Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. This is a compilation of 2010's best local music, lovingly curated by YIMBY columnist Christopher R. Weingarten. See last year's tape here.

R.I.P. Chris Weingarten's old blue trucker hat. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Have you heard the one about how the recession is over? Uh, don't tell it to New York City's musical community. While our center-of-the-universe assembly line of hype puttered on unabated, 2010's biggest up-and-comer success stories were actually beamed from the outer limits of the five boroughs--Titus Andronicus (Glen Rock, NJ), Screaming Females (New Brunswick, NJ), Phantogram (Saratoga Springs, NY), Real Estate (Ridgewood, NJ)--places where money can go to tour vans instead of landlords, where musicians aren't paying $400 a month for the luxury of sharing a practice space with three other bands. The remaining New York City indie-crossovers all benefited from frugal one-man home-recording set-ups (Oneohtrix Point Never, Matthew Dear), stripped down line-ups (the Drums, Sleigh Bells, Matt & Kim) or simply embracing the idea that sounding mushy is smarter than buying new gear (Small Black).

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​Gorgeously clattering Brooklyn duo Buke & Gass are fast becoming an SOTC favorite (download a track from their new record, Riposte, here), named after the bizarre homemade instruments that fuel their arty, chaotic noise-pop. They've made a quick, loud, exuberant video for the Riposte track "Page Break" that seems to accurately convey the sensation of taking a road trip while nursing some sort of head injury. Observe:

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Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing new and emerging MP3s from local talent.

​Brooklyn duo Buke & Gass play homemade Frankenstein instruments that make beautiful and wild sproinging sounds--Arone Dyer's "buke" is a modified baritone ukelele; Aron Sanchez's "gass" is a mutant guitar/bass that he built from scratch. But their Brassland Records debut, Riposte (due Sept 14) isn't some steampunk novelty--it's a unique, euphoric, distorto-fucked rock banger, a jarring, Geraldine Fibbers-style alt-chug given a fancy new lilt by erratic prog and African circular rhythms. Dyer and Sanchez both spent time in Brooklyn band Hominid. (Remember Vice Records' short lived "Seven Inch Lovers" series? Us too.) Years later, they have an almost psychic connection, able to pull off fantastically ornate music with just two people. Recorded in Sanchez's basement studio this past winter, Riposte manages to recreate the cyclone of activity involved in watching these two mad scientists do their decidedly one-of-a-kind thing. Album opener "Medulla Oblongata" manages to cross some weird world where Thinking Fellers Union 283 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs can play on the same bill.

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