best musicks of 2008

The following are the 2008 albums of musicks I fell hard for this year. Shortlist. I give them in some sort of semi-numerical order. Forgive me my trying to put this into words. Listen as you go if you care to.

Released in 2007, but I couldn't leave it alone
Radiohead.In Rainbows
Reckoner
I love this album. Moving on.

12.Jenny Lewis.Acid Tongue
Acid Tongue
Tired and a little achy, but willing to cope and go on. Jenny Lewis seems to open the door on this album, and tell the story. I've never been a big fan of Rilo Kiley; a few songs here and there were all I could handle. This is different. Good different.

11.The Duke Spirit.Neptune
The Step and the Walk
"She has a sexy voice. You say she has stage presence? Wow, she has a really sexy voice." Actual quote from Tony, and not far off. Sets you spinning from the gecko. The get-go. The Greco-Roman. Her ooh's and oo-ooh's turn the table over.

10.MGMT.Oracular Spectacular
Weekend Wars
So spooky and lost teenagery, you'll forget where you are and start a weekend war. Altogether creepy and atmospheric, while maintaining a down-to-earth realistic feel.

9.Notwist.The Devil, You+Me
Gone, Gone, Gone
Oh so tender and moody. Light and dark, wrapped into eachother. Experimental and quietly jabbing you in the brain socket.

8.Hot Chip.Made in the Dark
Ready for the Floor
A dollop of fun. Will shake yourself for you if you were previously unwilling to do so. It is pure and absolute Hot Chip, with all the quirks and blips and wooky-wookyness to make you feel like you are jiving in the homiest, most comfy.

7.Sigur Ros.Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Gobbledigook
Voted by Caitie and I to be the "Most Indie Band Out There, Ever", I'm almost glad I don't understand the words they sing, as I can make up my own meanings. This album is a little different from their others, which works out well for me. It has a more acoustic, and overall quiet feel, though some tracks offer the crazed deep drummings and running themes. Good ambienttttt.

6.The Dodos.Visiter
Eyelids
I found this a little late as well, but it took me and my house by storm. The click-clacking of the drums with the impossibly rich (and sometimes ridiculously fast) brassy, tinny guitar is layered perfectly with the gentle voice. Urgent. These be insane children. Insert dumb extinction joke here.

5.Vampire Weekend.Vampire Weekend
Walcott
Goofy, happy, tender. Ultimately catchy and different than everything. That alone doesn't entitle it to praise, however, there is something to be said about a couple guys making music that doesn't sound like anybody else's. Sticks in the head like a cat to catnip.

4.Ratatat.LP3
Shempi
Anything for this music. What is this music for? People have been known to drop everything and begin riding a horse while listening to Ratatat, and this album has the bruises to prove it. Will drip through every crevice in your brain.

3.Black Keys.Attack & Release
Strange Times
Gritty, coarse, beautiful. Incites rocking out. Energetic to the point of neurotic. This duo is a powerhouse armed. Do not operated heavy machinery while listening, though you'll want to.

2.Bon Iver.For Emma, Forever Ago
Creature Fear
The wintry sadness of this music is enveloping. This guy must have gone through some heartbreak. I could feel it in my bones. The tunes are very minimalistic, which works to our benefit. This album can be seen as a surrender. This album should be listened to as a whole, at least twice in a row. I discovered this one a little late, but it was the perfect timing as winter was setting it.

1.Fleet Foxes.Fleet Foxes
Blue Ridge Mountains
The pinnacle for this album came when we drove up to the cabin, and arrived just as blue ridge mountains began playing. The six of us in the van sat and soaked in the cold mountain air while listening. Robin Pecknold's voice is a clear stream of spring water. I could listen to the Fleet Foxes while reading The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard and get high. Naturally. Tiger Mountain Peasant song is from a different time. As Nate said, must like Fleet Foxes, must have a fleet of foxes. The harmonies are engulfing.

What did you like?

amy remember

when we ate nectarines on the sandstone at upper calf creek falls on the fourth of july?

regret.

regret not finding humberto ak'ab'al's poetry books while i was in guatemala.

early hours

In the high hours of the night
stars get naked
and bathe in the rivers.

Owls desire them,
the little feathers on their heads
stand up.




i wish you could understand the spanish. my translations are inadequate.

http://akabal.com/

this is worth it.

amy's sick of this song because of me.

polyvore.com play

desi showed me this site where you can create collages. fun.

this piece is entitled jugular.

jugular

all my love was down, in a frozen ground

hum-drum.

i miss the summer something awful. i was just thinking about how amy and i spent the fourth of july down on the white sandstone next to the emerald pools at upper calf creek falls. and how we listened to jimi hendrix rip out the star-spangled banner in a mangled mess of electric ax. and how some byu kids showed up, and we took pictures for them. and then, when they left, we made fun of the one wearing byu crocs. i make fun of what i don't understand.

i can't complain about the weather. it's been nice. mild november. it's been mild enough that we can go out and watch the kids who dress up medievally in their capes and chainmail and manufacture large jousts and thwackers (i don't know the term for long stick thing used to hit the enemy) out of large-gauge pvc pipes and old foam mattresses hit eachother with said weapons. and eat scones. scones and drones. i make fun of what i don't understand.

we've missed them the past two thursdays, which are flying like hotcakes. weeks are. work is busy, and enjoyable, and time passes like a swift bunny. the children are funny as funny be.

boy-my family is from czechoslovakia.
other boy-oh, czechoslovakia. that's puerto rico, right?

boy-who are the strokes?
other boy-that's why they're called the strokes, cause nobody knows them.

boy-blah blah, blahblablah, VIVA LA KFC!

and then there's the boy that refuses to say "hey" like a normal human. he lets it flow like an r&b singer. things like that don't translate well over bloghood.

tell me if this is weird. yesterday i found myself standing in front of my bookshelf staring at my books. i had just finished the history of love by nicole krauss, which enrapt me greatly, and was looking for The Next Good Thing. as i scanned the shelf i saw the david sedaris book that i haven't read yet, me talk pretty one day. i picked it up and put it in my bag. i walked out to the little fat boy, turned the ignition, and guess whose unmistakable voice is speaking loud and clear on 90.1 fm npr. that's right. david sedaris. i will now start believing in signs and other wonders.

in other news, the weather lends itself to a good album full of good and tender music. bon iver's for emma, forever ago is just just just.

and here is a picture of baby owl chicks sitting in a bucket.

albrecht durer etches the owl.

i love this owlet.

a foto for caitie.

i feel compelled to do this, because of caitie cruel. fourth foto from fourth album, and explain it.



this is the fourth picture from my fourth iphoto album:

sunrise over lake peten itza near flores, guatemala.
wires, pole, shrub, 9 hour 7 hour bus ride, tikal in the future.
love.


i tag tambo, army nelson, cami h. if you care to?!



p.s. and caitie, i loved that santi cat. and he loved my hand flesh, what.

rest in peace.

elliott smith died five years ago today.

someone found the future as a statue in a fountain
at attention, looking backward in a pool of water
wishes with a blue songbird on his shoulder
who keeps singing over everything
everything means nothing to me
everything means nothing to me
everything means nothing to me
i picked up the song and found my picture in the paper
the reflection in the water showed an iron man still trying to salute
people from a time when he was everything he's supposed to be
everything means nothing to me
everything means nothing to me
everything means nothing to me
everything means nothing to me

just another sad commentary on the e-con-oh-my!

http://brokershandsontheirfacesblog.tumblr.com/

by cholla

cholla is a horse, and he created these paintings.


href="http://www.caladangallery.com/v2/thumbnails.php?album=27">


href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/16/horse.painting.exhibit.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories">

true. TRUE!

i'm all about bright colors.









and this guy:




what would it take to make me into that for halloween?




and i haven't blogged about austin (and the austin city limits music festival) because it has put me in a severe funk that can only be cured by moving there.







however i am doubly doubly doubly excited to relive a bit of the fest by seeing the fleet foxes on the 16th! i just got my ticket in the mail!








and this is an owl:


{_____}
(o)v(o)
()www()
--x-x--

missing you.

http://thatotherpaper.com/features/overheard_in_austin

product placement

harvey bringing in the bucks.

let's hear it for the carpool lane.

nude by radiohead performed by machines.

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

"dame mas gasolina"

daddy yankee's words have never rung truer.

9>1>1>emergency

dispatch: what is your address and emergency?

amy: the address is bridal veil falls! the mountain is on fire!

