Nesto's Top 14 Albums from 2018

1. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Darker Days 

If you're feeling contemplative but want some pop, its PBJ's Darker days.

2. Sure Sure - Sure Sure

Stumbled on this album while searching for Talking Heads covers. That's one way to get your name out there!

3. Paul Cauthen - Have Mercy   

Minutes away from a full length album, so it counts! Have mercy!

4. The Bones of J.R. Jones - Ones of Keep Close 

A one stop shop for a some good shot poundin' and knee slappin' jams.

5. The Vaccines - Combat Rock 

I'm glad somewhere out there in the wide world, Brits are still making music like this.

6. Kurt Vile - Bottle In It

Let's road trip through America with Kurt Vile as our tour guide.

7. Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats - Tearing At The Seams       

  

Advice: If you visit Denver and say anything negative about NR, be prepared to get a beer thrown at you or have a dog piss on your leg.

8. Django Django - Marble Skies              

When someone figures it out, let me know what's going on with these guys please.

9. Andrés Calamaro - Cargar La Suerte  

Argentine rock is not dead... just aging!

10. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Something Else      

Somehow these guys slipped into the rotation, again. I guess I'm too predictable.

11. Chemtrails - Calf of the Sacred Cow

12. Belle & Sebastian - How to Solve our Human Problems       

  

13. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Wrong Creatures        

14. Dawes - Passwords 

Nesto’s Favorite Albums from 2016

1. Islands - Taste   

                          

2. Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack 

      

On heavy rotation.         

3. Kishi Bashi - Sonderlust          

Everybody wants a honeybody someday.        

     

4. The Dandy Warhols - Distortland     

   

Dandy's still rule, ok?     

5. Miike Snow - iii           

More i's please!

6. Lost Dawn - Fever

     

For those about to rock, we salute you. 

7. Radical Face - The Family Tree: The Leaves    

A second "d" is optional.              

8. Paul Cauthen - My Gospel     

Is most listened to in Houston, Stockholm, Manhattan, and Austin. Win.

9. The Lumineers - Cleopatra                     

10. Augustines - This is Your Life              

An appropriate finale scene.      

11. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Breakin' Point      

    

*umlaut              

12. Blind Pilot - And Then Like Lions        

               

13. Steve Mason - Meet the Humans

War Machine's 2009 Summer 5

I just got 95% of the way through this post only to accidentally lose it, so I'm going to begrudgingly try it again. It's going to be shorter this time, though.

Apologies for not embedding the video. Keep up the good work, those that do, it makes it so much easier to decide for myself when I can just click a button and listen. I'd do it too, but I don't know how. Links will have to suffice. [Update: videos added]

"Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit

Passion Pit is on every one's list this summer, so no new ground here. But this song is a standard deviation better than every other song on the album, and there are some other great ones. Video rocks too.

Here's a thought. Most of us have heard the story where Michael Angelakos, who was not in any band at the time, made a Valentines Day CD of six songs for his college girlfriend. (Not a shitty mixtape, mind you, his songs.) The songs got passed around campus, picked up locally, they turned it into an EP and formed a band and turned the EP into an album and here we are. Sleepyhead, as I understand it, was on that first CD. Here's my question, did that song on the CD sound like the song as I hear it on "Manners?" Because if it did...holy shit! Can you imagine being that girl? Or even, being the dorm room roommate of that girl? I suspect, on that particular Valentines Day, there wasn't a whole lot of sleepy, but a hell of a lot of...well you get it.

I'm just saying she owed him. Big time.



"Nothing to Worry About" - Peter, Bjorn and John

This song is a little long in the tooth but I just discovered it. It makes me want to dance until my ass falls off...or until two minutes and 58 seconds are over. Whichever comes first.

I've got to get me to Sweden at some point. There's too much coming out of there right now that I love...except for the IKEA tool. I hate the IKEA tool.



"Arlington. The Rap."

You don't really have to have lived in Arlington, VA to understand this. It makes it funnier, but it's not required. Could have just as easily been Annaheim or Schaumburg. Except for the Green Line joke.

I can't believe I lived there for 5 years. Sigh.



"Gifted" - N.A.S.A. (Featuring Kanye West, Santogold and Lykke Li)

Look at that lineup. Do I have to even explain why the song is awesome? The best part is, it is awesome, as opposed to, say, "The Best of Both Worlds."Decidedly not awesome.



"My Girls" - Animal Collective

This is as catchy an Animal Collective song as I am aware of. And I love catchy. The album is pretty great too. Very accessible, which means I can like it. Close runner-up is the Camera Obscura song French Navy, another great song off an album I'm loving.

They Live By Night - They Live By Night (2009)

Don't be shocked if you can't get They Live By Night's "Ctrl+Alt+Del My Heart" out of your head. As far as I am concerned it has unseated Peter, Bjorn and John's "Young Folks" as indie pop's reigning whistling ear worm. It's the standout track on their poptastic new self-titled album, which is jam packed with unrelenting bouncy, upbeat pop. Not surprisingly, it's catchy as hell. "Catching Up" kicks the album off at a runners pace with more whistles, strings and wistful love. It rarely lets down after that. "Meaningless Repair" finds the middle ground between the Spinners and the Beach Boys. There are a lot of opportunities for singing along, but the chorus on "Excuse My Troubling You" is one of my favorites. The moody and melancholy may want to go elsewhere for their summer jams.