Music Videos of 2012: Part Uno

While I'm prepping my Best of Songs of the Year, I need to post the best music videos of the year.  This list doesn't necessarily coincide but sometimes a really awesome video bumps up a song in my brain into Made-the-list-town.  I'll do a couple of posts of this as there are lots of awesome music videos and no one wants a page to load forever.


You Won't - Who Knew

I didn't know anything about these guys until today.  This video is phenomenal.  And my favorite part? You'll know as soon as you see it.  If you love 1985, you will know it.

Am I going to go check out this band now?  You freaking know it.  Good job, You Won't.  Awesome name, too.





Grimes - Oblivion

I'm a little obsessed with her.  Her video for Genesis is mega weird.  In this one, there's something about the awkwardness and realness of this video that makes my eyes stay glued.  Half the time it's like she's dancing and shooting a video completely guerilla, just some weird pink haired girl being filmed while all this other stuff is going on.  And then other times, this video feels like the child to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" video.



M.I.A - Bad Girls

It's a lot of people's best video of the year and it's easy to see why.  It's got attitude, the location is exotic (to US folks), and it has sweet car tricks.  You don't need to watch the whole video.  Just watch the sweet car stuff.

Am I into her music?  Not really.  But I love this video.



Woodkid - Run Boy Run

The description I read for this video was "How could you imagine the song without the video?" It's like they were made for each other.  It's totally epic and beautifully shot and another great example of how music videos are still alive.

Best Music of 2011

IF YOU JUST WANT THE MIX, GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST AND CLICK THE DOWNLOAD LINK.  THIS POST IS LONG AS CRAP.

Before you download this let me give you a few caveats.

1.  I don't listen to the radio or anything on the top 40.  So there's no Adele, I hate Katy Perry, and I don't really like Gaga or Bruno Mars or Gym Class Heroes or any of that stuff.  I'm not saying they're bad or untalented or overproduced or corporate ear candy, I'm just saying they're not what I'm into generally.

2.  I don't listen to much hip-hop.  So since I don't try to experience the gamut of hip-hop, I hesitate to comment on it by picking the best hip-hop of the year.  So while the Kanye/Jay-Z album should probably be represented, I feel it better to just not show my ignorance.

3.  This is my favorite music.  This is what I like.  I know you're not going to like it all.  Or agree with my list.  I don't want you to.  I want you to be you.  Because if you were another me, I would have to destroy you and absorb your powers like in that crappy movie The One starring Jet Li.

4.  I have listened to literally thousands of songs released this year.  2433 if you want to be exact and look at the bottom of my iTunes.  So while I may not be listening to the songs you like, I am surveying a giant portion of music to whittle it down to a mere 50.

5.  Also, I'm not including multiple songs from an artist even though they deserve to be up here.  In many cases, you should just check out that whole album.

5.  One of my greatest secrets to finding great music is TYSON SCHENK.  Click on his name and go to his blog.  He puts up a blogmail mix every month.  I would say at least 40 percent of the music on here was given to me by him or we were listening to at the same time.


Now I hope you find at least one song you like on here.  Tracking down the links was too hard so I'm just going to leave you a link to download the whole mix.  That means you're getting the whole sham bang but there's some rocking stuff, some danceable stuff and some just depressing beautiful indie gems.

I really wanted to have 50 best songs so I put down some of my favorite covers of the year as well.  Enjoy.

MY FAVORITE MUSIC OF 2011
(in no particular order except countdowns look more exciting)

50.  I Want You - Summer Camp
This was the feel bad jam of the summer.  A totally tongue in cheek stalker song about a girl who wants to love a guy so bad she'll hurt him if she gets her mitts on him.  One of Val's favorites. (She's very dark inside.)

49.  East Harlem - Beirut
Could be my favorite song of the year.  It's competing hardcore with another song on this list.  The whole album is great.  Buy or steal it.

48.  Midnight City - M83
Their last album put them on my radar and made me stoked to hear some sophmore efforts.  This song doesn't disappoint.  The soft vibe of the lyrics against the space sound synthesizer is rad.

47.  Truth - Alexander
If you didn't hear Alexander's other project Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, you missed the best song of the year.  I love this song as well for different reasons.  I have a music video in my head for it.  It involves a man in a bunny costume and samurai swords.