(i don't know what dispatch said at this point)

amy: oh, ok. just making sure.













or something to that effect. drama is funny.

why so serious?

a few post-dark knight comments:

why so serious?

the mayor was wearing eyeshadow.

summer is my boyfriend.

mer.

i get so tired of myself sometimes.

a haute voix

moi: je me peux voir. je me peux voir en les filmes, le cine. tu me peut voir?

elle: je . . . te . . . peux . . . voir.

i forgot to post this for comparison.

hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahhahahaha!!!

i have heard recently that i look like:

the bionic woman. doubtful. thanks training dude (i forgot your name, sorry).


idina menzel. i didn't know who that was when the person told me i looked like her.


she is also, apparently, the wicked witch of the west. elphaba? am i wicked? thanks jeff.


the genetically mutated fish from the simpsons. thanks moe.


a tall drink of water. no thanks, student who resembles purple grimace from mcdonalds.




i don't believe in opinions. as a rule.

qu'est-ce que c'est?

fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa

mayonnaise?!

we had chocolate cake at macaroni grill. i looked up the recipe. who knew it had mayonnaise?

oh indy!

them bones, them bones.

the snow disappeared and left behind:

a dead pile of deer complete with fur and various extremities
a deer skull (perhaps from dead deer)
a deer vertebral column, rib cage and skull (with mandibles strewn about)

and a waterfall.

i was happy today

because stella ate a goldfish cracker.

the ecology.

the best thing i've done lately was buy a marvin gaye number ones album.

whoa, mercy mercy me
ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
where did all the blue skies go?

banksy.

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

with a thanksy to amy.

nos hemos graduado!

view if you like.

fears.

in summary.

still.

i enjoy things.

and i would write about them.

today made itself.

when i saw a 60-something grayed short chubby man trying on strappy women's shoes at d.i.

and again and again by the bird and the bee was playing.

spring!

to spring!

white

february 17, 2008 diamond fork, utah

sleep paralysis or what the huh?

the awesomestweirdest thing happened to me last night. i was having a very bright, intense, and interesting dream (which i can't remember now, dadnabit, all i remember is the intense color and the intensity) when i quasi woke up, but i knew i was hallucinating because i was awake but i could see bright colors and sunshine (in the middle of the night). anyhow, that's not the weird part. the weird part was when i tried to move my mouth and found that my mouth was completely clenched, tighter than i have ever felt, but not only that, i couldn't move my cheeks, especially on the right side. it felt like there was a block of concrete in my face, or my face was a rock. i tried moving my mouth and cheeks, but they stayed rock solid. i was panicked and worried but still in this middle state between sleep and wake, and i felt pretty helpless. the colors were there, but then i fell asleep again, i guess.

anybody experienced this or heard of it? it was creeptastic.

a good day to be born.

thanks, dudes.




daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang abe!

february 12, 1809

beauty.

to make up for the ugliness of that last post, i show you this:


photo by martin amm


please and also look at this link because the fotos are lovely wondermazing.

as per caitie's request.

reasons why amy is my hero

she just stood her ground in a classic battle of territory, and came off conquerer.

also, the sudoku during church.

and pizookie.

and she made me say "bum muscle rucker."

also, anonymously:

person a: do i look like a librarian?

person b: no. (emphatically) you look like a sexytarian.

either way by wilco

Maybe the sun will shine today
The clouds will blow away
Maybe I won’t feel so afraid
I will try to understand
Either way

Maybe you still love me
Maybe you don’t
Either you will or you won’t
Maybe you just need some time alone
I will try to understand
Everything has its plan
Either way
I’m gonna stay
Right for you

Maybe the sun will shine today
The clouds will roll away
Maybe I won’t be so afraid
I will understand everything has its plan
Either way

killer willard

never underestimate the wild kingdom.

awe and fear inspiring.

this will not disappoint you. turn the volume up, let it load, and full-size it.

you have to click on the link because the embedding option has been disabled for this video.

tell me your favorite part.

resemblances

this dude in my training group at work looked at me from across the cafeteria table and told me i look like the bionic woman.





that's cool, i guess.

i like it how it's always been

go progress chrome
they paint the moon today
some brand new future color
go progress chrome
i aim to shoot the scaffolds
i like it how it's always been
go progress chrome
nocturnal glare confusion
the night owl and i will hunt the contractor
go progress chrome
i won't be at your unveiling
i like it how its always been

grandaddy.

build a bridge.

magnanimatastic.

everything has a line a design a shape a form a thickness a sickness.

that's a line from a song you never heard.

shout out to heather: you are one of my favorite rabbits in the world! the universe!

i knew it. dharma.

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Genius Despot. Where You Lived: Argentina. How You Died: Consumption.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

i forgot to tell you, amy

i had a dream that mary j. blige's middle initial was k.

this one's for hillo