But that would probably piss off my imaginary bandmates also I am musically inept also I am a mega-dork.

Some other suggestions:
-The Third and Kings
- Bocock Rocket
- The Catching Molinas
- Jesús and the Alous
- Balk-off Homer

God those are horrible. I need some sleep.

In honor of Mays and McCovey I would name a band “The Willies” but some bozos from South Pasadena have already taken that one. They’re probably Dodger fans, too. Bastards.

Also really enjoyed TV On the Radio. Okkervil River’s “The Stand Ins” was great… and I just discovered Muse, so yeah, it’s okay to judge me on that, but I’ve been listening to Black Holes and Revelations virtually on a loop for the last few days.

I will tell you that Delorean’s band and my band are playing together with Earthless on Jan 17 @ Annie’s Social Club on Folsom. I’ll be meeting Ian in person for the first time that night but I already know I like him. I’m sure he can’t stop thinking about Adrian Gonzalez either…

the headliners – www.myspace.com/earthless
my band – www.myspace.com/orchidsf
delorean’s band – www.myspace.com/kowloonwalledcity

The Nasty S***s

Granted, this was a pretty slow year but here it goes:

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Calexico – Carried to Dust
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
The Explorers Club – Freedom Wind
Steinski – What Does It All Mean?
Sigur Rós – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

All Disappointment List:
Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
Hold Steady – Stay Positive
Ryan Adams – Cardinology

Reasons for Hope:
New Andrew Bird and John Frusciante albums come out 1/20.
Nickelback put out an album this year so it’s unlikely we will have have to endure another release next year.

Ridiculously good album. Sleep Talking is my favorite song of the last couple years. Pretty much anything the guy from the Unicorns/Islands does is great though. His other side project Reefer’s album that just came out wasn’t bad either.

My other favorites from 2008:
Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Beach House – Devotion
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Really looking forward to Beirut’s upcoming release in February.

I can’t think of all of them at this point in time, but two that stick out are

The stand-in – Okkervil River
Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit probalby will get my nod for best album this year.

…so when is the runoff?

Wait, this isn’t the Community Prospect List Fanthing? I thought all these were FanThings?

1. The National- The Virginia EP (Best line of any song in recent memory: “Your heart’s full of liquor and everyone else is just ice in the glass”)
2. The Decemberists- Picaresque (By far their best album)
3. Okkervil River- The Stand Ins (I defy anyone to dislike “Calliong and Not Calling my ex”)

David Byrne And Brian Eno – Everything that Happens Will Happen Today
The Master Musicians Of Hop-Frog – Centuries Later

And My Favorite – Richard Swift – The Ground Jaw Trouble EP

Many of the other mentioned previously will make my top twenty list.

::witty band name involving a Giants player here::

The Blundering Bococks

I feel like I’ve had less time to listen to new music this year than ever before. Thanks for bumming me out.

My top 5 for 2008 probably looks like this:

5. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
4. Tobacco – Fucked Up Friends (amazing album)
3. Grouper – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
2. Black Devil Disco Club – Eight Oh Eight
1. Milieu – A Warm Wooden Hollow

Honorary mentions: Dr. Dooom – Dr. Dooom 2; Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – Cipher; Kleerup – Kleerup; Odd Nosdam – Pretty Swell Explode; Bun B – Ill Trill, Electric President – Sleep Well; Ladytron – Velocifero.

i come here for lolcats

I’m not sure I trust anyone who doesn’t trust me because I’m not sure I like TV on the Radio.

Did Blonde Redhead’s 23 come out this year?

Man, am I not cool anymore.

just how much I enjoyed them. This will be totally different in about 5 minutes too. Honestly, there was no album that I felt stood out above all the others this year. I didn’t really consider the handful of hip hop albums that I got this year (John Robinson, Lil Wayne, etc.) since I have trouble comparing them to the indie/electronica/rock thing. If forced to put them in, John Robinson would probably fall in the 10-15 range and Lil Wayne might fall in the 15-20 range. Also, there are obviously quite a few albums that I don’t own that probably would have made the list—Hercules and Love Affair and Gnarles Barkley are the two most obvious for me… I was tempted to throw them on there because I like some of the tracks so much, but this is a best albums list and I just can’t do that without listening to the album all the way through at least once.

———————————————————————————————
(1)-(5):

(1) Fleet Foxes
It took me a bit of time to pony up the money to actually buy this off of iTunes. Honesly, I’m pissed when a label doesn’t give it to me for much cheaper on emusic, but this album was really worth it. I’ve really been into singer-songwriter, folkish type music lately, and I’m a sucker for vocal harmonies. Despite the backlash against the band (perhaps because they’re dirty hippies and no longer unknown enough), I think every song on here is a gem, and White Winter Hymnal, Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, and Mykonos (actually off of the EP) are some of my favorite songs of the year. Include Sun Giant in with the album and I’m even more sure that Fleet Foxes put out my favorite music of the year.

(2) Bonnie Prince Billy- Lie Down in the Light
I think this is an unappreciated album this year. Bonnie “Prince” Billy, with the passing of Elliott Smith, takes on the title of best indie song writer. His song just sound deeper; I don’t know how to put it other than that. His forms are inventive and he’s not afraid to vary the instrumentation on a record. Highlights on this album include For Every Field There’s a Mole (love the, I think, Rhodes and clarinet solos) and You Want that Picture (love the vocal tradeoffs with the female vocalist). This is my second favorite Will Oldham album, and I really don’t like I See a Darkness all that much more.

(3) Of Montreal- Skeletal Lamping
This is the sort of album that you either love or hate. It was panned by a number of publications, but others put it high on their list of best albums of the year. I will admit that the album is inconsistent, but I love it anyway; really, I don’t think that someone could cram so many musical ideas into such a short span and not have the result be a bit inconsistent. I might be a bit reluctant to blare all the “black shemale” lyrics out my car windows or in proper company, but I definitely crank up this shit up in my apartment and dance around like an idiot. It’s like psycho-space-glam-funk-rock written by a mad genius who hasn’t taken his adderall. I heart Kevin Barnes.

(4) TV on the Radio- Dear Science
Honestly, if it’s possible, I was a bit disappointed by this album. I mean Return to Cookie Mountain IS LIKE THE BEST ALBUM EVAR AND YOU BETTER NOT SAY ANYTHING CONTRARY BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE WRONG, and Dear Science is merely really, really good. I was a bit disappointed because TVOTR seemed to go a bit more mainstream with Dear Science and didn’t experiment quite as much. Still, Crying, Golden Age, and DLZ are great tracks and the rest of the album is very solid. Overall, I just like their style and I agree with Grant’s take that I can’t understand why anyone would not like these guys. They play really fun music, and it seems like there is something in there for everyone.

(5) The Week That Was- The Week That Was
This was one of the few albums that I usually felt compelled to listen to start to finish. It seems like the interwebs and caused people to start buying more single tracks and ignoring entire albums. Having grown up on Sgt. Pepper’s, I really don’t like this trend. This is a very good album all the way through and the band obviously conceived of the album as a single work and not just a collection of singles. Add in the interesting song writing, percussion, strings, and varying rhythmic patterns and this album sqeeks past Santogold and Crystal Castles into my top 5.

———————————————————————————————————
(6)-(30): Once you get past the top 10, the order of preference for me gets very, very tentative. Anyway, I’ve included the rest of these albums just to give everyone a better idea of what I’ve been listening too, because that should be really important to you!

(6) Santogold- Santogold
(7) Crystal Castles- Crystal Castles
(8) Lindstrom- Where You Go I Go Too
(9) Bon Iver- For Emma, Long Ago
(10) Deerhunter- Microcastles
(11) Portishead- Third
(12) Thao- We Brave Bee Stings and All
(13) Plants & Animals- Parc Avenue
(14) Mount Eerie- Lost Wisdom
(15) No Age- Nouns
(16) El Guincho- Alegranza
(17) Cut Copy- In Ghost Colours
(18) Ra Ra Riot- The Rhumb Line
(19) Why?- Alopecia
(20) The Dodos- Visiter
(21) Frightened Rabbit- Midnight Organ Fight
(22) Deastro- Keeper’s
(23) M83- Saturdays=Youth
(24) Friendly Fires- Friendly Fires
(25) Department of Eagles
(26) Gang Gang Dance- Saint Dymphna
(27) Okkervil River- The Stand Ins
(28) The Rural Alberta Advantage
(29) Chairlift- Does You Inspire You
(30) Fuck Buttons- Street Horrrsing

FLAME AWAY (please)!

Grant was just embarassed to list his favorite Fall Out Boy abums, and came up with the above random bands, just to look cool.

Now, before someone gets technical, I preface this by saying music I listened to in ’08, even though it might have been released in ’07. Takes awhile for me to listen to stuff, etc.
In no particular order:

Vampire Weekend-Vampire Weekend
MGMT-Oracular Spectacular
Kings Of Leon-Only by the Night
Girl Talk-Feed the Animals
The Ting Tings-We Started Nothing
Stars-In our Bedroom After the War
Rademacher-Stunts (From Fresno, saw at Make-Out Room, really like it)
Lil Wayne-Tha Carter III
The Kills-Midnight Boom
Elbow-Seldom Seen Kid
Cold War Kids-Loyalty to Loyalty
Bon Iver-For Emma, Forever Ago
Black Kids-Partie Traumatic

Haven’t quiet gotten to the TV on the Radio but I’m sure I’ll like it, liked the first album. Also just listened to Fleet Foxes for the first time this morning on the MUNI, need to give a few more times to decide. Basically, there’s still a lot of 2008 that I haven’t listened to but I’ll get to it eventually.

hey remind me of seventeen different bands.

OK, let’s see…

1. Brinsley Schwarz
2. Broken Social Scene
3. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival
5. Desmond Dekker & the Aces
6. Eddie & the Hot Rods
7. Elbow
8. The Ethiopians
9. The Jam
10. Kaiser Chiefs
11. Moby Grape
12. Montrose
13. The Offspring
14. Super Furry Animals
15. Sweet
16. They Might Be Giants
17. The Yardbirds

BONUS BANDS: The Band, Little River Band, Band of Brothers, Band on the Run, Band of Gypsys, BANNED!

In arbitrary order, since I haven’t given enough thought to rank them. And with the caveat that there are a bunch of albums I haven’t had the chance to pick up/listen to yet:

- Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!! Lazarus, Dig!!
- Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
- Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, We Brave Bee Stings and All
- Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords
- Ra Ra Riot, The Rhumb Line
- She & Him, Volume One
- Portishead, Third
- Joan as Police Woman, To Survive
- Sons & Daughters, This Gift

It’s mostly a fairly conventional indie list, I know. And I have no idea what to put at #1. There were a number of albums this year that I like, but nothing that really blew me away as an obvious #1 the way Challengers by The New Pornographers did last year, or like Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood did the year before that.

I really like the song Bye Bye Bye, but I’ve heard the rest of the album isn’t nearly as interesting. But the mention here is a reminder that I should really pick up that album when I go to Amoeba after Christmas.

Another album from this year I really need to pick up: Furr by Blitzen Trapper.

the Robert Plant and Allison Kraus record Raising Sand is one of the prettiest recordings I’ve heard since Iron & Wine’s Creek Drank the Cradle.

I don’t listen to new (American) music.

I was a little let down by Dear Science, I didn’t like it as much as Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.

/shrug

Guy Garvey’s voice is so freaking cool.

Oh, and I’ve mentioned them in past threads but I really dig OCS — Or the Oh Sees as they are now called.

I haven’t heard the whole My Morning Jacket album, but Highly Suspicious may be the single worst song I’ve ever heard. Sorry to fans, but MAN.

Edweirdo Alfungo
Dick Pole & The Phallic Symbols
The Mighty Marks

The last one is only Giants-related in my mind – back in the mid-90s, the team had a seemingly never ending parade of players named Mark – Mark Gardner, Mark Lewis, Mark Portugal, Mark Carreon, Mark Leiter, Mark Leonard, Mark Dewey, Marcus Jensen. I dubbed them The Mighty Marks. Eventually Mark Gardner was the last of The Mighty Marks, and I think it’s ben years since we’ve had any at all. Oh, the tragedy.

That Human Highway album sounds pretty good, from the Amazon preview thing. Reminds me a lot of Fountains of Wayne. The cover art freaks me the fuck out though.

I haven’t been listening to much new stuff this year. I was really looking forward to Jenny Lewis’s Acid Tongue album, but I really don’t like it. I love Rilo Kiley and her first solo album, but the new one didn’t click with me.

I want to start a band called The Lincecums. I just need a drummer.

2008 was the year in which I became an official fuddy duddy Old Fart. I never expected it would happen so suddenly, and before I turned 40. It used to be I’d pick up Spin’s Top 40 Albums of the Year issue or the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll and read them back and forth — plus I’d have heard (or heard of) EVERY ALBUM THEY MENTIONED. Now? You kids may as well be posting in Sanskrit for all I know of these bands. Although I did quite like MGMT.

