December Playlist - 2013 The Year Of Music

I had intended to do something special for the last month of 2013 - The Year Of Music, but here we are at the end of the first week of December and I'm finally finalizing the Playlist!

The year had one rule that I pretty much stuck to - Everyday listen to something old and something new. Unfortunately, albums that came out within the last ten years or so kind of got brushed over. Just didn't seem right to put a record from 2001, or 2005 in the classic album slot of the day. So, I thought I'd switch that up in December.

I wouldn't say 2003 was the best year of my life, but it was pretty fucking cool and busy. I quit a job in Philly and moved, sight unseen, into a three bedroom apartment in Jersey City, NJ with a good chance of landing jobs at CMJ and K-Rock in New York City. I did. Working full-time at CMJ, I wrote my ass off and working as a part time swing Jock at K-Rock, I also worked my ass off. A friend of mine that year called me a "machine." Because I was always either writing, on the air, at a show, and/or drinking. I didn't do much else.

Here is how a super busy day during that year would go. I'd work at CMJ from ten to six. Grab a happy beer somewhere and go see a band play. Head up to 40 W. 57th Street and sleep on Howard Stern's green room couch, the one every whack-packer, porn star and A-list movie star sat on, for a couple hours and then do two to six in the morning on the air. I'd go to CMJ and sleep under my desk until somebody woke me up sometime after nine. That didn't happen everyday that year, but it happened a lot and I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

At the end of 2003, this was the year end Top Ten List I submitted to the magazine:

I stick by most of that list. Most of it. The biggest glaring omissions being Radiohead Hail To The Thief, Death Cab For Cutie Transatlanticism, and White Stripes Elephant. I most have been trying to kiss somebody's ass with Rancid, Eels, and Mando Diao. Although, I did try and populate my list with stuff I listened to the most. So, I probably was listening to those records a lot. I'm thinking I didn't put Radiohead and White Stripes on there because I wanted to look cool, and yet I fucked that up. Rancid? I dunno. I'm pretty sure Death Cab wasn't on the list because I didn't get into that album until 2004. I spent all of January and February listening to Transatlanticism. "The New Year" was the catalyst for that.  

So, the final month of 2013 - The Year Of Music is filled with great albums from a great year of my life. 2003. Ten years gone. 

The December Playlist is also populated with a lot of new albums I never listened to this year, or even heard of, and are on a bunch of Year End Best Of lists already posted on the net. Never too late, right? Besides, I'm sure they all suck and it's just everyone else's way of trying to look "cool." 

December 2

Willie Nelson Red Headed Stranger

Jake Bugg Shangri La

December 3
AC/DC Powerage
Imagine Dragons Night Visions

December 4

Rancid Indestructible 

Parquet Courts Light Up Gold

December 5

Queen Sheer Heart Attack

Waxahatchee Cerulean Salt

December 6

White Stripes Elephant

Beachwood Sparks Desert Skies

December 9

John Lennon Double Fantasy

Deafheaven Sunbather

December 10

Death Cab For Cutie Transatlanticism

Julia Holter Loud City Song

December 11

My Morning Jacket It Still Moves

Kacey Musgraves Same Trailer Different Park

December 12

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever To Tell

The Knife Shaking The Habitual 

December 13

Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros Streetcore

Hookworms Pearl Mystic 

December 16

Eels Shootnanny!

Superchunk I Hate Music

December 17

Belle And Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Albert Hammond Jr. AHJ

December 18

Twilight Singers Blackberry Belle

Shearwater Fellow Travelers

December 19

Rise Against Revolutions Per Minute

Fuck Buttons Slow Focus 

December 20

Sleepy Jackson Lovers

Lucius Wildewoman 

December 23

Mando Diao Bring ‘Em In

Speedy Ortiz Major Arcana

December 24 (Xmas Eve)

The Darkness Permission To Land

Mikal Cronin MCII

December 25 (Jesus's Birthday)

Brad Maybe’s Christmas Jams Playlist!

Bad Religion Christmas Songs

December 26 (Boxing Day)

Killing Joke Killing Joke

Boards Of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest 

December 27

The Bronx The Bronx

Janelle Monáe The Electric Lady

December 30

Postal Service Give Up

Ween Quebec

December 31 (New Year's Eve)

TBA

I don't know what I wanna do with New Year's Eve yet. Maybe something cool. Or maybe just listen to the albums I listened to on January 1.

Bonus Post! Here's what I wrote about Ween Quebec at the end of 2003!