I also never expected my favorite album to come from someone who held the spot previously, but the iTunes “most played” playlist doesn’t lie. It’s a divisive one, but people who like it really like it.

I picked 15 favorites and several honorable mentions, plus a Favorite Columbus Albums list below — separate but equal in enjoyment and quality. As usual, I limit my lists to albums, so some EPs and 7”s I liked (e.g. Envelope, Sundown, Malefactors of Great Wealth, Dolfish) aren’t listed.

That is all.

15. Wussy – Strawberry

MP3: Grand Champion Steer

As Chip said about Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver, “One wouldn’t expect the heavily tattooed Cincinnati songwriter to produce his best collection of songs this late in his already highly-prolific career, but that’s exactly what he’s done.”

14. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

TV On The Radio – “Will Do” by Interscope Records

13. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

MP3: Come to the City

12. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

Tom Waits – Bad As Me by antirecords

I’ve never been a Tom Waits fanboy, but this record grabbed me and didn’t let go.

11. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

MP3: Helplessness Blues

10. Crooked Fingers – Breaks in the Armor

MP3: Typhoon

Best songs since Red Devil Dawn.

9. Southeast Engine – Canary

MP3: New Growth

8. Centro-matic – Candidate Waltz

MP3: Only in My Double Mind

7. David Bazan – Strange Negotiations

MP3: Wolves at the Door

6. A.A. Bondy – Believers

MP3: Surfer King

5. Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation

MP3: Cannons

4. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo

MP3: Jesus Fever

3. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

MP3: Baby’s Breath

2. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest

MP3: The Way It Goes

1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

MP3: Holocene

By now, I know every moment on this album, but I’m still continually surprised by its beauty. Seeing Bon Iver in Philly would also make my Favorite Life Occurrences of 2011 list.

Honorable mention:
The Roots – Undun
The Black Keys – El Camino
Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
Joe Henry – Reverie
Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
Richard Buckner – Our Blood
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
J Mascis – Several Shades of Why
Tim Easton – Beat the Band/Since 1966 Vol. 1
Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah
Joseph Arthur – The Graduation Ceremony

Favorite 2011 Columbus albums:
1. The Black Swans – Don’t Blame the Stars
2. Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
3. Times New Viking – Dancer Equired
4. Psandwich – Northren Psych
5. Saintseneca – Last
6. Blueprint – Adventures in Counter-Culture
7. Bicentennial Bear – Lost Summers
8. The Regionals – The Regionals
9. Psychedelic Horseshit – Laced
10. The Lindsay – Deep in the Queue

Honorable mention:
P. Blackk – Blackk Friday
Moon High – Six Suns
Shane Sweeney – The Finding Time
Tin Armor – Life of Abundance
Alyosha Het – The Purgatourist

Blueprint Live in Brussels. Print and the Rhymesayer crew hit Brussels. This video gets a little Penn State at the end.

After the jump, Fly Union performs at the Apple Store. Rashad is interviewed at Used Kids. Path gets Healthy. And Stonecraft performs in the rubble of Polaris Amphitheater.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fly Union Live at the Polaris Apple Store (P is For Props)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Path-Heathly Boy (Produced by Choz!n Beats)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rashad getting interviewed at Used Kids by the Smoking Section

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stonecraft -Fly Away.  Some of this video is shot at the rubble in Polaris. Dudes even set up turntables.

Atmosphere alongside label-mates Brother Ali, Evidence, Blueprint,and Grieves  & Budo are touring Europe. They are posting videos of their travels. Above is a video of the Rhymesayers crew discussing their sold-out Paris Show. Bobby Silver and Blueprint make appearances. After the jump, about 23 people in Columbus, Ohio along with myself will be happy to look at Bobby Silver hanging out in Paris during his day off.

The other quarter-million Rhymesayers fans can check their YouTube Channel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Props to the guy who yells, “that shits cray cray” while being in Paris.

Playlists are a big thing on Spotify and I figured I’d share one that I’ve put together. My
Columbus Ohio playlist features music from as many Columbus bands that I could find (two albums max). The playlist includes Ron House, Royal Crescent Mob, Blueprint, Envelope, RJD2, The Black Swans, The Sun, Megan Palmer, Lydia Loveless, New Bomb Turks, Times New Viking, The Whiles, J Rawls, and many more.

