Top 10 National

1) ARCADE FIRE The Suburbs (Merge)

2) BEACH HOUSE Teen Dream (Sub Pop)

3) TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Mojo (Warner Bros.)

4) SIERRA LEONE’S REFUGEE ALL STARS
Rise & Shine (Cumbancha)

5) JULIETA VENEGAS Otra Cosa (Sony Music Latin)

6) TITUS ANDRONICUS The Monitor (XL Recordings)

7) ELIKEH Adje! Adje! (Azalea City Recordings)

8) NEIL YOUNG Le Noise (Reprise)

9) SHE & HIM Volume Two (Merge)

10) THE SOFT PACK (Kemado)

Top 10 Austin

1) ‘CASUAL VICTIM PILE’ (Matador)

2) THE BLACK ANGELS Phosphene Dream (Blue Horizon)

3) JON DEE GRAHAM & THE FIGHTING COCKS
It’s Not As Bad As It Looks (Freedom)

4) JIMMIE VAUGHAN Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites (Shout! Factory)

5) SLAID CLEAVES Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away … (Music Road)

6) SAHARA SMITH Myth of the Heart (Playing in Traffic)

7) ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Street Songs of Love (Concord)

8) THE SWORD Warp Riders (Kemado)

9) AMY COOK Let the Light In

10) 7 WALKERS (Response)

Ten Locals To Grow On

1) HOSEA HARGROVE Tex Golden Nugget (Dialtone)

2) AUSTIN COLLINS & THE RAINBIRDS
Wrong Control (Eight Dollar Music)

3) BLAZE FOLEY The Dawg Years (Fat Possum)

4) KB THE BOO BONIC Scars Are Sexy

5) ‘QUEENIE PIE’ (Longhorn Music)

6) DIKES OF HOLLAND (Sundae)

7) THE BLIND PETS Smashed

8) THE BRIGHT LIGHT SOCIAL HOUR

9) MY EDUCATION Sunrise (Strange Attractors
Audio House)

10) RAY WYLIE HUBBARD A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) (Bordello)

This article appears in 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.