My favorite albums of the decade (Pre 2009!)

I've ranked my favorite albums of this decade, but since this year is not quite over yet I didn't include 2009 just yet. I'll work on that soon. 

1 The Strokes,  Is This It

2 Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

3 National, Boxer

4 Arcade Fire, Funeral

5 Sufjan Stevens, Illinois

6 Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes

7 Spoon, Kill the Moonlight

8 Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

9 Andrew Bird, The Mysterious Production of Eggs

10 Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights

11 Radiohead, Kid A

12 Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

13 Furr,  Blitzen Trapper

14 David Garza,  A Strange Mess of Flowers

15 The Postal Service,  Give Up

16 Bright Eyes,  I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

17 Streets, Original Pirate Material

18 Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days

19 Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

20 Ryan Adams, Heartbreaker

21 Shins, Chutes Too Narrow

22 Beck, Sea Change

23 Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America

24 LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

25 Ray Lamontagne , Trouble

26 The White Stripes, White Blood Cells

27 Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend

28 Stephen Malkmus s/t

29 Band of Horses, Cease to Begin

30 Paul Westerberg,  Grandpaboy, Stereo / Mono

31 Decemberists, The Crane Wife

32 Apples In Stereo,  Discovery of a World Inside the Moon

33 Radiohead, In Rainbows

34 Brian Wilson, Smile

35 Spoon, Gimme Fiction

36 Kings Of Leon Aha Shake Heartbreak

37 Of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins

38 Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand

39 Antony & The Johnsons, I am a bird now

40 Bloc Party, Silent Alarm

41 TV On The Radio, Dear Science

42 O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack

43 Kanye West, Graduation

44 Brother Ali, The Undisputed Truth

45 Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary

46 Feist, The Reminder

47 David Gray, Life in Slow Motion

48 Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not

49 Benji Hughes, A Love Extreme

50 Grandaddy, Sumday

Top Albums of 2008

Holy Cow! I was right about ignoring this blog. Here is a post I think I meant to put up at the turn of the new year. Whoops:

It's that time of year, when I look back and wish I could've bought more albums. Here is how I rank the top 10 albums that I was lucky enough to purchase this year:

1. Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
This album is beautiful from start to finish, you should probably just go buy it. Beautiful harmonies, beautiful lyrics, beautiful artwork. I'm excited for what is sure to be a great career for Fleet Foxes.

2. Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver makes me wish I lived in a simpler time. What's more, he recorded much of the album in a cabin in the woods of my motherland, Wisconsin. Winter has rolled around again, the perfect time of year for this haunting music.

3. Blitzen Trapper | Furr

Blitzen Trapper is slowly becoming one of my favorites. Where their last album felt a little disjointed, Furr feels polished and thematic. Furr also feels soft and dangerous, like stroking a Lion's mane.

4. Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
Come on music fans, admit it, you loved this album at first listen. I think some fans resent how fast this band came up. Seems they picked up guitars and the next day they were donning cardigans on the cover of Spin. I think I can safely say they came up so fast because the music was THAT GOOD. Like a good Paul Simon album, eclectic percussion and worldly rhythms carried this album, and made it sound completely fresh.

5. TV On The Radio Dear Science

I was in ZZZ Records with Andy first time I listened to this album. I remember saying "Wow, they got funky on this album". Indeed they did, all the way to the bank.

6. Paul Westerberg 49
Paul Westerberg seems to do his best work when he isn't trying too hard, or thinks no one is looking. This album, only available online, has the feeling of something you might steal out of Paul's personal tape recorder. Bits and clips of multiple songs, cutting out and overlapping, make you wonder... is this really an album? Whatver it is, I loved it.

7. Ryan Adams and The Cardinals | Cardinology

I saw the Cardinals live this year, so maybe that influenced the decision. It was fantastic. A rock concert, with an intermission. They couldn't fit all of that sound into one hour, they had to go for two. Ryan Adams is a song producing juggernaut. Are they all great? No, but this album is a goodin'.

8. Santogold | Santogold

Some blogs and mags can't give enough lip service to M.I.A. So I bought the album thinking "When have blogs and mags ever lead me astray?". Well I didn't like M.I.A. I thought it was dull and repetitive. Add in the mental image of white frat boys cocking and shooting their imaginary pistoleros in a Iowa dance club, and you'll know why I prefer my flashy pop/dance music to come from America.

9. Benji Hughes | A Love Extreme

A two disc set of simple songs about partying, rocking, loving, and generally being awkward. Sounds ok. Oh,they're sang by a husky ZZ top lookin' dude? Sold!

10. The Raconteurs | Consolers Of The lonely

Our top priority as a nation should be to figure out how to harvest Jack White's mojo. I'm not looking for some quick spray, like when Reggie White had a cologne (I assume it smelled like Reggie). Something more potent we can inject directly into America's infants. Every album he touches turns to gold.

A new blog! Who cares?

When I was young, and I watched Doogie Howser M.D. update his journal/Word document every night, I remember thinking "Man, he is really committed to that stupid thing. When does he find time to read it?"

Well chances are, Doogie lost that journal file through some sort of virus or lost the 5" floppy he was saving it on. All that time spent staring at that blue screen with white letters, for nothing.

If only Doogie could've posted his Life and Times of a Tiny Doctor on the Internet for all to see, at least he could rest easy knowing someone read his boring thoughts. By the way, I don't remember the show very clearly, but surely every episode someone said "Really? You're my doctor? What are you... 10? I'm sorry Happy Meal, can I get a second opinion from someone old enough to drive?"

Welcome to The Drawg. My name is Ryan. My main interests include music, design, and sporting events.

I hope to combine them into something interesting in this space. but chances are, I won't follow through. Sorry in advance if I let you down, anonymous internet user.

But above all else, this blog is intended to help Google target me with advertising more effectively. I'm hoping Doogie Howser DVDs will be appearing in the sponsored links section of my Gmail shortly.