So Tough! So Cute! Best Of 2009

2009 was rather lovely wasn't it? We bought loads of records, got to meet Stephen Pastel, put on fourteen So Tough! So Cute! nights. We drank and danced and made out under the stairs, we had tears in our eyes and fists in the sky. We had friends come visit us to play records and we visited them and played Crass for the weak hearted twee pop fans. We saw great bands and put on nine of them ourselves and we had a song written about our wee club. We said goodbye to friends in Malmö and hello to new friends in London. So thank you everyone who guest-dj'd and played live this year but most of all thank you for making So Tough! So Cute! a fantastic night out. See you in 2010

These are our favourite songs. Songs we could listen to time and time again.
 

Best album of 2009

PENS - Hey Friend! What You Doing?
(De Stijl)
We're making this our album of the year because in the first draft of this list we had included not less than 6 songs from the record and just couldn't pick one track. We simply can't stop listening to songs like Freddie, 1-2, Hide The Kids, Yeah Baby! I'll Take You to Bagel Town, Networking and High In The Cinema. In the twenty-nine minutes the album lasts, it is as if PENS manage to capture all the films of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine and distill them into insanely perfect pop songs. And while every other band this year seemed to take great effort in trying to sound unconsciously noisy, DIY and lo-fi the PENS just did. And they did it brilliantly.

Best Songs Of 2009

(in order of length for some reason)

Graffiti Island - Moon Tan

Crocodiles, Graffiti Island, Dum Dum Girls & Pens split 7" (Art Fag)

Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin - Pop Song

Pop Song 7" (Goodbye Boozy)

Sea Lions - Beautiful Day

Let's Groove 7", (Yay!)

First Base - I Got A Girl
I Got A Girl 7" (Pizza Party)

 

Knight School - Pregnant Again

The Poor And Needy Need To Party LP (Lostmusic)

 

Crystal Stilts - Love Is A Wave

Love Is A Wave 7" (Slumberland)

 

Fresh & Onlys - Grey-Eyed Girl

Grey-Eyed Girls LP (Woodsist)

Pheromoans - Revamper

Revamper 7" (Convulsive)

Cave Weddings - Bring Your Love

Bring Your Love 7" (Hozac)

 

Magic Kids - Hey Boy

Hey Boy 7" (Goner)

 

Frankie Rose - Thee Only One

Thee Only One 7" (Slumberland)

 

Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)

Sun Was High (So Was I) 7" (Art Fag)

Veronica Falls - Beachy Head

Rough Trade Shops Indiepop '09 (Cooperative Music)

 

Home Blitz - Is Anybody There?

Out of Phase LP (Ritchie)

Sic Alps - L. Mansion

L. Mansion 7" (Slumberland)

Blanche Hudson Weekend - Noise And Fury

Letter To Daddy EP (Squirrel)

Times New Viking - Move To California

Move To California 7" (Matador)

 

Yo la Tengo - If It's True

Popular Songs LP (Matador)

Drums - Let's Go Surfing (Knight School Version)

Let's Go Surfing EP (Download)

Plug - Nonchalant Love

Fresh Pleasures 7" (Parlour)

Chain and the Gang - Interview With The Chain Gang

Down With Liberty... Up With Chains LP (K)

 

Tyvek - Summer Things

Blessed 7" (Les Disques Steak)

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Can't Hear My Eyes

Can't Hear My Eyes 7" (Mexican Summer)

 

Girls At Dawn - Every Night

The Girls At Dawn 7" (Hozac)

Brown Recluse - Contour and Context

The Soft Skin EP (Slumberland)

 

Feeling of Love - Waiting for the Cheerleaders to Get Drunk

Waiting for the Cheerleaders to Get Drunk 7'' (Avant!)

 

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Young Adult Friction

Young Adult Friction 7" (Slumberland/Fortuna Pop)

Real Estate - Beach Comber

Real Estate LP (Woodsist)

Dinosaur Jr. - Pieces

Pieces 7" (Jagjaguwar)

Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill

I Wanna Kill 7" (Sexbeat)

Wavves - Mickey Mouse

Demos (Download)

And just outside the list we have the Just Joans, Pastels/Tenniscoats, Fergus & Geronimo, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, Summer Cats, Jim O'Rourke, Cathode Ray, Girl Alliance, Transmittens, Standard Fare, Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, King Creosote, Parallelograms, Let's Wrestle...

Download So Tough! So Cute! - Best Songs of 2009 

EDIT: Alternative download