It’s the end of the year, and that means an excess of top ten lists galore about everything – the best albums, movies, and so on. However, our time is preciously limited, so we’d like to draw your attention to some founts of inspiration information you may not have considered previously. As the cold winter sun sets on Kspace, please move your attention to these unexpectedly great websites we’ve discovered this year (and will keep checking hopefully long into the future):

1. The Quietus: We love Pitchfork – despite its success, it remains adventurous, and provides a necessary critical voice for so many bands that would otherwise remain unheard. However, just as Rolling Stone and SPIN managed to coexist in the early days, it’s nice to have an alternative to the alternative, just for variety. Enter The Quietus, a U.K. online music magazine that covers independent culture with a expansive thrust and wonderfully idiosyncratic point of view. From experimental metal to indie film to interviews with unsung heroes and beyond, The Quietus is there, and you should be, too.

2. Dangerous Minds: Richard Metzger is one of the greatest custodians of pop-culture ephemera and zeitgeist earthquakes, and Dangerous Minds is his online venue for all that’s great and fascinating and weird and essential. Dangerous Minds broke the Internet release of the backing tracks to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” earlier this year, causing a massive sensation. That’s just but one example of the good works Metzger bestows on the public…

3. Ashtar Command: Chris Holmes is, for lack of a better cliché, a renaissance man. He’s released his own innovative, unique music (under the guises of Ashtar Command and Sabalon Glitz, among many other monikers), and he’s been a secret weapon for everyone from Felix da Housecat to Smashing Pumpkins; he continues to throw amazing parties (he even served as handpicked opening DJ for Paul McCartney’s Coachella debut). Holmes also has the greatest taste in conspiracy theories, UFO intelligence, and generally everything cosmic, and his Ashtar Command website brings it all together.

4. Kelly Oxford’s Twitter: A lot of people’s Twitter accounts try to be funny; Kelly Oxford actually succeeds. She’s a Mommy blogger for those of us who could care less about Mommy blogs (she’s far too profane and insane to even compare to the middle-of-the-road types that garner innumberable hits). Oxford can be existentially hilarious (“Sometimes I think the moon is just the earth in the future and it’s there to warn us and we’re ignoring the warning. We’re so stupid.”) or just spectacularly rude (“Iggy Pop saw a photo of Madonna’s body and threw up”) in her 140-words-and-under-rants, and she’s just as much a target of her tweets as is, say, Kanye. Sarah Silverman, you got competition…

5. Madbury Club: Phillip Annand is a young dude who got his start on the Interwebs as an opinionated forum poster on Hypebeast.com. There, Annand developed his eye and taste for everything cool and sharp in streetwear, pop culture and beyond. Call him a tastemaker, call him an early adopter, call him whatever, but Annand is up on stuff probably before you are, yet he lets us know what’s up with humor and class. Respect…

6. Rob Da Bank on BBC Radio 1: Rob Da Bank is a DJ, but he’s more than just a DJ – he’s an everlasting gusher of new, incredible music. He unleashes his findings every week on the BBC, where chances are you’ll hear artists and songs everyone else is playing catch-up with a year later. He also runs the great U.K. music festival Bestival and runs a great boutique label, Sunday’s Best, which just recently released a completely nutty, great single from David Lynch. Da Bank also is funny as hell; really, he can do no wrong, and deserves your support.

7. Sleevage: Some designer types known as Soap Creative from what appears to be Australia and Los Angeles do this amazing blog devoted entirely to “music cover art – from the LPs of the ‘60s to the digital artworks of now.” It’s wildly addictive, spanning known faves to obscure oddities, all totally inspiring.

8. The World’s Best Ever: The World’s Best Ever is a self-described arts & culture website that updates constantly, with a fine emphasis on design, but mostly concerned with everything good. Their Sound Advice playlists feature the listening faves of everyone from alt-rock icon Greg Dulli to Surface To Air founder Gordon Hull.

9. The Flavor Bin: Bill McMullen (aka Billions McMillions) is a design/streetwear/artist genius; chances are you’ve worn his designs and have albums where he’s created the cover art. Colby Parker Jr. has probably edited some of your favorite films. Together, they are The Flavor Bin, podcasting like maniacs, doing crazy interviews with unexpected types (actor Idris Elba, photographer Terry Richardson) like some digital-ass Dick Cavetts for today. Word.

10. Brainpickings: Maria Popova is a one-woman Ted conference. She’s obsessed with all things media, tech, science and pop culture, combing the web for obscurities and miscellany that makes one view the world in a new way…