Happy Holidays!!!
Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! We will resume normal updates in 2009!!
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Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2008
Hey look, its another end of the year list. I am not sure if there is a difference between “best” album of the year and “favorite” album of the year, but I am pretty sure I could make another list that covers what I think were the best albums of the year, even if they weren’t my favorites. Anyways, in no particular order, the following are my favorite albums of 2008. Favorite meaning I found myself listening to these albums the most.
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
What can I say? I got obsessed with these guys the first moment I heard them. I probably annoyed the crap out of my friends by preaching how good this album was. My typical line: “Can you believe this guy is only 21 years old and he is singing and writing songs like this?!?!?!” Definitely not over-rated. All the praise for this band is warranted. Robin Pecknold is the best young songwriter we have seen in years and I can’t wait to hear what they put out next.
YouTube: Two little swedish girls cover Tiger Peasant Mountain Song
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Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours
Ever since The Rapture’s Echoes
YouTube: Hearts on Fire Live
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Department of Eagles
In Ear Park
MP3: Department of Eagles: No One Does It Like You
This shouldn’t be viewed as a Grizzly Bear side project. In Ear Park is an insanely well produced album evoking the finest baroque pop of the 60’s.
YouTube: No One Does It Like You Live on Conan O’Brien
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Gang Gang Dance
Saint Dymphna
MP3: Gang Gang Dance: House Jam
I have only recently discovered this album in the last couple weeks but it has quickly grown as one of my favorites of the year. I don’t even know how to describe this music. At times it sounds like M.I.A singing over Out Hud. Warped sounds, strange synths, oddly plucked guitars and heady dance beats. Awesome.
YouTube: House Jam Live in Tokyo 08
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Grouper
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
MP3: Grouper: Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping
This is a beautiful album. From start to finish, the album flows flawlessly in a relaxing haze. Perfect to take a nap to on a summer day. And I mean that in a good way.
YouTube: Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping Live 08
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Q-Tip
The Renaissance
YouTube: Q-Tip: Getting Up
It takes a lot for me to get into a Hip Hop album. I need the backing tracks to be catchy and the flow needs to make my head bounce. I actually have no idea what I am saying. This album is great.
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Tv On The Radio
Dear Science
YouTube: Tv On The Radio: Golden Age
I never really understood the whole TV on the Radio thing. I didn’t like their first album and I only liked some songs on Return to Cookie Mountain. Their production has always been too cluttered and messy and the combination of Kip Malone and Tunde Adebimpe’s vocals annoyed me. To top it off, I had seen them live twice which cemented them as one of the most overhyped live bands in my eyes. I then heard Dear Science and I thought to myself, “finally!!” Unlike their previous efforts, the production is dense but spaced out, allow room for each sound to be heard a la Talking Heads Remain in Light. Top that off with songwriting that is melodic and poppy and you have yourself an amazing album.
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The War On Drugs
Wagonwheel Blues
MP3: The War On Drugs: Taking the Farm
Is it just me or is this one of the most under-looked albums of the year? Hypnotic and catchy, Wagonwheel Blues chugs along in a pleasant bliss.
YouTube: The War On Drugs Live
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Okkervil River
The Stand Ins
MP3: Okkervil River: Lost Coastlines
I loved The Stage Names but I think The Stand Ins has become my favorite of the two. Good tunes, good lyrics, good times.
YouTube: A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers and Will Sheff (Okkervil River) Perform Lost Coastlines
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The Walkmen
You & Me
MP3: The Walkmen: In The New Year
You & Me was definitely a grower for me. It took multiple listens to start deciphering the melodies. This is a “feel” album. For some reason it reminds me of hanging around a fire in the winter. It is cozy music. Holiday music? Hamilton Leithauser has a “crooner voice” on this one. “In The New Year” is one the best songs I have heard in a long time.
YouTube: In the New Year Live 2008
Joe Pug
Over a morning cup of coffee the day before your senior year as a playwright student at the University of North Carolina your thoughts become clear. ”I am unhappy here.” So what do you do? You pack up your bags, drive the longest route possible to Chicago, work as a carpenter by day, pick up the guitar you haven’t played since your teenage days and spend your nights playing that said guitar. Using ideas that you had for a play, you write delicate folk songs channeling the lyrical insight of an early Dylan.
Months later you are playing a headlining show at Schubas and have released an EP to critical aclaim.
So goes the story of 23 year old Joe Pug.
