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)

June is here. It’s the busy time of year. Graduations, going-away parties, weddings, vacations. No time for posting on blogs that nobody reads anyway.

May went by in a blur, leaving me just enough time to reminisce about music I used to love (Killswitch Engage, The Used, Eels, Death Cab For Cutie) and wish for half a minute that I had good music taste during the 90s (Pavement, Oasis, The Magnetic Fields). Then I went with Matt down to Irvine last weekend to experience the face melting metal of Iron Maiden and Anthrax live. It’s impressive that old guys are still capable of tearing it up like that.

1. Jimmy Eat World – “Here It Goes” (Chase This Light)
2. Hammock – “City in the Dust on My Window” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
3. 16 Horsepower – “Splinters” (Live: March 2001)
4. Eels – “Railroad Man” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
5. Eels – “The Other Shoe” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
6. Killswitch Engage – “Take This Oath” (The End of Heartache)
7. The Used – “Let It Bleed” (In Love and Death)
8. Death Cab For Cutie – “Transatlanticism” (Transatlanticism)
9. Duffy – “Mercy” (Rockferry)
10. Moving Mountains – “Grow On, Grow Up, Grow Out” (Pneuma)
11. The Appleseed Cast – “The Clock and the Storm” (Peregrine)
12. Pavement – “Unfair” (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
13. Oasis – “Champagne Supernova” (What’s The Story, Morning Glory?)
14. The Magnetic Fields – “Busby Berkeley Dreams” (69 Love Songs)
15. Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
16. Iron Maiden – “Run to the Hills” (Number of the Beast)
17. Anthrax – “Madhouse” (Spreading the Disease)

I’ve become a bootleg fiend as of late. I got a whole bunch of Coachella recordings, other random shows I was at and a few I wish I was at. Maybe I should start posting a few samples for your enjoyment. I’m at the brink of filling up my laptop’s hard drive. It’s about time for a new computer anyway.

You probably won’t hear much more from me this month (as if that were unusual). I’m road-tripping to Colorado to see the fam for a week, and then I’ll be start cleaning and packing to prepare to move into a new place that I just confirmed late last night. Exciting times. Peace.

May? What happened to April? I guess I’ve been busy or something.

April was a month of playing artists on repeat: Bon Iver; Jimmy Eat World; Foals; Does It Offend You, Yeah?; Portishead; Grizzly Bear. There was also some Coachella reminiscing and a healthy scoop of bitterness towards Western evangelical culture (check out the Chris Thile song), but those are rants for another time.

1. Grizzly Bear – “Alligator (Choir Version)” (Friend EP)
2. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – “Let’s Make Out” (You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into)
3. Jimmy Eat World – “Firefight” (Chase This Light)
4. Grizzly Bear – “Little Brother (Electric)” (Friend EP)
5. Foals – “Two Steps, Twice” (Antidotes)
6. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – “We Are Rockstars” (You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into)
7. Jimmy Eat World – “Kill” (Futures)
8. Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
9. Bon Iver – “re: Stacks” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
10. Chris Thile – “The Believer” (Deceiver)
11. mewithoutYou – “The Sun and the Moon” (Brother, Sister)
12. Bon Iver – “The Wolves (Act I and II)” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
13. Vampire Weekend – “Mansard Roof” (Vampire Weekend)
14. Portishead – “Machine Gun” (Third)
15. International Superheroes of Hardcore – “Dirty Mouth” (Tip Of The Iceberg/Takin’ It Ova!)
16. Man Man – “The Ballad of Butter Beans” (Rabbit Habits)
17. Les Savy Fav – “The Sweat Descends” (Inches)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to working 24/7 and getting the life sucked out of me by tactless people that I still try hard to love.