#26 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

Lisbon by The Walkmen

When The Walkmen created an album as good as You & Me, which I included in my Top 10 Albums of the Oughts, they set an impossible bar to surpass. The pressure to make something half as good as their previous album must have been insanely great. But they came pretty close.

Lisbon is not You & Me. These eleven songs sound somewhat like the long-lost b-sides to that seminal 2008 album. With Hamilton Leithauser’s strained-voice vocals pushing and pulling these songs along, you can’t help but think of the previous album. It creates a slight problem for me, hearing bits and pieces of the previous album throughout this new work. I estimate this will diminish in time, as similar situations have proven in the past (see The White Stripes, et al).

I’m curious to know what people who are not familiar with the band’s 2008 album think of this new work. Does it stand on its own, or am I so completely in love with You & Me that I can’t give an honest opinion about this new record? Give the video above a listen, and you’ll get a good feel for the band, but not necessarily a good feel for what they’re capable of. For that, you’ll need to pick up the record. I recommend that you do.

_p.s. I love the completely unplanned sentence above “…am I so completely in love with You & Me…” Of course I am: you’re all lovely!

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27. Scratch My Back by Peter Gabriel
28. All Day by Girl Talk
29. A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head by Bobby Bare Jr.
30. 03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan
31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors

#27 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

Scratch My Back by Peter Gabriel

There are few musicians that have their strengths dialed in as well as Peter Gabriel. Emotion, dramatic crescendos, whisper-like lows — the man could sing “Row, Row Your Boat” and I’d have to fight back tears while listening to it. Scratch My Back is a collection of songs originally performed and made famous by other bands, covered here through the signature Gabriel filter.

Covering artists as varied as Elbow, the Magnetic Fields, and Paul Simon, the album is full of songs you know the words to but don’t recognize the arrangements. The brilliance of the album was that it was supposed to be released simultaneously with a companion album called I’ll Scratch Yours. With every artist covered on the Gabriel album in turn covering a song of his, it was going to be one of the most interesting projects I can recall in recent music history. But after Radiohead, David Bowie, and Neil Young declined to record covers of Gabriel's material, the companion album sadly was put on hold.¹

A few of the covers of Gabriel’s songs have been released via iTunes over the year (Stephin Merritt singing “Not One of Us,” Paul Simon singing “Biko,” Bon Iver singing “Come Talk to Me,” Lou Reed singing “Solsbury Hill,” Elbow singing “Mercy Street,” and David Byrne singing “I Don’t Remember”), but it’s unclear if there are any future songs to be released from the project.

The above video is not a song from the album. It’s a cover by Peter Gabriel nonetheless, this time of Tom Waits’s “In The Neighborhood.” My favorite rendition that Gabriel put on Scratch My Back is his cover of Bon Iver’s “Flume.” It’s absolutely heart wrenching, with every word dripping with emotion.

Some may say that Gabriel’s work is fairly clichéd and formulaic. And I don’t think I could disagree. But I’m also ok with that. I like the direction he takes with his songs, and I thoroughly enjoy going to those places with him. Like my grandfather’s cashmere cardigan sweater that I’m wearing as I write this, these songs are immediately familiar to me, wrought with meaning. And I will continue to come back to them time and time again.

^{1. And I’ll Scratch Yours finally saw release in September 2013, with Brian Eno, Joseph Arthur, and Feist filling in for Bowie, Young, and Radiohead.↩}

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28. All Day by Girl Talk
29. A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head by Bobby Bare Jr.
30. 03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan
31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors

#28 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

All Day by Girl Talk

By now most everybody knows who Girl Talk is and what he’s about. But just in case: Girl Talk is somewhat of an anomaly in the music world. He creates new songs out of old songs unlike anyone before him. Everything in the sampling world is child’s play compared to what Gregg Gillis does with the popular songs he cuts up and splices back together.

Give the above song, “On No” — track #1 from his new and freely downloadable album All Day — a listen and you’ll get the gist of what he’s capable of. Some people find his approach to songmaking a bit much. I tend to listen to music as background filler, but this album forces itself to the foreground any time I listen to it. It’s full of songs you recognize, and I invariably find myself trying to pick apart each sample. Thankfully, there’s a website that does the work for you, telling you which samples are playing at any given time while listening to the album.

All Day doesn’t present anything new, but that’s ok in my book. What Gillis does is so unlike everyone else out there, it continues to feel fresh and new to me. The interesting twist this time around is the offering of the album for free. Not only does he sample a huge number of popular songs that he has not gotten permission to sample from the artists within, he’s now giving those newly compiled samples away for free. That’s gotta raise some hackles. And for that, I commend him.

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29. A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head by Bobby Bare Jr.
30. 03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan
31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors

#29 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head by Bobby Bare Jr.

Bobby Bare Jr. is one of my favorite performers on the planet. I’ve seen him at least nine times over the last seven years. Consequently, I am always excited when he puts out a new album. I had heard him play a few songs from this album before the album was released earlier this year, and those acoustic renditions he played on the small stage at the Sunset were just enough to leave me wanting.

Now, A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head isn’t his best album, but it would be hard to outperform the perfection that is The Young Criminals Starvation League. Also the usual name bestowed upon his backing band, TYCSL is hands down one of the best albums of the decade. For this new album, Bobby doesn’t credit TYCSL. It’s his first full length without them. I’m not sure if it’s the absence of that name for the backing band (the backing band has always been a rotating cast of characters), or the fact that a tree literally crashed into Bobby’s mother’s house and landed on her head, but this album is definitely his most rocking.

Being from Nashville, Bobby has a twang in his voice that is infectious, and a way with words that is unmistakably related to his father, Bobby Bare — a famous country act in his own right — and their long-time family friend Shel Silverstein. This album has some great stories, some very loud moments, and some quiet finger picking tunes as well. Give it a listen, and join me down in this world of Southern Rock.

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30. 03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan
31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors

#30 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan

It’s nice to have the opportunity to put an album on my Top 31 of the year that most everybody reading this blog has not yet heard. Allow me to introduce Knathan Ryan. He’s a salt-of-the-earth kinda guy, and his songs reflect that. (Full Disclosure: Knathan is a long-time friend of the Bacon Review.)

Knathan has been in (and is still in) a number of smaller bands throughout Seattle, in addition to his vast experience as a solo artist. 03 to TEN is the culmination of that experience. The music on this album is much grittier, loud, and fuzzed-out than any of his prior recorded works. But much like his previous works, the prose is amazing in it’s direct yet obtuse manner. You get the sense these are stories passed down through the ages, but somehow told through a reversed smoke filter. It makes for an emotional experience you won’t find in most “popular” music today. “Brother K,” the song linked above, is a great example of what you can expect on the album. Featuring Phil Peterson on cello, it’s a twisted tale of death and madness. Make sure to give it a listen all the way through, as it gets quite interesting at around the 3:30 mark.

One of the best things about this new album is that it can be had for free. Knathan has posted it over at bandcamp.com, which is a great site for works like this. It follows what’s now known as the “Radiohead Method,” where you can donate any amount to the artist who created the music, all the way down to $0.00, in exchange for being able to download the entire album right to your desktop. So you have no excuse: download this album right now. You won’t regret it.

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31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors

Welcome to the 2010 edition of the Musical Bacon Calendar.¹ December crept up on me this year, but thankfully I had a four hour plane ride in which I was able to comb through all the 2010 albums and quickly establish my top 31 of the year, enabling me to kick things off before midnight tonight. And wouldn’t you know it, as I’ve been mulling things over throughout the day, I have already modified the list I wrote not 10 hours ago.² So, without further adieu:

#31 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

In This Light On This Evening by Editors

My love for the Editors took a major hit after I saw them perform at the Showbox on February of this year. As I wrote then:

In the end, I think what brought the show down the most may have been the new songs. It’s hard to enliven music that, while recorded and reproduced beautifully in my headphones, generally leaves one feeling bored when performed. And no matter how hard a band can try to bring the songs to life on stage, they’re doomed from the start.

While I had listened to In This Light On This Evening many many times up to that performance (the album was released in the UK in October of 2009, and in the States in January 2010), I subsequently shelved it, never to return. This was partly due to my changed listening habits: I went to more shows in 2010 than ever before (I think), and I found it easiest to simply listen to whoever’s show I was going to next. But that couldn’t have been the whole story, because there are a handful of albums I’ve continued to listen to throughout the year in spite of that band not having a pending live performance in Seattle. The truth was that the Editors’ performance that night was so staged, I just felt I couldn’t go back.

Until this morning. I ended up accidentally playing the album in my headphones while developing this list. And quickly determined that they deserved to be added to the Top 31 of the year. The album itself is quite a departure for the band, going from guitar-lead songs to letting keyboards drive the melody. But the general feel remained the same: classic quite-loud-quiet, Joy Division / Depeche Mode-like structures. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just an observation. Hello, my name is Royal, and I like goth music. You should, too.

