This is just a test to see how Mixaloo actually works in the wild. Of course, if you pay for this playlist, I could tell people I was making money as a music blogger.

(And check out my awesome Photoshop skills! Cropping an image and adding text! I could totally put “Photoshop skills” on my resume.)

I’ve been lazy with the blogging as of late. It’s more fulfilling to post stuff like that on Buzzgrinder because people actually comment on it. So I’ll just link you to my top 10 list there and give you (who is “you” anyway?) 11 through 20 with no descriptions:

20. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
19. Eluvium – Copia
18. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
17. Bright Eyes – Cassadaga
16. The Snake The Cross The Crown – Cotton Teeth
15. Band Of Horses – Cease To Begin
14. M.I.A. – Kala
13. Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
12. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
11. Daft Punk – Alive 2007

October brought a new Radiohead album, reminiscence of past autumns (hence the A Perfect Circle and Further Seems Forever songs), which then led to searching for more autumn-esque music (Neutral Milk Hotel, Neko Case, Amos Lee), a Briertone concert, me trying really hard to learn to love Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I’d always found it boring), a few other new releases (Rogue Wave, Band Of Horses, Fiery Furnaces) and Rhapsody finally putting Sunn 0))) albums in their catalog/me making a Halloween playlist.

1. Neko Case - “Things That Scare Me” (Blacklisted)
2. Rosetta - “Red in Tooth and Claw” (Wake/Lift)
3. Emmylou Harris - “Red Dirt Girl” (Red Dirt Girl)
4. Neutral Milk Hotel - “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea)
5. Von Südenfed - “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” (Von Südenfed)
6. Amos Lee - “Night Train” (Supply And Demand)
7. Band Of Horses - “Is There A Ghost” (Cease To Begin)
8. The Fiery Furnaces - “Duplexes Of The Dead” (Widow City)
9. Briertone - “Cheers” (Sojourners)
10. Radiohead - “15 Step” (In Rainbows)
11. Radiohead - “Bodysnatchers” (In Rainbows)
12. Rogue Wave - “Lake Michigan” (Asleep At Heaven’s Gate)
13. A Fine Frenzy - “Come On, Come Out” (One Cell In The Sea)
14. Ray LaMontagne - “Jolene” (Trouble)
15. Jakob - “Malachite” (Solace)
16. Radiohead - “House Of Cards” (In Rainbows)
17. Briertone - “Strawfoot” (Sojourners)
18. Further Seems Forever - “Light Up Ahead” (Hide Nothing)
19. A Perfect Circle - “Passive” (eMOTIVe)
20. Further Seems Forever - “Make It A Part” (Hide Nothing)
21. Further Seems Forever - “All Rise” (Hide Nothing)
22. A Perfect Circle - “The Package” (Thirteenth Step)
23. Wilco - “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
24. Sunn 0))) - “Bathory Erzebet” (Black One)

A while back my best friend started keeping a monthly playlist. Any particular song that she felt was a favorite or most-played item was added to this list. The idea is that, at some undefined point in the future, she’ll appreciate being able to go back and see what she was listening to at a particular era of time.

I took the idea and changed the rules to fit me a little better. I create a monthly playlist but it not only contains favorites of the time, but any song that caught my attention (in a good way) during the month, whether or not I really listened to it a huge amount.

So now I’m going to post these on my blog at the end of each month. For this introductory post I’ll post January’s because it’s the first playlist and I need to catch up. February is soon to follow. Oh, a little disclaimer: the songs aren’t sorted in any order other than whatever order they went on the list.

Monthly Playlist - January 2007

1. Band Of Horses - “The Funeral” (Everything All The Time)
2. The Black Keys - “Thickfreakness” (Thickfreakness)
3. Brand New - “Sowing Season (Yeah)” (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me)
4. Calexico and Iron & Wine - “He Lays In The Reins” (In The Reins)
5. Calexico and Iron & Wine - “Sixteen, Maybe Less” (In The Reins)
6. DragonForce - “Through The Fire And Flames” (Inhuman Rampage)
7. Eluvium - “The Well-Meaning Professor” (An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death)
8. Fujiya & Miyagi - “Ankle Injuries” (Transparent Things)
9. Fujiya & Miyagi - “Collarbone” (Transparent Things)
10. Gomez - “See The World” (How We Operate)
11. Jeremy Enigk - “Been Here Before” (World Waits)
12. John Mayer - “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” (Continuum)
13. John Mayer - “Bold As Love” (Continuum)
14. Birdman & Lil Wayne - “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (Street)” (Like Father Like Son)
15. Neko Case - “Star Witness” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
16. Ratatat - “Wildcat” (Classics)
17. Ray LaMontagne - “Be Here Now” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
18. Regina Spektor - “Fidelity” (Begin To Hope)
19. Ryan Adams - “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
20. The Crystal Method - “High Roller” (Vegas)
21. The Decemberists - “The Perfect Crime #2″ (The Crane Wife)
22. The Shins - “Phantom Limb” (Wincing The Night Away)
23. Damien Rice - “9 Crimes” (9)
24. Caspian - “Quovis” (You Are The Conductor)
25. Caspian - “Further Up” (You Are The Conductor)
26. Portishead - “Glory Box” (Roseland NYC Live)
27. mewithoutYou - “Carousels” (Catch For Us The Foxes)
28. Explosions In The Sky - “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place)

The final part of my four-part series. The list to end all lists. I present to you the best new albums in 2006.

