Aural Pleasure, The Seventh Day of Xmas

On the seventh day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... seven sirens singing. Well no, it's actually two sirens singing, but we did "Two" earlier. Maybe today's collection should have been two and two should have been three, but then where would three go? Seven? You see the problem? Anyway, I'm so happy today that I get to talk about this dynamic duo.

Aural Pleasure, The Sixth Day of Xmas

On the sixth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... One Hundred Blog Posts! That's right everyone, this is my hundredth ever post, and it's quite fitting that I get to spend it talking about one of my all time favorite bands ever. By all rights it's probably one of your all time favorite bands too, and that's because Radiohead is a group of stunning and experimental musicians that have never ceased to amaze this humble listener. Yep, gave it away before the jump (As if the title picture doesn't do that already), who cares it's Radiohead, Wooo 100!

Aural Pleasure, The Fifth Day of Xmas

On the fifth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... five octothorpes ... no that's not right, there's only one octothorpe that I know of. What's an octothorpe you ask? That's a great question, I have no idea, all's I know is there's a big one stamped on the front of today's album, take a look and see.

Aural Pleasure, The Fourth Day of Xmas

On the fourth day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... four pedal steels a-sliding ... sliding? Is that the right verb? Twanging? Yes twanging, that's what pedal steels do, and there's a lot of twanging in today's pick:

Aural Pleasure, The Third Day of Xmas

On the third day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... three girls a-mourning ... Woah, that doesn't sound good does it? Hmm, three girls a-belting? A-singing? A-being sad because their naive preconceptions of life and love have shattered around them and are now forced to deal with the pain of toughening up against a cruel and harsh world? Yes, that's it! That's what this next wonderful album is all about.

Aural Pleasure, The Second Day of Xmas

On the second day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... two rappers rapping ... well okay, mostly two rappers, their DJ drops in for quite a few tracks. And you can't have a rap album without guest appearances and cameos, you seriously can't. Anyone know why that is? Anyway, the point is there's more than two rappers rapping, but this is typically a duet, since today's best album is:

Aural Pleasure, The First Day of Xmas

On the first day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... A Decemberist in a Folk Tree. Oh man, did I just give it away, if I've learned (stolen) anything from other blogs doing this sort of thing is that you don't give away the actual item until after the jump. Oh well, this is my first go, there's bound to be kinks. So here we go, my first favorite of the year.

A Very AP Xmas

Merry xmas everyone, now that this year is almost over I feel this is a perfect time to take a moment reflect on 2011 ... Wow yeah that's depressing huh? I imagine most people had a shit year, so let's reflect on something else ... like, say, MUSIC! Indeed music had one hell of a year this year huh? Seriously, this is one of the best years for music I can remember in a long time, this year for music was what 2007 was for movies, as in there's just too much good, too many surprises, and this year I would actually have trouble narrowing my favorite music down to a top ten list. This might not sound like that big of a deal, but usually my favorite music of a particular year only includes a few current selections, and it's not because good music didn't come out that year. It's usually because I'm usually really jamming on things that came out previously, and despite that, I was still obsessed with tons of things that actually came out this year, things that actually surprised me. So, in honor of this wonderful year of music, taking a page from the RPS chaps, I am going to do an Aural Pleasure Presents: The Twelve Days of Xmas Music Extravaganza, where each day of Xmas I gush about an album that came out this year that I fucking loved.

The Book That God Wrote, Job

Hello everyone, welcome to my take on what might be the most important book of the Bible so far. Do I say that a lot? I don't know, maybe it's true a lot. In any case it's true here. Are you ready to have your mind blown? If you're unfamiliar with Job, and you think you know how our little religion works, then yes, prepare to have your mind blown.

There Is A Mine...

There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.
Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.
Man puts an end to the darkness; he searches the farthest recesses
for ore in the blackest darkness. Far from where people dwell he cuts a shaft,
in places forgotten by the foot of man; far from men he dangles and sways.
The earth, from which food comes, is transformed below as by fire;
sapphires come from its rocks, and its dust contains nuggets of gold.
No bird of prey knows that hidden path, no falcon’s eye has seen it.
Proud beasts do not set foot on it, and no lion prowls there.
Man’s hand assaults the flinty rock and lays bare the roots of the mountains.
He tunnels through the rock; his eyes see all its treasures.
He searches the sources of the rivers and brings hidden things to light.

-Job 28:1-11