LIST: Best of the Decade: 2000-09

The awkwardly addressed twenty-aught-something years are fading behind us with the teen years taunting us just ahead. So what music will I remember from Y2K to now? Here are my picks, and happy listening in the brave new adolescent future.

1. Radiohead Kid A 2000
2. Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 2002
3. Arcade Fire Funeral 2004
4. Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinoise! 2005
5. Gillian Welch Time (The Revelator) 2001
6. The Hold Steady Separation Sunday 2005
7. The National Boxer 2007
8. Liars Drum's Not Dead 2006
9. Neko Case Fox the Confessor 2006
10. Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago 2008

11. Ryan Adams Heartbreaker 2000
12. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver 2007
13. The White Stripes White Blood Cells 2002
14. The National The Alligator 2005
15. The Strokes Is This It 2001
16. Franz Ferdinand s/t 2004
17. Jay-Z The Blueprint 2001
18. TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain 2006
19. Spoon Kill the Moonlight 2002
20. Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica 2000
21. Fleet Foxes s/t 2008
22. Iron & Wine Creek Drank the Cradle 2002
23. The Shins Chutes Too Narrow 2003
24. New Pornographers Mass Romantic 2003
25. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 2009
26. Band of Horses Everything All the Time 2006
27. The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 2001
28. TV on the Radio Dear Science 2008
29. Flaming Lips Embryonic 2009
30. Volcano Choir Unmap 2009
31. Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner 2003
32. My Morning Jacket Z 2005
33. Blitzen Trapper Furr 2008
34. Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 2007
35. New Pornographers Twin Cinema 2005
36. Radiohead In Rainbows 2007
37. The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America 2004
38. M.I.A. Kala 2007
39. The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 2002
40. Grizzly Bear Yellow House 2006
41. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Master and Everyone 2003
42. The Avett Brothers I and Love and You 2009
43. The Knife Silent Shout 2006
44. Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings 2007
45. Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf 2002
46. My Morning Jacket It Still Moves 2003
47. Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights 2002
48. Sleater-Kinney The Woods 2005
49. Girl Talk Night Ripper 2006
50. Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveSounds 2006

LIST: 20 Best of 2009

Another year has wound its way to an end and with it we have all grown that much older. A few critically lauded acts like Animal Collective, Girls and Wavves made albums that might have aged this indiephile out of a genre or two but the albums listed here kept me young all year long.

1. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest This album strikes a near perfect balance between the nostalgic pop tunefulness and excessive high wire atmospherics of its peers, looking in for content and direction while staying relevant by reaching out for a larger, more complex and rewarding sound. A coming of age album that manages to both capture and transcend the zeitgeist.


2. Flaming Lips Embryonic Like Radiohead's In Rainbows Wayne Coyne and his Flips once again sound like a band of mortals rather than, in their case, an inflatable atomic circus sideshow. Totally fucking insane and damaged, but incredibly talented mortals.


3. Volcano Choir Unmap Bon Iver's Justin Vernon teams with fellow Wisconsinites and math-folk-rockers Collections of Colonies of Bees for a textured avante-beardcore take on Vernon's soulful minimalism.


4. Califone All My Friends Are Funeral Singers Deep and twitchy album pushes the "alt" in alt-country to the limits to find subtle rewards as dark and enticing as the title suggests.


5. The Avett Brothers I and Love and You Redefining rather than rewarming folk harmonies for the twenty-first century. If it aint broke make it better.


6. Elvis Perkins in Dearland s/t A little bit Neutral Milk Hotel and a little bit Buddy Holly, EPiD warble and clatter their way into even the hardest of hearts. Rootsy Americana with a trombone and an accordion for Pete's sake, what's not to love!


7. Bon Iver Blood Bank ep Delivers and builds on the promise of Justin Vernon's wintry debut while hinting at exciting new directions (see #3) as any good ep should do.


8. Neko Case Middle Cyclone Focused and familiar, Case's swooning wail takes on Mother Nature's more destructive tendencies with animal conviction and geologic force.


9. Various artists Dark Was the Night Unlikely among compilations, the brothers Dessner (The National) curate and produce a consistently stunning document of today's indie scene including The Arcade Fire, Feist, Spoon, Grizzly Bear, The Books, Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket, and Yo La Tango among many others - introducing revealing new pairings (Dirty Projectors + David Byrne) and keeping alive a thematic and sonic thread throughout.


10. Blakroc s/t Much anticipated Black Keys hip hop project delivers the goods, balancing their own low slung rust belt soul with the punch and swagger of well matched MCs including Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, ODB, and stand-out Noe.


11. Dan Deacon Bromst Deacon retains the title King of Freaktronica with an ever so slightly reigned-in extension of his uniquely manic cartoon dancescapes, leaning more on live performance which this royal subject calls a good thing.


12. Modest Mouse No One's First, And You're Next Brief but brilliant reminder that this is a band who used to be more comfortable Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset than allowing life to simply Float On.


13. Steve Earle Townes Earle is at his best when he's growling through a good story and no one tells a good story like Townes. This faithful tribute to a mentor and teacher graciously avoids reverence in favor of insight.


14. Wilco Wilco (the album) With friends like Colbert and Obama Wilco are as much cultural institution as band - but songs like "One Wing", "You and I" and "You Never Know" remind even jaded listeners that Tweedy can still write songs with the best of them.


15. Dizzee Rascal Tongue N' Cheek As the title implies Diz finally lets loose and has some fun, and it's contagious. However like bangers and mash Diz still proves to be too British for most of the US. Also however, bangers and mash is just sausage and potatoes which is pretty good anywhere. Now can I please get a proper pint?


16. Iron & Wine Around the Well This two disc collection of b-sides and out takes charts Sam Beam's trajectory from bedside folkie to indie mainstay, featuring a few highlights (his cover of The Flaming Lips "Waitin' for a Superman") and adding considerable breadth if little depth to his already impressive pool.


17. Them Crooked Vultures s/t Big kids in the candy store indulging in the things they love and do best. No surprises and nothing you wouldn't expect - Josh Homme keeps it libidinous and druggy, John Paul Jones would like to remind you that he used to be in that other band, and Dave Grohl is irrepressible. I think Thor just crapped his pants.


18. Built To Spill There Is No Enemy I never noticed how much Doug Martsch sounds like Roger Waters. B2S maintain focus on simplicity with a renewed interest in psych rock and politics.


19. Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains Smartish upstart indie rock that plays like Pavement by way of Modest Mouse for the post-ironic Arcade Fire generation.


20. Brendan Benson My Old, Familiar Friend The sound of one man trying to throw back the large White blanket he borrowed from an old, very familiar friend.

REVIEW: Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

Rating: 5

As an artist I always know I'm onto something when I'm not sure if what I'm doing is really art.  Not that what I'm doing is something entirely new, invented, or essentially unique but it is somehow "other."

And so I find myself drawn to music which is not easily identified as belonging to one genre or another.  Artists like The Books, Liars, Microphones, Dizzee Rascal, Will Oldham and, until recently, Animal Collective practice a brand of stand-alone artfulness that stretches ideas about one genre or, at times, invents a new one.  This separation from an establish code can create a sense of gravity, allowing artists to slowly draw other like bodies into ever shrinking orbits around them until they are part of the same system.  They radiate heat and energy while absorbing matter, growing in mass and weight.  If the artful "other" gets me then the gravity keeps me there.

Animal Collective have, in indie terms, gone supernova, spinning off loose electrons and repelling all matter in a conscious effort to become the emptiness of cold, bright light itself - less than zero, never there.  Songs swirl, chant and keen to themselves with directionless energy, moving ever outside the bounds of gravity or meaning.  And therefore away from me.  Sure, other bands are following suit and the kids seem to dig it, but I'm done. 

Merriweather Post Pavilion finally gives a name to the generational chasm I have until now been reluctant to acknowledge and across which I cannot easily reach.  More importantly I don't really want to.  I'm quite happy on my side obeying the laws of gravity and time with some earth beneath my feet.

LIST: Kyle's Totally Shameless Twelve Days of Music Wish List, 2009

If you couldn't make it to the record store or your computer came down with the swine flu just send cash.  Here's what I missed but will be keeping an eye out for in 2010...

1. Bear in Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth
2. The Antlers Hospice
3. Mt. Eerie Wind's Poem
4. Califone All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
5. Bonnie Prince Billy Beware
6. John Doe & The Sadies Country Club
7. Monsters of Folk s/t
8. Elvis Costello Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
9. Wolfmother Cosmic Egg
10. Sufjan Stevens The BQE
11. Elvis Perkins in Dearland The Doomsday EP
12. The Hold Steady A Positive Rage box set