The 2013 Lists
TOP 6 MOVIES OF 2013, OR, EVERY MOVIE I SAW IN A THEATER, RANKED:
Special honorary Number 1 spot to Jurassic Park in 3-D.
1. The Hunger Games 2
2. Gravity
3. The World's End
4. In A World...
5. The Great Gatsby
6. The Heat
Are these really the only movies I've seen in a theater this year?? Yes.
Top 20 Netflix Rentals
Netflix only shows the last few months of Instant Viewing activity, and I can't remember everything I watched this year, so I'm probably missing a bunch of movies.
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Top Of The Lake
3. Take Shelter
4. Orange Is the New Black: Season 1
5. Adventure Time: Season 1
6. Moon
7. Robot & Frank
8. Grabbers
9. Shotgun Stories
10. Whisker Wars: Season 2
11. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
12. The American Scream
13. Extreme Cheapskates: Season 1
14. Delocated: Season 1
15. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
16. Eastbound & Down: Season 3
17. Spring Breakers
18. Workaholics: Season 3
19. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
20. 56 Up
21. Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Top 14 Songs of 2013
Suicide - "Frankie Teardrop"
This song started out as the terrifying source of all those "Frankie Teardrop Challenge" stories on the Best Show on WFMU. But once Tom Scharpling started incorporating it into his weekly audio collage, I will forever associate it with Andy Kindler doing an impression of Pig Pen, Chuck Woolery talking about catheters, and Chris Hardwick pandering to nerds. Long Live The Best Show on WFMU.
John Wizards - "iYongwe" aka "Jacob's Ladder"
I could list a bunch of John Wizards songs here, but this is the thing that struck me. Three minutes into their mixtape, when the guitar kicks into what would become "iYongwe" on the album, they had me. I am defenseless against this.
Dur-Dur Band - "Dooyo"
Funk.
The Lonely Island - "YOLO"
I'm so glad The Lonely Island made this. I know it's a joke, but it's also kind of a serious reply to the "live life to the extreme" version of YOLO. It's like, you only get one life, so don't fuck it up. Be responsible.
Shugo Tokumaru - "Katachi"
CLASSIXX - "Holding On"
Listening to this album made my drive through dairy country to the Thousand Islands this year more enjoyable than usual. I think I even repeated this song.
TiSM - "Greg! The Stop Sign!" or "If You're Not Famous At Fourteen, You're Finished"
I went on a big TISM kick this year, even though they disbanded something like 10 years ago. One of these songs is my favorite. I put "Fourteen" on a bunch of mix CDs this year and listened to it countless times. But the verses on "Greg!" are so fun, and the harmonies!
Charli XCX - "Superlove"
Okay, I think this is a genuine guilty pleasure. I never feel guilty for liking any music, but I only heard this song because I watched the video, and I only watched the video because the girl in it looked hot. I'm guilty! Apparently Charli is in Icono Pop(?) and is the one who sings "I don't care, I love it," so she has serious pop credentials. I don't know, this is just a great pop song. The staccato vocals in the chorus are irresistible.
Lazarus Kgagudi - "This Place Is Boring"
Pulled from a mix made by John Withers (see John Wizards above), Lazarus seems to be a mostly forgotten Soweto singer. This song has an awesome 80s groove, and hilarious title. It's also some kind of travesty that I'm not allowed to buy his old albums on iTunes (you can only if youlive in South Africa), or anywhere else for that matter. I thought all music was always available now, regardless of geographic boundaries. But it seems some good stuff is still out there waiting just beyond my grasp.
Neko Case - "Man"
Neko's so cool.
CHVRCHES - "The Mother We Share"
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Invader Invader"
Japanese pop can be so inscrutable, but I like imagining that there's a Polysics influence in this.
Cate Le Bon - "Are You With Me Now?"
Top 17 Albums of 2013
1. John Wizards - John Wizards
1a. John Wizards Mixtape 1
I listened to the John Wizards mixtape untold numbers of times, but I don't think I was able to fully put my finger on what I find so appealing about them until I heard the finished album. I knew the mixtape was fun, unique, combined electronic music with South African rhythms and had a weird reverse Vampire Weekend influence, but it wasn't until the full album that I realized that this really is pastiche pop. It's Beck's Odelay, or Corelius' Fantasma, or The Avalances' Since I Left You, just in another country. I was so busy being distracted by the otherness of it I didn't recognize its direct corrolaries that I already loved.
