these are my favorite albums of the year. they may not be the best (muse’s resistance is a great record…but not on my list), but they are the albums that i’ve listened to over and over and over this year.

i have to say though, i was kind of disappointed with music this year. granted i’ve been broke and haven’t spent nearly as much time rifling through magazines and the internet in search of new tunes, but there wasn’t much that stuck with me this year. i mean, kings of leon’s only by the night is still in my 6-disc changer in my car (yes, i listen to actual CDs whenever possible. whole other blog.). it wasn’t just that very little new music struck a chord with me, bands i’m used to counting on let me down too. for instance, blue october’s new album, approaching normal went through two spins in my car, was uploaded to my itunes and i haven’t listened to it since. they’re my FAVORITE BAND. this record was just…lacking in substance.

anyway. in no particular order…

i love love love this record. yes, i originally bought this because the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter is george harrison’s son, dhani, and i pretty much love anything that has to do with the late, great george. i couldn’t find it anywhere in tulsa and was planning on buying it online, then i found myself in dallas visiting friends one weekend so i stopped by good records in lower greenville and, lo-and-behold, they had it. it played on repeat for the duration of the four-hour drive back home.

dhani sounds eerily like george. this record is the perfect balance of chilled out and rock. it kills me that i couldn’t make it down to see them play with wolfmother and heartless bastards this past fall.

listen to: “yomp,” “bluesy,” and “another john doe”

totally blows last year’s rest remixed out of the water. growth and a step in the right direction in the biggest way possible. there’s an overture that, at times, sounds like it belongs in “fantasia.” then they blow your mind for a few songs. then they take it way down. then they melt your face again. then they bring it back. the dynamics on this record are incredible. the lyrics are supurb. “take a picture of / everything you love / all the joy you have / in a photograph.”

listen to: “photograph,” “straight out the gate,” “just tonight,” and “back is broken”

love everything about this album. it’s so cohesive. and almost theatrical in some places. and the melody in the verses of “arrhythmia” are brilliant. it makes me think of spring. driving with the windows down. playing piano and cowbell on my steering wheel. singing along until i’m out of breath. these lyrics changed the course of my year:

and i’m finding my own way out of here and i’m only taking one on my way / you can mentally sit on the fence all day but i’ll have the time of my life and no one will take that away from me anymore / i’m right, i’m right, i’m right, i know i’m right / so get me out ‘cause this is my turn to speak or scream / i’m gonna says this from the top of my lungs as clear as i can but as clear as i could would never produce the effect that i want so stop and listen good / i won’t write one more song about what happened or what went wrong i’m moving on ‘cause it’s time for a change / a change in my life / i’m ready to just let this go / and leave you by yourself for awhile until you finally know how hard it is to be alone.

listen to: “one more song,” “arrhythmia,” and “instead”

this is a recent purchase (read: a week ago) but i’ve been meaning to get it for a while. and since i bought it, i haven’t listened to much else. i heard about this band from a guy named beau who may or may not be in the band jonathan tyler and the northern lights. he was at the time. don’t know if he still is or what. anyway. my friend gary and i took beau and jonathan out to see a killer guitar player (dustin pittsley) and pedal steel player (jesse aycock) after a JTNL show one night and, since i’m convinced that i’m partially autistic based on my complete lack of conversational ability i broke the silence in my car with the only weapon in my auditory arsenal: “so what are you listening to right now?” and beau said “cage the elephant.” and the next day i checked them out. and i liked them. and i finally bought the record. the end.

listen to: “james brown,” “in one ear,” and “ain’t no rest for the wicked”

i’m kind of cheating on this one. i haven’t bought it. yet. BUT i’ve listened to it over and over and over and over on grooveshark at work. and i love it. it’s just as amazing and melodic as their previous albums. i can’t explain how much i love this band. whereas blue october let me down with their record, starsailor exceeded my expectations.

listen to: “tell me it’s not over,” “all the plans,” “change my mind,” and “hurts too much”

for whatever reason i feel like paramore is a guilty pleasure band. i don’t really know why. but i liked riot. didn’t really proclaim my love publicly, but i liked it. and i REALLY like brand new eyes. i don’t like girl singers either, but hayley williams is ok. she’s like, what avril lavigne wanted to be but didn’t have the pipes or songwriting ability to pull off. i know bringing avril into this doesn’t help my case much, but the other day my mom said, “hm, sounds kind of like avril lavigne,” and i made the above remark and i was rather amused by myself and thought it was blog-worthy.

