Music of the Weak set out to find 100 awesome songs from the first 100 days of 2009. Last week, we posted the first fifty. Here are the rest. It’s probably worth noting I couldn’t have done this without leaning heavily on The Fader’s blog or eMusic’s 17 Dots, not to mention the excellent Passion of the Weiss and Analog Giant, both of which pointed me toward a good handful of tracks. Also, Best of the Year So Far Lists from Sasha Frere-Jones and Michelangelo Matos. Enjoy.
An Up-and-Comer With a Distinctive Sound and a Real Chance to Be a Star: Lil’ Wayne Featuring Pharrell Williams – “Yes”
And, Playing the Role of Lindstøm’s Scrappy, Loveable Nephew: Lawrence – “Jill”
Angling For a Spot On a Mix Tape In Between The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”: Sissy Wish – “Ya Ya Ya”
Any Band That Uses Frankenberry as Their MySpace Icon Has to Be Doing Something Right: Dorian Concept – “Upside Downslide”
Are We Ready to Admit to The Lonseome Crowded West Being One of the Most Influential Albums of the Last Couple Decades Yet: Cymbals Eat Guitars – “And the Hazy Sea”
Bassiest Delight of the Year, So Far: Shuttle – “Tunnel (High Rankin Remix)”
Best Early-90’s Throwback (Before the Inevitable Deluge): J. Period Featuring De La Soul – “Excursions (Tribute Remix)”
Best Song For Pretending You’re Back in 2004 Pretending It’s 1997: The Streets – “Blinded By the Lights (Anonymous Dubstep Remix)”
Come For the Song Title, Stay For the Cover Art: Super Furry Animals – “The Very Best of Neil Diamond”
Contractually Obligated to Whistle on Every Song: Andrew Bird – “Fitz & Dizzyspells”
Even After a Hit Single, We Still Have Trouble Proving Anyone But Critics and Musicians Actually Listens to M.I.A.: Buraka Som Sistema Featuring Deize Tigrona – “Aqui Para Voces”
File Under: Drugs; Adorable: The Black Lips – “Drugs”
First Person to Find Me An mp3 of This Damn Song Wins a Damn Prize: House of House – “Rushing to Paradise (Walking These Streets)”
“Flashbacks” is the Backpack Rap Title Equivalent of Naming a Glam Song “Rock You”: Cas One Featuring Brother Ali – “Flashbacks”
Garage Band Dress-Up is the Best Band Dress-Up: Condo Fucks – “What’cha Gonna Do About It”
Got Rid of the Whistling, But Still Aiming For Preciousness: Peter Bjorn & John – “Nothing to Worry About”
Ha Ha Ha: Kid Cudi Featuring Kanye West, Common & A-Track – “I Poke Her Face”
If You’re Going to Do Wistful, You Have to Use Trumpets: Finale – “A Pipe Dream and a Promise”
It’s Already Time For Early-Career Rihanna Nostalgia (Thanks, Fader!): Jovi Rockwell – “Tonight”
It Was Always Secretly a Sad, Sad Song: Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Siik Remix)”
J Dilla Recast as a Cultural Diplomat: Filastine Featuring Rabah – “B’Talla”
Kind of a Train Wreck/Kind of Awesome: MSTRKRFT Featuring John Legend – “Heartbreaker”
Look, This Zooey Chick Only Sings Background This Time: M. Ward Featuring Zooey Deschenel – “Never Had Nobody Like You”
More Cosmic Disco Operas, Please (See Also: Kool DJ Dust’s 2008 *ahem* The Disco Opera): Afrobutt – “Banger Disco”
Most Unnecessary Name Change/They’ll Always Be The Muslims to Me: The Soft Pack – “Religion”
Not Too Late to Retroactively Slip It Into That Anna Farris Movie: Shawn Lee Featuring Darondo – “Playboy Bunny”
Now With 100% More Helium Voices: Prefuse 73 – “Preparation Kids Choir”
Odds Are You’re So Sick of Droning, Drum-Circle Baiting, Hippie Shit—But In Case You’re Not: Here We Go Magic – “Only Pieces”
Okay, Maybe They’re a Career Band After All: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero”
One Reason Definitive Jux Should Stay in the Retro-Soul Game: Chin Chin – “Go There With You”
Pixies Revivalism is So Old It’s New Again: Micachu & The Shapes – “Lips”
Posse Cut That Tacks On a Deep Robotic Voice and Phone Call For Good Measure: UGK Featuring Too $hort & Snoop Dogg – “Steal Your Mind”
Reassurance That Blindly Digging Around Emusic is Time Well Spent: Woolfy – “Oh Missy (Whatever/Whatever Remix)”
Sesame Street For Pissed-Off Teenage Girls: Lily Allen – “Fuck You”
Sign That Anthropomorphizing Might Be a Musical Trend (What Up, Neko Case?): The King Khan & BBQ Show – “Animal Party”
Since Andrew Bird Has the Whistling Thing All locked Up, We’ll See What We Can Do With Humming: The Love Band – “Mmm”
Strangely, The Best Thing to Come Out of a Jay-Z/Santogold Collaboration: Raekwon – “Staten (Go Hard)”
Still Digging In the Same Hole, With Increasing Returns: Black Milk – “Dreams”
The Official 100 Songs/100 Days Cool Down: Tim Hecker – “Currents of Electrostasy”
The Sound of a Midlife Crisis, Crystallized: U2 – “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”
The Sound of a Midlife Crisis, Exploited: Morrissey – “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore”
The World May Not Need Another Band Who Sings About Sharing Cherry Colas, And Yet: Telekinesis – “Coast of Carolina”
Things May Be Globally Shitty, But Things Are Still Personally Shitty: Cage – “Nothing Left to Say”
This Juan MacLean Guy Might Seriously Be Going Places: Roy Davis Jr. Featuring Erin Martin – “I Have a Vision (The Juan MacLean Remix)”
This One!: Telepathe – “So Fine”
Thorniest Guitar Fuckage That Almost Makes Up For Sounding Stuck In 2004: Franz Ferdinand – “Lucid Dreams (Original Version)”
When Dudes Ease Up On All the Guest Vocals and Pop Aspirations, Dudes Can Make Some Stunning Music: Röksopp – “Röksopp Forever”
Yeah, Yeah, She’s the New Kate Bush, Yeah, Great, Alright: Bat For Lashes – “Daniel”
Your Salve For Having to Endure Another Cover of “Mad World”: Junior Boys – “Hazel”
2009, The Year of Blinks and Blonks: Tanlines – “New Flowers”
-Martin Brown, 2009
Sweet, a song for me! Awesome.
Beyond that, the Siik remix is way too good. I always kinda liked that song and now it's okay.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.04.10 at 17:11
J. Period Featuring De La Soul - I haven't heard that yet, but I'm curious. I really enjoyed the Q-Tip mixtape J. Period put out this year, so I think a De La Soul one sounds all kinds of fun.
The Raekwon Staten Island song is all kinds of fun, too. I sent that to my fiance, who grew up on Staten, and she had fun listening to it, too.
Judging from the rest of this list, I have an awful lot to catch up on! Thank God you're here to separate the wheat from the chaff!
Posted by: Kenny Cather | 2009.04.11 at 13:52
I love these.
Posted by: Philip Dhingra | 2009.04.13 at 17:35
me too.
Posted by: Zebtron A. Rama | 2009.04.14 at 17:40
Phillip, Zebtron, I don't want to speak too out of turn, but Marty is leaving you hanging due to professional obligations, so here's a bone:
after Humanoids?
Music goes crazy.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.04.14 at 22:58