My Favorite Albums of 2012

I can't call them the "best albums of 2012" because as high an opinion as I hold of my own opinions, "best" is obviously pretty subjective.  So instead, I present to you, dear listener, a playlist of songs from  some of my favorite albums released in 2012.

Enjoy!

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2012 Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck

People have asked me over the years, "why does a nice atheist Jewish boy like you love Christmas music so much?"  To that I have several answers, but here's 3:
1)  About 60% of all holiday music [Editor's note: percentage not determined via any remotely scientific method] is different versions of the same song.  I love cover songs for the way that a good cover can bring out what is unique about a band's sound.  So it's not a big leap that I would really love hearing a bunch of different bands/composers/etc. all try their hands at the same handful of songs.
2)  If you're going to imply that a Jew can't love Christmas music, you should probably tell that to the Jews who wrote many of the Christmas songs that are so famous today.
3)  Most of these songs are not about Christmas.  Seriously, why do the goyim get a monopoly on riding in a one-horse sleigh?  Or letting it snow?  Or walking through a winter wonderland?  Or date-raping your girlfriend when it's cold outside?
So I guess my point is, music is music, and good music is where you find it.  And this music is good.
What are you listening to his holiday season?  Tell me in the comments, and have a happy pagan December holiday!

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Friday Playlist, Monday Edition: Menomena Is Great

I saw Portland OR's Menomena in concert last week, and they were incredible.  It was my 4th time seeing them live (in order, at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC, the Black Cat in DC, Webster Hall in NYC, and last week at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC), and they never fail to put on a great show.  The encore could have been a bit stronger last week, but that's nitpicking.  They even pulled up a fan from the crowd who was dancing like a maniac to every song (it was clear this guy knew every drum hit, every change, every note) and let him dance up on stage with them during a song.  Pretty cool.

Despite losing a member shortly after the release of their last album (Brent Knopf left to focus full-time on the awesome Ramona Falls), Menomena went on to write and record "Moms" (which you can stream here), their first as a duo instead of a trio.  The album is dark and personal and really good and you should buy it.

Menomena at the Bowery Ballroom 10/11/12

I've been meaning to put together a Menomena playlist for a while now, and last week's concert finally gave me the nudge I needed.  Enjoy!

Just the FLACs, Please.

2 bands I like are releasing new albums shortly:  Brooklyn's Yeasayer and Portland's Menomena.  This is awesome.  In fact, it's so awesome that I went off to go and pre-order both albums.  "It's 2012," I thought to myself, "surely each band will offer me a lossless audio download option for their new albums.  Won't that be nice?"

And then cold, hard reality set in.  Menomena offers a cool t-shirt, a vinyl pressing, and a CD.  That's it.  Yeasayer offers a big deluxe bundle, a CD + a couple MP3s, an LP + a couple MP3s, and an even bigger deluxe bundle.  Neither of them offers a download-only option.  Neither of them is selling through Bandcamp or a similar service.  Neither of them, in short, is catering to me or others like me who truly want to support bands they love, but are not interested in paying an extra $3.60 (for example) for shipping and handling.

And so, bands, I implore you: please give me a download-only, lossless-audio option for your albums!  I will download them.  I will not share them illegally.  I will even promote them on my blog to all 5 of my readers.  Pretty please?  

My plaintive cry to this effect was retweeted by Menomena themselves, and subsequently by many others - telling me I'm not the only one who feels this way.  So maybe, one day soon, things will change. In the meantime, you can check out an awesome track from the new Menomena album here, and you can stream the entirety of the new Yeasayer album here, thanks to the good folks at NPR Music.

Monday Playlist: Another Rainy Day

Raindrops on Vine Maple by flickr user Chris R Roberts

It's a beautiful rainy summer day here as I type this, so I figured it was a perfect time to add a new entry to my series of rainy day playlists.

I don't usually go for so many songs about rain, as opposed to songs that just feel right on a rainy day, but that's just how my brain was working today.

Rainy days are my absolute favorite kind of days (well, I guess I'd put them behind snowy days, but those are so rare I can't count on them), and I've been lucky to have a lot of them so far this summer.  They are also, of course, perfect scotch weather.

Enjoy!

A couple notes on these, no need to detail every song:

• I debated putting on Tom Waits's "Rain Dogs" instead, but I think this song fits better with a rainy day.
• "Raining in Brooklyn" is by me - I wrote it last year as part of FAWM.  It was the last song I wrote, and I did it on my birthday as a gift to myself.  I love it, but it's not 100% done...so think of it more as a sketch than a full song.
• I don't know if this is my favorite version of Phish's "Divided Sky," but it is a nicely mastered version because it's from an official release.  My favorite might be the first one I heard in person, at Merriweather Post Pavilion (truly a terrible place) at my first Phish show ever (I think) in 1999.