School of Seven Bells: Half Asleep

Q-Tip Featuring Norah Jones: Life Is Better

The XX: Crystalised

Lusine: Two Dots

Telekinesis: Awkward Kisser

Jack Penate: Be the One

One Eskimo: Kandi

Silversun Pickups: Panic Switch

The Temper Trap: Science of Fear

Miike Snow: Silvia

Florence + The Machine: You've Got the Love

Calvin Harris: Ready for the Weekend

Mayer Hawthorne: Green Eyed Love

Grizzly Bear: While You Wait for the Others

Phoenix: Lisztomania

Neko Case: People Got a Lotta of Nerve

A Few of My Favorite Things: Best of 2009

Time to start the count down to 2010 - I've picked some favorite songs from 2009.

Prefix: A Gift of Christmas

I wrote about Tokyo based duo Prefix (Tk and Mairi) in October. We have since become great friends - they are some of the kindest, most genuine people I have ever known. Cyberspace can lead to true friendship, and music is often the link.

Tk and Mairi have just finished making a sweet video for their latest song, the beautiful track "A Gift of Christmas". The song, video and our friendship give me hope for the world.

Speaking of humanity: thousands of delegates in Copenhagen - where I'm visiting family for Christmas and New Year's - were not able to agree on very much at the COP15 climate conference these past two weeks. Perhaps from now on, important summit delegations should consist of musicians - we seem to be able to put our differences aside in ways that bureaucrats and politicians are not!

www.myspace.com/prefixmairi

Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows

Number 73 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

OutKast: Ms. Jackson

Number 55 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

The Killers: Mr. Brightside

Number 48 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

The Roots: The Seed (2.0)

Number 43 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

Arcade Fire: Wake Up

Number 42 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

Franz Ferdinand: Take Me Out

Number 32 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

The Postal Service: Such Great Heights

Number 27 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

The Strokes: Last Night

Number 16 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

Johnny Cash: Hurt

Number 15 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

U2: Beautiful Day

Number 9 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Maps

Number 7 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

White Stripes: Seven Nation Army

Number 6 on the Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade list:

Rolling Stone: The Decade's Best Songs & Albums

Personal taste is just that - personal, but there are many excellent choices in the current Rolling Stone The Decade's Best Songs & Albums issue, voted on by a good mix of Rolling Stone editors and well-known songwriters.

The Nightfly has picked twelve favorite songs/videos from the 100 Best Songs of the Decade list.

Lists are silly, guilty pleasures.

Let the sillyness begin.

Feist: One Evening

Feist gettin' down.

Saw her in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 2008 - she's one of a kind.

Imogen Heap: Canvas

Rain or shine or snow - Imma gonna go out there and paint, damn it!

Great video shot by Tom Kelly, great song by the fab Ms. Heap.

Trentemøller: Moan

Danish musician/remixer Anders Trentemøller aka Trentemøller or Trentemoller did this vocal remix featuring Ane Trolle in 2007.

The moving video about Laika - the guinea pig "space dog" who was sent into orbit aboard Sputnik in 1957 and died five to seven hours into flight from stress and overheating - was directed by Niels Gråbøl and Ulrik Crone.

Raveonettes: Black/White Sound

Sharin Foo and Sune Wagner founded The Raveonettes in Copenhagen in 2001.

Sharin turns 30 on Saturday Dec. 12 - Happy B-day to my almost namesake and fellow Great Dane!

http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes

Carpark North: More

Kids don't need Ritalin - just give 'em a drumset, a guitar or a mike!

Carpark North was founded in Denmark's second largest city, Århus in Jutland.

Crisp black/white video and fab energy.

http://www.myspace.com/carparknorth

Mew: Repeaterbeater

The historic and vital COP15 climate conference opened today in Copenhagen today - let's hope the many delegates can come up with something other than empty promises.

And speaking of Copenhagen - Mew are from the Copenhagen suburb Hellerup, just north of the capital and right on the coast.

The video for "Repeaterbeater" was directed by Martin de Thurah. It's a very cool short that has a Thomas Vinterberg/Lars von Trier feel to it. Apparently the band was under hypnosis during part of the video shoot - the guy in the white suit with the cane is not an actor but the real thing!

Ataris: The Boys of Summer

The video for Don Henley's original version seems to have vanished from cyber space or maybe it was never there, but Ataris' version and video is great too.

Kraak & Smaak: Squeeze Me

Dutch electronic/funk trio Kraak and Smaak.

Camera Obscura: Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

Camera Obscura from Glasgow, Scotland with their fabtastic lead vocalist Tracyanne Campell.

Ken & Barbie dancing around Tokyo. Tres freaky.