VH Corner

I usually do my favorite albums from the past year, but I also downloaded a lot of singles that I loved. I didn’t want to forget them. For most of these, I have the albums to go along with the song, but some of them are just really good songs all on their own when the album didn’t really do it for me.

Below there is a clip of each song. The entire playlist is also available on YouTube.

Favorite Song 2009

Artist: Miike Snow
Song: Animal
Album: Miike Snow

How did I determine which would be my overall favorite song of the year? In 2008, I could not stop listening to “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon  over and over and over again. This year, that honor goes to Miike Snow’s “Animal”. I still am not sick of it. It is just catchy and makes my head start bouncing whenever I hear it. I heard it for the first time while I was listening to the new releases on Amazon, which I really need to get back to doing. I then heard the song a couple of times on 94.7. It wasn’t played too often, but I loved it. They are a Swedish band. I saw them live a few months back. They were excellent.

Continue reading “Favorite Music 2009″

Tags: 1901, All Rebel Rockers, animal, Bang! Bang!, Barracuda, Boombox, break-up, can't stop feeling, Conditions, day and age, Fantasies, Grizzly Bear, Habeas Corpus, Help I'm Alive, hockey, Incredibad, Invaders Must Die, It Don't Move Me, It's Frightening, Julian Casablancas, kinky, little boots, Living Thing, Living Things, Lonely Island, Manners, metric, Michael Franti & Spearhead, miike snow, Mind Chaos, of montreal, Oxygen, Papel Volando, Passion Pit, percussion gun, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson, Peter Bjorn and John, phoenix, prodigy, Relator, Remind Me in 3 Days..., Say Hey (I Love You), Skeletal Lamping, Sleepyhead, spaceman, strangers, Sweet Disposition, the killers, The Knux, The Temper Trap, To Punctuate, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, too fake, Triphallus, Two Weeks, V, Van She, Veckatimest, Warrior's Dance, white rabbits, wolfgang amadeus phoenix

These are songs I’ve been listening to a lot this summer. Some of them are new and some of them, I just recently discovered, so they are new to me!

Entire YouTube Playlist: Summer ‘09 Playlist

Miike Snow – Animal

Continue reading “Summer ‘09 Playlist”

Tags: animal, can't stop feeling, franz ferdinand, Hasta Quemarnos, hockey, kinky, little boots, Meddle, miike snow, of montreal, Passion Pit, percussion gun, Reeling, The Party's Crashing Us, To Punctuate, too fake, Triphallus, white rabbits

Lisa requested a playlist after Melissa got one. I just started to pick random songs that popped into my head or skimming through my music collection. I got a bit stuck with the industrial/electronic stuff I listened to in high school/college years, but there’s a variety of other random things in there too. I was trying to find things Lisa might not have heard of, but I know some of it, she might have and I wanted to put it in there anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0B3B5BD49FE889A7&page=2

Tags: !!!, ash, basement jaxx, black rebel motorcycle club, bloc party, bollock brothers, Boys Noize, bright eyes, course of empire, cut copy, Doves, editors, fratellis, kylie minogue, ladytron, lo fidelity allstars, marion, mika, morcheeba, phantom planet, prodigy, renegade soundwave, revolting cocks, savage garden, sheep on drugs, sister machine gun, skunk anansie, thrill kill kult, TV On the Radio, utah saints, wilco

Melissa was quizzing me today about some good road trip music. I was sharing what I currently had on the Ipod and she was scribbling band names down. I decided to put together some songs for a playlist so she can hear what I think are the best of what I talked about today!

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=25A9D49A5C86A636

Tags: cut copy, datarock, dead 60s, franz ferdinand, goldfrapp, hard fi, kings of leon, kinky, klaxons, little boots, Louis XIV, MGMT, new pornographers, of montreal

I created a playlist on YouTube for Stacy. It is a sample of songs we hear when we go dancing at Fez Ballroom on Shut Up and Dance nights. Stacy has stated she wished she knew the songs better so this is what I could remember hearing there before. I know she knows some of them, but I just added what I could remember.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A9D04643930DDACC

Tags: 20th century boy, atomic, ballroom blitz, bell biv devoe, blondie, cut copy, d.a.n.c.e., david bowie, dee-lite, don't stop believin, don't stop til you get enough, front 242, goldfrapp, groove is in the heart, jim caroll, journey, jungle love, just dance, justice, lady gaga, lightning man, lights & music, living on video, m.i.a., men without hats, michael jackson, morris day and the time, never say never, new order, nitzer ebb, olivia newton john, ooh la lha, p.y.t., paper planes, people who died, poison, queen, romeo void, safety dance, sweet, t rex, temptation, trans x, under pressure, welcome to paradise, xanadu

Bloc Party will be releasing their remix CD of Intimacy on May 12. Here is the naughty video for “Signs” remixed by Armand Van Helden. This is not safe viewing for work or kidlets, especially around the 1:30 mark.

Tags: armand van helden, bloc party, intimacy remixed, signs

This isn’t everything that I purchased in the past year, but the albums that I really enjoyed and kept on my mp3 player for quite a while before moving something else onto it.

Best of the Best

#1

Artist: Kings of Leon
Album: Only By the Night
Released: September 23, 2008

I don’t think it is a shocker for anyone that was in my vicinity when “Sex on Fire” came out that this would be my choice for number one album of the year. I found quite a few songs that were my current favorite song for a few weeks throughout the year, but I was obsessed with this one when it came out. I played the video non-stop on YouTube, just waiting for the album to be released. Luckily, I found the rest of the album just as great, bought all their past albums and then saw them live. It was one the best live shows I have ever been to so good thing that song came out.