2. Shugo Tokumaru - In Focus
This guy is (or was) a bedroom pop musician who takes an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. I'm not sure if he's still in his bedroom, but this is his best album.
3. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Nanda Collection
I don't know how much of my incredible adoration of this record is tied up in nice memories. I first listened to it while on an airplane heading for a great vacation, partly in business class. Of course, I've always had a soft spot for Japanese pop, but not their pop idols, a club which Kyary is probably the oddest member of. Even without the incredible visual component of her music videos, I really love this album. It's ear candy. Is that bad? Is this music for little girls? Is it acceptable for me to even like this? Well, it was bound to happen. I like ridiculous foreign music most people would find incredibly annoying. And if Kyary's lyrics were in English, I'd probably throw up.
4. Dur Dur Band - Dur Dur Volume 5
I could not have dreamed up this album: Funk music from Mogadishu, Ethiopia in the 1980s. The descriptions ounds like a punchline, but the music sounds like a party. This album is so solid.
5. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Probably my third favorite of the Vampire Weekend albums, but still really good. I love that this band, who can make a single like "Diane Young," is so popular.
6. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
Puts me in the mind of Pavement, obviously, but also Coma Cinema, the guy who has albums of short, sloppy, catchy rock.
7. The Spinto Band - Cool Cocoon
These kids make it look effortless.
8. CLASSIXX - Hanging Gardens
I keep going back to this one, especially the first half. It will hold up well.
9. Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum
10. They Might Be Giants - Nanobots
It's that same old problem I have listening to a new They Might Be Giants albums. The old albums are so perfectly ingrained in my head, that I find it difficult to approach the not-perfect new stuff without being dismissive. But I can say Nanobots is one of the more interesting albums they've made in years, and for me might be second only to The Spine in terms of post-2000 TMBG output. TMBG has always been great at portraying a paranoia in their lyrics, but where the old albums had songs about the ringing bells controlling people's minds and dirt bikes taking over a town, the new TMBG is paranoid in the real world: Tiny robot drones, secret government operatives, the NSA. The paranoia is now only slightly removed from reality. Combine these themes with some classic Linnell-ian body horror/humor (A direct line can be drawn between 1996's "Till My Head Falls Off" and Nanobots' "You're On Fire") and bizarre character portrayls ("Call You Mom"), and peppy music that belies the darkness of the lyrics, and you have an album that I think mechanically resembles a TMBG album of old.
11. Churches - The Bones Of What You Believe
They've got a cool formula that works. Depche Mode + Female vocalist.
12. Big Dipper - Crashes On The Platinum Planet
13. The Lonely Island - The Wack Album
14. Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
15. Kanye West - Yeezus
I loved his last two albums, and was excited for this one. Kanye is a really interesting performer, but this one just doesn't do it for me. Also, I'm not buying the sudden anti-consumerist stance. It's great to push that into the conversation, "New Slaves" and all that, but I'm sure this guy's sunglasses don't cost less than $300.
16. Janelle Monae - Electric Lady
17. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
I've never fully been on the Daft Punk bandwagon. Although I think the first half Discovery is totally perfect, they tend towards these ponderously long dance tracks I have no interest in. Just like when I wrote a scathing review of Homework when I was 16, Random Access Memories has the same problem for me: It's just dull. The single is obviously great, but the rest is so perfectly pristinely recorded and arranged so that not one note is out of place, that it's just boring.
A couple music videos
"Katachi"
"If You're Not Famous At Fourteen"
I know this is old, but I've never seen it before, and it's marvelous. It's so mean-spirited, and I kind of feel bad for the kids who clearly don't know what they're auditioning for. TISM comment and fast-forward through their own song at one point.
"Thunderbirds Are Coming Out"
It's fun! I went into this thinking all of the bands were fake. Turns out these were real bands in Melbourne at the time, as unbelievable as some of them are. Oh well!
"I'm All You're Waiting For"
Along with the absurd luxury of it all, weirdly what I love most about this video is that the camera is fixed to the boat in every shot, and you can see the ocean bobbing up and down. That ocean is funky.
"You're On Fire"
So when I was watching Orange Is The New Black and corrections officer Fischer first showed up, I thought "She looks like a They Might Be Giants fan." Hey, I can spot my own kind. Plus I'm allowed to stereotype TMBG fans because I am one! ... Anyway, she's in TMBG's video here so maybe I'm right?
Also, I binge watched every Kyary Pamyu Pamyu video this year. Just YouTube them. But here's my favorite.
Great Albums not from this year
Scott Walker - Scotts 1-4 - I can't decide on just one. After being obsessed by "The Old Man's Back Again" from hearing it on Do OR DIY, I went through Scott Walker's solo discography and it's pretty amazing. The arrangements so cool, the lyrics so weird, and even though I don't normally care if a singer is any good or not, I could listen to Walker sing all day.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic - Though I downloaded it a year or two ago, I only got around to really listening to it this year. It's a gorgeous, murky, sort of dreamy synthpop album.
Jai Paul - That Weird Unfinished Album Paul Refuses To Take Credit For Making
I only just listened to this so can't really rank it. I liked that one song "BTSTU" alright. But I'm only just now listening to the "full" "album" or whatever this thing is that was uploaded unauthorized to Bamdcamp and might or might not entirely be by Jai Paul. Anyway, "BTSTU" is even more interesting in the context of the full album.
Greatest Musical Moments
When the guitar kicks in on "iYongwe" by John Wizards.
Kyary Pamyo Panyu's "Invader Invader" either when she says "Woah woah woah yay yay yay" or when the mock Skrillex section comes up.
In the chorus of the Melodysheep song "The Wildest Things in The World" when snake-harrasser Steven Irwin yells "Woo!"
Worst Misheard Lyric
At 1:40 in CHVRCHES' "Gun," all I can hear is "You stuck in the knife that you held up my butt."
Greatest Live Music Moment
I checked off another one of the Bands I Must See Before I Die by seeing The New Pornographers at the CNE. If there was a greatest single moment in the show, it was the fact that Dan Bejar, dressed in his typical white shirt and bed hair, appeared on stage only for the songs he wrote, and one time almost didn't appear at all, confirming my suspicions that Dan Bejar is lazy. It was also awesome to hear The Voice, if you know what I mean, from Kaputt, the best album of 2011. I shouldn't also have to mention the thrill of seeing A.C. Newman, Canada's and now the Hudson Valley's greatest living songwriter. If only Neko Case was there! She's so cool (see above).
Top 20 Artists On My Audioscrobbler
1. John Wizards - 340
2. TISM - 312
3. Scott Walker - 306
4. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - 274
5. Classixx - 201
6. Penguin Cafe Orchestra - 187
7. They Might Be Giants - 169
8. Shugo Tokumaru - 140
9. CHVRCHES - 119
10. Vampire Weekend - 117
11. The Monks - 114
12. Memory Tapes - 110
13. The Lonely Island - 107
14. Partquet Courts - 106
15. The New Pornographers - 103
16. Nina Nastasia - 89
17. A.C. Newman - 86
18. Daft Punk - 83
19. Sufjan Stevens - 72
20. The Spinto Band - 70
Top 20 Songs On My Audioscrobbler
1. TISM - "If You're Not Famous At Fourteen" - 66
2. Hollywood Persuaders - "Drums A-Go-Go" - 49
3. Wu Ma - "Do Do Do" - 41
4. John Wizards - "Lusaka By Night" - 39
5. CLASSIXX - "All You're Waiting For" - 32
6. Pogo - "Bloom" - 31
6. John Wizards - "Muizenberg" - 31
6. Shugo Tokumaru - "Katachi" - 31
6. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Invader Invader" - 31
10. John Wizards - "Tet Lek Schrempf" - 30
10. John Wizards - "Jacobs Ladder/Freakness" - 30
12. CLASSIXX - "Holding On" - 29
12. CLASSIXX - "Hanging Gardens" - 29
14. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Fashion Monster" - 28
14. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Mi" - 28
16. Goodbye The Band - "Amazing Marsheen" - 27
16. Memory Tapes - "Pink Stones" - 27
16. Shugo Tokumaru - "Circle" - 27
19. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Kimini 100%" - 26
20. TISM - "Greg! The Stop Sign!" - 25
Eleven Books I Read This Year In Rough Order of Preference
Erik Larson - "The Devil in the White City"
Haldor Laxness - "Independent People"
Lawrence Wright - "Going Clear"
Nathaniel Philbrick - "In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex"
Mary Roach - "Gulp"
Emma Donahue - "Room"
Knut Hamsun - "Hunger"
Joanthan Lethem - "Men & Cartoons"
Robin Cooper - "The Timewaster Letters"
Terry Ryan - "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio"
Bruce Campbell - "If Chins Could Kill"
Special honorary Number 1 spot to Jurassic Park in 3-D.
1. The Hunger Games 2
2. Gravity
3. The World's End
4. In A World...
5. The Great Gatsby
6. The Heat
Are these really the only movies I've seen in a theater this year?? Yes.
Top 20 Netflix Rentals
Netflix only shows the last few months of Instant Viewing activity, and I can't remember everything I watched this year, so I'm probably missing a bunch of movies.
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Top Of The Lake
3. Take Shelter
4. Orange Is the New Black: Season 1
5. Adventure Time: Season 1
6. Moon
7. Robot & Frank
8. Grabbers
9. Shotgun Stories
10. Whisker Wars: Season 2
11. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
12. The American Scream
13. Extreme Cheapskates: Season 1
14. Delocated: Season 1
15. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
16. Eastbound & Down: Season 3
17. Spring Breakers
18. Workaholics: Season 3
19. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
20. 56 Up
21. Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Top 14 Songs of 2013
Suicide - "Frankie Teardrop"
This song started out as the terrifying source of all those "Frankie Teardrop Challenge" stories on the Best Show on WFMU. But once Tom Scharpling started incorporating it into his weekly audio collage, I will forever associate it with Andy Kindler doing an impression of Pig Pen, Chuck Woolery talking about catheters, and Chris Hardwick pandering to nerds. Long Live The Best Show on WFMU.
John Wizards - "iYongwe" aka "Jacob's Ladder"
I could list a bunch of John Wizards songs here, but this is the thing that struck me. Three minutes into their mixtape, when the guitar kicks into what would become "iYongwe" on the album, they had me. I am defenseless against this.
Dur-Dur Band - "Dooyo"
Funk.
The Lonely Island - "YOLO"
I'm so glad The Lonely Island made this. I know it's a joke, but it's also kind of a serious reply to the "live life to the extreme" version of YOLO. It's like, you only get one life, so don't fuck it up. Be responsible.
Shugo Tokumaru - "Katachi"
CLASSIXX - "Holding On"
Listening to this album made my drive through dairy country to the Thousand Islands this year more enjoyable than usual. I think I even repeated this song.
TiSM - "Greg! The Stop Sign!" or "If You're Not Famous At Fourteen, You're Finished"
I went on a big TISM kick this year, even though they disbanded something like 10 years ago. One of these songs is my favorite. I put "Fourteen" on a bunch of mix CDs this year and listened to it countless times. But the verses on "Greg!" are so fun, and the harmonies!
Charli XCX - "Superlove"
Okay, I think this is a genuine guilty pleasure. I never feel guilty for liking any music, but I only heard this song because I watched the video, and I only watched the video because the girl in it looked hot. I'm guilty! Apparently Charli is in Icono Pop(?) and is the one who sings "I don't care, I love it," so she has serious pop credentials. I don't know, this is just a great pop song. The staccato vocals in the chorus are irresistible.
Lazarus Kgagudi - "This Place Is Boring"
Pulled from a mix made by John Withers (see John Wizards above), Lazarus seems to be a mostly forgotten Soweto singer. This song has an awesome 80s groove, and hilarious title. It's also some kind of travesty that I'm not allowed to buy his old albums on iTunes (you can only if youlive in South Africa), or anywhere else for that matter. I thought all music was always available now, regardless of geographic boundaries. But it seems some good stuff is still out there waiting just beyond my grasp.
Neko Case - "Man"
Neko's so cool.
CHVRCHES - "The Mother We Share"
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Invader Invader"
Japanese pop can be so inscrutable, but I like imagining that there's a Polysics influence in this.
Cate Le Bon - "Are You With Me Now?"
Top 17 Albums of 2013
1. John Wizards - John Wizards
1a. John Wizards Mixtape 1
I listened to the John Wizards mixtape untold numbers of times, but I don't think I was able to fully put my finger on what I find so appealing about them until I heard the finished album. I knew the mixtape was fun, unique, combined electronic music with South African rhythms and had a weird reverse Vampire Weekend influence, but it wasn't until the full album that I realized that this really is pastiche pop. It's Beck's Odelay, or Corelius' Fantasma, or The Avalances' Since I Left You, just in another country. I was so busy being distracted by the otherness of it I didn't recognize its direct corrolaries that I already loved.
