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Beyond Retromania
Before Simon Reynolds tried to argue that the last decade’s worth of music has lacked innovation, he should have realized what any scientist could tell you: You can’t prove a negative. Reynolds begins and ends Retromania by reprimanding the artists using sampling, YouTube, and the internet’s celestial jukebox (among other things) to twist old music into new commodities. But he also spends a substantial amount of the book illustrating that recycling music can be just as innovative as the rock’n’roll, punk, hip-hop and rave “revolutions” he adores. Reynolds’ writing pulses with energy when he describes how punk rock was intended as a return to the 50s’ rocknroll roots; how Belbury Poly and DJ Shadow reframe the past using modern technology; or how Daniel Lopatin turns YouTube into both a medium and a message—he himself is demonstrably excited by the music he claims to be mad at. So Retromania’s central conceit is a tired one—the idea that maybe our best music is behind us, which is a version of retromania itself—but his attempts to rationalize it are well worth reading.
Of course, as with any other book about music, it’s difficult to absorb the information without hearing what the author’s writing about. So what I’ve done is compiled a cross-section of the music Reynolds mentions in Retromania. I’ve organized it into three sections over four CD-length playlists. The first includes artists and songs that Reynolds mentions as being innovative or influential in some way—from the seminal punk artists to Kid Baltan’s early electronic music experiments to the break on The Winstons’ “Amen Brother that got turned into a thousand drum n’ bass tracks. The second is made up of songs and artists that have been “curated” in some way—either by a reissue or compilation, or by being sampled by an influential artist. Curated songs have usually been historically reframed in some way by their curators. The third and fourth discs/mixes are collections of songs and artists who Reynolds discusses as using retro elements in their work.
These mixes are by no means comprehensive or tightly structured, but they should give you an idea of how slippery the idea of innovation can be. Until the final couple paragraphs of the book, Reynolds uses mostly canonical artists as examples of innovators. While the impact of groups like the Sex Pistols and the Beatles are undeniable, it’s also hard not to hear subtler innovation in the music by the lesser known artists I’ve included on the subsequent discs. I’ve also included a fifth mix of songs from 2011 that get me personally excited for the present and future of music—some of which use pesky retro elements. If nothing else, as a whole the mixes should give you an opportunity to turn over Reynolds’ thesis in your head: If our artists are largely drawing inspiration from new technology and old music, is this the future of music, or are we perpetually stuck in the past? I’m sitting here listening to Yuck and Paul’s Boutique on vinyl, so that should give you some idea of where I stand.
Retromania: Innovators
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?g9banzkr44b31bk
1. Sex Pistols – “No Feelings” (from Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, 1977)
2. The Clash – “Complete Control” (1977 single)
3. Patti Smith – “Kimberly” (from Horses, 1975)
4. The Creation – “Making Time” (1966 single)
5. The Who – “Substitute” (1966 single)
6. The Beatles – “Tomorrow Never Knows” (from Revolver, 1966)
7. Tom Dessevelt & Kid Baltan – “Song of the 2nd Moon” (from Electronic Music, 1957)
8. Acen – “Trip II the Moon (Part 2)” (1992 single)
9. Kraftwerk – “Numbers” (from Computerwelt, 1981)
10. Mantronix – “Needle to the Groove” (from Mantronix: The Album, 1985)
11. Zapp & Roger – “More Bounce to the Ounce” (from Zapp, 1980)
12. Beenie Man – “Who Am I (Sim Simma)” (1998 single)
13. Salt-N-Pepa – “My Mic Sounds Nice” (from Hot, Cool & Vicious, 1986)
14. James Brown – “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” (from Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud, 1968)
15. Little Richard – “Tutti Frutti” (1955 single)
16. The Winstons – “Amen Brother” (from “Color Me Father” single, 1969)
17. Talking Heads – “Born Under Punches (The Beat Goes On)” (from Remain in Light, 1980)
18. Joy Division – “Isolation” (from Closer, 1980)
19. Prince & the Revolution – “Erotic City” (from “Let’s Go Crazy” single, 1984)
20. The Shangri-Las – “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” (1964 single)
21. The Supremes – “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1966 single)
22. Buddy Holly & the Crickets – “Not Fade Away” (from The “Chirping” Crickets, 1957)
Retromania: Curators
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?14xwq8wrw1exr79
1. Billy Cobham – “Stratus” (from Spectrum, 1973; sample source for Massive Attack’s “Safe From Harm”)
2. The Grateful Dead – “China Cat Sunflower” (from Europe ’72, 1972)
3. We the People – “You Burn Me Up and Down” (1966 single, included on Pebbles, Volume 4, 1979)
4. The Nazz – “Open My Eyes” (1968 single, included on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968, 1972)
5. Led Zeppelin – “Candy Store Rock” (from In Through the Out Door, 1976, one of the “Least Collectable Records of All Time”)
6. David Bowie – “Suffragette City” (from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972; Ziggy Stardust’s 1973 farewell concert was restaged in 1998 by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard as A Rock & Roll Suicide)
7. Dobie Gray – “Out on the Floor” (1966 single, Northern Soul classic)
8. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – “It’s a Good Feeling” (from Make It Happen, 1967; one of DJ Rob Fleming’s top five floor-fillers in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, 1995)
9. Bobby Cook & the Explorers – “Untitled Jam” (from the Numero Group’s Local Customs: Downriver Revival, 2009)
10. Willie Hutch – “Brother’s Gonna Work It Out” (from The Mack, 1973; reissued by Soul Jazz on Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films, 1968-1975, 2009)
11. Sparks – “Beat the Clock” (from No. 1 in Heaven, 1979; Sparks performed “all twenty-one of their albums in sequence over twenty-one nights in London during May 2008”)
12. Rinôçérôse – “Cubicle” (from Schizophonia, 2005; also used in a popular iPod commercial)
13. The Slugs – “Problem Child” (1977 single, included on Killed By Death, 1989)
14. King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man” (from In the Court of the Crimson King, 1969; King Crimson and their progressive-rock peers were re-examined by the BBC’s documentary Prog Britannia in 2009)
15. Sonic Youth – “Total Trash” (from Daydream Nation, 1988, performed in its entirety multiple times at All Tomorrow’s Parties)
16. The Congos – “La La Bam-Bam” (from Heart of the Congos, 1977, reissued by Blood & Fire in 1996)
17. Del Shannon – “Runaway” (1961 single featured in American Graffiti, 1973)
18. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “Long Black Veil” (from covers album Kicking Against the Pricks, 1986)
Retromania: Retrovators (Part One)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1n4dbh8y6b1gqvd
1. The Cramps – “Human Fly” (1978 single)
2. Thee Headcoats – “No Way Out” (from Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats! (Already), 1990)
3. The White Stripes – “Death Rattles” (from De Stijl, 2000)
4. The Flaming Groovies – “Shake Some Action” (from Shake Some Action, 1976)
5. Gary Glitter – “Rock and Roll Part 2” (from Gary Glitter, 1972)
6. Vampire Weekend – “Diplomat’s Son” (from Contra, 2010)
7. Cornelius – “Count Five or Six” (from Fantasma, 1997)
8. Flipper’s Guitar – “The Quizmaster” (from Doctor Head’s World Tower, 1991)
9. Klaxons – “Golden Skans” (from Myths of the Near Future, 2007)
10. Spacemen 3 – “Losing Touch With My Mind” (from Sound of Confusion, 1986)
11. Ciccone Youth – “Into the Groove(y)” (1986 single)
12. Saint Etienne – “Hobart Paving” (from So Tough, 1993)
13. The Jesus and Mary Chain – “April Skies” (from Darklands, 1987)
14. Gang of Four – “Anthrax” (from Return the Gift, 2005)
15. Boris – “1970” (from Attention Please, 2002)
16. Boredoms - “☆” (from Vision Creation Newsun, 1999)
17. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Immune to Emotion” (from Worn Copy, 2003)
18. Incredible String Band – “Mercy I Cry City” (from The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, 1968)
