nate eiesland – Indie Music Filter

Best Songs Of 2014

It’s been another great year for new music, 2014 did not disappoint at all. This post is always my favourite one to put together, the problem is always trying to keep the number of songs down. I settled on 50 tracks (listed here in playlist order, not a ranking) that rocked my year, take a look below and agree, disagree, discover of just hit play. As usual, I did my best to make these playlists on soundcloud, spotify, rdio, youtube and this year on Dropmark (which I use for saving videos). For those who like to watch your playlists, try out my collection.

1. The War On Drugs – “Red Eyes”
2. Jungle – “Busy Earnin'”
3. Saintseneca – “Happy Alone”
4. Ryn Weaver – “OctaHate”
5. Broods – “L.A.F”
6. Death From Above 1979 – “Trainwreck 1979”
7. Brolin – “Swim Deep”
8. Bastille vs Haim – “Bite Down”
9. Moscow Metro – “Future Fades”
10. Austin Basham – “All Is Well”
11. Alvvays – “Archie, Marry Me”
12. Sego – “Wicket Youth”
13. Ghost Beach – “Moon Over Japan”
14. Sucre – “Young And Free”
15. Strand Of Oaks – “Shut In”
16. Lowell – “The Bells”
17. Arkells – “Come To Light”
18. Nate Eiesland – “Drifting”
19. Future Islands – “Seasons (Waiting On You)”
20. Ben Khan – “Youth”
21. Prinze George – “Make Me”
22. Bombay Bicycle Club – “Luna”
23. Sylvan Esso – “Coffee”
24. Caribou – “Can’t Do Without You”
25. Fickle Friends – “Swim”
26. Snakadaktal – “The Sun II”
27. Old Man Canyon – “Wiser”
28. Chad VanGaalen – “Monster”
29. Cloud Nothings – “I’m Not Part Of Me”
30. Skaters – “Miss Teen Massachusetts”
31. Spoon – “Inside Out”
32. Haerts – “Giving Up”
33. Kevin Drew – “You In Your Were”
34. Wye Oak – “Glory”
35. SOHN – “Artifice”
36. Hey Rosetta! – “Kintsukuroi”
37. Wolf Saga – “You Only Live Once (Strokes Cover) feat. Lyon”
38. Seoul – “Stay With Us”
39. Panama Wedding – “All Of The People”
40. Magic Man – “It All Starts Here”
41. Phoria – “Atomic”
42. Vance Joy – “Mess Is Mine”
43. New Pornographers – “Brill Bruisers”
44. Tove Lo – “Habits (Stay High)”
45. Prides – “Messiah”
46. Operators – “True ”
47. Snowmine – “Tidal Wave”
48. Still Parade – “Beach”
49. Breakfast In Fur – “Shape”
50. Odesza – “Say My Name (feat. Zyra)”

BEST SONGS OF 2014 (RDIO PLAYLIST) / BEST SONGS OF 2014 (SOUNDCLOUD PLAYLIST) / BEST SONGS OF 2014 (SPOTIFY PLAYLIST) / BEST SONGS OF 2014 (YOUTUBE PLAYLIST) / BEST SONGS OF 2014 (DROPMARK VIDEO PLAYLIST)

Three Albums That Changed My Life (ON AN ON Takeover)

1. Nevermind, Nirvana – Age 12
In 1996 my parents took me on a vacation to Michigan. We drove over the course of two days from Central Minnesota to Mackinac Island. We only stopped to sleep and to see any, and every, goofy road side monument – e.g. the world’s biggest ball of string. My brother and sister hadn’t come for whatever reason, so there wasn’t much to do for entertainment in the back of our stuffy station wagon. My choices were to either endure my mother reading endlessly out loud to my father or to pull out my walkman and take a listen to the tape I had borrowed from my friend. It was Nirvana’s Nevermind, and I had never heard anything like it. Every time I would come to the end of one side I would flip the tape over and keep going. I was hypnotized. The dynamics were so intense. Kurt’s voice was so raw and honest. Everything about it made sense to me, and for the first time in my life an album gave me a sense of personal expansion. It was as if listening to it had turned on a light in a corner of myself that I didn’t know existed but had been there all along.

2. Clarity, Jimmy Eat World – Age 15
In 1999 I was on the verge of some real independence. I had started learning to play the guitar two years prior and spent most of the hours of my day writing shitty music and riding bike around town with my friends. We had a band and we were ambitious. We traveled around Minnesota playing shows to eight kids in basements for what felt like ages. While we were out on one of these so called tours I was introduced to Jimmy Eat World’s album, Clarity. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved every moment of every song on it. I basically lived and breathed that record for an entire year. It became a part of me, and I started to take myself seriously when I thought of making a life out of being an artist and making music.

3. Songs of Love and Hate, Leonard Cohen – Age 26
Starting when he was four years old my father would spend his summers with my Great-Grandparent’s at their farm in Central Minnesota. When I was young we would go out every summer to that same farm to visit my Great-Grandparents. After they passed away the farm was relatively uninhabited for 11 years. In 2010 I was at an interesting point in life. I was treading water emotionally and needed to connect to something real and true. I thought of the farm and drove out to rehabilitate the place over the next few months whenever I could. It was completely overgrown and rundown. I spent a lot of time out there bringing the place back to life, and one of the albums that grew to define that place and time for me was Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate. His songwriting is so bare and effortless. His lyrics are masterfully conversational and frank. Leonard Cohen is a great poet and songwriter. He understands what’s important to him to explore and he doesn’t seem to spread a lot of his creative energy outside of those realized priorities. I gained a new level of focus from the example I found in Leonard and in Songs of Love and Hate. On that album he explores ideas that I relate to so deeply that sometimes it feels as if some of my work could be a response of some kind to his. I feel I can go places lyrically that I would’ve hesitated to before because I know I’m not alone in the admittance of something so real and dark and complicated and beautiful. Maybe I’d be more of a coward without experiencing Songs of Love and Hate. Maybe some other album would’ve helped me find my way. I can’t say for sure, but I did find It. I did spend the time to sink into it, and I’m glad I did.