"I'm all for moderation
but sometimes it seems
moderation itself
can be a kind of extreme."

'Lull'

Just like this space, part of the reason I make mixes is to freeze my musical landscape in time. Future you: this is a taste of what you listened to this year. PS you smell terrific.

2009, Vol. 1

Phoenix - Fences
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock
Mos Def - Pretty Dancer
Cut Off Your Hands - Oh Girl
Suckers - It Gets Your Body Movin'
Junior Boys - Dull To Pause
Crystal Castles - Crimewave
The Cool Kids - Pennies
DOOM - Gazzillion Ear
Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move
Robyn Hitchcock - Saturday Groovers
Here We Go Magic - Tunnelvision
Beirut - My Wife, Lost In The Wild
Siah & Yeshua dapoED - Untitled
Dan Deacon - Wet Wings
Juana Molina - Rudo Y Cursi
Gang Gang Dance – Dust

2009, Vol. 2

Wilco - Solitaire
White Rabbits - Company I Keep
White Hinterland - Dreaming of the Plum Trees
Robyn Hitchcock - Hurry for the Sky
Camera Obscura - The World Is Full of Strangers
Pale Young Gentlemen - The Crook of My Good Arm
Deleted Scenes - Got God
Phosphorescent - It's Not Supposed to Be That Way
Cotton Jones Basket Ride - By Morning Light
The Postmarks - OX4
Headlights - On April 2
Grouper - Invisible
Benoit Pioulard - Idyll
Andrew Bird - Oh No
Comet Gain - You Can Hide Your Love Forever
The Tallest Man on Earth - Where Do My Bluebird Fly
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Jenny Lewis - Pretty Bird
Antony and the Johnsons - One Dove

2009, Vol. 3

Surf City - Free The City
Abe Vigoda - The Reaper
Deerhunter - Disappearing Ink
Love Is All - Movie Romance
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
The Thermals - When We Were Alive
The Black Lips - Feeling Gay
Chain and the Gang - Cemetery Map
Baby Charles - Back Of My Hand
Delta Spirit - Strange Vine
Women - Group Transport Hall
Wavves - Weed Demon
Sonic Youth - Poison Arrow
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Cold Spring

Yankee Incognito a/k/a Guero Misterioso a/k/a Americana Non Grata

Estelle - American Boy (Radio Edit w/ Kanye)
The xx - Basic Space
The Antlers - Bear
Wild Beasts - This Is Our Lot
The Horrors - Scarlet Fields
Washed Out - Feel It All Around
Delorean – Deli
Björk - 5 Years
Florence & the Machine - Dog Days Are Over (An Optimo (Espacio) Mix)
Janelle Monáe - Many Moons
Radiohead - House Of Cards
Peggy Sue - Lover Gone
Bowerbirds - House of Diamonds
Yim Yames - My Sweet Lord
The Love Language - Sparxxx
We Were Promised Jetpacks - An Almighty Thud
My Morning Jacket - Gideon

2009, Vol. 4

Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky
Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer
Lightning Dust - I Knew
Jack Peñate - So Near
Wild Beasts - The Devil's Crayon
Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel
Generationals - When They Fight, They Fight
Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out
The Clientele - Share the Night
Girls - Headache
Karen O And The Kids - Hideaway
Atlas Sound - Quick Canal [w/ Laetita Sadier]
Fever Ray - Triangle Walks
The Flaming Lips - Silver Trembling Hands
Sonic Youth - Walkin Blue
Yo La Tengo - I’m On My Way
Real Estate - Fake Blues

The other day, I heard a guy – who happens to have his name on a popular Islington music store/coffee shop – insist that The Streets had the best album of the Noughties. I assume he was referring to the debut, Original Pirate Material, because anything else would be preposterous. Even still, I couldn’t believe my ears. I love that album, and DB and I wore it out pretty good, appreciated Mike Skinner’s wordplay, quoted lines, whatever whatever... but I don’t think ever took it that seriously. Not to mention, this guy clearly knows his stuff and has a pleasantly eclectic playlist, and I’ve never heard a minute of hip-hop in the shop.

So, I gave it a run the other night, and after 4 months in London, I heard it with completely new ears. I sorta got the “day in the life of a geezer” thing before and certainly related to some of it. But to be able to picture the neighborhoods, kebab shops, pubs, liquor stores, clubs, chip shops, flats, and the dealers, birds, knuckleheads, and all the other people that inhabit them, it came to life for me. And I could see how someone raised in the city might grab on to the album as a definitive self-polaroid.

