Tops of 2008

Once again this year I’m not going to rank anything but just list it out — you can see a big correlation between the artists I saw live and the records they put out.  Enjoy!

Top Albums:

Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig
Santogold - s/t
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Vivian Girls - s/t

Top Shows Attended:

Boredoms, 9:30 Club
Deerhunter/Times New Viking, Election Night, Black Cat
Keren Ann/Dean & Britta, Black Cat
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, 9:30 Club
No Age/Abe Vigoda, Rock and Roll Hotel
Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago IL
Quintron at Black Cat & Civilian Arts Center
Silver Jews, Black Cat
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, 9:30 Club
The Homosexuals, Velvet Lounge

 Top Films:

American Teen
Burn After Reading
Cloverfield
Gonzo: Life and Work of Hunter s Thompson
In Bruges
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Pineapple Express
Son of Rambow
The Dark Knight
WALL-E

Munchausen by Proxy (feat. Zooey Deschanel and Von Iva) - Sweet Ballad

embedded by Embedded Video

MySpace Direkt

This is taken from the new Jim Carrey movie “The Yes Man,” and I have a feeling its all I really need to see from this thing — they sort of bury Zooey in the ads, she would be the only reason to see it anyway.

Pavement “Brighten the Corners” Nicene Creedence Edition on All Our Noise

Just a quick note and link to my brother blog, All Our Noise, where I they posted a piece today I wrote about the new Pavement “Brighten the Corners” Nicene Creedence Edition that comes out tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Free Peanuts Video on Election Day

“Twenty animated shorts bundled into ten episodes based on the art and writings of Charles Schulz. Each episode is taken from actual comic strips that Schulz created in the year 1964. Episodes range from stories about Christmas and Halloween, to school elections, baseball games in the summer, and Valentine Day crushes.” — iTunes Store

Download for Free!

Episode Summary
Lucy convinces Linus to run for student body president and becomes his campaign manager. / Linus then picks Charlie Brown to be his running mate, but will a series of speeches by Linus seal the election?

Stephen Malkmus “Gardenia” Video

Pitchfork.tv just posted a new Stephen Malkmus video for Gardenia that features several cameos: Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk, Brian Bell of Weezer, Gary Jarmin of the Cribs, Steve Turner from Mudhoney, the dudes from Ratatat. Its mostly a yawn, but the sequences that animate the cover art from the LP are kind of cool.

Stop Smiling D.C. Issue

Idolator has a quick piece on the new issue of Stop Smiling that covers a bunch of DC topics, including music;  “George Pelecanos and The Wire’s Anwan Glover (a.k.a. Big G of local go-go heroes the Backyard Band). Pelecanos, of course, was deeply involved in The Wire, but the best bits are about music. Take a look at Pelecanos’ roster of D.C.’s greatest acts:

Marvin Gaye. All the go-go bands, starting with Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers through Trouble Funk and Backyard Band, and newer ones like UCB. Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains, Slant 6, Circus Lupus, Nation of Ulysses. There are too many great punk bands to name. Jawbox. Tommy Keene. The Nighthawks. Root Boy Slim. Not to mention all the soul acts from the Sixties who lived and cut records here. And then you have to talk about the acts that were huge in DC, like Maze, the P-Funk axis, and Little Feat, who did not come from here, but were honorary Washingtonians.”

The Cassettes w/ Stamen & Pistils tonight at Black Cat

I wanted to mention the show I’m playing this evening in DC at Black Cat with Stamen & Pistils. We’re opening for our good pals The Cassettes and it should be a damn good time.

Flying Lotus “Parisian Goldfish” Video Directed by Eric Wareheim

I’ll let this video speak for itself, but I’m a big fan of work by both Flying Lotus and Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show (Great Job!) Eric Wareheim so this is a fantastic match.

(Disclaimer:  Video contains some NSFW elements and lots of flashing lights)

The Rosebuds “Life Like” Out Now

I must take an opportunity to plug the new LP out this week by my good pals The Rosebuds, and also drop a link to my brother’s review in the Durham NC publication Independent Weekly.

My band Metropolitan shared a bill with the Rosebuds for the very first time back in 2001 in NC to an audience of about 4, and I’ve enjoyed following their meteoric rise ever since.

They’ll be appearing in DC on Thursday October 23rd at the Black Cat.

New Kanye Video Debuts on Ellen

I find it pretty amusing that Kanye debuted this video on the Ellen Show of all places but I’ve been digging on the song so much lately that I had to see the visuals.   Definitely some interesting things going on here, and not entirely what I would have expected from Mr. West.

Source: Hypebeast