Happy Birthday, Paul Westerberg

XMAS MIX

Merry Christmas, Baby. I Don't Wanna Listen To The Fucking Pogues This Year.

1. Xmas Message From Marc Bolan


2. Slade- Merry Christmas Everybody


3. The Kinks- Father Christmas


4. Ramones- Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)


5. The dBs- Holiday Spirit


6. Big Star- Jesus Christ


7. The Only Ones- Silent Night


8. Black Lips- Christmas In Baghdad


9. The Sonics- Don't Believe In Christmas


10. The Damned- There Ain't No Sanity Claus


11. The Business- Step Into Christmas


12. The Reigning Sound- If Christmas Can't Bring You Home


13. Fear- Fuck Christmas


14. Sonic Youth- Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope


15. Shonen Knife- Space Christmas


16. The Fall- No Christmas For John Quays


17. The Walkmen- Christmas Party


18. Pixies- Winterlong


19. Orange Juice- Holiday Hymn


20. Aztec Camera- Walk Out To Winter


21. Pointed Sticks- Power Pop Christmas


22. Daniel Johnston- Rock Around The Christmas Tree


23. Je Suis France- Baby, Please Don't Get Stoned (It's Christmas)


24. Elf Power- Winter's Coming


25. Chuck Berry- Run Rudolph Run


26. The Beach Boys- Little Saint Nick


27. The Beatles- Christmas Time Is Here Again


28. Crocodiles & Dum Dum Girls- Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don't Die)


29. Cocteau Twins- Winter Wonderland


30. Galaxie 500- Listen The Snow Is Falling


31. Tom Waits- Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis


32. Bing Crosby & David Bowie- Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy


33. Iggy Pop- White Christmas


34. Sparks- Thank God It's Not Christmas

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My Favorite Albums Of 2011

2011 was a lot like 2010 for me in that i didn’t really seek out a lot of new music and was more excited about albums i already own getting deluxe reissues than anything current. call it a product of aging. call it a product of laziness. call it being overwhelmed by just how easy it is to find and hear new music and doing to my best to just avoid shit. so i don’t consider this list to be the Best Records of the Year. but these were my personal favorite Albums Of 2011.

Davila 666- Tan Bajo

maybe i should’ve paid more attention in Spanish class in 10th grade cuz then i might know what the fuck these Puerto Rican garage rockers were singing about. regardless of language barriers this was easily one of my favorite albums of this or any year. Menudo On Drugs (as they call themselves) making a caterwaul of glorious rock n roll noise channeling The Stooges Fun House by way of Guided By Voices being sung by your wasted punk rock friends from high school. Rock N Roll is alive and well, it just doesn’t speak English anymore.

Turf War- Years Of Living Dangerously

it’s hard for me not to be hyperbolic when i talk about how much i love this fucking record. the story of 1000 nights of bad choices and worse luck fueled by booze and self destruction. every song sounds like an anthem for the lovable losers.

The Horrors- Skying

England’s funniest haricuts drop their My Bloody Valentine obsession and replace it with a fuckton of Psychedelic Furs and Echo and The Bunnymen producing the best album to sit in your room and space out to in 2011.

Minks- By The Hedge

kids influenced by C86 and Head On The Door era Cure (and probably a little Belle & Sebastian too) make gothy dreampop twee masterpiece. let’s wear all black every single day and hate the world together forever.

Ty Segall- Goodbye Bread & Ty Rex

the current king of fuzz pop mellows out and dropped his best fucking record yet on our asses and just for kicks he did an EP of T.Rex covers too.

M83- Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

as a general rule i am not a fan of double albums. it’s probably because i’ve always believed less is more and also i’ve never really listened to any double album that i didn’t think could’ve been a better record minus about 5 songs and i feel the same way about this record. i also don’t think it’s nearly a good as Saturdays = Youth but M83 still does a better job than anyone of combining my love of Shoegaze and New Wave and turning it into a fake soundtrack for a French adaptation of a John Hughes movie.

The Icarus Line- Wildlife

i’m stuck inside of Los Angeles With The Punk Rock Blues Again.

Black Lips- Arabia Mountain

they might be one of the biggest indie rock bands around but they’ll always just be the kids who i booked at the 40 Watt that got banned for trying to burn their drum set on stage. this year they hooked up with Mark Ronson and took their sloppy garage punk sound and turned it into slick polished pop. a dance party for the end of the world. plus a song about Spiderman being molested as a little kid ends up being one of the best jams of the year. weird. disturbing. awesome.

Grape Soda- Form A Sign
The best band in Athens, GA make the most danceable party album of the year with nothing but spaced out organ and drums. Heavily energetic dub influenced indie pop. Joyous. Catchy. Fun.

Jacuzzi Boys- Glazin’

another solid album by one of the best power pop bands around. Plus they inspired some teenage girls to make the greatest NSFW music video in the history of the universe. Singing vaginas and it isn't even dirty.

