Tsururadio gets writer’s block, gets mad at concert goers and discovers a lovely redhead supplied one of the best albums of the 00’s

Day 4 of the “Best of 2009” blogger series brings you a stream of consciousness so to speak.  Have you ever just sat there and thought to yourself and realized later that it ended up written down in front of you?  Ever experience lost time by dozing off and waking up in a jarring manner only to realize you weren’t really asleep?  Well if you are plagued with these issues, you have a friend in Tsuru.  ;-)

It just so happens that Tsuru runs one of the newest and best blogs around – always a treat to read and full of numerous playlists and a penchant for oversized plastic discs who’s grooves provide sound in the form of music.  Oh, and their is a whole music “community” over in Tsuru-ville  in which I am a proud member.

Dig in below and don’t peeter out midway, give it an honest read – it is more than a declaration of good music, it is a peak inside the mind of what many of you know as a music blogger.

~Smansmith

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2009? I Haven’t Got A Clue

To write “anything” about 2009 seems almost impossible. Do you talk about key concert events, like the Decemberists show a few months back? Your biggest suprises & disappointments of the year? Do you float your own boat a bit as Tsuru World Domination continues unabated? Do you write a thank you list for all that is and was for the year that holds a special fiber in your bleeding heart?

No clue.

When asked to join in the “Best Of 2009 Blogger” series, I was stoked, blabbering on about shit I love is right up my alley! But then it came time to write the post and I sat there (here) staring at a Notepad.exe that was as blank as my mind. What have I or someone else to say that hasn’t already been said?

Again, no clue.

I mean, it’s been an amazing year, should be plenty to hone in on and get out a couple paragraphs, right? I mean, take the concert-going mentioned above, the Decemberists or even Neko, you can talk about the beauty of the show, or rant about the idiots in the audience. Albeit an easy target, I mean, really, who the hell spends $20, $30, whatever dollars to treat a concert like a bar, hanging out talking to your chaps, loudly, while the band performs? Shut the fuck up! Do you really need a picture, taken right in front of me, of your friends hoisting up their Bud Lights/Coors/PBR/cheap swill during the joint-suicide song of “Hazards Of Love 4”? But it was a glorious show, “fans” excluded. Someone even recognized me from the blog, making me feel famous for 10 seconds. Strange.

Yeah, I could also talk about surprises and disappointments, easy enough. I mean, I can’t stand all that Eee-lectronic dance crap, but what the hell Dan Deacon, Bromst kicked my ass, called me Sally, took advantage of me, made me like it, and left me wanting more! Disappointments? Guess the easy route is to say Weezer, but then again it says more about me, like a stupid rat, going back to the Weezer well, hoping to find food & treats, getting only electric shocks. Stupid rat.

Such a clueless ignorant rat.

Interesting year. So much changed yet nothing at all, because even though TSURURADIO is bigger than ever, we have a full community in our board and on the facebook/twitter/social networking “revolution”, more “hits” than an irreverent blog like mine should be allowed to have, and even though Baby sold tons of purses and my photography really stepped out of the shadows, here I still sit, in the same chair, with the same view, with the same (if not less) money in my pocket than I would’ve otherwise.

So, 2009… I think when me of the future looks back to the me of the now, I think, if anything, even though it may sound as corny as candy corn, this year will have been one of growth & transition. Musical growth, personal growth, biological growth (thanks Enzyte! just kidding, actually biological shrinkage, thanks cycling!), and tons and tons of interior introspection (is that the correct phrase? oh well, you get me right?) as we, the Tsuru familia, try to figure out just exactly where we fit in in this world. The IRL world looks at two of us as oddballs & weirdos, hell we don’t even get invited to departmental parties, even when, for example, I’m one of only 9 people in my department.

Sigh.

And the online world… all we can do is “keep it realz, dawg”, and hope those who get it, get it, and the rest, well, I guess they can go to hell, or maybe just carry on and ignore the two giggling eccentrics in the corner.

We are just going to have some fun or die trying, you know?

So, where were we? Ah yes, 2009. The end of one decade and the 2nd to last year of another. Reminds of the doom & gloomers of the Y2K thing 10 years back. We sure do love our zeros don’t we. Car turns 100,000 miles, striving to hit 6,000 miles on my bike (sooo close!), the end of the world at year 1,000 and 2,000 and probably 3,000, all putting some kind of major importance on a man-made invention, miles don’t mean anything, hell, neither do the man-made calendars, the “new year” could’ve just as easily been on May 22, another man-made thing.

But I digress (love that phrase, as pompous as it is)… Again.

When people look back to 2009, what will be the big story? I guess it will be the rise and genuine maturation and mainstreaming and etc of the “social networking revolution”, twitter & facebook won. What’s a myspace? Band fodder and home to goths. Remember friendster? Me neither. Tied closely to this, of course, is the genuinely smart phone, yeah, it was pre-09, sure, but it’s finally fast enough, and when tied in to twitter & facebook, fun enough to “need” one. Hell, even I got one for an early holiday present just the other day! But you know what? This kinda talk is for the Newsweeks, NY Times, Pastes, and other dying paper rags out there….

So, I’ll tell you what, let’s talk about music, something I know, or at at least something I love and I know I love. And because, like I mentioned earlier, we love our zeros, so this has also become the year of “best of the decade” list. Honestly, I don’t even know how to begin putting in order a whole 10 years worth of songs, albums, whatevers, the shear volume, man, so instead, here, today, for you, Sandy, and the whole Slowcoustic team, I will offer up an exclusive, what I believe to be is one of the best if not THE BEST album of the 00’s. I don’t even think I was going to do this on TSURURADIO! But, here goes…

One of the best, if not THE best album of the 00s is…

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*drum roll, please*

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An album that requires no introduction….

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But we’ll talk about it anyway after we announce it…

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Drum roll still, uh, rollin’?

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The Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

by Neko Case

Yep.

It is. You know it is. We listened to this as the sun set on our ride back from Neko’s adopted country of origin (Canada), and though I’ve thought fondly and lovingly of Case’s masterpiece before, it was under those conditions, “on the road”, sky fading from blue to orange to pink to navy to black, volume up to ear-bleed, passing exit after exit, mile after mile, where it took on a 3rd and maybe even a 4th element and dimension. The thing just EXUDES mood, feeling, atmosphere, intelligence, well, Neko every single moment. The only thing that would’ve made it perfect would be a stop at a neon motel, something Ohio has a lot of (trust me, I know)…

So, as this decade wraps for decade list makers and more importantly, as this year wraps up, and finally as (thankful, I’m sure) this post wraps up, I’d like to spend my last few moments of this post;

1) thanking the wonderful folks at Slowcoustic for letting me potentially ruin their blog and their reputation and,

2) listening to Fox Confessor the way the good lord meant it to be listened to…on vinyl.

Side A

Margaret vs. Pauline
Star Witness
Hold On, Hold On

The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it’s unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous
Hangin’ round the ceiling half the time
Hangin’ round the ceiling half the time

A Widow’s Toast
That Teenage Feeling
Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Side B

John Saw That Number
Dirty Knife
Lion’s Jaws
Maybe Sparrow
At Last
The Needle Has Landed

So, I guess in the end, my 2009 post is a best-of-the-decade-type post, just like every other bloggy blog out there in internetland, ironic, eh? Thank you again, Sandy, and thank your readers for giving me these few moments of their time!

Peace, love, & LPs,
Cheers,

Aaron (aka Tsuru)
http://www.tsururadio.com

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