the year that was

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Another great year for music and another difficult one to whittle down a huge list of albums that came out and try and make a top ten , my list was in the Burroughs stage (chicken scrawl on scraps of paper) for quite some time I even make a graph (above) but as you can see i kinda got distracted one track mind and all.

As with last year my list is no order apart from alphabetized

Department of Eagles - In ear park
Album always makes me think of a log cabin with a roaring fire , love the sound of the album if you have not checked it out do so.
Department of Eagles - Around the Bay
Buy it|Myspace

Down I Go - Tyrant
sounds like Henry VIII’s syphilitic ulcers bursting, Ivan the Terrible beating his pregnant daughter in law and causing her to miscarry, Turkmenbashi’s 12 metre high gold statue of himself rotating to face the sun, Israel growing at the expense of others, mass graves being filled with murdered Cambodians, Romanians queueing for bread. Great record from the lads from London, a treat for the mind and the ears.
Down I Go - Saparmurat Miyazov
Buy it|Myspace

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
beautifully messy coherent package
Flying Lotus - Testament (feat Gonja Sufi)
Buy it|Myspace

Grouper - Dragging a dead deer up a hill
this album just washes waves of dream-pop over your soul.
Grouper - Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted in the Evening Breeze)
Buy it|Myspace

Krallice - Krallice
Not gonna be everyone's cup of tea this one,black metal quartet fronted by Mick Barr and Colin Marston, progressive as it is heavy just epic.
Krallice - Wretched Wisdom
Buy it|Myspace

Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That
Second year in a row making my top ten list for the future Mrs ctrl/alt/delete (oh yes she will be mine) a much more concentrated album then her first, and the odd pop hook thrown in too for good measure.
Marnie Stern - The Crippled Jazzer
Buy it|Myspace

Restiform Bodies - Tv loves you back
This album got lodged in my brain since i heard it amazing , music and lyrics in one mindfuck of a package
Restiform Bodies - Opulent soul
Buy it|Myspace

Secret Chiefs 3 - Xaphan
the music is more song-based and accessible than its predecessors, a smorgesboard of sounds including but not limited to surf rock, Persian, Arabic, Indian, death metal, film music, electronic music
Secret Chiefs 3 - Kemuel
Buy it|Myspace

Starfucker - Starfucker
A jovial and upbeat album that got me through many a morning
Starfucker - Rawnald Gregory Erickson The Second
Buy it|Myspace

Why? - Alopecia
How could this not be on my list, like a musical Woody Allen self deprecating rant ,a growth music for the band in sound and scope and the album gather then many a new fan and enabled them to play two shows in Dublin.
Why? - Fatalist Palmistry
Buy it|Myspace

Ones that just barely didnt make the list:
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blues, Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You, Adebisi Shank - "This is the album of a band called Adebisi Shank", Theses Arms Are Snakes - Tail Swallower and Dove, Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins - Clutch of the Tiger, Sbach - Sbach, The Mae Shi - Hllyh, Earth - the bees made honey in the lion's skull, No age - Nouns, Gang Gang Dance -Saints Dymphna, Fuck Buttons - Street Horrsing, Cloud Cult - Feel good Ghosts....., Racebannon - Acid or Blood, Make Believe - Going to the bone church, Harvey Milk - "life.....the best game in town", John Zorn - the dreamers

top 3 E.P of 2008

Past Lives - Strange Symmetry
Maps and Atlases - You and me and the mountains
Animal Collective - Water curses

Albums Im looking forward to in 2009
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Merriweather Post Pavillion (who isnt)
GOBLIN COCK - Come With Me If You Want To Live (Lord Phallus returns)
DIRTY PROJECTORS - tba
PAST LIVES - tba
DAN DEACON - Bromst (a more mature sound from Mr Deacon by all accounts)
BATS - tba
MASTODON - Crack The Skye
LIGHTNING BOLT - tba
ZOMBI - Spirit Animal


IN BETWEEN TWO FERNS

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John Hamm (him off Mad Men) interviewed by Zach Galifianakis (all round funny chap) and asks the questions you want asked.

Maroon 5 - If I Never See Your Face Again

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Renunciation

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Secret Chiefs 3 performing Renunciation live at Last.fm/Presents at Cargo in London

Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes

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Live video of Animal Collective playing at Coachella this year. song used to be called "Bearhug" but has since been renamed "Summertime Clothes" and i think will be on merriweather post pavilion in the new year (cant wait).

This Town Needs Guns - Panda

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video for 'Panda', the first single taken from This Town Needs Guns debut album, 'Animals', released via Big Scary Monsters Records out now.



a little bird tells me theses guys will on our shores in Feb not to be missed.

One Line...

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Made by DavetheChimp he had this to say about his work "when I make graffiti in the street I don't write my name.
I developed a way to draw characters with one line, as a kind of tag that is a character and not a name.
I decided to make a stop-motion animation piece of these "tags" as a way to show the movement of them being drawn.
each frame was hand painted on a large sheet of paper, taped to my flatmate's bedroom wall.
the final animation was shown at my solo show ("Searching For The Perfect Line") at Vicious Gallery in Hamburg, alongside the paper the animation was painted on.
(photos of the show at http://www.davethechimp.co.uk)"

The music was created by his friend David Gauffin for the online presentation of the piece.