Top 30 Albums of the Decade

30. M83 - Digital Shades Vol. 2 (2019/7.3)
29. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto (2011/7.5)
28. Phoenix - Ti Amo (2017/7.6)
27. Melody's Echo Chamber - M.E.C. (2012/7.7)
26. Kings of Leon - WALLS (2016/8.0)
25. Night Moves - Colored Emotions (2012/8.0)
24. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, Maad City (2012/8.0)
23. Night Moves - Pennied Days (2016/8.0)
22. Pond - Beards, Wives, Denim (2012/8.0)
21. MGMT - Little Dark Age (AOTY-2018/8.1)

20. The Shins - Port of Morrow (2012/8.1)

19. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (2015/8.1)
18. Night Moves - Can You Really Find Me (2019/8.2)
17. M83 - Junk (AOTY-2016/8.2)
16. Pond - Tasmania (AOTY-2019/8.2)
15. Pond - The Weather (2017/8.5)
14. Phoenix - Bankrupt (2013/8.5)
13. Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker (2010/8.5)
12. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories (AOTY-2013/8.6)
11. Pond - Man, It Feels Like Space Again (2015/8.9)
10. Foster The People - Sacred Hearts Club (AOTY-2017/9.0)
9. Foster The People - Torches (2011/9.1)
8. Foster The People - Supermodel (AOTY-2014/9.1)
7. Passion Pit - Gossamer (2012/9.5)
6. Vampire Weekend - Contra (2010/9.7)
5. ** Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown (2010/10)
4. ** Tame Impala - Currents (AOTY-2015/10)
3. ** Tame Impala - Lonerism (AOTY-2012/10)
2. ** MGMT - Congratulations (AOTY-2010/10)
1. ** M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (AOTY-2011/10)

Who Do You Think You Are

Who do you think you are?

The 50 Best Indie Rock Songs of 2017

It was a good year for music. Here is a list of my favorite Indie/Alternative Rock songs that were released in 2017:

50. The Man - The Killers

49. Up All Night - Beck

48. For Sondra (It Means The World To Me) - Passion Pit

47. Ti Amo - Phoenix

46. One More Love Song - Mac DeMarco

45. When You Die - MGMT

44. Name For You - The Shins

43. Inner Dialogue - Passion Pit

42. Role Model - Phoenix

41. Lotus Eater - Foster the People

40. Fantasy Island - The Shins

39. For the First Time - Mac DeMarco

38. I Love My Friends - Foster the People

37. Somewhere Up There - Passion Pit

36. So Now What - The Shins

35. Sweep Me Off My Feet- Pond

34. Tremendous Sea of Love - Passion Pit

33. Sit Next To Me - Foster the People

32. On the Level - Mac DeMarco

31. Powerlines - Tame Impala

30. Undertow - Passion Pit

29. The Fear - The Shins

28. Loyal Like Sid & Nancy - Foster the People

27. Little Dark Age - MGMT

26. Fior Di Latte - Phoenix

25. III - Foster the People

24. 30000 Megatons - Pond

23. List of People (To Try And Forget About) - Tame Impala

22. Tuttifrutti - Phoenix

21. Edge of the World Part 2 - Pond

20. Everytime - Boy Pablo

19. All I Can Think About Is You - Coldplay

18. Hey K - Passion Pit

17. All I Want for Xmas (Is a Tascam 388) - Pond

16. Paint Me Silver - Pond

15. Everything Now - Arcade Fire

14. Half a Million - The Shins

13. The Weather - Pond

12. I'm Perfect - Passion Pit

11. Taxi's Here - Tame Impala

10. Colder Than Ice - Pond

9. Moonlight On the River - Mac DeMarco

8. Static Space Lover - Foster the People

7. Edge of the World Part 1 - Pond

T-5. Telefono - Phoenix
T-5. J-Boy - Phoenix

4. Harden the Paint - Foster the People

3. Goodbye Soleil - Phoenix

2. Doing it For the Money - Foster the People

1. Pay the Man - Foster the People

We Can Go Anywhere, Arnie. We Can Go Anywhere.

At first glance, graduating from University seems not any different than the previous 17 or so summer vacations I've lived through. Maybe because it's summertime in St. Paul, or maybe it's the immediacy of it all. Either way, there is a major difference that sometimes is difficult to comprehend. Whether I believe it or not, I don't have to go back to school in the fall. I don't ever have to go back.

But if I wanted to, I could.

If I wanted to go back to my alma matter in August to pursue a master's degree, I could. If I wanted to move to Cincinnati, I could. Now more than ever, life is filled with boundless opportunities. And that's what separates this summer from any other summer: the rediscovery of freedom. I was always free, what with free will and everything; I could have dropped out of school and disappeared at a moment's notice. In my case, however, that would not have felt like the right thing to do. Of course freedom includes the ability to choose whatever one wants, but it also implies that the chooser will choose what at the time feels like the right decision. And in my current position, I've never had so much opportunity for potentially right decisions.

