A few years ago a friend of mine and I started making a playlist for every month, in a sense to act as a piece of nostalgia, as something of a musical fingerprint of a moment in time.

February. A pretty dang good month. Aside from some fun health problems and getting my wisdom teeth pulled, that is. So it must have been pretty awesome otherwise to make up for that.

Most of these tracks are random perusals back through my library, a couple new releases (Beach House and Magnetic Fields, mostly) and a step back into exploring dubstep a bit more.

And then there’s that 30 Seconds to Mars track. Can someone explain to me why it’s not cool to like them? Listen to the song in the attached playlist (and all the others, of course) and tell me it’s not a solid pop song.

1. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound” (The ‘59 Sound)
2. Wilco – “Theologians” (A Ghost is Born)
3. The Gaslight Anthem – “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” (The ‘59 Sound)
4. Ryan Bingham – “Change Is” (Roadhouse Sun)
5. Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp” (Odd Blood)
6. Beach House – “Zebra” (Teen Dream)
7. Beach House – “Walk In the Park” (Teen Dream)
8. Magnetic Fields – “You Must Be Out of Your Mind” (Realism)
9. Wu-Tang Clan – “Deep Space (Jay Da Flex & Yoof remix)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
10. Wu-Tang Clan – “New Year Banga (Rogue Star remix)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
11. DJ Hidden – “Death at a Distance” (Death at a Distance)
12. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Kings and Queens” (This is War)

In case you haven’t been reading these for long (or at all) and you’re wondering why the heck I post a list of songs at the end of every month, perhaps I should explain: A few years ago a friend of mine and I started making a playlist for every month, in a sense to act as a piece of nostalgia, as something of a musical fingerprint of a moment in time. It takes very little effort and is one of my favorite ongoing musical projects.

That said, here’s January’s list, which chronicles the new Vampire Weekend album release, hitting 100,000 listens on Last.fm (the song was “Last Dance” by the Raveonettes), listening to albums from people’s year-end best-of lists, mourning the loss of Jay Reatard and the end of These Arms Are Snakes, seeing Cross Canadian Ragweed live and remembering that I like Jimmy Eat World a hell of a lot. And bands with swear words in their name.

And, to start the year off right (hey, we’re only one twelfth of the way in), I’m going to be posting the songs from one of the many handy streaming music services that let you embed playlists. Check out the player below or go here to listen.

1. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, Part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
2. The Low Anthem – “Charlie Darwin” (Oh My God, Charlie Darwin)
3. The Big Pink – “Velvet” (A Brief History of Love)
4. Vampire Weekend – “White Sky” (Contra)
5. Vampire Weekend – “California English” (Contra)
6. The Raveonettes – “Last Dance” (In and Out of Control)
7. Mastodon – “Crack the Skye” (Crack the Skye)
8. Metric – “Sick Muse” (Fantasies)
9. Jay Reatard – “Faking It” (Watch Me Fall)
10. Cross Canadian Ragweed – “17″ (Cross Canadian Ragweed)
11. The Antlers – “Sylvia” (Hospice)
12. The Decemberists – “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid” (Hazards of Love)
13. These Arms Are Snakes – “The Shit Sisters” (Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home)
14. The Very Best – “Julia” (Warm Heart of Africa)
15. Infinite Body – “Dive” (Carve Out the Face of My God)
16. Native – “Backseat Crew” (Wrestling Moves)
17. Jimmy Eat World – “Big Casino” (Chase This Light)
18. Jimmy Eat World – “Chase This Light” (Chase This Light)
19. Fuck Buttons – “Olympians” (Tarot Sport)

December brought winter songs, wrapup best-ofs for the year and the decade, and a few other random lovely things.

I wish I had a way to share all these songs with you in a more listening-friendly way. Seriously. Someone find a way. Imeem and Blip.fm’s music collections are unreliable, mp3-collecting is questionable and time-consuming, a monthly podcast is too much work (but sounds like a lot of fun if I found someone to do it with), and hardly anyone I know uses Rhapsody, where I keep track of these lists.

