Some of my favorite albums of 09

I don't really like ranking music that much because i think that an album could mean alot more to one person than another for different reasons so instead of making a "list" of rankings i figured id just tell you about some of my favorite records that were released in 2009 in no particular order.

Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion/Fall Be Kind

Definitely the album (and ep) i listened to most this year. it really seemed like it was AC's year with all the great live shows and these two gems.

Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest

All year everyone heard about AC vs GB but once you get past all the hype and arguing it's really just a beautifully crafted record with some really great songs.

Andrew Bird- Noble Beast

I was surprised at how few year end lists this was on. Probably my second favorite Andrew Bird album yet.

Sunset Rubdown- Dragonslayer

Another great album from Spencer Krug, it seems whatever he touches turns to gold.

Flaming Lips- Embryonic

It would have been so easy for the Lips just to turn out another record like the ones they've been making but they decided to take a huge risk and release this super dark double LP, and the results are magical.

Atlas Sound- Logos

Bradford Cox is becoming one of the most reliable figures in indie music. "Walkabout" was my summer jam.

Girls- Album

Girls made by far my favorite debut LP of they year. The songs on it just make me happy and sad at the same time.

Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca

What a monster of an album. Bitte Orca really comes at you from all angles at it succeeds on every level. i love this album

All in all it was a really great year for music. Hopefully 2010 is just as good.

Moonface

new spencer krug EP under his solo name; Moonface. you can download it for free on his website but because thats going SUPER slowly you can also download it below.

marimbas are nice

download here

Yeasayer Odd Blood

new Yeasayer album leaked. triptastic

Download

Toro Y Moi

Cool. Beans.

Download

Harold T. Wilkins Video

So excited to see them at Webster Hall in a couple weeks.

Wake Up

this always makes me feel better.

Fall Be Kind.

incredible. beyond. "Graze" and "I Think I Can" are my two new favorite AC songs.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9FPZ63G1

Teen Dream

Here is the new Beach House record. Its beautiful.

http://rapidshare.com/files/308595973/sue__o_adolescente.rar

Surfer Blood

This album just kind of came out of nowhere, and shocked everyone. It's really great, it sounds like a variation on so many different kinds of music thats been going around lately and at the same time brand new. "Swim" is a highlight. I highly recommend giving it a try.

http://www.mediafire.com/?in2vnmtzym0

Bleeding (live from Big Sur)

Teasing us for Fall Be Kind (digital release november 23!!!), Animal Collective has released the Brother Sport single. Even though it doesn't contain any awesome remixes it does give us the treat of a live version of the Fall Be Kind song "Bleed". Link for "Bleeding (live from Big Sur) below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yztw1ym2wv2

Ready, Able Video

Grizzly Bear has now gone 3 for 3 on super awesome videos for Veckatimest.

Attention: Deficit

After years of great mixtapes and hype, Wale finally delivers his debut LP.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zlykjckzmdl

Ambling Alp

Yeasayer put out their new single today. The album will be called Odd Blood. this is "Ambling Alp"

download it for the price of an email address at :

http://www.amblingalp.com/

Temecula Sunrise EP

Two old songs. Two new songs.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ilwzzntzklj

Rough Trade EP

excellent EP to compliment the excellent "Logos". The acoustic Kid Klimax is wonderful.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yfgevnunjjm

What Will We Be

New record from Devendra Banhart out next week. "Chin Chin & Muck Muck" is a standout.

http://www.4shared.com/file/142486060/89b5a0d/Devendra_Banhart__2009__What_Will_We_Be.html

Embryonic

The Flaming Lips have done something truly magnificent with this album. It's the rare double album that dosn't feel overlong or self-indulgent. After the slight dissapointement of "At War With The Mystics" the lips have come back strong with "Embryonic".

http://rapidshare.com/files/290946547/The_Flaming_Lips-Embryonic-2CD-2009-SiRE.rar

New Moon OST

Believe me, i never in a million billion years thought id be posting this. But with new songs from Grizzly Bear, The Killers, Thom Yorke, and a Bon Iver/St.Vincent duet the Twilight New Moon OST just might be the best soundtrack of the year. I am in no way advocating for this movie, just the artists on this soundtrack.

http://hotfile.com/dl/14618967/f69fa7d/TWSNM-OST-DOH.rar.html

Fall Be Kind Announced

Animal Collective has announced the release of what many thought was going to be the Brothersport EP. Instead the EP will be called "Fall Be Kind" and will not have Brothersport on it at all. Its going to be great.

