Yeah, that’s a Britney Spears song tacked on the end there, sandwiched between Wilco and a Wu-Tang dubstep remix. Nobody ever said I was consistent.

Once again, I’ve made an attempt at mixing all these songs together in some sort of discernable and enjoyable way. Enjoy that.

1. Pedro The Lion – “Progress” (Control)
2. Nicki Minaj – “Roman’s Revenge (feat. Eminem)” (Pink Friday)
3. Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More” (Sigh No More)
4. Flying Lotus – “Camel” (Los Angeles)
5. Killabits – “DSGSTNG” (DSGSTNG single)
6. Smith Westerns – “Still New” (Dye It Blonde)
7. Tom Waits – “Heartattack and Vine” (Heartattack and Vine)
8. Wanda Jackson – “Thunder on the Mountain” (The Party Ain’t Over)
9. Wu-Tang Clan – “Pencil/MyPiano/Firehouse (Soroka Remixes)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
10. Kanye West – “Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver)” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
11. Wu-Tang Clan – “Alphabets (Dakimh instrumental remix)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
12. Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me” (Hold It Against Me single)
13. Wilco – “Reservations” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

A few years ago (2005 or so, I think?) I happened upon the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It is exactly what it sounds like. A group of music historians and critics and journalists got together and decided what 1001 albums from 1950 to now are the ones everyone should hear before they die. (Important note: They weren’t necessarily out to find the best albums, just the ones that are the most significant for whatever reason.)

Being in major exploration mode at the time, and having an unlimited Rhapsody subscription, I found a copy of the full list and got to work.

Today, I finished. I listened to every album from start to finish, to the best of my ability. I took a few breaks in there, and when I got down to the final few that were difficult to seek out, the pace slowed. But today, I am done.

What did I learn? I learned that a lot of older music is hard to appreciate without proper context (having the book handy might have helped with that). I learned that Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits are awesome and Joan Baez is not. I learned that people were doing some pretty inventive stuff well before I imagined anyone would have tried. I learned that a lot of the best music in the world takes several listens to enjoy.

But most of all I learned that, when music historians look back in history, these last 50 years are going to mark a very important milestone in the timeline of music. It was recordable and reproducible and, as a result, everyone learned tricks from everyone else all over the world. Ginger Baker (British drummer who played in Cream) collaborated with Fela Kuti, the premiere musician in African pop in the 60s and 70s, whose influence over world music is still heard today.

The point is, music has changed our culture, and every culture, in the past century in ways that it had never before. And as a fan of music, it’s exciting that I’ve gotten a good sampling of the hottest part of that timeline.

Will I ever do a listening project of this magnitude ever again? Probably not. But it was worth it.

Now, someone buy me the book as a trophy, please.

Well, now that I’m back from Australia, I suppose I should catch up and show you what I was listening to last month. Lots of Bruce Springsteen, natch. And I started going through all the Tom Waits albums I somehow have not listened to up to now. And then I got on a plane to Sydney, sans iPod, and discovered the only on-board music options worth listening to as I fell into a Tylenol PM coma were Coldplay and Lily Allen.

Enjoy!

1. Antony & the Johnsons – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Dylan Mania)
2. Joker & Ginz – “Purple City” (Purple City / Re-Up)
3. Lori McKenna – “Witness to Your Life” (Unglamorous)
4. Drake – “Best I Ever Had” (Best I Ever Had)
5. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – “Home” (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros)
6. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)
7. Tom Waits – “Big Joe and Phantom 309″ (Nighthawks at the Diner)
8. Bruce Springsteen – “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” (Live 1975-1985)
9. Hammock – “Mono No Aware” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
10. He Is Legend – “Don’t Touch That Dial” (It Hates You)
11. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – “Going Up the Country” (Kitty, Daisy & Lewis)
12. Tom Waits – “Chocolate Jesus” (Mule Variations)
13. Bruce Springsteen – “Thunder Road” (Born to Run)
14. Plants & Animals – “Bye Bye Bye” (Parc Avenue)
15. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
16. Sigur Rós – “Gong” (Takk…)
17. Lily Allen – “The Fear” (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
18. Coldplay – “Death and All His Friends” (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

I swear to you, if this film doesn’t get US distribution like the rumors say, I will resort to illegal means to make sure I see it.

Five words: Tom Waits plays the Devil. And six more words, for good measure: Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell.

