December was one of those months that seemed to be about three months long. I have no idea why. I drove to and from LA two weekends in a row, trying (and failing) to put a holiday mix CD together, spent Christmas happily alone and tried to control myself from reading too many year-end top 10 album lists.

A lot of this month’s interesting tidbits came from listening to albums on other people’s lists, though, so I can’t really knock them that much. It’s a great way to figure out what I missed over the course of the year. That’s where Benea Reach, Shearwater, Okkervil River and Frightened Rabbit all came from.

Happy new year, everyone!

1. Adam Pasion - “Schoolhouse Virginia” (O Hear the Rattling)
2. Johnny Cash - “It Ain’t Me, Babe” (Greatest Hits, Vol. 1)
3. Akon - “Right Now (Na Na Na)” (Freedom)
4. Akon - “I’m So Paid” (Freedom)
5. Horse Feathers - “Curs in the Weeds” (House With No Home)
6. MGMT - “Electric Feel” (Oracular Spectacular)
7. Caroline - “Winter” (Murmurs)
8. Starflyer 59 - “My Name” (Everybody Makes Mistakes)
9. Justice - “Genesis” (A Cross the Universe)
10. Common - “Universal Mind Control” (Universal Mind Control)
11. Horse Feathers - “Father” (House With No Home)
12. Fleet Foxes - “Oliver James” (Fleet Foxes)
13. Okkervil River - “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” (The Stand Ins)
14. Shearwater - “Home Life” (Rook)
15. Benea Reach - “Awakening” (Alleviat)
16. Neko Case - “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)” (Blacklisted)
17. Benea Reach - “New Waters” (Alleviat)
18. Stars of the Lid - “Even If You’re Never Awake” (And Their Refinement of the Decline)
19. Kanye West - “Say You Will” (808s & Heartbreak)
20. Kanye West - “Paranoid” (808s & Heartbreak)
21. Frightened Rabbit - “Head Rolls Off” (The Midnight Organ Fight)

I love it when I beat Pitchfork to the punch. I’ve been listening to Los Campesinos! for quite a while now after coming across their phenomenal song You! Me! Dancing! during my exploration of 2006’s countless end-of-year lists (I don’t even know who Phil Gyford is).

Several weeks later Pitchfork made small mention of them. And today they published their review of LC!’s first stateside release, Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, giving it a whopping 8.4. That’s huge for Pitchfork, in case you weren’t aware. And, for once, their excessive verbage does an album justice:

Silly names aside, Los Campesinos! play superbly crafted indie pop that bounces off walls like Love Is All, grins with the childlike exuberance of Bis, and throws the toy chest into its arrangements like Architecture in Helsinki. Glockenspiels and pizzicato violin veer into reckless guitar riffs and full-bodied handclaps– or fizz over, like Mentos and Coke, into happy-stupid crescendos. Gareth shares lead vocal duties with the similarly pseudonymous Aleksandra Campesino!, and their boy-girl exchanges give the music an extra, sweet frisson. Newfeld’s treatment turns “You! Me! Dancing!” from a lo-fi rallying cry into an unstoppable force for converting spindly legs into dancefloor blurs.

Twee on, kids. Twee on.

Sorry for the posting hiatus. The music world tends to hibernate for the few weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years, but things are finally starting to pick up again (new Shins, Six Parts Seven, Deerhoof, Clinic, Of Montreal, Fujiya & Miyagi releases next week! Woo!).

The only thing I have to really discuss is the upcoming RPM Challenge 2007, where musicians all over the world unite with the common goal of recording an album during the 28 days of February. It’s a fun and supportive community. I’ve joined with my solo project, Saviors, which is/will be my instrumental post rock alter ego. We’ll see how that goes. I’m blogging my progress over there. It should be fun.

Oh, and one more fun little link: check out a couple Jimi Hendrix remixes. The Jimi/Jay-Z mashup Voodoo Problems is especially awesome.

Andrew Bird will be releasing an album of unreleased studio recordings, live tracks and some other stuff on an album titled Fingerlings 3 this October.

I Guess I’m Floating has posted a couple tracks from the upcoming release. They’re well worth checking out.