Tomorrow I plan to post about how much better ESPN was when they showed Australian Rules Football and kickboxing from the Phillipines. Now get off my lawn, kids.

I don’t listen to any bands that have come out in the last 20 years because they are all pretentious and boring. Now get the hell off my lawn.

But in general, I don’t listen to new music, it all sounds the same to me. Some of your guys’ indie rock might not fall into that generalization, but I really don’t know how I would become exposed to that. I mostly enjoy just listening to classic rock. Yeah, it might be a bit commercial, but its some damn fine music.

The only album I bought this year was Metallica’s: Death Magnetic. I thought it was a very fine return to their …And Justice For All – type days, with hard-pounding, complex songs. And none of the ridiculous trash-can drums Lars busted out in St. Anger. I really enjoy that album, and having just seen them in Fresno, they still put on a great show.

Lamb of God, however, blew chunks in the last 15 minutes of their set that I caught. I just don’t understand how that can be considered music.

“Talking about what bands one is in to” is the new “talking about the weather” in conversation hell.

OMG IT’S SNOWING

it’s all about the JOHN BROWN’S BODY

I tend not to get into bands until about 1-2 years after they’re not cool anymore. So I’m lucky that 2008 featured one of my old favorite bands becoming cool again! Portishead’s Third get’s the illustrious honor of my favorite album of 2008.

Great topic thread. My Rhapsody account is gonna get a workout as I check out all the music that’s been listed. Here’s my list.

1- Raphael Saddiq- The Way I See It. Great retro album and I’m into retro. This guy nailed it. Way underappreciated for the talent he has. I wore this thing out.

2- Joe Jackson- Rain. Joe with two of his original band mates. Very jazzy. Piano driven. “Uptown Train” is my favorite. And Joe can still write a pop song with the best of ’em.

3- Conor Oberst- Conor Oberst. I’m a shill for this guy because I live in Nebraska and my kid got me hooked on him a few years back. “Milk Thistle” is great.

4- Republic of Loose- Vol IV Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil. Irish soul band who’s lead singer sounds like Daryl Hall. That means exactly two things (Jack and shit) but I still like their stuff. “The Steady Song” is pop drivel but I’m not above that.

5- Maxwell- Black. I’m just gonna pretend that he finally released the damn album…. For Maxwell fans, it’s “Chinese Democracy” X 1,000.

Again great idea for a thread. I rarely post but I do visit McC daily and love reading what you talented people create! Thanks!

Die Hipsters Die!

Francisco Liriano on lead guitar
Travis Denker on bass
Boof Bonser on drums
Manny Mota on keyboards
George Foster on vocals and wicked dance moves
Hank Aaron on percussion

I Hardly Even Know Her by Bowker

Bonnie "Prince" Billy – Lie Down in the Light
Perhaps BPB’s (aka Will Oldham) best since 2000’s I See a Darkness.
Folkier and county-rier than recent efforts but the female backing vocals
really add tons of depth. Maybe my favorite recording of 2008 at this point.

Jucifer — L’ Autrichienne
A concept album about Marie Antoinette?! From Jucifer? Yes indeed. But
dont fear, it’s chock full of everything you love about Jucifer: crunchy, sludgy,
loud, quiet, tender and fantastic. Front-chick Amber Valentine is as easy on
the eyes as she is challenging to the ears.

The Grails – Take Refuge In Clean Living
Portland-based post-rock instrumental heavyosity. Swirling garage psych
that could fool you into thinking your listening to contemporary Japanese
psych-core or 1973-era Grateful Dead.

Sun Kil Moon – April
Mark Kozelek’s done it again. Great songwriting and performance. Moody
and dark while spiritual and life-affirming. I dont know how he does it, but
I hope he keeps it up.

Grayceon—This Grand Show
Your classic SF Cello, Guitar, and Drums metal band. You may know
Jackie Perez Gratz from her work in Amber Asylum, but here the goth
string quartet is replaced by hard-dring guitar and cello led math-rock.
Loud, fast and local.

Hank IV – Refuge In Genre
Local (SF) old-school (or maybe just old) punks keep getting better.

Catpower – Jukebox
Sure, Chan’s selling Lincolns (and tons of other shit) during the playoff
broadcasts, but I love everything she’s done, including this cover record.

Honorable mentions: