Top 50 albums of 2011

Well, I feel I start off my blogs like this everytime I FINALLY get around and write one, but sorry it's been months since I have wrote a blog. A lot has been going on with my wife getting a promotion, my daughter starting 3rd grade, and well my always busy job.

I have seen a ton of great shows over the past year, and recently saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and the Watch The Throne tour as well. On Top of that I did take my daughter to her first concert and we went to see Death Cab for Cutie, and they were great. Plus finally taking Kristen to Austin City Limits Festival for the first time which was awesome. I do have to say, once again this year has flown by.

With that said here is my list of my top 50 albums of 2011. I do have about 20 albums that I have to mention, that will make up my honorable mention list. So to start off my list of 2011 albums that I have enjoyed, here is my honorable mention list.

Honorable Mention top albums for 2011:
1. Yuck- Yuck, 2. Kendrick Lamar-Section.80, 3. Holy Ghost-Holy Ghost, 3. TuNe-YaRdS- Who kill, 4. Smith Westerns-Dye it Blonde, 5. Kate Bush-50 Words for Snow, 6. STS-The Illustrious, 7. EMA-Past Life Martyred Saints, 8. Iceage-New Brigade, 9. Washed Out-Within and Without, 10. The Vaccines-What did you expect from the Vaccines, 11. Kasabian-Velociraptor!, 12. Toro Y Moi-Underneath the Pine, 13. St. Vincent-Strange Mercy, 14. Noah and the Whale-Last Night on Earth, 15. Childish Gambino-Camp, 16. Tyler the Creator-Goblin, 17. Bombay Bicycle Club-A Different Kind of Fix, 18. Battles-Glass Drop, 19. Girls-Father, Son, Holy Ghost, 20. Wiz Khalifa-Rolling Papers, 21. Manchester orchestra-Simple Math, and 22. The Head and the Heart-Self Titled

Now it’s time for my top 50 albums for 2011. As you can tell by my 22 honorable mention albums, it was hard for me to come up with 50 albums that made my list. Of course when buying these albums, splurge….buy a record player and buy vinyl!

50. Foster the People-Torches
49. Frank Turner-England Keep My Bones
48. The War on Drugs-Slave Ambient
47. Drake-Take Care
46. Real Estate-Days
45. Mister Heavenly-Out of Love
44. Cut Copy-Zonoscope
43. Ryan Adams- Ashes and Fire
42. Lykke Li- Wounded Rhymes
41. The Low Anthem- Smart Flesh
40. The Antlers- Burst Apart
39. The Cool Kids- When Fish Ride Bicycles
38. Cults- Cults
37. The Civil Wars- Barton Hollow
36. Danger Mouse-Rome
35. The Roots- undone
34. Explosions in the sky-Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
33. M83- Hurry up, we’re dreaming
32. Destroyer- Kaputt
31. Red Hot Chili Peppers-I’m With You
30. Gary Clark Jr. – The Bright Lights EP
29. Portugal. The Man- In the mountain, in the cloud
28. Panda Bear- Tomboy
27. Frank Ocean- Nostalgia, Ultra
26. Elbow- Build a Rocket Boys!
25. The Kills- Blood Pressures
24. The Joy Formidable- The Big Roar
23. TV on the Radio- Nine types of light
22. Radiohead- The King of limbs
21. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks- Mirror Traffic
20. Florence + the Machine- Ceremonials
19. Kurt Vile- Smoke Rings for my Halo
18. Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues
17. Das Racists- Relax
16. Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4eva
15. Death Cab for Cutie- Codes and Keys
14. Adele-21
13. Wilco- The Whole Love
12. The Decembrists- The King is Dead
11. Iron and Wine- Kiss Each Other Clean
10. Beirut- The Rip Tide
9. The Black Keys- El Camino
8. Kanye West and Jay-Z- Watch The Throne
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - It’s a corporate World
6. Foo Fighters- Wasting Light
5. Arctic Monkeys- Suck it and See
4. The Beastie Boys- Hot Sauce Committee part 2
3. The Strokes- Angles
2. My Morning Jacket- Circuital
1. Bon Iver- Bon Iver

Yes I am alive.

Well, I have fallen out of the loop as far as blogs go for a very long time, so I decided today that I should write a blog. The most exciting concert event for me of the year has came and went and I am still wishing I was in my lawn chair in Austin watching some great bands play. Austin City Limits Festival was once again a great time, I even got to bring Kristen this year and that added to the experience. We both got to knock off Kanye West on our bucket list of people to see perform. All I can say it people can call him an A-hole all they want, but I have always loved Kanye and after seeing him live, he is an amazing performer. I got to see a lot of hip hop over the weekend, and I got to see one of my favorite rappers of all time Big Boi perform on Friday and the fact that he did a lot of Outkast songs made me very happy. Friday was probably the best day of ACL for the whole weekend.

