The 55 Best Albums of 2013 (23-33)

Part 3 in our countdown of the best albums of 2013.  

Get your album favorites in now!!!  I'm counting on you for your best albums.  I need them to compile a top 111.  Just email them or put them in the comment section below.

Here are the 55 Best Albums of 2013 (23-33):

23.  Kanye West - Yeezus
24.  Moving Units - Neurotic Exotic
25.  CHVRCHES - The Bones Of What You Believe
26.  The Weeknd - Kissland
27.  Pickwick - Can't Talk Medicine
28.  Savages - Silence Yourself
29.  Tegan And Sara - Heartthrob
30.  Washed Out - Paracosm
31.  Drake - Nothing was the Same
32.  Rhye - Woman
33.  Volcano Choir - Repave

Buy these albums and more...now!!!

The 11 Best Songs By Tegan & Sara

I read the magazine The Week.  There's a small section in it called "It Wasn't All Bad."  It's a very small section but always has some very positive news articles.  Recently I read a great story online about a rapper which reminded me of these articles.  I'm sure you've all heard the song "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.  And if you think you haven't heard it...you have.  Here's the video for a refresher.  During the chorus, there's a Nate Doggish rapper named Wanz singing the hook.  Turns out Wanz is a 51-year-old singer from Seattle who up until this song broke was working as a computer technician who had all but given up on his career in music.  He was singer for hire working for about $25 a song/hook and was rarely lucky enough to even hear the final product of the songs he sang on.  Now he has the number one song in the country, he quit his job to go on tour, and is final living out his greatest dreams.  And what's best about this story is he's still incredibly humble.  He said even if he's only known as that guy from the "Thrift Shop" song...he gets to be that guy from the "Thrift Shop" song.

It just goes to show...you're never too old for your dreams to come true.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Tegan & Sara:

1. Take Me Anywhere (So Jealous)
2. On Directing (Sainthood)
3. Call It Off (The Con)
4. Hell (Sainthood)
5. Walking With A Ghost (So Jealous)
6. Back In Your Head (The Con)
7. Nineteen (The Con)
8. Monday Monday Monday (If It Was You)
9. The Cure (Sainthood)
10. I Know I Know I Know (So Jealous)
11. You Wouldn't Like Me (So Jealous)

Buy Tegan & Sara's new album, Heartthrob now!!

The 11 Most Anticipated Albums of 2013

I'll post the top 111 albums of 2012 on Friday.  So you still have time to get me your lists!!  Just send me your favorite albums of 2012 in the comment section.  Top 20...or whatever number of albums you liked.

With 2013 already .3% over, let's start looking ahead at what our year might look like musically...

This is a list of albums that have official release dates...or have been officially announced.  There might be a new Arcade Fire album, there might be a new Modest Mouse, there might be two new Beck albums...and we all know how long Kevin Shields takes to do anything so I'm not holding my breath about a new MBV album until 2015.  And honestly...why does everyone care so much about a new Cher album?

The 11 Most Anticipated Albums of 2013:

1. Phoenix (April)
2. Eminem (June)
3. Depeche Mode (March)
4. MGMT - MGMT (May)
5. Atoms for Peace - Amok (2/18)
6. Tegan & Sara - Heartthrob (1/29)
7. Kid Cudi - Indicud (March)
8. Natalie Maines - Mother (May)
9. Bad Religion - True North (1/22)
10. Ra Ra Riot - Beta Love (1/22)
11. Johnny Marr - The Messenger (1/26)

What albums did I leave off?  What are your most anticipated?

Buy the best of 2012 here!

The Unknown: Tegan & Sara - The Pro

There's some sort of adverse reaction I have to live albums. Maybe it's years of buying them and expecting great things...only to listen to them one time and cringe at the thought of ever listening to them again.  The only live albums that I have ever really found have repeat listening potential are acoustic albums.  Mainly, this is because the songs sound much different than their original produced counterparts.  That's why when I first heard about the new Tegan and Sara album my instant reaction was one of disappointment.  Then, when I learned that it was an acoustic performance, my interest was re-peaked.  Granted most of Tegan & Sara's songs are already riding the line between acoustic and produced, this definitely lured me in.  The new album is listenable to say the least.  I'm not as blown away as I hoped...but I am looking forward to giving it multiple spins.  Maybe it's because their identical twin sister lesbians...and in the back of my head, I think that if I listen to the album...maybe I have a chance.

