And another year has gone by, just like that. Time really does fly.

What initially seemed like a bit of a slow year for music definitely caught its stride midyear and accelerated on to produce numerous quality releases across a variety of genres for your listening pleasure. I thought about writing a little blurb for each release about why I think these albums are worth checking out or even maybe buying (dear god!), but instead I’m just going to list out my top 50 releases from 2011 and let the critics do the talking and you do the listening and deciding.

In case you were wondering how I kept track of all the music I’ve listened to this year, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet since early January and throwing albums onto it after I’ve listened to them, in approximate ranking position and then editing whenever. If you’re the type of person who does a yearly best of list, you should try it out for yourself! (it’s kind of fun)

And if you’re interested in what some other music critics thought about 2011, check out metacritic’s Music Critic Top 10 Lists for 2011, it’s quite extensive. There’s some great stuff on there and if you’re looking for new things to listen to, that’ll keep you busy for a while.

Anyways, here goes for my list…Honestly all of these releases are really great and I recommend you to check out all of them (and if you look carefully, you might find some download links below heh) regardless of the subjective order I put them in (an order that changed daily btw haha). Enjoy!

Flashflooder’s Top 50 Releases of 2011

50. Feed Me – To The Stars [Mau5trap]

49. Porter Robinson – Spitfire EP [OWSLA]

48. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact [4AD]

47. Neon Indian – Era Extrana [Mom & Pop/Static Tongues] 46. John Maus – We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves [RibbonMusic/Upset the Rhythm] 45. The Field – Looping State of Mind [Kompakt] 44. Burial – Street Halo EP [Hyperdub] 43. The Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 [Capitol] 42. The Roots – Undun [Island]

41. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise [Circus Company]

40. Childish Gambino – Camp [Glassnote Records]

39. ASAP Rocky – LiveLoveASAP [Self Released]

38. MellowHype – BlackenedWhite [Fat Possum]

37. Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra [Self Released]

36. SebastiAn – Total [Ed Banger]

35. DJ Shadow – The Less You Know, The Better [Verve/Island]

34. Washed Out – Within and Without [Sub Pop]

33. SBTRKT – SBTRKT [Young Turks]

32. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo [Matador]

31. Digitalism – I Love You Dude [V2 Records]

30. Wild Beasts – Smother [Domino]

29. Radiohead – King of Limbs [XL]

28. Bon Iver – Bon Iver [Jagjaguwar]

27. Atlas Sound – Parallax [4AD] 26. Justice – Audio, Video, Disco [Ed Banger]

25. Kaskade – Fire & Ice [Ultra Records]

24. The Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) – Watch The Throne [Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam]

23. Gui Boratto – III [Kompakt] 22. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 [Kranky]

21. Andy Stott – We Stay Together/ Passed Me By [Modern Love]

20. Young Montana? – Limerence [Alpha Pup]

19. Little Dragon – Ritual Union [Peacefrog Records] 18. Clams Casino – Instrumentals Mixtape/Rainforest EP [Self Released]

17. James Blake – James Blake [A&M/Atlas]

16. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes [LL Recordings]

15. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine [Carpark]

14. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming [Mute]

13. The Antlers – Burst Apart [Frenchkiss Records]

12. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues [Sub Pop]

11. Balam Acab – Wander / Wonder [Tri Angle]

10. Zomby – Dedication [4AD] / Nothing EP [4AD] 09. The Weeknd – House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence [Self Released]

08. Tyler, The Creator – Goblin [XL]

07. Drake – Take Care [Young Money]

06. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy [4AD]

05. Explosions In the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care [Temporary Residence]

04. Panda Bear – Tomboy [Paw Tracks]

03. Destroyer – Kaputt [Merge]

02. Real Estate – Days [Domino]

01. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica [Mexican Summer/Software]

Avey Tare (aka Dave Portner of Animal Collective) recently found some time in his busy schedule (e.g., making a new Animal Collective album and doing weird sound art installations at museums) and embarked on a short solo tour supporting his recent 2010 solo album Down There while also allowing him the freedom to jam out on some new tunes which are rumored to be for an upcoming Avey Tare EP he is working on.

I managed to catch (on video) most (if not all) of the new material Avey Tare performed live at his recent show at The New Parish in Oakland, CA on 12/11/11 (which by the way was a  great show overall, plus I got a sweet new t shirt!). According to insiders on the Collected Animals forum the apparent setlist for the night was as follows (new songs indicated by *):

Song For Jerome*
Lucky 1
Sometimes*
In Photographs*
Oliver Twist
Slow Words*
3 Umbrellas
Laughing Hieroglyphic
Death Raga*

So, without further adieu, check out five new jams below including a few Down There songs (Lucky 1 & 3 Umbrellas) at the tail end of two of the videos. I’m really looking forward to how these tunes turn out in the studio (especially New Song 2); but for now, enjoy!

I recently managed to catch Dan Deacon and fellow Wham City comedian Peter O’Connell performing at The New Parish in Oakland, Califonia for a on November 30, 2011. The show was definitely a good time as you can expect from Dan Deacon with his entertaining games and antic; but overall, I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed the absurd and awkward comedy of opener Peter O’Connell. Full disclosure, I’ve seen Dan Deacon at least five times before and the magic of his fun crowd activities have worn off a bit for me but I highly recommend anyone of any musical taste to go see him at least once and dare you to say it’s not a fun time.

But hey, why take my word for it? Take a look for yourself at some lengthy videos below of Dan Deacon’s two closing songs (“Snookered” & “Wham City”) and the latter half Peter O’Connell’s standup. Wham City always brings a fun time, so be sure to check them out next time they hit up your area!

I saw Soulwax live recently at The Independent in San Francisco and they were pretty awesome, to say the least. Definitely exceeded my expectations in regards to recreating their crunchy distorted synth sound live. Great stuff.

I am also at a general lack of words right now so I’m just going to post the videos I took below. I’m also not that familiar with song titles for these Soulwax tunes so if you know any for sure, leave me a comment here or on the youtube video and I’ll be sure to update everything. Enjoy!

Also, Goose opened for Soulwax and I managed to catch a song of theirs on video below. They’re a pretty solid begian electro dance band if you aren’t familiar. Worth a watch.

I recently saw (the bay area’s very own) DJ Shadow aka Josh Davis at the Regency Center in San Francisco on Friday (on 10/21/11) with his Shadowsphere production; and as you might expect, Shadow mixed an enjoyable myriad of genres reaching from mainly his own material ranging from his early days to his latest album.

The Shadowsphere’s visuals were great (although I recommend not to see them right after seeing Amon Tobin’s ISAM live show because all visuals look kinda lame after that), the music was recognizable at times but still varied and interesting, and Shadow’s showmanship was center stage with all of the musical toys he packed onto the tables in his little sphere (my favorites being his virtual drums); the only thing surprising was that his set was short in length topping out a little over an hour.

Anyways, I managed to take a few videos so check out DJ Shadow playing “Redeemed” off his 2011 album (The Less You Know, The Better) and a longer drum & bass style mix containing components of “Stem Long Stem Transmission”. “The 6 Day War”, “What Does Your Soul Look Like (Pt 1)”, and some other songs below. Enjoy.

I went to the Sunday portion of the annual Treasure Island Music Festival this year and as usual, TI separates their two day festival into a first day of more electronic and dancey acts and a second day of indie and rock based acts.

The festival was a great time and seemed much less crowded (and thus more fun) as compared to last year (I blame Deadmau5 mainly for that though) which made for a better overall experience. This year I was able to capture a video or two for every act I really wanted to see except Beach House unfortunately. It got a bit crowded and it was the one time I had people blocking my view for a large portion of their set. It’s a bummer too because they played a few new songs and I regret not recording those, if only for the audio.

Anyways, you can catch some videos I took below of The Antlers playing “Rolled Together”, St. Vincent playing “Surgeon” & “Cruel”, Wild Beasts playing “Albatross” & “Hooting and Howling”, and Explosions In The Sky playing “Postcard from 1952″. Videos speak louder than words so I’ll just leave it at that. Enjoy!

Burial & Massive Attack recently teamed up on a new two-track limited edition 12″ (album art above) released on Inhale Gold and The Vinyl Factory (limited to 1000 copies). The 12″ includes an original collaborative track “4 Walls” as well as a Burial remix of “Paradise Circus” (off Massive Attack’s 2010 album Heligoland). Take a listen to both below. Great stuff.

Amon Tobin’s new live ISAM tour show is incredible, amazing, astounding, stupendous, ridiculous, and well, you get the picture. Words cannot describe the sensation of seeing and hearing the seemingly alive geomtrical structure that Amon Tobin plays inside (see the cube) while hosting a wold of visuals projected onto it from the outside. It is (quite possibly) out of this world.

As you can see from the picture above (which is what it looks like after the show is over), the visuals are in fact projected onto the structure (by two of the biggest and probably most expensive projectors I will ever see) as opposed to it being a big led structure screen a la Daft Punk, Etienne De Crecy, or Deadmau5‘s recent live shows. It is definitely the best visual setup I have ever seen or heard of for a live act. But instead of trying to explain the awesomeness, I’ll just let the videos I took speak for themselves.

Below check out Amon Tobin playing “Piece of Paper” and “Bed Time Stores” from his 2011 album ISAM in the first video amd “Slowly” from his album Supermodified and some other new sounding song I don’t recognize in the second video. If this show comes to your city, do not miss it. Seriously.

As a bonus, I’ve also included an older video below of Amon Tobin showing off and explaining some of his best dj tricks (it is hilarious). Enjoy.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is an amazing annual free concert put on in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park bringing together music from primarily bluegrass, folk, indie, country, blues, and rock roots (thus the hardly strictly descriptor). This year had an especially good lineup (and did I mention it ‘s always free) so I made sure to make it out to two out of the three days. It’s great fun and I would highly recommend it to people for future years.

One of the only acts I had a really good vantage point for was Broken Social Scene (festival stages get crowded when they’re free), so I took a few videos which you can see below. Check out live videos of Broken Social Scene playing “Fire Eye’d Boy” and “World Sick” at Hardly Strictly 2011 respectively below. Enjoy!

French electro artist SebastiAn recently came to San Francisco for a “live” show (at the Mezzanine on 09/19/11) and although the music was really enjoyable at the time, the performance ended up ultimately being a bit disappointing after later finding out that he was playing a premixed set without any kind of midi controller. However, if that’s not something that bothers you, then I would say he’s still worth seeing.

Ed Banger’s SebastiAn aka Sebastian Akchoté spent the duration of his 1hr+ set smoking cigarettes, drinking, looking at his computer, and putting one fist or two fists up every now and then. He was backed by a couple “S” lights, some random political themed visuals behind him, and an occasional barrage of flashing lights. Now as I mentioned before, the music sounded good and I heard some songs I didn’t recognize which is always exciting.

All in all it was still a fun time; but when you pay $25 for a ticket to see an artist play “live” (as it was billed) only to later find out that the guy is just smoking cigarettes along to his premixed set, it is kind of disappointing. This fact was validated by a DJ friend of mine who opened for SebastiAn that night.

Regardless, the videos below are worth watching because the sounds and video are pretty good (my new droid bionic phones takes 1080p videos apparently woo), and after all it’s all free so you should check out the videos below (without paying and feeling cheated of a real performance). Enjoy!