
And so, another year marches to a close - another fantastic, adventure-filled, technicolor year. It's the time when all of us start kicking around our neatly-bulleted lists of bests and worsts. For me, the more I read these lists, the more I feel that I missed more albums and artists than I heard this year. The stats are staggering: in 2002, about 33,000 albums were released. In 2006 that number was 75,000. Last year close to 100,000 albums were released, with only roughly 800 of those albums selling more than 5K. It's tough out [...]

"Nothing Like You" by Frightened Rabbit was my top song obsession, photo by ipickmynose 2010 has been the oddest of my life, full of contradictions: the most amazing and most boring times; the most lovelorn and most disinterested; the most outgoing and most antisocial. It'll take years to see what it all means and where it will lead, but I have to say it was pretty good. But these contradictions led to a vast and odd array of music getting caught in my head, twisting and turning around in there and begging to [...]

Jonsi @ Coachella by Natalie Kardos This is a continuation of part 1 of my recent song obsessions. Just a bunch of great songs that have been running through my head over the last few months. Paul Jacobson & the Madison Arm - Six O'Clock News (mp3) ( unreleased , band website ) Heather turned me on to this song. A cover of the Kathleen Edwards original, it stunned me. Built in a [...]

This Kathleen Edwards cover is just stunningly gorgeous. My good friend Dainon pointed me in the direction of his Salt Lake City musician friends Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm yesterday afternoon, and so I spent the rest of my next three hours at work intermittently working on a spreadsheet and clicking play every five minutes and twenty nine seconds. The piano echoes as if this was recorded in a sad, empty room. My friend Kathleen ruminated today, "Isn't that song just like someone draws the [...]