46.  Hold On - Alabama Shakes
A late addition to the mix but it gets me moving.  And I hate not moving.

45.  Tigers - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
It's fricking Stephen Malkmus!  Pavement! The Jicks! And a killer new album.  Find your 90s roots.

44.  Sleep Tight - Rollerskaters
I love their band name.  I love this song.  Tyson Schenk certified.

43.  Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey
If you're an indie music snob like me, then you couldn't help see this lady blow up everywhere on every indie blog.  She released like 3 or 5 singles and this one is my favorite.  Also a Valerie pick.

42.  I Can't Make You Love Me(Bonnie Raitt Cover) - Bon Iver
I told you.  I've got some covers on here.  Because I flip-flappin' love well done covers.  I love me some Bon Iver and I adore this cover.  I'm already courting it to be my second wife.

41.  How Can U Luv Me? - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Tyson was hot on this band as soon as they dropped on Bandcamp.  I heard it on Sirius XMU months and months later.  Good call, Tyson.  This is one man band awesomeness.

40.  Old Flames - Jeremy Lee Givens
Another Tyson recommend to me.  Never heard of him but he has this sort of 50s throwback/David Bowie/minimalist 90s jangle pop thing going and I like how it feels in my bones.

39.  Hey Friend - Jeff the Brotherhood
The beginning of this song will throw you.  Ride it out for about two minutes and then it descends into this post-Weezer heartfelt jam about a boy who just wants to be part of his friend's family.  Deceivingly good.

38.  Wilhelms Scream - James Blake
This song has me gripped in a sonic vise.  It haunts me, saddens me, speaks to that depression that lives in deep pools somewhere down there.  It's like finding someone who says, "Hey, let's hurt together."

37.  I'm His Girl - Friends
I'm into beats this year.  I got beats in my bones.  And I like to dance.  And I like to dance to this song.

36. The Scientist(Coldplay Cover) - Willie Nelson
Another cover.  Coldplay is that band that my indie douchebag side likes to like ironically.  But I love this song.  And I love Willie Nelson putting it through the ol voicebox.

35.  Polish Girl - Neon Indian
This was on everybody's list.  Neon Indian is easily the best of the whole Chill Wave movement and this song is a flag saying, "Yeah, Chill Wave sucked but we're still here and we deserve to be."

34.  Don't Try and Hide It - The Dodos
This band is like Spoon.  All the songs kind of sound the same but I just can't get enough of them.  The new album is good and this is my favorite song off of it.

33.  Gangsta - tUnE-yarDs
Let's give it up for one man bands.  And by one man, I mean one woman.  You either love or hate her.  But her mad music and looping skills are rad, bad, mad.

32.  Can't Keep Johnny Down - They Might Be Giants
It's THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS.  'Nuff said.

31.  Wildfire - SBTRKT
Unknownst to me.  Hype Machine was all about him and this song is like maple syrup to your ear pancakes. (Shut up, I'm writing a lot of these.  They can't all be good.)

30.  Tamer Animals - Other Lives
My favorite song off this album.  It makes me want to drive through Manhattan at 3 in the morning in a slushy snowstorm.

29.  Getaway - Kent Odessa
Sometimes Tyson finds crap I never come across in my blogosphere searches.  This Kent Odessa guy is one of them.  This song makes me super happy.  I'm putting into a pocket for a springtime drive to the Hamptons.

28.  Nothing's The Matter - fthrsn (pronounced fatherson)
And then there's stuff I bet Tyson never runs across, too.  This is one of them.  This sort of crooning songster under some Nine Inch Nails heavy beats and funtime keyboards was a random find.

27.  Ode to Janice Melt - Army Navy
The happiest song of the year?  Could be. Pop heaven? Definitely.  How can you not bounce your head from shoulder to shoulder? You can't help it.  This song will control your neck.

26.  I'm Losing Myself - Robin Pecknold
And I will follow that by one of the saddest songs of the year.  It's a Fleet Foxes/Grizzly Bear team-up.  How the crap can you not want that?  It's beautiful and haunting.  A dead girl of a song wandering the Irish moors.

25.  Halfway - Milagres
This is one that just sort of blindsided me.  I had it for a while and then one day just listened and loved it.  I'm really into this 'crooner rock' as I keep calling it.