Wise beyond his years, Pug sings like he has travelled the world twice over, delivering his stories like a sophisticated poet without compromising melody or song-craft. He plans to drop a full length album in 2009. We are definitely looking forward too it.
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MP3: Joe Pug: Hymn #101 from Nation of Heat Ep
The Rolling Stones at Altamont ‘69
Amongst the chaos, hands down the best version of Under my Thumb.
From Gimme Shelter
Spud Nation Vol. 3: Blaine’s Enchantment
The cloud of dank smelling smoke forms above your head as you army shuffle across the diseased ground, nose inches from a crushed High Life can. You get a shot off, but you lose track of it in the dark. Shots come whizzing by your head and you think of Saving Private Ryan. D Day has arrived and you’re caught in the middle. You begin to lose hope. Where are your comrades, where is your backup?
…it starts with the deep bass. Your heart pumps and you reload your remaining shots, taking a look at your watch. 0100 hours and you’re 5 Beam shots deep. You must keep warm.
The lights move in a irrational way, capturing the essence of the moment. You start to feel queasy. Maybe it’s the shots and High Life? Maybe it’s the fumes? You stare up to the sky…through the smoke, through the lights, and above the cheaply painted foam barrier that sits in front of you and the victory.
He is propped up like a king, sheltered from the chaos. He is in a trance. Who is this skinny figure with tinted glasses and oversized headphones that looks across the battlefield? Why does He hold so much power? Why is He protected?
You lean up against the blacklit wall as the climax approaches.
One more look to the sky, to the God that will forever change this night. You salute the electronica sensei and with that look, the music peaks. A burst of heavy chemical infused smoke fills the space around you and its your last chance. Nothing but sheer insanity will get you to the spinning red light, but He is looking after you.
Summersault. Gun lodges into your side, but you keep crawling. You puke. Quickly scamper another 5 yards, bust through the smoke, and run into a barrier–knocking it onto two people making out. You feel it. Above, He feels it. You make one last dive, reaching out for the victory. You puke again.
Oh no. Your vest vibrates and the Battle is over. The halogen lights turn on and you look around in awkward silence, covered in your own puke. The battlefield looks like a makeshift homeless sanctuary. Reality hits you. You’re playing laser tag.
In a last moment of desperation, as security leads you out to police to charge you with public intoxication, you shoot one more look upstairs. He has a Parliament lit and a blond lady by his side. He is smiling.
He is Blaine, the resident laser tag DJ at Enchanted Castle in Lombard, IL.
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MP3: Tiga: Burning Down The House from Sexor
Hunting For Vinyl
If you are a fan of Vinyl, you probably have probably spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the best record store in your city to fit your tastes. Some stores might only carry multiple copies of Bing Crosby Christmas records while another might only specialize in DJ orientated artists. It is definitely hit or miss, but thankfully a website has taken the time to break down the locations of record stores in multiple cities, allowing you to explore and find the best store to fit your tastes.
Wax.fm, a site dedicated to vinyl, has mapped out the location of various record stores in the top 50 populous cities across the US.
Dark Side of the Rainbow
Its always fun to speculate if this was grand scheme conceived by Roger Waters or simply the result of Synchronicity. Either way, it is always a pleasure to go back and watch.
In a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, Dark Side of the Moon engineer Alan Parsons said of the supposed effect:
“It was an American radio guy who pointed it out to me. It’s such a non-starter, a complete load of eyewash. I tried it for the first time about two years ago. One of my fiancee’s kids had a copy of the video, and I thought I had see what it was all about. I was very disappointed. The only thing I noticed was that the line “balanced on the biggest wave” came up when Dorothy was kind of tightrope walking along a fence. One of the things any audio professional will tell you is that the scope for the drift between the video and the record is enormous; it could be anything up to twenty seconds by the time the record’s finished. And anyway, if you play any record with the sound turned down on the TV, you will find things that work.”
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Creed “Google Bombed” as Worst Band in the World
Guess what shows up when you enter “worst band in the world” into google? No, Nickleback DOES NOT show up. The greatest Christian rock band of the late 90’s does, CREED. Go ahead and give it a try.
Fun Fact: Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal was in a band in the 8th grade with Mark Tremonti of Creed. It is safe to say they both went their separate paths….
Brian Jonestown Massacre
For a band that sometimes got in fights with each other on stage, they put out some pretty darn good tunes.
Video: Fight breaks out on stage at the Viper Room, LA. From DiG!
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MP3: Brian Jonestown Massacre: Anenome from Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request
