REVENGE OF THE WRITERS: Best & Worst of 2009
Dec 24, 2009
In which the folks who work in the trenches get in the last word. Hey, nothing's stopping you from doing your own list!
BY THE BLURT CRÜE
As part of our year-end wrap-up, we hereby present our third and final installment, giving the forum over to the staffers and writers and their personal picks for 2009. We think we have a pretty diverse and lively crew here at the BLURT ward (it helps that we ply them hourly with tequila and Oxycontin), and their selections reflect a true music aficionado's eclectic ideals. Guarantee: all dialogue reported verbatim. Thanks to all those who participated in our poll this year.
Also, from Tuesday: THE ARTISTS HAVE SPOKEN: Top Tens of 2009. Vivian Girls, Devendra Banhart, Marshall Crenshaw and others submit their fave raves.
And from Wednesday: 2009 IN REVIEW: The Blurt Top 50. As the title suggest, the toppermost of the poppermost for the year just done, BLURT-style.
2008 Best-Of coverage is here and here.
Follow BLURT on Facebook and Twitter.
***
ANDY TENNILLE, Blurt Associate Editor, Winston-Salem NC
Albums:
Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
Dave Rawlings Machine - Friend Of A Friend
Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
The Felice Brothers - Yonder Is The Clock
Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Lonely H - Concrete Class
Buddy & Julie Miller - Written in Chalk
Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Alberta Cross - The Broken Side of Time
Reissues/Archival:
Nirvana - Live at Reading
Big Star - Keep An Eye On The Sky
24 Carat Black - Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday
The Beatles - Remasters
Pax Nicholas and The Nettey Family - Na Teef Know De Road of Teef
Best New Artists:
Lonely H
Monsters of Folk
Dave Rawlings Machine
Dan Auerbach
Alberta Cross
Worst New Artist:
Jonas Brothers
Artist Who Should Retire:
Jonas Brothers
Top Tours:
Dave Rawlings Machine, Winter 2009
The Big Surprise Tour, Summer 2009
Lonely H/Caleb Caudle & the Bayonets, Summer 2009
Best Concert:
Dave Rawlings Machine, Cat's Cradle, Carrboro NC November 2009
Music Book:
John Cook - Our Noise: The Story Of Merge Records
Coolest:
Digital Harinezumi Video Camera
Most Annoying:
Jonas Brothers
Most Fucked-Up:
Tennessee DEA @ Bonnaroo
***
JENNIFER KELLY, Northampton MA
Albums:
The Clean - Mister Pop (Merge)
Akron/Family - Set ‘Em Wild/Set ‘Em Free (Dead Oceans)
Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective (Kranky)
Fresh & Onlys - Grey Eyed Girls (Woodsist)
Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers - Disco Outlaw (Goner)
Sharon van Etten - Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone)
Tyvek - Tyvek (Siltbreeze)
Sir Richard Bishop -The Freak of Araby (Drag City)
The Bats - The Guilty Office, (Parasol)
A.C. Newman -Get Guilty, (Merge)
Reissues/Archival:
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth (Bar-None)
Red Red Meat -Bunny Gets Paid Deluxe (Sub Pop)
Gods Gift Pathology -Manchester 1979-1984 (Hyped2Death)
Zero Boys - Vicious Circle (Secretly Canadian)
Volcano Suns - Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party (Merge)
Best New Artists:
Fresh & Onlys
Lotus Plaza
Sharon von Etten
Tonstarttsbandh
Dry Spells
Best Concerts:
Jay Reatard at Pearl Street, Northampton MA November 25th
Dinosaur Jr./Akron Family at SXSW
Film/DVD:
Tinariwen Live in London
Music Book:
Alex Ross - The Rest is Noise
Coolest:
The Saturday night Todd P party at SXSW with kids sitting on the top of cars, kids hanging out of trees, kids everywhere...and a long list of great bands including Kurt Vile, the Ohsees, Woods, caUSE co-MOTION and others.
Most Annoying:
Another year on dial-up with no real prospect for joining the 21st century. (Yes that's me at the coffee shop, downloading review CDs.)
Most Fucked Up:
Not getting in to see the Sonics at SXSW... did even 1% of all those badge jockeys on line ever love them the way I did? [See my list of best concerts below, Jen. Catch you in Austin next March! -Managing Ed.]
