My Favourite Songs of 2008: Ohmpark Mixtape #6

So here is a playlist comprised of many of my favourite songs from the year. Not all of my favs are here, but I think all of the essentials are in it. I tried my best to build this as a flowing playlist more than just a collection of songs, so the order and even some of the selections reflect that. I really need to do more mixtapes. Based on Hypemachine/elbow popularity, I know everyone loves that Fleet Foxes song, but I decided instead to treat you to a better song from one of the bands that FF is ripping off. Anyways, here is an hour and half of the best songs of 2008. Jam them hard while you can, because in about 3 days they aren’t hip anymore:

Islands : The Arm
Sigur Ros : Gobbledigook
Atlas Sound : Recent Bedroom
Kaki King : Life Being What it Is
MGMT : Weekend Wars
Department of Eagles : No One Does It Like You
Animal Collective : Water Curses
Antony And The Johnsons : Another World
Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire : Voice In Headphones
My Morning Jacket : Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 1
Beach House : Used To Be
Portishead : The Rip
Summerbirds In The Cellar : Now We Are Ugly Inside
Hot Chip : One Pure Thought
M83 : Kim & Jesse
Bon Iver : For Emma
Plants And Animals : Guru
Destroyer : Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night’s Ape)
Deerhunter : Nothing Ever Happened
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead : The Betrayal Of Roger Casement And The Irish Brigade

Live Videos: Destroyer (4/28/2008) The Earl

Last week’s Destroyer show at The Earl was awesome. I cant stop listening to Trouble In Dreams. I really love the lead guitarist. Here’s a taste:


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What Up In The ATL?

Tonight there are two big shows going on. Jay Reatard is big on the hype tip right and will be doing his thing as Lenny’s. You can find more about him at his myspace or watch videos of him fighting with his audience here. If you are in love with the Black Lips, then this is probably the show for you to catch. While I wouldn’t mind catching Jay Reatard, I am way more excited to see Destroyer tonight. Most people have been on the Destroyer-backlash bandwagon, but I absolutely love Trouble In Dreams. “Foam Hands”:

Another album I have been jamming hard is Genghis Tron’s Board Up The House. They will be at The Masquerade tomorrow with Converge. Genghis Tron at SXSW:

The other good show tomorrow night is at the Earl with Atlanta’s Envie and One Hand Loves The Other, who has gone through some inner turmoil lately. It is a bit confusing to me, so here’s Gavin from Stickfigure explaining the situation:

hey everyone,
One Hand Loves The Other are going on hiatus. Lou Rodriguez (the vocalist) is planning to reform the band but it appears at this point that he will be the only member continueing as one hand loves the other.
Mike Johnson, Mary Knight and Nancy Shim will be forming a new band. It is not 100% certain if Nancy Shim is leaving One Hand Loves The Other as well, but Mike Johnson and Mary Knight are playing their final performances with One Hand Loves The Other over the course of the next week. Of course in the age of reunion tours we can not definately say final shows @ this point now can we. but we can state that it will years before you can see this line up of the band every again.
the shows are as follows:
Tuesday April 29th @ the Earl. One Hand Loves The Other is headlining and performing with mystery palace and envie.
Saturday May 3rd @ Vinyl. Like Clockwork and When Rocky Beats The Russian are headlining since it is their cd release show. The Judies are also playing. At this time we do not know whether One Hand Loves The Other is opening or playing second.
take care,
gavin

So this week seems to be your last chance to check this out.

Other cool shows I like this week:

Friday: Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir at The Masquerade
Friday: Cracker, Dead Confederate at the Variety Playhouse
Saturday: Yeasayer, Man Man at Lenny’s

One Hand Loves The Other : One Hand Loves The Remix : Tortoise (Treasure Fingers remix)
Yeasayer : Sunrise (Hey Champ remix)

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

Ok, this episode of “What The Hell” is gonna be large on tunes. There seems to be so many worthwhile albums dropping right now, it is hard to keep up. A great problem to have. Here are the many bands I’m crushing on right now like a little music slut:

Russian Spy Camera (Athens, Ga)

I know Ichuda already did a review of this album, but I’ve really gotten into this one hard, so I’m going to continue to hype it. Let me stress that you can download their entire album for free from their website. If you like good music, you will be wronging yourself if you do not go pick that up.

Cryptology

Cults

Download Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives here!!!

Russian Spy Camera Myspace

The Raveonettes (Copenhagen, Denmark)

One major trend from bands this year is albums produced with heavy distortion a la The Jesus And Mary Chain. Bands like The Magnetic Fields and Times New Viking are great examples. So far, though, I think The Raveonettes‘ new album Lust Lust Lust is my favourite to employ those sorts of techniques.

Dead Sound

Blush

Buy Lust Lust Lust here

Raveonettes Myspace

The Ruby Suns (Auckland, New Zealand)

The other popular trend in music this year is the Animal Collective influence. I’m surprised it took this long for AC to become so influential to new artists, but it was certainly inevitable. While The Dodos and El Guincho are fine acts, something about them feels like they are stealing the Collective‘s sound a little too much. Sort of like when I listen to Black Mountain or The Sword and their absorption of the ’70s sounds. Sure they are fun and enjoyable to listen to, but I could never get totally obsessed with someone who is bascially copy-catting someone else. But, The Ruby Suns‘ new album, Sea Lion, seems to me to be the perfect blend of AC love and originality. They will be at The Drunken Unicorn Monday night.

There Are Birds

Kenya Dig It?

Buy Sea Lion here

The Ruby Suns Myspace

Hot Chip (London, UK)

The new Hot Chip joint didn’t seem to get its fair fill of the Internet hype, but I’ve really been enjoying it. There are certainly some songs that are better than others, but the many great ones are really incredible. If you like dance music with a soul like I do, check this one:

Ready For The Floor

One Pure Thought

Buy Made In The Dark here

Hot Chip Myspace

Destroyer (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Mostly because of Daniel Bejar’s vocal style, Destroyer seems to be an act that you either love or can’t really get into. Being on the love side of it myself, I’ll make my plea to those who listened to it and thought “This sounds just like the last album”. On the surface, sure, but if you dig into it, you’ll find a much more epic experience and I think this may be his best yet. Destroyer will be in Atlanta later this month.

My Favourite Year

Shooting Rockets (From The Deck Of Night’s Ape)

Buy Trouble In Dreams here

Destroyer Myspace

Sugarkane’s Top 50 Albums of 2006

2006 was a great year for me, and the main reasons are mostly related to music. I decided to do this list in December because i wanted to learn about as much music as possible, and what I thought would take a few days ended up taking almost 2 months, but it was extremely educational for me and i feel very good about this list. There were so many albums that I would like to give props to and cutting it down to 50 was hard. On a technical note, I went by U.S. release date with the exception of Laura’s Radio Swan Is Down (It was released in Australia over a year ago and has no U.S. release date). Feel free to blast it:

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