The Devil's Top 10 (ok 20) Tracks of 2011

Yes it's that time of the year again when us bloggers look back over the past year and pick those tracks that have made us glad to be alive. It's been an incredible year and there were so many tracks on the shortlist that it could easily have been a festive fifty. So what started out as the Devil's Top 10 quickly turned into a Top 20 and I still couldn't find room for incredible tracks like The Bird & The Monkey's hymnal Lord Is Gracious, The Wind-Up Birds gritty In A Yorkshire Call Centre I Knelt Down And Wept and The Young Things rocking All My Friends Are Junkies.

So here they are, the Devil's 20 favourite tracks from the underground. This is my choice and mine alone there have been no phone votes, no balloting, no semblance of democracy at all yet, unlike the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, woman are fairly represented.

1. King Q4 – Love Buzz

The track of the year is a cover of a Shocking Blue song which was covered by Nirvana on their debut album. A cover of a cover as the track of the year! Has pop truly eaten itself and all we have to look forward to are endless regurgitations of the same old songs? Does this represent a lack of creativity, imagination or maybe the X Factorisation of the Devil's blog? The fuck it does have you heard this? With their Flying Lizard's like re-imagining of Love Buzz King Q4 show that cover versions can be creative, imaginitive and interesting. If only all covers could be this good.

So a track that was both the song of the year and the cover version of the year, in these straightened times even the Devil's blog gives you two for the price of one.

Go Try

King Q4 Love Buzz by King Q4

2. Warpaint - Undertow

It's the second time Warpaint have made the Devil's top three tracks of the year making them the first band to twice in the Devil's top ten tracks of the year. If they keep churning out songs like the ethereal, powerful and beautifully fragile Undertow they'll be a regular fixture in the Devil's top tens for many years to come.

Go Try

Undertow by warpaintwarpaint

3. EMA - California

California starts with what sounds like an echo of gunfire and a cursory ‘fuck California’ as Erika chronicles her love/hate relationship with The Golden State. It’s a stroke of genius which sounds like a cut n shut of the Velvet Underground and Sinead O’Connor. The third best track of the year from the Devil's album of the year.

Go Try

EMA - California by RoughSide

4. The John Knox Sex Club - Honestly The Beast

With a name that conjured up images of puritanical clergymen indulging in illicit and nefarious practices in a dingy back street basement Scottish contrarians The John Knox Sex Club were never going to be dull. They already have a clutch of brilliant tracks that defy pigeon-holing. If I didn't restrict myself to one song per band they would have dominated this year's top 20. Honestly The Beast is just the best of of a brilliant bunch.

Make a new years resolution to join the John Knox Sex Club today, you have nothing to lose but your innocence.

Go Try

John Knox Sex Club - Honestly the beast by The 405

5. Francobollo - I Found A Bike Today

Francobollo's I Found A Bike today is so catchy that scientists are in a race against time to create a vaccine.

Go Try

I Found A Bike Today by Francobollo

6. The Jonbarr Hinge - Spinning Rocks

Spinning Rocks was a gloomy indie anthem for 2011 with the less than reassuring chorus 'nothing's going to be ok'. No-one summed up the gloom that engulfed the globe in 2011 better than the Jonbarr Hinge.

Go Try

The Jonbarr Hinge - Spinning Rocks by The Jonbarr Hinge

7. Skinny Girl Diet - Sunburn


The sensual, fluid Sunburn from London trio Skinny Girl Diet weaved intricate post punk patterns with possibly the best line of 2011 "you're sunny but you're not warm".

A new year, a new you, treat your ears to the Skinny Girl Diet in 2012.

Go Try

Sunburn by Skinny Girl Diet

8. Perfume Genius - All Waters

Perfume Genius's emotional All Waters sounds like Antony and the Johnsons at a funeral. If it didn't make your eyes gush like a waterfall during the monsoon season and your heart a little sore your name's probably Ebeneezer (pre the visit from the ghosts!). This is the track that moved me more than any other in 2o11.

Go Try

Perfume Genius - 'All Waters' by The 405

9. The Kindling - The Dancers

The Kindling were one of my choices for the Glastonbury emerging talent competition but they unfortunately, and unfairly in my view, missed out. Dancers sounds like it's just emerged from Bon Iver's cellar after a night on the lash with David Bowie and may have been just a little too off the mainstreams beaten track for the ETC judges.

It may be small consolation but at least they can console themselves with a well earned place in the Devil's prestigious top 20 tracks of 2011.

