My Favorite Albums of 2010

10. A tie between Vampire Weekend's "Contra" and Gorillaz's "Plastic Beach"





9. Delorean - Subiza

"Real Love" is one of my favorite songs of 2010.




8. Caribou - Swim

The best track on the album is free on the Merge Records 2010 Digital Sampler.



7. Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

Free mp3 of The Golden Archipelago track "Castaways" from Matador.  It is a beautiful song. Give this one a listen.

DM Stith's "Riverbody Chorus" Is Good For Slow-dancing in The Clouds on Christmas Night

Asthmatic Kitty, thank you for the wonderful new tune from DM Stith.  This track comes from his new limited edition Spirit Ditch, EP.  If you like this one there are more free songs available here and here.  DM Stith is one of my favorite song writers.  His faerie spirit soul jams, swelling with eerie falsetto harmonies, are perfect dance music for the disembodied.  This song is no exception; it takes me down my particular river to the universal sea.

More Free Amazon Mp3 credits = More Hastily Conceived 2 Buck Chuck Metaphors

Amazon has two free Mp3 credit codes you can enter for a total of $3.29 of credit.  With 1,000 albums at $5, and some even cheaper, there are many great albums to choose from for less than $2, making for another round of bad two buck chuck image metaphors.  Enter GIVEMP3S for a $2 credit, and give Bing your email here: http://www.discoverbing.com/celebrate/index2.html for an additional code that will give you $1.29.  You can enter both codes here. Simply click the "enter code" button on that page. [More info at Slickdeals]

There are way too many good options to give an exhaustive list, but here are some gems:

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Roots.Run.Deep. Legit Indie Hip Hop from God

Roots.Run.Deep. is hip hop anointed by God and refined by fire. Philip H. simply writes the most refreshing hip-hop lyrics I have ever heard.  He takes a genre over-saturated in tired self-congratulation and braggadocio, and imbues it with real truth and humility.  This is not mainstream Christian Hip Hop (if there is such a thing)--this is Kingdom Hip Hop--music for a generation called to walk with God and change the Earth.

Here is a video he made with a few of his friends; they shot it in three hours and edited it in a few nights on a budget of zero dollars.  Now that is indie-core. The Holy Ghost makes good music.

Happy Indie Christmas--A Bandcamp Selection

I went holiday song fishing at bandcamp, and here is my Christmas catch.


By Half-handed Cloud--the label is Sounds Familyre.






Legit worship music.

December 2010 Playlist--Don't Lose The Chill

Here are some *chill* songs I've been sober-living to this month.

1. Glasser - "Home"
2. The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" [Mp3 via Pitchfork]
3. CEO - "Come With Me"
4. Crystal Castles -"Not In Love ft. Robert Smith"
5. The Russian Futurists - "Let's Get Ready to Crumble"
6. Fleet Foxes - "Mykonos"
7. Wild Nothing - "China Town"
8. Twin Shadow - "Castles in the Snow" [Mp3 via Pitchfork]
9. Passion Pit - "The Reeling"
10. Neon Indian - "Terminally Chill"
11. Washed Out - "Feel it All Around" [Mp3 via Pitchfork]
12. Gorillaz - "On Melancholy Hill"

Tron Sequel Soundtrack--Daft Punk are the New Vangelis

The sequel Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk sounds a lot like some of Vangelis' work to my ears--not always but often.  It is a much toned down Daft Punk from what I am used to hearing, but makes perfect sense for a movie soundtrack; you cannot have every moment accompanied by a hype dance tune.  If you were hoping for a bunch of danceable pop songs, adjust your expectations.  This is Blade Runner and Lord of the Rings fog horn mash-up with a helping of a Daft Punk.  It is big studio money + Daft Punk as the album cover suggests.

Even a movie-soundtrack version of Daft Punk still sounds good to me.
The digital soundtrack is $4 at Amazon today.


I hope this guy is in the sequel as a sweet easter egg.

Headless Horseman!!!!1111

The Headless Horsemen have created a very enjoyable five-song ep and posted it over at Bandcamp.com. You should really listen to this if you like experimental pop music that is more pop than experiment. The songs have enough sonic novelty to keep me really engaged, and the bit of drone and glitch here make for a great contrast. The twee high-pitched vocals work for me but may not for others.



You can also download their associates' 'radio "SAMPLER"' on their bandcamp page for free ya'll. I'm not quite sure what this sampler is exactly or how the HDLSS HRSMN are involved. As best I can tell, they produced remixes of songs that were played on a radio show. I do enjoy the first four tracks on it.

Merry Yacht-Rocking Michael McDonald Christmas

Michael McDonald has one of the most famous voices on the planet. He has been in the biz for thirty-years and he still has the pipes.  Just check out that discography.  McDonald has had a resurgence of popularity among some young people today because of the internet comedy show Yacht Rock that originally aired in June 2005 on Channel 101, a film festival put on by Dan Harmon--the creator of the best comedy on television.  I like to imagine that this fantastic web comedy was in part responsible for the epic 2009 McDonald collab with indie-rockers Grizzly Bear.


So, if you have not seen Yacht Rock yet now is as good a time as any.  Here are the two first episodes.  Episode two is one of my favorites:

And here is a link to the others. They are also on YouTube.


And now for the Christmas music.  Amazon has two free McDonald tunes you can sincerely or ironically rock at your Christmas party; your friends will have fun guessing which.


Michael McDonald - "Come, O Come Emanuel/ What Month Was Jesus Born"


Michael McDonald - "Wexford Carol"