Top albums & songs of 2009 (June edition)

Here's a rundown on my year in music:

Best/favorite albums:

Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
Philippians 3:20-21.mp3


A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
Falling Over.mp3


Andrew Bird - Noble Beast/Useless Creatures (Deluxe Edition)
You Woke Me Up!.mp3


Flaming Lips - Embryonic
The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine.mp3


Various Artists - Weezer: The 8-bit Album
OxygenStar - In the Garage.mp3


Islands - Vapours
Disarming the Car Bomb.mp3


Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Teeth.mp3


Morrissey - Years of Refusal
Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris.mp3


Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
.mp3


The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars EP
.mp3

Perhaps no surprises here, but it's been such a busy year for me that I've barely had time for my ears to catch much more than this.

Contestants for the Annual "Sincey" Award:
Jeremih - Birthday Sex.m4a
Lily Allen - 22.mp3
Soulja Boy - Gucci Bandanna.mp3
Shakira - Loba.mp3
Spanish versions are ALWAYS better than the English versions.

"Party in the U.S.A." will instead be represented in the category of "best mash-ups of 2009":
Hathbanger - Party and Bullshit (In the USA) (Notorious B.I.G. vs. Miley Cyrus).mp3
Tor - I Like The Tallest Man (Grad Puba vs. Sufjan Stevens).mp3

Excited for upcoming:
Peter Peter Hughes' "Fangio, Juan Fangio" album
Sufjan's new album to be out "early next year." (Nope, not a state album!)
Whatever Jens Lekman can do with two turntables and a microphone

Say Yes to "Say No"

We're quite bummed we missed the epic Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary concert last weekend at the Bell House. Thank God however, for bootlegs because thanks to nyctaper we've got a live recording of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's entire set which includes the premiere of a brand new song.

"Say No to Love" contains everything we've come to love about the Pains - jangly guitar, breathy vocals and a melancholy "BEEN THERE" sentiment. Needless to say, we dig it. Download it below:

Say No to Love (Live) - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ South Street Seaport 7/10/09

I would have enjoyed the Pains of Being Pure at Heart's show at the Seaport better if I was wearing pants. It was an unseasonably cool July day, not to mention the seaside wind, oh my the wind, but I was like "I wanna wear a skirt dammit!" so my childish impetuousness to attempt to look cute won out. ANYWAYS you don't care one bit about how cold I was. You care about the music, which of course was super. While The Pains only played for about 50 minutes (they only have one album of material after all), they sounded great. There was lots of pep and jangle as the upbeat melodies soared. But what was really endearing was their adorable "aw shucks, can you believe all these people here to see US" attitude. So yeah despite the cold, it was totally worth it. Oh and did we mention it was FREE.

Our photos suck, but hey you can sorta see the stage surrounded by boats. Just insert a sweet indie band in there and volia! You have an Insta-concert!


The Music Slut has ACTUAL photos plus the setlist. So yeah we defer to them for an actual review. We just wanted to mention it was cold.

Orchard of My Eye - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

New Pains Song!

Ok, so the sound quality is kind of muddled, but I'll take what I can get in terms of new material from my fave New York band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. "Falling Over" while not as superior on their debut self-titled album is super jangly. Check it out:

And here's an mp3 of one of their best tunes:

Young Adult Friction - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ The Cake Shop, New York, NY 10/24/08 (CMJ)

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are everything their name suggests. A cute band composed of cute boys (and a girl) who sing cute songs that make you fall in love with falling in love. They've got the jangliness of the Smiths, with a smidge of reverb, ala the Jesus and Mary Chain but with 21st century sensibilities -we are living in a world of hook-up culture and friends with bennies after all. Catching them live was definitely a highpoint of CMJ. Check out Amy's photos and then enjoy their uber-catchy (and catchily titled songs).


This Love is Fucking Right! - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Yout Parents Proud - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart