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

These photos include Flotation Walls, Swimsuit Edition, TK Webb, Kyle Sowashes, Andrew Graham, Nick Tolford, You’re so Bossy, Bird & Flower, Chris McCoy, The Bygones, Tin Armor, The Lindsay, Saintseneca, Tree of Snakes and Bigfoot.

Tree of Snakes

Nick Tolford & Co.

Flotation Walls

Swimsuit Edition

TK Webb

Andrew Graham

Nick Tolford & Co.

You’re So Bossy

Bird & Flower

Chris McCoy

The Bygones

Tin Armor

The Lindsey

Saintsenceca

Tree of Snakes

Bigfoot

Check out the rest of the photos here

MP3: Some Of Your Friends

This weekend, Columbus rock juggernaut The Lindsay drops Deep In The Queue, eight tracks of trademark jams, from the ominously smoldering to the slow building to the uptempo guitar workout. The release is particularly exciting for aficionados as it is the band’s first full-length album to be released on glorious vinyl! Highlights include the lone holdover from the previous Syrup Bag EP, “Can’t Wait 4 Space” (peppy rock jam with the mystically unnerving bass (?) sound that was dying for the wax treatment), as well as “Napkin” (smoldering) and “Bang A Left” (building to a crescendo). The band continues to mature, and while this is a general theme of the record, the tracks are still full-throttle when need-be. Another great addition to the Lindsay catalog.

The band will celebrate the release with a show Saturday night at The Summit. Joining them are Outerspacist and The Dads of Omaha, Nebraska.

MP3:Celebrity Pilots – Lost a Limb

I’ll admit to not being the most observant dude in the world, but the mere existence of this record came as surprise to me. After a couple of previous albums and a live presence in town respectable for a band that splits roots between Columbus and Cleveland, I haven’t heard much from the The Celebrity Pilots in the last year or so. Then this… practically a sneak attack of a CD release with an added guitar player and new sixteen-song collection called Hawks of the Lesser Antilles. After a single trip through, this new record is my favorite CPs to date. While not a massive departure- the meat is still quirky and catch pop songs and Chris Sheehan still navigates somewhere between Bob Pollard and Jeff Buckley- where previous songs went for frenetic or weird, this collection tends to lean towards something more pastoral.

The Celebrity Pilots will launch this thing with a show at Rumba Cafe, Saturday June 5th. Lending a hand will be The Lindsay and Bicentennial Bear.

First a little disclosure right upfront- I’m an official part of the Columbus Music Co-op volunteer machine, so this is a project which is near to my heart. Looking beyond my obvious lack of objectivity, I think most of you reading this have some shared interest in the Columbus music community and will appreciate both the efforts and the results of this undertaking. Something like a year and half ago, a plan was hatched by Jon Fintel (Relay Recording) and Erin Moore of the CMC to provide a vehicle to showcase the variety and quality of music making in town. Of particular importance to the founders was the notion that equal attention should be given to young (high school age) artists, who would be showcased adjacent to more veteran musicians. Over the past year, Fintel donated over a 100 hours of studio time to record and master eleven original tracks, some of which are the first professional recordings made of the participants. All of them are available only on this compilation, which turns out to be a really strong collection.

On Saturday, February 13th Relay and the CMC will host the first of two CD release shows at Carabar, where copies of the compilation, complete with original album art, will be available for $5. In the spirit of providing a musical experience for young people, a second all ages and family-friendly multi-faceted release show is scheduled for Sunday, February 28th in the North Market Dispatch Test Kitchen from 1-5 pm. All bands are volunteering their time, so should any profits be made from shows or sales, they will go to fund the CMC’s Columbus Music Assistantship Program to provide emergency medical expense grants to working musicians in need. Keep reading below for additional information on bands, a track listing, and set times.

Saturday, February 13th Carabar lineup and set times:
Jinx Palm 10PM
Shin Tower Music 11PM
The Lindsay 12AM
Bookmobile 1AM

Sunday, February 28th North Market (upstairs) lineup and tentative set times:
Jordan Martin 1:30PM
Time & Temperature 2:15PM
Sean & Dan of Bookmobile 3:00PM
Flotation Walls (accoustic set!) 3:45PM

Also special vendors will be in attendance for the North Market , including Clint Reno, What The Rock, AmyD, Sweet Stella Designs and balloon animals for the kids.

