Yeah! Erik G!

I'd say you must check out Nana Grizol (my album of the year) and the Conor album and She & Him (if you haven't heard it already) for sures.

Got the Conor, was sort of underwhelmed ... but maybe I need to give it a second chance. Thanks!

Erik -- it's so good to see your imaginary name here again! Welcome back.

There's this band called Fleet Foxes that everyone's been pretty excited about this year. Perhaps you've heard of them? ;)

I've been in and out of paying attention this year too . . . I strongly recommend that Bon Iver record, though. So good!

The other one I've been meaning to get - and I recommend you do as well - is Earth's The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull. I think I've even decided to suck it up and buy the fancy new double vinyl. I have heard it, though, and it is flippin' awesome.

Erik's already heard of Fleet Foxes, aka the 79th best band in Seattle.

I have the Santogold and Lil Wayne records, both are very good and at least one of them will make my top 10 list. Most recently, I'm pretty excited about the new Rosebuds record.

my favourites this year have been
Ladyhawk
No Age
Wolf Parade
She & Him
The Hold Steady
The Moondoggies
The Mountain Goats
Love as Laughter

plus some of the others mentioned here

The Bug and Dept of Eagles are both great... I'd say definitely El Guincho... I'll think of some more!

IGshr*e

Some good ones there, esp. The Bug, Glasvegas, Santogold & yes Lil Wayne.

Among my other favorites:
Devotchka 'A Mad And Faitthful Telling'
M83 'Saturdays=Youth'
Deerhunter 'Microcastle'
Firewater 'The Golden Hour'

Feral Children 'Second To The Last Frontier'

Head Like a Kite 'There Is Loud Laughter Everywhere'

Dead Confederate 'Wrecking Ball'

Good year!

sadly i don't think you're missing anything if you don't get beck's modern guilt. i used to be a huge beck fan and have just not at all been into his music lately. perhaps it's the scientology.

Erik, I've dropped off the TIG radar as well, I know what you're going through. You've got quite a few albums listed that I need to check out, I hear great things about that Bug album. You should give these a spin as well:

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down 'We Brave Bee Stings and All'
Jim White 'Transnormal Skiperoo'
The Moondoggies 'Don't Be a Stranger (as mentioned by Jim above)
The Notwist 'The Devil, You + Me'

And there's this other album that I hear they only have at Best Buy that comes with a free Dr. Pepper......

You know while I'm at it, go ahead and pick up all the Hardly Art releases. They haven't missed yet, what a way to launch a record label.

See Me River, HLAK, Animals At Night, Transmissionary Six, Saturday Knights, Damien Jurado (SO great), Parenthetical Girls, Saeta, Dead Science, Conrad Ford, Rodriguez reissue, LoveLand, Tim Fite, Heavy Hearts, Oars, Iceberg Slim reissue, The Shondes, Just Farrar A Laugh comedy album from Matador, it's been a great year.

Some of my favorite flavors this year:

Matt Bauer-The Island Moved in the Storm
Bonnie "Prince" Billy-Lay Down in the Light
Erik Ennocksson-With It's Dark Tail Curled Round the Garage
Grouper-Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
Haruka Nakamura-Grace
Ben Benjamin-The Many Moods of Ben Benjamin vol. 1
Xiu Xiu-Women as Lovers
Goldmund-The Malady of Elegance

Wow, thanks folks. I got my work cut out for me ...

Shugo Tokumaru - "Exit"!!!

DEFINITELY get STARFUCKER (their debut album, from Portland) and I second whoever said Parenthetical Girls!! "Rawnald Gregory Erikson the Second" and "A Song for Ellie Greenwich" are two of my favorite songs right now!
cheers!

Johnny Flynn "A Laurm"
Laura Marling "Alas, I cannot Swim"
Land of Talk "Some Are Lakes"

skip the santogold and li'l wayne. they may be hot right now but, they'll crapped out by spring.

suggestions:

saul williams - the inevitable rise and liberation of niggy tardust

electric president - sleep well

and seattle's newest resident

astronautalis - pomagranite

Hey Rachel,
Thanks for the Laura Marling suggestion. What a beautiful album!
Johnny Flynn is also pretty great.

Couple of my favs from this year:
Bon Iver
Helio Sequence
Natlie Portman's Shaved Head

and I'll second the Shugo Tokumaru - pretty fascinating stuff.

Glasvegas. Get it now with the extra Christmas tracks, A Snowflake Fell, etc.