I dragged my feet on getting the countdown out this year.  The contributions so far have been fairly slim.  I know you all listen to music.  I know you all have your favorites.  So let’s hear them.
It’s the day before Christmas and I’ve sat down to spend the next 48 hours watching screeners.  If you guys are good and get your lists in, I’ll loan them to you.  You know you want to watch the Hobbit in the comfort of your own home.  So, get shaking.
Here the Best Albums of 2012 (23-33):
23.  Minus The Bear – Infinity Overhead 24.  Bob Dylan – Tempest  25.  Soundgarden – King Animal26.  The Killers – Battle Born (Bonus Track)27.  Conor Oberst – One Of My Kind 28.  Macklemore and Ryan – The Heist29.  Zedd – Clarity30.  G.O.O.D. Music – Cruel Summer 31.  Green Day – Uno/Dos/Tre (Bonus Track)32.  Cooly G – Playing Me 33.  Big Boi – Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
Buy these albums and a lot more…now!!

If you haven’t voted for the best album of the year…do it now!  Right now.

Put your twenty favorite albums in the comment section.

I’ve been playing around with the new Myspace this week.  I’m making some playlists so when all my readers join, you can link to me and I’ll have my daily lists available to listen.  Could be very exciting.  More to come on that.  right now…it’s time to vote.

Here are the Best Albums of 2012 (34-44):

34.  Action Bronson – Blue Chips (download for free)

35.  Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

36.  Alt-J – An Awesome Wave

37.  Burial – Kindred/One Two

38.  Ben Gibbard – Former Lives

39.  The Cribs – In the Belly of the Brazen Bull

40.  Joey Bada$$ – 1999 (download for free)

41.  Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames – New Multitudes (Bonus Track)

42.  Garbage – Not Your Kind of People

43.  Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls

44.  Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory

Buy these albums and more!

Here it is.  My countdown of my favorite albums of 2012.  Though it’s not a surprising #1 choice…my number one surprises me…because I don’t love the album.  Anyway, you’ll have to wait to see what that is…until then…it’s time for your input.

Every year I ask you, my readers, to give me your twenty best/favorite albums.  The only rule…the album has to have been released in 2012.  That’s it.

You don’t need 20…if you only have 10…5…or even if you only like one release…that’s fine!  Just post your top picks in the comment section.  Or email me.  And I’ll add them all together and post the tally on January 1st (roughly).  Last year we had over 200 people vote…let’s see if you we can top that this year.

The Best Albums of 2012 (45-55):

45.  Trust – TRST

46.  Calvin Harris – 18 Months

47.  Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten (Bonus Track)

48.  Mumford And Sons – Babel

49.  Rival Sons – Head Down

50.  Father John Misty – Fear Fun

51.  Fun. – Some Nights

52.  Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas

53.  Pinback – Information Retrieved

54.  Metric – Synthetica

55.   EL-P – Cancer For Cure

Buy Theses albums and more now!!

I wanted to discuss the new Myspace, which I have spent the week playing with and obsessing about.  It’s pretty cool…and there’s much about it I want to bring up…but there was a big event last night that is more topical…since the new Myspace is still in very beta form and hard to get onto.

Last night, we came as close as we ever will come to a Nirvana reunion.  Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, and Krist Novoselic jammed with Paul McCartney at the 12-12-12 relief concert.  For some reason this caused a huge uproar among Nirvana fans and music fans alike.  And honestly, this uproar needs to be addressed.

First of all, people were pissed that it was Paul McCartney.  Many said they’d be okay if it was John Lennon, if he was still alive.  That’s the worst exception ever.  Yeah, that would be cool.  But you know who would be cooler?  Kurt Cobain.  But they’re both dead.  So shut the hell up.  That’s not an option.  It’s Paul McCartney, the greatest living rock and roll legend out there.  It doesn’t get bigger.  If you’re going to pick anyone to fill Kurt’s shoes…starting at the top is not a bad way to go.

Second of all, it was not a Nirvana reunion.  It was the remaining members of Nirvana jamming with Paul McCartney on a new song.  It was not billed as a Nirvana reunion, it was not sold as Nirvana, it was a bunch of quality musicians rocking out together.

