MIX: it starts with an earthquake...

Just a quick little mix I put together in honor of Hurricane Irene...which will shutting off my power in New Brunswick soon I figure.

1. ) Nina Simone -- "I Think It's Going To Rain Today"
2.) The Who -- "Love Reign O'er Me" 
3.) The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- "Rainy Day, Dream Away" 
4.) A Tribe Called Quest -- "Go Ahead In The Rain" 
5.) Minutemen -- "Storm In My House" 
6.) R.E.M. -- "It's The End Of The World"
7.) OK Go -- "Let It Rain"
8.) Bob Dylan -- "Shelter From The Storm" (yes, I know that Dylan's "Hurricane" would have made more sense)
9.) Johnny Cash -- "Goodnight, Irene" 

20 Favorite Songs of 2011... thus far

It's been a while, friends. School is about to start and what better way to kick off the approaching semester than listening to the same 20 songs that I can't get out of my head over and over and over... and over again. These are my favorite songs of 2011 thus far... (no order, but the ones that you can listen to are certainly the ones that I consider my favorites of the moment)

Adele -- "Someone Like You"
The Antlers -- "I Don't Want Love"
Bill Callahan -- "America!" 
Bon Iver -- "Perth"
Childish Gambino -- "Freaks and Geeks"
Cults -- "Go Outside"
Fleet Foxes -- "Helplessness Blues"
Foster The People -- "Pumped Up Kicks"
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX -- "Running"
Jay-Z and Kanye West (The Throne) -- "Niggas In Paris"
The Lonely Forest -- "We Sing In Time"
Nat Baldwin -- "A Little Lost"
Smith Westerns -- "Weekend"
The Streets -- "Trust Me"
Telekinesis -- "You Turn Clear In The Sun"
tUnE-yArDs -- "Bizness"
The Weeknd -- "House Of Balloons/Glass Table Girls"
Wye Oak -- "Holy Holy"
Yacht -- "Dystopia"
Yuck -- "Operation"

Mother Mother -- "Problems"

I have spent a great deal of time travelling this past week, which meant I spent a lot of time hardly paying attention to the book I was reading, while paying much more attention to whatever I was listening to. I listened to nearly every "big" album release of the year and it finally came to me: this year hasn't been instantly gratifying at all. Not to say that there haven't been a lot of great records, but rather that those records often took time to settle in (i.e. Radiohead's The King of Limbs). However, after a long five and a half hour Bolt Bus ride to Boston, I finally heard a record that was instantly gratifying on first listen: Mother Mother's Eureka. Eureka is the third release from this Vancouver outfit. This band has an energy that I haven't heard from a band in quite some time. Their songs are as cunning as they are fun as hell. I can't get enough of this record. Big ups to We Listen For You for writing about his band.

Mother Mother -- "Problems"

Fountains of Wayne -- "The Summer Place"

I have always gotten a lot of crap over the years for loving Fountains of Wayne. They are just one of those bands that will most likely never receive the mass critical claim they deserve. Fortunately though, for those of you who have a brain and an ear for good music, F.O.W.'s newest single, "The Summer Place," shows that the band hasn't lost a thing in their musicality and lyric writing over the years. "The Summer Place" shows off exactly what this band does best: write fantastic stories about interesting characters in American life. This song is as lyrically witty and enthralling as it is catchy as hell and, like anything else from this great band, kinda funny, but yet a sad tale of being a middle upper class American. I hope the rest of their newest album, which is released today, Sky Full of Holes, is as great as this first single.

Fountains of Wayne -- "The Summer Place"

-- Greg