News and Reviews 2009

It's almost the end of the year 2009 and time again to consider the miles and days we have had in this trip around the sun. In the long, deep wake of personal trivialities it's comforting once a year to focus on the best of things. I'm sure David Wallechinsky would agree. It's a tradition I started years before I began this blog, compiling it for trade magazines and newspapers and wherever I happened to be published at the time. But most of those lists are lost. The only years which are recorded for posterity are here at Arcane Radio Trivia. I've made some more alterations this year, both adding and dropping categories. Change is inevitable.

2008
2007
2006
2005

Best Post: Each year has 52 weeks, 5 at posts a week (minus holidays) I write about 250 posts a year. My favorite of all time remains the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters... but only because it's received such a huge and continued reaction. This year my favorite was a short piece I wrote back in February about a Philly station called WOO-AM. I found a receipt from 1935 in a book and a little research turned up a whole lot of radio.

Best Music Blog: Built on A Weak Spot continues to fill in the gaps where some how we always missed some spectacular band. Check daily, check weekly but never stop checking back. I cant possibly tell you how many bands this blog has turned me on to.

Best Radio Show: The Duke of Doo-Wop a.k.a. Bobby Vanderheyden does a program on 92.1 WQFM & 100.1 WQFN Sunday nights. It is not to be missed. He's focused on the singles but some prime B-sides make it on as well. Because of the simulcast and mountain top locations of their towers, the Duke blankets the Wilkes Barre-Scranton market. Also streaming here.

Best Record Store: I was down on the coast in Groton Connecticut getting some fried clams and there it was: The Mystic Disc. They have as much vinyl on the ceiling as they have on the in the bins. It gets harder and harder to find these die-hard real home town record stores.

Best Concert: On April 17th , the Movie Star Junkies played at Elevens Northampton Massachusetts. They didn't' go on until after midnight and everyone that wasn't wasted was staggering out of the bar under their own power more or less. they rocked, and stopped the out flux. I will not rest until I own everything they ever recorded.

Top 10 Records of 2009
(In no particular order)
1. Bloarzeyed - New
2. Crocodiles - Summer of Hate
3. Bang! Bang! Eche - Sonic Death Cunttt
4. The Horrors -Primary Colours
5. Cactus - Tropical Terror
6. White Ninja - Guacala los Modernos
7. Navvy - Idyll Intangible
8. Pelican - What we all come to need
9. Handsome Furs - Face Control
10. The Slew - 100%