This year in music

As part of my end-of-the-year wind-down, I'll be covering the year in music.

Sadly, I only made it out to ONE show this entire year, the Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival's Atlanta stop. But it was a damn good show, and I am so thankful that I got to see it....and with Spank, no less!



One of the featured themes for the last Monday's Music Moves Me of the year is along the lines of the year's best songs. Right up my alley, right? This year saw a lot of new music from some artists I really like, so you should give them a listen on Spotify!

Some albums I really enjoyed this year:

Voodoo Glow Skulls, Break the Spell
Attack, Attack!, This Means War
Foxy Shazam, Welcome to the Church of Rock and Roll (you have GOT to hear this one!)
Nada Surf, The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy
Lamb of God, Resolution
Rick Ross, God Forgives, I Don't
Rush, Clockwork Angels
B.o.B., Strange Clouds
Of Montreal, Paralytic Stalks
Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Big Moon Ritual
Pink Floyd, re-release of The Wall. 'Nuff said.
Cannibal Corpse, Torture
Biohazard, Reborn in Defiance
Iron Maiden, En Vivo! (A collection of live recordings.)
Shinedown, Amaryllis
The Cult, Choice of Weapon
Melvins, Freak Puke
The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter
Thousand Foot Krutch, The End is Where We Begin
Deuce, Nine Lives
The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Aufheben
The Smashing Pumpkins, Oceania
The Gaslight Anthem, Handwritten
Ryan Bingham, Tomorrowland
Devin Townsend Project, Epicloud
Stone Sour, House of Gold & Bones - Part 1
Travis Barker and Yelawolf, Psycho White
Green Day, Uno
Green Day, Dos
Green Day, Tre

While these are all some really great albums, my absolute favorites - the ones from which I love each and every track - were:

Hank Williams III, - Long Gone Daddy Did you know that the grandson (and lookalike) of country legend Hank Williams is a musician as well? Okay, now you do! His latest is full of rollicking, twangy, honky-tonk country covers (and some outtakes from some of his own earlier albums). Just like I love it! Enjoy this amazing Merle Haggard cover:



Marilyn Manson Born Villain I've blogged about this one before, and I'm no less excited about it now. I still think you should give it a listen if you've ever liked the band, especially their earlier stuff.



Jack White - Blunderbuss - I blogged about him in the same post as Manson, and I'm still listening to Blunderbuss regularly. With a variety of different sounds, there's sure to be something for everyone on it.



And of my absolute favorites released this year? My most favorite of favorites?

The Killers - Battle Born Oh, how I love every song just so so so much! Oh, how I feel like linking to every video from the album that I can find! But...I won't. So yeah, this one is probably my favorite song on the album. My "song of the year," if you will:



How about you? What were your favorite songs this year? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

I'll close out my last Music Monday post of the year by honoring the musicians and others in the industry who passed away in 2012.

RIP Nicole Bogner, Dave Brubeck, Terry Callier, Elliott Carter, Lol Coxhill, Rob "Balfabar Nosugref The Almighty" Cranny, Hal Davis, Rob Doherty, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Robbie France, Robin Gibb, Michael Grant, Andy Hamilton, Jonathan Harvey, Mehdi Hassan, Levon Helm, Whitney Houston, Steeve Hurdle, Etta James, Davy Jones, Tonmi Lillman, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Joey "Fingers" Lombard, John Lord, Mitch Lucker, Jim Marshall, Scott McKenzie, Ronnie Montrose, Trondr Nefas, Johnny Otis, Dory Previn, Mark Reale, Mike Scaccia, Earl Scruggs, Ravi Shankar, Joe South, Big Jim Sullivan, Donna Summer, Richie Teeter, David S. Ware, Doc Watson, Bert Weedon, Bob Welch, Kitty Wells, Hans Werner-Henze, Andy Williams, and Adam Yauch.