Here is the Tegan & Sara - The Pro:

1.  Come On Kids
2.  Love Type Thing
3.  Man With Two Brains
4.  In Your Room
5.  Give Chase
6.  Sweetness Follows
7.  One Second
8.  I Take All the Blame
9.  Sheets
10.  Light Up
11.  Wrists
12.  It Was Midnight
13.  Suffer

Buy Tegan and Sara's new live album, Get Along, now!!!

Free Music Friday: Bad Religion Tribute Mixtape

Buying a Halloween costume for a 5-year-old is possibly one of the most difficult tasks a parent will ever undertake.  Picking out birthday or Christmas presents pales in comparison.  With presents, worst case, you can just let your kid go on a feeding frenzy in a toy store and just buy whichever toys they amass.  They go home happy.  You go home happy.  Halloween costumes are another difficulty level altogether.  First is the month long argument to decide who your kid is going to dress up as...if it's appropriate and if it's feasibly possible.  How do you logically convince a 5-year-old not to dress up as "Miss California?"  Or explain to them the social implication it comes with?  I just resort to, "Go to your room until you decide to dress up as something else."  It is effective.  After the argument comes the extensive Halloween costume scavenger hunt of traveling to twenty different stores to not only find a costume that your kid likes...but then to find it in their size.  She was originally going to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz...but not one store had her size.  Not one.  I went to 20 stores.  And here's the kicker...none of them were sold out...none of them ever ordered that size.  Finally, after hours of tears and disappointment, we settled on an angel.  Now I have to figure out what the 2-year-old is going to wear.

Germs of Perfection: A Tribute to Bad Religion

1.  William Elliott Whitmore - Don't Pray On Me
2.  Frank Turner - My Poor Friend Me
3.  Weakerthans - Sanity
4.  Switchfoot - Sorrow
5.  Ted Leo - Against The Grain
6.  Cheap Girls - Kerosene
7.  New Politics - Generator
8.  Cobra Skulls - Give You Nothing
9.  Polar Baear Club - Better Off Dead
10.  Guttermouth - Pity
11.  Riverboat Gamblers - Heaven Is Falling
12.  Tegan & Sara - Suffer


Free Bad Religion Mixtape Tribute via Spin Click HERE.

The 11 Best Albums of 2009: 12-22 (Part 4)

I've noticed that my excitement for new releases is much lower than it used to be. When a new Pearl Jam album came out...I lined up at midnight at Tower Records just to be the first to buy it. I still go buy albums the day they come out...but it's usually a Tuesday ritual rather than a special treat. But this year...there were a few albums that got my juices going. The 4 unreleased Beck albums were quite nice since they were unavailable in a store. But these were given away for free. So, as cool as they were...anyone could get them. But there was another unreleased album that I got fanatic over. That would be the Sparklehorse/DangerMouse album...why? Because it was never available anywhere. Not to download. Not to buy. Getting a copy wasn't just exciting...it was like a treasure hunt. For those few days while I tracked down each song, I was excited over a new release since...as I had been when waiting in line at midnight.

New month means new $5 albums. Check out the store for the new Lady Gaga, 50 Cent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alec Ounsworth, Major Lazer, new Green Day, Wale, Dodos, My Morning Jacket, and a buttload of Christmas albums.

Here is the 11 Best Albums of 2009: 12-22 (Part 4):

12. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
13. Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day (Straight Into A Storm)
14. The Black Crowes - Before The Frost...Until the Freeze
15. The Dead Weather - Horehound
16. White Rabbits - It's Frightening
17. Tegan and Sara - Sainthood
18. Regina Spektor - FAR
19. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul (Revenge)
20. Pearl Jam - Backspacer
21. Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
22. Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine (Little Sad Eyes)

The 11 Best Songs By Tegan and Sara

Twin sisters. Lesbian twin sisters. Hot-looking lesbian twin sisters. Hot-looking lesbian twin sister rock stars! It really doesn't get any better.

And yes...I am aware of their early releases but was never impressed by their Ani difranco years.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Tegan and Sara:

1. Take Me Anywhere (So Jealous)
2. I Know I Know I Know (So Jealous)
3. The Con (The Con)
4. Nineteen (The Con)
5. Walking With A Ghost (So Jealous)
6. Monday Monday Monday (If It Was You)
7. Back In Your Head (The Con)
8. Living Room (If It Was You)
9. You Wouldn't Like Me (So Jealous)
10. Burn Your Life Down (The Con)
11. Rebel Rebel (Spiders From Venus)

Buy Tegan & Sara's new album, Sainthood.