popwreckoning

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• White Lies – To Lose My Life
• Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Best Show of 2009:

• Phoenix at Terminal 5

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• Vampire Weekend
• Delphic

Most Overrated in 2009:

• La Roux

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• Watching the video for the Strokes’ “Last Nite” not knowing who they were, but discovering that music and then everything that came after. A saviour from the music that was playing in the 90s.

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• The Dangerous Summer – Reach for the Sun
• This Providence – Who Are You Now?
• Mayday Parade – Anywhere But Here

Best Show of 2009:

• Buzz Under the Stars – Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin, Alkaline Trio, The Offspring, The Used
• Mayday Parade, The Dangerous Summer, There For Tomorrow
• Paramore, Paper Route

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• 3OH!3
• Lydia
• Paper Route

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Jonas Brothers
• Miley Cyrus
• Rihanna

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Ingrid Michaelson – Everybody
• Morningwood – Diamonds and Studs
• The Sounds – Crossing the Rubicon

Best Show of 2009:

• Butch Walker at Hotel Cafe 11/25 when he let the fans pick the set list via Twitter. All Falls Apart, Make Up and a Monkees cover all in one night. What more could a girl ask for?

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• The forever promised No Doubt record. I know it’s supposedly been in the works for years now, but a true Gwennabe never gives up.

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Taylor Swift- blar.

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• Allow me to get a little Lifetime movie network for a moment… My pick would have to be discovering Butch Walker, aside from the music (which I adore) I’ve met some of my favorite people, including my best friend, because of him.

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

Top 3? You know, when doing these lists, you have to decide which perspective you want to come from. Do I remark on what’s trendy and basically tell you what you already know…that dream-pop, 80s synth, super groups, and flannel-fuzzy folk is “It”? Or rather, do I share my personal Aha! albums with you, the ones that got the most spin on my ipod, the ones that I shared my crusty morning commutes and busted late night subway sojourns with, the ones that are still stuck in my gut? You should be able to tell from my list where I landed.

• Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
• Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Summer of Fear
• Mew – No More Stories…

Honorable Mentions:

• Gossip – Music For Men
• An Horse – Rearrange Beds
• Jay Z – The Blueprint 3

Best Show of 2009:

• Peaches @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

You have not lived until you’ve seen the Madame of electro-clash, Peaches, “Fuck the Pain Away” with a giant glow stick dildo while simultaneously dangling like a wild arboreal mammal from the rafters in Brooklyn. Nuff said.

• Honorable Mention: PJ Harvey @ SXSW

PJ debuts her album, A Man A Woman Walked By, for a small gathering of oh…about thirty, myself included? Yeah, that pretty much has to be mentioned, again.

Most Anticipated in 2010:

Buzzed about, fussed over, sophomore challenges and an unthinkable reunion, make the list.

• Lissy Trullie – Self-Taught Learner (early 2010): Asymmetrical bob sporting, art school educated, former model, sings and struts a decidedly Downtown, New Wave cool beat.
• Vampire Weekend – Contra (January 12, 2010): Ezra Koenig buys a new pair of boat shoes and hopes they last as long as the first ones.
• Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring: Arts & Crafts darlings return on January 26 with more frisky music to crush on. According to singer Gareth Campesinos! the new album is about “shagging and death.” What more could I possibly hope for?
• Fences: Tattooed, foul-mouthed, impossibly indie crooner with Sara Quin at the helm. Expect an early 2010 release.
• Pavement: Reunion tour…time for the wee ones to wiki “prog rock” and take note!
• MGMT: Congratulations is to be released this coming spring and a “secret” Sir Paul McCartney project in the works? Will their follow-up make Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo break a sweat?

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Grizzly Bear-Veckatimist

Hold yourself back now! I know, it was highly anticipated and got top honors from just about everyone from the moment it leaked, and I tried, I really tried to love this album but it just didn’t stick for me. I’m even going against my hero Bob Boilan (NPR/All Songs Considered) when I shut this album down! Sure, it’s intricate and dreamy, with all the lush harmonies, strings, and chilly choirs an indie-lovin’ girl could ask for, but the hype! The hype! It’s good, but not mind-blowing and I’m still not sure about this “glo-fi” movement that they’re pioneering according to some.

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• Simple. I’m talking about the moment at the very end of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal for the This Is It tour, at the end of “They Don’t Really Care About Us,” when he drops a little smile and stands still for a peaceful split second. It’s the last image of Jackson we have and he’s smiling. I watched it twenty times in a row on You Tube after hearing the news of his death. Seeing him happy in that moment is both haunting and beautiful.