The other top act I got to knock off the bucket list was My Morning Jacket and Iron and Wine. I love both of these bands and they didn't disappoint seeing them live on Saturday. Kristen and I also got to see Ray LaMontange on Friday and he was great. I have to give it up to Kristen, she should get some sort of wife of the year honor for going to ACL and having a bum foot the whole time. She also stuck with me on some of the bands I wanted to see that she could careless about. Of course that is why I love her, I got to races on the weekend with her, and she will go to a music festival with me. Somehow I feel she gets the better end of the deal, for the simple fact that while we are cheering for a band we don't know you can atleast drink alcohol, not the same at races cheering for people running completely sober on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Now I am plotting my next concert of the year, and on the horizon in December the two of us can knock someone else off the bucket list and that would be one rapper named Jay-Z. I think that this will probably be one of Kristen's Christmas presents that I am sure she will enjoy very much. Speaking of my bucket list of bands/musicians I want to see I feel this is an appropriate time to put this list down so everyone can see. Of course some of these bands I have seen, and will run at the chance to see them again.

1. Pearl Jam (seen them twice now and I will see them as long as I am alive, pardon the pun)
   
2. Arcade Fire
   
3. Arctic Monkeys
   
4. The Rolling Stones (seen them once and will see them again before they are gone.)
   
5. Kanye West
   
6. My Morning Jacket
   
7. Iron and Wine
   
8. Ray LaMontange
   
9. Jay-z
   
10. Phish (seen them twice now)
    
11. The Avett Brothers
    
12. Band of Horses
    
13. The Flaming Lips (best experience ever, got to be on stage with them)
    
14. Beastie Boys
    
15. Beck (saw him in college, would see him again)
    
16. The Roots (saw them with Beck, want to see them again)
    
17. Beirut
    
18. Ben Harper (have seen him way too many times, but amazing live)
    
19. Big Boi (now I just need to see him with Outkast)
    
20. The Black Crowes
    
21. The Black Keys (Have to see them again)
    
22. Bob Dylan
    
23. Bon Iver
    
24. Bruce Springsteen
    
25. Cake
    
26. Cold War Kids
    
27. Death Cab for Cutie
    
28. The Decemberists
    
29. Dinosaur Jr.
    
30. Eminem
    
31. Fleet Foxes
    
32. Foo Fighters (have seen them once, but have to see them again)
    
33. Red Hot Chili Peppers (seen them once, but have to see them again)
    
34. Frightened Rabbit
    
35. The Gaslight Anthem (seen them once, love to see them again)
    
36. Girltalk (seen him twice, go if you can)
    
37. Green Day
    
38. The Hold Steady (see them, will go again)
    
39. Ice Cube (saw him when he was still gangsta)
    
40. Jane's Addiction
    
41. Soundgarden
    
42. John Butler Trio
    
43. John Mayer (seen him, amazing on guitar)
    
44. The Strokes
    
45. The Killers
    
46. The Kills
    
47. Kings of Leon
    
48. Kiss
    
49. LCD Soundsystem (thank god I got to see them)
    
50. Lil Wayne
    
51. Lou Reed
    
52. Metallica
    
53. Metric
    
54. Mumford and Sons
    
55. Muse (amazing live, will go again)
    
56. The National (seen them, will go again)
    
57. Neil Young
    
58. Phoenix
    
59. Portugal. The Man (seen them, will go again)
    
60. Queens of the Stone Age
    
61. Radiohead
    
62. Smashing Pumpkins (seen them twice, broke up on stage last time I saw them)
    
63. Sonic Youth (saw the legends rip it up in Austin)
    
64. Spoon (seen them, will go again)
    
65. Tom Petty (seen him twice)
    
66. Weezer (saw them and I love them)
    
67. Wilco
    
68. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
    
69. 50 Cent
    
70. U2
    

Well, this is a still growing list as I find new bands every day. I have a lot of new music to write about next week, but I thought I would let the few of you that check this (1 person last time I looked at the tracker) know that I am alive and well.

Top 5 bands (at this time)

Well, it's been a long long time since I have written anything. I have been on vacation for a little while, and I got to go through the Nirvana exhibit in Seattle, and it was amazing. It was nice to see things in a museum that actually came from me being young. Of course does that make me old? Seeing things from my childhood and teenage years are now popping up in a museum. Oh well, it was amazing to see everything from a band that not only changed my way of thinking, but also put popular music on it's ear and started a revolution. On top of that we got to hang out in Portland and see Kristen's brother get married.

Well, I saw a quick tweet and facebook post from The Granada about me being able to write about my top 5 favorite bands. Of course me trying to get a foot in the door with them decided to write my favorite bands and see if I can get on their blog, then hopefully that leads into other things, but can't quit my day job anytime soon. Any person that loves music as much as I do, know that pinning down five favorite bands is a task, but I pulled out the iPod and gave it a look and here are the five bands that I came up with today. (As I am sure some of them will change by tomorrow morning)

Pearl Jam

Things get better with age, I can justify that. As things get better, Eddie Vedder and the boys are hands down one of the best rock bands in the past 20 years. Deciding early as a band to not make music videos for MTV (when MTV actually played music), taking on Ticketmaster, starting Monkey Wrench Records, and playing their own music, they have prevailed as a band that made it out of the early 90's still intact from the Seattle scene. If you claim you are a fan of music and don't own Pearl Jam 10, you should give up your tickets to the next show you go to. They were one of the first bands of my generation that played music that didn't feel stolen from another generation. They are back in the studio about to drop a new album this year, and when they go on tour, I will be front and center ready to get my socks rocked off.

Frightened Rabbit

With everyone getting on the Mumford and Sons kick, some have overlooked and missed this band from Selkirk, Scotland. Although at the moment they are opening up for Death Cab for Cutie, I feel they could have the chance to be the next band from across the pond to make it big. At this point they have three albums that have been released with their most recent album The Winter of Mixed Drinks. I have to say that if there is one album that is in constant rotation for me is their album The Midnight Organ Fight, it is an amazing album and can get you through the happiest or saddest times. Plus there aren't many bands that can say they added their current keyboardist after a drunken New Year's Eve night in Glasgow.

A Tribe Called Quest

To me, when the tribe broke up, it was just like the lyric from Don McLean's American Pie, it felt like "the day the music died" for hip hop at the time. I have to say I am a little of a hip hop junkie, not overboard, but I do like some good lyrics and beats throughout the day. When I heard my first Tribe album (The Low End Theory), the sound of Q-Tip and Phife's voice and their thoughtful lyrics had me hooked for life. I am hoping that Michael Rapaport's documentary will spark the Tribe to put away differences and get back together for one last hoorah. This group had more to say and had lyrics with feeling, a lot different than flowing about how much gold, girls, and money they had. I have to say we probably won't see a group like Tribe for a long time.

Portugal. The Man

Portugal. The Man has been around for a few years now (since 2004), and they are finally starting to get some play on indie stations. Based out of Portland, originally from Wasilla, Alaska (don't hold it against them) finally signed with Atlantic in 2010 and has put out 7 albums in the course of their career. I got the chance to see them at the Austin City Limits Festival last year and they put on a great show. I love their newest album In the Mountain, In the Cloud, but my favorite album by them is probably The Satanic Satanist. If you get the chance check them out when they are in Austin in October, you won't be disappointed.

The Flaming Lips

Being from Oklahoma, I always hold them close to the heart, plus you have to love the loveable freaks, it's hard not to. I can remember their earliest days in the late 80's and early 90's when they played obscure clubs in Norman and OKC, and me being too young and not being able to see them. That soon changed when I got to go on stage with them dressed as DJ Lance Rock and got to rock out at Austin City Limits Festival last year and I have to say it was marvelous. They put on the best live show I have been at, and they make it a point to get everyone involved at their shows. I love the fact that Wayne Coyne and the Lips make a point to push the boundaries of art and music and combine the both at their shows. With the Flaming Lips you get great music, amazing visuals, and take nothing for granted. They are rock pioneers and legends, and we have got the luxury of having them in our backyard in Oklahoma.

This week's Music:

Well seeing that is has been month's since I wrote anything, my music has piled up as well as what I have been listening too. So here are my top 5 albums that I have been listening to the past few months.

1. Kanye West & Jay Z- Watch the Throne. I have been waiting for this for a long time, and the wait is over and this album is awesome. Check out the tracks Otis and Gotta Have It.
   
2. Beirut- The Rip Tide. I have recently been listening to Beirut and I love this band. Check out the song Santa Fe.
   
3. Grouplove- Grouplove EP. This is the first EP of Grouplove, check out the song Naked Kids.
   
4. Battles- Gloss drop. This is the second album from Battles, after a few listens it gets me through a long day of work, check out the song Ice Cream.
   
