Tops of 09, Props to 0-10

Well, it's officially 2010. This past year has been pretty fantastic musically. I grew a lot personally in my own musicality while some really awesome were albums released. I also ate a lot of egg drop soup, discovered thai food, spent a summer in LA, found love, embraced twitter, and was up 33% on my investments. I saw some unbelievable live shows - White Rabbits, Monsters of Folk, The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, and The Antlers were especially fantastic. I fell in love with Jazz vinyl, especially with the late Art Tatum. And Dave Brubeck. I also ate a lot of bagels. And without further ado, a few lists of what I enjoyed from 2009.

Top 15 albums of 2009:

1. The Antlers - Hospice
2. Grizzly Bear - Vecktimest
3. The xx - The xx
4. Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers - Songs in the Night
5. Dark Was The Night Compilation
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us
7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
8. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
9. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
10. White Rabbits - Its Frightening
11. Vetiver - Tight Knit
12. Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside
13. Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
14. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
15. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

Top 4 movies of 2009:

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Up
4. The Hangover

Favorite 6 Singles of 2009:

1. "Home" - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
2. "Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear
3. "Percussion Gun" - White Rabbits
4. "The Train Song" - Feist and Ben Gibbard
5. "Kettering" - The Antlers
6. "The Blackest Purse" - Why?

Top TV Moment:

1. Dexter Season 4 Finale. OMG!

10 Bands To Check Out If You Haven't

So you're looking for some new music. Here's a list of 10 bands from the near-present you should check out that I haven't reviewed (yet?):

1. Why? - defines Trip-Hop. Heavy beats, awesome lyrics. From Cincinnati/Berkeley/NYC.
2. Bon Iver - Lots of internet hype. Layered mellow indie-folk. Gorgeous. From a cabin in the woods.
3. Dr. Dog - Think 60's rock. Awesome vocals. Great bridges. From Philly.
4. Grizzly Bear - Delicious harmonies. Catchy dissonance. From Brooklyn.
5. TV on the Radio - Multi-influential band with a great new feel. Fun to dance to. From Brooklyn.
6. Lake Street Dive - A little known jazz/folk band from Boston. Awesome. "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."
7. Pomegranates - Catchy riffs, rough around the edges, falsetto vocals. From Cincinnati.
8. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Featuring Father Hummingbird and The Seven Fields of Aphelion. Cool guitar work. They use a Rhodes. From Pittsburgh
9. Passion Pit - A little over-hyped post-MGMT high vocals upbeat and fun. From Cambridge.
10. Rupa and the April Fishes - A multi-linguistic mellow and enjoyable feel-good music. From San Francisco.


Enjoy!