My December Post... sorry folks.

I've been commissioned by my dear eldest sister to create the play list for her wedding reception in September of 2011. So, instead of doing the Top 10 of 2010, I decided to look into the future and think about the music from our past that will continue to influence our future, whether we like it or not.

I am sharing a mix of songs that I would like played at my... er... an important event in my life. If I were thirteen and jewish these songs would be played at my Bat Mitzvah, if I was fifteen and Spanish these songs would make an appearance at my La Quinceanera, or if I was forty and crying because my fiance hit his peak and died off already, I'd hope these were played at his funeral (that's a joke). Right. Here it is:

1. Ray LaMontagne- You are the Best Thing
2. Madonna- Crazy For You
3. Ottis Redding- These Arms Are Mine
4. Karen-O- L-O-V-E
5. The Black Keys- Tighten Up
6. Band of Horses- Marry Song
7. Grizzly Bear- Knife
8. Neil Young- Harvest Moon
9. Peter, Bjorn, and John- Young Folks
10. Broken Social Scene- Lover's Spit
11. Simon & Garfunkel-Bridge Over Troubled Waters
12. Mazzy Star- Fade Into You

Obviously a 12-song mix isn't long enough to entertain a full reception, Bat Mitzvah, LaQuinceanera, or funeral so, you guessed it, there will be version 2.0 very shortly. It's the least I can do for being late on December's post (don't hate me, Ashley).

Caiti

Best of 2010 by ade.

EPs:

Well, I realized it was virtually impossible to compile all my favorite records into one Top Ten list, so I figured the best alternative would be to split them up. These records are up here not really because they got great ratings on music blogs/websites (although virtually all of them did), but primarily because I love them. I’ve formed a personal attachment to them, and they’ve become a reflection of who I am. So without further ado;

10. James Blake - CMYK + Klavierwerke

9. Dom - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods

8. Delta Spirit - The Waits Room

7. Evenings - North Dorm

6. Teen Daze - Four More Years

5. Twin Sister - Color Your Life

4. The Tallest Man on Earth - Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird

3. Tennis - Tennis (Cassette)

2. Girls - Broken Dreams Club

1. Memoryhouse - The Years




Albums:

I had little blurbs written about all these records, but then I realized, it’s not really important, I just enjoyed all of them, a lot. So here you go:

10. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round

9. Candy Claws - Hidden Lands

8. Delorean - Subiza

7. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

6. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

5. Beach House - Teen Dream

4. The Fresh & Onlys - Play It Strange

3. The Radio Dept. - Clinging To A Scheme

2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

1. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

Bombay by ade

My December mix is pretty late, I'm sorry. These are some of the tunes I really feel in love with last year.

The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief
Kanye West - Hell of A Life
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Band of Horses - Dilly
Memoryhouse - The Waves
Teen Daze - For Paulina
The Fresh & Onlys - Waterfall
Girls - Heartbreaker
Hollerado - Juliette
How To Dress Well - Ready For The World
James Blake - Don't You Think I Do
The Tallest Man on Earth - King of Spain

That's it! Happy Holidays darlings.

Hey guys, here is my best of 2010 List, Enjoy!

El Guincho - Bombay

Dinosaur Feathers - Family Waves

La Femme - Sur La Plache

Abe Vigoda - Sequins

Wavves - King of the Beach

Deerhunter - Coronado

Twin Shadow - Slow

Active Child - Voice of an Old Friend

Best Coast - Boyfriend

Arcade Fire - Modern Man

Tanlines - New Flowers

FrYars - Bedtime

Younger Us

My favorite songs of the year. A theme I'm sure I've used in the past to compile mixtapes that went to girls I had crushes on but didn't know how to tell them. The last probably went to my first girlfriend ever. Rachel, you bitch. You didn't deserve all those great pop punk songs. I'm not bitter. Not at all.

My tastes have changed but if I found one of those old mixtapes I'm sure I would be nostalgic. 2010 was hands down the best year of my short life and these are the songs that will always remind me of this year. They will remind me of moving to Chicago, walking to my first real job after college, waiting in airports, and spending time with the best friends anyone could ever ask for. This year is a year that I will long to go back to for years to come. And I'm sure each of these songs will trigger those feelings.