Tracklist:

1.Graze

2.What Would I Want? Sky

3.Bleed

4.On a Highway

5. I Think I Can

Horchata

Vampire Weekend dropped their new single today. The albums out early 2010, stream below and download at their website. I hope this leaks before december

Love Like A Sunset Remix

Animal Collective recently remixed the Phoenix track "Love Like A Sunset". Its very cool and it features deakin on vocals! They really transform it into an AC track, definatly the best Phoenix remix this year.

http://www.box.net/shared/7vi48nzxkz

Tarot Sport

Fuck Buttons 2nd LP. super duper awesome

http://hotfile.com/dl/13261853/9c6f521/www.hotddl.com_Fuck_Buttons_-_Tarot_Sport_(2009).rar.html

Glo-Fi

ive been really liking the whole Glo-Fi genre thats been popping up more and more recently. My two favorite releases so far under it have been Washed Out's Life Of Leisure

and Neon Indian's Psychic Chasms. enjoy

Neon Indian: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=93e91a308211caea2fb2ca15d7ea42d9b1a54b34cc2e12b8416b94653a3044fd

Washed Out: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=93e91a308211caea2fb2ca15d7ea42d98014a0090fe58c70a7b01fe6e4055ae3

Girls-Album

This is a good album. Hellhole Ratrace is a good song.

Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/282479679/Girls-Album-2009-FNT.rar

Two New Mixtapes

Two new tapes from two of the finest young rappers out there. Wale's "Back To The Feature" and B.o.B's "B.o.B vs Bobby Ray". Wale's been keeping us waiting on his followup to last years excellent "The Mixtape About Nothing" but so far i think this tape is living up to the hype. On his new tape B.o.B comes out with a two headed monster. On the first half of the album he's B.o.B and on the second hes Bobby Ray. The good news is that both sides are great and show B.o.B/Bobby Ray growing into one of the premier southern rappers

B.o.B: http://www.zshare.net/download/61712267436b43c4/

Wale: http://www.zshare.net/download/61605401574105cb/

Animal Collective Summertime Clothes Video

yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes

Two New Leaks

Farm sounds great.

havent really had time to listen to Deer Tick but i loved War Elephant

Deer Tick   http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nomwyytmjzo

Dinasour Jr. http://www.zshare.net/download/60940964ce02d0f5/

(p.s HOW AWESOME IS THE FARM COVER)

Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest Review

5 out of 5 stars

Im gonna come clean, i did infact download the leak of the album back in febuary. I felt awful doing it but i had too, hearing all the buzz and praise i would not have been able to control myself for three whole moths. When i did finnaly rip it, i planned to write a review a week after, and i just haven't been able to up until now. Thats the thing about Veckatimest, it floors you in ways your completley unperpared for. Even in it's early leaked form you could tell it was an incredible album, but now in full quality its easy to see that Veckatimest is a beautiful, immense, classic album that will be talked about for years to come. "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others" have been talked about alot already, but those are the two tracks that probably will earn Grizzly Bear the most new fame. But for the avid Grizzly Bear listener theres so much here to devour. Songs like "All We Ask" "Ready, Able" and "Fine for Now" have such beautiful melodies and harmonies and along with excellent production from Chris Taylor, these are songs to lose yourself in, and ones to cherish. With Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear have crafted a truly remarkable album and one that will be engraved in anyone who listen's to it's mind for years to come

Dragonslayer leaked!

Spencer Krug's other band beside Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown's newest LP "Dragonslayer" leaked recently and its excellent! Krug is putting out music as consistently good as anyone out there right now

link: http://depositfiles.com/en/files/yc68iyjvm

i highly reccomend you tap dat 

Stream Wilco (the Album)

and what a glorious wednesday it turned out to be. Wilco's latest LP is streaming at wilcoworld.net.....review coming soon

Killers on Letterman

The thing with the Killers is you either really like them or really dont. Im one of the people who do, although i thought Day and Age was worse than their previous two efforts. But they performed "A Dustland Fairytale" on Letterman last night and it was great, definatly makes me want to see them live.

CRYSTAL CAT

THIS is why anyone and everyone should see Dan Deacon when he's playing near you.

Cool Kids- Gone Fishing

The Cool Kids finnaly put out some music since there excellent EP 'The Bake Sale". This mixtape's called "Gone Fishing" and is definatly up to par with their previous work if not exceeds it. They also have their official debut LP out this summer called "When Fish Ride Bicycles"

cop Gone Fishing at coolxkids.com

Curren$y-This Ain't No Mixtape

Curren$y's a young rapper who's put out his first album this week after a string of excellent mixtapes. Since leaving Lil Wayne's Cash Money Records, Curren$y has really stepped up his game and his debut album just expands on the work he's done over the course of his first 6 tapes. 

Standout Tracks: Elavator Musik, The Jets Son

This Ain't No Mixtape is available online now

Review: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band- Outer South

Four out of Five Stars.

Less than a year after Conor Oberst ditched his "Bright Eyes" moniker to record a solo album he's back with a

 whole new set of tunes. There's no big changes in the Oberst songs but the big change in this record is the addition

 of songs written and sung by Oberst's

 band mates. To put it bluntly, these songs are not very good and just have no place on the album. Conor Oberst is questionably one of the best lyricists of our generation and he should be the one writing the songs in this band. But ultimatley, the songs that are written by Oberst on the album are spectacular. From the opening rocker "Slowly (oh so slowly)"  to the moving "White Shoes" Oberst covers a plethera of subjects and produces some songs that may some day be considerd in his best work. The standout track is "Ten Women" a moving acoustic piece that definatly supports the "his generations Dylan" idea. Though i'll find myself skipping the bands tracks on this one it's a great example of why Conor Oberst is one of the great singer-songwriters going right now.

Wilco- Ashes of American Flags DVD

Got this in the mail the other day and its been on replay since then. What an incredible concert film. It really gives you a great insight into a band on the road and also a look at the corprate takeover of American life. The shows are intimate and magical, this is really a band at the height of their powers. Wilco will continue their push to become America's greatest band with a new album this summer.

Phoneix- Wolfgang Amadeus

this band is too good. Im pinching my self that id never heard of them before this but im glad i know them now because this is one of the records of the year so far. The album starts out with the excellent one-two punch of "Lisztomania" and "1901" and dosn't slow down from there. Another standout is "Rome" which reaches excellently high levels. Its synth pop at it's finest and is something to be celebrated. 

Stream Outer South

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band's new album Outer South is streaming on Merge Record's website (http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=605) His first record with the new band was excellent, this one sounds really great as well.

(UPDATE: the record is no longer streaming, but has leaked.....http://www.mediafire.com/?joekmywzimt)

Charles Hamilton- New Mixtape

Charles Hamilton is a young rapper that hasn't even released an album yet, but hes got TONS of mixtapes out there. He's real creative and is different from anyone you've ever heard before. His new mixtape is called "The Dead Zone" and if you like his other stuff your sure to like this. Some people have been complaining about the album art but if you look at it, it clearly says "I know what this looks like". Who knows why he chose that as the cover, lets just focus on the music.

Link: 

http://www.zshare.net/download/579645979e4a317f/#

Jeff Tweedy at Beacon High School

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Jeff Tweedy, the lead singer of Wilco play an acoustic set in the small intimate auditorium at Beacon High School for the charity "Clearwater". The night started with Pete Seeger leading the audience in a magical singalong of "somewhere over the rainbow" and then playing some enviromental songs with kids from the local elementary school. But when Tweedy took the stage he just flat out killed it. Playing a set list comprised of old favorites (Hummingbird, Remember The Mountain Bed, Via Chicago,) and some new songs including Wilco (The Song). Tweedy conversed with the crowd quite a bit and was hilarious. Pete Seeger and his grandson came out to sing some songs and then Tweedy treated the audience to two unplugged songs in honor of "Earth Hour". I recorded the first one "Someone Else's Song" check out the video below as well as some pictures from the night.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

There are not words to describe how incredible this looks. I cant stop watching this trailer. please please please let the movie be as good as the trailer is. 

p.s    click the HD button in the bottom right corner, it makes it soo much better

Vampire Weekend Play New Song On Fallon

Vampire Weekend played a "new" song White Sky on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night. The song is not exactly new as they've been playing it live for quite awhile now. It will be interesting to see what happens on their next album...anyway enjoy!