24.  Wintersong - Blake Mills
Yep.  I love this guy.  And whatever girl finished up this song with a duet.  One day, my friend Jon will finally introduce us so I can slap this dude some serious fives.

23.  Tell Her No - Tennis
Just keep loving Tennis despite the ungooglable nature of their name.

22.  The Suburbs (Arcade Fire Cover) - Little Jeans
I wanted to tell Tyson about this song as soon as I heard it and then he was already putting it on his blogmail mix.  Go figure.

21.  I Follow Rivers - Lykke Li
How can a song sound upbeat and downbeat at the same time?  Oh wait.  That totally describes the last decade of music.  Maybe two.  But I like it.

20.  Money - The Drums
It's like the anthem for all starving students in love.

19.  Jesus Fever - Kurt Vile
Another one on everybody's Best of List.  It's just good, okay?  I even listened to an interview with Tom Waits where they asked him if he liked Kurt Vile.

18.  Revival - Deerhunter
The lead singer of Deerhunter is a big weirdo.  Like he puts the woah in weirdo weird.  But I will eat his music with a spoon.

17.  After the Moment - Craft Spells
Don't know them.  Never heard another song.  Just like them.  Summer breezy easy.

16.  Calgary - Bon Iver
The new album is either good or great depending who you talk to.  Still my favorite song off of it despite everyone's heavy leanings toward Michicant or Wash.

15.  Would You Say Stop? - Acid House Kings
Have you never heard these guys?!  Have you ever been happy?!  Nothing much like these Swedes.

14.  Lion's Share - Albatross
You're going to love this or curse me.  I'm just into this guy's voice and the weird song patterns.

13. Cults - Abducted
This also might be my favorite song of the year.

12. Lotus Flower - Radiohead
Probably my least favorite Radiohead album but still that's a million times better than Katy Perry's best album.

11.  Come On Come On - Oregon Bike Trails
I adore these guys.  If they come to Brooklyn (if they're not already from here) they can stay on my couch.  They can bounce my baby.  They can watch my seasons of Community.

10.  Africa (Toto Cover) - Low
This may be my favorite song of the year as well.  That's right, original song writers.  A cover might rule them all!

9. Grown Ocean - Fleet Foxes
This album is my favorite album of the year.  I played it until I have Robin Pecknold's voice in my head forever like a radio station centered in my medulla oblangata.

8.  Tom Tom - The Hundred in the Hands
Another Valerie pick.  She was singing this the other day and I forgot how good this song was.

7.  When My Time Comes - Dawes
Lyrics from this gem have been stuck in my head for months.  Clever, beautiful, and paced impeccably.  I'm a big fan.  I'm a giant solar windmill for this song.

6.  Land Majestic - Anni Rossi
Anni Rossi plays a violin/fiddle thing.  She plucks it for your enjoyment.  It's happy. Fun.  It'll make a smile creep through your face muscles.

5.  I Walked (Sufjan Stevens cover) - Fol Chen
Yep. I love Sufjan.  And I love covers.  And I adore this one by the clever and talented Fol Chen.  Check out Sufjan's music and Fol Chen's song "Cable TV".

4.  Nightlight - Little Dragon
What if Michael Jackson and Jamiroquai had a baby?  Well, its cry would sound like this.  One foot steppin jam machine.

3.  I Want a House - Twin Sister
Another Chill Wave contender.  They made it.  And this song is wonderful von vunderful.  Though I thought the lyric was "I want a house made of old ROOMS" which set my mind racing.  But it's 'old WOOD'.

2.  Skeletons - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
Another of the punnier names this year for bands.  This song has stayed with me all year.  I love the lyrics.

1.  America's Son - Air Review
My actual number one song of the year.  Why do you like something more than other things?  Who knows? I just do.  I can't change that neural pathway.  This song could be about me.  It could be about you.  You could think it sucks.  I could think you do.

Download Mix Here:
JAMES'S MOST FAV MUSIC OF 2011 LINK

Last Music Video Post, I Promise

I seriously can't get enough of music videos right now.  I have to post some more then I swear I'm done.  For a week at least.  If I updated more frequently, I could just do one at a time.  But here's another five.  I hope you dig whether or not you like the music.

