Top Music of 2009

What follows is my personal list of top music from 2009. This is obviously not comprehensive by any means. To make this list the music had to inspire me to purchase either physically or digitally. Although I probably purchase more music than the average 40 year old, I certainly consume less than the average person in the record business. Mostly because I am picky but also because I spend a lot of my limited free time reading and watching movies (movie list to follow by the way). Take a look and let me know what you think.

1. Death Cab for Cutie - Meet at the Equinox (single)
Although I will do my best to avoid the movie this song appears in, I still think it is an amazing track from one of my favorites bands. It has all the elements I love about DCC. And by the way believe me when I say that I will avoid the Twilight phenomena. I still have yet to see Titanic.

2. Pearl Jam - Backspacer and Ten (Redux)
How many bands can release a twentieth anniversary edition of their debut as well as one of their best new recordings in the same year? Most bands in their 20th year are usually only a shadow of their former selves or they are so entrenched in trying to capture the past that anything new is just a pitiful attempt at past glory. I am looking at you Alice in Chains. The remastered version of Ten not only includes the required unreleased tracks and live performances, but the deluxe has a DVD of their amazing MTV Unplugged performance. But the pièce de résistance is Brendan O'Brien's remixed version of the original LP which really brings out the ROCK. As for the band's new release, Backspacer, it is a solid collection of rock songs in the tradition of Ten as well as the follow up Vs. Although a Target exclusive, the band went the extra mile to offer a great digital version on iTunes as well as a version just for independent retail. I highly recommend the physical version of the CD or the LP. The artwork is amazing.

3. Wilco - Ashes of American Flags DVD and Wilco
I was lucky enough to be at a premiere independent retailer in San Diego on Record Store Day and I was able to obtain two favorites. The first being the latest Wilco DVD Ashes of American Flags. Not only is this a great documentary/concert film, but the DVD came with a code to download the audio for all the songs. Wilco is a rare band that delivers a unique live experience as strong but separate from their recorded experience. Wilco also released a new self-titled record this year and although I cannot rank it above their previous two studio recordings it is still a very good record with a lot more joy than previous releases.


4. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
It is easy to add Neko Case's latest to this list since almost every critic has done the same, but don't dismiss this record as just a critical darling. Neko has an amazing magnetism and a voice to match. Whether she is singing an original composition or a somewhat obscure cover song, I just cannot resist her. Of course I can do without the 30 minute chorus of tree frogs that closes the collection. Seems like a guilty pleasure for city folks to me.


5. Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
I fucking love this band and while I lived in Little Rock this may have been a little uncool now that I have returned to the northeast, I love them even more. This record is a bit of a departure for the Ben and the boys with the addition of a horn section that gives the record a throwback Memphis sound that suits them. Ultimately the core guitar and gravely vocals are there and as far as I am concerned no one writes better songs than Ben Nichols. I am a little wary that the band is going down a road paved by Springsteen cover band The Hold Steady though. The next time I see the band if there are a bunch of frat boys with backwards baseball caps singing along I will be very depressed.


6. The Dead Weather - Horehound
I have to admit that I have a love/don't really care attitude about Jack White. I want to like the White Stripes, but there always seemed to be something missing. I love his work with Loretta Lynn and some of the Raconteurs stuff, but after seeing a live performance I was hooked by this latest project. Behind the drum kit, Jack seems at home and the group seems like a real band not just a side project. The sound is kind of Deep Purple meets grunge and simply just rocks.


7. Deer Tick - Born on Flag Day
I was first exposed to this Rhode Island band in 2008 when I saw them open for Jenny Lewis in New Haven, CT. They blew me away and I immediately bought whatever was available. I later discovered how hard this band has been working to make a name for themselves. Born on Flag Day demonstrates all that hard work, but still comes off as unpolished. Remember the first Uncle Tupelo record. It feels like that.


