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Ohmpark’s Top 20 Best EPs/Short-Length Albums Of 2008

I decided to do something a little experimental this year with my best EP list. When I was comparing very short “full-length” albums to longer albums on my best LP list, I kept wanting to hold the time duration against the shorter album. Also, it seems the difference between EPs and LPs can be a bit arbitrary sometimes, so I decided to just draw a line completely based on album length to split up my best album lists. This list, then, is the best of all albums less than 35 minutes, regardless of what the record is labeled. I’m happy with the end result, as I’m able to really highlight some extremely worthwhile briefer albums and it made the competition on this list a lot tighter. When you really think about it, any classic album this short feels like it is in a different weight class. I want to give an honorable mention to Cynic’s Traced In Air, Parade’s Ghosts, and Mount Eerie with Julie Dorion and Fred Squire’s Lost Wisdom because all three were awesome, but here are the 20 best albums under 35 minutes:

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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

The Top 15 Best Atlanta Albums Of 2008

It’s been a banner year for the Atlanta music scene. The international success of bands like Deerhunter, Black Lips, and Mastodon over the last couple of years has put a spotlight on our city and many other artists are beginning to reap the benefits. I still believe that too many of our best and brightest are being overlooked, but that’s exactly why I do what I do. Looking back at my favourite local albums from last year, it seems this year’s class of studio work runs substantially deeper. I felt our scene is so overpopulated by albums worthy of recognition that I extended my original top 10 to a top 15 and I’m still leaving off a ton of really good records from Inside The Perimeter.

A couple of notes, there are a few local albums that have been self-released over the holidays, but I’m rolling them into consideration for next year’s list, and one album on here technically came out in the holiday season of last year. I didn’t do write-ups for this list as many of these are going to make my top LP and top EP lists in a few days, but if you are unfamiliar with any of these acts, I urge you to click on the “tags” below to see all of our posts on the artist. I know someone is gonna complain about Bradford Cox being involved with 20% of this list, but the guy is kicking ass in both quality and quantity of work, so don’t be a player hater. Here is the best Atlanta music of 2008:


15. The Goldest : The Goldest

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14. Gringo Star : All Y’all

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13. Atlas Sound : Things I’ll Miss

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12. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun :

The Lightning Exhibit

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11. No Face : You Mean So Much To Me

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10. Nomen Novum : Mantis Man 7″

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9. Parade : Ghosts

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8. The Liverhearts : Ornament

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7. Lid Emba & Bobcrane : We Substitute

Radiance

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6. All The Saints : Fire On Corridor X

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5. Dead Confederate : Wrecking Ball

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4. Atlas Sound : Let The Blind Lead Those

Who Can See But Cannot Feel

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3. This Piano Plays Itself : This Piano Plays

Itself

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2. Slushco : When I Met The Boss Of Nova

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1. Deerhunter : Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

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My Top 15 Favourite Concerts Of 2008

According to my google calendar, I was at a show at least 80 days of 2008, and here are the 15 I enjoyed most. While I attempt to be as objective as possible in assessing my best albums lists, this list is completely about my subjective experience. Here you go:

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Broken Social Scene, Land Of Talk @ Variety Playhouse (11/19/08)

Last night’s show was epic. I arrived early to get up close, and so did a lot of high school kids. Land Of Talk was as good as i had anticipated. Broken Social Scene were better than I expected. After such short sets at Bonnaroo, they played about 2 and a half hours and it never got old. At one point, their Do Make Say Think member had the saxophonist play the melody to some recording of a woman speaking and it was pretty interesting. The Land Of Talk chick played the random BSS vocalist role well. Brendan Canning was rocking out so hard I couldn’t get a decent picture of him. I wish they had played more songs off of Kevin Drew’s solo album, but they weren’t short on jams I loved. Overall, one of the decade’s best bands played a live show that was just as awesome as their albums. Videos and photos from last night:

Land Of Talk:


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Photos: Deerhunter, Pylon, Jay Reatard, Times New Viking (Halloween)


10/31/08 @ Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA

Times New Viking:

Jay Reatard:


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The Fest 7: On The Road With Sorry No Ferrari

Gainesville, FL. November 1st-2nd, 2008

The weekend before last, I rode along with Atlanta instrumental rockers Sorry No Ferrari for their performance at The Fest, a punk music festival in Gainesville, Florida. I woke up very early Saturday morning after a long Halloween night to ride along with the three fourths of the band I didn’t really know, but between naps I had plenty of conversation with them about things including music, the history of the band, and barbecue. This was actually the first show with their new drummer, Jonathan Balsamo, so there was lots of getting to know each other between the band as well. We were trying to get to The Fest in time to catch fellow ATLiens Benard, but we got there a few moments too late. So we went to the biggest venue of the fest, which was a bit smaller than Variety Playhouse, to catch Atom & His Package. It was a one-man-punk-band who seems to be a pretty big deal in the punk universe, but very much not my thing.

After that we headed to a tiny venue called 1982 to catch the local Gainesville band whose house we were staying at, Giuseppe. The venue had lots of very old gaming systems hooked up to the TVs on the bar, so I played some Dr. Mario and drink PBRs with the SNF folks for a bit. Giuseppe took the small stage and rocked the house:

After that I jumped around to different venues to see some shows, but didn’t see anything too special. So I joined SNF for some food and drinks and drunken music discussions/debates. The band I was most excited about catching down here was Pegasuses XL, an Athens outfit with ties to We Versus The Shark, and they did not disappoint. I’ve really been enjoying their album, The Antiphon, and I will have more on that in a future post, but here is some eye candy from their epic live set:

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Live Videos: Deerhoof, Experimental Dental School (10/29/08) Asheville, NC

Last week I drove up to Asheville, NC to catch Deerhoof at the Grey Eagle since they weren’t coming to Atlanta. I left in prime time rush hour but was able to make it into the venue and right in front of the stage moments before the first band played. Flying, who was originally on the bill, couldn’t make it because of troubles with their transportation or something, so they had a different opening band along for this tour called Fertile Crescent. They were a guy on guitar and girl on drums, and they were good for an opening band, but there wasn’t much to it. As I was waiting for the next band, I noticed that the crowd in Asheville was extremely young. I don’t think I saw one person other than me without X’s on their hands. Also the style everyone was kicking was a weird hipster/hippie hybrid, lots of dreads and tight pants.

Experimental Dental School came on utilizing the same duo format as Fertile Crescent, except they pulled it of much more impressively. The guitarist had three outputs coming out of his guitar all running to different sets of pedals and what looked like home made amps built in suitcases. You’ll notice in the last video below, some of the members of Deerhoof came out and joined them for their final number.

Deerhoof finished out the show with maybe one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. First, they had smaller and less equipment than any 4-piece band I’ve seen. You could fit everything they brought on stage in the trunk of a hatchback. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a drummer using a minimalistic setup be so impressive. Frontwoman Satomi Matsuzak couldn’t be taller than 4 feet tall, but was full of energy jumping around and dancing while ripping some awesome bass lines. The entire band had such personality on stage, and they played everything flawlessly. Deerhoof is quickly becoming one of my favourite bands, check out some vids:

Deerhoof:


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