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1. Formerly known as the Musical Advent Calendar, I have abandoned this Christian-laden name as it doesn’t relate very well to the task at hand, in the following ways: a) a true advent calendar counts down to Dec. 25. This calendar counts down to Dec. 31. b) This is not a Christian publication, and has nothing to do with Christ, but everything to do with bacon. OK, maybe not everything. But it has more to do with bacon than it does (Jesus H.) Christ. c) It’s more fun to have Musical Bacon. ↩

2. Earlier today, I had originally thought She & Him’s Volume 2 would be my #31 on the calendar. But after having listened again to In This Light On This Evening again today, it narrowly beat out Zooey and M. Apologies to those two people out there that I had prematurely revealed what I thought would be today’s charted band. Feel free to consider Volume 2 #32 on the list. ↩

#1 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Manners by Passion Pit

No band better defines 2009 than Passion Pit. After first hearing their song “Sleepyhead,” from their 2008 EP Chunk of Change, this Boston-area band has been at the top of my go-to list when people ask me, “What are you listening to these days?” I’ve pushed the band onto friends and family from all sorts of disparate circles, and they’ve been fairly well-received across the board. I even succeeded in dragging my wife to see them while on a family visit to Boston back in June and consquently converted her; she’s one of my toughest critics, and I consider this one of my shining moments as a music-pusher this year.

I’ve listened to Manners, the band’s full-length debut, at least once a week since it came out in the Spring. I even declared that “Sleepyhead” would become the Song of the Year, thinking it would rise to heights similar to Gnarl‘s Barkley’s “Crazy” or Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” While it hasn’t yet reached those heights, another song — “The Reeling,” featured in the video shown above — did reach #29 on Billboard’s Hot Alternative Songs list earlier this year. (I didn’t even know the “Alternative Songs” category still existed on Billboard. How quaint.)

But as I’ve covered earlier in the countdown, this is my list, and I don’t have to validate my selections by what other countdowns have arbitrarily determined to be the top albums of the year. But just because I only have myself to worry about when determining the order of the list, that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Reviewing all the albums I’ve heard over the past year, assigning a level of importance to them across any number of criteria, and then trying to stick to that order while counting them down has been extremely difficult. (Full disclosure: I did reorder the top 2-15 a couple times while counting down the top half of the list.)

The only part that was easy about the list was picking Manners as #1. I always knew this would top the list. In the years to come, when I reflect back on 2009, I will think of Passion Pit as the soundtrack for the year. It’s been a difficult year for most everybody out there, and this collection of bouncy, dancey, high-energy pop songs has kept me afloat. Michael Angelakos’ extreme falsetto, singing over the top of the keyboard and synth sounds, just keeps my head bobbing as I go about my day. It’s a wonderful thing. You, too, can have them keep you bouncing in your seat: listen to the full album, as well as a few remixes, for free at the band’s website.

I saw Passion Pit perform twice this year, once in Boston at The Paradise and again at The Moore Theater here in Seattle. I wrote about their performance at The Moore for Click & Dagger — I recommend reading my review to get a sense of what it’s like to hear the band live. (Hint: they’re even better in person.) And then run out and buy the CD.

So there you have it, my top 31 albums of the year. This has been quite an experience, coming up with and writing about these great albums, and ultimately sharing it with the world. I don’t think I can or even should maintain a pace of writing something about music every day in 2010, but I’ll certainly be looking for opportunities to write about new albums as I discover them over the year. I’ve talked with a few of you about the list and how it’s being received, but I’d love to hear from even more of you. Leave a comment below by clicking on “Add a comment” or “Join the Discussion.” And do please continue to come back often to Bacon Review, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed to have the content come directly to you. I’ll still be posting non-music related findings to my Bacon Tumblr, as well as keeping up with the daily thoughts at my Twitter account. Lots of places to find me!

Given how 2009 has gone, it can only get better from here. See you in 2010!

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2. The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists
3. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
4. The First Days of Spring by Noah and the Whale
5. These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks
6. Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage
7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#2 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists

In the music world, there are few things more strange than the Rock Opera. It’s had its shining moments (see: The Who’s Tommy, Pink Floyd’s The Wall or even The Alpha Series by the Mountain Goats, which encompasses songs about one specific couple across many different albums), but more often than not it’s a poorly conceived thought in the mind of a songwriter wearing Bad Idea Jeans™. Genesis, Queensrÿche, My Chemical Romance, and even R. Kelly all have attempted and failed, massively (although Kelly’s attempt would be better defined as a Rap Opera, they all stem from the same base). And that just scratches the surface.

