Best Music Blog Finds of 2008

One final Best Of music list should round out the year nicely, don'tcha think? (Or maybe Bob had plans for another...?)

While I agree in toto with Bob's commentary that music now comes at us so hard and fast and unrelentingly that it's almost impossible to savor each quarter-note morsel we ingest, I also must admit that I've been exposed to more kinds of music by more bands in the last nine months than in any 9-month stretch since I was in college. For every band whose songs I was able to sample thanks to the ten or so music blogs I regularly frequented, I'm sure there were handfuls of other bands I only wish I could have heard.

But we gotta start somewhere. And we gotta end somewhere. So, for better or worse, below are the Musical Waldos I found, my favorite musical discoveries owed exclusively to the blogging of others.



(For those dying to know, here's the order in which I've been playing them on my iPod, with song title and artists name.)

1. Push It Along - Paul Weller
2. Umbrellas (First Dance) - Sleeping At Last
3. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You - Black Kids
   (Dude, y'all owe at least half your profits to Robert Smith)
   
4. If You Don't Care - Smoking Popes
5. The Night Starts Here - Stars
6. Beulah the Good - James Jackson Toth
   (I don't know where this song is going or ends up, but it's a damn chilled-out fun journey)
   
7. Everything Good is Bad - JJ Grey + Mofro
   (I hear this and wanna wear a smoking jacket and attend a key party)
   
8. Lose It - Cartel
9. I'm Not Scared - Ladytron
10. First Sight - These United States
11. Hardly Enough - WAZ
    (He played for Pete Yorn. He sounds kinda like Pete Yorn.)
    
12. All My Friends Are Crazy - 500 Miles to Memphis
    (I hadn't really heard of country/punk before, but I'm cool with it)
    
13. The Reason Why I Still Live Here - Floormodel
14. Graveyard Girl - M83
    (I hear this, I think of John Hughes, Martha Quinn, and Patrick Dempsey)
    
15. The Good Old Days - The Lodger
16. Yesterday's Lunch - Lemuria
17. You Made Me Like It - 1990s
    (Oh it's just so damn catchy...)
    
18. Is There a Ghost - Band of Horses
    (Three different people asked me what this song meant... I was utterly unhelpful)
    
19. You, Me + the Bourgeoisie - The Submarines
20. Turn the Page - The Streets
21. Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
    (If Kim Deal, early Billy Corgan, Dave Grohl and one of the Luscious Jackson chicks all had a single baby, the song would sound something like this)
    

None of the artists above are living the lush life of a Tina Turner, so please consider forking over a few post-holiday dollars and buying one of their albums! Most of them can be found at either Amazon.com's mp3 site or on iTunes.

Bob's BEST SONGS OF 2008 (Wherein I occasionally invoke the privilege of including songs that I didn’t hear until 2008 and other fallacies of logic)

20. “Magick” by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

This is the year I turned on Ryan Adams. I like his live sound, where the Cardinals have more of a chance to play the Grateful Dead in their arrangements, but there’s a sameness to much of Adams’ recent studio work. I start this list off with “Magick” because it gives me hope that Adams will rock a bit more in the new year.

19. “Looking At The Sun” by Gramercy Arms Gramercy Arms--"Looking At The Sun" (mp3)

Good, clean retro-pop that portends good things to come, until someone snaps this up as the soundtrack for a TV show and ruins everything.

18. “Freeway” by Aimee Mann

A simple, droning Aimee Mann toss-off, built around the verbal irony of “You gotta a lot of money, but you can’t afford the freeway.” But, the riff is insistent and hummable and the chorus soars just enough to shake you out of your reverie. I sing this one all the time.

17. “Ordinary People” by Neil Young

I guess this song was performed back in the late ‘80’s, but it wasn’t released until this year on Chrome Dreams II. The band is Neil Young and the Bluenotes, the historical references don’t have the impact they once might have had, and the song goes on for over 18 minutes. Who else could pull this off? Like much of what Young writes, this opus is in need of some editing, but each verse tells its own mini-story and helps to create a cumulative effect of the resilience of people in the face of corruption and injustice and the general downtroddenness of life that seems very appropriate as we face our current troubles and the hope of our new president.

16. “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs--"Ruby" (mp3)

Everything that joyous, girl-crazy rock and roll should be. Wait for the chorus. Wait for it. I was in the car yesterday listening to this with some other people and when someone came up to the car to talk, we stopped the Ipod so we wouldn’t miss the chorus. How often does that happen?

15. “Stupid Now” by Bob Mould Bob Mould--"Stupid Now" (mp3)

There are a number of very good songs on District Line, but I like the opener “Stupid Now” because it ratchets up the emotion immediately. I don’t know much about Mould’s personal life, but with each new cd, it seems like some guy has broken his heart again. This time, it feels like the stakes are higher, like there was the expectation of a long-term relationship that exploded/imploded. One of Mould’s many gifts is his ability to convey either the explosion or the implosion with equal dexterity.

14. “Pull Up The Roots” by the morning benders the morning benders--"Pull Up The Roots (Talking Heads cover)" (mp3)

Stumbling across the bedroom covers, a little ep of odd covers from the morning benders, stuff by Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac to Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys among others, was one of the great small treasures of this year. The vibe is of a band sitting around and most anything that they can think of they can cook up into a version that honors the original but becomes their own. To my ears, this Talking Heads cover is the cream of a very good crop. The benders write good stuff, too: their “dammit anna” was one of my favorites a year or so ago.

13. “Devil’s Arcade” and “Terry’s Song” by Bruce Springsteen

“Devil’s Arcade” feels more like a song that should have been on The Rising than Magic. The subject matter has been updated from 9/11 to post-Iraq war, but the circumstance of individual people, husbands, wives, and soldiers having to come to terms with what has happened to them feels very much the same. That you get the hidden track “Terry’s Song,” an ode to a lost friend, is both simpatico and pure gravy.

12. “Tiny Island” by Leo Kottke Leo Kottke--"Tiny Island" (mp3)

The greatest re-release of the year. How do I know? Because I re-released it, with the help of the USB turntable I got last Christmas. This long-lost gem of the out-of-print Greenhouse album is the sonic definition of “wistfulness.”

11. “This Girl” by Jordan Zevon Jordan Zevon--"This Girl" (mp3)

It’s not just that his voice sounds like he’s channeling the old man; this is catchy stuff. Lost in the Zevon mystique of crazy song subject matter and an overdeveloped sense of irony is the fact that Warren Zevon wrote melodic, radio-friendly pop songs. It sounds like Jordan is a chip off the old block.

10. “Scare Easy” by Mudcrutch

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Tom Petty can probably write songs like this in his sleep, but this is a tightly-played single by a group of veterans who clearly enjoy being back together and trying to make the years between disappear. Perhaps to honor that spirit, the production is cleaner and simpler than most Petty records of late, and I’m not sure he’s put out anything this direct in quite awhile.

9. “Hittin’ It Hard” by Jim Lauderdale Jim Lauderdale--"Hittin' It Hard" (mp3)

I despise modern country music’s typical fallback on a nostalgic vision of agrarian-society-meets-Roadhouse world that never was. How refreshing, then to encounter Jim Lauderdale’s honest song about a friend who drinks too much.

8. “Expecting To Fly” by Emily Haines*

The blog world loves covers, and I am no exception. I think this actually might have slipped in near the end of last year. Nevertheless, it’s my favorite cover song of this year, taking a beloved late Buffalo Springfield track and stripping all the layers of nervous Neil Young and David Brigg’s inventive (at the time) engineering. Nothing but piano and vocal, Haines’ version takes us back to the heart of the song.

7. “Jesus Had A Sweet Girlfriend” by Justice of the Unicorns* Justice of the Unicorns--"Jesus Had A Sweet Girlfriend" (mp3)

To me, this is the slacker, lo-fi hit of the year. If it’s true that every generation remakes Jesus and Hamlet in its own image, then the Christ had the typical relationship issues, parent issues, enemies, and just-get-me-through-these-years resignation that any teenager encounters.

6. “Live Your Life” by T.I. (featuring Rhianna)

I’m always susceptible to whatever my children are listening to, and this rapper’s manifesto is just friendly enough that I’ve grown to really like it. I have to admit, though, the first time I heard it, I thought Rhianna was saying “ ‘cause I’m a big, fuckin’ slut” each time at the end of her section. That’s a judgement on my hearing, not her lifestyle. Apparently, she says, "'cause I'm a paper pusher."

5. “You Don’t Know Me” by Ben Folds and Regina Spektor Ben Folds (featuring Regina Spektor)--"You Don't Know Me" (mp3)

The catchiest song of 2008, with Regina Spektor’s sexy, breathy vocals playfully mocking the mock-seriousness of Fold’s complaint. You know I love duets; this is a good one. It will stay in your head forever, and at least you can tell your brain, hey, back off, I’m listening to Ben Folds.

