best of 2010... now, what's next?

Since many of my most-prized local memories of 2010 (Y La Bamba, Pickathon, Tu Fawning, Billygoat, PCP, and more) are so well documented by a slew of OMN staffers with (dare I say?) impeccable taste, I give you 6 non-local shows that blew my mind in ’10:

1. Sufjan Stevens at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Friday, October 29th.

2. Jónsi (of Sigur Rós) at the Roseland Theater on Tuesday, April 13th.

3. Major Lazer and Big Freedia at the Roseland Theater during MFNW on Thursday, September 9th followed by Big Freedia live at Sassy’s (the strip club).

4. Janelle Monáe wowing a sold-out (for of Montreal) Roseland Theater on Thursday, October 28th.

5. Peter Hook & Friends at the Doug Fir Lounge playing Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in its entirety on Thursday, December 9th.

6. The Flaming Lips at Eugene’s McDonald Theatre on Wednesday, September 29th.

Followed by epic festival coverage at PDX Pop Now!, MFNW, and Sasquatch. And since I just can’t resist… here are some locals who deserve love from the last year: Climber, Reporter, Soft Metals, Remix Artist Collective, The Angry Orts, The Ascetic Junkies, Strength, Pegasus Dream, Menomena, and Seattle’s Brent Amaker & The Rodeo and Hey Marseilles. I mourn the end of Explode Into Colors but look forward to more creative and bombastic incarnations. To anyone I’ve forgotten, I apologize but I hope to see plenty more of you in 2011.

But why look back when you should be looking forward? Here are the best, local musics that you’ve likely enjoyed this past year but I am anticipating even brighter futures (and fresh, alphabetically organized, full-length albums) in 2011:

1. AgesandAges’ debut album Alright You Restless due February 15th, 2011 (via Knitting Factory Records).

2. The Blow returns to the NW with new material and eventually a new album.

3. Deelay Ceelay took the last half of the year off to hit the studio and are now mixing things.

4. Red Fang’s Relaspe Records debut due in early 2011.

5. Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside have kept us waiting for a better part of the last year but their debut album is coming.

6. Starfucker’s second album (performed and recorded under the name Starfucker and no other name, abbreviation or derivative) out March-ish (via Polyvinyl).

7. Lastly, Vanimal has only a demo EP thus far but we’re excited to hear what’s next.

peter hook deservedly revives joy division

For most, on stage and off, Thursday, December 9th at the Doug Fir was and forever will be the most Joy Division songs one will ever experience at a live performance, in the United States or abroad. When lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of Joy Division’s departure for the States in May of 1980, he may have dashed the band’s immediate dreams but he didn’t stop their aspirations and future success. Indelibly writing their name in every musical history book, Joy Division became New Order and turned the ’80s upside down.

After decades as their own entity, New Order finally came to terms with the music of Joy Division in the early 2000s and began performing a select few tracks during their live sets, notably “Atmosphere” but also four of the bigger hits on 2008′s Live in Glasgow DVD.

So when Peter Hook, the founding bassist of Joy Division, announced he’d be touring, playing Joy Division’s 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures in its entirety 30 years after the death of Ian Curtis, there was excitement but also suspicion and criticism. Three of Joy Division’s original members are still alive, yet the post-Joy Division band they formed together, New Order which lasted for 20+ years, has since split. It seems as though his intentions were pure and Hooky simply wanted to give Americans fans, all of whom never had the opportunity to see Joy Division live, an opportunity to experience the passionate energy of that influential music live, even if it be just a shred.

The idea for the tour, which included just nine North American dates (all in the US), was spawned out of fan enthusiasm for the now-classic material when Hook and his band The Light played Unknown Pleasures in honor of the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death.

Billed as “Peter Hook Presents Unknown Pleasures,” or Peter Hook and Friends, Hooky and Co. played a set which delivered exactly what was advertised. After warming up with four non-debut album Joy Division tracks, the band kicked into Unknown Pleasures, moving from start to finish, ending their set with “I Remember Nothing.”

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