The other (some might argue better) half of the Habañero Collective, Mark offers up his favorite picks of 2011:

ALBUMS:

1. Chris Bathgate – Salt Year/Oniero
2. Seryn – This is Where We Are
3. Eastern Conference Champions – Speak Ahhs
4. Mark Davis – Eliminate the Toxins
5. Pterodactyl Plains – In the Air
6. Adele – 21
7. The Cave Singers – No Witch
8. O’Death – Outside
9. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
10. Coldplay – Mylo_Xyloto
11. Needtobreathe – The reckoning
12. The head and heart – S/T
13. Giles Corey – S/T
14. The City Harmonic – I have a dream (It feels like home)
15. Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
16. Hope And Social – Sleep Sound
17. Dawes-Nothing_Is_Wrong
18. Other Lives – Tamer Animals (May 10, 2011)
19. Wilco – The Whole Love
20. Givers – in light
21. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien
22. Alex Cornish – No Shore
23. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Tao Of The Dead
24. David Wax Museum – Everything is Saved
25. The Black Keys – El Camino
26. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
27. Cults – Cults
28. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
29. Gungor – Ghosts Upon the Earth
30. Josh Garrels – Love & War & The Sea In Between
31. Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm
32. My Morning Jacket – Circuital
33. White Pines — The Falls
34. Paul Dempsey – Everything is True
35. Ha Ha Tonka – Death Of A Decade
36.Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
37. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
38. Royal Bangs – Flux Outside
39. Wye Oak – Civilian
40. The Submarines – Love Notes,Letter Bombs
41. The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy

EPs:
In a class by itself EP Sleeping At Last – Yearbook (an EP a month for the the year 2011)

1. Scott Orr – Where I Lived, And What I Lived For
2. Alabama Shakes – Alabama Shakes
3. Ivan & Alyosha – Fathers Be Kind
4. Sons & Daughters Brokeness Aside
5. Typhoon – A New Kind Of House
6. The Vaccines – If You Wanna
7. Wind And Willow – Roots
8. Young Man – Boy

Live music -Top 5:
Seryn at the Lost Leaf, Phoenix
Chris Bathgate at The Whiten Leaf House, Peoria
Zoo Animal at The Thomas Listening Room, Glendale
Lucero at The Clubhouse, Tempe
Wovenhand at Sail Inn, Tempe

Soundtracks (music for motion pictures):
Bear McCreary’s work on The Walking Dead, The Cape, Human Target

TV:
The best thing on Television right is Kyle Cooper’s Title sequences (opening credits) on Dramas (American Horror Story, The Walking Dead), along with sound design by Cesar Davila-Irizarry (Wipeout, AHS, Ace of Cakes)

Other favorites:
Hell on Wheels
The Walking Dead
The Middle
Modern Family
The Killing

Wishing American TV would adopt British TVs 4-7 episode series (The Take, Dead Set, The Shadow Line).

Film:
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Exit through the Gift Shop
The King’s Speech