Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2010: my year in music


Taking a cue from a couple classmates' blogs, I'm going to make a little playlist of the songs that defined 2010 for me. This isn't a "Best of 2010" list; if you want one of those, I recommend Pitchfork or Rolling Stone.

January
My favorite local Green Bay Band, and a great group of guys at that. I was home last January and got the chance to see a couple Beach Patrol shows. They know how to rock a live show, whether outside the record store or in a dingy bar. Love Beach Patrol.

Another Wisconsin band. I bought their record while at home, and kept it on constant rotation for months. I really think Wisconsin has the best bands.

February
VW's album Contra was the first thing I ever reviewed for the OU Daily. I love this album and this song. It seems to me that it's about getting high and having a homosexual experience with a best friend, which gets a thumbs-up from me. Seriously though, this is a great song with a lot of really cool musical and lyrical elements.

Okay, this is kind of cheating, because this is my boyfriend's song. I chose it for February because after a year and a half of dating long-distance, Damien came to join me in Norman on Feb. 6! I'm also featured in this song, playing clarinet in the choruses. Damien is a great musician, and this song really shows what a fantastic songwriter he is.

March
"Salina" - The Avett Brothers

I saw the Avett Brothers for the 3rd time in March (and the 4th time in September!). Damien and I were afraid we couldn't get a ride, but our friend Aulbry was nice enough to let us use her car so we wouldn't be deprived of these wonderful tunes. "Salina" is one of my favorite Avett songs.

Right around this time was when I discovered The Tallest Man on Earth, a Swedish folkie who sounds like Bob Dylan and plays guitar beautifully. This is the first song of his I ever heard, and I fell in love.

April
The Beatles! I can't pick a single song. The Beatles have been my favorite band all my life. I was raised listening to them; my parents are fans too. Last spring I was taking a class on the Beatles, so listening to them was for pleasure and for academic reasons. If you don't already listen to the Beatles, you're missing out and should start immediately.

I listened to this an awful lot after The Blueprint 3 came out. The lyrics really define my life for the past few years. "Let's just stay in the moment, smoke some weed, drink some wine, reminisce, talk some shit, forever young is in your mind."

May
"Whataya Want From Me" - Adam Lambert

No explanation here, I just love this song! Great pop tune. I watched American Idol during the last season, for some ungodly reason, and when this performance happened, Damien and I were all, "OHMYGODDDD THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!"

"You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon
At the end of May, Damien and I took a road trip from Green Bay, WI to Norman, OK. We stopped in Indiana on the way to visit his mom, who is a huge Paul Simon fan. We listened to Graceland the whole time we were with her, and when Damien and I stopped at a hotel the next night, I downloaded some Paul Simon and we listened to it from Missouri to OK, and for the rest of the summer. This song never fails to get me happy.


June
In June, Damien and I were incredibly broke. I finally got a job in the middle of the month, but for the couple weeks preceding that, we were donating plasma and not eating very much at all. It was pretty pathetic. But music is free, and we are lucky enough to have a pretty big record collection!

"Duncan" - Paul Simon
A beautiful song that seems to be a bit lesser-known. I listened to this over and over again. It has this depressing feeling to it, which is probably why I liked it so much this summer, when life kinda sucked. The pan pipes on this song are absolutely gorgeous.


July/August
I'm being honest when I say that the rest of the summer was spent in a drunken haze with my friends listening/dancing to Ke$ha and Robyn pretty much exclusively. Feel free to judge; I barely remember it. So I know I had fun.

September/October
I started listening to pop hits of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some of my favorites include:
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - The Shirelles
"A Change is Gonna Come" - Sam Cooke
"This Magic Moment" - The Drifters
"God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys

Also, I turned 21, so clearly some more Ke$ha was in order.

In the middle of the month, I got the opportunity to interview Langhorne Slim, one of my favorite musicians. He performed at the Opolis, and afterwards, Damien and I got to meet him! He's a really cool, down-to-earth guy, not to mention super talented. "Restless" by Langhorne Slim remains one of my favorite songs, and was definitely a theme of October.

November
A devastating midterm election left me faithless in American society. Justice For All returned to campus with their enormous bloody-fetus pictures. Thanksgiving was lonely. November was an icky month.

But finding these a cappella Beach Boys tracks on YouTube really brightened the darkness!


Also, new Girl Talk came out with a free download. I love Girl Talk; there's no better party music. I actually wrote a pretty long post on my music blog about the new album and the general concept of Girl Talk.

December

Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. Do I need to say anything else? My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was pretty much unanimously the best album of the year. If you haven't heard it yet, do yourself a big favor and listen IMMEDIATELY. Don't even finish reading this post. Go listen to 'Ye.

If you're still reading this, I'm guessing you've heard the genius that is West's new album. It's artful and gorgeous, but for me, the album is made by Nicki Minaj's verse on "Monster." HOLY SHIT.

And that's my year in music!

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