Phantogram

So I haven't posted on here in quite some time, clearly. I got pretty busy with my current career and just couldn't find time. With 2013 being so ridiculous in musical gifts, I knew I had to figure out a way to create some time to get back to posting some of what this year has offered us.

First up, Phantogram's new EP includes this amazing track "Black Out Days". This may honestly be my favorite song of theirs and I tend to play When I'm Small over and over a few days a week. So here's to Phantogram's new EP and upcoming album. Hopefully they continue to make such amazing music.

Best Albums of 2011

As I said in the Best Songs of 2011 post, 2011 was a year to remember in music. Some of my most played songs on iTunes have come from 2011, which is a tall task for any new song going against older music with more chances to be played. The mass amount of highly addicting songs were great additions and will be played for many years to come.

Having said all of that, here are my Top 25 Albums of 2011, in no particular order.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Tyler the Creator - Goblin

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math

Cults - Cults

TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light

The Weeknd - House of Balloons

Foster The People - Torches

Sparkadia - The Great Impression

Givers - In Light

St. Vince - Strange Mercy

Feist - Metals

SUNBEARS! - You Will Live Forever

















Bon Iver - Bon Iver

The Roots - Undun

Childish Gambino - Camp

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

Eskimo Joe - Ghosts Of The Past

The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love

Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean 

The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient

Cut Copy - Zonoscope

Adele - 21

Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, ULTRA

 

Best Songs of 2011

This year, 2011, has been an outstanding year for music. There have been more great albums this year than any other year that I can remember. Later this week, I should have my top albums up but for now here are the top songs of this year. These are in random order.

Seryn - We Will All Be Changed



Tyler The Creator - She



Frank Ocean - Novacane



Bon Iver - Towers



James Blake - I Never Learnt To Share



Starfucker - Bury Us Alive



Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr - Simple Girl



Grouplove - Tongue Tied



Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said



Childish Gambino - Not Going Back



M83 - Midnight City



Wye Oak - Civilian



Boy & Bear - Feeding Line



Eskimo Joe - Echo



Neon Indian - Polish Girl



Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math (arguably the best video of the year)



Cults - Abducted



TV On The Radio - Second Song



Mates of State - Palomino



The Rapture - Sail Away



WU LYF - Dirt



The Weeknd - High For This



Florence + The Machine - What The Water Gave Me



Class Actress - Keep You



SUNBEARS! - Give Love A Try



Feist - How Come You Never Go There



Foster the People - Broken Jaw



St. Vincent - Cheerleader



Givers - Up Up Up



Fun. - We Are Young



The Canon Logic - Howl in the Night



Hhymn - These Hands



Friendly Fires - Blue Cassette



Tapes 'n Tapes - Freak Out



Iron & Wine - Tree By The River

Grouplove

Grouplove released their debut album, Never Trust A Happy Song, a couple of months ago and it is a fantastic album. It's so good that it's hard to understand how this is a debut album and not their third or so installment. The song below, "Tongue Tied", is one of the few songs where I hear the bass line and get stuck on remembering that. So check it out below and make sure to pick up Never Trust A Happy Song wherever you can. Also head over to their site http://www.grouplovemusic.com/ to keep up with recent news.

Since I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like to lately, I'm just going to put three videos in this post because I'm not sure if I'll have enough time this week.


We Are Augustines
 If you head over to their site, http://weareaugustines.com/, you can grab a free download. 
 




We Cut Corners
Over on  http://www.wecutcorners.net/, you can check out another track from their upcoming debut album, Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards, which comes out November 11th.





We Were Promised Jetpacks
On http://wewerepromisedjetpacks.com/, you can find more music and videos from their latest album, In The Pit Of The Stomach, and past albums.

Lanterns On The Lake

Lanterns On The Lake are kind of an ambient post-pop band. Even though it has an ambient vibe, they still manage to create an intense and epic sound. They recently released their debut album, Gracious Tide, Take Me Home, which features the track from below "Lungs Quicken". This song really shows off what I was saying about their ambient yet epic sound.

Icebird

Icebird is a duo made up of hip-hop producer rjd2 and Philly soul vocalist Aaron Livingston, who has previously collaborated with the Roots. The result is this soulful, hip-hop rock. I know that combination can sound confusing on paper but once you hear the track below, "Charmed Life", you'll understand what I'm saying. They released their first album, The Abandoned Lullaby, a couple weeks ago.

Fun.

Going into the post, I thought it would be quite difficult to find info and an embeddable video for a band named "Fun.", but I was quite surprised when they came right up in a Google search. So, luckily, I am now able to share them. Fun would be best classified as indie pop and they were formed by Nate Ruess, formerly of The Format. Below is their new song "We Are Young". So check that out and then head over to their site, http://www.ournameisfun.com/, to find out more from them.

Blind Pilot

About a month ago Blind Pilot released their second studio album, We Are The Tide. It has been three years since their debut album, so getting fresh material from such a great band is a sight for sore eyes, well I guess it'd be a sound for sore ears? Maybe. I don't know. Anyways, to hear more from them check out my previous post on them here, and make sure to go and pick up We Are The Tide.

Class Actress

Today's entry is of the synth-pop vibe. Class Actress' debut album comes out next Tuesday. Some of it has hit YouTube and the track I keep listening to over and over is "Keep You". It is the opening track of the album, and hopefully it's an indication of what we can look forward to on the rest of it. It starts the album off with this loud and insanely catchy synth beat. Make sure to keep your eyes out for this release next week.

