2010年 Jan 2日 Saturday, 3:12

Did music close out the decade with bang? Not exactly, but some solid records were released. Want to know my 11 favorites? No? Well too bad.

My Top 11 Favorite Albums of 2009:
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11. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Easily the most frenzied and chaotic live band I’ve seen this year.
Essential Tracks: French Navy, The Sweetest Thing

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10. NOFX - Coaster
Wasn’t expecting much, but they did far better than their two main 1990's California punk contemporaries that released records this year (Green Day and Rancid). My Orphan Year is absolutely heartbreaking and will go down as one of the all time great NOFX songs (if it hasn’t already).
Essential Tracks: My Orphan Year, Eddie, Bruce, and Paul

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9. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park
The horns are a bit jarring at first and there’s a few cringe-worthy good old boy hick couplets (“Drinking women/chasing whiskey”), but no one is better than Lucero at crafting a country record with punk flourishes.
Essential Tracks: Smoke, The Devil And Maggie Chascarillo

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8. Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Haven’t paid attention to metal as much as I should have this year, but I got this when everyone’s collective mouth was slobbering over this album’s shaft. Very good record, I’d only give it a handjob though.
Essential Tracks: Oblivion, Divinations

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7. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Better than Street Horrrsing, completely hypnotic and engaging.
Essential Tracks: Surf Solar, The Lisbon Maru

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6. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Containing the cohesiveness I thought was missing from Beyond, Dinosaur Jr. seem to be defying the general perception that post-reunion albums are uniformly embarrassing.
Essential Tracks: I Want You To Know, Over It

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5. Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came From The Shadows
Crucial st00pid leather jacket pop punk. Bottlerocket!
Essential Tracks: Don't Want To Go, Tonguebiter

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4. The Horrors - Primary Colours
Definitely the largest great band to lamest looking band ratio ever. Ditching the garage rock and going to a more The Cure-esque sound created some atmospheric dazzling songs.
Essential Tracks: Who Can Say, Primary Colours

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3. Screaming Females - Power Move
Loud, brash, sloppy, awesome.
Essential Tracks: Bell, Skull

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2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The only album I listened to in January. Dance!
Essential Tracks: My Girls, Brothersport

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1. The Thermals - Now We Can See
Their worst album (starting this commentary too negatively), still my favorite record of 2009. The motif of “songs when we felt alive” is brilliant. While there is still a lot of spacey/water imagery in the lyrics, many songs make me nostalgic about the past, specifically high school.
Essential Tracks: When We Were Alive, At The Bottom Of The Sea

My Top 5 Favorite EPs/7”s of 2009:
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5. Paint It Black - Amnesia
Dammit Dan I didn’t wish you put out your hand for me to shake right after I got out of bathroom and didn’t wash them last year.

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4. Austin Lucas / Frank Turner - Under the Influence Vol. 8 7"
My favorite so far in the Under the Influence series, Frank Turner may be more of a name but Austin Lucas put up the better track, a touching cover of Dolly Parton’s To Daddy. And lol @ Mitch Clem for misspelling Lucas.

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3. Lemuria – Ozzy 7”
Exactly what I would expect from a new Lemuria 7” and I mean that in the best way possible.

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2. The Bouncing Souls – 20th Anniversary Series: Part Three
Best one of the pack in my humble opinion (Shamwow! Badass!), and a cover of Quick Chek Girl on a ukulele doesn’t hurt much either.

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1. Psyched To Die – Sterile Walls
Living life is just a waste of time, gotta find a fucking way out.

My 2009 Mixtape:
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Instead of listing my top 10 favorite singles, I decided to make a mix tape representing some choice tracks I’ll look back on fondly. Of course, it follows the general mix tape guidelines - No repeating of artists, flow is important, four corners approach, etc.

Side A:
1. Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar
2. Animal Collective - My Girls
3. The Horrors – Who Can Say
4. Teenage Bottlerocket - Fatso Goes Nutzoid
5. Psyched To Die - Permanent Solution
6. Cobra Skulls - H.D.U.I. (Honorary Discharge Under The Influence)
7. Vampire Weekend – Cousins
8. Franz Nicolay - Jeff Penalty

Side B:
1. The Thermals - When We Were Alive
2. NOFX - My Orphan Year
3. Night Birds - Paranoid Times
4. Japandroids – Wet Hair
5. Nile - Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld
6. Rancid - Up To No Good
7. Camera Obscura - French Navy
8. Lily Allen - Chinese
9. The Bouncing Souls - Airport Security

Best LP of 2008 I Didn’t Hear Until 2009:
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The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
Yeah I know it’s weird to sleep on big bands like this but I just never got the record until this year… whoopsies!

Best EP of 2008 I Didn’t Hear Until 2009:
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The Measure - [album artist=The Measure ]Songs About People… And Fruit n' Shit
I did include a track from this on my mixtape last year, but that was the only song I heard off it (pretty hard to find) until this year. It’s entirely fantastic, would have been my #1 EP of last year.

Top 5 Shows of the Year:
5. Darkness at the Edge of Your Town, 3/16/09, The Parlor, NJ
Paul Baribeau and Ginger Alford playing 10 Bruce Sprinsteen songs in a basement with Mike Erg singing harmony in my ear? Yes plz.

4. Street Dogs / Swingin’ Utters, 3/14/09, Asbury Lanes, NJ
Has anyone gone to a show with a better line up for their 21st birthday?

3. Black Wine / Night Birds / Drunken Boat / Back Pocket, 10/2/09, Meat Town USA, NJ
A New Brunswick slice of life, the best basement show I went to this year. Two ex-Ergs! bands, two 40s and some intense sing-alongs to Night Birds <3

2. The Bouncing Souls / Chuck Ragan / Screaming Females, 12/29/09, The Stone Pony, NJ
I must be biased; every year I go to The Bouncing Souls’ Home For The Holidays in Asbury one of the nights always make my year end list. The Bouncing Souls had a creative play-themed setlist, Chuck Ragan was utterly powerful, and the Screamales translated a lot better on a big stage than I thought they would.

1. The Mummies / The Back CC’s, 6/10/09, Southpaw, Brooklyn, NYC
Holy shit, The Mummies return! In Brooklyn! And I saw it! And it was the best show of the year!