Buy New or Used via amazon 1. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harlot Melodic melancholy that sounds sepia tinged and dusty but never depressing. Dave Rawlings is my favorite acoustic guitarist under the age of Richard Thompson. Worth the eight-year wait.   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. Wilco – The Whole Love Jeff Tweedy actually sounds happy, which makes me a bit nervous. Nils Cline fixes it all.   Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Adele – 21 I listened to “Someone Like You” more than any other song this year, with the possible exception of “Rolling…

  Buy New or Used via amazon 1. Bon Iver / Bon Iver This transcendent, atmospheric folk album defies logic, a shimmering narcotic elegy to loves that never were, and places that don’t exist. High-wire brilliance.   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. TV on the Radio / Nine Types of Light TVoTR finally hit their groove, enriching their beats with a warm, soulful sound.   Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Middle Brother / Middle Brother The leads from Dawes, Deer Tick and Delta Spirit team up to bust heads and break hearts.   Buy New or Used via amazon 4….

Wow, Mark… 25 years of PooP!!! Congratulations!!! Although I know I have not been there since day 1, it sure feels like I have been pooping my whole life! I think 2011 is the year I finally I felt old. Tons of my favorite bands from years ago put out records, although I did not enjoy any of them. I see hall of fame baseball players retire – younger than I am now. And the majority of music I listened to this year was from 20+ years ago. However, my addiction to seek out new music keeps me coming back…

One of the hardest years to pin down a top 20. It seems like every time I turned around, there was some new music to be heard: some by old standbys and a lot by new acts. A couple of labels seemed to stand out (Sacred Bones, Trouble In Mind). Looking at my list from last year, I noticed that not a lot has changed: a lot of power pop/punk throwbacks alongside the noisemakers and sadsack song-writers. The last couple of years, #1 choices jumped out; I don’t even know what my top choice is as I write this. I…

POOPLIST 2011: the Randy “Macho Man” Savage Memorial Edition This is all last minute, of course – why think about any of it? In some particular order, here are my favorite records of 2011. Enjoy?   Buy New or Used via amazon Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Mirror Traffic In the name of all that is (not) holy, get the Senator a blow job already!   Buy New or Used via amazon Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care FNL-y.   Buy New or Used via amazon Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ Groovy.   Buy New or Used via…

Against the advice of my male friends and for the advice of my female friends here goes my strategy for this years list… granted, many women have been named in past lists, but not nearly as many as men. 2011 seemed to be dominated by women. Adele and the passing of Amy Winehouse aside, never in my estimation, have so many bands and solo artists been top performers, so my top 10 consist solely of women or bands with women in them.   Buy New or Used via amazon 1. Hollie Cook – Hollie Cook – (fantastic summertime reggae)   Buy New…

pooplist 2.0.1.1. …   Buy New or Used via amazon earth: angels of darkness, demons of light vol. 1:   Buy New or Used via amazon horseback: the gorgon tongue: impale golden horn+forbidden planet   Buy New or Used via amazon battles: gloss drop   Buy New or Used via amazon tim hecker: ravedeath 1972   Buy New or Used via amazon master musicians of bukkake: totem 3   Buy New or Used via amazon grails:deep politics   Buy New or Used via amazon haunted house (loren connors):blue ghost blues   Buy New or Used via amazon alvarius B: baroque primitiva   Try to Buy via Social Music Records…

  Buy New or Used via amazon 1. THE DECEMBERISTS – The King Is Dead – No themes. No prog rock. Just simple literate direct songs by a band that is hitting its peak. Even watching them in concert in a drenching rain did not dampen my enthusiasm for either the band or the album.   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS – Scandalous – We knew from the first disc that this was a top notch funk and r&b band. The new album has a real edge and energy to it- sort of p(f)unk….

2011: ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER LIST WITH GODDAMN VIDEO GAMES ON IT This entire year I worked a shift from 11pm to 7am Mon-Fri, and therefore found myself catching up on sleep during almost all available free time. Still, I did listen to at least 10 things, see 10 movies, and play 10 video games (barely). Thanks to everyone for such amazing lists, and here’s to mass culture continuing to produce material after December 2012! ALBUMS:   Buy New or USed via amazon (1) Wye Oak – Civilian   Buy New or USed via amazon (2) Mastodon – The Hunter   Buy New or…

Occupy PoOP 2011 Wherein we lowly and scruffy protesters get to choose the top 1%! Well, it was not the most exciting year for recorded music, but there certainly was a lot of it! Some rays of hope will soon shine on the masses with the appointment of our newest beloved leader! My On-U year: There were no Bonzos or Kraftwerk this year, so the masses stood crying in the streets, in orderly rows in front of their apartment houses (certainly the performance art event of the year!), until the politburo chose On-U Sound to return as the new beloved…

