Top 10 Portland Albums from 2009

This was an insanely good year for Portland bands. Narrowing it down to just 10 albums is just stupid, but I am doing it anyway. Although some of these bands are obvious transplants, I considered them a Portland band if they self-identified as such on their MySpace page. Apologies to Hockey, whose Mind Chaos I still love, but it came out locally and topped the list last year.

1. Portugal. The Man - The Satanic Satanist
2. The Builders And The Butchers - Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well
3. Nurses - Apple's Acre
4. The Mint Chicks - Screens
5. The Thermals - Now We Can See
6. Paula Sinclair - Steady Girl
7. M. Ward - Hold Time
8. New York Rifles - Make A Wish
9. Panther - Entropy
10. Scotland Barr & The Slow Drags - We Will Be Forgotten EP

Brasilliant's Summer Short List

I have admittedly been in a bit of a music rut lately -- kind of like the summer when I used my hot pink boom box to play this rockin' Cabbage Patch Kids cassette over and over again (the tape mysteriously disappeared for a stretch of six months). Luckily, Awmercy is a bit more forgiving than my parents, and hasn't forcefully revoked my playlist privileges. So here goes. My way overplayed hits of the summer, plus a bright spot on the horizon:

1. Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound (2008). I fell in love with this band the first time I heard their debut album. It's been a constant on my iPod and is making the way up the charts on my play count. Blind Pilot is my new The Weepies.





2. Paula Sinclair - Steady Girl (2009). I think one of the reasons that my music selection has gotten stale is that my favorite alt. country singers have not put out any killer material lately (ahem Laura Cantrell, Lucinda Williams). Paula Sinclair is a welcome addition as one of my favorite women artists.



3. Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You (2009). This one was a grower. It wasn't as immediately catchy as her first album, so I initially dismissed the whole thing. I'll admit that was a mistake and I have quite enjoyed it over the past few weeks. A review to follow shortly, I promise.





4. Dolorean - You Can't Win (2007). I rediscovered Dolorean when Awmercy put it on a recent "mixtape" playlist. I'm sad that I missed them recently when they played live a Laurelthirst. However, since they're Portlanders, I'm sure they'll be back!





5. iTunes Genius: It's the bright spot on my music horizon. Ancient Indian Wizard and the lovely Crane Wife introduced it to me a month ago, raving about the awesome playlist-making magic that it performs. Choose your favorite song and iTunes compiles from your library a killer playlist. Since our household music cup runneth over with approximately 67,750 songs, I have the world at my fingertips. This gizmo rocks my tired music socks off and has introduced me to artists that have gotten buried in the mix.