2008 was a very eventful year for indie rock. If you’re reluctant to read through the archives of TRUST ME ON THIS, this year-end retrospective is a crash course in some of my favorite bands. I’ll take you month by month through twelve stellar releases in 2008 by bands both new and old, along with some highlights from my concert photography adventures in the last year:
janvier: Field Manual by Chris Walla (January 29, Barsuk)
-
(download “Sing Again”)
I’ve written about Chris Walla before, and I’ve mentioned that I had not been expecting to love Field Manual as much as I did. I’ve been listening to Chris’s music for as long as I’ve been listening to indie music, but it all really came together with his solo album. The songs are so distinctly different from Death Cab for Cutie’s, and yet Chris’s touch is evident in both. In the last year I’ve had some extremely mixed feelings about the evolution of Death Cab for Cutie (and I’ve been to two — well, one and a half — of their shows), but Chris has really come into his own since the Martin Youth Auxiliary tapes of 1995-1997. The songs are artfully arranged; the lyrics are alternately thoughtful or wistful or sardonic; and the overall album is one of the most worthwhile and unique albums that I’ve ever heard.
Buy Field Manual from Seattle’s Barsuk Records.
Chris Walla playing in Death Cab for Cutie at McCarren Park Pool on June 10:
février: Lucky by Nada Surf (February 5, Barsuk)
-
(download “See These Bones”)
It was hard to escape Nada Surf in February, especially if you weren’t trying to escape them at all. Right at the beginning of the month, they released their fifth full-length record, Lucky. That very week, I went to two of their shows, and I spent a fair amount of time walking in the snow while “Blizzard of ‘77″ blared in my earphones. I’ve listened to Nada Surf for as long as I’ve listened to Chris Walla (literally, give or take a couple of hours), and hearing one of their songs is like running into an old friend on the street. I can’t say that I “discovered” Nada Surf this year, but there’s still time for you — go listen to “See These Bones” or download a few of their other songs from Barsuk. Lucky is Nada Surf’s trying their hand at power pop: “I Like What You Say” is so saccharine that it’ll probably give you cavities, and “Are You Lightning?” and “Ice on the Wing” are also fairly far removed from the Nada Surf of the days of yore.
Buy all things Nada Surf from Barsuk.
Nada Surf at the Bowery Ballroom on August 26:
mars: Brain Thrust Mastery by We Are Scientists (March 17, Astralwerks)
For a variety of reasons, I’ve always associated We Are Scientists and Bishop Allen with my move to New York. For most of that time, when I thought of We Are Scientists, I thought of Keith, Chris and Michael and of “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” and “The Great Escape,” two really explosive songs from their postpunk debut album that was named for a J.D. Salinger short story. I wasn’t sure what I would think of the new We Are Scientists (sans Michael, avec Max Hart and his red Gibson) and their new music. Songs like “Lethal Enforcer” and “Let’s See It” reassured me that these American Apparel poster boys are as sharp as ever.
Buy Brain Thrust Mastery and friends.
We Are Scientists at the Bowery Ballroom on August 1:
avril: Don’t You Evah EP by Spoon (April 8, Merge)
My obsession with Spoon began with the song “Don’t You Evah,” so I thought it was fitting to include this absurd EP, which contains seven versions of the song — only one of which is spelled correctly — rather than any of Spoon’s studio albums, each of which I fell in love with, beginning with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga in early March. My obsession with Spoon began while I was walking on Delancey Street on the Lower East Side, but it also began a couple of years late. I’ve made up for lost time, though, and since March I’ve become acquainted with ten years’ worth of some of the best indie rock ever made. Spoon is probably one of the best bands that exists today, and their re-tooling of Natural History’s “Don’t You Ever” into their quirky, breathy “Don’t You Evah” demonstrates what Spoon has and what other bands lack.
Choosing which Spoon record to buy without having heard any of their songs is like playing a game of roulette where you always win.
Spoon at Terminal 5 on April 9:
mai: Oxford Comma single by Vampire Weekend (May 26, XL)
Vampire Weekend is catchy. Sure, they might steal unabashedly from Simon & Garfunkel and African pop and they might have been incredibly overhyped by my fellow music bloggers in 2007, but no one can deny that they write incredibly infectious and clever music. Alternately referenced as the hottest rising band to watch in 2008 and the whitest band ever, Vampire Weekend has realized both of those superlative distinctions in the last year, enjoying fame and commercial success as well as wearing too many Ralph Lauren Rugby sweaters and preppy cardigans with embroidered terriers. I’m not a huge fan of their LP, but “Oxford Comma” is a really great pop song for so many reasons — the offbeat rhythm, the somewhat nonsensical lyrics, the guitar line that emerges halfway through the song, and the chorus perfect for singing along.
