Tim Carmody

The best new blog of 2011 is This Is My Next/The Verge, which for the purposes of this discussion I’m going to treat as one thing. Because really, This Is My Next was good enough in its caterpillar form to win a spot here even if it hadn’t gone full chrysalis and re-emerged as The Verge.

That’s because at the core of it are the people who work there. Most media watchers and gadget obsessives know the story: Joshua Topolsky gathered together a crack group of exiles fleeing the decay of AOL and hooked up with budding sports blogging empire SBNation (now Vox Media) to create a splashy new tech site. That’s what you see now at The Verge — a blog that looks like a cross between a 2011 magazine and the 2015 web and does everything from big community forums to investigative features, but is still singularly focused on the consumer technology industry.

This Is My Next was the placeholder, a spot to keep the group writing while they figured out their next move. It wasn’t big or splashy, it didn’t look like a magazine, and it didn’t have the Vox magic behind it. But it was just as fun and inspiring to read.

And eventually I figured this out: I think The Verge’s team does the best liveblog coverage of tech events in the industry, and maybe out of anybody in any field. But it isn’t (just) because they’ve got a super-awesome CMS to put liveblogs together and keep them auto-updated and all the housework stuff you have to do. It’s because they pick the events they liveblog very carefully and send a bunch of smart people who know and communicate with each other really well.

Pick something you love; find people who love it like you do; write the shit out of it. That’s been the recipe for successful blogging from the beginning, whether big or small.

Tim Carmody is a media and technology journalist who writes for Wired magazine and the Epicenter blog at Wired.com. His home blog is Snarkmarket, and he is devoted to Twitter (@tcarmody). He subscribes to 608 feeds in Google Reeder, and usually uses Reeder as his RSS client.

Michelle Legro

I’d say 2011 has been the year of the matured Tumblr. Although it’s nice to see that there are major literary sites that use the platform (see The New Inquiry or the temporary (?) home of the LA Review of Books), I hate to say that truly longform work doesn’t have a natural fit here. Tumblr likes it quick, smart, and cutting. Oh, and pictures. It loves pictures.

That’s why my pick for the best new blog of 2011 is The 3rd of May, edited by Tyler Green of ArtInfo, which promises artwork each day that’s guided by something that happened in the news: a headline, a book review, an event, or a reaction. It’s named after Goya’s The Third of May 1808, which depicted Spanish rebels facing a firing squad of Napoleon’s soldiers. Every day, Green posts a link to something recent, and pairs it with a piece of art that’s sometimes reactionary, sometimes complimentary, sometimes literal, sometimes silly.

The series started on November 30th, 2010 with a Dorothea Lang image of a breadline in Depression-era San Francisco paired with a ProPublica story about expiring unemployment benefits. Some of my favorite in the past year include Cory Archangel’s “Super Mario Clouds” for a New Yorker profile of a Nintendo designer, Maurizio Cattelan’s “La Nona Ora” (The Ninth Hour) with a meteorite-pummeled Pope for a Newsweek article about the fast-tracked beatification of saints at the Vatican, and John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark to commemorate the all-important Shark Week on the Discovery Channel

In a nod to Goya, each post has as its title the date: the 30th of January, the 15th of August, the 24th of June. Because everything’s monumental, every day.

Michelle Legro is an editor at Lapham’s Quarterly and follows 1,045 people on Twitter, which seems like too much.

Nick Martens

Navigating sports coverage online is kind of a nightmare. There’s so goddamn much of it, and the signal-to-noise ratio is terrible. Big sites like ESPN, SBNation, and Deadspin all post awesome stuff, but you have to wade through a sea of crap to find it. Tons of better outlets toil in obscurity.

Following sports people on Twitter raises similar problems. During a crazy game or huge news story, a genuine feeling of community builds as everyone reacts to the same thing at the same time. But during fallow periods, your stream clogs with cruft from people you don’t know.

Dan Shanoff’s Quickish is the answer.

The site’s clean design reflects the clarity of its content. Shanoff curates (in a true sense of the word) the most important news and the most enlightening reactions in the world of sports.

The “Quick” part of the name works on multiple levels. Borrowing from Twitter’s vernacular, Quickish breaks its posts down into small, easily digestible chunks and uses hashtags so you can catch up on any story quickly. The site also updates quickly in the wake of any major happening. Quickish posted the news of last Thursday’s ridiculous Chris Paul story almost instantly, then compiled a list of reactions mere moments later. The site provides all the immediacy of following events on Twitter, without actually having to follow anyone. Plus, during the day, the site links to great pieces of sports writing, so you can add depth to the high-level overview you get from Quickish itself.

I realized the simple brilliance of Quickish during last Spring’s NCAA basketball tournament. Like a lot of casual sports fans, my interest in college hoops only awakens during March Madness. During the tournament’s opening days, 64 teams square off over two days. So much happens so fast that it’s impossible for a newcomer to know what to pay attention to.

Quickish cut through the fog. The site updated manically with results of outlandish upsets, reactions from stunned observers, and video clips of the wildest plays. It made me feel truly engaged in the action, and I began looking forward to updates from Quickish more than the games themselves.

I started following the site when it launched, but since that tournament, I’ve been hopelessly, joyfully addicted.

Nick Martens is an editor of The Bygone Bureau, and he also plays iPhone games. He’s down to 74 feeds in Google Reader and 41 follows on Twitter, about which he feels smug.

Andrew Simone

I was utterly incapable of producing a single decent blog from 2011. It’s Nice That? Nope, started in 2007. Bobulate? Ancient, born in 2001. That’s when it struck me: I have 23 folders in my reader but I only occasionally read from three of them. Unless The Sickness strikes me, I can’t be bothered to fiddle with the rest for want of time. Besides, I don’t trust blogs for the good stuff, I trust people. But, of course, declaring the best new person of 2011 doesn’t make any sense, so I am forced to become something of a cheat. My pick is actually a web app, Stellar.io, which hitches to a few popular web platforms and aggregates other’s favorites from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo. You can follow people to see their favorites, see what you’ve faved, or see what others have faved of yours. And, since it essentially documents the passive delight of favoriting, you get a slice of the internet’s true remainder: the good stuff your trusted sources aren’t talking about — and who doesn’t want that?

It’s not as if blogs are outmoded, it’s that content and consumption are bigger than any one platform. Stellar has essentially cracked open some of those platforms and allowed me to experience some of my old blogging pals in new ways, widening rather than cementing the circle.

Also, as an apology for the cheat, the closest blog thing I can point you to is Stellar Interesting, the aggregation of the most favorited items on Stellar.

Andrew Simone is a gadabout from Kansas City, Missouri who blogs at clusterflock and writes gaming articles for The Idler when his editor, Gavin, prods him enough. He subscribes to 196 subscription in Google Reader, but ignores most of them. His Stellar profile can be found here.

Aaron Rutkoff

I don’t know if the internet has been good or bad for books — who does? — but I’m certain that it has been a mediocre force for finding reliably helpful book reviews. There are several hundred strangers tweeting their love for The Art of Fielding right now, and an army of unknowns flinging stars around on Amazon. But who can you trust?

I trust Jo Walton, a science-fiction novelist and contributor to her publisher Tor‘s rather remarkable book blog.

Unlike the standard publisher-run website with sample chapters and author blogs, Tor puts out a good deal of very good standalone short fiction (e.g. this sharp Ken MacLeod future-assassin story) and lets its resident bloggers loose on the entire nerd-cultural landscape beyond just Tor products. And, importantly, not just new stuff.

That’s where Ms. Walton comes in. Here’s what she’s doing that is so wonderful: atemporal book reviews. And that’s exactly what the internet of book reviews needs most, I think.

With new books, at least fashionable literary ones or those with a certain quotient of very engaged readers, we can get robust online discussions and assessments in addition to coverage in the not-so-numerous book-review publications. There’s also a wealth of online information about out-of-date books that have passed into quasi-canonical status, even stuff that was formerly fringey (for example: the high-quality internet of Philip K. Dick).

But I’ve been reading sci-fi with various degrees of discernment for almost two decades (I’m 31), and even so there is a lot my book blind spot. Such as the 1980s, at least beyond the top-line cyberpunk authors. Just try Googling some not-very-celebrated genre novel from, say, the early 1990s (maybe this one?) and figuring out if you want to read it from the search results.

