Decidí hacerla en este momento por que algunos sitios como Spin y NME ya tienen lo que ellos consideran los mejores discos del 2009, y como soy muy fácil de influenciar por listas ajenas mejor me quedo con lo que ya he estado preparando desde hace varios meses, conforme iba escuchando discos a lo largo del año (aun así sé que olvidaré poner alguno que después pondré sólo).

Sin darle más vueltas al asunto y basando esta lista solamente en mis gustos personales aquí les dejo mis discos favoritos del 2009.

17.- The Gossip - Music for Men:

16.- The Ravonettes - In And Out of Control:

15.- The Horrors - Primary Colours:

14.- Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers

14.- Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion:

13.- Hello Seahorese – Bestia:

12.- Yokozuna – YokozunaVool. 2:

11.- The Dead Weather - Horehound:

10.- Girls – Album:

9.- Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications:

8.- The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love:

7.- Wilco-  Wilco (The ALbum):

7.-  The XX – The XX(sí comparte lugar con el de Wilco):

6.- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!:

5.- Yo La Tngo - Poplar Songs:

4.- Morrissey - Years to Refusal:

3.-The Pains of Bing Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart:

2.- Dinosaur Jr - Farm:

1.-Sonic Youth -The Eternal:

quiero pensar que no es fanatismo ciego, pero si no me creen Sonic Youth es lo que más escuché este año según mi Last fm.

Ya tienen lista de usteds posteen el link para leerla y comenten ésta (se vale mentadas de madre).

Jamal Ruhe – Engineer

Jamal had the good luck to be born the year Innervisions, Dark Side of the Moon, Let’s Get It On and Quadrophenia were released. Dad was a studio owner, mom was a music teacher. He had the good luck of starting a band that would record a debut Timothy White of Billboard would later call, “Dazzling… one of my favorite albums of all time.” He also had the bad luck to have that recording shelved in a label shake up. He’s had the good luck to work on recordings at Ardent, Capitol, and Manhattan Center Studios among others, and the good luck to meet Alan Douches at the corner coffee shop!

West West Side Music has two dedicated mastering suites, and a dedicated multitrack room that just needed someone to show up to track and mix in it. The “Back Room” boasts a 2″ Studer with both 24 and 16 track head sets, a ProTools rig as well as an analog console and full compliment of analog outboard gear. Jamal is happy working on Rock, Hip Hop, Metal, Hardcore, Indie Rock, Americana and just about anything you can put up on a set of speakers. He has lived many lives in the world of music.

Through the years, has worked behind live and studio consoles as well as shared stages with a wide variety of artists. In no order, some names you might recognize: Frank Black, Dick Dale, Morris Tepper, Pavement, Low, Jon Rauhouse, Blonde Redhead, Old 97s, Modest Mouse, Giant Sand, Owen, Har Mar Superstar, Bardo Pond, Elliot Smith, Three Mile Pilot, Seven Storey Mountain, Those Bastard Souls, G Love and Special Sauce, the Flaming Lips, the Hooters, the Gin Blossoms, Orange 9mm, Shudder to Think, Weakerthans, Steve Miller Band, Ryan Adams, Pedro the Lion, Julianna Hatfield, Link Wray, Rainer Maria, Tortoise, the Refreshments, the Sea and Cake, Slash’s Snakepit, the Promise Ring, Reubens Accomplice, the Supersuckers, DJ Radar, DJ Z-Trip, Ozomatli, Quinto Sol, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Guitar Wolf, Dandy Warhols, Guided By Voices, David Garza, Marshall Crenshaw, Nils Lofgren, Nels Cline, L7, the Gossip, Mike Watt, Zeke

Call us directly at 845-563-3094 or email us… wwsm@mac.com www.westwestsidemusic.com

Today we are featuring two of the best songs that we’ve heard here at Cuter Than Pie over the course of the last year. First up is “Ambling Alp,” the new video by the band Yeasayer, out of Brooklyn, New York. Just a warning.. this song will get stuck in your head for days, but it’s so good! The song is the first single from their second album, Odd Blood, which won’t be released until February.

Yeasayer’s first CD, All Hours Cymbals, came out in 2007, and it’s good too, but “Ambling Alp” doesn’t really sound like anything on there. I don’t know what the rest of the new material will sound like, but if this song is any indication, it’s a bit of a shift in musical direction for the band.



I must admit, I didn’t really know much about the band Yeasayer until recently, but my first exposure to the band came when their lead singer Chris Keating provided the lead vocals for another one of my favorite songs of 2009. Simian Mobile Disco released their second full length album, Temporary Pleasure, earlier this year. The CD features guest vocalists on most of the songs, including Beth Ditto from The Gossip and Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip. But the first single and video from the CD was another catchy song, “Audacity Of Huge (featuring Chris Keating of Yeasayer).” As I said when I posted this video on my Facebook page, any song that namechecks the sorely underappreciated P.M. Dawn is alright by me!

I wasn’t expecting too much from last night’s show, I missed last week and didn’t really feel like being there. When I started picking out my music, I felt like I was struggling to find enough to put a show together with. I pulled out barely enough albums to fill an hour and figured I was screwed. But somehow, everything really came together nicely. I’m not sure how it happened, but the music flowed amazingly from one song into the other and my mic breaks were right on target. It was a nice little surprise.

Source: 90.3 The Core

I thought since we are now into December that I should start compiling my end of year lists. I have probably missed a load out, but here are my top 30 tracks of 2009 (mainly going by my Last.FM stats and not repeating any bands/artists):

1. Check My Brain – Alice in Chains
2. Lost Weekend – The Qemists feat. Mike Patton
3. Sleep Alone – Bat for Lashes
4. Pushing – Catherine Elms
5. Baptized By Fire – Spinnerette
6. Perfect Denial – Sinocence
7. Party Favours – Tapping the Vein
8. Into the Chaos – Howling Bells
9. I Was Born the Year Punk Died – Eyelash
10. Amesoeurs – Amesoeurs
11. Spectrum of the Sky – Break of Reality
12. Zombie – Breed77*
13. Not So Pretty Now – Nine Inch Nails*
14. Night Electric Night – Deathstars
15. Heavy Cross – Gossip
16. The Rising Tide – Illuminatus
17. Out of Our Minds – Auf der Maur
18. No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand
19. Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
20. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I – Them Crooked Vultures
21. Ignorance – Paramore**
22. Can’t Release the Pain – Weapon Head
23. The Oath – Street Sweeper Social Club
24. Spellbound – Lacuna Coil
25. New Divide – Linkin Park**
26. Buster Voodoo – Rodrigo y Gabriela
27. Silver Bride – Amorphis
28. That Golden Rule – Biffy Clyro
29. Invaders Must Die – The Prodigy
30. Shark Suit – UUVVWWZ

* – they were on 2009 releases
** – I feel like I should cringe, but I like them!

If you have Spotify, I have created a Soul Drift Tracks of 2009 playlist. Unfortunately it only has 21 of the 30 tracks on it, but it’s something!

Now it’s your turn: what are you favourite tracks of 2009?

Beth Ditto is my voice of the week.  I think or hope I don’t need to introduce her. For those who don’t know yet she’s the singer of “The Gossip”, a three-piece American indie rock band. Their style has been described as “a soul or gospel” voice with “a sort of funky punk soundtrack”.

You can be sure that if “The Gossip” is playing live in Berlin I will be there. And on Thursday the time had come again. Due to illness I felt a little weak, but as far as Beth Ditto entered the stage, I felt a flush of endorphins running through my blood and I was awake and couldn’t stop jumping til the end.

Getting hustled from one side to the other augurs some inconviences, as I found myself touching a complete sweat- and beer-soaked man with my cheek on his sweater. On the other hand, I got pushed to such degree that I found myself standing in the first row.

I was astonished at the audience who seemed to me much older and “The Gossip” seem to approach a broader audience than in May, when “The Gossip” played in Berlin. I listened to a man who talked about a concert of Matthias Reim, where he was bawling “Matze, Matze, Matze”. I thought he must be joking. You cannot go to a concert of “The Gossip” if you listen to Matthias Reim as well. That is a NO GO!

But well, another band that goes mainstream, but I keep on loving them. And when giving the add-on song “Standing in the way of control” she entered the audience and I touched Beth Ditto. The Queen of post-punk!

It was an amazing performance!

See here the performance of “Standing in the way of control” in May in Berlin:

1. Celebration – Madonna

2. Meet me halfway – Black Eyed Peas

3.Heavy Cross – The Gossip

4.Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood

5.Obsessed – Mariah Carey

6.Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

7.Nada -Zóe

8.Russian Roulette – Rihanna

9.Did it again – Shakira

10. I gotta felling – Black Eyed peas

Va propun un nou set de 5 piese cu trupe care au in prin plan sexul frumos…Sunt curios cine va iesi  si tare din paruiala asta? Voteaza la final!

