Nothing like waiting until the last minute… With less than 10 hours to go I give you my Best / Worst list of 2009. Mind you none of these are in order/ranked, they are just the best / worst I have been pondering over all year long… Enjoy.
Best Albums:
- The Avett Brothers – I & Love & You
- Mastodon – Crack The Skye
- Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed
- Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus
- Converge – Axe To Fall
- Those Darlins – Those Darlins
- Gallows – Grey Britain
- Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid
- P.O.S. – Never Better
- BlakRoc – BlakRoc
- The Sidekicks – Weight Of Air
Best Unreleased Album:
- Dangermouse & Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Song
Worst Albums:
- Brokencyde – I’m Not A Fan But The Kids Like It
- Alice In Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue
- Third Eye Blind – Ursa Major
- Sugar Ray – Music For Cougars
On The Fence About Albums:
- Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
- Drummer – Feel Good Together
Guilty Pleasure Albums:
- Owl City –Ocean Eyes
- Brokencyde – I’m Not A Fan But The Kids Like It
Best Box Set Released:
- Coheed & Cambia – Neverender
Best Anthology Released:
- Fat Wreck Chords – Wrecktrospective
Best Festival I Attended:
- Bonnaroo – Bruce Springsteen, Merle Haggard, Public Enemy, NIN, Andrew Bird, Wilco, Beastie Boys, Al Green, Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix and many more.
Best Shows I Attended:
- The Avett Brothers @ Akron Civic Center – Akron, OH
- Dan Auerbach / Those Darlins @ Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
- Converge / High On Fire @ The Grog Shop – Cleveland Hts., OH
Loudest Show I Attended (EVER):
- Mastodon @ Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
Most Unsuspecting Show I Attended (with good reason):
- Britney Spears / Pussycat Dolls @ The Value City Area – Columbus, OH
Worst Show I Attended:
- Gin Blossoms @ Cain Park – Cleveland Hts., OH
Best Local Acts I Saw Live:
- Nicholas Megalis
- Unsparing Sea
Best Movies:
- Zombieland
- The Hangover
- District 9
- Inglorious Basterds
- Up
- Star Trek
Worst Movies:
- G.I. Joe
- Transformers 2
Movie That You Should Not Watch When Your Heart Aches:
- 500 Days Of Summer
Best TV Show:
- Community
The Awesome:
- Bouncing Souls celebrating 20 years as a punk band and releasing a song a month all year.
- Greg Ginn (of Black Flag) agreeing to play a couple of songs for free at Blue Arrow Records courtesy of myself and Addicted To Vinyl.
- Going to Bonnaroo with two of my favorite people and then coming home and immediate going to see Rancid / Rise Against from backstage.
- Seeing Those Darlins 4 times live.
- Matt’s wonderful girlfriend scoring me an autographed personalized CD from Frank Turner as well as a hi-five.
- Meeting the fine folk at Thirty Tiger Records followed by shopping at Grimey’s while pit-stopping in Nashville.
- Getting my Melt Bar & Grilled tattoo (I’m #47).
- Having friends from all around come up to visit and see the magic that is called Cleveland.
The Suck:
- November 5th, 2009
- My laptop crashing
- My external hard drive crashing
- Changing for the better.
RIP (there were plenty more but these are ones that stuck with me):
- Michael Jackson
- James “The Rev” Sullivan
- DJ-AM
- Taylor Mitchell
- Vic Chesnutt
- Les Paul
- Jay Bennett
- Brittany Murphy
- Captain Lou Albano
- Patrick Swayze
- Jim Carroll
- John Hughes
- Walter Cronkite
- Billy Mays
- David Carridine
- Dom DeLuise
- Bea Arthur
- Jeremy Lusk
- Heath Ledger
So with just a few hours left I would like to say goodbye to 2009. It was a fun and incredibly rough year for me. I see big things happening in 2010 for me.
Resolutions? A couple I suppose…
- Portion Control – I can eat and now I need to watch how much of it I do
- Personal Conquest – I have ideas and will follow through
- Sugar – I am limiting my intake
- Live – I plan on attending more shows this year than previous years
- Blog On – I will continue making BHP bigger and better so that people actually will COMMENT on here…
Do you have a best of you wish to share or do you think I overlooked someone? Let me know. Email me at broken@brokenheadphones.com or comment below. I want to hear from you!