2011

Up until this year, I got most of my new music recommendations from end of the year blog lists. This meant that on a good year, I'd find 5 to 10 albums I actually liked. This year I made a commitment to actively seek out new releases for myself, which was quite a huge undertaking. I've been seriously listening to everything I've been able to get my hands on, which has amounted to me sifting through roughly a thousand albums this year.

I can't tell if it's the fact that I've listened to so much or if we've just hit a high point, but this has been an exceptional year for music. I've compiled a list of albums that have resonated with me the most. They are listed alphabetically as opposed to a rating system because how am I supposed to rate Charles Bradley in the same category as Thee Oh Sees or The Caretaker? This is just a list of great albums, all of which should be listened to with as much enthusiasm as the other.

I try to limit my mixes to an hour and 20 minutes, so only half of the 50 albums below made it into the mix, but don't let that deter you from checking out the rest.

A.A. Bondy - Believers

The Advisory Circle - As The Crow Flies

Alabama Shakes - Alabama Shakes EP

Amen Dunes - Through Donkey Jaw

Atlas Sound - Parallax

A Winged Victory For The Sullen - A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Bass Drum Of Death - GB City

Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2

Björk - Biophilia

The Black Angels - Phosgene Nightmare EP

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Scandalous

Black Lips - Arabia Mountain

Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis

The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

Cass McCombs - Humor Risk

Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band - No Time For Dreaming

Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi - Rome

Dávila 666 - Tan Bajo

Eric Copeland - Waco Taco Combo

Feist - Metals

FIDLAR - DIYDUI EP

The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips With Neon Indian EP

Frank Fairfield - Out On The Open West

J Mascis - Several Shades Of Why

Joseph Arthur - The Graduation Ceremony

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Smoking In Heaven

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

Michael Kiwanuka - Tell Me A Tale EP

Mikal Cronin - Mikal Cronin

Nirvana - Live At The Paramount Theatre

Noveller - Glacial Glow

Other Lives - Tamer Animals

Paley & Francis - Paley & Francis

Radiohead - The King Of Limbs: Live From The Basement

Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'

The Raveonettes - Raven In The Grave

Richard Swift - Walt Wolfman EP

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

Seasick Steve - You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Secret Cities - Strange Hearts

Son Lux - We Are Rising

The Strange Boys - Live Music

Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream

Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania

Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos

Tom Waits - Bad As Me

Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

Various Artists - Fania Records 1964-1980

Wilco - The Whole Love

Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile - The Goat Rodeo Sessions

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An Olde Fashioned Christmas

I'm a huge fan of Christmas time, and even more so, the time leading up to Christmas. Here's a 3-disc mix of must-have Christmas music to add to your holidays. Merry Christmas!

There's 77 tracks here, so I'm not going to list them all like I usually do, but artists include:

Aretha Franklin, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Bob Atcher & The Dinning Sisters, Booker T. & The MG's, Burl Ives, Darlene Love, Dean Martin, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Dinah Washington, Donny Hathaway, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Jackie Wilson, The Jackson 5, James Brown, John Lennon, Julie London, June Christy, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Marvin Gaye, Nancy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Ray Charles, The Ronettes, Sammy Davis Jr., Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Ventures, Vince Guaraldi Trio, and Wayne Newton.

DISC 01
DISC 02
DISC 03

The Golden Trip

Here's a new mixtape for you guys.  This one's more on the psych side of things, with a few that don't really belong in the genre, but I felt they fit so nicely that I decided to include them anyways.  Some really cool stuff on here, some well known and a handful of rarities.  Starlites, Human Expression, and Tempters were all pulled from 1967 45's. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is a new one to me.  Even being the shortest track on this mix, it still stands out as one of the most interesting, especially considering it's release was in 1968.  That's it from me.  Enjoy.

The Golden Trip

01. Starlites: I Can't See You

02. The Electric Prunes: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

03. Grateful Dead: Cream Puff War

04. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band: As Kind As Summer

05. The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard

06. 13th Floor Elevators: Levitation

07. Grace Slick & The Great Society: Grimly Forming

08. The Fire Escape: Love special Delivery

09. Lalo Schifrin: The Golden Trip

10. Kaleidoscope: Dive Into Yesterday

11. Patsy Cline: I Love You So Much It Hurts

12. Hugo Montenegro: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

13. David Axelrod: Merlin's Prophecy

14. Leonard Cohen: Suzanne

15. France Gall: Laisse Tomber Les Filles

16. Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot: Bonnie And Clyde

17. Can: Vitamin C

18. J Girls: Yellow World

19. Human Expression: Optical Sound

20. Tempters: Tell Me More

21. Alexander Spence: All Come To Meet Her

22. Shadows Of Knight: Someone Like Me

23. The Kaleidoscope: You Don't Love Me

24. The Velvet Underground: The Murder Mystery

25. Fairfield Parlour: I Will Always Feel The Same

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FIDLAR - Live On KXLU

I posted a few of these videos a couple weeks back.  Here are the rest of them.  These are videos I shot of FIDLAR live on KXLU.

Black Out Stout

No Waves

White On White

5 To 9

Chinese Weed

Gimme Something

Wait For The Man

Summer Time In The Promised Land!!!

Summer is here, which means the beach, BBQs, and good, classic music.

Typically, I try to post stuff that is (for the most part) more obscure.  But, in the case of a summer mix, you gotta stick with what you know.  But even still, I'm hoping there might be a couple surprises on here.  This mix pretty much makes me want to take a looooong break from work and go drive up the coast or into the desert with a cooler of cold beer in the passenger seat.  It's a windows down, turn it up loud, bang your hand on the roof of the car type thing.  Enjoy.

Summer Time In The Promised Land!!!

01. J.J. Cale: Call Me The Breeze

02. Neil Young: Walk On

03. Bob Dylan: New Morning

04. The Doors: Soul Kitchen

05. Link Wray: Rumble

06. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hey Joe

07. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Born To Move

08. Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers

09. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show: Carry Me, Carrie

10. Bruce Springsteen: The Promised Land

11. George Harrison: Wah Wah

12. Led Zeppelin: Traveling Riverside Blues

13. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Needle And The Spoon

14. The Rolling Stones: Can't You Hear Me Knocking

15. Jackson Browne: Red Neck Friend

16. Johnny Cash: Blistered

17. The Band: Just Another Whistle Stop

18. Kris Kristofferson: Gettin' By, High, And Strange

19. Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade Of Pale

20. Thunderclap Newman: Something In The Air

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The Flaming Lips!!!!!!!

My wife & I had the INCREDIBLE PRIVILEGE of getting to see The Flaming Lips, not one, but two nights in a row at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Night 1 was The Soft Bulletin in it's entirety and night 2, Pink Floyd's: Dark Side of the Moon.  Soft Bulletin is my favorite Lips album and Dark Side of the Moon is my favorite album of all time.  To say it was a special couple of nights just doesn't give it justice.  But, I'm still at too much of a loss of words to say anything else.

Alice took a handful of photos.  I'm gonna let her save the majority for her blog, but I couldn't resist posting a couple here.  Thank you to The Flaming Lips for the best two nights of my life.  Seriously.

FIDLAR - Wait For The Man

Here's another video from the FIDLAR: Live On KXLU series.

This is another track off their DIYDUI 7" release.

Wait For The Man

More FIDLAR videos HERE and a whole lot more HERE