Top Five Backstage Moments of 2008 by Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater

#1) When our US tour with Clinic passed though our hometown of Austin, we wanted to do something nice for the Liverpudlians, maybe show them around a little bit, if there was time (which, on tour, there almost never is). But after sound check, I was a little surprised when they all lit up at the prospect of riding in the back of my little Mazda pickup. I loaded them in and took them on a little cruise to Thor’s house through the back streets of East Austin, opening the window in the cab so we could shout to one another. Every time I glanced in the mirror, I saw Brian, Clinic’s affable bassist, beaming back at me. “This would be completely illegal back home!”, he exulted.

#2) A fall east-coast tour ended in New York, and I drove the van back to Texas alone, playing a few puzzling solo shows along the way. One was in Asheville, NC, where it was cold and raining, and everyone seemed to be half-asleep. I don’t remember the show very well, but I stopped in to Harvest Records and picked up some new music – Robbie Basho, James Blackshaw, another of the Secret Museum of Mankind series (North Africa), and the new Mount Eerie mini-album, “Lost Wisdom.” I liked them all, but it was Mount Eerie that stayed in the player for the next few days, through the Appalachian foothills and the deep south. The leaves were turning, the weather was half-rainy and unsettled, and this beautiful, sad album seemed to have grown out of the landscape.

#3) The handful of shows we played with Coldplay were surreal, to say the least. We all started giggling the first time we drove our little van into the bowels of the LA Forum and pulled up next to five tour buses and six tractor-trailers. It was like mooring your motorboat to an aircraft carrier. Everyone on their team was very gracious, and CP sent us champagne on the first night and kindly let us crash their after-parties, but I kept feeling like we were stowing away. When the house lights went out and we walked up the ramp to the stage, I couldn’t believe they were letting us get away with it.

The audiences were funny. At first, I think some of them thought we were the main event, and cheered accordingly, but when they realized their mistake they settled in to their cell phones and screened us out. The last night was in Las Vegas, at the MGM Grand – a place I never thought I’d see, much less be playing inside, and I was overwhelmed, onstage, with a feeling of how borrowed and strange it all was. After the third song, I sat down at the keyboard, looked out at the crowd, and yelled “Hello Las Vegas!”, because why not? I figured I’d probably be jeered. But they roared, and after that moment I felt like a lot more of them were with us for the rest of our set. I had never realized how much an audience, at a show on that scale, just wants to know that you can see them.

#4) One of our last shows in New York this year was at Le Poisson Rouge, a dark, elegant but un-stuffy club with great food, great sound, and an excellent piano. (Kevin: “It’s like this place was designed by friendly vampires.”) We shared the little dressing room with Eric Carlson and William Harvey, two droll, close-cropped, bespectacled violinists who seemed to have stepped out of the early 20th century for the evening. They played Bartok’s 44 duets for violins before we went on, which is kind of like “double nickels on the dime” in that each duet lasts about a minute. After each song they announced the title of the next one (“Jeering Song,” “Pillow Song,” “Matchmaking Song”), which gave the dark but spirited melodies a whimsical, narrative quality. I’d never heard these pieces performed live before, and something about William and Eric’s demeanor suited them perfectly. Or was it the other way around?

#5) Winter 2008 seems a long time ago, but Thor and I spent a few weeks of it touring the southeastern and southwestern US with Bill Callahan. It was one of the oddest and most peaceful tours I’ve ever been on; even the tour manager spent a fair amount of the trip asleep in the back of the van. I remember little moments: swimming in a spring in Florida while it was six degrees in Chicago, a grim drive through eastern Kansas to Tulsa, where thousands of trees had snapped and burst in an ice storm, and, best of all, a stop at the Petrified Forest national park in Arizona. We pulled over at a parking area overlooking the Painted Desert and got out, shivering in the wind. A raven flew over the lip of the canyon and peered at us from above, calling in a weird, tentative way, and Bill suggested that maybe it wanted some pita bread. I went back to the van, rummaged in the box of last night’s rider, and tossed a few scraps into the parking lot. Sure enough, the raven landed, picked up the piece of bread in its huge bill, and made a different call; at which its partner appeared from down in the canyon, and the two flew off together. They were just working their beat. So were we.

Shearwater “The Snow Leopard” (mp3)
Shearwater “Leviathan, Bound” (mp3)
Shearwater “Rooks” (mp3)
Shearwater “Red Sea, Black Sea” (mp3)

Shearwater: Official | MySpace | Wikipedia

Top Five Epic Moments of 2008 by M.anifest

M.anifest: Official | MySpace | Twitter

Realest Concerts by the Realest People (This list celebrates good people who were also able to put together some good ass shows in Minneapolis and Saint Paul in this, the year of 2008) by Joe Schweigert of Military Special

#1) Togetherness @ The Caverns (April)
#2) Grotto @ Turf Club (May)
#3) Lucy Michelle & Velvet Lapelles outside in their backyard (August)
#4) Shout Out Out Out Out @ 7th St Entry (November)
#5) Lieutenant Girl @ Eclipse Records (June)

Top Five Twin Cities Concert Moments of 2008 by Charlie Smith of Military Special

Soundset ‘08 at the Metrodome Parking Lot
The clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and it looked like a tornado was going to land on top of us but the hip-hop played on. The storm rolled over as Atmosphere took the stage. I later learned that storm created tornadoes a few miles east of the Cities that destroyed whole blocks of houses. Close call.

Lucy Michelle’s CD Release at the Bedlam Theater
Turning around from the front row and seeing all those people dancing and realizing that Lucy and co. were about to blow up from their album. Never before have I felt so strongly that I was watching a group on the rise. Those guys deserve every bit of credit they’re getting for what they’ve contributed to the Twin Cities music scene over the past year.

Sharon Jones at the MN State Fair
When the security guards were being dicks and keeping everyone away from the stage, one pioneer broke through and started dancing. As security tried to drag him away the guitarist came off the stage and said it was cool, and then everyone was charging the stage. That’s what a good band does, gives the audience an uncontrollable urge to groove, rules be damned.

Balkan Beat Box at the Cedar Cultural Center
Gypsy brass band meets club music from an Israeli disco. I couldn’t believe their energy and ability to pack a crowd in and make them dance. Definitely some of the most unique new music I’ve heard all year.

Rage Against the Machine’s March on the RNC
Police prematurely cut off the power to their appearance on the State Capitol lawn, so Rage led the crowd in an a capella version of “Bulls on Parade.” Just another example of police “stirring up the anthill” at the RNC, citing the slightest signs of resistances as justification for mass arrests and gross misuse of violence.

Military Special “Warrant Error” (mp3)

Military Special play tomorrow night at the Nomad World Pub’s Recession-Proof New Year’s Eve with The Invincible Kids and DJ Turtleneck. Their EP is out now in the Twin Cities and online. Look for their debut full-length in early 2009.

Military Special: Official | MySpace

Top Albums of 2008 by Copycat

Bears Simple Machinery
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Fleet Foxes Ragged Wood & Sun Giant EP
MGMT Oracular Spectacular
Glasvegas Glasvegas
Headlights Some Racing, Some Shopping
Jeff Hanson Madam Owl
Locksley Don’t Make Me Wait (reissue)
Sons & Daughters This Gift
Grand Archives Grand Archives
The Tallest Man on Earth Shallow Grave

Copycat: Official | MySpace | Facebook

photo by Peter Lee

The Roe Family Singers Top Five Things that Happened to Us in 2008 by Quillan Roe

#5) We Finally Got To Play At The Cedar Cultural Center This Year!
I have wanted to play the Cedar since I started performing professionally with Accident Clearinghouse way back in 1996. I’ve seen so many great performers pass through that place, and so many of our musical peers have played there, as well. Yet we had never been asked to play there. Until December 19, 2008! We opened for our friends Free Range Pickin’, a really tight, well-polished bluegrass band, who were celebrating their 10 year anniversary. Also on the bill were the Twin Cities Playboys, and Steve Kaul (from the Brass Kings) and Dave Babb (from the Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs) playing together as a duet. It was a fantastic night of music and good feelings. Thank you to Tony Ihrig and Free Range Pickin’ for asking us to join them on the bill, and for making this dream come true!