8. My Morning Jacket - Celebracion De La Ciudad Natal and Yim Yames - Tribute To (EP)
This MMJ CD was my second purchase on Record Store Day. It was exclusive to the retailers taking part in this special event and I am glad I grabbed it. Along side Wilco, MMJ knows how to translate their music to a live setting. This 8 track collection does not disappoint. Later this year lead singer Jim James released a great collection of George Harrison covers under the barely veiled pseudonym Yim Yames. This is a very lo-fi and understated collection, but the version of All Things Must Pass is worth the entire EP.


9. Kevin Kerby + Battery - Beautiful & Bright
I am lucky to have met and worked with some of my favorite song writers during my career. I was a fan of Kevin's band Mulehead before I moved to Little Rock in 1998. I not only got a chance to see that band dozens of times, but I was able to work with them and becomes friends with Kevin. This is his latest solo collection and quite frankly some of the best songs he has ever written. There is a darkness and maturity in the lyrics that quite frankly moved me greatly. The stand out song for me is Last Word On A Situation which at its core is a highly personal song about a specific instance for Kevin but resonates for me on many levels.


10. Company of Thieves - Ordinary Riches
Let me begin by admitting something very difficult. I love Daryl Hall and I watch his web show Live From Daryl's House religiously. That is where I first saw Company of Thieves. Lead singer, Genevieve Schatz, has an amazing voice that reminds me of a time I just loved pop/alternative/new wave music and did not have to try and earn money from it. All my hipster friends, please suspend your jaded natures and listen.


11. Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard - One Fast Move And I'm Gone
What is better than a Jack Kerouac novel? A documentary and a bunch of songs based on his writings. The three things that make me a geek and an outcast; beat novelists, shoe gazing folk rock, and documentaries all in one easy download.


12. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live at the Fillmore East Who knew Neil was saving all this cool shit? This 6 song collection of live jams is an incredible time capsule. As much as I love bands like My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Blitzen Trapper and the like this collection reminds me where it started, and frankly over shadows all. The 16 minute version of Cowgirl in the Sand and the 12 minute version of Down By the River will make you want to build a time machine and grow sideburns.


13. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Like an uncontrolled impulse I buy every new Sonic Youth release. The Eternal marks there escape from major label legitimizer to independent mavericks. This release continues the mix of experimental with musical that has been a heavy part of all their releases over the last 20 years. To me they are still as current and vibrant as ever.


14. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I usually avoid and do not enjoy the "latest thing". These bands usually fade soon after the second song they perform on SNL. A friend of mine (thanks Little Rock Pete) recommended this release for just what it is - "a great summer record". Very catchy and crisp. Perfect to play loud.


15. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
I love Genesis, Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd and all those progressive/psychedelic bands from the 1970's. That appreciation has led me to bands that make incredibly complex and layered music that still is anchored in rock and folk traditions. The Hazards of Love not only shares many characteristics of those post hippie bands, but it is a rock opera to boot. Blame it on listening to Peter and the Wolf so many times in grade school, but I love to be told a story especially with so much deception and violence.

Cover Me - Hear It Again

Murder by Death - Songs to Kill By

Drunk and Drinking - Music to feel sorry for yourself by.

Sister Beams (I need to get motivated and finish this)

Thirty-six years old and more handsome than beautiful, Mary Margaret Jasper desperately wanted to get married and she thought she had found the perfect guy. Hank Sisco was thirty-five and managed the Texaco station off I-40. Cokes, candy bars, gasoline, and handing out the bathroom key which was attached to a two foot piece of metal that used to be part of the owners 1963 Buick’s steering column and would guarantee maximum inconvenience and embarrassment to those who dared to enter the seldom cleaned washroom filled his days. Although never married, Hank was known to have many liaisons with women as far asunder as Fort Smith to the West and Stuttgart to the East. Working at the only gas station at an isolated exit on a popular interstate, Hank met a lot of folks at their best and worst and sometimes at their most in need.

He loved Mary Margaret or at least he believed it was love. He had not cheated on her in the nine months they had been dating and felt that was a mature accomplishment. Of course the direct opportunity had not arisen either. He supposed they would get married and it was probably time to settle down. Lord knows his long suffering mother, alone and childless herself until her early forties had harped on him to “find a woman, get hitched, and make some grand babies before his seed was completely wasted on every piece of trash that winked at him from behind the pork rinds display”.

Mary Margaret was uninterested when folks pointed out Hank’s many intimate conquests. She felt that everything in the past was only that, and Hank was merely slow to accept adult responsibility and besides most of the stories were most likely exaggerated as tends to happen in small towns. Hank was a good man with a good job and he paid more attention to her than any ten men who came before including her father Clay Jasper who had returned from Vietnam in 1974 to his five year old daughter and two year old son and quickly transformed from the former high school football hero to war hero to crazy guy in fatigues screaming at the Chinese migrants who picked peaches out in the orchards each season. Because of his former hero status (more football than war), the sheriff went easy on him but eventually had to personally put a bullet between his eyes after Clay held hostage a truck full of migrants threatening to shoot one per hour until they revealed the location of every POW in Vietnam. No one was going to convince him that the people he held were Chinese not Vietnamese and he was in a peach orchard in Central Arkansas not a rice patty south of Saigon. So after five hours of talk in the hot July sun Sheriff Ralph Emerson had to put a small hole in the middle of Sergeant Clay Jasper’s forehead which resulted in a gaping cavity in the back of his head as he was about to execute his first victim.

Practically the entire town had caught wind of the developing incident and had turned out to see the outcome. What they got was a far cry from what was expected but accustomed as they were to the violence that built and defines the American South not a one cried out or even turned away in shock. They merely got back in their pickups and late model sedans and quietly and somewhat sadly went home leaving the sheriff, the deputies, the Chinese migrants, and the Jasper clan who came to help convince the paterfamilias of his error behind. Mary Margaret, her younger brother Adam, and her mother all witnessed what became known as the Huckabee Peach Farm Gook Incident. Even local history refusing to believe the peach pickers at the center of the tragedy were Chinese not Vietnamese. And Clay Jasper was forever thought of as a fallen hero (once again more football than war) not as a disturbed young man.

Mary Margaret’s brother, Adam, had grown to follow in his father’s footsteps to a degree. He was handsome and athletic from an early age and drew favorable comparisons to his father from all over town and hushed whispers from the same folks behind his back speculating how far the similarity would run. But at the current age of 35, he had so far avoided any controversy. Like his father he was a football star in high school, but unlike his father he was able to escape the pull of a foreign conflict and attend the state university on an athletic scholarship. His star status did not continue at the collegiate level, but he spent 5 quiet years playing some what regularly and maintaining a decent grade point average. He met his future wife who grew up a few towns east, and after he graduated he was welcomed home to a sales job at the local Chevrolet dealership which established him enough to get married and settle down destined to be a pillar of the community.

f Adam had any weakness it was his fierce loyalty and protection of his mother and sister whom he regarded as his wards in many ways. From an early age he took the responsibility as the man of the house seriously helping his ever more dependent mother maintain the house and protect his sister from the parade of “uncles” that came into and out of their lives. By the time he reached the tender age of 10 it was well known to take a wide berth of Adam when it came to matters concerning his mother and sister. Even while he was away at college people respected his presence like one would the threat a “beware of dog” sign even though the dog may have never been see or heard.

Mary Margaret’s and Adam’s mother had been slowly unraveling in the 30 plus years since her husband’s untimely demise. Helen Jasper was once the prettiest girl in town. Her early years were charmed with pageant and home coming crowns. To look at her and Clay in early photos it was as if they fell from the pages of Life Magazine as representations of what young Americans were supposed to look like. They were the couple most likely to succeed and live happily ever after. And all appeared to be on track. After graduation Clay got a job as a supervisor at the Huckabee Peach Farm after eschewing a college football career because he could not stand to be away from his sweetheart. They got married and Helen was quickly pregnant with their first child. As a local celebrity, Clay did not worry about his draft status. The town fathers had secured him a high draft number and it looked like he may avoid serving in Vietnam. But as the war dragged on into the 1970’s and after a somewhat turbulent series of county and state elections, Clay was drafted in the United States Army. By this time their second child was born and Clay and Helen had become an important part of local society. He stayed optimistic though and assured his young wife that by the time he got through basic training the war would likely be over and he would serve out his time in places like South Carolina or Texas and return home safe and sound. This of course did not happen and within 2 years destiny shifted.

Tea Bagging

As soon as I started to feel that Americans were smarter than I was giving them credit for they go and do something to prove they are actually dumber. At the very least these mostly white, mostly lower middle class, mostly blue collar, mostly NASCAR loving god fearing salt of the earth working folks should at least watch the John Adams mini-series or even Mel Gibson's, The Patriot to learn a little American history. There are plenty of reasons to be upset over the current state of economic affairs and that anger can easily be directed at either party, but to complain about "taxation without representation" is just silly. Our forefathers were taxed for everything (including tea) without any say in the government that ruled them. They did not elect their governor. He was appointed by the King. There was no Congress, and there was no means to monitor or hold in check those that did make these decisions. Laws were obeyed and taxes were paid at the point of a bayonet. Now because manipulative pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich say something is so, all the folks who are the victims of the powerful stand at attention and obey. Ironically most of the forefathers today’s protesters hold in such high regard were America’s first liberal elite. They were men of high education and influence who spent time thinking about and discussing issues. They were lawyers, philosophers, writers, and inventors. I am pretty sure that these men in their modern incarnations are not revered by the tea bagging zombies from this past week. I saw plenty of man on the street interviews conducted by all the major news outlets (including Fox News), and I did not hear one person quote Paul Krugman, George Will, or even Ronald Reagan. I did hear a lot of uninformed rhetoric about socialism and communism as well as talking points memorized like baseball statistics. In short, protest is GOOD, dissent is GOOD, questioning authority is REALLY GOOD, but ignorance and selective illiteracy is BAD.

Random Thoughts While Watchinig the Grammys

• I cannot support domestic violence, but I also cannot feel bad that Chris Brown and Rihanna have been beating on each other.



• Jaimie Foxx is an arrogant piece of shit. He cannot say two sentances without promoting his album. Even his 15 year old daughter looks embarrassed by him.



• I love U2, but it is time for another orginal idea. All the good will built from Achtung Baby is finally wearing off.



• When did Whitney Houston become Tina Turner?



• Al Green is still a bad ass, but why is Keith Urban up there? Was Steve Cropper unavailable?



• No, no, no not Jay-Z! What the hell is he talking about?



• I used to like Carrie Underwood when she was called Reba McEntire.



• Paul McCartney should not be forced to sit through a Kid Rock medley.



• "Can you pull this, grasp this?" Orencia sounds like a good drug.



• At least two of the Jonas Brothers do not realize Stevie Wonder is blind. The Grammy producers must have told him he was performing with the Isley Brothers.


• Could John Mayer be the Jonas Brothers' father?


• Hey Kanye, the Bus Boys called, they want their harido back. "They Boys are Back in Town"


• Another Grammy and there will never be a Led Zeppelin reunion.


• Why is M.I.A wearing a lady bug costume?


• It is all becoming a blur.
• Hey I know that guy.

Comfort

The infatuation was mutual and strong. Held back by commitments and fear of what could be. She suddenly leaned into me and I embraced her as completely as possible. Her body melted into mine. The scents of her soap and shampoo overwhelmed me as I had only previously experienced them from a polite distance. She then looked up and said, "imagine it is 1924 and we are in Paris. We could be free. We could be together". She buried her head back into my chest and wept. This was all for my benefit. At least that was my feeling at the time, and I was grateful.