After a week away, it was nice to be back in the studio. This week I played several folk-related tunes, a few garage-based ones, and a small handful of indie pop tracks. With the amount of indie-folk I’ve played of late, I’m thinking we’re in store for another dreamy mix and maybe even a garage rock mix in the near future.

I love it when N8 submits his year-end lists. They are unpretentious, span a vast repertoire of genres, and typically include several albums I have yet to hear. N8′s 2011 list fits the mold: in fact, I have yet to listen to any of the ones that made the list this year. Now this is not by lack of want or know — I’m familiar with many of the albums, just haven’t gotten around to them. Dig in and enjoy!

Stuarto Glasser, host of the All Around the World Music Show, called me up a little after 5pm Friday and asked if I could fill in for him. Thinking it would be a great way to attract a few more listeners I agreed. I headed home and put together a playlist of some of my favorite indie artists from around the world.

2009 is a tough year to judge. I’ve checked out more albums this year than any year in the past. Well over 1,000. And there have been quite a few great ones as well. When this list began, it had 110 albums. I abandoned my top 33 and 1/3 for 45, and then said “screw it” and upped the number to an even 50. These are the top notch albums of the year, all worthy of praise.

It’s mid-Summer 2009 and we are finally treated with the creative meeting of two of the more eclectic and eccentric minds in independent music — Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound, Deerhunter) and Noah Lennox (Panda Bear, Animal Collective). Atlas Sound‘s “Walkabout” is the result, and it features Lennox’s pop-riddled vocals draped by the experimental sounds signature to Atlas Sound. The combination is brilliant; genius minds like these really should collaborate more often.