#4) We Have Been Recording Our “Debut” Album For Four Years… FOUR… YEARS
I admit to be a perfectionist, and in the studio it would be fair to say that I am a slave driver. But this album took even longer to finish than I could have ever imagined. We have a large band, consisting of 8 or 9 members, depending on who is in town and who is in the country. Most of us have day jobs, and all of us have lots on our plates, regardless of whether we are gainfully employed or not. This all gets in the way of finding time to make it to the studio to record our various pieces of the songs. But there is just no reason for this album to have turned into the Chinese Democracy of bluegrass. None whatsoever. So it was with great excitement that we picked up the finished CD from Andrew Volna and Noiseland on Thursday, December 18, 2008. I don’t know if I can say it was worth the four year wait, but we are pretty proud of it.

#3) On Tour Last Spring We Swung Through Louisville, KY
This was our first trip into the South of our imagination, the South of old hollows and hills, the birthplace of the music we play and love. We played at a club called the Rudyard Kipling, kind of a larger, more financially secure version of the Twin Cities own Bryant Lake Bowl. We opened for this amazing band called the Broken Carousel Orkestra, a 15-member punk hillbilly band, consisting of five mandolins, a bunch of guitars, an accordion, and a drummer. They didn’t use any amplification, nor did they need any; they just played their music, and the sheer number of performers provided all the volume they needed. They did music mostly of their own—our favorite was about a Ferris wheel catching fire and killing a bunch of people—but also performed a few covers, like Liba Cotton’s “Freight Train.” It was an amazing experience.

When everything was done for the evening, and we were all packing up to go home, the owner of the club took me aside to talk to me. He was an older boy from the fabled South Kim and I had imagined. He told me how much he had enjoyed our music, how it was so uncommon to hear music like we were making anymore. He shared that he and his wife liked to get out the guitar and play the old Carter Family songs, as Kim and I do. Then he asked me where my people were from.

My mom’s family is from Southern Iowa, by way of Missouri, and, before that, Kentucky. Our people BECAME respectable farmers, but didn’t start out that way. The family lore has it that we were run out of Kentucky for horse rustling, stealing other men’s women, and general all-around badness. I told this all to the old boy. He took my arm in his still-strong hand and looked me in the eye. With a smile he said, “I knew you had to have some of the old country in your blood. You couldn’t make music like that if you didn’t.”

#2) The Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association is a Great Organization
Created to both help preserve the old-timey music and to organize the bluegrass community of Minnesota, MBOTMA is a really great organization to our way of thinking. They organize major festivals three times a year, and we were honored to be asked to perform at the biggest of these festivals, the August festival, up at El Rancho Mañana, this year. We performed first on the Marketplace stage, and unamplified stage under a tent, a few hundred feet from the Main Stage. The Marketplace is fairly informal, and much more intimate than the Main Stage, with the physical stage being nothing more than a piece-together dance floor laid over a bed of wood chips, keeping the performers (us) on the same level as the audience. We showed up about half an hour early, set up, and started playing. In no time at all the tent was full. We played for about 45 minutes, and were met with huge applause. This was amazing to us, because this is the crowd that knows this music, OUR music, inside and out, probably better than we do.

Then we were on to the Main Stage! Could it get any better? We were amazed to be performing at THE big local festival, on THE big stage! Wow! Our reception here wasn’t as great as in the Marketplace, and I think it was a combination of our being nervous to be performing where we were and our inexperience with creating the rapport we are used to at the 331 Club and other small venues that we feel VERY comfortable in. That night we ran into our friends Kari and Lisa, from the Ditchlilies, and Adam Kiesling, from the Mill City Grinders. These folks play in some of our favorite bands, are amazing musicians, and really great people. So when they all praised our performances and let us know how great they felt our performances had been, it was icing on the cake. Adam even said he thought we were the most exciting thing happening in old-timey music. I know that, like with the old Kentuckian mentioned earlier, this is only one man’s opinion, but it still feels good!

