Pretty much every time Boston-based Dear Leader releases a new album, one of their songs makes my year end list. This year is no different. 2009's Stay Epic is a more melancholy album, reflecting (I think) the melancholy of a post-Obama election where the realities of governing, and the time and effort required to overcome the inertia of an electorate beaten down by a crappy economy.
It's a slower album, without anything that breaks out quite as much as "Everyone Looks Better in the Dark", but it has some great tunes.
When the first chords and "oh way ohwooohwoah" hit during the opening moments of the Season 2 finale of Chuck, I was hooked. It was one of those moments when both a show and a song are made better by the coupling.
"Now We Can See" by The Thermals is this odd mix of pop and garage rock (garage pop?) that sounds like music you shouldn't like, but you get completely sucked in. The songs all sound very similar, they're low-fi and grungy, but underneath it all are these pop hooks just trying to get out.
This is the song where they get out the most, and it makes the #9 spot on my list.
The first Boston band in the top ten list proper (a hint that maybe there's a second? Third?), The Everyday Visuals incredibly catchy pop harmonies resonate a bit stronger in a world where Fleet Foxes can have such a massive impact. If you haven't heard TEV, the first time you listen, you're going to think to yourself "Wow, I could completely imagine these guys being out of the 60s and singing Beach Boys tunes."
And then I'll blow your mind and tell you how they've covered Pet Sounds in its entirety (I will pay you money if you can find me a recording of that).
While you are unblowing your mind, take a listen to "Florence Foster Jenkins." It'll make you feel better.
Or is it "Runner Ups?" I assume the former, as in the title of my post, is correct.
In any event, I had a really hard time picking my top ten songs of 2009. I put some constraints on myself. Well, a constraint: one song per band. Without that constraint, this list would have probably been very different (more on that in the coming posts).
With that constraint, my top five or six songs were reasonably easy to knock out. It was the second half of the top ten, particularly the last two spots, that were most troublesome. I had about ten songs lined up for those two spots. Do I cheat and expand to a top 20?
No. Hell no.
Instead, I cheat and give you seven runner up songs, leading up to my top ten. If you don't like any of these, well, maybe you'll like what's in my top ten. If you do like these, then you'll probably enjoy the rest of the list.
Without further ado, the songs that just missed my Top 10 of 2009:
One of two Scottish bands in the full list, they've got the benefit of having one of the best band names around. Driving percussion and a Scottish accent.
After a few years of making their prog/noise/art rock, Doug Martsch brings Built To Spill back into making their jangly sweet rock, with probably their best song since "Big Dipper" off of There's Nothing Wrong With Love.
Being one of the few folks out there still defending The Big W (and legitimately digging The Red Album), Raditude was a huge let down. Especially after hearing this song, which simply reinforce my opinion that Rivers Cuomo is the closest thing to Brian Wilson (besides Brian Wilson).
Cymbals Eat Guitars are like Animal Collective. You either love them or hate them (I love the former, hate the latter). This song starts with, and finishes with, the crazy noise that Cymbals Eat Guitars create. In the middle is one of the best pop songs of the year. And I think they play about 20 instruments in it.
The first Boston band in the list, Taxpayer's latest album is full of really awesome rock music. This is my favorite right now. If you asked me tomorrow, it might be "Marionette" or "We Have Arrived."
I love Stellastarr*. The overlapping vocals, occasional harmonies, and the way they just bring it all together. This reminded me a lot of stuff off of their first album. You may not like it. But if you do, go check out the rest of their new album. It's good.
Prophets -- AC Newman
My hardest omission from the top ten. AC Newman put out another awesome pop album in 2009. It's not on lala for some reason, so check it out here on Youtube. It's just really, really, really good.
With the holiday season upon us, I got a few Evites that broke my Greasemonkey script to add Evite invitations to your Google Calendar. I went through and cleaned up the code a bit, and I think it'll work a bit better now.
You'll find the "Add to Google Calendar" link next to the Print link on most invites.
For one of the few times in my life, I knew that I needed to do a trial run. There was enough that could go wrong that if I relied on doing this right the first time, I would likely be left with a pie full of messy badness. And, I was mostly right. Here are things I learned from Attempt #1 at Sweet Potato Pie:
If you have a steamer, it should probably have feet.
If you don't have steamer feet, using binder clips is not a good replacement.
If you don't have a potato masher, an ice cream scoop is not a good replacement.
If you can't mash your potatoes by hand, neither a blender nor a hand mixer will likely get it done.
If you have chunks of potato left, your batter will probably be too thin.
Needless to say, the first attempt led to a thin batter with chunks of sweet potato in it. It overflowed the pie crust. It ended up looking like this:
It tasted ok, if you could get past the "eating whole chunks of sweet potato in your pie" thing.
For Attempt #2, I got a new steamer and a potato masher. Mashing the sweet potatoes into a nice paste made the batter much thicker, with no chunks. That lead to a pie that looked like this:
After cooking and eating it, I'm calling it a success. Actually, I might go have some now.
