Busy Season Soundtrack 2011 Edition: Relevant?

FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 2:

Timeliness, that is, having information available to decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions, is an ancillary aspect of relevance. If information is not available when it is needed or becomes available so long after the reported events that it has no value for future action, it lacks relevance and is of little or no use. Timeliness alone cannot make information relevant, but a lack of timeliness can rob information of relevance it might otherwise have had.

Considering the text above, this post hardly appears relevant considering I have flipped the calendar page and am about to kick-off busy season 2012. But even though these songs reach back eight to twelve months, I assert that they are relevant since my musical tastes have not diverged significantly from this time.

I fully acknowledge this should have been posted sooner, but a benefit to the timing of the post is that it is giving me something exciting to think about: new tunes I'll be rocking out to in 2012 are on their way.

Without further ado, I present the 2011 Busy Season Soundtrack (direct link and Grooveshark widget) along with comments on selected tracks:

Busy Season Soundtrack 2011



"Animal" by Neon Trees - I actually don't remember if they played this on the Current or not, but it was more or less the audio equivalent of taking four shots of espresso with two five-hour energy drink chasers.

"Second Chance" by Peter, Bjorn, and John - Peter Bjorn? Or Pete Yorn? This won't help clear things up:


"Wait So Long" by Trampled by Turtles - I'm guessing Mumford and Sons paved the Current's airwaves for these.

"Walking Far from Home" by Iron and Wine - This song lulled me into an hypnotic state and forced me to add it to the list.

Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes - I wonder how many millenials heard this song, threw all their participation trophies and 10th place medals into the trash, and had a "what does it all mean" crisis?

"I Want the World to Stop" by Belle and Sebastian - I've heard them be described as "sad bastard music," but these guys are pretty good.

What awesome songs of 2011 did I miss?

Will it ever stop? Snow? I don't know...

But I will be excited when it does stop. I will also be very excited when le weekend no longer means spending a day in the office and only one day at home.

I've always fancied myself a youthful looking chap, but after six busy seasons, I'm finally starting to look my age. I got home last night and tried rubbing the exhaustion out of my eyes, but all I saw was a tired old man with dark circles under his eyes staring back at me in the mirror.

As you can imagine, the "counting" to "cyling" ratio has been extremely high for the first two months of 2011. Even though I started off the busy season with a client downtown, I only logged three bike commutes in January. I was out of town for 2 1/2 weeks in February and only added one in that month. But after November's lack of bicycle commutes, the current streak sits at three straight months, and if a we get some decent snow melt, there's no reason to think I can't keep it going in March.

Wanna know what it's like to snow-bike in Minneapolis? Check it out, you'll even see some of my south Minneapolis haunts. Enjoy the illegible winter biking tips, brought to you Star Wars style at the at end!

100th Blog Post - Busy Season Soundtrack Gadget

Note: If you're viewing this post in Facebook, the Gadget probably won't work. You'll want to go straight to the blog to check it out:
cyclingpublicaccountant.blogspot.com


If my footing is mathematically accurate, this marks the 100th post since hitting cyberspace in November of 2008. To celebrate, I've added a Playlist.com gadget and populated a playlist with songs that I heard on the Current (89.3 FM) last year while my client's cleaning crews made their rounds. A public accountant's "busy season" typically lasts from early January to mid to late April, with mine being no exception. Listening to the Current has been a way to finish strong during those 10-12 hour days.

For many years of my life, the music I discovered and listened to served as better mile posts to mark my life's events than did birthday celebrations, or even new school years. Every time I hear a song from Weezer's blue album I remember myself sitting in my friend Jeff's Pontiac Bonneville, trekking to Des Moines the summer after we got our driver's licenses. For me, music is an effective portal to access the memory. However, somewhere in my college years the radio faded into the background, and it wasn't until we moved to Minneapolis that I started listening again.

For your listening pleasure, I've tried my best to follow Rob Gordon's (yes, THE Rob Gordon) philosophy for building a mix-tape to compile my top five (or 13) songs from the 2010 busy season, along with a little MD&A:

1) Song Away - Hockey. Probably a one-hit wonder band, but catchy

2) Fader - The Temper Trap. I still regret not grabbing $10 tickets to see them at the Varsity

3) O.N.E. - Yeasayer. I love the bizarre video for this one (see link below)

4) Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons. These guys are good, I don't care how scraggly their beards are.

5) Strange Overtones - David Byrne & Brian Eno. That's fellow cyclist, David Byrne.

6) Flume - Bon Iver. It was the Peter Gabriel cover that I heard, but the original is better.

7) Stylo - Gorillaz. I know nothing about this band.

8) The Mystery Zone - Spoon. I was impressed by the live version, too.

9) Do-Wah-Doo - Kate Nash. Kate Nash has had a few during the years.

10) 40 Day Dream - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes. Great song and band names.

11) Shark in the Water - V Brown. Could be another one-hit wonder.

12) Dominos - The Big Pink. Misogynists perhaps?

13) Girlfriend - Phoenix. I was so impressed by this band I bought the album.

There are several versions of the Yeasayer video, but here's the one I was talking about:
O.N.E. video

Any guesses as to what will be on the 2011 soundtrack?