Best Music Of 2008

hahahah Sorry about that John-E (or maybe JohnE 5)(sorry but I named you like a bot since you mentioned it), didn't mean to offend with my listening habits. I have actually been a fan of the P Word for a couple years and it has allowed to to hear some cool new artists that I may never have heard. Plus I am a crackhead and I like the SKIP feature. LOL

I have to say that after listening for a weekend, you have a huge range of music. Eclectic indeed. I was on my laptop and just using media player but I will have to try it on my comp with iTunes. I just don't like using media player. It makes me feel dirty.

I have no idea about who I am listening to 4/5 of the time. And is that your voice in the little Dynamic Range Radio.CA blurb? Just wondering.

And thanks for blanking MIA out of your awards. I sometimes think that I am the only person who thinks she is crap and raps like she has a mouth shot full of novacaine.

NSpan, you are totally correct in your post, and I do probably suffer a little of nostalgia. I can't help it, most of my favourite music is over 20 years old and I obviously see this as a brighter time for musicians, compared to the soul crunching corporate giants of today. Of course artists were stuck in long contracts, but I do feel a band was offered more time to refine their sound, where as if a band has only a semi successful follow up to a massive album, they are dropped quicker than an anvil from a great height. How many bands of recent time can we name who only released one decent album before being dropped, I can probably list a good few hundred. I'm not saying this didn't happen years ago, but I do think it is more prevalent these days.

The rest of your post was spot on, people do need to try harder to find some decent stuff, and that's part of the fun. And I am dead sure that a lot of us on here have damn good taste. I'll check out a couple of songs from pretty much any band a lot of you mention on here, we have such varying tastes and come from a variety of backgrounds that there is a much bigger scope for decent music.

I don't keep track of any of today's musicians (other than Weird Al Yankovic) because they are usually cookie-cutter material that sing the same music and 96% of them disappear within two years anyway. However if things work with that girl I've been telling you about, my opinions may change somewhat.

Meanwhile, it sounds like Surfer has more records than the KGB.

Okay, I said I'd get back with some of my favourite albums of 2008, well here is a list, sorry it's a little long, I just looked through my collection and liked a lot of these:

Shihad - Beautiful Machine
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Shugo Tokumaru - Exit
Fucked Up - Chemistry Of Common Life
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Portishead - Third
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Deerhunter - Microcastle
The Black Keys - Attack And Release
The Walkmen - You And Me
Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Larkin Grimm - Parplar
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Malcolm Middleton - Slight Of Heart
The Bug - London Zoo
The Dears - Missiles
The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
Nada Surf - Lucky
Los Campesino - Hold On There, Youngster
Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords
The Maybes? - Promise
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Dawn Chorus - The Big Adventure
The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst

silversurfer19 wrote:The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

i know we've probably covered this, but fans of the Black Angels should also check out anything by:
Clinic
The Warlocks
Dead Meadow
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Black Mountain
Pink Mountaintops
Blood Meridian
BRMC

Just to interject... Just because you aren't finding albums that have an overarching theme or are specifically concept albums, doesn't mean they aren't there. Kids these days (yes, I said it and I'm no ones grandparent) don't have the attention span to make any concept albums or anything with the remotest meaning beyond "I wanna have sex with somebody" be a hit in the mainstream, its also easy to produce and sell so we get bombarded with it. There is plenty of awesome conceptual stuff out there I've linked alot of stuff I like before that fits in there, a local band Ludo does alot of silly stuff but one of their albums was a rock opera which I implored everyone to check out, really amazing stuff. Then you have bands who are consistently throwing out thematic or concept albums like Coheed and Cambria (though not always pleasant on my ears), Muse, Mars Volta, MCR (quit giving them crap people, Gerard's an artistic genius!), Opeth, Dream Theatre.. And are all freaking brilliant but they tend to be judged without being heard in general.

NSpan wrote:

silversurfer19 wrote:The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

i know we've probably covered this, but fans of the Black Angels should also check out anything by:
Clinic
The Warlocks
Dead Meadow
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Black Mountain
Pink Mountaintops
Blood Meridian
BRMC

Haven't listened to Clinic in a long time. Don't know Dead Meadow, will check them out. All the other bands I have all their albums and enjoy them very much.

silversurfer19 wrote:Don't know Dead Meadow, will check them out.