***
FRED MILLS, Blurt Managing Editor, Asheville NC
Albums:
Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
Doveman - The Conformist (Brassland)
Saint Etienne - Foxbase Beta (Heavenly)
Gov't Mule - By A Thread (Evil Teen)
Raveonettes - In and Out of Control (Vice)
Crocodiles - Summer of Hate (Fat Possum)
Swell Season - Strict Joy (Anti-)
Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (American Recordings/Columbia)
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men (Samadhisound)
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - s/t (Lightning Rod)
Michelle Malone - Debris (SBS)
Reigning Sound - Love & Curses (In The Red)
Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)
Toubab Krewe - Live at the Orange Peel (Upstream)
Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure (Paper Bag)
Dennis Diken With Bell Sound - Late Music (Cryptovision)
The Ettes - Do You Want Power (Take Root)
Maria Taylor - Lady Luck (Nettwerk)
BLK JKS - Mystery EP (Secretly Canadian)
Depedro - Depedro (Nat Geo Music)
Reissues/Archival:
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - The Live Anthology (5CD/3DVD edition) (Reprise)
Big Star - Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino)
R.E.M. - Murmur Deluxe Edition (IRS/UMe)
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire: Super Deluxe (Mercury/Universal)
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space BP Deluxe Edition (Dedicated)
Pylon - Chomp More (DFA)
King Khan & the Shrines - What Is?! (Vice Music)
Various Artists - Can You Dig it? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-75 (Soul Jazz)
Thee Midniters - Complete: Songs of Love, Rhythm & Psychedelia! (Micro Werks)
Those Bastard Souls - Twentieth Century Chemical (Darla)
Best New Artists:
BLK JKS, Johannesburg South Africa
Wiretree, Austin TX
Caleb Caudle & the Bayonets, Winston-Salem NC
Gabriel Sullivan, Tucson AZ
Toubab Krewe, Asheville NC
Worst New Artists:
Wavves
Florence And The Machine
The Entrance Band
Thao With The Get Down Stay Down
Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Artists Who Should Retire:
Kings of Leon
John Mayer
Echo & the Bunnymen
Lilly Allen
The Beatles
Top Tours:
Leonard Cohen
Rodriguez
Bruce Springsteen full-album concerts
Numero Group's Eccentric Soul Revue
Avett Brothers
Best Concerts:
Leonard Cohen - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville 11-1-09
King Khan & the Shrines - Orange Peel, Asheville 3-12-09
Beastie Boys - Orange Peel, Asheville 6-10-09
Sonics - Emo's, Austin TX 3-20-09
Rodriguez - The Grey Eagle, Asheville 1-10-09
Warren Haynes Christmas Jam - Civic Center, Asheville NC 12-12-09
LATE ADD/UPDATE: Toubab Krewe - Orange Peel, Asheville 12-30-09 (I'm adding this the morning after so may still be in the throes of afterglow, but this just may be the best show I saw all year.)
Film/DVD:
Anvil! The Story of Anvil Sacha Gervasi, dir. (VH1 Films)
Lambchop - Lambchop Live @ XXMerge (Merge)
Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (Columbia/Legacy)
Nirvana - Live at Reading (Universal)
Soul Power - Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, dir. (Antidote Films)
Music Books:
Barney Hoskyns - Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (Broadway)
Steve Knopper - Appetite for Self-Destruction (Free Press)
Wilson Neate - Pink Flag (33 1/3 / Continuum)
Bruce Eaton - Radio City (33 1/3 / Continuum)
John Cook - Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records (Algonquin)
Michael Plumides Jr. - Kill The Music (Booksurge.com)
Mixerman - The Daily Adventures of Mixerman (Backbeat)
John Einarson w/Chris Hillman - Hot Burritos: The True Story of the Flying Burrito Brothers (Jawbone)
Johnny Otis - Listen to the Lambs (Univ. Of Minnesota Press)
Peter Blecha - Sonic Boom! The History of Northwest Rock, from "Louie Louie" to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Backbeat)
Coolest:
Bands turned into LEGOs- not the "LEGO Rock Band" video game, but people actually reworking LEGO mini-figures into the images of bands. (For example, here's the Arcade Fire turned into LEGOs minifigs: www.flickr.com/photos/minifig/354774059, and here's one for U2: www.flickr.com/photos/minifig/72055008.) This may not seem particularly cool or new but as anyone with a gradeschool kid who's nuts over LEGOS will tell you, there's something subversively compelling about LEGOs that gradually takes over, which makes seeking out band LEGOS on the internet a pretty fun timesuck.
