Music of the Weak set out to find 100 awesome songs from the first 100 days of 2009, and we’ll be sharing them with you over the next two weeks. Here are the first fifty.
2009 Summit of Funny Voices/Battle Royale For the Chance to Sing Back-Up On “Girls, Girls, Girls Part II”: Q-Tip Featuring Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, & Lil’ Wayne – “Renaissance Rap (Remix)”
Actually Sounds Beamed in From a Beach on the Moon: Kurt Vile – “Beach on the Moon (Recycled Lyrics)”
After Hip-House, Trip-Hop-Hop Was Probably Inevitable: Attitude Featuring Jackie Chain – “Money”
Another Perfectly Boring Album Ruined By Knob Twiddling: Beirut – “My Wife, Lost in the Wild”
Best Argument That a Post-Girl Talk World Is Better: Teengirl Fantasy – “Portofino”
Best AutoTune Parody That Also Works On a Level of Sincerity: Ryan Leslie – “Gibberish”
Best Indication Wale Might Not Turn Out to Be a Total Embarassment: Young Chris Featuring Wale & Bun B – “Searching”
Best Makeover (AKA Proof That House Music Kills This Balearic Stuff): Appaloosa – “The Day We Fell In Love (Acid Girls Wept Remix)”
Best Song to Program Into Your Alarm Clock: 10:32 – “Jitter Heart”
Best Song With An Actual Chance of Rocking the iTunes Music Charts: The-Dream Featuring Kanye West – “Walking On the Moon”
Best Use of the Phrase “You Can Get This Through the Ropes With Your Vagina”: Fires of Rome – “Set in Stone”
Could Have Used More AutoTune, But Still: Bon Iver – “Blood Bank”
Deconstructed Beat, Immaculately Constructed Rhymes: P.O.S. – “Get Smokes”
Does This Sound Exactly Like the Introduction to The Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar” to You?: Kode 9 – “Black Sun”
Dude Just Looooves Those Wacky Time-Signatures: A.C. Newman – “Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer”
Got a Little Thing For the Evel Knievel: Thunderheist – “Sweet 16”
Grooviest Track Off Dark Was the Night: Yeasayer – “Tightrope”
I Don’t Know If He Created a New Genre (“Wonky”?) But It Is a Pretty Fresh Song: Joker – “Digidesign”
I Will Hang With Any Dude Who Listens to Arabian Prince and Kano’s “I’m Ready”: Theophilus London – “Cold Pillow”
If Bon Iver Played White Noise Instead of Acoustic Guitar: The Antlers – “Sylvia”
If the Album Ever Gets Released, It’ll Be a Greatest Hits Package: Big Boi – “Ringtone”
If This Is the Track She Donates to a Magazine Compilation, Imagine How Awesome the Album Will Be: Little Boots – “Magical”
Is Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Going to Be Album of the Year, Or What: Phoenix – “1901”
It’s Always the Classically Trained Guys That Want to Make Fart Noises: Dan Deacon – “Snookered”
It’s Not Too Late to Retroactively Attach This to the Sophomore Handsome Boy Modeling School Album: N.A.S.A. Featuring RZA, Barbie Hatch & John Frusciante – “Way Down”
J Dilla-Indebted Producer Albums are Often More Fun When They’re Free: Diego Bernal – “Dusty Sanchez”
Just When You Thought Those “Crystal” Bands Couldn’t Get Any Dumber, They Go and Do Something Like This... And Totally Redeem Themselves: Crystal Antlers – “Andrew”
Killer Whales Are Called Killers For a Reason; Man Eaters Eat Men: Neko Case – “People Gotta Lot of Nerve”
Life is a Billie Holiday Sample: Blu – “Amnesia”
McGyvered a Beat Out of Table Slaps and a Nextel Chirp: Busy Signal – “Nah Ansa”
Most In Need of a Video Like This: The Whitest Boy Alive – “Island”
Most Likely We’ll Never Know Who These Dudes Actually Are: Record Producer – “Good News”
Most Welcome Comeback: DOOM – “Rap Ambush”
Never Giving Up This Whole Killer Bees Thing: RZA Featuring Ghostface Killah, Kool G Rap, & Tash Mahogany – “Whar”
Okay, He Can Still Write a Great Song, But Now Let’s Work On Annunciation: Mos Def – “Quiet Dog”
Officially On the “Who the Fuck Are These Guys and Where Do I Hear More” List: Quite Nice & Radar Ellis Featuring Project Move – “Love Is”
Probably Should Keep It Uptempo Like This, Dude (See Also: Last Year’s “Shake That Dog”): Antony & the Johnsons – “Kiss My Name”
Putting the Dub in Dubstep: Horsepower Productions – “Damn It”
So This Was the Guy Repping For Thin Lizzy All Along: Franz Nicolay – “Quiet Where I Lie”
Song Most in Need of Muppet Thugs: M.O.P. – “Blow the Horns (Dirty)”
Song of the Year, So Far: Gui Boratto – “No Turning Back”
Sweetest Slice of Stones Throw Funk This Year, So Far: Dam-Funk – “Hood Pass Intact”
The Obligatory Animal Collective Track: Animal Collective – “Summertime Clothes”
They Play This Game Where Every Song Title Has To Be More Fey Than the Name of the Band: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “This Love Is Fucking Right!”
This Juan MacLean Guy Might Be Going Places: Circlesquare – “Hey You Guys (The Juan MacLean Remix)”
Who Knew a Wolf Parade Guy Would Want to Tongue Kiss New Order?: The Handsome Furs – “All We Want, Baby, Is Everything”
Why Don’t You Just Do What the Man Says: Ghislain Poirier Featuring Mr. Slaughter – “Get Crazy”
Wish Fulfillment: The Hold Steady – “Atlantic City”
Worst-Timed Fleetwood Mac Appropriation: Charles Hamilton – “Re-anna”
“Yes, We Remade Ourselves After Gnarls Barkley, But Tell Me the String Quartet and Horns Ain’t Dope”: Platinum Pied Pipers – “Countless Excuses”
-Martin Brown, 2009
Jesus Martin, I just finished your year end music pieces a month ago.
You are a beast.
Posted by: seth hurley | 2009.04.04 at 20:13
Charles Hamilton is STILL pushing the Rihanna thing? Give it up, kid.
Quiet Dog is in a special lane of rap that I love-- where there's this clear black church influence on the sound. Dilla used to use hand claps like that, and 9th Wonder dabbles in it sometimes.
I remember a quote from years ago on the Okayplayer boards, 2000/2001-times, which was basically "God invented hands so that J Dilla could use them in music." It's true.
Posted by: david brothers | 2009.04.04 at 21:00
That Big Boi album is going be like fucking Loveless, won't it? Or Enter the Wu Tang. Something that you have to listen to the whole album at once.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.04.04 at 21:15
I'm very glad to see Charles Hamilton getting some love! Yes, he's one of the most manufactured rappers ever - which is saying a lot - but 12 mixtapes in and I'm still loving all the Sonic love. Although, it does make me long for the days when rappers used to write their own lyrics....
The rest of the list - I have no idea when or if I'll ever get to it. I hope I will, though!
Posted by: Kenny | 2009.04.06 at 10:52
"Although, it does make me long for the days when rappers used to write their own lyrics...."
Really?
Posted by: david brothers | 2009.04.06 at 12:36
Yes, really. I miss rappers writing their own lyrics. I'm tired of the lyrics-by-committee approach that leads to every backpacker sounding like Lupe Fiasco. Hell, Lupe probably doesn't write his own stuff, either. It all sounds so generic anymore....
I wish Hamilton had something unique to say because I'm loving the idea of using Sonic as a metaphor.
Posted by: Kenny Cather | 2009.04.06 at 14:15
How do you feel about Charles stealing beats and manufacturing beef with Soulja Boy to create sales?
Posted by: david brothers | 2009.04.06 at 15:02