Goodbye 2009.

January is going to be a busy month here at Burn and Shine. I've got two more 2009 comps lined up and I've got a couple of things in store to commemorate the decade. Be on the lookout for those within the next few weeks. First though is my "final" favorites list of the year. Let's just knock this out, shall we?

Favorite Albums of 2009:

01. Grant Hart ~ Hot Wax
02. Magnolia Electric Co. ~ Josephine
03. El Goodo ~ Coyote
04. The Bats ~ The Guilty Office
05. Reigning Sound ~ Love and Curses
06. Built To Spill ~ There is No Enemy
07. J. Tillman ~ Vacilando Territory Blues
08. Hayden ~ The Place Where We Lived
09. The Mantles ~ The Mantles
10. Generationals ~ Con Law
11. The Thermals ~ Now We Can See
12. The Fresh & Onlys ~ The Fresh & Onlys
13. The Dutchess and the Duke ~ Sunrise / Sunset
14. Hallelujah the Hills ~ Colonial Drones
15. The Almighty Defenders ~ The Almighty Defenders
16. Kurt Vile ~ God Is Saying This To You …
17. The Disciplines ~ Smoking Kills
18. So Cow ~ So Cow
19. Hush Arbors ~ Yankee Reality
20. Outrageous Cherry ~ Universal Malcontents
21. Dinosaur Jr. ~ Farm
22. Apollo Ghosts – Hastings Sunrise
23. Flaming Lips ~ Embryonic
24. The Black Hollies ~ Softly Towards the Light
25. Ty Segall ~ Lemons
26. Broadfield Marchers ~ Displayed in Reflection
27. Tommy Keene ~ In the Late Bright
28. Brilliant Colors ~ Indtroducing
29. Box Elders ~ Alice and Friends
30. A.C. Newman ~ Get Guilty
31. Dexateens ~ Singlewide
32. Thee Oh Sees ~ Help
33. Jason Lytle ~ Yours Truly, the Commuter
34. Cheap Star ~ Speaking Like an Elephant
35. Cave Singers ~ Welcome Joy
36. Noise Addict ~ It Was Never About the Audience
37. Patterson Hood ~ Murdering Oscar
38. The Clean ~ Mister Pop
39. Black Lips ~ 200 Million Thousand
40. Son Volt American Central Dust
41. M. Ward ~ Hold Time
42. Girls ~ Album
43. King Khan & the BBQ Show ~ Invisible Girl
44. The Felice Brothers ~ Yonder is the Clock
45. The xx - XX
46. Eat Skull ~Wild and Inside
47. Lou Barlow ~ Goodnight Unknown
48. Sonic Youth ~ The Eternal
49. Pains of Being Pure at Heart ~ Pains of Being Pure at Heart
50. Sea Wolf ~ White Water, White Bloom
51. Mount Eerie ~ Wind’s Poem
52. Japandroids ~ Post-Nothing
53. Polvo ~ In Prism
54. Jack-O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers ~ Disco Outlaws
55. Brendon Benson ~ My Old, Familiar Friend
56. Grant Lee Phillips ~ Little Moon
57. Lee Fields ~ My World
58. Yo La Tengo ~ Popular Songs
59. Phoenix ~ Wolfgan Amadeus
60. Atlas Sound ~ Logos
61. The Raveonettes ~ In and Out of Control
62. Wilco ~ Wilco (The Album)
63. Coconut Records ~ Davy
64. Tyvek ~Tyvek
65. Dan Auerbach ~ Keep it Hid
66. Fanfarlo ~Reservoir
67. Future of the Left ~ Travels With Myself and Another
68. The Dodos ~ Time to Die
69. Fresh & Onlys ~ Grey-Eyed Girls
70. Ovens ~ Ovens
71. Wye Oak ~ The Knot
72. Mountain Goats ~ Life of the World to Come
73. Neko Case ~ Middle Cyclone
74. Conor Oberst ~ Outer South
75. Screaming Females ~ Power Move

Some records I got too late to really give ‘em a fair shake but sound promising upon first listen:

