novak's albums of 2008

i know i know, it's march. we're over 60 days into 2009. but you know, who doesn't love meaningless, subjective lists? also, i don't believe that there was enough attention paid to the fact that 2008 was an utterly useless year in terms of new musical output. remember the good not-so-old days when the strokes made 'indie rock'
'cool' and when yeah yeah yeahs introduced the baddest woman in rock to the world or when kings of leon were still human beings and not the stadium rocking, u2 channeling androids they are now? now we just have artists like MGMT wowing the world and paving the way for musical abortions like empire of the sun.

it's a bad sign that the majority of the albums i downloaded (or 'stole' if you will) in 2008 were previously released albums that i had miss when they were originally released (silversun pickups, dappled cities, electrelane, devo). so i did in fact discover a lot of great music in 2008 that was completely new to me, but they weren't actually released in that rather pitiful year.

nevertheless, there were still some rough gems in the mix last year. granted there are quite a few 2008 albums that i haven't gotten around to properly listening to and that have gotten positive reviews (friendly fires, portishead, of montreal...). so if there is a glaring omission from this list, then that's probably the reason. either that, or you're wrong and i'm right. so here you go...

X. MODERN GUILT - Beck

i've never been a massive beck fan, he's one of those artists that was a little before my time, and thus had way too much back catalogue to go through by the time i started liking this kind of music. fortunately for me, he's still releasing new, interesting material. with the addition of danger mouse as producer, beck has created a really solid LP.

Modern Guilt - Beck

IX. CRYSTAL CASTLES - Crystal Castles

ok. about a year ago i was always the one going "oh my god, shut up about crystal castles already. it's all the same sound, it's too intense for me, bla bla bla. and while i somewhat still stand by what i would've ranted on and on about (their EP was just too crazy for me), the release of their debut album has put me in my place. there is a really good mix of the aforementioned crazy up-tempo songs and less intense tracks such as 'vanished' and 'crimewave'.

Courtship Dating - Crystal Castles

VIII. LITTLE JOY - Little Joy

i love the strokes. i don't care what anyone says, i love 'em. so usually i would have a problem with so many strokes 'side projects' releasing material, as it would further delay the fruition of the strokes 4th LP. BUT, little joy make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. had someone handed me a cd and told me "hey listen to this, it's a couple of dudes and a chick singing some folky tunes with a brazilian flavour." i would have responded with a wholehearted 'meh'. but these are some of the sweetest songs i've heard in a while. simple maybe, but i dare to try to listen to this without feeling a little bit better about the world afterwards.

No One's Better Sake - Little Joy

VII. DEAR SCIENCE - TV On The Radio

yes, we've all heard it. we all love it. it's the greatest album ever. not really. but it is indeed really good. i still prefer 'return to cookie mountain' and even their first LP, but this definitely stands up alongside of the other TVOTR efforts. but i swear if i ever hear 'family tree' played at a party or event, i will do unspeakable things. it's a slow song, i'm not going to dance to it.

Dancing Choose (Live on Jools) - TV On The Radio

VI. NIGHTS OUT - Metronomy

just another indie dance album filled with songs about girls. luckily enough, these are some of the catchiest songs ever heard. they will probably go the way of klaxons, but gosh darn are those songs fun.

A Thing For Me - Metronomy

V. ANTIDOTES - Foals

math rock. i still don't know what that means. all i know is i like it.

Balloons (Live on Jools) - Foals

IV. ELEPHANT SHELL - Tokyo Police Club

corny, juvenile, lame. all words i have heard being used to describe tokyo police club. while there is a hint of youthful corniness to their songs, i can still take it seriously, and love it. the album is like 5 or 6 minutes long. each song is a 2 minute bundle of energy, packed with punky poppy goodness.

Your English Is Good - Tokyo Police Club

III. FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO - Bon Iver

come on bon iverrr just last the yearrrr. i have a feeling mr. justin vernon will get very old, very fast. you can see the signs of monotony in his recent EP. it's fine, it's just that his sound is very distinct and low key, and it's hard to keep that sounding fresh instead of 'same old'-ey after a couple of releases. having said that. this album is brilliant. i cried, there i said it.

