This month’s list is large because time kind of dragged on and on. Probably because I’m counting down the days until I move to Nashville. But hey, a lot of good music came out this month, so that is cause for celebration! If anything on here isn’t due to a new release, it’s due to me just now getting back to a release or two that I’ve been meaning to enjoy more (like Local Natives, Freelance Whales and Surfer Blood).

1. Four Tet – “Love Cry” (There Is Love In You)
2. Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man” (Sigh No More)
3. Frightened Rabbit – “The Loneliness and the Scream” (The Winter of Mixed Drinks)
4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Red House” (Are You Experienced?)
5. Anais Mitchell – “Wedding Song (feat. Justin Vernon)” (Hadestown)
6. Broken Bells – “The High Road” (Broken Bells)
7. The Chieftains – “La Iguana (feat. Lila Downs)” (San Patricio)
8. Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union” (The Monitor)
9. First Aid Kid – “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” (Drunken Trees EP)
10. Local Natives – “Airplanes” (Gorilla Manor)
11. Liars – “Scissor” (Sisterworld)
12. The White Stripes – “Icky Thump” (Under Great White Northern Lights)
13. Freelance Whales – “Generator ^ Second Floor” (Weathervanes)
14. Surfer Blood – “Swim” (Astro Coast)
15. Surfer Blood – “Take It Easy” (Astro Coast)
16. Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses – “Bluebird” (Roadhouse Sun)
17. Manchester Orchestra – “100 Dollars” (Mean Everything to Nothing)
18. Manchester Orchestra – “I Can Feel a Hot One” (Mean Everything to Nothing)
19. Deftones – “Diamond Eyes” (Diamond Eyes single)
20. The Dillinger Escape Plan – “Farewell, Mona Lisa” (Option Paralysis)
21. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
22. The Boxer Rebellion – “Soviets” (Union)

And, as always, here is your mix:

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)

Since it’s Friday and my brain is dead, how about a video?

This is the music video for Frightened Rabbit’s song “Head Rolls Off,” coincidentally my final song of 2008.

When my blood stops
Someone else’s will not
When my head rolls off
Someone else’s will turn
And while I’m alive
I’ll make tiny changes to earth

You can mark my words
I’ll make changes to earth

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)