SKREAM

This is not technically a music video.  But that's a fine line. It's a short film that was shot in 8 hours in Brooklyn. (I know half the places in this video.)  But it uses one song the whole time so why is it not a music video? Who cares.  It's rad and has some of the coolest uses of slo-mo I've ever seen.  It's called 8 Hours in Brooklyn.


8 Hours in Brooklyn from Next Level Pictures on Vimeo.


SLEIGH BELLS

I like this band.  In doses.  I can't always listen to them but when I'm in the mood to throw a tv out a window, I can put them on.  This video is weird Jared Hess-ian cinema and I like it.



YOUNG GALAXY

I'm not totally into these guys but this video is something else.  The amount of time it must have taken is impressive.



TUNE-YARDS

This is just one talented lady making all this noise.  I'm a sucker for videos with kids in them.  And dance numbers.  And facepaint.



LORD HURON

One of my newer favorite singers.  Real folksy and dreamy.  Perfect for daydreaming or hiking the tundra.

We Called Them Music Videos

I need to post some more.  Those are all great but there's so many more from this year that are fantastic.  On the other post, they were all songs I liked as well.  On this one, that's not entirely true.  But all of the videos are fantastic.

And I haven't even scratched the surface.  I'll post some more this month.

MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA

I don't know this band but I ran across this video and I adore it.  The amazing thing about this video is how it snowballs.  The images and ideas just keep repeating and building.  This is competing for video of the year.


Manchester Orchestra - "Simple Math" from DANIELS on Vimeo.


SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN

Looking for music videos is also a great way to find new music.  In my video searching, I found these guys and I'm having a hard time deciding whether I like the song as much as I like the video.  That would be hard, considering the video is mindblowingly good.


Seventeen Evergreen - Polarity Song from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.


MEMORY TAPES

The great thing about music videos is that they are essentially short films.  Which we've stopped watching.  Ask anybody the last short film they watched.  They'd be hard pressed to come up with one.  We get fed music by corporate run radio stations who are in bed with the big record labels who are in bed with the ticket and concert people.  Let's hearken back to short films set to beautiful music.

Also:  this was shot in my neighborhood and some of the shots are one avenue over from me.  It's like you're walking in my neighborhood.



GARDENS & VILLA

This is another band I got into this year.  I really like how simple and goofy this video is while at the same time having this atmospheric quality.


Black Hills by Gardens & Villa from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.


M83

This album is badical.  I sort of dug their last one but this one has me at hell yes.  This video is great.  I feel like every kid wants to be these kids.  Left to their own devices. Removed from their parents.  And having awesomely fantastic powers.

Hey, MTV, We Don't Need You

Here's the deal.  I hate MTV.  Not because it blows and it's a reality suck fest.  But because it used to be really good.  It used to stand for something.  For music.  And music journalism.  And counter culture. And alternative programming. And Something Different.

MTV in the 80s and early 90s was the thing you couldn't help watching.  It was groundbreaking. Then it betrayed us.

MTV is like my cool older brother who sold out and went corporate.  And not only that, he still thinks he's cool. But he's not.  He's woefully embarrassingly not.

But even without MTV, music videos continue.  And you may not watch them.  Or know where to find them. So I've compiled a few of the best ones of the year.  (If you don't have time to watch every video, move down to the last one right now.  It's amazing.)

WILD FLAG

If you didn't know Sleater-Kinney, then you didn't rock enough yet.  After Sleater-Kinney broke up, they split into two mega bands.  Here is one of them.



THE BLACK KEYS

A music video? By definition, sure.  Mostly it's just an excuse to watch an awesome dancer.



AIR REVIEW

Literally, never heard of this band until yesterday.  Tyson Schenk put this band in one of his blogmail mixes. I freaking love this song.  And the video.



BEIRUT

This might be my album of the year.  This song and East Harlem made my summer.  If you want to understand my sense of humor, watch this video.  Because I think this is hysterical.



ARMY NAVY

Another new band on my radar. I highly recommend them.  Just perfect power pop.  But this, hands down, is the BEST VIDEO OF THE YEAR.