Flume (Concert a Emporter) - Bon Iver
For Emma (Concert a Emporter) - Bon Iver

II. MERCY ARMS - Mercy Arms

again, me about two years ago: "i really don't get mercy arms. they're so self indulgent and kind of boring." i do it all the time. i didn't even really dig the album when it was first released. but i have recently learned how to give something another go despite not grabbing me after first play. and now my itunes most played list contains most songs from this album.

Kilby (MTV Lair) - Mercy Arms
Half Right - Mercy Arms

I. BLACK FANTASY CHANNEL - Late Of The Pier

i wanna be your friiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend ooohh yeaaaaah.
had LOTP only put the last minute or so of the track 'focker' on a cd and released that as their debut album, i would still have it on the top of this list. it is just pure electronic cheesy goodness. i am the worst dancer in the world, but i'm freaking michael jackson when these songs are playing. well, i feel like MJ. they're just plain fun tunes. and you would probably expect these songs to get old quickly, just like the electro indie songs on klaxons 'myths of a near future'. but they still haven't ceased to excite me. perhaps its the omission of klaxons persistent falsetto.

Bathroom Gurgle - Late Of The Pier
The Bears Are Coming (Live BBC) - Late Of The Pier
Focker (Boys Noize Terror Remix) - Late Of The Pier

Honorable Mentions:
At Mount Zoomer - Wolf Parade
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Made In The Dark - Hot Chip
Microcastle - Deerhunter
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Oracular Spectacular - MGMT
Surfing - Megapuss
Postcards - Sparkadia

taking it a bit further. (or too far?)

just to take Novak's initial opinion on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new album It's Blitz! a little bit further for the sake of pure fun (and boredom) and as a means of facilitating thought from you the (3 or so) readers, I have to say that I for one welcome the fresh sound of electro synths and funky dance beats the trio are pumping out on this fine new record. I am not the biggest Yeah Yeah Yeahs' fan there is (don't get me wrong I do like them, but I've found that I tend to like a select few tracks from each record rather than the effort as a whole) but I have to say that from start to finish, this record is more cohesive, feeling more like a seamless collection of songs than their previous efforts. I'm not saying these songs are better than say, "Gold Lion" or "Maps" etc. (that is still to be determined), i'm just saying that as a whole it's a better listen. Maybe you can say "shut up derek, you have no idea what you're talking about, their previous stuff is classic blah blah fuckin' green to white technology." but from a non-fanboy/girl perspective, I almost prefer the new sound. I suppose thats a good thing for a band releasing their third LP when they could have so easily gone down the path of countless others and released the same old shit packaged differently that only the hardcore fanatics would fall for. Well, Bravo.

Alas, its arguable that "Zero" isn't the strongest track to represent as first single, but then again, who cares when the rest of the album delivers.

opinions?

--end transmission--

sticking it to the music man.

i figure if i can manage to see most of the bands i like live, and pay $30-$100 for a ticket to see said bands, then i have made up for the thousands of albums i have 'stolen' from the interwebs. i haven't bought a cd in years, and i don't think i'll ever buy one again. i don't see how paying $20 for an album, 2 cents of which will go to the actual band, is any more just than downloading it. anyway, that's not a new opinion on the subject by any means. this person has some great points though. --> http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-kill-the-music-industry-090227/

speaking of which, i downloaded the leaked yeah yeah yeahs LP called "It's Blitz!" i was pretty shocked at how dance-ey some of the songs sound, namely the first single "Zero". at first i was almost put off by this new aspect of their sound, as my favourite YYY songs are all their more intense, guitar driven numbers (Date With The Night, Y Control, Man...). however, once i got over the beats and synths, it proved to become pretty darn catchy. anyway, the jury's still out, i've only listened to it a couple of times.

and yes, i am at work at the moment, hence why i'm posting another random post so soon. i suppose this will only become more frequent and random, as i'll no doubt be in this position most days. hopefully it will thus become less random. probably no more coherent though. oh well.

all quiet on the blog-ern front...

