Some of Our Favorite Local Bands’ Favorite Albums & Shows of 2008 - Part 2

If you didn't see the first part of this article -- what where, as the headline might suggest, some of our favorite local bands listed their favorite albums and shows for 2009 -- then click here. If not, it's time to read all of the entries from the lovable stragglers that sent theirs in over teh weekend.

Samuel Bing – Fol Chen

The last show I will see in 2008: Underground Railroad to Candyland @ Echo Curio, 12/19/2008.

What's dead? Is punk dead? Duh! What else is dead? Capitalism? Looks that way! So who won? Looks like a draw!

Anyway, I left the FC/HLP compound to see UR2C at the urging of The Mouse. I got there and almost immediately started laughing. Not because anything was funny. (Well, the singer's glasses were pretty funny.) These guys made me laugh because they seriously do not give a shit that sounding like The Damned in 2008 is not exactly an envelope-pushing proposition. Nor do they seem to notice/care that all of their songs are shout-alongs based on the blues-derived I-IV-V progression, which is the sonic equivalent of wearing khakis and a chambray shirt. (I have to revise that last statement: All of their songs were I-IV-V shout-alongs except for the cover of a late-Roger Waters-era non-album Pink Floyd obscurity called "When The Tigers Broke Free," which is about how Roger's pa got snuffed in WWII. [And a cover of "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements.] If ever there were a song less appropriate for a sloppy live rendering by a band with a full-time bongo player, I think "When The Tigers Broke Free" is it. It's a first-person narrative about the bitterness Roger Waters feels when he finds the form letter "kind old King George" wrote to his mum on the occasion of his dad's death in battle defending the Anzio bridgehead. Fun stuff!)

Anyway, they were either the best live band I saw this year, or the last live band I saw this year, and I'm pretty sure it was both. I'm going to see them every chance I get and you should, too – and soon. Because if the history of rock music tells us anything, it's that this kind of magic just doesn't last. Is that good or bad? Who knows!

Also, Dirty Projectors at the Echo this summer were ridiculous. They are inventing a new language and if you don't learn it (or start your own) you're gonna be left out of the conversation.

Princeton

Matt

The Walkmen 'You and Me'
Beach House 'Devotion'
No Age 'Nouns'
Wolf Parade 'At Mount Zoomer'
M83 'Saturdays=Youth'
Times New Viking 'Rip It Off'
Silver Jews 'Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea'
Marnie Stern 'This is it & I am it ...'
Bodies of Water 'A Certain Feeling'
Cause Co-motion 'It's Time'

Jesse

Ruby Suns- Sea Lion
Air France- No Way Down
Bodies of Water- A Certain Feeling
Hercules and Love Affair
Karl Blau- Nature's Got Away
No Kids- Come Into My House
Beach House- Devotion
Aidan Smith- Allotments
Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
El Guincho- Alegranza

Ben

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
Beck - Modern Guilt
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Bodies of Water - A Certain Feeling
Sigur Ros: með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Magnetic Fields - Distortion
Wolf Parade - A Mount Zoomer
Ruby Suns - Sea Lion
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Randolph – One Trick Pony

albums:
third- portishead
soft airplane- chad van gaalen
oracular spectacular- mgmt
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - sigur ros

shows:
happy hollows, die die die, the monotonix, and YO! MAJESTY!!!!!!! @ blender theater NYC
the mae shi @ spaceland
dorian wood @ pehrspace
die rockers die @ anywhere they play
jeffrey lewis @ spaceland

Ken & Melissa - Shiloe

Favorite Albums of the Year:
We loved the Raconteurs album, Consolers of the Lonely. (In my opinion, Jack White is probably the best songwriter working in rock and roll right now.) In Rainbows by Radiohead was another great album, even though it technically came out right at the end of 2007. Tons of local bands put out excellent new material this year too: The Monolators, Summer Darling, Wait Think Fast...oh, and Melissa was very excited about the "new"/old EP from the Spells (Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney + Mary Timony), titled Bat vs. Bird, that Carrie posted on her blog recently. It was a good year for EPs!

