"Classics" from 2011

I thought it'd be easy. A list of my top ten local albums of the year. It ballooned, quickly, into twenty. I soon realized it’d be more sensible, given the Internet’s unintended implosion of the album-as-experience, I found it less maddening to think of certain artist's stand-out songs, my particular favorites. Search the “tags” on bandcamp to find –

The Juliets’ “Hey Stars” from Perfect Season

Man The Hunter’s “Less For You” (though, technically, released last December, a single)

Ben Collins (of Lightning Love/Starling Electric)’s “Feel Good Garden” (demos)

Bad Indians “The Path Home” Path Home 7”

Tally Hall’s “The Trap” from Good & Evil

Jeffrey Freer covering Nick Cave’s “Hallelujah” from Demo Party

Blue Snaggletooth’s epic “Death of the Time Lords” from Dimension Thule

Little Island Lake’s “September Sons” from Jawbone

Match By Match’s “Ambulance” from American Crowbar

Buffay’s mad remix “Holy Water” blends together three Detroit rappers and Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program – and oh, there’s also JWPP’s “Human” from The Glass is Half Full.

Small House’s “North” from North,

Ghost Lady’s “Snakes” from Henry

Prussia’s “St. Elmo’s Fire Part II” from their Poor English LP

Matt Jones & the Reconstruction’s “Special Forces”

Timothy Monger’s “North Side of the Road.”

It was a plentiful year of pleasant rock and pop songs —too many to name. Keep surfing for those streams.