1220 ~ Killin for a Livin’
Aliens ~ Luna
Nobunny ~ Raw Romance
Knight School ~ The Poor and Needy Need to Party
Low Anthem ~ Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Molina & Johnson ~ Molina & Johnson
The Tripwires ~ House to House

Favorite Reissues of 2009:

01. Beatles ~ Mono Box/Stereo Box
02. Emitt Rhodes ~ The Emitt Rhodes Recordings
03. Various Artists ~ Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968
04. R.E.M. ~ Reckoning Deluxe Version
05. Nirvana ~ Bleach Deluxe Version
06. Dukes of the Stratosphear ~ Sonic Sunspot & 25 O’Clock
07. The Rationals ~ Think Rational!
08. Bee Gees ~ Odessa Deluxe Edition
09. Michael and the Mumbles ~ Michael and the Mumbles
10. Death ~ For the Whole World To See
11. Serge Gainsbourg ~ Historie de Melody Nelson
12. Bo Diddley ~ Ride On: Chess Masters Vol. 3 1960-61
13. Volcano Suns ~ The Bright Orange Years
14. Kraftwerk ~ The Catalog
15. The Feelies ~ Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth (Wasn’t really crazy about the packaging on these, but it’s nice to have them back in print!)



Random thoughts about 2009:

What decade is it? Good to Great records from some iconic figures from the 90s: Polvo, Dinosaur Jr, Noise Addict, Son Volt, Lou Barlow, , Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo—there was even a great 7” by Superchunk and a new Nirvana record, WTF?

Although the Grant Hart record was far and away my #1, there were two other significant new-to-me finds in ’09 that do not show up on my album list. The first is the Rural Alberta Advantage, which got much hype last year for their digital only (I think) release Hometowns (it was subsequently released this year on Saddle Creek)—great, great album. The second, was a band in name only, Best Coast, Bethany Cosentino’s fuzzy, lo-fi, indie-pop project. She put out a slew of ep’s and 7” records that culminated in quite a nice body of work for the year. Hopefully she will put out a long player in the new year.

Loved the Heartless Bastards LP, Mountain, when I first got it, but it had no staying power for me. I found myself putting it in and then hitting the eject button a couple songs in.

Can’t believe I’ve left Camera Obscura off this list. Usually, they’re my goto band if I need to put a smile on my face. Listened to this one a few times, and just came away with a feeling of a band treading water. Still, “French Navy” was a pretty damn fine single.

One of the coolest tracks I heard this year was not only not by a rock artist, but was over twelve minutes long. It was “Cross the North Fork” by Jack Rose from his excellent The Black Dirt Sessions LP. If you are at all interested in finger-picking . . . well, then you probably already own this. If not pick it up. Sadly, Jack Rose passed away in December. Which leads me to . . .

WTF? Seems like there were a lot of Rock-related deaths this year: Ron Asheton, Lux Interior, Jay Bennett, Michael Jackson, Gordon Waller, Mary Travers, Rowland S. Howard, Sky Saxon, Bruce C. Allen, Chuck Biscuits, Mink DeVille, Jim Dickinson, Fred Travelina, Ellie Greenwich and John Hughes. R.I.P. and apologies to those I’ve missed . . .


As I said before, I've still got two more 2009 comps in the can, but for now I'll whet your appetite with a short compilation of my favorite cover songs from 2009.


Happy Listening!

Favorite Covers of 2009:

01. "I Go To Pieces" by Joe Pernice
02. “In My Room” by Best Coast
03. “Chances Are” by the Breeders
04. “I Still Miss Someone” by the Minus 5
05. “Reasons to Quit” by Phosphorescent
06. "Stop the World and Let Me Off" by John Doe & the Sadies
07. "Rebels" by Drive-By Truckers
08. “I Just Can’t Take it Anymore” by the Lemonheads
09. "California Zephyr" by Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar (not really a cover . . .)
10. "Stick Up for Me" by the Reigning Sound
11. "I Want Some More" by Dan Auerbach
12. "She Said, She Said" by the Feelies
13. "Scatchy" by Jack-O & the Tennessee Tearjerkers
14. “Attitude” by Pajo
15. “Jenny” by So Cow

Total Time: 45:20

Download it here: Covers 2009