Merry Christmas!

Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band: Ding Dong Merrily on High

Exterminador: El Baile Del Santa Clos

Guster: Donde Esta Santa Claus

Sufjan Stevens: I'll Be Home for Christmas

Adios 2012!

Thank you, dear readers, for another great year. I appreciate your comments, e-mails and suggestions throughout the year. This blog has readers all over the world, from Malaysia to the Netherlands, and I look forward to sharing another year of music with you in 2013!

That being said, I'm going to finish this year up by posting a few Christmas songs, and then I'll also list a slew of tracks / albums that were my favorites this year.

Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal

Off the 2009 album, Chamber Music, which I think melds theses artists musical traditions very well. Sissoko hails from Mali and is from a musical family, while the French cellist Segal is a former member of the French National Orchestra.

Friday Cover: Poolside plays Neil Young

Here's a slick cover by this CA pop duo.

Bill Fay: The Coast No Man Can Tell

Just a man and his piano. Off the recently released album, Life is People.

Astrid Hadad

Fun song and incredible video. This Mexican artist combines music and theater in a wonderful way.

Diane Cluck

Enjoy this live in the studio performance by this New York-based artist who describes her music as "intuitive folk." Her voice is captivating.

Breton: Pacemaker

Here's a bit of toe-tapping London-based rock. Off of their recently released debut album, Other People's Problems.

Blind Pilot: We Are the Tide

Here's the title track off of this Portland, Oregon-based band's 2011 album. It's a brilliantly feel-good tune.

Wilco Cover

Rarely does a cover outshine the original, but below, I think you'll find that JC Brooks and the Uptown Band have done it. They've taken a good song and totally made it their own, and I don't know that I'll ever listen to the original they same way again. Both songs have been around for a while, but I only recently heard the Brooks version. Hear both below and let me know what you think:

Evelyn Evelyn: Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?

Here are a couple of versions of a song by this duo made up of one of the Dresden Dolls and the eccentric Jason Webley. The first video is really interesting and the live version is also worth watching.



It's got to be difficult to perform one handed:

Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis: I'm So Sorry

This is a family band hailing from London that writes music infused with R&B, swing, country, blues, and, as you'll hear below, ska. The band members are incredibly talented, all of them multi-instrumentalists, which aids their musical flexibility.

This is off the 2011 album, Smoking in Heaven.

Rubblebucket Covers Sufjan Stevens for The Voice Project

I've already posted about Rubblebucket here, and if you haven't checked out that post, do so immediately. After that, mosey on over to The Voice Project, which is a musical movement aimed at helping women and promoting peace in war-ravaged Uganda. It is a good cause and has produced some great music, like the cover on the other side of the link, below.

The Voice Project

James Pants: Clouds Over the Pacific

Hailing from Spokane, Washington, this track is off this multi-instrumentalist's self-titled, 2011 LP.



Buy it here: James Pants

Daedelus: Sew, Darn, Mend

Here's a great song off of this Los Angeles-based artist's recently released album, Bespoke. You can really get lost in the layers of this one.



Buy it here: Bespoke

Bjork: Crystalline

We all know Bjork, and here is a new song off her upcoming album, Biophilia. Doesn't it get more and more interesting as it plays on?