Miss Piggy Lunchbox

2009 is so four months ago, I know, but heck, if you’re still with me after all we’ve been through in the last year, then I’m assuming you understand.

As I’ve covered here, last year was a tough year for reviews, due to all the necessary breaks from blogging.  Still, there was definitely enough for me to be able to hand out the 2009 Lunchies, the MPL awards for Song, Album, and Artist of the Year.  Of course, these are awards are based on what I reviewed during the year, with no necessary connection to what was actually released during the year.

2009 saw two Best Song Evers, “How Deep Is Your Love” by The Bad Plus and “9 To 5” by Dolly Parton, so we can start there for the Song of the Year Lunchie.  Those songs are so different as to nearly be incomparable.  They’re very dependent on the moment, as if you’re in the mood for a slow, modern jazz disco cover, you’re going to want “How Deep Is Your Love,” but if you want to boogie, it’s “9 To 5″ all the way.  I think the former is deeper with more beneath its surface, but in the end “9 To 5″ walks away with the Lunchie for being so much more powerful.  The Bad Plus gets honorable mention, though: since their album was actually released in 2009 it was without question the best song from 2009 that I heard.

2009 saw no 5-lunchbox CDs (unless you count Queensryche’s Operation:mindcrime, which I’m not since it was somewhat of an unofficial review…if I were counting it, it would easily win this award), so the short list for Album of the Year starts with the six 4.5-lunchbox CDs reviewed.  Shortening that list wasn’t tough, as I pretty quickly had it down to either The Airborne Toxic Event’s self-titled debut or The Cutters’ Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!, with The Bad Plus’s For All I Care barely missing the cut for the finals. My memory couldn’t decide which was better, so I gave each another close listen and felt that the former was stronger all the way around, despite the latter’s higher peaks of quality.  Besides, ATE’s album had no non-keepers, compared to two on that of The Cutters, so that seems pretty clear cut to me.  Therefore, the 2009 Album of the Year Lunchie goes to The Airborne Toxic Event.

Which brings us to the 2009 Lunchie for Artist of the Year, which again comes down to two candidates in a close call.  On the one hand you have The Cutters clocking in with two albums quite different in style at 4.5 and 4 lunchboxes.  On the other hand, there was Elliott Smith, with consistent, both in terms of style and quailty, 4-lunchbox performances across three releases.  I can’t lay out a solid case as to why, but I’m going with the larger, and, as with the Album award, more consistent body of work of Elliott Smith over the meteoric nature of The Cutters.  Elliott Smith is MPL’s 2009 Artist of the Year.

We are pleased to finally reveal the official Miss Piggy Lunchbox 2008 Mixes. In 2007 I made two CDs, one for each sister-in-law. This year I masochistically added four more mixes for a total of six: one for my three siblings-in-law, two for good friends, and one for My Baby’s best friend who has crazy similar tastes in music to me.

This proved to be too much for a number of reasons. First…six mixes? I spent crazy amounts of time I didn’t have on them. I loved doing it, but still, it wore me out. Second, in some ways it wasn’t enough. As I was making the mixes I thought of at least six more people who would have loved an MPL mix from me but didn’t get one. (You know who you are. Sorry.) Consider: even with six My Baby didn’t get one. That’s pretty messed up, and just knowing that much of my audience was going empty-handed exhausted me. Finally, by spreading a mere year’s worth of mix CD candidates over six CDs (I tried to have very few repeats), I was kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel. (Of course, “bottom of the barrel” is something that shouldn’t apply to a mix CD candidate, so since this experience I’ve been more selective of my mixers.) Next year I’m going to do something like two or three mixes and then give more people the version of said mixes that I think they’d like best. I can’t do one version because it is simply unacceptable to give the same gift to my twin sisters-in-law.

Anyway, here are the 2008 mixes. Again, these are mixes that represent an intersection of what I think the recipients would like and what I reviewed here on MPL in 2008.  Whether the music was released in 2008 is irrelevant.  Eligible contributing CDs run from Bauhaus’ 1979-1983, Volume One to Pantera’s Power Metal. Volume letters are the first initial for a sibling-in-law and postal state abbreviations for the other three locations where these mixes ended up.

Volume K
1. Better Already – Northern State (Northern State, with their five lunchbox contribution, ends up appearing six times over five mixes, with only Volume ND missing out.  With that kind of presence, they make a very strong run at 2008 MPL Artist Of The Year.)
2. Close To Me – The Cure (Another strong contender this year, with J-mez’ 4.5 lunchbox greatest hits album contributing four songs over four albums.)
3. Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club
4. Love & Pride - Alana Davis
5. Fate Won’t Wait - Terramara (I loved this album…it just had the one mixer, though.)
6. Myxomatosis - Radiohead  (I reviewed almost all of Radiohead’s LPs this year, and it shows, with five songs over four mixes.)
7. Lover’s Greed - Jump, Little Children (With two albums averaging 4.5 lunchboxes, and eight songs over five mixes here (again ND ends up with the shaft), Jump, Little Children is, hands down, MPL’s Artist of the Year for 2008.)
8. Salala - Angelique Kidjo (I shat on this two-lunchbox compilation from KEXP pretty hard, but I obviously loved the mixers, as all four ended up on these mixes.)
9. Stand Together - Beastie Boys
10. Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn, and John (The prior year’s KEXP compilation was a much better album, and it is also well-represented here with all three of its mixers.)
11. We Stand A Chance - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (2008 was a big year for Tom Petty on MPL as The Heartbreakers give us two songs and Mudcrutch adds another two.)
12. Things I’ll Do - Northern State
13. And I Was A Boy From School - Hot Chip
14. Boy With A Coin - Iron And Wine (I loved The Shepherd’s Dog and rewarded it with three songs over three mixes.)
15. Miss Venezuela - Los Amigos Invisibles
16. What’s Victoria’s Secret? - Rick Springfield (Springfield, with his 4.5 lunchbox CD, contributes four tracks over four mixes.)
17. Good Vibrations - Brian Wilson
18. Oh! Darling - The Beatles
19. Datskat - The Roots
20. Lovely Rita - The Nields

