without anybody really asking, pitchfork once again weighed in on their top 100 tracks of 2011. and like every year, the selections alternately reflect a need to be cool and different and indie, and an immediate knee-jerk compulsion to distance themselves from those lame people who try to be cool and different and indie. and yet here i am, reading, writing about and even linking to the list. i clearly have the same love/hate relationship w/ pitchfork that they have with themselves. and who am i kidding? i bounce between beyonce and bon iver with the best of them. either way, this track topped the 2011 list. good song? of course. best song? of course not. but as a band that personifies that careful balance between indie and pop, for this list, it’s pitchfork perfect. -d

i’m not usually a fan of ringback tones. (it seems kind of lame to force the people calling you to listen to the music that you like. it would be like me having the moosico playlist start automatically when the page loads. and everyone hates that.) but a few days ago, i called somebody who had ‘caring is creepy’ as their ringback tone, realized i hadn’t listened to the shins in ages, went searching through my ipod, only to find that the only shins song i had on there was this one — which i’d never heard before, but that i absolutely loved. between those guitar kicks and mercer’s perfectly pitched screams, it’s no wonder not even the goobers at pitchfork could deny its magic. which, in all fairness to them, is the only reason it was on my ipod at all. shut up, it’s my blog, i’ll bite whatever hand i feel like, thank you. -d

this was a tough one. 1 more day left in 90s week, and 196 songs left to choose from. ultimately (and obviously), i chose this one, #72. for a few reasons: one, because nothing says 90s to me like REM. two, because i love few things in this world as much as a good nightswim. and three, i don’t remember there being that much pretty music during the 90s. there was a lot of energy, a lot of anger and, towards the end, a lot of crap, but not much simple, pretty music. and sometimes, after a week of beats and bass lines, it’s nice to wind down with some simple, pretty music. -d

*plus, John Paul Jones did the string arrangement. what the…!?

seriously, how hot was this track? i remember being totally blown away when jason bodie played this for me for the first time. it was at his 7th grade birthday party, i believe. and it still totally holds up. #195 my arse. -d

funny story about #166 here. so it’s middle school, and pat broderick and i decide we’re gonna share a tent at scout camp (which neither of us have any interest in attending). in an effort to make the week bearable, we decide that one of us will be responsible for bringing a stereo w/ lots of D batteries, and the other will bring the music. wires get crossed, and we both show up to camp w/ boomboxes and batteries, and no music. other than the ‘funky divas’ tape we found in the tape slot of pat’s stereo. so that’s what we listened to. all week long. to this day, anytime i hear the word ‘prejudice’, i feel compelled to quickly tell the person that i’ve composed a tune on the subject, ask them if they would like to hear it, and then let them know that i will be singing it regardless of their response.

i don’t post much R&B here, and i hesitated for a sec on this one. but nostalgia aside, this was some pretty great music, and kinda groundbreaking too. they were the first to introduce the Motown girl group aesthetic/sound into the pop/R&B world, and their penchant for barbershoppy harmonies paved the way for a whole decade of girl and boy bands. all things considered, it’s pretty amazing how incredibly huge they got. although the fact that it was a group of 3 crazy hot supermodels (plus the other one) in outfits as tight as their harmonies probably didn’t hurt anything either. -d

ah spacehog. never really heard too much else from them, did we? well in addition to coming in at a respectable #125 on the pitchfork list, this track (along w/ ‘pain lies on the riverside’ by live) played a formative role in what is now a well-documented weakness of mine for songs with excellent running bass lines. and speaking of, how is there not a single Live track on this list? not even that awful lightning crashes song? people loved that song… -d

a few days ago, the adorable blowhards at pitchfork released yet another wonderfully comprehensive and utterly questionable ‘best of’ list. this time, they’ve graced us with their not-at-all esoteric picks for the top 200 tracks of the 1990’s. after being raised through the 80’s on a steady (and much appreciated) vinyl diet of beatles, cat stevens and james taylor, the 90’s represented my first real interaction with popular music. so in theory, this list should reflect a pretty formative time for me. but like every pitchfork list, it’s hit or miss, with an extra miss thrown in there for being snobs. but like them or not, they certainly do enough homework to merit a bit of attention (and plenty of argument), so we’re calling this 90s week.

starting off with #26, ‘girls and boys’ by blur. the most useful thing about these lists is their ability to remind me of songs i’d forgot existed. like this one. but listening to it, there’s no question as to why it made the list. honestly, turn it up, and tell me 90% of the music out there today doesn’t sound exactly like this track from 1994. -d