Walton just turned 47 but it seems like she has been reading promiscuously (and then re-reading) inside the genres for at least twice that long. Her magnum opus as a reviewer this year was her Revisiting the Hugos series, in which she reconsidered the annual Hugo Award slate going back to 1953. The fiction prizes are voted by convention-going sci-fi superfans, and Walton does not hesitate to point out blundersome selections. But the project excels because she also tells you what, in retrospect, were better books from that year, overlooked in their day (and now ours as well, usually). It took Walton nearly a full year to finish the project.

And her biases are fascinatingly authentic and open. In one of her most charming tics, Walton is always cautious of readers who might start on a prolific author’s lesser work — a fantastic quality when talking about a subset of pulpy novelists who can easily amass two dozen titles. Walton loves space station fiction with aliens and detests heists. Her negative reviews are usually reserved for the over-celebrated legends, like this reflection on Heinlein’s worst. And that’s as it should be: who needs help finding more information about forgotten books that deserve to remain that way?

Aaron Rutkoff is an editor for the Wall Street Journal’s Greater New York section and runs the Metropolis blog. He subscribes to 172 feeds in what was once Google Reader but prefers Twitter (@aaronrutkoff) by a wide margin.

Kevin Nguyen

Grantland might be the highest-profile blog launch ever (I don’t know of any others getting Times Magazine treatment). The brainchild of ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, Grantland is ostensibly about sports, but it succeeds in just about every area it covers because it simply has some of the best writers anywhere. Molly Lambert, formerly of This Recording, tackles all things pop culture (her smart Boardwalk Empire re-caps tally sex scenes, deaths, and uses of ragtime music); there’s a monthly-ish column from Tom Bissell, one of the most respected videogame critics; and of course, the sports writing is phenomenal — look at, or Chuck Klosterman’s recent deconstruction of Tim Tebow or anything by Katie Baker.

Grantland shows not just a whole lot of business savvy (is Subway a life-time sponsor?), but also an understanding of what makes publishing on the web fun. It brings a bit of sports culture to pop culture, like when Klosterman applies the VORP baseball statistic to evaluate the worth of Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. or when Andy Greenwald plays fantasy football with network TV cancellations.

Grantland’s success is certainly no underdog story like The Awl (of which a handful of Grantland staffers got their start), but it bucks a lot of trends from big media-backed web publications. Grantland publishes only original articles, let’s those pieces run long, and doesn’t smother them with advertising. Beyond the site itself, Grantland makes me optimistic about the future of web web.

Kevin Nguyen is an editor at The Bygone Bureau. He abandoned Google Reader this year and relies solely on Instapaper and Twitter (@knguyen).

Chris Lavergne

In 1996 Forbes magazine was one of the first major media companies to launch its own website. (Newsweek magazine did not launch one until 1998; Time not until 1999.) This past January Forbes took another bold step with their online presence when they unveiled a completely revamped version of Forbes.com.

The new site marked a radical departure on every front. The backend was moved from a proprietary in-house CMS to the open source WordPress — quite a remarkable feat for a major media company. With great care and attention to user-experience, the front-end was redesigned. Most importantly, they implemented a new publishing workflow and business model based on the True/Slant platform, a startup news website acquired by Forbes in 2010. This adaptation of the T/S model has transformed Forbes.com from a static online magazine to a dynamic, almost Tumblr-like publishing platform for Forbes staff writers and 800 new freelancers. Lewis Dvorkin, the chief product officer at Forbes, has called this new tech setup and editorial structure with staff and independent writers contributing from all around the world “The New Newsroom.” Editorially speaking, the result is a diverse Wunderkammer of sorts with whimsical to serious coverage of everything from tax policy to the porn industry to online privacy to pageview harvesting slideshows. Not bad for a company founded in 1917. 

Runner up: the new Gawker

Chris Lavergne is the founder and publisher of Thought Catalog.

Gavin Craig

It’s a great time for videogame writing. Jane McGonigal’s Reality is Broken has been the talk of the year, and Tom Bissell (author of the excellent Extra Lives) is writing about Mass Effect and Gears of War in The New Yorker. Even The New York Times is running videogame reviews. Game culture is going mainstream, and even better, if you’re paying attention, is that mainstream or underground, game culture skews smart.

And the smartest new videogame blog I came across this year is Play the Past, where a group of academics — that is, professors and grad students — write about “the intersection of cultural heritage (very broadly defined) and games/meaningful play (equally broadly defined).” It’s not purely a videogame site (they love Alternate Reality Games or ARGs — Mark Sample looks at how history museums are using them), and it can be a bit heavy on classroom issues for non-academics, but where else will you read how Plato’s Republic is one big game, how Dead Island’s “zombie code” might be as dangerous as the zombies walking around in the game, or an anthropology of how players mourn when characters are deleted in MMORPGs?

In fact, if there’s one tragedy in the world of game writing, it’s that there may be more smart contributors than can be supported. One of my other favorite new blogs this year — The Game Manifesto — has already gone quiet, but posts on Uncharted and Portal 2 are still worth checking out.

Gavin Craig co-edits The Idler where he writes about video games, comic books, and food. He subscribes to 62 feeds in Google Reader, up to half of which are currently inactive, but he couldn’t stand to miss if they started up again.

All photos taken at Arabica Lounge in Seattle.

It just goes to show that there’s no amount of marketing money that could make me care about this game, but god knows the Firefall folks will try anyway. The escalators are lined with Firefall ads, a huge Firefall banner sweeps across the third-floor entrance, and even outside the Convention Center, streets are lined with Firefall flags; in the exhibition hall, Firefall has the largest and most elaborate booth (complete with fog machines), and outside the hall, whatever the hell this is:

Photo by Nick Lynch-Jonely

I was overwhelmed by Firefox Firefall marketing to the point of apathy. I still couldn’t tell you much about the game. It looks futuristic, there are guns, and sexy soldier women only need armor to cover their right leg. —KN

PAX coaxes a diverse ecology of dweebs, dorks, and other nerds out from the substrata of social isolation they normally inhabit. Among the least likely to possess energetic, extroverted personalities are the players of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games — merely being present amongst a convention’s surging sea of humanity is challenge enough for them.

So, the film crew could have chosen a better target to ambush. Four gamers, adorned in various intensities of geek couture, stand facing a flat-screen, playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, an upcoming MMORPG. From behind them sounds a billowing voice, brimming with phony enthusiasm:

“Who’s playing some games!?”

The gamers turn and freeze. They’re likely too smart to comprehend such a dumb question, but a pair of them answers in the only appropriate way.

“Woooooo!” their mouths say, but their eyes speak only panic.

The interviewer carries on, apparently pleased by the direction of the conversation. Judging by the expressions of the four nerds with lights and cameras in their faces, he’s the only one. —NM

On the second floor are tabletop game rooms, quiet areas reserved for people to play boardgames. There’s an impressive library where you can check out board games for free, as long as you return them by 1:30 a.m. We try a couple new games.

I realize that playing a board game is a much-needed break from being overstimulated by, well, all of PAX. In the tabletop game rooms, there are no TVs, no music, no flashing lights, no cosplay, no advertisements, no Firefall statues — just nerds, playing games, and enjoying each other’s company. —KN

Photo by Shawn McClung

Near the end of the day — with my wits fried; legs sore; and cynicism for the ultra-corporate, lowest-common-denominator pandering that pervades the show at a record high — something unexpected happens. A promotion for a game makes me turn my head, stop, and smile.

C-3PO and R2-D2 are standing at an intersection near the Microsoft booth. Not only do their costumes look perfect, but the actor in the 3PO suit knows his moves. With his knees locked straight and elbows at right angles, he twists at the hip and jerks his head back and forth — a perfect imitation of the droid’s panic-stricken mannerisms. (R2 doesn’t do much because he is almost certainly empty, but then, he doesn’t need to.)

A woman from the crowd approaches for a picture. She throws her arms around 3PO and goes in for a kiss. He jerks his head back, flails his arms out, and deadpans for the camera.

I laugh. I can’t help myself. Neither can anyone in the crowd gathered around the scene. The reaction is as warm and genuine, devoid of the sarcastic snipes fired from the fringes that you’d get from other groups gawking at such spectacles. Because, to our naive and childish delight, we are interacting with the most delightful characters from the singular cultural object that lies at the heart of the greater cultural movement for which PAX is a beacon. Star Wars is as close to a bible as we nerds have, and we’re witnessing a pair of apostles in the flesh. We are powerless to resist. —NM

I get a text from my friend Maré about a Minecraft after-party:

Hey dude! There’s some Minecraft thing tonight at a club called Trinity?? It’s a club. Could be weird.