If ever there were a band cut out to create a Rock Opera, The Decemberists are that band. After many albums of long-form sea shanties about corsets, whales, and chimney sweeps, the band decided to tackle a full hour-long album about one subject, The Hazards of Love. With multiple reprises of the same themes throughout, and even four songs titled with the same name (“The Hazards of Love 1-4”), this album was a departure for the band, but yet remained totally in their wheelhouse.

No longer singing about pirates and Victorian-era maidens, the band got a bit more modern, or at least timeless, for the album’s setting:

a love story starring a woman named Margaret (voiced by Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond) who falls in love with a shape-shifting boreal forest dweller named William (voiced by Colin Meloy, the Decemberists’ chief songwriter/lyricist and lead singer). A jealous forest queen and William’s mother (voiced by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond), the villainous Rake (also voiced by Meloy) and an ensemble of recurring characters bring conflict to the album’s story arc. Robyn Hitchcock as well as Jim James from My Morning Jacket also make an appearance. via Wikipedia

Freeing original band members Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee, who are also, along with Meloy, the band’s primary music-writing team, to embrace their ELO fantasies, this album is a full-on prog rock extravaganza. We saw hints of some progressive thinking from the band on their previous album, The Crane Wife, but those moments were fleeting.

The video above, for “The Rake’s Song” from The Hazards of Love, comes along in the middle of the album, at the start of what might be called Act 2. The highlight of the album for me are the multiple iterations of “The Wanting Comes in Waves,” a building chorus that in its final iteration climaxes with a full string chorus and piano driving Meloy to shout “and I want this night!”

The band put all its might behind the launch of this album, embarking on a full tour where they played the full album in order. Consequently, they put off a lot of their less-devoted fans, who were expecting them to play the hits from previous albums. Sadly I had to miss them on this tour, as I would have loved to see them play this album in all its glory. They will eventually become my second two-digit band, but that will have to come in 2010 or beyond.

The Decemberists have quite the back log, and if you like what you’re hearing above but are not familiar with the band, you can pick up any one of their previous albums and be satisfied. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite, but The Hazards of Love would certainly be in the running.

Tomorrow: Numero Uno!

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3. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
4. The First Days of Spring by Noah and the Whale
5. These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks
6. Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage
7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#3 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective

It’s amazing what you can do when you get a full zoo of animals together. Animal Collective is the proof for the infinite monkey theorem — get a room full of monkeys together randomly typing away on typewriters and eventually you’ll end up with War & Peace. Led by a Panda Bear, a couple of animals I’ve not heard of before (an Avey Tare and a Deakin), and all combined with, strangely, a Geologist, the “band” has been able to produce a wide array of music since forming in 1999.

This band does nothing but cause confusion and begs me to ask any number of questions. It’s still unclear to me how they are able to get a panda to sit down and play keyboards for any length of time. And how does it twist knobs with those giant paws? That Geologist must be one hell of a trainer.

What does an Avey Tare look like, and what is its natural habitat? Must be a close cousin of home sapiens, because it sure sounds like the thing is singing in English. Perhaps it’s a kind of parrot.

What the hell is a Deakin? Sheesh. I knew they were finding thousands of new species of animals deep in the Amazon Rainforest, but animals that play instruments and can sing like a human being? That’s just too much.

It is such a show of human ingenuity that someone — a Geologist! — was able to get these disparate animals together and keep them producing music for 10+ years. The “band” has produced 8 full-length albums in that time! They even go on world tours, although they must have their own plane or train, because I think it’s still illegal to put a panda in your carry-on across international lines.

I first heard Animal Collective on their 2005 release Feels. After stumbling a tad by following that amazing album up with Strawberry Jam, the “band” came back full force with Merriweather Post Pavilion. I’m totally confounded by this band. Not really sure how the “band” does it all, but I don’t care, either. As long as they keep producing music like Merriweather Post Pavilion, from which the above video for “In The Flowers” is shown above, then I’ll be a happy boy.

Tomorrow: Back to reality. Through the process of elimination, are there any guesses as to who #2 and #1 are?

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4. The First Days of Spring by Noah and the Whale
5. These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks
6. Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage
7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#4 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

The First Days of Spring by Noah and The Whale

Once again, an album by a band with a ridiculous name. But at least this time around the name has a reason: the band are huge fans of the Noah Baumbach-directed movie “The Squid and The Whale.” End of story.

The sophomore album from Noah and The Whale, The First Days of Spring is a complete departure from the band’s debut, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. Late in 2008, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, Charlie Fink, broke up with the band’s backup vocalist, Laura Marling, and now she’s a backup singer for someone else. What was a band that made superb but fluffy and vacuous pop music became a band that made heartbreaking rainy-day orchestral folk songs. And what a lovely thing it is.

