The Best Music Of 2009, By The FUEL TV Staff

 

2009 was an incredible year for music, on the FUEL TV airwaves and off. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" gun-clapped its way to the top of the charts (and even the minds of midwestern mommies), Miley Cyrus and Radiohead made for a bizarre news story, Wolfmother played a whopping five-day appearance on The Daily Habit, T.I. went to prison, Michael Jackson went to heaven, Kanye got even douchier, and Animal Collective seared their way into the world's collective consciousness. Like the rest of you, the staff at FUEL TV are always listening to music, so here's what we think the highlights of 2009 were, in neat little readable packages. Enjoy the loudness...—THE FUEL TV STAFF

 

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All In No Particular Order

TOP ALBUMS OF 2009

Zoroaster – Voice of Saturn:  The older I get the more I listen to metal.  I especially love when its big and expansive and evil-sounding.  This sounds like the night sky in hell.  Awesomely monstrous.

We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls:  Finally brit-pop that doesn’t whine, or try to be stylish or cheeky.  The anti-Keane.

Royal Bangs – Let It Beep:  A lot of people LOOVE Black Keys.  I just like the Black Keys.  This is on the Black Keys record label and sounds like the Black Keys, but with a little glam and way better songs.

Portugal.The Man – The Satanic Satanist:  The only good thing we heard about in the 2 years from Wasilla, Alaska.  Terrific indie pop with a brain. 

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix:  If Hall & Oates were French and loved electro.  Hate to break the news to you, but Hall and Oates were groundbreaking, so that’s a compliment.  Best looking crowd at a concert I saw all year.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart:  Wimpy NY art-school kids who know how to muscle it up when need be. I love when you can sing along to noisy teen angst.

Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall:  Indie rock has lost its way and turned into either Steely Dan or Wilco, both of whom bore me.  This sounds like indie rock when people wanted to jump around and make noise in Chuck Taylors.

Cymbal Eats Guitars – Why There Are Mountains: If Built To Spill and Modest Mouse were from Staten Island. It’s jittery indie rock with a New York aggressive soul.

Brother Ali – Us: Simply the best,  most original voice in hip hop since Q-tip.  And the soulful horn blasts in this record do the Stax/Volt legacy proud.

Alberta Cross – Broken Side Of Time:   It’s rock, without need for definition, without any of that annoying poser attitude. 

 

TOP SINGLES OF 2009

White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”: When choruses swell and build, you get me every time.  A well-constructed pop song.

Vox Jaguars – “Swagger”: If you sing about swagger, ya gotta have swagger.  This one’s like Mick and Keith circa 1970 walking casually into a room.

Royal Bangs – “This Car Is Haunted”: Rich glam rock goodness, with a nice chaotic blues stomp.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – “Young Adult Friction”: The aforementioned teen angst in chewy sweet bite sized form.

Modest Mouse – “Autumn Beds”:  Modest Mouse used to be an acquired taste. Now they’re all grown up and everything sounds amazing.  Their most mature, and deep-felt track yet.

Miike Snow – “Animal”: My pick for radio hit of the summer.  You hear it at the beach and the sun feels that much better…

M. Ward – “For Beginners”: Makes me pick up my guitar to write a song as good as this..and then I put it back down because I fail miserably every time.

Julian Casablancas – “11^th Dimension”:I think the Strokes may be the most overrated band of the last decade, but finally Julian got that whole pop thing right on this one.  An Atari 2600 love song.

Here We Go Magic – “Fangela”: A good pop song doesn’t have to have back up dancers, or pro tools or auto tune. Sometimes its just a hooky little gem.

Dead Man’s Bones “Pa Pa Power”: When actors try to sing, usually they fail (I’m looking at you Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, etc).  Ryan Gosling tried, succeeded and came out with a single that I can’t get sick of no matter how hard I try. 

 

 

TOP LIVE SHOWS (including Daily Habit)

 

Pixies at the Palladium performing Doolittle:  The best and most important band of the late 80s doing the best album of the late 80s.  It sounds even better today than it did back then. Made even the soulless Palladium a magical place. 

Kiss at the Staples Center: Not a particularly great show, but wonderful for the experience of realizing that Joy Behar and Paul Stanley are the exact same person.

Gaslight Anthem at the Henry Fonda Theatre: I convinced my south Jersey friend to scream “Jersey!!!!” really loudly at this show.  A guy walked up to him and said “Where in jersey are you from” and then rewarded his South Jersey response with a Newcastle.  And oh yeah, my favorite new band of the last three years, sweating out every song, and not a bad one in the bunch, even with bad sound.

Matt and Kim – Daily Habit: No one plays their instrument with more joy than Kim; she’s also one hell of a drumstool dancer.

Street Sweeper Social Club – Daily Habit: Tom Morello reminded me why people love guitar solos.  A showman with a purpose.

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Daily Habit: These guys used to be legendary..then they started hanging out with hippies and stopped breaking stuff.  They’ve ditched the hippies and are starting to break stuff again.  All is right with the world.

The Hold Steady at New York Week:  My favorite band of the last ten years played a full set for us in NY.  Being able to be involved with a band that means so much to me had me in ecstasy.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes – SXSW:  Playing to a crowd that had no clue who the 13 people on stage were; by the end hands were raised in a tent show revival style musical psalm.

Metallica at SXSW:  The sheer power of this band is incredible After seeing the “future” of music try to get discovered at SXSW, its incredible to watch them blow everyone else away…reminding you why they ARE Metallica in the first place.

 

Daryl Berg

Director, Music Licensing & Supervision

 

 

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TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
Dam Funk, “Toeachizown Vol. 1 LAtrik”
No Age, “Losing Feeling”
Raekwon, “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT II”
Neon Indian, “Psychic Chasms”
The Spits, “IV”
Atlas Sound, “Logos”
The Horrors, “Primary Colours”
The Field, “Yesterday And Today”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “It’s Blitz!”
Cass McCombs, “Catacombs”

TOP 3 PERFORMANCES ON THE DAILY HABIT
The GOAT & The Occasional Others, “Luh Dat Sh-t”
The GOAT & The Occasional Others, “Sunset/La Brea”
The GOAT & The Occasional Others, “Ooh Your Weird”

Carleton Curtis
Sr. Web Producer

 

 

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FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2009 (in no particular order)

 

1. Passion Pit -Manners
2. Major Lazer-Guns Don’t Kill People-Lazers Do
3. Sunset Rubdown-Dragonslayer
4. Mayer Hawthorne-A Strange Arrangement
5. Pearl Jam- Backspacer
6. Pretty Lights-Passing by Behind Your Eyes
7. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs- It’s Blitz!
8. Ben Harper-White Lies for Dark Times
9. Animal Collective-Merriweather Postpavillion
10. Dirty Projectors-Bite Orca
11. Franz Ferdinand-Blood
12. Mos Def-The Ecstatic

 

 

CONCERTS OF 2009

1. Bon Iver- Hollywood memorial cemetery (sunrise concert)
2. Pearl Jam / Ben Harper-West Coast shows
3. Outsidelands festival-The Dead Weather
4. Reggae at the Bowl-Toots and the Maytals / Michael Rose
5. Kings of Leon-Santa Barbara Bowl
6. Jay Z- UCLA

 

 

SONGS OF 2009

1. Run this town-Jay z / rhianna
2. Wavin’ Flags – K’Naan
3. Daylight- Matt and Kim
4. Knotty Pine- Dirty Projectors / David Byrne
5. 1901-phoenix
6. Hot Like Sauce- Pretty Lights

 

Danny Lopez

Production Manager

 

 

 

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TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009

 

10) Kid Cudi-Man On The Moon: The End Of Day

09) Phoenix-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

08) Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack

07) The Big Pink-A Brief History of Love

06) The XX-xx

05) Langhorne Slim-Be Set Free

04) Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson-Summer of Fear

03) Handsome Furs-Face Control

02) Cass McCombs-Catacombs

01) Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros-Up From Below

 

MUSICAL MOMENTS OF 2009

--Every second of SXSW

--Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 in Studio A at Capitol Records

--The Toadies at the El Rey

 

Garret Price

Editor

The Daily Habit on FUEL TV

 

 

 

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BEST "WHAT YEAR IS IT AGAIN?" CONCERTS OF 2009

---Acoustic performance from John Doe and Exene @ echoplex

---Youth Brigade & 7 Seconds – Hollywood, CA (watching from on stage!)

