Mark's 2009 Paulies List

Hi everyone. I'm Mark; buddy of PGJ since college, Paulies contributor
from the beginning.

First, my metal band Denial Machine released its self-titled debut
album this year. Search for it in the usual places (Amazon, iTunes,
LaLa) or check it out at our myspace
(http://www.myspace.com/denialmachine) or our website
(http://www.denialmachine.net).

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

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First, numbers 25-11 in no particular order:

IDLEWILD - The Remote Part

JOANNA NEWSOM - Ys

RADIOHEAD - Kid A

I think of it as an album closing the last decade, not an album of
this decade, in that it features the culmination of several 90's
influences more than it influenced the next ten years of music. But
it's great and it came out this decade and it needs to be on the list.

BLOC PARTY - A Weekend in the City

GOD FORBID - The Constitution of Treason

The album that re-introduced me to the current state of American metal.

RILO KILEY - More Adventurous

INTERPOL - Turn on the Bright Lights

Remember how much we loved this album? Damn.

THE KILLERS - Hot Fuss

COHEED AND CAMBRIA - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

COLDPLAY - A Rush of Blood to the Head

ALL SHALL PERISH - The Price of Existence

I play this album for people to show them one kind of metal's
extremes. The technical brutality of this band is unbelievable.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Fever to Tell

MODEST MOUSE - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

SYSTEM OF A DOWN - Toxicity

Nu-metal's only worthwhile product.

ISIS - Panopticon

Along with fellow post-metallers Neurosis, Isis defined a genre. Er, subgenre.

10.) MUSE - Absolution

9.) UNEARTH - In the Eyes of Fire

8.) TRIVIUM - Ascendancy

Credibility issues aside, Trivium synthesized the best of metal's
history into a perfect album.

7.) AUGUST BURNS RED - Thrill Seeker

Mathcore's unpredictability made majestic and musical. Breathtaking.

6.) JOANNA NEWSOM - The Milk-Eyed Mender

Have to disagree with Niki on this one. Not since Neutral Milk Hotel
have we heard such a skilled blend of absurdity and earnestness. Only
if she were kidding would she be embarassing.

5.) JIMMY EAT WORLD - Bleed American

The pinnacle of emo, just after it hit the mainstream and just before
it became too much. A sweaty, satisfying, heartfelt album.

4.) THE STROKES - Room on Fire

For me, it was this album and not Is This It that showed the Strokes
in perfect indie-pop form.

3.) THE WRENS - Meadowlands

A statement of failure so true and deep it becomes beautiful and
hopeful in its effectiveness.

2.) COHEED AND CAMBRIA - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume I:
From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

"Welcome Home" left a small crater in the earth the first time I heard it.

1.) BLOC PARTY - Silent Alarm

The quintessential album of this decade. Indie guitar rock, dance
beats, hints of electronica. The honesty only a British accent can
deliver. Members of various ethnicities, including ethnicities besides
black and white (for a while, until Tiger Woods blew things recently,
multiethnicity was the new black). "Banquet" still sounds like an
pole-dancing steamroller on ecstasy.

A List of Bands I Loved that Blew It
********************************

Hot Hot Heat

Death Cab for Cutie

The Strokes (First impressions of my asshole)

Interpol

Rilo Kiley (indie sexy =/ sexy, Jenny Lewis)

Rapture

Daft Punk

Franz Ferdinand
Idlewild

Discoveries of This Year
*************************

For a few days this year, I thought that all the music I listen to for
the rest of my life should sound like Jesu's Opiate Sun EP. Lush,
full, melodic post-rock pop.

NORTH - What You Were: more post metal. The album I listened to most this year.

Listen to Howlin' Wolf's recording of "Smokestack Lightnin'" and hear
the 60 years of rock history which followed it put to shame.
Everything else becomes embarrassing after hearing the purity of this
proto-rock masterpiece.

General Observations
*********************

I like Paul's idea of having someone smarter than us document the
development of indie rock. But its development in this decade is far
more bizarre than we've considered since it culminated in KINGS OF
LEON. Really? KINGS OF FUCKING LEON? As I write this, they've just won
a GRAMMY for Record of the Year?!? Of all the early to mid 2000's
bands, could anyone have predicted that Kings of Leon would be the
grand outcome of the mainstreaming of indie rock?

BTW, ask Paul to tell his story about how he bitched out the son of
one of the members of Guided by Voices for praising Kings of Leon.

Music Consumption
**********************
In this decade, iTunes surpassed WalMart as the number one music
retailer. But have a look at this graph for a more sobering assessment
of the success of digital music:
http://musformation.com/assets_c/2009/08/musicforweb2-thumb-280x770-2482.gif
I'm not sure what this means. Are people just stealing a lot more
music? Or is it being consumed in more disposable, ephemeral ways
(LaLa streams, MySpace pages)? Again, someone smarter than me could
bring some perspective to this.

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Happy to have been a part of the Paulies for the whole decade. Talking
about music helps us listen to it better; each year I look forward to
the insights shared by the people who participate in this list to help
me find new music and better enjoy the music I listen to already.