The Nowies (Best of 2009)

I would like to apologize for my lack of initiative on creating this list, but I feel no obligation to post this BEFORE 2010 or IMMEDIATELY AFTER 2010. Fuck you, 2010. Analytical thought doesn't resign on January 1st, and I really had to think about what constituted:

THE 20 BEST ALBUMS OF 2009

20. The Mountain Goats The Life of the World to Come

The Mountain Goats within one year have become one of my favorite bands. Whodathunk one year ago an man who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and records shit into a boom box would glench my alltime top 50? Regardless of there's prized title (haha... yeah), I loved the direction of clean, solid tracks all inspired by the bible. It's like if Christian rock didn't suck.

19. The Flaming Lips Embryonic

I have been waiting for this album for WAY too long. I loved At War With The Mystics, and I totally didn't get that here. But then I realized that I shouldn't have expected their polished tracks of psychedelia, rather they were unpolished. It was noises, it was random, it was lyrically insane, it had Karen O for christ sake. Going back an listening to the entire catalog chronologically made me realize that this was the only next logical step for The Flaming Lips, and acceptance in the first step to recovery.

18. The Fiery Furnaces I'm Going Away

The Fiery Furnaces have a near and dear place to my heart, but like so much of the vanguard this year, they all came up a little short. That's not to say they weren't good (the wouldn't be on this list if they weren't), but it definitely cut corners and the hooks and melodies, often encouraging a little avant garde in the bad way. Regardless I loved their take on 70s influence and was a mainstay of the summer.

17. Fool's Gold Fool's Gold

Completely in Spanish and music videos of old men in speedos, Fool's Gold stole my heart with very catchy jingles and tropical theme. The inverted authentic Vampire Weekend if you will. Afropop doesn't inspire them, they inspire Afropop.

16. Atlas Sound Logos

Atlas Sound doesn't have much going for it on the surface, but when you realize that members of Animal Collective are willing to chip in, you know you have something going for it. "Walkabout" might have been the best song I heard all last year, and for some reason sounds great when you're waiting for the bus.

15. Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

Another contribution (via signing them to Paw Tracks) of Animal Collective (hey, guess which album is high ranked on my album list?), Dent May is an old man with a ukulele and a mission, and oddly enough HE FUCKING STICKS THE LANDING. Every one of his songs (particularly "College Town Boy" and "Meet Me in the Garden") could arguably be a single and easily the greatest sing along album of 2009. I just wish I could get my friends to listen, as what I've described is a hard sell.

14. Kings of Convenience Declaration of Dependence

Did anyone really not like this album? Wait, better question; does anyone not like Kings of Convenience? Acoustic heart-tugging track after acoustic heart-tugging track, they make a man want to crave a beer and hammock as they reminisce about past loves and adolescence. Notch the belt a third time with this album, for they are three for three now. Who say s you can't rock three times in a row in the 2000s?

13. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest

I'm stil not sure what a Veckatimist is. Chuck Klosterman once wrote about a fictional man who use to sit at the same barstool in a diner every day for years and if you asked him which chair he sat at he couldn't tell you. I feel this is analogous to this album and I. If you gave me a track from this album and asked me who sang it (negating Two Weeks) I could tell you it feels very familiar, but I couldn't name the band. Sometimes you don't need to know what you're listening to in order to know if feels comfortable, warm and enjoyable. Oh, poverty, muggy heat, and PBR, thy name is Grizzly Bear.

12. Dinorsaur Jr. Farm

I mean, really how does someone not love these aging rock stars. So much has been right this year, and that statement I made about shitty vanguard albums need not apply here. "Over It" gave me one of the best videos this year. Watching old guys ride skateboards and bmx bikes made me realize that maybe all the parents with facebooks still hold the coolness baton, and that you should never doubt an album of a reunited band just because U2, Areosmith, and everyone from the 80s sucked. Perhaps the most sincere and honest album of 2009.

11. The Avett Brothers I and Love and You

Gee, I wonder if someone from Bellingham wrote this list... I really didn't want to like this album. At first, I was just kind of confused as to why Rick Rubin decided that a bunch of mediocre hicks deserved his pro bono production (maybe because the lord, err I mean Rick Rubin, works in mysterious ways). Yet despite all my grudge (mostly due to a thousand different critics claiming it was one of the best of the decade), there's so much to like about this. The lyrics are rough and sincere, the chords simple, the whole thing, gorgeous, sad, and beautiful.

THE TOP TEN

10./10. Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 & Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II

These are both #10 for a few reasons. These are both the two biggest signs of maturity in the rap game. These are the two most successful returns of highly influential albums (The Blueprint & Only Built 4 Cuban Linx). After what a shit year 2008 was for rap, it's good to see two incredibly mature takebacks. Raekwon might have made the best redefining of subject matter in Rap in 2009 ("Pyrex Vision" might be the darkest thing I heard all year), and Jay-Z might have made the best critique of modern Rap in 2009.

9. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

It was a great year for Slumberland Records, and this was their defining moment. 2009 was definitely that transitory year of rock, and I love the quotation of 80s indie pop/rock that TPOBPAT (a horrible acronym, I know) toyed with. Probably the most fluid thing I listened to all year, and so god damn cheeky and happy I had to take a shot of insulin when I finished it.

8. Neon Indian Psychic Chasms

Neon Indian won my coveted prize (again, haha... yeah) of my summer anthem, in which it beat a close fought battle against Dinosaur Jr.'s "See You". I spent three months relatively unemployed and drunk. Thus how could Neon Indian's "Deadbeat Summer" not win? The funny thing was this album didn't come out for a much longer time than the single itself (which was sad because it didn't win my summer album award (quick sidenote: I'm not making a list of seasonal song awards, this is merely for smart assery), but it totally could have been. With the five thousand different genres that semi-spawn this year, it was a joy to hear one that had their shit together. New Wave/Electronica/Psychelia never sounded so good.

7. Neko Case Middle Cyclone

For the record, Neko never fails me. I would give her this spot on my list for her album cover alone. But she hit something deep and very mature with this. I was even convinced that she couldn't get as good as she did on Fox Confessor but like the sexy former Tacoma resident that she is, she proved me wrong again. Her rapid excitement on "This Tornado Loves You" to her semi-cheesiness on "Don't Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"*, it's flawless to the core.

*You mean it's not about the environment? What?!

6. Mayer Hawthorne A Strange Arrangement

The story about this album; Andrew Cohen, a semi-decent dj from Ann Arbor, on a whim, had been recording musical tracks of 70s inspired soul and funk, when a Stones Throw Records head heard it, he was sure it was a set of rarities from the era. When they realized it was this goofy looking white guy doing the whole thing, they signed his ass and gained the attention of everyone from Justin Timberlake to M.I.A. This album is so good it almost crashed my computer. Being the white funk and soul enthusiast that I am, this was the best surprise I received this year.

5. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Would anyone really dispute this? Not really. This was Phoenix's Dark Side of the Moon. The most flawless tracks they've combined into a compact disk. While French Pop died in the late 90s, the reason this is so popular and "refreshing" is no one has heard that genre in so fucking long that this is considered unique. The truth is, they're the last ones of the league to still put up a fight, and they won big this year, gaining notoriety with everyone from car commercial consumers to Pitchfork readers. The greatest success overall this year? Yeah, pretty much.

4. Girls Album

Where in the hell did this album come from? With almost no hype (fuck you, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band), Girls beat everyone to a pulp with the catchiest hooks and best lyrics of last year. Fading from Summer to Fall, it followed and defined the progression perfectly, and when they said "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine", I was right there with them.

3. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion

It almost feels like a cliche at this point to say this album was one of the best. The truth remains, it really was. I've never heard psychedelia so tight and fast and solid in my life. I don't feel I need to say much more about this album, because everyone has said already, starting from the moment it emerged at the beginning of last year.

2. Dirty Projector Bitte Orca

Genres were established left and right last year, but what happens when someone takes all the ones that exist and manipulates them to their liking? You get Dirty Projectors. Nothing made more sense with such an orchestral perfection than Bitte Orca. I had way too much fun with this one, and genuinely surprised me when I played this album and stared at my laptop like it was broken when I went "Wait, this is actually coming out of my speakers?" Captain Fantastic.

The Best Album of 2009

1. The XX XX

Sexy, Sad, Loving, Emotional, Soothing-

This is a disputable contention with a lot of people, but nothing made me more satisfied than this ode to adolescent love and lust. Thematic of my year? No, not really, but then again nothing really was this year. Nostalgic? Very much so. When a bunch of twentysomethings from the UK can whisper to each other like the time you lost your virginity, you've got something good in your hands. Jim Derogotis said something along the lines of this album sounding like the kind of emotional and sleepy pillowtalk that goes on at 2:00 am. I couldn't agree more. It makes you want to cry, it makes you want to love, it makes you want that everything right there covered in the sheets and talking with their eyes closed. When the whole world around you makes a billion songs a year about love, it's so refreshing to hear one that stands above the rest.

2009, everyone. Enjoy your day.

Vinyl Recommendation

I had a feeling this would since I can't afford cable this year.

The decade list (finally)

There was a serious lost of adolescence that took place last night. Everyone celebrated with an extreme enthusiasm but my bottle of champagne and I merely stared at the screen like we were watching something offensive or shocking on the television. It was the moment I realized that no longer was my lack of spontaneity and discipline something amusing or funny. It felt like a punch to the chest.

It took my breath away to realize that everything I accepted as the status quo, my immaturity, my passive observation to everything around me, everything, is no longer going to my life. It was, in fact, gone.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time meticulously cultivating this list. But it was my last hurrah to a bygone era. While confusion will never leave my body, nostalgia would be the minimized cognitive file for years 2000-2009, and this is that proof.

This list is in not chronological to release dates, but to my personal chronology. The only limitation was that they had to be indeed released within the decade.

I was asked a year ago by a political science professor what three albums to take with me to a hypothetical desert island. This exercise was rendered useless, as these are all to be airlifted to me on this desert island.

Ladies and gentlemen, every album that mattered (to me) in the last decade:

Middle School 2000-2002ish

-Dashboard Confessional A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
-The Strokes Is This It?
-N.E.R.D. Fly Or Die
-Radiohead Hail To The Thief
-Red Hot Chili Peppers By The Way
-Green Day Nimrod
-Kings of Leon Youth & Young Manhood
-Stellastarr Stellastarr
-The White Stripes Elephant & White Blood Cells

-Hot Hot Heat Make Up the Breakdown
-Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights


High School 2003-2007:

Freshman Year:

-Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News
-Jet Get Born
-Weezer The Blue Album
-Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
-The Strokes Room On Fire
-OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
-The Darkness Permission To Land
-Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales
-The Shins Oh, Inverted World
-Elliot Smtih From a Basement on the Hill
-The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
-The White Stripes Get Behind Me, Satan
-The Zutons Who Killed The Zutons?

Sophomore Year:

-Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters
-Saul Williams Saul Williams
-Kings of Leon Aha Shake Heartbreak
-The Secret Machines Now Here Is Nowhere
-The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
-The Killers Hot Fuss

-Snow Patrol Final Straw
-Rilo Kiley More Adventurous
-Shout Out Louds Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
-Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
-The Hives Tyrannosaurus Hives
-Yeah Yeah Yeah's Fever To Tell
-Garden State soundtrack
-The Decemberists Picaresque
-The Postal Service Give Up

Junior Year:

-Matisyahu Live at Stubb's
-Damien Rice O
-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-Death Cab For Cutie Plans
-My Morning Jacket Z
-Sigur Ros Takk...
-Spoon Gimme Fiction
-The Thrills So Much For The City & Let's Bottle Bohemia
-Wilco A Ghost Is Born
-Wolfmother Wolfmother
-The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike!
-We Are Scientists With Love & Squalor

-The Black Keys Magic Potion
-The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics
-Sufjan Stevens Illinoise
-Beirut Gulag Orkestar
-Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not
-New Pornographers Twin Cinema
-OK Go Oh No
-Jose Gonzalez Veneer

Senior Year:

-Feist Let It Die
-Cold War Kids Robbers & Cowards
-M. Ward Post War
-Silversun Pickups Carnavas
-The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers
-Iron & Wine The Creek Drank The Cradle
-Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat
-Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere
-Peter Bjorn & John Writer's Block
-Coldplay Parachutes
-The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Die?
-Arcade Fire Neon Bible
-Islands Return To The Sea
-TV On The Radio Return To Cookie Mountain
-Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Living With The Living
-Band of Horses Everything All The Time

-The Futureheads The Futureheads
-The Thermals The Body The Blood The Machine
-Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit

Summer Between Graduation & Freshman Year Of College:

-Apples In Stereo New Magnetic Wonder
-Earl Greyhound Soft Targets
-Lily Allen Alright, Still
-Danger Doom The Mouse and The Mask
-Okkervil River The Stage Names
-Amy Winehouse Back to Black
-Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
-Oh No! Oh My! Oh No! Oh My!
-Tokyo Police Club A Lesson In Crime
-Rilo Kiley Under The Blacklight
-Wilco Sky Blue Sky
-Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills
-Grand Ole Party Humanimals

Freshman Year:

-Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala
-The Kings of Convenience Riot on an Empty Street & Quiet is the New Loud
-Les Savy Fav Let's Stay Friends
-Maplewood Maplewood
-Seu Jorge The Life Aquatic – Studio Sessions
-The National Boxer
-Ghostland Observatory Paparazzi Lightning
-Kanye West Graduation
-Mono You Are There
-Kimya Dawson Remember That I Love You
-Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
-Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
-MGMT Oracular Spectacular
-The Moldy Peaches The Moldy Peaches
-Cat Power The Greatest
-Fiery Furnaces Widow City
-Fionn Regan The End of History
-The Rosebuds Make Out
-Juno Soundtrack
-Two Gallants What The Toll Tells
-Rilo Kiley Take Offs & Landings
-Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords
-She & Him Volume 1
-Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
-My Morning Jacket Acoustic Citsuoca Live! at the Startime Pavilion EP

Summer In Between:

-Dr. Dog We All Belong
-Devendra Banhart Nina Rojo
-The Hold Steady Boys & Girls In America
-My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
-Albert Hammond Jr. Como Te Llama?
-The Format Dog Problems
-Beck Modern Guilt
-No Age Nouns
-Daft Punk Discovery

Sophomore Year:

-King Khan & The Shrines The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines
-Jay Reatard Matador Singles ‘08
-The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
-The Black Keys Thickfreakness
-Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty
-Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
-Cadence Weapon Afterparty Babies
-Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
-Neko Case Middle Cyclone
-Deer Tick War Elephant
-Starfucker Starfucker
-Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights
-The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
-Cake Comfort Eagle

Summer In Between:

-Dinorsaur Jr. Farm
-The Black Keys The Big Come Up

Junior Year (Until Now):

The XX XX
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
Neon Indian Psychic Chasms
Girls Album

The Avett Brothers I and Love and You
Jay-Z The Blueprint 3

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

[Oh yes, it's the] The Foxes! '09

The honorable mentions:

Kristen Stewart

I know, Twilight. I never saw either nor did I read the novels of abstinence porn Stephanie Meyers gave to the literary diarrhea pile. But I don't know if you saw the movie Adventureland, but god damn. Some of the better acting I've seen in a while (although that had much to do with the realism of post-college adolescence and usage of Violent Femmes' first album). Her vulnerability and connection with Jesse Eisenberg made me wish I was more nerdy and shy, just so I seemed appealing to her. Mmm...

Emma Stone

Speaking of Jesse Eisenberg, I noticed Emma Stone going from the hot girl from Superbad to being sexy woman in Zombieland. Her film history isn't really anything to salute (cough, The House Bunny, cough), but her self awareness put her in the top rung of hotness.

Alia Shawkat

She almost won my misogynistic contest this year. I was re-watching Arrested Development (she plays Maeby Funke, and very well) a few months back and thought to myself "I bet she's really hot now". I was right. First off, she's in that show (and was WAY smarter than most child actors). Second, she's hot. Third, she's a student at Berkeley (studying poli sci, no less)? Triple threat? Correct. I never actually saw Whip It, but seeing her in clips of the movie was enough to convince me.

Melanie Laurent

Shosanna Dreyfus from Inglourious Basterds. Nobody made killing Nazi more sexy. The unfortunate thing: not enough cinema to find in this country of her. That's what you get with the French. I've been swooning over her since August, and she came in a close second.

The Winner:

Christina Hendricks

When I first started coming up with ideas for this year's picks it wasn't even fair. She's just so perfect, if not purely on an aesthetic basis. She's the most intrinsic subtle character on the show who exposes such fantastic guise of confidence in such failure surrounding her. It may even be sexist to think that the hottest woman I've seen this year is portraying an archetype sassy beauty of the 1960s, but I really don't care (the only downside is she's married to this guy). Ladies and gentlemen, Christina Hendricks. Mmmmmm......

In the year 2010: What I really really look forward to in the next year.

Vampire Weekend - Contra (January 12)

My god, it's like my own personal 21st birthday present. Vampire Weekend has been steadily adding singles for us to nibble on (and, oddly enough, are already getting play in the mainstream?). I don't know what could have been critiqued last time around, so I assume the will end up getting the same treatment of The Strokes' Room On Fire.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks (March 9)

One of the most underrated acts playing, total vegan hippie New York socialites, and I'm totally okay with that as long as the did what they did last time. It's a safe bet because Ted Leo and his gang have rarely fucked up.