Enjoy!

Track 1: The Gossip – Heavy Cross

Track 2: The Kills – Cheap and Cheerful

Track 3: Metric – Sick Muse

Track 4: Asobi Seksu – Thursday

Track 5: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll

As a queer feminist, I find representations of myself in American culture seldom. When I do, it’s more often in music (Le Tigre, The Gossip) than in the art world. Seeing Wynne Greenwood’s video work with K8 Hardy last Saturday night made my queer feminist little light shine brighter than it has in a long time.

New Report, 2005. With K8 Hardy.

At Hiawatha Artist Lofts, she showed several of her and K8’s videos as the first event in Feminist Form, Wynne’s screening series of feminist and queer video from the Pacific Northwest. The screenings will take place monthly, with future locations and dates to be announced.

The videos were pretty simple in form, yet boundless conceptually. In several, Wynne and K8 were news anchors, both named Henry. They plodded forward in their pursuits as news anchors without entirely knowing what they were doing. They were pregnant with. . . motivation, mostly. The videos are hilarious, but at the same time, breathtakingly serious. I think I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire screening.

For one, they’re sitting as though on a panel; the panelists are Henry Iragary (K8), Henry Stein-Acker-Hill (Wynne), a furry pussy (K8’s, we presume) and a breast (Wynne’s, supposedly). Henry and Henry are pregnant with deliberation as they try to talk about the objectification of women. I, for one, felt pregnant with anticipation during their attempts— which were all the while animated by the dislocated (“cut off– as if by a knife”) body parts floating sheepishly next to them. Oh yeah, also: K8’s legs are spread under the table with a camera pointed at her crotch, and Wynne’s shirt is haphazardly pinned up to reveal her left breast.

There are so many things that can go wrong when one attempts to represent feminism that the disappointingly few self-proclaimed feminist artists seem to have largely given up.  A self-proclaimed queer feminist, Wynne Greenwood has not given up, and when you encounter her work you forget that feminism was ever considered a bad word. At least, that’s the way it seemed last Saturday. And each month the crowd is just going to get bigger.

Thank you, Wynne. I’m so glad you live in my city. And I’m so glad the city we live in knows you’re a genius.

Trionfo tutto italiano ieri sera per i Gossip, attesi al Palasharp di Milano da un pubblico numerosissimo, elettrizzato e pronto a far festa con la band più hot d’America.

Le aspettative non vengono disilluse: il concerto è pure fuoco, sin dalle prime note. Uno dopo l’altro scorrono, in un crescendo di ritmi coinvolgenti, i brani dell’ultimo album Music For Men (ve ne avevo parlato QUI): da Dimestore Diamond, che apre lo show, passando per 8th Wonder,  Love Long Distance, Pop Goes the World e l’acclamatissima Heavy Cross, che scatena il delirio.

Le ultime hits vengono alternate con qualche brano più vecchio, come l’intensa Coal to Diamonds e Listen Up, vero e proprio primo sucesso mainstream della band, così come trovano spazio citazioni pop e cover del calibro di Lady Marmalade, Like a Prayer, What’s Love Got To Do With It e We Are The Champions.

La leader Beth Ditto è un fenomeno della natura incontenibile. Tubino aderente sulle sue forme generose e zazzera rosso fuoco, canta divinamente e con una padronanza del mezzo fuori dal comune, rendendo unico quel mix punk, dance, indie-rock e soul che è il sound dei Gossip.

Scorge uno striscione STOP HOMOPHOBIA fra le prime file, lo recupera e lo trasforma in un mini abito improvvisato. Ne fa il messaggio forte della serata: lei è un’icona gay vera, una lesbica dichiarata e un’attivista convinta del movimento GLBT. E’ venuta a farti divertire, ma non a raccontarti stronzate. L’inno Men In Love fa il resto: siamo ai suoi piedi perdutamente innamorati.

Domina il palco con la sua personalità larger then life, si diverte (davvero) e ti ricorda come dovrebbe essere una rock star. Fino al gran finale, sulle note di Standing In The Way Of Control, dove scende fra il pubblico, gettandosi senza reticenze fra i fan adoranti degli spalti e della platea. E’ l’apoteosi. E’ sesso, sudore, rock ‘n roll. E questo…è il concerto migliore del 2009.