5. Cults-Cults. Love this band, very laid back and chill. Great for listening to at home on a lazy Sunday. Check out the song Go Outside.
   

Another Week, another Blog

Well, here I am once again back at writing a blog. I go back and forth each week on what to write about. Of course I wish I was better at it much like My Old Kentucky Blog, Aquarium drunkard, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and many other music blogs. Then I also have to realize that they do have many more people writing for them than just little ol' me. But I digress into my blog in hopes that someday soon I catch someone's eye or ear and I (at my advanced age) will become the next great music writer.

It seems like forever ago that I saw Weezer at the first of the month, and with July coming up I need to find another concert to go to, just to keep up with my new year's resolution of seeing a concert a month for a year. The prospects of a show in July are looking a little thin. So hopefully while we are in Portland or Seattle we can catch a small show somewhere cool, of a band that I have never heard of. Isn't that what you are supposed to do anyway? So those of you that live in Portland or Seattle know of anything good going on during the last week of July let me know.

Now on to more important things that interest me in my spare time and that is music. So I have hit my wall (or should I say my external hard drives wall) and reached capacity of my "tiny" 150 GB drive that is now housing the majority of my ever evolving music library. I have taken on the hard task of now being music god to what bands I feel are worthy enough to keep space and those that are hogging space that needs to go off into virtual heaven. This hasn't been too much of a difficult task as I thought, but it has also been a blessing as far as reminding myself I have those albums or I need to actually listen to some of the music. (Once again I would love to get paid for my side hobby, Spin or Rolling Stone if you are reading this, I will listen to music for you guys) It's funny when you have over 8,000 songs on your iPod you can still figure out an album or song that somehow has been left off when you have to upgrade to a larger iPod, which I never thought I would have to, but I did. On a lighter more exciting note, I did win an iPod at a convention I attended for work, but now the question is should I add music to it?

Well I guess I don't have much as far as concerts go for this week, hopefully I can catch something live this week. I do need a live music fix at some point. I guess I can go through some music reviews of my own to give something on this blog today.

 

New Music for the past few weeks:

Bon Iver-Bon Iver

I have been a big fan of Justin Vernon (a.k.a Bon Iver) for a few years now. I got lucky and picked up his newest album on Father's Day with my wonderful family at a great record store in Dallas called Good Records. Along with the record I also got a bonus disk of songs with the purchase. This album is great from the first song to the last, and he actually covered I Can't Make You love Me/Nick of Time on the bonus disk that is very amazing. Vernon's falsetto voice is always great to hear, and his songs match perfectly with his voice. If you haven't picked up this album, do so quickly.

Arctic Monkeys- Suck it and See

This is the fourth album from the Arctic Monkeys, and I like this one much better than Humbug. Although I wish it was a little more upbeat like their first two albums, but you can tell with Suck It and See that they are starting to find their way with their music. This one is a little more slower, but it has some great songs on it. I became a fan of the Monkeys after seeing them live at Austin City Limits Festival. I really like the song She's Thunderstorms.

Bell X1- Bloodless Coup

This is the sixth album from the band from Ireland. I have in the past few years started listening to Bell X1 after listening to Blue Lights on the Runway (it's a great album). Which this is a great follow up to the 2009 album. This one I have had to get a few listens in before really liking it, check out the song Velcro.

Friendly Fires- Pala

This is the second album from this band from England. If I had to classify them, I guess you could say they are a dance/punk band, which is a horrible lable. They always have some great beats to get you moving. They are really starting to gain some ground in England, and I am sure you will start seeing a little more of them over here in the US. Their first album was received well, and once this one gets some play it will as well. Check out the song Live Those Days Tonight.

The Limousines- Get Sharp

Well, hopefully by now you have heard of this bay area band, their catchy indie song Internet Killed the Video Star is getting much play. They also had an early hit called Very Busy People as well. I have to admit when I first heard both of these songs I really liked them a lot and couldn't wait to pick up their debut album. So far it hasn't disappointed, and if you haven't heard either of these songs check them out.

Ben Harper-Give Till It's Gone

This is Ben's 11^th studio album, and I have been a huge Ben Harper fan since the first time I saw him blow me away when he had to take over the main stage at The Horde Festival in 1998 when the Smashing Pumpkins literally broke up and had a melt down about three songs into their set. I got lucky and picked his newest album up on vinyl and it is really good. Check out the songs Don't Give Up on Me Now and Rock N' Roll is Free.