Occupy PoOP 2011 Wherein we lowly and scruffy protesters get to choose the top 1%! Well, it was not the most exciting year for recorded music, but there certainly was a lot of it! Some rays of hope will soon shine on the masses with the appointment of our newest beloved leader! My On-U year: There were no Bonzos or Kraftwerk this year, so the masses stood crying in the streets, in orderly rows in front of their apartment houses (certainly the performance art event of the year!), until the politburo chose On-U Sound to return as the new beloved…

Well, I spent most of the year meandering down memory lane, listening to old favorites, in an attempt to brainwash my children into becoming a bit more like dear old dad. I get a real kick out of hearing my kids sing along, words seared into memory, to songs I know they’ll never hear on the radio, or pretty much anywhere else for that matter. All right, you might hear “Clash City Rockers” on the airwaves, but “Tennessee Jed” or “We Sing Hallelujah”? Hearing a six year old sing along to Richard Thompson is somehow comforting, and joyously, deliriously demented…

  Buy New or Used via amazon 1. The Black Keys – El Camino Is there any working band in as much of a groove as the Black Keys? “Lonely Boy” and “Gold on the Ceiling” may be my two favorite songs they’ve ever written. The album is full of fast-paced fun that mixes it up from the more blues-y approach of the rest of their catalog.   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. Wilco – The Whole Love I like this as much as anything they’ve done in the last five years. And “One Sunday Morning” is the first 12-minute…

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What I listened to in 2011 Greetings from Florida, not exactly the center of the musical universe but….   Buy New or Used via amazon Nick Lowe – The Old Magic Not only did he know the bride when she used to rock and roll, but he knew her when she grew old. Gracefully. Intelligently. Quietly. Nick is simply the best songwriter and an engaging performer.   Buy New or Used via amazon Dave Alvin – Eleven Eleven Had grown tired of Dave but really liked this one. In fact, in reinvigorated my like of him.   Buy New or Used via amazon…

  Buy New or Used via amazon 1. The Cave Singers: No Witch – My favorite album of the year. Nice mix of styles that bring a dark groove to their folk roots.   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. The Vaccines: What Did you Expect from The Vaccines – Sun, fun and catchy tunes, that’s what I expect from The Vaccines and this albums delivers.   Buy New or Used via amazon 3. The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient – Lyrically a fusion of Dylan and Petty, the songs are expansive and invoke wide open spaces.   Buy New or Used via…

1. The Field ‘Looping State of Mind’, 2. Balam Acab ‘Wander/Wonder’ 3. James Blake ‘James Blake’ 4. Burial ‘Street Halo’ EP 5. Pure X ‘Pleasure’ 6. Julianna Barwick ‘The Magic Place’ 7. Shabazz Palaces – ‘Black Up’ 8. Gang Gang Dance ‘Eye Contact’ 9. Ganglians – ‘Still Living’ 10. Washed Out ‘Within and Without’ 11. Kashiwa Daisuke – ’88’ 12. Bon Iver – ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ 13. Tim Hecker ‘Ravedeath 1972’ / ‘Dropped Pianos’ 14. M83 ‘Hurry Up…’ 15. Grouper ‘A I A’ 16. A Winged Victory for the Sullen ‘A Winged Victory for the Sullen’ 17. Zomby ‘Dedication’…

A lot of good new stuff, but nothing great except in the Jazz and Reissue bins. Highest marks go to Disco Inferno (we weren’t ready for them in 1992), George Jones, Fania Retrospective, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akimusire and almost all African compilations. Formidable Fourteen Charles Bradley – No Time for Dreaming / Bombina – Agadez / M & A – things yes / Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones / White Denim – D / The Black Keys – El Camino / Tom Waits – Bad as Me/ Bomb the Music Industry – Vacation / Siberia – Lights /…

A lot of good new stuff, but nothing great except in the Jazz and Reissue bins. Highest marks go to Disco Inferno (we weren’t ready for them in 1992), George Jones, Fania Retrospective, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akimusire and almost all African compilations. Formidable Fourteen Charles Bradley – No Time for Dreaming / Bombina – Agadez / M & A – things yes / Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones / White Denim – D / The Black Keys – El Camino / Tom Waits – Bad as Me/ Bomb the Music Industry – Vacation / Siberia – Lights /…

1. The Vinyl District Record Store Locator app (available for iOS and Android)  (The Vinyl District/Shoutem)   Buy New or Used via amazon 2. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (Anti)   Buy New or Used via amazon 3. Brian Olive – Two of Everything (Alive)   Buy New or Used via amazon 4. Booker T. Jones – The Road From Memphis (Anti)   Buy New or Used via amazon 5. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)   Buy New or Used via amazon 6. Black Keys – Lonely Boy (Nonesuch)   Buy New or Used via amazon 7. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues…