BOB '09: BEST FEATURE

This week we will spend each day counting down a category or two of BoB 09 as voted by you, leading up to the editors top ten songs of the year.

We really ramped up our feature content this year, spanning everything from unlikely comparisons, to in-depth interviews, and even a war between our interns. However most choices were left in the dust behind the two most popular. The race was close between the beloved weekly T.G.I. Mixtape and our newest segment Worst Record of All Time. After the dust cleared, Worst Record stood victorious. Congrats, you pile of misery!

BoB '09 Best Feature: Worst Record Of All Time

Since I'll be accepting this award, I'd like to thank none of you, because you obvious value torturing me above all other Baeble activities. My ears! In honor of the win, the introduction to the first nominee/the quest:

Hello sports fans! Just kidding, I don't know nearly enough about 'balling to talk shop. You're talking to the guy who giggles when football announcers talk about "defensive penetration." But I know you like music, because why else would you be procrastinating at work/school by watching our wonderful selection of forty-plus-minute-long-free-streaming concerts? But just so you know we have writing too, and it is very grammatically good, because I write it. Well, some of it. And I've decided that we need to take a step back from our snobbery and say to ourselves; what makes an album "good?" I mean, what is the difference between For Emma and Merriweather Post Pavilion? Great albums always boil down to a matter of taste. One mans animal-electro-improv-fantasy is anothers nonsensical noise nightmare. We fight a lot! BUT there is something we can totally all agree on, and that is the god-awful schlopp that is out there! not only is it existent but it sees commercial release and sells! Well, sometimes it sells. Sometimes it settles in the FYE bargain bin and starts a family with Michael Buble covers of TV theme songs. The circle of life.

But Bad records exist, and it is our job to find the absolute worst of them (note: not at all our jobs, in fact kind of the opposite of our jobs). So I've decided to sacrifice at least an hour or two of my happiness and sanity every once in a while to embark on a dangerous, life-threatening mission to the top of Mt. Doom the internet to destroy the ring listen to bad music. I am going to find the worst album of all time! And then I'm going to throw it into Mt. Doom.

I think we might need some rules.

1. It must have a commercial release. Look, it would be easy to find the crummiest DAT recording of your band from high school covering Barbara Streisand, that is not the point here. We need things that people actually bought, or at least had the opportunity to buy IN A STORE and not behind the gym during recess.

2. The album must have had at least, the potential, or the money, to succeed. I want the truly tragic, the stars-turned-losers and major-label-money-grabbers. The blog darling hype-balloons that popped. The celebrity nightmare bands. Hamlet in CD form. Everybody dies at the end.

3. It cannot be intentionally bad or funny. No mock bands. The ultimate winner must have taken themselves seriously enough for us to suffer while listening.

4.It cannot be Kidz Bop. Or any cover albums. I only want painfully original material.

So those are the (maybe not final) rules! You can add to the nominations. Send all your horrible album picks to info@baeblemusic.com and let us know your worst records. I'll try to announce nominees as I glue my ears back on from this first one. What's that? I can't hear you, I don't have ears anymore. This will be hard! Let's begin.

For more information on the quest's progress, visit the latest post, an unfortunate exploration of Dee Dee Ramone's solo rap album Standing In The Spotlight.

RUNNER UP: T.G.I. Mixtape

The staple of our Friday lineup, the mixtape has survived over forty iterations. Dude, that is like 400 songs! (because math). Former intern Greg Lozoff (check out his new venture, Meet You at the Show) pioneered the idea back in the beginning of the year, and its popularity and quirky colored pictures made it a mainstay of the Baeble publishing schedule (even before we had a schedule).

Here is a link to the earliest Mixtape I could find, back when they were still only blog posts: T.G.I. Mixtape: Montreal Edition.

More Best of Baeble 09 to come!

TOMORROW: We reveal the best video!
WEDNESDAY: We tell you which album took the top spot!
THURSDAY: The concert and guest apartment of the year (respectively)!
FRIDAY: Our top ten songs!

Stay tuned. -joe puglisi