2. Shugo Tokumaru - In Focus
This guy is (or was) a bedroom pop musician who takes an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. I'm not sure if he's still in his bedroom, but this is his best album.
3. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Nanda Collection
I don't know how much of my incredible adoration of this record is tied up in nice memories. I first listened to it while on an airplane heading for a great vacation, partly in business class. Of course, I've always had a soft spot for Japanese pop, but not their pop idols, a club which Kyary is probably the oddest member of. Even without the incredible visual component of her music videos, I really love this album. It's ear candy. Is that bad? Is this music for little girls? Is it acceptable for me to even like this? Well, it was bound to happen. I like ridiculous foreign music most people would find incredibly annoying. And if Kyary's lyrics were in English, I'd probably throw up.
4. Dur Dur Band - Dur Dur Volume 5
I could not have dreamed up this album: Funk music from Mogadishu, Ethiopia in the 1980s. The descriptions ounds like a punchline, but the music sounds like a party. This album is so solid.
5. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Probably my third favorite of the Vampire Weekend albums, but still really good. I love that this band, who can make a single like "Diane Young," is so popular.
6. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
Puts me in the mind of Pavement, obviously, but also Coma Cinema, the guy who has albums of short, sloppy, catchy rock.
7. The Spinto Band - Cool Cocoon
These kids make it look effortless.
8. CLASSIXX - Hanging Gardens
I keep going back to this one, especially the first half. It will hold up well.
9. Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum
10. They Might Be Giants - Nanobots
It's that same old problem I have listening to a new They Might Be Giants albums. The old albums are so perfectly ingrained in my head, that I find it difficult to approach the not-perfect new stuff without being dismissive. But I can say Nanobots is one of the more interesting albums they've made in years, and for me might be second only to The Spine in terms of post-2000 TMBG output. TMBG has always been great at portraying a paranoia in their lyrics, but where the old albums had songs about the ringing bells controlling people's minds and dirt bikes taking over a town, the new TMBG is paranoid in the real world: Tiny robot drones, secret government operatives, the NSA. The paranoia is now only slightly removed from reality. Combine these themes with some classic Linnell-ian body horror/humor (A direct line can be drawn between 1996's "Till My Head Falls Off" and Nanobots' "You're On Fire") and bizarre character portrayls ("Call You Mom"), and peppy music that belies the darkness of the lyrics, and you have an album that I think mechanically resembles a TMBG album of old.
11. Churches - The Bones Of What You Believe
They've got a cool formula that works. Depche Mode + Female vocalist.
12. Big Dipper - Crashes On The Platinum Planet
13. The Lonely Island - The Wack Album
14. Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
15. Kanye West - Yeezus
I loved his last two albums, and was excited for this one. Kanye is a really interesting performer, but this one just doesn't do it for me. Also, I'm not buying the sudden anti-consumerist stance. It's great to push that into the conversation, "New Slaves" and all that, but I'm sure this guy's sunglasses don't cost less than $300.
16. Janelle Monae - Electric Lady
17. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
I've never fully been on the Daft Punk bandwagon. Although I think the first half Discovery is totally perfect, they tend towards these ponderously long dance tracks I have no interest in. Just like when I wrote a scathing review of Homework when I was 16, Random Access Memories has the same problem for me: It's just dull. The single is obviously great, but the rest is so perfectly pristinely recorded and arranged so that not one note is out of place, that it's just boring.
A couple music videos
"Katachi"
Click to view"If You're Not Famous At Fourteen"
I know this is old, but I've never seen it before, and it's marvelous. It's so mean-spirited, and I kind of feel bad for the kids who clearly don't know what they're auditioning for. TISM comment and fast-forward through their own song at one point.
"Thunderbirds Are Coming Out"
It's fun! I went into this thinking all of the bands were fake. Turns out these were real bands in Melbourne at the time, as unbelievable as some of them are. Oh well!
"I'm All You're Waiting For"
Along with the absurd luxury of it all, weirdly what I love most about this video is that the camera is fixed to the boat in every shot, and you can see the ocean bobbing up and down. That ocean is funky.
"You're On Fire"
So when I was watching Orange Is The New Black and corrections officer Fischer first showed up, I thought "She looks like a They Might Be Giants fan." Hey, I can spot my own kind. Plus I'm allowed to stereotype TMBG fans because I am one! ... Anyway, she's in TMBG's video here so maybe I'm right?
Also, I binge watched every Kyary Pamyu Pamyu video this year. Just YouTube them. But here's my favorite.