The Rifles

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posting over the past week or so. I have started a new job and just haven't had the time lately to get posts out but I will try and get back into posting on a regular basis. So with that out of the way, today's entry are The Rifles.

The Rifles recently released their third album, Freedom Run. They are best described as indie pop rock and have a little bit of folk in them at times. Below is the first single from Freedom Run, "Tangled Up In Love".

Hip Hop Wednesday: Common

I know I haven't done one of these in awhile but that's because I haven't really found any good hip hop in the last few months. Today's entry is Common's newest single "Blue Sky" off of his upcoming album The Dreamer, the Believer, which is due out November 22nd.

Nothing can really be said about Common that isn't already known. He is easily one of hip hop's top MCs and is a personal favorite of mine because of the material he chooses to rap about. It's nice to have a new album from him after taking a few years off since Universal Mind Control. So without wasting any more time just go ahead and listen below and pick up his 9th studio album next month.

Imagine Dragons

Today's post is gonna be kind of quick and short just because I have a lot going on (it's Friday afternoon but this may not post til Saturday). That shouldn't, however, make the music posted today any less significant. In fact, today's entry is one of my favorite over the past couple weeks.

Imagine Dragons are a Las Vegas based indie rock band. They released an EP entitled It's Time earlier this year. The first track, and title track, instantly grabs you. "It's Time" and "Tokyo" are two of my favorite tracks off of this 8-track EP, which is quite long for an EP. So check out both of those below and make sure to head over to their site, here, and grab It's Time.

Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos translates to The Peasants or The Farmers in English. They are an indie pop band from Wales. They recently released a new song entitled "By Your Hands" which is off of their fourth album coming out in November, Hello Sadness. If you are unfamiliar with this band I'd say to get their previous albums and familiarize yourself with them because they have put out some great music over the years.

A great part of "By Your Hands" is the story the music video tells. It really reminds me of the movie Synechdoche, New York, which if you haven't seen is quite amazing albeit quite depressing and kind of pretentious. Both this music video and that film have lots of similar scenes and have the same vibe.

Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club are an English indie rock and folk band from London. They recently released their third studio album "A Different Kind of Fix" in as many years. It's pretty crazy that they have released three albums essentially back-to-back-to-back. Some people criticize bands for releasing and making too much material, which is understandable I suppose but as a band if you have songs that you want to release why is such a bad thing to give more to their fans? I applaud them for doing so instead of waiting two or three years to release a new record.

While the first single from the album, "Shuffle", is a great track, I find myself coming back to "Lights Out, Words Gone". It is this subdued kind of rock with a nice little guitar riff which maintains that mood. So check that out below.

You Can't Win, Charlie Brown

Yes, that is the name of the band. I remember telling my friend about them a couple of weeks ago and he thought that I was making some kind of reference to Peanuts and not being serious about an artist to keep his eye on. They are a Portugese band who have some folk and electronic sounds on their debut album Chromatic, which came out a few months ago.

Their first single off of this album is "Over The Sun, Under The Water", which is featured below. It really encompasses their entire sound in one track, so it's a great example to hear what they are like. To keep up with the band make sure to check or follow their tumblr at http://youcantwincharliebrown.tumblr.com/.

Of Monsters And Men

Of Monsters And Men are a folk band from Iceland. Their song "Little Talks" is what has had me waiting for their debut album. Unfortunately, the album is only available in Iceland as of now and I still can't find a release date on it for anyone outside of there. However, we do have this song to hold us over until then.

It has this great accordion hook that brings a different sound to the song. That is paired with acoustic guitars and a great balancing act of male and female vocals. And when they let their voices get louder is when the track really reaches its greatness. Below is the live version of "Little Talks" because it sounds just as good if not better than the album version, which is always impressive to me.

Neon Indian

Neon Indian made a huge splash in the indie scene a few years ago and since their debut album Psychic Chasms, fans have long awaited a new album. Finally, a week ago their new album, Era Extrana, was released. The first song to catch my attention was "Polish Girl" due to the use of what sounds like when Mario would collect a coin. It just has this hint of NES that makes the track memorable for me. Not to mention that it is actually just a great track all around. It has that same kind of catchy electronic beat that M83's "Midnight City" has. So if you liked that, you should dig this as well.

They were recently on Jimmy Fallon to perform "Polish Girl" live, so that version and the studio version are below. It's quite remarkable how great it sounds live given the songs remarkable technical intricacies.

M83

I've been trying to hold off as long as possible on posting this track. I wanted to post it closer to the new album's release date, but since the video is around 300,000 views I figured it needs to be posted already. So below is the first single, "Midnight City", off of M83's new album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. It is insanely good and equally as catchy with its notes. This single will undoubtedly make top songs of 2011.

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is due out October 18th and is a 2-disc release. After hearing this first single, I can't wait for 20-plus tracks of this. It's going to be quite the release. In case you haven't heard of M83 before, they were featured on here before at this link here.

Milo Green

Today's entry is an indie folk rock group that are starting to make a lot of noise. Milo Green released an album or EP earlier this year, The Hello Sessions. With the release of "1957", the need for more musice from them was quite high. You can listen to all four tracks over on their bandcamp site, http://milogreene.bandcamp.com/.

Just to give you an idea on their sound, it's in the same mold as Kopecky Family Band and Seryn. I assure you that "1957" will live up to this billing and it will become a staple in your music rotation. So listen below and then head over to their bandcamp site to hear more from them.