SxSW 2009 Music: Best of the A’s

Every year, SxSW posts a ton of free mp3’s from the artists that showcase at the music festival. And every year since 2004, I’ve downloaded all of them. This year, though, instead of just letting them take up space in iTunes, I’m going to try something. Between now and whenever I get through them, I’m going to try to listen to a letter a day (the playlist is alphabetical by artist) and do my best to rate every song. Then, I’m going to post my top ten songs from each letter here. Here are the A’s:

1. Gardenias and Cigarettes by Ana Silvera – 5 stars – I love this song. It’s a classic gin-drenched torch song.
2. The River by Anathallo – 5 stars – Another great ballad. If Bloc Party were acoustic piano rock, they’d sound like this.
3. The Thief & The Heartbreaker by Alberta Cross – 4 stars
4. Si Pero No by Alex Cuba – 4 stars
5. Amanha eu nao vou trabalhar by Alexandre Grooves – 4 stars
6. Government Meat by Ali Eskandarian – 4 stars
7. To All Tiny Creatures by All Tiny Creatures – 4 stars
8. Leeds United by Amanda Palmer – 4 stars
9. One More Day by Amy Wadge – 4 stars
10. Set The Bears Free by Anchorsong – 4 stars
11. Oh, The Boss Is Coming by Arkells – 4 stars – I have to say, these guys sound a lot like The Constantines, which may be why I dug this song so much.
12. These Flowers of Ours by The Asteroid #4 – 4 stars – Reminds me a lot of The Dandy Warhols.\
    This is totally unscientific, and I probably missed rating some songs (I do need to work during the day), but here are the A’s. I’m listening to the B’s today. And yes, I know there are more than ten, but they’re alphabetical within the number of stars, so I decided to list all the 4 and 5 star songs.