"As Tall As Cliffs" - Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

I'm sure all of the Readers are familiar with this band, but you might not be familiar with this series of videos from La Blogotheque.  Basically, they take an artist or artists and have them walk around in a public place performing some songs.  Andrew Bird's performance of "Weather Systems" is particularly good, in my opinion.  But here's Margot doing one of the songs from their newest album.

Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - As Tall as cliffs - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Well... If I Have To

I've been putting off writing a response to crs's challenge in this post for a week. Honestly, I didn't realize it required a response until I had seen jdb's followup. Since comprehending the meaning of challenge, and this specific one, I've been stuck trying to come up with just what I would list. I've been particularly lax in keeping abreast of new music this year. And somehow I manged to not download very many albums despite having a subscription to eMusic.

Here are the three albums I definitively feel belong in my Top 5 of 2008 list:

• Elephant Shell, by Tokyo Police Club: Let's get the obvious out of the way first. This is just straight up good indie rock. No one else listed it so I will. There's not much I can say about this one. It just pushed all my indie rock buttons. The album has been in heavy rotation on my iPod since it came out.

• Offend Maggie, by Deerhoof: If you haven't heard Deerhoof before, reading anything I could write about them is meaningless. I'm not even sure I how to describe them. "Whimsical noise-rock art-band" is about the best I can do. This year they added a fourth member on guitar, then wrote and released this album. It is fabulous. Also probably the band's most accessible release to date.

• Volume One, by She & Him: The debut of actress Zooey Deschanel(for real) and indie "darling" M. Ward's project She & Him completely captured my heart. This album has been brewing since 2006, but didn't come out until March of this year. While gathering links for this post, I found out that Paste Magazine named this album their #1 of the year. Since I suck so hard at this I'll just quote them, "Produced with touches of girl-group splendor and arranged with a dreamy, old-fashioned vibe, She & Him’s debut couldn’t be more adorable." Yes.

Now to somehow get to five:

• Hold On Now, Youngster by Los Campesinos!: Indie-happy-indie-twee-indie-pop. I haven't listened to the first LP from this Welsh septet enough to truly call it one of my top 5 albums from this year, but it's up there. I do think it deserves to be on any list of the best albums of 2008 though. Also, Los Campesinos! went and released a second album this year(We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed) that I haven't listened to yet. Maybe it is even better! So call this a conditional pick.

• Young Team, by Mogwai: What you say!! Yep, Mogwai's first studio album. When cwk picked The Hawk is Howling for his top 5, I was surprised that I had missed Mogwai's latest offering. But after thinking about it, I remembered picking up a Mogwai album earlier in the year. Turns out I had- Young Team was remastered and re-released this summer with a second disc of rare tracks. For something that is supposed to be "post rock", there's some pretty hard "rocking" going on in this album.

OK then! That's 5 albums from 2008. I honestly thought I'd have to post an abbreviated list like jdb. If I hadn't figured out that last pick I had a backup, cheat pick. Maybe picking a re-issue is cheating, so I'll list it anyway.

• Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of Funky Lagos: A compilation album that presents some of the best music coming out of western Africa in the 60s and 70s. It came out seven years ago, and it's made of music that is 30-40 years old, but I just discovered this year. Words are not enough to describe how good this set is. If you hear this and it doesn't bring a smile to your face, if not get you out of your seat and moving, then you are dead inside. Don't be intimidated by the price at Amazon, you can easily find this floating around if you look for it.

So there you have it. And it's just in under the wire. Maybe one of my New Year's resolutions should be to pay attention to new music?

[EDIT: Evidently this Blogger template italicizes block quotes. Fixed. -rfd]

Answering the call... Sorta.

I've been a slacker on this, but after thinking about it a bit I can certainly come up with five great albums from this year. I'm sort of in the middle of getting ready to head up to my parents' house for Christmas, so this will be short on insightful commentary, but here we go. In no particular order:

1. At Mount Zoomer by Wolf Parade: I actually only recently picked this up. I loved their first album and had been anticipating this one for awhile. Not sure if I like it as much as the first since I've only listened to it a couple times, but I'd say it's an excellent follow-up.
2. Dear Science by TV On The Radio: Here's a band that just keeps getting better. I love everything they've done and this is no exception.
3. Modern Guilt by Beck: Barry would say I'm being "too obvious" here but I don't think I'm trying to sneak up on people. This is a great album, my favorite from Beck in awhile. I went through a period this year where I listened to it constantly, which makes it a great addition to the list.
   
4. The Stand Ins by Okkervil River: Ok, here's a band I just discovered this year even though they've been around for quite a while. This album has been in heavy rotation on my iPod ever since. It made me go out and pick up their album from last year, which I'm undecided on after one listen. But this one is wonderful.
5. The Hawk Is Howling by Mogwai: Here's the one I'm betting no one else here is going to have. Mogwai's brand of "post-rock" is not for everyone, but if you this more arthouse stuff, you'll love this album.

There we go. If I had time to write up some better commentary I would, but I'm leaving in two hours and I still have to pack. Wish me luck. I'm driving through Kokomo and my parents live near Michigan, so in the current economy bands of "Road Warrior" style post-(econo)pocalyptic gangs searching for goods to pillage just might be a legitimate concern....

5 Albums? Man I've been slacking

Well, I'll be the first to openly admit to failing crs' "Top 5 Albums" challenge. My new music and album dabbling this year was woeful and wholly inadequate. In no particular order I can give you three that I really liked, but without much in the way of commentary.

Third by Portishead
An album I literally waited 10 years to hear, it became one of those albums that each time I listened to it it wormed its way into my brain and stuck there. Favorite tracks are "Machine Gun" and "Deep Water"

...And Now We Can Be Ourselves by Red Light Driver
A little local love. The first thing I thought when I heard Red Light Driver play a show a couple years ago was "Wow, someone gave The Cure some Prozac!". I loved it, but the new album (just released) shows them branching out. Hard to pick favorite tracks from this album as it's solid from 1 to 12 but if I had to pick three I'd say "The Long Face", "Scene Key" and "Pet Rockets"

Float by Flogging Molly
This was a bit of a departure for Flogging Molly. Float is a bit darker, less punk but just as strong as their earlier albums. Favorite tracks: "Requiem for a Dying Song", "Punch Drunk Grinning Soul" and "Between A Man And A Woman" which originally appeared on their first album, the live recording Alive Behind The Green Door.

Bonus Indy Indie Band To Watch in 2009: Heavy Hometown
They opened Red Light Driver's CD Release show for ...And Now We Can Be Ourselves and put on an excellent show. Very simple arrangements and songs but catchy and they put on a good live show.

A Challenge

Now that I've popped my posting cherry, the writing will probably come a lot easier. Unless I get lazy, which is entirely likely give my past blogging trends. Anyway, I've decided to issue a challenge to my fellow contributors to the Orphanarium: a top 5 list of music from the year. Now, I know what you're thinking: "How could I possibly do that? FIVE? Come on!" And let me tell you...I understand. As I was originally thinking about this post, I couldn't conceive of making a list of fewer than 15 albums. I've narrowed it down to five (at least for this forum) based on a few criteria: albums that I don't think the rest of you would list, and albums that I just couldn't stop listening to. I'm not critic, and I am in no way asserting that the following albums are the best of 2008. They're just five albums I don't think the rest of the Orphanarium will list that I could listen to over and over again.

1. Saturdays = Youth, by M83 This album is great. GREAT. How can you go wrong with French electronica inspired by the work of John Hughes? The answer is "You can't." "Kim & Jessie" really does sound like the 80s, but not in that dear-god-I-want-to-kill-myself kind of way that I usually associate with music from that decade. "Coleurs," on the other hand, just makes me want to bob around in some sort of haze on the dance floor: partly because I'm White and pretty much incapable of anything else, and mostly because of the atmosphere.

2. Alopecia, by Why? One word I would use to describe this album: weird. Weird as in I'm not entirely sure how to categorize it. It has a vaguely hip hop feel, but then again it might be indie pop of some kind. Additionally, the lyrics are just off the wall. In "The Hollows," we hear Why? utilizing some sort of weird sprechgesang to tell us that "in Berlin [he] saw two men fuck in a dark corner of a basketball court, just the slight jingle of pocket change pulsing."

3. Made in the Dark, by Hot Chip This album is very dancey and, as I like to say, "blippy-bloopy." This album more than anything else really represents how much my musical tastes have shifted over the past 3 years or so. (I blame my friend Zac.) For a guy who used to listen to nothing but classical music, a band consisting almost entirely of guys on synthesizers (there is one guy who plays guitar) represents something of a major shift. As far as stand-out tracks go, I'd recommend "One Pure Thought" (which BTW has a great video), "Wrestlers," and "We're Looking for a Lot of Love" (if you're looking to slow it down a bit).

4. Heretic Pride, by the Mountain Goats I think this might be the album that is most likely to be found on someone else's list. But being first has its advantages, I suppose. I couldn't really tell you why, but I just love listening to this album. I will admit that I have no idea what the hell he's talking about sometimes, but when I do I find what he has to say very compelling. This is particularly important for me in the song "Heretic Pride," on account of I pretty much am a heretic. The joyful tone of the song contrasted with the horrific imagery of the lyrics is striking. Also, you have to love an album that includes a track about H.P. Lovecraft.

5. Hercules and Love Affair, by Hercules and Love Affair Holy crap this album makes me want to dance! It's like a slick, modern version of disco. With colalborations from that guy from Antony and the Johnsons. If you can remain seated through songs like "You Belong" and "Blind," then there's something wrong with you as a human being.

Whew. That's my list. And it was exhausting. I apologize if it seems fragmented or incoherent. I was constantly interrupted by customers. Stupid work...