iPod Top 100: 2009

Here are the songs I listened to most on my iPhone last year:

1. “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” – Cage the Elephant
2. “Basket (Live)” – The Blakes
3. “Little Toy Gun” – Honeyhoney
4. “Methamphetamine” – Old Crow Medicine Show
5. “Fresh Blood” – Eels
6. “After Hours” – Rilo Kiley
7. “Ghost Town” – Shiny Toy Guns
8. “Wild One” – Those Darlins
9. “Titus Andronicus” – Titus Andronicus
10. “I Feel Weird” – Steel Train
11. “No Hope Kids” – Wavvves
12. “It’s a New Day” – will.i.am
13. “The Dissociative Fugue” – XOXO
14. “Coffin Factory” – The Mumblers
15. “Here It Goes Again (UK Surf)” – Ok Go
16. “Just Like Heaven” – The Watson Twins
17. “Strange Times” – Black Keys
18. “I’m Bad” – The Last Vegas
19. “Heterosexual Man” – The Odds
20. “Cartoons and Forever Plans” – Maria Taylor
21. “15 to 20 (feat. Lady Tigra)” by The Phenomenal Handclap Band
22. “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth
23. “Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh” by Say Hi
24. “Percussion Gun” by White Rabbits
25. “Boom” by Anjulie
26. “Sorrow (Acoustic Version)” by Bad Religion
27. “Slogans” by Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
28. “Oxygen” by Living Things
29. “Faith & Tenderness” by Liz Phair
30. “I Would Die 4 U” by Mariachi El Bronx
31. “Best Time to Say Goodbye” by The New Fidelity
32. “Alabama High-Test” by Old Crow Medicine Show
33. “It Don’t Move Me” by Peter Bjorn and John
34. “Science vs. Romance” by Rilo Kiley
35. “Sacred Trickster” by Sonic Youth
36. “Skullcrusher Mountain” by Jonathan Coulton
37. “Major Tom” by Shiny Toy Guns
38. “You Can Be Timeless” by The Henry Clay People
39. “Hymn #101” by Joe Pug
40. “1901” by Phoenix
41. “Horchata” by Vampire Weekend
42. “I Know What I Am” by Band of Skulls
43. “On My Way” by Billy Boy on Poison
44. “Boogie” by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
45. “Show Me What I’m Looking For” by Carolina Liar
46. “Believe” by Dirty Heads
47. “Rose City” by Vica Voce
48. “The Thief & The Heartbreaker” by Alberta Cross
49. “Chosen Armies” by Children Collide
50. “Trans Canada” by Constantines
51. “Run Chicken Run” by The Felice Brothers
52. “I Hate People” by Jemina Pearl & Iggy Pop
53. “Rebel Side of Heaven” by Langhorne Slim
54. “Above the Bones” by Mishka
55. “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan
56. “Take Me With U” by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
57. “Sleepyhead” by Passion Pit
58. “I’m an Adult Now” by The Pursuit of Happiness
59. “Willie the Wimp (And His Cadillac Coffin)” by Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble
60. “White As Diamonds” by Alela Diane
61. “Weightless” by All Time Low
62. “Nothing Ever Happened” by Deerhunter
63. “The Ark” by Dr. Dog
64. “Smoke a Little Smoke” by Eric Church
65. “Re: Your Brains” by Jonathan Coulton
66. “Bloodletting” by Concrete Blonde
67. “Stillness is the Move” by Dirty Projectors
68. “Nobody Knows You” by Office
69. “Cocaine Habit” by Old Crow Medicine Show
70. “Burial Sounds” by the Phantom Band
71. “Let’s Go Crazy” by Riverboat Gamblers
72. “Train in Vain” by Susan & The Surftones
73. “Mandala (feat. Anoushka Shankar)” by Thievery Corporation
74. “Born On a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise” by Black Moth Super Rainbow
75. “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver
76. “Hey Ya” by Booker T.
77. “Beesting” by Buildings Breeding
78. “Darling Nikki” by Chairlift
79. “Down In Mexico” by the Coasters
80. “No One Does It Like You” by Department of Eagles
81. “40 Day Dream” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
82. “Devil Dog” by Eels
83. “Cheerleader” by Grizzly Bear
84. “Fire (Put in the Air)” by the Knux
85. “3rd Eye Vision” by Mishka
86. “London Calling” by the Pyronauts
87. “Dead Sound” by The Raveonettes
88. “Don’t Tempt Me” by Todd Snider
89. “Rudie Can’t Fail” by the Cocktail Preachers
90. “Mykonos” by Fleet Foxes
91. “Out at Sea” by Heartless Bastards
92. “Cities Burning Down” by Howling Bells
93. “Vapours” by Islands
94. “Bang” by Rye Rye & M.I.A.
95. “When Doves Cry” by the Twilight Singers
96. “Farewell to the Fairground” by White Lies
97. “Take Me Home” by After Midnight Project
98. “Scavengers of the Damned (Amended)” by Aiden
99. “Art of Revolution” by Bassnectar
100. “Safe European Home” by the Bombers/Vivesectors

I think this may be the first time two rock/country tunes have placed in the top 10, thanks to the Old Crow Medicine Show and Those Darlins. If more “country music” was like their music — instead of just pop music with cowboy hats and an accent — I’d listen to more of it.

And that version of “Here It Goes Again” at #15 isn’t the happy one everyone is familiar with from the iconic music video. This one, instead, is acoustic, slow and recasts the song in a much more mournful mode. It appears 2009 was sort of a dark year for me, at least musically.

Also available are the lists from 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Where did I hear all this stuff?

I was e-mailed yesterday by a friend who inexplicably didn’t like the song I listened to most this year, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” but who mostly wanted to know “where do you hear this crap?” And that’s a simple-ish answer that I’ve belabored in the past, so skip this part if you’ve heard it before.

When I received my first iPod for Christmas back in 2004, I had the appalling realization that most of the CDs I was burning were ones I had bought in college, which I had graduated from 12 years before. There’s actually some science that talks about the closing of the “adventure window” as we age, which I find terrifying. (And yes, I’ve eaten sushi since that original post, thanks for asking. I particularly enjoy crunching on the raw ginger along with the rest of it.)

I rejected as obviously silly the premise that there was no good music created after 1992 — check out the Billboard list from that year if you need a reasons why — and began aggressively seeking out new music. Coincidentally, it was really the start of the podcasting boom, and there were a lot of frustrated or would-be DJs putting out their own music shows of indie label musicians that I cold start listening to, and every year, I drop a few music podcasts and check out a few new ones. These tend not to just regurgitate the same musicians over and over (although everyone has their preferences: one podcaster works in a track from They Might Be Giants almost every show, while another is a huge fan of the Polyphonic Spree, for instance) and certainly don’t play songs like “here’s another Eric Clapton song he knocked off over breakfast this morning, because we know you’ll buy anything he plays.”

So my primary current sources of new music are the following, among others:

1. The That Sound Radio podcast (formerly the Post-Modern Rock Show), which I love
2. Various Indiefeed podcasts
3. The Coverville podcast
4. Various KCRW podcasts (if you just listened to one Internet radio station, make it this one)
5. Minnesota Public Radio’s Current Song of the Day podcast
6. The Shifted Sound podcast
7. The Roadhouse podcast
8. Various free promotional tracks released by record companies through Apple via iTunes or the iTunes Facebook page
9. Recommendations from friends whom I know not to just be listening to classic rock stations 24/7

See you back here on January 1, 2011.

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