This is Bmore Musically Informed's top 20 albums list of 2009 released by artists who call Baltimore home. Rankings were determined by vinyl wear and tear, iTunes play count, and placing a value on love. Intense moral and emotional qualms were reached when ranking number one through five.
Look for more locally-oriented lists regarding music here soon, and feel free to send in your own input. I tried to limit this list to mostly LPs, but there are a few worthy EPs thrown into the mix. 2009 was another fantastic year here in Baltimore, and here are the releases to prove it:
20. Bethany Dinsick - Bottle Tree
19. AK Slaughter - The Mixtape
18. Lands and Peoples - self titled EP
17. Nuclear Power Pants - Wicked Eats the Warrior
16. Dope Body - Twenty Pound Brick
15. Microkingdom - Spectacular Edges
14. Happy Family - Sound Farm
13. Caleb Stine - Eyes So Strong and Clean
12. The Violet Hour - The Violet Hour
11. Jones - Jones Jones Jones
10. Sri Aurobindo - debut EP and Return into Earth
9. Lo Moda - Replica Watches
8. Dustin Wong - Seasons
7. Pontiak - Maker
6. Jason Urick - Husbands
5. Weekends - Weekends LP and Suburban Dome EP
This was Weekends' debut LP, and I found it permeating my ears quite often this year. These guys played a hell of a lot of shows, and came hard each and every time. Both of these contain "riffs of pure joy", and have left me feeling this good every listen. I am excited to be playing a major part in their upcoming LP, a vinyl/digital release via Friends Records in early 2010.4. Arbouretum - Song of the Pearl
Arbouretum have been a staple here as of late, and this is the most cohesive release of their career. The production on Song of the Pearl is impeccable, allowing every note Dave's vocals hits to flawlessly boom just as it does seeing them live. This is psychedelic doom folk at its best.3. Wye Oak - The Knot
Andy and Jenn are likely going to be make a lot of amazing music for a long time to come. The Knot ensured my faith in this, as at times it does an almost perfect job of capturing Wye Oak's live performance, putting it into tangible form. This album possesses some of the most aurally beautiful moments Baltimore has produced this year.2. Dan Deacon - Bromst
Without even bringing up what he means to Baltimore, just look at the facts. Dan Deacon built off of the hyperactive electronics of Spiderman of the Rings, and turned it into a mind-bending and blissful composition performed by a large ensemble of talented local musicians. One of my fondest memories of 2009 was Dan and the ensemble closing out Whartscape's outside stage, mainly due to my obsession with Bromst.1. Double Dagger - More
There was no album that I found myself coming back to over and over again this year more than More. This is by far Double Dagger's most dynamic LP to date, and embodies a band that represents Baltimore to the fullest. This is a meaningful album by a meaningful band, period.
8 comments:
Secret Mountains - Kaddish
Who the heck are Secret Mountain? A team of viral marketers?
Olaf, Secret Mountains are a pretty new local band, with layers upon layers of folk pop.
Peep them here:
http://www.myspace.com/secretmountains
and a remix of them by Rapdragons here:
http://www.bmoremusic.net/2009/11/premiere-rapdragons-featuring-baltimore.html
So they're not ranked here.. This is a plug for that band I guess? Pretty clever
Olaf, the comments section is for talking about and reacting to a blog post. Everyone is welcome to chime in. I enjoyed reading Brett's list. Still, my list would look different, were it written out. In my comment, I included the one record that would easily be in my top 10 let alone top 20. But since we're talking about it, also in my top 20 would be Teeth Mountain - Live On and Teenage Souls - Burial Ground
teenage souls and polygons both awesome records both on my list
Cool stuff, I am from Germany.
Germany Olaf? Nice. What brings you this way might I ask?
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