I guess you could say July was a busy month. I had ear surgery at the end of the month, so I think my brains were trying to get in as much music before I’d be down for the count for a few weeks while my hearing comes back. Sucks to be me.

The beginning of the month brought a re-run epiphany that Pavement succeeded at what Nirvana was trying to do. Long story for another post. And then I found the This Is Dubstep comps and got hopelessly lost in electronic music for the rest of the month. I only took breaks for some new releases, like the new New Pornographers, the new M.I.A., Admiral Radley, Acacia Strain, Best Coast and Max Richter. And in the middle there somewhere was a phenomenal Hold Steady/Whigs show in Memphis. Needless to say, I’m a bit music saturated in my current environment and I am not going to complain about it.

1. Pavement – “Here” (Slanted and Enchanted)
2. Chasing Shadows – “Ill” (GetDarker Presents: This Is Dubstep 2)
3. Tes La Rok – “Darkness Falls Upon Us” (GetDarker Presents: This Is Dubstep)
4. Drumsound & Bassline Smith – “R U Ready (Dubstep Mix)” (GetDarker Presents: This Is Dubstep 2)
5. Fused Forces – “Chemical Reaction” (GetDarker Presents: This Is Dubstep 2)
6. Lung – “Afterlife” (GetDarker Presents: This Is Dubstep 2)
7. The New Pornographers – “Crash Years” (Together)
8. The New Pornographers – “Valkyrie In the Roller Disco” (Together)
9. The Hold Steady – “Positive Jam” (Almost Killed Me)
10. The Whigs – “Right Hand On My Heart” (Mission Control)
11. M.I.A. – “Teqkilla” (MAYA)
12. M.I.A. – “Meds and Feds” (MAYA)
13. Admiral Radley – “I Heart California” (I Heart California)
14. The Hold Steady – “Soft In the Center” (Heaven Is Whenever)
15. Beach House – “Walk in the Park” (Teen Dream)
16. The Acacia Strain – “Btm Fdr” (Wormwood)
17. Max Richter – “Infra 5″ (Infra)
18. Best Coast – “Summer Mood” (Crazy For You)

And here is your playlist, as usual.

Lots of great releases in October (Ray LaMontagne, Ingrid Michaelson, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, etc.) and plenty of reason to be listening to calm music, even when life isn’t always so calm (and maybe especially so in that case). Seeing Sigur Rós was a great way to start things off, and seeing Death Cab for Cutie last week was a great way to end it.

And, just for the record, “Swagga Like Us” may be the best hip hop song ever recorded. M.I.A., Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and T.I. all on one track. My mind is blown.

1. Earth – “Omens and Portents 1: The Driver” (The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull)
2. TV on the Radio – “Halfway Home” (Dear Science)
3. T.I. – “Swagga Like Us” (Paper Trail)
4. Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – “Thou Shalt Always Kill” (Angles)
5. Ray LaMontagne – “Meg White” (Gossip in the Grain)
6. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – “My Love for You is Real” (Follow the Lights)
7. Ray LaMontagne – “You Are the Best Thing” (Gossip in the Grain)
8. Ingrid Michaelson – “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (Be OK)
9. Todd Snider – “Is This Thing Working?” (Peace Queer)
10. Brett Dennen – “Make You Crazy” (Hope for the Hopeless)
11. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – “Magick” (Cardinology)
12. TV on the Radio – “DLZ” (Dear Science)
13. Bloc Party – “Ares” (Intimacy)
14. mewithoutYou – “Son of a Window” (Catch for Us the Foxes)
15. Death Cab for Cutie – “Transatlanticism” (Transatlanticism)
16. Marnie Stern – “Clone Cycle” (This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That)

Yes, I really am posting at 1:23 am. I was just so excited to bring you my third song of the year, hot off the presses or whatever it is you create music entities with! As I had mentioned, my lack of hearing in one ear makes it a bit tough to sing, so this week I bring you the very first remix I’ve ever made! (Okay, so maybe the reason I’m up late is that I’m using the demo version of Ableton Live which wouldn’t let me save my work, so I had to do this all in one shot and hope my computer didn’t die.)

Anyway, I bring you an original Josh Mock remix of Interpol’s Pioneer to the Falls. Mmm Interpol.

I actually started out working with the instrumental track from M.I.A.’s Paper Planes, but then when deciding what to mash it up with, I realized it was better for samples anyway. So I sampled out some of the beats and gunshot sounds and MIDIed my way to a decent beat. Then I added some glitchy sounds to the Interpol track, and there you have it.

I know it doesn’t seem like much, but you would be surprised how long that took me. If it sounds awesome (riiiight) you can only imagine what a full version of Ableton, some accompanying hardware and a little practice could do for me. Guys! I have potential to be a remix master! Sponsor me or something!

I’m going to bed.

This one is late for good reason. I’ve been sick all week and am just now beginning to see the end. Not only have I been busy resting, watching the entire Freaks & Geeks series, as well as several episodes of Six Feet Under, but the doc I went to looked at my ear, which is highly prone to infection after colds, and said I had a major tear halfway across my ear drum. Closer inspection indicated that wasn’t the case (whew) but neither of the doctors could figure out what was going on. “Cool ear,” one of them told me on his way out. Uhh… thanks?

Anyway, on to the music (which will be slightly garbled to me until I finish this course of double-strength antibiotics). Last month I finally started catching on to This Will Destroy You’s new one, I continued to fall in love with The Snake The Cross The Crown, I saw Ryan Adams live for the first time (yay, bootlegs!) and discovered Modeselektor thanks to Radiohead guest-DJing some BBC radio show I’d never heard of. Enjoy some tunes.

1. This Will Destroy You – “They Move On Tracks of Never-Ending Light” (This Will Destroy You)
2. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Gypsy Melodies” (Cotton Teeth)
3. M.I.A. – “Hussel” (Kala)
4. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Maps” (Cotton Teeth)
5. Michael Cera & Ellen Page – “Anyone Else But You” (Juno soundtrack)
6. Sigur Rós – “Hafsól” (Hvarf/Heim)
7. The Magnetic Fields – “California Girls” (Distortion)
8. M.I.A. – “20 Dollar” (Kala)
9. Circa Survive – “In The Morning And Amazing…” (On Letting Go)
10. Ryan Adams – “Shakedown On 9th Street” (Heartbreaker)
11. Collections Of Colonies Of Bees – “Flocks III” (Collections Of Colonies Of Bees)
12. Modeselektor – “The Dark Side Of The Sun (feat. Puppetmastaz)” (Happy Birthday!)
13. Modeselektor – “The White Flash (feat. Thom Yorke)” (Happy Birthday!)
14. Burial – “Prayer” (Burial)
15. Vampire Weekend – “Walcott” (Vampire Weekend)
16. Vampire Weekend – “Oxford Comma” (Vampire Weekend)

I’m only a few days late. This was a month of making the best Christmas mix CD ever (exclusively in the hands of my closest friends), listening to countless best-of-2007 lists (hence the recurrence of M.I.A. and The Snake The Cross The Crown), a new This Will Destroy You record (not as good as Young Mountain, but still not a waste of money if you make it to the last few songs), discovering only a few years too late how great I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning is and realizing that Sam Beam has probably been listening to dub music.

Coming up: my personal goals for 2008, which explains how this here blog will finally be put to greater use than monthly playlists and the occasional rant.

1. The Knife – “We Share Our Mothers’ Health” (Silent Shout)
2. Daft Punk – “Robot Rock / Oh Yeah” (Alive 2007)
3. Holy Fuck – “Echo Sam” (LP)
4. Thom Yorke – “Harrowdown Hill” (The Eraser)
5. Sufjan Stevens – “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (Songs For Christmas)
6. Vince Guaraldi – “Christmastime Is Here (Vocal)” (A Charlie Brown Christmas)
7. Rihanna – “Umbrella” (Good Girl Gone Bad)
8. A Fine Frenzy – “Fever” (Dan In Real Life Soundtrack)
9. Bright Eyes – “Poison Oak” (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning)
10. Bright Eyes – “Road To Joy” (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning)
11. This Will Destroy You – “The Mighty Rio Grande” (This Will Destroy You)
12. Mindy Smith – “Santa Will Find You” (My Holiday)
13. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Cakewalk” (Cotton Teeth)
14. M.I.A. – “Mango Pickle Down River” (Kala)
15. The Snake The Cross The Crown – “Electronic Dream Plant” (Cotton Teeth)
16. M.I.A. – “Paper Planes” (Kala)
17. Iron & Wine – “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)” (The Shepherd’s Dog)
18. This Will Destroy You – “They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light” (This Will Destroy You)

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

Another busy month spent not blogging, but at least I’m consistent with the monthly playlists, right? I’m about to leave for a week of vacation. I figured I’d post my August list before I check out mentally.

1. Ray LaMontagne – “Empty” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
2. Mono – “halcyon (beautiful days)” (Walking cloud and deep red sky, Flag fluttered and the sun shined)
3. Dr. Dre – “Forgot About Dre” (2001)
4. Sigur Ros – “Milano” (Takk…)
5. M83 – “Teen Angst” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)
6. Ryan Adams – “Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)” (Heartbreaker)
7. Ryan Adams – “Come Pick Me Up” (Heartbreaker)
8. Josh Ritter – “The Temptation of Adam” (The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter)
9. M.I.A. – “Bird Flu” (Kala)
10. Ray Lamontagne – “All The Wild Horses” (Trouble)
11. Liars – “Drum And The Uncomfortable Can” (Drum’s Not Dead)

As you can see, I’m still slightly obsessed with Ryan Adams. I don’t think that will be ending soon.