2009 in music, in words

I lava lists.

Albums of the Year (in a muddy and vague ascending order)

• Dashboard Confessional - Alter the Ending (alternative). He finally figured it was the guitar that's supposed to weep, not guy holding it.
• Jordin Sparks - Battlefield (pop). She deserved to win AI, the title track is more catchy than Piazza while I was in grade school.
• Oh, Sleeper - Son of the Morning (metal)
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3 (hiphop)
• Nural - Entitlement (alternative). I heard some demos at Johnny's that I wish made the cut for this album ("Come on Adriana!") but I remember downloading these local boys' first tracks on mp3.com, ages and ages ago.
• Timbaland - Shock Value II (hiphop). Fun album, I crucify me a little for liking the Nickelback track lots.
• John Mayer - Battle Studies (pop/alternative? mostly pop)
• Darkest Hour - Eternal Return (metal). Their instrumental breaks are evidence of metallica as an extension of classical music.
• Imogen Heap - Ellipse (electronica/triphop)
• Slaughterhouse - Slaughterhouse (hiphop)
• Various Artists - Fresh Coast Non-Perishables, Volume 1 (hiphop). The songs these guys write are just as entertaining as their scripted Youtube battles (sort of like the WWE, rap-style).
• BoyzIIMen - Love (pop)
• Protest the Hero - Gallop Meets the Earth (metal)
• Thrice - Beggars (alternative)
• Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King (alternative)
• Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major (alternative)
  

Honorable Mentions

• Slim Thug - Boss of All Bosses (hiphop). The songs "Thug" and "I Run" will forever remind me of Juan (not Raul) and be the anthems of my 2009 summer.
• Cartel - Cycles (alternative/pop). I got turned on to their EP years ago (it was either Chriso or X) and had my wait sated with this album's release.
• Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People Lazers Do (electronica/dubstep? I'm not too familiar with dance labels). Music to have a good time to.
• Killswitch Engage - Killswitch Engage (metal). One of my all time favorite bands, I wish the album as a whole felt more concrete.
• Shadows Fall - Retribution (metal). They stay true to their NE roots but no standout tracks for me.
• Muse - The Resistance (alternative). I'm still amazed by how much noise this trio can generate.
• Lamb of God - Wrath (metal). Great chugga-chugga riffs, maybe I like this album less because I don't have the SX screaming the booms at me in the trunk?
• RX Bandits - Mandala (alternative). Stripped down to a four-piece and not particularly bad, but I prefer the orchestral/ska side of their music.
  

Disappointments

• He is Legend - It Hates You (metal). Their first two albums set the bar for the fusion of jazzy and southern metal (3:00 on in the track "Everybody I Know Has Fangs" is golden) but this one falls short.
• Emery - ...In Shallow Seas We Sail (alternative). This band and Jimmy Eat World have always been my top vocal-melody-driven acts, they sort of bungled the formula on this one.
• John Mayer - Battle Studies (pop/alternative). We know you can rip on the guitar Johnnyboy, seems like he took the easy way out and wrote girly songs to meet that album/2yrs. quota.
• Rihanna - Rated R (pop/hiphop). She sang about being a hardened gangster or something like that; she should go back to singing (I've always liked her voice) and drop the comedy act, we've all seen the police photos.
• Rob Thomas - Cradlesong (pop/alternative). He's been making hits for the past ten years, but this one didn't gel with me.
  

2009 Finds

• HipHop: Tech N9ne and Bone Thugs N' Harmony (Chopped and Screwed/Looned) shoot syllables out of their mouths like machine guns but I can actually understand what they're saying (instead of just jibba-jabba) all slowed down. Crooked I (1/4 of Slaughterhouse) is a Long Beach native emcee whose catalog of mixtapes I picked up on. He's got great polysyllabic freestyles, which led me to grab gigabytes of rap instrumentals and brought me back to high school, rapping with Bobs in the Pathfinder again.
  
  
• Electronica: Squarepusher and Aphex Twin are likely the tip of the drum and bass iceberg, I hope to dive deeper into more dance-oriented types of music in the future. Hez called me RJD2 every time I saw him, but I didn't listen to the guy's music 'til a few months ago, really good breakbeat and instrumental stuff. Most recently I've listened to Infected Mushroom and Xploding Plastix, the latter really reminding me of Ratatat (except bigger, somehow).
  
  
• Mashups: Norwegian Recycling and Legion of Doom show me that (at least in the pop realm) everything that can be said musically has been done before, ten times over; there is a very finite combination of sonic frequencies and movement, and melody is a standout artist's fingerprint.
  
  
• Jazz: Picked up some Marcus Miller and Boney James (very saucy instrumental jazz), maybe I'll grow into appreciating their work in 2010. Stanley Jordan does some great "Slappa da bass!" with two hands, my favorites are the covers of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Stairway to Heaven". Watching/listening to him is like chumming for sharks and watching primal frenzy, being a spectator to a finely tuned killer in his element.
  
  
• Nostalgia: I think Disney movies (and their accompanying soundtracks) are a great indicator of the worldwide shift in musical taste towards the substandard and synthetic. Fitting that Tarzan (1999) was their last film that featured song and lyric? Popular culture devoured music heartily in the 90's and has in this decade pedestalized the gastrointestinal dregs of that robust meal. What a mouthful. Also picked up some classic TLC, great positive music in trio form and Michael Jackson's discography (may he forever and ever rest in peace, amen).

What will this next decade bring? Hopefully we see this musica mess made clean.

thxgiving '09, cont'd

Friday night was Phở with the family, off Grand and Amar. Myko and wLc happened to show at the restaurant after work; I laughed cause mama stinkfaced Myko on sight of his hair - not because of what I noticed. Phở tai and eggrolls (my Vietnamese fare benchmarks) hit the spot. Afterwards visited the WTF Mafia on Mt. Marty; drank Black Label and Hennessey with Scotty and Dallas, and did so like men. Heard a couple comments on how classy I looked with twin Budweiser 40's, not sure if they were derisive or not.

Felt genuine joy seeing all the yellow folk in Walnut, with the exception of one person - Daggers told me she moved away and didn't hang out any more, so I parked behind the lime green bug at the end of the cul de sac with trepidation colored in shades of alarm and not a little dread. It took me years to force myself to look at those VW's like any other cars on the road and launder out the Pavlov-ian puppylike excitement and anticipation I'd felt on seeing them in days past- now I wonder, does it really all come out in the wash?

If life is football, I've put in practice hours to ensure the preparedness of my defense; baseball, I've spent years in cages perfecting my swing. Seeing her was pigskin offense running a sublime misdirection play; a pitcher's curve bottoming out on my sure shot. Our hello/goodbye was just about as awkward as the occasional fumble between gentlemen's handshakes/pounds/hugs.

I wonder what sort of girly song Mayer would write if he were in my Nikes that night?

Shared my story with Rosie (not Rowzy) and she was entirely too intuitive, bringing many a murky thought to the hazy surface that's the inside of my head. After the backyard cleared out, we cleaned up, and slam dunking glass into the recycle bin was every bit as enjoyable as monsoon puddle jumping.

First half of Saturday was me nursing an angry hangover - we eventually caught dinner at Boston Kitchen off Colima and were the only people speaking English in the building. Missed that, for sure. Sped off to Pasadena to visit MikeyandJade: watched a bit of "London" (dialogue-driven-cokehead-flick) and played games. Left for Dead 2 is zombies on parade, and the new Call of Duty isn't any less addictive closer to home.

Woke up far too early on Sunday to catch the Amtrak towards San Diego, met up with Jobo and KRMN shortly after the train pulled into the downtown station. I already miss home and bet your fur I'm counting the minutes until winter break rolls around.

blaque friday

Uneventful (save for the two checkpoints) road trip with 2/3 of the Longfellow Club westward on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Hit San Diego around 11:30 and visited Jon at JamesandJessica's and played Squabble. "Does poon count?" and "I don't want to tell you what 'troke' means" made for good boardgaming times. Two guitars (one of em was a Taylor I believe? I think I played jmz's OMJM) and a fatty keyboard made for a happening sing-a-long; Victor, their other jukebox, played as well. Out of the songs we tried, "Part of Your World" (Disney, 1989) was the definitely the night's highlight. I stole this from George's blog @ Da Curious:

Thursday my alarm didn't go off (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) and we didn't leave San Diego until around noon. It took us 2.5 hours to get 30 miles out of the city, but we had Battle Studies on CD and I missed SoCal traffic anyways. I arrived back home too late - around 4p - and family was laid out like tomorrow's clothing. Hit Fung's (I remember ralphing in his backyard before latestart days senior year of high school) and hung with old-ish friends and acquaintances.

Today I met up with Joshy, who's holding it down the yellowing slant-eyed hippy longhairs in Walnut. I need more conversation with the gentleman - seems like he's gotten himself completely out of the hole I'd only recently realized I'd dug for myself.