As 2010 makes ready to jump into the double-digit months, it occurred to me the other day to go back and take a look at my Top 10 of 2009. I remembered a few of the albums that rated off the top of my head, if not the order they were put in, but I thought it might be fun to look through the list and see where I stand on the albums 10 months later. Let’s check it out:

1. YOB, The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)
Yup, this is still the best album that came out last year. Check.

2. Los Natas, Nuevo Orden de la Libertad (Small Stone)
Also still rules. Like YOB, I keep this one on me almost all the time.

3. Masters of Reality, Pine/Cross Dover (Brownhouse)
I think I was just really happy Chris Goss put a new album out, although I’ve started to listen to it again now that it’s getting a domestic US release and there are a couple really quality tracks.

4. Truckfighters, Mania (Fuzzorama)
Every time I listen to this album, I’m reminded of how much I dig it. It’s in the same CD wallet as YOB and Los Natas, but I don’t reach for it as much.

5. Shrinebuilder, Shrinebuilder (Neurot)
I hardly ever listen to this anymore, but killer album, killer performances, killer personnel. Can’t wait to get swept up in the hype for the next one, then do the same thing.

6. Crippled Black Phoenix, The Resurrectionists/Night Raider (Invada)
I like the art so much for this album, I don’t even touch it because I’m afraid of screwing it up or leaving fingerprints. It’s gathering dust on my shelf. Pretty dust though, so that’s alright.

7. Wino, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord)
Am I the only one who thinks maybe Wino meant “punctured” instead of “punctuated?” I just happen to be wearing my t-shirt of the album cover today, so I guess it still curries favor. “Smiling Road” rules.

8. Yawning Sons, Ceremony to the Sunset (Lexicon Devil)
This one still gets listened to regularly, is in that CD wallet. If I was making this list today, it might be number three.

9. Om, God is Good (Drag City)
Cool album, but I never put it on anymore. Maybe I will now.

10. Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (Interscope)
Josh Homme could take a dump on my brand new cupcake and I’d still have a man-crush on him, so this one was bound to show up. Needless to say, I went back to the first couple Queens of the Stone Age albums shortly thereafter.

If I had the list to do over, I’d put Blood by Snail on it, and maybe Church of Misery‘s Houses of the Unholy, which has kept its appeal pretty well. Other than that, I stand by most of the picks above. Let me know if there’s something I missed out on or anything you can think of that you never returned to once January hit.

A heartfelt “Fucking a” goes out to NYC‘s best pure rock band, The Brought Low, who landed the gig of gigs opening for much-lauded supergroup Them Crooked Vultures Monday night, Feb. 8, at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan! Quite a score, gentlemen. If you’ve ever seen The Brought Low live, you already know they’re more than equal to the task, since, to put it succinctly, they kill.

In also-ruling news, The Brought Low also recently finished their new album, Third Record, for upcoming release via Small Stone. They’ve just put up a new track, “The Kelly Rose,” on their MySpace. This year is looking better and better.

Here’s the deal in the band’s own words:

Just confirmed we are opening for Them Crooked Vultures this Monday night, February 8th @ The Roseland Ballroom in NYC! Super duper psyched!

Also, just posted a song from the new album Third Record called “The Kelly Rose” on our MySpace page so check it out! Should be up on iTunes in a few weeks and available as an actual CD later this spring.

I also just set up a Twitter account for the band so if you’re into that sort of thing check it out: http://twitter.com/TheBroughtLow.

Also looking very likely we will be playing some shows in the Midwest on our way down to the Small Stone Records South by Southwest Showcase in March. Stay tuned for tour dates.

The more I hear the self-titled debut from supertrio Them Crooked Vultures, the more I like it. Of course, it only came out at the beginning of November, so take that for what it’s worth, but increasingly, songs like “Mind Eraser, No Chaser,” “Scumbag Blues,” “Reptiles,” and opener “No One Loves Me and Neither Do I” are popping up in the mental jukebox to the point of keeping me awake at night.

