You Say It's Your Birthday...

...It's this blog's birthday too, yeah. Linear Tracking Lives! turns 1 today. So, pardon me while I pat myself on the back. Should I post birthday-themed songs by the Beatles, Altered Images, Sugarcubes and the like? That seems too obvious. I think I'll sum up LTL's best and most popular moments instead.

My favorite series was Big Country Chronicles. About once a week for five months I posted every 12" single, B-side, live performance, radio appearance and rarity from Big Country I could get my hands on between 1982 and 1986. I really enjoyed Wes Anderson Week, too. I started with the music from 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' and I posted it at the end of October... a few weeks before the film's opening. I hit the soundtracks of each film that week, and I rediscovered how much I love Anderson's work and musical choices. It turns out 'Mr. Fox' was my favorite film last year. Countdowns included my top 50 tracks and top 20 albums of 2009, as well as top 100 tunes and 41 LPs from the entire past decade. I hope it helped you discover a few new gems. I have no explanation for it, but this was my single favorite post from the last year.

Based on reader feedback and number of downloads, I would say you folks are big fans of Jason Falkner, Devo, Cheap Trick, Wondermints, Big Country, OMD and Marshall Crenshaw. Good group. I'm with you.

There were two low points on this blog. I received a couple of DMCA notices during the course of the year. One of them was for posting "Cousins" by Vampire Weekend. I had the song up for a few hours before I received an email asking me to remove it. I immediately obliged. A few days later I was permanently locked out of Fileden, my file storage service at the time. The lesson for me was that I realized as much as I love doing this, it could be taken from me at any time. Let's just all enjoy the music together for as long as we can. Here is a mix of our favorites. Happy birthday to me...

Big Country - In A Big Country (Album Version) (mp3)
The Zombies - The Way I Feel Inside (mp3)
Tracey Ullman - They Don't Know (mp3)
Jason Falkner - Princessa (mp3)
Devo - Theme From Doctor Detroit (mp3)
Cheap Trick - She's Tight (mp3)
OMD - Secret (Extended Mix) (mp3)
Marshall Crenshaw - For Her Love (U.S. Remix) (mp3)
Wondermints - Silly Place (mp3)