Best Albums :: 2014

Top 50 Songs :: 2014

I Might Survive by Architecture in Helsinki

"While we make a future for ourselves"

Can't Do Without You by Caribou
Live on Q (sans Jian)

You Are Your Mother's Child by Conor Oberst
"Life's a rollercoaster, keep your arms inside"

Now You Know My Name by The Derevolutions
Rio: not just for sporting events

Bother by Les Sins
"Can't you see?"

Homeless in Heathrow by Fartbarf
Maybe don't trust a flyer!?

New Calm, Part 2 by Ought
"ya that one, over there"

27 by Passenger
Go Hotdog Girl Go

Third Floor Rooftop High by The Woodentops
The Woodentops are back.. only 26 years later!!!

Alone And Blinded By The Fear

Running To The Sea by Röyksopp: Lyric video meets Guitar Hero. Never mind the cost of painting all that pavement, how do you get your headlights to sync up with the beat?!?!?!
 

Gimme! Murder

Used to be a sweet boy

Avril 14th

I Asked Myself For Peace

Singles by Future Islands... album of the year all sewn up baby!!!!

 

I'm a Suburban Homeboy

Image Overload

..wrapped up in a Sufjan Stevens side-project:
 

They Say I'm Like a Hero

Crazy people go round in circles in India...


Django Django - WOR from Jim Demuth on Vimeo.

How To Be A Werewolf

Long distance cycling champion and cape enthusiast James Bowthorpe pedals to Mogwai.. in Norway:


Thirty Century Man on Nowness.com

On a Piece of Wood I Go

Los Angeles at sunset w/ skateboarder and instrumental bliss courtesy Balmorhea..

As It Breaks, The Summer Awaits

Seasons (Waiting On You) by Future Islands

Possibly The Best Video Of The Year

Scottish instrumental band Mogwai add some vocoder/ make some lovely music..

 

A second-by-second run-through... lovely waves. where is this? MOGWAI!. love Mogwai; name of song... makes no sense. love it; on land now. tropical? yup; ooh excellent - silvery hooded woman walks lonely road; never seen that before!?! guy fidgets in room; likes masks apparently; smiley masks; baldy man walks strangely; its nighttime; freshly shaved head? silvery hooded woman still walking; no longer in middle of nowhere; videographer keeps his distance; gymnasts practicing; wtf? tropical, foggy, daylight scene; silvery hooded woman still walking; pretty sure this is Hawaii; her calfs are probably nicely developed; yup; masks! dude tries them on; gymnasts! stalked by freshly shaved-head guy; he looks angular; ex-gynmnast or freaky stalker? mask man walks in yard; pretends to speak into a non existent walkie talkie; ooh - eccentric mask guy; bamboo! what's he up to? gymnasts are spinning; mask raised to the sky on bamboo; mask man drives bamboo into ground by hand; strong, strong mask man; silvery hood woman finds barren, volcanic landscape; videographer gets arty; is she not tired? she should be wearing steel-toed boots; yes mask man, you're very strong, time for a new hat though; not-so-creepy masks on sticks; creepy, sweaty out-of-focus gymnasts; mask man shows off his unlit light bulb; it's dirty; gymnasts are making me dizzy; also, they're flat chested; ooh, close up of silvery woman sans hood; she's admiring a sunset; that's not a sunset! she's walking toward the non sunset; stay safe silvery non-hooded woman; fini.. bonus: a grave; in Africa?

Best Music :: 2013

1. (ALBUM) Wondrous Bughouse by Youth Lagoon; (VIDEO) Raspberry Cane by Youth Lagoon
non-sensical yet wondrous animated video...

2. (ALBUM) Free The Universe by Major Lazer; (SONG) Watch Out For This (Bumaye) by Major Lazer
and sales of neon coloured tights go through the roof...

3. (SONG) Something In My Heart by Röyksopp

4. (SONG) Fresh by Summer Camp

5. (SONG/ VIDEO) Gay Goth Scene by The Hidden Cameras
new album out in January; "gay goth scene" not-so-subtly focuses on bullying; song also features the slaughterhouse vocal stylings of Mary Margaret O'Hara - last heard dying on Morrissey's "November Spawned A Monster" . so that's lovely...

6. (SONG) Instant Crush by Daft Punk
You would think the combination of auto-tune and that boy from The Strokes would be nothing short of disaster but no... best song on the album..

7. (SONG) After The Afterlife by Cocorosie
"wet snails get wetter, crawling towards perfume"..?? oh well.. it's got a good groove>

8. (SONG) Holding On For Life by Broken Bells

9. (SONG) Home by Austra

10. (SONG) Sleepwalk With Me by Young Galaxy

11. (SONG) Bagboy by Pixies
A song about a bespeckled bagboy. but wait.. he's a bad bespeckled bagboy...

12. (SONG) Step by Vampire Weekend

13. (SONG) I Need Your Love by Calvin Harris (feat. Ellie Goulding)

14. (ALBUM) Yes, It's True. by The Polyphonic Spree

15. (SONG) Metroland by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Further Coolness (songs):
Mira by Baio
Pyrakantha by Balmorhea
Defiant Order by Birdy Nam Nam
Now Is Not The Time by Chvrches
I Can Hardly Make You Mine by Cults
We Found That Beat by The Derevolutions
A Stone In The Ground by Fainting By Numbers
Living, Loving, Partygoing by Future Bible Heroes
Pursuit by Gesaffelstein
Play Hard by David Guetta (ft Akon & Ne-Yo)
Lying To You by Keaton Henson
Full Of Fire by The Knife
And The Birds by Light Heat
Just Make It Stop by Low
Oblivion by M83
So Good To Me by Chris Malinchak
Anthem For a Lost Cause by Manic Street Preachers
Alien Days by MGMT
Remurdered by Mogwai
Toothwheels by múm
Sugarcane by New Order
Lifetime by Noah And The Whale
After You by Pulp
Ísjaki by Sigur Rós
Never Run Away by Kurt Vile
Don't Give Up by Washed Out
Despair by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Friend by You Say Party!

RIP = Legend

La cocaina no Es buena Para su salud

English children's choir gets Crystal Castles' "Untrust Us" pretty much perfect/ tell themselves over and over "the cocaine is not good for you."

We're Up All Night To Get Lucky

Low :: Just Make It Stop
Pure beauty from Low:



Daft Punk ::
The May 21st album release could not come soon enough...


David Guetta :: Play Hard
There is so much coolness going on here that by the time fireworks start shooting out of those boots, well, never has something so strange been so expected!



Keaton Henson :: Lying To You
Great tune, longest legs ever, interesting jacket adornment...
(also: Keaton's contender for saddest-video-ever)


and it's...
Gonna Be Alright ::

Words Are Useless Here

New favorite band... CHVRCHES! Hard to spell, easy to love. The Glasgow electrosynth band has about five songs to their name so... NEXT. BIG. THING!

How's it supposed to feel?