This realization struck on May 14th while I was driving on I-29 between Grand Forks and Fargo. For the first half hour, I had only two things on my mind: Mac DeMarco (Ya, I got a CD player) and getting to St. Paul as efficiently as possible. Then suddenly, for the first time out of all the times I've ever driven that route, I asked myself why.

I glanced at my gas tank. Over 3/4 tank. I glanced at the passenger seat. A small box, with over $1000 inside. Cash. In the rearview mirror I noticed a portion of my possessions, knowing that most of the rest was in the trunk. The road signs said 45 miles to Fargo, but I knew better than that. In 6.5 hours, I'm in Omaha. Without even making a single turn. Another 3 hours and I'm in Kansas City. Wouldn't it be lovely to explore Kansas City? I've always wanted to visit Kansas City. And even then, if I kept going, if for some reason KC had nothing for me, I'm already halfway to the Gulf of Mexico. By the same time the next day, May 15th, I'm on the beach. Looking out at the ocean and beyond...

We all know that I did none of those things. In Fargo, I took the eastbound I-94 exit to Minneapolis. Just like all the other times. But the question is, why didn't I keep going? What stopped me?

The answer is simple, and it has to do with love and magnets. Specifically, the magnetism of love. As a fourth generation resident of St. Paul, most of my friends and nearly all of my family live right in the city. It's where I grew up, and along with Minneapolis, is home to many, many places, some as tiny as a room, some as vast as a river, that I've grown to love. It's not easy being alone in this world. But when I'm in St. Paul, as blasé as it sometimes gets, loneliness may as well be a theoretical experience. In St. Paul, often I feel as if there's no where else I'd rather be.

And so, just like a magnet, we're drawn to the people and places we love. Without love's magnetism, it's hard to imagine the existence of cities at all. Without love's magnetism, humans are castaways amid oceans of land, drifting between settings and existences the way fish drift the sea.

In another reality, I never took that turn in Fargo. I kept going. I landed at the Gulf of Mexico, and who knows? Maybe I did find something greater there. Maybe my treasure is waiting for me at the Louisiana coast. Maybe a love more profound than any Minnesota product is right there, sitting next to the crashing waves of the sea.

But that's neither here nor there. Even if I jumped back in my car to find out, the magnets always find a way to pull me back.

End Times

By now it is clear that Grand Forks, North Dakota truly is a simple place—the land of zero lakes, where chain stores rule all and nature is nothing more than endless plains of farmland.

For almost 4 years, somewhere within those endless plains lived a boy who for 18 of them only knew the skyscrapers of not one, but two major cities. Amidst these plains, he met some truly fantastic people whom he will never forget.

But not a day went by, not one single day during those 4 years, in which the boy went without daydreaming of the moment, a glorious moment indeed, of when he would ultimately obtain his university degree and return to St. Paul indefinitely.

The moment is now.

You Are A Golden Gal

Sometimes, Animal Collective's music sounds jarringly melodic, like a cold, fresh psychedelic shower. Other times, their music sounds exactly like what their name suggests: as if a bunch of wild animals were put in a room and allowed to bang on instruments. This song is of the former variety:

1 Check-In = 1 Confusion

On Monday, a phenomena happened on facebook in which droves of users "checked in" to the Standing Rock Reservation as a means to help those protesting the Dakota Pipeline, which would run through that reservation.

An original post claimed that, "The Morton County Sheriff's Department has been using Facebook check-ins to find out who is at Standing Rock in order to target them in attempts to disrupt the prayer camps. SO Water Protectors are calling on EVERYONE to check-in at Standing Rock, ND to overwhelm and confuse them. This is concrete action that can protect people putting their bodies and well-beings on the line that we can do without leaving our homes." The only thing is, this entire claim was proved here to be essentially false; the police never used facebook as a means to thwart protesters.

Here's the unsettling part: we now have seen how quick people are to make public their position on social media versus how slow they are to physically support that position. We're given the false sense that we can achieve equal parts change from the comfort of our homes than out in the real world. Obviously it'd be tough to drive out to North Dakota and be there to protest, but an online donation certainly achieves more than an online check-in. It almost causes one to wonder: is this issue really something the people of facebook care about, or is it just another post being shared to establish a political identity? In other words, are some real world issues treated as just another way to achieve popularity on social media?

Here's the admirable part: This is the classic 1 like = 1 prayer hoax, only instead of promoting a meaningless facebook page, the curators of this hoax actually help raise awareness about a noble cause. Many people who didn't already know about the Dakota pipeline issue now do. This creates the opportunity for more to join the cause, and actually inhibit concrete change. Many people don't have the time or resources to adequately help a cause they believe in. But anyone can advertise to those who do, and this proves critical in creating more tangible efforts. Ultimately then, it is a commendable gesture to check-in at standing rock to show support. Regardless of how genuine that support is, added awareness can and will help.

But if you think you're fooling a sheriff's department, you're really just fooling yourself.