Dancy Pants

Artist: Goldfrapp
Album: Head First
RIYL: Groove Armada, Little Boots, Dragonette, Lady Gaga, Hot Chip

Goldfrapp’s music ranges from dance synth pop to ambient mood music. This album seems to be a combination of the two. The first single sounds like something that is straight out of Xanadu though.  The rest of the album varies from that a bit, but it is a fun first single.

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Artist: Little Boots
Album: Hands
RIYL: Goldfrapp, La Roux, The Bird and the Bee, Hot Chip, Groove Armada, Lady Gaga

Little Boots is really Victoria Hesketh from the U.K. She started making some songs in her bedroom,  posted them on YouTube and got a record deal out of it. Her music is synth pop that reminds me of good early ’80s new wave.

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Indie Rock

Artist: Broken Bells
Album: Broken Bells
RIYL: Gorillaz, Frightened Rabbit, Beach House, Spoon

James Mercer from the Shins and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) collaborate. Danger Mouse usually works with other artists by creating a mix of samples that they sing over, but the entire album is either Mercer or Burton playing instruments with Mercer singing.

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Artist: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Album: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
RIYL: Jesus and Mary Chain, The Whigs, Gorillaz, Drive-by Truckers

They sound like if Jesus and Mary Chain decided to go down South and mix up some Southern rock with their fuzzy guitars. It doesn’t sound too different from their last few albums, so if you liked those, you should like this one too.

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Artist: Gorillaz
Album: Plastic Beach
RIYL: Broken Bells, Groove Armada, Massive Attack, MGMT, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

It is still the brainchild of Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett while they collaborate with different singers and producers on each album. I’ve always liked various songs from the band, but never liked an album enough to own it. I haven’t been too impressed with the lead single on this one.

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Alt-Country/Folk

Artist: She & Him
Album: Volume Two
RIYL: The Little Sisters, The White Stripes, The Shins, Phoenix

Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward got together for a one-off album, but then decided to stay together for another album. They are a mix of folky music with a country twinge to it. It isn’t my thing, but it is interesting.

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Below there is a clip of each song. The entire playlist is also available on YouTube.

Favorite Song 2009

Artist: Miike Snow
Song: Animal
Album: Miike Snow

How did I determine which would be my overall favorite song of the year? In 2008, I could not stop listening to “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon  over and over and over again. This year, that honor goes to Miike Snow’s “Animal”. I still am not sick of it. It is just catchy and makes my head start bouncing whenever I hear it. I heard it for the first time while I was listening to the new releases on Amazon, which I really need to get back to doing. I then heard the song a couple of times on 94.7. It wasn’t played too often, but I loved it. They are a Swedish band. I saw them live a few months back. They were excellent.

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Best of the Rest

The rest of these are not in any particular order.

Artist: Phoenix
Song: 1901
Album: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

This song grew on me. It was released early in 2009 and I didn’t think much of it, until one day, it just clicked. Whenever I heard it (on the radio, in commercials, etc.), it made me very happy when it was stuck in my head. They are French. I know they have been around a few years and I think I know one of their older songs, but I never bought anything from them until this year.

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I didn’t even know this song was an official single. They never played it on the radio around here. It is my favorite song on the album. The only songs that were played off of it were “Lucid Dreams,” which I thought was only okay and “No You Girls,” which I found to be a much better song. I’m not sure why this never made it into regular rotation. I have never seen the video before today and it is damn goofy.

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I have no idea why I keep buying albums from The Killers. I usually really like one or two songs and then the rest of the album gets ignored by me. I saw them live for their first tour and was not impressed, which can kill my  love for a band. The latest album came out and, of course, I really liked one song on it and the rest seems to only be okay to me.  I had never seen this video before today, either. What is up with Brandon Flower’s outfit?

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I’m cheating on this one. The album was released towards the end of 2008, but I didn’t discover it until early 2009. I got to see the band at the Sasquatch music festival up in George, WA. What a trip! There were so many costumes and weirdness going on, that I couldn’t believe I was sober. There is no official video for this and the live versions I found had horrible sound quality so it’s just a non-video linked below.

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It’s the group made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. They all work at Saturday Night Live, but they have been friends and making funny stuff for years. They are mostly famous for “I’m on a Boat” or “Dick in a Box” that are popular on SNL. The entire album is completely juvenile and is quite popular with teenage boys. I do love this song. It’s catchy. I also love listening to Julian Casablancas singing with more emotion than I hear on The Strokes songs. Sadly, there is no official video and most  that I find are scary. The WoW one is my favorite.

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This is another cheating one since it also came out at the end of 2008, but I discovered it at the very beginning of 2009. It is essentially a band for Victoria Hesketh from the UK.  I read about her in Rolling Stone and went to check out her music based on what they wrote. She has a bunch of EPs and extended singles. Her first full-length album came out last year as an import, but I can’t find it available to download anywhere so I’ll just wait for that to happen. There’s no official song for this video either so you’ll just have to listen to it while staring at the random girl in the clip that isn’t Victoria.

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I love Kinky. They get no radio airplay that I know about in the States. They put on fabulous live shows. I learned about them years ago from a CMJ cd that had one of their songs on it. Sadly, my favorite song on the latest album does not have an official video. I did find some live versions, but the sound quality on most of them were really bad. I did find some in studio performances, but it is a shame to watch them in the studio when they have so much energy live. While searching for a more exciting video of this song, I did stumble across them doing a cover of “Mexican Radio,” complete with accordion. Awesome!

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For old school Prodigy fans, I think you will be pleased with this album, if you decided to ignore Prodigy lately. This goes back to their old school sound. I really didn’t think I would like the album, but just bought it for the hell of it. I was pleasantly surprised. I love this song. It reminds me of the poppy goodness of  “It’s No Good.”

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The New York City band’s second album was produced by Britt Daniel from Spoon. I really like “Percussion Gun”, but the rest of the album didn’t grab me as much. It’s still a really good song. I love the dual drums.

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I’ve heard about Grizzly Bear for a few years. I’ve heard some of their songs, but for some reason, none of them resonated with me until this past year. They were just one of those bands that snuck up on me. I never hated the songs, but they just didn’t do anything for me until recently. As for the video, it freaks me out in a good way.

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This was the first song that I blipped on blip.fm back in April 2009. They formed down in Southern California, but wanted to move somewhere else so they ended up in Portland. This song is beyond catchy. I saw them play up at Sasquatch Music Festival in May and they were very entertaining live. The rest of their songs are as catchy as this one.

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Even though “Sleepyhead” showed up on the Chunk of Change EP in 2008, it also showed up on their first full-length album in 2009. I also discovered both EP and album in 2009 so it all counts in my book. I read about Passion Pit while I was at Sasquatch. They sounded like something I would like from the description, but they were playing at the same time as the Doves so I chose to see the Doves. Little later on in the  year, I kept hearing a fifteen-second snippet of a song on the radio as new music they were playing. I wanted to know what it was and I wanted to hear the entire song. It turned out to be “The Reeling.” I bought everything I could find from them at that point. That’s when I fell in love with this song.

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This was another song that  slowly grew on me. I loved that it wasn’t a typical-sounding song. I didn’t think I would really like much more from the band than this song, but I saw them live last month. They were phenomenal. The live energy was insane. Good stuff.

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I discovered this band by listening to an ITunes indie music sampler a few months ago. It doesn’t appear that you can buy it from Amazon, except as an import. It is on ITunes and I downloaded it from emusic.com since I subscribe to it. I downloaded this album and the previous EP. They are both really good, dance rock tracks.

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This is another song I discovered this band by listening to an ITunes indie music sampler a few months ago. I just downloaded the album and started listening to it. The rest seems to be more in a ’70s rock vein, moreso than this song, but I do love this song. It has a poppy feel with a great guitar sound.

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I fell in love with this song first before I saw it in 500 Days of Summer. The guitars sound like U2, but while I do not like U2, I like this. I believe it is the singing that makes all the difference.

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I found this song on an Austin City Limits sample from ITunes earlier this year. I don’t know anything about the band, but I really like the song.

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I really liked “Young Folks” when it came out a few years ago, but I took it as a one-hit wonder and ignored the band. I really like this song, so I really should buy something from them. I just haven’t done it yet.

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Spearhead used to be played on the radio station I listened to in high school and college. I was not a big fan. I do love this song, but that’s probably because it is different than anything Michael Franti and Spearhead have ever done. It is a happy song so I’ll just enjoy this one.

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I’m not a Pete Yorn fan but I do like this song. Maybe it is because of Scarlett Johansson. I just love the chorus when they are both singing together.

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Entire YouTube Playlist: Summer ’09 Playlist

Miike Snow – Animal

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Franz Ferdinand – Can’t Stop Feeling

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Hockey – Too Fake

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Kinky – Hasta Quemarnos

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Little Boots – Meddle

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Of Montreal – Triphallus, To Punctuate

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Of Montreal – The Party’s Crashing Us

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Passion Pit – The Reeling

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White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

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http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0B3B5BD49FE889A7&page=2

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=25A9D49A5C86A636

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A9D04643930DDACC

Recommended

Artist: Placebo
Album: Battle For the Sun
RIYL: Marilyn Manson, Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, Phoenix, Silversun Pickups

Reviews say it is inconsistent, but the first and last tracks are very strong. The songs sounds bigger and more epic than previous albums, which could be because they used a new producer who worked with Tool and Muse before.

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Decent

Artist: Sonic Youth
Album: The Eternal
RIYL: Grizzy Bear, Elvis Costello, Dinosaur Jr., Yeah Yeah Yeah

Sonic Youth gave up the major labels and went back to an indie. They are now on Matador for their 16th album sounding like themselves, but a big more polished.

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Artist: Kasabian
Album: West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
RIYL: Doves, Phoenix, Sonic Youth, Jarvis Cocker, Placebo, Eels

I remember them being a dance band, but a few of these songs have a Doors feel mixed in with it.

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Artist: The Dirty Projectors
Album: Bitte Orca
RIYL: Phoenix, St. Vincent, Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, Grizzly Bear, Neko Case

Experimental indie band.

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Recommended

Artist: Depeche Mode
Album: Sounds of the Universe
RIYL: U2, Morrissey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pet Shop Boys

It has the synth sounds from older albums, and while some songs sound as good as the older songs, other ones are a little on the boring side. It might grow on me, which I have found their most recent albums need to do for me to like them with the exception of Exciter. I still hate that one. The video for “Wrong” is pretty cool and twisted so I recommend watching it.

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Artist: Pet Shop Boys
Album: Yes
RIYL: Depeche Mode, U2, Erasure, Morrissey, Lady Gaga

After their last few albums were not very successful and sounded not so much like the Pet Shop Boys, this 10th album sounds like it could be the follow up to their 1993 album Very. For any older fan of Pet Shop Boys, you would be quite pleased with this album. As for the video down below, I found it hypnotic and could not stop watching the bouncing.

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Potentially Good Stuff

Artist: Cage the Elephant
Album: Cage the Elephant
RIYL: Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Silversun Pickups, MGMT

The highly-buzzed band from Kentucky with the late ’60s/early ’70s rock sound.

Video: Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked

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Artist: Camera Obscura
Album: My Maudlin Career
RIYL: Decemberists, Bat for Lashes, Doves, Neko Case, Fleet Foxes, Peter Bjorn and John

Scottish indie pop band that makes pretty music about love gone wrong.

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Artist: Manchester Orchestra
Album: Mean Everything To Nothing
RIYL: Decemberists, Silversun Pickups, Doves, As Cities Burn, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Atlanta rock bands second album has them primed to become household names if someone would pay attention.

Video: Shake It Out

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Artist: Art Brut
Album: Art Brut vs. Satan
RIYL: Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Silversun Pickups, MGMT

London-based art punk band produced by Frank Black.

Video: Alcoholics Unanimous

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Recommended

Artist: Silversun Pickups
Album: Swoon
RIYL: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, U2, Doves, Neko Case, Metric

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Silversun Pickups for their first album. I thought “Lazy Eye was okay, but never bought the album. I do like their new song “Panic Switch” a lot more.

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Potentially Good Stuff

Artist: Metric
Album: Fantasies
RIYL: Broken Social Scene, Breeders, Feist, New Pornographers, Death Cab For Cutie

Ethereal pop music from an indie band that just hasn’t broken through to the mainstream after being around for 11 years. This is their fourth album.

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Artist: Grand Duchy
Album: Petits Fours
RIYL: Pixies, Frank Black, Leonard Cohen, Neko Case, The Cure

Side project of Black Francis and his wife, Violet Clark.

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