About ten minutes later:

Oh it’s terrrrible. Don’t come here.

Later, Maré explains by tweet:

We tried to get into a Minecraft party. VIP list or $50 cover (couldn’t get in). Now at a bar with $2 PBR.

—KN

Photo by Shawn McClung

I’m at PAX for one reason: Spelunky. After sinking dozens of hours into the treasure hunting, retro-styled action platformer this year, its rigorous, unforgiving mechanics convinced me that it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Its creator, Derek Yu, is currently at work on a new version for the Xbox, which he’s demoing at the show.

Yu’s booth sits at the far end of the exhibit hall, but that doesn’t stop me from dragging five people who have never heard of Spelunky back there the second we set foot inside the convention center. I try out the game, which makes me happy, but only on co-op with two people who have never played the original. Even though they’re my friends and their mere presence at the booth is indulging me more than I deserve, the experience is… slightly frustrating. We hand the controllers over before I’m satisfied, and I leave half my mind behind as we walk away. The rest of the day, all I really want to do is go back for more.

So, when the day wanes and the rest of my group occupies themselves at the Nintendo exhibit, I sneak off.

When I return to the Spelunky booth, I only have to wait for a minute or two to get what I want: an open station with no one behind me in line. I dive into the game and revel in it — jumping, climbing, and throwing bombs like a kid with an overactive imagination in a jungle gym. My old habits start to adapt to the new game, and I’m working on my first good run of the day when Derek Yu asks me if I want to play with him.

He looks at me, he and two others crowded around the booth’s second screen with controllers in their hands.

“Me?”

I hadn’t played the deathmatch mode yet. I choose a character (a purple pirate), the game deposits us in a level, and the countdown begins.

Shit, I think. Somehow, at a videogame convention, I worry about looking uncool.

Chaos fills the stage and two characters die before I can even orient myself. Then I realize the guy who made the game is hunting me with a shotgun. But he drops it for a different weapon, presumably to obliterate me in a more interesting way. I grab the shotgun, he freezes me into a block of ice, but before he finishes me off, the ghost of a dead player blows on Derek’s character, giving me enough time to thaw myself. (I should mention here that deathmatch mode is exactly as awesome as it sounds.)

I pull the trigger and win the round. The game cuts to a score screen, and my purple pirate rises one notch above the rest.

Derek goes on to win the whole match, but still. —NM

This year’s contributors

• Robin Sloan
• Liz Danzico
• Brandon Boyer
• Katie Baker
• Natasha Vargas-Cooper
• Richard Dunlop-Walters
• Matt LeMay
• Erik Bryan
• Leah Finnegan
• Nozlee Samadzadeh
• Kevin Nguyen
• Nick Martens

Kevin: You mean 2009.

Nick: Fuck you.

Kevin: It was a big year for the Bureau. We won that award —

Nick: Yes, the Pulitzer.

Kevin: No, the Web Award for Best Blog at this year’s SXSWi.

Nick: Oh, I remember that. We made asses out of ourselves onstage.

Kevin: And remember when we met that super famous rock star?

Nick: Andy Baio?

Kevin: …Graham Coxon from Blur.

Nick: Right, and you told him to fuck himself.

Kevin: I was pretty drunk. Actually, I think I was pretty drunk for most of 2009. Why don’t you refresh my memory with a trip through The Bygone Bureau’s archives?

Nick: Sure thing, bro! We started the year off pretty strong with a submission from Darryl Campbell. And then over the year, it became apparent that he had more talent than both of us combined, so we gave him the title of Assistant Editor to take him down a notch.

Kevin: I doubled his pay. To double nothing.

Nick: Burn.

Kevin: After that first travel piece, he started a series called The Gulf about the Middle-East.

Nick: For me, the highlight is “Bread and Blowback,” which was about a baker he met in Kuwait.

Kevin: I think he really hit his stride with his second series, Keywords. “Success and Failure” was among the strongest articles we ran all year. I would call it a success.

Nick: You’re an idiot.

Kevin: We also lucked out with a handful of great new travel series.

Nick: I love Jonathan Gourlay’s series from Micronesia, Nowhere Slow. That one piece about getting a wife… what was it called?

Kevin: “Get a Wife.”

Nick: Yeah, that was fucking awesome. And thanks to Bowman, I now have nightmares about Australian tiger leeches.

Kevin: I’ve also really enjoyed Emily Guerin’s series from South America, Seeing and Being Seen. Her first piece is the longest thing we’ve ever run on the Bureau, but worth every word.

Nick: That was a bitch to edit. (Oops. Sorry Alice.)

Kevin: Speaking of Alice, the Build-A-Bear story from her “Worst Jobs I’ve Ever Had” piece reminds me why I hate going to the mall. Or getting out of bed.

Nick: That’s because you hate talking to people.

Kevin: Well, that’s because people are always asking me about my favorite book! What a conundrum!

Nick: God, that was a bad transition.

Kevin: Think you can do better?

Nick: Hell yes. I’m gonna get typographical on this motherfucker.

Nick: Boo ya!

Kevin: That’s cheating.

Nick: Anyway, it was a good year for humor pieces on the Bureau as well. Hudson Hongo started writing for us in May, and I think “Perhaps This Isn’t the Right Time” was his funniest piece.

Kevin: And Hudson also got published in McSweeney’s and The Morning News.

Nick: I LOL’d pretty hard at Ralph Gamelli’s “Instructions on My Defrosting.”

Kevin: Oh yeah, well I ROFL’d at Josh Fischel’s “Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform, Berlin, 1939.” And don’t forget your “Post-Monsterism” piece.

Nick: I think the title was the best part of that. I also liked your Bono impression. Although making fun of Bono is like making fun someone from Jersey Shore.

Kevin: What the fuck is Jersey Shore?

Nick: I don’t know.

Kevin: What are we even talking about? I’m surprised so many great indie bands were willing to give us interviews.

Nick: Yeah, we were just shooting bands random emails at first. Though we eventually we learned a little about how to deal with PR reps.

Kevin: Like when Caitlin contacted John Vanderslice, and received an interview FAQ that claimed, “JOHN VANDERSLICE IS NOT AS NICE AS YOU MIGHT THINK.”

Nick: Didn’t he buy pizza for everyone at the show when you saw him in Seattle?

Kevin: Free pizza. What an asshole. At least gave us a fantastic interview.

Nick: And Greg talked to Women and Here We Go Magic, Tim interviewed Phoenix, and you chatted with Japandroids.

Kevin: We really stepped up our interview game in general. You had a good conversation with Robert Ashley.

Nick: I couldn’t believe you got Maira Kalman. That blew my mind.

Kevin: Tim’s interview with Nathan Rabin was awesome too. And we can’t forget about Jordan’s piece on Anna the Red, the bento-box magician.

Nick: This year also marks the end of our longest-running series, The Rambling American by Locke McKenzie. His final entry is just great.

Kevin: Yeah, he gave us 27 articles, and consistently hit his bi-weekly deadline, which I deeply appreciated as editor. And his new series, Brewer’s Corner, looks to be even better.

Nick: I actually paid $10 for a four-pack of pumpkin beer because of Locke.

Kevin: INSERT SARCASTIC RETORT HERE.

Nick: What?

Kevin: Nevermind.

Nick: Uh, okay. I’m surprised Locke is so well adjusted considering that his parents forced him to dress up as his patron saint for Halloween.

Kevin: You know what’s weird? We’ve talked for more than five minutes and haven’t once referenced Mad Men.

Nick: Or prostitutes.

Kevin: No, we already mentioned Jordan.

2009 was a good year for Tumblr. Synecdochally speaking, that means it was also a good year for Tumblrers, or whatever you call them.

Whether your metric-of-choice is book deals or raw numbers, The Kids Who Tumble graduated to big boys on the playground, not so much by stomping the other kids as by inventing their own game in the corner. Tumblr’s make-or-break premise was always that the semi-closed platform (insular, secular, participatory) would eventually make a deeper connection than the open online systems (cosmopolitan, egalitarian, populist) powered by Feedburner and retweets. Whereas anyone can read blogs or tweets, tumbling nearly demands participation.

