I haven’t posted anything in a while. The reasons aren’t great but are many. I haven’t had time. When I’ve had time I haven’t thought about it. When I’ve had time and I’ve thought about it, I’ve been sorta sick. I haven’t seen a lot of shows lately, so I haven’t made any recordings. I’ll get over it sooner or later and I’ll be back out there and I won’t bail on shows anymore or whatever.

Until then, here’s a selection of the best stuff of 2008 that I’ve been listening to that I think you should listen to as well. Bands I’ve already covered here aren’t included, because obviously anyone I post I’m probably recommending already. I like to do this before the x-mas season, because it’s always nice to give (or get!) new music right? Right. Maybe some of these are blindingly obvious, maybe some of these are “who?”, I don’t know. It’s what I’ve been digging this year at any rate.

#1: Eef Barzelay – Lose Big.

I’d never heard of him before, I found out about him through a TV thing and his album is wonderfully pessimistic with twinges of all sorts of genres that I like.

bonus song from his first solo album, which is also fantastic.

You see I wasn’t really drunk I was just pretending
Because I wanted so much to feel the way you do

That’s brilliant stuff, I love every song on both albums.

#2: The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust

Oh if I could define the thing I’ve loved about the music this year the most, it’s that I really got into a lot of the bands that have that loud, feedback and reverb filled sound that echoes My Bloody Valentine. I don’t know if a lot of bands have been making music like this for years and I just now got into it or what, but this is just one of a LOT of really fantastic albums with that sort of vibe to it. I can’t get enough.

(honorable mention: The Magnetic Fields – Distortion)

#3: Tim Fite – Fair Ain’t Fair

I actually expected this guy to be southern but he’s from New Jersey or something. I expected his live show to be sorta lame, but it was surprisingly enjoyable for a guy with a mic and a backing track. He had some amusing visuals and he really got the crowd into it. It helps that “Big Mistake” is one of the best songs of the year in my head. A simple song that’s not exactly deep, but means a lot.

#4: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down – We Brave Bee Stings and All

This is one of those albums that grabs you instantly and doesn’t let go of your brain. I don’t do it any justice talking about it, you really just have to listen. Go listen.

#5: Halou – Halou

I can’t embed their music, it’s not on imeem. At least not the new album, which I think is their best yet. I know it’s a lame comparison, but honestly it’s like if these guys were more popular and everyone had heard of them, nobody would have given a shit about Portishead coming back this year with a mediocre album. It’s a lush electronic and guitar based sound that combines a lot of stuff that I really like. It’s not quite what trip-hop was (if it ever was anything really) and it’s not quite rock. It’s just really, really good stuff. I honestly have no idea why these guys aren’t huge. It seems they’re still just bubbling under in the semi-local scene, which is a real shame since they’re absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately they’re also apparently dropping the name Halou in favor of Stripmall Architecture, so if you see anything by that name in the future check it out.

http://www.myspace.com/halou

Best I can do, but check it out.

And that’s about it for now. Discover some new music, I’ll get around to posting new (old) things again soonish.

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