2012 favorites

fave albums of (or 2011 releases discovered in) 2012
loosely ordered, except for Mr. M, which is #1 & which I will assign 30 of my 100 points for in Pazz & Jop because Kurt Wagner should get all the money.

see also: 91 mp3s for holiday space-chooglin’ (my 2012 year-end mix, 620 MB, .zip)

Lambchop, Mr. M (Merge)
Aaron Freeman, Marvelous Clouds (Partisan)
Tall Firs, Out of It & Into It (All Tomorrow’s Parties)
Grass Widow, Internal Logic (HLR)
Man Forever, Pansophical Cataract (Thrill Jockey)
Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas (Columbia)
Jack White, Blunderbuss (Third Man)
Dustin Wong, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads (Thrill Jockey)
Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)
Glenn Jones, The Wanting (Thrill Jockey)
Swans, The Seer (Young God)
Flower/Corsano/Hejnowski, The Count Visits (Hot Cars Warp/Flowerhouse)
Cate Le Bon, Cyrk (The Control Group)
Bee Mask, When We Were Eating Unripe Pears (Editions Mego)
Glacial, On Jones Beach (Three Lobed)
Little Black Egg, Buzzard’s Bed (Egon)
Talibam! & Sam Kulik, Discover AtlantASS (Belly Kids)
The Beach Boys, That’s Why God Made the Radio (Capitol)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill (Reprise)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Arc 2012 (no label)
Sun Araw & M. Geddes Gengras Meet The Congos – Icon Give Thank (RVNG)
Akron, Voyage of Exploration (Vampisoul)
The Mad Scene, Blip (Siltbreeze)
Woods, Bend Beyond (Woodsist)
Yair Yona, World Behind Curtains (Strange Attractors)
Tyvek, On Triple Beams (Into the Red)
Lee Ranaldo, Between the Times and the Tides (Matador)
Josephine Foster, Blood Rushing (Fire)
Tom Lawrence, Water Beetles of Pollardstown Fen (Greuenrekorder)
Six Organs of Admittance, Ascent (Drag City)
Chris Watson, El Tren Fantasma (Touch)
Chris Corsano, Cuts (Hot Cars Warp)
People of the North, Steep Formations (Brah)
Sonny Smith, 100 Records, volume 3 (Polyvinyl)
The Men, Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones)
Francisco Lopez & Zan Hoffman, Concert For 300 Magnetic Tapes cassette (The Tapeworm)

reissues
not ordered at all

Karen Dalton, 1966 (Delmore)
Taj Mahal Travelers, Live at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, 1st July 1971 (Klimst)
The Trypes, Music For Neighbors (Acute)
Francis Bebey, African Electronic Music, 1975-1982 (Born Bad)
v/a, Soft Sounds For Gentle People, vol. 3 (no label)
v/a, Personal Space: Electronic Soul, 1974-1984 (Chocolate)
Grateful Dead, Dark Star (Rhino)
Lee Hazlewood, The LHI Years (Light In the Attic)
The Flatlanders, The Odessa Tapes (New West)
Conrad Schnitzler, Live ‘72 (Further)
Toy Love, Live at the Gluepot 1980 (Goner)
Sonic Youth, Smart Bar 1985 (Goofin’)
v/a, Break the Tabs & Check the Dolby B (Dan Bodah 2012 WFMU Marathon Premium) (no label)

unattached songs, singles, etc.:
Bourgeois Blues 7-inch – Zea & Xavier Charles (Makkum)
“Star Spangled Banner” 7-inch – Bill Orcutt (Pallilalia)
“Genene” – Aaron Freeman (via Soundcloud)
Life-Size Cut-Out 7-inch – Harpoon Forever (Bleeding Gold)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Robert Wilkinson (via YouTube)
“Put the Suck On You” – Dew Claw
“NYC Tonight” 12-inch – Dump (Zelone)
“Never Learn Not To Love” – The New Surfsiders (Norton)
“Jon Counts To 100,000” – Jon (via YouTube)
“Mitt Romney, A Hero In My Mind” – William Tapley (via YouTube)

older stuff, recently found:
Neil Young, The Complete Bernstein Tapes (no label)
Neil Young, Sad Movies (no label)
Tyvek, Nothing Fits (In The Red)
Tyvek, Fast Metabolism CD-R (no label)
The Willies, Peanut Gallery, 24 April 1983 (no label)
Eve, Take It & Smile (LHI)
v/a, Everybody Rude Now (no label)
Bingo Trappers, Solar Holiday (no label)
v/a, Soft Sounds For Gentle People, vol. 1 (no label)
Dave Weckerman, “Shore Leave” b/w “Out of Baby’s Reach” (Yellow Fear)
The Mattoid, Glory Holy EP (Infinity Cat)
Alastair Galbraith, Orb (Next Best Way)

shows:
Akron/Family, 285 Kent, January 21st
Yung Wu, Maxwell’s, February 18th
Rhys Chatham & Oneida, Merkin Concert Hall, March 17th
Lambchop/Yo La Tengo, LPR, April 19th
Chris Corsano, the Stone, May 3rd
Oneida, 285 Kent, May 12th
The Beach Boys, Beacon Theater, May 9th
Hopscotch Festival, September 6th-8th
Arborea house show, Portland, ME, October 27th
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Madison Square Garden, November 27th
Yo La Tengo with The Feelies, Maxwell’s, December 10th
Yo La Tengo with Andrew Bird, Jon Glaser & Jon Benjamin, Maxwell’s, December 14th

other:
Radio Unnameable documentary
Fake It So Real documentary
Delocated, season 3
Experience Music Project Pop Music Conference, NYU, 3/22-3/25
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Fear of Music by Jonathan Lethem
Still On the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006 by Clinton Heylin
The One by R.J. Smith
Psychedelia by Patrick Lundborg
the 33 games started by R.A. Dickey