Buy Vampire Weekend’s debut album from XL.
Vampire Weekend at the Central Park Summerstage during a thunderstorm on June 14:
juin: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust by Sigur Rós (June 24, XL)
Sigur Rós is the most unpronounceable Icelandic export in indie music. They sing mostly in a made-up language called Hopelandic, and only occasionally in their native Icelandic or in English. It’s kind of hilarious and kind of absurd. Their latest album, whose title in English is roughly translated as With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly, has not-suitable-for-work album art. Though I’ve never been a huge Sigur Rós fan in the past, I knew that the new album was going to be hilarious when I saw a gigantic poster of that album art, with a strategically placed black bar to shield customers’ eyes from the indecency, hanging in Other Music last summer. But even more hilarious is this NPR interview of them from 2007. Every awkward silence that follows every questions is so cringe-worthy that this interview would be really great comedy if we could pretend that it wasn’t genuine. I can’t recommend this album wholeheartedly, but this interview is priceless and I really just wanted an excuse to link to it:
juillet: Daytrotter Sessions EP by Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s (July 29, Epic) & Animal!/Not Animal (October 7, Epic)
- (download the Daytrotter EP)
It’s never exactly been a secret that I’m a huge Margot fangirl. I was intending to give them both July (for the Daytrotter EP) and October (for the double release of Animal! and Not Animal) because I saw them once in each of those months, and because they really deserve half of the months of 2008 in terms of how stunning their music is and how much it’s meant to me.
For months now, I’ve been raving about the song “Broadripple is Burning,” which is on both the Daytrotter EP as well as Not Animal. Margot is one of the largest and most talented musical collectives that I’ve ever seen or heard. Their debut full-length, The Dust of Retreat, has an astronomically high proportion of gorgeous songs, each of which alone would have been enough for me to recommend the band as highly as I do. It wasn’t a surprise when their double release of Animal! and Not Animal in October introduced over a dozen phenomenal songs into the world all at once. The songs exclusive to Animal! (Not Animal consists of songs that the record company preferred, but there is some overlap) include a few of my favorites, “There’s Talk of Mine Shafts” and “Mariel’s Brazen Overture,” on which keyboardist Emily Watkins joins vocal forces with the pure genius of singer-songwriter-guitarist Richard Edwards. But don’t think that Not Animal is full of throwaway songs and filler — though the songs on Animal! are better, Not Animal would blast the competition right out of the water if any other metric for comparison were used. The Daytrotter EP has the stripped-down sound of the acoustic soul of Margot, with echo effects and one borderline ballad.
Buy Animal on vinyl from Amazon, and buy the Daytrotter Sessions EP through iTunes.
Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s at the Bowery Ballroom on October 22:
août: The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot (August 19, Barsuk)
-
(download “Dying is Fine”)
I started listening to Ra Ra Riot’s fantastic self-titled EP shortly before the band released their debut LP, The Rhumb Line in August. From “Each Year” to “Ghost Under Rocks,” the songs on the EP really drew me in, and the LP was even more of the same kind of irresistibly inventive, gorgeous, catchy music. Ra Ra Riot make heartfelt chamber pop that sounds even more amazing live — I managed to catch one of their shows in October, and it was really everything you possibly want from a live band. It was such a warm experience that I might have been sold on that alone if the music wasn’t so lovely.
Buy The Rhumb Line from Barsuk.
Ra Ra Riot at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 17:
septembre: Sad Robots EP by the Stars (September 1, Arts & Crafts)
I’m taking some liberties with the timeline now: though I’d heard of the Stars more than once (mostly when I stumbled across them while trying to find the Secret Stars) in years past, I didn’t start listening to them until after a conversation that I had with a Canadian friend in early December. I listened to “Take Me to the Riot” (which is on 2007’s In Our Bedroom After the War, not Sad Robots) once, and I fell in love, and then I listened to it again and again. I’ve spent the last week going through the Stars’ discography and I’m very impressed by what I’ve heard. The Stars serve up indie pop gems, from “My Radio” on their debut full-length, 2001’s Nightsongs, to the most recent Sad Robots EP. Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell both have really remarkable voices, and the Stars’ rotating ensemble has produced one stellar LP after another, as well as a handful of EPs such as Sad Robots.