Most Annoying:
Finally edging out Neanderthals who yak loudly on cellphones in public spaces are people who take the ubiquitous Twitter question What are you doing? (or, more recently, What's happening?) literally, rather than rhetorically, and proceed to tell you Exactly. What. They. Are. Doing. (or thinking. or thinking about doing. or what they just finished doing.) Twitter is a fantastic communication tool, but when used in a TMI manner that's essentially anti-information, it becomes the digital equivalent of people muttering inanities to themselves in public spaces. Memo to musicians: you're among the most guilty parties here, as you obviously think that tweeting, say, the fact that your airplane just landed or that you're getting ready to go eat a sushi dinner, is inherently fascinating to your fans. But it ain't. Memo to all: consider tweeting content that might be useful to others (and include hyperlinks), and please spare us your narcissistic spurts of solipsism.
Most Fucked Up:
At the risk of seeming ungrateful for all the wonderful free music that is sent to me as an editor and a journalist, the most fucked-up musical development of the past year or so is the exponentially accelerated rate at which record labels service the media via digital streams or downloads rather than sending out hard copies as they have in the past. Now, I'm not dumb; digital promos are green, they cost next to nothing and involve zero overhead, and on the surface at least seem to dovetail into how consumers will, er, consume music in the future. But I'm here to tell all you industry folks that it just ain't so. For starters, the jury's still out on whether we'll be storing our collections on clouds and hard drives or if we'll cling to the physical artifacts like Luddites to their hand-plows (I have 10,000 LPs and 45s in my den that suggests the latter). And from an editorial point of view, the whole process of downloading an album and relevant artwork and artist biographical information is more cumbersome than booking a vacation to Cuba; there's no consensus among labels as to which download or streaming delivery mechanism they use, so those of us on the receiving end have to contend with an array of services of wildly varying efficiency, some of them apparently designed by trained chimps back during the dial-up era. (Hello, FATdrop!) With a CD, here's all that's involved: (1) Open package; (2) Insert CD in nearest player - which in my case, is frequently the car stereo on the way home from the Post Office; (4) Listen/assess. Memo to labels - you're not thwarting piracy in any way, shape or form with digital servicing; with free software readily available, even streams can be copied to hard drives or burned to disc, so instead of beating the bootleggers you're just pissing off the writers. Memo to musicians: the audio quality of promotional streams and downloads tends to be less than ideal, so if you allow your music to be serviced in that fashion to journalists, you're essentially saying that you don't care what your little piece of artistry sounds like to those folks who are actually going to be writing about it for the public. Memo to self: go purchase a back-up CD player along with that USB turntable I've been eyeing....
***
AARON KAYCE, Petaluma CA
Albums:
Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time (ATO)
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy (Warner Bros.)
Mastodon - Crack The Skye (Reprise)
The Mars Volta - Octahedron (Warner Bros.)
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (Sony)
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures (DGC/Interscope)
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Vieux Farka Touré - Fondo (Six Degrees)
Steve Earle - Townes (New West)
Reissues/Archival:
Fela Kuti - The Best of The Black President (Knitting Factory Records)
Radiohead - Kid A: Special Collectors Edition (Capitol)
The Beatles - Stereo Box (EMI)
Nirvana - Bleach/Live At Reading (Sub Pop/Universal)
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (Capitol)
Best New Artists:
Them Crooked Vultures
Monsters of Folk
Elliott Brood
BLK JKS
The Low Anthem
Worst New Artist:
Lady Gaga
Best Concerts:
Widespread Panic - The Fox Theater, Oakland, CA - 11.13.09
Them Crooked Vultures - The Fox Theater, Oakland, CA - - 11.19.09
The Mars Volta -Outside Lands Music Festival, San Francisco, CA - 08.29.09
Most Fucked Up:
Not sure it's "the most fucked up thing" but it's definitely fully disturbing and needs to be seen by everyone: the movie Food Inc.
***
LEE ZIMMERMAN, Miami FL
Albums:
Avett Brothers - I And Love And You (Columbia)
Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle - Let's Just Stay Here (Mint)
Jeff Larson - Heart of the Valley (Human Nature)
Patrick Bloom - Ghosts of Radio (Mud Dauber)
Nanci Griffith - The Loving Kind (Rounder)
Michelle Shocked - Soul of My Soul (Mighty Sound)
Slaid Cleaves - Everything You Know Will Be Taken Away (Music Road)
Monsters of Rock - Monsters of Rock (Shangri La)
Jay Farrar/Ben Gibbard - One Fast Move Or I'm Gone (soundtrack) (Atlantic)
Ian Hunter - Man Overboard (New West)
Reissues/Archival:
Big Star - Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino)
Dolly Parton - Dolly (RCA/Legacy)
Del Lords - Johnny Comes Marching Home, Based on a True Story, Frontier Days (American Beat/Rykodisc)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Singles Collection (Concord)
Bert Jansch - Santa Barbara Honeymoon/L.A. Tunraround, A Rare Conundrum (Drag City)
Soundtrack - The Wizard Of Oz-The Ultimate Edition (Rhino)
Best New Artists:
The Duke & The King
WPA (Works Progress Administration)
Sam Shrieve
Kim Virant
Lee Alexander
Worst New Artist:
Any of those wannabes who won American Idol
Artist Who Should Retire:
Mick Jagger (His abundance of crags and wrinkles overshadow his feeble attempts to prove he's still young and vital. WE love ya, Mick, but seriously - you're almost 70 and you're starting to look a wee bit silly. You simply don't share Keef's cool.)
Top Tours:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
U2
Jackson Browne
Best Concerts:
Jackson Browne -- The Fillmore, Miami, 11-21-09
Roger Daltrey - Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, 11-29-09
Robin Williams - Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, 10-21-09
Film/DVD:
Pirate Radio
Taking Woodstock
The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle {Revisited}
Music Book:
Tom Weschler/Gary Graff -- Travelin' Man - On the Road and Behind the Scenes with Bob Seger (Painted Turtle)
Christopher Hjort - So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N' Roll Star - The Byrds Day-By-Day 1965-1973 (Jawbone)
John Einarson with Chris Hillman -- Hot Burrito: The Story of the Flying Burrito Brothers (Jawbone)
Bill Bruford - The Autobiography (Jawbone)
Coolest:
Tough choice in these days of unrelenting economic pitfalls and squabbling politicians (see comments below). So I'd have to say what I'm pleased to point to a steady trend that continues unceasingly year after year - namely, the ongoing flow of great new music, most procured by artists who still reign well below the radar but somehow manage to output sounds that give hope for rock's steady revival.
Oh... and let's not forget the Cayamo Cruise. March 2009 - terrific artists (Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, the Indigo Girls, Tift Merritt, Brandi Carlile, Vienna Teng, Joe Ely et.al.), continual music and the pleasures of a sea cruise - not to mention a bountiful breakfast buffet and lovely cocktails with little umbrellas - add it all up and it's a combination that simply can't be beat. Looking forward to 2010 and posting my exclusive reports for Blurt!
Most Annoying:
Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin - Politics aside - self-righteous blowhards are never in vogue. (see below)
Most Fucked Up:
The divisive nature of politics in this country and the perpetrators of this outrageous behavior on both the left and the right. Doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican - all are guilty of putting self-interest first and slamming those that disagree. Whatever happened to the ability to respectively disagree? Why is there no national agenda that can be forged through partnership and compromise? Partisan politics suck, lobbying usurps the people's priorities, and elections become the only cause of action. It matters not the administration - what's true now for Obama was true during the reign of George W and Bill Clinton. Animosity must cease. We're all Americans and first and foremost and we ought to allow ourselves the privilege of being patriots and put the cause of country first. Yeah, things are mighty, mighty fucked, but its time for the politicians to shut up and quit wrangling and pull together in doing the job they were elected to do. Down with dogma! I'm an Independent and proud of it!
