So, we're already three weeks into 2010 and I still haven't done a proper retrospective of the best parts of 2009. Well, I thinks it's high time. Here, for your pleasure, is my top five countdown of the best things in 2009:
5. Bands That Care. 2009 saw the release of Feeding Fingers' "Baby Teeth" which I reviewed rather favourably in 2008 already due to having received an advance copy. So, in a way this bit is the year 2008 crossing over to 2009, but never mind that. 2009 saw me having some extremely nice experiences with certain bands. Whether it was a band coming all the way to my blog to thank me for reviewing their album (Skeleteen) or a band being so genuinely nice as to let me keep a limited edition vinyl they accidentally sent me when I'd in fact ordered the CD and then sending me the CD for no extra charge (The Prids) or a band promising me a free copy of their work-in-progress album as thanks for DJ'ing at their bassist's birthday party, this year really made me feel good about the bands that I listen to. Bands, here's something you should know: nothing makes a person appreciate the effort you put into your music (other than making really good music) more than a genuinely human connection. Commenting on blog posts reviewing your albums, showing appreciation to people for simply listening to your music in the form of advance copies and appearing as human all make the music you make feel so much more personal. This crosses over to my next topic, which is...
4. Musicians Who Friend You Simply For Being A Fan. I've experienced this in a number of places. Justin Curfman of Feeding Fingers is my friend on Facebook, meaning that the gap between musician and fan has been bridged somewhat. Furthermore, after the shenanigans with my order from The Prids their bassist Mistina Keith added me as a friend. In addition to this, members of Entertainment, Bell Hollow (R.I.P.) and most recently Burning Image have friended me on Last.fm simply for listening to their music. The most recent instance also came with a message in my Last.fm inbox from the said person thanking me for taking the time to listen to their latest album. This is the online equivalent of a person from a band coming up to you after a gig and saying "Hey, I saw that you were really getting into my music there. Would you like to join me for a drink?" Okay, it's not really like that, but it's the best analogy I can come up with.
3. Casual Gaming. Let me be frank here: I started gaming when my dad bought me the Nintendo Entertainment System when I was four or five. For a long time I was a hardcore gamer but I sadly fell off the wagon when the generation of consoles following the Playstation and Nintendo 64 came around. Last year saw me getting back into gaming through casual gaming, mostly through websites like Kongregate and Jay is Games. The future of gaming is in casual gaming: just look at the sales figures of the Wii and the Nintendo DS in comparison to the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 and you'll see what I mean. Granted, I don't think this should mean that gaming companies should start pissing on the hardcore gamers, but I think it's about time we dropped the attitude towards people who play fun and simplistic games and not the latest titles which require the computing power of a space station to run properly.
2. DJ'ing. I took a DJ course in 2008 and started playing music at university parties. Last year I finally started doing some proper DJ'ing the form of goth clubs run by some of my friends. It's really something to be able to play music for the entertainment of an entire clubful of people and it's even better to read people's comments online after the clubs praising your choices in music. I've even had people coming up to me after clubs to thank me for playing some obscure song that I was unsure anyone would recognize, much less enjoy. DJ'ing is a great exercise in entertaining people while also subtly trying to expose them to music outside of their comfort zone. (I intend to throw some We Miss The Earth and Fangs on Fur into my next set, just to see how it goes down.)
1. The Music The last year was a really good year for music. We got KASMS, Fangs On Fur, We Miss The Earth, new releases from Burning Image and A Place To Bury Strangers and the reinvention of Varjo as Silent Scream with the added promise of Varjo's final album finally seeing the light of day this spring. And that's just to name a few. There were more releases than I could simply get my dirty hands on last year, some of which I still hope to get at some point.
With that said, I'm already excited about this year. I've already got my first DJ gig in sights, Drop Dead Festival is coming closer than ever this year and I might actually be in a good enough monetary situation to actually attend. Fingers crossed now.
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