Thank You Notes to Me

So yes, we are having a baby. (Thank you Craig for getting this onesie for me. It is epic.) This blog is not going to turn into a baby blog showcasing every angle of my genetic inheritor.  So get ready to keep hearing about me, Valerie, and sometimes Baby.  Oh, she'll show up.  Like a guest star.  But is she writing the blog?  No.  Because she has no idea what QWERTY is.  And because most of her thoughts will be: "Hungry." and "Not Hungry."

I'm sure she'll be great.  I'm excited.  But I spend a lot of time in my head. But eventually when she can talk and reason and type I'm sure she'll have a few things to say about how I shaped her into the cool person she will become.  So here are some thank you notes to me.  From her.

ABOUT MUSIC

Dear D(that stands for Dad, abbreviations are huge in the future),

Thank you for introducing me to depressing rock music. Nirvana and Elliott Smith has given my otherwise happy life that bleak underlining it needed. While you and M showered me with love and affection, in the background was a soundtrack teaching me that despair and loneliness howled at the windows.  Thank you for leveling me out with some real bummers.  Sure I look super smiley in all those baby pictures.  But if you look in my eyes, you can see I know that life is not all mashed up fruit and snuggles.  It's deep pain and full of Courtney Loves.

ABOUT SUPERHEROES

Dear D,

Even though M totally rolled her eyes whenever you tried to explain the deep intricacies of comic book superheroes, I was listening.  Superman is an exploration of a god like being on Planet Earth dealing with issues of agency, death, and tragedy when he has the power to stop them.  It is a fascinating idea.  And you're not a huge nerd.  You're a supercool guy who just likes lots of things.  And you told me that enough times that I actually believe it.  Now when are we going to the 5th reboot of Spiderman?

ABOUT SCIENCE

Dear D,

I'm so glad you took over all my science projects and helped me build scale models of particle accelerators and binary star systems.  I am a little sad that you suck so much at building things that all my models looked nothing like what we intended.  I wish we lived closer to Uncle Andy and Uncle Sam because they don't handle tools like they're pythons.  But I think it's cool we live on the International Space Station and you're the Ambassador to Space.

ABOUT POETRY

Dear D,

I know that only a small percentage of the earth enjoys poetry.  Thank you for making me part of that percentage.  Because now I know I'm better than most people.  And that's the kind of self worth every kid needs.  Thank you both for making me part of the literary intelligentsia.  And thank you M for teaching me an eye roll that can make my teachers quiver in anger.  I'm going to ride this poetry rocket right to Stanford or Harvard or Yale or the International Space Station University if you really want me to stay close to home.

I Heart Sport

This is for Val. The Summer Olympics are only a year away.

Interview

Supposedly, it's supposed to look like this again tomorrow. We'll see.

I interviewed for a job today. It's a little step up. I don't know when I'll know. They have a few more interviews but I'm hoping the guy right after me sounded a little like this.

PRODUCER

So, Gerald, I see you're interested in television.

GERALD

I love it. I just want to live inside it, you know?

PRODUCER

Sure. I think we all in a way fantasize about living in the shows we love.

GERALD

No, I just want to be that small. It would be so cool. I could save money on groceries. I would put a saddle on my cat and ride it places.

PRODUCER

Interesting. So you want to work for us?

GERALD

Aw, man. Why'd you have to put it like that? Couldn't we all just work for each other?

PRODUCER

Why are you here?

GERALD

That's deep. Why are YOU here? Why are WE here?

PRODUCER

We're not. I want you to go.

GERALD

What the crap? Someone said I was gonna get lunch.

PRODUCER
No one told you that.

GERALD

They didn't? Well, isn't that just like it, man. Maybe I told myself that.

PRODUCER

Please send James back in and don't touch anyone on the way out, please.

GERALD

Fine! Forget you and your empty promises of food and your shrink magic! I have to go now and find someone who offered me lunch.

End scene. So we'll see what happens.

Make yourself happy. Find these two songs:

Flakes by Mystery Jets

and

I Know I Don't Know by Jonquil

Day 14 - Something Else

This is the first draft of something. It started as a poem. Got squashed into a paragraph poem. Then kept getting bigger and bigger and ended weirdly like an allegory. It still may become a poem. This is just its incarnation now. Whatever. I'll write more today. Its Saturday. And I have time.

