I enjoyed doing this last year, so here it is again.
"212" rocked my world, clearly, and Ghostigital released 'Division of Culture & Tourism' which got a lot of play with me...
...but other top discoveries of the year were definitely Absofacto, Grimes and Miike Snow.
what's up with this video though..?
...not a video at all, but I love this track
Honorable mentions also go to Moon King, Cloud Nothings, Ultraista, and the latest from Dirty Projectors.
In other news, I was late to the party on King Creosote, The Joy Formidable and Grinderman. Never too late, though...
And also special thanks to Die Antwoord for infecting my mind with "I Fink U Freaky" for months on end. Bastards.
Music I caught up with late in 2012 and will no doubt be hearing a lot in 2013, I recommended Pilotpriest's "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," and Dan Deacon's "America," both of which are tremendous.
I have no idea how 'Baggy Trousers' made it into the top 100... None at all...
A new Fall album due any time soon...
reset for 2013
# Title Artist Plays
1 212 (ft Lazy Jay) Azealia Banks 52
2 Bootprints King Creosote 35
3 Theme For Moon King Moon King 35
4 Don't Push Me (ft Sensational & Nick
Zimmer) Ghostigital 34
5 Lies Absofacto 33
6 If You Want Absofacto 32
7 Circumambient Grimes 32
8 Paddling Out (Jaques Lu Cont remix) Miike
Snow 30
9 That One Totally Enormous Extinct
Dinosaurs 30
10 Hot Cake The Fall 29
11 Give Me Every Little Thing The Juan
Maclean 29
12 Kill Everybody Skrillex 28
13 Kick Out The Chairs (Tom Boy Remix) Munk
Feat. James Murphy 27
14 Bone Marrow Black Lips 26
15 Separation Cloud Nothings 26
16 Cradle The Joy Formidable 25
17 If You Wanna The Vaccines 25
18 Heart Heart Withered Hand 25
19 Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks !!! 25
20 Inchworm Battles 23
21 How Can U Luv Me Unknown Mortal
Orchestra 23
22 Hovering Hoover Skates Ghostigital 22
23 One Touch LCD Soundsystem 21
24 The Rhinohead Von Südenfed 21
25 Buy Nothing Day The Go! Team 20
26 Hello Teenage America Meat Beat
Manifesto 20
27 God Help This Divorce Miike Snow 20
28 The White Flash (Feat. Thom Yorke) Modeselektor
20
29 Cerulean Simian Mobile Disco 20
30 Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Zedd
Remix) Skrillex 20
31 NY Excuse Soulwax 20
32 Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg (Left Eye Mix) TLC 20
33 Norgaard The Vaccines 20
34 When My Baby's Beside Me Big Star 19
35 Go Out and Get It Black Lips 19
36 Why Are People Grudgeful? The Fall 19
37 I'm A Mummy The Fall 19
38 VHS FM Belfast 19
39 Genesis Grimes 19
40 Black Tin Box (ft Lykke Li) Miike Snow 19
41 Heart Oberhofer 19
42 It Rich Aucoin 19
43 Strange Formula (David Lynch remix) Ultraista
19
44 Sister Wife Alex Winston 18
45 Dominican Fade Battles 18
46 Stay Useless Cloud Nothings 18
47 Oh My God Cults 18
48 Get Off The Dandy Warhols 18
49 Lack of a Better Name Deadmau5 18
50 Royal Gregory Holy Fuck 18
51 Crush The Liberation The Juan Maclean 18
52 You Are Could I? King Creosote 18
53 Circles Meat Beat Manifesto 18
54 Psyche-Out Meat Beat Manifesto 18
55 The First Rebirth Modeselektor 18
56 Vines Nomadic Firs 18
57 Temporary Secretary (Hystereo Remix Rough) Paul
McCartney 18
58 Undead Pt. 1 - Estrangement Rich Aucoin
18
59 Death as a Fetish (feat. Mattress) Starfucker
18
60 Smalltalk (Four Tet remix) Ultraista 18
61 Here Comes the Summer The Undertones 18
62 Mercy Time - Original Mix The 2 Bears 18
63 80844264@81 (Love Song) Absofacto 17
64 Summer Fun Barracudas 17
65 Peach, Plum, Pear (Joanna Newsom) blithe
field 17
66 Soul Vine (70 Billion People) Cabaret
Voltaire 17
67 Bohemian Like You The Dandy Warhols 17
68 Say No Go De La Soul 17
69 I Can Hear The Grass Grow The Fall 17
70 Masquerade (mr natural mix) The Fall 17
71 Eight Grimes 17
72 Skankenstein Kora/Cabaret Voltaire 17
73 La Femme Ressort La Femme 17
74 Disco Infiltrator LCD Soundsystem 17
75 Losing My Edge LCD Soundsystem 17
76 Drunk Girls LCD Soundsystem 17
77 I Can Change LCD Soundsystem 17
78 Baggy Trousers Madness 17
79 Forcefield Marius Vries 17
80 Vase Miike Snow 17
81 Alien Theme Nostromo 17
82 Bruises Sin Fang 17
83 Ask The Smiths 16
84 Alright Supergrass 16
85 Thunderbird Yunioshi 16
86 Punk Rock Girl Dead Milkmen 15
87 Dark in Here Ghostigital 15
88 Devil's Work (Alex Metric Remix) Miike
Snow 15
89 This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us Sparks
