This is the space where I usually vent about the year just passed. Guns are bad, liberals are good, blah, blah, blah. ________________________________________ • This Will End In Tears: The Miserabilist Guide To Music | Adam Brent Houghtaling Yup, a book tops my list for the first time ever. My wife always complains that I listen to too much of what she calls “sad bastard music” and that was before I was armed with “the definitive guide to the sad songs that make us so happy.” I spent most of the year with this collection by my side as I…

Tried and True Neil Young and Crazy Horse “Psychedelic Pill” Ian Anderson “Thick as a Brick” 2 Mark Knopfler “Privateering” (import) Rodriguez “Searching for Sugarman” Soundtrack Old Crow Medicine Show “Carry Me Back” Leonard Cohen “Old Ideas” Bruce Spingsteen “Wrecking Ball” Bonnie Raitt “Slipstream” Norah Jones “Little Broken Hearts” dBs “Falling Off the Sky” Glen Hansard “Rhythm and Repose” Joseph Arthur “Redemption City” Beach Boys “That’s Why God Made the Radio” Shiny and New Tame Impala “Lonerism” Lord Huron “Lonesome Dreams” Joe Pug “The Great Despiser” Alabama Shakes “Boys & Girls” Gary Clark, Jr. “Black and Blu” First Aid Kit…

Hip-Hop killed it this year! By the time I’m done compiling this list, most of these albums will be considered completely uncool to listen to. Shit, the same can be said for Indie Rock/ Pop records as well. There wasn’t one album that chewed me up, spit me out and put me back together , making me a better person in the process… The way a life changing album can. That being said, there were butt loads of feel good, feel angry and get faded audible pornography!! #DRANK!! Top 20 Albums

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1.SWANS : The Seer 2. ROCKET JUICE & THE MOON 3. SUN ARAW meets THE CONGOS : Icon Give Thank 4. ADRIAN SHERWOOD : Survival & Resistance 5. LITTLE AXE : If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog 6. VAN MORRISON : Born To Sing No Plan B 7. PRINCE FATTY presents HOLLY COOK in Dub 8. MARK LANEGAN BAND : Blues Funeral 9. BLACK KEYS : El Camino 10. BOB DYLAN : Tempest also- Neneh Cherry & The Thing : The Cherry Thing Dennis Bovell : Mek It Run Moon Duo : Circles Jack White : Blunderbuss Donald Fagen…

It’s official. It was bound to happen eventually. After I started drawing up my list of best music for what was admittedly a less than an exemplary year, I started looking at who I had picked. It was only then that I realized that my picks were more appropriate for AARP than POOP. There were a lot of old guys on this list, some of whom hadn’t made one of my lists in decades. I mean even the Doughboys who have been recording for only 5 years formed in 1963! There was a lot of good (not great) music to…

Less new music, more old music … same old thing. Actually, these 15 albums are the only new titles that I held on to this year (so far) … guess I’m just getting old and finicky. Go figure. 1. Grizzly Bear ~ Shields : sublime 2. Sigur Ros ~ Valtari : more ambient than any of their recent releases, more fragile, and more beautiful 3. Tim Eriksen ~ Banjo, Fiddle, & Voice : folk music, exactly as the title says 4. James Yorkston ~ I was a Cat from a Book : much the same as always 5. Brian Eno…

I’m listening to POOP possibles as I type this. I don’t suppose I can have an extra month so I can investigate the intriguing SHINDIG Top Ten, not one title I have heard. Guess not. OK.    Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. Ty Segall Band – SLAUGHTERHOUSE Ty released 3 records this year, all worthwhile. This one sounds like he’s been eating Hawkwind for breakfast, with a bit o’ Blue Cheer. Fuzz, hooks, phlegm.    Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. Volcano The Bear – GOLDEN RHYTHM/INK MUSIC Just out of curiosity, I Googled VTB and This Heat. SHAZAM!!!…

10 top   Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. Japandroids – Celebration Rock << Am I old enough to miss being young? How it felt, how it sounded? Who of us ever thought a record would ever, ever, ever again sound like this, feel like this!?    Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. Burial – Kindred EP << Burial’s embrace of long-form, mixtapeish compositions, here and on Truant/Rough Sleeper, was as unexpected as it was revelatory. The texture of this music, both physical and emotional, is simply staggering. This guy’s like the Beatles to me.    Download via Stereogum 3. Action…

   Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. The Walkmen – Heaven (The evolution continues: gorgeous, dramatic, intimate-yet-epic songs about love and loss. There is a certain kind of magic here, and it’s tough to resist.)    Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist (Far more than the sum of its parts, this is not just a funny, inspiring, exciting R&B album – it feels important; and it rocks. Hear “Thrift Shop,” just try to not smile.)    Buy New or Used via Amazon 3. Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan (The disparate pieces finally come…

   Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Wrecking Ball Bruce’s angriest album ever is also his best since Born To Run. The Irish rebel song “Death To My Hometown” is as fierce as music got this year. Look no further than Wrecking Ball for a record to put in a time capsule to capture the economic and political landscapes of 2012. Special credit must be given to the ghosts of Mitt Romney and ‘W’ and the various “robber barons” for their inspirational roles in this record.    Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. THE dB’s – Falling…

Here Are the Songs They Play at a Mid Afternoon Bingo Game 1:04 pm: In about 25 minutes, I’m going to be DJ-ing a mid afternoon bingo game, with my Poop 2012 list. The game is for the nursing home’s ambulatory residents, of which there are several dozen. I’ve probably DJ’d fifteen of these things already. It’s like being a DJ at a nightclub, except this party will take place in the activity room and nobody told them not to let in Alzheimer’s patients. 1:08: Oh Poop. They’re serving cake at this dance. That’s actually kind of great. There’d probably…

Bare bones version! 2012 was a good year! I turned 38 and further settled into my role of championing everything white dudes in plaid shirts like. Yay! Can’t wait until next year and POOP List 2013: The Status Quo Apologist Strikes Back. Music! ALBUMS: 1. Japandroids – Celebration Rock 2. Sharon Van Etten – Tramp 3. Fang Island – Major 4. Cheap Girls – Giant Orange 5. Aimee Mann – Charmer 6. Ken Stringfellow – Danzig In The Moonlight 7. Titus Andronicus – Local Business 8. The Big Pink – Future This 9. Soul Asylum – Delayed Reaction 10. Taylor…

Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you by favorite records of 2012. It wasn’t easy admitting to all of these R&B records, but dammit, I am comfortable in my music skin!    Buy New or Used via Amazon 1. Kelly Hogan – I Like To Keep Myself in Pain Genres aside, her beautiful voice, slight twang, and vibrant melodies make this a winner.    Buy New or Used via Amazon 2. Best Coast – The Only Place Ah, a nice breath of fresh air. Jangly pop to soothe the soul. A real warm record.    Buy New or Used via Amazon 3….

Favorite Things ~ 2012 ALBUMS    Buy New or Used via Amazon Mentallo & the Fixer ~ Music from the Eather (Alfa Matrix). Today’s industrial music sounds much as it did a decade ago, undeniably powerful but no longer original. This album could change all that. The hugeness of the sound – crisp production, fluctuating beats and interlocking matrixes – blows away all rhythmic competition. The album is offered in a couple different versions, the best being the limited 3-disc set. For anyone invested in the future of IDM, this is the year’s most essential release.    Buy New or Used via…

What I listened to in 2012 I am starting to detect a pattern here: I listen less to, and care less about, music in presidential election years. What does it mean? No idea. But listen I did:    Buy New or Used via Amazon Ry Cooder – Election Special A more timely, more explicit state of the union statement would be hard to find. Nothing subtle here.    Buy New or Used via Amazon Andy Statman – Old Brooklyn May be my favorite of the year. Bluegrass meets klezmer meets rock. Great end to end.    Buy New or Used via Amazon Bruce…

Obama got reelected. While I was not 100% happy with his first term? It was still better then what could be a disaster? Romney/Ryan. We dodged a bullet. Best Ten of 2012 (No Particular Order) Led Zeppelin Celebration Day Scott Walker Bisch Bosch Leonard Cohen Old Ideas Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel… Lana Del Rey Born to Die Mumford and Sons Babel The Lumineers The Lumineers Alabama Shakes Boys and Girls Soundgarden King Animal   Beach Boys That’s Why God Made the Radio   Honourable Mention Grimes – Visions Neil Young – Psychdelic Pill / Americana Frank Ocean – Channel…

ALBUMS OF NOTE   Buy New or Used via Amazon #1 JAPANDROIDS – CELEBRATION ROCK – the kind of album I’ve waited to be written since I was old enough to love music and really, really, really like girls.   Buy New or Used via Amazon #2 KENDRICK LAMAR – good kid, m.A.A.d city – fact: suburban white kids from the east coast are infatuated with California and gangsta rap almost as much as they are with guitars and heartbreak. Almost.   Buy New or Used via Amazon #3 FANG ISLAND – MAJOR – have you ever wondered what it would sound like…

Fab Four St. Etienne – Words and Music by St. Etienne* Loudon Wainwright II – Older than My old man now * Tedeschi Trucks Band – Everybody’s Talkin’ * Goat – World Music Kylie Minogue would kill for I’ve Got Your Music and DJ on St. Etienne’s latest with both its infectious beats and Sarah Cracknell’s feathery vocals somehow adding a nostalgic and emotional depth. Loudon Wainwright reminisces about mortality and generations past with a twinkle in his eye as he Remembers Sex (with Dame Edna Everage) and along with youngster Ramblin’ Jack Elliot Loudon demands a second go-around on…