Go Try

dancers by The Kindling

10. Twin Brother - Lungs

The amazing Lungs sounded like Twin Brother has adopted some mathematical formula for the perfect indie sound. TS + AM = IPP (The Strokes plus Arctic Monkeys equals indie pop perfection).

Go Try

Lungs by Twin Brother

11. J Treole – Skydive

J Treole was one of the finalists in the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Contest and, in my opinion, the judges erred in choosing Treetop Flyers over J Treole. Skydive lives in a world of its own, a world where Jazz and Hip Hop joined forces to liberate the world from the sense dulling bump 'n grind merchants, the offensive, ignorant prattlings of Tyler the Creator and the karaoke pop of the Cowell machine.

Unfortunately in this movie the good guys don't win and J-Treole called it a day in June this year leaving Skydive as a reminder of what might have been.

Go Try

Skydive by J-Treole


12. Sunbears - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical

Turning on the news in 2011 was a ticket to depressionville. Thankfully we had the uplifting pop of Sunbears' They Think They're So Philosophical to cheer us all up. It sounded like The Flaming Lips on happy pills delivering a tribute to Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and will hopefully be available on prescription in 2012!

Go Try

Sunbears! - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical by The 405

13. Pepe Deluxe - The Storm

The Storm from Finnish oddballs Pepe Deluxe sounds like the theme tune to a cult TV series from the 60s. It doesn't sound like anything else that will have found it's way to your ears this year which is a bloody good reason for it to make the top 10 tracks of the year. There's a fine line between genius and lunacy and with The Storm Pepe Deluxe straddled it with the agility of a Russian gymnast.

Go Try

Pepe Deluxé, "The Storm" by asthmatickitty

14. The Angry Years - Dress Yourself As Someone Dead

'Dress Yourself As Someone Dead' was the perfect party song, for kohl eyed gothic grave huggers. For the rest of us it was simply a brilliant track.

Back in January I predicted that 2011 was the year to get angry, well 2012 is the year to get even angrier.

Go Try

Dress Yourself as Someone Dead by The Angry Years


15. Love Inks - Blackeye

On the sub two minute Blackeye Austin minimalists Love Inks channelled the haunting post-punk of Young Marble Giants and the paisley underground stylings of Mazzy Star with a short, sweet and melodic tune masking it's brutal and violent subject matter. If you find a top 20 which doesn't include this it's not worth the paper it's not printed on.

Go Try

Love Inks - Blackeye by WorkItMedia

16. -Tyburn Saints - You've Gone Stray

Tyburn Saints' You've Gone Stray sounds like the theme tune to a slasher film written by Nick Cave. With the extravagantly moustachio'd Johnny Gimenez's deep tenor reaching the parts other voices cannot reach it could well be the sexiest serial killer based love song ever written. If not it is most definitely the sexiest serial killer based love song of 2011.

Go Try

You've gone Stray by Tyburns Saints


17. Karaocake - It Doesn't Take A Whole Week

With their vaguely disinterested female vocals surfing effortlessly over a quasi orchestral electro backdrop Karaocake sounded like the late, lamented, Trish Keenan teaming up with Jean Michel Jarre. It's bipolar pop, melancholic and yet curiously uplifting.

In an era when the masses are starved of decent music let them eat Karaocake.

Go Try

Karaocake - It Doesn't Take a Whole Week by Clapping Music

18. Furta Sacra - Boneman


Furta Sacra's Boneman channels the spirit of Captain Beefheart to create on of the strangest, oddly captivating tracks of 2011. is one of the strangest yet oddly captivating tracks of 2011. It's best experienced with the frankly bonkers video.

Go View



19. Bleeding Knees Club - I

2011 was the year of surf pop. It was all over the blogosphere like the proverbial rash. Ironically it was usually produced by pasty faced young boys from landlocked urban deserts who had never even seen the sea let alone stood on a board! Unlike most of their peers Bleeding Knees Club used The Beach Boys as a springboard rather than a prison. 'I' is surf so lo-fi it's belo-fi and was without doubt the best surf based track of 2011.

Go Try

I by Bleeding Knees Club

20 - Raven Fur - Hammer & Tongues

Raven Fur came from nowhere with Hammer & Tongues a blisteringly magnificant songs that sounded like the scrapings off the floor of the original vintage Roxy Music's rehearsal room. It's the sound crawling from the basements of good old London Town, arty rock that's cooler than an inuit nudist's nether regions.
Go Try

Hammer & Tongues by RAVEN FUR

So that's it 20 idiosyncratic, occasionally bonkers but always brilliant tracks offered in evidence to prove that there is life away from planet mainstream.