listen to: “looking up,” “all i wanted,” “ignorance,” and “the only exception”

cheating again. don’t own it. yet. (i told you i was broke!) i’d never heard this band until i found out they were playing with thenewno2 in dallas. back when i thought i was going to go to the show i checked them out and started listening to this album non-stop on grooveshark. i was so pumped for the show. and then i couldn’t get away from work. damn the man.

listen to: “california queen,” “10,000 feet,” and “phoenix”

was really excited for this one. i liked it. i think i’ll like it more if i take another listen. timing you know.

listen to: “you and i,” “wilco (the song),” and “one wing”

this is at the bottom for a reason. john mayer, you disappointed me. almost as much as blue october, but obviously…you’re on the list. they’re not, so you did something right. i LOVED continuum. i LOVE the trio stuff. frankly, i think he should just stick with the blues full time. BUT, i like that he’s exploring. there was the acoustic pop record, the blues record, and now this ’70s-esque mellow record. i don’t like it right now, but i’ve been listening to cage the elephant and wolfmother. don’t really mesh well with this album. the reason this made my list and blue october didn’t is that battle studies is a GREAT record. and i WILL like it. (except for that god-awful reworked cover of “crossroads.” ew. ew ew ew.) i go in cycles, and when i start to chill out again, i’ll pop this album in and i’m 99% sure i’ll love it. (i have, however, loved the taylor swift duet “half of my heart” since i first heard it.)

this is also the first album i’ve ever bought digitally. well, where i had a choice. i’ve bought a couple digital albums and tracks because they weren’t available tangibly. i bought this digitally because, if i haven’t mentioned this before, i’ve been really broke. and i had to swallow my stubborn, CD-loving, pride and save almost $10 by choosing the digital copy.

listen to: “half of my heart,” “perfectly lonely,” “friends, lovers or nothing,” and “assassin”

note: you were going to get a pretty little audio snippet of a song from each of these albums, but i can only upload one song per day via tumblr and no audio/playlist sites seem to want to play nice with blogs anymore. some backward-ass music exec’s doing i assume. or i could just be an idiot. either way, click the album art and it’ll take you to the amazon page which should have samples of all the songs.

so, here we are. the last few days of the decade. it doesn’t feel like the end of a decade, but i suppose when the first decade-ending new years eve you celebrated was also a millennium/y2k/end of the world event, a simple decade seems kind of insignificant.

anyway. i’m about to list my favorite shows of the past year, but before i do, i realized that last year i forgot to add the tom petty & steve winwood show at the american airlines center in dallas to my list. i don’t know how this one got overlooked since it. was. awesome. but alas, it did. but now it hasn’t. on with the show…

it’s hard for me to put this show into words. they are quite possibly my favorite band. my friends and i used to see them at the small venues in tulsa and stillwater back in the day right as “calling you” was becoming a hit. they opened with “independently happy” which is one of my favorite songs. they didn’t play as many old songs as i’d like (though they did play “chameleon boy”) but they also didn’t play a ton off their newest album which made me happy (i don’t like it much. it’s lacking in the substance that their other albums have had).

there are so few bands anymore that can capture me and take me away from everything else and get me in that zone. you know where nothing matters, you feel like you’re connected to the band and you just want to scream “i know EXACTLY what you’re saying.” i just feel so….connected when i see blue october. i’ve been pretty depressed (in the past and in the present) and listing to them just does the trick. they have never failed to raise my spirits and make me feel better. so it’s already a great show and they’re totally on and they start playing “into the ocean” and when they get to the bridge and justin opens his arms and sings “let the rain come down”…

it starts POURING.

literally.

it was magical. that’s really all i can say. it gave me chills.

for the rest of the set i was basically in blue october euphoria. i only have two downsides: one, they didn’t play “a quiet mind” and two, during “hate me” (i think) when justin sang “i’ve been sober now for three whole months” he visibly crossed his fingers which made me kind of sad. i only met him once or twice back in the day, but i know that he’s been through a LOT of shit in his life and has and is battling lots of stuff, and the thought of him slipping back make me a little sad. i’m not completely sure why, but maybe when you put so much store in a person’s words and give those words healing power…it doesn’t make you feel like they were empty words, but…i don’t know.

if there was ever any doubt in my mind that music is the greatest thing in the world or that it wasn’t the best form of therapy, that doubt was eradicated after two songs. i just…i think a lot of it (as is the case with all of my “all time greatest concerts”) has to do with where you are at that moment. what’s been going on in your life, what state you’re in. in this case i was pretty down for a number of reasons, one of which was the looming $2,000 i was going to have to find since my transmission croaked the night before this show.

