Best music of 2009 so far (AV Club)

AV Club staff weigh in on their favorites of the year.

My favorites off the top of my head: Grizzly Bear Veckatimest, Mastodon Crack the Skye, Dinosaur Jr. Farm, Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!, Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Brakes Touchdown, Doves Kingdom of Rust, Harlem Shakes Technicolor Health, ...Trail of Dead The Century of Self, Dark Was the Night, Dark Night of the Soul, Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, Silversun Pickups Swoon, The Antlers Hospice, Arbouretum Song of the Pearl.

Stream Mastodon's Crack the Skye

The full album can be streamed on their MySpace page.

This first song "Oblivion" sounds a lot like Alice in Chains to me.  I love it.

New Music - The Singles

I have a lot of anticipated releases for this year but I'm further encouraged when the first sounds from a new album exceed my expectations.  Here are a few:

Peter Bjorn and John - "Nothing to Worry About"

MySpace

Just like "Young Folks," it's going to take an incredibly long time for me to get sick of this song.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - "Isis Unveiled" and "Ascending"

MySpace

Spin

As a die hard TOD fan, I can admit that So Divided was mediocre.  From what I've heard thus far, I feel really good about Century Self.  

Mastodon - "Divinations"

MySpace

The cover alone got me excited for this album.  The new song even more so.

Overheard @ 9:30 Club Last Night

In reference to DC's new non-smoking policy in bars and clubs:
"This place is weird without the big cloud of smoke hanging in the air."
-----
Crowdmember: "Play the first song!"
Converge frontman: "We did play the first song. It was the first song."
Crowdmember: "Play the fourth song."
Converge frontman: "We played the fourth song, too. We played 8 or 9 songs. I don't know...I can't count, I went to fucking art school."
-----
The last song to play before Mastodon took the stage was The Mars Volta's "Tetragrammaton". Some knucklehead next to me to his knucklehead friend (these kids were like 16, 17 tops):

K #1: "Is this off Amputechture?"
K #2: "Yeah, fuck The Mars Volta."
K #1: "Is this fucking "Tetragrammaton"? Uggh."

Kids these days. At least they had the sense to be catching Mastodon. Maybe they weren't up to speed on the fact that two members of The Mars Volta helped out on tracks on Blood Mountain. Or maybe they truly hate The Mars Volta. At any rate, "Tetragrammaton" had me in prime shape for Mastodon.

Mastodon, Converge & Priestess @ 9:30 Club, 02.17.07: More Pics

Mastodon









Converge









Priestess

Mastodon @ 9:30 Club, 02.17.07

As 9:30 Club excellence goes, nestled somewhere behind Ben Harper's 3.5 hour epic and somewhere in front of everything else, lies the show I just witnessed. Mastodon exceeded all of my expectations. Fucking phenomenal.

They haven't changed the setlist up much during the tour, and I just pulled this off the forum. Let me know if it is jacked up - I don't know a lot of their songs by name. I am trying to replay all of them and remember where and when, but for the most part, this looks good.

Setlist:

"This Mortal Soil"
"The Wolf Is Loose"
"Crystal Skull"
"Capillarian Crest"
"I Am Ahab"
"Sleeping Giant"
"Circle Of Cysquatch"
"Iron Tusk"
"March Of The Fire Ants"
"Where Strides The Behemoth"
"Mother Puncher"
"Aqua Dementia"
"Bladecatcher"
"Colony Of Birchmen"
"Megalodon"
"Blood And Thunder"
"Hearts Alive"

Tonight: Mastodon, Converge & Priestess

The info over at 9:30 Club:

This show is sold out.
Doors 7:00
Priestess 7:45
Converge 8:30
Mastodon 9:40

Mastodon & Priestess Tour

"Mastodon has unveiled a three-week North American tour in support of its latest Reprise album, Blood Mountain. The metal-leaning quartet will be joined by Priestess and Converge on the trek, which begins Jan. 26 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and wraps Feb. 18 in Norfolk, Va.

"'[Touring], I feel, is what got us signed,' drummer Brann Dailor told Billboard.com in a recent interview. 'But we're really aggressive about it and sometimes it can get to us. Sometimes I sink into a depression on tour because it's no place to be when big stuff happens, like if your dog dies or something. You're in your tour bubble. So it'd be nice to keep finding way to adjust to it.'" [Billboard]

Dates:
Jan 26: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Culture Room)
Jan 27: Orlando, Fla. (House of Blues)
Jan 28: St. Petersburg, Fla. (Jannus Landing)
Jan 29: Tallahassee, Fla. (Beta Bar)
Jan 31: Athens, Ga. (40 Watt Club)
Feb 1: Knoxville, Tenn. (Blue Cat's)
Feb 2: Nashville (Rocketown)
Feb 3: St. Louis, Mo. (Pop's)
Feb 5: Minneapolis (First Ave.)
Feb 7: Grand Rapids, Mich. (The Orbit Room)
Feb 8: Columbus, Ohio (Newport Music Hall)
Feb 9: Pittsburgh (Rex Theater)
Feb 10: Sayreville, N.J. (Starland Ballroom)
Feb 11: Providence, R.I. (Lupo's)
Feb 13: Allentown, Penn. (Crocodile Rock)
Feb 14: Rochester, N.Y. ( Water Street Music Hall)
Feb 15: Albany, N.Y. (Northern Lights)
Feb 16: New Haven, Conn. (Toad's Place)
Feb 17: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club) | Tickets
Feb 18: Norfolk, Va. (NorVa)