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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.

Pearl Jam released their new album, Backspacer, Last Sunday.  Here’s the first single from the album.

It’s Tom Waits, so you’ll like it.

And N.A.S.A. featuring that jackass, Kanye West.

Today is a good day for you to listen to “Cold Water” by Tom Waits from the 1999 album Mule Variations.

And from one of last year’s best albums that is in hot rotation at my house, in my car, and in my head, here’s Tricky doing “Puppy Toy” from the album Knowle West Boy.

From Tricky to his former partner Martina Topley-Bird is an easy transition. This is “Need One” from her soul-hoppin’ 2004 album Anything.

Today is National Record Store Day.  This annual event kicked off last year, and it was a huge success. This year it should be even bigger and better.  For more information about the stores involved and the importance of the event, read The Stranger’s article about it.

Last year I wandered into the Ballard Sonic Boom and watched some live music, including the dynamic 10-year old Vinnie Blackshadow who covered Van Halen, Rolling Stones, and KISS. 

Go to Sonic Boom’s website for this year’s lineup which includes Vetiver at 4:00 p.m. 

Dozens of bands have issued special limited releases that go on sale today.  The list is long and includes Dylan, Springsteen, Wilco, Dandy Warhols, Flight of the Conchords, Moondoggies, Pavement, Tom Waits, and Whiskeytown.  Lot’s of 7″ stuff on the list and some special live recordings.

If you are in Queen Anne or West Seattle, be sure to visit Easy Street Records.  The Moondoggies will be performing at the Queen Anne store at 5:00 p.m. 

Silver Platters on Queen Anne has Barton Carroll and the Toadies.

All in all it’s going to be a great day to buy some new music.  And when you ar done, visit other retailers in the area.  Many of them are offering discounts to people who show receipts from the local record stores. 

And remember, Ballard has lots of bars, so it’s going to be a big party.

I boutht the new N.A.S.A. (it stands for North America/South America) album, The Spirit of Apollo, on Tuesday, and have been listening to it during the commute for the past few days.  It’s a fun record.

The album is on the ANTI label, home of many of my favorite artists such as Tom Waits, Neko Case, Devotchka!, Spoon, Nick Cave, Michael Franti, and Mavis Staples.

The ANTI page for this album describes it as follows:

The Spirit of Apollo was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done. Brazilian funk provides the roots of the songs and binds them together into a cohesive whole, but from there, the imagination behind The Spirit of Apollo ranges far and wide. Unexpected collaborations abound on the eighteen track release.

I bought it because I had heard the Kool Keith/Tom Waits collaboration “Spacious Thoughts” on KEXP last week.  I loved it. 

Listen and learn.

If you liked that, then you’ll probably like the David Byrne/Chuck D song, “Money” too.

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Pour yourself a shot of whiskey and toast the old man.  He’s 58 today.

Tonight I was thinking about how I haven’t posted anything on this site for over a week.  Master Harikari told me once that I should post something every day even if it’s something as simple as say, “How long has it been since you’ve listened to Bone Machine by Tom Waits?  I thought so… go listen to it now.”

So why no posts?  Too damn busy with work and kids and books and stuff to do. 

But tonight, while not listening to my son read a chapter from a very bad book, a Neil Young song came up in the CD mix, and the song made me start thinking about something I had read recently in a George Washington biography.  Here’s the passage covering a May 27, 1754 massacre described in James Ellis’s book, His Excellency – George Washington:

As Washington sought to understand the translation of this diplomatic message, Tanacharison, who apparently spoke fluent French and therefore grasped Jumonville’s point before Washington did, decided to take matters into his own hands.  He stepped up to where Jumonville lay, in French declared, “Thou art not yet dead, my father,” then sank his hatchet into Jumonville’s head, split his skull in half, pulled out his brain, and washed his hands in the mixture of blood and tissue.  His warriors then fell upon the wounded French soldiers, scalped them all, and decapitated one and put his head on a stake.  All this happened under the eyes of the shocked and hapless commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Washington.

Now that sounds like a scene out of a horror movie that my twelve-year-old daughter would want to watch.

Anyway, so what was the Neil Young song that got me sidetracked?  “Pocahontas” from Rust Never Sleeps, arguably Neil Young’s best album ever.  So go listen to that album and then Bone Machine.

Thank me later.

Tom Waits a 3-disc album titled Orphans – Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.  I’ve been listening to it every day since it came out, and I must say it’s an incredibly great collection of songs.  The “Brawlers” disc is made up primarily of noisy, stomping rock songs, the “Bawlers” disc holds the quieter ballads, and the “Bastards” disc is a mish mash new stuff, songs he’s done in the past including his rendition of “Heigh Ho” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in which he “takes the spring out of their step.”  (Go listen to this NPR interview for more about that.) and some stories that only Tom can tell.

Tom was on David Letterman Monday night.  Watch Part I of the interview here and watch his performance of “Lie to Me” below.

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Tom was on The Daily Show Tuesday night, and you can watch the interview in two parts here and here.  During the interview Tom and Jon discuss how the problems in Iraq might be solved with a 2X4 guitar.   The show closes with a truncated performance of “Day After Tomorrow” from the 2004 album Real Gone.  Watch it here.

If you haven’t bought Orphans yet, well go get it already.