{Thee Emergency will be at the High Dive on Friday, September 3 with Macklemore, Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground, Sol, and Curtains For You.}

"Cracka Slang" was the song you may have heard U District-based female-led psych-soul rock band Thee Emergency perform in MTV's $5 Cover Seattle, looking as sizzlingly stylish and sweaty as hell as on a great night at a small club as they always are -- and if you haven't seen Lynn Shelton's band documentary yet, go do that somehow.

Meanwhile, you've probably been wondering what Zana "Dita Vox" Geddes, Matt "Sonic Smith" Bracher, Tom "T. Drummer," and the rest of the band has been up to since their terse debut Can You Dig It? and psychotically expansive sophomore Solid swayed heads and music junkies since they gummed up and acid-overheated CD players all over the region for the past couple years.

I have The Answer: A 12" piece of golden vinyl (yes, color gold) with a download for whatever electronic device you use to not play your damned vinyl, fool. And it too is called Cracka Slang. And it is one of my albums of the year.

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In celebration of all the great things released so far this year, I couldn't help but make my own mix to listen on repeat. I even got so nerdy as to create cd-sized cover art with a tracklisting for my Favorites of the First Half of 2010 (download the 5MB printable PDF). 

Fav Albums (in no particular order):
Allo Darlin - Allo Darlin
Antarctica Takes It! - Constellations
The Drums - The Drums
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Math & Physics Club - I Shouldn't Look As Good As I Do
Nana Grizol - Ruth
People Eating People - People Eating People
Quasi - American Gong
Standard Fare - The Noyelle Beat

Fav Retrospective:
Carissa's Wierd - They'll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003

Fav 7":
Gold-Bears - “Tally”

Fav Cover Song:
Cats On Fire - “Your Woman” from the album Dealing In Antiques
(cover of a White Town song)

I am sure I forgot something... what songs and/or albums are your favorites of the year so far? Anything in particular you're looking forward hearing that's set for release later this year? {Thermals, Thermals, Thermals}

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As we round out our week of favorite lists and recaps of the last year and decade, I have to share one last highlight from 2009. We all have one video from the last year that we keep going back to when we're feeling down or to start a thread amongst our friends. My go-to clip of 2009 came courtesy of Halloween and the Today show. The entire video is a gem (mayhem on the set!), but if you want to jump to the 3.50 mark to see some fancy moonwalking and the 4.10 mark, just watching an ewok have his way Al Roker's leg. There are also some great tips on how to decorate a pumpkin. Share links to your favorite 2009 videos and we can make it the first video Friday of 2010!

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{Jens Lekman photo by Trickshot Photography}

Here's a group of songs that have pretty much changed my life in the last 10 years. I don't know what I would have done without these songs, but I certainly wouldn't have been as happy. Some of them fit into amazing albums, as a perfect little puzzle piece completing a work of art, and some are just amazing stand out tracks. I have probably listened to each of these at least several hundred times. Each song has either a video, an MP3, or a streamable file, so listen along with me! I hope I help create a new obsession, or remind you how much you love a song. Enjoy, and please feel free to post your own lists in the comments!

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{stylish photo by nancyo23}

I hope I'm not getting too granular with my listage, but given the empowering nature of  turning the page on the decade, I can't help myself--I wanted to make sure that that certain song gems didn't go unrewarded for their brilliance.

Thusly, I compiled the below list of songs released in the last decade that are total A+++, but who's album didn't make it on my favs of the decade list... either because the song is from an EP or single; the album is good, but not as solid as the 75 albums that made my list; a bunch of other albums by the band/artists appeared on the list; or I just was bad with tabulating and this should have been on the list based on the strength of said song alone.

Please enjoy the below a recap of the top 10 songs from the last decade that amaze me beyond belief (and didn't make my favorite albums of the decade list). What amazing splashes of song brilliance rocked your 2000-2009? I bet between all of us we could make the most amazing quad-mix cd ever!

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{Long Winters photo by Trickshot Photography}

Because I'm some kind of masochist and a total nerd, I've been slaving over this list, keeping it brief (harder than you'd think!) at my favorite 20 albums of the decade without duplicating a band (even harder). Side note: I've probably forgotten something I really, really love, so let's just call this how I feel right this minute. These are the albums I know every note and breath of by heart and I love as complete albums with all of my soul. These are albums that in my humble opinion have no skipable track and are works of beauty in their entirety. I'd also like to point out that these are my favorite albums, as I tend to shy away from calling them "the best", as really, it's just my opinion, and who am I to tell you that you're wrong for not liking these records? (Though, if you catch me in a potentially altered state, I may completely negate that and call any number of these THE GREATEST of all time and call you wrong to your face if you disagree.) I digress. Here they are!

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Yesterday I divulged my favorite albums of the year. Today I am ready to let go of my latest obsession: My album recap of how I spent my 00's.

The below listage rant is my own little time capsule to remind myself why 2000-2009 musically ruled. As with my other list posts, I'm certain I totally forgot to add something really important to my end-all-be-all-recap. It's up to you to remind me by posting your favs of the 00's below.

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For some reason as stressful as it is sometimes to do, I found myself compiling a bunch of year end and decade end lists over the holiday weekend. So many so, I decided to spread out all my lists throughout the week. Today we'll start with the meat of the list -- my favorite releases of 2009.

As long as I've been making lists, it's always been apparent that I'm partial to Pacific Northwest bands... and this year it's especially so. I'm sure I've forgotten something that I love beyond belief.. but here is the list as of *right now*. What are your favorite local and non-local releases of 2009?

 

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I've made lists before, sure, but deciding to make a Top 10 list for a year FULL of great films and then trying to put together a Best of the Decade nearly killed me. The top 10 was a teensy bit easier - but I hadn't limited my decade list to 25, it would have been 183 in total. But, I digress.

Here's what I liked:

Top 10 movies of 2009
1.  Inglourious Basterds
2.  The Hurt Locker
3.  District 9
4.  UP
5.  Cold Souls
6.  Away We Go
7.  A Serious Man
8.  Public Enemies
9.  Up in the Air
10. Coraline

(Runner-ups: Precious, Where the Wild Things Are, (500) Days of Summer)

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I guessing that you, like those of us at imaginary headquarters, have spent the last few weeks calculating your favorites of the year... and possibly the decade.  It's fun, it's grueling, and it all ends with a really good mix tape.

This morning I am honored to to join Seattle's very own Larry Mizell Jr. of The Stranger, Josh Powell, Vera Project Programming Co-Director, and KUOW's Steve Scher in an end of the year look at our favorite releases to come out of Seattle at the lovely KUOW, 94.9 FM studios from 9a-10a.

Call in and let us know your thoughts on what were the best albums to come out of Seattle in 2009! The phone number is 206.543.KUOW (800.289.KUOW). For those outside of Seattle, you can listen online.

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