2008 already seems to be a better-than-average year in new music. It started strong with Vampire Weekend’s debut (if you go by official release dates and not when everyone downloaded it), went on to R.E.M.’s highly unexpected best album in almost twenty years, a surprise second Raconteurs record, Bauhaus’ swan song, and a dozen other good ones besides. Here are my favorites of this quarter who I didn’t just mention:
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
A collaboration between Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys (still riding a hot streak less than a year after his band’s possibly best-yet Hey Venus!) and hip-hop producer Boom Bip, this one mostly parties like Dire Straits were still at the top of the charts. I have to admit, I deleted three songs off this set that I felt clashed horrifically with the vibe of the other nine. The rest are solid retro gold.
MP3: Neon Neon “I Told Her On Aldreraan”
Nada Surf - Lucky
Possibly not the most critically respected band on Earth, but I’ve had a soft spot for these guys since their 2002 comeback Let Go, which I loved.
The Teenagers - Reality Check
Serge Gainsbourg for the Myspace set.
MP3: The Teenagers “Starlett Johansson”
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
These guys keep making writing brilliant songs look easy, the show offs, “The Man I Shot” in particular.
Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
My fellow Okie boys have a unique, slightly darker take on our local trademark Flaming Lips-inspired spaced-out stadium-sized weirdness.
MP3: Evangelicals “Skeleton Man”
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster…
Usually the exclamation point in any band’s name is just a stylistic conceit, but I swear these guys! make! it! audible!
Blood on the Wall - Liferz
If Neon Neon have to cut a royalty check to Mark Knopfler, Blood on the Wall owe one to every band played on 120 Minutes in 1992.
Switches - Lay Down the Law
…and these guys are signing theirs over to Franz Ferdinand for the title track on this one. Listen to these guys now so you can brag when they get huge.
Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha
A return to cheeky form after their mostly depressing last record.
These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid (MP3: “Elvis”)
Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
I didn’t realize that anyone ever cared about Afghan Whigs, even in their heyday, until I read the breathless retroactive praise for them in recent articles concerning this collaboration between head ‘Whig Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan.
Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust (MP3: “Aly Walk With Me”)
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (MP3: “Electric Feet”)
[I apologize that not all these bands have samples, but WordPress is being a bitch.]
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Vampire Weekend disappointed me this past week at the El Rey, but whatever. MGMT - LOVE!
Anything Boom Bip touches is sick.
Wow, Nada Surf. When I was 16 I saw them at the Whiskey A Go-Go. They were great! I wanted to jump the drummer, who a girl in the crowd beside me told was a real whore.
I saw them at 16 too! It’s a small freaking world eh?
COME ON!!! Give us a new little something something… Not that these weren’t great, but I WANT MORE!!!