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

Aaron Wojack

​Brooklyn's Callers make an indescribable, codeine-ready micro-ruckus that straddles some downtown-via-Bedford line between grandiose indie rock gestures, art-jazz slither, dusty folk, and swooning soul. The band understands how to seamlessly mix disparate sounds--they are originally from New Orleans, after all--and second album Life Of Love (due October via Western Vinyl) is a triumph of genre mashing, often sounding like Norah Jones fronting the Cowboy Junkies, or like Patti Smith playing a TVOTR record at half-speed. Though they began as a New Orleans home-recording project, the crew moved to Brooklyn after Katrina. Life of Love is their first album written and recorded as full-fledged New Yorkers. Far less smoky and somnambulant than their critically acclaimed debut Fortune, album opener "You Are An Arc" captures the bustle of the big city, even though it's mostly about Florida (read more below). The track teams the late-night soul-tinged croon of vocalist Sara Lucas with the ill-angled edges of band like Dirty Projectors. Says guitarist Ryan Seaton, "We try to let our songs go where they want to go. 'You Are An Arc' felt good in eleven, so we went with it."

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