TVD's Best of '09

Well, here's one Pitchfork got right:

"Put on a Clientele record and you're entering a space, one crafted as much through sound as lyrical associations, which tend toward the kind of quasi-cinematic string-pulling that makes for the band's own brand of enjoyable cliché. It's lonely without tipping into alienation. It's in tune with the power of memory without being deadened by generic nostalgia. It's someplace where changes in the weather can leave people dumbstruck. And if the music itself were a hair more melodramatic, its wistfulness would probably be unbearable. But the band's restraint, skirting emotional didacticism while still providing room for listeners' own specific states, appeals to humanity's more evanescent (and maybe pop-resistant) feelings."

Simply put, the best of the year.

The Clientele - I Wonder Who We Are (Mp3)
The Clientele - Share the Night (Mp3)
The Clientele - Never Saw Them Before (Mp3)

TVD wants your choices for the Best & the Worst of '09 (...and we've got some records to give away.)

Every day without fail, there's no shortage of half-baked opinions here at TVD. And trust me, they'd be fully-baked if I could locate my dealer. (Hey XXXX - please get in touch - thanks!)

And while we hope for your feedback throughout the year on any given rant, this week we're asking for it in a more formalized setting as we invite you to offer your best of the best or the worst of the worst for '09.

It needn't even be in regard to vinyl or music. Why, give us your tired, your poor, your existential angst—and hell, you may even win a prize.


Courtesy of our friends at Factory 25, we've got a LP/DVD copy of Rosie Thomas''All the Way from Michigan Not Mars' featuring intimate live performances with fellow songwriters Sufjan Stevens and Denison Witmer and the DVD of the movie and soundtrack LP to 'Frownland' which the New York Times' Manohla Dargas raved as "...personal cinema at its most uncompromising and fierce" for ONE commenter on the year soon to expire who hits some sort of home run or grace note in the comments to this post.

Please remember to leave us some contact info (important!) and we'll choose our winner on Monday, January 4, 2010 as to kick your year off on a certified high.

(And, hey XXXX - please get in touch - thanks!)