Tuesday's Trimmings: What Is That New Year's 2012 Smell?

New Year -- New trimmings.
New Year -- Even less time and far less concern for waxing poetic about new beginnings.
New Year-- We likely both have goals that amount to "Get on with it!!". Let's just do that.

This Tuesday's Trimmings is a bit of a hodge-podge mess ... but the best possible kind of mess. It is a random smattering of tunes that generally straddle late fall and the new year. It seems to represent a set of tunes that I didn't quite have on my best of 2011 tracks but that I still really enjoyed at the end of the year; ALONG WITH, a set of tunes that represents artists to watch for 2012. These sets are not mutually exclusive, of course.

I could try to explain this in greater detail, but that would cause great pain. Let's not linger, shall we. Let's just take it in. More importantly, let's just listen and render critical, vitriolic judgement. In other words, let's have fun the modern way!

Here are your first cuts for 2012. Be sure to tell all your friends quickly about these tracks so you aren't (aghast!) second in the new year (i.e., irrelevant).

Artist	Track
Breton Coves	Edward the Confessor No Ladder
Destroyer	Leave Me Alone (New Order cover)
Evening Hymns	Asleep in the Pews
FIDLAR	Wake Bake Skate
First Aid Kit	The Lion's Roar
Friends	I'm His Girl
Grimes King Krule	Genesis Portrat in Black and Blue
Lana del Rey Little Jungles	National Anthem Nothing Will Grow
Michael Kiwanuka	I Need Your Company
Michael Kiwanuka	I'm Getting Ready
Nerves Junior	As Bright As Your Night Light
Nick Waterhouse	Is That Clear
Polica	Wandering Star
Southern Shores	Meridian
Stone Darling	Can You Get to That (Funkadelic)
The Coasts	Handshakers
The Coasts	Poltergeist
The Weeknd	Montreal
Tycho	Coastal Brake
Tycho	Dive
Tycho	Hours
Yukon Blonde	Choices

Arthur Beatrice -- What We Hoped to Achieve

What We Hoped To Achieve (Recorded Live at Flesh + Bone) from ululation on Vimeo.



The Peach Kings -- Thieves and Kings





Evening Hymns -- La Blogotheque Take Away Show


Evening Hymns | A Take Away Show | Presented By La Blogotheque, NxNE, SxSW and ASTW from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.



Gotye -- Making Mirrors album stream

Gotye - Making Mirrors by Gotye

Shin's Release First Single from New Album Port of Morrow

I have never been an immense Shin's fan, but I can't say that I don't get it. I dabble in their catalogue from time to time and do find a good deal to enjoy. It's just often too subtle for me most of the time ... I suppose ... which is likely an excuse so I can say obnoxious things like, "Im past the Shins."

It's been roughly 5 years since we last heard a proper album material from the band. That is an eternity in this interweb jungle. And things do change ... and change fast .... I understand that this is not the same Shins. The present manifestation is James Mercer plus a set of new Shins. It still certainly sounds like Mercer and the Shins, nevertheless.

Stream the new single Simple Song here. Yep, it's jangly and has some hipstery crooning, as we expect. But, this track is more "riffy" and is filled with more than "electronic" pump than some of their previous material. Methinks this is an arena-fication of the Shin's sound. Got to make the folks in the back row happy.

 Simple Song by theshins

The War on Drugs Don't Fear the Ghost

On the heels of the excellent (and Best of 2011 album) Slave Ambient, the War on Drugs deliver a new track entitled Don't Fear the Ghost. Stream here.

It will be released officially as the B-side on the Come to the City single.




Catch the War on Drugs on Fallon tonight (Jan 10, 2012)!

The Least Definitive List of the 25 Best Tracks of 2011

Let's not pretend with each other. You and I both know that we share the same opinion about end of the year lists. We consider them extremely self-indulgent and sometimes outright obnoxious. Yet, we still look. It's the car-wreck, reality-TV, Kardashian moment of indie music blogging, the biggest instance among other narcissistic feats of glory. And, oh, how you hate that pretentious blogger for that definitive list ... and you still can't turn away until you've had a chance to determine that he/she is in fact a prattling moron on the other end of the interwebs. You think, "Yeah ,I guess so. I did like that track. Ha! But that idiot totally left out the killer track by [ ]. What a freaking joke!"

Here we are, dear reader, at an impasse. I have my list on one side of the e-clouds, and you have your universal, pre-disposed, predilection for rolling your electronic eye on the other side. So, let's get on with it. Let's just own the shit out of it while we do this.

Praise be to egomania! Here's my list of my 25 favorite tracks (alpha by band name). Suck it! Read it! Then, tear it a new one.

Artist	Track
Apache Relay	Home Is Not Places
Blackbird Blackbird	Overboard
Destroyer	Chinatown
Dreamers of the Ghetto	Tether
Dum Dum Girls	Coming Down
Elbow	With Love
Generationals	Ten-Twenty-Ten
Girls	Lawrence
Hooray for Earth	No Love
Leisure	Green Light
Little Dragon	Ritual Union
Not in the Face	Downtown Girl
Sun Wizard	World’s Got a Handle
The Antlers	I Don’t Want Love
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart	Belong
The War on Drugs	Come to the City (or Brothers .. I cant decide)
tUnEYarDs	Powa
Typhoon	Summer Home
U.S. Royalty	Equestrian
Washed Out	Call It Off
WU LYF	We Bros
Wye Oak	The Alter
Yellow Ostrich	Mary

And a few honorable mentions .....

Artist	Track
Clock Opera	Belongings
Cults	Oh My God
Gotye	Somebody That I Used to Know
I Break Horses	Winter Beats
M83	Steve McQueen
Pure X	Dry Ice
Ringo Deathstarr	Imagine Hearts
Summer Camp	Better Off Without You
The Naked and Famous	Young Blood
Tin Sparrow	From the Boat