10 things that didn't suck in 2011 mix

I've been working on year end lists now for like a week so I'm getting kind of tired of doing them. I'm not entirely certain what their purpose is except that Americans love lists as much as they love reality T.V. So, for that reason here is a list of the 10 things that didn't suck this year. There will be some more formal "favorite tracks of 2011" and the like later this week but right now this is what we are doing.

In no order....

 Eddie C - We Need We by elkoo

Couldn't get enough of Eddie C and all of his nu-disco glory. This track, "We Need We", is what was responsible for my obsession. Those chipmunk-like vocals, that cold hard pitched chord progression, that mean ass bass line - it was all way too much. It's not worth getting into a discussion of what is retro and what is not but I think it is fair to say that Eddie C is making some of the meanest and original disco tracks out there. They're funky, soulful, shimmering, and groove based. They are just impossible to stop listening to.



Don't get me wrong, "Here is your trance, now dance" is probably in my top ten this year but "Who wrote the rules of love" is what blew the doors off for me. Listen to those old 808 drums, those old school synths just rocking it in the back, and then there are the vocals which are just out of this world. If anyone had released just this track in 2011 I think that would be a successful year. Instead, Omar S releases this and an entire funking LP that was out of this world and a handful of other EPs and singles this year.

Oh what the hell, here it is too....



If I need one track to explain what 2011 was about it is probably this one. Which is odd, because this track, literally, sounds timeless. It could have been made at any point in the last 20 years and I would have been none the wiser. 10 mins of analog synth glory just bursting from every seem. The shit is what it is.



He kind of ripped the wheels off the car this year and then blew the whole thing up. He then took the pieces and put them back together and that was Instrumentals. It was a mind fuck.

Beats in Space

God bless every last hair on Tim Sweeney's head.



One of my top three LPs of 2011. I've always been a fan of Destroyer and his earlier output but Kaputt is his Ulysses. There are two parts to this Destroyer album; a song writer who can't be touched right now, and a man who has probably consumed just a little too much 70's/80's pop, and that isn't a bad thing. Don't give me any of this shit about Bon Iver and how he knows how to write a great song - Destroyer is the T.S. Elliot of music world right about now. I hear lines from these songs and I just don't understand why this album isn't being played everywhere all the times. And then there is the music. Jesus. Christ. This could have been an instrumental album and it probably would have still cracked my top 10. Perfect in every way possible.



His goal this year was to make everyone else look like clowns. I think he succeeded to a certain extent.



Also, if I was Drake I would be getting Knxwledge on the phone right this fucking minute. I'm liking his version of Drake more than I like Drake's version of Drake. He could learn a thing or two.



Looping State of Mind was in the top 5 albums this year as well. Every track was a banger and I'm only including this one only because I didn't want to post them all.

Lets talk about pizza. You know how sometimes pizza places offer pizza with a million toppings on them and shit in the crusts? And you know sometimes how you got your favorite pizza shop and your favorite pieces are the ones with just one or two toppings on them? That's what The Field is like. He is the motherfucker who makes the best fucking pepperoni pizza in town and that's it. He isn't going to make you a god damn pizza with arugula or pesto on it. It's going to be cheese, pepperoni and grease. And it's going to be the shit.



I want to get a truck with with bullhorns on the front and I want to drive around New Mexico. I want to smoke hand rolled cigarettes and I want it to only have a tape-deck and play tapes of The Band. I want to drive around little fucking towns no one has ever heard of in New Mexico and get drunk at bars with old people. And then I want to get in the truck and drive it up and down country roads through the hills. And think about all the shit I should have done. But it would be awesome because I would have a truck with bullhorns on the front.



The coolest thing I did this year? Go see Drive. Absolutely. Just thinking about the movie makes me feel cool and reminds me how cool the whole thing was. It was the apex of cool. I want to live in the movie. And yes, I want the fucking jacket. If you are red-blooded American male you want that fucking jacket. And I want to drive around town and this song be my personal soundtrack. The main reason the movie was so cool, the soundtrack. The original score was amazing and perfect but what pushed it over the top was the heavy dose of nu-disco from the Italians Do It Better crew.

Fuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkk......I want to walk into a strip club and beat the shit out of gangster soooooooo bad. And this song would play the entire time. It would be awesome.



Ride your mechanical beast to heaven/Ride your beautiful bitch to the ultimate sin.

Numero uno album for me in 2011. It actually came out in late 2010 but fuck that. Best album in 2011 by leaps and bounds.