Website: http://www.gossipyouth.com/

Nada como o novo vídeo do The Gossip para as noites tropicais.

Beth Ditto = ídola

Photos by Getty Images

The Gossip front-woman already looked fierce, but now even more. It’s firestarter-Ditto now! She coloured her hair flamboyant red. She illuminated Parisian departmentstore BHV for the inauguration of their Christmas window displays on tuesday.

BHV by Jean Charles de Castelbajac

French designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac was responsable for the decoration of the windows. Beth was wearing one of his creations.

And could someone have told us that his son looks damn cute???!! Seen on the arm of Dita von Teese (hope they’re not dating..), who was also one of the ‘invitees’.

Louis Marie de Castelbajac and Dita von Teese

(Source: L’Express.fr, WWD)

The Gossip – Heavy Cross

Tenía un post de Faithless preparado, pero los de Aeroplane me han avisado a través de su mailing que ya tenían terminada la sesión mensual que vienen colgando desde hace unos cuantos meses y esto es un chollo para los blogs como este, porqué te solucionan la tarde. En este mes nos presentan a grupos como Two Door Cinema Club, Music Go Music con un temazo (porqué me perdí esta mezcla!!!!), The Gossip, The XX, Don Diablo o Bot’ox, siempre mezclado con una elegancia que actualmente tienen pocos. Lo único que va faltando ya, son fotos promocionales decentes, que de eso si que hay escasez…. Aeroplane están el próximo 5 de diciembre en el The Loft del Razzmatazz.

Aeroplane – November Mix Chart

and I

will always

love you

I took my dog for a walk … all the way from New York to Florida … I said to him, “There. Now you’re done.”

- Steven Wright

Fetch, Finn! Now sit, Sunny! Stay. Good pups!

That’s right, in a deliberate attempt to boost our Arbitron ratings Great River Radio has turned the show over to our dogs. Well, not the entire show. Our “Confluence” segment this week has a canine theme. We’ll have dog-related songs from Big Mama Thornton, Page France, Josh Ritter, Uncle Tupelo and Louis Armstrong. And as always we’ll mix in a few listener requests, including selections from Patty Griffin and John Hiatt. But despite their best efforts, Finn and Sunny won’t run the entire show.

There’s a Great River Radio tradition of digging through mountains of MP3s to bring you some of the best new music around. We’ve been working extra hard this week to unearth new tracks from Richmond Faintaine, The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Dirty Projectors, Tom Waits, Sharon Jones, Har Mar Superstar, Martha Wainwright, Girls, Echo & The Bunnymen and the Raveonettes. Haven’t heard of some of these artists? That’s OK. Give us a listen, and you might discover a new musician to add to your own heavy rotation.

Great River Radio will be “live” today from 4-6 p.m. (CST).

Brian/Dan

P.S. Great River Radio will be off next week for Thanksgiving. Give thanks and have a great holiday with family and friends!

Playlist

Maybe-Ingrid Michaelson
Crown of Ages-The Ettes
Ten Thousand Words-The Avett Brothers
Green Grass-Tom Waits
Stranded In Your Love-Sharon Jones and Lee Fields
So Hard-Martha Wainwrights
Lust For Life-Girls
8th Wonder-The Gossip
Tall Boy-Har Mar Superstore
Take It In-Hot Chip
Hound Dog-Big Mama Thornton
My Dog & Me-John Hiatt
I Wanna Be Your Dog-Uncle Tupelo
Dogs-Page France
Feed The Dog-Honey Is Cool
To The Dogs Or Whoever-Josh Ritter
Yellow Dog Blues-Louis Armstrong
Heavenly Day-Patty Griffin
I Will-Brandi Carlile
The Underdog-Spoon
The Preacher-Brother Ali
The Chosen One-The Raveonettes
I Think I Need It Too-Echo & The Bunnymen
Wild Girl-Rickie Lee Jones
Island, IS-Volcano Choir
Stillness Is The Move-Dirty Projectors

Took us a while to figure out that our ‘NME’ Calling gig was in fact NME and so would be featured in the magazine itself. Step forward we recks.

Also, we had a nice little bit put about us on the Liberty Magazine’s website, which is also cool.. Apart from they call Rizzle ‘Dizzle’ but that’s an easy mistake to make…