And reblogging. Lots and lots of reblogging.

That insidery quality is why we shouldn’t be surprised that there isn’t a single Tumblr in the Technorati 100. (If choosing a blog platform were tabloid fodder, then the shocker of the year was that The Awl — one of a few new sites to creep onto the list — chose WordPress over Tumblr.) And besides Newsweek, there isn’t a single media company even trying to do anything with the platform.

But Tumblr never was for the suits. What it lacks in individual size, Tumblr makes up for in aggregate. Take the “Fuck Yeah ____” meme. These Tumblrs (including but certainly not limited to Fuck Yeah Sharks, Fuck Yeah Neal Patrick Harris, Fuck Yeah Skinny Bitch, Fuck Yeah Philosophy) have nothing to do with each other, but they served their essential purpose of being 4chan-lite. (Oh look, Fuck Yeah 4chan.)

This year, one new site embodied the larger-than-it-seems Tumblr zeitgeist better than others: Mad Men Footnotes.

TV recaps had become a moribund genre. Thousand-word recaps of things you already saw, recaps were the downtrodden hookers of internet discourse: felicitous with their views, but leaving behind the emptiness of sloppy seconds. Mad Men Footnotes flipped the genre around. It wasn’t about the telling you what you just watched — it was about exploring the entire universe that it created. Through short posts that allude to passing show references (Rothko, Ann-Marget, salted ice cream), the site made history feel like the present.

Just as Mad Men uses the ’60s as a prism through which to understand contemporary advertising and desire, Mad Men Footnotes is shorthand for understanding blog culture. It is the quintessential use of the platform: a reblog of a reblog designed for reblogging.

Rex Sorgatz blogs at Fimoculous. He subscribes to approximately 600 feeds in FeedDemon/Google Reader (now connected!).

Andy Baio

Offworld started in late November 2008, the first off-brand offspring of Boing Boing’s attempt at world domination along with Boing Boing Gadgets and BBTV. The site quickly became a favorite of the indie gaming community, thanks to the singular vision of Austin-based editor Brandon Boyer.

Offworld explored the art and culture of games, with a focus on under-appreciated and innovative games from the exploding independent games movement, as well as some quirkier mainstream titles. Most entries highlighted a single link, but the site also featured in-depth previews, interviews, and roundups of obscure delights. By far, Offworld’s most popular entries were showcases of art — galleries of exclusive concept art, leaked imagery, and game photography.

In the process, it became the largest blog to regularly cover indie games, exposing the scene’s efforts to a wider audience. Ultimately, Boing Boing’s advertising partners couldn’t find a way to market to the site’s audience. Less than a year later, on October 7, the site was quietly shuttered, downgrading Boyer to a weekly feature for the mothership. On Boing Boing, every entry’s fantastic — highlights include original art from Canabalt, LittleBigPlanet, and Brütal Legend — but it’s not the same. Game over, man.

Honorary Mention: Paul Lamere’s Music Machinery, where the Echonest’s community lead hacks music metadata with entertaining results.

Andy Baio is the CTO of Kickstarter, a Brooklyn-based crowdfunding startup, and writes at Waxy.org. He subscribes to 515 feeds in Google Reader.

Andrew Womack

Launched in April, The Awl specializes in incisive commentary about anything and everything founding editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk find worth incising. What you won’t see here: rapacious coverage of the dirty story of the moment. The Awl stands at the edge of the party (next to the keg, probably), giving the play-by-play of the downward spiral of the media industry. (For the purposes of this metaphor, the media industry are those in the center of the party who are drunk, copping feels and making frequent butt.)

Over the past few months Sicha and Balk have added a stable of columnists and fellow Gawker Media alums, including Ana Marie Cox, who pairs up with HuffPo’s Jason Linkins to pen alternate-reality (maybe?) captions of the White House Flickr Feed, including such sweet nuggs as this: “Disappointed in his inability to win President for a Day responsibilities, Joe Biden returns to an afternoon of sexually harassing Valerie Jarrett, one of the powerless, non-basketball-playing women of the White House.”

So it’s funny, yes, and always delivered with a steady stream of insight. And it can even be informative, such as Awl “business guy” David Cho’s recent explanation of the lyrics to “Empire State of Mind,” in particular how sports players’ jersey numbers relate to the price of cocaine. And there are also movie reviews — the best I’ve read all year — like Choire’s take on The Hangover and the people who go see The Hangover. It’s more than insightful, it’s correct.

Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. He subscribes to 82 feeds in NetNewsWire.

Joanne McNeil

Naming a favorite blog seems somewhat disingenuous because if you are bloggy enough to have a “favorite blog,” you probably use RSS. So rather than reading one site’s posts sequentially, you see it in the context of all your other favorites. So before I name my favorite blog of the year, I should probably first reveal the contents of my Google Reader folders. If I could only read one blog ever, it would be Things Magazine (although picking a linkblog like Things is kind of like saying “I’d wish for more wishes”). My other favorites are Ballardian and Bookslut. Then Next Nature, A Journey Round My Skull, Marginal Revolution, Design Observer, Art Fag City, Tao Lin, Daring Fireball, Futurismic, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Infinite Thought, Jack Cheng, Snarkmarket, Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy, Britticisms, and over 600 others.

Among the great debuts in 2009: Will Wiles’ consistently fascinating Spillway and Mandy Brown’s A Working Library. Both are now in the “must read” folder. Bad British Architecture is very funny, as is The Awl, especially Mary HK Choi’s fashion posts. Hyperallergic had one of the best posts this year, a parody of the Art Review’s “power” issue. There were other great blogs that closed as mysteriously as they debuted. For a while this summer, Digital Fiction Show was your one-stop shop for the best links about the future of books. It’s dead now. And I’m not sure what’s happening with the Review of Reviews, but I hope they start posting again.

But my favorite blog this year is Hilobrow. It celebrates intellectualism and pop culture, seeking the extermination of quatsch and middlebrow. If there is a Walt Whitman recording in a Levis commercial, you’ll find an insightful post about it there. With long posts about “Hilo heroes” like Sheila E. to Zygmunt Bauman on their birthdays, a series on the book as a weapon, galleries of unforgettable cover art, and even short fiction, it’s easy to waste an hour clicking through the archives.

Joanne McNeil blogs at The Tomorrow Museum. She subscribes to 749 feeds in Google Reader.

Mike Deri Smith

Tumblr provided the blogging platform to define how it felt to be online-in-oh-nine. The best Tumblr blogs adhere to the essential rule of “have something to say” and maintain a tight and clear curatorial mandate: you know what to expect. Favorites include EYE ON Springfield, THE BROKERS WITH HANDS ON THEIR FACES BLOG, and GIF PARTY, “a place where GIFs hang out, and do whatever!” Most shout their titles, and though the platform has been described as “Livejournal on coke and privilege,” the quality and variety denies lazily laconic reduction. Through Tumblr’s Dashboard — an intelligent RSS reader doubling as blogging engine — it’s easy to publish, and compelling to make it good, with readers/publishers sending/receiving red-hearted ‘likes’ to and fro (doing it before Facebook, but after the Hype Machine).

The blog that stole the most of my hearts this year, and my favorite blog of 2009, is SlaughterHouse90210. Its title is not all-caps, and its subtlety, quietness, and consistency rewards readers. The Slaughterhouse melds literature with television, publishing TV screenshots above erudite quotes. Extracting literary works from their pages, and isolating TV shows into a single frame, empowers both, provoking me to constantly reevaluate both.

There’s Friends united with Sylvia Plath, Douglas Adams finding something to say about Scrubs, and Mad Men tied to W. Somerset Maugham. The best bit: there are over 400 posts to meander through. I subscribed to scores of Tumblr blogs through the year, but the colorful, bounteous, waterfall proved to much to get through. All that is left now is Slaughterhouse90210. It has gutted and bled the opposition dry. The result: the carcass of high-and-low culture carved into one prime loin.

Mike Deri Smith is an assistant editor at The Morning News and used to run the UK’s “best music blog.” He subscribes to 168 feeds in NetNewsWire.

Blake Butler

Sublime taste across the board on a blog about words and images is pretty difficult to find. Bright Stupid Confetti, run by the one-man show, the brilliant Mr. Christopher Higgs, is a weekly updated stream of mental objects, concept-minded sound and film, freaky and mesmerizing imagery, and hyperfunctional languages. Without commentary, he hand selects entities of aura, ones that are more difficult to not stare at than they are to scroll on past, which in the face of such easy/heavy click-click-click land ability, is a rare find.