Last year I wished for the smile to be wiped off Simon Cowell's face (it was with the ratings for 2011 X Factor), Cheryl Cole to disappear from the face of the earth (she's certainly been a lot less visible) and for Frankie Boyle to disappear up his unpleasant backside (mission not yet quite accomplished but there's still a few hours of the year left and I live in hope).

Given my success last year I need to choose my targets carefully. The Devil's wish for 2012 is for the arrogant smile to be wiped off Piers Morgan's face, for Tyler the Creator to disappear from the face of the earth and take his homophobic, misogynistic lyrics with him, and for Sir Alex Ferguson to announce his retirement and Man Utd to end the 2011/12 season empty handed. Is that just too much to wish for?

Here's wishing all the Devil's readers a healthy and prosperous 2012.

Best Videos Of The Year

After last night's top 5 albums of the year tonight's post brings you the five best videos of 2011. A collection of the most interesting, innovative, thought provoking, witty and imaginative videos that caressed the Devil's eyeballs in 2o11.

1. Rugged Wilderness & Mountain Man No More - Dropping Feathers

Unsettling, thought provoking and elegiacally beautiful if there was a better music video in 2011 then I missed it.



Go Try

Dropping Feathers by ruggedmountain

2. Fulton Lights - Staring Out The Window

The video for Fulton Lights 'Staring Out The Window' had anthromorphic blackbirds playing instruments, forming a band and appearing on Top of the Pops what's not to like? I am however waiting for their next video which could possibly be of a man shouting Fulton Fulton while the band chase deer. Or maybe not.



Go Try

Staring Out the Window by FultonLights

3. The Wind-Up Birds - Round Here

Not the most expensive video you'll see but it's portrayal of a dull and monotonous existence was perfectly pitched for a year where the world was constantly teetering on the edge of economic meltdown.



Go Try



4. Appetite - Tussy

The eyes have it. One of the most imaginative videos to hit Youtube in 2011. Why watch a video of a man shouting at a dog chasing deer when you could be feasting on Appetite's Tussy?



Go Try

Appetite - Tussy (Scattered, Smothered, Covered) by SelfGroup


5. Amanda Palmer - Map of Tasmania

The video that made me smile more than any other I saw during 2011, who would have thought women lifting their skirts to show could be so entertaining?



Go Try

Map Of Tasmania - Amanda Palmer Remix by -bestkeptsecret-

The Devil Surfs The Zeitgeist

Over the next couple of nights I'll be revealing my top 5 albums, my top 5 videos and then, on New Years Eve my top 10 tracks of the year. Tonight it's my favourite albums of the year in partnership with the Hype Machine's annual zeitgeist survey.

In a year when there have been so many amazing albums picking a top 5 has not been an easy task but, after much deliberation, procrastination and perambulation I finally plumped for...

1. EMA - Past Lives, Martyred Saints

In a year when there were a lot of albums that hit the sweet spot somewhere between good and great there was one album that landed right in the place reserved for instant classic. That album was EMA's Past Lives, Martyred Saints, an album that from the first time you heard it you knew that you were in the presence of greatness. It's a thing of rare beauty so astonishing that it sends your whole world out of kilter.

Past Lives, Martyred Saints takes the alternative rock heirlooms handed down by Sonic Youth and Nirvana, buffs them up a little till they shine and puts them on show for a new generation to enjoy. In a year of great albums this was the one that stood out like tie die shirt at an Amish funeral.

Go Try

EMA - Milkman by souterraintransmissions

2. Austra - Feel It Break

Austra's debut album Feel It Break was lyrically impenetrable and sonically heavy with ballistic beats that thumped like the heartbeat of a heavyweight champion. Across eleven tracks that were so on trend they could be wearing Philip Treacy titfers, singer Katie Stelmanis’s voice swoops and soars from ecstasy to pain and back again. Katie’s vocals turned an album that could have been languishing in mid-table obscurity into a work of art challenging for the top of the 2011 table.

Feel It Break is a powerful, emotional album that creates its own mood and is one of those rare albums that will sound just as good in 10 years time as it does the moment it first caresses your ears.

Go Try

Beat and The Pulse by Austra by goincase

3. Wounded Lion - IVXLCDM

2011 wasn't the most upbeat of years. As the world teetered on the edge of economic armageddon we all needed something to to distract us and Wounded Lion's album IVXLCDM arrived towards the end of the year like quirky manna from indie heaven.

It was like an all you can eat indie banquets with a menu that mixed up influences with the finesse of a gourmet chef. As these influences included Talking Heads, Liars, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Modern Lovers, grunge, Joy Division, They Might Be Giants and The Dead Kennedys, how could it fail to impress?

If your musical palate is feeling a little jaded then stick IVXLCDM on your iPod and regain your appetite.

Go Try

Wounded Lion - I'm Sad by Gilded Gutter

4. Le Butcherettes - Sin Sin Sin

Sin Sin Sin is infused with the sweat from the walls of CBGBs in the late 70s, the snotty sneer of the Sex Pistols, the brash, fuck you attitude of early Blondie and the feminist tinged politics of riot grrrl. There is, however, more to this album than mere punk rock revivalism. On Sin Sin Sin Le Butcherettes go beyond the rama lama ding dong, one, two, three let’s go punk rush. While their sound may be based on punk it’s a launch pad rather than a straight jacket.

Sin Sin Sin gives you a taste of how a festival line up of Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, The Kills, Hole, Blondie, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bikini Kill, Blondie and the Dresden Dolls would sound. It’s a feminist tinged, punk singed statement of intent that pays due respect to the band’s heroines without stumbling into pastiche.

Go Try

Le Butcherettes - New York by Cargo_Promo

5. The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still

Other than the Wounded Lion album the Devil's top 5 of the year are all rather serious and/or angry records and the album at number 5 is no exception.

With themes of excessively obsessive love, paranoia, betrayal and 'the beast within' The Boxer Rebellion's The Cold Still is a serious album from a serious bunch of young coves.

The Cold Still is glum rock par excellance and they don't come much more glum than the shocking Locked In The Basement which could be the lead track from a rock opera based on the life of Josef Fritzl.

Go Try

02 Step Out Of The Car by ThatEricAlper

So that's it 5 top albums from 2011 that you really need to get in your life and cherish like rare jewels. A top 5 that reflects the paranoid, angry, confused and at times belligerent mood of the year with the odd quirky diversion. If you were expecting to see albums featuring frivolous songs about birthdays in May or post break-up sex then you need to look elsewhere (try NME or Mojo).

Frond Memories

The Bevis Frond
From: London, United Kingdom

When Nick Saloman released his last album as The Bevis Frond Facebook was restricted to students of Harvard College, you went to MTV not YouTube to watch videos, twitter meant an annoying sound (nothing new there then) and the cloud brought you rain not entertainment. It's a much different world that greets The Leaving Of London the new Bevis Frond album, and yet it doesn't sound dated, timeless yes, but not dated.

Over its 18 tracks The Leaving Of London hops genres with the dexterity of a frog on red bull. From guitar freakouts to lo-fi folk, from psych tinged rock to power pop/punk it's the song, not the sound that matters. The album opens with a plummy voiced announcer asking 'everyone has a favourite tune, is this yours?' leading straight into the upbeat, Bandwagonesque esque power pop of 'Johnny Kwango'. What a start, I defy you to answer plummy's question with a no. The album is at it's best on tracks like 'Johnny Kwango', 'Preservation Hill' and 'Barely Anthropoid', when Nick gets in touch with his jangly side, his inner Byrds.

As might be expected from a band releasing their first album for seven years their frame of reference is well established, rather than up and coming, artists . Starting off like a less angry Eton Rifles 'More To This Than That' would once have been called New Wave (ask your dad). 'You'll Come' with it's stuttering guitars and fast paced delivery sounds like Elvis Costello at his most acerbic. 'Speedboat' opens up with some Bevis copyrighted backward guitars before morphing into another Costelloesque upbeat pop rocker. If it doesn't get your toe tapping then you need to see an orthopaedic doctor. It's not all fast, furious, rock or power pop. On the hauntingly beautiful title track and the achingly sad 'The Divide' it's just Nick and piano and Nick and acoustic guitar respectively. There's not an electric guitar in sight. It's tracks like these that add variety to the album.

