I was just thinking about the CDs I bought last year that I've enjoyed the most:

1. Arctic Monkeys, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
2. Art Brut, "Bang Bang Rock & Roll"
3. Wolfmother, "Wolfmother"
4. Neil Young, "Prairie Wind"
5. Hackensaw Boys, "Love What You Do"
6. Muse, "Black Holes and Revelations"

What else should I be listening to?

I can't tell you what you might want to hear, but here is what I'm listening to these days:

I love Maria Muldauer's Heart of Mine (a collection of Bob Dylan's love songs);

Jeff Buckley, Grace (there is a great thread over on FLAK on Leonard Cohen, Buckley and Grace, etc started by Philo);

Ry Cooder, Paradise and Lunch (all his stuff is great);

Doc Watson, Memories

The Little Willies, with Nora Jones ( ? );

All of Los Lobos ( you might especially like their local culture Spanish-Mexican stuff);

Jazz?

Keith Jarrett, The Koeln Concert

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (of course) and anything else he did. His last one, produced after he died, was interesting. A lot of people missed it, but it's worth a listen. It's like a Miles Davis meets Hip Hop sort of thing.

Anyway, not much new here, but I don't know all your tastes. I just got a second-hand turntable, now all reconditioned, off E-Bay here for cheap and I am pulling out all my old favorites and giving them a spin again. Hence, the old jazz stuff.

Some of my favorite CD's this past year include:
Andrew Bird--The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
Calexico--Garden Ruin
Califone--Roots And Crowns
Clutch--Robot Hive/Exodus
Sparklehorse--Dreamt In The Belly Of A Mountain
Mastodon--Blood Mountain
Cracker--Greenland

I haven't really listened to any music lately. The last album I obsessed over was TOOL's - Lateralus. Those guys are scary good at what they do. The lead singers side band did a great song for the movie "Constantine" and if you have the DVD the video is on there.
Video for song "Parabola" from same album : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2070749270984825204&q=tool&hl=en all of the special effects for the video were done by the bands guitar player useing stop motion. Also note the great deal of symbolism in the video and song, the band is into alchemy.


Album cover art

Tool's new album, 10,000 Days, is really good as well (though I prefer Lateralus). I tried to see them the last time they came through town, but the show sold out too quickly. There was a picture in the paper of the lead singer dressed up like Travis Bickle...awesome.

Yeh.. Maynerd has a long history of strange stage outfits. he's a really interesting personality. I saw them in concert on the Lateralus tour, and I saw A Perfect Circle on their thirteenth step tour. Great stuff. He spent half the OPC show behind a screen where you coudl only see his shadow and his weird dancing he does.