In keeping with my tradition of my top albums of the year I give you my very favorites of this the year 2006. It was a VERY good year for music in my humble opinion, so good in fact that I had to make it a tie for first place. Anyway, enough talk and more rock. Here they are:

1.(tie) The Format- Dog Problems. I would be hard pressed to find an album that I've listened to more over the past year. With all of the yelling emo crap that the kids are listening to these days this diverse, poppy, happy album is like eating amazing fudge, only with your ear, er, you get my point.

1. (tie) Josh Ritter- The Animal Years. Brilliant folk music that really gets to the roots of what I love about music and that is that in some small way it makes life more enjoyable. Love, serenity, and even frustration are just some of the emotions that this album sparks in me.

2. Belle & Sebastian- The Life Pursuit. This could easily be #1 but I didnt want to have a three way tie. :-) It seems that B & S gets better and better with every album.

3. Sufjan Stevens- Avalanche. Even this guys B-sides are amazing! Granted its not nearly as good as the "Illinoise" album (last years #1) but still an amazing album with at least 4 radio play good enough songs.

4. Ben Kweller- Ben Kweller. I remember seeing him open for a band I went to see in SLC 5 years ago and ever since then I've loved every album he has put out for different reasons. This one is right up there with his first on brilliance and alt. pop goodness.

5. The Raconteurs- Broken Boy Soldiers. With mixing Brendan Benson and Jack White how could you go wrong? I love so many songs on this album and the throw back to classic rock and is apparent in many of them.

Others that barely missed the cut: Ben Lee, Beck, Built to Spill, The Elected and The Cold War Kids.

I would say that the first 3 albums could pass as a perfect soundtrack to the last year of my life. What say you? What are some that I missed?

OSC has a new book out about the extreme of the right and the extreme of the left putting the US into a civil war. I'm about 5 chapters in and so far I love it. Granted, its fiction and you cant take it too seriously but still he makes MANY valid points. They are also making a video game and a movie out of it which I am also excited about.
Here is a video clip:


Anytime he does the psychology of strategy in his books they end up being my very favorite. I've read some reviews that are saying that he is a neocon and its full of neocon rhetoric, blah, blah, blah. A big government, anti gun, democrat neocon, eh? I love it when people pigeon hole people's political beliefs with buzz words because they don't agree with them. It's scary to me that people get so vitriolic at someone who is a centerist, for the most part. Plus IT"S FICTION!! Eh, oh well. It's a great read. Check it out on Amazon.

I've always thought people asking for "your thoughts and prayers" was over used but I heard news that warrants this phrase. I've been following the career of fellow tech geek James Kim for awhile on Cnet.com and I just heard that he, his wife, and two children have gone missing since the snow storm in Oregon during the Thanksgiving weekend. You can read more about it here:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/01/cnets-james-kim-and-family-missing-have-you-seen-them/

This honestly makes me sad and therefore I ask for your thoughts and prayers for him and his family.