The 11 Best Albums of 2009 (so far):

I'm off on vacation for a couple of weeks...but will return. Until then...here's a snapshot of the first half of the year. These are my favorites. I can't belive I picked Morrissey at the top. But it's the album that's had the most play in my 2009 library. So...it's hard to argue with that.

The 11 Best Albums of 2009 (so far):

1. Morrissey - Years of Refusal (Black Cloud)
2. Samantha Crain - Songs in the Night
3. White Rabbits - It's Frightening
4. The Antlers - Hospice
5. Metric - Fantasies
6. Cut Off Your Hands - You & I
7. Wilco - Wilco
8. Crystal Method - Divided By The Night
9. Dangermouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night Of The Soul
10. M. Ward - Hold Time
11. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

The 11 Best Wilco B-Sides & Bonus Tracks

It's the 4th of July and all of us Americans go out and celebrate in the one thing that Americans do best...we consume. We eat until we can't move, we drink until we can't stand up, and we end the day staring up at the sky and watch things get blown up good. Only Americans celebrate freedom by indulging in every single freedom at the exact same time. I avoided the BBQs this year...but showed my patriotism by doing the next best American thing...I went to the mall and shopped.

Here are the 11 Best Wilco B-Sides and Bonus Tracks:

1. When The Roses Bloom Again (Chelsea Walls Soundtrack)

2. Magazine Called Sunset (More Like the Moon)

3. True Love Will Find You In The End (A Shot In the Arm)

4. One Hundred Years From Now (Return of the Grievous Angel)

5. Let's Not Get Carried Away (Sky Blue Sky Bonus)

6. Any Major Dude (Me, Myself, and Irene)

7. Cars Can't Escape (Yankee Foxtrot Bonus)

8. TB Is Whipping Me (Red Hot + Country)

9. Blasting Fonda (Outtasite Outta Mind)

10. Bob Dylan's 49th Beard (More Like the Moon)

11. Thirteen (Gilmore Girls)

Buy Wilco's new album...called Wilco The Album...now!!

The 11 Best Moby Songs

Moby started to lose me over his past two albums. But Amazon listed his new album, Wait for Me...for only $3.99. At that price, I'd buy just about any album. And half way through my first listen...I can already tell this album is worth a lot more than the price tag. If you've been a Moby fan since Play...than you need to add this album to your library. Is the best album of the year? No. Is it the best album Moby's ever done? No. But is it worth $4...absolutely...

Here are the 11 Best Moby Songs:

1. God Moving Over the Face of the Waters (Everything Is Wrong)

2. Everytime You Touch Me (Everything Is Wrong)

3. At Least We Tried (18)

4. Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday) (18)

5. Move (Move)

6. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (Play)

7. When It's Cold I Would Like To Die (Everything Is Wrong)

8. Where You End (Hotel)

9. Porcelain (Play)

10. Go (Moby)

11. James Bond Theme (I Like To Score)

Buy Moby's new album Wait for Me...only $3.99!!!

The 11 Best Wilco Songs

Busy Week....not a lot to say. Wilco rules. Do I need to get more detailed than that?

Here are The 11 Best Wilco Songs:

1. How To Fight Lonliness (Summerteeth)

2. I Thought I Held You (A.M.)

3. Box Full Of Letters (A.M.)

4. Outtasite (Outta Mind) (Being There)

5. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (again) (Summerteeth)

6. War on War (Yankee Foxtrot)

7. Sky Blue Sky (Sky Blue Sky)

8. Heavy Metal Drummer (Yankee Foxtrot)

9. Impossible Germany (Sky Blue Sky)

10. Monday (Being There)

11. At Least That's What You Said (A Ghost Is Born)

Buy Wilco's new album...called Wilco The Album...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Dinosaur Jr.

Comeback's are a bitch. It barely happens. And it's rarely successful. Currently Michael Jackson is in the middle of a comeback unlike anything the world has ever seen. He has 9 of the top 10 albums on itunes and 50 of the top 100 songs. He has the top 16 albums on Amazon...and is selling out at almost every store in town. But he had to die to accomplish that.

Dinosaur Jr took a more subdued approach...reuniting with all three original members. Granted their sales aren't the epic nature of MJ's...but two albums in and they're making some of the best rock music out there. I guess their strategy was waiting until everyone elese on the scene sucked...so you'd be a genius by comparion.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Dinosaur Jr:

1. The Wagon (Green Mind)

2. Freak Scene (Bug)

3. Kracked (You're Living All Over Me)

4. Budge (Bug)

5. Blown It (Green Mind)

6. Feel the Pain (You're Living All Over Me)

7. Repulsion (Dinosaur)

8. Just Like Heaven (You're Living All Over Me)

9. Little Furry Things (You're Living All Over Me)

10. Green Mind (Green Mind)

11. Crumble (Beyond)

buy Dinosaur Jr's new album...FARM...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Michael Jackson

The Jackson family house in only a few blocks from where I live. I'm going to sleep listening to helicopters flying over head. Surreal day.

MJ - RIP

Here are the 11 Best Michael Jackson Songs:

1. Billie Jean (Thriller)
2. Thriller (Thriller)
3. Smooth Criminal (Bad)
4. Rock With You (Off The Wall)
5. Leave Me Alone (Bad)
6. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Off The Wall)
7. Beat It (Thriller)
8. Off The Wall (Off The Wall)
9. Wanna Be Startin' Something (Thriller)
10. P.Y.T. (Thriller)
11. Who Is It (Dangerous)

Buy Michael Jackson's music here.

The 11 Best Songs By Pete Yorn

Music For the Morning After rocked. And as the years pass...and more Pete Yorn albums come out...it makes me appreciate his debut release even more. MFTMA is easily one of the best albums of the decade (yeah...it's time to start thinking about that)...so how come Petey never came close to following it up with something equivalent? It wasn't like it was a Diamond-selling chart -topping masterpiece. But it did what albums are supposed to do. It created a following. I discovered it because a friend told me about it. She heard about it from a friend that told her about it. I told a friend about it, who told someone else (I actually turned at least 5 people onto the record). Maybe this kind of fanbase is harder to appease. When you're Green Day or Coldplay...people kiss your ass. When you're still a nobody...people want you to kiss their ass. And maybe that's not Pete's style. And look where it got him...he gets to hang out with Scarlett Johansson. So I guess he wins...

The 11 Best Songs By Pete Yorn:

1. Strange Condition (Music For The Morning After)

2. Lose You (Music For The Morning After)

3. Murray (Music For The Morning After)

4. Undercover (Nightcrawler)

5. Crystal Village (The Day I Forgot)

6. For Nancy (Music For The Morning After)

7. Splendid Isolation (Nightcrawler)

8. Life On A Chain (Music For The Morning After)

9. Committed (The Day I Forgot)

10. EZ (Music For The Morning After)

11. China Girl (B-Side)

Buy Pete Yorn's new album, Back & Forth....before his next album with Scarlett comes out.

The 11 Best Songs By Regina Spektor

Am I the only one who doesn't think Regina Spektor is the best thing to happen to music in the past 20 years? Isn't she just a brunette version of Tori Amos? Don't get me wrong...I like Regina. And her new album is hands down one of the best of the year. And I like Tori...I don't think I owe more B-Sides of a single artists more than I own from Tori's epic catalogue. Maybe we've all been so deluded by American Idol slice of mediocrity that we've forgotten what true talent sounds like. Or maybe...Tori's lost that edge she had...and we're just ready for a replacement. Which is kinda sad since Tori's still putting out solid stuff...the problem is that it's all starting to sound the same. Or...maybe we all just prefer the Emperor's New Clothes.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Regina Spektor:

1. Fidelity (Begin To Hope)

2. On The Radio (Begin To Hope)

3. Better (Begin To Hope)

4. Braille (11:11)

5. Us (Soviet Kitsch)

6. Rejazz (11:11)

7. Hotel Song (Begin To Hope)

8. Somedays (Soviet Kitsch)

9. Dusseldorf (Begin To Hope Bonus Version)

10. 2.99 Cent Blues (11:11)

11. Baobabs (Begin To Hope Bonus Version)

Buy the new Regina Spektor album, FAR, now!

The 11 Best Mars Volta Songs

Not only does today see the 5th studio album by Austin's dynamic duo Omar and Cedric. Octahedron marks the 5th album featuring Omar on lead guitar...to come out this year. With three solo albums and side project featuring Cedric on vocals...and the other guys from MV as the backing band...Omar proves that Ryan Adams is really just a big slacker.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By the Mars Volta:

1. Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore (Frances The Mute)

2. Roulette Dares (De-Loused in the Comatorium)

3. Ouroborous (The Bedlam in Goliath)

4. Intertiatic E.S.P. (De-Loused in the Comatorium)

5. Ilyena (The Bedlam in Goliath)

6. The Widow (Frances The Mute)

7. Meccamputecture (Amputechture)

8. Drunkenship of Lanterns (De-Loused in the Comatorium)

9. Viscera Eyes (Amputechture)

10. Metatron (The Bedlam in Goliath)

11. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt (De-Loused in the Comatorium)

Buy the new Mars Volta album, Octahedron....now!!!

The 11 Best Albums of 2009...that you've never heard

I think this is the first list I've made where the struggle in constructing the list didn't come from the quality of music...but on the criteria I set forth in making the list. Coming up with some of the best albums so far this year this easy...but trying to figure out which ones were unknown (or at least lesser known) was a hard to call to make. I have no idea what albums you've heard about...so this is really my best guess. There's the obvious choices like Black Moth Super Rainbow, White Rabbits, Deastro, and Swan Lake who were on the list...but I know people have heard of these bands. To some degree. Right?

The Antlers sounds like someone smashed Radiohead and Sigur Ros together. A very underrated band who has slipped through the cracks for too long. Hot Leg is Justin Hawkins new band...long live glam metal! Samantha Crain is the anti-Neko Case (or at least a better version). The Veils, Papercuts, and Other Lives are the indie equivalent of the bands carrying on the Coldplay/U2 sound. Cymbals, Cut Off Hands, and Magic are some great upbeat indie rock. J. Tillman and Woods are this year's Fleet Foxes. Yeah, yeah...I know Tillman is in Fleet Foxes.

I hope you discover something new and great with this list....

The 11 Best Albums of 2009...that you've never heard:

1. The Antlers - Hospice (Sylvia)
2. Samantha Crain - Songs In the Night (Devil's In Boston)
3. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why Are There Mountains
4. The Veils - Sun Gangs (Sit Down By The Fire)
5. Woods - Songs Of Shame
6. Cut Off Your Hands - You & I (You & I)
7. Hot Leg - Right Light Fever (Gay in the 80s)
8. Papercuts - You Can Have What You Want
9. Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic (Only Pieces)
10. Other Lives - Other Lives (It Was The Night)
11. J. Tillman - Vacilando Territory Blues (No Occassion)

Buy these albums now! HERE.