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May flowers for your ears

I picked up some really good albums in May.

(That last is a Dan Deacon EP, Acorn Master.) The first couple listens I took of Alopecia, I thought it was just a cool rock album with awesome lyrics, but Wikipedia and Emusic both call them an indie rock/hip-hop hybrid band. After listening to Fantasies on Nick's iTunes share, I picked it up in last month's Amazon MP3 50 for $5. I checked out The Thermals' Now We Can See after hearing the title song in one of the last episodes of Chuck.

April showers

I picked these up in April:

I also got this Evening Magazine EP and Mighty Righteous by The Fantastics ! but they don't have art on Amazon.

Oh, and:

Swoon

Silversun Pickups

Homg. ♥ ♥

Oops: I left out a few things I got in the past week to round out my Emusic downloads:

Also a few tracks from Cloud Cult's Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes).

Eighths of March

Here's some music I liked last month:

There was also a bunch I found by almost catching up on Shifted Sound, so it's not on Amazon (apparently):

Bromst

I sank the biggest chunk of playing time into the new Dan Deacon album, Bromst... though I haven't been playing the hell out of it like I did with Merriweather Post Pavilion. Maybe I won't burn out on it, then.

Rearrange Beds

It's also time for the post-SXSW shows, and after listening to Sound Opinions' wrap-up yesterday I've already bought my first album, An Horse's Rearrange Beds. It's also the first music I've bought on the iTunes Store in forever, but you can hear the whole thing on Last.fm (mileage may vary). They remind me of Pretty Girls Make Graves for some reason, though they're much softer; I would like more songs as fast as “Horizons,” but it's still a pretty good album. Not quite as revelatory as Sons and Daughters' This Gift (which I heard on Sound Opinions' SXSW 2008 show and was a favorite of the year), but good.

Good questions

area5.tv survey

O hai music

So it's March.

Nick wondered why I'd only just gotten the Tally Hall album. I found out about it when my last roommate played “Banana Man” at me every chance he got, but never got the whole thing despite the cool video for “Good Day.” However I was reminded of it by Molly's cover of the hidden-in-plain-sight last track and finally got the whole album.

Hidden in the Sand (by Tally Hall)

In February there were a few more game soundtracks: In addition to the Psychonauts Original Soundtrack, I also got the Psychonauts Cinematic Score when they both landed on download services such as Emusic. This month Offworld also linked to free soundtracks for Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure, World of Goo, and The Legend of Princess.

Leah also shared the new album by The Bird and the Bee, but I didn't really get into it. I should give it another listen.

Then in January

So far this year I've been enjoying some new favorites from other people's year end lists, and of course:

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective

The Invincible and Blu & Exile are some hip-hop Emusic recommended, but I haven't gotten very into them yet. I've had better luck with some miscellaneous tracks from Skate 2. I also got some miscellaneous singles from a few BBC Sound of 2009 contenders like Florence and the Machine, Kid Cudi, and winner Little Boots that are really nice. (Apparently Little Boots got started on YouTube.)

What was new in December

Krissy asked me a couple weeks ago if I had made a top list of 2008, which I agreed I should, but that also should have reminded me I hadn't posted an epdate for December yet either. A lot of it was assorted Christmas music, so the disappointing paucity of regular music was:

I also got twi the humble feather's Music for Spaceships and Forests, which is not on Amazon and I still haven't listened to much. (iTunes tells me I listened to it exactly once.) I also got several cool new things before my last month was up, mostly by culling my usual sources' 2008 retrospectives—but of course, that was technically January, so I'll post about those in two weeks instead.

I like this Los Campesinos! album a lot more than Hold On Now, Youngster for some reason.

Xmas blinkenlights

Coworkers and twitterers already heard about the 3D Christmas tree kit we soldered together last week, but we did finish it! Here it is, blinking away on my desk:

Tree

Apparently I had inadvertently gotten the “extra learning” edition, as one of the traces was badly printed, grounding the circuit in the middle of the LEDs on one side of the first board. So, even though I soldered everything on successfully, it was a bit broken until Garth and David cut the traces and replaced it with a new wire they... liberated.

The kit is still “on order” at Makershed, but you can get it elsewhere.

Meanwhile I was shopping online for my nephews this weekend, and found a few other cool gifts for people who like to make things: a set of blank nesting dolls and a make-your-own-music music box kit.

Novembers in music

It was actually the Parts & Labor album I didn't like. Maritime is okay.

But since then I got:

Christmas Caravan

And, oops, it's December, so it's time for Christmas music. I never had the Squirrel Nut Zippers' holiday album so that's the only new thing so far, though I collected a playlist last year's picks and some new albums I'll get when I get December's downloads.

Selections from October

I did save my mid-month picks 'til now, so here's some stuff:

Some of these were kind of speculative picks. I'm not sure how much I like the New Radiant Storm King or Maritime albums. I've played the hell out of the Broken West's Now or Heaven, though.