Favorite Music of 2013

* In reverse alphabetical order

Albums
Postijonen -- Skyer
King Krule -- 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
Ka -- The Night’s Gambit
Grouper -- The Man Who Died in His Boat
Frankie Rose -- Herein Wild
Forest Swords -- Engravings
Dawn of Midi -- Dysnomia
Darkside -- Psychic
Chvrches -- The Bones of What You Believe
Bill Callahan -- Dream River

Other albums
Kurt Vile, Shout Out Louds, The National, Laura Mvula, Charles Lloyd / Jason Moran, Valerie June, Haim, Daughn Gibson, Grails, Charles Bradley, Black Host, Julianna Barwick

EP
Matthew White -- Outer Face

Songs
Spotify

Yoga Pop: Volume 17

Designed to play for the duration of a 75 minute self-directed vinyasa practice.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/HNRuj4

Song. Artist. Album. Year

1. Look Into Your Own Mind. Julianna Barwick. Nepenthe. 2013
2. East River Dawn. Laurie Spiegel. The Expanding Universe. 1980
3. Cover the Long Way. Grouper. The Man Who Died in His Boat. 2013
4. Push the Sky Away. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Push the Sky Away. 2013
5. Firesuite. Doves. Lost Souls. 2000
6. Earthquake. Deerhunter. Halcyon Digest. 2010
7. An Hour. Forest Swords. Engravings. 2013
8. A Mansion Has Many Rooms. Grails. Black Tar Prophecies Vols 4, 5, 6. 2013
9. Will There Be Stars. Blonde Redhead. Penny Sparkle. 2010
10. We Both Know. Au Revoir Simone. Move in Spectrums. 2013
11. Afterlight. Tamaryn. Tender New Signs. 2012
12. She Found Now. My Bloody Valentine. MBV. 2013
13. Dance of Deliverance. Maurice Deebank. Inner Thought Zone. 1984

Dead Aim

Worst Taste in Music

Yoga Pop: Volume 16

Designed to play for the duration of a 75 minute self-directed vinyasa practice.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/197byZ5

Song. Artist. Album. Year

1. Fountains. M83. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. 2011
2. Machine Gun. Slowdive. Souvlaki. 1993
3. Turning. Charlift. Something. 2012
4. Coastline/Rachel Goswell. Ulrich Schnauss. Missing Deadlines: Selected Remixes. 2010
5. Dayvan Cowboy. Boards of Canada. Trans Canada Highway. 2006
6. Broken Promises. Quiet Village. Silent Movie. 2008
7. Edward Undecided. Saint Etienne. Misadventures of Saint Etienne. 1999
8. New Horizons. Engineers. Engineers. 2005
9. Everbody's Got to Learn Sometime. The Field. Yesterday and Today. 2009
10. Dog Shelter. Burial. Untrue. 2007
11. Leaving. Andy Stott. Luxury Problems. 2012
12. April 5th. Talk Talk. The Colour of Spring. 1986
13. The Ocean. U2. Boy. 1980
14. Step into the Breeze. Spiritualized. Lazer Guided Melodies. 1992
15. Symphony Race. Spiritualized. Lazer Guided Melodies. 1992
16. Hey Moon. John Maus. We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. 2011

Favorite Music of 2012

* In reverse alphabetical order

Albums
The XX -- Coexist

Saint Etienne -- Words and Music
Nitemoves -- Longlines
Julia Holter -- Ekstasis

Grimes -- Visions
Daughn Gibson -- All Hell

Disasterpeace -- FEZ
Leonard Cohen -- Old Ideas
Brad Mehldau Trio -- Ode
Beach House -- Bloom

Other albums
Dustin Wong, Wild Nothing, Jessie Ware, Tame Impala, Social Studies, Pye Corner Audio, Anna Meredith, Lotus Plaza, Hundred Waters, Caspian, Blues Control, Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves Of Destiny, Bat for Lashes, Aesop Rock, Actress

Lyrical Verse
"Where's a dissipating plume of smoke when you need one?"
Grace from Skelethon by Aesop Rock 

