Top 50 Albums of 2009

As chosen by yours truly

01 Wilco - Wilco
02 Dawes - North Hills
03 Everest - Ghost Notes
(it was recorded in August 2007, i only found it this year.I cant stop listening to it, so it counts in my top 50)
04 Pearl Jam - Backspacer
05 Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware
06 The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
07 Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
08 Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
09 The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
10 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

11 Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
12 The Antlers - Hospice
13 Swell Season - Strict joy
14 Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
15 Iron & Wine - Around The Well
16 William Elliot Withmore - Animals in the Dark
17 The Black Crowes - Before the Frost...Until the Freeze
18 Imogen Heap - Ellipse
19 The Duke & The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay
20 Woods - Songs of Shame

21 Felice Brothers - Yonder Is The Clock
22 Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly
23 Deer Tick - BORN ON FLAG DAY
24 Bat for lashes - two suns
25 Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
26 Bruce Sprinsteen - Working on a Dream
27 Papercuts - You Can Have What You Want
28 Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
29 Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
30 M. Ward - Hold Time

31 Beirut - March of the Zapotec/Holland EP
32 Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom
33 The Eels - Hombre Lobo
34 The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
35 J.Tillman - Vacilando Territory Blues / Year In The Kingdom
(Two great albums in one year, not to mention the Wild Honey Never Stolen/Borne Away On a Black Barge 7")
36 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were Eagles
37 Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
38 Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
39 Lightning Dust - Infinite Light
40 Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

41 John Frusciante - The Empyrean
42 Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
43 Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
44 Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
45 The Bird and the Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
46 White Rabbits - It's Frightening
47 Loney, Dear - Dear John

- - - GUILTY PLEASURE SECTION - - -
48 Steve Martin - The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo
49 Kiss - Sonic Boom
50 Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue

I cant believe i left out Volcano Choir - Unmap
its a cracking good album featuring Justin Veron from Bon Iver
so in at number 51 Volcano Choir - Unmap

Some discoveries on Myspace

Swedish sisters with impeccable harmonies -
TAXI TAXI



http://www.myspace.com/taxitaximusic

Laurel Canyon Good old boys with sweet songs and sweet vocals, who aint afraid to rock out either - DAWES



http://www.myspace.com/dawestheband


Mellow with a hint of reserved ambient & electronica -
MATT DILL



http://www.myspace.com/mattdill


Beautiful vocal tone,with music almost on the sludgy side of folk rock -
IMAAD WASIF



http://www.myspace.com/imaadw


Amazing Vocal, stunning lyric. has to be given his dues -
SCOTT MATTHEW



http://www.myspace.com/scottmatthewmusic

all the wonders of my hard-drive

So there i was tidying up my bedroom for the subsequent moving house ritual that has become my life. and decided to flick through my hard-drive for some music to clean to. after a few false starts with some bands i shall not name, just to say one song was "Love gun" (Damn you Role Models). i scanned quickly through the "B" section of my drive and an old Favorite caught my eye. here is a man who many know and many more are unaware. a truly hidden gem in British music. so hopefully if i can make one person a fan I've helped a little. his name is Bill Fay
here is a track from his self titled album from 1970 -

Be not so fearful

Mozart

http://www.onlinedocumentaries4u.com/2009/04/genius-of-mozart.html

The story begins with the composer's father Leopold with whom Mozart conducted a passionate and tortured correspondence. It is Leopold who knows Mozart's secrets. And there is another voice: that of the music itself. Music is the key to unlocking the emotions of Mozart, starting in this film with the great piano works.

Without this key, how can we ever understand the emotions that gave birth to some of the most beautiful sounds the world has ever heard? The first great phase of Mozart's brief life was that of the travelling child prodigy - gifted as a performer and writer of music - who grew into the genius who, working within the restrictions of his time, began to rewrite the musical rules.

But there was another facet to Mozart - the adult thinker aware of the bigger picture, passionately attached to the progressive values of the Enlightenment - impressively well-read, a speaker of most European languages (even a little English), an Austrian Catholic, a Freemason and above all a composer at the height of his formidable powers, determined to succeed in the most difficult and lucrative area of all - Opera.
Towards the end of his life, Mozart mastered the language of instrumental and orchestral writing - and how both love and loss provoked in him an extraordinary burst of creativity. This was essentially crystallised in three ambitious works that changed the future course of music: his last, great trilogy of symphonies - numbers 39, 40 and 41 - which he wrote in six short weeks. This is a must watch film for lovers of music and life!

new radiohead song - These Are My Twisted Words

http://pitchfork.com/news/36205-is-this-a-new-radiohead-song/


me thinks this IS radiohead, by all accounts so does everyone else. roger waters would be very happy with this bassline

"Beethoven"

Description of Documentary:

A three-episode TV mini-series produced by the BBC, "Beethoven" is a very powerful and moving docudrama based on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Fantastically written and beautifully directed, the series constitutes a thorough and accurate reconstruction of Beethoven's life, from his troubled childhood to his death at the age of 56. Paul Rhys's masterful portrayal of Beethoven is particularly noteworthy, doing well to convey in vivid color the natural genius of the Great Man and the isolation, turmoil and despair he experienced throughout his eventful life. Insightful narration from the popular conductor, composer and presenter Charles Hazlewood does well to add a sophisticated educational dimension to the series, as well as to encourage a seamless and comfortable flow of the story. This is an absolute must-watch!