She & Him - Volume Two (March 23)

Part of my excitement was the really decided to name their sequel Volume Two. Despite the fact that Zooey Deschanel is wearing herself thin with my patience (we get it already, you're hot) nothing is going to make me happier than seeing springtime emerge and have this to go with it. Seriously, try not to smile and listen to their first album, and then copy paste that to April 2010.

The Magnetic Fields - Realism (January 26)

I seem to remember their last album coming out at about the same time two years ago and falling in love with it while I was typing my English 101 papers. I've seen/read/heard a lot of people tell them they are of a bygone era, but I feel this album is prime for the old folks to show the kids what's what.

The National - (no title yet) (spring 2010)

I'm not really sure how to fuck their strategy up. They've created progressively better albums over time and don't seem to yet peak. Their musical style only facilitates better songwriting, and so I'm going to gamble this and maintain excitement for whatever the put out this year.

Spoon - Transference (January 26)

I have this strange feeling that this and Contra are just going to Arcade Fire everyone and we'll just all give up on the rest of the year (kinda like Animal Collective did this year). I've never heard a bad Spoon album, and this will be no exception.

In general I have very big optimism for a lot of things, and that might have something to do with my choice to not shave my beard mixed with the promise of a new decade. I'm stretching now because I know I'm going to run myself ragged, and with this soundtrack we might be going into the 1970s of music or the 1980s of music. Hopefully the prior, of course.

Mazel Tov!

My final blogs of this decade coming soon. I promise! Especially the big one... that's what she said? Yes. That is what she said.

Merry Christmas.

"No man is a failure who has friends."

Biggest Disappointments of 2009

This year's theme seemed to be something regarding reminding me it was no longer 2007. So much of this wasn't expected to be great, but this stuff just didn't even make a certain grade of quality and are unfortunately constituted in a bygone era. This is the 21 gun salute for many fallen soldiers.

Devendra Banhart "What Will We Be" -While it was a solid album (kind of) it didn't hold to a lot of standards and that was sad. The only standard though I'm referring to was a sign of maturity. Banhart has gone four LP's now and seems to make no evolution of refinement or effort, which sadly makes me question his legitimacy as an artist (see Megapuss' album)

Wolfmother "Cosmic Egg" - In 2007 I gained my first employment and found a driven speed of determination that was symbolized within Wolfmother's debut. This reads like Twisted Sister's second album. The majority of band members are gone and most tracks on this album are spun into a mainstream chord form that lacks the innovation previously admired.

Wilco "Wilco (The Album)" - Almost nothing on this shows effort. If they don't watch it, Jeff Tweedy's going to turn Wilco into U2, which is a bold statement but I'm afraid they are becoming a little fucked out, and it shows now... And that's ok. Wilco already has two decades of influence under their belt, it's ok to put down the guitar and call it a day. I won't hold it against them.

Sufjan Stevens "The BQE" - Stevens just lost his mind a little this year. I hated how this tried to be classical and modern. It sounded like new wave jazz and left me a little disoriented. I still have faith, and after reading enough interviews with him, I can tell he knows what he did wrong. I'm just glad he finally told us that he's not really going to the 50 states project. Bring me "Illonois". I can wait for the next mindfreak.

The Thermals "Now We Can See" - The reason their last album "The Body, The Blood, The Machine" was so captain fantastic was because of the passion. It was 2006. Everyone was pissed about where we'd come as a society, and The Thermals were fucking angry. So how do you show passion in a moment of complacency? Well, apparently you can't. This sounded a little too homogenized and the result made me feel a little dissatisfied.

King Khan & BBQ Show "Inivisble Girl" - As you know, I claimed Khan's "Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines" was the best of 2008 (negating MGMT & Bon Iver). It was so god damned good and the BBQ Show showed up. The ironic thing is BBQ Show (depicted on the cover as the octopus) would be great as a solo (and wrote the album's best song "I'll Be Loving You), much like King Khan, but together they seem like an early Jay Reatard EP.

Worst moment: "Tastebuds" Lyrics

Flight of the Conchords "I Told You I Was Freaky" - I was very understanding as to why this album was neither interesting nor funny. FOTC were done after their first season, and I think we all knew that. But with this I felt they could have at least tried on their second LP. It came off as shallow and I definitely felt some sort of hostility towards Sub Pop for their pressure on another accompanying album to the second and final season of their show (although the episode "Prime Minister" might be the funniest thing I've ever seen.)

New Hat

I've decided to embark on a pretentious endeavor. I'll now post records I've bought, and by doing so I'm recommending them to you as well. It's amazing I scored anything Elton John for 50 cents