--Depeche mode @ the Hollywood Bowl

 

BEST "OH YEAH, IT'S 2009" CONCERTS OF THE YEAR:

--The Soft Pack @ echoplex

--Band of skulls/The Duke Spirit @ El Rey

 

FAVORITE PERFORMANCES ON THE DAILY HABIT

The Walkmen

No Age

The Duane Peters Gunfight

Busta Rhymes (from our NYC stage!)

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

The Goat & The Occasional Others

 

ALBUM OF 2009

The Dead Weather: Horehound

 

BEST QUOTE OVERHEARD IN THE DAILY HABIT STUDIO

“I went through hell to get here. They left me at the hotel.” – Oderus Urungus, lead singer of Gwar

 

Jennifer Goodman

Line Producer and Director

The Daily Habit

 

 

 

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ALBUMS OF 2009

Deer Tick – “War Machine”

Handsome Furs – “Face Control”

Jogger – “This Great Pressure”

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – “Up From Below”

Dead Man’s Bones – “Dead Man’s Bones”

 

SONGS OF 2009

“Ashamed” – Deer Tick

“40 Day Dream” – Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

“My Body’s a Zombie for You” – Dead Man’s Bones

“Cosmic Love” - Florence and the Machine

“She Wolf” – Shakira

 

Laurel Miller

Post Production Coordinator

 

 

 

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ALBUMS OF 2009 (in no particular order)

 

Florence and the Machines – Lungs

The Big Pink – A Brief History Of Love

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Dan Deacon – Bromst

Converge – Axe To Fall

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Dirty Projects – Bitte Orca

Sun O)) – Monoliths

The XX – XX   

We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls

Japandroids – Post-Nothing

 

BEST SHOWS/CONCERTS/FESTIVALS

I find this harder than naming best albums of the year, it’s a difficult task to remember what shows I have been to this year and what bands were on the bill, it seems that all the shows I have been to combine into one giant cluster in my head.

 

1. Bon Iver – Hollywood Forever Cemetery at Sunrise, Hollywood, CA – September 27 (including camping out in the cemetery in the midst of thick dense fog and being blessed by Buddhist Monks)

 

2. Sasquatch @ the Gorge, Quincy, WA  – Memorial Day Weekend (camping included) I can now see why this place is voted the most gorgeous outdoor venue in the country

 

3. Wanderlust @ Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, CA - Yoga + Music + Camping – what is not to love!?

 

4. What Made Milwaukee Famous, The Whigs, The Dead Black Hearts @ Antones, Austin,TX

 

5. All the DTLA warehouse shows as 1212 Flower Street. Los Angeles, CA

 

 

BEST OF THE DAILY HABIT

 

Cold War Kids

Gwar

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

The Avett Brothers

Portugal The Man

BLK JKS

Matt & Kim

The Bronx

Dinosaur Jr.

Tortoise

As Tall As Lions

 

 

BEST ASK A BAND

Cancer Bats

Matisyahu

Gwar

Future Of The Left

…Trail Of Dead

Michael Franti and Spearhead

LMFAO

 

Melissa Stern

Music Department Assistant

 

 

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Top 10 Albums of 2009

 

1. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

2. Bitte Orca - The Dirty Projectors
3. Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

4. Album - Girls

5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

6. Post-Nothing - Japandroids

7. Embryonic - The Flaming Lips

8. Bromst - Dan Deacon

9. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle - Bill Callahan

10. The Crying Light - Antony and the Johnsons

 

 

Top 10 Albums of the Decade

 

1. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse

2. Kid A - Radiohead

3. Sung Tongs - Animal Collective

4. Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol

5. You Forgot It in People - Broken Social Scene

6. And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out - Yo La Tengo

7. Feels - Animal Collective

8. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips

9. In Rainbows - Radiohead

10. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco

 

Paxton Swafford,

Jr. Editor

 

 

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SHOWS

 

- Jazz Fest 2009 in New Orleans – first trip to New Orleans. Unbelievable music from sunrise to sunrise. And the best week of listening, eating, and drinking in my life

- Outside Lands Festival 2009 – Golden Gate in San Francisco park was idyllic for this early October weekend – Pearl Jam, Band of Horses, Tenacious D, Trombone Shorty, Silversun Pickups, Q-Tip, Tea Leaf Green, Raphael Saadiq, Portugal. The Man, The Mars Volta, Modest Mouse, Robert Randolph… I could keep going but you get the point

- Reggae Night at the Bowl – Once again, a homerun. Its more about the vibe than the music. Toots was the star for sure

- Brother Ali and Evidence at the El Rey – easily the best hip hop show I saw this year

- Pearl Jam at the Gibson Ampitheater – Epic set… hate if you want but they still rock harder live than most bands ever will

- Glasvegas at the Music Hall of Williamsburg – Great show, and a special New York night

 

 

ALBUMS

 

- Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It – I fell back in love with that Motown sound.  Old school production techniques and classic R&B composition… never gets old for me

- Mos Def – The Ecstatic – Never fails to mold a hip hop masterpiece and this album is a throw back to his days as one of the best in my book

- We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls – I’ve officially become a fan of an indie band.  Thanks Daryl and Johnny for wearing me down for 3 years

- Pearl Jam – Backspacer

- Silversun Pickups – Swoon

 

MOMENTS

 

-        Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert on HBO

-        Street Sweeper Social Club on The Daily Habit

 

Sean Keegan

Senior Associate Producer

The Daily Habit on FUEL TV

 

 

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Records

1. The Growlers- Are you in or Out? 
2. Jeff The Brotherhead-Heavy Days  and the video for “Bone Jam” is my favorite video of the year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wmFRSVAKw
3. Alberta Cross-Broken Side of Time
4. We Were Promised Jetpacks-These Four Walls
5. Blakroc-Blakroc
6. Girls-Album
7. Yacht-See Mystery Lights
8. A Place to Bury Strangers-Exploding Head
9. White Denim-Fits
10. The Big Pink-A Brief History of Love

 

Favorite Daily Habit performances

1. Growlers
2. Gwar
3. Raekwon-specifically the song “C.R.E.A.M.”.  Epic!!

 

Favorite Shows

1. Witnessing Neil Young perform with unmatched energy in Barcelona.
2. Sunny Day Real Estate-Henry Fonda Theatre
3. Murder City Devils-Henry Fonda Theatre
4. Echo and the Bunnymen-Emo’s-SXSW

 

Music/Film/Video

1. The Arcade Fire song “Wake up” used in the Where the Wild Things Are trailer and the music in the film was excellent as well.
2. Jeff the Brotherhood-video for "Bone Jam"-my favorite video of the year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wmFRSVAKw
3. The Dodos Check 1,2-looked and sounded amazing to me.
4. Check 1,2 shoot with Ben Harper and Relentless 7 at Capitol Studios.  That is an amazing and impressive space and the performance was great.

 

John Katovsich

Director, Music Operations and Supervision

 

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Best Albums of 2009

 

1. The Horrors- Primary Colours (XL)

A fixed atmosphere of symphonic density that emits a near-flawless marriage between garage rock charm and gothic gloom. From the debut herky jerk of the Strange House days—where the primary goal seemed to excite and fright in an jolt of organ-soaked Cramps-styled blaze—this UK band has now wiped the sweat off their collective brow and adopted an out-of-nowhere command into the expansive depths of am amorous abyss that begs to be recognized, studied and applauded as one of the decade's best comeback albums.

