Holy Ben Stein On A Bender! It’s Jeff Railsback’s Top Ten Songs of 2009!
by: radioXwaves
I am not going to break the mold necessarily. I am going to take a slightly different approach however, in the aim of avoiding the never ending snooze fest that are most of my fellow music geeks lists. Instead of my top ten albums this year, I’m going to list my ten most played songs, based on my iTunes playcounts. The songs were all released in this year of our lord, 2009. My counts would probably be higher if it weren’t for an incident that left me without my music storage devices early in the year, but otherwise the counts are accurate enough.
In part, I do this because of the aforementioned “Ben Stein On A Bender” approach. In part I also do this because I spent way more time exploring older generations of music and paying less mind to current punk and pop music. To be blunt, most new stuff just bored me this year. All my favorite standards released snoozefests, such as the aptly named Coaster. There wasn’t a whole hell of a lot of music that helped me realize anything about the human condition nor my own life. Without trying to come off as a hater, current “pop music” just seems to have little weight or substance to me. And that’s one of the things I’ve always enjoyed from music is the message. Whether it’s an introspective tune or something a little more confrontational, I like it to be challenging a bit.
So this year I looked backwards. This was a big year for the Stooges, Public Enemy, David Bowie, Dead Moon, Fugazi and most of the SST back catalog. I picked up a few new bands along the way, yes. Baroness has an amazing record that came out this year, for example. But for the most part, for current music, I only paid attention to bands I’ve been a longtime fan of.
So now, without further adieu, I give you my top ten most played songs of 2009.
10 - Bouncing Souls - “Airport Security” - Ghosts on the Boardwalk - Anyone who knows me knows that I am an avid Bouncing Souls fan. The bands lyrics have helped me realize a lot about my own existence and have in the past helped me grow personally by leaps and bounds. So imagine my joy, last New Years Eve, when they announced that on the first of every month this year they would be releasing a new song on their website for download. I immediately paid for the entire years worth of songs. This is perhaps my favorite song on the record, which I learned this month is titled “Ghosts on the Boardwalk”. I dig this song for a mid tempo song that I can nod along to.
Playcount: 27
Most Inspiring Lyric: “They saw my soul in the security line / They said it has no end.”
www.myspace.com/bouncingsouls
09 - Thursday - “Resuscitation of a Dead Man” - Common Existence - I was thoroughly shocked by Thursdays newest record. I’ve always had a “like-hate” relationship with Thursday. They’ve been clearly capable of writing solid songs, but I’ve never been able to listen to one of their records straight through. I think I was a senior in High School when I first heard Full Collapse. Then, as well as now, I only like some songs from that album. This record though doesn’t have a bad track. Not one. This is the first track. It’s a punchy, energetic, gang vocal filled number about what Thursday writes the most about; Being injured and getting help. Side note: I also love the idea behind the two words that make up the albums title. Common Existence. It’s just got a beautiful ring to it, if you ask me.
Playcount: 30
Best Use of Gang Vocals: “With a gentle hand / With a thousand voices / With a single word / Welcome back.”
www.myspace.com/thursday
08 - The Architects - “Year of the Rat” - The Hard Way - My friend Erik turned me on to The Architects in 2008. The members of this soulful punk n roll group used to be in a very different, more ska oriented and equally soulful Hell-Cat Records band in the early 2000’s by the name of The Gadjits. This is a great opening track to a record that didn’t thrill me through and through, but likewise did NOT disappoint one bit. This is a drinking mans band.
Playcount: 34
Best Fist Pumping Party Lyric of 2009: “You call this hell? / I call it holiday!” - OK so it’s not a protest song or anything, but it’s a fun, fast driving song that works for a party playlist.
http://www.myspace.com/architectskcmo
07 - MC Lars - “[Lord, It’s Hard To Be Happy When You’re Not Using] The Metric System” - This Gigantic Robot Kills - I will not lie. I enjoy MC Lars through and through. This removes any hipster credibility I may hold. It’s catchy and thoughtful, in a Lewis Skolnick sort of way. This album has an incredible song about Shakespeare’s Hamlet on it that features the dork for Midtown/Cobra Starship and at least one of the Donnas. The Donna involved delivers her lines in a cute, borderline sultry fashion that brought that song just beyond the reach of my top ten. This song, however, nearly brought a tear to my eye the first time I heard it. It’s a cover of my favorite Atom & His Package song and it is about the metric system and why we as Americans are stupid for using such a goofball system of measurement. The album title “This Gigantic Robot Kills” is also a Wesley Willis reference and the album has a whole slew of guest spots that harken back to the early 2000’s and also brought an appreciative smile to my face.
Playcount: 34
Nerdiest Tough-Guy Line of 2009: “All cool things are in metrics / For example here’s just one / I got my .9 - that’s 9 millimeters / Sounds cooler than my point-two-something-inches-gun”
www.myspace.com/mclars
06 - The Lawrence Arms - “The Slowest Drink at the Saddest Bar on the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City” - Buttsweat and Tears - The Lawrence Arms newest EP, titled Buttsweat and Tears, was a breath of fresh air to me this year. Not a big breath, it’s only a couple of songs, but a breath none the less. This is a sad one, but I love it. On the outside it appears to be about walking to a bar to have a long, cold, strong drink on a cold, snowy day. When one reads more into the lyrics, to me at least, it’s about realizing what opportunities you have let slip by and feeling the sharp sting of regret. I’ve been there and I relate and this song let me know I’m not alone in that. Furthermore, I hate winter and I regularly want take a walk in order to drink the slowest drink at the saddest bar on the snowiest day in the greatest city (Pittsburgh).
Playcount: 34
Best use of my Tumblr & Twitter username in 2009: “I was drunk, I was drunk on those radio waves.”
Bad Sandwich Chronicles: Brendan Kelly’s Blog
05 - Riverboat Gamblers - “DissDissDissKissKissKiss” - Underneath the Owl - I’m not a huge Riverboat Gamblers fan. I like them fine, but they’re not the sort of band I’d listen to on a constant basis. It’s not one of my favorite songs of the year, and I don’t think I’ve listened to it since June or July… but this song is just catchy enough to have eeked itself pretty high up on my playlist so it made it into the list.
Playcount: 38
Only Intelligible Lyric of the Most Incoherent Song of 2009: “Diss diss kiss gimmesomething@#$%^”
Riverboat Gambles Official Website
04 - American Steel - “Emergency House Party!” - Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts - First of all, I love the name of this song. It makes me laugh on its own and want to throw a last second party. Secondly, the concept of the song is simple but is something I can get behind. “I havent seen you lately. It’s cold outside. You’re bummed out. I’m bored. Let’s get together and have a good time!” American Steel is possibly my current favorite straight up punk rock group. I’m glad Communique split and allowed American Steel to re-emerge.
Playcount: 38
Best PBR Reference of 2009: “Pabst tall boys and all of our friends / And everything will be alright, if only for tonight!”
www.myspace.com/amsteel
03 - Bomb the Music Industry! - “Stuff That I Like” - Scrambles - First of all, PHEW! BTMI!‘s new record, Scrambles is far superior to 2007’s Get Warmer, which was once described as “BTMI’s ‘21st Century Breakdown’”... that’s a little joke, see what I did there? I also relate to most of the song content on the album. This one in particular may be the best assault on cokey-dancey-douchey-hipster culture put to song that I’m aware of to date. I really have told hold back from quoting this every time I find myself out at most bars these days.
Playcount: 44
Funniest Lyrical Shot At Hipster Bars Of 2009: “Your fucking cocaine party fucking freaks me out. When did Scott Wieland show up? How long’s he stickin’ around?”
BTMI!TUMBLR
02 - Fake Problems - “The Dream Team” - It’s Great To Be Alive - This is actually my favorite song of 2009 from what I think may be my favorite record of 2009. The album itself is diverse in instrumentation, the songs are catchy and the lyrical content is insightful. The band also isn’t afraid to show their punk rock roots, which is refreshing. Fake Problems also put on the best live set I saw throughout 2009 when they played with the Riverboat Gamblers and Pittsburgh’s own American Armada at the Smiling Moose in April. Kudos, to this band.
Playcount: 46
Lyric that brought a smile to my face the most in 2009: “You know when you’re good, and you know when you’re not / And right now, baby, I am near the top!”
www.myspace.com/fakeproblems
01 - NOFX - “We Called It America” - Coaster - I already blogged about what a stinker this album was in general, but this song is phenomenal. This is precisely what I want from NOFX. Snarky high tempo, infectious, singalong punk songs that espouse the status quo. I can, and do, drive very fast to this song. It’s probably why it’s got more playcounts than any other song. The leads are weak. The leads are weak? The fucking leads are weak? You’re weak.
Playcount: 55
Favorite Lyrical Shot At the Right of 2009: “National Bankruptsy. Circumsized Society. U-S-A, Dined and Ditched. Fox Reports - Poor is the New Rich”
www.myspace.com/nofx
Comments are turned off for this entry
Comments