15 Favorite Films of 2021

Well folks, it's the last day of the year, so i'm pretty sure i've watched all the 2021 movies i'm going to be able to watch before the year comes to an end later tonight.  There are a few i missed out on that i'm relatively certain would make this list ("Licorice Pizza," "Antlers," "West Side Story," etc.), as well as some others that could make the list if i made it longer ("Judas and The Black Messiah," "In the Earth," "Werewolves Within," etc.), but it is what it is.  Anyway, here are my 15 favorite movies of the year, including some horror flicks, some comic book stuff, some sci-fi, some documentaries, and some indescribable weirdness.  Check 'em out if you haven't already...or watch 'em again.

1. Annette

2. Dune

3. Fear Street

4. The French Dispatch

5. The Green Knight

6. Jakob's Wife

7. Last Night in Soho

8. Malignant

9. Midnight Mass

10. The Mitchells Vs The Machines

11. Pig

12. The Suicide Squad

13. Titane

14. The Velvet Underground

15. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched

And that's a wrap.  Take care of yourselves, and we'll see you around.

Friday Horror Trailer - Scream

Eleven76

I don't think there are really that many of us out there with any kind of high hopes for 2022.  As far as i can tell, it's just going to be more of the same awful bullshit.  So, cheers to all of you anyway and here's to the good tunes.  February is set to bring us new and funky psych grooves from Eleven76.  Check out the world flavor of "The Scarab's Quest" below and pre-order the upcoming "Occhio Occhio" LP here from Farfalla Records.

Daily Jam - The Last Good Day of the Year

In some alternate universe, i'm an alcoholic lounge singer somewhere, sipping cocktails in a smoke filled room and crooning to the sad detritus of humanity.  I've got a cheap suit, a pack of smokes, a few dollars to my name, and a whole world of troubles.  But it all melts away for a few moments when i open my throat and sing.  Here's Cousteau with "The Last Good Day of the Year," our Daily Jam.  Happy New Year.

Phonophilia Research Lab

I love the weirdos that make what is essentially music for planetariums and so on.  Electronic music for science!  For watching the planets!  For looking into a microscope!  For stars!  For cells!  For watching plants grow!  It's all wonderful and strange and i appreciate it very much.  And so we get "A System of Circles and Spheres" from Phonophilia Research Lab.  It's exactly what it sounds like.  Check out "Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen" below and get the cassette here from Prisma Sonora Records. 

Daily Jam - Lonesome Tears

While i prefer weird, anti-folk Beck myself, sad Beck can sure write a beautiful song.  Here's sad Beck with "Lonesome Tears," our Daily Jam.

Jorja Chalmers

It's that time of year where i start uncovering a whole bunch of stuff i missed out on earlier.  Like for instance "Midnight Train," the sophomore effort from UK-based Australian saxophonist and keyboardist Jorja Chalmers.  Check out the icy dreaminess and foreboding of the title track below and get the download or the CD here from Italians Do It Better.

Daily Jam - Ladybird

Absolutely bizarre that this year is almost at its end.  Here's some electro-pop alt-rock from Ladytron.  Listen to "Ladybird" below, our Daily Jam.

MindSpring Memories

Here's some woozy and surreal music from MindSpring Memories, a gooey mix of ambient and Vaporwave that feels like some hazy VHS daydream.  Check out "Grief & Nostalgia" below and get the "Nostalgia & Grief" cassette here from Eye Vybe Records.

Daily Jam - Moving in Stereo

Let's listen to The Cars today, in particular the song that will eternally make me think about Phoebe Cates.  Here's "Moving in Stereo," our Daily Jam.

Home Front

Here's some very new wave leaning post punk from Edmonton band Home Front full of cold beats, reverbed guitars, and burst of propulsive energy.  Check out "Flaw in the Design" below and get the band's "Think of the Lie" album here.

Daily Jam - Squeeze Play

Monday seems as good a day as any to listen to some '60s psych pop from a sexploitation flick.  So, here's The Cyrcle with "Squeeze Play" from the 1969 film "The Minx," our Daily Jam.

††† (Crosses) Cover Q Lazzarus

Deftones member Chino Moreno has popped up sporadically over the years with his synth pop side project ††† (Crosses), and while he has promised new music in 2022, the group is capping this year with a pretty faithful cover of the Q Lazzarus classic "Goodbye Horses."  Check it out below.

Daily Jam - Celestial Annihilation

While there would be other records from UNKLE, nothing ever hit in quite the same way that first album did.  The original duo of DJ Shadow and James Lavelle along with their whole cast of supporting characters like Thom Yorke, Mike D, Richard Ashcroft, and more hit it out of the proverbial park with that first one.  Here's the cinematic electronic vibes of Celestial Annihilation," our Daily Jam.

Cookin Soul - WU XMAS

In between presents and feasting and what have you today, spend a little time with Cookin Soul's latest collection of Christmas-themed remixes, this time around tackling tracks from Wu-Tang.  Listen to all of "WU XMAS" below and get it here.

Daily Jam - Christmas Now

It's Christmas morning.  I'm a parent of an 8-year old and a 5-year old.  I am so very, very tired.  Here's "Christmas Now" from old indie rock band Hopewell, our Daily Jam.

Friday Horror Trailer - Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation

 

Daily Jam - Hong Kong

Here's a Gorillaz B-side from the "Demon Days" era, a D-side if you will.  Listen to the melancholy "Hong Kong" below, our Daily Jam and have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Mac DeMarco - I'll Be Home for Christmas

It's just two more days until Christmas.  Wild.  Here's Mac DeMarco doing a very Mac DeMarco version of Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas."  Check out the video below.