Third of all, Kurt’s dead.  It fucking sucks.  But why does that mean that Dave, Pat and Krist should never play together again?  They’re friends and they have great musical chemistry. They’re not touring, recording or performing as Nirvana…they’re just having fun.  Which they should.  Let’s let them do what they do best.  You know who else hated the Paul Mac performance?  Courtney Love.  and if she thought it sucked…then it has to be good.

Lastly, and most importantly, the song was fucking awesome.  It was with exception to Blackbird…the best song of Paul’s set…and possibly the best performances of the night…better than the Rolling Stones, The Who, Roger Waters and Eddie Vedder, Billy Joel and even Bruce himself.  At the end of the day, does it matter if the original members are together making music…as long as the music being made kicks ass?

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Big Boi (solo):

1. Flip Flop Rock (Speakerboxxx)
2. Turns Me On (Sir Lucious Left Foot)
3. The Way You Move (Speakerboxxx)
4. Ghetto Musick (Speakerboxxx)
5. Knowing (Speakerboxxx)
6. Daddy Fat Sax (Sir Lucious Left Foot)
7. Shine Blockas (Sir Lucious Left Foot)
8. The Rooster (Speakerboxxx)
9. Bowtie (Speakerboxxx)
10. Back Up Plan (Sir Lucious Left Foot)
11. Follow Us (Sir Lucious Left Foot)

This is something I never do.  I never include new songs from new releases in my lists.  But Green Day has done something this year that has never been done either…so if they can break the rules, then so can I.  Granted I’m breaking a rule I’ve self-imposed upon myself and the only one I have to answer to is me…but let’s not think about that.

I’ve been going through my old Rolling Stones magazines for a project I’m working on.  I have twenty years of Rolling Stones.  And I’ve kept all of them.  Reading old stories about bands in retrospect has some incredible insight about what music we thought had potential…and what truly did.  From reading articles about breaking artists like Amy Winehouse, The Killers, and Arcade Fire to interviews with a rising young Senator named Barack Obama, who swears he will not be running for President in 2008.  The names of the past like Amy Grant and Chris Whitley.  Or how Green Day is talked about like they are a passing fad while Candlebox is the air apparent to Led Zeppelin’s throne.  Truer words have never been spoken.

The 11 Best Songs By Green Day of the Teens:

1. Kill the DJ (Uno!)
2. Lazy Bones (Dos!)
3. Stay The Night (Uno!)
4. Let Yourself Go (Uno!)
5. Ashley (Dos!)
6. Sex, Drugs and Violence (Tre!)
7. Nuclear Family (Uno!)
8. Stray Heart (Dos!)
9. 99 Revolutions (Tre!)
10. Dirty Rotten Bastards (Tre!)
11. Nightlife (Dos!)

For years Black Friday has been the day for Christmas shopping.  I never get everything I want or need on that day but I usually end up getting a good start on where I need to be.  Oddly, I usually buy more things for myself on Black Friday than I do for others.  When it comes to buying things for myself, I’m actually really good at it.  For the past couple of years, another event has compounded Black Friday into an uber event that only further rips my wallet and bank account to shreds:  Record Store Day.  Combining the two events for me is like relocating Disneyland to the strip in Las Vegas while handing out free ecstasy tabs and buckets of $50 gambling chips.  Too many choices.  BluRay players for $50 or Velvet Underground Acetate?  $3 jackets or White Stripes 45-inches?  It’s not fair.

I picked up 11 releases.  Three of them…I didn’t even go into the store having any interest in…but when I was there in the moment, I bought a Wanda Jackson rarities disc…and I freaking love it.  I want to take Wanda Jackson out to a nice dinner with wine and tiramisu.  It was an impulse buy.  I feel in love with the album cover and the smile on Jackson’s face.  That kind of love of music doesn’t exist anymore.  It’s more important to be popular than to be good.  No longer can you just be a fan of the art form and take a chance on a 6-song EP of demos and outtakes for $16 and be absolutely infatuated.  This is what makes me a fan.  Standing in line for hours to buy something I didn’t even know I wanted…that makes me a fan.  Sitting in front of a record player flipping over records after one song…that makes me a fan.  Sitting by the TV waiting to see what new outfit Justin Bieber wore to PF Chang’s…makes me want to shoot my eyes out.

