The beauty of Life, Unexpected is that there hasn’t really been a show like it since the days of My So Called Life and Party Of Five. A show that’s as interested in the grown ups as it is with the kids. Master stroke number two is the casting. Two of the said adults (Shiri Appleby and Kerr Smith) came of age in 90s teen staples Roswell and Dawson’s Creek, and now they’re playing the parents. (This isn’t a totally new trick, Rufus and Lily in Gossip Girl have been pulling the same shit for seasons)

The reason that Life, Unexpected harks back to the 90s more than anything I’ve seen in the last decade are the unapologetic earnest levels of tear-inducing schmaltz. This is the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures. Do not attempt to view this show with a cynic (or indeed a boy) it’s safest to watch alone, ideally in bed or at least under a duvet to maximize the effect.

The premise of the show is simple. 15 year old Lux shows up at the home of her biological father who she has never met to get him to sign papers for her emancipation. From her father, the dashing Baise, she discovers the identity of her mother Kate. A girl Baise impregnated age 16 after the winter formal. Kate is now a successful talk radio DJ in a relationship with Ryan. Through a couple of twists of fate the judge ends up not granting Lux her emancipation after all, but instead releasing her in to the joint custody of Kate and Baise. Hilarity ensues, right?

Not really. Instead of taking the early 90s sitcom angle a la My Two Dads, Life, Unexpected opts for the more sensible route. The interesting thing here though is the none too subtle subtext. The only way our arrested development ridden generation (x) can cope with a family [tv show] is too have it sprung upon them with no choice. Throughout the course of the first season Kate and Baise have both been forced into growing up and dealing with getting their lives in order, albeit in different ways. Realistically they’re only supposed to be 5 years younger than Graham and Patty in MSCL, but they’re a world apart.

The thing is, I feel way comfier with this, I can understand a world where 3o something parents own bars and are still living paycheck to paycheck in Portland. Life, Unexpected makes me feel better about growing up, eventually. And I think that might be why I love it.

Oh, and Baise.

Dysfunction never looked so good.

This was a pretty hard list for me, when I sat down to write it originally I figured it was just that I’d been rediscovering a lot of older stuff this year, but on conversing with other list makers it turns out that 2009 wasn’t the best year ever for music. Who knew?

Anyway, without further ado, I present you with my TOP TEN RECORDS OF 2009.

Dear Landlord – Dream Homes

I know I just made a big deal about them not being in order, but this is probably my record of the year. I was stoked for it to come out, I waited eagerly for my pre-order and it was everything I wanted it to be. Whenever I think about giving up on punk rock entirely I play this and I remember why I can’t.

Ben Nichols – The Last Pale Light In The West

Although the Lucero record made it on to this list, it was more out of sense of loyalty and a couple of great tracks than an immense love. This ep however is pretty much everything that made me love the band in the first place. Ben Nichols jumping the McCarthy wagon before it was (all that) cool.

Banner Pilot  – Collapser

Another one of the few punk entries. I feel pretty similarly about the Banner Pilot record than I did about Dream Homes, I know a lot of people like it less than Resignation and there are issues with the production and for a punk record it’s a bit of a grower but dude, come on now. Catchy as fuck end to end.

Broadway Calls – Good News, Bad Views

This was the pop punk record of the summer. I’m telling you, it’s literally impossible to feel bad when you’re listening to it. It kicked me out of countless bouts of depression this year. The Kingston show was one of the greatest shows of this year (there’ve been a bunch) Listen to it with your friends and some sunshine.

Lucero – 1372 Overton Park

I was SO excited for this record, listened to The Devil and Maggie a million times when they were streaming it on the ‘org. Preordered it to get the 6 tracks early and fell in love with a few of them. But lets face it kids, there’s a little more of the Billy Joel about this record than there needs to be. I’m imagining this as a Replacements kind of thing, I can’t imagine everyone loved say… Nightclub Jitters the first time they heard it. All round it’s still a pretty good record, but I’d love it if they removed some of the sax.

Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves – S/T

I know the digital release was in 08, but if Punk News are putting it on their lists I’m putting it on mine. This record rules. But then I love when punk dudes grow up and write country songs about whiskey and girls.

Kevin Devine – Brother’s Blood

I’ve always been a fan of Kev, even when he was a massively whiney emo brat. The thing about this record is, he’s really gotten good at what he does. Honed his craft, become a singer songwriter of worth and although still a bit on the sad side is infused with more positivity than I’ve seen from him before. Listen and fall in love.

Yesterday’s Ring – Diamonds in the Ditch

I like beardy Canadians, what can I say ? I prefer Yesterday’s Ring to Sainte Catherines (kick me outta punx, I don’t care anymore) and this was the soundtrack to the early part of this year. It’s a narrative record too, and I’m a sucker for those.

Cursive – Mama I’m Swollen

I have always been a big Tim Kasher fangirl, and although this sounds more grown up and far less angular than any previous Cursive release, worry not, the subject matter hasn’t changed all that much. Saw them at Dingwalls earlier this year and he’s still a lovably insane alcoholic.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

I love Neko. I’d like to be Neko. This is her most accessible record to date. You should all own it. Period.

5 records not on the list, but would be if it was a top 15.

William Elliot Whitmore – Animals in the Dark

Fake Problems – It’s Good To Be Alive

Austin Lucas – Somebody Loves You

Monsters of Folk – S/T

Eilen Jewell – Sea of Tears

And the compulsory 2009 mix, featuring a song from each of the named records. Click the tracklisting for download.

I was really excited about seeing this, I read a couple of the preliminary festival reviews and have been avoiding any movie marketing since.  Those of you that know me are aware of the kind of horror nerd that I am. I don’t scare easy, but I actively try to scare myself as often as is possible.

The one genre that helps me out with this quest more often than any other is the Supernatural movie, specifically the Haunted house/possession movie.

I decided to watch Paranormal Activity alone, which may not have been my smartest move, but I really didn’t think it would scare me as much as it did.

It’s an extremely simple premise, shot on the super cheap but executed better than pretty much anything I’ve seen in the last decade or so. It employs the Blair Witch popularized handheld effectively and is smart enough to never ever show us the “monster”. The entire film takes place inside of the confines of the house (there’s maybe two exterior shots, but they’re both in the garden of said house) and this is incredibly important in helping add to the films sense of claustrophobia.

The twist in this tale is that it’s actually the female protagonist that’s being “haunted” and not the house, so there’s no Amityville or Poltergeist escape on offer here. She literally is just stuck to wait it out until it comes to its inevitable head. While I was watching I couldn’t help but think of the 1991 TV movie “The Haunted” which is one of the other most genuinely terrifying haunted house movies I’ve seen.

I’m glad the studio didn’t remake it with big names, it would have completely wrecked the believabilty of the situation. Although this is an entirely fictional movie (yeah, was disappointed that it wasn’t based on a real life anything) you rarely need to employ your suspension of disbelief. There are a couple of plot developments I would rather hadn’t been included, but I guess they needed to move the narrative along somehow. The last few mintutes of the movie were annoying to me, but more on a Blair Witch scale than say, Harpers Island. From what I’ve read this isn’t the original ending anyway. I’ll be interested to see what the DVD release offers up.

You should definitely watch this movie.

I’m probably going to have some trouble sleeping tonight.

I’ve included the trailer. Be warned it’s in no way representative of the mood of the film.

Around this time of year I make a bunch of Fall mixtapes and distribute them to my nearest and dearest, for the purposes of stomping leaves in the park in hoodies and iPods. Every year without fail there is a common track, Jeff Caudill’s acoustic version of Daylight Savings. I can’t even begin to explain how comforting this track is to me.

This is the way I feel about most of Mr Caudill’s creative output, there’s something about his soothing west coast tones that work like Diazepam on me. So when he mailed me a CD of covers and odds and ends last month, I’m not gonna lie. I was pretty excited.

“Every Last Song” isn’t generally available, which is sad because every one should hear his cover of Jawbreaker’s Ache (previous to this I only had a live version of this off a firewalkwithme comp, got me all kinds of sentimental) If you’re interested and you want to hear it, I posted in it on tumblr, here.

He posted a new video to the track “Dreaming in Real Time” on his site, which I’ve embedded for your viewing pleasure.

His new acoustic CD “Had To Be There” will be available digitally in the near future.

Observation One. Bill Compton is totally over. EVERYONE is crushing on Eric. There are a number of reasons for this, they include;

Eric not being English. Remember the day you learnt the dude who plays Bill is just a middle aged English Guy? All the paparazzi pics you ever see of Steven Moyer and Anna Paquin feature Moyer wearing some kind of Dad cargo pants. Take away the accent and the vampire and you’re left with a dude that hits on you in Bar Uno. Eric being T-A-L-L. Most of last season Eric was seated, but this one he’s all up and around all the time, whether ripping people limb from limb in the basement of Fangtasia or chatting with Bill in women’s departments he’s always towering over everyone. I did some research, he’s 6’4″ (Moyer is barely 5′ 9″ depending on who you ask, but the evidence seems pretty clear) Eric Got a Hair Cut. Yep. After the aforementioned ripping limb from limb incident Eric had to get his hair chopped (there was blood in the bleach) and now his hair is short. Girls like short hair. All of them. Eric is Not a Pussy. This may the the most important factor. Bill is such a massive none blood sucking goodie. (The occasional orgasmic bit doesn’t count) In episode 6 while Eric is sucking on an escort in a hotel foyer he declares that it’s so much less fun when they’re willing.

Observation Two. Jessica is awesome. She has great hair, nice teeth and fucks Bill off. Enough said.

Observation Three. This is more of a question really, but why is Tara still in the show? What value does she add ? Why are storylines revolving around her? And is the woman that plays Marianne totally type cast to play crazy bitch the way Zooey Deschanel is with Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl?

Observation Four. Holy fuck the sex is hot this season. Sookie’s got a taste for it and turned into a massive slut. Marianne hosts demon orgies every other night, Jason has been shown the way back to joy in the bath-tub and Sam, well…. HBO and Alan Ball seem to want to sever as many ties with the PG13 books as possible.

Sorry, I had to upload it to rapidshare, ‘cos it’s just over the mediafire upload limit. It’s probably worth it though. But then, I would say that, I made it.

Click the tracklisting for the download.

So stoked. I fucking love vampires.

Here’s a video from the same dude who recorded the set (he posts loads of awesome stuff from around MD)

and here’s the link for the live set.

“Chariots of Fire” – Ben Nichols and Rick Steff from Tony Bowman on Vimeo.

I post the stuff here a fair amount, I’m addicted to the pink couch sessions and pretty much everything else about it. You can also pick up a bunch of free/donation based records from some fucking incredible bands. In short. This site rules.

David, the dude who runs it all is having some financial difficulties and doesn’t think he’s going to be able to continue running it the way he has been for a while. This is BAD news people. but YOU can help, sling him a couple bucks  via the donate button on the homepage and help keep something awesome alive.

Yeah! Up The Punks!

Oh, and now you should watch Good Luck,  Stars Were Exploding, and feel pretty damn good about yourself.

Good Luck – Stars Were Exploding from If You Make It on Vimeo.

Also, I haven’t posted here for a while, I’ve been drowning in my tumblr, but don’t worry I’m planning on actually writing something soon. I know, exciting right?