Artist of the Day: Starfucker

I think it's good that, as a man with a record collection growing by about a dozen new releases a week, I own at least one album that I can put on at a friend's house and both of us can enjoy. For a while, Reptilians by Starfucker filled this role perfectly: with plenty of catchy, danceable melodies for him and vocals droning about accepting death for me. It's a little bit of a confusing mixture, I'm inclined inform you, but it accumulated into this kind of brilliantly morbid celebration of our own mortality; as exciting as it was humbling. As a result, it ended 2011 very close to the top of my best-of list, which was incredibly surprising for an album that wasn't insufferably self-indulgent.

Sean's Top 10 Albums of 2011

10 | Giraffes? Giraffes! - Pink Magick

The demented and chaotic nature of Giraffes? Giraffes! third full length, Ping Magick, is accurately described in just about everything concerning the album except for the music. everything from the absurd track titles to the pretty pink and green explosion of an album cover captures everything that Pink Magick is all about. The band consists of nothing but a guitarist and a drummer, but the monstrosity of tracks such as "DRGNFKR" sounds like something that could not have been done by two musicians alone. Pick Magick is an extraordinary accomplishment for math rock and is easily one of the finest works to come out of this year.