My Favorite Albums of 2013 (1-10)

If you missed the first two installments of this list, here are a couple links: 11-20 and 21-30. The ten albums that are left are all albums that I grew to love over the course of 2013. At one point or another, each of these albums had me obsessed and listening to it repeatedly.

10) Josh Ritter - The Beast In Its Tracks

This is my favorite Josh Ritter album since his incredible 2006 album "The Animal Years." The album was written in the wake of his divorce to fellow singer/songwriter Dawn Landes (who has her own album coming out in February). Rather than writing a "woe is me," vindictive album, Ritter has managed to write an album that is introspective, honest, hopeful, and often times funny. "New Lover" hits all of these themes as he looks back on his past relationship while musing on a new one. Throughout the song, he wishes his ex well, hoping she's found someone new to treat her well. However, before the song ends he admits "if you're sad and you are lonesome and you've got nobody true, I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me happy too." Breakups are tough.

9) J. Roddy Walston and The Business - Essential Tremors

This list spans quite a few genres, but I tend to gravitate toward folk-y stuff a lot. However, if you're looking to rock, look no further than J. Roddy Walston and The Business. Essential Tremors is an album full of rockin' guitars, forceful drums, pounding piano, and Walston's howling and shrieking. This is a foot stomping album to be sure. This album was my first time hearing J Roddy Walston and The Business, but I imagine the band puts on an incredibly fun live show. One newpaper wrote that the band's live shows "make James Brown look lazy." I'm thinking I'll have to try to get to one of those in 2014.

8) John Moreland - In The Throes

John Moreland has written several other albums, but this was my first exposure to the Tulsa, Oklahoma native, and I am a full on convert now. In The Throes is an incredible folk/americana album with great songs from beginning to end. His lyrics are a big part of what makes the album great. Because of that, the album may take a few listens to sink in, but it's well worth it. Fortunately Moreland's talent seems to have been recognized somewhat in 2013 as the year saw him opening a small handful of shows for Jason Isbell and getting a couple of his songs ("Gospel" and "Your Spell") featured on the show Sons of Anarchy. In addition to those two songs, "Nobody Gives A Damn About Songs Anymore" and "Oh Julia" are two more favorites of mine. Here's to hoping John Moreland keeps making incredible music and being rightfully recognized for doing so.

7) Suburban Dirts - A Tiny Little Island In The Big Bad Sea

I've written about Suburban Dirts a few times on this blog and for good reason since they keep putting out excellent music. Last year, I ranked the band's debut album as my 10th favorite of the year. I had assumed they'd play a bunch of shows this year, maybe put out an EP, and get ready for another album in 2014 or 2015 like most bands would. Well it turns out they aren't like most bands because instead they released a second full length that I like even more than their impressive debut. You can read more of my review of the album here but the short story is that they mix folk, rock, blues, and country as well as just about anyone else around. A Tiny Little Island In The Big Bad Sea is an absolute treat of the album. If you enjoy what you hear from the preview below, please support them and buy their music so they can continue to do what they do so well.

6) The Postelles - ...And It Shook Me

The second album from the New York quartet features an album full of hook-heavy rock/pop songs that are a joy to sing along to. This album is a really fun road trip record with song after song of catchy choruses that can be belted out. In their review of the album, AllMusic sums up the album better than I could hope to, saying "what impresses isn't the hooks themselves but how The Postelles craft the riffs and melodies into songs, how they retain a brightness to their punch without ever seeming saccharine, how they seem to celebrate exuberance, not detachment." My favorite tracks are "Pretend It's Love," "Caught By Surprise," and "Running Red Lights."

5) Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze

This may be the antidote to the cheeriness on The Postelles record, but man is it good. Over half the songs on this record surpass the six minute mark, several going well past it. Vile's style has been referred to as "slacker rock" but that in no way does justice to the precision that somehow seems to underlie the rambling nature of the songs. The album opener, "Wakin On A Pretty Day" is probably the song I became most obsessed with this year. Somehow despite being almost 10 minutes long it always seemed too short. The lyrics, combined with Vile's delivery, have made me actually chuckle out loud at times with lines like "Rising at the crack of dawn, I gotta think about what wise crack I'm gonna drop along the way today" and "Phone ringing off the shelf, I guess somebody has something they really wanna prove to us today." Really though, my review won't be able to do justice to this song or this record. I recommend you find a way to listen to it on headphones while wandering through a city. Somehow that's when it always seemed most perfect to me.

4) Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

The Scottish indie rocker's Midnight Organ Fight is perhaps my favorite album ever and their follow up, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, was my second favorite album of 2010. That is to say that expectations from me are sky high whenever they put out new music. Fortunately, Frightened Rabbit are up to the task and have put out another incredible album of indie rock with excellent lyrics and Scott Hutchison's infectious Scottish accent. This is probably the band's most polished sounding record to date (and their first on a major label) and it shows that they are able to adapt while still retaining what makes them so good. The album closer "The Oil Slick" is my favorite song off the record. When I got to see the band live earlier this year, Hutchison told the crowd the song was sort of an apology for some of the things he'd said in other songs. How could anyone stay made at someone who can write lines like "How can I talk about life and warmth? I've got a voice like a gutter in a toxic storm. All the dark words pouring from my throat sound like an oil slick coating the wings we've grown."

3) Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside - Untamed Beast

Over the past couple weeks, I think I've had each of these top three albums in the number one spot for a bit, so the order is pretty arbitrary since I'm sure it'd change in a week. 2013 was a bit of a mixed bag for fans of Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside. Back in  February, Untamed Beast was released, and it has remained in rotation for me all year. According to Last.fm the band is my most played artist over the past year. Ford's voice and attitude are absolutely incredible as she can belt out defiant songs (like "They Told Me" and "Bad Boys") or croon about love (like on "Paris" and "Roll Around") without either sounding out of place or insincere. Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago the band announced they were going their separate ways in 2014. Everything is amicable, but it's sad to see after they put out such an incredible record (as well as a really, really good EP) this year. Sallie Ford has recently put together an all female band and plans to keep making music, so I'll certainly be following along with that.

2) Small Houses - Exactly Where You Wanted To Be

This may be the album I've listened to most this year and it certainly holds a special place for me. Small Houses (aka Jeremy Quentin) has put together a touching folk record that I couldn't help but listen to over and over again. I made my second road trip to Sasquatch Music Festival this summer and after each of the days jam-packed full of music, I found myself returning to my tent and listening to this album on repeat as I fell asleep. There's something comforting and soothing about the composition of these songs that makes me feel at home wherever I am. The only complaint I have about this album is that it comes in at a little under 30 minutes long, which is nowhere near as long as I wish it was. I guess that's why it just finds itself played on loop.


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1) Typhoon - White Lighter

This is just an absolutely incredible album from the 14-piece Portland, Oregon band. There is so much to love on this album that I don't really know where to begin. Many of the lyrics are inspired by lead singer, Kyle Morton's battle with Lyme disease that caused several of his organs to fail and led to his dad giving him a kidney. Many of the songs muse on life and death in its many forms, including "Possible Deaths" sees Morton singing that "every star is a possible death." However, the lyrics are just icing on a delicious musical cake because I didn't know any of the back story when I had already fallen in love with this album. Instead it was the sounds that this 14-member band was putting together (again without me realizing they had that many members). They show all sorts of restraint, never forcing more into a song than belongs there but filling up your ears with enough to keep you discovering new things with each new listen. Several songs caught me off guard when I first listened, bucking the expectations my ears had grown to expect by employing different time signatures. It's rare to hear an album that simultaneously challenges you and satisfies you at the same time. This may all just be rambling at this point, but I highly recommend this album to anyone unfamiliar with it. Make sure you listen a few times and make sure you aren't too distracted while you do because there is just a ton to like.


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So that's the list, my 30 favorite albums of 2013. I'd love to hear what other people enjoyed, either that I'm missing or that they agree with. I've made a Spotify playlist of all 30 albums if you want to listen to them. You can find that by clicking ---> here.