Volume S
1. All Down The Line - The Rolling Stones
2. American Girl - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
3. Smoke - Ben Folds Five
4. Cold Brains - Beck
5. Angeldust (Please Come Down) - Jump, Little Children
6. Idle Hands - The Gutter Twins
7. Yr Mangled Heart - The Gossip
8. Beauty Strike - Shudder To Think
9. Pictures Of You – The Cure
10. I’m Free Now – Morphine
11. Cruel – Calexico
12. Lived In Bars – Cat Power
13. Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls
14. Cry Baby – Janis Joplin (Joplin’s Pearl got five lunchboxes and contributes four songs over three mixes.)
15. Sweet Louisiana Sound – Billy Pilgrim
16. Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon
17. Sucka MoFo – Northern State
18. Come Out Clean – Jump, Little Children
19. Mellie’s Coming Over – Letters To Cleo (I hated this album, but it’s only mixer was awesome.)
20. Time Stand Still – Rick Springfield

Volume B
1. Excitable Boy – Warren Zevon
2. Jesus Of Suburbia – Green Day
3. Everything In Its Right Place – Radiohead
4. Razor Love – Neil Young
5. Country Pie – Bob Dylan
6. Buried Alive In The Blues – Janis Joplin
7. Bootleg Flyer – Mudcrutch
8. Rocketship – The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
9. Cold War – Northern State
10. The Greatest – Cat Power
11. Tumbling Dice – The Rolling Stones
12. Thursday – Morphine
13. O.P.E.N.E.R – Flat Earth Society
14. Revolution – The Beatles
15. Think About It – Flight Of The Conchords
16. B-13 – Jump, Little Children
17. Read My Mind – The Killers (The Killers have quite a respectable showing here as Sam’s Town contributes three songs over three mixes.)
18. Black Star – Radiohead
19. Trust Me – Janis Joplin
20. Catcher In The Rye – Guns N’ Roses

Volume CA
1. Just Like Heaven – The Cure
2. Touch Me – The Doors
3. One Passenger – Rick Springfield
4. Blow Out – Radiohead
5. Away Away – Northern State
6. Like O, Like H – Tegan And Sara
7. Friendship Ring – Malfunkshun
8. Oceans & Streams – The Black Keys
9. Half Moon – Janis Joplin
10. You Think You’re A Man – The Vaselines
11. Strange Fire – Indigo Girls
12. In Spite Of Me – Morphine
13. Resurrection Fern – Iron And Wine
14. Where Is My Love – Cat Power
15. Explain – Jeremy Enigk
16. Going To A Town – Rufus Wainwright
17. A Te, O Cara, Amor Talora -  Bellini
18. Violent Dreams – Jump, Little Children
19. Walcott – Vampire Weekend (I can’t quite explain how this five lunchbox CD only contributes two songs over two mixes, but I think it had something to do with their horrid live show at Capitol Hill Block Party.)

Volume ND
1. Call Of The Playground – Shudder To Think
2. Random Hearts – Tom Gabel
3. So Did We – ISIS (Some of the first real evidence I felt more free to really rock this mix.)
4. The Stations – The Gutter Twins
5. Just Like A Woman – Bob Dylan
6. This Is A Good Street – Mudcrutch
7. Candy – Morphine
8. Anyone Can Play Guitar – Radiohead
9. Gotta Get Over Greta – The Nields
10. Marker In The Sand – Pearl Jam
11. For Reasons Unknown – The Killers
12. Mr. PC – Rick Springfield
13. The Talking Horse – Melvins
14. Halloween In Heaven – Type O Negative (I didn’t really like this disc, either, but this song is so much fun.)
15. Apartment – Qui
16. The Constable’s Headscape – Circus Devils
17. Iodine – Jawbox
18. I Will Not Forget You – Sarah McLachlan  (Again, really rocKEN it here….)
19. Whatsername – Green Day
20. Hiphopopotamus v. Rhymenoceros – Flight Of The Conchords
21. Amputations – Tom Gabel

Volume WA
1. Sunrise – Yeasayer
2. This River Is Wild – The Killers
3. White Tooth Man – Iron And Wine
4. Red Balloons – Carter Tanton
5. All I Need – Radiohead
6. My Guitar – Jump, Little Children
7. Duty Bound – Malfunkshun
8. Sticky Bun – Fluf
9. The Hawk – Melvins
10. Movie Star – Cracker
11. I Won’t Tell – Billy Pilgrim
12. Sister Golden Hair – America
13. Golden Slumbers – The Beatles
14. Good Distance – Northern State
15. Scientists – The Dandy Warhols
16. Too High – Jump, Little Children
17. Mutha’uckas – Flight Of The Conchords
18. Letter To Elise – The Cure
19. I Stand Corrected – Vampire Weekend
20. She – Green Day
21. Spoiler – Jawbox
22. Sabotage – Beastie Boys (Ladies and gentleman, MPL’s 2008 Song of the Year.  As if there was any doubt….)
23. Say Goodnight – Jump, Little Children

And to recap the awards:
Song of the Year – “Sabotage” by Beastie Boys from Ill Communication
Album Of The Year – Magazine by Jump, Little Children
Artist Of The Year – Jump, Little Children