I’m still really at a loss for words as to how this all feels.  I think the whole city feels like Drew Brees’ kid right now.

But wait.  Because I’m a monster.  There’s one more thing:

Bring it on.  We’ve seen worse.  We heard it all after Katrina.

Remember Chicago, 2006?

I was pissed off about that then.  Now, I’ve just grown used to it.  I heard all the “Why rebuild in a flood zone?” idiots in Atlanta.  I let it eat me up inside.

Not anymore.  You want to taunt us with the Federal Flood?  Go right ahead.  We took it for the past five years, and we will keep on taking it.  In that typical New Orleans way, we will wear it with pride:

In other news, I am so fucking excited about the Super Bowl that I am totally mentally crippled.  Can’t focus, can’t concentrate, can’t sleep.  I just sit and think of new things about Saints football.

PS: Raheem Brock, go fuck yourself.  Thanks for the motivation.

It happened.

Now Aaron Broussard (who previously ruined my chances for the presidency by seceding Jefferson Parish from the Union and making me a foreign-born citizen) has resigned as president of Jefferson Parish.

Only Nagin remains.

Funny how the suburbs went down first.

As always, feel free to post your own lists in the comments.  We’re also looking for Top 50 Songs of 2009 lists for our Scientific Best of 2009 list.

So without further ado, here is the elbuzzard.com Best of Music 2009 List:

Brent’s List:

15) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Every year I fall in love with some band that has a jangle-pop sound. This year that band is Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  They are noisier than my usual choice in this category.  I must be growing up.

14) Girls – Album.  Girls started out as annoying garage music.  Then it got a little charming.  Then it just ended up being charming.  Then it was 14.

13) Camera Obscura – This band can do no wrong in my ears, but they will probably never crack the top 5 in any countdown of mine because their style can only go so far.  But they do it very well, and I want to live in their songs.

12) Handsome Furs – This was an album of nearly great songs that got by on the fact that all the songs were nearly great.  This is a man/woman band, and they take really sexy pictures together, which (along with their connection to Wolf Parade) may have something to do with their spot on this list.

11) It’s True – Chelsey’s friend Hayden put this on our computer when she was staying with us.  Further proof that once can listen to heaps of music from all over and be clueless about good things that are playing down the road from him.  If you love heart-on-sleeve music, this is for you.  If you don’t, this entire list may not be for you.

10) Yacht – Electronic pop music done in such a way that I like it. This is a tall feat.  Chelsey doesn’t like it that much, which is puzzling to me.

09)  The XX – Even though this only hit third, I think it is the album that I would most widely recommend. There’s something going on here that is just…sexy.  And I don’t throw that word around. I promise.  I wish I had a better word already.

08) Cass McCombs – A nice part of listening to 8000 albums a year is that some stick for no good reason. I like this album.  I don’t expect you to.  It’s slow and pretty with nice harmonies. And it has a song that has “See You Next Tuesday” in the refrain.  Which is the name of my Tuesday drinking club.

07) The Flaming Lips – I’m so happy the Flaming Lips made a good album again.  They were certainly due.  Gets back to what they do well.  Gets away from why they have sucked for the last 5 years.

06) Generationals – Ok here we go.  Phil Spector meets Paul Simon meets Vampire Weekend meets Pet Shop Boys.  From New Orleans.  Good stuff.

05)  Neko Case – Neko Case is my girlfriend.  We met this year, and now we are going out.  It’s serious.  This album is about nature kicking human ass. Possibly out of love.

04) Rural Alberta Advantage – Kent calls this second-rate Neutral Milk Hotel.  He may be right.  But I like it better than most of what came out in 2008.  And I think it was just re-released in 2009, but I am counting it as a 2009.

03) Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – This album is a poor man’s version of my number one.  It’s got one badass song on it, and bunch of other songs that are badass to a lesser extent.

02) Antlers – Hospice – This is a poorly recorded album about a person caring for another person in Hospice care.  Despite the sound quality, it wins you over.  More than once I have caught myself craning my neck trying to make out lyrics because I am just that emotionally involved.  This is a little pathetic.  But there’s nothing I can do about it.

01) Elvis Perkins in Dearland – This was the best album of the year, hands down.  Doomsday is the best song of the year, and the rest of the album isn’t too far behind.  Note to everyone:  if you want to make an album, hire a brass band to play on it.  Boom!  Great album. It makes all music 20% better.

Kent’s List:

1. Middle Cyclone – Neko Case
There is not an album that I listened to more than this one.  Leslie absolutely hates it.  She is at the Neko Case stage that I was last year.  I just didn’t see the appeal.  Then this album totally blew me away.  I guess Leslie needs one more Neko Case album to come out before she comes around.
Person most likely to enjoy this album:  Beth.

2. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – Elvis Perkins
For those that don’t know who Elvis Perkins is, he’s the son of Anthony Perkins, who was a huge Elvis Presley fan.  His mother died in 9/11.  It was tough to pick a top album, as this one is very deserving as well.  Somehow, Perkins makes a rambling 6 minute folky country song enjoyable consistently on this album.  It’s interesting that my top two albums could be considered country albums.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Nobody that doesn’t already have it.

3. Con Law – Generationals
A local New Orleans band without the local New Orleans sound.  Seriously, no funk, no brass bands, no Mardi Gras Indians.  A great summertime album, that manages to sound retro without being too corny about it.  A little pop, a little rock, a little electronic, great fun.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Hipster dorks.

