facebook events on a day that Rick needed me to fill in on the calendar.
See video for the true live experience -->
5. Jess Lamb and the Factory - End of the Line
Album: End of the Line (2016)
Location: Cincinnati
Nobody on this planet has a voice like Jess Lamb. I'm gonna attach a live video as well as the studio version of this song just so you can truly appreciate how amazing she is. For making dark music, her voice radiates and has beamed through any and every dark obstacle I have been through in my life since meeting her in 2016. She is a relentless performer in Cincinnati, and I would give just about anything to get her down to Columbus for a few shows. As it stands, I've only actually seen her perform the one time, and it absolutely changed my life and the way I view a lot of things. I strive to "live my art" like Jess does, and I use that motto as a way to make myself a better writer for Music in Motion. But I digress. Go listen to the song! If your voice doesn't quiver like her voice, I will give you double your money back.
(live)
(studio)
4. Morning Theft - Skeleton Twins
Album: ...these terraformed ends (2017)
Location: Columbus
I've told the story a dozen times before, but it bears repeating. I was planning on killing myself the day I met Morning Theft. I had already scripted what I was going to do, and had started writing my goodbyes. I was crying my eyes out at an Arby's in Upper Arlington, contemplating whether I should even cover the show I was sent to do by my editor. I decided that I'd do one last concert, write my piece and call it a life. And then I heard this song, met these people.... well, that was two years ago and I'm still here. This song is the embodiment of my struggle with mental illness throughout my entire life; a bastion of strength in the difficult times, and a poignant lyrical reminder that I am certainly not alone in my fight. I am eternally grateful to Nick and Jenelle for keeping me around til almost 4am that night, even though they had no idea they were saving my life.
3. The Broken Relics - Where The Creatures Roam
Album: With Reverence (2019)
Location: Youngstown/Columbus
Here's that recency bias question again - is Where The Creatures Roam more of a favorite song to me than Skeleton Twins? Skeleton Twins was #1 on the 2017 Top 20, while WTCR was #2 this year. I think a good argument could be made for either song, but WTCR makes me feel things that even Skeleton Twins hasn't done to me in the last three years. You never really expect that, though. I didn't wake up that morning and say "hey, I'm gonna hear a song today that will go down in the annals of ALL TIME FAVORITE". I suppose I can always hope for that, but this one was a song that absolutely knocked me off my feet and took me by storm in 2019. The crazy thing is, the more I listen to it the more I find that I like about it. Of course, it also has a beautiful piano reprise that I would argue could be listen to both before and after, but that is beside the point. I am utterly thrilled that music this good is being made and performed here in Columbus.
2. Truslow - Hurricane
Album: Hurricane (2014)
Location: Columbus
I've written a lot of things about Truslow in the last 3 years, but even I have a difficult time putting into words how this song moves me. I remember binge-listening to ADHD when I first found Truslow, and kind of skittering around the other songs on this EP. Guess what? They're all fantastic, from top to bottom. 6 worthy songs for this list, but none moreso than Hurricane. Something about the way James yells "You carry me" just makes my heart explode. The simplicity of the piano opening, the sing-along chorus, the ever-expanding musical base of the song... it all works together to make the perfect song for every occasion. The fact that there was a better local song in the 2010s is almost mind-boggling, but I could say that about every song from 4 onwards on here.
1. So Long, Stargazer - Fall Behind
Album: Look Up (2016)
Location: Columbus
When Spotify gave me my decade-end data, there was 1 local song on my most-streamed list, and it was this one. That is the list of all the songs I have listened to since I started using Spotify. That's over 15 thousand individual songs. That just boggles my mind. In writing this list, I had to take a step back and ask myself; what makes Fall Behind so great? Look Up is a tremendous record, with songs like Rewind, Ready/Up, Sky Breathe, Weightless, and other gems that make for just under and hour's worth of good listening. But for Fall Behind, it's Kristen's piano and mournful voice, Nick's simple drum beat, and Chase's passion that really kicked me in the heart. It's absolutely the best duet they have written together, but it is on this song that Kristen really shines. I probably listened to her part over and over and over again when I first got this record. There are other songs that better highlight the rest of the band individually, but on this one the singers truly flourish with the keys. It's a song that I needed to make it through a lot of tough days in the latter part of this decade. It really was the only choice for #1 on this top 40 list.
That's it, that's all. Thanks everyone for reading!! Support Local! Ohio Rocks!!
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