2011 in Music: Miscellany

This is the last post in a seven-part series on my favorite music from 2011.

Some things that didn’t fit elsewhere in my lists.

This video of the live rendition of James Blake’s ‘CMYK’ is one of my absolute favorite things of the year. The song itself is amazing, a sort of ‘extended dance edit’ of an already-great track. The recreation of the trademark synth bleep on the guitar is neat. The drummer is incredibly talented. James does a head-wobble when he messes with the pitch wheel at 1:10.
This video of Owen Pallett covering Caribou’s ‘Odessa’ is also all of the things I just said about the previous video. So fun to watch, and to listen to.
Owen Pallett also covered The Strokes’ ‘Hard to Explain’ for that Stereogum tribute to ‘Is This It’, and it’s my other favorite cover of the year.
Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s live rendition of ‘You Can Count on Me’ on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was terrific.
Living in Hawaii, I don’t see many live shows, but when I traveled to my East Coast home in October I saw Eleanor Friedberger and Wild Flag. Wild Flag put on the best show I saw all year. The energy and downright professionalism of every member was impressive, and hearing some of the album’s songs turned into nine-minute jams didn’t hurt either.
Four Tet and Caribou put out a ton of singles and edits and remixes and things this year, all of which were enjoyable, some of which were great. The Four Tet/Burial/Thom Yorke collaboration didn’t last for me, but both sides of the Pinnacles/Ye Ye split ended up in my favorite songs of 2011. Dan Snaith’s output as Daphni the House Producer was excellent, especially ‘Ne Noya (Daphni Mix)’ and ‘Yes I Know’.
I really liked ‘Jack Sparrow’ and ‘Motherlover’ by The Lonely Island.
My favorite mixes of the year were Asura’s XLR8R mix and Shlohmo’s FACT mix.