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)

This was a funky month for music. I saw The Antlers and Minus the Bear and Vampire Weekend live, so those were obvious adds. Jay-Z and Oceana put out great videos for “Empire State of Mind” and “The Family Disease,” respectively. And a box set of the entire works of Buddy Holly, flaws and all, came out last week. Not bad, not bad.

1. The Antlers – “Thirteen” (Hospice)
2. Minus the Bear – “Knights” (Planet of Ice)
3. Julian Casablancas – “Out of the Blue” (Phrazes for the Young)
4. The Drive-By Truckers – “The Three Great Alabama Icons” (Southern Rock Opera)
5. Floating Action – “50 Lashes” (Floating Action)
6. Burial – “Fostercare” (5: Five Years of Hyperdub)
7. Oceana – “The Family Disease” (Birth.Eater)
8. Bellwether – “Miss You Twice” (7&6)
9. The Mountain Goats – “Against Pollution” (We Shall All Be Healed)
10. Vampire Weekend – “Horchata”
11. Jay-Z – “Empire State of Mind” (The Blueprint 3)
12. The High Strung – “Standing at the Door of Self Discovery” (Ode to the Inverse of the Dude)
13. The Hold Steady – “Slapped Actress” (Stay Positive)
14. Buddy Holly – “Midnight Shift (false start/alternate)” (Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings and More)

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.

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)

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)