Seven years is a long time in life, let alone the transient, ephemeral, fashion focused music industry it's therefore no surprise that The Leaving Of Liverpool is untouched by dubstep, witch-house or any of the other million and one genres that have risen and fallen since the last Bevis Frond album. It's therefore understandable that, on the self deprecating 'Too Kind', Nick worries about his musical relevance today. Well Nick, despite the odd self indulgent guitar solo on 'Reanimation' and 'Too Kind' itself, you don't need to worry. As they say on Match of the Day form is temporary but class is permanent.

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

6/10

Go Try

The Bevis Frond..Reanimation.. 27th November 2011 Wurzburg Matinee. by slightreturn2003

Go Visit

The Bevis Frond - Website : Last.FM

Rafting Weekend

Porcelain Raft
From: Brooklyn, New York

Get your tin hats on because the blogosphere is about to go nuclear over Porcelain Raft, the solo recording project of Mauro Remiddi, once of cosmopolitan multi-continental psych pop outfit Sunny Day Sets Fire. On debut album Strange Weekend Mauro sculpts delicate, dreamy soundscapes out of the finest clay like a refugee from a 4AD seminar with a full compliment of the de-rigeur glitchy beats designed to dampen a blogger's nether regions.

Album opener, the perfectly named 'Drifting In and Out', does exactly what it says on the tin, drifting in and out like a muscular Cocteau Twins. It's so 4AD it could have been designed from a template provided by Iwo Watts-Russell. With it's gently strummed acoustic guitar, choir of angels backing vocals and washes of synth 'Shapeless & Gone' is the point at which alt-folk and dream pop shake hands and form a temporary alliance. It sounds like a lost T-Rex classic re-mastered for a modern audience. Two songs in and you can understand why the blogosphere are going all a quiver over Porcelain Raft.'Is It Too Deep For You' has its dials set for the centre of your heart. With beats that crack like a gun shot, tremorous vocals and harsh synths it stirs emotions you thought you never had. It reminds me of Phil Collins' 'Something In The Air Tonight'. Not the coolest of references I grant you but it shares the emotional intensity of the Collins' classic making it one of the album's stand-out tracks. On 'Put Me Into Sleep' Mauro persistently demands to be put into sleep and it's not clear whether he's simply suffering from insomnia or is so desperate that he wants someone to help him to end it all. There's a haunting desperation to his vocals which merely adds to the confusion.

Remiddi's vocal agility is so impressive he could easily carve out a career as an impressionist if he doesn't make his millions from Porcelain Raft. One minute he sounds like John Lennon (the anthemic 'Unless You Speak From Your Heart') the next you'd swear he'd swallowed a Julee Cruise pill ('Backwords'). It's this variety that sets Strange Weekend apart from the crowd, sets it apart from it's dream pop cousins and their suffocating waves of vaporous vocals.

Unlike the cosy, comforting, slanket and cocoa dream pop churned out by peers like Beach House Strange Weekend has a darker side, an edgier side. You can wrap yourself up in the ambient, warm washes of sound but you can never quite relax. There's always a jagged beat or a sharp vocal to shake you out of your comfort zone. Strange Weekend is a spiky little gem amongst the soft-edged faux pearls of their dream pop peers.

7.5/10

This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.

Go Try

Porcelain Raft - "Shapeless & Gone" by ccconr

Porcelain Raft - Backwords (Daytrotter session) by asleep in the back

Porcelain Raft - Put Me to Sleep by CrazyCow

Go Visit

Porcelain Raft - Facebook : Website : Last.FM

Go View

Porcelain Raft
Put Me To Sleep

Boxing It Off

There are a mighty 366 days until Christmas so sit back and relax to some Boxing Day related tunes courtesy of your favourite mephistophiles related music blogs.

MP3 - Grape Digging Sharon Fruits - Boxing Day
This track is linked direct from the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

If you like this then go visit the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits Last.FM site for more.

MP3 - The Baseball Field - It's Boxing Day, Helena
This track is linked direct from the Baseball Field Last.FM site so please don't claim breach of copyright

If you like then go visit the Baseball Field Last.FM site for more.

CYNE - Boxing Day by TheWordIsBond.com

Until Boxing Day by Captain Polaroid


Holiday Hipsters
Carol of the Boxing Day



The Pineapple Thief
Boxing Day

Christmas Video Killed The Christmas Radio Star

Picture courtesy of deviant art by sixhundredsixty for more check out http://sixhundredsixty.deviantart.com/

The Wind-Up Birds
Working Christmas Day

It's better to give than receive so go visit indie contrarians the Wind-Up Birds bandcamp site http://thewind-upbirds.bandcamp.com to download their Christmas single, Working Christmas Day with all proceeds going to Barnardos. Not only do you get a great Christmas song you get a nice warm glow from doing your bit to help those less fortunate than yourself.

