Holy cow. This year has been off to a killer start for new albums and touring acts. I’ve compiled a short list (hey, look, it’s thirty minutes long!) of some tracks from 2009 that I’ve deemed to be extremely awesome. We’re only four months in to the year and I already had a hard time narrowing this down. Big shout out to the Lonely Island album for not making the cut, sorry! Pour out some Santana DVX for your boys.

Clues is a new band featuring ex-members of the Unicorns and Arcade Fire, probably coming to your city soon and probably melting faces with their awesome pop hooks. We’ve also got a Phosphorescent track from their Willie Nelson tribute album that is equal parts sad and light-hearted in its own strange way. Dan Auerbach’s (Black Keys) solo record is a dirty take on his own version of blues from Akron. I’ve also included another track from the prematurely leaked - not to mention unmastered - Grizzly Bear album. Everything on their album sounds like magical gold, falling on a rainbow of butterflies and lollipops.

These and the other tracks in this mix form a very solid 30 minutes of music and give me hope for an even better eight months to come. Here’s to new music!

Download!

Clues – Perfect Fit (3:23)
Timber Timbre – Demon Host (3:38)
Dan Auerbach – Whispered Words (4:06)
Antony & The Johnsons – Aeon (4:35)
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Insatiable One (2:03)
Dirty Projectors w/ David Byrne – Knotty Pine (2:23)
Cat Power – Amazing Grace (3:35)
Phosphorescent – Reasons To Quit (3:13)
Grizzly Bear – Foreground (3:28)