This album, ranked this high on my 2009 Advent Calendar, probably has all my music-loving friends scratching their heads quizzically. I haven’t seen this album show up on any of the big-name top-whatever countdown lists. When I went to pick out my Top 5 for the KEXP end-of-year voting, I had to put this album in the write-in column because they hadn’t included it among the hundreds of pre-listed albums. Pitchfork only gave it a 5.2. All of which adds up to a Poorly Received Album. But yet here it is, #4 on my list for 2009. And it’s there for a reason: it’s brilliant (duh).

At first it’s slow, depressing and very very heavy. “It’s the first day of Spring, and my life is starting over again,” comes the first line in Fink’s deep, drawn-out tone. Where’s that whiskey bottle again? All my life I’ve been drawn to music like this — songs that reflect a sadness so penetrating that it somehow bolsters your own spirit. See the Smiths, circa 1985. Elliott Smith, circa 1998. The Cure, circa 1989.

I listened to Disintegration, the Cure’s graduate-level study of wallowing in one’s own deepest sorrows, ad infinitum — first as a misunderstood senior in high school and then as a misguided Freshman in college (and I still reach for it at least once every six months, neither misunderstood nor misguided). But while I went through my share of teenage depression, I don’t need to feel depressed to enjoy depressing music. On the contrary, even though it’s one of the most depressing (and a little depressingly clichéd) albums I’ve ever owned, The First Days of Spring makes me quite happy upon each and every listen. Call me a blasphemer all you want, but this album is Disintegration, twenty years later.

The album has an arc that is unmatched in most of today’s music. It starts off slow, reaches amazing highs, slips back down and finally rises again to hover somewhere around the sunny side of “completely unable to get out of bed.” “Blue Skies,” the song featured in the video above (which also duals as the trailer for the full-album-video that Fink made in tandem with the album — watch it here) comes toward the end of the album, after your heart has been drug through the mud for a few thousand miles and stomped on by very heavy, very hairy and very naked troglodyte.

The fact that this album has not been well-received by the critics I elevate to such unworthy heights causes my insecurities to rise up. I begin to question my own tastes in music, wondering what it is that I’m missing that is causing me to rate the music so differently from them. But for this album — nay, this masterpiece, — I have been able to successfully squash that little voice in my head, forcing it back into the dark cave it so deserves as a home. It’s not me that is missing something, my tastes are refined enough to recognize a good album when I hear it. The primal feelings this album draws out of me, a state of mind so wrought with passion and emotion, needs to be shared across the globe.

Tomorrow: the #3 album, to which you’ll be surprised I’ve only given the bronze medal.

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5. These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks
6. Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage
7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#5 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

These Four Walls by We Were Promised Jetpacks

Making this list has made me feel at times that I should have started a separate list full of bands with really bad or difficult names. But it’s rare you have a band name with a blatant punctuation error in it. The name of the fifth-ranked band in the calendar is a full sentence, lacking a period at the end. But for what they lack in punctuation, We Were Promised Jetpacks more than make up for in sheer rocking power.

I like to put this album on in the car when I’m trying to get my 2nd wind or to rally for a long night ahead. Singing these songs at the top of your lungs while driving is one of the best ways to pump yourself up. It’s also one of the best ways to blow out your voice, so be careful. Adam Thompson, the band’s lead singer, sings these powerful songs with such force, you can’t help but get excited to be alive.

The video shown above is for the fantastic “Quiet Little Voices.” I’ve heard this song used in lots of places, so I’m beginning to feel that it’s a little played out, but it’s the only video available. This song was part of a Major League Baseball Network commercial. You know you’ve hit your saturation point when…

We Were Promised Jetpacks are Scottish. They do make you think a little about the more rocking songs from a band that grew up not too far from them, across the channel over in Ireland. But where U2 provides a lot of variety, mixing quiet introspective songs with power ballads and hard rocking songs, WWPJ pretty much leave the dial pushed to the limit from start to finish. There are a couple breathers on the album, but they’re short lived. Put this album on and you should be prepared to turn it up loud.

These Four Walls is We Were Promised Jetpacks’ debut album. Given that I called the Rural Alberta Advantage, who’s debut album Hometowns was #6 on the calendar, the best new band of 2009, I feel like I need to explain why I ranked These Four Walls higher in the countdown, but didn’t give WWPJ the honor of “best new band.” It’s fairly simple: they made a great album, but I have not seen any evidence that they can do it again. With the RAA, their live show had numerous new, unrecorded songs that were quite good and made me excited about their next release, whenever that happens. But when I saw WWPJ earlier this year, they may have played one new song. I say “may” because I honestly can’t recall if they did or not, so clearly it wasn’t very good if they had played one. Granted, the band was the opening band, and while they played a great set, they weren’t given the time to fill it up with untested songs. I can only work with what I know.

