While waiting in line for the first of what would be many beers at Bloomington’s Second Story on Friday evening, I asked the bartender if he knew in which order the bands, Head of Femur and The Mendoza Line, would be playing. He didn’t know, but the girl in line behind me did, and [...]

Here are the last two:

marathonpacks year-end mix, vol. 3 (128k mp3, 68.4MB) (expired)
1. Black & White Town–Doves
2. A Little Bit More–Jamie Lidell
3. Gone (f. Cam’ron & Consequence)–Kanye West
4. Trouble With Dreams–Eels
5. All We Are–Fischerspooner
6. Gideon–My Morning Jacket
7. Like A Honeycomb–British Sea Power
8. There Goes the Sun–The Pernice Brothers
9. I Was A Teenage Rainphase–Stereolab
10. So Begins [...]

Chicago’s Head of Femur have created a minor masterpiece of pop nostalgia with “Ringodom or Proctor” (mp3). The band is apparently comprised of 2/3 of the Second City’s metropolitan population, yet they somehow manage to cohere without collapsing under their own weight. Light strings, strummed acoustic guitars and insistent drums merge with a yearning, delicate [...]

More of the best from this year…grab it here.(128kb mp3, 61MB)

1. The Shouty Track-Lemon Jelly from ‘64-’95
2. Rock and Roll-Edan f. Dagha from Beauty and the Beat
3. Tale from Black-Tunng from This Is Tunng…Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs
4. Episodes (Diphenhydramine)-Pela from All in Time
5. The Runaround-The Sugarplastic from Will
6. Ringodom [...]