Daily Jam - Bobby Did It (Spanish Fly)

I've been a member of Vinyl Me Please for a few years and the last record i received from them was the reissue of RZA's "Bobby Digital" album.  I hadn't thought about this album in years, one of the many Wu-Tang offshoots of the 1990s.  Anyway, it's still cool.  Here's "Bobby Did It (Spanish Fly)" featuring Ghostface Killah, Islord, Royal Fam, Jamie Sommers, and Ndira, our Daily Jam.

Ghoëst

Over the last three months, Swedish artist Ghoëst has been dropping a series of demo tracks consisting of long and moody synth instrumentals.  At their heart, they're dungeon synth pieces with elements of darkwave and dark ambience interspersed.  Check out the cavernous sound of "Demo XI (Through Secret Structures)" below and get it here along with the rest of the demo series.

Ash Code Covers Bauhaus

Here's a cover of Bauhaus tune "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" from Italian darkwave band Ash Code.  It's strangely in the holiday spirit.  Check it out below and get it here.

Kold Front

Just in time for the winter solstice yesterday, Danish band Kold Front dropped their self-titled mini-LP full of icy coldwave and post punk.  Music you can see your breath to.  Check out the album opening "Sol" below and order the album here from Symphony of Destruction.

Dead Horse One

I'm evidently making my way through Europe this morning online sampling music from different nations and drinking coffee.  It's a good time.  French band Dead Horse One make a grungy kind of shoegaze that most certainly would have been blasting on my stereo in high school.  Check out "Static King" below and pre-order the upcoming "When Love Runs Dry" EP here from Requiem Pour Un Twister.

Messa

2022 is already starting to line up a slew of new releases that are certainly piquing the interest of my ears.  Italy's Messa make a heavy and delirious mix of Mediterranean world music, stoner metal, dark folk, doom, and more.  Check out new track "Pilgrim" below from the upcoming new album "Close," and pre-order the record here from the band.

Daily Jam - Archangel

There is something so cold and haunting about the music of UK electronic artist Burial.  Downtempo beats, dark ambience, and dubby, echoed layers of sound.  Here's "Archangel," the first track i ever heard from the man and our Daily Jam.

Precipitation

I love how with a lot of ambient and experimental music, depending on the circumstance and the mood and a million other factors, the songs could score every season simultaneously.  For instance, listening to "Falling, I Thought I Caught a Glimpse of Paradise," the latest offering from experimental artist Precipitation, i could envision snow falling and a frozen landscape, or underwater videography, or people on the beach and in the surf, mountains, deserts, nature, sky.  I guess it just feels of the earth.  Check out the album opening "I" below and get the cassette here from Jungle Gym Records.

The Diasonics

After the brilliant slice of funk and instrumental soul on this year's "Gurami" single, Russian band The Diasonics are back in January with their debut full-length "Origin of Forms."  Twelve cuts of cinematic soul, funk, and pscyh to groove into the new year to.  Check out "Andromeda" below (not to be confused with yesterday's Daily Jam), and pre-order the album here from Record Kicks.

Daily Jam - Cosmic Dancer

It's Winter Solstice today for us folks in the northern hemisphere.  Let's listen to some T. Rex.  Here's "Cosmic Dancer," our Daily Jam.

Cloakroom

Indiana's Cloakroom are back next month with a new album of stoner-tinged space rock to assault and caress your senses.  Check out "Lost Meaning" below and get the upcoming "Dissolution Wave" LP here from Relapse.

Daily Jam - Andromeda

Let's start the week off with some weird Italodisco from the early '80s that features a quite distinct Bee Gees sample and a groovy middle eastern vibe.  Check out "Andromeda" by Andromeda below, our Daily Jam.

Monde UFO

Here's a record i missed from back in October.  LA duo Monde UFO make a cool and easy kind of psych-tinged rock with flourishes of jazz, exotic lounge, and ambience.  Really hip headphone stuff.  Check out "A Pale Horse in Roswell 1947" below and get the "7171" album here.

Daily Jam - Paradox: Icarus

It's the season y'all!  The season for cheesy '70s neo-classical, new age, analog synthesizer weirdness.  Here's Synergy with "Paradox: Icarus," our Daily Jam...from the future!

MOTHERMARY

Listening to Ruth Radelet sent me over to Italians Do It Better to see what's going on with the Johnny Jewel part of the former Chromatics member universe.  A recent release from that label is the latest single from the sister duo MOTHERMARY.  Check out the video for "Coming for You," full of nuns, blood, and repressed sex stuff and get the single here.

Ruth Radelet Covers Elliott Smith

It's been a few months, but we're all still very sad around these parts about the end of Chromatics.  But, it appears the band members are slowly re-entering our ears via solo projects.  We already heard from guitarist Adam Miller, and now we've got a wonderful Elliott Smith cover from singer Ruth Radelet.  The song comes from "Stars Rock Kill (Rock Stars)," a massive compilation of covers celebrating the 30 years of the Kill Rock Stars label.  I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the artists on the comp, but we do get tracks from Xiu Xiu, Tele Novella, Mike Watt, Deerhoof, and more, as well a whole lot of Elliott Smith covers.  Check out Radelet's sweet and dreamy version of "Twilight" below and download the whole collection here.