What I like most about BSC, beyond the always-invoking taste, is the simplicity of its format, its no-sales-pitch, just-memes treats. It’s like an e-museum you want to go to once a week for its refreshing beeping, and its knack to energize.

Blake Butler is the editor of HTMLGiant. He subscribes to about 150 feeds in Google Reader.

John Beeler

Most of the sites I skim over each day are topfeeders; if they link to something, then it’s probably been whored around the internet all day. But then there’s CreativeApplications.Net (or CAN for short), started by architect Filip Visnjic in October 2008 (2009ish, right?). The folks at CAN manage to mine out the dark, esoteric corners of information presentation and extract real gems that are at once useful and beautiful but somehow overlooked or forgotten. The apps usually take the form of Flash (web), PC, Mac, iPhone, or occasionally Processing (a programming language).

There’s a real sense of character to the selections at CAN that speaks to the quality of their curation. Sure, the writeups are not much more than app-porn (as in “hey, check this out”), but that’s okay; the work is in the finding. Besides, these little app beauties speak for themselves, and the posts are well-stocked with videos and screenshots and links. One recent find by CAN was OmmWriter, a sublime Mac minimalist writing tool that snows on your screen as you type. Another nice catch is Satromizer for the iPhone, which lets you play glitch artist à la Jon Satrom.

On more than one occasion I’ve been the cool guy at the bar with the kick-ass iPhone app thanks to CAN (confession: it’s my wife’s iPhone). And on even more occasions, the amazing techno-art presented on CAN has taken my breath away for a few moments. That’s a rare thing in internetland these days.

John Beeler is the futurist and resident historian/technician/stay-at-home-dad at Asthmatic Kitty Records. He subscribes to 432 feeds in Google Reader.

Nick Martens

It’s no coincidence that every American with a blog links to each new entry from Maira Kalman’s monthly series for The New York Times, And the Pursuit of Happiness. Though Obama ostensibly ushered in an new era of hope this January, when Kalman’s series also debuted, the intervening months have flooded our national consciousness with a sticky cynicism that even Jon Stewart can’t wash away. We constantly need something to remind us that there is good at the core of this country, and Kalman’s uplifting blend of illustration, history, reporting, and poetry fills that need perfectly.

Her writing is sweet without being cloying, her sentiments are optimistic without being naive, and every entry is given life by her wonderful, evocative artwork. She also achieves that rare balance of personal storytelling so honest that it becomes universal. When she falls in love with Abe Lincoln, we swoon with her, and when she finds hope even in our deeply flawed legislative system, we too can believe in a brighter tomorrow.

(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Kalman’s generous spirit, as she freely gave her time to some random idiot on the internet. In that interview, she told Kevin, “This is a column that takes me about three weeks to do. I guess most people don’t spend that kind of time on a blog.” That’s a bit of an understatement. And she didn’t even seem miffed when Kevin described her gorgeous, expressive lettering as “handwriting.” Now that’s a class act.)

And the Pursuit of Happiness should be required reading for all Americans, from school children who need the world’s only entertaining lesson on the word “bicameral,” to adults who, well, need to learn the same thing. And lucky for me, I don’t even have to cherry-pick the best entries from her archive. Just scroll to the bottom of her page, fill your browser with tabs, and lose yourself in her world.

Bureau Editor Nick Martens subscribes to 54 feeds in NetNewsWire.

Kevin Nguyen

I’ve often claimed that BLDGBLOG is the best blog on the web, or at least it has all the characteristics that I think make blogging a uniquely satisfying written medium. But what I adore most about BLDGBLOG is that it’s driven by genuine passion for the subject. The site isn’t written solely for architecture and urban development enthusiasts. Instead, BLDGBLOG proves exactly why you too should care about architecture.

For the same reasons, its newly launched sister site, Edible Geography, is my favorite blog this year. Where BLDGBLOG finds an interesting story in every niche of architecture, Edible Geography does with an even more familiar topic: food. Author Nicola Twilley talks about how global warming affects the quality of Czech pilsners, the EU’s legal standards of beauty for produce, and the Subway sandwich shop being built atop a crane at the Freedom Tower construction site. She digs up the obscure and fascinating.

With much ado about the definition of liberal arts 2.0, I think this site defines exactly what I’d like it to mean. It’s hyper-interdisciplinary, thoughtfully written, and, true to blog form, easily digested (okay, bad joke). Edible Geography is never predictable and always delightful.

Bureau Editor Kevin Nguyen subscribes to 110 feeds in NetNewsWire.

So, as much for our own edification as for yours, we reached out to various bloggers around the country who cover America’s most musical cities and asked them to tell us about the best albums from their local scenes. We got a tremendous and generous response from nearly everyone we asked, reinforcing the old adage that bloggers are the best people in the world. We hope you enjoy their fantastic lists, and we’d like to give our heartiest “thank you” to all the awesome bloggers who donated their time and talent to this feature (subscribe to all their sites!).

Austin

Thomas Fawcett of The Corner

1. Grupo Fantasma – Sonidos Gold
It’s been a hell of a year for Grupo Fantasma. The horns backed Prince on stage at Coachella and the Tonight Show while the local Latin big band toured Europe, entertained troops in Iraq, and earned a Grammy nomination for their third studio album Sonidos Gold. The band’s psychedelic cumbia and 1970s-vintage salsa is aided here by saxman Maceo Parker and Fania legend Larry Harlow.

2. Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada – The Alchemist Manifesto
One of several side projects from Grupo Fantasma guitarist Adrian Quesada pairs him with Antibalas founder and Austin resident Martín Perna. The project allows them complete freedom to create, the result an intoxicating blend of Afrobeat, Latin psychedelia, and breakbeats Perna calls “mysterious Latin funk.”

3. Dan Dyer – Dan Dyer
Dyer’s 2004 debut was produced by Lenny Kravitz, but ditching the big city and big names for a humble East Austin church-turned-recording studio proved the smart move. Dyer’s warm and deeply soulful pipes recall Donny Hathaway but this is no retro affair, just a rich set of honest to goodness soul music.

4. Rae Davis – Positive Thinking!
Leaning on the keys of a tricked-out Fender Rhodes, Austin-by-way-of-San-Antonio beatsmith Rae Davis cooks up jazzy instrumental electronica with a helping of hip-hop. This downtempo gem is perfect for fans of DJ Krush.

5. Ethan, Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele – So Real
There are more obvious choices (Black Angels, Okkervil River, White Denim) but I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed any of those albums more than So Real by Ethan, Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele. Recorded in the bedroom of his Austin home (which doubles as a music venue known as Rancho Relaxo), the first pressing of So Real consisted of 200 uniquely hand-decorated CD-Rs. Mine has a drawing of a rattlesnake and it’s not just the artwork that recalls the strange genius of Daniel Johnston. Vulnerable, honest and frequently hilarious, Ethan’s acoustic ditties are bursting with charm.

Ana Wolken of Austin Soundcheck

1. Ghostland Observatory – Robotique Majestique
Ghostland Observatory is by far one of the most successful indie bands from Austin right now. Robotique Majestique illustrates why. The album is packed from start to finish with songs that make you move. It’s dance music with an organic edge and people can’t seem to get enough (this blogger included!).

2. Dan Dyer – Dan Dyer
Dyer’s first album since returning to Austin, this self-titled release is pure neo-soul goodness. If you took some old school Stevie Wonder and mixed it with Jamiroquai and some classic Austin blues, you’d get Dan Dyer. He played Austin City Limits and Voodoo Fest this year and seems poised for bigger and better things.

3. The Sword – Gods of the Earth
Austin is not usually noted for it’s rock scene, but the Sword is quickly changing that reputation. The buzz from Gods of the Earth has earned them a spot touring with Metallica, which is a perfect fit. Gods of the Earth is a well-crafted hard rock/metal album that will win over even the most cynical of rock fans.

4. The Black and White Years – The Black and White Years
Produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads fame, this new wave-influenced album has rocketed the Black and White Years to prominence in Austin’s indie hipster scene. Don’t let that fool you, though. This self-titled release is good enough to transcend the hipster pigeonhole.

