top 11 albums of 2008, in no particular order:
Leyna Noel, "From The Mouth Of The Jar" (self-released)
I played a show with Leyna Noel this year in January, in San Francisco, at the lovely Fort Gallery. She had just returned from a tour in France, and she played the guitar. Before the show, I heard she plays the piano. I liked her songs, and I wrote down a lyric in my notebook "The happiest people play the saddest songs" (or was it "the saddest people play the happiest songs"?). After the show, we exchanged CDs, and she told me it was the last copy of her CD she had. The CD came in a hand-sewn bag, and I had to cut it open to listen to it. Beautifully produced, these songs are so powerful because every single note fits, every single note is needed.
Hurray For The Riff Raff, "It Don't Mean I Don't Love You" (
self-released)
This summer, I heard about a new queer bar in Berlin, Silver Future. I checked out their website and saw that a band from New Orleans was playing there. I missed New Orleans. It was a rainy summer night, and I convinced my friends Josepha, Isabel, and Deenah to join me. After a long walk, we finally hit Silver Future, saw the wonderful Ronetta open for Hurray For The Riff Raff, who then, just banjo and accordion, played the most heart-breakingly simple songs I had heard in a long, long time. I imagined the tree behind the Walmsley Mansion, I heard the stray cats, there was a taste of Daiquiri in my mouth, I swear I could even smell the heat, that night.
Alex Banjo, "Y2K Ghost," "E.V.I.L.," "F.U.C.K." (self-released)
Alex Banjo is a member of the great French folk band Coming Soon. He gave me a couple of his home recordings at the end of last year, and this summer, when we played a fun house show together in Annecy. Those songs are all jewels, raw and unpolished. Sometimes just Alex on guitar and ukulele, sometimes with mad casio beats, sometimes I wonder what they would sound like if they were covered by, say, Sam Cooke or Nina Simone. Because these are classic tunes, melodies like rollercoasters.
LAKE, "Oh, The Places We'll Go" (
K Records)
The tape is rolling. You can hear it in the background. Everyone in this collective seems to know what everyone else holding an instrument will do next, and for each song they change instruments, like an internal challenge maybe. They are tight.
The Pica Beats, "All Mysteries Solve Themselves" (self-released), "Beating Back The Claws Of The Cold" (
Hardly Art)
My friend Tiffany gave me a copy of "All Mysteries..." in a dusty back room filled with paintings in Seattle, Washington, in April. I was put off by the funny cover art at first, and the sitar (a new age indie rock band?), but then the title track suddenly jumped in my face, and for weeks, there was nothing else I could listen to, hours that only consisted in waiting for those damn drums to finally kick in:
they're built like modern musical instruments, the likes of which you never heard before
Jonathan Richman, "Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild" (
Vapor Records)
At the Wave Pictures' David Tattersal's and Johnny Helm's house in Leyton, East London, it seemed like we only listened to Django Reinhardt, Bruce Springsteen, or the new Jonathan Richman record. Fresh like the world.
Dan Fishback, "Calendar Boys" (
self-released)
Produced by Andrew Phillip Tipton (who also put out his remarkable third solo album this year) in Staten Island, this is a B-Sides for an album that hasn't even been fully recorded. Banjo, glockenspiel, ukulele, guitar, Dan's voice; that's it, and many many very funny and wise reflections on boys who play guitar.
François Virot, "Yes Or No" (
Clapping Music)
In front of the Theaterkapelle in Friedrichshain, I discussed François Virot's music with a couple of friends while he was re-stringing his guitar inside. One friend said he'd never heard music like this before. I agree.
Mount Eerie, "Nobody's Perfect," "Lost Wisdom" (with Julie Doiron & Fred Squire,
P.W. Elverum & Sun, ltd.)
I don't know where "Nobody's Perfect" comes from. There's little info on these five live songs, they seem to come from Nowhere. Neil Young drums, Neil Young electrical guitars, but these are different words, coming from a didactic world Neil Young doesn't know about:
all materials borrowed, all songs immediately lost forever, singing in a generous way, that will be my signature, a cool album with a cool name, by noone, called Nobody's Perfect, nobody / maybe it's not fair to expect so much from you, young people of the modern megastate, the adults have always brought you food, so you won't know who to ask, how to cook when it's time to walk into the night alone / we must stop thinking nationally, it has no name so it has nobody, it has no shape so it has no border, it has nobody and having nobody is perfect, nobody's perfect / so having walked until dark, like this with nothing, how does the world look now, it looks different / what I find it will be found easily and only when I am not looking for it
The Burning Hell, "Happy Birthday" (
Weewerk)
Happy Birthday to the end of the world! Pro-folk and anti-love, this band from Ontario had dinner in my room and then convinced us all to get out of the romance and fucking party.
Arthur Russell, "Love Is Overtaking Me" (
Audika Records)
A very carefully compiled overview of avant-garde cellist/disco producer Arthur Russell's country and folk songs, this is overflowing with pain, and immense, immense love.
Honorable mentions:
The Mountain Goats, "Heretic Pride"
Jeffrey Lewis, "12 Crass Songs"
Xiu Xiu, "Women As Lovers"
Ashley and Eli, "Dying Dogs Come Again"
Dream Bitches, "Coke and Spriters"
Ching Chong Song, "Little Naked Gay Adventure"
Dave End, "Fruits Commonly Mistaken For Vegetables"
Susie Asado, "Hello Antenna"
Coming Soon, "New Grids"
Lupus & Van Pelt, "Pirate Politics"
The Lisps, "Country Doctor Museum"
Falk & die Wiese, "Pigeon & Moron"
Toby Goodshank, "Pray To You"
Karl Blau, "A.M."
PEACE, "On Earth"
El Guincho, "Alegranza!"
Liv Carrow, "It's About Time"
Andrew Phillip Tipton, "The Champion Of Love"
Beißpony, "Beißpony"
Kat Frankie, "Pocketknife"
The Wave Pictures, "Just Like A Drummer EP," "Instant Coffee Baby"
Alela Diane, "The Pirate's Gospel"
Gustav, "Verlass die Stadt"
Sorry Gilberto, "Memory Oh"
Jack 'Thunder' Lewis, "Digital Lvov"
Silver Jews, "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea"
Morgan Orion and the Constellations, "s/t"
Snöleoparden, "Snöleoparden"
Club Mate, "Plays The Songs Of Thomas Patrick Maguire"
Animal Collective, "Water Curses EP"
Lucky Dragons, "Dream Island Laughing Language"
White Fang, "Pure Evil"
My Sister Grenadine, "Shine In The Dark"
Stanley Brinks, "Sings The Blues"
The Fishermen Three, "Rosina On The Balcony"
Emily Jane White, "Dark Undercoat"
and many, many more
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