1. Brand New – “Sowing Season (Yeah)” (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me)
2. MxPx – “Let It Happen” (Let It Happen)
3. Bob Dylan – “Like a Rolling Stone” (Highway 61 Revisited)
4. Fleet Foxes – “Ragged Wood” (Fleet Foxes)
5. Camera Obscura – “The Blizzard” (The Blizzard)
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Just for the Night (BMSR remix)” (Drippers EP)
7. Ghostface Killah – “Kilo” (Fishscale)
8. Fuck Buttons – “The Lisbon Maru” (Tarot Sport)
9. Micachu and the Shapes – “Vulture” (Jewellery)
10. Ghostface Killah – “Buck 50″ (Supreme Clientele)
11. Fucked Up – “No Epiphany” (The Chemistry of Common Life)
12. Taken by Trees – “My Boys” (East of Eden)

This was a funky month for music. I saw The Antlers and Minus the Bear and Vampire Weekend live, so those were obvious adds. Jay-Z and Oceana put out great videos for “Empire State of Mind” and “The Family Disease,” respectively. And a box set of the entire works of Buddy Holly, flaws and all, came out last week. Not bad, not bad.

1. The Antlers – “Thirteen” (Hospice)
2. Minus the Bear – “Knights” (Planet of Ice)
3. Julian Casablancas – “Out of the Blue” (Phrazes for the Young)
4. The Drive-By Truckers – “The Three Great Alabama Icons” (Southern Rock Opera)
5. Floating Action – “50 Lashes” (Floating Action)
6. Burial – “Fostercare” (5: Five Years of Hyperdub)
7. Oceana – “The Family Disease” (Birth.Eater)
8. Bellwether – “Miss You Twice” (7&6)
9. The Mountain Goats – “Against Pollution” (We Shall All Be Healed)
10. Vampire Weekend – “Horchata”
11. Jay-Z – “Empire State of Mind” (The Blueprint 3)
12. The High Strung – “Standing at the Door of Self Discovery” (Ode to the Inverse of the Dude)
13. The Hold Steady – “Slapped Actress” (Stay Positive)
14. Buddy Holly – “Midnight Shift (false start/alternate)” (Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings and More)

Here be my monthly autobiography in the form of a list of songs I liked during this 31-day period. It was a month that involved a weekend trip to see my girl in Nashville, remembering how much I love the Gaslight Anthem and the Hold Steady, and finally starting to come to terms with the fact that I actually like No Age, and thus noise rock in general.

Speaking of the No Age thing, I’ve always been frustrated at my lack of love for Pavement. It might be time for me to go back to try them again. Perhaps a recent reading of the book Love is a Mix Tape has something to do with this. More on that later.

1. Eels – “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
2. Eels – “Things the Grandchildren Should Know” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
3. Dead Man’s Bones – “Buried in Water” (Dead Man’s Bones)
4. The Raveonettes – “Bang!” (In and Out of Control)
5. No Age – “You’re a Target” (Losing Feeling)
6. No Age – “Eraser” (Nouns)
7. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
8. Will Hoge – “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” (The Wreckage)
9. Bruce Springsteen – “Jersey Girl” (Live/1975–85)
10. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound” (The ‘59 Sound)
11. Bruce Springsteen – “Devils & Dust” (Devils & Dust)
12. Frightened Rabbit – “Keep Yourself Warm” (Midnight Organ Fight)
13. The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys & Girls in America)
14. The Two Man Gentlemen Band – “Fancy Beer” (Drip Dryin’ with the Two Man Gentlemen Band)
15. Devendra Banhart – “Can’t Help But Smiling” (What Will We Be)
16. Glasvegas – “S.A.D. Light” (Glasvegas)

September was a month of new albums that punched me square in the face (Jay-Z, David Bazan, Fun., The Avett Brothers), seeing Joshua James live and buying all his material that I didn’t already own, and a few things I bought and/or listened to during my trip to Australia.

October has begun, and with it will surely come an onslaught of contemplative and dark albums. David Bazan and Joshua James got a jump start on that, but I think my must-have fall album for 2009 has yet to unearth itself. I am taking suggestions.

1. Jay-Z – “Jockin’” (The Blueprint 3)
2. Lily Allen – “I Could Say” (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
3. Jay-Z – “D.O.A. [Death of Auto-Tune]” (The Blueprint 3)
4. Bruce Springsteen – “Nebraska” (Nebraska)
5. Bruce Springsteen – “Highway Patrolman” (Nebraska)
6. Jay-Z – “Young Forever” (The Blueprint 3)
7. Fun. – “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)” (Aim and Ignite)
8. Fun. – “The Gambler” (Aim and Ignite)
9. Joshua James – “Wilted Daisies” (Build Me This)
10. Wilco – “Via Chicago” (Summerteeth)
11. Joshua James – “Coal War” (Build Me This)
12. Clues – “You Have My Eyes Now” (Clues)
13. Joshua James – “Lawn Full of Marigolds” (Build Me This)
14. Jonsi & Alex – “Daníell In The Sea” (Riceboy Sleeps)
15. David Bazan – “Hard to Be” (Curse Your Branches)
16. David Bazan – “Bless This Mess” (Curse Your Branches)
17. David Bazan – “In Stitches” (Curse Your Branches)
18. David Bazan – “Bearing Witness” (Curse Your Branches)
19. The Avett Brothers – “I and Love and You” (I and Love and You)

Well, now that I’m back from Australia, I suppose I should catch up and show you what I was listening to last month. Lots of Bruce Springsteen, natch. And I started going through all the Tom Waits albums I somehow have not listened to up to now. And then I got on a plane to Sydney, sans iPod, and discovered the only on-board music options worth listening to as I fell into a Tylenol PM coma were Coldplay and Lily Allen.

Enjoy!

1. Antony & the Johnsons – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Dylan Mania)
2. Joker & Ginz – “Purple City” (Purple City / Re-Up)
3. Lori McKenna – “Witness to Your Life” (Unglamorous)
4. Drake – “Best I Ever Had” (Best I Ever Had)
5. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – “Home” (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros)
6. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)
7. Tom Waits – “Big Joe and Phantom 309″ (Nighthawks at the Diner)
8. Bruce Springsteen – “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” (Live 1975-1985)
9. Hammock – “Mono No Aware” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
10. He Is Legend – “Don’t Touch That Dial” (It Hates You)
11. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – “Going Up the Country” (Kitty, Daisy & Lewis)
12. Tom Waits – “Chocolate Jesus” (Mule Variations)
13. Bruce Springsteen – “Thunder Road” (Born to Run)
14. Plants & Animals – “Bye Bye Bye” (Parc Avenue)
15. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
16. Sigur Rós – “Gong” (Takk…)
17. Lily Allen – “The Fear” (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
18. Coldplay – “Death and All His Friends” (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

Oops. Forgetting to blog again. Still trying to get in the habit again, apparently. Just in time for me to take off in a few weeks for another international adventure, this time in Australia!

July was the month of the Dead Weather, As Cities Burn breaking up (for a second time), a visit from my girl (hence the Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, her favorite classic artist and mine, respectively) and a lot of randoms for this and that reason. As always, they’re all well worth checking out.

