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I didn't even believe Eyedea was dead when I first heard the news. It's just now starting to sink in. I feel like I've lost a teacher and a close friend. Very few people have impacted me the way he has. Eyedea made music that really caught your attention and really stuck with you. It took you to another place. It made you want to be alive. You could tell he had amazing dedication and talent. I usually don't see myself in the musicians I listen to, but he was an exception. I could relate to his music greatly. I can spend hours and hours discussing what my favorite lyrics are and how much they mean to me. Michael Larsen was most definitely a blessing. Not only in my life, but in the lives of thousands.

Not a day has gone by that I haven't prayed for him, his family, and his friends. I wasn't going to write this at first, but after reading all the quotes on the Rhymesayers website, I felt like I needed to express my thoughts more in depth. Anyway, I think that Eyedea has proven that artists never entirely die. In his own words,
…

I can't believe he's gone.
Eyedea & Abilities

Sat 6 Feb – Eyedea & Abilities, Dosh, Sadistik

So I went to Nectar last night to see Eyedea & Abilities. Nectar is a pretty cool place, I like the venue a decent amount, if only it were open to all ages shows more often. It is a bar, first and foremost though.

The show started a bit late, around 6:30 (it was an early show). Sadistik was up first, displayed quite a bit of talent for a local guy. He threw down some good hip-hop, I was talking to one of his friends for a bit before the show that said people had likened him to Eminem and Sage Francis, but he seems more like Deacon from CunninLynguists, and sort of like Slug. Check out his MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/sadistik1 and if you like what you hear, please support him by buying a CD or merch.

Dosh was up next, I’d never heard any of his music before yesterday but he was pretty good and had a really unique approach to playing shows. He sat at a throne with a drumset to his right…

Find all these albums, along with to 25 EPs/Demos of 2009 and hundreds more artists and albums on Watch the Tapes! Comments are appreciated!


2009 was quite a year. A lot happened in the world, in my life, and in music. In theory, those all seem like distinct things - but retrospectively, they can be hard to differentiate from one another. Events blur together, timelines become jumbled, memories get obscured by the haze of passing time; memories of how I felt, memories of people I know (or knew), and memories of the music that soundtracked it all. Most people seem content to simply let these things slip into the past, marching merrily into the future, but I'm never able to fully let go, it seems, and this process of archiving my favorite albums of the year reflects that in a big way.

When I look back at this list in the year(s) to come, I'm not going to see an objective list of the best albums of 2009; I'm not even going to see a list I agree with anymore. …

Trout Fishing In America
Hanson w/ Admiral Twin
Godsmack w/ Staind & Cold
Barenaked Ladies w/ The Proclaimers
The Eyeliners
Moby w/ Dirty Vegas & Azure Ray
Ani Difranco w/ Bitch and Animal
Lyle Lovett
Lila Downs (twice)
Blackfire and Tobias Rene
Indigo Girls w/ Richie Havens
Red Elvises (twice)
Laurie Anderson
Keb' Mo'
David Byrne
Reel Big Fish w/ The English Beat
Atmosphere w/ Eyedea & Abilities
Ozomatli
Jeff Bridges
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy w/ Felix y Los Gatos
Rasputina w/ Larkin Grimm
Apocalyptica (Feat. Tipe Johnson) w/ DIR EN GREY & Evaline
Emilie Autumn

Stephanie Hatfield and Hot Mess (so many times I've lost count)
Hundred Year Flood (twice)
AudioBuddha (twice)
Le Chat Lunatique
Kumusha (so many times I've lost count)
Manzanares

Stomp
Lord of the Dance
Cirque du Soleil (Quidam, O, and Love)
Blue Man Group

Tony Hoagland
Sandra Cisneros
Margaret Atwood
Seamus Heaney
David Sedaris

Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Eyedea & Abilities - By the Throat
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
IAMX - Kingdom of Welcome Addiction
Little Dragon - Machine Dreams
Moby - Wait for Me
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
The Qemists - Join The Q
The xx -xx
Vitalic - Flashmob
Zomby - Where Were U in '92?