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It’s New Year’s Eve and KEXP is just about ready to star their countdown of the best albums of 2009.  I’ll be listening and commenting on that later but, for now, here’s what you need to know.

The Top 10 Albums of 2009

1. Rising Mountains – Capsula:  I first heard Capsula on KEXP on July 3rd and I was immediately hooked.  They are the most exciting band I’ve heard since discovering The Duke Spirit three years ago.  The band is originally from Buenes Aires, Argentina and they relocated to Bilbao, Spain.  They are a guitar driven, hard rocking band that knows how to write songs with catchy lyrics and great hooks.  The album is currently available as an import only.  You can get it at Amazon.  I suggest you go there now and buy it.  They will be coming to the U.S. in March for a show in NYC and then will be in Austin for SXSW.  See them if you can.  More about them here.

2. Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever – Scott H. Biram:  Gorby turned me on to this guy by giving me an earlier album to listen to.  In May, I went to Austin with Gorby and Zippy, and we saw Scott live at The Continental Club.  GREAT one-man show.  I bought the album shortly after that, and I’ve been listening to it constantly.  Junkyard blues just don’t get any better than this.  Scott Biram will be in Seattle at the Tractor Tavern on Friday, February 12th.  See you there.

3. Truelove’s Gutter – Richard Hawley:  I read a review of this album in MOJO magazine, and immediately went out and bought it.  It is by far the most sonically interesting album of 2009.  He uses some really rare instruments:  the glass harmonica (based on the haunting tone you get when rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass – a.k.a. the hydrocrystalphone invented by Benjamin Franklin), the waterphone, the cristal Baschet, the ondes Martenot(kind of like a theremin), and a musical saw.  The key track on this album is “Remorse Code.”  Can’t stop listening to it. 

4. One Fast Move or I’m Gone, Kerouac’s Big Sur – Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard:  I am a huge fan of Jack Kerouac, so I bought this they day it came out.  The cd is the soundtrack to a movie about Kerouac’s journey back to California to get some down time at Ferlinghetti’s seaside cabin.  The film is excellent.  It features readings of Big Sur by the man himself.  Kerouac’s voice is intoxicating.  I could listen to it for hours.  Oh, and the music by Farrar and Gibbard is stripped down and soulful.  I recommend “California Zephyr” and The “Void.”  They will be performing at The Showbox in Seattle on Sunday, January 24th.

5. Wilco (the album) – Wilco:  The guitar work by Nels Cline on this record is incredible.  The songs are great.  Tweedy sounds great.  What more can you ask for from a Wilco album?

6. I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers:  This is a beautiful sounding album produced by Rick Rubin who fleshed out the trio of banjoists and drummer with piano and sometimes lush orchestration.  The title track and “Tin Man” are my favorites. 

7. Broken – Soulsavers:  This is Mark Lanegan at his best.  A dark brooding album that matches his voice perfectly.  He gets excellent vocal support from Rosa Agostino (a.k.a. Red Ghost), and Richard Hawley makes an appearance too.

8. Welcome Joy – The Cave Singers:  I heard of this band, but never really knew what they were about until I saw them at Bumbershoot.  It’s real rootsy stuff with catchy lyrics and great vocals.  “At the Cut” and “Leap” are my favorites.

9. The Spirit of Apollo – N.A.S.A.:  That stands for North America South America.  It’s a duo that pulled together a whole lot of artists to sing vocals on twenty-some songs.  Who?  David Byrne, Chuck D, Tom Waits, Kool Keith, Kanye West, Mia, Del the Funky Homosapien, and more.  The first song I heard was “Spacious Thoughts” featuring Tom Waits and Kool Keith.  You just have to hear it.  The two with David Byrne, “The People Tree” and “Money” are really great.

10. A Woman A Man Walked By – P.J. Harvey & John Parish:  The album starts out with one of my favorite songs of the year, “Black Hearted Love,” a pop song, and then it veers off in all different directions.  Thanks to “That Irsih Fella on my block, I got to see P.J. and John put on a great show at The Moore Theater this year.  P.J. was in perfect form, and John and the band were tight.  They are PROFESSIONALS!

The Top Teen Albums of 2009

11. Tell ‘em What Your Name Is - Black Joe Lewis and the Honeydrippers:  My Austin pals told me about this band last year.  Black Joe Lewis has a huge fan base in Austin, and I was lucky to see the band at a sold out show there in May.  I love the fun energy in this album.  “Get Yo Shit” and “I’m Broke” are the shit.

12. ¡Let Freedom Ring! – Chuck Prophet
13. Horehound – The Dead Weather
14. Middle Cyclone– Neko Case
15. Together Through Life – Bob Dylan
16. Hombre Lobo – Eels
17. Through the Devil Softly – Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
18. Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane – Elvis Costello
19. The Eternal– Sonic Youth

and number 20…
Backspacer  – Pearl Jam

This year’s best series of reissues is of course the first four albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds out on Mute records:  The First Born is Dead, From Her to Eternity, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Your Funeral, My Trial.  Buy them all and play them loud.

The best live album of the year is Tom Waits’ Glitter and Doom.

From what may be the most sonically intriguing album of 2009, Richard Hawley’s Truelove’s Gutter.

And here’s “Black Hearted Love” from one of my favorite albums of 2009, P.J. Harvey and John Parish’s, A Woman A Man Walked By.

And just for fun, here’s Bob Dylan doing  “Must be Santa,” from Christmas in the Heart.

P.J. Harvey and John Parish played at the Moore Theatre in support of their second collaborative effort, A Woman A Man Walked By.  Their show featured songs from the new album and the one they recorded 13 years ago, Dance Hall at Louse Point.

Watching these two perform together is kind of like opening a vintage bottle of Bordeaux and gradually absorbing all its characteristic aroma and flavor.  After you’ve finished you have a greater appreciation for the artist, or winemaker, and you go looking for another bottle.

PJ, John and the band took the stage shortly after 9:00 p.m.  PJ was wearing a silky black ballet dress, and John Parish and the other band members were sharply dressed in dark suits and wearing fedoras.  There are some excellent photos of the show here.

…and here too.

They started their show, or “popped open the bottle,” and offered at taste of what was in store for the evening by playing the single “Black Hearted Love.”  That song showed off the the basic structure, or the cabernet sauvignon and merlot, of their sound which is built around a solid blues groove and PJ’s great singing.  After showing the audience that all the components were in place, and that the sound mix was solid and clear, they were ready to treat the audience to the many nuances of their song writing and playing styles.

Like a great Bordeaux blended from cabernet sauvignon and merlot, with splashes of cabernet franc, petite verdot, malbec and carmenere for added spiceness and complexity, PJ and John’s music is built around the basic blues and rock structure, but they throw in a little country, a little cabaret, a touch of jazz, and even a wee bit of opera, and it’s all elegantly blended together for a very entertaining show.

I did not take notes, so I don’t have a complete and accurate set list.  (If any of you readers have the set list, please post it as a comment.)  But I do remember that they played:

“Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen”
“Urn with Dead Flowers in a Drained Pool”
“The Soldier”
“Taut”
“Un Cercle Autour Du Soleil”
“Leaving California”
“A Woman A Man Walked By”
“Passionless, Pointless”
“Cracks in the Canvas”
and a rousing version of “Pig Will Not” complete with PJ barking like a dog.

The audience showed their appreciation throughout the show with sustained applause that PJ soaked in with smiles and gracious “thank yous.”  After introducing John Parish and the band members who put on a solid performance, PJ led them off stage to the sound of more applause. 

When they returned, John Parish began the two-song encore with “False Fire,” a B-side on the “Black Hearted Love” single.  PJ closed the show with “April,”  a song that puts all of her vocal talents on display.

You can read more about the show in the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger.

Let’s start of tonight’s selection with a song from the new Eels album, Hombre Lobo, a collection of songs about desire.  Here’s “Fresh Blood.”

Followed by Mark Lanegan’s “Hit the City” featuring P.J. Harvey.

And finally P.J. Harvey and Josh Homme from Desert Sessions, “Crawl Home.”

X – The Band will be playing two nights at The Showbox in Seattle on April 10th and 11th, Friday and Saturday night.  Buy a ticket, take the ride.

This tour is being billed as the Total Request Live tour, so the band wants your input on the songs they’ll play at the show you go to. Go here to register to vote for your favorite X songs.

Bobby Bare, Jr. is playing an early show in Seattle tonight at The Sunset Tavern. This guy hardly EVER comes to Seattle so you better go buy a ticket quick and go see him.

And speaking of performs who hardly ever come to our town (for real), here’s PJ Harvey with a solo performance of “Rid of Me.”

Bonus Video!!  PJ Harvey with Nick Cave singing the murder ballad “Henry Lee.”

…because if you’re not listening to Nick Cave on a Friday night, you might as well not be listening.

KEXP is having a fund drive now and during the drive they are playing the top 903 albums of all time as voted on by their listeners who submitted their lists of top-ten albums.

I meant to vote in the KEXP poll, but I agonized for so long over my list that the deadline passed before I could vote.

And you may ask yourself, what’s so difficult about naming your ten favorite albums?  Well… in many cases it’s difficult to select one album from an artists entire body of work.   What’s the best Dylan album? The best Springsteen?  The best Neil Young?  The best Nick Cave?  Should you choose more than one album from your favorite artists?  How would a list of top-ten albums of all time look if it included three from Dylan, two from Springsteen, three from Nick Cave, and two from Neil Young?  I could easily make that list.  You might be able to create a similar list from the works of your four favorite artists.

Should you stay within the realm of folk/blues/pop/rock/soul or should you include jazz and classical?  Should you care about what era the music was made?  I ask because it would be very easy for me to list the ten best albums from each decade beginning with the fifties and ending with our current decade.  So by not including something from all five decades, would you or I be ignoring great works because they are too old or too new?

Those were all difficult issues for me to resolve.  My wife said I was overthinking it.  She suggested I just go through my albums and pick my ten favorites.   Okay… but that’s a huge stack to sort through.  It would take me a whole lot longer to that than it’s taking me to write this.

So in the end what I came up with is what’s probably obvious to people who don’t dwell on these types of decisions like I do.  I started thinking of the albums that I never tire of hearing and that I listen to quite often.

Here’s the list is in alphabetical order because it’s impossible to rank them numerically:

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique/Tristia, Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (1997)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Let Love In (1994)

Mile Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Alejandro Escovedo – Gravity (1992)

P.J. Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995)

Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

Patti Smith – Horses (1975)

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

That’s ten.  It wasn’t easy because my first draft was twice as long, so I’ve left off at least ten more really great albums that deserve to be on this list.

What albums are on your list of the Top Ten Greatest Albums of All Time?  I want to know!  Please click on “Comments” below this post heading and tell me.