Sing Your Heart Out: 2011

Let's get away from death for a moment. Like, for a LONG moment.

I am never more alive than when I'm listening to music. The other night in the car, "The One I Love" came on a very random station and I very un-randomly started belting "FIE-YAAAAAAARRR" at the top of my sometimes random lungs. To those of you who live in New York: you forget how much fun it is to belt a song at the top of your lungs in the car. (When that song you love comes on randomly on your iPod on the 1 train? Try singing along with Michael Stipe and see what happens. Probably something like this.) I drove the entire way to Akron on my own last month practicing this very special type of yogic ululating. It was the most cathartic drive I've experienced in a long, long time. And the truckers thought I was CRAZY.

It was an uneven listening year, with most of it tipping towards the 70s vinyl side of the mix, but thanks to events like Cincinnati's Midpoint Music Festival and social integration of Spotify and Facebook (I'm serious; I heard most of my new artists through friends), I also heard some amazing new music. I threw it all into a pile on Spotify and came up with a best of 2011 track list for your aural/ululating pleasure (some new, some not so new).

The list is still growing, so keep checking. Just to single out a few in particular that I think deserve as much attention as the Bon Ivers and Beyonces...

Mazes
We saw Mazes open for Sebadoh at the (soon-to-be-closed) Southgate House and were wooed by their charming jangle rock. I wear their t-shirt every other day. I'm not even kidding. 

Apollo Run
YES this is my brother's band, but even I can be fairly critical of his music, and I'm speaking from the heart when I tell you that Here Be Dragons, Vol II is their best yet. "Chasing Rabbits" is -- all nepotism aside -- one of my favorite songs of the year.

Kurt Vile
Even my grandpa is listening to Kurt Vile. Get on it. 

R. Stevie Moore
I'm a big fan of artists having enormous back catalogues that can take weeks to dig through. R. Stevie Moore is so prolific that I'm still digging months after first hearing of him.

Dan Fogelberg
Dan Fogelberg? Dan Fogelberg?! DAN FOGELBERG.

No Todd Rundgren
Just kidding. You don't really know me at all, do you? He's not on the list (ultimately he wasn't "new" enough to me to justify inclusion), but I'm posting a video here anyway. His 70s band Utopia reformed for an absolutely inspiring show in January in support of their ailing bandmate Moogy Klingman. Their cold January rendition of "Dust In The Wind" was the most emotional live performance I would see all year. The aforementioned drive to Akron was to see Utopia again, this time without Moogy, and to reconnect with my beloved fellow Toddicts. Moogy, unfortunately, passed away a few days after the Akron show. It was that kind of year. But enough about death. Here are Todd, Moogy & Co performing "Seven Rays" in 1975.

I don't know what I would have done this year without this music. To ease the stress of deadlines, to speed our moving van deeper into the heart of the country, to slowdance to, to help me lose myself in the pile of a shag carpet, to sing along to in the car, my own private duet. Maria Wyeth going 65 miles an hour on the highway, singing her goddamn heart out.

It doesn't get more alive than that.

(As you can see by the copious links in this post, I am writing WAY MORE over on Tumblr than I am here. The thoughts are messier, the jumping off points are less predictable, but if you're tired of my silence on this blog, head on over.)