As with the last two posts, here are a few songs from albums 1-10 to get a taste of them. I think all of these are all best listened to from beginning to end though. At least one song ("Bad Boys" by Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside) is possibly "not safe for work", so bear that in mind.



And since I can't find Kurt Vile on Soundcloud...




There was a lot of music to love in 2013, and I'm already looking forward to several 2014 releases.

New Releases from January - March 2013

Well we're a quarter of the way through 2013, so I thought I'd compile a list of a bunch of my favorite releases so far this year.

My favorite albums released January - March 2013

1) Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside - Untamed Beast

I wrote about this album a few weeks ago and I still cannot get enough of it. I had the pleasure of seeing the band perform this week, and they didn't disappoint. The band is a bit of a throwback to good old fashioned rock and roll, with several of the songs having a surf-rock vibe. Regardless of what they're playing, Sallie Ford's commanding vocals and no-nonsense lyrics steal the show. This is almost certain to remain one of my favorite albums of the year.

2) Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

After releasing maybe my favorite album ever in 2008 and releasing my second favorite album of 2010, my expectations were set extremely high for Pedestrian Verse. While that could have left me in danger of being let down by this record, Frightened Rabbit delivered yet again. I wrote more about the album when it came out, but the Scottish indie rockers have continued to impress. Scott Hutchison remains one of my favorite lyricists and that voice of his is just wonderful. I also got to see Frightened Rabbit perform a few weeks ago, and they were great. Hutchison prefaced the song "Oil Slick" by telling the crowd that it was written as sort of an apology for all of the things he had said about someone in previous songs. Lines like "How can I talk about life and warmth? I've got a voice like a gutter in a toxic storm" show that he can do self deprecation with the best of them. If you're unfamiliar with the band, Pedestrian Verse is probably a pretty good entry point, but make sure you go back and check out Midnight Organ Fight and The Winter of Mixed Drinks after.

3) Small Houses - Exactly Where You Wanted To Be

I've been meaning to write about this Small Houses (aka Jeremy Quentin) album for a while now and just haven't found the time to do it. Despite being a relative unknown (fewer than 1,000 likes on Facebook), he does alt-country / indie folk as well as anyone. I'm always a sucker for harmonica in songs, but everything works here. You can stream / download several songs including the incredible opening track "Oh, Hiding Out" here, but if you like it I highly recommend helping out an artist (hopefully) on the rise and buying the whole thing. If you listen to it even a fraction as much as I have/will you will more than get your money's worth.

4) Local Natives - Hummingbird

I wrote a bit about this album last month. The album marked a bit of a sonic change from Local Natives' last album, this time seeing the band eschew the more catchy tunes for something more atmospheric and dreamy. The vocal harmonies that helped carry the last album are still present, just now wrapped inside something new. While the last album was enjoyable, this album seems much better as an album to me and is a big step forward for the band. That's also not to say there aren't songs that stand out on Hummingbird. "Heavy Feet" is one of my favorite songs released so far this year. "Breakers" and "Ceilings" are other standout tracks.

5) Hey Marseilles - Lines We Trace

The Seattle based band picked up right where they left off with this album. Their Facebook page uses the wonderful term "folkestral" to describe their brand of folk music performed with a cello, viola, accordion, and mandolin along with the standard fare. I got to see Hey Marseilles perform at Sasquatch Music Festival last summer and they just seemed like a band that loved doing what they do. While that's probably true for most bands that warmth and enjoyment seems to come through in their music.

6) Wooden Wand - Blood Oaths of the New Blues

While everyone else was waiting until a few weeks into the year to release their music, Wooden Wand was nice enough to throw me a bone with his album in early January. I wrote about it when it came out at the beginning of the year, and it still remains an album I'm returning to. "Outsider Blues" might be my favorite track of the year. I love a good story song, and this is one, which chronicles a trip to the Outsider Blues music festival, is one of the better ones. He can paint such a vivid scene of what's going on that it feels like I'm watching everything unfold while listening to the song.