Smith Westerns- Dye It Blonde

Chicago brats making pure glam pop. this album is the sound of my nuggets boxed set getting in a fight with my Smiths records. The songs Dance Away and All Die Young were two of the my songs of the year.

Kurt Vile- Smoke Ring For My Halo

every year needs some good sad bastard music. Kurt makes the saddest and it isn't in some weakass Bon Iver bullshit wa.

There were other notable artists who had a good song or two like Crystal Stilts reverbed out "through the floor" or Peaking Lights total fucking jam "All The Sun That Shines". Some other good music by Dead Ghosts, Woven Bones, Real Estate, Wild Nothing, Jeff The Brotherhood, Total Babes, Surf City, and Nobunny is worth checking out. If you have a Spotify then I recommend giving all these a listen. If you love rock n roll then there is still cool shit out there worth finding. Hell even the Black Keys, a band I think makes boring dad rock, put out an album that ain't half bad this year.


goodbye 2011. since the world is gonna end next year lets hope their are some fucking awesome albums in 2012.

Not The Best Of 2011

i typically do not like to talk shit about people’s music because it doesn’t really bother me what people listen to as long as they don’t make me listen to it but then there albums i was either a. looking forward to that totally let me down or b. are impossible to escape and drive me fucking crazy. these are the albums of 2011 that i didn’t care so much for.

The Strokes Angles
i have never apologized of my love for the Strokes. they make really solid pop music and they helped bring back an interest in 70s punk and jeans that actually fit. and i was so ready for this album to be my jam in 2011…but then i started reading the interviews and it became pretty obvious that even the Strokes thought this thing was a piece of shit. AND then it came out and i bought it anyways and FUCK does it suck. this is the sound of a band that doesn’t care about being a band anymore.

Dum Dum Girls Only In Dreams
i am not sure what happened with this band in the course of a year but i really fucking hate this overproduced piece of shit of an album that sounds like Wilson Phillips trying to sound like Mazzy Star.

Zola Jesus Contatus
i really like Zola Jesus. a lot. but after listening to this record i started to get the feeling she was just a one trick goth pony making the same record over and over again. it’s not that i don’t like this album so much as i don’t ever listen to this album after being super excited about it.

Jay Z/Kanyne West Watch The Throne
i used to really like both of these guys. Jay Z for his ability to produce solid jams and Kanye for his ability to be a crazy asshole that pissed everyone off like noone has since Axl Rose or Liam and Noel….but this album might as well have been called FUCK YOU WE ARE RICH AND FAMOUS AS HELL AND YOU WILL BUY THIS NO MATTER WHAT KID OF WEAK ASS SONGS THAT COULDN’T EVEN BE B-SIDES ON THE BLACK ALBUM WE PUT ON THIS SHIT.

Washed Out Within and Without
i get bored just thinking about this record. i know it isn’t Washed Out’s fault that dumbass music writers came up with Chillwave…but seriously fuck Chillwave. fuck any kind of waves that aren’t new or no.

Yuck Yuck
i love Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh too, but this album has exactly 1 good song.

Pains Of Being Pure at Heart Belong
everything that i loved about their debut is completely missing from this follow up. mostly the songs just suck.

Fucked Up David Comes To Life
quoting a friend, “Dude, it’s like Fugazi and Pink Floyd made an album together.” me, “that sounds like the worst fucking idea ever.”

Cults Cults
i really hate Ipod commercial bands.

Bon Iver Bon Iver
the literal most boring music ever made. this is Coldplay for people who say they hate Coldplay. i wish someone would burn this dude’s cabin down.

Radiohead The King Of Limbs
i get it. you guys hate making rock music. i just don’t care anymore.

Give Em The Muzak

80s hardcore/punk playlist

Bad Brains- Big Takeover (demo)
The Adolescents- Creatures
The Zero Boys- New Generation
Angry Samoans- You Stupid Asshole
The Dils- You’re Not Blank (So Baby We’re Through)
The Weirdos- Destroy All Music
The Germs- Richie Dagger’s Crime
Redd Kross- I’m Alright
Fear- Gimme Some Action
La Peste- I Don’t Wanna Die In My Sleep Tonight
45 Grave- Black Cross
Mutants- New Dark Ages
Crime- Frustration
Black Flag- Depression (demo)
Circle Jerks- Live Fast Die Young
The Fartz- How Long?
The Dicks- Wheelchair Epidemic
Fang- Landshark
Void- Summer Sucks
Negative Trend- Mercenaries
Saccharine Trust- I Am Right
The Nihilistics- Kill Yourself
Reagan Youth- Go Nowhere
The Rotters- Sit On My Face Stevie Nix
The Descendents- Suburban Home
Minutemen- Sickles and Hammers
Husker Du- In A Free Land
The Wipers- Tragedy
The Crucifucks- You Give Me The Creeps
Naked Raygun- Tojo
Henry Rollins- Ghost Rider
Samhain- All Murder, All Guts, All Fun

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Young Savage Rolling Stones, 1965