My (uber-cheesy) Top 25 Songs of the Decade

In no particular order:

1. "Time For Heroes" - The Libertines

2. "Razorblade" - The Strokes

3. "Float On" - Modest Mouse

4. "Haiti" - Arcade Fire

5. "Fluorescent Adolescent" - Arctic Monkeys

6. "buriedfed" - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

7. "Fix You" - Coldplay

8. "A Minor Incident" - Badly Drawn Boy

9. "Smile" - Lily Allen

10. "Lover I Don't Have To Love" - Bright Eyes

11. "Baddies Boogie" - Babyshambles

12. "Obstacle 1" - Interpol

13. "Fidelity" - Regina Spektor

14. "Popular Mechanics For Lovers" - Beulah

15. "Flathead" - The Fratellis

16. "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" - Los Campesinos!

17. "Find Another Girl" - The Hives

18. "Karma Police" - Radiohead

19. "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

20. "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1" - The Flaming Lips

21. "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)" - The Eels

22. "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West

23. "Unless It's Kicks" - Okkervil River

24. "Mr. Brightside" - The Killers

25. "Lalita" - The Love Language

Slove Haikus (Redd Columbia's Plurk Challenge), 1-4-10

1-4-10

Slove Haikus

1.

Won't you hold me closer

I can't feel your pixel breath

so warm on my neck

2.

Why does this seem so

real when I know better.

You're just an image.

3.

I feel you in me.

You're not here though, you're pixels.

The line is blurred.

4.

You are like a ghost.

You float in, out, of my world.

You apparition.

5.

Tingling spine, shivers.

Promises of things yet to

come. So much to fear.

6.

I've given you so

much. My heart is all yours.

Please treat it with care.

7.

A huge crush, a rush.

Emotions, devotion.

So much to lose.

8.

When you whisper

your sweet nothings to me,

I melt, asshole.

9.

I become dizzy

with lust when you call me "slut,"

or "good girl." Le sigh.

10.

You're so bad, you ass.

So easily, you make

me swoon, pixel man.

copyright 2010 Katherine Andrews

A veritable bevy of faves (The Crow's Foot, January 3, 2010)

Soz, I compiled a set that includes a variety of songs from different favorite lists - my favorite songs I'm currently I'm currently digging on, my favorites of 2009, and my favorites of the decade. Here's the set list, from The Crow's Foot, 6-8 pm SLT, Sunday January 3, 2010.

"Oh! Bondage Up Yours!" - X-Ray Spex

"Honey In The Sun" - Camera Obscura

"Girly Girly Girly" - The White Wires

"Burn You Up" - Thao

"Heaven's Stranger" - Eat Skull

"Razorblade" - The Strokes

"Hey Boy" - Magic Kids

"There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve" - A. C. Newman

"Days" - Sambassadeur

"Stayed Up Late" - The White Wires

"You Can Come Over" - Shannon And The Clams

"What's Going On In Your World" - Violet Vector And The Lovely Lovelies

"Sparxxx" - The Love Language

"Zero (N.A.S.A. Bloody Lobo Remix)" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"Jackie Wood" - Box Elders

"Contender" - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

"Beginner's Luck" - Eels

"My Reality" - Jay Reatard

"We're Not Going" - Darlings

"Gold Medal" - The Donnas

"Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" - Los Campesinos!

"Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1" - The Flaming Lips

"Karma Police" - Radiohead

"Haiti" - Arcade Fire

"Fluorescent Adolescent" - Arctic Monkeys

"Baddies Boogie" - Babyshambles

"Popular Mechanics For Lovers" - Beulah

"For Real" - Okkervil River

"Some Weird Sin" - Iggy Pop

"Float On" - Modest Mouse

"Sheila" - Jamie T

"Smile" - Lily Allen

"Find Another Girl" - The Hives

"Flathead" - The Fratellis

"Fidelity" - Regina Spektor

"Time For Heroes" - The Libertines

Okay, I'm late to the party but...

The Love Language debuted a new song - "Heart To Tell Her" - which I ADORE, on December 11, 2009, at the Local 506, in Chapel Hill, NC. I have not been able to find an mp3 ANYWHERE (and believe you me, I've scoured the interwebs), but there is a vid of them doing it live at Local 506 on 12/11/09 on youtube, which I've been kind enough to embed here. Check it out! It's maybe my second favorite song by The Love Language, and as others have blogged, I sure hope this track makes it onto the band's upcoming 2010 Merge debut.

Also, check out their official video for "Sparxxx," my favorite video at the moment.

My Top 5 Albums/EPs Of The Triangle in 2009

First, let me say lord, there was a lot of good music in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina (known as The Triangle) this year. A lot of which I was unaware of, sadly, or unaware was Triangle music (again, sad). Researching this list however, has given me a looong list of musics to download, which I'm very excited about. New musics, local musics, yay! Anyway, without any further ado, here's the list:

1. The Love Language - The Love Language

2. Bombadil - Tarpits and Canyonlands

3. Bowerbirds - Upper Air

4. Violet Vector And The Lovely Lovelies - EP II

5. The Kingsbury Manx - Ascenseur Ouvert!

Also, check out these links to more Triangle music from INDYWEEK.com:

2009 Top 10 Triangle Albums (and yes, I overlap almost completely with this list, lol)

10 in 2010

Enjoy!

Love, Kate :)

NEW POEM: On Losing The Best Of The Social Whores (12-29-09)

On Losing The Best Of The Social Whores

You!

You spread your arms so wide and embraced me so tightly when

I was so lost

and you!

You introduced me to this incredible world i had been so enamored with

but had never had been able to muster the courage to dive into its depths.

You!

Do you know what an inspiration you were to me?

How when I watched you at Bahama Breeze or Manchester's,

moving with ease between tables and various groups of "macrame-makers,"

beer in hand, how

I was drawn to you like a moth to a flame.

God,

we all were.

Your light shone so brightly,

we all wanted to bathe in it.

If I could have one more moment I would say,

"Jack, you gave me courage and comfort and confidence"

and that wouldn't begin to describe one iota of what you gave me.

How I ache for what the world has lost.

I understand your demons, having shared similar ones

(the first time we met face-to-face we confided these issues with each other)

and I know the disease must've taken over

and I know I didn't do my part,

hold up my end of the bargain,

as I forgot how to communicate,

as I forgot how to be anything to you more than a name on a list.

So, I can't claim to know

anything about what brought this about

other than stupid fucking chemicals that wreak havoc with our souls

and for that, I could not be sorrier.

I will always treasure your infectious laughter, your booming voice, and those moments we shared where I was lucky enough to have your attention all to myself and got to converse and confide.

The world doesn't make much sense when we lose the likes of you,

yet I know your ache is at last soothed, your savage beast tamed,

so I hold onto that cold comfort,

and with tears streaming down my face,

I wish you well and remember a world where we basked in your warmth.

copyright 2009 Katherine Andrews

Best of 2009 set list, The Crow's Foot, 12-27-09

"Jailbird" -- M. Ward

"All The Beautiful Things" -- Eels

"There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve" -- A. C. Newman

"Two" -- The Antlers

"Swim Until You Can't See Land" -- Frightened Rabbit

"Shake A Shot" -- Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

"People Got A Lotta Nerve" -- Neko Case

"Lust For Life" -- Girls

"Lalita" -- The Love Language

"Days" -- Sambassadeur

"Kick Drum Heart" -- The Avett Brothers

"Saddest Summer" -- The Drums

"Naked With You" -- Turbo Fruits

"Stayed Up Late" -- The White Wires

"Suicide" -- The Raveonettes

"Not Fair" -- Lily Allen

"Folding Chair" -- Regina Spektor

"When We Swam" -- Thao

"Oh Suzanne" -- French Kissing

"Walkabout [w/ Noah Lennox]" -- Atlas Sound

"Heaven's Stranger" -- Eat Skull

"You Can Come Over" -- Shannon and the Clams

"A Little Death Around The Eyes" -- Pete Doherty

"Cornerstone" -- Arctic Monkeys

"Convinced Of The Hex" -- The Flaming Lips

"Guilty Cocker Spaniel" -- Modest Mouse

"Zero (N.A.S.A. Bloody Lobo Remix)" -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"Burn It All Down" -- VHS Or Beta

"If This Is Love" -- Darlings

"Jackie Wood" -- Box Elders

"26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" -- Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele

"Hey Boy" -- Magic Kids

"Loli" -- Nous Non Plus

"A Teenager In Love" -- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

"The Ills" -- Mayer Hawthorne

"Spoiled" -- Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

"Honeymoon" -- Bombadil

"Gimme Sympathy (Acoustic)" -- Metric

My Top 10 Albums of 2009 (I think? I can never friggin make up my mind man, so at this moment in time only)

December 25, 2009

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1. Neko Case -- Middle Cyclone

2. M. Ward -- Hold Time

3. A. C. Newman -- Get Guilty

4. Thao -- Know Better Learn Faster

5. Arctic Monkeys -- Humbug

6. The Love Language -- The Love Language

7. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson -- Summer of Fear

8. Metric -- Fantasies

9. Eels -- Hombre Lobo

10. Regina Spektor -- Far

Aislinn's Plurk Challenge: Reflections on Reverence

11-3-09

Reflections on Reverence

reverence

holiness as i know it

the beauty in all the little moments of awakening

the breathlessness of a true moment of joy

feeling helpless in the presence of enormity

the crashing of breakers on the shore

love

real love, not the superficial kind, but lasting love, pure love, unconditional love

laughter, deep throaty peals of it emanating heartily from loved chests

catching laughter

the kind that is contagious and irrepressible and uncontainable and leaves you breathless, tears soaking your cheeks

family

friends

all the people who hold me up when i fall so far into the underbelly of the beast

when i can't hold myself up and need hands to pull me out of that black hole

beauty

in all its forms

whether it's as simple as a ray of sunshine illuminating my desk or as powerful as a perfectly crafted poem

or a song that leaves me breathless and shaken and stirred and completely speechless

a canvas with brushstrokes that have created an image so powerful it transcends simple "art' and becomes something bigger than that simple word, something so much more meaningful and personal and treasured

worn books and notebooks filled with smeared ink and a computer filled with song upon song upon song

i do not revere the gods

i make my own

i revere the simplicity of a touch, a word, a kindly gesture,

the feeling of your warm breath on the back of my neck

i make my own religion

and it is sacred

copyright 2009 Katherine Andrews

Emulating Stu the Kid, 11-1-09

November 1, 2009

Emulating Stu The Kid

you keep doing this to yourself

staking your future on impossible odds

again and again i try to tell you that

the house always wins

as you draw another card

as your baited breath belies

the tension

the game brings with it

no, not a game

for for you, it is so much more

like air, you feed off it

you stake your future on it

insisting one day

you'll win that big pot

have that one good night

sorry, you are no Stu Ungar

and even that legend

was destroyed by his genius

banned from playing blackjack and rummy

od'ing just days after his big comeback

and you, you are no Stu the Kid

do it, yes, for fun

but please, i beg of you

stake nothing

when you stake your chips

copyright 2009 Katherine Andrews