***
STEPHEN M. DEUSNER, Sunnyside, Queens, New York
Albums:
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Sissy Wish - Beauties Never Die
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Girls - Album
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orce
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Miranda Lambert - Revolution
Reigning Sound - Love & Curses
Reissues/Archival:
R.E.M. - Reckoning
Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky
Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos
Various: Fire in My Bones: Raw + Rare + Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul/Black Moses/Shaft OST
Al Green: album reissues
Nick Cave: album reissues
Best New Artists:
Lady Gaga
Girls
Sharon Van Etten
Dum Dum Girls
Lissie
***
ERIC SCHUMACHER-RASMUSSEN, Beaver Dam WI
Albums:
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (American)
Bruce Springsteen -Working on a Dream (Columbia)
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Lightning Rod)
Frank Turner - Poetry of the Deed (Epitaph)
Tegan and Sara - Sainthood (Vapour)
Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown)
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise)
Pearl Jam - Backspacer (Island)
The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love (4AD)
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park (Universal)
Reissues/Archival:
Woody Guthrie - My Dusty Road (Rounder)
The Beatles - The Beatles (Capitol)
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol)
Those Bastard Souls, Twentieth Century Chemical (Darla)
Pearl Jam -Ten (Epic)
Best New Artists:
Frank Turner
Lady Gaga
The Big Pink
Kid Cudi
Mayer Hawthorne
Artist Who Should Retire:
Radiohead
Best Concert:
Bruce Springsteen, Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park, London
Film/DVD:
Pirate Radio
Control
Music Book:
Steve Knopper: Appetite for Self-Destruction (Free Press)
Coolest:
Bruce Springsteen playing full albums, especially The River and The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.
Most Annoying:
John Mayer
Most Fucked Up:
The cover of that new John Mayer album. [You got that right. - Ed.]
***
HAL BIENSTOCK, New York NY
Albums:
Girls - Album (True Panther/Matador)
Wilco - The Album (Nonesuch)
Iron & Wine - Around the Well (Sub Pop)
AC Newman - Get Guilty (Matador)
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall (Matador)
Richmond Fontaine - We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River (Arena Rock/El Cortez)
Mission of Burma - The Sound The Speed The Light (Matador)
Lightning Dust - Infinte Light (Jagjaguar)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti-)
Reissues/Archival:
Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! 30th Anniversary Edition (Abkco)
Leonard Cohen - Live in London (Sony)
Grateful Dead - To Terrapin Hartford '77 (Rhino)
Big Star - Keep An Eye on the Sky (Rhino)
Elvis Costello - Live at the El Mocambo (Hip-O)
Fela Kuti - Best of the Black President (Royat)
Devo - Are We Not Men/Freedom of Choice (Warner Bros.)
Nirvana - Live at Reading (Geffen)
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth (Bar None)
The Vaselines - Enter the Vaselines (Sub Pop)
Top Tours:
Wilco
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Leonard Cohen
TV on the Radio
Steely Dan
Delta Spirit
Best Concert:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (performing The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle), Madison Square Garden, 11/7/09
Wilco/Yo La Tengo, 7/13/09, Keyspan Park, Coney Island
Leonard Cohen, 10/23/09, Madison Square Garden
Music Book:
Robert Hilburn - Cornflakes with John Lennon (Rodale)
***
IAN MATHERS, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Albums:
Doveman - The Conformist (Brassland)
Fever Ray - s/t (Rabid)
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)
The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come (4AD)
Mountains - Choral (Thrill Jockey)
Matt & Kim - Grand (Fader Label)
Timber Timbre - s/t (Arts & Crafts)
Japandroids - Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl)
Yob - The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)
Brock Van Wey - White Clouds Drift On and On (Echospace)
Reissues/Archival:
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone)
The Beatles - Revolver (Parlophone)
God's Gift - Pathology: Manchester 1979-1984 (Hyped2Death)
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms (Bar/None)
The Feelies - The Good Earth (Bar/None)
New Artists:
Timber Timbre
Japandroids
Variant
Divisible
The xx
Worst New Artists:
Discovery
The Big Pink
Michachu and the Shapes
Artist Who Should Retire:
Bob Dylan
Top Tours:
Mogwai/The Twilight Sad
Leonard Cohen
Fever Ray
Los Campesinos!
Andrew WK & The Calder Quartet
Best Concert:
Mogwai/The Twilight Sad - The Phoenix, Toronto 04-05-2009
Mountains - The Music Gallery, Toronto 15-6-2009
Stars Like Fleas - The Attic, Guelph 28-4-2009
Film/DVD:
Low: You May Need a Murder (Plexifilm)
Joy Division (The Weinstein Corporation)
Coolest:
Community. I'm not supposed to suddenly have a new favourite TV show, especially a sitcom.
Most Annoying:
Everybody's going to say it, but: Twilight. If it walks around in the sun, it's probably not a vampire.
Most Fucked Up:
If we mean fucked-up in a good way, I'd say the interpretative dance (to solo cello) Andrew W.K. did for an encore when he played with the Calder Quartet.
***
JASON FERGUSON, Winter Park FL
Albums:
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns (Astralwerks)
Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know (Rhino)
Blind Man's Colour - Season Dreaming (self-released)
Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons of Bad Luck (Invada)
The Low Anthem - Oh My God Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)
St. Vincent - Actor (4AD)
David Sylvian - Manafon (Samadhisound)
Visqueen - Message to Garcia (Local 638)
Wendy & Lisa - White Flags of Winter Chimneys (self-released)
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night (4AD)
Reissues/Archival:
Big Star - Keep An Eye on the Sky (Rhino)
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Contonou - Vol. 2: Echos Hypnotiques (Analog Africa) V
arious Artists - Factory Records: Communications 1978-92 (Factory/Rhino)
Various Artists - Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-81 (Soundway)
Various Artists - Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets (Rhino)
Artist Who Should Retire:
Prince - He released a decent album this year (Lotusflow3r), but packaged it with a truly subpar one (MPLSound) and an execrable "protege" product (Bria Valente), proving again that the man is his own worst enemy. The fact that he ripped off fans to the tune of $77 to access a website that implied (though, technically, didn't promise) tons of material but delivered little more than the very same albums one could pick up at Target for $13. Seriously, dude: Just pay someone to build you a website where you can sell your unreleased tracks for $5 apiece; you'll make a bajillion dollars and won't have to worry yourself sick with keeping up with kids half your age.
Best Concerts:
Riverboat Gamblers
Motorhead
The Low Anthem
***
JASON GROSS, New York NY
Albums:
Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances" (XL)
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - The Century of Self (Ricther Scale)
K'Naan - Troubadour (EMI)
Telekinesis - Telekinesis! (Merge)
Dan Deacon- Bromst (Car Park)
Living Things - Habeas Corpus (Jive)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti-)
Wussy - Wussy (shake It)
Roman Candle - Oh Tall Tree in the Ear (Thirty Tigers)
Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)
Reissues/Archival:
Various Artists "100% Dynamite! Dancehall Reggae Meets Rap in New York City" (Soul Jazz)
The Feelies "Crazy Rhythms" (Bar/None)
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson "1980" (Soul Brother)
Various Artsts "African Pearls: Senegal 70 - Musical Effervescence" (Syllart)
Ruby Braff "For the Last Time" (Arbors)
Best New Artists:
An Horse
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Taggy Matcher
Cliff Hillis
Vall
Artist Who Should Retire:
U2 (I don't care what their box office is)
Top Tours:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Ghostface/Skyzoo
Common/The Roots
Phoenix/Passion Pit
Bonnie Raitt/Taj Mahal
Best Concerts:
The Fleshtones - Hiro Ballroom, New York 10-23-09
The Raincoats - Knitting Factory, New York, 10-16-09
Rhys Chatham - Lincoln Center, New York 8-9-09
Film/DVD:
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
It Might Get Loud
Pirate Radio
Music Book:
Robert Palmer - Blues & Chaos (Scribner)
Marcus Gray - Route 19 Revisited (Jonathan Cape)
Pete Fornatale - Back to the Garden (Touchstone)
Coolest:
The FM3/Throbbing Gristle Buddha Machine
Most Annoying:
Any award show
Most Fucked Up:
Blurt not having a list for singles. [Ouch! Okay, next year, we promise, Jason! - Ed.]
***
ZACHARY BLOOM, San Francisco CA
Albums:
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns (Astralwerks)
Passion Pit - Manners (Columbia / DMZ)
Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control (Vice)
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Slumberland)
Discovery - LP (Beggars / XL)
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glass Note)
The xx - xx (XL)
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (Domino)
Glasvegas - Glasvegas (Sony)
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Best New Artists:
Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Passion Pit
The Antlers
The xx
Dead Man's Bones
Artist Who Should Retire:
Robert Pollard (I'm sorry)
Best Concert:
Bat For Lashes - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco 6-13-09
Film/DVD:
It Might Get Loud. (dir. Davis Guggenheim)
Coolest:
The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons (Ballantine / ESPN). The smartest, funniest, and most enjoyable sports writer/podcaster takes a page from Prince and releases a virtually unedited, 736-page tome, emptying his brain of everything he knows (and has ever thought) about the NBA.