Buy the Stars’ albums from their online store.
octobre: Always the Bridesmaid 12″ single series by the Decemberists (October 14 / November 4 / December 2, Capitol)
The Decemberists released the three volumes of the Always the Bridesmaid series during three different months, and the first (October) installment is my favorite. The Decemberists have become furiously political, and they stepped up during this election year, even as frontman Colin Meloy was off gallivanting with a solo tour and a handful of solo cover albums. Colin has come a long way from Tarkio, the country-tinged folk-rock band that he founded ten years ago. I’ve been somewhat skeptical of the Decemberists’ forays into prog-rock in the past (The Tain, anyone?), but “Valerie Plame” and “O New England,” both from Always the Bridesmaid, Volume I are the Decemberists at their literary indie-rock finest. When I first heard “Valerie Plame,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or sing along. The lyrics are deliciously witty and sly without smashing you in the face with the politics in the way that Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst smashes you in the face with the biting lyrics and acerbic delivery of his song “When the President Talks to God.”
Buy the Always the Bridesmaid series on vinyl.
The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy solo at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 17:
novembre: Something About Airplanes (reissue) by Death Cab for Cutie (November 25, Barsuk)
-
(download “Champagne from a Paper Cup”)
I thought about including Death Cab for Cutie’s sixth full-length, Narrow Stairs (May 13, Atlantic), earlier in this list, but I really couldn’t. Suffice it to say that I don’t really like the creative tack that Death Cab has been steering ever since Plans. I’m cheating a bit by including Something About Airplanes, originally released in 1998, in this list, but I really like this collection of songs because it signifies the starting point of a body of work that has influenced me more than anything else, and I also think that the contrast between Narrow Stairs and Something About Airplanes is really remarkable. I’m somewhat of a collector of Death Cab for Cutie’s live concert recordings, and, as an added bonus, this reissue of Something About Airplanes comes with a live recording of one of the band’s first performances. You might not be a fan of what you’ve heard of Death Cab for Cutie on the radio (do people still listen to the radio? I assume that the concluding three minutes of “I Will Possess Your Heart” get not-insignificant airplay), but give Something About Airplanes a try and you’ll hear Death Cab in all of their late-nineties glory, with their best still to come. Ben Gibbard, the man behind most of Death Cab’s songwriting, has evolved from writing rock songs to writing pop songs for the Silverlake set over the last ten years, but at this moment in 1998, he hadn’t even written “Title and Registration” yet. Every time I hear them play an old song these days, I kind of want to cry.
You can find Death Cab for Cutie anywhere these days, but if you buy their records from Barsuk, you’ll support an indie record label with incredibly discerning taste.
Death Cab for Cutie at Radio City Music Hall on October 6:
décembre: Ulysses single by Franz Ferdinand (December 2, Domino/digital only; forthcoming physical single due January 19, 2009)
I had intended to include the single for “Lucid Dreams” (which will appear on the forthcoming Tonight: Franz Ferdinand) in this list, but I wanted to take the opportunity to segue into 2009 with the single for “Ulysses” (also on Tonight) instead. When I first heard it, I wasn’t sure what to think, but then I hit repeat and realized that it was as smartly crafted as my beloved “Lucid Dreams.”
Next year, which kicks off with the release of FF’s third studio album on January 26, will be the year of Franz Ferdinand — which isn’t to say that the New Scottish Gentry haven’t dominated the last half a dozen years with their brand of postpunk indie rock. Suffice it to say that they’re incredibly talented and their music is so consistently smashing and that they deserve every inch of their huge, international, critical and commercial success and more. Though their music is usually classified as postpunk or new wave revival and does hearken back to the sound of 1970’s and 1980’s rock bands, there is nothing derivative about FF’s music. Their songs don’t even borrow from one another — each is fiercely distinct and yet instantly distinguishable as FF. After missing FF’s secret show at the MHOW in October, I really hope to see Franz Ferdinand in 2009.
Buy Franz Ferdinand records from Townsend Records or from anywhere else, for that matter — and keep an eye out for Tonight: Franz Ferdinand next month.
Up next: a few notable albums that didn’t make this list.
[...] My year in music: a recap of 2008 [...]