Wednesday 23 December 2009

Tracks & Gigs of 2009

Right, here we go, let's rattle off the 60 best tracks of 2009. Fairly tight spectrum, I freely admit, generally containing only darker mainstream Indie guitar shenanigans, a whole new wave of Psychedelica and Shoegaze, Post-Rock and Alternative Rock. In my defence, I could also do you a top 10 Trance/Techno collection from this year, but would risk being shot down in flames by underground dance afficionados better placed than me to comment on this year's releases. Instead, I have focused on my alleged field of expertise, although I am expecting a ferocious and prolonged slanging anyway. Tracks per band are limited to a maximum of 2, so as to spread the love...

60- Deep Cut- Bullshit Detector
59- The Northwestern- What Did I Do?
58- A Place To Bury Strangers- In My Heart
57- Tides From Nebula- Purr
56- Nova Saints- Lights
55- Engineers- Brighter As We Fall
54- Grammatics- The Vague Archive
53- Spc-eco- For All Time
52- Placebo- Battle For The Sun
51- Swimming- Panthalassa
50- Redjetson- These Structures
49- Doves- Kingdom Of Rust
48- 93 Million Miles From The Sun- The Times We Have Are Now
47- Fleeting Joys- Destroyer
46- Howling Bells- Treasure Hunt
45- Prego- The Longest Calm
44- Nine Black Alps- Full Moon Summer
43- Kyte- Eyes Lose Their Fire
42- The Northwestern- All The Ones
41- Doves- Jetstream
40- Placebo- Breathe Underwater
39- Lowline- Gun In My Side
38- I Hear Sirens- This Is The Last Time I Say Goodbye
37- Animal Kingdom- Tin Man
36- The Longcut- Tell You So
35- White Lies- To Lose My Life
34- Nova Saints- High Roller
33- A Place To Bury Strangers- Deadbeat
32- Engineers- Song For Andy
31- Daniel Land & The Modern Painters- Glitterball
30- God Is An Astronaut- Shining Through
29- The Twilight Sad- I Became A Prostitute
28- Deep Cut- Commodity
27- Mono- Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm)
26- The Domino State- Firefly
25- Jeniferever- The Hourglass
24- Punk TV- Snowboy
23- The Joy Formidable- Whirring
22- Dinosaur Jr- Plans
21- Bombay Bicycle Club- Cancel On Me
20- Animal Kingdom- Into The Sea
19- The Big Pink- Velvet
18- The Horrors- Who Can Say?
17- I Concur- Build Around Me
16- Silversun Pickups- The Royal We
15- 93 Million Miles From The Sun- Yesterday Morning
14- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart- Stay Alive
13- Caspian- The Raven
12- I Like Trains- Sea Of Regrets
11- White Lies- The Price Of Love
10- The Twilight Sad- Seven Years Of Letters
9- Redjetson- For Those Who Died Dancing
8- Punk TV- Happy Birthday
7- Nine Black Alps- Buy Nothing
6- The Airborne Toxic Event- Sometime Around Midnight
5- Daniel Land & The Modern Painters- Off Your Face Again
4- The Boxer Rebellion- Flashing Red Light Means Go
3- I Concur- Lucky Jack
2- Bombay Bicycle Club- What If?
1- Silversun Pickups- Panic Switch

4 compilation CD's covering my "Festive Sixty" are available "through all good record stores", sourced through sending me a request, and your name and address...!

As for gigs, I didn't do a huge amount this year, so I will limit myself to a top 5;

5- Kasabian- MEN Arena, Manchester
4- Placebo/The Horrors/Silversun Pickups- Central, Manchester
3- Swervedriver/I Concur- Garage, London
2- Silversun Pickups/Animal Kingdom- Academy 2, Manchester
1- God Is An Astronaut/Caspian/Tides From Nebula- Ucho, Gdynia

Have an excellent Christmas, and New Year.



3 comments:

  1. It's weird that the Placebo tracks you went for are the exact ones that I hate. Good call on the Doves tracks, though (mind you, I do think Kingdom of Rust sounds rather similar to Cherry Ghost's Thirst For Romance)

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  2. Liking the top 15, but how confusing is your running order ie any track anyplace...what's going on there then?

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  3. The idea for the running order is that each CD increases in velocity and/or ferocity as it progresses, hence CD 1 startting with I Like Trains and finishing with Caspian, and the other 3 starting with instrumental, near-orchestral Post-Rock and ending with either A Place To Bury Strangers or The Twilight Sad. The chart positions are in brackets on the track listing, but have no bearing on the running order, other than which CD they appear on. Now that all seems abundantly clear, surely?

    Glad that you like CD 1..

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