19. Fleet Foxes – “Oliver James” (from Fleet Foxes, 2008)
Retromania: Retrovators (Part Two)
http://www.mediafire.com/?a9vbzn7945f8ibe
1. The KLF – “Wichita Lineman Was a Song I Once Knew” (from Chill Out, 1990)
2. Position Normal – “Lightbulbs” (from Stop Your Nonsense, 1999)
3. Oneohtrix Point Never – “Nobody Here” (from Memory Vague, 2008)
4. DJ Shadow – “What Does Your Soul Look Like? (Part Three)” (from What Does Your Soul Look Like, 1994)
5. Wagon Christ – “Piano Playa Hata” (from Tally Ho!, 1998)
6. Belbury Poly – “Caermaen” (from The Willows, 2004)
7. Boards of Canada – “Happy Cycling” (from Music Has the Right to Children, 1998)
8. Apollo Two – “Atlantis (I Need You) (L.T.J. Bukem Remix)” (from Volume 1, 1993)
9. Girls on Top – “We Don’t Give a Damn About Our Friends” (2000 single)
10. John Oswald – “Dab” (from Plunderphonics, 1989)
11. Flying Lotus – “Zodiac Shit” (from Cosmogramma, 2010)
12. Stereolab – “Cybele’s Reverie” (from Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 1996)
13. Mr. Acker Bilk – “Stranger On the Shore” (1961 single)
14. The Avalanches – “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life” (from Since I Left You, 2000)
15. J Dilla – “Lightworks” (from Donuts, 2006)
16. Toro y Moi – “Lissoms” (from Causers of This, 2010)
17. Neon Indian – “Psychic Chasms” (from Psychic Chasms, 2009)
18. Gonjasufi – “She Gone” (from A Sufi and a Killer, 2010)
19. Burial – “Gutted” (from Burial, 2006)
Retromania: The Future
http://www.mediafire.com/?7vlqkaf6cxfzhbp
1. Battles – “Futura” (from Gloss Drop, 2011)
2. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “Nerve Damage!” (from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, 2011)
3. Radiohead – “Feral” (from The King of Limbs, 2011)
4. Lil Silva – “Wait Is Over” (from The Patience EP, 2011)
5. Ill Blu – “Chelm” (from Meltdown, 2011)
6. Kito & Reija Lee – “Broken Hearts (Dillon Francis Remix)” (from Blow Your Head Vol. 2: Dave Nada Presents Moombahton, 2011)
7. Joker – “Music (4am) (Feat. Buggy)” (self-released, 2011)
8. Drake – “Dreams Money Can’t Buy” (self-released, 2011)
9. Curren$y – “Still” (from Weekend At Burnie’s, 2011)
10. Roach Gigz – “F A Chorus” (from Bitch, I’m a Player, 2011)
11. DJ Quik – “Fire and Brimstone” (from The Book of David, 2011)
12. Spaceghostpurrp – “Thowed” (from Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6 (1991), 2011)
13. Green Ova Undergrounds – “Chillin On Tha Turf” (from The Shady Bambino Project, 2011)
14. Shabazz Palaces – “Recollections of the Wraith” (from Black Up, 2011)
15. Nicolas Jaar – “Space is Only Noise If You Can See” (from Space Is Only Noise, 2011)
16. Clams Casino – “Numb” (from Clams Casino, 2011)
17. Purity Ring – “Ungirthed” (self-released, 2011)
18. Win Win – “Releaserpm” (from Win Win, 2011)
19. Charli XCX – “Stay Away” (2011 single)
20. EMA – “California” (from Past Life Martyred Saints, 2011)
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If not psychotic, it’s at least in the ballpark. If I learned anything yesterday, it’s that this kind of exercise doesn’t do a whole lot for me (anymore. It might have ten years ago, before iTunes’ “Last Played” and when I was a whole lot more into myself.) Still, an experiment is an experiment, and here is day 2 in photo form, outlined in red.
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I don’t really need an excuse to obsessively catalogue music, but this week Nick Southall’s #musicdiaryproject has given me one. The fact that this happens to align with a week of unemployment means that I get to be extra extra-indulgent. Here’s day 1.
11:58 AM - Panda Bear - Tomboy (via NPR) - Because you’ve got to, you know. Might as well get it out of the way early. I liked Person Pitch (it was especially great walking around in the jungle, so there’s that), and I could see myself liking or not liking Tomboy. I am struck by how on-the-nose it is–how conservative in terms of giving his fans exactly what they expect from a Panda Bear album. I lost interest around “Drone”
12:33 PM - tUnE-yArDs - “Bizness”/Obits - “I Want Results” (iTunes) - I go back and forth from Sean Fennesey’s Burnt Up and Turnt Out compilation all day long. These are the first two songs. I end up downloading the Obits album later in the day.
