{"id":127,"date":"2009-12-18T05:24:44","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T10:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=127"},"modified":"2009-12-18T05:24:44","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T10:24:44","slug":"musoscribes-best-of-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2009\/12\/18\/musoscribes-best-of-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Musoscribe\u2019s Best of 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/musoscribe_holidays.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"194\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"10\" width=\"119\" \/>2009 shaped up to be a great year for pop music, if not for the music business. In no particular order &#8212; here are my choices for the <strong>Best of 2009<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Twilight Hours \u2013 <em>Stereo Night<\/em><\/strong>. Veterans of underappreciated groups Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic come together to create a masterful pop record. Available on clear red vinyl, too! <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=108\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Pugwash \u2013 <em>Giddy<\/em><\/strong>. Irishman Thomas Walsh has been making records for awhile, but none has gotten released outside the Emerald Isle. Andy Partridge\u2019s Ape label corrects that tragic oversight with a best-of. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=107\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Big Star \u2013 <em>Keep an Eye on the Sky<\/em><\/strong>. Another in that long, revered line of groups that didn\u2019t succeed commercially but exerted far-reaching influence, Big Star finally gets the box set treatment they\u2019ve long deserved.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Jamie &amp; Steve \u2013 <em>English Afterthoughts<\/em><\/strong>. Half of the Spongetones channel their inner Chad &amp; Jeremy. Pure pop for anytime people. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=126\">Interview here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Various Artists \u2013 <em>Where the Action Is! <st1:city><st1:place>Los   Angeles<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> Nuggets 1965-1968<\/em><\/strong>. 100-plus tracks of garagey, psychey pop goodness. Need I say more? I think not.<\/li>\n<p style=\"float: left\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/2009best.html\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"160\" width=\"200\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Dennis Diken with Bell Sound \u2013 <em>Late Music<\/em><\/strong>. 2009 was a banner year for breakout side-project albums. Evoking the Who, the Move and <st1:place><em><st1:placename>Pet<\/st1:placename>  <st1:placetype>Sounds<\/st1:placetype><\/em> <st1:placename>era<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Beach<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> Boys, Diken\u2019s album is a real gem. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21\">Review here<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=92\">extensive interview here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey \u2013 <em>hERE aND nOW<\/em><\/strong>. Half of the dB\u2019s follow up their <em>Mavericks <\/em>collaboration of many years ago with this acoustic-flavored delight. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musoscribe.com\/reviews\/peter_holsapple_chris_stamey_here_and_now.shtml\">Album review here<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musoscribe.com\/features\/peter_holsapple_and_chris_stamey.shtml\">interview here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Dukes of Stratosphear \u2013 <em>The Complete and Utter Dukes<\/em><\/strong>. XTC\u2019s psych-pop alter egos have gotten the box treatment. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=112\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>King Crimson \u2013 <em>Red (40<sup>th<\/sup> Anniversary Series)<\/em><\/strong>. This expanded packaging of the classic 1974 prog album simply sets the standard for reissues. A perfect album gets even better. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=121\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The <st1:place>Orange<\/st1:place> Peels \u2013 <em>2020<\/em><\/strong>. A late entry, this album is not to be missed. Review to be published the week after Christmas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Five excellent music or music-related DVDs top my list for 2009:<\/p>\n<p style=\"float: left\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/dvd.html\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" width=\"170\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>My Dinner With Jimi<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 Howard Kaylan\u2019s true and uproarious tale of the day the Turtles met the Beatles, Brian Jones, Donovan and Jimi Hendrix. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=32\">Interview here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blackfield \u2013 <em>Live in NYC<\/em><\/strong>. Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) and Aviv Geffen turn in a stellar performance onstage. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=64\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>BB King &#8211; <em>Live in <st1:place>Africa<\/st1:place><\/em><\/strong>. An important historical document, and some great music to boot. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=44\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><em><strong>Let Freedom Sing \u2013 How Music Inspired the Civil Rights Movement<\/strong><\/em>. A thoughtful look at the connection between music and social change. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=43\">Review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><o:p><\/o:p><strong>Paul McCartney \u2013 <em>Good Evening NYC<\/em><\/strong>. A sentimental choice, yes. Great show, great packaging. Review soon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Top that, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2009 shaped up to be a great year for pop music, if not for the music business. In no particular order &#8212; here are my choices for the Best of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}