My Top Songs of 2011 That Aren't Necessarily From 2011

Since everyone has their year end lists coming out, I've decided to put my own list together. But, since I don't have labels telling me what to do, and since the site's "indie cred" isn't riding on how high I rate certain songs or albums of the year, I've come up with my own list that has nothing to do with a release date. Some are from 2011 and some are from 30 years ago, but they all have the underlying factor of awesomeness that I've enjoyed thoroughly this year.

Air France_Collapsing At Your Door
"Sort of like a dream, isn't it? No, Better."


Animal Collective_Mr. Fingers
The opening song/scene from the film Oddsac. This song needs more credit than it gets as it's one of their best. Layered upon layered vocals that build, and the last three minutes are pure gold.

Atlas Sound_Criminals
Sure Atlas Sound came out with a new album this year, but I find myself going back to this one fairly often.

The Beatles_I'm Only Sleeping

Black Lips_Mad Dog
Adding to the saxophone craze of 2011, Black Lips style.

Broadcast_Come On Let's Go
RIP Trish.


Cam'ron_Pass Da Dutchie
This YouTube comment says it all: "i listen to this song once a day and shake my big fat ass too cuz i got real kim kakes killa"

Caribou_Odessa
Not dancing to this song is impossible, plus that sample is undeniably almost too catchy. Pretty much made me appreciate dancey music as well (as you'll see in my next two choices).

Cut Copy_Saturdays

David Lynch_Good Day Today

Deerhunter_Helicopter
Always a sucker for a good outro.

Devo_Be Stiff

Destroyer_Bay of Pigs
There's a 7 minute foreplay of a journey to get to the meat of this song, but if you just turn it loud and wait for it, it's well worth it. And only Dan Bejar can get away with admitting he "was 20 years old in 1992" and still be the shit.


Eddie Murphy_Party All The Time
The driving motivation behind wanting to DJ at bars is the slim possibility that I'll be able to play this jam at some point.

El Guincho_Bombay
Can't not get into this song when it comes on. Amazing video as well.

Harry Nilsson_Jump Into The Fire
Woke up to this song every day for a good two months.

The Hollies_Bus Stop

John Maus_Do Your Best
Making the big city seem small and lonely.

Juelz Santana_Oh Yes
Didn't see this one coming, did you? Neither did I.

Memory Tapes_Stop Talking
Such a jam, but what made me really appreciate it was seeing it live. Believe it or not, it's very reminiscent of Modest Mouse when there's live drums and that guitar comes in.


Nico_60/40
So simple, so good.

Nurses_Fever Dreams
File this one under "Stuff to listen to until Animal Collective release a new album." Great song though.

Paul McCartney_Check My Machine
Speaking of jams--holy crap. This will undoubtedly make my list every year. You crazy for this one, Paul.

The Psychadelic Furs_Love My Way


Talking Heads_Girlfriend Is Better
Although this whole list was alphabetical, this is actually my top song of the year as well. Whattyaknow.

Mobile Party Unit: Digital Dump #2 aka Man Make Fire aka Fisheye Faux Pas aka My First Fisheye

Sorry I got a little ranty on the last one. The majority of these photos are campfire photos from ohhh, let's say from nights 2, 4 and 6 of the trip. It's actually freaking me out a little that these aren't in exact order, but I guess that's what makes em dumpy. Props to ma man Pad for the ill headlamp precision on these first fewtaahhhhh. Oh, and did you know? You can click on any photo to view them all as a slide show and skip my dumb commentary.


A man reflects on his place in the world amidst the madness of a late summer evening.





Yep




Not sure what was going on with Vin Mo at this point in the trip.




Open Container


Pad being awesome

Graham being awesome


Shawn has the most insane radar for picking out weirdos to talk to in random towns.


Helped drained this pool one day. Andy could tell you the specifics with all their nicknames or whatever, I just know this pool as the one where Dillon took back all of the beer we brought them in return for skating it.

Graham went pee pee.

Willy no land but whatevs. Who's countin!?!



Can't remember if the following photo is related to this bail, but yeesh.

Mobile Party Unit: Digital Dump #1 aka "My First Skate Photo"

So, since going on my skate photography hiatus (or as some have called it, "falling off"), I've been getting the itch to shoot again. Luckily our annual Pile Out New England trip came about so I was able to scratch that itch, but I didn't wanna do the whole "set up flashes, focus, time things correctly, etc." thing. You know, actually give a crap. Because who am I kidding? Even if a mag did run these I'd get paid in Twizzlers (which sounds awesome btw). And in my opinion, everything just looks the same anyway. Heck, even magazines run the same articles they ran in the year 2000 (another "night skating" feature? really?). Plus, kids with their iPhones can shoot photos just as well as my $2000 of blood, sweat, and tears. There's probably an Instagram filter called "TWS 2011" for all I know ("Thrasher 2007" is better though, the exposure is all off. Zing!). So here's my new take on photography, design, and art. It's called the "Un Movement".

The Un Movement, because "Undoing Is Better Than Doing". Yup, that's a tagline made of gold right there (any employers reading this? Hire me. Seriously). And before you give me your opinion on it all (the movement, not the tagline), here's my rebuttal: It's the innovative way to be lazy, not an excuse to suck at things. It's the movement of our generation. 30 years from now, critics everywhere will say "Oh my, look at that use of Comic Sans, must be from the Un Movement" and "Ahhh, he must not have metered, that has Un photo written all over it". Anyway, here are my photos from the trip, all Unned out and everything right from the start. Flash on camera, shutter too slow, you name it, it's in there. I didn't even use Photoshop to color correct or resize these, I did it in Preview. And come to think of it, I didn't even color correct these at all, so take that. How much more "un" can I get you ask? Well, I have 10 rolls of film that I shot on this trip and I'm not even going to develop them, that's how "un" I am. Alright, enough. Enjoy!


The bestest crew in the whole world!

Nick, the rook of the trip. Half in frame, half who knows what.

Jess Dog round the corner. Ass shot.

Bill tailsliding out of darkness. I promise I won't walk you through every photo, I'm just getting you used to the Un style of things.

Not an Un photo of Dillon's nosegrind you say? Pfft. I had an edited version that was very Skateboard Mag 2008 but I edit-undid it.

This is Willy Akers. He killed it this trip both in the van and out.

Another thing about Un skate photography, which is frowned upon in regular skate photography, is having yourself in the shot. Even the foot of your god damn light stand can't be in the frame. You know how many hours I've wasted photoshopping out crap like that? I can't even come up with a clever metaphor to begin describing it to you.


No flash, finger on the lens. What.

And now for some cool hangout pics, because that's what we're best at and that's why we go on these trips, right?




Check out the file name of this pic: "dan pad me". Old Nick would've wrote "Dan_pad_fun.jpg" but this is un nick talking and it's time to get selfish for once.


!





That's all for now. This is only from about 2 hours from one day of a week-long trip, so there will probably be about 19 more entries. I promise I won't rant on every one though, this post made me tired.