Every year I put together a playlist of my favorite tunes from the year. Most of the tunes are from the two song-of-the-day podcasts I subscribe to (KEXP and The Current). 2011 seemed like a really good year for music, it was easy to pick a CD’s worth of favorite tunes.
My favorite 2011 tunes are below, in the YouTube clips. Some of the clips aren’t the album versions – either because I couldn’t find the album version on YouTube, or the video version stinks for a variety of reasons. Most of the tunes are available on iTunes or amazon.com, with a couple exceptions: the Pickwick tune is only available on their website, and the Gotye song is only available on iTunes. If you like any of the songs, consider buying ‘em. Enjoy!
From the ashes of Pela, one of my favorite bands of all times, comes We Are Augustines:
Try not to dance or sway, I dare you:
So far, three of the four top 2011 tunes have female singers. A good year for the ladies:
A little band from Seattle with a cool tune:
Best drum song of the year. Period. And the drummer sings! These guys look like they’re having a blast. And the album version is just as good:
A great singer. Cool lyrics too:
The album version has a female singer providing caterwauling off-key harmonies heavy in the mix. Not good. I like this version better. Am not a big fan of the Decemberists, but this tune works for me:
A wall of sound. Cool tune, trippy video:
Of course:
I had to chop this tune down from its original eight or so minutes. The last few minutes of the original tune, the non-radio version, is a heavy metal musical masturbation outro that just doesn’t work for me. You can get a taste for it in the last minute of the video. But the first half of the tune is cool. I chopped the tune down to the radio version length using a program called Audacity. The audacity of me to do that!
The band is a three piece. I can’t imagine how they pull this song off live without using overdubs or synthesizers:
Very cool tune. Sounds like Peter Gabriel to me. Careful, it’ll stick in your head. Video kinda sucks:
I dig the double drums, but I don’t dig the heavy processing on the vocals. The album version doesn’t have as much processing:
This would be a great group to see live, methinks. The song starts proper at 0:54:
Am a big fan of Wilco. They played a whole set on Letterman last fall. Here’s a tune from that set, one of my favorites off their new album:
A peppy tune with amazing guitar. The video is pretty awesome, too:
The album version of this tune is only five minutes. A great song, nice vocals:
Filed under: Music
