The Quest For The Best Albums Of 2008 Continues…


Bambara are playing the Drunken Unicorn tonight (Wednesday)

So I continue to scan through other people’s year end posts and add albums to a very long list of stuff to listen to, but I’m already finding so much good new music. For instance, I just finished listening to Bambara’s self-titled album for the first time, and it blew me away. The three piece Athens, GA outfit has been playing together for about 7 years, but this is the first release from them as Bambara. I’ll have more on this one upon closer inspection, but give a track a listen and then go see them live tonight:

Bambara : Snakes In Our Hair

Bambara myspace

Buy Bambara



Pegasuses-XL @ Fest 7.

Another record from Athens I have been extremely impressed with is Pegasuses-XL’s latest release, The Anitphon. It seems that this album is not getting much love from the various reviews I read and other folks I know that have heard it, but I just can’t get enough. They do the Bloodhound Gang school of rap way more interestingly than Why?, and the keyboard driven atmospheric melodies are juxtaposed by an intense punk streak. There are very few albums that I can think of that can be so avant-garde and so much fun at the same time. Maybe the best record to come out of our sister city all year long:

Pegasuses-XL : Marathon Mansion

Pegasuses-XL : Serious Feelings

Pegasuses-XL myspace

Buy The Antiphon



Starfucker

Another high quality album that is very fun is the self-titled Starfucker album. This thing is sort of like Peter Bjorn And John meets Ratatat. It is totally a summer jammer, but even in these wintry times I can’t help but to get on their poppy, sunny vibe.

Starfucker : Florida

Starfucker : Isabella Of Castile

Starfucker myspace

Buy Starfucker



Pale Young Gentlemen

So another album that I think can be appreciated by just about anyone is Black Forest (tra la la), the new release from Madison, Wisconsin’s Pale Young Gentlemen. The singer has one of those voices that you could draw a comparison to just about any other male vocalist you can imagine. The terrific songwriting is bolstered by lush instrumentation and perfect production resulting in a top shelf indie-pop record.

Pale Young Gentlemen : Coal/ivory

Pale Young Gentlemen : The Crook Of My Good Arm

Pale Young Gentlemen myspace

Buy Black Forest (tra la la)



Fleet Foxes

Ok, so I have been listening to a lot of Fleet Foxes lately because everyone has gone bonkers for these guys this year, but I still feel the way I did upon first listen: They are a good, nice sounding band, but a bit overrated. They are just so conservative and safe and bring absolutely nothing new to the table. When I was listening to the full length album, someone who didn’t know them came in and thought i was listening to Christmas music. There is just an extremely generic quality to this band. In a short dose like Sun Giant it can hold my interest, but there is way too much filler on Fleet Foxes, and that album doesn’t even last 40 minutes. But regardless, there is no denying that this is an amazing song:

Fleet Foxes : White Winter Hymnal

Fleet Foxes myspace

Buy Sun Giant EP



Mount Eerie

Probably the greatest discovery so far in my holiday album dash is Mount Eerie, the most recent moniker of Phil Elverum, formerly The Microphones. The Microphones are one of those bands that I had always heard about, but for some reason I never stumbled across one of their albums. Although, I’ll be making my trek through Elverum’s entire discography very soon because currently three releases Mount Eerie put out this year are in my heavy rotation and all could possibly find their way on to my year end lists. Get hip to this lo-fi hottness:

Mount Eerie : Dawn : Cold Mountain

Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron and Fred Squire : Lost Wisdom : Voice In Headphones

Mount Eerie : Black Wooden Ceiling Opening : In Moonlight

Mount Eerie : Dawn : Goodbye Hope

Mount Eerie website

Buy Dawn

Buy Lost Wisdom

Buy Black Wooden Ceiling Opening

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3 Responses to “The Quest For The Best Albums Of 2008 Continues…”
  1. M Says: December 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Great call on Bambara and Pegasuses-XL.

    Pegasuses have compiled tunes off of their first three discs (Antiphon included) and made a sort of “greatest hits” called “Electro Agitators”. It’s out now. I don’t know why “The Antiphon” got bad reviews, but it seems it’s just over people’s heads. I love that shit. They got a new one coming out in early ‘09 too, tentatively titled “Fuck You” (perhaps in response to the bad reviews?) Should be the jam.

    This blog is great. Thanks fellas.

  2. Anonymous Says: December 20th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    I totally disagree on the Fleet Foxes comments. They’re not doing anything super creative or innovative, but they’ve essentially mastered a folk/baroque pop revivalist sound to a tee. Most folk-rock bands can only dream of creating a masterpiece album like their self-titled lp.

  3. Mike Says: December 26th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    I agree with you about The Antiphon. It’s an amazing album that most people seem to hate.

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