We asked Pitchfork writers and editors to share their personal highs and lows of 2013. Check back for more installments of My Year in Music throughout the next two weeks.
Favorite Tracks of 2013:
01 Courtney Barnett: "Avant Gardener"
02 2 Chainz: "Feds Watching" [ft. Pharrell]
03 Bill Callahan: "Small Plane"
04 Thundercat: "Heartbreaks + Setbacks"
05 Fuzz: "Fuzz's Fourth Dream"
06 Protomartyr: "Feral Cats"
07 My Bloody Valentine: "She Found Now"
08 Perfect Pussy: "I"
09 Parquet Courts: "Stoned and Starving"
10 Beck: "I Won't Be Long (Extended)"
Favorite Albums of 2013:
02 Thundercat: Apocalypse
03 Majical Cloudz: Impersonator
04 Mikal Cronin: MCII
05 Thee Oh Sees: Floating Coffin
06 Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold
07 Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt
08 Bill Callahan: Dream River
Most Played Song of 2013: I struggled with worry, anxiety, and panic this year. My Bloody Valentine's "She Found Now" was my go-to emotional balm. Whenever I fell into a cyclical, internet-centric panic, I'd put it on repeat. After a few cycles, I'd invariably level out. I dozed off to this song on several occasions, including one time where I slept through the boarding call for my flight back home. I don't listen to it while traveling anymore.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year: Lots of Heartbreakers, MC5, and Tres Hombres this year, but more than anything else, I got a ton of mileage out of Motörhead's Ace of Spades. The title track's obviously a ripper, but the entire album's incredible. I liked blasting "Shoot You in the Back" in Ann Arbor parking lots and screaming the part where he goes "WESTERN MOVIES", except for a while, I didn't know that the words weren't "WESTERN UNION".
Musical Highlights: Seeing a bunch of killer Michigan bands: Chit Chat, Haunted Leather, Bad Indians, Growwing Pains, Terrible Twos, Feelings, K9 Sniffies, others. Watching Timmy Vulgar incite a moshpit during a Protomartyr set. Seeing Prince. That Parquet Courts + Merchandise + Destruction Unit bridge show at SXSW. Las Ardillas in Austin. Jessica Pratt at MOCAD. Blues Control at DCCP. Sonny and the Sunsets at PJ's. Listening to Action Bronson's "Larry Csonka" on repeat during my friend's bachelor party. Watching a Detroit audience cheer loudly for Devon Welsh's plain beige t-shirt. Bonding with my Airbnb host in Sorrento, Italy over Iron Maiden's "The Trooper", then seeing a band play that song the same night at a wine bar. Finding an Oh Sees record I didn't know existed on Record Store Day. Talking to Jon Hopkins about Brian Eno. Talking to Flying Lotus about video games. Being told, "No, sir, this food is for R. Kelly" at Pitchfork Music Festival. Getting paid by my alma mater to hang out with Todd Rundgren. Starting a new column and listening to raw sewage rock on the reg.
Musical Lowlights: Though I caught day two (which was amazing), I had to miss the first night of Urinefested in Detroit, which means I missed the final Clone Defects show. R.I.P. Fast Eddie Altesleben.