7) Pascal Pinon - Twosomeness

Pascal Pinon is a pair of Icelandic twins who craft some pretty great indie pop tunes. Some of the songs are in English while others are in Icelandic. Having no idea what the Icelandic songs are saying, doesn't stop me from enjoying them just as much as the English ones. The lead track "Ekki Vanmeta" (which Google tells me means "do not underestimate") might be my favorite of the bunch. I actually haven't listened to this as much as the albums above it, but listening to it right now while writing this is telling me that may be a mistake that needs to be rectified.

8) Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

I was first exposed to Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (aka Aly Spaltro) when she opened for Kaki King here in Iowa City several months back. You don't see many solo artists playing electric guitar, but what she was able to do by herself on stage was impressive as was the confidence on display in both her singing and playing (all the more impressive since she's only 23). After several years of self-releasing home recordings, her first studio album does an excellent job of capturing the energy and confidence on display that night. It's certainly an impressive "first" release that sees her effortlessly passing between all different types of songs and vocals. Check out the track "Bird Balloons" to get a taste of what she can do. It'll be exciting to see what the future holds for the young songwriter.

9) Jim James - Regions of Light and Sound of God

This is the first proper solo album by My Morning Jacket front-man Jim James, and it is very much a solo album as he played all of the instruments, did all of the vocals, and produced it on top of that. On the album, James continues to explore spirituality (as you may expect based on the album title) as he has been in recent releases such as the one with Monsters of Folk. Most of the time Jim James the instrumentalist gets out of the way and lets Jim James the vocalist shine with that haunting voice of his. This is best carried out on the excellent track "A New Life." While the album lacks the rock / punch of a My Morning Jacket release, the album does quite well forging its own path.

10) Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Rounding out the top ten is Foxygen. The band seems to be a divisive one among music blogs, but putting away any pretensions of what bands should sound like or anything like that, they just flat out made an enjoyable record. The California artists where their influences on their sleeves with tracks that sound straight out of the 60's and 70's pop scene (albeit with modern day production). Listening to the album you'll hear shades of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and plenty of others. The argument in the blog community seemed to be why you should listen to Foxygen's homage to those artists when you could listen to those artists do their own thing. If that's your mindset, you can probably pass on this release, but otherwise I'd say it's worth checking out.

Others I've enjoyed that I need to listen to more

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II ("So Good At Being In Trouble" is a great track)
Hollis Brown - Ride on the Train
Kingsley Flood - Battles
Night Beds - Country Sleep ("Ramona" is a great track)
Ivan & Alyosha - All The Times We Had


And I couldn't decide on where to put some of the EPs amidst the full-length albums, so here's a separate group for them.

My favorite EPs

1) I Build Collapsible Mountains - Carousel EP

Continuing the trend on this list of solo artists recording under band names, longtime blog favorite I Build Collapsible Mountains (aka Luke G Joyce) throws his hat in the ring. This EP follows up on last year's "Songs From That Never Scene" with the lead track coming from that album accompanied by five new tracks. It's just another solid release from I Build Collapsible Mountains doing his indie folk thing that he does so well. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is that separates Joyce from other artists, but there's something about the guitar and vocals in these songs that feels like home despite coming from all the way over in Scotland.

2) Wake Owl - Wild Country

Vancouver based singer/songwriter Colyn Cameron has put out a really catchy alt-country EP that keeps finding itself stuck in my head. It sounds like Cameron has been making music for a while, but this is the debut under the name "Wake Owl" and it is an excellent start. I can't wait to hear a full-length at some point in the future.

3) Miracles of Modern Science - MEEMS

Much like Hey Marseilles, Miracles of Modern Science (or MOMS) has a bit of a non-traditional lineup featuring cello, violin, mandolin, double bass, and drums. While Hey Marseilles writes what the call folkestral music, MOMS is more indie rock played with classical instruments. One of the highlights is the song "The Singularity," which sings of a skepticism that we will all have to die someday due to science reaching the singularity where we can fix things like neural decay. This decidedly nerdy subject shouldn't be surprising from a band that formed while the members were at Princeton. While this all may seem a bit gimicky, the music more than stands on its own, and the EP is a lot of fun. The EP is currently "pay what you want" here, so really there's no reason not to go check it out!