But my fingers are crossed, because I absolutely love this album and will be listening to it for many years to come.

Tomorrow: this year’s Disintegration.

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6. Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage
7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#6 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Hometowns by the Rural Alberta Advantage

Please “click to play” on the box above (2014 editor’s update — replaced the now-dead song link with this awesome fan-created video for the same song); it is important that you listen to this song while continuing to read. Believe it or not, what you’re hearing is the best new band of 2009. It may not sound like a lot to you right now, but mark my words: 2010 will be all about this band, the Rural Alberta Advantage. Well, at least in the indie rock world that I inhabit, these guys are going to get huge.

How about those drums? That cello! Those fantastic guy/girl harmonies. The bleeding-heart lyrics! All combined, it makes a damn near perfect song. It’s called “Don’t Haunt This Place,” and it’s from their debut album, which happens to be chock full of songs just like this.

This Toronto-based band has already got phase one of their popularity covered: they’ve received mounds of praise from many different music-related blogs out there.

And now the next phase is to get you to buy their music and see their shows. I just recently saw the band perform at a small all-ages venue here in town, and the show was barely even half full. I’m so glad I got to see them in such a way, because it won’t ever be that easy again. And everybody loves to say “I was there when…,” right? I’ve written a review of the show, but it hasn’t been posted yet, and I don’t like to post my reviews on this blog until they’ve been posted at the blog I “work” for. So stay tuned for that. (Update: my review of the Rural Alberta Advantage show at the Vera on December 19 is now posted at Click & Dagger.)

The band did make a video for one of the songs from the album, but it’s not a good representative song and I didn’t want to have you watch it and be disappointed before letting you really give the band a chance. You can watch the video, for “Drain the Blood,” at Pitchfork.com. You should also listen to “Sleep All Day” and “Frank, AB,” another couple of songs from this amazing album.

At this point, you may still be asking yourself why I love this group so much. I was asking myself that up until a couple weeks ago when I came to realize they sound quite a bit like one of favorite bands, the band that wrote and performed the Best Album Ever Recorded: Neutral Milk Hotel. And this is a very good thing. But if you’re now asking yourself, “Who? What?!” then I beg you to drop everything you’re doing, run out to your local iTunes store (ha ha), and purchase that album. Listen for a week solid, doctors orders. Then return to this post to listen to the Rural Alberta Advantage.

And then you, too, will understand.

(I’m so excited: over the next five days, I get to tell you about the top 5 albums of the year!)

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7. Velvet Underground & Nico: “Record Club” by Beck
8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#7 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Velvet Underground & Nico by Beck

Merry Christmas!

There’s not much I can say about Beck that you haven’t heard already. But I bet a lot of you have not heard of this new, amazing project he’s undertaken: Record Club. From his website:

Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. The album chosen to be reinterpreted is used as a framework. Nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. The songs are rough renditions, often first takes that document what happened over the course of a day as opposed to a polished rendering. There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens.

Unfortunately, you can’t buy this album, or any Record Club recording. You can only listen to it on the blog (editor’s note: looks like streaming video is the only way to listen to it now). It’s not surprising to see the artist who has mastered the music is also mastering the digital realm.

The original Velvet Underground & Nico album is one of the most influential, and best, albums of all time — something it would be impossible to improve upon or compare to. And yet Beck, in his infinite wisdom, has created a beautiful ode to Lou Reed and the band. We are lucky to have Beck in our world, making amazing things for us to listen to.

Tomorrow: the best new band of 2009.

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8. March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut
9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#8 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

March of the Zapotec/Holland by Beirut

When I first saw Zach Condon and his orchestral masterpiece of a band Beirut perform, Condon wasn’t allowed to drink or hang out in the club before or after his performance due to the fact that he was only 20 years old. What were you doing at 20? Certainly not leading 6-7 talented musicians, all of whom were older than you by a number of years, in a full set of songs written by you. That was in 2006, and the band was touring to promote their excellent debut album Gulag Orkestar. Fast forward to earlier this year, when we see the third release from Condon and his band of merriment, a double EP.