4. “The Devil Raised A Good Boy” by Paul Westerberg and “Cop Light Parade” by High On Stress* High On Stress--"Cop Light Parade" (mp3)

If I didn’t like Paul Westerberg so much, the grouping with High On Stress might seem like a tiresome comparison for the younger band. Maybe it’s just me, but if someone said, “You know, that song you just played reminds me of Paul Westerberg,” I’d beam. So hats off to the Stressers for showing their influences and for being named, by me, as the best band who sent a song to this blog this year! “Devil Raised A Good Boy” begins at minute 14:28 of Westerberg's conglomerated cd, 49:00. It’s his best rocker in years.

3. “Acid Tongue” by Jenny Lewis Jenny Lewis--"Acid Tongue" (mp3)

I know critics weren’t as positive about Jenny Lewis’ second outing, but “Acid Tongue” is a quality (autobiographical?) stand out track. Rockers were never supposed to get older, but since they do, assessments of earlier lives can be quite compelling, like this is.

2. “Can’t Go Back Now” by The Weepies The Weepies--"Can't Go Back Now" (mp3)

Having made a case for really short songs in a post earlier this year, it’s not surprising that this perfect little gem from the Weepies should be one of my favorites. Put simply, it’s a song about life that cheerfully, for two minutes, helps us to come to terms with what we’ve lost and what we have to face. It reminds me of one of my favorites by the Sheds, “All The Right Things.” It’s hard to ask much more from a song than what this delivers.

1. “Lord, I’m Discouraged” by The Hold Steady* The Hold Steady--"Lord, I'm Discouraged (live)" (mp3)

The Hold Steady’s music is often not as engaging as their lyrics, but everything clicks in this song. Maybe this is where Craig Finn finally shrugs off any comparisons to Springsteen (though musically Meatloaf, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band or Bon Jovi might have worked, too). Springsteen tends to traffic in impressionistic images and abstract ideas, while Finn give you the gory details. The narrator misses the frivolous fun of dancing because his girlfriend is hooked on drugs and spend time across town and in the company of sketchy characters. I like lists in songs, and I have to say, "Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine" is one of my favorites. There is an unease in America right now as we begin to face what we’re really about, and, in capsule form, this song captures that for me.

What were your favs?

Many of these songs are available at Itunes, though a few have not made it that far yet or are out-of-print. Those marked with an asterisk (*) have been previously posted on this site.

Billy's Top 11 Albums of 2008: The Top Five (and a half)

Below are my top five (and a half).
Click here for 6-11.

5. The New Frontiers - Mending
"The Day We Fell Apart" (mp3)
The New Frontiers is Radiohead if Thom Yorke was from Texas. While this description probably insults both bands, I stick to it. Mending is a supremely chilled-out rock album with some country influences injected for good measure. I don't really like using the word "rock" because nothing in this album is particularly cutting or hard. It's more like a river rock, worn smooth from having sat on the bottom and endured heavy currents over time.

In fact, this is not my generally preferred style of music. It's far too relaxed. (I could say the same thing about Snow Patrol, for example, whose most recent album is good but failed to make my Top 10.) But this album penetrated my hunger for hooks and bombast with some great harmonies and a melancholy sweetness that I find tough to explain.

4. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
One of my favorite mix CD bands of the 21st Century is The Go! Team. It's quite possible Girl Talk has surpassed them with this album. What the Go! Team does with retro sounds and muffled cheerleaders Girl Talk does with every damn song you've ever heard and another hundred or so you might not have.

This album is like the super-tough edition of a music trivia game, except it never stops, never slows down, and never comes across as anything less than fun.

The one knock I have is that, when all is said and done, the songs have no message, no meaning. There isn't some thematic or lyrical intent linking "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" with a Busta Rhymes hit. He just mashed 'em 'cuz it sounded awesome. And it does. Sound awesome. It even sounds awesome several months after I first heard it, which is unexpected.

Sometimes, it's OK for music to mean little beyond bringing a smile to your face.

3. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
"Meet Me by the River's Edge" (mp3)
Mix two parts Flesh for Lulu, two parts The Killers, and a sprinkling of Vigilantes of Love, and I'm pretty sure the resulting mixture would sound like The Gaslight Anthem. Reviews I've read of this band keep using the word "punk," which is a big head-scratcher for me. Was Flesh for Lulu "punk"? Does anyone beside me know who Flesh for Lulu even is?

Anyway, because I love Flesh for Lulu and enjoy what I've heard from Vigilantes of Love and, yes, have a weak spot in my heart for the first Killers album, the Gaslight Anthem's album just warms me to the bone. Several reviews use the dangerous word "Springsteen" when discussing this band, but other than both being from Jersey, I don't get it. Might as well use "Bon Jovi" in there, since it's equally ludicrous. The title track is sublime, but there's nary a weak moment in the bunch.

If this is punk, sign me up. (And you can sign up too, for cheap! This sucker is on sale at Amazon.com for $3.99.)

2. The Rescues - Crazy Ever After
I must confess a particular vulnerability to the story of The Rescues. You have three hungry singer-songwriters who don't quite seem to be making it on their own, and some serendipitous occasion brings them all into the same room, whereupon they decide to throw their fates into a single hat.

Either because they were all desperate enough or humble enough, or because they actually liked one another from the get-go, the resulting album is something greater than its parts, although I'm not quite sure of the genre's title under which their music falls. Indie Pop? Folk Pop?

Regardless, the music is often tender, sometimes leaking into sappy. Occasionally it's fun and light. Apparently their music is regular fodder for a variety of TV shows, but that's not how I found them, nor do I hold such a "crime" against them. What up-and-coming band would turn down "Grey's Anatomy" or any show for that matter? It's not in the same boat as selling your song for an ad.

1. Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
"Blue and Gold Print" (mp3)
I've already said what needs to be said about this album. Most of these songs could be used in old Scooby-Doo chase scenes when the meddling kids are running from the ghost du jour. Theirs is an acquired taste, and if their first single "Get Better" doesn't perk up your ears, then nothing on this album is likely to convert you. The good news is, you'll know with one song and one listen whether you're gonna like this band.

Some of their following, whose adoration and critiques I've read on other blogs, find this latest album a little too poppy, not quite as off-kilter as their previous work. Which is precisely why I find this new album to be their most compelling and endearing. They're dancing with the devil (contemporary pop) in the pale moonlight, but it never feels like they're selling out or moving away from the music they love to make.

Plus they have their own cool-as-hell blog (Band on the Diaper Run), which just makes someone like me like them even more. ABC News even ran a story on them, 'cuz they're just that damn cool.

0. The Format - Dog Problems
"Inches and Falling (I Love Love)" (mp3) -- previously posted
This is #1 with a Bullet (point) because it technically is cheating. Dog Problems was released in 2006, which by even the wackiest of standards is too long ago to be considered the Best Album of 2008. However, I'd never heard of these dudes 'til March of this year, so they were totally new to me. And this is my list, dammit. So I'm putting them at #1.

This album is an alternative pop carnival of break-up songs, and I mean each and every word of that description. "Alternative" because Nate Ruess' voice will never be confused for David Cook or someone who could have even made the first cut on American Idol. "Pop" because these dudes can craft a sticky hook like nobody's business. "Carnival" because several of the songs quite intentionally convey that feel. Much like clowns can amuse or sometimes scare the shit out of people, Dog Problems can sound on the surface like a Funhouse album when it's actually more of a Horror House of Mirrors with some amusing makeup. "Break-up songs" because the dude can't get over it. I mean, at least half of U.S. states would arrest this guy for obsessing over whoever it was that stomped his heart flat.

I'd start breaking down individual songs, but the truth is, the reason this tops my list is because it's the most cohesive and consistently strong collection of songs on an album I bought this year. The only weaknesses are the first and last songs, which serve more as a way to allow the listener to slowly enter and exit this Format carnivale without getting the bends.

Billy's Top Eleven Albums of 2008: Six Through Eleven

So let's just cut the crapola and get started, shall we?

11. Will Hoge - Draw the Curtains*
Any gifted musician who depends on constant and impassioned touring to make money and is involved in a near-fatal scooter accident that results in his touring being ground to a halt as he rehabilitates himself back to some modicum of health is automatically given a 3-month bonus period for consideration on this list. (* -- Hoge's album came out in late 2007, but I didn't buy it until January, after I'd received all my gift cards for Christmas.)

Those who know me know I have an irrationally soft spot in my heart for this guy, because he frequently stops in at The 'Noog, and because his performance is clearly modeled after The Boss in that every minute he's on stage, Hoge knows he's working, and he desperately wants to give his audience their money's worth and have fun doing it.

After almost a year of this album remaining on fairly heavy rotation, I'm comfortable claiming it is his best album. Although Draw the Curtains does not have any of my three favorite Hoge songs, it definitely has four of the top 10 and is his strongest collection from start to finish.

10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Magazines (mp3)
I've been dangling off the back of the Hold Steady's bandwagon since 2005, when I picked up Separation Sunday on an out-of-town trip on something of an inspired whim. Their music is consistently praiseworthy and manages to feel simultaneously original and ripped straight from an E Street Band jam session.

While most critics claim Stay Positive is the band's strongest effort yet -- and while it's possible those critics are correct -- I've found myself a little bit numbed to their charm after so much heavy rotation. The Hold Steady is, for me, a band best served in 20-minute increments. They are a wonderful change of pace for me, but not a great main course.

So, while Stay Positive might truly be better than Boys and Girls in America, I would undoubtedly have ranked the latter one higher on my list in 2006. The band seemed fresher to me back then. Now? It's still plenty brilliant, but less fresh. Like Springsteen's post-concert T-shirts.

9. Paul Westerberg - 49:00
With my mind on my money and my money on my mind, Paul Westerberg's 2008 release was the best bang for your buck. The $0.49 download from Amazon.com (no longer available) provided a 44-minute mp3 file containing 10-12 bona fide songs interspersed with random sound garbles and glimpses of cover songs.

It is messy, and it is imperfect. But for half the price of one Britney Spears song, you could hear an entire album from a man who is still madly talented and can turn a clever and occasionally brilliant lyrical phrase with minimal effort. It makes the list based on value, plain and simple.

8. Keane - Perfect Symmetry
Again + Again (mp3) -- Removed lest I inspire people to purchase Keane's albums, thus infuriating their lawyers

To say I hated Under the Iron Sea would be a slight exaggeration, 'cuz I didn't hate it. But I sure as hell didn't like it very much. It was a colossally disappointing sophomore album in an era where sophomore albums seem almost destined to disappoint. So I didn't remotely expect to like this new one. Didn't even plan on buying it, really, but I overheard it playing in a record store and, not knowing what it was, found myself listening intently.

Perfect Symmetry is pretty cut-and-dried Brit Pop, full of hand claps and synth-overdose. I feel a little more James when listening to this one, although in the first 20 seconds of the opening song, if you aren't thinking about The Human League, your ears aren't working properly. Yet, for all of this negative-seeming commentary, I keep listening. This album is more enjoyable from start to finish than either of their previous efforts and is darn tasty pop music.

7. The Heavy - Great Vengeance and Furious Fire
The Heavy is never going to be accused of mining new territory, musically speaking. Their style is a mesh of various influences, although most swim in the '70s with Sly and some other funk-rockers of the era. But the sound is decidedly updated, with some grunge and '90s rock noise thrown into the stew. Their subject matter is the stuff of timeless inspiration: getting laid, having fun, drinking, and getting laid some more. But anyone who tires of such topics should stick to Barry Manilow or Charlotte Church.

The last time I remember being this surprised at how much I enjoyed a throw-back album was when I discovered the debut Black Crowes album months before they ever dented the cultural/MTV conscience. No one ever accused the Robinsons of being particularly original.

Great Vengeance... is certainly not flawless, and I'm always fascinated when a band chooses to open up with some atmospheric or moody piece that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the album and doesn't even stand very well on its own, but there's enough strength in the collection to merit mention on this list.

6. I Nine - Heavy Weighs the King
Alive (mp3)
The harsh critic would say that this band hopped on the Avril Lavigne Clone Train and headed for the metropolis of Wannabe. And, if you don't listen past the first two songs, I guess that would be a jaded yet defensible claim. But if you listen to the entire album, you will hear an expression of nascent rock/pop talent that is searching for itself, strangely preoccupied with space and some oddball literary references, and capable of kicking some musical ass.

This band earned a recording contract because Cameron Crowe "discovered" them and put them on his Elizabethtown soundtrack. But where the song on that soundtrack leaned more country-rock, their debut album is pure-on rawk, full of energy and exuberance and, occasionally, teen angst. Which is a good thing, particularly to those of us who work with teenagers every day.

Based on how often I've listened to it, this was easily my favorite pure pop rock album of the year, but there's just enough Avril in the lead singer's voice that I'm hesitant to openly admit it. Which is a shame, 'cuz she can belt out some serious tunes.

These albums can be found on iTunes and Amazon.com's mp3 site.