#1) Our Number One Moment in 2008 is Easy To Come Up With: It Was When Kim Discovered That She Was Pregnant With Our First Child Back in June
It has been so amazing watching Kim’s belly grow as the little girl inside grows bigger and bigger, coming closer to her birthday sometime in February. At our last appointment, two weeks ago, the baby was growing right on schedule, with all of her little parts within acceptable size “spreads” and weighing in at an estimated three lbs. three oz. Over the course of this past year we have had three ultrasounds, getting to see our babies heart beating, although it was only the size of the fingernail on your pinky finger; we have seen her little brain and spine develop; we have seen all of her ribs, her femur, and tiny little finger and toe bones, all perfectly formed.

I think the most exciting moment was when we first got to hear her heart beat. It beats so fast, like a little hummingbird’s wings! Kim and I called both of the sets of grandparents and let them hear the heartbeat, too. My only regret is that we can’t see and hear her everyday. The generosity we have seen from friends and family is really amazing. The donations of clothing and general baby gear have been truly kind. We have been deeply touched by all of the folks who have given us baby gifts or have insisted that we accept their own baby’s clothes, since theirs have outgrown them. People we don’t even know have offered to throw baby showers for us! Two gifts that have really touched us: Glen Hanson, a local musician with a long history in this town, is a wonderful guy, full of tons of great stories, and even more off-color jokes. So when we arrived at the 331 Club one Monday evening for our regular show, and Glen called Kim over with that familiar twinkle in his eye, she was expecting another dirty story. “I’ve got something for you,” he said, rummaging through his pockets. “All right, Glen, what now?” she greeted him with a smile. “No, no. Really, I have a gift for your baby,” he said. Then he gave Kim a tiny package. She opened it up, and inside was a tiny, hand-made leather purse, just the right size for a baby girl. Even more impressive, it had a hand-beaded design on it.

Once Kim showed the tiny purse to me, I went over to thank Glen for the gift. I asked him if he had made it and done the beading himself, and he said yes. He explained that, since his own daughters were all grown up, he didn’t have anyone to make gifts like this for anymore, so, when he hears someone is having a girl, he gets excited because he can make gifts again.

The other one came in the form of an e-mail. Jarret Oulman owns the 331 with his Dad, Jon. Jarret and his wife Anya don’t live too far from the 331, and they have two little boys, one a toddler and one a baby. Jarret offered to baby-sit for us any Monday night we needed, since, in his words, he was in the neighborhood and just doing baby-stuff anyways! A cynic would look at this and think Jarret is just trying to protect his club. After all, if Kim and I are home Monday nights with the baby, he loses his Monday night anchor. But I know Jarret; I have worked both with him and for him, and I know that he was sending this offer to us out of the goodness of his heart.

This year has passed so quickly, and it seems like only yesterday when Kim came out of the bathroom one gray Saturday morning and told me she was pregnant. In no time at all we will be heading to the hospital, and then our wee baby girl will be with us! Thank you to all the folks who have helped make 2008 a great year for Kim and I and for the Roe Family Singers. Please continue to remember to be kind and to be safe in all that you do, and to strive to make 2009 the best that it can be.

The Roe Family Singers: MySpace

photo by Alexa Jones

Top Five Odd/Intersting Instruments We’ve Seen Bands Drag Out To Clubs in 2008 by Will Markwardt of The Absent Arch

The Chord and the Fawn: Push Bells
Skoal Kodiak: Mystery Box + Bleach Bottle Mic/Transducer
Paul Metzger: 21 String Banjo
Doctor Henry Killinger: Fiberglass Bowed Spring-Reverb Box – Lichtenberg Tree
The Dodos: Combination Vibraphone and Trashcan Percussion

The Absent Arch: MySpace

Best Concerts I Went To This Year by Big Zach of Kanser

#1) Harvest Fest @ Harmony Park (September)
#2) Soundset ‘08 @ Metrodome (May)
#3) Heiruspecs CD Release @ First Ave (December)
#4) Westbank Music Festival @ Nomad Parking Lot (July)
#5) Big Zach’s Birthday Fest @ Cabooze (November)

Kanser: MySpace

The Terminal Bar Gives It Up

The Top Five Shows of 2008 by Jeremiah Conlon of Nyteowl

Athletes in Slacks & Primadonahue @ Terminal Bar (April 17, 2008)
The second strangest show of the year – I was really drunk. So, I was sort of heckling this performer and really nice guy – Primadonaue for being so “self indulgent,” but seriously I was jealous of his midi-knee pad solos. There were like TWO people at the show besides me, and family members of Athletes…

…and one of those people was this dude who gave us the finger when we all rushed the stage (See pic).

Cut Copy @ 7th Street Entry (May 6, 2008)
I should vote for Presets/Cut Copy at the Fine Line. For starters, the Presets kicked Cut Copy’s ass that night. But the Cut Copy show at the Entry was smaller, sounded better to me, and they did less lip syncing/pretending to play instruments. I mean, at the Fine Line I remember one part where all the members of Cut Copy raised their hands like a high school show-choir, and the guitar was still playing.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? & Yo! Majesty @ 7th St Entry (May 12, 2008)
The most strange and sad show I have been to ever – due to Shunda K’s father(?) death and she wasn’t able to be at the show. First though, DIOYY rocked it way better than when they played on their own tour (7th St. Entry) later in the year. But back to the story, Yo! Majesty played the show without Shunda K (so JWL B rapped alone) and everyone, including T.I.M and Nyteowl ran on stage and danced around. Awkwardly at first. Then it just kicked ass and was a night to remember.

Lookbook & Red Pens @ Big V’s (October 4, 2008)
Pretty good night with the two bands I wanted to see the most and hadn’t yet in one venue. T.I.M was actually working sound there so we hung out and enjoyed the show – even if there were only a few other people there. Red Pens were solid. I fell in love with Lookbook right away. Their live show surpassed the recorded music I heard – they were on fire… have been every show I have seen in 2008.

Diplo, Boy 8 Bit & Telepathe @ First Avenue (October 24, 2008)
I was pretty excited for this show and it didn’t let me down. First, Boy 8 Bit has been a cool guy toward Nyteowl so it was nice to meet him in person. So, the music was great, big party, Diplo’s lights were nuts, and sovietpanda and I ended up on stage dancing around during the show, looking like a bunch of idiots (thanks j. ackerman). T.I.M watched from on the floor and heckled us later with a text message.

Nyteowl: (MySpace)

Freddi Vignette’s (of The Vignettes) Absolute Favorite Top Five Minneapolis Bands

Retainers
Vampire Hands
Kitten Forever
Le Deux Magots
Awesome Snakes

The Vignettes: MySpace

Top 5 Music Related Things from 2008 by Taylor Carik of Mediation

#1) Seeing The Sword at the Triple Rock
“How heavy this axe”? How heavy this show. I listened The Sword’s Gods of the Earth more than all other albums combined in 2008, and so when these kids from Austin, TX took a break from opening for Metallica to play at the Triple Rock Social Club, you bet I was front and center. And although the Triple Rock was little more than half full (it was a Monday, and Minnesota only stays up during the week for the big stars), The Sword packed all the force needed to play a sports arena, and were nothing but the business of br00tality from start to finish. Best album and best show of 2008, hands down.

#2) MC Hammer at Glamorama
Maybe it was low expectations, or that I never was that into him in his prime. Whatever the reason, Hammer totally blew me—and pretty much everyone at Macy’s Glamorama—away with his thre and a half song performance. Seriously, only three full songs and a remix of “Can’t Touch This” and Hammer was my second favorite show this year; he was more entertaining while tying his sweatpants than most musicians are for an entire show. The sound was huge, he ran around in the aisles, and he can still dance like crazy. MC Hammer is awesome. (BTW, I’m now closely following Hammer’s comeback via his twitter feed and his dance competition site, DanceJam.)

#3) Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Sound Unseen was good this year, but they should be particularly proud about scoring the documentary about Canadian metal band Anvil. You know the movie The Wrestler, where Mickey Rourke plays a once great wrestler who’s now old and beaten down, but can’t give up on the dream? Anvil is exactly like Rourke’s character, except Anvil is real. The four of us who saw this film had a hard time not crying at Anvil’s undying commitment to getting back on top, even though they’re broke and burnt out and no one takes them seriously. Congrats on Sound Unseen for screening it, and watch for this film to get big when it gets a distributor.

#4) Dead Prez at the RNC
By the end of the RNC, I had my fill of Rage Against the Machine. I endured Tom Morello’s solo set at the SEIU Harriet Island festival (try reading the Nightwatchmen’s lyrics sometime), I waited as Rage argued with the cops in front of the state capitol and then didn’t play (but got people marching before they jumped into a black SUV and took off), and I caught the full band’s surprisingly intense set at the Target Center (90 minutes of nothing but the hits and the sound wasn’t bad). On the other hand, I couldn’t get enough of Dead Prez. Hearing DP tell a crowd of hippies who were chanting “Obama” that “you can vote for 30 Obamas, ain’t nothing gonna change” was fucking awesome (and true). The beauty of DP is that, along with having truly radical lyrics (check out “Be Healthy” and “W-4″), their beatz also get your behind into overdrive. Their set was awesome, and for bonus points so was their fashion sense.

#5: Motörhead Motörizer
Motörhead never strayed from their equation. They never put out shitty experimental records in the 90’s and then had a comeback record that’s on all the Top 10 lists simply on name recognition and familiarity. And Motörhead made a totally fucking awesome record that came out this year that no one cared about. In fact, Decibel shrugged it off with a 7/10, which, when I read it, I was so shocked that I almost fell off the toilet, mid-poop. While James Hetfield was shopping at Verace stores and singing about being sad, here’s what Lemmy was warming up WWE shows with lines like “rock out/ rock out/with your cock out/impress your lady friends.” That’s about as metal as it gets. And if Motörhead ever had a shortcoming, it was that their production could never keep up with their music. With the fat production of Motörizer, Motörhead sound is as big and mean as they have for the last three decades straight.

Mediation: Official

photo by Darin Back

Top Five Local Concerts Attended by Chris Koza

#1) Joanna James “Moving to LA” show @ Fine Line
#2) Vampire Hands, Blind Shake & Tapes n Tapes @ Turf Club
#3) Haley Bonar CD Release @ Varsity Theater
#4) Alpha Centauri & Starfucker @ 7th Street Entry
#5) Any Monday night at the Clown Lounge

Chris Koza: Official | MySpace

photo by David Ellis

Top Five New Albums of 2008 by Jenny Dalton

#1) Santogold Santogold
#2) Lykke Li Youth Novels
#3) Why? Alopecia
#4) M83 Saturdays = Youth
#5) Loquat Secrets of the Sea

Jenny Dalton: Official | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

Top Five Musical Moments of 2008 by Jay Gabler of TC Daily Planet

The Avett Brothers, “Tear Down the House,” 1:24
Banjo acts are a dime a dozen these days. Plenty of them can write decent songs and pick those strings real quick-like, but the Avett Brothers’ secret weapon is their absolute sincerity—even when they’re being goofy, there’s an edge of honest desperation. This is the first track on the Gleam II EP, the brothers’ last hurrah on Ramseur Records en route to presumed adult-contemporary glory with Rick Rubin and whatever major label he hasn’t pissed off yet. When an Avett sings about crying tears, he doesn’t mean he’s cryin’ tears, he means he’s CRYING GOD DAMN TEARS!

R.E.M., “Supernatural Superserious,” 0:49
Like their contemporaries and supposed nemeses U2, R.E.M. have stuck around long enough to hear their original sound become contemporary again. This track brings it all together: the headlong rush of Murmur, the guitar crunch of Monster, the empathetic (and decipherable) lyrics of Automatic for the People, and, starting 49 seconds into the song, Mike Mills’s heartfelt harmonies.

Rihanna, “Disturbia,” 0:02
When you can turn on KDWB and hear a hit song that starts with the chant “bom bom be-dom bom bom be-dom bom,” you know that top 40 radio isn’t dead yet. Neither is Phil Spector, though fortunately we’re well past the point when any artist thinks it would be a good idea to bring him back into the studio for a stab at that classic pop sound. (Of course, if any artist would be safe working with the infamously gun-happy Spector, it would be a woman who hangs out with T.I.)

Kate Nash, “Baby Love,” 2:56
She may have surfed into the spotlight on a wave of MySpace buzz, but my bet is that Kate Nash has a long and fruitful career ahead of her—and happily, indications are that she’s going to get louder before she gets quieter. She didn’t have an official release in 2008, but this take on the Supremes classic was released—where else?—on her MySpace profile. Over a spare guitar-and-keys arrangement, Nash trades Diana Ross’s pleading coo for a bracing, pained declaration. “All you do is treat me bad, you break my heart and make me feel so sad!”

David Byrne and Brian Eno, “Everything That Happens,” 2:45
Re-convening with Brian Eno—producer of arguably the three greatest Talking Heads albums—didn’t inspire David Byrne to new heights, but then, he didn’t need to be. He’s never lost his knack for non sequitur lyrics that mean nothing, yet somehow mean everything. This track starts gently, with Byrne revisiting familiar lyrical territory—“I ride on a perfect freeway, many people on that road”—before rising to a majestic chorus that just about sums up my year, and must have special resonance for a man whose influence can be heard in every corner of contemporary music. “Everything that happens will happen today and nothing has changed but nothing’s the same and every tomorrow could be yesterday and everything that happens will happen today.”

TC Daily Planet: Official | Twitter

Top Five Musical Moments of 2008 by Chris Roberts of Vice Records

#1) Black Lips @ McCarren Pool
#2) King Khan @ McCarren Pool
#3) Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust (their best record yet!)
#4) Black Lips lighting their guitars on fire at Coachella
#5) Japanese Motors release their self titled debut!
#6) Chromeo @ Coachella
#7) Chromeo on Conan O’Brian with a full string orchestra
#8) Justice playing Madison Square Garden with the Chromeo duo!
#9) Daft Punk’s Electroma released in the most beautiful packaging we’ve ever created
#10) King Khan world domination!

Vice Records: Official | MySpace

Top Five Things I Could Not Criticize Any Longer in 2008 by Ali Elabbady aka Egypto Knuckles of the Background Noise Crew

#1) Auto-Tune
Numerous folks in 2008 decided to use the auto-tune pitch correction software to make them sound like they could sing and carry a note. However there are two efforts this year that basically shattered my disdain for auto-tune and they came in the form of 808s and Heartbreak by Kanye West and Thr33 Ringz by T-Pain. For the longest time I wanted to write this off as a gimmick, but with T-Pain and Kanye’s albums this year, it was too tastefully done or just plain bangin’ for me to insult. Let me be clear (yes, Barack Obama) – Autotune is acceptable to me at least if used in a tasteful manner.

#2) Monotone Voices
By nature I’ve long been a fan of such folks as Tom Waits, Guru, Bob Dylan, moreso for the lyrical content and the way these three told some kind of story of feeling in the song. I, like many listeners or first time discoverers, had found no expression, no enthralling yelp or scream within either of these artists that could justify me claiming this type of stuff as absolute truth music-wise. But then I learned something, maybe it was just a way of sitting down and talking to me. It was like listening to a friend, it wasn’t very expressive, and it didn’t have to be.

#3) (Certain) Actors/Actresses Releasing Albums
Ludacris, Ice Cube, and Scarlett Johansson’s respective albums released this year were reason for worry. How could rappers turn actors or actresses turned singers not make something such as Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time” 2008? Ludacris, fresh off his acting stint in Crash and a guest spot on Law & Order: SVU – released the long awaited Theater of the Mind with two monstrous bangers such as “MVP” (produced by DJ Premier) and the track “I Do It For Hip Hop” (featuring Nas & Jay-Z). Scarlett Johansson got approval from Tom Waits to put out Anywhere I Lay My Head, which received considerable assistance from Dave Sitek (of TV On The Radio) and help from such notables as David Bowie. In addition, one comeback which was worthy of noting was Ice Cube, who had a welcome return to form with the new album Raw Footage which pretty much released the aggression that was missing from such efforts as War & Peace. You can always count people down, but you can’t count them out.

