Wishing Well
by The Airborne Toxic Event from the album The Airborne Toxic Event
Some pop songs grab you, some don’t. This one did, despite the horrid band name.
Download

I Feel Better
by Frightened Rabbit from the live album Liver! Lung! FR!
After listening to this live version, I wasn’t sure why he bothered with the studio
Download

Burn Bridges
by The Grates from the album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won
Great pop band fronted by crazy girl with crazy name #1 (Patience Hodgson)
Download

The Kelly Affair
by Be Your Own Pet from the album Get Awkward
Great pop band fronted by crazy girl with crazy name #2 (Jemina Pearl Abegg)
Download

Hair Pool
by Defiance, Ohio from the Pink Couch Sessions
Live track from the wonderful Pink Couch (Link). Can’t wait for a new album.
Download

Falling Down
by Scarlett Johansson from the album Anywhere I Lay My Head
Yes, yes… I know. Just close your eyes and pretend it’s a This Mortal Coil track from ‘83.
Download

Everything Is Not the Same
by Zita Swoon from the album Big Blueville
Great track from an album I picked up in Paris and haven’t put down.
Download

Blackboots Blackhearts
by Sweet Jane from the EP Blackboots & Blackhearts
Taking up the Velvets / JMC mantle the Ravonettes couldn’t keep up with.
Download

Out Of Time
by Jason Collett from the album Here’s To Being Here
Great track with a Lou Reed groove.
Download

Hey Momma’
by Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground from the album Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground
Crazy and funky and fun.
Download

Two Angry Kids
by Street Dogs from the album State of Grace
Yes, I remember.
Download

Storm Rising
by In Tua Nua from the album When Night Comes Down On Sunset
Lovely bit of Irish rock, recorded in 1987. Some stuff is too good to leave on a shelf.
Download

Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
by She & Him from the album Volume One
Super sweet song. I still love it even tho Zooey decided to marry that chode from Death Cab instead of me.
Download

Don’t Stop Believin’
by Marnie Stern
Only Marnie could make this song cool. I love the bit when the drums kick in.
Download

Threat Level Midnight
by The Riot Before from the album Fists Buried In Pockets
Just a great song. Fun to sing along with.
Download

House
by Vetiver from the album Thing Of The Past
One of those songs that knocks it all back into place.
Download

Last Day of Magic
by The Kills from the album Midnight Boom
Great song from an album that should have made my top 10 albums, but somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Download

The Captive Mind
by The Helio Sequence from the album Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Another great song from an album that should have made my top 10 albums, but somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Download

Back To Me
by The Dutchess and the Duke from the album She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke
Great bit of throwback rock and roll. I need an army jacket and a boogie hat.
Download

Bad Old World
by New Model Army from the live album Fuck Texas, Sing For Us
Always been one of my favorite NMA songs. Love the intro.
Download

Have a Nice Day
by Kinetic Stereokids from the EP Have a Nice Day
Freakshows.
Download

2008
by Hello Saferide from the album More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide
A fitting song for the end of the year
Download

The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound

Undoubtably the Album of the Year. I can’t say enough good things about this album, just buy it and listen.

Buy CD or Vinyl from Side One Dummy

Listen to High Lonesome : DOWNLOAD

Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts

Every person I share this album with is an instant fan. It only takes one to get you hooked. Amazing songwriting, astounding lyrics, moments of epiphany.

Buy from the band

Listen to Journey of the Featherless : DOWNLOAD

Fucked Up – The Chemistry Of Common Life

Quite possibly the best punk-rock head-trip concept-album that is not a concept album of all time. Your brain may not be the same after this.

Buy from Amazon

Listen to Crooked Head : DOWNLOAD

Poi Dog Pondering – 7

Another in a long string of amazing records. Some bands just keep getting better.

Buy from the band

Listen to Butterflies : DOWNLOAD

HiFi Handgrenades – Carry On

Speck and Co. release yet another gem of punk/power pop songs, yet again criminally overlooked. Carry On is my song of the year, it’s that fucking good.

Buy from New Romance For Kids Records

Listen to Carry On : DOWNLOAD

Daniel Lanois – Here Is What Is

Elemental.

Buy from Red Floor Records

Listen to Bladesteel : DOWNLOAD

Marnie Stern – This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That

She’s hot. She plays guitar like no one else. She writes crazy songs you can’t stop listening to. Bonus points for best album name of the year.

Buy from Insound

Listen to Transformer : DOWNLOAD

Menahan Street Band – Make The Road By Walking

I can only wish my life was cool enough to have this as a soundtrack.

Buy from Amazon

Listen to Tired of Fighting : DOWNLOAD

Paramount Styles – Failure American Style

The dude from Girls Against Boys. Downtempo, acoustic guitar, biting and searing lyrics. Cooler than you.

Buy from Insound

Listen to Drunx, Whores & MZK People : DOWNLOAD

Mercury Rev – Snowflake Midnight

They put down their guitars and picked up electronics. Stunning.

Buy from Yep Roc

Listen to Senses on Fire : DOWNLOAD

Robots In Disguise – We’re In the Music Biz

Snarky, trashy and awesome.

Buy from Amazon

Listen to The Sex Has Made Me Stupid : DOWNLOAD

Off With Their Heads – From The Bottom

Great, straight-ahead hardcore. Melodic and raw with great sing along vocals.

Buy from No Idea Records

Listen to Wrong : DOWNLOAD

And, as always, Let the Children Lose It… Let the Children Use It… Let All The Children Boogie.

Early Spring – Paris

Rounding the corner after getting out of the Trocadero train station and seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

Music that was playing : Drive in Saturday by David Bowie

Early Spring – Paris

Heading to Le Boule Rouge, circling the Arc de Triomphe in the passenger seat of the Rabbi’s Mercedes, Julien navigating 5 lanes of chaos while smoking, talking and not even looking while driving.

Music that was playing : Most likely Zappa, but my brain registers Alive in the City by Zita Swoon

Spring – Orlando

Riding the Tower of Terror with my wife and kids… Sunshine’s face a mixture of horror and excitement.

Music that was playing : Screams of children and laughing of parents

Spring – Cocoa Beach

Attempting to catch a few waves on Grayson’s boogie board

Music that was playing : Waves and futile paddling

Spring – NYC

Dropping a txt bomb on Kosta while killing several bottles of wine with Colleen and the Heuer sisters.

Music that was playing : I’ve Got a Feeling by The Beatles

Summer – Nashville

Seeing Poi Dog Pondering play live after living with their music for nearly 20 years. Ian and I had a table 5 feet from Frank as they played.

Music that was playing : Butterflies by Poi Dog Pondering

Summer – Chicago

Early morning, running around Chicago lakeside parks with the kids, taking photos of them and the Bean.

Music that was playing : Everybody Here is a Cloud by Cloud Cult

I’ve been accused on multiple occasions of being a music snob. I am not a music snob.

I’ve also been accused of hating what is popular, simply because it is popular. This also is untrue.

Popular is usually shiny, a bit too perfect, and ultimately quite fake.

This is why Joe Strummer will always be better than any auto-tuned, packaged, top 40, american idol.

Joe strummer was authentic. Not because he was perfect, but because of his flaws.

Authenticity is a hard thing to come by these days. Sometimes it’s hard to convey what is real.

I’ve been leaning hard on the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, The beauty of imperfection.

Wabi-Sabi carries emotion more than awe. The comfort of lived in furniture. The satisfaction of hand crafting a fence. The freedom from chasing the unattainable.

How does that relate to online UX?

Here’s how : The beautiful site has become ordinary and by that, untrustworthy. The site which promises value, but my not be pristine now has the advantage.

Oddly, the same ham-fisted “designers” who tell me they love things like Google and the iPod and Tivo, are the same to push a huge happy falsely designed world at me at every design review.

(sidebar: what the hell happened to subtlety?)

And then there’s a small, but very vocal group of people hollering about “Ugly Design” and promoting an aesthetic that is by design, horrific and just plain creepy.

Authentic is not beauty or ugliness… authentic is emotional reality, proven in design.

Grab a book on Wabi-Sabi… see where it takes you.

Your users are dicks. They are a bunch of selfish knobs who have no appreciation for your efforts.

This is no reason to pander to them. After all, if they knew what they were doing, they’d have your job.

I’ve been seeing some alarming things lately. There’s a book out there called “worship at the altar of the user” or something like that. I’m not going to bother looking it up.

Here’s the thing… as a UX professional, I know the success of what I do depends on user adoption. I also know that my expertise gives me the ability to sway and influence users, to give them new opportunities and to move beyond what is common.

I agree that testing is important, and can inform many things, but I don’t rely on it to tell me any answers.

My friend Alan had a great quote “Don’t use research as a drunkard uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination”

I have a similar one that I use “Stop using the rear-view mirror to figure out where you’re going”

Despite having Information Architect in my title for a number of years, I never believed it.

I’ve always been in the business of design, without regard to scale or scope. Design is the action of solving problems, the manifestation of optimistic activity. That’s what I do.

For example, back in the early 90s, when the web was just getting moving, I built websites…That is, I did the art, writing, coding, FTP, server maintenance, etc.

It was all the same… if you didn’t know how to code, your design was shit. If you didn’t understand design, no amount of code could hide that.

Once people got all mixed up in trying to specialize, a bit was lost.

Here’s something I found very interesting :

In Greek techne meant ’skill.’ The ancient Greeks didn’t separate art from techne, but called all artists and craftsmen technitai (makers).

The Japanese don’t have a word for art, they use a word synonymous with function, purpose and aesthetics – geijutsu.
Exerpts from the Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fetcher

It’s that slight difference in perception that sepearates the iPod from the Kindle.

Once there was this separation of activity, I was exposed to this rather bitchy bureaucracy about who’s job was what, and what one group couldn’t do. This led to a lot of debate and name calling (F’ckn pixel pushers), but ultimately reminded me if you have something you feel you need to protect that badly, you’re probably afraid of being exposed as a fraud.

It was also odd that some people were so quick to jump into a group and adopt all the mannerisms and quirks of that group without question. I’m sure it was comfortable, and enhanced the continuation of constant employment, but I think Maude said it best:

Maude : I should like to change into a sunflower most of all. They’re so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?
Harold : I don’t know. One of these, maybe. (holds a daisy)
Maude : Why do you say that?
Harold : Because they’re all alike.
Maude : Oooh, but they’re not. Look. See, some are smaller, some are fatter, some grow to the left, some to the right, some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world’s sorrow comes from people who are this, (she points to a daisy), yet allow themselves be treated as that. (gestures to a field of daisies)

Anyways, my titles change, but I’m always in the business of design. I’m guessing there’s a lot more out there.