Best Of 2009 Pt. II

I asked some buddies to send over their best of 2009 lists. Craig Robson, Jeremy Saffer, Kamran Haq, Matt Wilson, Nick Gazin, Steve Smeal & Trevor Strnad answered the call so far. Hopefully I'll have a few more of these up next week.


CRAIG ROBSON - artist
(in no particular order)
- The Ghost of a Thousand - 'New Hopes, New Demonstrations'
- Converge - 'Axe To Fall'
- Architects - 'Hollow Crown'
- Every Time I Die - 'New Junk Aesthetic'
- The Black Dahlia Murder - 'Deflorate'
- Kylesa - 'Static Tensions'
- The Mars Volta - 'Ochtahedron'
- Bon Iver - 'Blood Bank'
- Baroness - 'Rlue Record'
- Mariachi El Bronx - 's/t'


JEREMY SAFFER - photographer
1. A Day To Remember - 'Homesick'
2. Earth Crisis - 'To The Death'
3. iwrestledabearonce - 'It's All Happening'
4. Behemoth - 'Evangelion'
5. Immortal - 'All Shall Fall'
6. Gorgoroth - 'Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt'
7. Jeffree Star - 'Beauty Killer'
8. The Black Dahlia Murder - 'Deflorate'
9. Hatebreed - 's/t'
10. Britney Spears - 'Circus'


KAMRAN HAQ - Say It To My Face
1. Cobalt - 'Gin'
2. Ingested - 'Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering'
3. The Red Chord - 'Fed Through The Teeth Machine'
4. Nile - 'Those Who The Gods Detest'
5. Church of Misery - 'Houses of the Unholy'
6. Goatwhore - 'Carving Out The Eyes of God'
7. Converge - 'Axe To Fall'
8. Altar of Plauges - 'White Tomb'
9. Mumakill - 'Behold the Failure'
10. Iron Age - 'The Sleeping Eye'


MATT WILSON - Set Your Goals
1. The Swellers - 'Ups And Downsizing'
2. Mayer Hawthorne - 'A Strange Arrangement'
3. Polar Bear Club - 'Chasing Hamburg'
4. Mew - 'No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry, They Washed Away'
5. Fireworks - 'All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion'
6. Trapped Under Ice - 'Secrets Of The World'
7. Converge - 'Axe To Fall'
8. Animals As Leaders - 's/t'
9. Alice In Chains - 'Black Gives Way To Blue'
10. Katatonia - 'Night Is The New Day'


NICK GAZIN (aka The Toilet Cobra) - artist
Making a top ten list for me would be hard since I didn't like that many records that came out this year. Iron Age gave me their records but I never got around to listening to them and now here we are. It's the end of the year and I forgot to listen to new music again. I've been looking at the other websites best of 2009 lists and not recognizing most of the albums and not liking the ones I recognized. When I get the chance I'm going to listen to Fever Ray and my Iron Age records. I got no interest in Animal Collective or anything with a pretty girl on the cover if she looks intelligent/not drugged out of her face.

Here are five records I liked that came out in 2009:

1. The Spits - Volume 4 AKA School's Out
2. Flight - Flight 10"
3. Mean Jeans - Are You Serious?
4. Death - ...For The Whole World To See
5. Wavves - Wavvves

And here are five records I listened to a lot in 2009:

1. Nobunny - Give It To Me b/w Motorhead With Me 7"
2. Children of Bodom - Children of Bodom
3. Insane Clown Posse - Great Milenko
4. Minor Threat - Discography
5. random mp3s


STEVE SMEAL - Ruiner
(in no particular order)

- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'It's Blitz!'
(I think I listened to this record 400 times in a row when it came out. "Dull Life" is the jam... guitar lines that follow vocal melodies rule all.)

- Band Of Skulls - 'Baby Darling Doll Face Honey'
(U.K. garage rock sweetness. Trios rule. Simultaneous male and female vocals rule.)

- The Dead Weather - 'Horehound'
(I heart Jack White.)

- Blacklisted - 'No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me'
(More bands need to jock Nirvana rather than all this Integrity revival bullshit.)

- Brand New - 'Daisy'
(Every single one of Brand New's records I love and they all sound different. "Vices" sounds like they were trying to write a Fugazi song and feels like it's going to blow your speakers out.)

- Morrisey - 'Years Of Refusal'
(Can Mozz do any wrong? "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" as the first single?!? Are you kidding me?!? That song rages so hard there was no doubt I was gonna grab that record up as soon as it come out (or leaked).)

- David Bazan - 'Curse Your Branches'
(A man questions his faith and values... don't we all? Such an amazing song writer... Pedro The Lion, Headphones, Solo, it doesn't matter. I hate people that won't listen to this because he has "Christian" attached to himself. Good music is good music and this record is gold.)

- Bon Iver - 'Blood Bank'
(I wish "For Emma, Forever Ago" would have came out this year but it was last year so this makes the list. Falsetto vocals, acoustic guitars, and sad songs about girls?!? Sign me up!)

- William Elliott Whitmore - 'Animals In The Dark'
(One of the best things to ever come out of Iowa (others include MLIW and corn). Do yourself a favor and pick up all his records.)

- Shook Ones - 'The Unquotable A.M.H.'
(These dudes always write fucking great records and then never tours on them. I hate you guys... especially Funds...)



TREVOR STRNAD - The Black Dahlia Murder
(in no particular order)
- The Swellers – 'Ups And Downsizing'
- Suffocation – 'Blood Oath'
- Code - 'Resplendent Grotesque'
- Secrets Of The Moon - 'Privilegivm'
- Tribulation – 'The Horror'
- Cobalt – 'Gin'
- Funebrarum – 'The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams'
- Infected Disarray – 'Disseminating Obscenity'
- Amesoeurs – 's/t'
- Gorod – 'Process Of A New Decline'