fleetwood mac just played amazing song after amazing song. “the chain” “tusk” “rhiannon” “sara” “landslide” “big love” “gold dust woman” “go your own way” they even played “oh well” which is circa the bob welch incarnation of fleetwood mac! that was probably the biggest surprise. you could not stop your foot from moving or your hands from tapping or your body from swaying. mick fleetwood and john mcvie are quite possibly the best rhythm section in rock and roll. i was inexplicably emotional for the first couple of songs. i don’t know if it was because i’d had such a string of bad news the past 24 hours or if it was because i was seeing one of my all time favorite bands, a band that is kind of in that category of “will i ever get to see them live before they stop playing for good?” i don’t know what it was, but it was an absolutely magical experience.

mick and john were absolutely solid. stevie sounded fantastic, especially for her age, and i rarely like female singers. (actually i can count the female singers i like on one hand: stevie, christine mcvie, chrissie hynde and tori amos). and lindsey buckingham… you know, he seems so full of himself and i remember how pissy he was before his solo show at the brady a few years ago. normally that conceitedness and gallivanting around the stage drawing out applause would annoy the hell out of me but you know what… he’s that fucking good.

so it definitely knocked someone out of my “top five greatest shows i’ve ever seen” i’m just not sure which yet. i might have to change it to a “top six.”

the feds are the best band you’ve never heard. they are so fucking good, but it just never clicked for them. their last show was a huge deal and it was even cooler that they had it in tulsa. i saw pretty much everyone i’ve ever known in the music scene there. they sounded so fantastic and had all the old members there, rotating in and out depending on the songs. at one point they did a justin/glen/ben triple drum solo. simply epic.

it didn’t really start to get emotional until aidan got up on stage and started talking about the feds and how they renewed his faith in music and made him believe in rock n roll again and how they’re all amazing, generous people on top of it all. they played a few more songs. played “a touch of panic” for the encore. and that was it. the end of the last great rock band of my (relative) youth.

yet another show whose impact has a lot to do with circumstances surrounding the event. i know i say this every time, but i absolutely cannot put into words how happy this band makes me when i see them live. just…pure joy. for the release show they had a full orchestra and shaun, the keyboard player from snarky puppy. sick. absolutely sick. they played pretty much, if not the, whole album plus “sheila” and “ruiner” from rest…and they played their chipotle song!!! (they entered a contest where the goal was to create commercial for chipotle. the jingle alone is catchy as fuck and the video is hilarious. they ended up winning the contest, receiving $10,000 and their own burrito (oso closo burrito) on the menu. they told us this news at the show.)

so the show was mind-blowingly fantastic. my brother, geoff, and i picked up our custom-painted cigar boxes and cds (and i finally got my oso closo pillow from the fabulous amy donaldson) and we left for home. on the way i was perusing the liner notes and saw that the boys thanked me. that on top of the show and the pillow and the cigar box and the show again pretty much made my night. so. happy.

i love the genuineness that emanates when a band plays a hometown show. they speak, they care, they play harder, their faces light up when the crowd sings their songs back to them. at one point, caleb caught himself getting too sappy and said, “sorry, i don’t mean to sound like bono.” the setlist was perfect. they played everything i wanted to hear and then some. however, the encore was the highlight. they opened with “closer” which is my favorite song. i was worried that they weren’t going to play it even though that song is absolutely built for a big arena show (the echoing guitar and the drums in the beginning!). but they played that and “use somebody” and a couple other old ones that i knew, but couldn’t name. the entire show was absolutely fantastic and invigorating. it made me happy.

our seats were good…for shitty seats, if you know what i mean. the show was good. it was definitely not the “eric clapton show” it was blind faith, 1970s blues rock at its best. it all felt very authentic. it didn’t connect with me as much as fleetwood mac and i was surprised by that, but it was still pretty amazing to not only get to see eric clapton live, but see him play and trade the lead back and forth with someone as talented and storied as steve winwood. the highlight was their cover of “voodoo chile,” the original track four from electric ladyland. not “slight return” but the full 15 minute jam. amazing, and dad and i checked wikipedia after and found out that steve winwood played the hammond on the original recording. so amazing.

yes, rent is a musical. but it’s a freaking ROCK musical so it counts. AND this tour featured adam pascal and anthony rapp! for those of you who don’t know, adam pascal and anthony rapp are THE ORIGINAL lead characters (roger and mark, respectively) in rent. they also reprised the roles in the 2005 movie. i mean, they ARE these characters. not only were they the first people to ever play these characters, the ones who performed rent for the first time days after jonathan larson died, but anthony was actually part of the workshop before the show was even cast. i mean, these guys are the closest you can get to the heart of rent without jonathan larson.

