Best Album:
40. Deerhunter - Cryptograms 39. Piano magic - Part Monster
38. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns 37. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
and Fifteen Winters
36. Okkervil River - The Stage Names 35. Figurines - When the Dear Wore Blue
34. Bjork - Volta 33. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
32. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover 31. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
30. A Hawk and a Hacksaw - A Hawk and a 29. Iron and Wine - The Shephard's Dog
Hacksaw and the Hung Hanger Ensemble
28. Blonde Redhead - 23 27. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
26. The White Stripes - Icky Thump 25. Rogue Wave - Asleep at Heaven's Gate
24. The Veils - Nux Vomica
22. Loney Dear, Loney, Noir 21. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
20. Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
18. Caribou - Andorra 17. The Innocence Mission - We Walked in Song
16. Radiohead - In Rainbows
14. !!!(Chk Chk Chk) - Myth Takes 13. Low - Drums and Guns
12. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity 11. The XYZ Affair - A Few More
Published Studies
10. The Clientele - God Save 9. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden
the Clientele I Miss Everyone
8. Jens Lekman - Night Falls 7. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Over Kortedala
6. The National - Boxer 5. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
4. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 3. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before
the Ship Even Sank
Best Song:
"Bros" - Panda Bear
2. "The Pelican" - Menomena
3. "Atlas" - Battles
4 "All My Friends" - LCD Soundsystem
5. "Welcome, Ghosts" - Explosions in the Sky
6. "Fake Empire" - The National
7. "Yadnus" - !!!(Chk Ch Chk)
8. "Is There a Ghost" - Band of Horses
9. "Here Comes The Phantom" - The Clientele
10. "Ideals" - The XYZ Affair
11. "Murderer" - Low
12. "Advice For Young Mothers to Be" - The Veils
13. "Intervention" - The Arcade Fire
14. "The Cold Acre" - Augie March
15. "Melody day" - Caribou
16. "Wait For Wintertime" - Yeasayer
17. "Innocence" - Bjork
18. "Higher" - Soft
19. "The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life" - Sunset Rubdown
20. "Paper Planes" - M.I.A.
21. "Lake Shore Drive" - The Innocence Mission
22. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" - Radiohead
23. "Cocobelle" - Moonbabies
24. "Rest My Chemistry" - Interpol
25. "Wet and Rusting" - Menomena
26. "Peacebone" - Animal Collective
27. "And I Remember Every Kiss" - Jens Lekman
28. "Missed the Boat" - Modest Mouse
29. "Someone Great" - LCD Soundsystem
30. "Childhood Verse" - Figurines
31. "Apartment Story" - The National
32. "Cliquot" - Beirut
33. "TIJ" - Battles
34. "Crossing Line" - The Sea and Cake
35. "See You at the Lights" - 1990s
36. "Islands on the Coast" - Band of Horses
37. "Comfy in Nautica" - Panda Bear
38. "Drum of Glass" - Monomen
39. "Normandie" - Shout Out Louds
40. "+81" - Deerhoof
Honorable Mentions: "Heatherwood" Deerhunter, "Phantom Limb" The Shins, "The Last Engineer" Piano Magic, "Matchbook Seeks Maniac" Deerhoof, "1234" Feist, "Harmonium" Rogue Wave, "Mapped by What Surrounded Them" The Twilight Sad, "Dashboard" Modest Mouse, "Must be the Moon" !!!, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" Spoon, "Bookshop Cassanova" The Clientele, "The Opposite of Hallelujah" Jens Lekman, "Eli" - Caribou, "Í Gær" Sigur Ros, "Violent Past" Low, "Pioneer to the Falls" Interpol
Best Album Art:
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Piano Magic - Part Monster
Best Music Video:
!!!(Chk Chk Chk): "Must Be the Moon"
Honorable Mentions: Zach Galifianakis's version of Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothin," Bjork - "Declare Independence," Justin Timberlake - "Let Me Talk To You/ My Love," Menomena - "Evil Bee"
(I
do realize that I have seen a very small portion of the endless music
videos put out these days, so these are the ones that just stuck in my
mind. Also, the director -and not necessarily the artist- is who should
get the bulk of the credit...but other than Michel Gondry and Zach's
homemade video, I don't know the names associated with the videos
listed)
Best Take Away Show from La Blogotheque:
Tie! (I couldn't make up my mind): Sufjan Stevens and Menomena
Sufjan Stevens
Session included a cover of The Innocence Mission's "The Lakes of Canada" and a collaboration with friends at the Musicnow festival. The stand out, his rendition of "The Lakes of Canada" was filmed in Cincinnati on top of the building that was housing the festival. La Blogotheques's unparalleled cinematography captured the essence of this song perfectly. Plus, he played the whole thing on a sloping roof! For the complete session, visit La Blogotheque here.
Menomena
The Portland boys' La Blogotheque session featured awesome songs from their excellent 2007 release, Friend and Foe: "Wet and Rusting" and "Rotten Hell." Apparently filmed in domestic sections of Paris, "Wet and Rusting" doesn't just stand out as a raw, almost-as-good-if-not-better-than-the-real-thing rendition but also some wicked, unreal dancing moves from a passing boy -not to mention Blogotheque's uncanny direction abilities which capture all of this perfectly.
Check out the session in its entirety here.
Honorable mentions: The Arcade Fire, Alan Sparhawk, The National, Loney Dear, Beirut
Radiohead
In Rainbows
hear: 15 Step, Bodysnatchers, All I Need, House of Cards, Jigsaw Falling Into Place
www.radiohead.com/deadairspace
Piano Magic
Part Monster (Important)
www.piano-magic.co.uk
www.importantrecords.com
These lists are obviously subjectively responsible to my empirical 2007 data.
Best Concert:
TIE! Mew at Irving Plaza(Filmore) and Battles at Studio B
Mew
Honorable Mentions: Explosions in the Sky @ Webster Hall, Bjork @ United Palace Theatre, The National @ Bowery Ballroom, Interpol @ MSG, Band of Horses @ Blender Theater, !!!(Chk Chk Chk) @ Bowery Ballroom, The Appleseed Cast @ Knitting Factory, LCD Soundsystem @ Webster Hall
Best Debut Album:
The XYZ Affair: A few More Published Studies
Honorable Mentions: The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, Yeasayer: All Hour Cymbals, 1990s: Cookies, Deerhunter: Cryptograms
The Kills have been MIA for a while. After the excellent record, No Wow, they deserved a break. Now they return with a new album which will be released this March via Domino and have already made a fun little video for the first single, "U R A Fever."
Yes it seems the boys have been touring non-stop, and we have been well aware of their dates in Britain and down under in 2008, but dates for the good 'ol U.S. of A. have surfaced. The America stint will start in mid March in Tuscon, Arizona and finish a month later in Atlanta, Georgia. Then they head off for another European stretch, after which they have supposedly claimed to hibernate for a while.
U.S. dates:
3-14 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
3-15 San Diego, CA - SOMA
3-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern Theatre
3-21 San Francisco, CA - The Great American Music Hall
3-22 San Francisco, CA - The Great American Music Hall
3-24 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
3-25 Aspen, CO - Belly Up Tavern
3-26 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
3-28 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre
3-29 St. Louis, MO - Pageant Theatre
3-30 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre
4-01 Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre
4-02 Grand Rapids, MI - Calvin College
4-03 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
4-04 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall
4-06 Farmingdale, NY - Crazy Donkey
4-08 New York, NY - Terminal 5
4-09 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom
4-11 Norfolk, VA - Norva
4-13 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
Deerhunter laid down some tracks for Daytrotter a little while ago. And given the stark contrast between their music style and the more raw, acoustic-style of Daytrotter, the products were sure to be original and interesting. Then again, 2 of the songs were unreleased material, 1 was from an old album, Fluorescent Grey, and then 1 from their solid 2007 release, Cryptograms -the awesome "Heatherwood."
To hear the unreleased tracks, the oldie "Dr. Glass," and read about the full Daytrotter session visit this.
Sam Beam has made a video for a song from his 2007 smash folk hit album, The Shepherd's Dog. As far as I know this is the first video attributed to the album, which for me is a bit odd since there are numerous better songs on the album than this one. But I'll trust Sammy knows what he's doing. Apparently he knows what he's doing when it comes to making a video that appeals to a wide audience -including beautiful dancing women will surely do the trick.
Caribou hasn't done an acoustic show before? Their session with La Blogotheque was their first? That's what La Blogotheque's site claims. It would seem Caribou's music would be great for acoustic meddling. Anyway, here are two acoustic sessions that are not to be missed...
