We’re gonna find out who’s Radi or nice…Okay, that is probably one of my more half-assed puns*. But considering it is the so called “Silly” season I call play on. Bad puns about our chief editor aside, the end of the year is approaching. 2014, what a year you have been! We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and I realised my dream of being paid to write about music could actually happen. And as we slowly turn this fledgling little ship towards the unknown waters of 2015, we want to look back one more time at these last twelve months and reflect on all the great things that have happened in this funny little world we call the music industry.
Old mate Saint Nick is making his lists, and so is Happy! Here are some of the lists we’re loving so far from our brethren blogs, and stay tuned for our lists too!
This is the first of those lists as we have a look at the best end of year lists out on the interwebs already. There are a lot of great sites dedicated to covering the best music going around, so without further ado here a few of Happy’s Best End of Year Lists out there that we are loving so far!
FasterLouder’s “The 50 Best Albums of 2014“
You gotta love these big album countdowns. There’s always this sense of excitement when they’re revealed. “Who’s number 1?”, “Did my favourite band get they love they deserve?”, and my personal favourite “Who the hell are these guys? They’re not even good!” are just a few of the remarks that usually spring up. One of the best things about FasterLouder’s list is that they manage to pull together a well rounded list of their 50 best albums, and more importantly are able to briefly justify their choices. Sure, there are some golden records there from DZ Deathrays, Remi, Fishing, Total Control and many, many more. But they also have Taylor Swift. Outside of this ridiculous cover by Gollum, I have no real care for this country turned pop star, yet the folks at FasterLouder manage to justify her inclusion without over-hyping it. The thing to best take away from this list and others like it is that there are many great artists to be found, and if you come across one you haven’t heard before, give them a go regardless of genre. You never know, they could well be your new favourite band.
Noisey’s “You Don’t Have To Lose Money On Tour“
This one isn’t your traditional end of year list per se, but it is definitely one worth reading regardless if you are a travelling musician or not. I can barely stomach the two and a half hour trip from Sydney to Canberra, so the idea of spending the 37 days touring in dive bars sounds exhausting. But every muso has been there, and if you have a passion and a vision then I’m sure it is worth it in the end. So Noisey’s list (Guide? Guiding list?) is a pretty great little article to have a look at. It is penned by Nick Woods of the band Direct Hit and it is a starkly honest, dryly funny revelation of life on the road, simultaneously offering invaluable advice for the touring musician whilst calling bullshit on the myths of required excess.
Tone Deaf’s “The 10 Best Free Things In Music You Can Do this December“
I love free things. You love free things. Everyone loves free things. Hell, I once accepted a free Bible despite not believing in God, but simply because I didn’t have to pay for it. The holiday season is now upon us. Classes are over, people are taking time off work to do the things they love. But not all of us have a disposable income, and quite frankly sitting at home watching Ellen repeats all day is not a great lead-in to Christmas. Thankfully, the folks over at Tone Deaf have complied a neat little list for all you stingy bastards. Considering it’s Tone Deaf a lot of these events are based in Melbourne, but regardless there are plenty of things to do on the cheap. Street art, live music, they’re all great things to get down to if the whole summer music festival thing isn’t your jam. And what’s more, a lot of these fun-tivities make for great dates, so all you romantics make sure to give this list a good peruse.
In the meantime, the folks at Happy are busy concocting our own lists. So keep an eye and an ear out as we count down the best albums, singles, covers, videos and much, much more! Meanwhile we’ll leave you with a video that made the Happy team efficiently procrastinate and laugh at the same time this year.
*Ed. Oh dear…
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▲ FASTERLOUDER ▲ NOISEY ▲ TONE DEAF