Track listing and band links:
1 Bookmobile – Weekends of Our Youth
2 Time and Temperature – Lake of Glass
3 Shin Tower Music – Pine Tree Trails
4 The Lindsay – Laid Back
5 Jinx Palm – Matchstick in a Coal Mine
6 Dolby Fuckers – Escargot
7 Flotation Walls – Earthquake at a Country Club
8 Deadsea – Circles
9 Jordan Martin – Sticks and Stones For Bones
10 Dylan Kappler – And the Earth Moved
11 Ben Schwabe – Crystal Branches

MP3: Nothin’ to Lose

Dragged Out, the 2006 debut album from Columbus’ The Lindsay, remains one of my all-time favorite Columbus releases. Unfortunately, due to the death of their label and, I don’t know, real life, the foursome has been unable to issue an official followup over the last three years. Though this has obviously been a disappointment to their fans, the band has soldiered on and used that time to become one of the top live acts in town while also sharpening their material on the live stage. The band is now able to reward the vigilant for their patience by issuing a new EP entitled Syrup Bag.

Syrup Bag is a 7-song ball of energy that includes versions of “Change My Oil” and “Thurston Moore Sed” that have been reworked since their previous appearance on the 2007 cdr Live At The Fillmore West. As soon as the intro to opener “It’s Not Easy” ends, the music rings with an emotional intensity that lasts throughout the EP’s 23 minutes. The band uses this fire to cover a relatively large range of moods for seven songs, boisterously bouncing from anger to cheeky contentment relatively easily. Despite all of these shifting elements, the material also displays a sharp focus on crafting a cohesive batch of scrappy bursts of song.

Lead vocalist John Olexovitch guides the ship with sharp wit and self-deprecating humor to spare, whether describing band communication problems (“Band Meeting”) or telling jaunty tales of the rock ‘n roll struggle (“Nothin’ To Lose”). The rest of the quartet carries their weight just fine though, with a tight rhythm section, chewy lead guitar parts, and backing/duet vocals courtesy of bassist Gretchen Tepper that follow Olexovitch’s lead perfectly.

Syrup Bag comes into existence with a release party at The Summit on Friday night (10/23). Besides the title attraction, the bill also boasts sets from fellow local stalwarts Brainbow and Outerspacist. More details here. Serious party for an album worth celebrating.

Bloggers/journalists are the worst thing. Oh man. i mean do you really think anything you have to say is more important than the thing I’m in the middle of? Like I give a fuck bout your website. I was in the middle of something important before you oh so kindly interjected. Maybe there was a reason your interview requests weren’t granted. Fuuuuuck.

Oh hey how’s it going? I’m feeling better thanks for asking. I meant to do this last week but after going to see that “Paranormal Activity” pos@Studio 35 and purchasing Them Crooked Vulture tickets upon arriving home, I awoke on Tuesday morning feeling as though I was hit by a Mac truck. That being said, I had no motivation to do anything so I decided to neatly(weakly) wrap up two weeks of shows at one go. I’m talkin Built to Spill, ipps, Buffalo Killers, Brainbow, The Lindsay, Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, Jemina Pearl and some website that makes Cringe look like Pitchfork. You know what to do.

Pictured: Built to Spill@The Newport

I was on the fence about going to see Built to Spill. Basically I didn’t wanna buy a ticket. I mean paying for shows is sooo pedestrian. As luck would have it, I managed to win a pair from CD101 the morning of the show. Thanks CD101! So, yeah. The show was pretty rad, the crowd not so much. I mean Doug and Co. played the songs we came to hear. Virginia Reel around the Fountain, Untrustable, which btw garnered little to no crowd response, Outta Site, Car, You were Right, which again, no response, and a 2 hour version of Carry the Zero. I mean nobody in attendance wanted to be caught having any fun. Lotta dudes drinkin the kool aid. There was no barrier up front which I have never seen at The Newport and it was cool to be able to make it up front with no hassle and enjoy the up front without getting smashed.

