Excavation Nation

Happy New Year, denizens of the net. I hope all of you are playing with your Christmas presents, hanging with loved ones or strategically nursing hangovers. I just hope you are doing anything besides making lists of your favorite records of the past year.

Can I ask all of you a question? Thanks. Does anybody really care about this stuff? I know that list culture is such a popular construct with all sorts of mags and newspapers, and it's guaranteed to be used as either marketing fodder ("Best Of The Year as voted by the dude who runs mymomonlyreadsthis.edu") or lightning rod for smack-talking dullards. Don't get me wrong: I am totally flattered that the Village Voice still solicits me for my list of stereo-stuff, and I do get a kick out of hearing about the tuneage that makes my freelance writers and close buds curl their toes. But there's some crap you just know is going down. C'mon: Who didn't see Fleet Foxes getting the hosanna from Pitchfork from several thousand parsecs away?

So I was going to run down my list of 30 or so discs that put a smile on my face this year, from scene faves to Brit rockers to electronica to alt-rock to metal, but I couldn't see the point. So let me use this space to share my hopes for 2009.

I hope all my expectant friends have robust and healthy children--even the ones who set their phones to automatically delete my HNY's text messages last night.

I hope to say a prayer for President-Elect Obama every single night, because dude is gonna need all the power he can get to get shit done.

I hope that my boy Dave Segal gets both justice and restitution, and that the people who did him wrong get to see the things they love die horrible deaths.

I hope everyone reading this will find continued joy--or a change in fortune--this year. In fact, never mind what I said in my first paragraph: Go over to your buds' house with your 2K8 WUZ GREAT playlist and compare notes, play some air guitars and have a blast. And it'll be even better if your playlist features These New Puritans, Underoath, Ceremony, Panic At The Disco, I Hate Kate, Butch Walker, Future Of The Left, the Mars Volta, XX Teens, Amanda Palmer, Jaguar Love, Bauhaus, Frank Turner, the Airborne Toxic Event, Nine Inch Nails, Futureheads, Bloc Party, Paramount Styles, We Are The Physics, Mindless Self Indulgence, Past Lives, Son Of Dave, Alva Noto, Polysics, Firewater, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, Anthony Green, Ben Folds, Does It Offend You Yeah, Johnny Foreigner, Jesu, DeSalvo, Mika Vanio, Tom Gabel and Toy Killers.

Dammit. Old habits die hard.