It’s that time of year again when the majority of the Internet just sort of shuts down and stagnates for a few weeks while everyone leaves their office jobs and actually spends less than a third of their day on the computer. We’re no different and will be taking off until early January; though I’ll do my best to scour for some new worthwhile events on the calendar.

If you are in need of something to tide you over until Christmas might I suggest the just-released annual Partytown Hospital Christmas album. It’s poorly performed, vaguely unlistenable and almost painfully long but it’s amusing from top to bottom. It’s worth hearing through once at the very least.

One of the biggest losses from the WRVU Community DJ policy switch-up was the loss of Nashville Mixtapes. It’s possible that the show will find a new home somewhere else but, for now, we’ll just have to scour his archives to relive the goodness. The show was consistently on point with music We Own This Town agreed with in its goodness. That is to say, our tastes are quite aligned. We asked DJ Brandon Spencer to give us his top ten of 2009 for local artists and we found lots of common ground and a few new names we’re headed to check out immediately.

• Milktooth – Milktooth EP
• Codaphonic – Edison’s Rival EP
• And Selby Jase – Hi Not You
• Cortney Tidwell – Boys
• The Young Republic – Balletesque
• Quote – The Pace of Our Feet
• Kindercastle – Dot to Dot to Dot…
• Umbrella Tree – The Letter C
• Tristen – The Tour EP

Honorable mention – though technically released in 2008 and re-released in 2009:
The Features – Some Kind of Salvation