unlike a few of the bands mentioned, they're a bit more sabbath than velvet underground--but they fit right in nonetheless

silversurfer19 wrote:Nada Surf - Lucky
Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords

i totally forgot that Lucky came out in 08... i don't know if i can make room for it on my top albums list (i limited myself to 10), but it's definitely a contender.. these guys keep coming to austin, and i keep missing them! next time, i'll catch em... (ps. after checking their official site for tour dates, i see they have a limited edition vinyl box set that you might be interested in)..

also, is is just me--or is the new season of Conchords slightly sub-par?? (so far, at least..) i think Tenacious D did it right by doing a single (short) season, and eventually following it up with a movie.. i think these kiwis might already be running out of steam, sadly

Donte77 wrote:hahahah Sorry about that John-E (or maybe JohnE 5)(sorry but I named you like a bot since you mentioned it), didn't mean to offend with my listening habits. I have actually been a fan of the P Word for a couple years and it has allowed to to hear some cool new artists that I may never have heard. Plus I am a crackhead and I like the SKIP feature. LOL

I only ever had the one-hour trial with P****** and I wasn't impressed. It asked me to pick my favourite band as a starting point, then it played me one of the worst songs they've ever done, and one which wasn't representative of their sound, and it went downhill from there. It's an interesting concept, but a computer will never be able to replace the human touch of a DJ, in my humble and obviously biased opinion.

I have to say that after listening for a weekend, you have a huge range of music. Eclectic indeed. I was on my laptop and just using media player but I will have to try it on my comp with iTunes. I just don't like using media player. It makes me feel dirty.

I have no idea about who I am listening to 4/5 of the time. And is that your voice in the little Dynamic Range Radio.CA blurb? Just wondering.

Yup, that's me. Until I can justify hiring a professional, my voice will have to do. (It still makes me cringe sometimes when I hear it on air.

I gotta say I'm with Donte on the topic of "P". The web page and interface are amazingly good, I have mountains of information at my fingertips and can buy music if I hear something I like right there, so its not just internet radio, closer to IMDb for the music lover. I too require a skip function as well, it may play a song I like and have given the thumbs up, but I just don't wanna hear it at the current moment, SKIP'd!

It also is somewhat important that I can't actually connect to your station-thinger from work, which is my primary location of use

Also, I do love the actual website, its pretty reminds me quite a bit of my best friend who is a web designer, very simplistic and sleek.

becs wrote:I gotta say I'm with Donte on the topic of "P". The web page and interface are amazingly good, I have mountains of information at my fingertips and can buy music if I hear something I like right there, so its not just internet radio, closer to IMDb for the music lover. I too require a skip function as well, it may play a song I like and have given the thumbs up, but I just don't wanna hear it at the current moment, SKIP'd!

It could be a lot better now than it was back then, but I'm Canadian so I have no idea because they've blocked us Canucks from using it because of the royalty battle in the US. I think all non-US IP addresses are blocked as well, but I could be wrong.

I'm not knocking Pandora because anything that gets more people listening to streaming audio online is good for us little guys in the long run.

It also is somewhat important that I can't actually connect to your station-thinger from work, which is my primary location of use

What are you trying to use to connect?

Also, I do love the actual website, its pretty reminds me quite a bit of my best friend who is a web designer, very simplistic and sleek.

Thanks. I like sites that are simple and sleek too.

physical record sales have declined a bit

biggest understatement of the year so far

johnErle wrote:
It could be a lot better now than it was back then, but I'm Canadian so I have no idea because they've blocked us Canucks from using it because of the royalty battle in the US. I think all non-US IP addresses are blocked as well, but I could be wrong.

I'm not knocking Pandora because anything that gets more people listening to streaming audio online is good for us little guys in the long run.

I wasn't aware of that but it makes sense. Non-US customers are also unable to use the instant watch feature of Netflix types sites also. (I was going to let SS use my hours to watch a few movies on my account but it would not allow it)

I am curious as to how your site plays music so I have a few questions if you don't mind. Do you program a days worth or a specific rotation or are you sitting there 24/7 playing songs (I know it isn't that one)? How do you pick music (is this stuff you own or can you play any song you like)? Is there a reason that we can only see song titles and artists in your "Recently Played" list after the song is over or was that a personal choice? Why does media player not show a song and artist but it shows in iTunes?

Sorry for the deluge and if this isn't thread acceptable feel free to PM or email me answers if you want to answer.

So because I think Pandora is such a marvel of UI design, I actually uploaded some screenshots. I combined several in the top screen so that I could show multiple menus in one shot. I didn't include the artist/song portions, you can essentially click the artist name anywhere and get a detailed bio, discography, similar artists, and the option to start a station with them. From the discography or any song you might look up you can also play a clip or generate a station.
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img145/2144/pandorani0.jpg

Donte77 wrote:

I am curious as to how your site plays music so I have a few questions if you don't mind. Do you program a days worth or a specific rotation or are you sitting there 24/7 playing songs (I know it isn't that one)?

