Seriously 2009? Are you Serious?

What can I say about 2009? The year actually started out promisingly enough—when the clock struck midnight, I was sitting at Madison Square Garden waving my arms in the air as My Morning Jacket rang in the new year. Little did I know that just a couple of hours later I would find myself hanging out of my bedroom window as a fire raged through our home and I screamed like a lady for firemen to come and drag me out through the smoke. What happened next? Oh yeah, the economy tanked and the majority of my steady freelance jobs packed their bags and ran outof my life like a cheating husband. A bunch of other bad things happened after that, but I might spontaneously combust if I tried to remember them all. The upside of 2009 was that my friends and family continued to be awesome (especially in the wake of the crazy fire), I got to travel to some faraway places, I saw some great shows, and learned how to be a part-time bartender (this was actually one of the most fun things I did this year). Maybe I also learned how to be a little more thankful in 2009 (a lot more thankful, actually) and gained a new appreciation for not sweating the small stuff. I also got a LOT of amazing new ceramic cats and cat-related paraphernalia given to me this year, so that was a definite plus. More than ever, my home looks liketherefuge of an elderly woman obsessed with feline knick-knacks, which is just the way I like it. I guess I’m cautiously optimistic about 2010, but basically there is no love lost between me and 2009. Actually, you know what 2009? Fuck you. You are dead to me. Don’t let the big cosmic door of time hit you on your way out.

TOP 20 RECORDS OF 2009

I say the same thing every year about this list, but here we go again….People seem to love this ridiculous list, but every year I tend to get the same two primary responses. My music nerd friends (aka music writers and assorted bloggists) tend to respond with things like “How dare you exclude that amazing folk record from the Netherlands!” and/or “How dare you not include more rap music! ” while my non-music nerd friends respond with something like “Once again, I’ve never heard of anything on your list.” As a semi-respectable music journalist, there are lots of records that probably should be on my list and aren’t, but in the end I just choose the records and songs that got the most face time around my home office (as evidenced by the number of plays in my iTunes). So, even though I could easily list about 100 records that I genuinely liked in 2009, here are the 20 albums that I listened to the most.

Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Paviliion
The xx -- xx
Atlas Sound -- Logos
Real Estate – Real Estate
Papercuts – You Can Have What you Want
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Engineers – Three Fact Fader
Cass McCombs -- Catacombs
The Breeders – Fate to Fatal EP
Woods – Songs of Shame
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The Clientele – Bonfires on the Heath
Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP
M. Ward – Hold Time
Bonnie “Prince” Billy -- Beware
Major Lazer – Gunz Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do
Pictureplane – Dark Rift
AA Bondy – When the Devil’s Loose

TOP 10 SONGS OF 2009

Again, I’m simply picking the 10 most played songs (that were released in 2009) from my I-Tunes. This means that these were the 10 songs I probably most often jammed when riding the subway or walking around NYC feeling melancholy (a favorite pastime throughout much of the past year).

“Seven” -- Fever Ray
“Feel it All Around” -- Washed Out
“My Girls” -- Animal Collective
“Ready, Able” -- Grizzly Bear
“Goth Star” -- Pictureplane
“Chances Are” -- The Breeders
“Hot Like Fire” -- The xx
“Quick Canal” -- Atlas Sound
“Don’t Vote” -- Cass McCombs
“Beach Comber” – Real Estate

TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2008

Fleetwood Mac // Madison Square Garden (March 19)
Fever Ray // Webster Hall (Sept. 28)
Pixies // Hammerstein Ballroom (Nov. 23)
David Byrne // Radio City (Feb 28)
Cat Power // Apollo (Feb 7)
Egyptian Hip Hop // Manchester, England(Oct 16)
World Famous * BOB * // Joe’s Pub (Sept 10)
Yeasayer// Guggenheim (Oct 30)
Sufjan Stevens // ATP Festival(Sept 12)
The Human League // Manchester, England (Aug 29)

WORST SONG OF 2009

“Pokerface” by Lady Gaga. I don’t care what anyone says about her fierceness, I loathe this. I’m just as happy as the next person that Gaga wears zany outfits and loves the gays, but this song might as well have been by the Pussycat Dolls or any other generically retarded pop act making soulless fast food music. That being said, I am happily planning to see her “Fame Monster” show at Radio City early next year. I’ll go to the bathroom when she does this song. (FYI--“She-Wolf” by Shakira runs a close second in this category)

TOP 5 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2009

U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Edition)
Nirvana – Bleach (Deluxe Edition)
Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Kraftwerk – The Catalogue
The Feelies – Crazy Rythms & The Good Earth

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2008

If it was a horror movie and/or in 3D, I probably saw it and liked it. Otherwise, I seem to have spent most of this year enjoying purely escapist entertainment (i.e. really stupid movies filled with special effects and cute teens). Also, there are tons of movies that I haven’t seen—like Broken Embraces and The Maid—that would probably make this list had I actually made time to watch them. But how could I see them when I was too busy filling my brain with things like The Final Destination and My Bloody Valentine 3D? No judgments, please.

An Education
Paranormal Activity
The Hurt Locker
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Good Hair
A Single Man
Zombieland
Trick-R-Treat
The House of the Devil
District 9

TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2008

Glamourpuss: The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs –Julie Jackson & Jill Johnson
Under the Dome (fiction)– Stephen King
Chronic (poems) – D. A. Powell
Another Green World (33 1/3 Series) – Geeta Dayal
To Be Read in 500 Years: Poems – Albert Goldbarth
Something Has to Happen Next (poems) –Andrew Michael Roberts
The Devil’s Alphabet (fiction) – Daryl Gregory
Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater (memoir) —Frank Bruni
Speak Low (poems) – Carl Phillips
The Double Life is Twice as Good: Essays and Fiction – Jonathan Ames

TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2008

STEVIE NICKS // V Magazine
Will Oldham // Blackbook Magazine
Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray) // Interview
Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) // Interview
David Byrne // The FADER
Rachel Maddow // Dossier
Edmund White // Dossier
Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) // V Magazine
Peter Saville // Interview
J. Alexander // Dossier

Five Randomly Amazing Things that Happened in 2009

My brother graduated from college and I was really proud of him.
Will Oldham sent me every one of his records on vinyl to replace the ones that got lost in my house fire, which was such a sweet thing to do that I almost couldn’t believe it.
Meeting and working with Gigi Stoll. Totally life-changing.
Going to Manchester, England—twice in three months!—earlier this year. Not only did I get to nerd out on lots of music stuff (like visiting Morrissey’s childhood home and the apartment building that previously housed The Hacienda!), I made a bunch of lovely new friends (Phil!), ate amazing fried chicken (McTuckys!), saw BANANARAMA perform live (sort of), and consumed my body weight in beer. So good!
Tie! Going backstage at the Apollo after Cat Power’s show and sneaking on stage to the lucky logAND going backstage after the Breeders show and meeting Kim Deal (who basically just wanted to talk about how much she loves Battlestar Gallactica).

FAVORITE MOMENT OF 2009

This is a tough one. My birthday dance-off at Heathers? Going to the ATP festival (again) with my Stereogum bitches? Fadernoons with my beloved FADER editorial street gang? Ceramic cat shopping in Oklahoma with my mom and my sister? Honestly, there are too many to choose from. 2009 might have been a profound bummer on multiple levels, but I really did have some good times. I’m also anticipating that my favorite moment of 2009 might be on December 31st when I say goodbye to it. We’ll see.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo xo xo COLE