Best of 2009…Playlist 12/9/2009

So here it is…my list of the top albums of 2009. This week's Backline Show has songs and interviews from this list!!!

10. Otis Redding! The Best: See and Hear is an amazing release from Shout! It’s a two disc set that has your Redding jams, but also has 12 DVD tracks of great performance footage, including Booker T. and the MG’s backing up Redding and Sam and Dave. This album is just good stuff.

9. It’s Not as Bad as it Looks is one remarkable album not just because it might not have happened, but because it is some of the best song writing from Jon Dee Graham in a great while. In the fall of 2008, Graham was found on the side of the road by a Texas State Trooper thirty minutes after Graham’s near fatal car accident. Blood everywhere and hanging from a barbed wire fence, Graham popped out of shock as the trooper tapped him on the shoulder and Graham instantly shouted, “it’s not as bad as it looks!” Graham was right and it turned out a perfect title for this prolific piece. Produced by Stuart Sullivan, Michael Hardwick and Jon Dee Graham, the album chronicles Graham’s dive into human imperfection, the journey towards an emotional center and a realization that things will somehow and always work out.

8. It’s hard to have a killer band. I can’t imagine how Adrian Quesada can have THREE! Besides Brownout and Grupo Fantasma, Quesada’s group, Ocote Soul Sounds, is outstanding. Coconut Rock is a great combo of latin music and some awesome electro/downtempo sounds. It flew under the radar this year and I can’t figure out why. This is a must have for you fans of the alt. latin scene.

7. I found this album flipping through CDs at End of an Ear. It was a total chance I took. Most listeners know me as a Dilla disciple. I like that organic, creative, sonically colorful hip hop beat. Inf did just that this year with The Go Round. This is an amazing album with just a good smooth, solid, understated sound. If you want to know more about the album and the artist, read up on Inf with the Q and A on Time to B.S.

6. The Mountain is one good indie rock record by Heartless Bastards. Behind some rockin, hauntin vocals there is this great, subtle alt. country sound the slowly drifts through it all. The Mike McCarthy produced album spotlights how much of a rock star Erika Wennerstrom really is. If you want to hear more from Erika Wennerstrom and more about the album, check out the archive at The Backline Show.

5. It’s soul. It’s dirty. It’s jammin. It’s raw. It grooves. Learn About It. That’s all you really need to know. The self produced record embodies some real lovers of soul and r&b just doing what they love. The arrangements are super tight and the horn line kills it in a raw soul kinda way.T-Bird and the Breaks was one of the bright spots in the Austin music scene this past year!

4. Wilco released Wilco this year. But they also released one hell of a live performance DVD/Documentary. Ashes of American Flags is beautiful. Plain and simple. The DVD wasn’t planned, it was off-the-cuff and gave some really interesting insight into Wilco, but also examined the changing American landscape. Wilco was filmed in five quintessentially American venues: Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK; Tipitina’s in New Orleans, LA; The Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, AL; The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN; and the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. Along with the DVD you can download 20 of the live tracks. It is a must get for the Wilco fan.

3. This is jazz/electro pop goodness. The Bird and the Bee released Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future at the beginning of 2009 and I haven’t stopped listening to it all year. The songs are sophisticated, tad quirky and down right sexy…part Scarlett Johansen part Nellie NcKay…oh..and everything has a groove. I still say that “Polite Dance Song” could have been the hit that would have put Britney Spears back on top.

2. This album begins with a fanfare and then a cover of Journey’s song, “Faithfully.” Makes no sense until you hear it…and no other song would do. Animal Boy is Matt the Electrician’s best songwriting album. And Matt may be the best songwriter in Austin right now. Every song is a tight, original, curious narrative that glides along. If you want to hear more from Matt check out the interview in the archive at The Backline Show.

1. The Telephone Game is sleek, seductive and crushing. Kate Schutt has put together a jazz vocal album with that touch of heartbroken rock. Compared by some as being a a cross between Blossom Dearie and Bonnie Raitt, Schutt has written some incredible lyrics that are only highlighted with the terrific arrangments. Nothing is heavy, everything floats along and the use of dynamic playing is classic. If you want to hear more from Kate Schutt….check out the interview in the archive section of The Backline Show.