Culture Bully Presents: The Absent Arch, plus Will Markwardt’s favorite albums of 2008

Culture Bully is proud to present The Absent Arch, Suzanne Vallie & Les Ourses @ the Acadia Cafe Thursday, January 29, 2009. Supporting the band’s recently released album, Keep Calm and Carry On, The Absent Arch are playing a number of dates in January leading up to the Acadia show including A Paper Cup Band’s January 9 release show at the Hexagon Bad and a set at Eclipse Records on the 24th.

The Absent Arch: Purchase | Official | MySpace
Suzanne Vallie: MySpace
Les Ourses: MySpace

Also: Also: The Absent Arch “Keep Calm And Carry On” Review

[Additionally, Will Markwardt of The Absent Arch has compiled his list of the Top 25 Albums of 2008]:

#25) Titus Andronicus Airing of Grievances
While I think the album is great, if it wasn’t for their live show, Airing of Grievances would not have made it on the list. While nothing beat seeing Patrick Stickles hanging from the ceiling at the Entry back in July, the energy of the show really does translate to the album. Not to mention “Joset Of Nazareth’s Blues” is one of the best songs of the year.

#24) Man Man Rabbit Habits
Face paint is cool again! Or was it ever not cool? Face paint or not this Man Man album is exhausting…. in a good way. If you ever want to be audibly pummeled by drums outside of a metal album this is where you want to turn. It’s like going to a demented circus in which you just want to befriend all the animals and ask them where they got those drugs.

#23) David Karsten Daniels Fear of Flying
Winner for “the strangest album cover that definitely does not fit the music” of 2007, he wins this year for “most modest album cover after one that was completely terrifying.” From a couple eating out each other’s intestines to women’s shoes at the side of a bed, the album art never does his music justice. One of the smartest folk artists out right now. “Martha Ann” might be my song of the year. Not for how innovative or structurally brilliant it is, but for how absolutely perfect a pop song it is.

#22) Juana Molina Un Dia
Juana Molina is what… almost 50 years old now? I would still marry her. The sweetest voice in all of Spanish folk music, Un Dia is wonderful and has cemented my belief that making her tea every Saturday morning for the rest of my life sounds like a perfect idea.

#21) Sigur Ros Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Not their best. Far far from it. But do they ever really put out anything bad? This is probably their most pop oriented album ever and I guess it shows when I now have trouble finding tickets to see them at the Orpheum. I guess that has been the case for a while now though.

#20) The War on Drugs Wagonwheel Blues
So he sounds like Bruce Springsteen. So he sounds like Bob Dylan. Adam Granduciel is no copycat. This is a unique album regardless of the comparisons. Although the album as a whole is not something to run home about, the five or six songs that are make it all worth it. “A Needle in Your Eye #16″ is a song that will not tire.

#19) The Kills Midnight Boom
What you get when you combine a female punk rock vocalist, a brit-rocker, and three albums of experience. You can describe the whole album by the title alone, Midnight Boom is exactly where you want to be late at night after you’ve had waaaaaaay to much to drink but still want to continue the party without passing out in the bathtub. But I definitely see the bathtub as the final outcome of this album’s night on the town.

#18) Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
So much praise, so much hype, all so deserved. When I see Justin Vernon and his band (friends) perform, it reminds me so much of my own musical experiences playing with talented and amazing friends, just happy to be making music. While he recorded the album all by himself, there is a collective warmth that an infinite amount of people can and have experienced together with this album. Sappy? Maybe, but who cares.

#17) Jolie Holland The Living & The Dead
The on again off again relationship Jolie and I have is unmatched. I love love love her first two albums. I hate Springtime Can Kill You. Well maybe not HATE but it was one of the most disappointing albums I’ve heard in a while. She was (before Springtime) and will be once again (with The Living & The Dead), my favorite female artist out there right now. She took the upbeat direction from Springtime and actually made it work with this one, and I am a happy man for it.

