Cannibal Cheerleader

Bloody Best of ‘09

Greetings Cannibal Cheerleader faithful and welcome to new site and new beginings, marked by our annual top ten list for 2009, a year that featured a lot of absences from the CC team but in the end only strengthened our resolve in our beloved Austin-based music blog. Take a look around the site, check out some of our video work, and be prepared to check out Cannibal Cheerleader in the new decade! To wrap up 2009 though, check out our Bloody Best of ‘09 below!

Best Tracks of ‘09

10. Pete Doherty – “Salome”

In a tumultuous year that saw one of our favorite singer-songwriters, Pete Doherty, grabbing headlines for every misstep, the ex-Libertine still managed to fly a record under the radar with his excellent Grace/Wastelands, a poignant odds-n-sods collection of tracks he’d been pasting together since his days with Carl Barat and co. The winner amongst the bunch, “Salome” features Doherty’s trademark woozy imagery, painting a picture of loneliness and despair that shoots straight out of his battered heart. Sad but oh so true.

 

9. The Mars Volta – “Cotopaxi”

Don’t ever accuse the Mars Volta of following the trends or treading the straight and narrow path – their newest LP the acoustically-bent Octahedron featured a plethora of bizarre twists and turns, recalling the progressive nature of their later records and mixing it effective with the crooners of their debut. However the standout track could only be “Cotopaxi”, a striking pop to the jugular with machine-gun-fire guitar lines and lyrics that beg to be sung at high volume to the confusion of every frat boy ever (”Don’t quit dragging the lake!”). Leave it to the Volta to make prog-rock radio friendly again. 

8. Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses” 

Not a record that’s gotten much attention on the Cannibal Cheerleader site this year but this cut from Franz Ferdinand has had our hips shaking all during this Christmas break. With a subversive electronic bent and a whip-crack fervor that marks the first time these Scottish sexperts have seemed genuinely pissed off, “Ulysses” marks a turning point in the career of the fearsome foursome towards a more expansive sound. Keep on dancing though fellas, don’t lose your head over one rock album.

 

7. Tiny Vipers – “Life On Earth”

To sing on the subject of expansiveness, darkness, and all-encompassing ethereal experience, one would think  a full orchestra might be necessary, or certainly more instrumentation than the incredibly sparse arrangements that are produced by solo artist Tiny Vipers in all her hauting glory. In a career defined by her ability to craft frighteningly lonely tales of despair, to hear Jesy Fortino wax poetic on philosophical quandaries such as in “Life On Earth” becomes immediately an arresting experience, gluing the listener to their seats keeping them at rapt attention throughout the ten-minute track. A triumph for the tiny indeed.

 

6. God Help the Girl – “Come Monday Night” 

2009 saw the return of Stuart Murdoch, albeit not in the terms some may have hoped, opting to create an insular musical world in the form of his brainchild God Help the Girl rather than return to the glory of the Belle & Sebastian collective. Still, given the carefully woven world that Murdoch has conjured and the collaborative spirit with which this project was made, it’s no wonder that tracks like “Come Monday Night” seem to spring forth  just as naturally as could be expected with the twee wunderkind’s former outfit. Feeling every bit like the soundtrack to a 50s French New-Wave film, this track reignites our passion in all things Murdoch.

5. Pull In Emergency – “Planes”

With an attention to detail well beyond their years, Pull In Emergency have secured some serious press on the backs of a few 7-inches alone, due in no small part to the garage-rock sound and securely pop sensibilities that power their youthful anthems upwards to the indie heavens. Featuring a hip-shaking singalong chorus and rapturous lyrics that spring forth from one of the most powerful female vocalists singing today, all layered over a wiry, pulsating guitar-line, it’s no surprise that we can’t wait to hear a Pull In Emergency’s full-length followup to “Planes” immediately. 

 

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Dull Life”

While the Yeah Yeah Yeahs certainly could be said to have crafted some of the greatest tracks of the year throughout their newest LP It’s Blitz! it’s the classic cuts that slice the deepest. “Dull Life” recalls the blood-letting carnage of the band’s earlier efforts but packs in the lessons learned, building from an accidental barn-burner to a city-wide inferno, exploding and bursting at the seems. While still celebrating breaking free from boundaries, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs still have their punk roots firmly in hand.

 

3. Gallows – “Black Eyes”

With all the energy and anger of broken stools and barroom stabbings, Gallows released quite possible one of the best punk records of the year, all encapsulated in the magnificent standout track “Black Eyes”, equal parts Oi and spirit of 77 all at once. With a shout-a-long chorus sure to shutter the neighbors inside for years (”I know where you live!!”) and a deliciously demonic guitar riff that’s certain to serve as the circle-pit anthem for years to come, this track is everything that Gallows has come to represent – from knowing that you’re good and not being afraid to say it to taking a licking and keeping on kicking, this is the fight that needs to be injected back into all modern rock. 

 

2. Lissy Trullie – “Boy Boy”

When a one woman garage-rock army comes busting down your door you’d better believe it’d be in the form of one of Lissy Trullie’s tightly wrapped expertly written pop-rock gems, the likes of which the Strokes only wish they could still write. Yes it’s 2001 again and Trullie is taking it by storm, with an ear for rhythm and a rancor for rock this husky-voiced, distractingly coifed starlet seems bound for blazes of glory, with “Boy Boy” as a launchpad. With equal parts stunning simplicity and complex coolness, Trullie manages to find that middle ground between the irritating lack of care in modern lo-fi and the overproduced pompousness of today’s pop rockers to craft a track that speaks to the leather-jacket wearing rocker in all of us. Lissy Trullie, bringing back the rock in ‘09. 

1. The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”

In a year of uplifting synth-rock anthems and renewed lo-fi promise there remains something to be said about losing a few teeth at the business end of a careening effects pedal, whipping across the crowded rock club on a wave of love and loss every now and again, as seems to be the general feeling gathered when listening to the Joy Formidable’s “Whirring”. The third single from their excellent debut LP A Balloon Called Moaning, track, with its painful admission that “Love can’t stay here” marks a decidedly angry tone to a record that while swooning and etheral with its shoegaze effects remains nonetheless steadfastly passionate and, in many ways, harsh and violent. In the same way that Joy Division lived up to its moniker by thrusting a wedge deep between the mountain of happiness and a pit of sorrow, the Joy Formidable strive to let everyone know their willing to let whirring fists fly for their pursuit, blood and guts and all. 

Best Albums of ‘09

10. Dead Man’s Bones – Dead Man’s Bones

With a haunting glockenspiel line that could only be followed by a accompanied by warbly, sinister croon, Dead Man’s Bones can only be described as everything one might expect from a haunted house inspired indie-rock nightmare. Helmed by actor Ryan Nelson, DMB contains all the appropriate trappings of a movie star’s rock project – overwrought, experimental, focusing mostly on unique vocal intonations – and it all adds up to an absolutely mystical combination. One listen to “In The Room Where You Sleep” might be enough to haunt your dreams forever. 

 

9. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love

It stands to reason that a band as rooted in folk narratives and imaginative prose as the Decemberists might find success in creating a full-length rock opera, and while Colin Meloy and his merry troupe of troubadours have found previous accolades in their poetic vignettes, the group has achieved their highest level of artistic achievement in The Hazards of Love. From its incredible usage of a bloody and magical story of love, revenge, loss, and murder to the rock hooks which seem to flow effortlessly from each line, the group has seared a new path through the wilderness of indie music and have entered to a realm all their own. 

8. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

From the initial careening drum pounds of album opener “Glass”, Bat For Lashes‘ Two Suns sound delivers on all the promise of every one of the singer-songwriter’s previous efforts with gusto. And when the track explodes into a hot passionate fireball, dancing across the eardrums with bombast and wrecklessness, the listener has been thusly been strapped in for the album’s duration, an entirely captivating and all-encompassing experience, with delicate arrangements exploding with Natasha Khan’s inimitably smoky voice to create a firework of mesmerizing musical effect. 

7. Kylesa – Static Tensions

A lot of praise has been heaped on a wide swath of the metal community this year, ranging from Mastodon’s embrace of progressive rock to Converge’s Slayer-esque guitar solos – and yet, it’s with this Savannah, Georgia quintet with which the greatest amount of praise should rest with Kylesa and their magnum opus Static Tensions as their assaulting dual-guitar, dual-drumkit formula has only increased in brutality and ferocity since their previous efforts. Couple this with their embrace of Sabbath-era riffs, psychedelic vocal trade-offs, and manic punk inspiration and the listener is privy to the underground rock record of the decade. A record that will come to redefine metal in the new year.

6. The Horrors – Primary Colours 

Living down a reputation as the most raucous, violent live-act that ever donned an entire bottle of hairspray might be a hard task to undertake, but Faris Badwin and company have managed to not only expand upon their work as London’s the Horrors but completely morph the structure of their group as a whole with Primary Colours, a record that stands as a far cry to their punk nuggets of yesteryear with shoegaze-via-Joy Division instrumentation and icy, stormy arrangements that mix moods of longing and violence into one Jesus and Mary Chain package. While the group may bleed punk and consume darkness, their slow-burning sophomore effort leads one to believe there remains a lot to be seen below their ice and mascara surface. 

5. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

 Following up a solid-gold classic like Fox Confessor Brings the Flood might seem to some to be beyond an impossible task, and that’s why Washington-based singer Neko Case returned to the confines of an abandoned barn deep in the wilderness with only her recording team and a bevy of broken down pianos to record her fantastically whimsical followup Middle Cyclone. With a theme of wildness and wilderness as it relates to the human condition, Case searches for herself in the fallen trees of the forest and the gaping maws of fearsome beasts, only to find herself less human at the end, embracing her animal self and passing silently into nature’s warm embrace to the tune of crickets chirping, all the while strumming her acoustic guitar in time. 

4. Fever Ray – Fever Ray

As an all-around aural presentation, the debut performance from the Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson in the form of Fever Ray serves as a magnificent testament to the power of simplicity and the effectiveness of experimentalism. With sparse but unique instrumentation, a few pedals worth of vocal modifications, and enough space to breathe in the terrifying world Andersson weaves Fever Ray can only be described as the new gold standard for electronic music, embracing new world sounds and off-kilter rhythms and making beats and handclaps once again a musical tool not specifically designed for dancing – unless that dancing is naked around a tribal fire. An altogether mesmerizing experiment in the power of electronic music. 

3. The Joy Formidable – A Balloon Called Moaning

Shoegaze music can’t help but be a reminder of the awe-inspiring instrumental force behind rock music, blasting waves of jaw-dropping riffs through the skulls of its unsuspecting listeners, and 2009 brought us a new trio of pedal-stomping champions in the form of the members of the Joy Formidable, a Welsh group that are injecting the anger back into indie with their debut A Balloon Called Moaning. On a record where every track feels as passionate as the last, the group seems bound for greatness, expanding on the trappings of their woozy instrumentation and infusing everything with urgency and ferociousness, the Joy Formidable prove they’re here to stay. 

2. Lissy trullie – Self-Taught Learner

A return to the leather-jacket wearing, Chuck-Taylor sporting garage-rock coolness that sparked the creativity of a nation of high schoolers at the beginning of the decade seems only fitting now at the end of the decade in the form of a New York fashionista turned rock star Lissy Trullie, whose Monroe-esque singing style and Strokes-era riffs echo a garage-apartment feel and a return to basics aesthetics when one person and one electric guitar meant a world of possibilities. With only a limited number of tracks with which to stretch her wings, Trullie has managed to soar, flying high on the backs of bouyant garage nuggets that mesh soul, punk, and classic rock all into 3-minute vignettes on life, love, and loss as a small fry in a big city. One of the best, most enjoyable records of the year by far. 

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

What distinguishes rock and roll from all other art forms isn’t necessarily its incorporation of disparate forms of songwriting and instrumentation and showmanship, but how it manages to meld all those singularly cold and at times impersonal attributes into a hot and passionate union of fury and fire, and that is exactly what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have managed to achieve in perfection on their third LP It’s Blitz! The record, a blazingly original departure from the obscenely punk leanings of their earlier works, has nonetheless retained every bit of the bloody art-rock rampage that gave motion and heat to tunes like “Pin” as well as sincerity and heartbreak to tracks like “Maps”. This record is the punks grown up and challenging themselves, their clothes ripped and tattered, their guitars smashed to bits and find they like the naked feel behind a creepy synth line and can set a crowd ablaze with a kiss as well as a punch. It’s Blitz! is equal parts an artistic achievement as a gigantic middle finger to everyone who didn’t give the punks a chance, didn’t think they were smart enough, or clever enough, or danced enough, or loved enough to make tracks like “Zero” or mused on philosophy enough to make “Dull Life”. Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase, rock stars though they may be, still feel as punk as the next kid in Converse shoes with badges on his tight jeans. Punk rock lives. 

Stay tuned for another exciting year of Cannibal Cheerleader my faithful followers! Stay hungry!