#196 - tracks & snacks 2011.

for the past two years, when this time of year rolled around & i sat down to compile my top ten tracks & snacks of the year, it's been a relatively painless process. not so this year. in the past, i've always been able to open up itunes, take a look at my list of most played tunes & easily compile a list. this summer, my computer finally decided to kick the bucket for good, taking all the precious "most played" info with it & forcing me to rely on my memory, a task which is a dicey proposition at best. 

...so there's inevitably something i'm forgetting but i have to give nods to das racist, st vincent, cut copy, adele, shabazz palaces, los campesinos, atlas sound, pj harvey, destroyer, girls, anvil hands & cities aviv who, if this was a top 22 list, all had songs worthy of being on it. in the end, each artist on this year's list has never been in my top ten before although three songs from the albums on my mid-year top five list made it into the 2011 top ten.

...so if you're the type who's looking for a shiny new band to call your own, there are ten great candidates below & links to videos for eight of the songs & "listen" links for the other two. ALSO, since spotify has finally made its way to america, i've tossed up a playlist of the nine top ten tracks that are available on it, so if you swing that way, have at it here. BRING ON THE TRACKS! BRING ON 2012! SMELL YA LATER 2011!

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#188 - a bitter american in new york.

here's an often thought that lives in my head: "i friggin hate people." they just make me so steamin' sparkin' mad sometimes! y'know where people really suck?...like where they LOVE to congregate? the subway system. that's where. i know. everybody's got their special "the subway sucks" bitch stories. between work & play, i ride the subway at least twenty times every week, so i've got mine too. my main beef is that some people have ZERO grasp on how to act when in the presence of other human beings. it's about courtesy, people. last thursday, i totally threw a bitter shoulder into this one guy who tried to rush past me onto the train as i was exiting it. as i walked across the platform to catch the express train, i looked back to see him giving me the evil eye from inside his departing local train.

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#175 - unnatural causes.

as a society, we had to see it coming. we've been living pretty high on the hog for a while now, allowing our hedonistic, caffeinated alcoholic beverage-swilling ways to control our actions, but our collective national wild ride has finally come to an end. as of today, after five years on the market, the manufactured nectar of life known as four loko is officially GONE from the shelves of bodegas & convenient stores across the country. back on nov 16th, in anticipation of a government ruling, phusion products, the makers of four loko, announced that they were going to reformulate their beverages & remove the caffeine. the very next day, the FDA ordered four loko & three other manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages to pull their products from shelves by today's date, as the caffeine in them was ruled an "unsafe food additive."

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#168 - you've been iced, bro!

i consider myself lucky. to this day i've remained friends with a number of people who i first met in high school & even prior to that. this past friday, bri, my first ever friend from kindergarten, got married down in savannah, georgia & while i wasn't able to make it down south for the wedding, about a month back, i was able to make it up to boston for a weekend of bachelor party activities with him & a dozen or so of our friends. it's the second bachelor party i've had the opportunity to attend this summer & though the first one was a blast, bri's definitely took first prize.

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#163 - middling tradition.

wow. we're already more than halfway through 2010. how time flies when you're having a so-so time! last year around this time, i took a look at my fave five albums of the year & five snack/drink pairings that i'd planned on writing about but never got around to. this year, i've decided to do the same thing, officially creating a tradition of sorts here at eat!drink!snack!

thus far, it's been a relatively solid year for indie rock (which is about 80% of what i deal in) & there's still a lot to come, with albums from favorites such as no age, superchunk, black mountain, blonde redhead, les savy fav, the walkmen, !!!, interpol, the thermals, menomena & the arcade fire scheduled to come out over the next few months. it's safe to say that i'm EXTREMELY stoked about all that new music. that's right. i said "stoked."

without further ado, let's get to it...my indietastic mid-year top five!

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