The Zookeepers biffed out our number one record of 2009 - Ballin’ Outrageous. Think of all the amazing records this year - there is a shitload of them - and in our opinion Ballin’ Outrageous is better than all of the rest of them.
Here are The Zookeepers favourite albums of 2009, handily arranged in alphabetical order. Good to see they’re not afraid of including their own album in the list. If you don’t blow your own trumpet etc etc.
Our favourite masters of noise HEALTH have come up with their own top 10 of 2009. Feast your eyes after the jump.
As yall know from the popular website calendar.blogspot.com, the year 2k9 only has 2 months left. The annual music cycle is ‘officially over’ and will be dormant until the first major indie album release in 2k10. This means ‘we’ as an altosphere need 2 do our best to reflect on the year that we just lived, and try 2 analyze which album/artist/mp3 we want to be the embodiment of 2k9. Each alt website has a responsibility to select a ‘best’ artist, which may not actually ‘be the best’, but instead will represent ‘how they think 2k9 should be remembered’, and convince u 2 ’stay on board with us, cuz our perception of the indiesphere is really genuine and down2earth in a hi-level kinda way.’
This has been my jam the last couple months. Can’t get enough of it. As YANP says, it is a "Song Of The Year" contender for sure. The new video was directed by Matthew Lessner and gives you dirty little pervs your fill of the DP girls.
‘Dark Was The Night’ is a double compilation in support of the Red Hot Organization - an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. If you take away the obvious reason for buying this album and concentrate on the actual music, you come away with a decent round up of the current of cream of the US indie/alt scence. A 31 track album is always going to vary in quality but contributions from Dirty Projectors with David Byrne, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Kronos Quartet, Blonde Redhead + Devastations and Bon Iver easily outweigh any lesser moments.
Dirty Projectors are to release their fifth album Bitte Orca through Domino Records on June 8th. Recorded in Portland and their native Brooklyn last year, it moves away from the conceptual framework of 2007’s Rise Above, on which frontman Dave Longstreth attempted to recreate Black Flag’s Damaged album from memory. Promised tracks include ‘Cannibal Resource’, ‘Fluorescent Half Dome’, and ‘Temecula Sunrise’.
The album will be preceded by a single, ‘Stillness Is The Move’, on May 18th, with exclusive B-sides and a remix by Lucky Dragons.
Though the band are first and foremost a Longstreth project, and have seen countless line-up changes since their inception in 2002, Bitte Orca features the same quartet who toured Rise Above and featured on our cover in January 2008.
Augmented by upright bassist Nat Baldwin and vocalist Haley Dekle, they will also embark on a UK tour, sponsored by the Arts Council, with experimental jazzers Polar Bear.
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (March 24), Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (25), Belfast Black Box (27), Dublin Crawdaddy (28), Glasgow ABC2 (29), Brighton Komedia (31), Manchester Mint Lounge (April 1), London Scala (2), Bristol Arnolfini (3), Coventry Taylor Johns House (4)
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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