So even though this post is named for the headlining band at the show I caught last night a couple weeks ago (took a while to finish this one…), I didn’t see em. So there isn’t much to remember. I’ve been trying to see A Day To Remember for over a year. I missed them in April 09, BOTH Warped Tour 2009 dates I went to, and again last night. Four times I’ve missed this band! Ever since I read their great cover story in Alternative Press last fall, I’ve been really into their music and their story.

But how about I talk about the bands I acutally did see…

Enter Shikari

Whoa! This band clearly sounds better indoors rather than the set I saw at last year’s Bamboozle in the middle of the afternoon. Their mix of heavy riffs, synths, London accents and even a dub-step breakdown was insane! All the bass they pump through their speakers is amazing.

Silverstein

You know what. I thought I was into this band, it’s gone back to a “meh…” for me. When I saw them in 2008 supporing Chiodos (at one of the best shows I’ve ever been to), I dug em. But at this show I thought it was just weak screamo. I give them props that they’ve been around for a good amount of time, but I think their sound has changed so much over those years and they don’t know where they should take it from here on out. I mean when Shane introduced an oldie, all that I proceded to hear was old emo/post-hardcore melodies and rhythms (aka very 2004/2005). No thanks.

August Burns Red

Man, this band absolutely rules. They’ve been in my top 5 artists on last.fm ever since I signed up to scrobble. Yes, it might be breakdown after breakdown, but these guys can PLAY. Main songwriter JB really knows how to write the riffs, and the stage presence of frontman Jake Luhrs shines (or, burns?) HARD. Especially on “White Washed”. Holy crap that song rules.

“YOU’RE THE SALT THAT’S BURNING MY WOUNDS…”

TOP ALBUMS OF 2009.  Now I know what you might be think­ing: “How the hell can you talk about lis­ten­ing to that much metal/screamo, but then have Owl City in your Top 5?” and you would be right.  I have to tell you–I ran a whole bunch of errands one day and played his album on loop the whole time.  It was PERFECT walking-around-NYC music.  I was hooked.  #10 was a big album for me in the last year, as was #4.  I feel like #9 crept up there late in the game.  #1 taught me that some­times all you need are break­downs, short tran­si­tion riffs, more bread­owns, and crab­core.  Here’s the list, links are to Lala:

10. For­ever the Sick­est Kids — Under­dog Alma Mater

9. A Day to Remem­ber — Home­sick

8. Chio­dos — Bone Pal­lace Ballet

7. I Set My Friends on Fire — You Can’t Spell Slaugh­ter With­out Laughter

6. The Devil Wears Prada — With Roots Above and Branches Below

5. Owl City — Ocean Eyes

4. Bring Me The Hori­zon — Sui­cide Season

3. Fam­ily Force 5 — Busi­ness Up Front / Party In The Back

2. August Burns Red — Con­stel­la­tions

1. Attack Attack! — Some­day Came Suddenly

TOP TRACKS OF 2009.  Okay, start­ing to get a bit more towards my well-publicized tastes in music.  Now, my Top 10 (and 20) tracks of 2009 have sev­eral from the same artist, so to keep it inter­est­ing I omit­ted tracks if I had another track by the same artists with more scrob­bles plays (still with me?).  #10 was on BLAST after I saw them in Feb­ru­ary.  I guess you could call #8 my indie jam of the year. I’m pretty sure #2 got all it’s plays in one day, after I heard them at Warped Tour and saw Adam sing upside down way up in the air.  #1 is an awe­some open­ing track to one of the best albums of the year.  Here’s the list, and check the playlist at the bottom…

10. I Set My Friends on Fire — Brief Inter­views with Hideous Men

9. A Day to Remem­ber — The Down­fall of Us All

8. Pas­sion Pit — Lit­tle Secrets

7. Every Time I Die — We’rewolf

6. Bring Me the Hori­zon — The Comedown

5. Attack Attack! — Stick Stickly

4. Set Your Goals — Mutiny

3. August Burns Red — Ocean of Apathy

2. Tak­ing Back Sun­day — Sink Into Me

1. The Devil Wears Prada — Sassafras

Check em out here:

Top 10 Songs of 2009

TOP ARTISTS OF 2009.  There they are.  These bands make the kind of music that, year in and year out, makes me want to straight up LIVE.  I had the plea­sure of see­ing all of these bands per­form more than once this year, and not sur­pris­ingly, they were some of the best shows I’ve ever been to (#3’s show on Dec 11 in NYC being the best!).  #9 knows how to get down–but I really want some new tunes!  I think #8, #7, and of course #4 all have their own gen­res.  They did it first and the best.  Okay enough, here they are, links are to myspace pages:

10. The Char­iot

9. Fam­ily Force 5

8. Under­oath

7. Chio­dos

6. Attack Attack!

5. Bring Me the Horizon

4. Every Time I Die

3. Norma Jean

2. The Devil Wears Prada

1. August Burns Red

So that’s my first Top 10 / Best Of list.  Now since I took these lists straight from last.fm scrob­bles, they’re solely based on the num­ber of times I lis­tened to a track by a par­tic­u­lar artist.  So I have look at it this way: August Burns Red is my #1 artist for 2009 because I lis­tened to more of their tracks than any other artist.  Not nec­es­sar­ily based on me think­ing they put out the best songs of 2009.  How­ever, I guess if I lis­tened to them the most, they must be doing some­thing right!

Bring on 2010!