#4) Politics and its Relationship with Music, or Vice Versa
Evidence of this came from reading Pitchfork Media’s news section to find who blogging about their experiences of their father on the campaign trail and such noteworthy mentions of Stereolab? Meghan McCain. Yep, you heard right. Funny how she mentioned a Stereolab song to aptly state the current economic crisis and how her dad would be a good candidate. Damn shame that Sarah Palin was part of that ticket.

On the flipside, seeing the numerous musicians/rappers/entertainers all rally around Barack Obama’s campaign was very encouraging to help get the youth vote encouraged. Such folks as The Decemberists, Bruce Springsteen (!), and numerous rappers like Nas, Young Jeezy and countless others giving their endorsements to help encourage a change in leadership and a fresh new mindset with a can-do spirit. If nothing else it got tons mobilized especially when the RNC decided to stop on through. Rage Against the Machine Vs. Cowboy Troy, now that’s a death match worth seeing!

#5) Digital Music Stores (namely iTunes/eMusic)
Don’t get me wrong, I still go buy a shit ton of the physical albums in the stores. I am the addict in every new release Tuesday at the local (insert big name retailer here). However I still do dig at the mom and pop shops and shop for the good indie stuff at my local store when I can make it out there.

However one thing this year that has aided me this year in deciding whether to make the physical purchase a second time around has been the use of iTunes. Having to purchase a digital album for nine bucks on iTunes has helped reduce my spending plus get tons of extras with the albums I’ve purchased. For example, since I don’t have the advent of cable, there are downloadable videos. So taking the iPhone on the go helps with watching “Blue Magic” by Jay-Z or “Heartless” by Kanye West. Other times, since I purchase a shit-ton of DVD’s as well, it’s good to see the fact that they come with the iTunes Digital Copy to place for future watching when I am on the go helps tremendously as well. This year alone, at least 35-40% of my purchases were made on iTunes or eMusic. We’ll see how that trend continues in 2009.

Background Noise Crew: Official | YouTube

Top Five Musical Moments of 2008 by Holly Muñoz of Aviette

#1) Celebrating the release of Sam Keenan’s debut album, All Of The Dark Colored Markers Went Dry at the Triple Rock Social Club (April 18, 2008)
#2) Celebrating the release of Aviette’s sophomore album, The Way We Met at the Triple Rock Social Club (June 28, 2008)
#3) Celebrating the release of Adam Svec’s debut album, Enemy Swimmer at the Kitty Cat Klub (July 18, 2008)
#4) Celebrating the release of Bill Mike Band’s sophomore album, Truce at The Cedar Cultural Center (November 14, 2008)
#5) Celebrating the release of The Hopefuls sophomore album, Now Playing At The One Seat Theater at First Avenue (December 20, 2008)

Aviette: Official | MySpace | Facebook

Favorite Local Extreme Metal Albums of 2008 by Ryan Buege of Mind Inversion

Høst Høst (2008 album released under band name Hennes Siste Høst)
Black metal band from Fargo, North Dakota with a raucous, progressive, and unpretentious new album of majestic wizardry that straddles the lines between Sonic Youth and Emperor. Expect to hear much more from them in the future.

Ambassador Gun When in Hell
Minneapolis grindcore trio who have carved out their own niche of headbang-inducing, fist-pumping grind’n’roll. A new album released this year is their most impassioned and enjoyable yet.

Gay Witch Abortion Maverick
A hard-fucking-rocking Minneapolis duo with a multi-faceted, amazingly innovative approach to their craft. It’s chaotic punk-infused noise metal that you can’t help but dance to. Think, if Lightning Bolt grew up playing Slayer, AC/DC, King Crimson, AND Bad Brains covers…

For the complete Mind Inversion 2008 review:
Metal Review 2008 (list)
Hip Hop Review 2008 (list)
Indie/Pop Rock Review 2008 (list)

Mind Inversion: Official