Video: Puppet To The Man - Kurt Vile

Listening to this album is like enjoying a nice Scotch. The amber glow, the slow burn, the smoke, the hazy, stray notes that reveal themselves over time. Smoke Ring for My Halo is a gentle record that implies violence, riding the line between Neil Young and Lou Reed. It's a dark record that casts off light. It's a nighttime record that can carry you to morning. In short, a gem.

Yea, I know. I'm not much of a fan of the annual look-back-over-the-shoulder at the previous year either. Although to be fair, the more music I hear during the year, the more I realize there was plenty that I didn't hear. So, before we close the books on 2011, we've asked the writers and editors from across the many TVD locales to rummage through not just their records, but ruminate on the shows, books, and movies that informed their 2011. First up, TVD NYC's Mike [...]

Filed under: Exclusive , The Hit List While you fondly remember your mother singing to you as a child, she tuned out of new music once Casey Kasem's "America's Top 10" went off the air and [...]