At The Barbecue: 2010’s Break Out Acts

Chad BerndtsonLondon Souls

The London Souls are not only from NYC, but also the majority of their non-festival performances — probably 80 percent — take place within the five boroughs, so I’m not quite sure they yet qualify as a “breakout.” But everyone I’ve dragged to a London Souls show in the past year and a half has gotten “it” within the first 10 minutes of the set — this trio’s an assault on the senses, from the pummeling Sly Stone-meets-Band of Gypsys thing they have going on to the rocking soul, gristly R&B and feral garage pop they turn out with awesome abandon. They’re nasty, funky, fiercely entertaining audience-slayers, and why haven’t you seen them yet? (Also: Dawes, Leroy Justice, Lubriphonic and the Vaccines. Seek ’em out.)

Jonathan KosakowThe Avett Brothers

I first heard The Avett Brothers in 2009. It was the album I and Love and You. A friend had told me to listen to them, and I obliged. I listened to it all the way through and then I listened to it again. I soon got a hold of Emotionalism, their 2007 album. This was the one that grabbed a hold of me. Between the two albums, the brothers’ songwriting sits heavily in folk while they let one leg hang casually over the edge of pop. And their unique screaming nasal and sometimes hoarse vocal chords, whether harmonized or sung separately, somehow mesh perfectly with their slightly off-kilter music.

So it seems a bit strange for me to write about The Avett Brothers as a band that broke out this year, and many of you are probably thinking the same thing. But in 2010, with a little added boost from the success of the new album, they chewed on their opportunity like the butt of a fine cigar, savoring every second. They released a live album, toured constantly, and sold out venues across the world from California to Amsterdam, including Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium for two nights leading up to Halloween. For me, seeing them open for Gov’t Mule at Red Rocks was one of the highlights of this summer, and they converted many a Mule fan that night. So what if they’re workhorse attitude is nothing new to them, and who cares if they released their groundbreaking album last year, it was 2010 that they found them not only sprawled on the map, but sprawled across it.

Jeremy GordonAkron/Family

Akron/Family came to many people’s attention after their album, Set ‘Em Wild‚ Set ‘Em Free, made a number of 2009’s “Best of Lists”. Normally a three-piece band with Dana Janssen on drums, Seth Olinsky as vocalist/guitarist and Miles Seaton on bass, their sound has been labeled as Freak Folk, Noise Rock, Indie and Psychedelic and that’s true to some extent, however when the band plays live something extraordinary happens.

This summer at many of their shows they added saxophones, trumpets, flutists and percussionists to the mix allowing them to extend songs at over 20 minutes, often including the crowd in tribal beats that have been known to have fans ripping off their shirts and rushing on to the stage. While no tour dates have been announced for the band in 2011, they will be releasing their newest album, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT in early February, so fingers crossed that promoters will be excited to add them to festival lineups this summer.

Ryan DembinskyFang Island

To call Fang Island anthemic is to call Megan Fox hot. The words just don’t do them justice. Heroic is more like it. Over the past year, Fang Island not only broke out in big way musically – earning supporting roles for big time names like the Flaming Lips and Coheed and Cambria, while earning lofty praise from the critical spheres of the internet – but more importantly they served a purpose.

New music today is rife with great Americana, folk and throwback psychedelic pop, and we’re all still trying to decide if it’s humanly possible to say words like “chillwave” and “shoegaze” in a sentence without getting punched in the face, but there’s been a clear void of visceral, get pumped up, cocaine is a hell of a drug, rock. We need this music. It helps you get fired up before a sporting event, rally to go out on a Friday night when you don’t feel like it, or get your ass out of bed and drive to work before a big day. Fang Island is not for everyone – it’s loud, proggy-punk in the vein of Andrew W.K. – but those who like it, love it. Somebody once said in a random internet comment what I think is the perfect descriptor, “It’s exactly what Wyld Stallyns would have sounded like if they had been a real band.” Yup, that’s officially a break out band.

Jeffrey GreenblattMumford & Sons

In the eleven months since we first wrote about Mumford & Sons, the band’s popularity has grown quicker than the sprouts on a Chia Pet. The band’s full length debut, Sigh No More, features their modern take on traditional British folk music fused with American bluegrass. There is just something about the combination of Marcus Mumford’s powerful and passionate vocals, and the band’s punchy instrumentation that provides the perfect cathartic release to their weighty and emotional lyrics.

There aren’t too many bands in recent memory that can lay claim to having been able to easily move from the Bowery Ballroom to Teriminal 5 – selling out two nights at the cavernous venue – within the same year, with a sold out stop at Webster Hall along the way. Throw in Grammy nods for Best New Artist and Best Rock Song for Little Lion Man and you’ll be hard pressed to find a bigger break out band than Mumford & Sons.

Scott BernsteinConan O’Brien

It’s hard to believe that at the start of 2010 Conan O’Brien thought he was firmly entrenched at his dream job as the host of NBC’s Tonight Show. Just one week into the year, NBC execs decided they wanted Jay Leno back at 11:35 setting off a chain of events that would eventually see Conan land on TBS at 11PM and become a cult hero in the process.  O’Brien’s harsh dismissal turned him into a social-network driven superstar of the highest level, who spent part of the ten months between late-night gigs on the road for his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour.

The tour allowed O’Brien to live out a different dream, traveling from city to city telling jokes, playing guitar and getting to perform with some of his favorite musicians all while packing iconic venues across the country. Conan announced his deal with TBS shortly before kicking off the tour in Eugene on April 12th and by the end of the tour in Atlanta on June 14th, the list of music blog, headline-grabbing special guests who joined him at one of the stops included Spoon, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Jason Mraz, Kid Rock, Vampire Weekend, the Dropkick Murphys and Trey Anastasio. O’Brien might have lost some of his nightly audience by downgrading to basic cable in 2010, but his pockets have never been fuller and he’s never been more popular and well respected amongst music fans.

We showed you ours, now you show us yours. Who was your break out act of 2010? Leave your thoughts in the comments section…

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