Best Tracks:

• Sex on Fire
  http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=41543343
• I Want You
• Closer
• Revelry
• 17
• Use Somebody
  http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=45792329
• Cold Desert

Continue reading “Favorite 2008 Music”

Tags: bloc party, Boys Noize, Carolina Liar, coldplay, Coming to Terms, cut copy, Dear Science, Duffy, Evil Urges, In Ghost Colours, Intimacy, Keane, Keep Color, kings of leon, lay down the law, Louis XIV, MGMT, my morning jacket, Oi Oi Oi, Only By the Night, Oracular Spectacular, Perfect Symmetry, republic tigers, Rockferry, sex on fire, Slick Dogs and Ponies, switches, TV On the Radio, Viva La Vida

I have some current favorite songs, but there aren’t any real videos that I can find on YouTube, so I’ll wait to post those. I did find one though, so I thought I’d share. Kings of Leon’s new album comes out September 23rd and this is the first single, “Sex on Fire”.

Tags: kings of leon, sex on fire

Here is a list of my current favorite songs:

Mika

Mika was born in Lebanon, but raised in Paris and London. He seems a cross between Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and Jellyfish. It is completely catchy pop music. His album, Life in Cartoon Motion, has hit number one in the UK and is released in the US this week. There are a few songs on You Tube that you can listen to. My favorite is Grace Kelly.

• Grace Kelly
• Love Today
• Relax, Take It Easy

Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor was born in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, but her family moved to the Bronx when she was a teenager. The Strokes decided they loved her and had her open up for them on their last tour. The first time I heard Fidelity, it bugged me. The second time, I loved it so I say give it a second shot after you hear it for the first time since the different singing style can grow on you. These songs come off her fourth album, Begin to Hope.

• Fidelity
• Better
• Samson
• On the Radio

The Kooks

The Kooks hail from Brighton, England. Their name comes from a David Bowie song, Kooks. Their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, spent more than half of 2006 in the top 20 in the UK. They are just starting to get notice in the U.S. where they are currently touring and selling out gigs all over the place, including the stop in Portland in May. Naive is the first song that I heard from them and loved. I am also a big fan of Eddie’s Gun, which you can hear on MySpace. They are guitar pop goodness.

• Naive
• Seaside
• Sofa Song
• Ooh La

The Fratellis

The Fratellis are from Glasgow, Scotland. They have been greatly loved in the UK and dubbed as the “next Oasis”, but many other bands have been dubbed that in the UK press. They are fickle there. They won the Brit Award (Grammy equivalent) for Breakthrough Act. Their sound is along the same line as The Kooks with guitar pop, head bopping good times. Their debut album is Costello Music. Their first song, Flathead, was used in an iPod commercial. I never saw it. The first song I heard by them was Chelsea Dagger, which is my favorite. Flathead seems quite catchy too.

• Flathead
• Chelsea Dagger

Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John are two guys from Stockholm, Sweden. They met in 1999 and have made three albums together. Their third album, Writer’s Block, has the whistling song on it! I first heard the song on a weekend on the radio. I was bouncing my head to it, and Jer said the song was annoying. I said I liked it! I didn’t know who sang it. Then I heard it dancing a week or two later. I kept referring to it as the whistling song, until I finally figured out who sang it. Now I know it is Young Folks and I’m happy.

• Young Folks
• Objects of My Affection

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Rolling Stone

here’s what I have been listening to a lot lately…

Artist: Snow Patrol
Album: Eyes Open
Release Date: May 9, 2006

Their last album (Final Straw) pretty much covered a relationship going through some rocky times. This one deals with one falling apart in a very messy way. Even with the more depressing themes, the songs are more straight-forward rock style than Final Straw. It took me a bit longer to get into this album than Final Straw, but the albums that take me longer to love stick with me longer.

Best songs: Chasing Cars, Make This Go On Forever

Artist: Keane
Album: Under the Iron Sea
Release Date: June 20, 2006

Keane’s first album (Hopes and Fears) sounded pretty, but the lyrics covered troubled relationships of all kinds, especially friendships. This album seems an extension of the same themes, but it is even darker. The band is still just a singer, drummer and pianist. No guitar or bass player in this band. They don’t need it though. They do have one song, Is It Any Wonder?, that sounds like there are guitars, but they are just samples. My only complaint is Crystal Ball sounds like a cookie-cutter catchy song, but not in a good way. Beyond that song though, the rest of the album has more substance than the first album.

Best songs: Is It Any Wonder?, Nothing In My Way

Artist: Muse
Album: Black Holes and Revelations
Release Date: July 11, 2006

When the first single off this album was released, Knights of Cydonia, the prog rock titles were thrown around. While that song does fit in with the prog rock since it is epic and grand, it is the only song fitting the title. The album goes all over the place in terms of style of each song. Starlight is a super catchy pop song, while Supermassive Black Hole has a thumping beat and falsetto singing. The beginning of Assassin sounds like the Knight Rider theme before it dives into massive sound of guitars and Hoodoo is the piano-based song that appears on each of albums. The band stated that they didn’t want to do a concept album, but they just wanted to make a bunch of the best songs possible with no real theme through all of them. I think they accomplished it well.

Best songs: Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole

Artist: Kinky
Album: Reina
Release Date: September 5, 2006

A continuation on their third album from their first two, Kinky still has the weird-ass mix of bass, guitar, accordion, synths, percussion, dance, hip hop and more. This album is more similar to the second one with the mix of song sung in Spanish and English. I always prefer the Spanish songs since the lyrics are so simplistic and silly. I like just listening and dancing to the music.

Best songs: Sister Twisted , Una Linea De Luz