#16) Horse Feathers House With No Home
This one almost didn’t make the list because I had only heard it for the first time about two weeks ago. Since then, it’s been played every single morning at work, almost as routine. The album is definitely not routine though. Every time I put it in I hear something different and goosebumpy in his wonderfully soft folk arrangements. I will soon be schooling Waldo and Joe on the ways of the Horse Feathers string section. Also, how much do I love Justin Ringle’s voice? A lot much! This probably would have been higher on the list if I had had more time to digest it.

#15) Chad Vangaalen Soft Airplane
I have a friend that wants to marry this man. I don’t know if it’s because of his dashing man looks or his music but she’d make a good argument if she meant the music. Erin, maybe you can help me out with this one? Maybe it’s both? Regardless, this album is the quirky album I needed this year and although he sounds almost unacceptably similar to Neil Young on the first track “Willow Tree” it doesn’t really matter because not only is that song amazing, but the rest of the album is too.

#14) Ra Ra Riot The Rhumb Line
This is the band that should have been Vampire Weekend! For all the praise and worldwide dick sucking Vampire Weekend got, these guys were doing it way better the whole time. Please, if you like Vampire Weekend even a little bit make it your life’s duty to check this album out. Even if you don’t like Vampire Weekend, you still have to check these guys out. This is probably the catchiest album of the year.

#13) James Hunter The Hard Way
Ahh, how refreshing is this album? So much people, so much. You don’t hear modern soul artists (although many label him as a blues singer which is also valid) get this kind of golden age sound anymore. After the last album People Gonna Talk won a Grammy (eww, I just puked in my mouth a little bit) for Best Blues Album, he followed up with The Hard Way which I think is even better.

#12) Los Campesinos Hold on Now, Youngster…
They put two albums out this year. There is Hold on Now, Youngster… in all of it’s twee glory and, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Hold on Now, Youngster… is so unabashedly twee and British it’s not even funny, but that is a good thing. This album is fun in disc (or vinyl or digital) form! I hate dancing, I find I fall more than I put one foot in front of the other, but for this album I’m happy to do it….. kind of.

#11) Blitzen Trapper Furr
I listened to the first record and didn’t know what all of the fuss was about. I listened to Furr and immediately smiled. “I get it!” I said. “This is the album they should have been talking about when they were talking about how great Blitzen Trapper is.” Although the buzz came a year before this album was even out and revolved around Wild Mountain Nation, they now officially deserve all the praise they have gotten.

#10) The Dodos Visiter
We were fortunate enough to open up for these guys when they came to the Triple Rock back in July. Not only are they extremely nice gentlemen, they also make some spectacular music. Who knew an acoustic guitar and drums could mingle with each other by their selves so well? This album receives the “most played by my old manager in a three month period of time” award and I thank him for it, many times can not stand what he puts in. So many words to describe the month that I first discovered this record and how much I got into it. The reason it’s number ten and not in the top five is because I felt it has been a really easy record to get sick of. I’ll give it another couple months and put it in sometime on March and fall in love all over again.

#9) Sun Kil Moon April
Mark Kozelek had a lot to live up to in my mind. This is the true follow-up to what I believe to be the greatest album of all time, Ghosts of the Great Highway. We won’t count the Modest Mouse covers album because… well it doesn’t count. While this is no Ghosts, it is definitely everything that I hoped for. How he has the voice that he does is beyond me. I’ve always said I would die today if I could sing like him for just a little while. The natural reverb that comes from that guy’s throat is to be worshiped and so is his music. Contrary to the album’s title, April is a winter record. One to cozy up alone with a glass of whiskey to. Oh and how scared I was when I heard Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy was featured on a few songs and how happy I was to hear it actually worked. Don’t get me wrong, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is one of my favorites, but when I heard there was going to be more than just the lone voice of my favorite nostalgia seeker I was a little scared. My worries were put to rest and I got exactly what I hoped for: another Sun Kil Moon I can be absolutely happy with.

#8) MGMT Oracular Spectacular
Sometimes there are those albums that just define a period in ones life, yes? That live on as memories more than music. This was my January to March of this year. This was every memory from those three months bottled up into an album length and stored for whenever I want to relive it. The beginning of this year was absolutely great for me, therefore this album was equally so. It’s kind of a time capsule of sorts, which may be the reason I don’t listen to it much anymore. It’s still fresh. If you open it now, it won’t seem as wonderfully nostalgic but years down the road, it will be nice to relive.

#7) Drive By Truckers Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
So I think Jason Isbell was always my least favorite member of the band. When I heard he was leaving and they were recording a new album without him I was intrigued to hear how they would sound. The answer is way fucking better! You don’t realize how much one person can hold back other’s creativity until that person leaves and the others create what they were always meant to. Best album of theirs since Pizza Deliverance and possibly their greatest album ever. It’s a beast of an album too. 19 tracks and over 70 minutes I believe. All great stuff though.

#6) Dr. Dog Fate
The most convincing 60′s pop revival band out there who still sounds surprisingly modern. Everything they do is great but Fate is definitely their best. Talking about a Dr. Dog album really isn’t something you should do. It’s something that you just need to hear to understand and once you do it will all sound so familiar. In a good way.

#5) Elephant Micah Exiled Magicians
Why more people do not know who Elephant Micah is is beyond me. Easily the greatest songwriter of our generation, hiding out in Indiana, creating record after record of pure brilliance. I have been lucky enough to play a couple shows with him and sit in during a recording session for this record, and the way he works and the person he is is absolutely humbling. Do yourself a favor, go onto www.elephantmicah.com and buy everything he has available. This newest record is probably his most mellow album to date, which is saying a lot. Basically, just beautiful. Never a bad album.

#4) Department of Eagles In Ear Park
Why is it always the best albums that are the hardest to talk about? I could go on forever about some of the earlier albums on this list but when it comes to the ones that really made an impact, all of the sudden I blank. Maybe that’s because I wrote everything from #25-5 at work and now am trying to write the rest at home with only a little time to spare before I have to go to a holiday party. Anyways, Department of Eagles is Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear and Fred Nicolaus from… himself. Although I enjoy Grizzly Bear, Department of Eagles is a better group in my mind. This is the album over the last two months that I have had conversations about the most. Well, they weren’t as much conversations as “Have you heard the new Department of Eagles album?”, says dude A. “Hell yeah! Holy shit dude, it’s amazing”, says dude B. I would take that kind of review over any other that I have read.

#3) David Byrne & Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
So I made a point to not listen to this album when it came out as a release through their website only because I was upset that we couldn’t order it at work and I knew it would come out later as a universal release. It was one of those albums I have been anticipating for a while being a huge fan of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I needed a physical copy in my hand and not some digital release. Well, 27 years after Bush of Ghosts, Byrne & Eno can still hold their own with any new bands or musicians out there today. What they have done for music (and Eno especially for me on a personal level) is amazing and this album really shows it I think. The fact that they have been around for so long and can still make a record that sounds like a Talking Heads record and a Roxy Music/Brian Eno record all at the same time while not sounding dated is mindblowing. Not to mention I love the album title.

#2) Why? Alopecia
I don’t know how Yoni Wolf does it. How he manages to create the catchiest hooks imaginable out of complete chaos, lyrically and otherwise. Half if not all of what he says makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. His time signatures and key changes make no sense but complete sense at the same time. Why? as a band makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. Alopecia makes sense of the senseless and ties up the fascinating word jumbles in every song into something that sounds darkly autobiographical, but in a very uplifting way. Whether these are stories of his past or dreams his pen created, they always blow my mind. “I sleep on my back cause it’s good for the spine and coffin rehearsal.”

#1) Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
Smack me in the face and call me smitten! This is the album that for years and years and years you always wanted to exist but never did and now that it’s here you can’t control your excitement. There is so much I could say about this record that I won’t because I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who hasn’t heard it. If you have heard it I would love to talk about it but I wouldn’t want to ruin it for everyone else. I’m sure it’s going to be close to the top of many lists this year but I think for the first time in a while there is a really good reason for that. It is actually that good. Please just buy a copy and enjoy, it will leave you speechless.