4) Indianna Dawn - Rookie

Indianna Dawn wrote one of my favorite albums of 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't discover the album until 2012, so I didn't get a chance to put it on my year end list. I wrote about the Danish indie folk/alt country group a bit here if you want to check that out and listen to a couple tracks from their full length. I haven't listened to the new EP much yet, but it seems pretty enjoyable and a good way to tide me over until their next full length is released. Maybe in the meantime I can learn Danish so I cant actually understand the updates on their Facebook page.


Some of my favorite songs from January - March 2013 releases

I can't very well tell you about this much new music without sharing some of it with you, so here are two playlists of some of my favorite songs released in the first quarter of 2013. The Spotify playlist is a bit bigger since it doesn't have to be songs I own, but the 8tracks playlist also has some things that aren't available on Spotify (like an awesome Alabama Shakes song that the band released for free online). You can probably just choose whichever service you're more comfortable with and get the gist of things though. If you don't use Spotify and don't want to create an account, anyone should be able to stream the 8tracks playlist below. Anyhow, enjoy and let me know if there are any albums or songs I seem to be overlooking!

My favorite tracks from January to March 2013 from rynestonecowboy on 8tracks Radio.

This week in music (week of 2/5/2013)

It'll be a short post this week (Note: Now that I'm done, it did not end up being short. One day I'll learn how to just post quick and move on.) even though there was a bunch of great new music.

New release of the week - Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit is one of my five or so favorite artists, so there is little doubt that I would enjoy this album. However, just how much I've enjoyed it has caught me a bit off guard. Their 2008 album "Midnight Organ Fight" has an argument as my favorite album ever (along with M. Ward's "Post-War"). In 2010 I named "The Winter of Mixed Drinks" my second favorite album of the year, so you can see that expectations were sky high for me. Despite that, this album fits very well within those expectations.

For those that don't know, Frightened Rabbit is a Scottish indie rock band. I can't remember where I read it, but lead singer Scott Hutchison said he wrote "pedestrian verse" on the cover or a notebook that he used for the lyrics to this album. Seeing that motivated him to avoid trite lyrics. As he explained it, if you call your album "Pedestrian Verse" and the lyrics really are pedestrian, you'll be called out on it. The first line on the album is "I am that dickhead in the kitchen giving wine to your best girl's glass," so I'd say he has avoided regurgitating generic lyrics at the very least. The delivery of his lyrics in that wonderful Scottish accent mean he probably could spout pedestrian verses and I'd still enjoy it. Fortunately that's not the case.

The album is full of potential favorite songs (like both of their last two albums were). Early on, I'm really enjoying "The Woodpile," "The Oil Slick," "State Hospital," and "Holy." My favorite song on "The Midnight Organ Fight" has probably changed dozens of times, so I'm sure if you ask in a couple weeks I'd give you a different list of favorites. Here are three songs from the album if you want to sample it:



Runner-up of the week - Regions of Light and Sound of God by Jim James

This is the first full-length released by Jim James (lead singer of My Morning Jacket, member of Monsters of Folk) under his own name. While I've always enjoyed My Morning Jacket, it has never been a band that I got too into. This album may make me go back and spend some more time with those older albums though because it is just growing on me more and more with each listen.

Most importantly though, everyone should take a few minutes to watch this performance of "A New Life" by Jim James on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He is backed by The Roots along with a string section and perhaps some other additions as well. The steady build of the song and adding of more members along with the camera/light/whatever else work is amazing. I know Jimmy Fallon can rub some people the wrong way (I used to dislike him but have since been converted), but what he and The Roots are doing with music on their show is fantastic. They refuse to just do what everybody else is doing, and it's great for music / tv. I can't think of another show that would give you a performance like this.

Miscellaneous Links, News, and Notes

* Over the weekend I finally got around to watching Searching For Sugar Man, an Academy Award nominee for best documentary this year. I'll probably write a longer post about it later, but for now I highly recommend checking out the film and the soundtrack. As good as the movie was, the soundtrack is even be better (it's only $5 on Amazon right now). It's a shame Rodriguez never took off as an artist and that we are limited to only two of his albums.