Great Albums not from this year
Scott Walker - Scotts 1-4 - I can't decide on just one. After being obsessed by "The Old Man's Back Again" from hearing it on Do OR DIY, I went through Scott Walker's solo discography and it's pretty amazing. The arrangements so cool, the lyrics so weird, and even though I don't normally care if a singer is any good or not, I could listen to Walker sing all day.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic - Though I downloaded it a year or two ago, I only got around to really listening to it this year. It's a gorgeous, murky, sort of dreamy synthpop album.
Jai Paul - That Weird Unfinished Album Paul Refuses To Take Credit For Making
I only just listened to this so can't really rank it. I liked that one song "BTSTU" alright. But I'm only just now listening to the "full" "album" or whatever this thing is that was uploaded unauthorized to Bamdcamp and might or might not entirely be by Jai Paul. Anyway, "BTSTU" is even more interesting in the context of the full album.
Greatest Musical Moments
When the guitar kicks in on "iYongwe" by John Wizards.
Kyary Pamyo Panyu's "Invader Invader" either when she says "Woah woah woah yay yay yay" or when the mock Skrillex section comes up.
In the chorus of the Melodysheep song "The Wildest Things in The World" when snake-harrasser Steven Irwin yells "Woo!"
Worst Misheard Lyric
At 1:40 in CHVRCHES' "Gun," all I can hear is "You stuck in the knife that you held up my butt."
Greatest Live Music Moment
I checked off another one of the Bands I Must See Before I Die by seeing The New Pornographers at the CNE. If there was a greatest single moment in the show, it was the fact that Dan Bejar, dressed in his typical white shirt and bed hair, appeared on stage only for the songs he wrote, and one time almost didn't appear at all, confirming my suspicions that Dan Bejar is lazy. It was also awesome to hear The Voice, if you know what I mean, from Kaputt, the best album of 2011. I shouldn't also have to mention the thrill of seeing A.C. Newman, Canada's and now the Hudson Valley's greatest living songwriter. If only Neko Case was there! She's so cool (see above).
Top 20 Artists On My Audioscrobbler
1. John Wizards - 340
2. TISM - 312
3. Scott Walker - 306
4. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - 274
5. Classixx - 201
6. Penguin Cafe Orchestra - 187
7. They Might Be Giants - 169
8. Shugo Tokumaru - 140
9. CHVRCHES - 119
10. Vampire Weekend - 117
11. The Monks - 114
12. Memory Tapes - 110
13. The Lonely Island - 107
14. Partquet Courts - 106
15. The New Pornographers - 103
16. Nina Nastasia - 89
17. A.C. Newman - 86
18. Daft Punk - 83
19. Sufjan Stevens - 72
20. The Spinto Band - 70
Top 20 Songs On My Audioscrobbler
1. TISM - "If You're Not Famous At Fourteen" - 66
2. Hollywood Persuaders - "Drums A-Go-Go" - 49
3. Wu Ma - "Do Do Do" - 41
4. John Wizards - "Lusaka By Night" - 39
5. CLASSIXX - "All You're Waiting For" - 32
6. Pogo - "Bloom" - 31
6. John Wizards - "Muizenberg" - 31
6. Shugo Tokumaru - "Katachi" - 31
6. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Invader Invader" - 31
10. John Wizards - "Tet Lek Schrempf" - 30
10. John Wizards - "Jacobs Ladder/Freakness" - 30
12. CLASSIXX - "Holding On" - 29
12. CLASSIXX - "Hanging Gardens" - 29
14. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Fashion Monster" - 28
14. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Mi" - 28
16. Goodbye The Band - "Amazing Marsheen" - 27
16. Memory Tapes - "Pink Stones" - 27
16. Shugo Tokumaru - "Circle" - 27
19. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - "Kimini 100%" - 26
20. TISM - "Greg! The Stop Sign!" - 25
Eleven Books I Read This Year In Rough Order of Preference
Erik Larson - "The Devil in the White City"
Haldor Laxness - "Independent People"
Lawrence Wright - "Going Clear"
Nathaniel Philbrick - "In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex"
Mary Roach - "Gulp"
Emma Donahue - "Room"
Knut Hamsun - "Hunger"
Joanthan Lethem - "Men & Cartoons"
Robin Cooper - "The Timewaster Letters"
Terry Ryan - "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio"
Bruce Campbell - "If Chins Could Kill"