Posted on January 1st, 2010 by ekko
Wherein I continue in the largely unthanked task of telling you all to go away and read someone else’s blogs . . .
1. Pat Boone covers Guns N Roses. Nuff said.
2. Indie Shuffle has waaay more indiestreetcred than I do. They picked their top 10 most important rappers of the decade and included Aesop Rock, Mos Def, and Talib. It’s a solid, if unsurprising, list for an indie blog. My list is here, just so you can tell me how stupid I am. (It is so painful putting my feelings and opinions on the line every day, just to have you all -sniff sniff- reject me with bad grammar and BIG CAPITAL LETTERS.)
3. And speaking of best of lists, I usually respect Passion of the Weiss–he’s a great writer and has good taste–but Cuban Linx 2 as the best album of the year? I mean, it was solid and all, but it was also a lot of reheated Cuban Links 1 stuff. Anyhoo, if you go to his page he’s got mp3 samples and a full album download of Danny!’s mixtape, which a lot of people liked a lot. I dug it, but not as much as everyone else. If you visit the site, or any site on this page, please do me a favor and tell them I sent you.
4. And speaking of Talib and Mos, check out Hi-Tek and Talib’s New Year’s mixtape by Statik Selektah. It’s got stuff by the two of them, plus Jay Electronica, J. Cole (tremendous new talen), Termanology, Royce Da 5’9, Styles P., Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Jay-Z, and many more.
Taste it:
Get By RMX ft Mos Def, Jay-Z, Kanye West & Busta (produced by Kanye).
Fortified Live-Mos Def and Mr. Man
Get it here.
5. Another blogger fave of mine, who has become all-too intermittent of late, is Fong. Check out his favorite covers and worst movies of the decade. Cover Me also has posted their favorite covers of the year.
6. And Retromusicsnob is always a place to go for great referrals. Check it out this year!
7. Oh, and I had to throw in this quiz: How Many Baboons Could You Take In a Fight Using a Giant Dildo?
Tags: Best of 2009, Best of the Decade, Go away, Hip Hop, Mixtape
Does Athens, Georgia, ever get exhausted? I mean, it seems like they’re spawning a new great indie band every year. And this year might just be the year that Nana Grizol breaks through. Like many Athens bands, their sound is ornate yet relatively simple, melodic indie rock and roll with an emphasis on skilled musicianship and songcraft. And they throw in horn-section emphasis now and again, which is pretty cool. It’s been available digitally for a while now, but the hard release is 1/12/10. Orange Twin Records.
