Rob Gordon style...2009

My Top 5 Albums of 2009
(keep in mind, they didn't have to come out in '09...I just had to rock them a lot this year)

The funny thing about this list is that all of them have Twitter, and I have so politely given you that information to seek them out and enjoy them as I have.
I have seen 4 of the 5 of them live this year.
3 of them I have taped myself.

I don't do reviews, folks...because it's too personal and emotional to put any kind of rating or rank on it.
These are the 5 albums that spoke the loudest to me this year.

5. Jamie Lidell - JIM (@Jamie_Lidell)
www.jamielidell.com



"All I Wanna Do", "Wait for Me" and "Little Bit of Feel Good" are my favorites from this album.
This guy is like soul and nerd and DJ all in one incredible mix of an artist.
This is the one I have not seen. Yet.



4. SOJA - Born in Babylon (@SOJALIVE)
www.sojamusic.com

I told their merch guy once that Jacob Hemphill and I must have been living parallel lives while he was writing this record.
There are several tracks on this one that I have to pause and wonder if I was being watched...

For example, this little one called "Here I Am"



And "I Tried" made it to my own 2009 soundtrack because of how accurate it is.

I have been able to see SOJA 4 times this year. They never disappoint me live.

3. The Guggenheim Grotto - Happy the Man (@GGrotto)
www.guggenheimgrotto.com

I found this band in 2006, when I helped street team and do merch for one of their labelmates. And I fell for them hook, line and sinker. Two of the nicest Irish boys I have ever met and some of the most beautiful songs I have had the privilege to hear, both recorded and live.
I cannot tell you which one is my favorite - there are so many that speak to me. Happy the Man is their 2nd album, and their first is Waltzing Alone.
If you don't have either, you need both.
And they let me tape them right at the beginning of '09.



2. Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Doll Face Honey (@bandofskulls)
www.bandofskulls.com

Let's see...October or November something I randomly came across this band online. Don't remember how. But I heard "Fires" and then downloaded the rest of the record immediately and have literally listened to it every day since.
So then, in November, I saw that they would be playing in Nashville with the soon-to-be-mentioned (again) and very obvious at this point #1 album band.
And I had to take a cold shower after seeing that lineup.
So you can only imagine (or don't...it could be dangerous) what I had to do after seeing the actual show...
My favorite from this album is "Fires", which is one of the sexiest songs I have heard this year.
But this one, "Dull Gold Heart" just gets to me. Something about it.
The whole album is like that.



1. Silversun Pickups - Swoon (@SSPU)
www.silversunpickups.com

So I read/heard/watched (who knows at this point...) an interview with them saying that Swoon implies something kind of painful, like a negative thing you just fall into without choice or warning. Most people say they swoon when they have some kind of crush or attraction or infatuation with something and don't necessarily think about it as a negative thing.
I happen to be with SSPU on this one. But it is one of those "hurts so good" things. Like a masochistic thing.
And that is one of the things I love about this band and this album.
It lets you get hurt, it lets you feel that shit and go through that shit and also has enough balance to be like "you dumb fuck, feel better, life is pretty fucking good!"
And I honestly cannot find a better way to describe 2009 for me than that.
Which is why this is the easiest #1 choice I have ever made musically. It is organic.
I saw them 6 times in 2009.
I am toying with posting a decent video for this, but my own are more important to me.
I got 4 (shame on me...illegally) at my first time in Richmond. But I am not going to show you one of those.
I am going to show you a shitty one, but a pretty important one.

45 seconds.
Ignore the background yapping. Note that I didn't zoom this one much at all.
And I can honestly say, I was definitely NOT looking closely... Oops.



Now, win that fucking Grammy.



I hope you guys get a chance to check out the ones you don't know. And let me know what you think.
Not a single one of my Top 5 are on a major label...and that is what keeps me going and loving music.
Passion is not optional...

"Stoked the Fire" - my 2009 soundtrack

Cameron Crowe would be proud of me...

It's not a secret that I have had a crazy year.

Movie worthy at times, and definitely more exciting than a lot of the movies I have seen, and oddly similar to a lot of movies I have seen.

At times there were a lot of questions, at times there were too many answers, and at times some foreshadowing would have been really nice. Or not. Foreshadowing can ruin the element of surprise...

Regardless, in an effort to give myself something to remember this year by, I decided to give it a soundtrack.