Most Annoying:
It's so hard to pick just one reigning pest. Here are some things that annoyed, disappointed, bothered me for their tediousness and/or ubiquity: Monsters of Folk, Brett Favre, Bradford Cox, The Beatles. And Feist at that god awful Dark Was The Night live show at Radio City Music Hall. Watch her bob her idiotic head as Sharon Jones easily blows all the blowhards off the stage.
Most Fucked Up:
Without fully understanding what was happening, I was roped into singing a karaoke duet of "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" with my future mother-in-law. I insisted everything be taken literally: cars and baseball, it's about cars and baseball!
***
WILSON NEATE, Carmel NY
Albums:
Duckworth Lewis Method - Duckworth Lewis Method (1969 Records)
Githead - Landing (swim~)
The Horrors - Primary Colours (XL)
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (Kranky)
Jodis - Secret House (Hydra Head)
Health - Get Color (Lovepump United)
Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons of Bad Luck (Invada)
Shackleton - Three EPS (Perlon)
Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder (Neurot)
Akatombo - Unconfirmed Reports (Hand-Held Recordings)
Reissues/Archival:
801 - 801 Live (Expression)
Harmonia & Eno 76 - Tracks and Traces reissue (High Wire Music/Grönland)
Bruce Gilbert - This Way (Editions Mego)
Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson (Light in the Attic)
Kraftwerk - The Catalogue (Astralwerks)
Artist Who Should Retire:
Tracey Emin
Film/DVD:
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
On/Off: Mark Stewart From the Pop Group to the Maffia
Music Book:
Wilson Neate - Pink Flag (33 1/3 / Continuum)
Jon Savage - The England's Dreaming Tapes (Faber)
Jah Wobble - Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Mayhem, Life (Serpent's Tail)
Coolest:
Doctor Johnson's pronouncements on Twitter and his monthly "Dictionary of the new Musick" column at TheQuietus.com
Most Annoying:
Mainstream American "news" media
Most Fucked Up:
Mainstream American "news" media
***
STEVEN ROSEN, Cincinnatti OH
Albums:
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night (4AD)
Pastels/Tenniscoats - Two Sunsets (Domino)
Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light (Secretly Canadian)
Wussy (Shake It)
Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan (Cooking Vinyl)
Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications (Rough Trade)
The Revelations featuring Tre' Williams - The Bleeding Edge (Decision Records & Traffic Entertainment)
Various Artists/Stuart Murdoch - God Help the Girl (Matador)
Ian McLagan & the Bump Band - Never Say Never (00:02:59)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador)
Reissues/Archival:
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Listen to the Lion)
Various Artists - Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 (Rhino)
Woody Guthrie - My Dusty Road (Rounder)
Sun Ra - Interplanetary Melodies/The Second Stop is Jupiter/Rocket Ship Rock (Norton)
Tiny Tim - I've Never Seen a Straight Banana (Collectors' Choice Music)
Best New Artists:
Monsters of Folk
Adam Lambert
Worst New Artist:
Kris Allen
Artist Who Should Retire:
Bachman-Turner [Wait - didn't they just un-retire, like, a few weeks ago? - Confused Ed.]
Best Concert:
Leonard Cohen, Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison (Denver) CO, June 8
Film/DVD:
Leonard Cohen - Live in London (Sony)
Zabriskie Point (Warner Bros.)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Abramorama)
Music Book:
Barney Hoskyns - The Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (Broadway)
Jon Hartley Fox - King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records (University of Illinois Press)
Coolest:
Talk of a federal jobs bills that may revive the WPA. Hope it revives the Federal Writers Project.
Most Annoying:
Tea parties.
