Winners: The 2009 Rand-O-Mania Music Awards!

Ok, it's the end of a decade as well as the end of a year.  I can't help but make music lists.  I'm in a crazy list-making mood lately.  (Honestly, who makes a list of the top 100 U2 songs?!)  Anyway, to get this out of my system, I'm going to announce the 2009 Rand-O-Mania Music Awards!  (Also called R-O-MMAs.)  This will include awards for the decade as well as this past year.  I'm also going to give my top 100 songs for the Zeros decade.  So this is a big deal.  Winners of the ROMMA awards will also receive* a copy of this beautiful painting that I've recently acquired of two personified terriers:
(I got it at my family Christmas party as a white elephant.  Pretty sweet!  You can't really see it, but they have human bodies.)

 2009 Awards:

•   Most Incredible Songs Packed Onto One Album:  Sea Wolf's "White Water, White Bloom"
•     Best Entire Album To Listen Straight Through: The Decemberists' "The Hazards of Love"
•     Song of the Year:  "Curse" by Imagine Dragons
•     Best New Band of the Year (New to me, in other words):  Phoenix
•     Biggest Disappointment of the Year:  U2's "No Line on the Horizon"  (For an album I Pre-Order I expect more than one decent song.  ("Magnificent"))
•     Best Local Band of the Year: Imagine Dragons
•     Song that Will Stick With Me The Longest:  "Dew In the Grass" by Sea Wolf
•     Most Morbid Song:  "The Rake's Song" by The Decemberists
•     Catchiest Song:  "Dimmer" by Bishop Allen

2000-2009 Awards:

• Best Album of the Decade:  Guster's "Keep It Together."  I narrowed the list down, and ultimately I couldn't make any of the others better in my mind than this one.  It exemplifies much of what I love about the music that I love.  It's got a good variety of songs, and I can't not like them.
  
• Honorable Mentions for Album of the Decade: "The Boy With No Name" by Travis, "X & Y" by Coldplay, and "Plans" by Death Cab For Cutie
  
• Most Incredible Songs Packed Onto One Album: "Reconstruction Site" by The Weakerthans
  
• Honorable Mention Most Incredible Songs On One Album: Ben Kweller's "Ben Kweller"
  
• Song of the Decade:  "War Was In Color" by Carbon Leaf
  
• Honorable Mention Song of the Decade: "Hang On" by Guster
  
• Best Band of the Decade:  Coldplay.  As much as I would love to put an indie band in this spot... Coldplay freakin' earned it.  They really do get better with every album and have an incredible appeal.  I also feel like when I think of this decade, this band will exemplify its music the most to me.
  
• Honorable Mention Band of the Decade:  Death Cab For Cutie.  I have nothing bad to say about this band.
  
• Individual Singer/Songwriter of the Decade:  Ben Kweller  (Anyone that can go from sweet rock songs to making a country album that I'd consider buying has to be something special.)
  
• Honorable Mention Singer/Songwriter of the Decade: Pete Yorn
  
• Biggest Disappointment Album of the Decade:  "Ode to J. Smith" by Travis.  I had really high hopes for this album due to the incredible album that preceded it, but it did not come through at all.  Very disappointing.  I think they made it WAY too quickly.
  
• Best Local Band of the Decade:  Imagine Dragons  (Local to Las Vegas)
• Honorable Mention for Local Level Band of the Decade:  Halfpenny Marvel   (Local to Chicago)
  
• Most Consistent Great Band of the Decade:  Matt Pond PA 
• Best Band to Come and Go:  Ambulance LTD  (They came out with an EP and a kick-trash album and just faded into black.  They had more potential than a LOT of bands, and I wish they'd made it.)
• Honorable Mention for Best Band to Come and Go:  Grandaddy.  Nerd rock at its finest.
  