You can listen to it here. It's about an hour long.

http://8tracks.com/ashole/stoked-the-fire-my-09-soundtrack


And here is the track listing
(but seeing as I am very lyrical, don't let the titles fool you...)
And the order is important...

1. By the Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers
2. Take Me to the River - Al Green
3. Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
4. All I Wanna Do - Jamie Lidell
5. Butterfly - Mason Jennings
6. Nikita - The Guggenheim Grotto
7. Boys of Summer - Don Henley
8. Dig - Incubus
9. My Doorbell - The White Stripes
10. Drink - Fiction Plane
11. I Tried - SOJA
12. Tennessee - Arrested Development
13. Faith - George Michael
14. I Try - Macy Gray
15. Ramalama (Bang Bang) - Roisin Murphy
16. The Mountains Win Again - Blues Traveler
17. Rusted Wheel - Silversun Pickups

Ciao 2009!

I went to my last concert of 2009 this past weekend.

Unless "something suddenly comes up" (name that stupid movie, folks...) my last live music experience of the year and of the decade was in Nashville.

The whole thing was kind of a capstone for me, really. That city, Music City, has been instrumental (HA!) in the development of this whole Behind the Lens stuff in general.

I could make this entire post sappy as hell if I wanted to. And I kind of do, but I won't.

At the Cannery Ballroom, at the Not So Silent Nights of Christmas, wearing a LOT of gold (including earring and nail polish...it was quite the event for me...lol) I took in 4 hours of music. 4 bands.

Who?

The opener was Ugene, from Nashville.

Then the senses losing experience of seeing my newest musical crush 4 feet in front of me... Band of Skulls.
No lie... If you do not know them, you need to.
You need to download their album and rock it as loud as possible.
And then pray they will come back to the US to tour soon.
I managed to catch their last US show of the year.
They didn't play my favorite ("Fires"), but the bands had relatively short sets. They did play "Patterns", and because it is a song about numbers, I was equally turned on by this. Unfuckingbelieveable performance folks. These guys are incredible.
Get to know them, support them.

Next up was Nashville's own The Ettes
Now I had backed off from my primo spot by then, so I was watching from the back right. Still...
Here's the thing - because I was so hype for BoS and the NEXT band...I hadn't really absorbed much of The Ettes. I plan to though, and because they are from Nashville, I am certain I will see them again.

OK.
So it only seems fitting that my album of the year, band of the year, song of the year also be my last concert of the year.
17 days after their first Grammy nomination, 2 months after I had seen them last, and their first show back in the US after 5 weeks in Europe and their last live show of 2009 (they are on Conan tonight though....which is fucking cool as hell) ...

Silversun Pickups.
(I mean, I don't even need to put a fucking link at this point... lol. Just pick another post...srsly.)

Had it not been 300 degrees in the venue, I might have had enough extra water in my body to cry my face off.
But I didn't.
Instead, I leaned against a post, with my Cheshire Cat smile plastered on, hair wars in action, shoes off and I thanked every single one of my lucky stars.

Closure? What's that?

I don't know much about closure...mostly because I always keep the doors and windows to everything open. I let the bugs fly in, let the heat out...or in...
I don't know an appropriate way to close this post.
There really is none. I could go the sappy route, I could be abrubt and sarcastic. I could quote shit.

All I know is that from the word GO, 2009 was a weird year. Ever just have that "feeling" at the beginning of something that it will be an interesting "play out"?
That is how I felt about 2009.
I knew in January '09 that by the end of the year, many many things in my life would be different, and for the better.
And I can honestly say it is.
My camera and my habit have given me a lot of gifts, a lot of joy, some sadness, growth, hearing loss, perspective, gigabytes, whiplash, memories...

But it is not my personality to live in the past.
And 2009 is almost the past, even if some of it I want to cling to like a security blanket.

If I have learned anything, and I definitley have, the one thing I know for certain is that nothing is certain - my life is a musical, romantic, dark comedy of errors...

Ready for my close-up, 2010.

Take one....

Click.

Congrats Silversun Pickups!!!

Y'all.
I have had way too much wine to even publish this post....

But you know that feeling when you KNOW something is going to happen and it does?

That is what happened to me tonight.
And to a band I have 111% faith in....

Congratulations, Silversun Pickups on your Grammy Nomination. See you soon...

You know, as it turns out, you CAN hold a star in your hands. Enjoy my song of 2009. I sure as hell have...