1. mewithoutYou - Brother, Sister
2. This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain
3. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
4. Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
5. Joshua Radin - We Were Here
6. Malajube - Trompe-L’Oeil (US Release)
7. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
8. John Mayer - Continuum
9. P.O.S. - Audition
10. Norma Jean - Redeemer
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
12. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
13. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
14. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
15. The Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
16. Damien Rice - 9
17. The Knife - Silent Shout
18. Underoath - Define The Great Line
19. Angels & Airwaves - We Don’t Need To Whisper
20. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations

Well, that’s all folks. I had fun making these lists and you probably hated reading them. Or maybe you found something new to love. If that’s the case, my goal has been met.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Keep on discovering.

Part three of four. Of all the music I listened to that was released this year, these are the ones that mattered most.

1. This Will Destroy You - Quiet
2. Jeremy Enigk - Been Here Before
3. mewithoutYou - O, Porcupine
4. This Will Destroy You - The World Is Our ____
5. Mew - An Envoy To The Open Fields
6. mewithoutYou - In A Sweater Poorly Knit
7. Joshua Radin - Sundrenched World
8. mewithoutYou - C-Minor
9. Band Of Horses - The Funeral
10. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Acoustic Version)
11. Mew - The Zookeeper’s Boy
12. Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill
13. P.O.S. - Half-Cocked Concepts
14. Norma Jean - The End Of All Things Will Be Televised
15. Malajube - Montréal-40ºC
16. Mew - Special
17. The Mars Volta - Viscera Eyes
18. Malajube - Casse-cou
19. P.O.S. - P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life
20. Angels and Airwaves – The Adventure
21. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
22. The Knife - Silent Shout
23. Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got
24. Angels and Airwaves – Valkyrie Missile
25. John Mayer - Bold As Love
26. Underoath - A Moment Suspended In Time
27. Joshua Radin - Star Mile

And, if by some random chance you happen to have Rhapsody, you can listen to this playlist there.

Part one of four in my 2006-list-making extravaganza.

1. This Will Destroy You – Young Mountain
2. Cloud Cult – Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
3. Mew – And The Glass Handed Kites
4. Joshua Radin – We Were Here
5. mewithoutYou – Catch for Us the Foxes
6. Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell
7. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
8. The Three Sounds – Live at the Lighthouse
9. Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live
10. Jay-Z – The Black Album
11. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time
12. Nickel Creek – Nickel Creek
13. Chasing Victory – I Call This Abandonment
14. Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?
15. Thom Yorke – The Eraser

Thanks to Last.fm for making this list possible.

Funny how it takes a comment from a local acquaintance to get me posting here again…

Anyway, I’ve decided to just have this be my blog for music musings. Kind of how I originally intended, except without any expectation for it to gain any popularity, and I don’t think I’ll do any formal album reviews or anything.

That said, here are my favorite discoveries in recent months/days as well as some older favorites that are now full-on addictions:

• This Will Destroy You - (instrumental/post rock)
• Joshua Radin - (Simon & Garfunkel-esque acoustic folk)
• Caspian - (instrumental/post rock)
• Pelican - (instrumental/heavy post rock)
• The Appleseed Cast - (indie/post rock)
• Band Of Horses - (indie rock)
• This Is Your Captain Speaking - (instrumental/post rock)
• Baaba Maal - (world/African)
• Explosions In The Sky - (instrumental/post rock)
• Mono - (Japanese post rock)

As you can see, a lot of post rock. Duh. I can’t get enough of it. It’s got this great soundtrack-ish feel to it. In fact, Explosions In The Sky can be credited for the soundtrack to the movie Friday Night Lights. So there.

In other news:

Norma Jean has two new tracks posted on their PureVolume page from their upcoming release, Redeemer, which releases September 12. Absolutely brutal. I can’t wait.

mewithoutYou has a new track from their upcoming September 26 release, Brother, Sister, posted on their Myspace. And, in case you missed it, they performed another of their new songs at Cornerstone, and the video has made its way to YouTube.

It was just officially announced yesterday via their website that Death From Above 1979 has broken up. Far too soon, if you ask me, but apparently it’s been speculated for the last year or so. Rest in peace.

Random thought: maybe I should start a podcast. But would anyone listen?