2009: The Year of Lists - Pizza Cottontail

Usually, I do a list of top 31 (or 32) albums of the year for December. This year I decided to change it up a bit and asked you, my faithful readers, to suggest your own top-10 album lists of the year. Some stuck to the basic format of ten great records from 2009 with a blurb here and there. Others chose to veer from tradition, subverting the dominant paradigm and whatnot. I have enjoyed reading your lists and think that you will enjoy reading the thoughts of someone other than me.

It should also be noted that the opinions expressed in these posts are not those of comoprozac (a pseudonym) or of the owner of this blog. The lists are entirely attributed to the author identified below.

For my first installment in this top-10 lists of 2009, I chose my good old chum Pizza Cottontail. His list is quite different as it is primarily a tribute to me and my blog. My ego could not resist posting his list first.

I've known Pizza Cottontail for a while, mostly through blogging. What I can tell you about him without revealing his true identity is that he is as loyal a friend as one could desire (even though I once got him fired). Also, he has good taste in music. He took my request for a top-10 list as a way to demonstrate his loyalty, but you can tell that he is an insightful, generous, and well-hung gentleman with the wry wit of a young William S. Burroughs or Judy Blume. Enjoy his list and comment freely...


2009 is the year I got old. Or jaded. This is the first year I was underwhelmed by more music than not. Many artists with solid or promising catalogs (M. Ward, Neko Case, Conor Oberst, Son Volt, Steve Earle, the Bottle Rockets, Bruce Springsteen, the Clientele, The Hold Steady, Bon Iver, Monsters of Folk, etc.) released yawners. I tried to construct a list of ten albums I enjoyed over multiple listens, but could only come up with seven, and an asterisked eighth:

1. Girls, Album
2. Wilco, the Album
3. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
4. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Generationals, Con Law
6. About half of Dark Was the Night
7. Bonnie Prince Billy, Beware
8*. Flaming Lips, Embryonic

(* = I haven't actually heard this album yet, but I've heard good things.)

Since I'm having a difficult time coming up with ten albums from 2009 I still listen to, I've created a happy compromise. The following is a list of top ten Living in Misery-related songs.

10. "Fuck This Town" by Robbie Fulks. When Robbie Fulks wrote this song, he had Nashville in mind. Still, since comoprozac has been accused of being a CoMo hater, it's a good title and an appropriate kickoff to a top 10 list about "Living in Misery."

9. "Ohio" by Modest Mouse. Much of comoprozac's frustration with Missouri--which seems to have abated somewhat here of late (the frustration, not the state)--stems from his idyllic childhood in Ohio. Plus, comoprozac is a Modest Mouse fan! Could there be a more perfect pairing?



8. "VOA" by Sammy Hagar. Okay so as a bloger, comoprozac is a member of the liberal media. And true, this song is more of a Republican anthem, but it's charmingly goofy enough to warm the bleeding heart of any liberal.



7. "Homo Erectus" by Kinky Friedman. More than one third-tier professor at Columbia's third-tier land grant institution has had a run-in with comoprozac. This song is about wanting to have sex with a professor.



6. "Sentimental Heart" by She and Him. Fans of the blog will remember that She and Him was the source of a very, very contentious internet war. The album has lost some of its luster in a fairly short time, but every time I hear the word "asshat," I think back to that magical summer of 2008.

5. Entire catalog, Pavement. Gimme pick.


4. (tie) "I Like Beer" by Tom T. Hall/"I Drink Beer" by Dan Reeder. Another gimme pick. comoprozac likes to drink beer.






3. "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle. When you listen to this song, don't you think of comoprozac and his daughter, Lucia? It's uncanny, except for the cloying religiousness, the very un-Merge sound, and come to think of it pretty much everything else about the song except for it's about a guy who has a daughter. (The video below says the song is by Bob Dylan. Made me laugh.)



2. "Wish We Were Back in Missouri" by Emmylou Harris. What a pretty song. I get the idea that deep down, comoprozac loves this state. He'll be a Bud Light swillin', Chiefs and Cardinals rootin' good ol boy in no time.



1. "E-mail my Heart" by Britney Spears. How many songs have been written about the internet? I can only think of two: this one and Alan Jackson's "www.memory." "E-mail my Heart" gets the edge, because www.memory does not exist or could not be found. Thanks for making the internet a better place, comoprozac. You can email my heart anytime.



Pizza Cottontail (born 1979) is an American blogger. He is probably best known for his intensely personal blog Pizza Cottontail. Pizza permanently retired from blogging in 2009, when he forgot to promote his blog so nobody ever read it. He is currently working on his debut novel, which is rumored to be about why he retired from blogging.