i mean, rent was such a huge part of my life in high school. i NEVER thought i’d get to see any of the original cast members perform. EVER. but to watch as adam and anthony sang “what you own” and to see them both on stage…it felt like what i imagine it would be like in new york at the nederlander in the ’90s. just…. $^&@#$

almost two years after i last saw him, i finally got to see dave and the boys play again. my friend alexis and i took a mini-roadtrip down to the tiny town of shawnee, oklahoma. despite the room (it was like a hotel ballroom) they sounded really good. i’m kinda bummed i didn’t hear “lie” since that’s by far my favorite song on his record, but i can’t complain. he played a couple old songs, threw in a verse from “hotel california” at one point, had an elvis impersonator jump on stage, and let andy sing lead on “til i’m blue.” the latter made me really miss the late nights at boston’s. all in all it was a great show. i still can’t really grasp the fan reaction that’s happening, it’s crazy. but congrats to him and the boys for all their success.

missed ra ra riot. saw cold war kids. they didn’t play “hang me out to dry” but they were good. just not really a band i’d want to see live again. i prefer them on the album. death cab came out and were AWESOME. played all my favorite songs except “what sara said,” but that doesn’t really surprise me. they didn’t play many piano-oriented songs, on most the piano parts were tracked. i can’t decide if the highlight was “i will possess your heart” or “i will follow you into the dark.” while the latter was beautiful, i think i have to go with “i will possess your heart.” after months of cranking up the volume in my car or getting lost in my headphone during that INCREDIBLE intro, hearing it live, having the sound encompass the whole room… it was amazing.

honestly, i was a little disappointed in the setlist at first. paul mccartney is one of those cases where, yes, i understand that there is so much more to you than just being a beatle. and you have recorded a ton of music since the beatle days, but let’s be honest, 99% of the crowd wants to hear you play beatles tunes. myself included. thankfully the show picked up by the second half and i had a good time. i’d also seen paul mccartney on his last tour in oklahoma city, so maybe the “OMG it’s paul-freaking-mccartney” shock had worn off and i was a little harder to impress. but a bunch of my friends ended up getting to sit right in front, and i was really happy for them. they are HUGE beatle fans and really deserved that treat.

hey. there’s this genre called wizard rock where bands write music about, inspired by, and sometimes from the point of view of harry potter. and this genre is AWESOME. i was entirely too excited about this, but you know what? i don’t care. i fucking love harry potter and i adore the fandom. it’s the way the music scene should be: fun, friendly, and unpretentious. it’s just a group of people sharing a common passion and there’s no hierarchy. there’s no, “i’m in/know the band, so i’m better than you.” really cool people.

i shot the show, but it was hard to not lose yourself in it. it’s so high-energy and fun. i won’t bore you with the details (like how toby played “hedwig’s theme” on the saxophone as the intro to the amazing song, “remember cedric”) but i had such a great time.

let me tell you, this was probably one of the worst weekends in my life. absolutely the lowest point of my year. BUT the three days i spent with these bands were also one of the highlights of my year. i went down to denton on a thursday for some birthday celebrations (belated and one big 2-1 party) and a kick ass rock show. the first night i was introduced to parachute musical. i missed a lot of their set, but what i did hear made me fall in love. this amazing jazz collective called snarky puppy also played in denton. this was also, i believe, my first time seeing oso play in their hometown. totally different (better) vibe than any other time i’d seen them.

i’d intended on spending the weekend in denton with friends, but when everything crashed down on me that night after the show at the boiler room, i decided to head back to oklahoma. i met up with my brother in oklahoma city (about half way home for me) and we had dinner and hung out. as it turned out i was getting ready to leave town about the same time that parachute musical was supposed to go on across town (but on my way home) so i made an impromptu stop by the speakeasy and caught their and oso’s sets and got to hang a little bit more.

the next night they played exit 6c in tulsa, i called everyone i knew to get them out and they didn’t disappoint. i had to get there really early to sneak my brother in (he’d come home for the weekend) so i hung out with the guys and got to know them more. they played. everyone loved them. and the new friends i made and the new music i discovered provided a really nice bright spot to an absolutely shitty past few days.

i was lucky to see this show. it was originally scheduled for last october and it ended up falling on the same night as one of my best friend’s bachelorette parties. seeing as how i was in the bridal party, there was no way i was going to be able to go to the show. then, by some luck that i’m not accustomed to, the show was postponed until february. when the time finally came, the show was fantastic. my seats were great. the sound was impeccable. and ryan even seemed to show a little personality during the second set. i also found a great recording from the soundboard a few weeks later.