 

2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)

Like a ‘Peel Slowly and See’ moment of its day, it’s more-than fitting that the cover for Animal Collective’s sixth studio album ‘moves.’ Merriweather has become a living and breathing entity of sorts- pure pop transference seems to be the best stab at it. More than just a record—like so many others that simply offer up some instant, feel-good remedy--what we have here is sonic souvenir that seems to exist on it’s own plane somewhere else, missing the instruction manual, floating and swirling like some screensaver of the mind waiting for you to shake the mouse and play along, connecting to it in whatever way you see fit.

 

3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- ST (Slumberland)

This New York fivesome have created the best debut of the year- it’s brazen, unassuming, blissful and completely gratuitous of itself. This collection of twee-pop songs are as transporting and nurturing as any gushy summer fling; both spectacular and unanticipated.

 

4. Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2/Glassnote)

Screw H1N1, the infectious tag belonged to this French foursome and the one-two-three punch of “Listomania,” “1901” and “Lasso.” We all sort of knew that Thomas Mars and Co. were capable of making a great pop album—having bounced in and out of cultish stardom since the decade’s start—the thing is that nobody expected it to fall closer to the instant-classic status of Wolfgang.

 

5. Japandroids- Post Nothing (Polyvinyl)

Post Nothing manages to make a sweet, nostalgic, fuzz-filled journey that lurches through the perfect soundtrack for a rocky, suburban-teenage love affair that more-than bubbles up the desire for a beer-soaked, steal-your-parents-car night on the town no matter what age you might be. Most every track here is flawless.

 

6. The Black Lips- 200 Million Thousand (Vice)

This troupe of Atlanta, GA ‘flower-punks’ jam their way through a fifth album of signature, energetic merry-prankster-ed inebriation. They make no attempt in hiding a near-atrophying take on garage-rock jangles, token songs of retribution (“Starting Over”) mainstream jabs (“Big Black Baby Jesus of Today”) and their ever longing quest for pure amusement.

 

7. The Whitest Boy Alive- Rules (Bubbles)

Led by multi-instrumental and genre-skipper Erlend Øye, Rules is the third record from this German feel-good foursome. Released on their record label, the entire album features no programmed elements and was recorded all in one take. The tracks bounce along fence posts of loungy, organ-soaked soul, disco pop and refreshing 60’s rock style.

 

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- It’s Blitz (Interscope)

It wasn’t long ago that it seemed Karen O. and her Yeah Yeah Yeah’s would forever would find a muse in New York City. The grime, the late nights and the cluster fostered some of the decade’s best songs (take “Maps” for one). Then the band seemed to go into hiding after Show Your Bones. Rumors spread and thoughts on a new record were mixed. Singer Orzolek even moved to LA. Then, before the hype from a bunch of Wild Things started, everything seemed to plop together and the trio offered up the fantastic It’s Blitz in all it’s egg-smashing glory.

 

9. Ducktails- Landscapes (Olde English Spelling Bee)

After fist pumping through enough electro and blog house parties, '09's limelight electronic music decided it was time for a break. Genres like chillwave, glo-fi and belaric took hold and the buzz seemed to transfer to one giant hangover haze. Playing since 2007—with a wealth of singles, splits, cassette-only releases and compilation appearances—NJ’s Matt Mondanile (also of Real Estate) is the man behind Landscapes, Ducktails first proper album. It’s a static-filled, Sunday-afternoon crawl through guitar jams and the Miami Vice swagger of yesteryear.

 

10. The Legends- Over and Over (Labrador)

Johan Angergård’s baby seems to have hit the teenage years on Over and Over, the Swedish act’s fourth album. Swirling through a walled-in guitar-and-drum assault, the light rears it’s head with the lulling boy-meets-girl lyric simplicity on “Seconds Away” and the JAMC ooze of “Always the Same.”  From disco, motown and straight-up New Order synth sheen, Angergård and current company make a statement that as you age, some pieces stay and some go and that the best advice to give, is learning which of those parts are worth holding onto.

 

Matt Draper

FUEL TV Music Bloghead