5. The Calm Blue Sea – The Calm Blue Sea
Not since Explosions in The Sky has an instrumental rock band captured the attention of so many Austinites. Relative unknowns compared to the rest of this list, the Calm Blue Sea gets major points for stretching the bounds of their genre. Intense, melodic, and well written, this album leaves little doubt that a savvy label will soon sign the band.

Boston

Andy and Jen Guthrie of Band in Boston

• Anthems MA – Time Starts Now
• Apollo Sunshine – Shall Noise Upon
• Faces on Film – The Troubles
• Magic Magic – Magic Magic LP
• Muy Cansado – Stars & Garters

This was a difficult list to put together because there were many great albums by Boston bands this year. Our picks for the top five were chosen because—as much as we love a great single—these bands produced amazing, cohesive, complete albums.

Magic Magic’s eponymous LP is a reminder of why we don’t listen to the radio anymore—cool arrangements, great melodies, smart lyrics, and brilliant musicianship. At times bittersweet and quirky along the lines of Modest Mouse, at others, anthemic and lush reminiscent of Fruit Bats, Magic Magic rarely takes the expected path, but it’s always an interesting journey.

Chicago

Veronica Murtagh of creamteam.tv

1. Walter Meego – Voyager
2. The Sea and Cake – Car Alarm
3. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – Town Topic EP
4. The Cool Kids – The Bake Sale EP
5. The Hood Internet – Hood Internet vs. Chicago (mixtape)

Chicago is in the throws of a musical conundrum. We’re home to some of the biggest festivals and countless venues and clubs touting a sound for every inclination, yet it seems we are a city stuck in a loop, chasing our own tails. Each year I tally up the names of local talent to watch, only for the year’s end to pass us by without a proper release. Even our wildly popular, sassy party MC Kid Sister, with countless interviews and magazine spreads under her belt, has let 2008 come and go without the delivery of her much-promised album. It seems Chicago is a city that is so busy looking for the next big thing that we forget the importance of longevity in a musical career.

All critiques aside, a few newcomers stood out this year alongside veteran Chicago talents.

Indie mainstays The Sea and Cake released Car Alarm, a well-received follow-up to 2007′s Everybody and a personal favorite of mine, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, branched out with the new Town Topic EP, a selection of of tunes from his score of Laurel Nakadate’s debut film Stay the Same Never Change, which will premiere at Sundance. Kid Sister may have let 2008 pass her by without a proper release, but party rappers The Cool Kids released their debut EP The Bake Sale, and with an appearance at Lollapalooza under their belts, are poised to take over the airwaves. Mash-up masters the Hood Internet took the blogs by storm with The Hood Internet vs. Chicago mixtape, a mashup chronicle of Chicago-based music makers. However, my favorite album by a Chicago based group this year easily goes to Walter Meego. Their debut album Voyager is a spaced-out electro-rock masterpiece. It’s no surprise that these guys have already completed a tour with Aussie it-band, the Presets.

I’ve already got quite a few names on my Chicago music radar for 2009, so let’s hope they lift my jaded cloud by this time next year.

Brent Kado of Avant Chicago

1. Unicycle Loves You – Unicycle Loves You
2. Russian Circles – Station
3. Pit er Pat – High Time
4. Bound Stems – The Family Afloat
5. Charlie Deets – Fight The Death Funk

This year wasn’t as strong for local releases as was 2007, but the city’s recognition as a musical mega-force was certainly enhanced. Ubiquitous press on Obama (and the music he was inspiring), R. Kelly’s trial (and the local rock writer involved), Kanye, J-Hud, and the city’s unsurpassable festival scene all added to Chicago’s prowess as a musical hotbed. It’s always a crap-shoot to rank albums and all five of these could be shuffled around in various orders. The list only includes LPs, but two EPs that would probably push their way into the top five are The Cool Kids’ The Bake Sale and Aleks and the Drummer’s May A Lightning Bolt Caress You.

Los Angeles

China Bialos of choir croak out them goodies
My beef with Los Angeles, rather its music scene in particular, is that a fair number of the bands in L.A. match a certain formula—token female member, token keyboard player, harmonies, perhaps an old-fashioned element—and then take off to the point where they’re no longer considered a local treat. L.A.’s kind of a big deal. Or something. But we’ve got a few gems who haven’t yet struck it big and are on the verge (or, truthfully, aren’t on the verge), and we’ve got a few good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll bands who haven’t bought into the whole gimmick of synths and dance-punk-disco-neon garbage. That said, here are my top five albums from Los Angeles bands released in 2008.

1. The Henry Clay People – For Cheap or for Free
2. The Muslims – The Muslims
3. Hour of the Shipwreck – The Hour is Upon Us
4. Haunted Tiger – DSXCO
5. The Sess – Agendumb

Okay, so I’ve cheated a touch—garage rockers the Sess are from the semi-neighboring San Diego, and the Muslims (now the Soft Pack, due to apparent pressure from critics) were San Diego-based until relocating to Echo Park earlier this year. Like I’ve said, Los Angeles is swimming in keyboards and minidresses, so it’s a stretch. But then we have unpretentious, all-American rock ‘n’ roll band the Henry Clay People, whose third LP featured eleven complete anthems empathizing with the poor and loyal. And we’ve got Hour of the Shipwreck, dark, sweeping and just Gothic enough, as well as Haunted Tiger, whose EP is chock full of spooky psych sounds and hipper-than-thou glamour. Surely, L.A.’s got more to offer than food carts and lap dogs.

New York City

Devorah Klein of Big Apple Music Scene

1. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
2. Santogold – Santogold
3. Magnetic Fields – Distortion
4. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
5. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park

As always, New York is ripe with musicians, and it’s almost painful to narrow down this year’s releases by New York artists to five. My list has some newcomers (Santogold, Hercules and Love Affair), a side project (Department of Eagles, side project of Grizzly Bear), and some veterans (TV on the Radio and Magnetic Fields). All of these artists put out magnificent records this year in various genres (rock, hip-hop, dance) and they will all, I’m sure, continue to be a presence in New York and all over.

Seattle

Writers of Seattle Subsonic

1. Saturday Knights – Mingle
I can’t remember any group that incorporated so many musical styles and genres into an action-packed 40-minute album. I can’t even bring myself to classify this as a hip-hop album, which is a great thing. Off the top of my head, I can pinpoint elements of punk, greaser, surfer, and classic rock, heavy metal, blues, Euro-pop, reggae, rockabilly, electronic, and of course hip hop. To blend all those different sounds (and more cowbell!) into one album and pull it off so seamlessly is effing impressive. Not to mention that they bring an arsenal of quotable verses, rewind-worthy one-liners, and all around great lyricism to the tracks. A lot of the lines are subtle, but after a few listens you can’t help but flash the “O face.” Barfly calmly drops gems on “45″ (“Can’t hang homeboy? I’m fuckin drapery”) and “Dog Park” (“She party like a rock star, so delirious/ I party like a Dog Star, so Sirius.”)

All the songs are great in their own way, but of course I have a few favorites. “Ass Kicker’s Haircut” sounds like the beat was made for the Heavy Metal soundtrack. “Dog Park” is as close to pop they get. It’s damn catchy and has a sing-songy chorus with endless, classic dog references. “So off the chain” indeed—Motorin’ makes you wish you were racing Greased Lightning with the radio on blast. It has the best beat on the album and Tilson’s tongue-twisting verse is truly something to behold. “I Go” is the shortest song on the album but packs the most punch (more cowbell!) and begs to be rewound the first few times you hear it. — DJ100Proof

2. Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Love it or hate it, this is the new sound of the Helio Sequence. Personally, I love it. After wearing the digits off of their 2004 release, Love and Distance, this long-awaited follow-up struck me as strange at first. It grew on me, like a stubborn northwest moss. The most obvious difference is lead singer Brandon Summers’ astonishingly altered voice after severely damaging his vocal chords on tour. The overall sound is decidedly less poppy, instead capturing haunting melodies, especially shown in the tracks “Shed Your Love” and “You Can Count on Me.” The snappy drums, electro-pop sequencing, and grimy guitars that define Helio Sequence still appear throughout the album, though “Hallelujah” might be the beacon of light for those looking for something familiar in the duo’s sound. Kudos must also be given to Brendan and Benjamin for producing and arranging this album themselves. One of the going for it is the flow from beginning to end. — Kevin Ledoux

3. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant EP
I wouldn’t say I was necessarily surprised by Fleet Foxes’ meteoric rise in 2008, but I was certainly impressed by it. The good-natured troubadour throwbacks, led by singer/songwriter Robin Pecknold, began the year opening for lesser bands in Seattle-area clubs and ended it playing the Austin City Limits Festival, with spots at the Capitol Hill Block Party and Sasquatch! in between. Talk about a skyrocket.

