The Life and Times and Amazing Adventures of DJ Bunny Ears.

So it's finally here, my Top 100 Albums of 2011 list. And yes it's very late, but I have a very legitimate excuse - I had a baby boy a few months ago. Which brings me to my next point, that I would like to dedicate this list to my son, Emmett James. Since my wife was pregnant with him a large part of the year, Emmett essentially listened to many of these records with me, many times. And so to you, Emmett, I love you more astoundingly than I could have ever imagined. I have a feeling that you may someday makes lists like these, like your papa. 

DJ Bunny Ears’ Top Albums of 2011

1. Bon Iver Bon Iver
2. James Blake James Blake
3. Bill Callahan Apocalypse
4. The Caretaker An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
5. Destroyer Kaputt
6. Atlas Sound Parallax
7. Peaking Lights 936
8. M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
9. tUnE-yArDs WHOKILL
10. John Maus We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
11. DRC Music Kinshasa One Two
12. Eleanor Friedberger Last Summer
13. Jóhann Jóhannsson The Miner’s Hymns
14. Youth Lagoon The Year Of Hibernation
15. Andy Stott Passed Me By/We Stay Together
16. Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch The Throne
17. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Wolfroy Goes To Town
18. Shabazz Palaces Black Up
19. Metronomy The English Riviera
20. Radiohead The King Of Limbs
21. Dirty Beaches Badlands
22. Onra Chinoiseries, Pt. 2
23. Hanni El Khatib Will The Guns Come Out
24. Bahamas Pink Strat
25. The Weeknd House Of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes Of Silence
26. Tim Hecker Ravedeath ,1972
27. Blues Control & Laraaji FRKWYS Vol. 8
28. Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx We’re New Here
29. Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
30. Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise
31. Real Estate Days
32. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
33. Blood Orange Coastal Grooves
34. Panda Bear Tomboy
35. Crystal Stilts In Love With Oblivion
36. Omar Souleyman Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts
37. Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure
38. Hauschka Salon Des Amateurs
39. Iron & Wine Kiss Each Other Clean
40. Moon Duo Mazes
41. A Winged Victory For The Sullen A Winged Victory For The Sullen
42. Hatchback Zeus & Apollo
43. High Places Original Colors
44. Thundercat Golden Age Of The Apocalypse
45. PJ Harvey Let England Shake
46. Zomby Dedication
47. Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra
48. The Black Keys El Camino
49. Charles Bradley No Time For Dreaming
50. Adele 21
51. Joseph Arthur The Graduation Ceremony
52. Demdike Stare Tryptych
53. Beirut The Rip Tide
54. Battles Gloss Drop
55. Dominant Legs Invitation
56. James Pants James Pants
57. Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine
58. About Group Start & Complete
59. Adventure Lesser Known
60. Widowspeak Widowspeak
61. Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes
62. Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow
63. Yelawolf Radioactive
64. Cults Cults
65. TV On The Radio Nine Types Of Light
66. Washed Out Within And Without
67. Cold Cave Cherish The Light Years
68. Cass McCombs Wit’s End
69. Drake Take Care
70. Future Islands On The Water
71. I Break Horses Hearts
72. Tyler, The Creator Goblin
73. Bjork Biophilia
74. The War On Drugs Slave Ambient
75. Wolves In The Throne Room Celestial Lineage
76. Tom Waits Bad As Me
77. Idiot Glee Paddywhack
78. Laura Marling A Creature I Don’t Know
79. Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost
80. The Sea And Cake The Moonlight Butterfly
81. Danny Brown XXX
82. My Morning Jacket Circuital
83. Kate Bush Director’s Cut
84. Ty Segall Goodbye Bread
85. Cut Copy Zonoscope
86. Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact
87. The Roots Undun
88. Oneohtrix Point Never Replica
89. Pictureplane Thee Physical
90. Wild Flag Wild Flag
91. Wilco The Whole Love
92. The Dodos No Color
93. Cave Neverendless
94. Balam Acab Wander/Wonder
95. Theophilus London Timez Are Weird These Days
96. St. Vincent Strange Mercy
97. Class Actress Rapprocher
98. Wild Beasts Smother
99. EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
100. Feist Metals

 