Interesting New Releases March 17th 2009

 In new releases this week we have three albums ive really been looking forward too. First of all we have the new Bonnie Prince Billy album "Beware". His last album "Lie Down In The Light" was fantastic and this one promises more of the same. There's also The Decemberists new prog rock opera "The Hazards Of Love". I've heard this one, and i recommend it (a review of that one coming soon). Lastly, we have White Lies first LP "To Lose My Life". White Lies is a up and coming british band who like many before them echo Joy Division but they do make good music and i am looking forward to spending some time with that album.

Voxtrot- Trepanation Party

Ever since i saw them opening for Arctic Monkeys in central park i've been a huge fan of Voxtrot. They have such great tunes and bring alot of energy. If you dont have any of their stuff i recommend their EP "Raised By Wolves". I've been waiting for them to release new stuff for awhile now and finally we have some! The new single "Trepanation Party" is a somewhat different sound but overall it sticks true to their roots.

Link: http://cdn.stereogum.com/mp3/Voxtrot%20-%20Trepanation%20Party.mp3 

Face Control is really good!

the new record from Dan from Wolf Parade and his wife is really excellent. 

favorite track so far: "Im Confused"..... check the mp3 below

http://cdn.stereogum.com/mp3/Handsome%20Furs%20-%20I'm%20Confused.mp3

New Deerhunter

a video has popped up on the interweb of Deerhunter playing a new song in a practice space, sounds like there followup to Microcastle might be a poppier record 

Deerhunter - New Music - More Music Videos

This weeks best new releases

theres three prettty interesting releases this week. The first being MSTRKRFT's "Fist of God". This record seems like more of the same from these guys, Justice inspired jams with rapper cameo's. another release is "It's Blitz" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This record leaked awhile ago but its got some really aweosme songs and is definatly worth checking out. Another one that you should definatly check out is the new Handsome Furs record "Face Control". Dan's stuff with Wolf Parade is good and this is definatly worth checking out on the merit of that alone.

(I had to post the Fist of God cover, it is pretty sweet)

Akron/Family

Akron/Family has realeased their new single "Everyone Is Guilty" on Itunes

its some really nice stuff, it looks like Animal Collective wont be the only Freak-Folkers to reign in 2009

There third LP "Set Em' Wild, Set Em' Free" comes out on Febuary 19th

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

has anyone else been watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon?

i went in with low expectations but so far ive been pleasently suprised. Admitedly he started off pretty nervous but he was excellent with Tina Fey. The music so far has been ace with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Santigold, and Van Morrison. Also The Roots are his house band! its worth it to tune in just to see ?uestlove and his beautiful beautiful Fro'

                    

Bromst and Veckatimest Leaks

Two album leaks have come across my screen that ive been really excited about, Bromst by Dan Deacon and Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear...reviews of both coming soon

Kanye VH1 storytellers

Ye's doin VH1 storytellers tonight. Even with the current mullet hes rocking it should be great

Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz" Leaks!

For there followup of "Show Your Bones" the Yeah Yeah Yeahs created a truly awesome synthy record.

It dosn't come out for almost two months but the leak is already here!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EZR2SLDL

Kid Cudi "Day 'n' Nite" Video

sweeeeet new video from up and coming cleaveland rapper Kid Cudi

Black Lips 200 Million Thousand

 Although this album officially comes out tommorow ive been bumping it for a few weeks now. Really good stuff as usual from the Black Lips. Take it from someone whos seen there live show, its incredible. Favorite track so far is "Drugs".