last.fm Artists 26-30

26. Pixies - 320 plays
Legends.  It doesn't get much better than Doolittle or Surfer Rosa.

27. Sunset Rubdown - 317 plays
Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade's other band, or one of his other bands, at any rate.  They've released 3 awesome albums, leading me to wonder, at one point, if Wolf Parade was truly the side project.

I've listened to "Mending of the Gown" a fucking TON.  That song pumps me up.  The riff is incredible.  And I'm big fan of Dragonslayer in general.

28. The Hives - 302 plays
Yikes.  I don't listen to The Hives much any more.  But I've listened to them over 300 times.  It's fun.  "Tick Tick Boom" especially I listened to a bunch.

29. The Decemberists - 266 plays
Again...not really listening to these guys these days.  I was really into The Crane Wife and Picaresque for a little while, I dunno.

30. Wolf Parade - 228 plays
And we're back!  Excited for their imminent third record.

Christoph's Top 10 Albums of 2009

10) The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
I love the bass sound on this album.  Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was my last experience with the Lips - for some reason I never got around to listening to At War With the Mystics.  Anyway, where Yoshimi was sunny and poppy, Embryonic is dark and heavy and intense.  Both are awesome flip sides of the same coin.  Album closer "Watching the Planets" is the standout track for me.

"Oh, oh, oh, finding the answer.  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.  Finding that there ain't no answer to find."

09) Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Sunset Rubdown is supposedly the side project of Spencer Krug from Wolf Parade, but this being Sunset Rubdown's 4th album compared to Wolf Parade's 2, you could be fooled into thinking this was Spencer's main gig.  Anyway, while previous albums Shut Up, I Am Dreaming and Random Spirit Lover are really good, I think Dragonslayer is their best set yet.  It's got more of a live sound than its predecessors, and the strong female backing vocals really compliment Spencer's yelp quite nicely.  Album opener "Silver Moons" grabs me from the start.

"I believe in growing old with grace.  I believe she only loved my face.  I believe I acted like a child, making faces at acquired tastes.  And now silver moons belong to you..."

08) Passion Pit - Manners
I love Passion Pit.  I first starting getting into this Massachusetts band a few months before this album came out.  Their first release was an EP called Chunk of Change.  It featured an incredible song called "Sleepyhead", with chipmunk vocals and an awesome beat.  That track is included here on their debut album Manners as well, for good reason, but there are new tracks that match that song's gloriousness.  "Make Light", "Little Secrets", "The Reeling", and "Moth's Wings" are all spectacular.  Passion Pit have a bubbly electro pop sound with strong falsetto vocals from singer Michael Angelakos.  This is happy music, it puts a smile on my face.  A very impressive debut, and I can't wait to hear what they come up with next.

"Let this be our little secret.  No one needs to know we're feeling...higher and higher and higher, higher and higher and higher."

Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2009

My buddy Derek got married a few months back, and I met his wife Cathleen at the wedding for the first time.  So her knowledge of me was limited to anything that Derek had told her, and the info that's up on my Facebook.  She immediately engaged me with a discussion about music, and I liked her right away.  Commenting on my list of favorite bands on FB, she said something along the lines of "Read Pitchfork much?"

It's true.  She had me pegged.  The online music publication Pitchfork has done much to shape and influence my musical tastes these past few years.  If I see that an album has gotten "Best New Music" honors from Pitchfork, I can be pretty sure it's something I wanna check out.

That said, I've come a long way since I first started reading Pitchfork and various music blogs, and I believe that the musical opinions I have now are (mostly) my own.  I fashioned my Top 10 Albums of 2009 a little while back, and I put Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion up at the top because it's an amazing and gorgeous album that I've listened to over and over, not because it received raves from P-Fork.

Pitchfork has released their Top 50 Albums of 2009 list, and it just so happens that MPP takes their #1 spot as well.  Three other albums (Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca, The Flaming Lips' Embryonic, and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest) share spots on our respective Top 10 lists too.

But I do take some major issues with their list.  The following 2 albums were robbed:

Wavves - Wavvves

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

These records are fantastic, and yet they don't even make the Top 50?  Instead, they have stuff like Girls' Album and The xx's The xx in their Top 10.  Gross.  I like both of those albums alright, but they're just not Top 10 material.  Not even.

Also, the Atlas Sound album Logos should definitely be higher than #18.  I have it at #2 on my list.

You can read the list here. Or right here, after the jump...