Well its been another year.....and decade. For some reason, since the 90's, decades have become less important to me and seem to have melted together.
Music from the 70s, 80s and 90s had a very distinctive sound. But music from the 00's and 10's....while there are differences aren't nearly as distinct. I think the internet and social media have a lot to do with it
Anyway, it wasn't until last month I realized we were leaving a decade behind.....so I've thrown together my faves of the 10's and also of 2019. The best of 2019 is in a certain order , however; the best of the decade are not since there are 600 songs. Enjoy.
Well if I thought time was in short supply last year, this year took the cake. Its been a rough year but I managed to still put together a solid list of my favorite songs from 2018. 2019 will be a very different and changing year as I will be moving to a different state for the first time in my life. Hope this collection of hits can continue me through all of the change.
It was tough to trim songs off this list so I ended up with almost double than what I had last year....partly due to laziness, partly due to there being a lot of good songs.
Strung together but in no particular order, here are my 170 favorite songs from 2018.
Since I didn't have a digital camera most of 2018, I shot mostly on film (except the first picture). I didn't shoot a ton but here are some favorite concert photos of 2018 as well:
As mentioned in last year's post....this year was quite hard to collect music, go to concerts, find new music. Time....is what I'm referring to. I was in short supply mostly due to work....booooo. I hope 2018 doesn't make the same mistake.
Strung together but in no particular order, here are my 102 favorite songs from 2017.
Spotify List is below:
Here are some of my concert photos from the year as well. (Some repetition of bands since I couldn't get out as much due to the fact that my camera was stolen...radical)
Well its been six months.....seems like another lifetime ago since I posted a mixtape. Its been tough to discover new music, go out to new shows, but I've been trying to make a push toward the end of the year. So after a long hiatus, here is my next mix. My next mix after this will most likely be my top albums and songs of the year.
These were my favorite albums from 2016....the famous year that killed everyone apparently.
The Albums of 2016
15.Robbing Millions - Robbing Millions
Caught wind of this one late in the year. It also came out late in the year so that was one reason. Really dug it. I'm looking forward to more from this band.
Summary of the album: Like being in a world where the earth's gravity projects you into space instead of keeping you on the surface.
Album Gems: Eight Is the Figure That I Like the Most, Dreams Like Photographs, You Fall From Your Chair
14.Kero Kero Bonito- Bonito Generation
This is by far the most 'poppy' sounding album on this list. Its not something that I usually gravitate to but I couldn't help myself....its a really catchy album
Summary of the album: Super Mario Bros sitting down at their house watching bizarre Japanese sitcoms on a big screen tube TV.
Album Gems: Picture This, Big City and Hey Parents
13.Mild High Club - Skiptracing
Toured with Tame Impala by no surprise. Very laid back psychedelic rock which I started to get more and more into by years end. The album's title track was one of my favorites of the year.
Summary of the album: Its like getting stuck in a weird 60's psychedelic painting and you get a job as a janitor next to the giant walking head to pay the bills.
Album Gems: Skiptracing, Homage, Tesselation
12.Vinyl Williams - Brunei
Made the list the last time he put out an album in 2014. Came back with another really solid album, perhaps even stronger than the previous. Airy psych-pop at its best.
Summary of the album: Levitating in a glitchy film strip full of grid paper and block shaped people that has been soaked in acid.
Album Gems: L'Quasar, Celestial Gold, Riddles Of The Sphinx
11.Wild Nothing - Life of Pause
They never seem to put out anything bad do they? Although they haven't put out anything that stands up to their debut album Gemini, they still can't lose.
Summary of the album: The griddle is a guitar and the notes are syrup soaked sweet pancakes of indie pop.
Album Gems: To Know You, Love Underneath My Thumb, Reichpop
10.Beverly - The Blue Swell
An album with a great blend of 80's and 90's music. I really can't stop myself from listening to this kind of music. I don't think I find this music, it seems to find me.
Summary of the album: Punky Brewster becomes friends with Vicky from Small Wonder.
Album Gems: Bulldozer, Crooked Cop, Victoria
9.Black Marble - It's Immaterial
New discover and great discovery. Dark 80's pop that I found late in the year that will continue to get regular reps to begin this year.
Summary of the album: Just how it sounds....you listen to this album, then you stare a black marble for an extended period of time, then you listen to this album again then you don't stare at a black marble again....pretty simple.
Album Gems: Frisk, Iron Lung, Woods
8.DIIV - Is the Is Are
It seemed like a lot longer than 4 years between their debut and their sophomore effort, but this new album showed they took a next step. Extremely catchy guitar hooks that create some of the best songs of the year.
Summary of the album: Hurried summary of this album.....its good.
Album Gems: Under the Sun, Out of Mind, Dopamine
7.Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - A Man Alive
Its been 9 years since I've discovered Thao and listened to their outstanding song " Bag of Hammers". They have continued to put out consistently good albums but I'd say this is as good as I've seen since their debut.
Summary of the album: Sort of like Johnny Cash but only if he was a girl that lived now and had a band called 'The Get Down Stay Down" and didn't sound like Johnny Cash at all.
Album Gems: Slash/Burn, The Evening, Nobody Dies
6.Teen - Love Yes
Love this album. Was annoyed I couldn't catch them when they played in Utah twice. I must say its definitely more accessible and fun then their previous albums. I had kind of lost track of them since their 2012 effort and I'm glad I'm back on the train.
Summary of the album: Its like the theme music to a hit sitcom starring a robot Alien named Jeff.
Album Gems: Tokyo, Free Time, All About Us
5.Deerhoof - The Magic
I don't think I had listened to a Deerhoof album in 10 years but I caught wind they were coming to town so I checked out their new album and was blown away. So much energy. Their drummer is one of the more entertaining and amazing drummers I've ever seen live. They are molded their oddness into a more accessible form for this album and it paid big dividends.
Summary of the album: Imagine your arms as your head and your stomach and as your feet.
Album Gems: The Devil and his Anarchic Surrealist Retinue, Debut, Life is Suffering
4.Flyying Colours - Mindfullness
Last year's album didn't make my top 20 surprisingly for some reason. If I had to re-do it then I would have included that album and bumped it up fairly high. I didn't make that mistake for their quick turn around album this year.
Summary of the album: Iffire was made into liquefied taco meat to make forest fires more celebrated.
Album Gems: Morning Stoner, Long Holiday, This Is What You Wanted
3.Weaves - Weaves
In the same vain as Deerhoof in my mind. Very creative rock/garage punk rock. Tons of energy, tons of fun......tons.
Summary of the album: Its a showdown between Freddy Kruegar and Jason Vorhees and.....oh wait that's already been done.
Album Gems: Birds & Bees, One More, Tick
2.Sego - Once Was Lost Now Just Hanging Around As promised from last year's list.....this album and band are back on the list. They "killed it" as so many people like to say to bands after their live sets. A band that is hard to pin down their sound so you stop and just listen and enjoy.
Summary of the album: When you're stepping on the ant pile and you think you killed a lot of them. You lift up your foot to find you killed 15 and 200 million still remain.
Album Gems: Obscene Dream, The Fringe, Wicket Youth
1.Charlie Hilton - Palana The solo project of Blouse's lead singer with the same name. I must say her solo project might have surpassed her main project which is saying a lot. I'd say that she will outgrow Blouse and put out more of her solo project and Blouse will become no more.....which is kind of shame but you can't complain what was born out of the ashes of it. I went back to this album over and over again. Stayed on my phone the whole year without getting subbed out. That's pretty big in my book.
Summary of the album: Terminators don wigs and scruffy facial hair and start playing soft 70's hits in an attempt to gain the humans trust so they can conquer them.
Album Gems: Pony, Palana, Snow
Honorable Mentions:
Angel Olson - Intern
Preoccupations - Preoccupations
Whitney - Light Upon the Lake
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing
Hinds - Leave Me Alone
Public Access TV - Never Enough
Here is the link to the playlist of albums that made the list and those that didn't. Its in the correct order 1-15 but is random after that.
After putting out a pretty mellow mix last time, I decided to get heavier and.... edgier? Is that a word? I hope this catches your mood and you can blast these tunes to the hilt.
I had to take some time off from the playlists after the time consuming end of the year lists I compiled that took forever. I should be posting about how amazing the Eyes Lips Eyes reunion concert was last weekend but I ended up missing it. It was probably the only major show I've missed of theirs ever....and it happened to be their last show in all likelihood.
Anyway, I'm put together a pretty solid pop playlist. I needed a good boosting playlist after missing that concert.
Fall is here in Utah. It was 90 last weekend and now its only 70. Although the summer is gone, fall brings some great new music and new tours. All of the bands are finally done with all the summer festivals. Anyway, here's a new mix to bring in autumn in all of its glory.
Sego releases their debut EP "Wicket Youth" today. They've released three songs of the five songs in anticipation for its release, but let's go through each song one by one:
"Your song's.....different....Sego"
1.20 years tall -- Alright alright we start off with some straight talk dance punk. Its different and edgy, but its the same different and edgy I heard when I listened to LCD Soundsystem. (Which is a great thing) The song is like the principal in Forrest Gump, "Your son's.....different...Miss Gump.", but we all know that Forrest falls into wealth and ends up with his long lost passed around girlfriend in the end so he gets the last laugh......just like this song....what? Anyway, the first track off the the new EP probably defines what the band sounds like and the rest of the tracks will follow suite, right?....
2. Wicket Youth -- ....well not exactly. The next track is Wicket Youth......which is like taking off my ripped black jeans and putting on my white dress suit from Miami Vice and fighting drug lords while driving the $100k police race boat that they randomly have a budget for ......quite the contrast. All the edges are as smooth as the keys on a keyboard, and what we have left is very catchy synthpop number.
Harrison Ford digging "Engineer Amnesia"
3. Engineer Amnesia -- We stick with the synthpop tone but dial it back a bit.....instead of Miami Vice we get Blade Runner/Terminator/Terminator 2. I could very easily see Harrison Ford in his flying car cruising through the clouds with this song blasting as the human race is being exterminated by killer terminators below.
4. False Currency -- I would say this as close as we get to track one. More straight talk but with less dance punk. In its place is seemingly chaotic guitars, punchy horns and a steady beat that gets stronger as the song explodes to the finish line. No bands or movie comparisons because I honestly can't put my finger on what this sounds like. But the EP definitely hits its climax with that dance beat ending.
"Hey!!.....PARTED LIPS!!!"
5. Parted Lips -- Alright, now this is awesome. ...its only 1 minute long, kind of the denouement of the EP, and again throws a different flavor into the mix. I'd say that it sounds a hidden Beck track on the Odelay or Guero album. Since Beck is my favorite musician this bodes well. Its offbeat but in the best kind of way You'll find yourself blurting out the words "Parted Lips" to yourself in a quiet room and yelling it to strangers on the street.
Overall, after all the flavors make the best kind of Kool-aid. You'll feel really.... Kool.... when listening to it.
Today, the band Sego, born and bred from Utah, that now reside in sunny southern California have released their first single today called, "Twenty Years Tall". The band has been posting regularly on social media eluding to the release for a few weeks now. The song is much different than the computer voiced preview track they released to help build hype for the release or releases. This song has edge and keeps you off balance during the verse, but then focuses the chaos to a very catchy chorus. I'd be curious to what everyone's thoughts are on the track. Feel free to comment.
An interesting 1 minute clip left by Sego the band on the SoundCloud left a lot to the imagination. The duo who live in LA but come from Utah leave this mysterious song? message? For us to chew on while we wait for their music to be released. It'll be interesting to know what kind of music they put out. From this message, you're not quite sure what it will be like. Could be synthy rock or could be just plain Rock and Roll or something entirely different than the message/song. The more I listen to it though I get more and more curious. They've achieved their goal.