The countdown:
Honorable Mention. The Hold Steady - The Weekenders
This track gets a mention for one lyric. "The theme of this party is the Industrial Age and you came dressed as a train wreck."


12. Freddie Gibbs- Oil Money
Gangsta Gibbs is a breath of fresh air. What rap should be. Not about bling and rims but about killing people. Dan Auerbach's chorus kind of steals the show on this track though.


11. Here We Go Magic - Casual
This song should be the theme song to all relationships. Casual. Not Heartbreaking.


10. Best Coast - Goodbye
This album is hard to listen to when its below 10 degrees in chicago like it has been for the past month. But in the summer this track made me so happy even though it reminds me of being depressed. "Nothing makes me happy. Not even tv or a bunch of weed."


9. Male Bonding - Weird Feelings
Sub Pop will sign great bands from here to eternity. Ride your bike while listening to this and you will feel like you are flying.


8. Jonsi - Animal Arithmetic
One of the best songs of the year from one of the best albums and by far the best live show I saw all year and maybe of my life.


7. Gayngs - Last Prom On Earth
This band should not be good. Whoever decided it would be a good idea to autotune Justin Vernon of Bon Ivers voice was a genius. Amazing, amazing song. There were no youtube videos of it but this video of Gaudy Side of Town from their "last prom on earth" show in MN will make you fall in love.


6. Crystal Castles Ft. Robert Smith - Not In Love
I DO NOT LIKE THE CRYSTAL CASTLES.... but I love the cure. This is the best song Robert Smith has been a part of in nearly 20 years. I could listen to it 30 times in a row and not be sick of it. Listen to it with headphones on and loud. Or at a rave.


5. A Lull - Weapons For War
2011 will be a great year for these guys and I wish them all the luck in the world. Watch this video. Buy their EP. Buy their full length this spring and please please please go see them live if you have a chance. You will not regret it.


4. Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
I was at the Madison Garden show that this video is from and it really doesn't do it justice. The best song off one of the best off of the Suburbs and stands up against any track off of The Funeral or Neon Bible. Oh and they did fuck up the track about half way through and played it twice.


3. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
You know that part in High Fidelity where Jack Black asks "Whats your top 5 A side track 1's?" This is on my list... up at the top. Ahead of Smells Like Teen Spirit? I dont know... maybe in time but holy shit - you have to admit every album should start like this.


2. Titus Andronicus - Theme From "Cheers"
"When I'm an old man, I can be the quiet type,
and I can go without a moment of fun for the rest of my life.
I can read a good book, and I can be in bed by ten,
and I can get up early, go to work and come home, and start it all over again.

But while we're young, boys, everybody raise your glasses high,
Singing, 'Here's to the good times, here's to the home team.
Kiss the good times goodbye, oh yeah,
Kiss the good times goodbye.'" ....

"So give me a Guinness, give me a Keystone Light,
Give me a kegger on a Friday night.
Give me anything but another year in exile.

I need a whiskey, I need a whiskey right now.
God knows how many times I've said this before,
But I really don't feel like doing this anymore."



1. Japandroids - Younger Us
Number 1 and 2 have a very similar theme and I think its a very similar theme to my year. I dont want to get old. I've lived in Seattle, Phoenix & now Chicago and all my friends are spread out all over the US. This makes miss all of them and want to be younger for some reason of another. Its not that I want to be younger... I just want those moments back when we were all younger. Even though I love my life now nothing will keep us from wanting that younger us. I probably listened to this song 300 times this year and every time it brought back different emotions and memories. I see these guys tonight to end my 2010 and it couldn't be any more fitting. Once again I thank every friend, band, family member, co-worker, etc that made 2010 so great.

2010, In Retrospect

The music pundits from on high have spoken, and it seems to be unanimous that the best twelve songs of 2010 can be found HERE. All other differing attempts at ranking the year's best songs have been exercises of futility, disgraceful and simply wrong.