• Most Surprising Band that Got Me To Be A Fan:  Ratatat 
• Best Album From an Old Favorite Band:  "All That You Can't Leave Behind" by U2
• Best Movie Soundtrack:  "Stranger Than Fiction"
• Honorable Mention for Soundtrack: "About A Boy" (by Badly Drawn Boy)
• Best Live Act:  Tally Hall
  

TOP 100 SONGS OF THE DECADE:
1. War Was In Color    Carbon Leaf
2. Hang On    Guster
3. In Other Words    Ben Kweller
4. Square One    Coldplay
5. Falling    Ben Kweller
6. The Space Between    Dave Matthews Band
7. Anecdote    Ambulance LTD
8. Come Downstairs and Say Hello    Guster
9. Viva La Vida    Coldplay
10. Beautiful Day    U2
11. Dew In the Grass    Sea Wolf
12. The Crane Wife 1 & 2    The Decemberists
13. I Will Follow You Into The Dark    Death Cab For Cutie
14. Left & Leaving    The Weakerthans
15. Diane    Guster
16. Butterflies & Hurricanes    Muse
17. Where Are You Going    Dave Matthews Band
18. Plea From A Cat Named Virtute    The Weakerthans
19. You're a Wolf    Sea Wolf
20. Title And Registration    Death Cab For Cutie
21. Curse    Imagine Dragons
22. Run    Snow Patrol
23. My Eyes    Travis
24. Rome    Phoenix
25. Sun in an Empty Room    The Weakerthans
26. The Distance    Cake
27. Strange Condition    Pete Yorn
28. We Both Go Down Together    The Decemberists
29. Silent Sigh    Badly Drawn Boy
30. Hummingbird    Wilco
31. Telling Lies    Great Northern
32. Walk On    U2
33. Tournament of Hearts    The Weakerthans
34. Ugly Love    Eels
35. Amsterdam    Guster
36. The Cold Side Of The Pillow    Halfpenny Marvel
37. Inaudible Melodies    Jack Johnson
38. Halloween    Matt Pond PA
39. Such Great Heights    The Postal Service
40. Buildings & Mountains    The Republic Tigers
41. Personal    Stars
42. Fruit Fly    Nada Surf
43. The Group Who Couldn't Say    Grandaddy
44. Sundress    Ben Kweller
45. The Crane Wife 3    The Decemberists
46. See These Bones    Nada Surf
47. Lost!    Coldplay
48. Theologians    Wilco
49. 1901    Phoenix
50. Extreme Ways    Moby
51. Paper Bag    Dear & The Headlights
52. What About Everything?    Carbon Leaf
53. How It Should Be (sha sha)    Ben Kweller
54. Dime    Cake
55. Closer    Travis
56. Somebody More Like You    Nickel Creek
57. Just Another    Pete Yorn
58. Somewhere Only We Know    Keane
59. Now It's On    Grandaddy
60. Side    Travis
61. Don't Wake Me Up    The Hush Sound
62. Trouble With Dreams    Eels
63. Don't Panic    Coldplay
64. The Sound Of Settling    Death Cab For Cutie
65. O Valencia!    The Decemberists
66. Concrete Bed    Nada Surf
67. How We Operate    Gomez
68. The Cold, the Dark & the Silence    Sea Wolf
69. Stupid    Sarah McLachlan
70. Hitchhiker    Teitur
71. I Don't Know Why    Ben Kweller
72. Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake    Grandaddy
73. Life Is Wonderful    Jason Mraz
74. Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of    U2
75. 24    Jem
76. Quicksand    Travis
77. Promise the Bite    Matt Pond PA
78. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)    The Decemberists
79. Dream Catch Me    Newton Faulkner
80. Stanislaus    Sea Wolf
81. Starlight    Muse
82. Burrito    Pete Yorn
83. Brothers On A Hotel Bed    Death Cab For Cutie
84. Good To Sea    Pinback
85. Gravedigger    Dave Matthews
86. Don't Cry Out    Shiny Toy Guns
87. Human    The Killers
88. Your Legs Grow    Nada Surf
89. Semi Automatic    The Boxer Rebellion
90. Shempi    Ratatat
91. The Comeback    Shout Out Louds
92. O Maria!    Sea Wolf
93. Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure    The Weakerthans
94. Nice Guy    Starflyer 59
95. In My Place    Coldplay
96. Little Pieces    Gomez
97. This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"    Los Campesinos!
98. Lex    Ratatat
99. One Great City!    The Weakerthans
100. Accidental Deth    Rilo Kiley

There wasn't really an exact science to this, but they're pretty close to being in order.  As I've looked over this blog post, I realize that I REALLY like the music I've found throughout this decade.  Hope you find stuff you like from this blog post.  Well, I think I'm done with music lists for at least a couple months!
*No one will receive copies of said painting.  It's all in jest.