Saturday, December 31, 2016

Top Films of 2016


TOP TEN FILMS OF 2016

1. ARRIVAL
2. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
3. SWISS ARMY MAN
4. HELL OR HIGH WATER
5. SHIN GODZILLA
6. LOVING
7. OTHER PEOPLE
8. LION
9. DEADPOOL
10. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

LA LA LAND
HIDDEN FIGURES
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Top Albums and Songs of 2016

Top Ten Albums of 2016

1. Drive-By Truckers - American Band - No album I heard this year felt more “of the moment”. Tackling gun violence, racial tensions, climate deniers, and so much more, all within their best songs since Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. A true album of 2016.
2. Brian Fallon - Painkiller
3. You Won’t - Revolutionaries
4. Baaba Maal - The Traveller
5. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - I Had a Dream That You Were Mine
6. Bombino - Azel
7. Joseph - I’m Alone, No You’re Not
8. Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate
9. NOFX - First Ditch Effort
10. The I Don’t Cares - Wild Stab


Honorable Mentions

De La Soul - ...And the Anonymous Nobody
Butch Walker - Stay Gold
Augustines - This is Your Life


Top 50 Songs of 2016

1. Brian Fallon - A Wonderful Life - In a year where I got married, switched jobs, and watched both the worlds of my friends and family, as well as the world at large, go through more major changes than I can remember ever happening in a single year, this song drove me through the hard times and soundtracked the great ones. Fallon was already one of my favorite song-writers, and I actually was not impressed by the track at first, but as the year went on, nothing else stuck to me as strongly.
2. American Authors - Pride
3. Drive-by Truckers - What It Means
4. Baaba Maal - Traveller
5. Sting - I Can’t Stop Thinking About You
6. Joseph - White Flag
7. Taking Back Sunday - Tidal Wave
8. Hayes Carll - Good While it Lasted
9. David Bowie - Lazarus
10. Billy Talent - Leave Them All Behind
11. Panic! At the Disco - LA Devotee
12. Mumford & Sons - There Will be Time (feat. Baaba Maal, The Very Best)
13. You Won’t - No Divide
14. Bombino - Akhar Zaman (This Moment)
15. DJ Shadow - Nobody Speak (feat. Run the Jewels)
16. Elton John - Blue Wonderful
17. Judah and the Lion - Folk-Hop Sound
18. RJD2 - Peace of What
19. Goo Goo Dolls - Boxes
20. Junior Empire - West Coast
21. Matagi - Valley Isle
22. Silver Torches - Cal
23. The I Don’t Cares - King of America
24. Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Wipeout Turn
25. Aesop Rock - Rings
26. Dogbreth - Cups and Wrappers
27. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Kevin (feat. Leon Bridges)
28. Glass Animals - Life Itself
29. Damien Jurado - Exit 353
30. John Doe - Voar (feat. Dito Rodrigues)
31. The Last Shadow Puppets - Aviation
32. The Naked & Famous - Laid Low
33. The Menzingers - Lookers
34. Butch Walker - Descending
35. The Hotelier - Sun
36. Descendents - Smile
37. Third Eye Blind - Cop vs. Phone Girl
38. Babymetal - Road of Resistance
39. Miranda Lee Richards - 7th Ray
40. Bryce Vine - Glamorama
41. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - In a Black Out
42. James Blake - I Need a Forest Fire (feat. Bon Iver)
43.Band of Horses - In a Drawer (feat. J. Mascis)
44. Spookyland - God’s Eyes
45. Courtney Barnett - Three Packs a Day
46. Leonard Cohen - On the Level
47. Alex Da Kid - Not Easy (feat. X Ambassadors, Elle King, Wiz Khalifa)
48. Tegan and Sara - Stop Desire
49. The XX - On Hold
50. Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life


Best of the Rest (Alphabetized)

Against Me! - Crash
Alicia Keys - Holy War
Allah-Las - Could Be You
The Americans - The Right Stuff
Anthony Hamilton - Love is an Angry Thing
Astronautalis - Papillion
Augustines - No Need to Explain
Barns Courtney - Hands
Bastille - Winter of Our Youth
Beach Slang - Punks in a Disco Bar
Ben Harper - How Dark is Gone
Blink-182 - Sober
Bob Mould - Hold On
Bon Iver - 00000 Million
Caveman - Never Going Back
Charles Bradley - Change for the World
Craig Finn - Screenwriters School
Delicate Steve - Winners
Dinosaur Jr. - Be a Part
Empty Houses - Daydream
Eric Bachmann - Mercy
Face to Face - Double Crossed
Federale - Chango
The Game - What Your Life Like
Gary Clark Jr. - Take Me Down
The Hunna - We Could Be
James Wyatt Crosby - Wild Dog
Jamie T - Joan of Arc
The Jayhawks - Lovers of the Sun
Jimmy Eat World - The End is Beautiful
John K. Sampson - Postdoc Blues
Josh Kelly - The Rock Who Found a Rolling Stone
Lucius - Gone Insane
LUH - I&I
Mako - Into the Sunset
Matisyahu - Crash Landings
Matt and Kim - Haunting Me
Mona - In the Middle
Nada Surf - Believe You’re Mine
Nahko and Medicine for the People - San Quentin
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
P.O.S. - Sleepdrone/Superposition
Paul Simon - Cool Papa Bell
Rayland Baxter - Mr. Rodriguez
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities
Rogue Wave - Take it Slow
Sam Feldt - Summer On You
Santana - Anywhere You Want to Go
Santigold - Who I Thought You Were
Skylar Grey - Kill for You (feat. Eminem)
Stephen Marley - It’s Alright
Van Morrison - Too Late
Violent Femmes - Memory
The Virginmarys - Motherless Land
White Denim - Holda You (I’m Psycho)
White Lung - Below
White Sea - Arcadia
The White Stripes - City Lights

Friday, January 1, 2016

Best of 2015


Top 10 Films:

1. ME & EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
2. SPOTLIGHT
3. INFINITELY POLAR BEAR
4. SICARIO
5. HATEFUL EIGHT
6. THE BIG SHORT
7. SPY
8. AVENGERS 2: AGE OF ULTRON
9. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
10. INSIDE OUT


Top 10 Albums:

1. Butch Walker - Afraid of Ghosts
2. Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind
3. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday
4. James Bay - Chaos and the Calm
5. Hop Along - Painted Shut
6. Kurt Vile - b'lieve I'm Going Down
7. Beach Slang - The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
8. Royal Headache - High
9. Kristen Diable - Create Your Own Mythology
10. The Very Best - Makes a King

Honorable Mentions:

Millencolin - True Blue
Dustin Kensrue - Carry the Fire
J.D. McPherson - Let the Good Times Roll

Top 50 Songs:

1. Lucero - Went Looking for Warren Zevon's Los Angeles
2. Josh Ritter - Getting Ready to Get Down
3. Butch Walker - 21+
4. J.D. McPherson - Let the Good Times Roll
5. Fidlar - West Coast
6. Doomtree - My Own Nation
7. Mumford & Sons - Believe
8. Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta
9. Andy Grammer - Honey, I'm Good
10. Red City Radio - Two Out of Three Ain't Rad
11. Awolnation - Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)
12. The Fratellis - Imposters (Little by Little)
13. Metric - The Shade
14. Lil Dicky - Molly (feat. Brendon Urie)
15. Royal Headache - Carolina
16. Death Cab for Cutie - The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
17. Desaparecidos - City on the Hill
18. Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts - Youth Quake
19. Blues Traveler - Matador (feat. Thompson Square)
20. Bloodhoung Gang - Uncool As Me (feat. Joey Fatone)
21. Public Service Broadcasting - Go!
22. Mexican Institute of Sound - La Llama
23. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
24. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - You Know We Can't Go Back
25. Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney - FourFiveSeconds
26. Jamie T - Magnolia Melancholia
27. Major Lazer - Leon On (feat. MO & DJ Snake)
28. Beach Slang - Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas
29. Hop Along - Sister Cities
30. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear - Silent Movies
31. Violent Femmes - Fast Horses
32. Crow Bait - Separate Stations
33. Kristin Diable - I'll Make Time for You
34. Millencolin - Bring Me Home
35. Dustin Kensrue - Back to Back
36. James Taylor - Montana
37. GZA - The Mexican (feat. Tom MOrello)
38. Catfish and the Bottlemen - Cocoon
39. The Milk Carton Kids - Shooting Shadows
40. X Ambassadors - Unsteady
41. Mark Knopfler - Beryl
42. Modest Mouse - The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box
43. Local H - Mansplainer
44. Hiss Golden Messenger - He Wrote the Book
45. Action Bronson - Only in America (feat. Party Supplies)
46. Jose Gonzalez - With the Ink of a Ghost
47. Leon Bridges - Better Man
48. Jackie Greene - Light Up Your Window
49. Holy Holy - You Cannot Call for Love like a Dog
50. The Barr Brothers - Burn Card

And the rest of the songs I loved this year, in alphabetical order:

Anderson East - Devil in Me
Bhi Bhiman - Up in Arms
Big Wild - Aftergold
Boysetsfire - One Match
Brandon Flowers - Lonely Town
Brian Wilson - The Right Time
Buddy Guy - Flesh & Bone (feat. Van Morrison)
Calexico - Falling from the Sky
Cayucas - Moony Eyed Walrus
Chris Cornell - Let Your Eyes Wander
CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles
Craig Finn - Maggie I've Been Search For Our Son
David Ramirez - Harder to Lie
Destroyer - Dream Lover
Don Henley - The Cost of Living (feat. Merle Haggard)
Elle King - America's Sweetheart
Enter Shikari - The Last Garrison
Frank Turner- Glorious You
Hit the Lights - Fucked Up Kids
Houndmouth - Sedona
Gang of Youths - Magnolia
Go! Team, The - Reasons Left to Destroy
Imagine Dragons - Shots
Jack Garratt - Weathered
Laura Stevenson - Jellyfish
Libertines, The - Gunga Din
Life of Dillon - Bluebirds
Lord Huron - Until the Night Turns
Mac McCaughan - Our Way Free
Maine, The - Miles Away
Matt Nathanson - Bill Murray
Mikky Ekko - Smile
Mountain Goats, The - Heel Turn 2
Of Monsters and Men - Crystals
Pops Staples - Friendship
Protoje - The Flame (feat. Kabaka Pyramid)
Raury - Devil's Whisper
Rocky Votolato - White-Knuckles
Ryan Adams - In the Dark
Sam Outlaw - Who Do You Think You Are?
Sharon Van Etten - Pay My Debts
Strung Out - Spanish Days
Sufjan Stevens - No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
Tallest Man on Earth - Sagres
Tal National - Zoy Zoy
Tenement - I'm Your Super Glue
Wale - The White Shoes
Weepies, The - Early Morning Riser
Will Dailey - Castle of Pretending
Wiz Khalifa - See You Again (feat. Charlie Puth)
Zedd - Transmission (feat. Logic, X Ambassa