The 11 Best Songs By Lupe Fiasco

Last weekend I went to Magic Mountain with my daughter.  Even at 7, she's obsessed with roller coasters.  I hadn't been in 15 years and wasn't sure what to expect.  We went on some of the coasters (like Superman, Goliath, and Lex Luther) that were bigger and more life threatening than anything they ever had when I was kid...and these were only the rides she was big enough to go on.    I can't even fathom the next level of rides when she grows another 6 inches.  We went on some of the old rides that were there when I was kid.  She hated them for not being intense enough...as well as being old and falling apart.  I felt nostalgic being on the old rides...but found myself as disappointed as she was.  Magic Mountain is smart because with every new coaster, they are re-inventing themselves...taking amusement parks to the next level.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Lupe Fiasco:

1. Just Might Be OK (Food & Liquor)
2. State Run Radio (Lasers)
3. The Instrumental (Food & Liquor)
4. And He Gets The Girl (Da Exam)
5. Coming Up (Lasers)
6. Hurt Me Soul (Food & Liquor)
7. Kick Push (Food & Liquor)
8. Daydreamin' (Food & Liquor)
9. Til I Get There (Lasers)
10. Letting Go (Lasers)
11. Superstar (The Cool)

Buy Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor Part II Now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By Green Day of the 00s

Carmageddon II strikes today.  and like some awful Summer blockbusters...not everything needs a sequel.  The hype is huge as usual and like all big plugged sequels it will likely be a letdown.  But at least...and let's hope there's not a Carmageddon trilogy.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Green Day of the 00s:

1. Holiday (American Idiot)
2. Jesus of Suburbia (American Idiot)
3. Minority (Warning)
4. Viva La Gloria! (21^st Century Breakdown)
5. American Idiot (American Idiot)
6. East Jesus Nowhere (21^st Century Breakdown)
7. Whatsername (American Idiot)
8. Dead Beat Holiday (Warning)
9. Working Class Hero (Instant Karma)
10. Murder City (21^st Century Breakdown)
11. Restless Heart Syndrome (21^st Century Breakdown)

Buy Green Day's new album Uno!...now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By the Killers

You can't replace quality.  We expect perfection and we expect it all the time.  We never acknowledge that nobody is perfect and imperfection should be expected.  We set our standards for others higher than we set them for ourselves and when they don't perform up to our expectations, we label them as failures.  Even if the imperfection is minor and tolerable...we always expect better.  And instead of choosing our battles, we decide to search for the blue rose. The real problem comes when you try to replace these people we label as failures.  That's when disaster strikes and the real meltdowns occur.  Replacements never match the originals in quality, performance, or reliability.

I'm of course talking about the NFL referees.  Now, I may be the only one who doesn't necessarily disagree with the final call by the refs.  There is a rule that says if two players come down with the ball at the same time, then possession is awarded to the offense.  Position is not established until both feet are on the ground. And even though the Green Bay player has possession of the ball first...by the time his feet touched the ground, the Seattle receiver had also grabbed the ball and established position.  I'm not saying this means it should have been a touchdown...but there is reasonable doubt that the refs weren't completely off base.  This call wasn't the issue.  This wasn't the worst call in the game.  This wasn't even the worst call on the same play. There was an offensive pass interference foul and a late hit on the QB.  Neither called.  The touchdown call was not the worst call...it was the straw that broke the camel's back.  And not just of this game...but of the poorly officiated season thus far.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By The Killers:

1. Jenny Was a Friend of Mine (Hot Fuss)
2. Somebody Told Me (Hot Fuss)
3. Bones (Sam's Town)
4. When You Were Young (Sam's Town)
5. Spaceman (Day & Age)
6. Losing Touch (Day & Age)
7. Mr. Brightside (Hot Fuss)
8. Midnight Show (Hot Fuss)
9. Tranqulize (Sawdust)
10. Bling (Sam's Town)
11. For Reason's Unknown (Sam's Town)

Buy the Killers new albums...now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By Grizzly Bear

Getting used to technology may be our biggest downfall.  Cellphones have become more important to us then some of our limbs.  Do we need two pinky toes?  This past week, I've been without my smart phone and regulated to a ancient-style phone.  Texting on this phone is more time consuming than writing a letter. There's nothing worse than have to hit the 6 button five times just to type the word "no."  Being without internet access on the fly is sadly tragic. Not being able to change my fantasy football roster while listening to the new Grizzly Bear when I'm in the grocery store makes me feel like I'm living in the dark ages...or worse...the 70s.  I've become sickly attached to Angry Birds, Temple Run, Netflix, Scramble, and Where's My Perry?  (Where's My Water is so six months ago).

The good thing is, I have found myself more attentive to the things that matter...like my Wii and downloading music.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Grizzly Bear:

1. Knife (Yellow House)
2. Foreground (Veckatimest)
3. Two Weeks (Veckatimest)
4. On A Neck, On A Spit (Yellow House)
5. While You Wait For The Others (Veckatimest)
6. Deep Sea Diver (Horn of Plenty)
7. Cheerleader (Veckatimest)
8. Easier (Yellow House)
9. Southern Point (Veckatimest)
10. Don't Ask (Horn of Plenty)
11. He Hit Me (Friend EP)

Buy Grizzly Bear's new album, Shields...now!!

