The 55 Best Albums of 2014 (12-22)

Lots of guilty pleasures on the list today.  And I may be the only one on the planet who liked the Foster the People album. Here are the 55 Best Albums of 2014 (12-22):

12.  Foster The People - Supermodel
13. Conor Oberst - Upside Down Mountain
14. Klaxons - Love Frequency
15. Spoon - They Want My Soul
16. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
17. Gardens & Villas - Dunes
18. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
19. Pure X - Angel
20. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
21. The Sunshine Underground - The Sunshine Underground
22. FKA Twigs - LP1

  Buy these albums and more now!!!  

The 11 Best Bands at Coachella by day...

Incredible line-up this year.  Impossible to do one list for the whole festival...so here's three lists! One for each day.  These are by no means the only good bands playing, just the ones that I'm most excited about.  And Saturday is easily the most packed day.

The 11 Best Bands at Coachella on Friday:

1. Outkast
2. Girl Talk
3. Broken Bells
4. The Replacements
5. HAIM
6. A$AP Ferg
7. Ellie Goulding
8. Waxahatchee
9. Bryan Ferry
10. Grouplove
11. Zedd

The 11 Best Bands at Coachella on Saturday:

1. Foster The People
2. Empire Of The Sun
3. Cage The Elephant
4. Nas
5. Muse
6. Pet Shop Boys
7. Skrillex
8. MGMT
9. CHVRCHES
10. Blood Orange
11. The Head and The Heart

The 11 Best Bands at Coachella on Sunday:

1. Arcade Fire
2. Neutral Milk Hotel
3. Beck
4. Superchunk
5. Lana Del Rey
6. STRFKR
7. Calvin Harris 
8. Disclosure
9. Preservation Hall Jazz Band
10. Chance The Rapper
11. Bad Manners

The 11 Best Songs of 2011

I usually don't like doing Top song lists of the year (ironic...huh?) but I wanted to give everyone a last chance to get your votes in for the top album of the year.

Just list your favorite albums of 2011 in the comment section below.  Monday is the final day to vote.

Here are the 11 Best Songs of 2011:

1.  Midnight City - M83 (Hurry Up We're Dreaming)
2.  Holocene - Bon Iver (Bon Iver)
3.  The Birds Part 1 - The Weeknd (Thursday)
4.  Shell Games - Bright Eyes (People's Key)
5.  Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People (Torches)
6.  Under Cover of Darkness - The Strokes (Angles)
7.  First of the Year Equinox - Skrillex (also the best video)
8.  Get Away - Yuck (Yuck)
9.  Gold on the Ceiling - Black Keys (El Camino)
10.  No Church - Jay-Z & Kanye West (Watch the Throne)
11.  Hasa Diga Eebowaii  (The Book of Mormon)

Buy these songs and their albums now!

The 55 Best Albums of 2011 (12-22)

No song was more infectious this year than Foster the People's Pumped up Kids.  What started as a catchy indie rock diddy took off and became an international hit rocketing up the Billboard charts and propelling rock album sales.  Most people still don't know the song is about a school shooting.  Maybe that why despite its popular success, it's still retained its indie cred.  Hopefully this is a sign that there's still a place for rock music on the charts...or maybe it's opening the floodgates for a rock music revival.  One can only hope.

Send in your BEST OF LISTS!!!  I want your top 20 albums of the year...or as many as you would like to send.  Just stick them in the comment section or email them to me.  I will compile a list by New Year's and share it with you all.

Here are the 55 Best Songs of 2011 (12-22):

12.       War on Drugs - Slave Ambient (Baby Missiles)

13.       Bright Eyes - The People's Key

14.       Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math

15.       Middle Brother - Middle Brother (Portland)

16.       Wye Oak - Civilian

17.       Jeff the Brotherhood - We Are Champions

18.       Foster The People - Torches

19.       Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

20.       Jason Isbell - Here We Rest

21.    VHS or Beta - Diamonds and Death

22.    Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong

Buy these albums and more from 2011...all for under $5...for a limited time!!!

The 11 Best Debut Albums of 2011 (so far)

All these albums are solid and every one of these artists is someone you should keep your eye on.  But there's one artist in particular I want to point attention to and that's The Weeknd.  An unknown artist who came from nowhere that has taken the blog world by storm with his first mix-tape/album.  Here's the kicker...he's giving it away for free.  What is original about the debut isn't just the music itself but the method in which he's distributing it.  The Weeknd has all but abandoned the traditional style of distributing music and fully embraced the 21st century.  Without a publicist or marketing department, he's managed to become well-known all on his own.  While the major labels are fighting tooth and nail for the fraction of floor space left on retail floors, the new emerging artists are passing them by...by embracing the future.

The 11 Best Debut Albums of 2011 (so far):


1.  Yuck - Yuck
2.  James Blake - James Blake
3.  The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
4.  The Weeknd - House of Balloons
5.  Foster the People - Torches
6.  The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
7.  The Naked and Famous - Young Blood
8.  The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
9.  Cults - Cults 
10.  Ringo Deathstar - Colour Trip 
11.  EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

Get The Weeknd's album, House of the Balloons for free!