If there are Columbus bands on Spotify that I missed, let me know in the comments and I’ll add them.

The Ohio Film + Music Festival is a brand-new “curated, 4-day film and music event, exhibiting Ohio native directors, bands and musicians,” and the first round of confirmations alone is reason enough to get excited. So far the inaugural lineup looks like this:

Bands:
Heartless Bastards
RJD2
Blueprint
New Bomb Turks
Main St. Gospel
Cloud Nothings
R. Ring (feat. Kelley Deal)
Buffalo Killers
Eye

Films:
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar + Julia Reichert)
True Nature (Patrick Steele)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
4,192: The Crowning of the Hit King (Terry Lukemire)
45365 (Ross Bros)
Deadbeat At Dawn (Jim Van Bebber)
North Dixie Drive (Eric Mahoney)
Double-Stop (Roger + Gerald Sindell)
Outside In (Todd Volkmer)

Eric Mahoney and Mr. Scott Johnson promise additional lineup announcements, ticket info and more details soon. Keep up with OFMF on Facebook and Twitter.

While the excellent Cream of the Low Tide is on Bandcamp, most of the releases by Val Glenn aka Time & Temperature have been under the radar and hard to find (The Intimate VI EP, Trust Apples, a split with Jordan O’Jordan, etc.) unless you happen to know her personally or have friends in common. But recently she’s been putting a lot of her old stuff up on SoundCloud. So good.

T&T will be at Skully’s on July 29 with Blueprint and Nick Tolford & Company. Now that’s a lineup.

Rhymesayers is circulating this very high quality video of Blueprint performing “the Clouds” off his new album Adventures in Counter-Culutre in Wisconsin.

The song addresses somethings that have probably ran through the minds of anyone who has sat at Cafe Bourbon Street or Carabar. The deaths of Camu, Daymon and Przm, coke use, fights all get a mention in Blueprint’s new mission statement on “the Clouds”.

Kinda interesting to see somethings that is very real in Columbus being spoke about to a large crowd in Wisconsin.

Oh yeah, peep Bobby Silver from Brainbow playing with Blueprint and Rare Groove.
(Duffy takes a bow).

Columbus producer/emcee Blueprint and Rhymesayers Entertainment will be celebrating the release of his highly anticipated album, Adventures in Counter-Culture with an all-ages in-store performance, and signing at Magnolia Thunderpussy Records. This event will take place on the album’s release date Tuesday, April 5th from 7-10pm.

Adventures in Counter-Culture will be available for purchase on cd and vinyl. The 12 inch for Blueprint’s “So Alive” single which has been getting some MTV love will also be for sale.

Magnolia Thunderpussy is located at 1155 N. High Street. Mags phone number is 614-421-1512. This release event is free, and all-ages.

MP3: So Alive

This video for Blueprint’s new single premiered on MTV today. Remixes of “So Alive” by Budo, X:144 and Innerpartysystem available in the deluxe single on iTunes or limited edition red vinyl.

Adventures in Counter-Culture comes out April 5 on Rhymesayers. Pre-order at FifthElementOnline.com.

Tour Kicks off here in Columbus on 4/20 dude. At the Newport. More dates after the jump.

04.20.11 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall – RSVP
04.21.11 – Munhall, PA @ Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead – RSVP
04.22.11 – S. Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground – RSVP
04.23.11 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues – RSVP
04.24.11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory – RSVP
04.26.11 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 – RSVP
04.27.11 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club – RSVP
04.28.11 – Richmond, VA @ The National – RSVP
04.29.11 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel – RSVP
04.30.11 – Birmingham, AL @ Zydeco – RSVP
05.02.11 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s BBQ – RSVP
05.04.11 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre – RSVP
05.05.11 – Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater – RSVP
05.06.11 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues – RSVP
05.07.11 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre ^ – RSVP
05.09.11 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater – RSVP
05.10.11 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre – RSVP
05.12.11 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall – RSVP
05.13.11 – Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room – RSVP
05.14.11 – Saskatoon, SK @ The Odeon – RSVP
05.17.11 – Boulder, Co @ Fox Theatre – RSVP

^ with Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz