One of Rube’s Best of 2009, the experimental but accessible Dirty Projectors have released two new tracks as a free digital 7-inch. Collectors can get a real record from Domino USA for only $5.99.

The tracks are titled “Ascending Melody” and “Emblem of the World.” Get your free download here. Enjoy.

This was really hard for me this year. Spending more time with this project (i.e., the blog), intentionally listening to more music, and talking to more people about music, exposed me to more music in the past twelve months than I think I have ever heard in that same period of time in my entire life which, for better or worse, is long enough to mean something. (Did I mention it was more?)

I heard all kinds of great sounds from all kinds of bands – some on record, some on MP3, some on CD and some only on stage. As I spent the last few weeks thinking about this list, it kept getting longer and longer. Finally, I realized (or simply resigned myself to the fact) that a year-end best of list is really supposed to be just that – only the best. I had to make a cut.

Of course, just like last year, the only criteria we really have for determining what is a “best record” is to think about how many times we listened to it. We returned to all of these albums repeatedly and excitedly throughout the year. What’s more, they were albums we listened to thoroughly. Which is to say we think there’s a lot more than just one good song on them. We hope to put out a short list of best songs of the year to recognize some of those artists who captured our imagination with a tune or two, or maybe make a record that just missed this list, but that’s next – not now.

Right now, I’m going to start the list by borrowing three from Alex’s List – Wilco (the album); David Bazan, Curse Your Branches; and Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – and tell you that had he not listed them already I would have. (Yeah you can call it cheatin’, but once again I am the one footing the bill for the economy server package around here.)

Thanks to Alex’s head start, I came up with 11 more albums that we think you might want to hear this year.

11. Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South

Mr. Oberst’s best work of the year.

10. John Doe & the Sadies – Country Club

Having been on the front edge of the American punk scene, John Doe seems no longer interested in doing something new. What he did here was take some old songs and remind us how much we love that classic country sound – especially the Bakersfield sound. We actually got around to reviewing this one. Read about it here.

9. Those Darlins’

We wrote a little bit about this record when they were headed to town this fall, that’s here. We love it. They’re coming right back, January 15 at the EARL.

MP3: Those Darlins – DUI or Die

8. Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom

Alex Brown Church does this sound as well as, if not better than, anybody else out there.

7. The Winter Sounds – Church of the Haunted South

I spent half the year meaning to write about this record. I think I listened to it almost every day in August. I even chatted with band member Clayton about the grand ideas behind the record, and still intend to capture that conversation in advance of their next visit to Atlanta (hopefully early next year), but for now let me just say I think it was an easy choice for this list.

MP3: The Winter Sounds – Trophy Wife

6. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

This record grew on us over the course of the year eventually climbing into the rarified air (?) of this list. Really, it’s a great record.

5. Band of Skulls – Baby Darling Doll Face Honey

Made this list like a bullet. I can’t stop listening to this disc.

4. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing

These local boys crushed the sophomore slump with this record. Powerful (in every meaning of that word) from front to back.

3. Metric – Fantasies

One of our first record reviews! Read it here. Still love it.

MP3: Metric – Gimme Sympathy

2. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

I wrote about this record in my answer to Alex’s Short & Skinny column. It’s called Abbreviated Attention (Span). Check it out here.

1. The Decemberists – Hazards of Love

This was the easiest pick of all for us. We loved the record, loved the performance at the Tabernacle, loved the new video on iTunes. Great stuff.

Two very different bands, two rather different rooms, one night, one venue. Two of our favorites are in town on Saturday night to play the Masquerade. We’ve written about both of them before, so follow the links for more details, but if there was one night to pay two covers and hope that you can catch at least half a show from both of these bands (while not breaking your neck on the stairs), then this is it.

The Gaslight Anthem will play Heaven leading a three band line-up with doors at 7:00 ($16 adv). Dirty Projectors are coming off a recent appearance on Austin City Limits to play Hell. They will play second on that two band bill with doors at 9:00 ($15 adv). Not to be missed.

Okay we’re going to throw two concepts at you at the same time here.  We know you can handle it.  The first is Rube Ambler’s answer to Mr. Brenner’s short review column, Short & Skinny.  What follows is the first edition of Abbreviated Attention (Span) where your erstwhile blog administrator (?!) tries to regain his role as an actual contributor of substance to this little interweb adventure of ours.

The second is the simple fact that things like families and day jobs keep us from writing about all our mostest, favoritest records just as soon as they come out.  It is no exaggeration that they end up Under the Pile, only to be re-discovered later with the lament that we haven’t told the whole world about them.  No more regrets.  We’re flipping those piles upside down and working our way to the top.  We really don’t care if the record is (gasp) six months old (oops, there goes the hipster cred again…), we’re gonna write about it.  And when we’re feeling really surly, we intend to borrow a page from Yankee Rose and pull one that’s really old Off the Shelf (see, that was sort a pun).

So if you’ve been keeping notes, you now know that new stuff is just a Record Review or Book Review, sorta recent stuff comes from Under the Pile and we pull older stuff Off the Shelf.  We’re so clever, aren’t we?  (sigh.)

Anyway, the inaugural presentation of Abbreviated Attention (Span) will be an Under the Pile edition.  Here goes.

This record is about as “grrr” as a hummingbird.   When we first listened to this record this spring, it reminded us of Donovan. We still hold to that. It has all the jangle you should expect from the finest late 60s pop (and Donovan was squarely there).  The single greatest distiction between the two, is the precision of the production on this record (something I imagine Donovan only could have dreamed of). When the primary accompaniment to the tune is the tamborine (“The Lion and the Teacup”) that’s exactly what you hear.  It seems that Bishop Allen is in search of the perfect pop melody, a pursuit we still have strong affection for, and they come pretty darn close here.  And if you don’t believe the Donovan thing by the time you get to “True or False,” then maybe you need to go back to some of his records again.  Fans Gomez and more recent Josh Ritter should enjoy this record.

Discovery LP

We realize that hipsters need to dance too. But it can be sooo tough.

Lady Gaga is almost unquestionably off-limits and it doesn’t matter how infectious the hook behind Will I. Am’s “Boom Boom Pow,” you can only listen in safety when you can blame the musical selection on the toddler in the car seat behind you (of course, the question of how the kid downloaded it remains…).  Sure there’s dance rock à la Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs or maybe The Sounds, but sometimes you just want dance music – true and through.

Discovery is the answer.  Two fully credentialed hipsters, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot, are here to take you on a light hearted romp through clubland.  Don’t take it too seriously and you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Released earlier this summer, we wore it out before we ever got around to writing about it.  We don’t doubt that we will go back to it though – we are a wee bit hipster after all.  Highlights include their cover of Michael Jackson’s “I Want You Back” and the self-referential “Can You Discover” – which is essentially a cover of Ra Ra Riot’s “Can you Tell.” Recommended if you need to work off an ill-advised after-midnight latte.

Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca

I’ll be honest with you.  I read Pitchfork.  Almost every day.  Not because I believe most of it (or even much of it).  I read it to keep myself in check.  Yep.  If I really lose track of myself enough that I start agreeing with all that, then I need to step beck from this deal for a little while.  Fortunately, I usually don’t agree with them.  Twitter followers will remember my blasts when they “regraded” their Grizzly Bear review to a 9.0 days after initially giving it a 10.0 and then starting that second review with some throwaway line about the record not being perfect.  Hmmm, is that kosher?

This is the kind of elaborate, carefully constructed, highly orchestrated music that can make hipsters swoon.  (Man, we’re on a big hipster kick tonight, huh?)  But we don’t care.  There are moments when this record simply rocks. About 55 seconds into “The Bride” multi-layered harmonies break into a riff that is pure Led Zeppelin and that riff comes back more than once.  The drums and synths that open the single, “Stillness is the Move,” don’t really seem to match and the vocal is even further off but when it is all thrown together, it is not only good – it’s pretty darn catchy.  Maybe growing up on Queen let’s me take all the pomp and orchestration in stride, maybe it’s what makes me like it?  I really don’t know.  But this record has been in my heavy rotation all summer and I have no intention of taking it out of the rack.  If you’re ready for a sonic adventure, then give it a spin.

Dirty Projectors will be at the Masquerade on October 24.