But as their tantalizing Sun Giant EP would indicate, there was very little to dislike about these bucolic folk-rockers. From the rollicking gloominess of “Mykonos” and the jangly, springtime stroll of “Ragged Wood” to the tenderly ominous beauty of “Your Protector” and the avian love metaphors of “Meadowlarks,” there was nary a disappointing tune to be found on either the EP or LP. Don’t look for the voices of these pipe-heavy songsters to be silenced any time soon. — LB

4. Starfucker – Starfucker
I’m not sure what led me to Portland space-pop ambassadors Starfucker, but whatever it was (shooting star, orbiting satellite, etc.), I’m sure as hell glad it did. The enchanting self-titled debut from these three Portlandians (Josh Hodges, Ryan Biornstad, Shawn Glassford) infectiously wanders in and out of itself with electro-pop symphonies, hand-clap driven ditties, repetitive, synth-heavy harmonies, and bleary-eyed, stargazing bliss. One moment you might find yourself likening them to a bouncy, laser-like version of Air (“Isabella of Castile”) or an electronic, youthful rendering of the Flaming Lips (“U Ba Khin”, “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second”), and the next tapping your toes to a percolating party tune with a captivating chorus (“Pop Song”). Of course, don’t be surprised if you also find yourself up on cloud nine after giving this album a spin. — LB

5. Jake One – White Van Music
This album is all killer and no filler. Every single beat is not only impressive, but outshines the guest MCs in some cases. For those not totally familiar with hip hop and producer albums, it’s common for a few of the tracks to be skippable, if not down right awful. Jake’s album succeeds not only because he’s been around long enough to pull the best of the best to rap alongside his production, but because the production itself is half the show, shining through on every single track. Hell, even the interludes are more bump worthy than some big name singles I’ve heard this year.

This album has also been selling well across the country, receiving nearly universal praise. This is huge for me because we haven’t gotten any shine nationally for anything hip-hop related in over a decade (really!). He’s single-handedly helping the town. Seattle’s rappers and producers get noticed because people are starting to look our way again, rather than ignore us like some kind of quarantine had been put on us after Mix fell off…or retired or whatever.

This is one hell of a debut album that’s still getting heavy spins in my car every day. Seattle will be a more musically successful place because of it. The guy is in front of Dick’s on Capitol Hill on the album’s cover goddamnit, what more could you want? – DJ100Proof

Though many have touted the Obama camp for its graceful, unified design work, conservative typographers often cite the candidate’s font selections as pretentious. Gotham and Requiem, the two typefaces used on all of Obama’s signage and logos, were created by type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones, and are only available at a steep price. Graphic Designers for McCain (GDM) urges candidates to adopt typefaces that come standard on desktops computers, like Arial and Comic Sans. GDM also approves of McCain’s use of Optima for his campaign-related signage. Optima is the font used on the Vietnam Memorial, which is completely tasteful.

Hot Topic: Not lipstick

Hockey, which is still considered a sport, is one of our country’s most popular pastimes. Still, America’s political strength and its ability to ward off terrorist activity is hindered by the fact that Canada and Russia are better at hockey. Though it may seem logical to simply start watching NHL games again, it’s the means—not the ends—that creates a great nation of one-timing players. We must nurture our growing skaters, and who drives them to practice?

Hockey moms across the country are enraged by Tina Fey Sarah Palin’s insinuation that they look like bulldogs wearing lipstick. In response, they proudly adorn their minivans with the official Obama car magnet that comes with any $14 donation.

And remember Obama’s successful appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show? It’s a well known fact that 89% of hockey moms watch Ellen, and of them, 76% trust its host, despite her being a lesbian.

Hot Topic: Electroconvulsive therapy

Ron Paul, a little-known libertarian congressman from Texas, rose to psuedo-prominence on the Internet earlier this year when he ran for the Republican nomination on such sensible platforms as “reestablishing the gold standard,” and “abolishing the Federal Reserve.” His base consists of the socially maladapted thirteen-year-old boys that frequent the “user-driven news” websites, reddit and Digg.

Sane People for Ron Paul (SPRP) is a group of voters seeking to distance themselves from the public perception that all Ron Paul supporters are frothing, awkward, hormone-filled bags of acne who will spam your inbox with misspelled vitriol if you don’t give equal coverage to their completely viable alternative candidate. They are also likely to, in casual conversation, refer to the mainstream media as “The MSM.”

Some have questioned SPRP’s credibility on the basis that, even though Ron Paul is not actually running for president, his signs are still all over my goddamn neighborhood.

Hot Topic: Jason Kidd

The Dallas Mavericks are synonymous with disappointment within the National Basketball Association. They’ve never won an NBA championship. Even last season, as the number one seed going into the playoffs, they were knocked out in the first round by the Golden State Warriors, who were ranked eighth.

Many attribute last season’s failure to the team’s squandering of its budget on Point Guard Jason Kidd. Not coincidentally, they like McCain’s pick for running mate. The Mavericks have a history of letting people down, which is why they will continue to relate to the Original Maverick even after November.

Hot Topic: Spring Break! Wooo!

Sarah Palin does not believe that a fifteen-year-old girl who gets pregnant after being raped by her father should be allowed to have an abortion. Pregnant Teens for Palin (PTP) thinks that position is way hot. Like, what’s the deal with abortion, anyway? I mean, do you want some pervy doctor poking around under your skirt? Hello! Besides, after the party at Chad’s house, I promised my boyfriend I’d only let him see me naked. Omigod! I’m going to be totally fat in, like, a month! He’s not going to dump me, is he?

Currently, Bristol Palin is PTP’s only registered member.

Hot Topic: Drinking away the pain

Oh snap!

Scott Hansen

Kevin: Scott Hansen of ISO50 was the second artist commissioned by Obama’s camp.

This is the only print we found that doesn’t feature the candidate’s proud visage. In fact, there’s little here that identifies the Barack Obama campaign beside the logo at the center and maybe the ambiguity of the word “progress.” Still, I showed this poster to a few friends, and they identified Obama immediately, which speaks both to the strengths of this piece and the campaign’s brilliant logo.

The silhouetted, handholding children and birds gathering under the tree might be a bit of overkill, but there’s no denying the artistry here. Hansen has incorporated excellent use of organic colors that communicates a warm message rather than what might typically be interpreted as a cold campaign motto. This is one of my favorites.

The print has a limited run of 5,000 copies, with each purchase giving $70 to the Obama campaign.

Nick: What I like about this print is that it combines an immediate effect with deeper symbolism. A single glance communicates the most important points Hansen wants to make: the signature “O” tells us it’s about Obama, the tree evokes unmistakable environmental advocacy, the handholders reinforce Obama’s theme of unity, and I don’t need to interpret the big “PROGRESS” stamped across the bottom. If you saw this only briefly, you would still get that Obama equals good.

But, seeing as this is a limited-edition artistic print, it invites a longer and more in-depth viewing. Hansen rewards this extra effort with detail and nuance: the tree’s roots burrow in to both red and blue-tinted soil, just as Obama claims to draw support from both sides of the political spectrum; the migrating birds lend the print a sense of movement, or in other words, progress; and all of the energy in the frame radiates from the central “O,” making Obama the cause of all the positive vibes that suffuse the print. Whether or not you agree with Hansen’s assessment of Obama’s glory is beside the point; this is an extremely well-crafted piece of campaigning that sends a surprisingly complex message in an aesthetically pleasing way. This is about as good as it’s gonna get when it comes to what is, essentially, propaganda.

Shepard Fairey

Kevin: The “Progress” print was available through Fairey’s own Obey Giant company, while the “Change” print was sold exclusively through BarackObama.com.

Fairey is known for styling his work after propaganda, and even for a presidential campaign that proudly distinguishes itself from impartial messages and doublespeak traditionally associated with politics, this pair of posters work.

Nick: Fairey is a good match for Obama for a couple of reasons. They both hold mass appeal over young people, an effect achieved through some sort of charismatic aura that no one can accurately describe. They both carry themselves as being apart from, and better than, the status quo while remaining markedly mainstream. And more to the point here, they both have incredible brands. Many observers have compared Obama’s campaign to Target or Apple’s advertising, and not without good reason. As we saw in Hansen’s print above, that little “O” has taken on a lot of meaning.

Fairey is no less deft at wielding a logo. He stuck his Obey Giant face on the cover of 1984 for God’s sake. His approach to Obama is less intricate than Hansen’s, but what he lacks in depth he makes up for in impact. Fairey’s style is so unexpected in a political context that these images can’t help but take you off guard. While Fairey usually amplifies the oppressive and deceitful aspects of propaganda to criticize American culture, here he uses propaganda’s power to uplift and ennoble to turn Barack Obama into a visionary hero. Among the most interesting aspects of these prints is that Obama somehow manages to look virtuous despite half his face being cast in a flat red shadow. Any other time, you might expect to see that shading on a satanic communist, but Fairey uses the color without implying any kind of menace. Say what you will about Fairey’s other work, the man knows how to send an unambiguous message.

The Date Farmers

Kevin: Unlike Fairey’s work, this poster is unabashedly un-American. The Date Farmers’ work is known for combining the influence of their Mexican-American heritage and social political ideals.

It’s rare to see a political poster that’s not set in red, white, and blue, but the Date Farmers’ use of bold colors–those found on the Mexican flag, no less–is a daring tribute to Mexican street posters. Combine it with the Spanish wording and the fact that it was released for the Texas primary (that’s right, a border state), you have one of the most controversial pieces to bear Obama’s name.

But it’s effective. Here, Obama is propped up not as a politician but a working-class folk hero. That certainly works to Obama’s campaign. Words of change and progress mean nothing without a charismatic figure to lead them, an individual cut from a different cloth.

The thing looks gorgeous too.

Nick: Another poster that challenges the styles associated with American campaigning, this time not only by drawing on Mexican themes as Kevin discussed, but also by casting its subject in an unflattering light. Obama really looks ugly here. It works, though, because it makes you turn your head. Besides, the exuberance in the other graphic elements of the poster cements it as a piece of advocacy, and while many won’t understand the Spanish text, the “Obama ’08″ at the bottom is unequivocal. Plus, the Date Farmers prove that an Obama poster can make do without being branded by his ubiquitous “O.”

Then we received a call from our business manager (“Ol’ Stoned Jim”) informing us that our hits were down. We responded the way any literary publication would after learning of a drop in circulation: we wildly scrambled to slap together a gutless retread of our lowest-brow content. When we ran out of marginally funny new shirts, we stole them from this excellent comment thread on Stereogum.com.

Further, we’ve been working to establish a shirt-sellin’ service over at Spreadshirt.com. Please feel free to email us with your favorite designs from either post. Hopefully we’re as bad at titling articles as we are at maintaining our integrity.

Bursting with a new father’s pride at this design, we sent a copy to Natalie Portman for her approval. Her response: “Ripping off Apple does not change my life.” We’ve been on a heavy regimen of Prozac and Smirnoff Ice ever since, which helps explain our recent downtime.

You might be surprised that this design was not shelved for litigious reasons. Neither Beck nor the Church of Scientology threatened to sue us (well, not for this shirt, anyways). Rather, our focus group testing among the Scientologist community showed rock-bottom purchase interest.

Turns out that our problem lay within the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard. It seems that a passage in Dianetics states, very clearly, that there is no conversion in Scientology. Instead, the physic poison that inhabits every person’s mind slowly wanes over the course of a lifetime. Some things, watching Beck play “Devil’s Haircut,” for example, can expedite this process. When this shell of mental miasma is completely eroded, prismatic thought-beams illuminate the mind, allowing a person to see the true structure of the universe, which is an incandescent tree of spiritual lightning.

We tried printing “Beck Facilitated my Ability to Perceive the True Structure of the Universe,” but the costs were prohibitive.

Andrew Bird is the most attractive person who has ever lived. Everybody knows this. Needless to say, after seeing a Bird concert, Bureau editors Kevin and Nick were left with some… questions. Needing an outlet for their “frustrations” and deterred from future Bird shows by a stern restraining order, the editors instead created this shirt.

Interestingly, this shirt failed not for its text, which essentially expresses a universal constant for straight males, but because both birds and scarves were widely decried as cliche. These criticisms generally came from scarved individuals wearing “ironic” Death Cab shirts.

We also circulated alternative designs to cover our sexual bases, but, this being the internet, no one noticed.

This shirt was rejected after we realized a glaring inaccuracy. While it’s true that most of Toronto plays or has played with BSS, we neglected the significant benefit of being able to awkwardly mumble in Feist’s general direction. That’s gotta be worth, what, two or three shirts?

Just because In Rainbows shies away from the political commentary doesn’t mean the years you’ve been listening to Ok Computer and Hail to the Thief have gone to waste. Radiohead’s ideologies are widely lauded, and there’s even a “Myxomatosis” political party in Denmark.

We halted production of this shirt after being informed that Radiohead ideologues would not buy it for fear of being labeled “kicking, screaming Gucci little piggies.” Also, the check-mark as a “V” is just ghastly. Who’s designing these?

Plagiarized gracelessly from Stereogum user Bort, this design, set in lovely Cooper Black against a popular hue of Indie Brown, has become the uniform for Bureau staffers. Of course, due to the status of our Q4 revenue (“nonexistent”), we were only able to afford one shirt per writer. If you ever drop by BB HQ, you might want to bring some Febreze or something.

Sure, they’re not eligible for the Prize in music, since they’re not American, but that’s the worst Pulitzer anyway. We want Daft Punk to be acknowledged for their tremendous literary contributions to the global culture. The complex, well-reasoned criticism of “Television Rules the Nation” expresses an endemic ennui regarding popular media, and the message of peace and unification presented in “Around the World” is powerful and resonant. When we rang Columbia with our nomination, however, we were informed that the prize is not awarded to robots. Expect a major campaign here at the Bureau in the coming months advocating the reversal of this discriminatory policy.

Having utterly exhausted our meager reserves of creativity, we once again dipped in to the well of Stereogum comments. This one was poached from Mrs, whose idea graciously enabled further laziness in the design department. We loved this shirt, as did the geriatric crowd at a Hold Steady show, but when we approached the 22 year-old manager of our t-shirt printer he only said “what the fuck is a Hold Steady?”

A church group stormed our printer as this design went to press, having learned that Butler occasionally sings in French. Police found only battered corpses and broken Chardonnay bottles in the facility.

This is clearly a smart, well-researched design targeted at 98% of Death Cab for Cutie’s fanbase. Unfortunately, retailers refused to sell shirts only available in extra large.

In a review of Illinois, Pitchfork said, “[Sufjan] Stevens has a remarkable habit of being rousing and distressing at the same time, prodding disparate emotional centers until it’s unclear whether it’s best to grab your party shoes or a box of tissues.” I’m not quite sure what the hell “prodding disparate emotional centers” means, but, as everyone knows, Pitchfork speaks for God. This fits, since they talk about Sufjan as if he’s the second coming of Christ. Production of this design was halted by Christian Evangelicals.

Don’t be fooled by his innocuous demeanor and sun-soaked melodies: the Shins’s frontman James Mercer is indie pop’s most misogynistic star. We decided to cancel this shirt after Mercer threatened to stomp on our kittens and rape our mothers.

This universal sentiment was deemed too obvious.

Interpol has always been recognized for their lyrical depth. The poetry of “Heinrich Maneuver” (get it? GET IT?) puts even the best work of Samuel Coleridge to shame. Unfortunately, the design was not printed after several communications with Paul Banks were confused with the output of a text-generating robot.

When Bureau writer Caitlin Boersma founded the Morrissey Fan Club, the Smiths singer contacted us personally to design a shirt and logo for his Presidential campaign. Sadly, Morrissey withdrew his nomination and instead rallied support behind Jon Stewart, despite having seen the Robin Williams vehicle Man of the Year.

No one will deny that Belle and Sebastian is fucking awesome. Unfortunately, early test groups showed that the strong language presented on this shirt caused fans to weep uncontrollably and hum “The Chalet Lines.”

Bureau Editor Nick Martens is convinced that one day he will be able to wear this shirt. We’ll print it whenever that happens…

We still think this design would be a popular shirt. We’ll begin production soon.