I spent the year 2008 teaching middle school band, auditioning for graduate schools, and starting my Masters (lots of practicing in between all of that). My ears were so tired, I can't even tell you. Still, I think by now I've caught up enough on this year's musical happenings to weigh in, as long as I remind myself that there's no way I could have heard everything that good bloggers are hearing, considering that I don't get paid to do this, I have to spend hours each day making dying cow noises with a big piece of silver-plated brass, etc etc.
Anyways, without further ado...
INDIE IN '08, part one:
THE YEAR I COULD HAVE GOTTEN MY GROOVE ON (IF I WANTED TO)
Motley crew (not the band, stupid), party of four.
I think I'll always be slightly perplexed by just how much dance music I dug in 2008, but I won't be confused on how it got there. When James Murphy proclaimed "I will make minimalist dance music, and geeks everywhere will rejoice", it seemed to open the doors to a revival of sorts, perhaps not lead but quietly eclipsed by Hercules and Love Affair, pictured above. In the beautifully written and clumsily paraphrased words of the mighty P4k Media, HaLA don't just represent the past glory of dance music; rather, they seem to have adjusted it to better fit the sleeker, sexier body of their own three-headed monster. On either side, the unique vocals of Antony and the colossal figure of Nomi need not work hard to heighten the appeal of Andrew Butler's immaculate textures and landscapes. People who know me relatively well (especially Jamie) are probably shocked at just how much this record appeals to to me, but what can I say, in my head I get a MEAN groove on.
I thoroughly enjoyed records by electronic acts of all shapes and sizes, from the dabbling in drum machines (The Kills) to full-blown noise (Fuck Buttons). For me, the "are they a band or are they one man and electronics?" sound I heard any time I listened to Cut Copy's record In Ghost Colours was right up my alley. The bees' knees, I say. To me, dance music is characteristically positive in almost every regard, and I can't think of any other record (including the newest The Hold Steady, even with the title) that oozed with a hip and sunny feeling like this one. I think I need that right now. I think the world needs that right now.
So, although most of these titles are bound to show up on my 20 favorites form 2008 (coming soon), here is a short list of tunes that I danced to in my head this year:
FIVE BREADSTICKS (and sommathat marinara sauce, son)
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
FOUR AND A HALF BREADSTICKS
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
FOUR BREADSTICKS
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Passion Pit - Chunk of Change EP
THREE AND A HALF BREADSTICKS
Air France - No Way Down EP
Lindstrom - Where I Go You Go Too
Coming next: the first half of my 20 favorite records from 2008. I know SOMEONE out there cares.
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