4. Hospice – The Antlers
This album is made for me: A concept album, with recurring themes, and winding lyrics.  It took Brent and I forever to figure what the heck was going on in it, and what we came up with is: A guy working in a hospital falls in love with and marries a critically ill patient, they have a child, which kills her.  Very sad.  Very affecting.  Unfortunately, they recorded the album themselves, and the mix is all messed up.  Could have been #1 if it was recorded better.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Sara F. (who introduced me to the Generationals)

5. XX – The XX
Sexy English electro-R&B album.  For awhile, I thought it would be my top album this year, but I shelved it towards the end of the year for the ones above.  The sound is very sparse, with a staccato  guitar and booming, deep bass.  I really enjoy the contrast of the two singers’ voices: silky female and mumbling male.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Paul.

6. Mo Beauty – Alec Ounsworth
Better known as the singer of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Alec Ounsworth recorded this album with New Orleans musicians like James Porter, but doesn’t really succumb to the New Orleans sound.  He’s still the guy with the horrible voice from CYHSY.  If your used to his voice, you can get into this album.  If this is your first exposure to him, you’re going to turn it off quick.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: I’d like to say BJ here, because of the NOLA connection, but there’s no way.

7. Dragonslayer – Sunset Rubdown
I love Sunset Rubdown.  Unfortunately, after their incredible Shut Up I am Dreaming, they haven’t been able to put together a really good album until now.  It’s still not of SUIAD quality, but I like the trick of redoing phrases from that album in this one.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Beats me, I think I stand alone on Sunset Rubdown albums.  I’ll always have Beth to go to their live shows with me, though.

8. The Bright Mississippi – Allen Toussaint
Straight up jazz album from NOLA master Allen Toussaint.  This is the album I play when I drive people to the airport.  Everyone compliments it.  It’s familiar, but not in that “I’ve heard this same music 1000 times on WWOZ” kind of way.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: People going to the airport.

9. Album – Girls
This seems to be the year of singers with terrible voices.  This album manages to capture a beach party feel, without any sort of the polished Beach Boys sound that’s been trendy in indie rock for awhile.  It’s a real messy album, and yet totally catchy and well-crafted.  Fun to sing along with in the car.
Person most likely to enjoy this album: Amber.

Honorable Mentions

All in all, this really wasn’t a great year for new music.  These are some others that I enjoyed throughout the year:

• Embryonic – Flaming Lips
• Keep It Hid – Dan Auerbach
• March of the Zapotecs – Beirut
• Horehound – The Dead Weather
• Hometowns – The Rural Alberta Advantage
• It’s Not Me, It’s You – Lily Allen
• Dark Night of the Soul – Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse

Another favorite feature is the scientifically created Top 50 Songs of 2009 list, based on an average of rankings from Kent and Brent (so far – I’ll update when/if we get more individual song lists.

Here’s the list as of 18 December 2009:

01. Doomsday – Elvis Perkins In Dearland
02. When They Fight They Fight – Generationals
03. VCR – The xx
04. Two – The Antlers
05. Sleep All Summer – St. Vincent and The National
06. 123 Goodbye – Elvis Perkins In Dearland
07. This Tornado Loves You – Neko Case
08. Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
09. Nobody Could Change Your Mind – Generationals
09. Watching The Planets – The Flaming Lips
11. The Afterlife – YACHT
12. Holy, Holy, Holy Moses (song for New Orleans) – Alec Ounsworth
13. Prison Girls – Neko Case
14. Dominos – The Big Pink
14. How’s Forever Been Baby – Elvis Perkins
16. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective
16. The Reeling – Passion Pit
18. Don’t Forget Me – Neko Case
18. Idiots in the Rain – Alec Ounsworth
20. Crystalised – The xx
20. This Love Is Fucking Right – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
22. Idiot Heart – Sunset Rubdown
23. Psychic City – YACHT
24. Epistemology – M. Ward
24. Send My Fond Regards To Lonelyville – Elvis Perkins In Dearland
24. Edmonton – The Rural Alberta Advantage
24. Lust For Life – Girls
28. Hey – Elvis Perkins In Dearland
28. Marrow – St. Vincent
30. Honestly – It’s True
31. I Heard Your Voice In Dresden – Elvis Perkins In Dearland
31. Spacious Thoughts (feat. Tom Waits & Kool Keith) – N.A.S.A.
33. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues – Handsome Furs
33. There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve – A.C. Newman
35. Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
36. Calculator – Micachu & the Shapes
36. The Fear – Lily Allen
38. I Cut Like a Buffalo – The Dead Weather
38. Yeah! Oh, Yeah! – Tracey Thorn
40. Bear – The Antlers
40. Shelter – The xx
40. When The Night Comes – Dan Auerbach
43. Bad Romance – Lady GaGa
43. California On My Mind – Wild Light
45. Genius Next Door – Regina Spektor
45. Things I Like To Do – Ben Kweller
47. Drain the Blood – The Rural Alberta Advantage
47. I Can Be a Frog – The Flaming Lips
49. Middle Cyclone – Neko Case
49. Swashbuckler Blues – The Theater Fire

There you have it.  Get cracking on your own lists.

Check out the blog for Paul’s upcoming film Fourplay: http://fourplaythemovie.blogspot.com/.

Naturally, I picked out the worst picture from the site to post here.  Check it out if you are interested in transvestite sex-workers hired by paraplegic clients.  If that’s not your sort of thing, you have been warned.

Nothing is ever final until the closing (which is September 14), but now we are locked in to a contract with buyers, and they can’t back out without losing their earnest money.  All that is left to do that could gum things up is the appraisal, but no one thinks that will be a problem.

Finally.

After 9 months of trying to sell this house, it’s almost over.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.