Favorite Shows:
For the most part, we're too poor to afford to see big touring bands anymore, so the only non-local show we went to this year was Black Francis at Spaceland, which was excellent. Other favorite shows: Kissing Cousins and the Karabal Nightlife at the Bordello back in February (a show so good that Melissa joined KC and Ken is recording the new Karabal record!)...Family Tree Analog at Mr. T's Bowl in October (a revelation)...Io Echo's pre-Halloween show at Spaceland (they dressed up as Republicans! AAAAHHH!)...the Monolators' album release show w/ Summer Darling (gong!! bass attack!!) and the penultimate night of the Monolators' Pehrspace residency in November...Wait Think Fast's CD release show at the Echo...the Henry Clay People CD release at Spaceland...and getting to play with Black Kites, the Human Value and War Tapes at Spaceland in November.

Pauline Lay – Divisadero

I'll admit I haven't been as active with buying records and seeking new music as I used to be, but these are the albums that have managed to break me away from Harry Smith's Folk Anthology and NPR:

Foot Foot - Trumpet
The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra - Escapements EP
Fol Chen - Make the Orange Sound...or whatever the cdr Adam handed me at the All-Star Lanes is called
Dirt Dress - Theme Songs
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
The Finches (everything)

and, lately
Love is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night (they make me think of the Raincoats which is always a good thing).

My most memorable shows are mostly ones where I'm at the soundboard, but that's kinda nice, right? It's pretty great to see bands in, what I reluctantly call, my second living room.

Foot Foot (record release) and Palms (formerly the Finches) @ pehrspace
Correatown (record release), The Sweet Hurt, Daniel Ahearn, Jack Wilson, Jr and Cobra Lilies @ pehrspace
Amnion, Castledoor, Avi Buffalo, Phoenix the Turtle @ pehrspace
Abe Vigoda, Crystal Antlers, The Muslims, AM, No Paws No Lions @ pehrspace
Red Maids' first show @ pehrspace
Eagle Rock Bowling & Drinking Prom with Fol Chen and Castledoor
One Trick Pony, everywhere
No Little Kindness, everywhere
Monotonix and Anavan @ the smell
Dirt Dress (everywhere), The Happy Hollows, Widow Babies, The Primos, AM, Traps, ps @ Guerillafest
Christmas with Bessie (Smith) @ Edgar Varela Fine Arts, a fine night of Bessie Smith covers

and, the incredible sounding Kingsize Soundlabs/Ship Studio/Eagle Rock Bowling & Drinking stages @ The Eagle Rock Music Festival. I couldn't believe how great all the bands sounded outdoors! Listing Ship and Light FM earn extra points for that night.

Jesse & Lindsay - The Karabal Nightlife

Albums:
The Shivers, Beaks to the Moon
Beck, Modern Guilt
Okkervil River, The Stand Ins
Everest, Ghost Notes
Obi Best, Capades
Vampire Weekend, self-titled debut

Shows:
Okkervil River & Sea Wolf at the Henry Fonda
BRMC & Black Angels at the Clean Air Clean Stars Festival in Pioneer Town
Destroyer at the Troubadour
And (funnily enough) The Shivers at Scotland Yard pub in Canoga Park =)

Jordan Huddock – Marvelous Toy

FAVORITE 2008 ALBUMS:
The Walkmen – You and Me
Fleet Foxes – s/t
Blitzen Trapper – Furr
AC Newman - Get Guilty (not sure if this one's out yet but i heard it and loved it)

FAVORITE 2008 SHOWS:
Blitzen Trapper @ Echo
The Walkmen @ Troubadour
Red Cortez (as the Weather Underground) @ Safari Sam’s (AIDS Benefit Show)
Ed Harcourt @ Echoplex
The Deadly Syndrome @ the Hammer
Fol Chen @ Let’s Independent!
Afternoons @ Check One Twosday
Bishop Allen @ Echo

Jason Brown - Nightfur

I like the 08' releases by Winter Flowers and Xu Xu Fang.