alexis and i went out to LA to visit our friend jen for a week. we’d originally planned on going to vegas for the weekend, but when that fell through we hit up the sunset strip music festival. while i wish that my current favorite band, thenewno2, hadn’t canceled, it all turned out to be pretty fun. but the highlight was seeing ozzy freaking osbourne. i can’t say that i’ve ever really been a big fan of him or sabbath or anything. i know of a lot of his songs, but i never thought i’d get as into his show as i did. we were up a hill on a side road off the strip with this perfect view and a perfect breeze…i just got lost in it. he was simply fantastic.

this was a really last minute show, but i’m glad i went down for it. once i got there my friend beau and i realized it was sold out so we’d already made plans to hang out elsewhere when our wonderful friend lesley somehow procured not one, but two tickets and we all made it anyway. this was the first time i’d seen JTNL with their hometown crowd and, like i mentioned when talking about oso closo, that made for a totally different (better) vibe.

in protest of having to have the black eyed peas open instead of muse (and because i really can’t stand the black eyed peas anyway) geoff and i went to get dinner at freebirds (this amazing burrito place) instead. with our tummies full we walked across the OU campus and to the stadium. i hadn’t been in there since high school (when we’d sat in the empty stadium all afternoon and film random shorts instead of going to our OIPA classes). our seats were a thousand times better than i thought they’d be. they were behind the stage but practically dead center. we were just high enough that you could see the entire stage without having to turn your head back and forth. that was nice because we got to get the whole picture. and a small but very cool bonus, our row was the first row of actual seats (it was all benches in front of us) and divided from the row in front of us by a rail. the little bit of extra distance between the rows meant that, even with the people in front of us standing up, we could still see sitting down. totally made my day. haha.

the show was fantastic. i still don’t really like U2 (“i still haven’t found what i’m looking for” was awesome) but the spectacle of it all was pretty cool. the stage was mammoth and the video screen was really cool. i just don’t know how bands can perform on that big of a stage. you lose almost all the band member interaction that is, to me, one of the most important parts of a live show. it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a band but four individuals doing four different things to the same song. when i go to a show i want to see the band play together. interact. really become one entity, totally in a groove with one another. but that’s just my opinion. i really did have a much better time than i thought i would (i almost didn’t go).

and that’s that, kiddos. sixteen of my favorite shows from the past year. favorite albums coming in the next few days.

i apologize for the lack of consistency here. see, i used to have a lot of free time during the day. now i don’t. which means fewer blogs for you kiddos.

BUT. i did find a spare minute at work to scribble some of my favorite albums of this year onto a post-it note and it’s been stuck to the inside of my wallet for the past three weeks. so now [that i’m on day five of this cold/flu/thing], i’m finally getting around to blogging the list for you. i don’t know how much commentary (if any) i’ll give for each one, but hey, it’s better than nothing at all.

(that was an admiral twin reference…)

NUMBER ONE ::

kings of leon - only by the night
i wrote a blog about this album and, however many months on, i don’t have anything new to add. the record is still amazing, phenominal, classic. i still listen to it as much as i did right after i bought it. my dad bought it for me on vinyl for christmas. i haven’t listened to it yet though because i need to hook up some better quality speakers so i can enjoy it in all its imperfect, vinyl-y goodness.

NUMBER TWO ::

oso closo - rest: remixed
i don’t know how much more i can say about oso closo either. this is THE best band i’ve heard all year. incredible musicians, killer songwriting, and the live show. the live show! they’re going on tour early next…er…this year and i strongly suggest you see them for yourself.

NUMBERS THREE - TEN ::
i can’t rank the rest, so here they are…

jonathan tyler and the northern lights - hot trottin’

ludo - you’re awful, i love you

death cab for cutie - narrow stairs
“i will possess your heart.” enough said.

coldplay - viva la vida

john mayer - where the light is

the effects - …and it is

the raconteurs - consolers of the lonely

david cook - david cook
(that link is to the old one, i don’t remember the “official” link off the top of my head). i’m sure this album won’t make many (any?) other “best of” lists, but i like it. i still listen to it. it’s not great, but it’s not terrible. i think there are some really awesome moments on the record. “lie” is one of the best songs i’ve heard a while. the lyrics are so honest and spot on. i can’t wait to hear “a daily anthem” live again, but this time with a thousand people singing the end part instead of fifteen.

anyway. i had a good year in music terms. there were these releases and i was also introduced to jeff buckley and dredg and ryan adams. i rediscovered the feds and the foo fighters.