Heartland

Yes, it's that time of year again! What sounds tickled your lug'oles in 2009? What choons floated your metaphorical boat? What made you have an ear-gasm? I could go on....

Here's mine!

*The Chameleons - I listened this lot to death the second half of this year. I'm talking on-a-daily-basis here. Just wasn't getting sick of them. Choons of choice have been Swamp Thing, Don't Fall, Second Skin.

*EATB - Really enjoyed their gig in October. Shame they didn't play Over The Wall, I like that even more than Killing Moon!

*Grace Jones - What a woman! Got her most recent album, Hurricane, and it's very good. Please let me be that cool when I'm collecting my pension. Other tracks that have been on heavy rotation have been La Vie En Rose and Slave To The Rhythm.

*Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Looking forward to seeing this new film that's coming out about him. Been listening to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll at lot, and our very own Andrew S introduced me to There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards

*Jarboe - The Men Album... the very lovely LazCorp sent me a copy of this way back in 2006, and I enjoyed it then... but I've been giving it even more plays this autumn and winter. There are some filler tracks on it but the good tracks are great. Jarboe's a funny one - I find her both annoying and extremely groovy - sometimes simultaneously. Go figure, as a wise man once said.

*The Knife - You Take My Breath Away. Not a cover of the Berlin song. Just catchy as fcuk.

*Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle - I discovered this track after hearing it on the radio when she died (I think?) earlier this year. And it was one of these wonderful cases of your ears pricking up and going "Ooooh, what is THAT?"

*Leonard Cohen - all the classics... the incomparable Pista bought me his greatest hits at the tail end of last year, and I've been enjoying it lots this year. I do not find him remotely depressing!

*Roxy Music - I started getting into them last year, and have been listening to them some more recently. Favourite tracks have been Editions of You, Ladytron, Virginia Plain.

*Talking Heads - I have always liked what I heard of them (and a young David Byrne was rather easy on mine eye ), but had never really got into them. However, the past couple of weeks I've been listening to Road To Nowhere and Wild Wild Life nonstop, and I think I'll get a whole bundle of stuff from them in the New Year.

I love it when I get into a new band! One of life little (or big) pleasures. And that's why I keep doing this thread every year. While I don't think I will ever be grabbed by the ears and have my world transformed like I did when I first heard Siouxsie, aged 14, I think it's good to keep that curiosity and willingness to explore if you love your music.

So let's hear what you lot have been listening to this year!

Horehound by The Dead Weather has definitely been top of the list.
Also loving Them Crooked Vultures and have gotten into the most recent album by The Damned.
Love Tattoo by Imelda May has remained a favourite, as has anything by Seasick Steve.
Mildly disappointed by the new Bunnymen album, but live they were in the best form I've seen them for years.

Also enjoying West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum from Kasabian, Smoke & Mirrors from The Eden House and Abnormally Attracted To Sin from Tori Amos.

Oh, and I also discovered this band called Joy Division.

Here at Corporate HQ, 2009 has been a year of discovering The Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer, a resurgence of Swans, a minor renaissance of sorts for The Psychedelic Furs, a bit of Einsturzende Neubauten, and a smattering of Led Zeppelin. Amongst other things.

Friendly Fires ~ 'In the Hospital'

I'll have a go.

I think my most listened to choon of this year was The Cure's A Forest. I have a bit of a soft spot for this song, especially the wig out 1996 versions. My iprod has an A Forest playlist with over 70 versions on it (as our resident bumble bee fanatic can attest).

Next up, Bat For Lashes. Close run thing between Daniel & Pearl's Dream really, but What's A Girl To Do got a lot of airtime at chez pista.

The Big Pink's Velvet & Frisk also found it hard to escape the masheen.

The Sisters Of Mercy are never far away, & Heartland (various versions thereof) drove the neighbours to distraction.

My fave Danish outfit, The Raveonettes, new CD was an instant hit for the cureboi. Heart Of Stone & Breaking Into Cars winning hands down.

Eureka Machines' Being Good Is Okay, But Being Better's Better found a place in my heart, as did The Story Of My Life. But chuck on The Light At The End Of The Tunnel. Gorgeous!

The Cure (yes, again). Disintegration. Mostly due to the re-living of The Prayer Tour 20 years on at cureconnections.

Porcupine Tree. Just about everything. A friend of mine suddenly became obsessed with them & regularly comes round for a sesh. Mostly spun are Radioactive Toy & Trains.

Siouxsie And The Banshees. Monitor. IMHO, their best.

Honourable mentions for Asobi Seksu- Miniature Cities, Depeche Mode- Come Back & It's No Good & The Cult- The Snake.

You see. As a young fella often says to me, "There are other bands available."
I found a few. You were right
s

Choon thread alert!

For me it's been all about the reissued UK Decay material, and - towards the end of the year - veritable boatloads of Spiritualized (what do you mean "there are other bands available"?)

Rediscovering old faves like The House of Love and Theatre of Hate was also fun, I seem to recall there was a Banshees blitz in there at some point, and quite a bit of Killing Joke too.

Some of the usual Sisters stuff was also listened to.

That Mumbles CD was a cracker too, been on rotation these past few days.

i'm almost sure that we get similar thread before ( i mean this year, about 1-1,5 month(s) ago). anyhow.
this year was year of discovering:
Jah Wobble (so far only one album)
Killing Joke (1980 and 2003 self titled albums)
re-discovering Kyuss
Tom Waits (mostly recent bootlegs)
The Wolfgang Press
Carbon/Silicon
Suede
as year ago more: Beck, Byrne, Cale. i tried Miles D. ''Tutu" but so far it failed (boring and not bringing nothing new to my ''education''). i also tried Sonic Youth (Evol and Sister) but because i knew Savage Republic already i saw how ripping of from SR SY music is/was.

Pista wrote:Bat For Lashes

Oh goodness! How could I forget her! Yes, Two Suns was another album of the year

lazarus corporation wrote:The Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer

Fantastic artist, I've listened to her for a couple of years, but I only got Yes, Virginia... this year and that's been regularly played. I like her edgier, atmospheric tracks like True or The Slide.

After circling warily, I gave Florence and the Machine a listen and very much fell in love with Rabbit Hearted Girl, but The Drumming Song gives me shivers all over! Been a while since a song has done that...

I got Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned by The Prodigy at Christmas, because it's probably my favourite of their albums. Thumping, cracking, exciting tunes! Couldn't pick one overall.

Notable mentions go out to Bat for Lashes, The KLF, and VAST.

boudicca wrote:

Pista wrote:Bat For Lashes

Oh goodness! How could I forget her! Yes, Two Suns was another album of the year

Should also mention Lungs - maybe Florence is trying a bit too hard, but I don't care.

Edith or 2nd try:

Jah Wobble (so far only one album: Rising above ...). Hard to escape from his tunes. How on earth he can/could mix dub with spanish guitar, dub and some semic tunes ? How on earth he did this in that brillint way ? No matter how he did this it's great. Plus lyrics are not stupid.
Killing Joke (1980 and 2003 self titled albums). First one because good old post punk is never bad. Second because it's hard to disagree that after 9/11 so called democratic or western world turns slowly into (velvet) dictatorship -lyrics! And vocal of Jez C. is fantastic, afters i've made quick reserch on Tube i must say that he got one of the geatest rock/metal vocal evah. turning from normal vocal, some devilish gurgle into really agressive roaring, wow, that is impressive.
Re-discovering Kyuss. Not much to say a piece of sentiment and great music.
Tom Waits (mostly recent bootlegs). Nae need to explain.
The Wolfgang Press. ''Bird wood cage'' so far. Quite depressing tunes and lyrics, very dark and atmospheric. I never thought that i could like thisawful 80 's synthesisers!
Carbon/Silicon. Now that is a prove that only old pharts can record decent quality album nowadays. Very nice suprise, a lot of power, some wise lyrics but unfortunetly some of tere sounds like Strummer's 'leaflet slogans'.

As year ago more: Beck, Byrne, Cale. I've tried Miles D. ''Tutu" but so far it failed (boring and not bringing nothing new to my ''education''). I've also tried Sonic Youth (Evol and Sister) but because i knew Savage Republic already i saw how ripping of from SR SY music is/was.

boudicca wrote:*Grace Jones - What a woman!

Absolutely! I saw her at the Sonar festival in June and she was... well, she was Grace Jones - funny, sexy, cool, and ever so slightly demented (I did wonder if backstage "refreshments" had been partaken of but, whatever, they didn't diminish her incredible ability to keep a hula hoop spinning for the entirety of Slave to the Rhythm. Respect!). Diva that she is, she was almost an hour late on stage (meaning I missed Little Boots who was playing elsewhere) but what the heck! It was one of the highlights of this year. And you're right - Hurricane is a fantastic album.

Another group I saw at this year's Sonar - Konono No 1 - led to me buying their astounding album Congotronics. They're a group from Democratic Republic of Congo and I've rarely seen a performance create so much pure joy and ecstatic dancing in the audience from start to finish - no trip to the bar moments possible here. I've been discovering a lot of African music this year as a result - Kasai All-Stars, Oumou Sangare- all great stuff.

Seeing Throwing Muses, My Bloody Valentine and Spritualized live for the first time in years reminded me what wonderful bands they all are, and I've been going back to their albums a lot. I'd forgotten how breathtaking the first Muses album is.

I've also been rediscovering Mother Fist by Marc Almond and Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom (a truly earth-shattering album of suppressed rage and frustration, if that doesn't sound too music writer style wanky ).

Perennial favourites: Seventies deep soul (Joe Simon's Drowning in the Sea of Love and Doris Duke's I'm A Loser have both had heavy play this year) and noisy industrial (the new Esplendor Geometrico album is a corker - another great gig this year, incidentally) and the release of the remastered Kraftwerk back catalogue (well, Autobahn onwards) has given me yet another reason to listen to them on an almost daily basis (as if I needed one...)

boudicca wrote: *Grace Jones - What a woman! Got her most recent album, Hurricane, and it's very good.

That was on my 2008 list already

This year I got to know a few new artists that are being played on a very regular basis: Bat For Lashes (who also takes pole position in my gigs of 2009 list!) is my new favourite. Her album is splendid and will be played loads in the new year. Big up Natasha Kahn!

Another new band touched us (the misses loves them too ) and was massively played in the last few months: The XX with the self titled album. They look like your little nieces & nephews who discovered the old Cure albums in daddy's attic (and also his black wardrobe) and they sound like that too... gotta be good, right?!

A Place To Bury Strangers' new one, Sonic Youth's The Eternal, A Mountain of One's real first album and Lenny Cohen's live in London were also applauded here and Black Moth Super Rainbow's Eating Us has proven to be a highly addictive little record too

Older material that resurfaced this year came from The Cramps (RIP Lux), My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, Dinosaur Jr, Orbital & more than one act from the Warp stable... in first place Seefeel whose repetitive dubdrones ment a lot to me in the early nineties, but nowadays I love 'm even more.

Choon of the year is The Wipers - When it's over
(granted, it's as old as the damage done but I just couldn't stop playing it)

A guid year

Sisters - As ever.
Empire Of The Sun - just love that 'We Are The People' song.
KMFDM - Getting into these more every single day.
White Zombie - Re-visited them after a few years off my stereo & forgot how utterly great they were early on.
Bat For Lashes - just for the song Daniel. I love it about as much as I love Natasha Khan's cute little nose.

Here's the spanner in the works... Robbie Williams - Bodies. A fine song in my opinion.

EotS are so gay!


but I ken whit ye mean

James Blast wrote:EotS are so gay!


but I ken whit ye mean

Its only that one song. Rest of it is bollocks.

The two biggest hits on here, no doubt, are Bat For Lashes' Daniel and The Knife's We share our mother's health. Both superb tracks from impeccable albums!

Naturally AMO1's Institute of joy is a list-topping album too, fantastic stuff (Who by fire being the highlight quite probably). Black Moth Super Rainbow's Dandelion Gum is another great discovery of 2009 as was Bibio.

D. Lissvik's 7TRX + Intermission was great too, I was really glad to have discovered Health, their Get Color was fantastic too (even though they misspelt the title). All the way by Growing ends up pretty high on the list too, I reckon as well as From here we go sublime by The Field.

Of course the entire Warp20 box has to be mentioned too!

More rocky stuff (seems most of my listening was electronic music this year) naturally contains APTBS their latest effort. Great stuff!

And I'm sure there's more but gotta start somewhere

Karma Police, arrest this man he talks in riddles

You'd prefer me to post cover art?

I'm still uneducated in the ways of this Bat For Lashes you speak of.

Albums that made 2009 a better year are...

Gong - 2032
Them Crooked Vultures
The Dead Weather - Horehound
f**k Buttons - Tarot Sport
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Growing - All The Way
FGG - FGG
Map Of Africa

and lots of Krautrock stuff...

Right, I've already been writing a list of these for elsewhere, will update this later with links to videos of all the songs, and may even see if I can try and make a DJ mix of at least a few of these at some point, but here we go:

Alan Barry - Ring The Bell (Extended) - Could do with being a little quicker, but how this never became a hit, I'll never know.
Eek-A-Mouse - Ganja Smuggling - An anthem for a friend and me, play it inna me deejay sets every time!
Guru Josh - Infinity (Original 12" Mix) - Not the pish remix which gets played all the time. This one has pianos aplenty.
Jan & Dean - The New Girl In School (Silver Summer LP version) - Recorded by Mike Love (Beach Boys) and Dean Torrence (apparently Jan produced a few songs on the LP?), on an album of rerecordings of both their bands. Fan-f**king-tastic!
Kim Wilde - Boys - Sometimes, a b-side is all you need. Love it.
Klaus Nomi - Rubberband Lazer - Outlandish makeup, space-age costumes, German countertenor, disco pop. Nuff sed.
M.A.N.I.C. - I'm Comin' Hardcore (Remix) - another not-well-known tune, but piano breakbeat at its finest. Love it.
M.I.A. - Paper Planes - Actually listening to a recent song? Moi? I f**king love it.
Peter Griffin - Fly, Home Is In The Sky - Not a Family Guy song, natch, but German Italo-disco. CHOON.
Poison - Talk Dirty To Me - Only heard this about a week or two ago, but f**king LOVE it.
Rusko - Cockney Thug - Dubstep. Bass. WUB WUB WUB. Seek it out.
Smart-E's - Sesame's Treet - My traditional "one more tune" when I DJ.
Technohead - Happy Birthday (Timitico's Party Blast) - Yep, they DID do more than "I Wanna Be A Hippy", apparently! This is happy hardcore before it became s**t.
The Jesus And Mary Chain - The Hardest Walk (Some Kind Of Wonderful re-recording) - Not noisy like the Psychocandy version, but polished and shiny. It's on "The Power Of Negative Thinking", I believe.
Wayne Smith - Under Me Sleng Teng - The riddim which launched hundreds of versions. "Buddy Bye" by Johnny Osbourne being an excellent one.

That's all for now.

Nick Cave with his entire back catalogue was the absolute number one.

Nice 2009 surprise was the Cohen London live stuff.

The sheer endless collection of Sisters concert recordings,
pictures, vids and more I've got hold of here and elsewhere ... : : : : : : ...

Among my favourite recordings are

Doc Sommer's Suiker Rock DVD
Circle's Sketchbook of the Mechanised South American Tour
several other 2009 gigs and plenty longer ago shows, I can not list here ...


Millions of thanks to everyone involved!!!


: : : : : : : : : : : : : : ...

don't blame me

.. ok, I forgot to mention a few other things ... ... ...