2011 in Review: A Good Year for Great Music for Bad People

"Santa & Krampus" by Thomas Boatwright

The year is drawing to a close--nights are longer and colder, bears are preparing for hibernation in the basements of elderly men and intoxicated brodudes roam the streets disguised as Santa Claus and vomiting on unsuspecting pedestrians.  All this means it's time to reflect on The Year That Was and try to make some sense out of it.

I'll admit that I'm pretty bad at finding out about entertainment at the time it's actually released.  It's like living in a constant state of nostalgia for stuff I haven't actually experienced.  This makes it all the more delicious that 2011 saw the release of some truly amazing music that I stumbled onto while still fresh.

Although perhaps "fresh" isn't the right word, since much of what I really dug falls squarely into the realm of "throwback music."  Blood Ceremony's "Living with the Ancients" channeled Coven's 1969 record "Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls," Cold Cave's "Cherish the Light Years" is like listening to Depeche Mode and Joy Division shake hands, and Jeff the Brotherhood's "We Are the Champions" owes an awful lot to the Ramones.

I pulled together an 8Tracks mix of some of my favorite songs from the past year--chronological, if not stylistic, freshness guaranteed:




Listen to the rest of my 8Tracks offerings here.

Thank you to MusicIsTheArt for naming this mix a Pick of the Week!

Postscript: I'm terrible at recapping stuff, because there is a 100% chance of me forgetting something important.  So here are two songs regrettably missing from that mix above.

"Ritual Knife" by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats from the album "Blood Lust:"



"Wires" by Red Fang from the album "Murder the Mountains:"