Favorite Music of 2011

I have always wanted to do one of these.  I always read as many best of lists as I can get my hands on, just to see if there stuff I missed, so to finally have an outlet to bust out my own list-o-mania is kind of exciting.  But to be honest, it was like really, really hard.  I didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I tried to listen to as many albums as I could.  Pretty much anything that got a good review from multiple sources I put on my hard drive or on my Spotify; so that took forever.  But then actually sorting them came a new challenge.  On top of that I had a weird moment of self conscious doubt where I tried to shoehorn metal albums and more hip hop albums just so I could trick you into thinking I was more diverse, even though I don’t listen to a ton of hip hop (as mentioned last week) and significantly less metal.  In the end, I decided to just look over my album lists, finalize it, then suffer the slings and arrows when this is posted.  I also decided to use the word “favorite” instead of “best” because really, what makes something better other that you liked it more?  So without further hemming and hawing, here are my favorites.

My 35 Favorite Albums of 2011

(Okay a little more hemming and hawing. Finalized as of 12/20, but heck if you ask me on, say, 12/26 this might all change. I only included LP’s. No EP’s or my brain probably would’ve exploded from the added titles. The * means it is a local artist, and yeah Iowa bands maybe got a hometown bump because a) that’s where a lot of my focus is and b) I like stuff that also benefits my home. I also tend to grade things higher if it surprised me, for instance I really liked the new Foo Fighters, but it was a Foo Fighters album, you know? I got exactly what I expected from it.  Use the comments, my Twitter, my Facebook or my email to offer up stuff I missed, constructively disagree or I guess yell at me and call me an idiot if you‘re into that sort of thing (this is not as preferred as the constructive option).  Just don’t come at me with Radiohead or Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes. They were great, I just didn’t like them as much as these others, sorry.)

 

1.   Skye Carrasco – Dark Pines*

2.   Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – It’s A Corporate World

3.   Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines

4.   TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

5.   Fucked Up – David Comes to Light

6.   Poison Control Center – Stranger Ballet*

7.   White Lies – Ritual

8.   Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

9.   The Envy Corps – It Culls You*

10. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain

11. Fetal Pig – Autopia*

12. Panda Bear -  Tomboy

13. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

14. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

15. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital

16. Black Keys – El Camino

17. Childish Gambino – Camp

18. Mumford’s – Triple Trinities*

19. Big K.R.I.T. – Return of 4Eva

20. Radio Moscow – The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz*

21. Thee Oh Sees – Carion Crawler/ The Dream

22. Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong

23. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

24. Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine

25. BumRap – Median Risers*

26. Elizabeth Arynn – Drifter*

27. Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin

28. Justice – Audio, Visual, Disco.

29. Washed Out – Within and Without

30. Diamonds For Eyes – The Era of Our Ways*

31. Seryn – This is Where We Are

32. The River Monks – Jovials*

33. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints

34. Eleanor Friedberger – Last Summer

35. Destroyer – Kaputt

Top 15 Favorite Local Tracks of 2011 (No doubling up on artists, which made this kind of a hard choice from time to time)

1. The Envy Corps – Exchequer

2. Skye Carrasco – Empty Buckets

3. BumRap – Bite Your Tongue

4. Mantis Pincers – Berlin

5. Mumford’s – Father in the Sky

6. Rebel Creek – Taking Bullets (For You)

7. Wolfgang – To The Moon, Kid

8. Poison Control Center – Dracula’s Casket

9. Fetal Pig – The Dawning of Autopia

10. Diamonds For Eyes – The Art of Reinvention

11. Derek Lambert and the Prairie Fires – It Shines

12. Ladysoal – You

13. La Strange - Tick on My Brain

14. Gadema – Diplomatic

15. The River Monks  – Yellow Blue and Green

My 5 Favorite Des Moines (Area) Live Sets of 2011 (Non-80/35 because then most of these would be from 80/35.  Also, I’m sure there have just been a ton I wish I could’ve put here (Most recently Lydia Loveless). Stupid real life. And a ton I probably forgot about.  Stupid memory.)

1. Menomena – March 6 M-Shop

2. Matisyahu – July 6^th Simon Estes

3. Dick Prall – October 29^th Gas Lamp

4. Lollipop Factory – November 27^th Vaudeville Mews

5. Chris Ford & Patrick Tape Fleming/Christopher the Conquered – Dec 2 Des Moines Social Club

My 5 Favorite 80/35 Sets of 2011

1. Titus Andronicus

2. Yelawolf

3. Poison Control Center

4. Handsome Furs (I chose to watch them over Grace Potter, much to the chagrin of the people I went with.  I’m still right.)

5. Reverend Payton’s Big Damn Band

5 Local Acts That Will (Hopefully) Have New Albums in 2012 That We Should All Buy

1. Christopher the Conquered

2. Brent Houzenga

3. Maxilla Blue

4. North of Grand

5. Holy White Hounds

 

Try Not To Miss Shows – 12/22/11 – 1/1/12

Not a lot going on because of the holidays, and since I’m off next week figured I would throw in some New Year’s Eve happenings

Bonnie Finken – Gas Lamp 12/23 9pm

A Christmas Variety show from the super talented Bonnie Finken.  If you’re into holiday frivolity, check it out.

New Year’s Eve:

The Bash – Des Moines Social Club

Maxilla Blue, Poison Control Center, Rebel Creek and more.  This one is probably the most packed event possible.

Gas Lamp New Years Eve Bash – Gas Lamp

Bright Giant headlines, should be a fun rock show at a cool joint.

DJ Hogstyle and Nastanovich Holiday Shindig – Vaudeville Mews

Probably the event with arguably the most artistic credibility. Marc Hogan from the blog Des Noise as well as Spin Magazine and Pitchfork and Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich host a killer show.  Also, only $2.