Favorite songs from 2012

I'm constantly on the lookout for new songs I enjoy and figured I'd share some of my favorites that I discovered in 2012 (all were released in either 2011 or 2012).  Each of these songs either never got many plays on the radio or I had started listening to them before they exploded (I'm looking at you Of Monsters and Men).  A few are even rather weird, such as the song from the Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack.  I'd love to know what you would have put on this list. Spotify playlist so you can listen in is here.

Here's my list :

• Lucky Now - Ryan Adams
• You Will Become - Glen Hansard
• Once There Was a Hushpuppy - Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin (instrumental from Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack)
• Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (this is an older song)
• Blank Maps - Cold Specks
• Somebody that I used to Know - Gotye
• Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
• Black Water - Apparat
• Flaws - Bastille
• Promise - Ben Howard
• America - Imagine Dragons
• Amsterdam - Imagine Dragons
• Stubborn Love - The Lumineers
• San Francisco - The Mowgli's
• Shuffle - Bombay Bicycle Club

A few last minute editions heard last night on KFOG in San Francisco:

• Battles - Hudson Taylor
• Let Her Go - Passenger (I can't decide if I like his voice or if it's annoying)

Friends doing cool things, like putting out an EP

I love when my friends do cool things, like raise money on Kickstarter and put out an EP.  My friend Sam Kornstein, a member of the "Sunday Spins",  just put out an album called "Bend when the sun moves" by Vanessa Kafka and the Sunday Spins.  It's available on iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, etc., go check it out! This was my first experience with Kickstarter and it was a pretty good one.  It was easy to use and made it financially feasible for this band to put out an EP, which previously would have been much more difficult to do on a shoe string budget.

Amazing cover song of "Creep" by Radiohead

This is hands down one of the best covers my ears have heard in quite a while (it also happens to be quite easy on the eyes). It is performed by Carrie Manolakos at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. Check it out here, and make sure you stay until at least 2:25 if you start to get bored:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aZ5ZclZTeTU

Really cool OK Go Music Video featuring the Chevy Sonic

Thanks to a friend's social media advertising blog, I found this really cool video put out by Chevy and OK Go.  Check it out: