Andy Gapin

This week’s show was my countdown of my top 10 albums of 2009. It was an easy show to do since I picked out everything beforehand. I opened up with a few honorable mentions and then went right into the top 10. I ended with a Thorns Of Life track. I figured that bootleg from 924 Gilman St. was one of my most listened to records in the early part of the year so I should play something from it. The only real difficult part of this year’s countdown was trying to find a clean track from the Dear Landlord album. Everything I wanted to play had profanity in it and I didn’t have time to edit something out. I could have done it on the fly, but I never like leaving it to that. Don’t want to risk getting distracted and missing it.

So here’s the playlist (if you’re reading via Facebook, it’s going to be a jumbled mess since their import sucks. Click to read the original instead.)…

Source: 90.3 The Core

2009 was a pretty fucking awesome year! Seriously. I’ll probably make another post about the rest, but there were some amazing movies and some great records that came out.

Top 10 Albums

A lot of people are making lists for the decade, but I decided that I just couldn’t do that. It was too difficult of a task. So I stuck with just doing a top 10 favorite records for the year. In previous years, I’ve done bigger lists, but I’m keeping it small this year. And, as usual, this is a list of my favorite records, kind of like a personal playlist, rather than ones that I would say are the best.

Anyway, the list is below and I’ll also be counting this list  on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core tonight at 9pm! Make sure to tune in. I’ll be playing one song from each album.

1. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone – Anti
2. Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed – Epitaph
3. The Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat And Tears – Fat Wreck Chords
4. M. Ward – Hold Time – Merge
5. Coconut Records – Davy – Young Baby Records
6. Monsters of Folk – Monsters Of Folk – Shangri-La
7. Dear Landlord – Dream Homes – No Idea
8. Conor Oberst And the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South – Merge
9. NOFX – Frisbee/Coaster – Fat Wreck Chords
10. Future Of The Left – Travels with Myself and Another – 4AD

And besides those, there are a few honorable mentions:

• Cheap Girls – My Roaring 20s
• Sonic Youth – The Eternal
• The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love
• Mason Jennings – Blood Of Man
• Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
• Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
• Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

You know, I almost wanted to put Lady GaGa on that list somewhere. I think I’ve spent some serious time in the second half of this year discovering a love for her. I never would have thought that I’d think so highly of her, but she’s pretty friggin’ awesome. However, I just can’t say that The Fame Monster was that great overall. It’s good for a few really great songs, but there’s also a lot of filler. Oh well.

And 2010 is already looking like it’s going to be a great year with new records by Murder By Death, Minus The Bear, Against Me!, Spoon, She And Him, and more already announced. I can’t wait!

Top 10 Movies

I actually had a much harder time making my list of top 10 movies for the year. There were a TON of good flicks this year and there were so many that I just didn’t have time to see either! Ultimately, these were my favorites:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Star Trek
3. Up
4. The Hangover
5. Dead Snow
6. Zombieland
7. District 9
8. Paranormal Activity
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. Coraline

And of course, some honorable mentions:

• Whip It
• (500) Days Of Summer
• Watchmen
• Last House On The Left
• Whatever Works
• The Wrestler

So there you have it, my favorite albums and movies of the year. I’m hoping to post another entry about other things from 2009 if I get a chance over the next week. But until then, don’t forget that I’ll be counting down that top 10 albums list tonight on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core!

Overall, last night’s radio show didn’t really come together as well as I would have liked, but, at the least, I was able to play a lot of music that I was really excited to spin. New stuff from The Lawrence Arms–seriously Buttsweat and Tears is such a great 7″–, Cheap Girls, Flight Of The Conchords, Coconut Records, Frank Turner, and They Might Be Giants. Along with Monsters of Folk and some of the other stuff I’ve been playing over the past few weeks, there is a lot going on right now from some more well known, at least in the indie scene, bands. It’d be awesome if every week could be like this.

So musically, I really loved last night’s show and I think I had my mic breaks mostly where I wanted them, but I slipped up a bit on my segues between songs. I guess it happens. Oh well.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Also, I wanted to post Frank Turner’s new video for Poetry of the Dead because he looks kind of like a cleaned up

Last night was another fantastic show. Almost perfect all around. Great music, great segues, and the phone was ringing off the hook. Not even just the phone, but the instant messages too. So much so that it was almost stressful trying to keep up. I was actually sweating because of it.

I found out last night that our station streams perfectly fine over an iPhone just by going to www.thecore.fm and clicking to listen. I’m assuming this will work on any other smartphone too, I guess I never thought about it before.

Apparently, we’re supposed to get a Nor’easter this weekend so that’s going to put a damper on my Field of Terror plans, but I’m still excited to see Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, and The Loved Ones on Sunday in Philly. And it seems that there are still tickets for the Monday night show as well. You may want to check that out. Either way, expect a full report next week.

Anyway, here’s what I played…

Source: 90.3 The Core

Last night’s show got off to a bit of a late start, but I still managed to fit in most of what I wanted. Other than that, it was was a relatively average show. Nothing of note to mention.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Last night’s radio show was another great one. I’m really starting to like the 9pm slot…maybe even better than 10pm. I have more energy and it feels like less of a drag towards the end of the show.

There was a lot of good new stuff to play this week which made it easy to get a nice flow from song to song and from genre to genre. I was able to cover a lot of musical ground and also get in some bigger named bands, something that has been missing for a few weeks. Bands like Yo La Tengo, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Lou Barlow.

The Monsters Of Folk album is pretty awesome if you’re into those guys (M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Jim James, Mike Mogis). It sounds exactly the way I was expecting it to, but in the best of ways. And I think prior to last night, I had never actually heard Imogen Heap before, but they’ve got a new album out and I decided to play a song for my girlfriend who is into them. I kind of always thought I’d hate them, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m not in love with it, but I’d play them again.

Here’s what I played…

Source: 90.3 The Core