I don’t know much about what was going on in London’s music scene in 2002, but I also realized it was ahead of its time in its not-overdone tapestry of dubstep, tasteful electronic, and atmospherics. It has aged exceedingly well.

Still, that was a ridiculous thing to say. Even to say that it’s better than Madvillainy in the '00 indie rap department deserves a condescending shake of the head. I get the feeling the Brits still look at the Beatles and Stones and assume the best about their musical output. Just a flip through the British music monthlies will leave you scratching your head. Kasabian had the #1 album of 2009, according to Q. Nuff said.

[Note: I just went back and looked at the reviews from A Grand Don’t Come for Free, which earned pretty heady praise in 2004, especially in England. So, maybe he was talking about it. Shows how much I know. I thought it was kinda stupid.]

"Gimme that old fashioned morphine.
What was good enough for my grandpa...
is good enough for me."

Sometimes I come across an artist that makes me wonder how on Earth I could possibly not have been exposed to her before. Until I found Jolie Holland on my computer, I don’t think I had ever even heard the name. Somehow, her two albums got imported to my computer from my roommate, ML, and I just stumbled on to them the other day. Her first album, Catalpa, caught my ear; I was charmed, pleasantly surprised. So I moved on to Escondida, and that's when I thought, 'whoa. hold up. girl, where you been all my life?'

I imagine some might find it a bit contrived - I'm pretty sure she's feigning a Southern accent half the time - but I'm a sucker for this kind of music. Jazzy, quirky, soulful, and just old school smooth. A girl born into the wrong era, probably loves Kerouac. Songs about San Francisco. Music made for record players. Clarinets and jazz mutes. It's real simple, people.

Real nice find, ML.

I remember Anne Litt - my favorite DJ on KCRW, host of Weekend Becomes Eclectic and just a lovely gal - chirpin' about this cat Jack Peñate over the summer. But I didn't love the song ('Be the One'), and whatever.

His album ended up on her year end's list, so I finally followed up. Turns out he's pretty great. Eclectic album, super upbeat. My first thought was Guillemots, although he's much more polished and direct and, well, radio-friendly. In this case, not a bad thing.

The lesson, as always: listen to Anne Litt.

I just went from A Charlie Brown Christmas to Sunn O))) on my iPod, having never heard the latter before. It is not possible to find two more extreme opposites in the history of music.

"And I don't need from you
a waterfall of careless praise

And I don't need a trophy
for all the games I played

But all I want is your eyes
in the morning as we wake
for a short while."

'Northern Lights'

“I wish that I had known in that first minute we met
the unpayable debt
that I owed you”

'Kettering'

Thus begins the story told by the Antlers' heavy debut, "Hospice," about someone (not sure) suffering from something (unclear) irreversible, and who quickly and unexpectedly draws the narrator-nurse into her world as much more than a caretaker. The relationship - which may or may not involve the two moving in together and planning to marry before the disease consumes her again - is clearly a painful yet inseparable one, reflected perfectly by a band that shifts between whispering intimacy and cathartic noise with ease.

Definitely one of my faves of the year and I think undeniable to anyone that likes a little Shakespearean drama in their tunes.

"When they fight, they fight.
And when they come home at night, they say:
I love you, baabayy"

'When They Fight, They Fight'

Instant Friday night classic. Download immediately.

Love to hear good indie music coming out of New Orleans. With that city's deep musical history and counter-cultural tendencies, it's a mystery why there's not more of it.

Brill, on Exmouth Market: formerly a record store, it now doubles as my favorite coffee shop in London.

Their schtick:
Music
Coffee
Bagels
+ Free Wi-Fi

All of which are pretty damn good. A student's dream.

"I looked up and realized I was sitting in a photograph...

Strongest of all was the feeling of 1982ness. Dizzy, illogical, as if none of the intervening disasters had happened yet."

'Losing Haringey'

A wild image and a perfect sample of the unbridled carnality laced through this album. On it, the lines between lust, primal instinct, sexuality, predator, prey, and even violence seem frighteningly thin. I find it a visceral experience, and lines like this one remind me of - and unsettle me in the same way as - the ultraviolence of A Clockwork Orange. And like the book/film, there is something great about an artist so sophisticated expressing a vision so primitive. I could go on and on about these dudes…

i have exactly zero ambition for this space other than to spread a little love to anybody who has expressed an interest in music to me.

to my mind, this year has been a pretty special one for music - maybe even a turning point of sorts. and there is SO much out there, and so much more coming, and so many people craving it these days, i felt it might be productive to put all my thoughts, recommendations, whatever, in one place.

that, and i just need to blow off a little steam.