1. The Gossip – “Heavy Cross” (Music for Men)
2. Cage – “I Never Knew You” (Depart From Me)
3. The Dead Weather – “New Pony” (Horehound)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Common Reactor” (Carnavas)
5. Owen – “I’m Not Seventeen” (The Seaside EP)
6. The Dead Weather – “Hang You From The Heavens” (Horehound)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness is the Move” (Bitte Orca)
8. As Cities Burn – “Love Jealous One, Love” (Son, I Love You at Your Darkest)
9. Riceboy Sleeps – “Boy 1904″ (Riceboy Sleeps)
10. The Dead Weather – “60 Feet Tall” (Horehound)
11. Floating Action – “So Vapor” (Floating Action)
12. Wheat – “El Sincero” (White Ink, Black Ink)
13. Wheat – “Living to Die” (White Ink, Black Ink)
14. Tom Waits – “Ol’ ‘55″ (Closing Time)
15. Brett Dennen – “Ain’t Gonna Lose You” (Hope for the Hopeless)
16. Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle)
17. The American Dollar – “Bump” (A Memory Stream)
18. My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow” (Loveless)

Hey, it’s half a month late, but at least it’s here. I’m back from Thailand (plenty to share, but I’ll get to that later), so here’s June’s playlist. It’s full of good old classic rock sounds and a few randoms from new releases and old favorites. And the Bruce/Wilco closers were what I played in the Land of Smiles when I was thinking about home.

1. Dr. Dog – “The Old Days” (Fate)
2. Paolo Nutini – “Keep Rolling” (Sunny Side Up)
3. Aesop Rock – “Nickel Plated Pockets” (Daylight EP)
4. M83 – “Gone” (Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts)
5. Radiohead – “Lucky” (OK Computer)
6. The Knife – “We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Trentemoller remix)” (We Share Our Mothers’ Health single)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Useful Chamber” (Bitte Orca)
8. The Hold Steady – “Citrus” (A Positive Rage)
9. edIT – “Artsy Remix (feat. The Grouch)” (Certified Air Raid Material)
10. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound” (The ‘59 Sound)
11. Mathew Good – “Champions of Nothing” (Hospital Music)
12. Manchester Orchestra – “Colly Strings” (I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child)
13. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” (Manners)
14. The Veils – “Sit Down by the Fire” (Sun Gangs)
15. mewithoutYou – “Allah, Allah, Allah” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
16. The Dear Hunter – “Mustard Gas” (Act III: Life and Death)
17. Bruce Springsteen – “Born to Run” (Born to Run)
18. Wilco – “I’m the Man Who Loves You” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

Regular posts return this week as I slowly collect my brains post-travel and try to spit them out for you to read. Meanwhile, enjoy the music!

May of 2009 is a month that will go down in history. A whirlwind period of spiritual revelation, long-distance hopes and dreams, multiple successful “used music” days, inspiring new releases from mewithoutYou, Passion Pit and Iron & Wine and the death of musical icon Jay Bennett.

1. mewithoutYou – “Every Thought a Thought of You” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
2. Akron/Family – “Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship version)” (Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free)
3. Glasvegas – “Flowers and Football Tops” (Glasvegas)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
5. Gallows – “London is the Reason” (Grey Britain)
6. Blitzen Trapper – “Furr” (Furr)
7. Starfucker – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (Jupiter EP)
8. The Smiths – “How Soon Is Now?” (Meat is Murder)
9. Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock” (Siamese Dream)
10. Roman Candle – “Why Modern Radio is A-OK” (Oh Tall Tree in the Ear)
11. Smashing Pumpkins – “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
12. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” (Manners)
13. mewithoutYou – “The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
14. Iron & Wine – “Love Vigilantes” (Around the Well)
15. Iron & Wine – “Kingdom of the Animals” (Around the Well)
16. The Knife – “Marble House” (Silent Shout)
17. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Skeletons” (It’s Blitz!)
18. Mat Kearney – “New York to California” (City of Black & White)
19. Bruce Springsteen – “Jersey Girl” (Live 1975-1985 box set)
20. Cage – “Grand Ol’ Party Crash” (Hell’s Winter)
21. Wilco – “Misunderstood” (Kicking Television: Live in Chicago)
22. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)

I’d make you an imeem playlist, but it doesn’t appear to like me right now. Sorry.