oh no ono - swim

pink mountaintops - execution

Jay Reatard - It Ain't Gonna Save Me

Julian Plenti - Games For Days

Deerhoof - Jagged Fruit

Cannibal Ox - Pain Killers

The Shaky Hands - We Are Young

Shy Child - Astronaut

Lovvers - OCD GO GO GO Girls

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

The Black Heart Procession "Witching Stone"

Yo La Tengo - "Here To Fall"

pretty yummy

Fever Ray - Triangle Walks

yo la tengo - periodically double or triple

new yo la tengo on its way...

Joker's Daughter - Lucid

Danger Mouse goes folk...

The Twilight Sad - I Became A Prostitute

Cass McCombs - You Saved My Life

gentleman reg

benoit pioulard

polvo - beggar's bowl

i don't know how i missed this but one of the best bands of all time is apparently back in action and has a new album coming out in september. frankly this is more exciting than chrome OS. the link to the song is hijacked from stereogum.com - i just couldn't resist. it is probably another sign that i'm out of touch but stereogum.com has a couple of interesting track-by-track cover albums available free on their website.

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

holiday shores

wavves

pajo

dinosaur jr

this couldn't but put a smile on my face.

Those Dancing Days - Run Run

First Aid Kit - Our Own Pretty Ways

Tortoise - Prepare Your Coffin

clues:haarp

Patrick Watson - Fireweed

Nadja - Only Shallow

i didn't quite see this one coming - a covers album by the fuzzed-out Nadja! it kicks off, or rather meanders off, with perhaps a little too faithful rendition of only shallow (which of course means that it is still pretty damn good). it is not a stretch to see how Nadja's drone get's applied to gem's like Codeine's 'pea' but the real treats here are the covers of a-ha's 'the sun always shines on tv' (the album title cleverly combines the opening lines of 'pea' and the title and a-ha's 'classic') and elliott smith's 'needle in the hay'. and it goes far beyond being simply the 'oh look what they have done' sort of thrill. nadja actually adds something to a-ha's original and manages to preserve the spirit of elliott smith's song although it sounds vastly different. overall an unlikely success.

Papercuts - Future Primitive

white rabbits - percussion gun

Patrick Wolf - Vulture

Hmmm, interesting. After toying with orchestral pop on his last album, the Magic Position (see below), Patrick Wolf has now transformed into some combination of Marc Almond, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

St Vincent - Actor Out Of Work

The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea

Unkle - Heaven

Ungdomskulen - idunno

i had for some reason written ungdomskulen off for some reason but this calls for serious historical revisionism. this is as close to brilliant as anything i have heard this year - and i hate to admit it that the animal collective is in the running. but ultimately these guys win because they sound more like polvo. i gather this is from the newly released bisexual album.

Ungdomskulen - Modern Drummer

blonde redhead/devastations & sufjan stevens

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

Handsome Furs - I'm Confused

deerhoof

Architecture In Helsinki - That Beep

what the hell happened to architecture in helsinki?! this just might be the worst song i've heard all year. i guess it came out last year and i can't say i'm surprised that i didn't hear it until now. and don't get me started on the video. watch and suffer...

The Rifle - Alela Diane

Tim Exile - Family Galaxy

starts of like a nice boards of canada, then for a bit it sounds like a bad postal service, then why?, then something else. brilliant and/or mad?

Future of the Left 'The Hope That House Built'

Prefuse 73 : The End of Biters - International (2004)

Cornelius - Sensuous

2008

i would like to say that my best of the year 2008 is only seeing the light of day in February because i take the job of compiling the list very very seriously and that i needed some additional time to work my way through of the stacks of albums released. or that i wanted some more time to see if first impressions really last. but in reality i've just busy with other things. like watching tv. although i do get bothered by end of the year lists appearing early december with 1/10th of the year left. perhaps another reason i didn't get my shit together earlier was because 2008 was a pretty lame year and there were very few albums that i got excited about. indeed, it was hard to find albums deserving a place on the list.

the top three:
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles although i got excited by hearing crystal castles first singles and remixes i couldn't help feel it was just a little bit of 8-bit gimmickry. so it was surprising to see the one trick pony run the length of a full album and come out ahead of much of the rest. turns out there is more to their songs than 8 bits.





These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid admittedly the name of the band almost kept me away but thankfully bandwidth is cheap. TNP is postpunk in the way that battles are postpunk only that they look to joy division for inspiration (or at least sound like they do) rather than whoever battles took after. so perhaps a dadaist version of joy division updated with sharper sounds. maybe not. but definitely worth the listen.





Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies i admit that i was a bit disappointed when i first heard afterparty babies as it struck me sounding too simply. repeated listen, however, changed all that and in the end this is a killer and clever hip hop album that received far too little attention.






The other good ones:

Dungen - 4 well, nothing really new here and probably not Dungen's best but i still find it very enjoyable







The Kills - Midnight Boom the kills go from being grimy, bluesy to being sexy. it suits them better.







Wolf Parade - Mount Zoomer by no means as good as their debut but still a pretty solid. that's all i ask for this year






Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel sort of this years Klaxons. it is loud, obnoxious, and all over the place but most of all it is just a fun ride







Spiritualized - Songs in A&E i really didn't think i would be listening to the spiritualized ever again. at least not any new stuff. i was wrong. this is probably better than anything they have every done before.






Ten Kens - st kinda old school indie rock, kinda lo-fi, kinda loud (not that loud really). the cute generation could learn a thing or two here.






No Age - Nouns i would probably say the same thing about this album.







Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements parenthetical girls go chamber pop, which, of course, will not sound anything like it.






Let's Wrestle - Let's Wrestle fantastically catchy and superbly lo-fi. kinda like pre-slanted and enchanted pavement but probably a good deal sillier. i hope these guys never stumble upon a 'good' producer.






fuck buttons - street horrrsing strangely pretty







honorable mentions:
deerhunter - microcastles
the gutter twins - saturnalia
fucked up - the chemistry of common life
vast aire - dueces wild
duke spirit - neptune
the big sleep - sleep forever
gang gang dance - saint dymphna


the disappointment:
TV on the Radio - Dear Science ok, not a bad album by any means but expectations where pretty high after cookie mountain. first, where are the effen guitars? second, what is with the canned beats? i hate to say this but with the middle aged production i can't help but think terrence trent d'arby and seal. i know that is mean but that's just how disappointed i am with this album.

the disgust:
Vampire Weekend - st wtf! if i caught my girlfriend listening to this that would be the end of the relationship.

let's wrestle - song for man with pica syndrome

apparently 'the most miserable and hateful band in London'. i say we need more hate and misery.

mono - ashes in the snow

From mono's forthcoming album Hymn to the Immortal Wind. As with other mono stuff you should turn the volume way up and close your eyes. or go see them live.

Metronomy - A Thing For Me

makes me smile

Sic alps - arthur machen

Patrick Watson - The Storm

Come - Cimarron

come is probably one of the most underrated bands from the 90s. not just that but probably one of the most brilliant bands ever. brutal, beautiful and utterly depressing music. perfect soundtrack for dark winter days but probably not in a very healthy way. so i was a little surprised to stumble upon this song, which I didn't know existed, on youtube. a brilliant song, a great video. i guess christmas came early this year.

Elle Milano - Meanwhile In Hollywood

parenthetical girls

parenthetical girls - a song for ellie greenwhich

Little Joy - Unattainable

son lux

HOOD - The lost you

Hood - They removed all trace that anything had even happened here

HOOD - You show no emotion at all

deerhunter

a new polvo song? no, just deerhunter. maybe they realized that halfway through the song - which would explain the uninspired second half ... "hey, everyone will forget the beginning if we just play these cords for three minutes". and now the title of the song also makes sense.

deerhunter - nothing ever happened

urban slake

what a effen great song title....
urban slake - sa javla svensk

sorry, link removed by request

lets wrestle

sounds like shit but, in fact, is absolutely brilliant. or not far from it.

lets wrestle - i won't lie to you

rdm trxs

women - black rice (from women)
women - group transport hall (from women)
nagisa ni te - premonition (from yosuga)
warm in the wake - tame thoughts (from gold dust trail)
oneida - preteen weaponry (edit, from preteen weaponry)

links removed by request/complaint

the dead science

on paper this band sounds pretty awesome. shudder to think-like vocals, paired with 31 knots/xiu xiu type music and an apparent obsession with mf doom (the title of their latest is villainaire). and surprisingly the awesomeness translates pretty well to the stereo - although I suspect that is matter of taste. and tolerance. and i'm sure there are some intolerant people with bad taste out there.