The Devil's Christmas Round Up 25th December 2011

Happy Christmas from The Devil Has The Best Tuna.

Today's weekly round up of tracks I've not had the space to post has a distinctly festive feel.

Slothbear

From: Valley Stream, New York, United States

A slacker rock version of the Bing Crosby classic? Alas no but Slothbear still serve up a seasonal treat.

Go Try

MP3 - Slothbear - White Christmas
This track is linked direct from the Slothbear Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

You Say France & I Whistle
From: Stockholm, Sweden

You Say France & I Whistle go all Scrooge on us with a Christmas song about trying to escape the festive clutches of Santa, Rudolph and Christmas for the sanctuary of the beach and inadvertently serve up a modern festive classic.

Go Try

MP3 - You Say France & I Whistle - Christmas
This track is linked direct from the You Say France & I Whistle website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Christmas
From: Olympia, Washington, United States

Winter from the festively monikered Christmas could rock Santa's grotto to it's very foundations.

Go Try

MP3 - Christmas - Winter
This track is linked direct from the Ms Valerie Park Distro website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright

Dead Gaze
From: Mississippi, United StatesIf the Dead Gaze version of Silver Bells was on constant rotation in the malls of the world trudging around searching for the perfect gift for your would be a much more pleasurable experience for us indie types.

Go Try

Dead Gaze, "Silver Bells" by The FADER

Advances In Mathematics

From: Manchester, United States

Looks like someone got Advances In Mathematics a novelty tie last Christmas.

Go Try

02 Sad Xmas Present by advancesband

Spectrals
From: Heckmondike, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Like all the best Christmas Days, the festive tune from Spectrals starts off all lively and jolly and ends in the kind of misty fug you get after indulging in too many mince pies and glasses of sherry.

Go Try

Spectrals - It's Christmas and I've Got Everything I Want by Slumberland Records

Miss Massive Snowflake
From: Portland, Oregon

Miss Massive Snowflake gets out the tents and pitches them right in the middle of Christmas.

Go Try

MP3 - Miss Massive Snowflake - Occupy Christmas

This track is published with the permission of Silber Media so please don't claim breach of copyright

Peachcake
From: Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Peachcake pose the eternal Christmas question but unfortunately for all the kids out there they don't provide the answer so let's hope Santa doesn't lose his sleigh.

Go Try

What Happens When Santa's Sleigh Gets Lost?! by Peachcake

Tiny Tide

From: Cesena, Italy

Tiny Tide do all their shopping in Lidl and Aldi.

Go Try

Cheap Christmas by tinytide

The Birthday Kiss
From: Aberystwyth, Leeds, Sheffield

Understated, warm and cosy the perfect end to a perfect Christmas.

Go Try

Sentimental Christmastime by The Birthday Kiss

The Devil's 2011 Retrospective - November & December

In November Dr Conrad Murray was found guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, Greece & Italy replaced their leaders with EU puppets and the Occupy Wall Street camp was finally cleared, but not before they'd inspired anti globalisation protester across the, err, globe.

November also saw some great tracks on the Devil's blog from Francobollo, Pepe Deluxe, The Lovely Eggs, Cloud Nothings and The Reject Club.


I Found A Bike Today by Francobollo

The Storm (Radio Edit) by Pepe Deluxé Official

Cloud Nothings - No Future / No Past by Wichita Recordings

Puppets Are Better Than People - The Reject Club by LORD NUMB

The Lovely Eggs - Allergies by Too Pure Singles Club

And finally we reach the final month of 2011, December the month when the people power that had shaken much of the world finally reached Russia, Cameron said no to Europe, although it's not actually clear what he's said no to and Father Christmas made his last minute preparations for his busiest night of the year.

It was a truncated month for music but the Devil still managed to find time to squeeze in some great tracks from Mark Stewart, Zulus, Sunbears, Perfume Genius and The Last Royals.

Picking a top 10 for 2011 just became even more difficult.

Mark Stewart - Nothing Is Sacred by theQuietus

Zulus - Illiterate Eyes by Fat Cat Records

Sunbears! - They Think They're Soooo Philosophical by The 405

Perfume Genius - 'All Waters' by The 405

Always, To Belong by TheLastRoyals