***
ZACHARY HERRMANN, Philadelphia PA
Albums:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Marissa Nadler - Little Hells (Kemado)
Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Elvis Perkins in Dearland (XL Recordings)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador Records)
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid (Nonesuch)
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (Warp Records)
Girls - Album (True Panther Sounds)
Taken By Trees - East of Eden (Rough Trade)
Reissues/Archival:
Big Star - Keep An Eye on the Sky (Rhino)
Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos, Deluxe Edition (Rhino)
Leonard Cohen - Live in London (Sony)
R.E.M. - Reckoning, Deluxe Edition (A&M)
Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live (Anti)
Best New Artists:
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Girls
Dan Auerbach
Volcano Choir
St. Vincent
Worst New Artist:
Asher Roth
Artist Who Should Retire:
Bon Jovi
Top Tours:
Dan Auerbach
Peter Bjorn and John
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Of Montreal
John Doe and the Sadies
Best Concert:
Dan Auerbach, 9:30 Club, Washington DC (2/28/2009)
Film/DVD:
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Soul Power
Coolest:
The widening of Disney - getting Pixar, Marvel Studios and Guillermo del Toro all in the house that Walt built is very exciting for geeks like me.
Most Annoying:
The slow, televised death of U.S. health care reform. Balloon Boy. Jon and Kate. Kanye West. Sarah Palin's refusal to just go the hell away. Choose your pick.
Most Fucked-Up:
Watching fellow friends and recent graduates return home one after another... jobless.
***
JONAH FLICKER, Brooklyn NY
Albums:
Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Mute)
Double Dagger - More (Thrill Jockey)
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II (Ice H20/EMI)
Polvo - In Prism (Merge)
Wye Oak - The Knot (Merge)
Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar)
Jay Z - The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation/Atlantic)
Built to Spill - There is no Enemy (WB)
Blank Dogs - Under and Under (In The Red)
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport (ATP)
Best New Artists:
Tapedeck Mountain
Digital Leather
Worst New Artist:
Wavves - I championed this debut album when it first came out, but the past year has not been kind to Nathan Williams, proving what a dud he and his music really are.
Artist Who Should Retire:
Kings of Leon. They used to rock. Now they're just embarrassing.
Best Concert:
Polvo at The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
Film/DVD:
All Tomorrow's Parties - Jonathan Caouette, dir. (Warp Films)
Most Annoying:
TMZ-style music journalism - namely extensive coverage of the Black Lips Wavves fisticuffs. Sure, it's we all love a good, wimpy, indie rock throwdown, but who really gives a shit about douchebag musicians slapping each other at a stupid bar.
***
RON HART, Lincoln Park NJ
Albums:
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II (ICE H20-EMI)
Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Lost Highway)
Iggy Pop - Preliminaires (Virgin)
Jesu - Infinity (Avalanche)
Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
Dam-Funk - Toeachizown (Stones Throw)
Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy (Matador)
Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)
David Sylvain - Manofon (Samadhi Sound)
DOOM - Born Like This (LEX)
Reissues/Archival:
Beatles - Remastered Catalog (Capitol-EMI)
Bert Jansch - LA Turnaround (Drag City)
Buddy Holly - Memorial Collection/Down the Line: Rarities (Decca-UMe)
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul/Black Moses/Shaft Expanded Editions (Stax-Concord)
Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (Columbia-Legacy)
Best New Artists:
Them Crooked Vultures
Dam-Funk
Real Estate
The Laughing
Kid Cudi
Worst New Artist:
Susan Boyle
Artist Who Should Retire:
Eminem
Top Tours:
Bruce Springsteen
Paul McCartney
Sonic Youth
Pearl Jam
Jay-Z
Best Concerts:
Bruce Springsteen -at Giants Stadium (2nd Born to Run show)
Paul McCartney - at Citi Field
Jay-Z - at All Points West
Film/DVD:
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Adventureland
Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley
Music Book:
Paul Drummond - Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound (Process)
Coolest:
Plaidstallions.com - any fan of old suburban nostalgia must go here now.
Most Annoying:
Twitter - It's a sad day when journalism can be pared down to 140 characters.
Most Fucked Up:
The passing of our beloved family cat, Coco. She was the sweetest kitty on earth and is greatly missed.
***
STEVE KLINGE, Wilmington DE
Albums:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillon (Domino)
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career (Merge)
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti-)
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
Marianne Faithfull - Easy Come, Easy Go (Decca)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t (Slumberland)
Passion Pit-Manners (Frenchkiss)
Allen Toussaint - Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch)
The Very Best - The Warm Heart of Africa (Green Owl)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador)
Best New Artists:
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Passion Pit
Mayer Hawthorne
The xx
The Antlers
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