The first disc, March of the Zapotec, was inspired by Condon’s trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. You can hear definite Mexican-inspired themes in the horns found in the video above, for the song La Llorona. According to Wikipedia:

The Jimenez Band, a 19-piece band from Teotitlán del Valle, backs Condon on this EP… Owen Cook animated and directed the video, which is thematically related to the legend of La Llorona, a popular story in Spanish-speaking countries.

The second disc, attributed to Zach Condon’s electronic-music making alter ego “Realpeople,” is called Holland. And I’ll be damned if the kid, now 23, doesn’t excel to great heights within this very different genre of music as well. The fifth song on this disc, “No Dice,” is going to be one of my top all-time songs, I just know it.

It’s safe to say Beirut is quite unlike any other current band I listen to. There are a couple bands I hear hints of (Neutral Milk Hotel, Devotchka) other bands, but they are only the tiniest of glimmers. And it’s precisely that, the fact they sound unlike anyone else, that I believe will make them appealing to a wide audience. Give them a shot.

Come back tomorrow for a surprise from the best-selling artist on the countdown.

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9. There is no Enemy by Built to Spill
10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#9 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

There is no Enemy by Built to Spill

If you’ve seen my Daytum page, where I document every single musical concert / club show I’ve ever been to in the history of me, then you know I love Built to Spill. They were one of the first shows I ever saw after moving to Seattle, and my gateway drug to both indie rock and jamming guitar solos.

So while that may make me biased toward Built to Spill in general, it certainly doesn’t make me biased toward new Built to Spill albums. On the contrary, their previous two albums to There is no Enemy had very little redeeming value. Perhaps that’s why this album stands out so much among Built to Spill albums. But beyond that, this album stands out better than all but eight albums from this year.

This is a return to form for Built to Spill. Doug Martsch’s songwriting can be hit or miss for sure, but with songs like the one embedded above — “Good Ol’ Boredom” — this new album just brings everything into sharp color again.

I’ve seen Built to Spill twice in the past couple years, once when they were on a small tour playing their best album, 1997’s Perfect From Now On, in its entirety. And again recently when they were out promoting There is no Enemy. During the former tour, they literally played the classic album front to back as it was recorded. And it was amazing. At the more recent show, they played a handful of crowd favorites, and only two songs from the new album, neither of which I felt were the best songs from the album. But yet those songs fit right into the Built to Spill oeuvre, and I ended up liking them much more after hearing them live. Doug knew better than I did what songs would fit and stand out, and in retrospect I’m glad he picked the songs he did.

In the end, this is a solid album that will stand the test of time. If you’re a fan of early Built to Spill, or simply like really good indie guitar rock, this album should top your list.

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10. Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot Compilation
11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#10 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Dark Was The Night, a Red Hot compilation

Welcome to the top 10! Starting things off on a somewhat confusing note is a compilation put out by the Red Hot Organization, “the leading international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture. Since 1989, Red Hot has incorporated the talents of leading performers, visual artists, producers and directors to raise funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS.”

It’s been 20 years since the organization released Red Hot + Blue, a collection of Cole Porter covers done by leading pop and rock artists of the time. It has been seven years since the previous compilation was released, and the organization decided to mark the 20th anniversary with this, their 20th compilation. AIDS hasn’t gone away, although you can’t be blamed for thinking so, what with the lack of coverage these days. But just because it’s no longer in vogue doesn’t mean it’s any less deadly.

Good cause, great music. This compilation was produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the band the National. With songs by the Dirty Projectors with David Byrne; The Books with José Gonzales; Feist with Ben Gibbard; Grizzly Bear; The Decemberists; and Iron & Wine (and that’s just Disc 1 of the 2-Disc set), this compilation is an indie rock tour de force. And it’s a thorough joy to listen to.

The song above, the final track from Disc 1, is a cover of the Castanet’s song “You Are The Blood” by Sufjan Stevens. For those of you living under a rock and have therefore not heard of Sufjan, I suggest checking out any one of his CDs. His album BQE, an ode to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, just barely missed making it onto the calendar this year, although I have a feeling with more listenings I’ll probably move it onto the calendar through revisionist history. I hope you’ve hit play to hear the song above, because it’s a 10-minute opus that would make a good soundtrack while reading this post.

Sufjan always impresses, but this song really speaks to me. It’s haunting, it’s epic, and it’s beautiful. The song is picked up again on Disc 2, as a sample to be toyed with, providing spooky beats and chorus to a Buck 65 remix with new vocals rapped on top by Serengeti. And there are plenty of other songs on the compilation that you can’t find anywhere else that make this a must-own. You know how sometimes you’ll buy a movie soundtrack, and there will one or two great songs interspersed with some crap songs you have to skip? Not so with this collection. It’s top notch, all the way through.