Oops. Forgetting to blog again. Still trying to get in the habit again, apparently. Just in time for me to take off in a few weeks for another international adventure, this time in Australia!

July was the month of the Dead Weather, As Cities Burn breaking up (for a second time), a visit from my girl (hence the Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, her favorite classic artist and mine, respectively) and a lot of randoms for this and that reason. As always, they’re all well worth checking out.

1. The Gossip – “Heavy Cross” (Music for Men)
2. Cage – “I Never Knew You” (Depart From Me)
3. The Dead Weather – “New Pony” (Horehound)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Common Reactor” (Carnavas)
5. Owen – “I’m Not Seventeen” (The Seaside EP)
6. The Dead Weather – “Hang You From The Heavens” (Horehound)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness is the Move” (Bitte Orca)
8. As Cities Burn – “Love Jealous One, Love” (Son, I Love You at Your Darkest)
9. Riceboy Sleeps – “Boy 1904″ (Riceboy Sleeps)
10. The Dead Weather – “60 Feet Tall” (Horehound)
11. Floating Action – “So Vapor” (Floating Action)
12. Wheat – “El Sincero” (White Ink, Black Ink)
13. Wheat – “Living to Die” (White Ink, Black Ink)
14. Tom Waits – “Ol’ ’55″ (Closing Time)
15. Brett Dennen – “Ain’t Gonna Lose You” (Hope for the Hopeless)
16. Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle)
17. The American Dollar – “Bump” (A Memory Stream)
18. My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow” (Loveless)

I just noticed that my last entry was my 100th post. Sweet deal.

Here’s my playlist for February. Lots of familiar favorites because I wasn’t in so much of a discovery mood for a few weeks. Then there’s the obvious hey-I-finally-saw-Once inclusions from Glen Hansard. And the only really good song from Across the Universe that I recalled when I saw it for a second time (and then heard again when I tortured myself with an hour of the Grammys). Sublime showed up when it was raining, to remind me that the sun does actually exist. That spun me into a warm little pool of reggae and dub that will undoubtedly show up on the March playlist.

Also, no links. I’m lazy (sick again, actually) and there was no indication that anybody but me actually cared about them. I’m convinced these lists are mostly for me anyway.

1. Ryan Adams – “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
2. Radiohead – “How To Disappear Completely” (Kid A)
3. The Mars Volta – “Ilyena” (The Bedlam in Goliath)
4. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – “Falling Slowly” (Once Soundtrack)
5. Glen Hansard – “Say It To Me Now” (Once Soundtrack)
6. Carol Woods – “Let It Be” (Across The Universe Soundtrack)
7. Tom Waits – “Putnam County” (Nighthawks At the Diner)
8. Ryan Adams – “New York, New York” (Gold)
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. Ryan Adams – “La Cienega Just Smiled” (Gold)
12. Balmorhea – “Divisadero” (Rivers Arms)
13. Sublime – “Badfish” (40 Oz. To Freedom)
14. The Used – “Dark Days” (Shallow Believer)
15. Vampire Weekend – “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” (Vampire Weekend)
16. MF Doom – “Vomitspit” (Mm.. Food)
17. The Velvet Underground – “All Tomorrow’s Parties” (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
18. Radiohead – “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors” (Amnesiac)

I wish I could say I wasn’t so busy right now. There are a lot of things I’d like to write here about (the DRM-free EMI deal being just one of them). But instead I spend all my spare time working on other projects. Hopefully that won’t be for too much longer.

But for now, here’s my March Monthly Playlist. It should be pretty clear what albums I was in love with this month.

1. Belle and Sebastian – “This is Just a Modern Rock Song” (Push Barman To Open Old Wounds)
2. Sondre Lerche – “The Tape” (Phantom Punch)
3. The Arcade Fire – “Keep The Car Running” (Neon Bible)
4. The Arcade Fire – “Intervention” (Neon Bible)
5. Daniel Lanois – “Sonho Dourado” (Friday Night Lights Soundtrack)
6. Air – “Photograph” (Pocket Symphony)
7. The Arcade Fire – “My Body Is A Cage” (Neon Bible)
8. Life In Your Way – “Reach The End” (Waking Giants)
9. The Arcade Fire – “Windowsill” (Neon Bible)
10. Sherwood – “Song In My Head” (A Different Light)
11. Wilco – “Misunderstood” (Kicking Television: Live In Chicago)
12. A Tribe Called Quest – “Jazz (We’ve Got)” (The Low End Theory)
13. Sherwood – “For The Longest Time” (A Different Light)
14. Port Royal – “Zobione Pt. 2″ (Flares)
15. Laura – “Fugitive” (Mapping Your Dreams)
16. Laura – “Ariadne” (Mapping Your Dreams)
17. Jesu – “Tired Of Me” (Jesu)
18. Mogwai – “Kids Will Be Skeletons” (Happy Songs For Happy People)
19. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – “Television, The Drug Of The Nation” (Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury)
20. Sherwood – “Home” (A Different Light)
21. Andrew Bird – “Armchairs” (Armchair Apocrypha)
22. REM – “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For The People)
23. REM – “Man On The Moon” (Automatic For The People)
24. Tom Waits – “Jesus Gonna Be Here” (Bone Machine)
25. Tom Waits – “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” (Bone Machine)
26. Mims – “This Is Why I’m Hot (Blackout Remix)” (Music Is My Savior)
27. AFI – “Love Like Winter” (Decemberunderground)
28. Modest Mouse – “Dashboard” (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank)
29. The Weepies – “Gotta Have You” (Say I Am You)

Part two of four of my evil list-making scheme.

1. Sufjan Stevens
2. Explosions in the Sky
3. mewithoutYou
4. Radiohead
5. The Appleseed Cast
6. Nickel Creek
7. The Dillinger Escape Plan
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
9. The Mars Volta
10. A Perfect Circle
11. Andrew Bird
12. MxPx
13. AFI
14. Alison Krauss
15. Project 86
16. Tom Waits
17. Sigur Rós
18. The Faint
19. Chris Thile
20. This Will Destroy You
21. Mew
22. Iron & Wine
23. Coldplay
24. Cloud Cult
25. John Mayer
26. Opeth
27. Joshua Radin
28. Killswitch Engage
29. Incubus
30. Ryan Adams
31. Norma Jean
32. Robert Johnson
33. The Black Keys

Once again, thanks to Last.fm for making this list possible.

Occasionally it’s nice to go through my music collection and highlight the new stuff I’ve discovered that I can’t stop listening to:

• Jeremy Enigk
  Enigk is best known as the front man for Sunny Day Real Estate, but his solo releases, especially his newest, World Waits, are phenomenal. I think I’ve listened to the track Been Here Before a thousand times in the last few weeks (you can download it here).
• …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
  They’re not a new name to most, but their new album goes above and beyond all their previous work, in my opinion. This is probably why I’ll never work for Pitchfork, considering the somewhat negative review they gave So Divided. Check out Wasted State Of Mind on their PureVolume page.
• Dragonforce
  It’s embarrassing to admit how good these guys are, because they are definitely marketing on the irony of being serious about a long-deserted genre of wankeriffic metal rife with dual guitar solos (think The Darkness, but five years later). But those solos… they’re so good…
• Malajube
  This is one band I’m proud to admit I discovered before they were a twinkle in Pitchfork’s eye, thanks to a friend in Canada who gave me a heads-up. It’s almost syrupy sweet at times, and I can’t understand a word of French so I have no clue what they’re singing about, but they’re inexplicably irresistible.
• Mew
  They’re definitely a buzz band right now, but for good reason. Beautiful falsetto vocals with a satisfyingly complex rhythm section. And The Glass Handed Kites is one of my most-played albums of the last few months.
• Tom Waits
  I’ve just recently realized the value of his work. I picked up a copy of Nighthawks At The Diner at Amoeba Music a while back, which has been great for putting me in a happy and relaxed mood. His newest release, Orphans, is impressive, even in its excessive length.
• The Knife
  Dark, dramatic electronica with haunting vocals. I would almost say it borders on goth, but it’s not quite as pessimistic. Apparently their live show is a theatrical jaw-dropper.
• Oh, Sleeper
  I had to throw in some hardcore somewhere, right? The Armored March is a solid Norma Jean-esque metalcore release, and something about the overall sound keeps it from getting boring like so many bands in their genre.
• Ray LaMontagne
  If you like Damien Rice, LaMontagne will be your best friend. ‘Nuff said.
• Sparrows Swarm and Sing
  Mostly instrumental post rock in the vein of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I actually just heard them for the first time today, but they’re definitely worth a mention.

And here’s a few older favorites that are still topping the charts:

• Explosions In The Sky
• This Will Destroy You
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• mewithoutYou
• Cloud Cult
• Sherwood
• P.O.S.
• Damien Rice