Here it is, my definitive playlist of 2011.
- British Sea Power – Who’s In Control
- Yuck – The Wall
- Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
- Stricken City – Losing Colour
- The Chemical Brothers – Hanna’s Theme
- Little Dragon – Ritual Union
- Ringo DeathStarr – Kaleidoscope
- Anna Calvi – Blackout
- Those Dancing Days – I’ll Be Yours
- jj – The End
- Childish Gambino – Freaks and Geeks
- Lana Del Rey – Video Games
- Smith Westerns – Weekend
- St. Vincent – Cruel
- College – A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth)
- Summer Camp – Losing My Mind
- Big Deal – Talk
- Radiohead – The Daily Mail
- The Joy Formidable – I Don’t Want To See You Like This
- Ghostpoet – Survive It
- Basement Jaxx – The Ends
Some fun facts:
Returning bands from last year: jj, Stricken City, and Summer Camp
Tracks from Movie Soundtracks, 3: Chemical Brothers (Hanna), College (Drive), Basement Jaxx (Attack the Block)
Tracks from Bands I’ve seen live, 7: British Sea Power (Best Concert of my life?), Yuck (SXSW 2011), Stricken City (SXSW 2010), Childish Gambino (FFF 2011), Summer Camp (SXSW 2011), Radiohead (Starplex 2008), The Joy Formidable (SXSW 2011, FFF 2011)
Tracks from Bands that I was supposed to see live at SXSW 2011, but did not because of some reason, 2: Anna Calvi (broken arm), Those Dancing Days (visa issues)
Nationality breakdown: 12 – UK, 5 – US, 3 – Sweden, 1 – France
Track Notes:
British Sea Power’s Who’s In Control was chosen because it’s the perfect anthem for the year that is 2011.
I think about Stricken City breaking up and still feel a bit sad. I was lucky to see them at SXSW 2010. I have to thank Long for suggesting that we go to SXSW for the day, and me for tricking him to go see Stricken City because they played right before Soko (French singer that he loves ever so much). Stricken City should’ve taken over the world.
jj didn’t release an album this year, but this track did appear on their blog this year. That’s how much I like jj.
I think Childish Gambino might have peaked with his EP. I’ve listened to Camp, and nothing really grabbed me.
A lot has been said about the authenticity of Lana Del Rey, but you can ignore that because Video Games remains an epic track. Everything else she’s released so far has been kinda mediocre.
Fun Fact, St. Vincent is my age and grew up in Dallas, graduating from Lake Highlands in 2001. Kinda neat.
Radiohead’s track is not from their disappointing King of Limbs, but rather their From the Basement live cd. If you were disappointed by King of Limbs like I was, give the From the Basement version a try. It’s not a bad album.
I saw The Joy Formidable the most out of any band this year, 3 times. Twice at SXSW and then at Fun Fun Fun Fest. I’ll never get tired of their live antics.
I saw Ghostpoet while I was in Melbourne for business. I’m really glad I went. It was really fun to go to a show in another country. The venue was a small room behind the bar, Northcote Social Club. I really liked the venue. It was on the main street of this suburb of Melbourne. It felt real. Traveling to the venue was a great experience too. I had not taken the Melbourne tram out of the city proper before. And then I had to leave the bar at 11:30 so I could catch the last tram back to the city. It gave me a taste of what living in a cool city could be like. After the show, I ended up telling Ghostpoet that I had flew all the way from Dallas to see him. He was surprised. Then I waited a beat before saying really I was there for business. He still thanked me for coming out.