It’s hard to share your love of music with anyone really. If you’ve been in the musical trenches for long enough, I hope that you’ve found someone who’s into a few of the bands that you’re into. That you’ve been to a concert or maybe a festival where you’ve had the joy of running into some old friends that you never knew felt the same way that you did about a band that you love.
In the long term, your time with music is solitary. It’s hard to keep a partner with you when you’re deep into the trail. Most turn back or veer off on their own.
I think that instead of my year-end list being a chance to show you my taste or a chance for us to discover that we have the same taste, I hope that my year end list shows that I am someone with diverse tastes that simultaneously don’t shy away from my identity or my upbringing.
Artists
1. R.E.M.
This isn’t my first year listening to R.E.M. but this is the first year that they make it anywhere near the top of my listening list. I tossed most of their albums onto my pile this year to get a better feel for their work outside of Chronic Town and Murmur.
In short, I have the same opinion as a lot of their other fans – R.E.M. is an all time great. None of their songs appear in my top 5 this year but my most listened-to track of theirs is World Leader Pretend from the Green Tour – Live in Greensboro, NC
2. Cities Aviv
I’m so glad that Cities Aviv shows up on this list ; He’s always experimenting and pushing himself.
3. Maritime
When I ended up in the hospital this year and had to get an MRI, the techs asked me what I wanted to hear while I was enclosed and they were lovely to find and to put on Maritime Live At Audiotree. I’ve been into these guys for a long time: I’ve driven across the Midwest to see them, they were nice enough to come on my old radio show…the only reason that they aren’t still #1 one this list is just that I’ve been listening to all of their stuff since 2004.
Later this year, I finally got into Davey von Bohlen’s older bands. I don’t think you’ll see any of them up here next year but it’s great to have found a kind of Pre-Maritime album with The Promise Ring’s Wood / Water
4. Title Fight
I don’t normally name Title Fight as one of my favorite bands but Title Fight is probably the most notable example of a co-worker Slacking me something that I simply couldn’t stop listening to. Grab any of their albums and discover what people mean when they talk about melodic post-hardcore.
5. Bob’s Burgers
If I was still in college, there’s a 50/50 chance that I’d be asked if Bob’s Burger’s place on this list means that my girlfriend has a small child. She doesn’t / we don’t – I just enjoy having fun with my music, sometimes (and I’m Tall Enough to Ride Your Heart.)
Songs
- 1. Suddenly Evaporate – Cities Aviv
“I showed up at the place where people go to hide they face and catch a taste of…”
How do I do justice to the song that I listened to the most this year? I can tell you that I really enjoy it. I can tell you that there are two Cities Aviv songs on this list and no R.E.M. tracks.
This is a song that presents a story being recalled and retold. Suddenly Evaporate does a great job of crystalizing reflection – a point in your life that you can’t go back to. He’s telling you where he was, what was going on, and how he felt. It’s not happy, it wasn’t permanent, and there’s nothing you can do to change it.
2. The Heart Is Attached – Miracle Legion
“There’s a gentle touch for those with loving arms; I’m Hoping for a hand to hold”
My parents have had cable my whole life which means I’ve seen a lot of Nickelodeon which means that, given my age, I’ve seen almost all of Pete and Pete. I couple of years back, I found out that the band that preformed a lot of music for the show, had released an album of their work ‘Polaris – Songs from the Adventures of Pete and Pete’
Probably while adding the album to my Spotify library, I saw that most of Polaris was made up of a Connecticut band called Miracle Legion. This year, I finally got around to diving-in. Polaris is a trip down memory lane – Miracle Legion’s 1984 record The Backyard shows how the band got that job
3. Act Up – Cities Aviv
“Act up! It’s my time
Spreading other facts , not another lie
Yo , what the fuck you think you talking bout?
We ride before you , we might stub you out”
4. Scared Straight – The Long Winters
“You’re faking, so I’m pretend sleeping-waiting for this to be fun”
One of my best friends has been a solid Long Winter’s fan for 20 years. During that period, I think our taste has gotten farther away and not closer together – which is why it’s taken me almost that whole time to sit down with the entirety of 2003’s When I Pretended to Fall. I can’t tell you that I’m a dyed in the wool fan of all of the band’s albums, but I can understand why this would have spoken to us acne-ridden and awkward budding creatives in high school.
5. Fruits of the Sprit – Jay Electronica
Jay and I do not share the same religious beliefs
The Ride's On Fire 