Pictured: ipps@Rumba

After Built to Spill I conned Mike O. into waiting for me to get to Rumba before ipps played. Thanks Mike O. Let’s talk about ipps. Best band in Columbus that never plays? If you don’t know/aren’t drinkin the kool aid, ipps is Bo, Emily, and Matt from Necropolis and Mike O from El Jesus De Majico. Shoe gazey slow jams. Real fucking cool. Good show guys, big fan.

Pictured: ipps@Rumba

I included 2 ipps pictures due to the major lack of Mike O as of late.

Pictured: Flu Faker@Rumba

Flu Faker are a band that people seem to dig. I’m still on the fence. Sorry…all I got

Pictured: Buffalo Killers@Ravari Room

Friday was Main Street Gospel and Cincinnati’s Buffalo Killers at Ravari Room. For some reason I have a hard time catching MSG. It doesn’t matter if they play first of last, they must just not want me to see them. Whatever Barry, Adam and Tito. I did get there in time to see me some Buffalo Killers. I mean long Cream-esque jams with the right amount of psych…all good. They also really kill buffaloes no shit.

Pictured: Newlyweds Brian and Cassie Travis

Saturday was Brian Travis and Cassie Lewis, of Church of the Red Museum and rosehips, wedding day and their reception was at Carabar with The Lindsay and Brainbow. The nuptials were officiated by none other than Church of the Red Museum Drummer stud, Robby Coleman and everyone in attendance at the reception but me looked fan-fucking-tastic.

Pictured: The Lindsay@Carabar

The Lindsay play rock music with guitars. They are good.

Pictured: Brainbow@Carabar

Brainbow play swirling, epic, distortion laden, beautiful instrumental masterpieces that make me wet.

Pictured: Brainbow and Lara Yazvac@Carabar

Comfest reprise!!!

O.K. new week.

I’m not a big movie dude, but I was invited to go see Paranormal Activity on Monday night and said fuck it why not. I was quickly reminded why not. Those movie theaters will let anyone in! Seriously though, I had never been to Studio 35 before, so I thought that was reason enough to go. You heard about this movie? Oh man it’s like totally like Blair Witch….PSYCHE…Big studio decides to virally market a shitty movie with limited release because they don’t want everyone to see it and realize what a piece of shit it is. Have you seen the trailers? Best to leave it at that. I’m also convinced that’s where I got sick. No Them Crooked Vultures show for me. C’est la vie.

Pictured: Jemina Pearl@The Summit

Decided I felt good enough to make it out on Friday night for BenCo presents Jemina Pearl, formerly of Be Your Own Pet at The Summit. Not really a BYOP fan but Jemina and I have something in common, we both hate people. The show was decent, garage rock with the BYOP chick singing. I honestly expected a better turnout because CD101 is playing the single and she did a Big Room performance the afternoon of the show. I met some dude that named his website after a Reno t-shirt. Whatever. Jemina loves Aleks.

Pictured: Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

Look. Party Dream are great, getting greater and it’s only a matter of time before theses dudes totally blow up. No shit.

Sorry tired of typing. Important shit to do.

This week I leave you with more Bobby Silver awesomeness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is anti-shitty band, death of the whatever kind of genre that includes the likes of brokeNCYDE, Millionaires, Attack Attack!, 3oh!3, et al. Look, I was a dumb kid once too and my musical taste to this day is most certainly questionable, but how in the world are people falling for this shit? Are the eight graders doing heroin these days? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. That said, if any of the aforementioned bands would like to be featured on a very influential music blog, hit me up, let’s party…Millionaires I’m looking at you.

In this episode of phalangic diarrhea i will relate hilarious anecdotes about the bands I saw and stuff I did, including but not limited to Jack White’s newest cash cow vanity project, some cougar “milf” lady that bought me and a few others some pizza, Cheater Slicks being good again, me being a lousy MC and Puerto Rican dudes liking tambourines. Also Mike O and Woody from Ravari Room oh man.

Pictured: The Lindsay@Rumba Cafe

Thursday night found myself at Rumba Cafe for The Lindsay against my better judgment and I only say that because i mean have you seen The Lindsay lately? I kid, I kid. Big fan big fan. Basically The Lindsay can rock a joint any joint go see them.

Pictured: Prison Mirror@carabar

Friday night was Chri$ Lutzko’s b-day @carabar. Prison Mirror is a “band” and they play “songs”. Prison Mirror is Tony and Mike O from El Jesus De Magico. There were some geriatric dudes there partying pretty late for a Friday and one of them approached me during Prison Mirror and asked me if what they were playing was a song. I told him it was 2. It’s basically ambient butterfly knife goth core. Go see them if you want to hear a song or 2. I hope when I’m 65 I’m still out and about doing shots at 11 p.m. on a Friday.

psychedelic horseshit followed the Mirror and tonight was a night i wasn’t feelin the phs. It was just Matt, Rich, a guitar, a sax and a table full if gear or something. It was punk.

Pictured: Cheater Slicks w/Don B@carabar

This is very important. Have you seen Cheater Slicks at all within the past couple years? I have and I gotta say I’ve been less than impressed, but I’ve been hangin in there for them due to the fact that the were one of my fallen brothers favorite band(R.I.P. Ryan Rollins), so I’ve been giving them the benefit of the doubt and I’ll tell you what, Cheater Slicks are an awesome live band again…not having seen them play in their prime this is what I would imagine they were like and am totally stoked to go see them play more. Dudes rock for a bunch of oldies.

Cheater Slicks@carabar

The Unholy Two followed with an aural assault that forced me out the door on account of they are loud. So there’s some new joint called Late Nite Slice that’s located in the parking lot next to Bodega. I was hungry and it was late so you know, I opted to have a late night slice. While waiting there was a table of about four 20 year old dudes and like some mid forties chick that didn’t appear to be related to any of them. They were all wasted and old chick bought everyone in line a slice of pizza. Good thing I didn’t have to actually pay for two slices to decide I didn’t like it. Basically what I’m saying is if there are tomatoes on it, it’s not only cheese.

Pictured: The Dead Weather@LC

That dude from The White Stripes and that chick from The Kills played an overpriced show at The Lifestyles Community Pavilion on Saturday and thanks god I’m not one of the suckers that payed $40 to watch old Jack indulge himself on drums. (GLO Deville). There was a good turn out which blew my mind. It was also a good show too, which surprised me as well. Basically if you expect the worse and hope for the best, you’re never disappointed. JW came out and strapped one on for like one song and at the end they did the back patting come out and hold hands for five minutes and bow like ten times. The show would have been better if it was a sold out Newport show. Details from the rest of the evening are spotty at best, you’ll have that from time to time amirite.

Sunday I attended a wedding reception for a wedding that happened like three months ago and I also was asked to MC, which I did very, very poorly. Bands played, The Lindsay did a mostly cover set and I drank til the keg ran dry. Congrats The Wagners!

Pictured: El Jesus De Magico@Ravari Room

I ended the weekend at The Ravari Room to catch El Jesus De Magico and Davila 666. El Jesus practice in a funeral home and feature Mike O on drums. Davila 666 are from Puerto Rico and like tambourines. Woody and The Ravari Room had some nice things said about them by the Nebula dude in the new issue of Decibel mag. Nice dude, cool room.

Pictured: Davila 666@Ravari Room

Duffy you should make that new photographer chick take pictures for me.

Oh man Comfest...or something like that. Basically there are a number of ways to go about Comfest. You can camp out somewhere in the park on a blanket, go check out bands with “clever” band names, wander around aimlessly running into people you know and drink booze and eat food and not pay attention to any bands, or you can hang out at the Offramp Stage all weekend like I pretty much did and watch bands that you know will be good.

How many times can you say the same things about the same bands? Find out after the jump!

I wandered down to the park in time to catch Fern at the Solar stage. Fern seemed a lil bit intoxicated. Fern is Hilarious…perfect way to start of the weekend I suppose. After that I caught some of Tin Armor and wasn’t totally stoked on ‘em, but will give them another chance in more a appropriate setting, after all, they played at five on Friday…maybe they should have been pregaming with Fern.

Friday had a pretty rad line up over at the Offramp-Grafton, Church of the Red Museum, Brainbow, Nick Tolford and Co…etc,etc…Managed to see a few Grafton songs, kicked ass for a 5:30 set. COTRM followed Grafton and killed. It had been a while since I had last seen them and maybe it was because I missed them sooooo much, but they sounded great. You know how you have to dress “nice” in a stuffy office and that’s suppose to make it feel more like work or make you behave better or something? Yeah, whatever…Church dudes jammed sans suits and they misbehaved the fuck out of that set .

Have you guys ever heard of Brainbow before? They sound like a deaf/mute eunuch Isis or something. They also covered Zepplin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” with the lovely Lara Yazvac of Ill Fits/Tough and Lovely fame on vocals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pictured: Nick Tolford and Co.

Tolford’s company featured some back up doowop from Cassie Rosehips and Leslie COTRM and some other chick I don’t know. Shit was mad souled out. Nick Tolford used to play drums for The Slide Machine. No he fronts a soul outfit. Basically what I’m saying is it turns out some drummers can actually sing and that Tolford is worth making it a point to check out live.

Pictured: Happy Chichester

Happy didn’t play “Alcohol”, but he did play “$3.99″ which was pretty sweet. Hey Happy-start a new rock band, thx.

I’m old and get tired and cranky when I start drinking at 2:00 p.m., but I managed to see a couple Sandwich songs…heavy, psych rock with an emphasis on the rock featuring the one and only Ron House on vocals. Fun fact(?), Sandwich were formed via the rock potluck …pretty sure that’s a first. As much as I wanted to hang for The Guinea Worms and/or Two Cow Garage, it was not to be, my feet hurt.

Pictured: Time and Temperature

I wasn’t in a big rush on Saturday…I gave myself until 7:00 to make sure I got there in time to see Time and Temperature play. This was the kind of performance that I have been practicing shutting the fuck up for…quiet, soft, gentle lullabys that culminated with a standing ovation-NO SHIT…so awesome and Val was totally stoked. You probably missed it because you were to busy doing something dumb. Don’t let it happen again is all I’m saying.

I spent a fair amount of time sitting on my ass on Saturday hanging with my peeps but I did check out You’re So Bossy and The Lindsay before not making it to see Envelope.

YSB are veteran Columbus musician who are on some next level shit not hanging on to anything…Can’t say enough good things about this band…hey dudes, heard of myspace? The Lindsay were prolly drunk like I was. They are so totally post grunge.

Pictured: The Lindsay

Sunday was chilllll as fuck, a totally killer way to end an otherwise mediocre and overcrowded Comfest. I worked at ye olde Donewaiting/Cringe merch tent on Sunday…there was a lot of cool shit for sale, hopefully you stopped by and spent a whole bunch of pesos. Went to see moons after the shift and OH MAN MOOOOOOOOOOONS. Dusty was dressed to the nines in his Sundays best and prolly ate like twelve sheets of acid or something because this shit was otherworldly…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, HOLY FUCK MOONS ARE FUCKING EPIC AS FUCK.

Pictured: moons

moons were joined by indie rock drummer du jour Ahemed Gallab of Sinkane, current touring drummer for Yeasayer for a 20 minute drum off. Seriously, I feel really bad for you if you missed this, as this was the highlight of Comfest weekend for me. Ahmed also played with The Slide Machine following moons with two other drummers and killed it.

That’s a real drum circle hippies.

Pictured: Brian Simakis aka best sound dude in Columbus

This is what you look like after doing sound for 50 bands in 3 days. MAAAAAD props to Brian Simakis for making all of the Offramp bands sound super sweet all weekend.

Go to the CMC Parking Lot Blowout

Duffy where is my laptop I think I left it in the Hummer can I move to Brooklyn with you