The 11 Best Albums by Bob Dylan

Last week Bob Dylan released his 567^th album, which is only a few short of Ryan Adams.  Marketing a new album has vastly changed since Dylan strummed it onto the scene almost 50 years ago.  You can’t push your songs to radio.  There’s nowhere to buy a physical album.  You could have the next big EDM-artist do multiple remixes but Dylan’s music really doesn’t lend itself to that.  But even if you were to do a decent sounding remix of a new Dylan track, you would need to be on bath salts to enjoy it.  So, how does Bob Dylan…one of the most iconic singers of all time…do to market a brand as big as he is?  He builds a pop-up store.  That’s right…Bob Dylan had his own store.  A store that sells nothing but Bob Dylan merchandise like CDs, vinyl, t-shirts, pants, hats, furniture, cars, musical instruments, guns, toilets…okay, I made up the last one.  This is brilliant.  When you think of Dylan and where he came from…he embodied the anti-corporate mentality.  Today, it’s only fitting that he snubs the record industry by succeeding at the one thing they failed at doing…running a record store.

Here are the 11 Best Albums By Bob Dylan:

1. Blood on the Tracks (1975)
2. Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
4. The Times They Are A-Changing (1964)
5. Planet Waves (1974)
6. Blonde on Blonde (1966)
7. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
8. Time Out of Mind (1997)
9. The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
10. Nashville Skyline (1969)
11. John Wesley Harding (1967)

Buy Bob Dylan's new album, Tempest...now!!! (only $5 for a limited time)

The 11 Best Songs By The Avett Brothers

My life is traffic.  I can’t go anywhere in LA without being 15 minutes late because of traffic.  I can leave an extra 15 minutes earlier…then I hit road construction…and I’m still 15 minutes late.  I’ve tried leaving 30 minutes earlier…then there’s an accident/road closure…and I’m still 15 minutes late.  The only thing that makes a the journey tolerable and keeps your mind off the explanation you’re giving the person that you’re late to meet…is good music in your car.  Music is my best friend.  When you’re fighting traffic that is bumper-to-bumper for no reason (which is the worst scenario) having on a great album of mellow, calming music is sometimes the only way to survive.  If you’re going to be late, then you might as well enjoy the ride. 

Here are the 11 Best Songs By The Avett Brothers:

1. November Blue (Country Was)
2. Talk of Indolence (Four Thieves)
3. Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise (I and Love and You)
4. If It's the Beaches (The Gleam)
5. Bella Donna (The Second Gleam)
6. I And Love And You (I and Love and You)
7. Paranoia in B-Flat Major (Emotionalism)
8. January Wedding (I and Love and You)
9. Colorshow (Four Thieves)
10. Pretty Girl In San Diego (Emotionalism)
11. At The Beach (Mingnonette)

Buy The Avett Brothers' new album, The Carpenter...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Jamie XX

It's the first weekend of football and everyone is freaking out.  The Redskins upset the Saints.  Dallas beat the Giants.  Broncos beat the Steelers.  The Niners beat the Packers...in Lambeau!  This happens every year.  A bunch of mediocre teams have crazy upset wins and the fanbase goes crazy.  Sure, it's a great thing to get the first win out of the gates but you can't tell anything by the first week of games.  Just because one team has a stellar debut doesn't mean they're a front runner for a Super Bowl run.  The first week is the worst week to tell a team's prognosis.  The real assessment of a team's quality is their longevity over an entire season.  It's the second week when true colors start to show.

Here are the 11 Best Songs Featuring Jamie xx:

1. Islands (The xx)
2. Crystalised (The xx)
3. VCR (The xx)
4. You've Got The Love Rework (Florence + The Machine - You've Got The Love)
5. Teardrops (The xx Bonus Track)
6. Intro (The xx)
7. I'll Take Care Of You (Gil Scot Heron - We're New Here)
8. Bloom Rework Part 3 (Radiohead - TK08)
9. Shelter (The xx)
10. My Cloud (Gil Scot Heron - We're New Here)
11. Far Nearer (Far Nearer/Beat For)  

Buy The xx's new album, Co-Exist now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By The Animal Collective

Being cut off from the internet is like being cut off from your feet.  And I mean that literally in a Cary Elwes/Saw kind of way.  Not only is my computer's internet not working...but my cellphone internet capabilities have been turned off.  Not being able to look up obscure trivia is like not be able to get up from the couch and walk into the kitchen for a glass of water.  And to think, people lived like this for thousands of years.  I can't do anything anymore.  I can't find a gas station.  I can't find movie times (I had to buy a newspaper...and I'm not going to even get into how long that took me to find).  I can't play Scramble...I've heard there's a board game...but who would I find to play with me.  Because I have no internet...there's no tracks to upload.  I'm putting this up via a work computer...so don't go telling my boss and I'll reward you all greatly when my internet access returns.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By The Animal Collective:

1. Did You See The Words? (Feels)
2. Bluish (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
3. Summertime Clothes (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
4. Banshee Beat (Feels)
5. What Would I Want? Sky (Fall Be Kind)
6. My Girls (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
7. Prospect Hummer (Prospect Hummer)
8. Peacebone (Strawberry Jam)
9. Turn Into Something (Feels)
10. Water Curses (Water Curses)
11. Kids on Holiday (Sung Tongs)

Buy Animal Collective's new album, Centipede Hz, now!!!