iPod Top 100: 2014

That title seems ever more inaccurate, now that I’m writing the 10th edition of this list. Still, tradition!

1. “History Eraser” – Courtney Barnett
2. “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (Live)” – The Eels
3. “Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways
4. “(I’d Go the) Whole Wide World” – Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside
5. “Boom Boom” – Storm Large
6. “We Used to Be Friends” – Alejandro Escovedo
7. “Leavin’ Trunk” – The Black Keys
8. “Avant Gardner” – Courtney Barnett
9. “Run Me Down” – The Black Keys
10. “Once Upon a Dream” – Lana Del Rey
11. “Salome” – Old 97’s
12. “From Nails to Thumbtacks” – The Baseball Project
13. “I’ll Be Your Man” – The Black Keys
14. “Hooked On a Feeling” – Blue Swede
15. “Spitfire” – Public Service Broadcasting
16. “Have Love Will Travel” – The Black Keys
17. “Lousy Husband (But a Real Good Dad)” – Todd Sharpville
18. “Goodbye to Guyville” – Urge Overkill
19. “Heavy Soul” – The Black Keys
20. “The Eagle Has Landed” – Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside
21. “Countdown” – The Black Keys
22. “Skinny Legs and All” – Joe Tex
23. “Why’d You Only Call Me When I’m High?” – Arctic Monkeys
24. “She Said, She Said” – The Black Keys
25. “Let’s Get Drunk & Get It On” – Old 97’s
26. “Do I Wanna Know?” – Arctic Monkeys
27. “Next Girl” – The Black Keys
28. “Just One of the Guys” – Jenny Lewis
29. “The Princess Who Saved Herself” – Jonathan Coulton
30. “White Rabbit (Arabic version)” – Mayssa Karaa
31. “Girl You Look Amazing” – Nicole Atkins
32. “Lips N Hips” – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
33. “When It’s Time to Come Down” – The Black Hollies
34. “Thickfreakness” – The Black Keys
35. “Going Out” – Hospitality
36. “West Memphis” – Lucinda Williams
37. “Marvin, I Love You” – Marvin, the Paranoid Android
38. “Juicy Lucy” – Sonny Knight & The Lakers
39. “Under the Sea” – Toucan Steel Drum Band
40. “Brooklyn Bound” – The Black Keys
41. “Six Pack of Beer and a Pack of Cigarettes” – Erik Koskinen
42. “Greens and Blues” – The Pixies
43. “Go All the Way” – Raspberries
44. “Beast of Burden (Live)” – The Rolling Stones
45. “Them Eyes” – The Black Keys
46. “Cinnamon” – The Long Winters
47. “No Better” – Lorde
48. “Swampy Seconds” – Magic Mouth
49. “Metal Man” – Marvin, the Paranoid Android
50. “Spirit in the Sky” – Norman Greenbaum
51. “Come and Get Your Love” – Redbone
52. “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” – Rupert Holmes
53. “Bumpin'” – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
54. “Breaks” – The Black Keys
55. “Young and Beautiful” – Lana Del Rey
56. “Marvin” – Marvin, the Paranoid Android
57. “Abracadabralifornia” – RHCP2014
58. “Do the Rump” – The Black Keys
59. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – CHVRCHES
60. “I Miss Your Bones” – Hospitality
61. “Fuck That” – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
62. “Yearnin'” – The Black Keys
63. “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem” – Kenny Chesney
64. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
65. “Reasons to be Miserable” – Marvin, the Paranoid Android
66. “Stick Up” – Max
67. “Settle Me Down” – Zac Brown Band
68. “Spaceteam” – 100 robots
69. “Busted” – The Black Keys
70. “Tokunori” – Philippe Lachance
71. “Invisible (RED) Edit Version” – U2
72. “I Want You Back” – The Jackson 5
73. “The Voyager” – Jenny Lewis
74. “Rusty Cage” – Johnny Cash
75. “Time’s All Gone, Pt. 1” – Nick Waterhouse
76. “Spacetheme – Easter Egg version” – Philippe Lachance
77. “Riptide” – Vance Joy
78. “Country Folks (feat. Colt Ford)” – Bubba Sparxxx
79. “O-O-H Child” – The Five Stairsteps
80. “Caught Up” – Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas
81. “Holding My Breath” – Mr Twin Sister
82. “Who Needs You” – The Orwells
83. “Okuma” – Philippe Lachance
84. “Criminal (feat. Freddie Gibbs)” – ZZ Ward & Freddie Gibbs
85. “I’m Not in Love” – 10cc
86. “Your Touch” – The Black Keys
87. “Moonage Daydream” – David Bowie
88. “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” – Elvin Bishop
89. “Friend of the Devil” – The Grateful Dead
90. “Second Chances” – Gregory Alan Isakov
91. “Washing Dishes” – Jack Johnson
92. “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” – Lou Rawls
93. “Never Give In” – Mackintosh Braun
94. “All Around and Away We Go” – Mr Twin Sister
95. “Gobo” – Philippe Lachance
96. “Golden Twin” – Wild Ones
97. “Journey of the Sorcerer” – The Eagles
98. “Go Captain and Pinlighter” – Emperor X
99. “Waiting room” – Philippe Lachance
100. “Chicago” – Sufjan Stevens

Here are the previous nine iterations of this list: Previous editions can be found here: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

My top Instagram photos of 2014

My most-liked photos of #2014, via @iconosquare. Journalism, family and sharks. Seems about right.

A video posted by Beau Yarbrough (@lby3) on Dec 12, 2014 at 3:50pm PST

Books read, 2014

I had hoped to beat 2013’s total of 14 books, and am midway through two excellent ones, but both are slow-going, both because they’re fairly hefty reads during the holidays, and because I’m savoring them both: Tim Powers’ tour-de-force Declare, which melds World War II and Cold War espionage with genies and, from the looks of thing, Biblical apocrypha, and the incredibly comprehensive The Frood, a biography of Douglas Adams which includes many never-before-seen outtakes that never made it into the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy stories or other works. Both are fantastic reads and both are slow going.

Feb. 28: Top Secret America by Dana Priest
March 16: Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
May 28: Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
June 1: Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville by Gina Arnold
June 9: Doctor Who: Shada by Gareth Roberts and Douglas Adams
June 15: The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry
July 5: The Government Manual for New Pirates by Matthew David Brozik
July 31: The Radleys by Matt Haig
Aug. 25: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas
Aug. 26: The Magician King by Lev Grossman
Sept. 23: Grimbeard Goes to Prison by Samwise Didier
Oct. 12: The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
Nov. 11: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Nov. 22: Skink–No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen

Stay away from Last Kind Words Saloon, by the way. I’m not sure what McMurtry was going for there, but it reads like the old “be awful to you until you break up with me” maneuver and is all around unpleasant. Forget “not watering your plants while you’re away and letting them die” or “forgetting to pick you up at the airport” awful; we’re talking “I let your dog out of the house and it got hit by a car and died” awful. You’ve been warned.

The greatest journalism video of all time

iPod Top 100: 2013

A little later than usual this year, but here’s what I was listening to the most in 2013.

Previous editions can be found here: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

There’s probably something a psychologist could tease out of the number of female rockers on these lists, which seems to be the only consistent element over the years.

1. “Party Kids” – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
2. “The Sword By My Side” – The Thermals
3. “Awkward” – San Cisco
4. “Black Sheep” – Gin Wigmore
5. “They Told Me” – Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
6. “Holy Roller” – Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
7. “Summer in the City” – The Eels
8. “Island Song” – Zac Brown Band
9. “Slyd” – !!!!
10. “Water” – Brad Paisley
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