On the off chances that 1) anyone cares what their friendly neighborhood imaginary film and theater critic thinks about the year's music releases, and 2) anyone is doing anything at all during the dead 'tween-holidays week, much less reading top-ten lists, here are my favorite albums of the year, alpha by artist:

• The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder
• The Eames Era – Heroes + Sheroes
• Imperial Teen – The Hair The TV The Baby & The Band
• Just Jack – Overtones
• LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
• Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala
• Menomena – Friend and Foe
• The New Pornographers – Challengers
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Tracey Thorn – Out of the Woods

My films-of-the-year feature (coming early '08) will be far more compelling. Promise.

Since I have the time and am not terribly anxious to go outside in the rain again but am looking to start an argument or two, here's my list of my top 10 albums of the year, with YouTube-age of my favorite song from each album (where available).

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I don't think I have any authority to declare official days around here, but in my perfect imaginary world, today would be Imperial Teen Day.

Actually, in my world it is Imperial Teen Day, but in my perfect world it would be a holiday and banks would close, mail wouldn't be delivered, and everyone would be paid to stay home from work - like Thanksgiving, but with worse food and better music.

It's not everyday that the creators of my favorite record of the year come to Seattle and play two (TWO!) shows this evening. The first is a free in-store show at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records at 8pm followed by a show at the Crocodile with Bella and Derby.

Here's a video the band made in 1999 for its song "Yoo Hoo" that is about 75 different shades of awesome:

 

As an unrepentant lover of bubblegum pop music, I often feel the need to sacrifice clever songwriting and lyrics for upbeat tempos, sing-a-long choruses and masterful production. Imperial Teen understands this better than nearly anyone but don’t accept it as a zero-sum game.

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at SXSW 2007

And so it begins... our first day of SXSW 2007 coverage, with Lily Allen, Peter Bjorn and John, Langhorn Slim, the Broken West, and much, much more.

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