On The Road: 2008 Is Ending Soon
It’s been a little quiet around here because I’m OTP at the beach for the week, but I’ve got some holiday posts coming soon. As 2008 draws to a close, it is time to put together my end of year lists. From the beginning, Ohmpark was primarily a music research project for myself, and these lists are the final culmination of that research. I strongly urge all of my readers to tell me the albums from this year that you love that I might not have covered because I want my lists to be as comprehensive as possible. Feel free to hit the comments of this post with your suggestions.
Much like I did last year when I headed to the beach for Turkey Day, I listened to a bunch of new albums on my way down here, so I’m going to go through them and talk about my first impressions of each. Before I started listening to new albums, though, I jammed some Deerhunter to get rolling. While Microcastle is certainly getting plenty of good hype around the web, I think the bonus disk, Weird Era, is getting a bit overlooked, because I like it as much, if not more, than Microcastle. It is great that on top of making such a perfect pop album they still gave a little something weirder for us Cryptograms fans. Here is a couple tracks from it I heart:
Next up I popped in the new Anathallo album called Canopy Glow, and it was so good I listened to twice in a row. I’m not sure how I overlooked this band up into now, but luckily the guys from Sorry No Ferrari turned me on to them when I went to Fest earlier this month. I’ll gush about Canopy Glow more later, but right this second I’d rather respond to Pitchfork’s lame review of it they posted yesterday. First, it is quite amusing to me that The Mars Volta has become the Anti-Christ to Pitchfork, and anytime they talk about a band they don’t like that can play more than 3 chords they invoke a TMV comparison. I really don’t hear much of a parallel except that both of these bands are clearly great. Also, they whine over and over how the singer from Anathallo sounds too much like Sufjan Stevens. Yes, their voices are a bit similar, but the vocalists from Fleet Foxes and Band Of Horses sound way more like Jim James than the guy from Anathallo sounds like Sufjan, and they sure love those cheap ripoff bands to death, so either get consistent or shut up and stop being a hater. Enjoy the new hottness:
Next up I listened to Final Fantasy‘s Plays To Please EP, which is a tribute to some Canadian musician I’ve never heard. It was a nice listen, but nothing that wowed me like Owen Pallett normally does.
After that I listened to the latest album from The Notwist, The Devil, You + Me. It came out early this summer, but I never got around to it until now. This German band sounds really good and chill, and this album will be in my heavy rotation for a while:
The Notwist : Where In This World
The next two albums I tried were the newest from Ruby Isle and The Streets respectively. I didn’t like either one. I’ve never loved The Streets, but Mike Skinner’s lyrics have been pretty interesting most of the time. Unfortunately Eveything Is Borrowed seemed so boring and cliche. Ruby Isle seemed like music for 15 year old pre-ravers, and totally annoyed me. It sucks because I truly love all of the cover songs I’ve heard them do, but I just can’t get into their originals.
Finally, I finished my journey listening to the new Wilderness album, (k)no(w)here. At first I didn’t think I liked it, but by the time I finished the album I was fairly intrigued and then listened to it a few more times since. The vocalist is certainly an acquired taste, but once you can get beyond that, this album is pretty stellar. If you’re like me and you enjoy a challenging listen, this album will provide a just reward.
Ok, hit me up with your 2008 hottness!
- Posted by Davy Minor on November 25, 2008 at 7:57 pm
- 1 Comment
Friday Night Free-Style
So the big local fiasco that happened last week that we hadn’t talked bout yet was the MF Doom show. Apparently MF Doom came out way late in the morning, lip-synced to 20 minutes of a CD, and a bunch of people don’t even think it was really him (he always wears a mask). From the MJQ promoter via myspace:
Many apologies go to all of you who came out to the MF DOOM show last night at MJQ and paid $30 of your hard earned money only to watch him lip sinc for 20 minutes at 1:30 in the morning. This was by far one of the single worst experiences I’ve had as a club promoter and I sincerely apologize if you walked away feeling cheated. To make matters even worse MF DOOMS appointed doorman took off with all the money from the door after the show! As soon as we realized the money was stolen we decided to help ourselves to all of MF DOOMS merchandise which included a bunch of T shirts and posters. So, in an effort to make it up to everyone who walked away feeling cheated, we’re giving away all the merchandise for free so come and get it while supplies last!! And if that’s not enough, feel free to let MF DOOM aka Daniel Dumile know how you really feel by calling him at his home in Kennesaw Georgia.
All the best,
Randy Castello / Tight Bros Network
Damn.
Ruby Isle have decided to start covering whatever song is #1 on the blog mp3 aggregator Elbows each week and releasing it for free. This is such a cool idea. Here’s their cover of Beach House‘s “Gila” (you can listen to the original here):
Ruby Isle : Gila (Beach House cover)
So, Xiu Xiu and Fucked Up have filed a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco for using their names, plus tons of other indie groups, in a Camel cigarettes add in Rolling Stone magazine without their permission. Add this douchiness to running Bob Dylan cover stories every three months and having no clue what the best music of 2007 was, and Rolling Stone may be more out of touch than MTV.
Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at SXSW.
Beck‘s Odelay is getting the “Deluxe Treatment” and will be available with lots of extra goodies at the end of next month.
David Byrne interviews Thom Yorke on In Rainbows.
The Long Blondes have a new album out in April.
The Smashing Pumpkins are digitally releasing an acoustic EP called American Gothic on January 2nd.
Snowden is so hott the television show CSI Miami has used their cover of “Time Of the Season”:
If for some reason you read this in time to check it out, Snowden are DJing tonight at DSC.
A cool show I recommend checking out tomorrow night:
I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of time listening to albums from this year i hadn’t got a chance to listen to until now to make sure I leave no rock unturned for my Top 50 albums list. I’ll try to update my “heavy rotation list” sometime over the next few days, but until then, listen to these tracks of the stuff I’ve like best and then go get the album:
Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew : Spirit If… : Gang Bang Suicide
Plants And Animals : With/Avec : Lola Who?
Yeasayer : All Hour Cymbals : Sunrise
Jesu : Conqueror : Conqueror
Cloud Cult : The Meaning Of 8 : Chemicals Collide
Illinois : What The Hell Do I Know? : What Can I Do For You
I ‘m chilling at Octane coffee shop right now because Comcast is horrible and my internet service through them basically doesn’t work, so between that and me chillaxing for the holidays, posts will be sparse. My year end lists are taking a little longer than expected because i take them very seriously and i don’t want to miss anything. I would anticipate my best EP list up around Christmas and my best LP list up right before New Years. Happy Holidays and Thanks for reading Ohmpark!
- Posted by Davy Minor on December 21, 2007 at 10:55 pm
- No Comments
Humpday Random Tracks
Listen to the track and click the album cover to get more info:
CocoRosie: Rainbow Warrior
Illinois: Alone Again
Ruby Isle: Teenage Riot (Sonic Youth cover)
Voxtrot: Firecracker
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 4, 2007 at 2:34 am
- No Comments
