Hope you didin’t miss us too much. New music!

Happy holidays everybody!  Hope you had a wonderfully cheery one and got all the gifts you asked for if you were a good boy or girl this year!  For Hanukkah, my mom and I usually do some shopping together and I picked up some super cute shoes this year!  I also celebrated my first Christmas with my boyfriend and his massive Italian family.  It was tiring but I did get way more gifts than I was expecting to.   Plus it was a good time so I’m not complaining.  One gift I received that’s coming in great use is a new pair of headphones for all the new music I’ve been downloading.  What’s my current favorite you ask?

God Bless the USA

No words necessary.

There’s so many more!

I should be studying but these are irresistible!

Bfargz’s 2011 Albums of the Year

2011 had a lot of ups and downs. I think the choices I have in my top ten list are reflective of that. Many of these albums can be downloaded for free from ifyoumakeit.com.

Finally…Saturday?

Sorry for the late post, it’s been a busy week with finals and I wanted to wait to put this post up until I’d reviewed the cds I had since it’s my last blog post of the year! This one’s got some substance though, as I reveal the winners of my Indie awards(nominees listed in my previous post) along with some new reviews of albums by The Black Keys and Robert Pollard!

2011: The Year of Escapism

Conjuring up motifs and noises of the past, these ten artists have put their spin on nostalgia and have created a sound unique to each of them.  Music as always is a testament of the times, somehow it seems we’re being catapulted backwards. In some cases the artist deals head on with the current turmoil lyrically, but even when the content is irrelevant we’re sucked into a simpler time. Although it’s hard to remain hopeful when the skies look so dark and gloomy, there’s always “Watch The Thrown.”

Enter Shikari: listen to their new songs

Who knew hardcore and electronic music would blend so well together?  Hailing from England, Enter Shikari has seen a lot of success.  Their debut album released in 2007, Take To The Skies, reached reached #4 in the Official UK Album Chart and their following album which I find incredible, Common Dreads (2009) reached #16.  Their third studio album, A Flash Flood Of Color is due to come out January 16, 2012.

Melissa’s Top 10 Albums of 2011

It’s been a pretty decent year for new alternative albums.  I’ve managed to pick just enough of them after dismissing a lot of the indie garbage that dominated the CD releases these past 12 months.  I believe this list embodies my tastes fairly well and I have conviction in my choices and their order.  So now that the year is rapidly coming to an end, let’s recap some music!

The Best of Electronic Dance Music in 2011

I feel bad for artists in December. What with deadlines and expectations and the weight of eleven months on the backs of every critic, it seems that otherwise relevant releases get lost in the shuffle. So yes, it’s December 4th and I’m writing a best of 2011 list that would more appropriately be composed in January – mea culpa.

This was an interesting year, as “EDM” (Christ I hate that acronym) cemented a footing in the mainstream consciousness – especially here in Albany, be it Dayglow, Deadmau5 or Foam Fest (ahem, Electric Flurry…). So, as the director of the electronic music department here at WCDB (somewhat confusingly titled RPM) I feel as if it is my duty to sift through all of the roughage, and somehow – in a year where Skrillex colloborated with the doors and Rihanna with Calvin Harris – present an accurate, unbiased snapshot of the scene’s state.

What follows is a top 20 list, the opinion of one man plain and simple. And while the pretentious, alt-rock kid inside of me wants to exclude every song known to more than ___ listeners, I have to admit: sometimes things get popular for a very good reason. And in case seeking out and giving attention to each of these songs individually is a daunting task, I’ve also included a mix (~45 minutes) that, I hope, captures the year:

https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F29591644 WCDB Top 20 by mr.kissner

It’s been a long one…

Finally Friday

My Nominees for Best Indie Material of the Year

Despite the lurking feeling that I am forgetting obvious songs and albums that I love I was able to come up with my nominations for the best Indie material in 2011. I’ve separated the contenders into three categories(Indie Folk/Indie Rock/Indie Pop)

Trapped Under Ice Exclusive WCDB Interview

 Trapped Under Ice is a hardcore band from Baltimore, Maryland. They just released a new album called Big Kiss Goodnight. They stopped by for an interview after the show they played last Sunday at the yearly tattoo convention at Northern Lights called Rat A Tat.

Here’s the mediafire link to download the mp3 file. It’s kinda long but worth it. Ignore me sounding like an idiot lol. It was a really fun experience and they’re all really cool people. Afterwards we went to Denny’s and got milkshakes at 2 am! CHECK IT OUTTTT!

http://www.mediafire.com/?a0kdn44uylhq000

 Also, keep a look out for the written out interview on Keep Albany Boring.  It should be up soon!