February has arrived and it brings depression, loneliness and heartbreak with it. Valentine's Day is a cute and playful time for the lucky ones. (myself included -- I found my lovely wife 13 years ago), but I can still remember the pains of a broken heart. And although the memories of lost love seem so trivial today, at the time heartbreak seriously sucked. But it's true; everyone should have their heart broken at least once in their lifetime.

It builds character and forces you look closer at your potential mate the next time around.

So as we celebrate Valentine's Day this month, let's remember the sniveling masses that have been screwed over, dumped or otherwise had their hearts ripped out. I know that aying, "you'll get over it" doesn't help much, but trust me, it's true.

I've created this playlist especially for the broken-hearted. These are some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful tracks ever recorded, and they will help you take your self pity to places not previously known to mankind (or womankind).

Sometimes it's best to embrace the pain, wallow in your own emotional destruction and consume as much chocolate and alcohol as your body can take.

The other day a press release showed up in my inbox that I thought was huge news. Black Flag was reuniting! I opened the email and read it eagerly.

Well, it wasn't as good as it sounded. Although the reunion includes original members of the band it does not include Henry Rollins. No offense against the band's second vocalist, Ron Reyes, but most of us aren't interested in Black Flag without Henry Rollins. It's like the Beatles without John Lennon or The Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger.

So while the press release was nothing to get excited about it did inspire me to do this Black Flag Valentine's Day playlist. To qualify for the list there were only two prerequisites.

1. It had to be a Black Flag song.

2. The song title needed to work on a candy conversation  heart.

How I wish someone would make these and package them in a box with the Black Flag logo on the front. I'd buy a 1000 of them and keep them all for myself.

Happy Valentine's Day punks!

Well my friends, Valentine's Day is right around the corner. So you can expect a lot of love-related music around here during the month of February.

There is probably no holiday that holds more great playlist opportunities than Valentine's Day. Love is, by a wide margin, the biggest inspiration for song. A songwriter in love can tap its power and ride right to the top of the charts. And so can a songwriter with a broken heart.

Out of great joy or great pain springs the best music. Music, after all, has always been a way to connect emotionally with an audience.

For this playlist I've decided to explore the cliché device of "two hearts". You don't have to dig to deep in order to find a plethora of songs that use it to describe being in love.

This one is just a start and it includes both popular songs and high quality songs.

There are many sexual oddities to be found in the world, some are considered tame, some of them we would rather not think about, and some of them are just plain weird. And no matter what fetish or sexual deviancy you care to investigate, there are songs to tell the story.

Paraphilia is a proclivity to sexual arousal by things outside of the norm, like inanimate objects or situations. One such paraphilia is mechanophilia, which is having a specific sexual attraction to machines. Things like cars or motorcycles.

I was not too surprised to find a large number of songs that paint machines as sexual objects. After all, rock n' roll can be strange like that.

For this playlist I've found songs that seem to love a machine a bit too much, if you know what I mean.

So if you find yourself alone with nothing but your vacuum cleaner this Valentine's day, why not give this playlist a spin?

When you ask someone who doesn't play board games if they would like to play a board game, 90% of the time their response will be, "What, Monopoly?"

If this happens to you, I would recommend that you immediately beat that person forcefully about the face, then explain to them that there are much better board games available today. European style games have created a new renaissance in board game design, even as we live in a digital world.

But there is no denying the incredible influence that Monopoly has had on multiple generations.

Monopoly can be traced back to 1903 when Lizzie Phillips invented a game called "The Landlord's Game". It was published in 1923, but in 1934 Parker Brothers released Monopoly, and it has since sold over 250 million copies.

That's a lot of games.

This playlist page homage to the board game Monopoly. And if you plan on playing a the game, you'll need a long playlist considering it can go on for hours.

What you you add to your Monopoly playlist?

Here's my top 100 albums for 2012. If you don't agree, that's okay, you're not me.
Listen for yourself with Spotify.

#1. Bloom by Beach House

#11. Sweet Heart Sweet Light by Spiritualized

#21 to #30 in our top 100 albums of 2012. Listen for yourself on Spotify!

#21. good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar