Monday, December 22, 2008

Angus' music picks for 2008

The best two releases of the year hands down and by a country mile are:

"Street Horrsing" by F**k Buttons and "Nouns" by No Age. They are both just brilliant.


A Step below but still at least 7 kinds of awesome are:

"Rip it Off" by Times New Viking
"Motion to Rejoin" by Brightblack Morning Light
"Free Drugs" by Harlem

Also worthwhile are these releases by established groups that, while not up to their very best, are still excellent:

"The Devil, You & Me" by the Notwist
"Heretic Pride" by the Mountain Goats
"At Mount Zoomer" by Wolf Parade

Under the category of guilty pleasure comes:

"Youth Novels" by Lykki Li. This is just sensational pop music

Under the category of acquired taste:

"For Emma Forever Ago" by Bon Iver
"Love is Overtaking Me" by the late, great Arthur Russell

Ooops, I guess there are 11 items in my top 10!!

Finally under the heading "not if you were the last mp3 on earth" (i.e overrated trash):

TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes.

Yes, I said it and I meant it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having seen 2 of your top ~10 bands in concert (Mountain Goats and Wolf Parade) and read about 2 more on Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks of 2007 (No Age and Times New Viking), let me assure you that Vampire Weekend, including that particular track, is the real deal. Just because they are very popular doesn't mean they aren't a good time.

Kevin Munger

mdesus said...

ahhh common mistake. You've confused weird and vaguely innovative (see fuck buttons) with good.

Michael said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

Indeed; play from your fucking heart :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkA6zugNMQ

Angus said...

Elder Younger Munger: Thanks for your comment and merry christmas to you!

I don't deny that VW could be a good time, but fundamentally they are poseurs and extremely irritating to old Dr. Angus.

John Darnielle lives in Durham I think which is very good for you!

Did you like Wolf Parade? Spencer Krug is the bomb. I like Sunset Rubdown even better (all Spencer all the time).

Anonymous said...

"Old Dr. Angus."

That must explain it.

Anonymous said...

I know they haven't put out a cd in a couple years, but what do you think of Starlight Mints? I hear they're from your area Angus.

Angus said...

Hi Austin: they are ok. My preferred Okie bands are Flaming Lips and the Evangelicals. Mints do run a cool club in Norman called The Opolis which puts on a bunch of good shows (Shins, Sunset Rubdown, many others)