it's all too understandable that no one should actually want to read about what i have to say about nothing. especially since i am not traveling or doing anything of interest at all. nevertheless, if all the blogs i rely on to keep me sane during my days spent in the dungeon at work refuse to update on weekends (and often throughout the entire week), then i figure i might as well fill that void with meaningless ramblings of my own.

i have been bitching about my current weekly outlook; uni two days, fbi two days and sbs three days. but i'm not going to complain about being at work on the weekend though, for i'm here on my own accord really. and hopefully am getting paid extra moneys for my blood, sweat and tears. so it's all good. there's just going to be an unfortunate byproduct with me being the grumpiest man alive. oh well.

but anyways, here's a list of what i've learned in the past week or so:

- 7 hours of sleep does not suffice.
- beecroft is a beautiful, completely reachable place.
- accounting is the devil's profession. our poor bastard of a drummer, lach, works his bum off and still gets forced to stay on until past 10pm.
- red riders are back, in pog form. their gig at spectrum was super. i'm looking forward to their album and hope they smash SXSW in a few weeks.
- disney was right, it really is a small world after all. i dare you to prove that you don't know someone who either works at sbs, fbi, went to barker or tara (sp).
- (uni) societies are for suckers. well, a lot of them are. scottish dancing? really? women engineers? alright, fair enough. it is a bit random though, no? not that there's anything wrong with that.
- cargo bar had a stall at usyd oweek. and it was probably the busiest stall of them all. cargo bar.
- i'm still not sure if the people at subski can actually ski.
- i have to get my reading hat on. that's what you get for doing english at uni.
- twitter is good for something. i'm still trying to get into it, but it's got a point.
- liverpool are a different team when they play in europe.
- the strokes side projects are actually proving to keep my satisfied until the next LP. little joy are brilliant(www.myspace.com/littlejoymusic). as are megapuss (www.myspace.com/megapuss), regardless of whether or not they're kidding.
- the go roll your bones are balls to the wall fun (http://www.myspace.com/thegorollyourbones). the only disappointing thing about their mum gig was the douche in the blue jeans who kept stealing the mic and bouncing around like a fool.
- boats are fun. don't let anyone tell you otherwise. mum's boat cruise was really fun, despite tentative people with barcaphobia. the bands were great, the john steel singers were a rad mix of beirut and port o'brien. and bird automatic (or chris birdstreet and the automatics, as i was calling them on the day) were cute in their matching sailor suits.

yep. home.

i knew it would happen. i said it would happen. it did. i came home. fanfare at the airport (thanks) and lots of catching up with friends and lots of "oh my god, i can't believe i'm home. it's been so long, i so don't remember all this. wank wank wank. etc." but i am now completing week two of my return and it's the same. no better, no worse, hardly different. it's hard not to go back into autopilot and go back to work, sleep all day, do nothing all night. i could slip into it at any moment. but i don't think i will. every time i see someone i haven't seen in a long time i find that i feel really boring, as though i have nothing to show for 5 months of traveling. i went to some places, i saw some amazing things, i did the tourist thing, i drank some alcohol. that's pretty much all i can say to one person. what am i supposed to tell them? "oh i did such and such at this place with so and so." completely irrelevant. there is a idea about traveling - people go overseas, experience completely different cultures, change their foundations, lose inhibitions, find out something pivotal about life and come home a better person. i don't necessarily disagree or agree. but that wasn't the point, nor was it at any point during this trip a factor. i had money, i went overseas. it was fun. i liked this place, i hated this other place. don't get me wrong, seeing parc guell, MoMA, late of the pier in sweden, and countless other things were priceless and meaningful. but comparisons of different culture's shelter, entertainment, work, food, friends, people, society are all moot points until you can figure out where you personally stand in these things. "wow, you all have amazing jobs and houses here in ______ " means nothing to me because i don't know if i want any of that. and yes, one would go traveling to figure out what they want, and where they stand with all of those factors. but i find i'm still straddling the fence on pretty much all these things. and i suppose it is the coming home part in which one is supposed to get the most use out of all this new information. and who knows, this may be happening right now. who knows. i knew it would happen. yep, it's all the same. but that much is clear now.