Two things I really like about the end of the year–making comprehensive mixes of the music of the last 12 months, and giving cheap presents. This is a way for me to do both. Well, here they are–the first two products of about two weeks (off and on, mind you) of narrowing my year-end favorites [...]

Remember back in those heady days of June 2005, when it seemed like the world was our oyster and we could do whatever we wanted, including making an obscure Brooklyn-based band into the next Arcade Fire? Ah yes, we’ve become so jaded in these last 6 months. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are now appearing [...]

I should be upgrading the site in a day or so, thus I’ve decided to try my hand at podcasting. No RSS feeds or anything (yet), just a radio mix this time of some of the best and most recent from this year–a lot of stuff I’ve already hosted here, and a good chunk of [...]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s sudden (and well-deserved) word-of-blog-derived fame essentially rendered this show a double-bill, with as many or more fans showing up for the opener than the slightly-more-established headliner. They started an hour or so late at about 11pm, and immediately launched into two “new” songs, “Me and You Watson” and “Graceful Retreat,” [...]

Because I just purchased tickets to their stop in Chicago on 9/23 with the National, here’s the video for “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found).”

At the halfway point (or a little after), I thought I’d issue my halftime top ten (then I saw the stalwart largeheartedboy’s own version–I swear I had this almost done last week). Anyhoo, here goes:

Spoon Gimme Fiction–A remarkable work from the most iconoclastic songwriter around today. A longer piece on this album will come [...]