Blah blah blah supergroup, blah blah blah Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl. That’s all been said already, by me and just about everyone else out there. I’ll spare the slobbering worship of the past work of any of the three players involved in Them Crooked Vultures (this time), and just say that they managed to make a slyly subversive and edgy rock record in an era when the entirety of the corporate environment in which they’re working is geared toward the exact opposite. This record came out on the same label as Lady Gaga and Puddle of Mudd, if that’s any indication. I felt guilty buying it, but each listen provides justification. It’s just a bunch of cool songs. Some clunkers, admittedly. Nature of the beast.

So, for the memorable songwriting, and if for nothing else, that riff in the first track, Them Crooked Vultures makes the top 10. It’ll probably show up higher on a lot of other lists, but since it’s a late release and I don’t want to be the guy gushing all over the popular record, it is where it is. To not acknowledge it in some way would have been neglectful on my part, especially since, at least thus far, it’s kept me coming back with steady regularity.

I?ve tried my damnedest to not give in to the viral hype machine that has been at work for months promoting Them Crooked Vultures, leaking snippets of songs via YouTube and quietly putting the word out about secret shows and the like. The band just showing up places and playing; a luxury afforded to the trio by their celebrity status and respective built-in fanbases. That said, if there?s anything Queens of the Stone Age?s Songs for the Deaf taught us it?s that good things happen when Joshua Homme and Dave Grohl get together. Throw John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin in the mix on bass and, well, it?s at very least an interesting proposition.

The resulting album, the product, released on maybe the most major of labels (Interscope/Geffen, both subsidiaries of Universal), is a 13-track romp through the rigors of modern commerciability, toying with our single-based culture even as it conforms to it. There is no coincidence that ?No One Loves Me and Neither Do I? is among the catchiest songs on Them Crooked Vultures; what?s really interesting about it is the fact that it?s also among the most ?stoner rock,? which, if you?re paying attention, quietly affirms the untapped commercial potential of the genre at large. Likewise, that follow-up ?Mind Eraser, No Chaser? features prominent vocals from Grohl along with Homme?s lead is clearly purposeful. Someone, be it label or band, thinks these are the strongest tracks, and so they?re up front, catching our limited, fickle attention. Cynicism is everywhere.

Stoner rockers will no doubt link Them Crooked Vultures to the 1998 self-titled Queens of the Stone Age. I will, anyway. Like that album, there is a full, natural sense of room in this recording. You can almost feel the mic being pulled just a little back from the amps to open up the sound. It?s high-tech garage with Alan Moulder and Alain Johannes recording, but nonetheless at work is a precision in songwriting the likes of which could only come from pairing the likes of Homme and Grohl — and that?s not to downplay Jones? considerable contributions either vocally or on bass. As to the individual members? contributions to each part of each song, I don?t know and refuse to speculate, but in listening, pieces of highlight tracks like ?Dead End Friends,? the appropriately stomping ?Elephants? (one of the album?s longer cuts at a bold 6:50) and the danceably handclapped, mellotronned ?Caligulove,? shades of personality leak through the songs that could be attributed more or less as the listener chooses.

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The supergroup of John Paul Jones, Josh Homme and Dave Grohl — all of whom are famous enough to not have to have their band names in parenthesis after their actual names — have leaked more music onto YouTube. Or their viral marketing department has, anyway. I feel like a sucker posting another video from Them Crooked Vultures, but I’m genuinely curious as to how their record, wherever and whenever it shows up, is going to turn out.

And in case you missed the recently-announced Them Crooked Vultures tour dates (tickets on sale Saturday, Sept. 5), here they are:

Oct. 01: Austin, TX - Stubb`s
Oct. 02: Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
Oct. 05: Nashville, TN - War Memorial
Oct. 06: Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
Oct. 08: Detroit, MI - The Fillmore
Oct. 09: Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
Oct. 11: Boston, MA - House of Blues
Oct. 12: Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
Oct. 14: Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

I guess since the rest of the universe is jumping on the hype bandwagon for supergroup power trio Them Crooked Vultures — comprised of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), it’s high time I did too. Here are the two videos currently making the rounds, first a studio clip of the song “Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I” and then a live one of “Dead End Friends.” Rumor has it these guys are going to put out an album one of these days. Personally, I think a better move would be to just keep leaking clips online and building anticipation for the record until finally all of it is out there and the audience has to synch up YouTube pages to hear complete songs. That would be fun.