Honorable Mentions

• Beans End It All
• Com Truise Galactic Melt
• Cornershop Cornershop And The Double-O Groove Of
• Withered Hand Good News
• Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde
• The Go! Team Rolling Blackouts
• Netherfriends Barry And Sherry
• Anika Anika
• Belong Common Era
• Clams Casino Instrumentals
• Grouplove Never Trust A Happy Song
• Friends I’m His Girl
• Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See
• Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin’
• Das Rascist Relax
• Wavves Life Sux EP
• Soft Metals Soft Metals
• Yuck Yuck
• SBTRKT SBTRKT
• Modeselektor Monkeytown
• Dum Dum Girls Only In Dreams
• The Drums Portamento
• Mates Of State Mountaintops
• Holy Ghost! Holy Ghost!
• The Joy Formidable The Big Roar
• Portugal. The Man In The Mountain, In The Cloud
• Fucked Up David Comes To Life
• Goyte Making Mirrors
• The Kills Blood Pressures
• White Denim D
• Little Dragon Ritual Union 
• Iceage New Brigade
• Wire Red Barked Tree
• Zola Jesus Conatus
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Hysterical
• Black Lips Arabia Mountain
• Deer Tick Divine Providence
• The Decemberists The King Is Dead
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. It’s A Corporate World
• Middle Brother Middle Brother
• Sandro Perri Impossible Spaces
• Gary Clark Jr. The Bright Lights EP
• Motopony Motopony
• Bachelorette Bachelorette
• Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest
• Moby Destroyed
• Paul Simon So Beautiful Or So What
• Veronica Falls Veronica Falls

 

Compilations, Reissues & Soundtracks

• MGMT Late Night Tales
• Cliff Martinez Drive (Original Soundtrack)
• V/A Those Shocking, Shaking Days
• V/A True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax, Vols. 1 & 2
• Talk Talk Laughing Stock
• Mark Hollis Mark Hollis
• The Beach Boys The Smile Sessions
• Willie Wright Telling The Truth
• Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry The Return Of Pipecock Jackson
• V/A This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel on 45RPM 1957 – 1982
• L’Orchestre Kanaga De Mopti Kanaga De Mopti
• Georges Brassens Gare Au Gorille
• El Rego El Rego
• Madlib Madlib Medicine Show – All Volumes
• Lijadu Sisters Danger
• V/A Thai Funk Vol. 1 & 2
• And every Mississippi Records release this past year, see:
• http://littleaxerecords.com/
• http://www.discogs.com/label/Mississippi%20Records

Been in the real thick of it with work for the last few weeks, so I haven't much time to listen to music or post, but when I have had some time, I've mostly been listening to all the recent Mississippi Records releases, as well as this lovely Brooklyn band, Widowspeak.
Check out the first track of their new eponymous album on Captured Tracks:

http://widowspeak.bandcamp.com/
http://capturedtracks.com/

I'd stumbled across this great music blog recently and just wanted to share it with ya'll.
http://ghostcapital.blogspot.com/
Super interesting selection of music to check out.
Makes me really happy.
Have a rad weekend everyone.

Met these guys down in Austin in an alley behind the venue where the Carpark showcase was taking place.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see them play that night, which is a bummer, not only because I have a soft-spot for fellow midwesterners (they're from Chicago, me, Milwaukee) but because the more I listen to the promo of this album, I wished I would've seen them then before they get too big, which could be a likely scenario, given the quality of this release.
Look for it out on Carpark in June.
Also to note, I wanted to post the second song (Oh, Ivory!) but after doing some nosing around on the web, I saw that it hadn't been posted/leaked yet and so I didn't feel right letting that one out yet, in respect of the band and label.
So in the meantime, give a gander to this track, the first song on the record and one I also dig.

Also, don't forget to go out and support your local independent record stores on Saturday.
It's Record Store Day!
Lots of rad exclusives and in-store performances.
Check local listings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/16/independent-music-stores-musician...

http://www.myspace.com/lightpollution

Other Music in New York is one of three in the world all tied for first place for best record store.
The other two are Mississippi Records in Portland and Honest Jons in London.
Every time I go into any one of them, I am overjoyed and feel like a little kid in complete wonderment.
And at Other Music, I'm lucky enough to know my friend, Daniel Givens, who every time I see him, turns me onto something new.
Recently it was the album "Catholic" from Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras.
And now it's my honor to turn you onto it, via their rad cover of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man":

Read about the album here:
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=6740

http://macro-rec.com/
http://www.honestjons.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Records

Got a really great batch of music today.
Especially super excited that I got to pick up the most recent Mississippi Records releases,
as it's tough now that I don't live in Portland any longer.
I always pick of multiple copies to give to friends.
 
Really digging this album too:

Support local music.
Support great music.
Support independent music.
Make new friends.
Support old friends.
 
http://www.othermusic.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Records

http://www.myspace.com/thetallestmanonearth