You know, if the Mayans are right, this is my last year-ending list, ever.

The original draft for this end-of-the-year synopsis saw a somewhat dissatisfied me attempting to relate the lack of late-December snow on the ground here in the Northeast to the seemingly incomplete feel of 2011 and its musical offerings. For this writer, 2011 ushered in quite a few much-anticipated releases that ended up falling far short of their predecessors (Battles, Lemuria, and Manchester Orchestra, to name just a few). It paid witness to the disbandments of Philadelphia's Snowing and Frank Turner's departure from Gallows, two longtime favorite bands of your ever-humble narrator. In writing this, I very nearly fell into an abyss of textual lamentation, centered around the simple fact that my 2011 top-ten list is but a sad skidmark in the wake of its beefy 2010 counterpart. But really, what good is it to whine and moan about what this year and music could have been? 2012 is already shaping up to be more promising, with scheduled releases from Every Time I Die, Joyce Manor, and Andrew Bird all dotting the early year forecast, not to mention my 21st birthday and yet another installment of summer Olympics (read: publicized females gymnastics) both looming on the horizon. And so, temporarily dropping the resentfulness of the year's more underwhelming moments, I present you with a handful of moments during which 2011 showed no signs of suck: Eric's Top Twelve Tracks of Twenty-Eleven.

Album Review: Cain Marko - At Sea EP

Cain Marko tell it exactly as it is. "The universe can go without another song about drinking!" rings out at the start of 'At Sea In St. Paul', track one from their self-released debut EP At Sea, and they're absolutely right about that. Bands have been singing ballads about drowning out sorrows in a bottle or partying with friends for about as long as they've been crooning about love and sex, and the members of Cain Marko immediately acknowledge their lack of originality in that regard. This forthcoming admittance of their shortcomings is comforting - for one, it grounds the band on a humble and relatable level and, in doing so, allows for an immediate rapport between them and their audience. More importantly, it puts that much more importance on ardent and honest songwriting and musicianship, an aspect of their music that these Michigan kids have most certainly followed through on.