Song

Haunted Jukebox by Saint Etienne

Concerts 

Bill Callahan @ The Allen Room -- February 8th

Colin Stetson @ Glasslands -- April 3rd
The Dawn of Midi @ Joe's Pub -- November 24th

Kraftwerk performing Autobahn @ MOMA -- April 10th

25 Things I Learned in Japan

1.  I don't want to be a Kaiseki-style restaurant dish washer when I grow up.
2.  The mouth feel of bar snacks at the Park Hyatt's NY Grill brought back vivid memories of chomping on Golden Crisp cereal as a child.  I'm surprised that the consumption of lacquered rice crackers failed to spark this thought before now.
3.  I'm surprised there aren't more places in the states that have business models like Japan's cat and maid cafes.
4.  Kyoto's Bar Rocking Chair and Gion Niti are straight out of my dreams of Japan. Ditto Tokyo's Kubrick worshiping Bar Orange.
5.  Body self-conscious gaijin should steer clear of large Tokyo onsens.
6.  New Yorkers shouldn't take their Japanese restaurants for granted (Midtown East, East Village, Williamsburg).  That said, I'm absolutely baffled as to why we don't have ONE decent tempura joint in this town.
7.  I'm surprised Sukiyabashi Jiro isn't the target of more cash register robberies.
8.  Something else I've been dreaming of, olive oil soda, was found for sale here on Naoshima Island.  This drink deserves to be more popular.
9.  I wanted to ship home a couple cases of super-tasty salty Naoshima Shio cider.
10.  In Tokyo NOTHING interesting exists on street level.
11.  Further "advancements" in how buzz is disseminated will make places like NYC and London more vertical as street traffic becomes a less critical factor for attracting customers to commercial establishments.  In other words, ten years from now New Yorkers will realize that high floor and basement level commercial space was relatively cheap.
12.  EVERY Japanese person is forever pessimistic on the prospects for their society.
13.  If only high caliber scones were as plentiful in NYC as they are in Kyoto.
14.  Kyoto must have the highest number of cute cafes per capita in the world.
15.  Forgetting where you left your bicycle is both more likely and problematic in Tokyo than most places I've ever been.
16.  Those who argue that a gratuity system is required for incentivizing good service have never been to Japan.
17.  I never liked salmon roe (ikura) much until I went to Japan.
18.  If you want to stump the Tokyo cocktail masters just ask for Pisco-based drink.
19.  The popularity of arcade "grab-it" claw machines is one of Japan's more baffling cultural norms.
20.  I miss my fish foot therapist. Does PETA have a position on this service?
21.  If you stay at Tokyo's Park Hyatt make sure to snag the in-room sewing kit.
22.  I'm still not sure why one is allowed to smoke at most indoor places but is then relegated to stand within public "smoke-corrals" outdoors.
23.  Rice, miso soup, and pickles always come last, not first.
24.  An earthquake monitoring app can come in very handy.
25.  The long-exposure photo I was dying to take of Kadoya's interior would have been superior to the one on the sanctioned for-sale postcard.

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Yoga Pop: Volume 15

Designed to play for the duration of a 75 minute self-directed vinyasa practice.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/19jsedf

Song. Artist. Album. Year
(Time crops noted)

1. Spaced Raider. Wavves. Wavves. 2008
2. Fantasy. The XX. XX. 2009
3. Skin. Grimes. Visions. 2012
4. Devotion. Jessie Ware. Devotion. 2012
5. Motivation [L'il B]. Clams Casino. Instrumentals. 2011
6. 1903. Nitemoves. Longlines. 2012
7. Jitters (Geotic Mix). Dntel. Aimlessness. 2012
8. Sync. Disasterpeace. FEZ. 2012
9. Sundriped. Com Truise. Cyanide Sisters EP. 2011
10. Cosmic Tides. Peaking Lights. Lucifer. 2012
11. Gather. Hundred Waters. Hundred Waters. 2012
12. Irene. Beach House. Bloom. 2012 (6:44)
13. Apples for the Sun. Frankie Rose. Interstellar. 2012
14. Terra Incognita. Atlas Sound. Parallax. 2011
15. 92982.1. William Basinski. 92982. 2009

Internet

(via 40001)