Director:

Ursula Macfarlane

Cast:

Paul Rhys_______________Ludwig van Beethoven
Jack Shepherd___________Joseph Haydn
David Bamber____________Prince Lichnowsky
Alice Eve_______________Countess Giulietta Guicciardi
Nicholas Farrell__________Stephan von Breuning
Tom Goodman-Hill________Anton Schindler
Gareth David-Lloyd________Older Karl
Casper Harvey___________Young Karl
Sarah Hadland___________Johanna van Beethoven
Christian Coulson_________Archduke Rudolph
Charles Hazlewood_______Himself - Presenter

Part 1 (follow the links to remaining parts...well worth sticking through all 18)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=67pKZrxgv4Y

Bandize

Such a handy tool for keeping tracks of your shows/finance and everything else related to your band. check it out


http://bandize.com/

Wooden Shjips

If your in the mood for some Acid tinged Psych Rock in the vain of The Warlocks or Howlin' Rain or old skoolers like - 13th floor elevators or Iron Butterfly. Then hop on your magic carpet and check out this band - Wooden Shjips. Well worth investing some time into expanding your mind with their musical adventures.

http://www.myspace.com/woodenshjips

Mark Kozelek

Great interview by Alan Reilly with Mark Kozelek an old favorite from back in the day with Red House Painters & his most recent outings under the moniker Sun Kill Moon

http://www.state.ie/mark-kozelek-interview/

http://www.markkozelek.com/

http://www.myspace.com/markkozelek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kozelek

Collections of Colonies of Bees & Justin "Bon Iver" Vernon Collaboration

Get your hands on this as soon as you can. If you like the atmosphere and headspace of For Emma, forever ago. prepare to take a step beyond with this amazing new collaboration. it goes beyond what either band has tried before.

http://www.jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG156

Top 5 favorite new band on myspace

1 http://www.myspace.com/goldheartassembly
"They take a joyous acoustic beardy bunch of ideas and mess around with them like a cat playing with a ball of string. Already you could easily put them out on tour supporting Fleet Foxes or The Low Anthem (now there's an idea). And they smile at each other on stage - which is so out of character for new bands these days (unless it's a nervous tick) that it's actually quite infectious." [Steve Lamacq]

2 http://www.myspace.com/fireonfiremusic
"they do it ¨old school¨ and just use two mics placed in front of them on the stage, like a bluegrass band. They all live in the same house up in Maine, across from rusting green oil tanks, apparently. To me they sound like a backwoods, fierce, psychedelic ¨Mamas And The Papas¨ or a crazed and vengeful gospel string band". [Taken from band bio]

3 http://www.myspace.com/megafaun
Former bandmates of Bon Iver continue to impress on this, their second album of ingeniously ramshackle folk rock. [Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork]

4 http://www.myspace.com/Bowerbirds
listening to Bowerbirds demands immersion...once you surrender to the group's internal logic, its values and ways of speech, the effect is routinely mesmerizing, not to mention far wiser and more self-aware than you'd expect at first blush [Joshua Love, Pitchfork]

5 http://www.myspace.com/CassMcCombs
McCombs has fashioned himself a groove as new school rambler and pokerfaced tone poet totally under the radar. It's a space he seems and sounds to have been most comfortable in. Until now. [David Bevan, Pitchfork]

How music works

http://www.onlinedocumentaries4u.com/2009/04/how-music-works.html

One of my all time favorite documentaries by the man who wrote the theme music to RED DWARF - Howard Goodall

In this four-part series he strips music down to its essential parts to find out how music works.

really great insights into how simple music can actually be to understand

Shout out

This is my new friend Peter's music blog. great source of all things going on in the irish scene. Keep up the good work peter. oh and thanks for plugging my band so much

http://2uibestow.blogspot.com/

www.synthmuseum.com

http://www.synthmuseum.com/

For anyone else out there who loves the geek side of piano/keys/synth playing

Blitzen Trapper - New Daytrotter Session

I found out about this band after looking up who would be supporting Wilco on tour. Great alt-Country/Rock band similar in alot of way to Wilco & Grandaddy.

Band Site
http://www.blitzentrapper.net/

Daytrotter Session
http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/blitzen-trapper-where-the-rifle-casings-lie-with-underbrush-concert/20030445-110844.html

propellerheads - RECORD

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/record/

Welcome to Record, Propellerhead Software's brand new recording software. Record gives you unlimited audio tracks, world class effects and mixing gear, and a whole new take on music recording. With an intuitive, straightforward interface and a hands-on approach to capturing performances, Record was designed for musicians - not audio engineers. This is recording done right.

Well so the people at Propellerhead say. should be interesting to see if it takes off.

Here's the video advert

monsters of folk

http://monstersoffolk.com/

Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst plus My Morning Jacket's Jim James plus M. Ward & producer Mike Mogis are Monsters of Folk. "Say Please", A track from their self-titled debut album (out September 22. Not really a folky affair, but its a cracking song all the same.