Nerves Junior

Where they came from or what they're about, I can't say. But I listened to this today and thought, for the first time this year, this is the best fucking thing I've heard in a long time.

Nerves Junior/As Bright As Your Night Light

And for the record: Louisville, KY; the Walkmen, Deerhunter, and Radiohead.

Unheralded

Twenty two great albums you've never heard:

Brendan Benson/Lapalco
Blind Pilot/3 Rounds and a Sound
Richard Buckner/Since
Canyon/Empty Rooms
The Damnwells/Bastards of the Beat
The Dismemberment Plan/Emergency & I
Alejandro Escovedo/A Man Under The Influence
The Glands/The Glands
The Gourds/Ghosts of Hallelujah
Collin Herring/Past Life Crashing
Jackpot/Weightless
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists/The Tyranny of Distance
Lucero/That Much Further West
Mclusky/The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not On Fire
Ox/American Lo-Fi
Palace Music/Viva Last Blues
Revival/Horses of War
Kevin Salem/Ecstatic
Slobberbone/Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today
Sorta/Strange and Sad But True
Trainwreck Riders/The Perch
The Wrens/Meadowlands

2010 Video Complilation

2010's top 20, rockin' their shit:

Black Keys
Tallest Man on Earth (1) and (2)
Spoon
Phosphorescent
La Strada (1) and (2)
Menomena
New Pornographers
Good Old War
Sharon Van Etten
Nathaniel Rateliff
Blitzen Trapper
Free Energy
The Walkmen
Dr. Dog
Deerhunter
Pernice Brothers
Broken Bells
Son Drop
The Deadstring Brothers
The Soft Pack

Revolution

TVoTR gets insanely ambitious with this video companion to their latest album, "Nine Types of Light."

Quite simply a revolutionary development in music, both commercial and artistic.

Community

Magiska, community, shoutbox, passwords, tweeted links, web sheriff, MPAA, IP addresses, WTF man?

Makes you want to fucking chuck the whole thing.

Desire

All tanked up, and dressed down in desire
I hope you understand,
I'm not your man anymore
No, I'm nobody's man anymore

- Richard Buckner

Live and Loose

There's a new trend in music videos - one that can be traced back to the French site La Blogotheque and their "Take-Away Shows" - and it's brilliant. Bands play live songs with acoustic instruments in unusual settings (Arcade Fire in an elevator! Quasi at a dog run!), often while walking through a landscape or neighborhood. The results can be transformative, a peek behind the curtain. In all cases one is afforded a close-up of the band's dynamic, and almost always a deeper appreciation of their music is the result. Two of my favorite examples:

Tallest Man on Earth

Delafe y Flores Azules