monster island czars (from villainaire)
displacer beast (from crepuscule with the dead science)

black moth super rainbow

with a name like that i was convinced they had to be japanese but, no, pennsylvania. i guess the psychedelic sound might also have helped. japanese or not, this is quite brilliant. sort of like if m83 hadn't taken the wrong turn and ended in the 80s. or was it the 90s? i lose track. happy melted city

radiohead - reckoner (flying lotus rmx)

not really much of a fan of radiohead but i do like flying lotus. reckoner

"iTunes store shutdown feared"

how stupid is apple? do they really think that anyone is going to believe that they will close itunes down because of a six cent increase in the copyright tax? and the argument? "we don't want to change our pricing from 99 cents per song and then it's not profitable anymore... so we'll quit." apple is going to walk away from a market that they pretty much own and hand it to its competitors! right! what a pathetic move. now, i'm sure the copyright royalty board is almost perfectly evil and the cost will eventually get passed on to the consumer but i do hope they raise it by seven cent, just to give apple the finger.

4ad

future of the left are 2/3 (?) of the defunct mclusky and sound about 2/3 alike - the poppier 2/3s perhaps. i'm not sure i like them that much but there is something i like about them.

future of the left - manchasm (from last night I saved her from vampires)

the department of eagles are finally back after a long while - 2003? - and i suspect one of half of the band joining grizzly bear might have something to do with it. whitey on the moon was one of these albums that came out of the blue and i didn't really know what to make of it. it couldn't easily be classified - it was kinda like the avalanches but there were 'real' songs there too. so i just gave up and i decided i liked the album quite a bit. so the new one... well, all the 'fun' stuff has been stripped away and the album sounds pretty 'conventional'. good? bad? I'm sort of leaning towards wrong side of the mid point but perhaps I was just expecting something different? let's say its nice...

department of eagles - in ear park (from in ear park)
department of eagles - no one does it like you (from in ear park)

collectors

dungen - satt att se

from dungen's new album "4": satt att se

benoit pioulard - brown bess

benoit pioulard has a new album, temper, out and unlike so many much awaited albums (tv on the radio anyone?), it doesn't suck. temper doesn't stray to far away from precis in terms of sound - i'll make no attempt to describe it - but his singing is a bit more audible than before, which makes his songs, well, more song-like.

brown bess

max tundra - will get fooled again

Max Tundra - Will Get Fooled Again

benoit pioulard and praveen sharma

embers

rndm

deerhoof - offend maggie
horse feathers - curs in weeds
crooked fingers - phony revolution
black taj - fresh air traverse (one half of the legendary polvo)
black taj - cold comfort
paramount styles - come to new york (one of the guys from girls against boys)
mother mother - body of years
brightblack morning light - oppressions each
chad vangaalen - willow tree
calexico - two silver trees
jay reatard - see/saw
walkmen - in the new year
the dutchess and the duke - reservoir park
earlimart - song for
31 knots - compass commands
love is all - big bangs, black holes meteorites

some icelandic stuff:
benni hemm hemm - snjor ljos snjor
seabear - i sing i swim
borko - dingdong kingdom

Prefuse 73 w. School of Seven Bells - The Class of 73 Bells

of montreal

of montreal - id engager

the faint

The Geeks Were Right from Fasciinatiion

ten kens

your kids will know

rndm trx frm lfm

Jason Forrest - 2006: Good Riddance
pg.lost - yes i am
Castanets - As You Do
Ester Drang - Come Back Alive
Archers of Loaf - Audiowhore
Thee More Shallows - At the Knight School
Frog Eyes - Bushels
Bracken - Heathens
Seabear - Sindri Mix

zach hill

from zach hill's (hella) forthcoming solo album, astrological straits. i don't know about the video but i kinda like the (relative) poppiness of the song. not so sure about the video.

jaguar love

subsets of the blood brothers and pretty girls make graves join hands

jaguar love - highway of love

feral children

Spy/Glass House
Jaundice Giraffe

boat

(I'm a) donkey for your love
last cans of paint

wolf parade live

i had kinda mixed feelings about seeing wolf parade but it didn't have much to do with the band. with the show being at the house of blues (chicago) it was, in my mind, at the upper limit of the size of venue that offers any possibility of being fun. plus i resented having to buy tickets through ticketmaster. but it being a nice day and all (albeit kinda long since for some reason i woke up at 4am) i was still a bit excited about going to the show. in short, it was ok. nothing more than that really. it could have been a lot louder for one thing and a lot of the songs come of a little bruce springsteen-y. or maybe it was just the checkered shirts? at any rate, i wasn't a big of fan. the only song that i really got into was the, to quote the pitchfork, 'stubbornly unmelodic finale marked by a mush of throbbing guitars and histrionic vocals' (i.e., kissing the beehive). but again, i don't think it was wolf parade's problem - i do like their albums a lot and their performance was just fine. it was just the wrong surroundings. or just me. at any rate, i don't think i'll go to another show at a venue where i can't get i chance to kick a bandmember in the pants if i should feel like it.

call it a ritual

since posts here have become increasingly rarer i might as well mention alaska in summer that i also so live but in the right circumstances - and on paper alaska in winter wouldn't really seem to have a lot going for them when it comes to live performances. what are your expectations for a 'band' that consists of guy singing along to tracks on his laptop? right? but the show was damn close to brilliant - at least i left with a smile on my face and saw no reason to celebrate the evening by getting royally drunk. the brilliance of the show was in the video projections which consisted of the guy in the role of his own backing band complete with costume changes. it doesn't sound like much and it probably has been done before but it was done cleverly and worked beautifully. so, i guess, 2-0 for my kick in the pants theory.

close your eyes

mogwai

The Sun Smells Too Loud

Mriando

duke spirit

relay - context

starts of like just another band that has discovered shoegazing but somewhere circa halfway through the song the get things just right. nice noisy bits.

......

titus andronicus takes us back to the days before bright eyes turned into bob dylan light (and yes, john, that is meant as an insult in two ways). i guess i'm a sucker for singers that can bother to scream b/c i can barely bother to speak most days. the gutter twins are mark lanegan and greg dulli - don't know what else to say. don't know if i need to say anything else. i've always had a soft spot for jucifer. partly because they have stuck to their guns and they have played pretty much the same song from the start of their career (ok, that's not completely fair). Partly because they are loud. i guess their new album is a little different - so far i have decided i like the loud songs. thankfully, wolf parade aren't changing things up too much on their new one. pretty solid stuff but perhaps not on par with their debut. human bell - a couple of thrill jockeys. islands' new album is, well, strange. it seems too produces but, then again, it took me a while to get into their first one. mae shi. long blondes are sound slightly less annoying although i think they are probably a whole lot more annoying in person. that's just what they sound like. notwist. plants and animals. santogold lifts a bassline from the pixies. nice. people compare santogold to m.i.a. ok, there are a couple of songs where that makes a little bit of sense but, well, there are songs here. i'm not sure they are great but, at least, they are not offensive. windsor for the derby. uffie - just because i stumbled upon this song and it seemed strangely appropriately b/c i was thinking that it was hard to think much of uffie's music. for one thing it is silly. and then there is the gap between uffie as she appears in interviews and her music - it makes me think of people playing guitar hero. don't really know what my point is. but i guess uffie is right here, silly is not necessarily bad and her songs are strangely fun. and then some more of the same stuff.

oh, les savy fav and the kills are officially on my shit list for canceling their shows in oxford. so is oxford. and especially carling academy.

the last shadow puppets

i didn't really know what to expect from arctic monkey's frontman's side project, the last shadow puppets, but this wasn't really it.

phosphorecent - a picture of your torn up praise

nice song, pretty video. a picture of your torn up praise

dragons of zynth, etc.

oddly enough, dragons of zynth released their album last year without getting much notice. it kicks as. in the tv on the radio sort of way - and i can only imagine how tired these guys are of hearing that. but it is sort of true but there is enough else going on here. man man's new one is out and it doesn't disappoint. slaraffenland... well, they sound kinda dull compared those two bands. don't know about them. black keys sound slightly less than the black keys than they normally do. is that a good thing? i have to say to get dangermouse to produce their album is a clever thing to do.... how can you not check it out. now, that is an odd couple. tokyo police club. not bad. not too exciting either. their last one grew on me though so i'll give it a shot. the notwist... hmm, i have a feeling the went ahead and tried to something new when all we really wanted was neon golden II. death cab for cutie also have a new one. i still think they are kinda boring.

thao, amc, white hinterland

today's helping is kinda quite and nice. maybe b/c i'm feeling sickly. anyhow, thao reminds me a little of cat power and, wait, edie brickell. is it good? i can't decide. i gave up on amc/m.eitzel some 10? 15? years ago but their new one sounds more like i what want them/him to sound like. white hinterland sound like nice music for sunday afternoons. and then a couple of more upbeat songs with team robespierre and hercules and love affair.

oh no

neon neon = boom bip + gruff rhys?

breeders, fleet foxes, no kids, throw me the, etc

i guess the breeders are back, who would have thought. also some other goodies...