15
90 Psychic City YACHT 15
91 Venus Bananarama 14
92 Freon Shortwave Cha Cha Cohen 14
93 I Fink U Freaky Die Antwoord 14
94 Don't Bring Me Down Electric Light
Orchestra 14
95 Telephone Thing The Fall 14
96 I've Been Duped The Fall 14
97 Palaces Of Montezuma Grinderman 14
98 Greyhounds In The Slips The Joy
Formidable 14
99 Take My Time Junior Senior 14
100 God O.D. (Part 1) Meat Beat Manifesto 14
10. The Master :: Not a good film, frankly, but rather some sterling performances that are edited together into something that approximates a story. I might've scored this higher if the hype surrounding this movie hadn't been so hysterical. Nowhere near as bad as "The Tree of Life," but nowhere near as good as many would have you believe.
9. Argo :: Not much plot here either, and Affleck's character is so untainted he's nearly non-existent, but otherwise this is a terrific cinematic experience and one of my favorites of the year.
8. Cabin In The Woods :: Genre horror movies CAN still be smart and fun! I went into this screening with zero expectations and kept getting rewarded at every story turn. I enjoyed this so much I raved about it for months. Highly recommended. I do suspect, though, that Joss Whedon operates on a gut level that capitalizes on emotional momentum rather than cumulative narrative suspense. As a strategy that really fell apart in The Avengers, but really worked for me here.
7. Still Alive: Paul Williams :: I find Paul Williams to be a fascinating human being, and I love his music from the 70s (his score to "Bugsy Malone" is an all-time favorite of mine). But this is more a story of filmmaking, and of an artist seeking redemption. It works on both levels. Highly recommended.
6. The Raid: Redemption :: Outstanding action flick, directed with flare and a super-tight budget. It's extremely similar to "Dredd" which also came out this year, and I can't tell if either film is emulating the other. While "Dredd" was executed with more polish, "Raid" has a lot more going on under the hood, and is a more satisfying story AND a better choreographed action movie.
5. The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye :: a documentary love story executed in an experimental style that I found very appealing. Hard to encapsulate, so I recommend you see this on faith instead of me trying to tell you why you should see this.
4. The Grey :: The most underrated movie of the year. Yes, the depiction of the wolves here is beyond awful, but then again the shark in Jaws is hilariously dumb too, and that movie's a classic. It's the Jack London masculinity in this yarn that sets it apart, with spectacular performances from everybody involved. I was riveted to the very last frame. A tremendous film worth revisiting.
3. The Snowtown Murders (or just "Snowtown," as Netflix has it) :: An Australian film very much in the vein of working class crime cinema that I seem to see a lot of coming from the Antipodes in recent years. But as a first feature this film is all the more remarkable for the cool, distanced perspective of the alienated teen protagonist, and for the experimental flourishes in this otherwise kitchen-sink style portrait of a serial killer. Emotionally ugly and cinematically uncompromising, one of my favorite films of the year.
2. Holy Motors :: I heard about this on the web after it got some buzz at Cannes, so saw this without expectation at Film Forum in NYC. Utterly hypnotizing performance by Denis Lavant, who travels from one bewildering vignette to another "Cosmopolis" style in a chauffeured limousine. If you're not in love with this movie by the time you get to the accordion music scene then this movie was never for you. An outstandingly poignant performance from Kylie Minogue too. I never thought I'd ever type that sentence, but there you are.
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild :: Call me a sentimental old fool, but this is my favorite movie of the year by a long stretch. I commented at the time that I wished this is the kind of movie Terry Gilliam had moved towards in his late career. Nothing about this movie felt insincere, and the six year old girl at the center of this story is as wild and passionate as any actor I've ever admired. I'd trade this film for a dozen "Dark Knight Rises," "John Carter" or "Skyfall" blockbusters. Can American cinema get back to this, please?