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The rise of electro-80’s-pop-indie-dance sounds seems to be a trend that is showing some staying power.  Its a sound that has roots back to the early 2000’s with Daft Punk.  Some notable early players in the genre include Royksopp, Basement Jaxx, Metro Area, Scissor Sisters and Kelley Polar.  More recently you have Hot Chip, Crystal Castles, The Whip, Friendly Fires and the most commercially prolific of the genre, Phoenix (to name a few).

As you know I obviously love finding music that is NOT exactly new… but sounds fresh… and makes an impact, which leads me to the subject of this post.  I have been into The Black Ghosts since early 2009 with their self titled album.  Full Moon is an amazing track off of a very good album and sounds something like a stoned version of Phoenix with an equal mix of Jamiroquai, MGMT and Gorillaz sprinkled on top.  I did not know however until very recently, The Black Ghosts put out a Mixtape in 2008 which totally crushes it.

The Mixtape features remixes by TBG’s among other great DJ’s.  If you are looking for some seriously infectious bass lines, grinding synths and 80’s electro pop beats in an album perfect for an hour long run get ready to be infected.  Of the standout tracks which are posted below The Black Ghosts remix of The One by Trabant is a BIG TIME track!  If your a fan of the genre discussed prior, get ready to clap your hands and peg your jeans.  How this track flew under the radar is amazing, not even a car commercial spot?  This mixtape has more hand claps than a high school cheerleading practice.

The Black Ghosts…. enjoy.

Listen: Trabant – The One (The Black Ghosts Remix)

Listen: The Black Ghosts – Full Moon

Listen: The Black Ghosts – I Want Nothing (Extended Mix)

Listen: The Black Ghosts – Something New

Finally….. drum-roll….. The Top 10.

As hard as it was to come up with my top 40 songs of 2009, it was quite easy to pick the top 5 or 6.  They all come from albums that I would classify as the Top Albums of 2009  I would love to give my thoughts on each of the top 10 songs, but time is short and 2009 was so 2009.  Here are my thoughts on the top 4.

#1 – I was totally enthralled with the peace and love, country-folk-caravan-of-hippies trip vibe that was imagined by Alex Ebert, vocalist of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and formally of the power pop group Ima Robot.  In a world that has seen it’s share of struggle this year, I was always able to clear my mind and go to a happy place with “Home”.

I little background on Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (via Wikipedia) – After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and joining Alcoholics Anonymous, Ebert began work on a story about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. According to Ebert, Sharpe “was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind…but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.”  I hope you fall in love with Edward if you haven’t already.

#2 – Phoenix dropped the “hottest” track I can remember in the last few years.  Just because music is “Good”, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “Hot” and vice-versa.  “Hot” and “Good” are actually mutually exclusive.  However, in the case of Phoenix, 1901… this shit is “Hot” and “Good”.

With Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix bridged the gap between Pop and Indie-Electro without becoming something empty and fake (ie Maroon 5).   Even though I have heard the song 100’s of times (mostly due to the Cadillac commercial) I still bounce my head and think to myself……. Damn this track is HOT!!

#3 – Where Phoenix crossed over to Pop with their Indie-Electro sound, Grizzly Bear almost did the same with their Indie-Folk style.  When Jay-Z starts pimping your jams and comes to your shows, you know you have crossed over something.  Veckatimest is arguably my favorite album of 2009.  Does that mean I argue with myself?  I do.  This album took some time to grow on me and then I just listed to it non stop for 3 weeks.  3 very good weeks of 2009.

#4 – When I argue with myself,  sometimes I say, “Passion Pit, Manners is the Best Album of 2009.”  And usually I win the argument.  Passion Pit laid down an album full of amazing tracks.  Eyes as Candles is my favorite of the bunch (make sure you listen for the sax riffs at the end.  Sick.)  Passion Pit may be our generations ABBA with the dance beats and falsetto pipes.  Happy music for everyone!!!!

1.  Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Up from Below

2.  1901 – Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

3.  Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

4.  Eyes As Candles – Passion Pit, Manners

5.  No Intention – Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca

6.  The High Road – Broken Bells, The High Road – Single

7.  Sweet Disposition – The Temper Trap, Conditions

8.  Lisztomania – Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

9.  Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) – Monsters of Folk, Monsters of Folk

10. These Are My Twisted Words – Radiohead, These Are My Twisted Words – Single

11. Ready, Able – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

12. The Reeling – Passion Pit, Manners

13. Hesitation Blues -Willie Nelson & Asleep At the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel

14. You’ve Got the Love (XX remix) – Florence + the Machine (XX Remix), Single

15. 40 Day Dream – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Up from Below

16. Hell On Earth – Deer Tick, Born On Flag Day

17. It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone – Silversun Pickups, Swoon

18. Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) – Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3

19. Silver Trembling Hands – The Flaming Lips, Embryonic

20. Southern Point – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

21. Party In the U.S.A. – Miley Cyrus, Party In the U.S.A. – Single

22. Thunderbird – The Golden Filter, Thunderbird – EP

23. Deadbeat Summer – Neon Indian, Psychic Chasms

24. They Done Wrong _ We Done Wrong – White Rabbits, It’s Frightening

25. One Life Stand – Hot Chip, One Life Stand – Single

26. Golden Phone – Micachu, Jewellery

27. The Rake’s Song – The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love

28. In The Hospital – Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires

29. We Share the Same Skies – The Cribs, Ignore the Ignorant

30. Carries On – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Up from Below

This is the first of 4 posts with 10 songs each which will make up the “Top 40 Songs of 2009 – According to Coach” at cutbucket.com.  Picking 40 songs out of all of the great music that has come out in 2009 proved to be a tremendous challenge which is a testament to all of the new and wonderful sounds that filled my ears this year.

The thing to remember here is that these selections are my opinion based on many things including “my taste”.  The beauty of music is that we all have our own taste and style of sound we prefer.  2009 was an exceptional year regardless of your taste and my selections are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the great music released this year.  Whatever your taste is, there are far more than 40 songs which can tell the story of music in 2009.  What an amazing musical time we are living in.  The maturity of the internet, while still far from perfect, has allowed so many more artists to find a channel in which to be heard over.  It’s a great time to be a fan of music.

The criteria that I considered were the following -

Number of Listens – How many times did I play each song (based on tracking within iTunes).  Of course, songs that came out later in the year were weighed against the available length of time listen to each song.

Sticky Factor - Did each song have the ability to “stick in my head” so to speak.? Was it recognizable again immediately after the first couple of listens?  Did I find myself humming the tune in my mind days after hearing it?

Overall Production Value – This speaks for itself…

Uniqueness – We don’t want no posers here.

Single Song Value – This was one of the hardest factors in my consideration.  Was the song strong enough to stand on it’s own without being part of an album.  In the day and age of single song downloads this is very important.   When picking the top “Songs” this has to be a factor.  If I were to pick the top “Albums” this would be a completely different mix of artists.

NOTE ::  As it relates to Single Song Value I had a very tough challenge placing the songs from Animal Collective’s release “Merriweather Post Pavilion”.  To truly appreciate the outstanding quality of their album I feel it needs to be judged as just that… AN ALBUM.  It is by far one of the top 3 of the year!!!  What is so special about Merriweather is it’s value as a work of art as a complete album in the day and age of the single song download.  That being said, none of the individual songs jumped into a natural spot within this list.  Therefore, I have included what I believe are the strongest singles from the album and put them at the bottom of the list.  This by no means represents the value of this album, I just didn’t know what else to do.  I highly suggest you listen to the entire album start to finish if you are going to listen to it at all. SORRY FOR THE LONG EXPLANATION.  I FELT IT WAS DUE.

NOW ON TO THE LIST….

31. About Face – Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

32. Tell Me True – Sarah Jarosz, Song Up In Her Head

33. Soldier (Feat. Santigold) – N.E.R.D.

34. Walking On a Dream – Empire of the Sun, Walking On a Dream

35. What You Do to Me (feat. Billy Danze, Jim Jones & Nicole Wray) – Blakroc, Blakroc

36. Ghosts N Stuff – Deadmau5, Ghosts N Stuff – Single

37. Higher Than the Stars – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Higher Than the Stars

38. Things Will Never Be the Same Again – JJ, JJ N° 2

39. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

40. Brother Sport – Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

A couple of my favorite songs right now are actually by Hollywood movie stars. One hit it big with a major love story (I own it, but have never watched it) and the other is like the king of Indie flicks.

Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) and his best friend team up as Dead Man’s Bones to create some seriously spooky sounds. Apparently they’re huge fans or horror movies. This track is awesome and the kids’ choir kills it. By the way, be sure to check out their web site:

www.deadmansbones.net – Even spookier.

Then there is Coconut Records, which is Jason Schwartzman. I frickin’ love this guy in Rushmore, Shopgirl and he steals it in Funny People. He’s got an album coming out this month. Here are two tracks from him.

I usually hate it when “Entertainers” cross over between mediums – see Jared Leto, Keanu Reeves, Russel Crowe, etc., etc., but these guys get it right in my mind.

Enjoy.

Listen: Dead Man’s Bones – Pa Pa Power (feat. the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir)

Listen: Coconut Records – West Coast

Listen: Coconut Records – Nighttiming

If there was ever a “charity compilation cover album” you NEEDED to buy this is it.  War Child – Heroes, Vol. 1

Here are 17 reasons why…

1.  Proceeds go to the humanitarian charity organization, War Child, who funds protection for children living in global war zones.

2. Beck covers Bob Dylan (Beck never ceases to amaze…)

3. The Kooks cover The Kinks

4. The Hold Steady covers Bruce Springsteen (Soooo Good!!!)

5. Hot Chip covers Joy Division (Hot!!!!)

6. Lily Allen covers The Clash

7. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover Ramones (Joey would be proud!! This from an all out Ramones Fanatic.  It does serious justice!!!)

8. Franz Ferdinand covers Blondie

9. Duffy covers Paul McCartney and Wings

10. Estelle covers Stevie Wonder (Wonder-ful Funk!!)

11. Rufus Wainwright covers Brian Wilson

12. Scissor Sisters covers Roxy Music (Somehow it becomes ABBA On Fire Disco Trash!!!!)

13. Peaches covers The Stooges (Peach Cobbler… I mean Peach “clobbers” The Stooges.  Amazing!!!)

14. Adam Cohen covers his father Leonard Cohen (In spanish no doubt.  Beautifully insane sick… and LIVE!!!)

15. Elbow covers U2 (Gorgeous!!)

16. The Like cover Elvis Costello

17. TV On the Radio covers David Bowie

Here are a couple of my favorites.  The whole album is absolutely amazing!!!  Well worth the $10 for a good cause.

Listen: Beck (Bob Dylan) – Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat

Listen: The Kooks (The Kinks) – Victoria

Listen: Hot Chip (Joy Division) -Transmission

Listen: Adam Cohen (Leonard Cohen) -Take This Waltz (Toma Este Waltz)

Listen: Elbow (U2) – Running to Stand Still

If you don’t have HBO you need to rethink your TV priorities or at least your Sunday night TV priorities.  OK, I will drop the melodramatic and just tell you this… there is no better TV than HBO on Sunday night hands down.  Between Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Bored to Death, East Bound and Down, True Blood and a handful of others no longer on air such as The Saprano’s, Rome, Tales from the Crypt, The Larry Sanders Show, Sex and the City, 6 Feet Under, Flight of the Concords and Deadwood it is no argument HBO kills it.

Which brings me to Big Love.  Who else but HBO could make the life of a polygamist Mormon family in Utah so engaging.  I guess no one else would even take on the subject come to think of it.

Back to the music part of this post.  The trailer for the new season of Big Love just started hitting he air over the last few weeks.  As much as I love the show, I love the song they chose even better.  Interpol, Untitled from the Turn On The Bright Lights album.  The spot features the Big Love characters falling through the air of a black emptiness as if to represent the fall deeper into the life, lies and love they live on the show.  Untitled works so well with slow motion falling as the guitars pulse into a reverb that seems to fades away into a deep black well.

After seeing the ad I revisited the album and remembered just how good it was.  In the top 100 albums of all time if you ask me.  In my honest opinion, you can thank Interpol for influencing the sounds of Franz Ferdinand and The Killers to name a couple.  I added a couple additional tracks from the album to the post for good measure. Enjoy…

(Headphones recommended for but not needed by any means. The last 2:00 of PDA with good headphones will make your head explode!!!)

Listen: Interpol – Untitled

Listen: Interpol – PDA

Listen: Interpol – Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down

I always relate music to moments in time and what you do in those moments.  It is always cool for me to see how other people digest the same music and how their emotions connect the music to memories or moments in time.

The songs in this post have a very mellow vibe and fit just as nicely in a lounge while sipping martinis, driving on a lonely road with the radio at full volume or while chilling at home with your headphones on a cloudy winter day (which is what I am doing at the very moment).

Let me know how these songs connect to your moments in time…

Listen: Interpol – Public Pervert (Carlos D Remix)

Listen: Fever Ray – Triangle Walks (Tora Vinter)

Listen: Simian Mobile Disco – Bad Blood (feat. Alexis Taylor)

We are always looking for new sound and musical experiences here at cutbucket.  Thus, when I heard Black Keys were teaming up with some hip-hop heavy hitters we were all over it.  We went as far as setting Google Cal reminders for the release date, which by no coincidence was “Black” Friday.  Nice marketing nuance.

First impressions on a handful of tracks were slightly less enthusiastic than had been expected.  Some tracks leave me feeling like the last true good hip-hop/rock collaboration was the Judgment Night soundtrack.  As we listened on we were happy to find some serious sick cuts.

The tracks that still maintain and showcase the vintage Black Keys blues rock sound while fusing the flow of a fine selection of MC’s are wonderful.  Some tracks seem to lose the Keys signature and that is a shame.  That being said, well worth the wait for the few gems!!

By far our favorite cut is What You Do to Me.  Super swanky flow by Dan Auerbach on the chorus make you want light a smoke and sport a fedora.  Dan’s keyboard lick that echoes throughout kills!!  Nicole Wray’s sexy voice is the glue that binds the hard hitting verses by Billy Danze and Jim Jones.  As a total package, OUTSTANDING!!!

Note:  Make sure you check out the great video webisodes of the making of the album. www.blakroc.com/videos.html

Download: Blakroc – What You Do to Me (feat. Billy Danze, Jim Jones & Nicole Wray)

Download: Blakroc – Hope You’re Happy (feat. Billy Danze, Nicole Wray & Q-Tip)

Download: Blakroc – Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) [feat. Jim Jones & Mos Def]