(edit: the video disappeared somewhere in the last 9 years, so I had to replace it with the above Rehearsals video that is a much better summation of what is so great about this album)

I can’t recommend it enough. And since proceeds from the sale of the 2-Disc set go to a good cause, I really think your next move should be to buy it. NOW.

Tune in tomorrow for the lastest installment from the band that tops my list of shows attended.

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11. The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards
12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#11 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

The Mountain by the Heartless Bastards

The Mountain was a total surprise. The third album from Cincinnati’s Heartless Bastards, it caught me off guard because I had been thoroughly underwhelmed by their previous two albums. But it turns out there’s a reason for that: the album was produced by Spoon’s producer, Mike McCarthy. Even though the Heartless Bastards are in a completely different musical camp from Spoon, this combination somehow works.

The song above, the title song from The Mountain, is a bit slower and more reserved than the rest of the album. Similar to the Black Keys, the Heartless Bastards prefer a heavy guitar and simple, pounding drums to fall into line behind the lead vocals. Erika Wennerstrom’s Patti Smith-like singing works very well within that formula. If you enjoyed Dan Auerbach’s CD (#28 on the countdown), then reserve a spot on your shelf for this one as well.

Next up: my top 10 of 2009! How exciting for you. Dying in anticipation, I’m sure. Who have I left out? Who will be #1? Tune in tomorrow to start counting down with me!

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12. Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue
13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#12 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Creaturesque by Throw Me The Statue

Looking for a band that acts like a chameleon, changing musical styles from one song to the next, and using that skill to create a master-thesis-of-indie-rock album? Throw Me The Statue is that band.

And the fact that they did have a “Modest Mouse” song and a “Built to Spill” song used to bother me. But, similar to how my initial impression of the White Stripes changed over time, I no longer hear anything but Throw Me The Statue when I listen to Creaturesque. That “been there, done that” feeling just went away after seeing the Seattle band perform live a few times.

The video above, for “Hi-Fi Goons,” is a good example of what you can expect from the band. They’re good fun, and they’re at #12 for a reason.

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13. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#13 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

Yes, their name is trying so hard, it created its own cliché. And some of the antics the band pulls on stage can feel a bit tired as well. But once you get past those bits, listening to Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is quite a rewarding experience. Because of these facts, hipsters the world over can rejoice in the fact that this band will never get so big that it would be uncool to like them. So, “Yay!” A great band, way over the top, and it’s all yours.

You can get a taste of what makes these guys unique by watching the infomercial-like video above. This is the one album in the whole countdown where I don’t feature a song at the top of the post. But you can forgive me for that, right? The video above just had to be shared.

However, you can get a good taste for what the band sounds like from various places online. Here’s Anchors Dropped, a Sunset Rubdown / Wolf Parade tinged rocker from their eponymous debut album. Or maybe Inuit, a “holiday” song exclusively found at this LA Weekly blog post is more your speed (ha ha — it’s a much slower song).

Either way, if you’re able to get past the ridiculous name and crazy stage antics, I can’t recommend this up-and-coming Seattle band enough. Enjoy.

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14. Horehound by The Dead Weather
15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear

#14 on the 2009 Musical Advent Calendar

Horehound by The Dead Weather

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Jack White is an asshole. The guy is too good. First there was the White Stripes, the band he formed with his ex-wife/sister (the jury is still out on how he and Meg White are related). Then there were the Raconteurs, which he founded in 2005. The latest Jack White project is called The Dead Weather.

The above video, for the song “Treat Me Like Your Mother” from the band’s debut album, is a mini-movie. And after you’ve listened to the song, you can see why Jack White is an asshole: once again he’s proven his prowess and created a band that is contemporary and timeless, invigorating and engaging. And I hate him for it.

Don’t you wish you had the talent he does? He makes it seem so effortless. It has become apparent to me that I will always be a Jack White fan, and will always purchase his new recordings. The man’s a genius, and the music he produces is quite phenomenal.

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15. Promenade by Grand Hallway
16. Grand by Matt & Kim
17. Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver
18. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
19. Tell ’Em What Your Name Is by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
20. Mo Beauty by Alec Ounsworth
21. Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants
22. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
23. Hungry Bird by Clem Snide
24. Actor by St. Vincent
25. Elvis Perkins in Dearland by Elvis Perkins in Dearland
26. XX by the XX
27. Grrr… by Bishop Allen
28. Keep It Hid by Dan Auerbach
29. It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
30. Beware by Bonnie “Prince” Billie
31. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear