Here are my faves from 2009, download and enjoy the holidays! I look forward to Hot Tubbin’ with you all in 2010.

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

Anatomy texts might not show it, but the greatest soul and blues music leaves no doubt that the hip bone is directly connected to the heart – a fact that’s driven home in every note laid down by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. As they prove on their Lost Highway debut, Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is, the Austin–based combo has the kind of gritty attitude and deliciously greasy groove–consciousness that’d pass muster in the toughest juke joint. This album is raw and soulful and brings me great joy.

The XX

xx is the first studio album by UK band The XX. Produced by the group themselves, originally released by Young Turks Records flat out the sexiest album of the year. Pay attention to some of the bands remixes floating about. Let’s hope they survive after the recent departure of guitarist/keyboard player Baria Qureshi.

Clubfeet

Aussie-triumvirate Clubfeet’s music makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. With influences ranging from “yacht rock, Grey Goose, and online love calculators,” it’s not that hard to believe either. Consisting of band members Cohen, Cooper, and Roberts, their album Gold on Gold breaks sonic barriers by fusing moody 80s throwback pop songs with trance-inducing melodies that are appropriate for an after school TV special. Couple the trio’s celestial sound with their burgeoning commercial appeal, and you have the makings of the a fantastic album available on Plant Records.

Generationals

Blowing brass, hand clapping, a down beat piano, and a rhythmic racket of banging bottles and tambourines lend New Orleans band the Generationals a Phil Spector-worthy wall of sound for Con Law is a lighthearted and endearing romp through doo wop and 1960s soul. Comprised of former Eames Era guitarists Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner, the Generationals are a lo-fi pop group with a large and variegated appetite tuned towards a rich past and excellent songwriting. Grab the full album from Park The Van Records.

Girls

Girls frontman Christopher Owens grew up in the Children of God cult. His older brother died as a baby because the cult didn't believe in medical attention. His dad left. He and his mother lived around the world, and the cult sometimes forced his mother to prostitute herself. As a teenager, Owens fled and lived as a Texas gutter-punk for a while. Then a local millionaire took Owens under his wing, and Owens moved to San Francisco. There, he and Chet "JR" White formed Girls, and recorded Album, their debut album, under the influence of just about every kind of pill they could find. As band origin stories go, this one is so epically sad and squalid and ultimately triumphant that nobody could make it up. It's the sort of story that can overwhelm a band so completely that you never really hear their music; you only hear the story. So it's a tribute to Album that you don't need to know one word of that first paragraph to hear it as what it is: a dizzily powerful piece of work. Tom Breihan - Pitchfork

White Denim

‘Fits’ initially feels like a decent scratchy rock record made by a band poking their heads above the parapet of hype, but eventually reveals itself to be much more accomplished. In whatever backwater shack they recorded this, they’ve shoehorned the experimental pop leanings of the ’60s, the elephantine riffery of ’70s blues-rock and the rampant eclecticism of the ’80s into a coherent whole that never signposts its intentions, instead giving the listener enough credit to be able to identify them themselves. It’s a fantastic record, a slow-burn masterpiece that buds gradually and thrives on the oxygen of repeated exposure. There’s magic in the garage. Ben Patashnik – NME

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Hype is a viciously fickle element of the current musical landscape; one day’s next big thing often fades into oblivion before they’ve even had a chance to release a debut LP. That’s certainly not been the case with New York’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart who have been the darlings of bloggers and critics for over a year and a half now, ever since their self-released EP came out in 2007 through the Painbow label. This year has seen the release of the band’s self-titled debut full length via Slumberland Records, a release which just recently garnered a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork and helped send the band off on a vast tour of Europe and the UK before heading back to the States for a few select dates in July. Peter Wenker – Ear Farm

We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks formed in Edinburgh Scotland. Their debut album, These Four Walls, on Fat Cat Records is a wonderful and emotion filled release on the right side of the Emo genre. With soothing and immense vocals there are plenty of great songs on the album that rise to a perfect wall of sound crescendo that I personally find inspiring.

Matt & Kim

This Brooklyn power couple hooked up with Frankie Chan under the I Heart Comix banner and kicked ass all year long closing with a win for best video of the year at the MTV WOODIES. They're two of the happiest, most overjoyed people calling themselves a band and it’s infectious.

Lady Gaga

This years guilty pleasure. Pop music needed someone like Gaga aka Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta desperately to deliver us from the stale cookie cutter pop music of American Idol and the like and for this generation it is the spectacle of Lady Gaga.

Honorable mention and special thanks to Peaches, Far East Movement, These United States, Old Californio, Victorian English Gentlemens Club, Teenage Bottlerocket, La Roux, Rebelution, Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros, The Silent Years, Kid Cudi, LMFAO, The Stone Foxes and Kings of Leon for helping me through the year!