2. Baby You're A Star - Gidgets Ga Ga
3. Turpentine - The Manvils
4. This Is Our Perfect Crime - The Von Bondies
5. Duke Hat - One Hundred Hurricanes
6. Smoke - Lucero
7. Where the Hell is Henry - Chuck Prophet8. Hang You From the Heavens - The Dead Weather
9. I Know What I Am - Band of Skulls
10. The Fixer - Pearl Jam
11. Not S'pose to Call - The Dudes
12. Without You - Sour Jazz
13. Morning Glory - Ike Reilly
14. Why Modern Radio Is A-Ok - Roman Candle
15. The Long Way - The Bottle Rockets
16. Soul and Skin - The Clarks
17. It's A Shame - Deadstring Brothers
18. In Spite of All That Happened - The Evening Rig
19. You And I - Wilco
20. Morning Moon - The Tragically Hip
21. Cheap Ain't Cheap (For Crying Out Loud) - Scott Miller
22. Everybody Loves Me (But You) - The Junior League
23. Love In A Bottle - Daddy
24. Oh My - Gin Wigmore
25. Why My Light Comes Shining - Rich Hope
1. I don't think this Cornershop's Judy Sucked a Lemon for Breakfast has even been released in Canada but I will buy it as soon it is. A great album, reminds of the fun of their '97 album When I Was Born for the 7th Time. One of the best singles of the year, 'Who Fingered Rock 'n' Roll?'.
2. Listening to Gidget Ga Ga's album The Big Bong Fiasco I realized I have to amend one of my earlier complaints regarding artists' desire to try and fill up a compact disc (74 min in length) with their new releases. Too often they just fill up the album with junk and you have an album that is 60 min long when it could have been half as long. HOWEVER, there is a caveat to that. You can fill up an hour's worth of music, you just make sure you don't write any shitty songs that suck. Gidget Ga Ga do that and manage to still not have a single song clock 4 min in length so even the moderately okay songs are over quickly. 'Baby You're a Star', which is not a Prince cover although that would be cool as well.
3. I saw the Manvils here in Lethbridge this past October, got to meet the fellas in the band and took in a fantastic show. Their second album The Manvils is one of my favourites of 2009, quick and fast rock and roll done well. The video for 'Turpentine' features John Savage from movie The Deer Hunters, where he beats someone to death with a crystal ashtray. Everyone should have a really nice ashtray whether they smoke or not. Someone told me that once. Anyway, 'Turpentine's la-la-la-la's will stay with you the rest of the day.
4. The Von Bondies Love, Hate And Then There's You is great and somewhat late follow-up to Pawn Shoppe Heart. There's nothing inherently special about what they do, but it must be done well because I kept coming back to it over the whole year. Granted that could be a slam on me and my shitty taste but I prefer to think it's because the Von Bondies made an entertaining rock & roll album.
5. 'Duke Hat' is the opener off the debut from One Hundred Hurricane's 60 Years Under The Stars, is an extremely catchy, Strokesy tune that's so effortless those actual Strokes guys should take note of how it's done.
6. Lucero jumped up a notch on 1372 Overton Park, I mean they're always pretty great but they like the transition from liquid to gas, something mysterious happened from the last record to this one. It's the horns for one, but the music itself is more of a united whole and smacks of devil-dealing. 'Smoke' is one of many killer tracks on this album.
7. More Chuck Prophet, he hit again in 2009 with Let Freedom Ring!. Like I said earlier about many of his songs, they just seem so effortless and loose. I struggled whether to put 'Where the Hell is Harry' or 'American Man' on here, but went with the former as it just seemed to fit better. Both are damn catchy tunes.
8. And more Jack White, this time via his latest band The Dead Weather, 'Hang You From the Heaven's from Horehound. It's a bit more of a challenging album, not quite as polished as the latter-day Stripes and Raconteurs. A bit dirtier and minimal. I quite like it, but not as much as his other work.
9. This is basically the White Stripes done by a new UK group called Band of Skulls, so it's kind of derivative of an already derivative band. Which is also kind of redundant, but when the songs are catchy like 'I Know What I Am' from Baby Darling Doll Face Honey who really cares? Also, this is the White Stripes if Meg came to forefront more often.
10. I don't think Pearl Jam have sounded this good or at least not as serious in quite a few years as they do on Backspacer. They honestly sound like they're having fun here. 'The Fixer' is a great example, Eddie can still bring it going on their 20th year together.
11. The Dudes are a pretty basic guitars-out-front band from Calgary, that vary from some interesting kind of indie rock that remind me of Spoon to some not so interesting bland rawk that remind me of The Matt Mays. Can't recall how I first heard of them this year, but based on a few previews I picked it up. And while it's not all great I end up liking it in spite of the weak spots, they have written some foot stompers like 'Not S'pose to Call'. The chorus really hangs with me once the song is over. 'I'm gonna save my quarters for the laundromat' is kind of dumb but I like it. From Blood Guts Bruises Cuts.
12. 'Without You' is pure Iggy goodness from Sour Jazz's American Seizure 'I'm havin' a good time, drinkin' the red wine, I'm goin' out of my mind, without youuuuu'. This is a late comer to the 25 of 2009, but I've played this approximately 257 times in the last 48 hours.
13. Speaking of late comers to the best of 2009, Ike Reilly's Hard Luck Stories is one of my favourites of the year. I love Ike's pleading here on 'Morning Glory'. Who can't identify with this guy?
14. Up there for my song of the year, 'Why Modern Radio is A-Ok', from Roman Candle's Oh Tall Tree In The Ear. Impossible to dislike.
15. The opening chords of the Bottle Rocket's 'The Long Way' from Lean Forward reminds me of some song but I cannot for the life of me come up with it, but it's something I like so it's all right, it just kind of bugs the hell out of me. It's tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, where I can nearly grab it and then I just end up singing 'The Long Way', which is all right because it's an awesome tune.
16. The Clark's 'Soul and Skin' from Restless Days reminds me of old Blue Rodeo, in fact I can almost hear Greg singing this. I shouldn't necessarily say 'old' Blue Rodeo because they're still doing it and doing it well, but this song reminds me of something from the 90s. 'You ripped a fault line into my soul and skin' is a great line.
17. I'm a big fan of the Deadstring Brother's southern-styled Bandisms, even if a lot of others have staked out this area more successfully. I slept on their Sao Paulo album for a good chunk of 2009 and put it on recently and was singing along in no time. They mine a heavy Stones vibe for 'It's a Shame'.
18. The pedal steel right off the top of the Evening Rig's 'In Spite of All that Happened' hooks me every single time, mixed with that shuffling beat also brings forth a Blue Rodeo vibe. This song sounds great cruising the highway at night.
19. 'You and I' from Wilco's Wilco (The Album) is a schmaltzy 70s AM radio duet between Jeffy Tweedy and Feist. I love this.
20. The Tragically Hip's We Are The Same is probably the best of the late period Hip records and that it has come in 2009 delights me to no end. Strong from start to finish, this is 'Morning Moon', it's fine country opener.
21. 'Cheap ain't cheap but it is when it's free'. Love this track, 'Cheap Ain't Cheap (For Crying Out Loud)' from Scott Miller's For Crying Out Loud. It's full of The Truth.
22. This is another of those 'I can't get the song out of my head' moments, 'Everbody Loves Me But You' from the Junior League's Smile Shoot Smile, some nice harmonies here, country-fried powerpop with a splash of Beach Boys.
23. We haven't had a new Tommy Womack album in a couple of years since he's been working with Will Kimbrough in Daddy. Fortunately, he's as great as ever as evidenced by a nice Dire Straits kinda groove on 'Love In a Bottle' from their 'For a Second Time' album. As he says we ALL should be drinking Diet Mr. Pibb and jammin' on an 8-track of Made in the Shade.
24. 'Oh My' by Gin Wigmore. She sounds at times like a white Macy Gray and I mean that in the best way possible. Sexy as hell.
25. I saw Rich Hope open for the Manvils when they came through town. I saw him wandering around the bar with a big pompadour and an oversized leather coat. A little dude too. He took the stage alone with a single guitar and backed only by a drummer. And the clatter he made with that guitar was out of this world. When he ended his set with this song 'Why My Light Comes Shining' I was awestruck. He was walking around on the tables and had a crowd of people around him singing and chanting 'Gonna STEP ON UP!!!' like some demented preacher gathering the crowd around him to testify. It was really something. My favourite song of the year on one of my favourite albums of the year Whip It On Ya!.
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