a quick list of things that i’m listening to and you should be listening to also (in that i can recommend these things):

male bonding – nothing hurts

i saw the video for “year’s not long” the other day on stereogum. the video is … well, whatever. it degenerates into dudes making out, which i wouldn’t consider noteworthy except for the force with which these dudes make out. this is, of course, the point of the video. and tangential to how awesome i find this noise-pop to be.

paul simon – graceland

talk about being late to the party.

passion pit – manners

late to the party here, but not quite as egregious. it’s slowly grown on me since i first bothered to listen, to the point where i feel obligated to tell people that yes, i am one of those people who likes passion pit.

japandroids – post-nothing

i’ve been pimping this album to anyone i can since i started listening to it, but i guess i never really mentioned it here. maybe because i disappeared from here for a while. regardless, AWESOME. i like all these bands who listened to my bloody valentine but then were like “let’s make it rock”

deftones – diamond eyes

i’ll stop here for now. diamond eyes is the platonic ideal of an album from an established band. the deftones have been around since i was in middle school pumping out awesome, evolving hard rock. they’ve taken a leap with this album, where they combined the best elements of previous works and produced something so awesome that it brings their previous works into a new, better light. let me say that again in a different way – this album makes their past albums sound better. think about how incredible an accomplishment that is and then go listen.