Thirty-Two Great San Francisco Bay Area Albums from 2009 (Part 1)
December 16, 2009
The Bay Area may not have a single unified scene, but its diverse musical communities produced a ton of acclaimed records in 2009. The following list collects thirty-two of the highlights that made this another banner year for Bay Area indie music. It’s a collection that showcases the depth of Bay Area indie in 2009, and one suspects that few other regions have offered this volume of quality releases this year.
A couple of qualifiers: This isn’t a comprehensive list of excellent local records from 2009 or intended as any sort of official Bay Bridged “Best of” set. Plenty of quality releases were left off for the sake of keeping this somewhat manageable. For the same reason, it only includes full lengths, so plenty of terrific EPs and singles are also omitted. With those hedges out of the way, here’s a pretty good sampling of SF victories in ’09.
Read Part 2 of this collection here.
Download all 32 songs featured in these two articles here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).
The Dodos – Time to DieThe-Dodos-Fables.mp3
The Dodos – “Fables”
Wallpaper. – Doodoo Face
03-I-Got-Soul-Im-So-Wasted.mp3
Wallpaper. – “I Got Soul, I’m So Wasted”
Leopold and His Fiction – Ain’t No Surprise
come_back.mp3
Leopold and his Fiction – “Come Back (Now That I’m Here)”
Or, the Whale – Or, the Whale
03-Rusty-Gold.mp3
Or, the Whale – “Rusty Gold”
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down – Know Better Learn Faster
KnowBetter.mp3
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down – “Know Better Learn Faster”
Garrett Pierce – All Masks
07-And-The-Ghosts-Boarded-Trains.mp3
Garrett Pierce – “And The Ghosts Boarded Trains”
Girls – Album
02-Laura.mp3
Girls – “Laura”
Port O’Brien – Threadbare
02_My_Will_Is_Good.mp3
Port O’Brien – “My Will Is Good”
Sholi – Sholi
02-Tourniquet.mp3
Sholi – “Tourniquet”
Sleepy Sun – Embrace
Sleepy-Sun-New-Age.mp3
Sleepy Sun – “New Age”
Thee Oh Sees – Help
ruby-go-home-1.mp3
Thee Oh Sees – “Ruby Go Home”
From Monument to Masses – On Little Known Frequencies
03-Beyond-God-Elvis.mp3
From Monument to Masses – “Beyond God & Elvis”
Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
papercutsychwyw.mp3
Papercuts – “You Can Have What You Want”
The Fresh & Onlys – Grey-Eyed Girls
06-Dudes-Got-A-Tender-Heart.mp3
The Fresh & Onlys – “Dude’s Got A Tender Heart”
John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
fetal_horses.mp3
John Vanderslice – “Fetal Horses”
Tempo No Tempo – Waking Heat
Kilometer.mp3
Tempo No Tempo – “Kilometer”
Tempo No Tempo should not be on this list. Sorry Bay Bridged, but you sorta messed up on this one.
Gotta disagree with you there, Emily, but we don’t have to agree on everything. Not until I become president, anyway. When that happens, you’d be well advised to adopt all of my views on everything.
I also don’t understand the need to list 32 Bay Area albums of 2009. I’m not accusing you of *perhaps* illegitimately publicizing your-friends-bands, but I just find 32 to be a strange number to choose. Certainly a “top ten” would of sufficed along with a list of honorable mentions.
Yeah, I tried to whittle it to 30, but life is suffering, and I gave up with 32. The whole point is that it’s not a top ten list. It’s a broad survey meant to acknowledge a large collection of exceptional releases without the meaningless cap and arbitrary rankings that make top ten lists uninteresting to me. I’m sure if you look around at this time of year, you’ll be able to find a few top ten lists that should suffice. How about if you want to continue this dialogue, you e-mail me at ben[at]thebaybridged.com?
Thanks for reading!