12:41 PM - Nas/9th Wonder - “Get Down” (iTunes) - It came up.
12:45 PM - E-40 - “I Be Beastin” (YouTube) - Posted on I Love Music.
12:50 PM - Cults - “You Know What I Mean” (Soundcloud via P4k) - Been meaning to listen to this.
12:53 PM - Bill Calahan - “Free’s” (70 seconds)/Frank Ocean - “We All Try” (iTunes) - From Burnt Up and Turnt Out.
12:57 PM - The Weeknd - House of Balloons (iPhone through iPod dock) - While washing dishes and making lunch. Fucking love this album.
2:44 PM - Charles Bradley - “The Telephone Song”/The Strokes - “Gratisfaction”/Fergus & Geronimo - “Powerful Lovin’”/Generations - “You Say It Too”/Alex Turner - “Stuck on the Puzzle”/Yuck - “Suicide Policeman”/Purity Ring - “Ungirthed”/Smith Westerns - “End of the Night”/Destroyer - “Kaputt”/The Babies - “Run Me Over”/Dirty Beaches - “Lord Knows Best”/Kurt Vile - “Peeping Tomboy”/Nicolas Jaar - “Space is Only Noise”/TV on the Radio - “Caffenated Consciousness”/James Blake - “Why Don’t You Call Me”/Radiohead - “Codex” (iTunes) - Back to Burnt Up and Turnt Out as I try to write something. Most of this is familiar, but nicely recontextualized. I end up downloading the Dirty Beaches and Fergus & Geronimo albums later–they both have this garage rock, King Khan-type thing that I am interested in. I also agree with myself to give Smith Westerns another chance, as I am digging the Thin Lizzy meets Exploding Hearts steez of “End of the Night.”
4:03 PM - The Hold Steady - “Stevie Nix” (iTunes) - Thinking about this song in relationship to The Weeknd.
4:08 PM - Clams Casino - “Cold War”/Mouse on tha Track - “Alligator Humming Bird”/Big K.R.I.T. - “Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism”/Cass McCombs - “County Line” (67 seconds) (iTunes) - Back to Burnt Up and Turnt Out. Nothing here really strikes me, though I do love Big K.R.I.T. I can see myself coming around to Cass McCombs someday, but not today.
4:20 PM - Clams Casino - “Motivation,” “All I Need,” “Cold War,” “Real Shit From a Real Nigga,” “Realist Alive” (iTunes)/Lil B the Based God - “Motivation” (YouTube) - I like this Clams Casino guy. I do not like this Lil B guy, though sometimes it’s good to just check and see if I’m wrong.
4:49 PM - The Herbaliser - Very Necessary (through 2:37 of “Mind in the Frame”)/Jamie Woon - “Street,” “Lady Luck”/Clams Casino - “Numb” (iTunes) - Now I am just lost in the iTunes k-hole.
5:55 PM - MNDR - “Cut Me Out”/Raekwon - “Molasses”/Braids - “Plath Heart”/The Strokes - “Taken For a Fool”/Purity Ring - “Ungirthed”/Dum Dum Girls - “Wrong Feels Right”/Night Plane - “Parallel Lines”/Patrick Wolf - “The City”/Fleet Foxes - “Helplessness Blues”/Yuck - “Georgia”/Tyler, the Creator - “Yonkers”/Dodos - “Black Night”/XXXY - “You Always Start It”/Charles Bradley - “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)”/Ill Blu - “Meltdown”/Clams Casino - “Motivation”/Burial & Four Tet & Thom Yorke - “Ego”/Katy B - “Broken Record”/Frank Ocean - “Novacaine”/Radiohead - “Giving Up the Ghost” (iPhone) - These are all on a playlist called “Heavy Rotation” that I listened to going to the supermarket, cleaning the apt and reading a magazine.
7:37 PM - Avril Lavigne - “What the Hell”/Ke$ha - “Sleazy (Remix)”/Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - “I’ll Take Care of U”/DJ Quik - “Luv of My Life”/Dirty Beaches - “Speedway King”/Obits - “You Gotta Lose”/Fergus & Geronimo - “Girls With English Accents,” “Wanna Know What I Would Do”/tUnE-yArDs - “My Country,” “Es So,” “Gangsta”/Tyga - “Really Raw”/Tyler the Creator - “Yonkers”/Smith Westerns - “End of the Night”/Wiz Khalifa - “The Race” (iTunes) - Just fuckin around on iTunes, killing time. Deleted most of Burnt Out and Turnt Up (I have most of the albums the tracks are from), and organized the rest into my iTunes.
8:39 PM Rick Ross - “Mafia Music”/Jeru the Damaja - “Come Clean”/Public Enemy - “Rebel Without a Pause”/Luniz - “I Got 5 On It”/Public Enemy - “Shut ‘Em Down (Pe-Te Rock Remix)”/Doug E. Fresh & The Get-Fresh Crew - “La Di Da Di”/Digital Underground - “The Humpty Dance”/Cannibal Ox - “The F-Word”/The Fixxers - “Can You Work With That”/Jimmy Spicer - “Money (Dollar Bill Y'All)”/The Roots - “Silent Treatment” (iPhone through iPod dock) - All on a recently made 100 Favorite Rap Trax playlist while I cook dinner for my girlfriend.
Total # of songs listened to: 107
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The classics.
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Free idea: Tumblr that redoes classic album covers as Pen & Pixel covers, along the lines of that Wu Tang/Blue Note or Fake Criterion shiz.
(via tumblinerb)
Posted on January 11, 2011 via BLOG DOT LUCAS CARLISLE DOT COM with 440 notes
Source: lucascarlisle
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The Heart Attack - “Right Now” (2006)
If you are interested in hearing Cee-Lo rock some old-school soul music, perhaps I could point you away from The Lady Killer and in the direction of this lovely 2006 collaboration with Jack Splash. Dudes never released a full-length–because Gnarls Barkley took over, I’m guessing–but as far as one-off singles go, “Right Now” is pretty great.
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Five Movies From 2010 I Thought Were Dope
1. The Fighter
I keep seeing The Fighter get dismissed as Oscar bait, as if actors challenging themselves was a bad thing. Christian Bale is unflinching in his portrayal of a crack addict, and the real jaw-dropper is seeing a clip of the actual Dickey Ecklend in the credits and realizing just how accurate Bale’s portrayal is. Amy Adams turns a nothing part into a memorable one. Mark Wahlburg is at his eye-of-the-storm best, but still doesn’t hesitate to play Mickey Ward as less than smart. David O. Russell finds a ton of humor amongst the pathos, including a genius usage of Ecklend’s seven sisters as some kind of a foul-mouthed, Boston-accented, trash chorus. The movie’s even strong enough to withstand a training montage set to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a performance by Melissa Leo, who still thinks that good acting means adding “eh?” to the end of every one of your lines. Also, it’s nice to see a movie about genuinely fucked up people who are able to put their personal ticks on hold in order to help each other. It usually seems to go the other way.
2. Get Low
Get Low is a parable, first and foremost, about rites of passage. Bill Murray is compelling even when he clearly doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing. But Get Low rides on Robert Duvall’s staggering performance as an old man throwing his own funeral. His elegy for himself was by far the best piece of acting I saw all year.
3. 127 Hours
Danny Boyle uses a lot of bells and whistles to turn a true story of extreme isolation into a meditation of the importance of community.
4. Exit Through the Gift Shop
A fascinating introduction to street art, an education on what divides good art from bad, and a is-this-real-or-isn’t-it movie that beats Inception across the face with a can of spray paint.
5. Toy Story 3
Loved this, obviously. I am, after all, a man. It’s like saying I love stories where good things happen to good people. PIXAR IS OUR MYTHOLOGY.
Five Movies From 2010 That Maybe You Thought Were Good That Are Actually Not Good
Everybody want to know what Mark Zuckerberg’s Achilles heel is? Love.
2. Black Swan
Look, it’s not that I need a lot of context to enjoy Natalie Portman touching herself, just don’t tell me that it’s art and not porn. Black Swan is despicable the way that Dancer in the Dark was despicable–it’s just a masochistic, mysogynist director making his lead actress jump through torturous hoops for his own twisted edification, then selling it to us for ours.
3. Inception
Christopher Nolan’s squanders a good idea on bad storytelling. Inception’s high concept may have warranted a shit ton of exposition, but Memento proves he knows how to do without it. The is-it-all-a-dream framework is the most deus ex machina of them all–people in my theater rightfully groaned at the ending. Worst of all, Nolan creates his dream world, painstakingly explaining every aspect of it. During the first half of the movie, there are no stakes–nothing happens if the heroes fail. Then, at the beginning of the final heist, he completely changes all the rules–first, they couldn’t die during inception; then, all of a sudden they could. The ending is a triple-shot of schmaltz–Cilian Murphey learning his father’s deathbed wish, DiCaprio begging a guy who he’s been on tenuous terms with the whole time to grow old with him, and then the film ends with him hugging his kids in slow motion.
4. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Two hours of Joan Rivers telling us how funny she is instead of telling jokes.
5. The Town
The Town was fine, but I’m astounded that no one has picked up on the film’s horribly overt racism. Example: Rebecca Hall’s character complains about a guy harassing her as she walks through “the projects.” Ben Afflick and Jeremy Renner find the guy and beat the everliving shit out of him. Doesn’t matter that it was ultimately a white dude playing the guy from the projects–the signifiers are there. The scene has absolutely no effect on the plot, it’s just two white dudes teaching a guy from the projects a lesson about talking to a white woman. Plus, I counted exactly one person of color in the film and that person had exactly one line.
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50 Subjective and Mostly-Disconnected Thoughts on A Pretty Good 2010
So that’s the approach I’m going to take in my year-end roundup here – dialing down the whole Giving a Fuck quotient and dashing off whatever comes to mind, albeit without the 140-character limitation. Just as a warning: this could get kind of stupid. Or frank. Same thing.
And Mostly Sharp and Great and Wow! There’s really 50 of them!
Nate’s year-end wrap up is a beast, an under-the-wire One of The Best Things I’ve Read All Year. (Assuming you’re all following him already, but just in case.) I agree with so much of this that I have to cling to my distaste for “Drunk Girls” and “Follow Us” in order to feel like my own person. Gonna spend the first couple days of 2011 tracking down all the stuff he mentions that I missed.
Posted on December 31, 2010 via Problem World with 37 notes
Source: natepatrin
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2010: It’s a Wrap
To coincide with The Factual Opinion closing out its epic year-end wrap-up today, here’s a couple of lists of my favorite music from this year, along with links to the shit I wrote at TFO. Please check some of it out if you can.
In order to figure out my favorite albums of 2010, I made a playlist of 50 albums that I would be stoked to listen to right now. I feel like these kinds of things should be functional and temporal—so that means I got rid of some stuff that I might think is objectively better, but I don’t really need to listen to in the foreseeable future (like Big Boi’s Sir Lucius Left Foot) as well as stuff that I like that doesn’t necessarily fit in with my listening habits (like Liars’ Sisterworld). Once I had the playlist, I ranked the albums using some combination of past enjoyment, present enjoyment, projected future enjoyment, and a guess at general objective worth. My songs list is my exact ballot from our poll, which I submitted about a month ago. Some new stuff might sneak on there if I were to redo it (like Girl Unit, for instance). Asterisks indicate stuff that made our final TFO lists, and links are to the pieces I wrote. Please enjoy.
ALBUMS:
1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy*
3. Sleigh Bells – Treats*
4. The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt/Sometimes the Blues is Only a Passing Bird*
5. Das Racist – Shut Up, Dude/Sit Down, Man*
6. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach*
7. Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here*
8. The Chemical Brothers – Further*
10. Big K.R.I.T. – K.R.I.T. Wuz Here*
11. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid*
12. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks
13. Rick Ross – Teflon Don
14. Free Energy – Stuck On Nothing
15. Javelin – No Más
16. Screaming Females – Castle Talk*
17. Playboy Tre – The Last Call*
18. Pursuit Grooves – Fox Trot Mannerisms
19. Starkey – Ear Drums and Black Holes*
20. Wavves – King of the Beach
21. Onra – Long Distance
22. No Age – Everything In Between
23. Yelawolf – Trunk Muzik 0-60
24. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening*
25. Jamie Lidell – Compass*
26. Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
27. Tyler the Creator – Bastard*
28. A-Trak – Dirty South Dance 2
29. Ghostface Killah – Apollo Kids
30. The-Dream – Love King
31. Scuba – Triangulation*
32. Diddy Dirty Money – Last Train To Paris
33. Roc Marciano – Marcberg
34. Domo Genesis – Rolling Papers
35. Toro y Moi – Causers of This
36. Goldfrapp – Head First
37. Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner
38. Best Coast – Crazy For You
39. TOBACCO – Maniac Meat*
40. Maker – Maker vs. Now Again
41. Curren$y – Pilot Talk/Pilot Talk 2
42. Quadron – Quadron
43. Flying Lotus – Cosmagramma
44. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
45. Ikonika – Contact, Need, Want, Love, Have
46. Vampire Weekend – Contra
47. Caribou – Swim*
48. Girl Talk – All Day
49. Bettye Lavette – Interpretations: The British Rock Song Book
50. Drake – Thank Me Later
SONGS:
1. Robyn – “Dancing On My Own”*
2. Sleigh Bells – “Rill Rill”*
3. Broken Social Scene – “All To All”*
4. Das Racist – “Shorty Said (Gordon Voidwell Remix)” *
5. Japandroids – “Younger Us” *
6. Kanye West – “Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, & Nicki Minaj)”*
7. Crystal Castles – “Not In Love (Feat. Robert Smith)”*
8. Robyn – “Hang With Me”*
9. Christina Aguilara – “Elastic Love” *
10. Quadron – “Slippin’”*
11. Guido – “Way U Make Me Feel”
12. Drake – “Shut It Down (Feat. The-Dream)”
13. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Round and Round”*
14. Earl Greyhound – “Black Sea Vacation”
15. Kaine – “Love Saves the Day”
16. M.I.A. – “XXXO (Remix Feat. Jay-Z)”
17. Vampire Weekend – “Run”*
18. Screaming Females – “I Don’t Mind It”*
19. Onra – “Long Distance (Feat. Oliver DaySoul)”
20. Gil Scott-Heron – “New York Is Killing Me”*
21. DJ Zinc – “Wile Out (Feat. Ms. Dynamite)”*
22. No Age – “Glitter”*
23. The Tallest Man On Earth – “Burden Of Tomorrow”*
24. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Ativan Eyes”
25. The Chemical Brothers – “Escape Velocity”*
26. Black Rob – “No Fear”
27. Escort – “Cocaine Blues”
28. Gorillaz – “Empire Ants (Feat. Little Dragon)”*
29. KingPen Slim – “The Win”
30. Wavves – “King Of The Beach”
31. Kanye West – “Runaway (Feat. Pusha T)”*
32. Big Boi – “Shutterbug (Feat. Cutty)”*
33. Big K.R.I.T. – “Hometown Hero (Remix Feat. Yelawolf)”
34. Beach House – “Lover Of Mine”*
35. Yelawolf – “I Wish (Feat. Raekwon)”
36. Jamie Lidell – “Completely Exposed”
37. Tame Impala – “Solitude Is Bliss (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)”
38. Tyler The Creator – “Slow It Down (Feat. Hodgy Beats)”
39. Goldfrapp – “Rocket”
40. LCD Soundsystem – “Home”
41. Gauntlet Hair – “I Was Thinking…”
42. Les Savy Fav – “Let’s Get Out Of Here”*
43. Scuba – “Before”
44. Kelis – “4th of July (Fireworks)”
45. Tegan And Sara – “Alligator (Four Tet Remix)”*
46. Washed Out – “You And I (Feat. Caroline Polachek)”
47. Free Energy – “Bad Stuff”
48. Vado – “Speaking In Tungs (Feat. Cam’Ron)”*
49. I:Cube – “Fallin’”
50. Fang Island – “Life Coach”
Marty Brown is an actor and writer living in Bklyn.