The year-end season of lists is mercifully nearing a close, but before it slips away, I wanted to make sure my fave raves were shoved down your collective throats one more time! This time it’s my favorite songs of 2009. I was trying to get the list down to a reasonable number and having a cuss of a time doing it when suddenly I had one of those rare flashes of inspiration (possibly misguided inspiration, but still…) and decided I had enough really, really good songs to build the thing into 52-song list. A song a week! Exciting, right? Looks as if I liked lots of noisy pop, pretty pop, dancefloor groovers, slick new wave, hip hop jamz and borderline novelty songs…pretty predictable, true, but it kept me happy all year long. What more can you want from music? Anyway, click through to see what my “year in songs” sounded like.

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“There are no good bands anymore.”They don’t write songs the way they used to.” “2009 was a terrible year for music just like every year has been ever since I was a kid and music was perfect!!” Said, thought or written any of those things lately? This is for you, then. My year end Hot Damn Jamz are the 10 bands who hit in 2009 that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who feels that music, especially indie pop and rock, is all over. Wake up sleepwalker, because music is as good as it ever was, and these bands are the proof. They may not be the ten bands you would pick, understood, but he important thing is that there are ten bands (at least) out there for everyone. Every damn year!

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2009 was a real good year for mixtapes and we’ve rounded up  twenty that made us the happiest. There’s some dancehall reggae, hardcore rap, old school hip hop, dubstep, dancefloor friendly jams, and general goodness with big names like Beck and Lil Wayne bumped up against promising newcomers like Nicki Minaj, Freddie Gibbs and Joy Orbison. At least one of these mixes is as good as any legit album that came out during the year; all of them are first-rate examples of how to generate interest in your work through the time honored tool of the mix. As always, feel free to let us know if we missed anything!

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Nobody tried to influence my vote with a bribe (unfortunately, since Christmas shopping left me light in the pockets), but even so, choosing my favorite Hot Damn Jamz didn’t take much thought. Now that these bands have released albums or EPs, it was only a matter of scrolling through my Ipod and narrowing it down to ten jammerz.

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Through the week of the 20th, the AllMusic Blog will be publishing our editors’ favorite albums of 2009. We’ll be covering well over a dozen genres and styles, from rap to reggae, R&B to electronic, country to Latin, blues to metal, folk to soundtracks, and several points in-between. Right now, on the AllMusic Blog, we take a look at our favorite electronic albums of 2009. Be sure to check our overall feature of new albums and classical releases, AllMusic Loves 2009, and our other 2009 in Review posts.

Various Artists – 5 Years of Hyperdub
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ada – Adaptations: Mixtape #1
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Dave’s off enjoying some holiday eggnog so we’re going to intro his picks for you. Looks like his top jamz are predictably awesome. Some shoegazers, some refined British pop, some noise, and some good old indie rock make for a nice range of bands that hit big in 09 and will continue to impress in 2010. Not to mention Happy Burger and their ridiculously awesome song “Pizza All Around.” Dave did a fine job this year picking the jamz. Let’s hear it for the boy!

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Through the week of the 20th, the AllMusic Blog will be publishing our editors’ favorite albums of 2009. We’ll be covering well over a dozen genres and styles, from rap to reggae, R&B to electronic, country to Latin, blues to metal, folk to soundtracks, and several points in-between. Right now, on the AllMusic Blog, we take a look at the second half of our favorite indie rock and pop albums of 2009. Be sure to check our overall feature of new albums and classical releases, AllMusic Loves 2009, and our other 2009 in Review posts.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
 
 
 
 
 
 
Japandroids – Post-Nothing
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sondre Lerche – Heartbeat Radio
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective
 
 
 
 
 
 
Micachu & the Shapes – Jewellery
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mika Miko – We Be Xuxa
 
 
 
 
 
 
Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Pastels/Tenniscoats – Two Sunsets
 
 
 
 
 
 
El Perro del Mar – Love Is Not Pop
 
 
 
 
 
 
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head
 
 
 
 
 
 
Real Estate – Real Estate
 
 
 
 
 
 
St. Vincent – Actor
 
 
 
 
 
 
Silk Flowers – Silk Flowers
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
 
 
 
 
 
 
Talk Normal – Sugarland
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – Snake
 
 
 
 
 
 
The xx – xx
 
 
 
 
 
 

Through the week of the 20th, the AllMusic Blog will be publishing our editors’ favorite albums of 2009. We’ll be covering well over a dozen genres and styles, from rap to reggae, R&B to electronic, country to Latin, blues to metal, folk to soundtracks, and several points in-between. Right now, on the AllMusic Blog, we take a look at the first half of our favorite indie rock and pop albums of 2009. Be sure to check our overall feature of new albums and classical releases, AllMusic Loves 2009, and our other 2009 in Review posts.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
 
 
 
 
 

Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
 
 
 
 
 
 

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