10 Mile Window

It was perceived to be high art. To have a piece so eccentric, so post-modern. It was ratified between the towns of Hincke and Maquawk. They would split the difference, cost and distance. On the day, 15 helicopters carried what looked like a giant flat Christmas gift. The wind ripped at some of the packaging and one below said when revealed, it looked like someone had cookie cut the sky. The 10 Mile Window was set gently down in the bordering forest and locked into the earth.

A t the ceremony, every citizen of Hincke and all the persons of Maquawk lined their respective sides. At the agreed upon minute, ribbons were cut and the great covering fell. All felt the moment. They knew they had done something grand. First one, and then four, and more walked to the window. They would match hands at the glass. Yell to see if they were hearable. Some felt they now looked into a different country, it was a magical glass. Others swore it was really a 10 Mile Mirror for all they saw was reflections of themselves, neighbors and the like. One man, who was older than all, saw the legions of dead he’d known. All went home that night knowing they’d done a great thing.

The towns, which had once shared a lively commerce, began to separate themselves. The 10 Mile Window became an invisible barrier that while it blocked no roads to and from, became wrong to cross. Children would play games on either side. The ratio of starcrossed lovers rose, and alarming amounts of bi-village romances sprang up. They’d tape love notes to the glass and plant flowers on their side. And they’d pledge undying love to the end of window’s time and beyond. Business deals that had to be done between Hincke and Maquawk were now done with the safety of the window between.

The town of Maquawk began to feel as if they were in a giant house. The 10 Mile Window seemed to close them in. Give them common border. The Maquawkians became closer, treating each other like family. They called each other brother and sister. The Mayor and his wife became adopted parents. Potlucks happened every night in the parking lot of city hall. And after dinner they would walk to the Window, look out on their beautiful yard, which was the borders of Hincke and they would comment on how fearsome and roguish their neighbors looked.

The town of Hincke developed a sense that they lived on the edge of a great zoo. Look at those strange folk, they would say. They dress odd and they don’t talk. They are not like us. And so the Hinckites began to see them as something else. At first it was oddity and they would tap the glass. The strangers would react and so they tapped more. They would bring their dinner to the glass and taunt the animals with it. Soon the kids would have nightmares of Maquawkians finding a way around the window. They established an armed patrol. Spotlights lit the window. The town of Hincke felt safer.

Then a crack appeared in mile 9. The Hinckites thought it must be Them trying to get in. The Maquawkians knew that the animals were pecking at the glass. Both sides moved their patrols to the crack. In Hincke, they spoke of how those men wanted to take their women and drink their blood and eat their young. A draft was issued. Most were enscripted. In Maquawk, the town produced heavier weapons in their factories. An intricate defense was set. They read books on animals. Tried to anticipate what their primitive brains would attack first. All slept armed.

Someone cast the first stone. The might of Hincke and the might of Maquawk surged toward the 10 Mile Window. They were evenly matched. When the first bullets fired, the sound was not nearly as loud as 10 miles of window shattering. It sounded like a star breaking. Everyone gasped. Weapons dropped. Their beautiful gift to each other was gone. They were wrong. And they built a monument to the 10 Mile Window. Melting all the glass into a giant 10 mile glass obelisk. That rose above their two towns like a frozen signal fire, like a god’s finger reminding them always.

Day 10 - Tired Week, Doing Too Much

Went to the Black Keys, Morning Benders show. It was amazing. I've not transcribed the poem I wrote today at lunch. I'm so delirious. Goodnight.

For You, A Secret

This is how I write in public…
First, I let my body become a surface
this is practice this
to dry the skin into a hard soil
make voices, even important, ping
off your clammed up ears
the footsteps of others must be believed
to dance in an upstairs apartment
as your eyes drop from frame
and achieve frames, the red rimmed edges
of the skin, of the barely opaque face
this is when you feel your bones
lift and place yourself like a crane operator

Second, you must find the quiet you have left
if you were me, you’d stored it up
in a childhood bed, in the snowbank cave,
in a word your teacher wrote once on a paper
and if the world impedes, slivers in
go smaller into reserves
into the skim pool of a birdbath In West Virginia
into a sectional of a frozen honeycomb
into the ear of a rabbit you mowed
listen inside that unlimited quiet

that’s where I'll be

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.