Rejection Slips

So I'm on a bend to send out more frequently this year and if I get these all done by tomorrow then I will have sent out to twenty different magazines this month. That would be awesome if I could keep up that pace. That also means I have to write that much more to keep that up as well. But this last time I sent out to a lot of big time publications like the New Yorker, AGNI, the Harvard Review and Yale Review, and I'm excited to get some sweet rejection slips from them. I'm hoping to get a wonderful collection of New Yorker and Poetry magazine slips over the years. I'll make a collage of them. Or maybe a mobile.

But I'll tell you right now, if I get published in any of them, holy crap, is there going to be a party. A big fat nerdy lit party.

Fleet Foxes - SNL Performance of Mykonos

Check this out, Emma. And here's the song for download when you're swayed.

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos

Best Songs of 2008

So truthfully, I've had a busy year and have not kept up on music. If not for the inimitable Tyson Schenk found at Keep Your Face Radical, I would not have known about much. So lately I've been boning up on music but I may have missed a few. Here's my list. I'll post what songs I can find for download.

New Artists (To Me at Least)

Grizzly Bear -- the artist I couldn't get enough of, I've been obsessed ever since his performance on Letterman
While You Wait for the Others
Two Weeks

Fleet Foxes - my favorite album of the year, these hairy dudes make you want to romp through the backwoods
Ragged Wood
White Winter Hymnal
Blue Ridge Mountains

Bon Iver - I forgot to put this up due to some confusion about the release date, but I loved this album. No single on this list grabbed me as fast as "Skinny Love". Allen put up link to "For Emma", go get that as well.
Skinny Love
The Wolves (Act I and II)

Artists I Gave Another Chance This YearBlitzen Trapper - I wasn't into their previous album, Wild Mountain Nation, but I'm sold with "Furr"
Furr
Black River Killer

The Black Keys - didn't dig a lot of their previous stuff, sounded too much like the Rolling Stones (whom I don't like, with a few song exceptions), but this one song revived my interest. I recommend listening to it in a parked car on a rainy Brooklyn night
Psychotic Girl

Old Favorites with the New Madness

Almost Crimes(Acoustic) - Broken Social Scene -- not sure if this is new, but it's new to me and it's my new fave Broken Social Scene song, and it's not easy to take the crown with me

Gamma Ray - Beck -- I love me some Beck and I'm loving this

Lost! - Coldplay -- I tell myself every year I'm over Coldplay and every year I reconsider

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros -- just lovely

Grounds for Divorce - Elbow -- this is Elbow like I've never heard them and I'm surprised and blown away

Creeper - The Islands -- Tyson showed me the magic of this band when they were The Unicorns and now this new project is still spectacular

Joe's Waltz - The Dodos -- I love The Dodos, I mean I love them and want to have baby Dodos with them

Fools - The Dodos -- again, I want to procreate

Lost Coastlines - Okkervil River -- my friend Aaron is a big fan of these guys, and I gave them a listen past their first album which I was only slightly acquainted with, this song is bad-ical
An Animal in Your Care - Wolf Parade -- didn't love these two songs enough until I saw them live
Kissing the Beehive - Wolf Parade

Newly Introduced and Still Spinning in my Earspace

Taking the Farm - The War on Drugs -- never heard of them, took a chance on some blog's recommendation, and I'm hooked. If you like Clap Your Hands, you'll dig em.

Sorry James - Whitsundays -- Allen turned me onto this and it has my name in it and I'm a narcissist and I can't see how I wouldn't like it, and moreover, Allen's taste in music is impeccable

Sold! To the Nice Rich Man - The Welcome Wagon -- Sufjan Steven's friend, even if you don't like Sufjan (I'm squinting at two of you, you know who you are) I'd say give it a try, it's very old religious folk music with an upbeat sentiment

L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold -- didn't hear it until recently and it hasn't really had enough plays to cement its goodness but so far I'm into it.

Amplifier - The dBs -- couldn't find a link. I'll figure out how to make a zip file for download. This song makes me laugh. But then suicide isn't funny to everyone.

Gossip in the Grain - Ray LaMontagne -- I only found a live version to link that I haven't listened to. But the studio version haunts me with it's breathy story.

Jackson Leftfield - Boxer the Horse -- it was #1 catchiest song on some dude's blog and I thought I'd peep it. Oh, it'll catch ya.

Gila - Beach House -- Gillz introduced me to this band and I've been digging them ever since. It's so spare and beautiful.

Songs that Rule and Made Me LaughThe Nun's Litany - Magnetic Fields -- such a funny song, explicit, but really creative detailing the secret wishes of a nun who wants to be something else

Too Drunk to Dream - Magnetic Fields -- if I drank, this would be my drinking song, and I would teach it to everyone in the bar. In fact, the reason I don't drink is because there's no more drinking songs. Except for "Free Bird" and I hate that song.

Robocop - Kanye West -- I have a fascination with Kanye and he's a guilty pleasure for me. This new album had some tracks I dug but I freaking love a chorus comparing a girl to Robocop. It doesn't even really make sense.