* This weekend, I went to a local record store and saw Velvet Underground's classic album with Nico and the Andy Warhol banana on the front. However, in this version the banana was green, which caught me off guard. After some Googling on my phone, I found out that this version (called "Unripened") was what was originally presented to the studio and in turn rejected along with the note "You have got to be kidding me". I'm waiting for a record cleaner I ordered to arrive before listening, but it sounds like the tracks are re-ordered and several versions of the songs are a bit noisier / rougher around the edges. Regardless, I'm pretty excited to add this to my slowly growing vinyl collection and to get a chance to hear it soon.

* I agree with a lot of what was said in this post about the cheapening of the music industry. It is well worth a read. Don't worry, it's pretty short.

* Dawes is set to release a new album in April. A few days ago they gave us the first taste of the album:



* Sasquatch Music Festival announced their lineup a couple weeks ago, and it was something to behold (including The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, The xx, The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and just a ton more great acts). Because of this, I expected tickets to sell a bit faster than the couple months it took last year. What I didn't expect was for them to sell out in just over an hour. Here's hoping I can still find a not too expensive ticket on Stub Hub or something and can make my second trip to George, Washington this summer.

This week in music (week of 7/17/2012)

First things first, if you use Twitter and are interested in following my music thoughts or getting links when new posts are written, I've started a Twitter account for the blog @MoonNotRomantic. I'm still pretty mad at Twitter for cutting me off one character too short for @MoonAintRomantic, but I suppose I'll get over it. Last week's album of the week by Dirty Projectors is still in constant rotation and is definitely one of my favorite albums of the year. Beyond that, after a bit of a new music lull the last few weeks, things are certainly starting to heat up again.

New release of the week - Something for the Weakened by Meursault

This week's album of the week is from Scottish indie folk band Meursault. I like the band plenty

on its own merits, but they also get bonus points for being named after the main character of the Camus novel, The Stranger. As for their music, it is most easily placed in the indie folk genre, but that classification by itself doesn't really do their uniqueness justice. The songs usually have a very lo-fi sound while still managing to build up to something epic at times. Some of that is likely attributable to lead singer Neil Pennycock, who can insert a sense of urgency to a song with his howling vocals. Beyond just your standard guitar, bass, and drums, the band also employs electronic elements and various other instrumentation, which helps to spice up the music. I don't recall when I first stumbled upon the band, but I've been a fan for a while, and Something for the Weakened is an excellent addition to their previous material. Below is my favorite track from the album, "Dull Spark." The track has pretty driving drums behind it for most of the duration and is a bit more rockin' than some of the rest of the album.

My favorite Meursault track from previous albums is the cover of Withered Hands' track "Red Candle Bulb" on the band's Nothing Broke EP. Below is a live version recorded with fellow Scottish artist (and one of my favorites) Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. Those Scots certainly know their music.

Other notable releases

Also out this week, Old Crow Medicine show released a new album called Carry Me Back that is a fun listen. I know close to nothing about Icelandic band Múm, but they released a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks called Early Birds that seemed pretty good. The music is ambient sounding electronic stuff, which is way out of my knowledge base, and I have no idea what the title of this track is, but here is a song I enjoyed:

Miscellaneous Links, News, and Notes

* The Polaris Prize is a yearly award for Canadian musicians that "celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in recorded Canadian music" according to the award's website. This week, they narrowed the nominees down to 10 albums including two of my favorites from this year "I Predict a Graceful Expulsion" by Cold Specks and "Voyageur" by Kathleen Edwards. Last year, Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" took home the award.

* If you're looking for some new music, several of next week's releases are streaming for free online including Purity Ring's debut "Shrines," Passion Pit's "Gossamer," Gaslight Anthem's "Handwritten," Fang Island's "Major," and The Antlers' EP "Undersea" (in exchange for liking their Facebook page). Lots to be excited about there!

