You guys! It’s almost 2014! I really feel 2013 was a great year for indie music. A lot of great bands put out new music (Phoenix!, Lorde,Pacific Air). I grew into liking some bands that I didn’t necessarily like before this year (The National, Cults, Young The Giant, Arcade Fire..still no hope for Mumford & Sons YUCK!). There was also a lot of really amazing bands/artists that made it to the spotlight (Lorde, Haim, Chvrches, The Royal Concepts, New Politics). Of course I made a playlist for my 2013 favorites (what kind of music blogger would I be if I didn’t?!). A handful of the tracks on the playlist really stuck out for me this, basically meaning that I may or may night have been so excited at first listen that I teared up and put the song on repeat for that entire week. I also had a bunch of favorites as in favorite song I heard on TV, favorite live show I saw, favorite album, etc. so here those are:

Favorite Songs I heard on TV This Year:

I Need My Girl by The National ~ seen on The Mindy Project

The Struggle by Grizfolk ~ seen on The Originals

Gentle Folks by Hunter Hunted ~ seen on Awkward and Teen Wolf

Come a Little Closer by Cage The Elephant ~ played on Vampire Diaries (basically refer to this years season of Vamp Diaries for all the newest indie that rocked the world!)

Power Hungry Animal by The Apache Relay ~ seen on Way Way Back (movie)

Walking Backwards by Leagues ~ seen on Orange is The New Black (in a really sexy scene no less)

Pull Me Down (and also) Kids by Mikky Ekko ~ both seen on Teen Wolf (also refer to this show for amazing indie songs from this year)

Favorite Album Release of 2013:

Bankrupt! by Phoenix (duh)

Favorite Live Show of 2013:

Phoenix (w/ my bestie!) – May 9th – House of Blues Orland = LEGENDARY!

and also Phoenix – August 4th – Grant Park Chicago

I have to add that getting Phoenix to autograph my Bankrupt! album was definitely the coolest thing that happened to me this year

Best Soundtrack of 2013:

Hunger Games Catching Fire

this was definitely the most awaited soundtrack of the year especially because so many amazing bands made songs specifically for this soundtrack (Sia, Imagine Dragons, Lorde, Coldplay, Phantogram)

Songs I Got Most Excited About in 2013:

*Like I said before…I got crazy excited/emotional the second I heard these songs* (Disclaimer: I have no clue what any of these songs are about, it’s the beats that win me over)

Black Out Days by Phantogram

Campfire by Satellite Stories

It’s About Time by Young The Giant

World On Fire by The Royal Concept

Alienation by Morning Parade

The Struggle by Grizfolk

I Need My Girl by The National

Habits and Love Ballad by Tove Lo

Alright by Sydney Wayser

Elastic Heart by Sia, The Weekend, and Diplo

Team by Lorde

I’ve Been Waiting For This by Butch Walker

Giants by Bear Hands

and my number one favorite song of the year (that I just heard a few days ago) is Stay Kids by ANR. It’s beautiful!

That is just the tip of the musical iceberg that was 2013. I couldn’t have found all this amazing music without my favorite Sirius XM stations Sirius XMU and Alt Nation. Pretty much 90% of the music I was obsessed with this year came from them and I am EXTREMELY grateful! I can’t leave out Shazam which has always been one of my favorite apps, I love you Shazam!! One last shout out goes to SPOTIFY. Spotify rocked my world this year…literally! If you have it let me know so we can share music!!

Also another fun thing I did this year is I would do a song of the day on my Instagram (which links to my Twitter) and actually got a lot of favorites and retweets from the bands whose music I posted. Here are some good ones!

Last but CERTAINLY not least I present to you INDIE MUSIC HEARTBEAT’S BEST OF 2013 PLAYLIST!!!

if you do not have Spotify, you can always..wait who am I kidding? Go get Spotify ya crazy!! (and then open up the playlist below)

I tried really REALLY hard to keep it under 100 songs so…YAY me! lol. Here is the tracklist and I highly recommend listening to this while you’re getting ready to party tonight! Happy New Years music lovers and thanks so much for loving music, it’s a beautiful thing that should NEVER go unappreciated!