Top 3 Albums of 2009

• N.A.S.A. - The Spirit of Apollo (Anti) :: review
• Kevin Devine – Brother’s Blood (Favorite Gentlemen) :: review
• Zee Avi - Zee Avi (Brushfire)

Best Show of 2009

• N.A.S.A. at Emo’s Annex during SXSW. Wild dance party, dancing on stage with Orion slave girls and aliens, high fiving the DJs, being escorted off stage by security, and hanging out backstage. All around aces. (read about it)

Most Anticipated for 2010

• Basia Bulat – Heart of My Own (Rough Trade); even though I’ve got it and have been rocking it for a while

Most Overrated of 2009

• Passion Pit. F’real.

Best Music Memory

• Spending an entire day in a VIP lounge at SXSW making friends, drinking free drinks, eating free food, schmoozing with hotshots, hanging with An Horse and Langhorne Slim, running out to go catch Fight Like Apes and sneaking in the rest of the PW crew. Bar none the greatest music day of 2009.

Here’s to an even better 2010. Have a safe, fun and exciting New Year’s Eve!

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Sigur Ros – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
• Silversun Pickups – Swoon
• Doves – Kingdom of Rust

Best Show of 2009:

• The Decemberists – “A Short Fazed Hovel” tour

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• Spoon – Transference
• DEVO
• She Wants Revenge
• Arcade Fire
• Massive Attack – Heligoland
• The Rapture
• Gang of Four
• MGMT – Congratulations

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Vampire Weekend
• Muse
• U2

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• One my fondest musical memories of the past decade was the Snake River Conspiracy “Bush And Gore 2000” tour. SRC was the short-lived band with Jason Slater of Third Eye Blind and the incredible vocals of Tobey Torres in a sexy, industrial rock wrapper. This was the last show I saw at The Masquerade in Atlanta before moving across the country to San Francisco, the place SRC and I would both call home. While the show was memorable on its own merits, the diminutive venue was really the star as it was a regular destination for countless live music shows during college. It’s the kind of place that will punish you with its awful acoustics and will leave you wondering if the three perforated floors (Heaven, Hell and Purgatory) would hold up to the nightly torture from enthusiastic fans. And, there was always the chance that you would arrive for a show to find that the city had decided to demolish the building altogether.

Over the years, The Masquerade was the place for me to witness incredible performances before the bands graduated to larger stages. In 1989, there was the 100-degree Nine Inch Nails “Sweat-Fest” where the entire 1000-person capacity crowd gathered shirtless under a lone ceiling fan lazily spinning at about twenty revolutions per minute. Then there was the vicious Niter Ebb show that left everyone with a temporary case of full-body tinnitus. And, at the other end of the spectrum was Björk in a pre-swan dress show where she shushed the music emanating from the other floors of the club during her performance of “It’s Oh So Quiet.”

The Masquerade is the kind of place that will treat you like garbage, completely pummel your senses and otherwise abuse everyone who climbs her rickety stairs. But, like a relationship in need of some serious therapy, she always knows you’ll be back because of all the glorious memories you have together.

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Antlers – Hospice
• Passion Pit – Manners
• 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack (mostly because I loved discovering Temper Trap from this soundtrack)

Best Show of 2009:

• It is a tie. The Killers are my favorite band and I saw them three times this year. The second of those times was in Bonner Springs, Kansas. I drove down right before my finals week and talked my way into being in the venue before anybody else for an exclusive sound check party. Yet before the official “party” the band did a legit sound check and everyone was supposed to be out of the venue, but the tour manager let me stay. It was just me and the band and the sound guy. Surreal. The band’s performance that night was even more mind-blowing and the best of the 10 times I’ve seen them. In fact, it was so great, and I sang so much, I lost my voice.
• This is tied with Bonnaroo. Tons of great bands from new groups like Passion Pit to classics like Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen even surprised and played with Phish. Yet another surreal experience.

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• Broken Bells – the new project of James Mercer of The Shins and Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley have a collaboration due out in early 2010.
• Arcade Fire is supposed to have a late summer release, which should be amazing as usual.
• MGMT is supposed to have a spring release and fingers crossed that this time MGMT will have an entire album of amazing songs instead of just half an album like before.

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Now, I’m no Kanye, but Taylor Swift – I am over you.

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• I’ve been to a lot of great shows and my first concert ever was in this past decade, but I think my favorite musical memory was in college. I had the opportunity to work crew and help put together a show for my campus (I actually had this opportunity several times, but this was the first). We lucked into booking an MTVU Campus Invasion Tour with Motion City Soundtrack, Straylight Run and Hellogoodbye. In between helping build a stage, set up lights move instruments, I also got to help show bands around. Yes, it was work, but it was so much fun to talk gym routines with Matt from MCS and share an earbud to my iPod with John Nolan from Straylight Run while Michelle tried on my watch and Will Noon rambled on about his psychology classes. Then to sit down and eat dinner with Hellogoodbye. Amazing! And to think all that was before the show even started. After the show, we all hung around in the parking lot sharing drinks and stories. Who would have thought that this would be the first of many hang outs I would get with musicians that I love and respect?

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• The XX – The XX
• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
• Coconut Records – Davy

Best Show of 2009:

• Fleet Foxes at Metro Chicago. 8/8/09. Despite overcrowding and horrible heat inside the building, Robin Pecknold and gang gave far more to the crowd than could reasonably be expected.

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• She & Him
• Arcade Fire
• The Shins
• MGMT

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• John Frusciante – The Empyrean

The Empyrean opens with an extended guitar solo workout that recalls Pink Floyd Meddle-era. Thus begins a journey that is equal parts rock and folk meshed with flourishes of electronica. Each new release has found Frusciante recording at a different stage in his career; right now he has at the “Dude That Records Masterpieces” stage.

• The Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand

The Black Lips are one of a few bands that seem truly committed to making interesting music. Part of the appeal in this album is at least marginally owed to the band’s approach to live performances and aspirations in general. 200 Million Thousand is filled with doo-wop and rock songs that seem to have been passed through a punk filter.

• Reverend Peyton and His Big Damn Band – The Whole Fam Damnily

The Reverend plays a brand of country-blues that could be considered illegal in some states. In wrapping lyrics that are pure social commentary around slide guitar, washboard, and bucket he created one of the more engaging albums of the year. It is neither the DT’s nor the Devil that make me shake, it is the Reverend.

Best Show of 2009:

• Beggars, Halloween Show at the Ferndale Public Library

As you get older, you realize that holidays are really for the kids. Halloween is a prime example. Beggars got into the Halloween spirit playing for a mixed audience of twenty to thirty-somethings and kids under the age of ten. The result was great. Held in the performance space at the Ferndale Public Library, the band ripped through a set of their usual songs while Steve sang lyrics about candy and tummy aches—occasionally passing out candy, too. The result was a pleased audience of adults and children alike.

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 1

The early released tracks from Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 sound pretty interesting. Of those released so far, “Lee Majors Come Again” has the band using Check Your Head-style punk, while “Too Many Rappers” is the Beasties and Nas working over a great backing track. The album has expanded to become two parts and Bob Dylan lends an appearance, making the release of Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 all that more tantalizing.

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Paramore – Brand New Eyes

To be overrated a band must be receiving undeserved praise—feasting on inept youth and the self gratifying nature of the music press. I read this review where Spin called Paramore’s lead singer rock’s Holden Caulfield. That at least ranks as the worst use of hyperbole in 2009. The band generates a sound on this album similar to overly produced oatmeal. Think Evanescence. I can sort of see how a teenager might enjoy this, but if I caught my child listening to Paramore I’d beat the crap out of them until they came out liking the Dead Boys.

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• Pearl Jam, October 3 2004 at the Deltaplex, Grand Rapids(Vote for a Change Tour)

Back in 2004 the world was shaping into its current condition and it seemed like there might be a chance to draw some true awareness or at least affect our country out of its narcissistic, bullying angst. The election was nearing and I really thought John Kerry would win and steer us straight. On October 2nd I drove to Grand Rapids with my girlfriend and then on the morning of October 3rd she became my fiancée. That night we went and saw Pearl Jam, who were appearing as part of the Vote for a Change tour, at the Deltaplex. The night was a magical three hours: McCready leaping with each strike of his guitar, Veder screaming and rolling on the ground, and a set list that created a true sense of community inside one of the crummiest hockey arena’s in Michigan.

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing
• As Tall As Lions – You Can’t Take It With You

Best Show of 2009:

• Brand New and Manchester Orchestra at the Uptown

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• Minus the Bear’s new album

Most Overrated in 2009:

• Owl City

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• At the Hanson concert when my friend and I were dancing with the guys from Hellogoodbye to Hanson’s “MMMBop.” Then afterwards, Moby did a DJ set and we continued to dance all night.