* Also, Bob Dylan announced is 543rd (approximation) studio album, Tempest, due out 9/11. I actually enjoyed his last one, so I'm looking forward to hearing this one.

* While Ben Gibbard has been making music as Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, and All-Time Quarterback (not sure if I'm missing any), he has yet to release a solo album under his own name. That will change on October 16 with the release of "Former Lives"

My 100,000th Scrobble on Last.fm

This milestone kinda snuck up on me. I knew it was coming up, but when I plugged in my iPod it had 130 or so backed up which left me 17 short of 100,000. Despite there being little logic, reason, or real importance behind it, I decided I should make sure my 100,000th song was a good one. However, deciding on one single song to take that importance was too much for me to handle, so I figured I'd pick 5 songs I love by artists I love to sandwich #100,000. So... here they are:

99,998 - Skinny Love by Bon Iver
This song was the song that inspired my first ever blog post. It's my most scrobbled song on Last.fm, and just a song that makes me stop and take notice every time I hear it. I still hate that I haven't seen Bon Iver perform live, but I did see Justin Vernon perform with his old high school jazz band a few years back, which remains to this day my favorite concert I've been to. All in all, a perfect song from a perfect album.



99,999 - The Gardner by Tallest Man On Earth
This song is apparently my 6th most scrobbled. It's my favorite song by Tallest Man On Earth, and I'm sure I could just listen to it on repeat and never get tired of it. I love the progression of the lyrics throughout the song. It was also one of the first several songs I based a blog post around.



100,000 - Poison Cup by M. Ward
The big round number... Well it pretty much had to be by M. Ward. I've played his songs more times than my second and third most played artists combined. He is without a doubt, far and away, absolutely, positively my favorite artist (I thought about throwing more descriptors in there, but was having a hard time coming up with them). I've got plenty of reasons for that, but the rest of it is just one of those things that probably can't be explained. His music just connects with me in a way that no other artist's music does. My favorite song of his changes from time to time (with about 10 other potential #1s), but Poison Cup is such a fantastic lead track on Post-War, which just so happens to be my favorite album. A more than deserving track number 100,000.



100,001 - The Twist by Frightened Rabbit
I guess this one is a little bit of a dark horse here in the big 5. It is (only?) tied for 19th among my most played songs. With that being said, Frightened Rabbit really forced its way into my top artists over the last couple years. Midnight Organ Fight is in my top 3 or so favorite albums ever and at times feels like it could be #1. I think I've listened to it on every car trip over 3 hours or so that I've made in the last 3 years (and there have been a lot of them). This is another album where my favorite track changes all the time. There are 5 others I could have chosen to represent Frightened Rabbit that would have seemed just as appropriate.



100,002 - Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan
Picking 5 songs instead of one was supposed to make this an easier endeavor, but I still feel bad not including Tom Waits or Hanalei, but at least Waits got the blog named after one of his song. As for Hanalei, until he/they can come up with a reliable way of convincing me they are still a band, they'll have to deal with it. Anyhow, I got introduced to Dylan in undergrad and shortly after really jumped right in with my listening. Obviously I didn't get to experience growing up during the height of Dylan-mania (which I like to think I would have been drawn to instead of The Beatles or Stones or whoever else), but I find myself endlessly fascinated by the man (which I satisfied through books and movies) and the music (which I satisfied through, well, the music). Getting a chance to see him perform last year was really fantastic even if he is getting on in years. There are other Dylan songs I could have picked, but I didn't. Tangled Up In Blue it is.



If anyone managed to stick around through that, thanks for indulging my overinflated sense of significance that I assign to something so trivial as a number on a web page adding another digit.

If you guys had to choose 1 song, or 5 songs (or any other number that you deem to be appropriate), which songs would you choose?

I wish we'd never met, then met today

I've got my recap of the second quarter of the year post almost ready to go, but the actual writing of it will take longer than I want to do right now, so it'll have to wait for another day. In the meantime, I've got the line from the post's title stuck in my head, so here's a short one.

"Backwards Walk" by Frightened Rabbit is a song that tends to get lost in the shuffle when I pick a favorite from the album because Midnight Organ Fight is about as close to perfect as one can get (at least to me). One day my favorite is "The Twist," then "The Modern Leper," then "Poke," then "Old Old Fashioned," and so on. However, "Backwards Walk" does have the advantage of having certain lines that just get stuck in my head and won't leave. Tonight it's the line "I wish we'd never met, then met today." That wishing that you'd met someone at a different point in your life than you did is something I've thought about many times, thinking that just maybe things would be different if that had been the case. Maybe you wouldn't have drifted apart, maybe you'd be closer than you are if you just had the knowledge now that you didn't have then. Anyhow, enough of being a downer. Here's the song, and if you aren't familiar with the whole album, I really can't recommend it enough. I mean that.

Josh Ritter and Scott Hutchison concert

Life and school have been busy lately, which has led to the lack of blogging of late. Fortunately, part of what had me busy was a trip to the Twin Cities to see Josh Ritter and Scott Hutchison (of Frightened Rabbit) perform at First Avenue.

Over the last couple years, Scottish band Frightened Rabbit has really solidified their place as one of my favorite active bands. Their 2008 release, The Midnight Organ Fight, would probably make my list of my 5 favorite albums if I was forced to make one. Just about every track on that album has been my favorite at some point or another. The album is a really emotional, post relationship album with some absolutely wonderful song-writing and lyricism. Their follow-up album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, breaks from the post-relationship mold and features some more uplifting tracks. I placed it #2 on my year end albums list last year behind only a phenomenal Tallest Man On Earth album.

With all that being said, I was really excited to see lead singer Scott Hutchison perform as the opener. It was a little weird hearing him perform group arrangements (some of which I've probably heard close to 100 times) by himself on acoustic guitar, but his emotion in his singing still came through just as well as on the albums. He eschewed set lists and instead just called out for fan suggestions. Additionally, on Twitter (@FRabbits), he said that he would cover one song by another band every night and called for requests from followers. Seeing that the show was at First Avenue, a venue that Prince helped popularize, I suggested "Purple Rain," which led to a pleasant surprise when that was the song he chose to cover! I'm sure dozens of other people suggested the same thing, since it is a pretty obvious choice, but it was still pretty cool to have my suggestion picked. It was great seeing him perform, but I still have Frightened Rabbit near the top of my list of bands I need to see live.

My roommates, who I attended the concert with, were more excited to see the main act, Josh Ritter (my favorite person from Idaho and also the only one I know off the top of my head). I used to listen to Josh Ritter more, but I have kinda drifted from him some in recent years. Regardless, his album The Animal Years, is still one of my favorites and is wonderful every time I listen to it. I also learned that the man knows how to entertain. The whole show he had a huge smile on his face. He bantered with the audience between songs (about representative Michelle Bachman and the impending snow storm that would trap us all in the venue) and just showed a lot of energy and excitement the whole time he was on stage, which is always refreshing when attending a concert.

Below are two of my favorite songs by the performers. There are way too many Frightened Rabbit songs I love, which makes it hard to choose just one, but the first is the music video for "The Loneliness and the Scream" from their 2010 album "The Winter of Mixed Drinks." The second video is for the song that introduced me to Josh Ritter and remains my favorite song of his to this day. The song was featured in the closing moments of season 3 of House, which remains one of my favorite moments in one of my favorite shows, so it was a nice intersection between good music and good TV. Anyhow, the song is called "Good Man" and is from "The Animal Years."

Am I here? Of course I am, yes.
All I need is your hand to drag me out again.

Babe we both had dry spells, hard times in bad lands.
I'm a good man for ya. I'm a good man.

Both artists actually have a good deal of music you can pick up for free if you want to hear more by them.

Josh Ritter recorded a Daytrotter session that has 6 tracks and can be downloaded here. He also has several live versions and covers that you can download on his website here.

Frightened Rabbit has visited the Daytrotter studios twice, so there are two separate four song sessions that can be downloaded here and here. If you enjoy those, support the artists and buy some of their other music or catch them live when they visit your town!