My 5 Star 2010 Music Playlist – Jonsi, Sufjan, Spoon, Superchunk, BLK JKS, more

Here is my 2010 5 Star Playlist. Enjoy

1. Boy Lilikoi, Jónsi, Go
2. Zol!, BLK JKS, ZOL!
3. (I Keep On) Rising Up, Mike Doughty, Sad Man Happy Man
4. The Mystery Zone, Spoon, Transference
5. Crossed Wires, Superchunk, Majesty Shredding
6. Lisztomania, Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
7. Heaven’s On Fire, The Radio Dept., Clinging to a scheme
8. I Didn’t See It Coming, Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love
9. Save Some Time To Dream, John Mellencamp, No Better Than This
10. Heirloom, Sufjan Stevens, All Delighted People EP
11. Too Much, Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz
12. Modern Man, Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
13. Animal Arithmetic, Jónsi, Go
14. Camilo (The Magician), Said The Whale, Islands Disappear
15. Spectacular Girl, Eels, Tomorrow Morning
16. Zorbing, Stornoway, Beachcomber’s Windowsill
17. Your Hands (Together), The New Pornographers, Together
18. TAOS, Menomena, Mines
19. Swim, Surfer Blood, Astro Coast
20. Tired Climb ! VERY HEAVY !, Kylesa, Spiral Shadow

Here is a link to the playlist on iTunes. Iain 2010 5 Star on iTunes

My rules are that I’ve purchased the music in the past 12 months. The music itself can be of any age, but it has to be new to me in the last year.

Honorable Mentions

Many genres do not fit this format. For example downtempo electronica (song length) and metal get the most negative feedback. This year I added more range with song 20, it may be too heavy for some. Some great material that did not make the list are.

• Impossible Soul, Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz – this song is very long and very cool. Probably my favorite of the year. But at > 25min its just too long for a sampler
• Pantha du Prince, Black Noise — whole album (try — Lay in a Shimmer)
• Bonobo, Black Sands — whole album
• Neil Young, Le Noise — wow!
  
• Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues

• Surfer Blood, Astro Coast — extra note — this is really fun.
  

Book List 2010

Here is my 2010 Reading List. There are five | READ THIS | books and a few more very good books. I’ve included brief notes and an Amazon link for each book. My default format is audiobook. I’ve noted “book” in the few cases where I read in hardcopy.
Enjoy

Fiction – “Entertainment”

• Daemon – Daniel Suarez | READ THIS | Techno Guy Book Nirvana- “dwong” recommended to me & I’m seconding … Awesome!
• Freedom – Daniel Suarez | READ THIS too
• Anathem – Neal Stephenson | This took some effort & was worth it. If you survived Cryptonomicon & his others then get this.
• The Green Mile – Stephen King | Pure Entertainment for all
• Bite Me: A Love Story – Christopher Moore | LOL … read the whole series … don’t stop there … read all of Chris Moore
• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson | Narrator is very good
• The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson | best of the series
• Hornet’s Nest | The third book is not great … but recommend it to get closure
• The Unincorporated Man – Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin | More Techno Guy Book Fun

Non-Fiction

• How We Decide – Johah Lehrer | READ THIS | Excellent! Fascinating description of how brain works and how we decide.
• Nurture Shock – Po Bronson | Very Interesting review of Parenting studies.
• Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages – Federico Biancuzzi | book | Nerd Fest | I really liked this. I’m tinkering with Haskell because of it.

Business

• Business Model Generation – Alex Osterwalder | book | READ THIS | … get the preview below
• download preview now
• Design of Business – Roger Martin | book | READ THIS | I blogged about it this year
• Who – Geoff Smart, Randy Street | Interesting.

Spiritual

• Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda | Excellent. Ben Kingsley narrates … it’s a scientific process … oops that was magic … scientific … magic
• Buddha – Karen Armstrong | Interesting. Very accessible history of the Buddha.
• Experiments in Truth – Ram Dass | I really liked this. That said it’s taken me ~5 years of “practice” to be able to comprehend these beautiful “rants”