NQL Resolutions for 2009

And we're back. 2009 just feels like it's going to be a good year for music. Maybe it's the odd-numbered year thing (for reference, see Nirvana's Nevermind (1991), The Clash's London Calling (1979), Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony #2 (1803)); maybe it's because of all the intriguing albums set for release in the coming months; or maybe it's just because we all love music and would be happy no matter what year it is. To that end, a few contributors have offered up New Year resolutions, as they pertain to music, to fully maximize 2009's potential.

Alex Crisafulli
I resolve…to actually listen to an album before I rank it in my top ten records of the year. (For the first time yesterday I got around to listening to Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight, my pick for top album of 2008. After four songs I couldn’t take any more of that Scottish guy’s whining and turned it off. )
…to listen to “Less Than You Think” by Wilco all the way through before I get in another ill-advised argument with one of my friends that A Ghost is Born is a better album than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

…to make enough money in 2009 to pay back the security deposit I owe Wolf Parade for the album "art" I did for them on At Mount Zoomer. Sorry about that one, guys.

Brian Herrmann
I resolve…to tell the dude from Crystal Castles that his jacket is too small.

…to cull my digital and physical music archives to that which I actually do, or might reasonably one day listen to.

…to get a new job that's not next to a construction site whose sounds aren't drown-outable even with noise-canceling headphones.

The mirrors at the Salvation Army can be a bit deceiving.

Travis Newman

I resolve…to see more shows. I likely attended less shows in 2008 than in any year since I have been of concert-going age. The blame rests in part with the lack of quality shows in the Louisville area in ’08, and in part with me. Louisville concerts tend to skew in favor of the Roots-Rock Crowd. I understand Wilco is great and all, but beyond them Roots-Rock and/or AAA format bands amount to little more than modern day Big Head Todds. Much more bitter than sweet.

At the same time I skipped out on concerts that in previous years I would have definitely attended: The Hold Steady, because they shared the bill with the Drive By Truckers, and were in an awful venue; Man Man, because everyone I know hates Man Man and I did not want to go by myself; and Magnolia Electric Company, because it was on a Wednesday. In 2009, realizing that the Radioheads, Animal Collectives, and Spencer Krug Projects of the world will not be playing the 'Ville in the months to come, maybe I will attend that blogster endorsed show recommended by local bloggers Backseat Sandbar or Peter Berkowitz. Or I could always suck it up and see Iron & Wine, or, God-forbid, this guy.

Jim Powers

I resolve...to listen to at least two new albums in full each week so that my year end top 10 list won't come from a pool of 11 possible albums, with one of them being as bad as Bloc Party's Intimacy.

…when I buy tickets to a show, I will go to that show, and not make up excuses to not go like I'm tired or I have to do laundry.

Audrey Wen
I resolve…to move to Gary, Indiana and start an underground music movement in a dilapidated, abandoned warehouse alongside terrier-sized rats and crackheads and be hailed as the "best music scene" by Rolling Stone.
…to once and for all get over the fact that I will look like an idiot and finally wear earplugs at a show.
…to do somethin' like this.

Happy New Year, everyone.