Record Store Day continues on.  The lines keep getting longer.  The releases keep getting better.  And the record industry keeps blaming internet downloading for ruining their industry.  Weird.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Crystal Castles:

1. Not In Love w/ Robert Smith (II – Big Day Out Deluxe Version)
2. Vanished (Crystal Castles)
3. Celestica (II)
4. Crimewave (Crystal Castles)
5. Lovers Who Uncover w/ the Little Ones (Lovers Who Come Over)
6. Suffocation (II)
7. Untrust Us (Crystal Castles)
8. Year of Silence (II)
9. Pap Smear (II)
10. Knights (Crystal Castles)
11. Violent Dreams (II)

Green Day came out at a time when rock ruled the planet.  Decades ago.  The fact that they’ve hung around despite the pop and schlock is comforting…but it’s not the same.  If music is cyclical, then we’re right around the time of the early 80s.  The Guettas, Harrises, and Skrillexes are the Human League, Soft Cell, and Kajagoogoo of this decade.  Loosely speaking.  Rock still exists…only in the garages of your best friend’s crystal meth dealer.  You can only discover it if you’re in the right place at the right time.  Or if you have unlimited time to surf the internet.  Like the mainstream music in the 80s, everything had to have a keyboard or sax solo.  Today…it’s not much different.  Right, M83?

Rock will return.  And soon.  The music cycle changes about every four years. People get bored and burnt out on what’s popular and demand something new.  They want something that will smash what’s popular.  Pop, hip-hop, emo, and EDM have all had their turn…it’s fairly obvious that rock is next line.  And when it does return…and it dominates, yet again…everyone who had ditched it for day-glo bracelets will pretend like they had been fans all along.  All we need is someone to kill the DJ.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Green Day of the 90s:

1. Basket Case (Dookie)
2. Scattered (Nimrod)
3. One of My Lies (Kerplunk!)
4. Hitchin A Ride (Nimrod)
5. She (Dookie)
6. Burnout (Dookie)
7. Uptight (Nimrod)
8. Going To Pasalacqua (39/Smooth)
9. Who wrote Holden Caulfield? (Kerplunk!)
10. Christie Road (Kerplunk!)
11. Welcome to Paradise (Kerplunk!/Dookie)

It’s been three years since our last Pearl Jam album, but that hasn’t stopped the members from keeping productive.  This year alone…there have been three side projects put out by the members of Pearl Jam.  Earlier this year we had a new Brad album, .  And just in the past month, there are two new side projects.  The first is by Jeff Ament and Joseph Arthur, called RNDM.  The second group…which is actually truly random…features Duff McKagan and Mike McCready, called Walking Papers.  Two decades ago, Duff and Mike represented two different worlds of popular music.  Duff was in one of the most heralded group of 80s heavy metal with Guns N Roses, while McCready and Pearl Jam were on the front lines of the alternative music that pretty much decimated 80s metal from mainstream.  Now, they are equals…both trying to stay relevant.  With both groups are perfect examples of whether musicians can be great on their own or they are really stronger as the sum of all parts.  RNDM tries to pull on the sound and style of the old Pearl Jam days…while Walking Papers tosses all that out the door, trying to establish their own sound.  Walking Papers have more in common with Phish or Rusted Root then they do with any of their previous bands. What do you think?

Here are the 11 Best Side Project Albums by Pearl Jam Members:

1. Brad – Shame (1993)
2. Mad Season – Above (1995)
3. Brad – Interiors (1997)
4. Eddie Vedder – Into The Wild (2007)
5. The Rockfords – The Rockfords (2000)
6. Jeff Ament – Tone (2008)
7. Brad – Welcome to Discovery Park (2002)
8. Eddie Vedder – Ukulele Songs (2011)
9. Tres Mts. – Three Moutains (2011)
10. Three Fish – The Quiet Table (1996)
11. Stone Gossard – Bayleaf (2001)