December can really bring out the snob in some of us (myself not excluded) when it comes to these year-end lists. "You ranked Arcade Fire higher than Caribou? That's not obvious at all! Is Bruce Springsteen up there, too? And you don't even have Deerhunter on there? Tell me, did you get to September and just stop listening to music altogether? Was your lobotomy expensive?"

For my last playlist of 2010 I hoped to add a little objectivity into my shamelessly subjective list of the year's best songs.

One of the things that always seems to be missing in "Top X" lists is the element of time. These lists don't have the lonely optimism of late winter or the careless excitement of summer. They don't make you think of that first warm day driving with your windows down in March or the few days you took off work or school in October. So much of the magic that comes from a good song has to do with timing, the perfect words and the perfect mood at the perfect moment.

Let's flip through our calendars one last time before we toast to the new year. Here's a song from each month of the past year of our Lord, 2010.

January:
Beach House - Norway



February: Local Natives - Warning Sign


March: Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside


April: Mynabirds - We Made A  Mountain


May: The National - Terrible Love


June: Andrew Bird - The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns


July: Best Coast - Crazy For You


August: Arcade Fire - Modern Man


September: Jenny & Johnny - Big Wave


October: Warpaint - Baby


November: Girls - Heartbreaker


December: Daft Punk - Derezzed



(HAPPY NEW YEAR)
Iron and Wine - Tree By the River

All I Got for Christmas was Coffee & Cigarettes

Coffee and cigarettes are not just about being horrible vices that we take solace in during times of need (and any other excuse we can find to use them)--they're about time itself. We share these guilty pleasures when we reflect on those times both good and bad with our friends and those we love, and sometimes even strangers. Although, they can hardly be considered strangers when you realize that, as Kermit so eloquently put it in A Muppet's Christmas Carol, "There's no such thing as strangers when a stranger says hello." My sentiment behind coffee and cigarettes is all about that particular time when we bear our souls over the table at the all-night diner or on top of the car underneath the stars. Those nights seem to last forever, more-so than any other, because we're suspended in thought and existentialism. We come the closest then, I feel, to who we really are and why we're actually here. Hell, to really wax philosophical, its as if that reason is merely the connections between us, and those devices are our time machine with which to explore them. But enough about that.

The inspiration for this mix all came about, as it most often does, while driving home, when I heard a song that reminded me of someone I care about. My best friend Josh will be moving out here to LA in just a few days now, and I wanted to have a mix that we could share--something to drive around to like back in the day. In high school, it seemed like our favorite thing to do was go to a show or a party, or just a friend's house, and then stay up all night at the nearest Denny's, IHOP or Steak 'n Shake. Nearly every great night I can recall ended in this fashion, with us driving around singing along to Brand New and Jimmy Eat World and then settling down to talk about love and life with Moons Over My Turkey (Josh hates ham).

The original mix for Josh has 20 tracks, and as you know, the mixes for the blog need to be only 12, so I had to narrow it down a bit. His version has some older tracks by Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Otis Redding, but they seemed really out of place with the more contemporary tracks, so I had to cut them out. Coffee & Cigarettes begins with the three tracks that inspired the mix itself, each from favorite albums of mine for 2010. I felt that a compilation of just our favorite songs would get tired too quickly, so the hope is that these tracks will eventually join the ranks of those staples and make this a timeless classic for us to share always. Wishful thinking I'm sure. Enjoy.

1. Favourite Food - Tokyo Police Club

2. Coffee & Cigarettes - Jimmy Eat World

3. Conversation 16 - The National

4. Coffee - Copeland

5. Keep Me Warm - Ida Maria

6. Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts - The Gaslight Anthem

7. Wolves At Night - Manchester Orchestra

8. The Night Life - The Starting Line

9. Goodnight Bad Morning - The Kills

10. You've Got So Far to Go - Alkaline Trio

11. Soco Amareto Lime - Brand New

12. Here Comes A Regular - The Replacements

:::Bonus Song::: (for the morning after)

13. Strange Condition - Pete Yorn

p.s. - Sorry if the songs don't work. Groove Shark sucks ass. And I don't believe in using YouTube to listen to music.