Because I like to build sets around themes and make sure everything flows well, it's all pre-programmed. My playlist is currently just under a week long, and I'm constantly adding to it. It's like a really long mixtape that's constantly evolving.

How do you pick music (is this stuff you own or can you play any song you like)?

I play what I like, but if you're asking about the legalities that's too complicated to get into here. Let's say it's a grey area.

Is there a reason that we can only see song titles and artists in your "Recently Played" list after the song is over or was that a personal choice?

It's because I'm not smart enough to program anything better than what I'm currently using.

Why does media player not show a song and artist but it shows in iTunes?

Because Windows Media Player sucks. I thought everyone knew that.

johnErle wrote: Because I like to build sets around themes and make sure everything flows well, it's all pre-programmed. My playlist is currently just under a week long, and I'm constantly adding to it. It's like a really long mixtape that's constantly evolving.

Cool, that makes sense. I haven't listened enough to hear any dupes yet so I wasn't sure how it was running.

I play what I like, but if you're asking about the legalities that's too complicated to get into here. Let's say it's a grey area.

I understand completely. No need for a gigantic answer really. Just was curious about it.

It's because I'm not smart enough to program anything better than what I'm currently using.

Great answer. LOL

Because Windows Media Player sucks. I thought everyone knew that.

Best answer EVER!!!

John, I remember the issue of Spin you referenced on your site. I remember reading it and thinking "finally these guys are getting the recognition they deserve." I hope that since you have gone on to pick up their older material, as I think most of it is better than New Wave. I think New Wave kinda drops off sharply after 5 songs. It starts out awesome, but I'm not too into the Ocean and Animal, as you seem to be. I hope you get the privilege of seeing them live, if you haven't already.

Very well said becs. you are 100% correct most kids that i go to school with are almost exactly like that. Music wise i would say my school is divided into 3 groups. Rap[which is the overwhelming majority] Metal[like myself] and Ska[which i hate with a burning passion and is much smaller group than the previous 2]. Bands with concepts really get overlooked bands like Coheed and Cambria,Mastodon,Dream Theater,Job For A Cowboy and many others. They write great concepts and they get terribley overlooked because there not pumping out shit tracks like "Womanizer" "Swagga Like Us" "Low" or many of the countless other crap songs that people in my fucking school go nuts over. It is pretty annoying. I mean dont get wrong i do dig rap but not the bull shit that gets all the airplay that is complete and utter trash.

brockman81 wrote:

physical record sales have declined a bit

biggest understatement of the year so far

haha, okay.. you got me there.. BUT the severity of the situation has been greatly exaggerated by the mammoth-sized (and dinosaur-minded) major labels.. they might be in the throes of a long, slow, and painful death--but smaller labels and independent artists are actually seeing GROWTH.. the world's smallest fiddle may be playing for EMI and Sony Music, meanwhile the indie biz is finally getting a fair shot at the market.. digital sales have skyrocketed, new avenues for sales have opened up (ie. ringtones), and, heck, even VINYL sales are on the rise..

the music industry as we've known it won't be around much longer, but our society is as immersed in music as ever before.. so cry me a river for the corporate giants who didn't want to compromise their monopoly and are now suffering for having resisted modern technology

NSpan wrote:Also, is is just me--or is the new season of Conchords slightly sub-par?? (so far, at least..) i think Tenacious D did it right by doing a single (short) season, and eventually following it up with a movie.. i think these kiwis might already be running out of steam, sadly

Is the new series out over there already? How come the country these guys come from doesn't get this program first. I've been wanting to see some new material for ages. There is only so much repeating of Business Time you can do... Hopefully it is better than your first impressions.

Ska fucking rocks tranny. What's wrong with some fun music with a horn section. I can't get enough of it lately.

geezer9687 wrote:Ska fucking rocks tranny. What's wrong with some fun music with a horn section. I can't get enough of it lately.

You can have my share of it too then Geezer, *lol* The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were all it took for me to swear off Ska music forever.

Fun music with a horn section? I'll take Big Band and Swing instead!

Tranny, listen to Madness and "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" by Pigbag.

Here's a shortcut, but I'd say this is more disco-punk or punk-funk than Ska. On the issue of it being likeable fun music with a horn section, I concede: