Xoxobra's Best Albums of 2008

Xoxobra's Best Albums of 2008
Here we go for the third and final part of the best of 2008: the albums. I had the opportunity to listen to over 100 albums this year (109, to be exact) from many genres and many decades, and these are the ten that I spent the most time with. Release year wasn't a factor in determining this list, so to find out my ten favorite albums that actually came out in 2008, just subtract the older releases in my real top ten and add the albums listed as honorable mention, and there you go.

Unless there's some special circumstance, this will be my final post of the year, and it's been a good one. But I'm going to take a little bit of a break to enjoy the holidays, recharge myself, and make some decisions on where I want to take this blog next year. I'll resume updates in early January. Until then, happy holidays and all that jazz.

10) Nas - Untitled (2008)

This may have fallen short of being the scathing, Curtis Mayfield-style protest album that I was hoping it was going to be, but it was still pretty good. Nas may be one of the more hypocritical rappers to make a conscious album, but if more conscious rappers would follow his example, focus a little more on presentation, and stop falling back on jazz beats and discussions of "real hip-hop", then maybe "conscious" wouldn't be a dirty word in the rap community, continually ignored unless your name is Common, and banished to the doldrums of college radio playlists.

9) Boris - Smile [Japanese version] (2008)

Coming off a somewhat high profile release in Pink, Boris probably recorded with more pressure and anticipation than they ever have. Smile isn't the band's best record by any stretch, but even so, it's still good enough to be one of the best albums of the year. If fellow Japanese noise/post-rockers Envy made this exact album, it would've been the best thing they've ever recorded.

8) Liars - Drum's Not Dead (2006)

This is one of those perplexing albums in which a few weeks or even a few months of listening seems too inadequate a time frame to fully phrase and explain what I'm hearing. All I can state with absolute certainty is that I like this album. How much I like it has yet to be determined. I like it enough for it not to feel right to exclude it from a part of the ten best albums I've heard this year. But I also don't put it past exceeding even those heights. Check back with me in a year or so, I may consider this the greatest album of the decade by then.

7) Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

After the somewhat disappointing Geisterfaust, Bohren are back on their game with Dolores, their sixth album. While they haven't broken any new ground with this release, they have managed to refine the slightly softer, semi-funeral dirge they attempted with Geisterfaust and presented them in better composed songs with more digestible lengths. I kind of miss the creepy, sax and bass heavy sound of their earlier work, but it's hard to be mad at them when they're still releasing quality material like this.

6) The Bombay Connection Volume 1: Funk from Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977 - 1984 (2006)

James Brown and Sly Stone might have created and innovated the funk music scene, but even they probably couldn't have imagined how India would've interpreted it. The Bombay Connection is a compilation of songs from Bollywood action movies that gives us the answer. This is probably the most I've laughed at music that was taking itself completely seriously and still ended up liking what I was hearing.

5) Exuma - Exuma (1970; 2003 reissue)

I'm not sure how an album that mixes together sounds of freak folk, soul, reggae, African rhythms, and a seance, while an eccentric and slightly insane-sounding Bahamian man sings about zombies and voodoo and other stereotypically cool-sounding shit managed to elude my attention for so many years, but I'm really glad the reissue made it easier for me to stumble upon this. This is lightning in a bottle; the very definition of an underground treasure.

4) The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)

Iggy Pop meets David Bowie, reforms the Stooges, and the band take a long enough break from their persistent heroin addictions to record one of the greatest records of all time; single-handedly fathering punk-rock in the process. The chaos surrounding this recording shows through in the epic guitar riffs of James Williamson, making it seems as if the band are doing all they can to contain the energy -- the raw power, if you will -- that's so potent that it's all the band can do to keep it from spontaneously combusting into a cacophonous clusterfuck. They succeed. Barely. Which is all for the best because, really, have you ever tried getting pieces of raw power out of your hair? It's a bitch.

3) Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (1987)

It would be a mistake to dismiss Rakim as just another braggadocio rapper who's favorite topic to address is how much better he is than you when it comes to rhymes. Realize that this was 1987 and that kind of thing wasn't yet played out. Also realize that Rakim wasn't just bragging, he was speaking the truth. Before him, it was harder to defend that rap was more than just some dude talking over a beat. But after his complex rhyme schemes, metaphors and Five Percenter allegory, anyone making that claim just sounded increasingly ignorant. His status as the greatest rapper of all-time is well deserved.

2) Nadja - Truth Becomes Death (2005)

The best music to come out of Canada since...Celine Dion, obviously. Truth Becomes Death is one of those albums that makes you understand the potential of a genre. Just like Lightning Bolt's Hypermagic Mountain opened my eyes to the potential of noise rock, Truth Becomes Death has helped me understand what drone doom metal, in all it's heavy, suffocating glory, is capable of.

1) Dungen - 4 (2008)

Four. That was the number of years ago that I discovered an album called Ta Det Lugnt from this Swedish band who were starting to make a little noise. I still consider that album one of my all-time favorites. Dungen topped my best albums list that year, and here they are again with another classic. The essential difference between Dungen and other psychedelic bands is that other bands seem to pay tribute to the heyday of the psychedelic era. Dungen, however, seem to have been born into it. They continue to evolve it and innovate it 40 years later.



Honorable Mention
(subtract the older release from my top ten and add these to get my top ten of 2008 albums that were actually released in 2008)

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008)
Neptune With Fire is a stunning debut by Ancestors. So powerful in execution that not even cheesy lyrical themes and my least favorite Arik Roper cover art can hold it back from greatness. 37-minutes, 2 soaring stoner rock epics, both pretty killer.

Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher (2008)
Slim Cessna's Auto Club are an enigma. Cipher seems to be an analysis of faith in America, possibly a celebration, but shit, you just never know with this band. They often tell stories of salvation and damnation. They praise religious folk before they mock them. Pray to God before cursing him. But listening to that internal struggle is what's so appealing about them. It helps that Jay Munly, one of the most fucked-up and interesting songwriters I've ever heard, is co-leader of the band. He's good enough to make me forget that this is essentially a country/bluegrass album and that my brain had been preconditioned to reject that genre. I'm working on it.

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)
The best film of the year also has arguably the best soundtrack. The dark, brooding feel of the film owes a great deal to the compositions that Zimmer and Howard created, which make excellent use of aggressive string sections, forceful drumming and, as my fiancèe brilliantly put it, "epic brass". The back-to-back combo of the opening track, "Why So Serious?", and "I'm Not A Hero", is an especially jaw-dropping 15-minutes of music.

Caïna - Temporary Antennae (2008)
There's a new wave of black metal going on, and Caïna is one of the more unsung participants in the movement and evolution of the genre. Maybe that has to do with his increasing level of distance from it. Whereas his previous album, Mourner, was more black metal with the occasional post-rock and folk element, Temporary Antennae is more post-rock with the occasional black metal element. But discussion over where this music belongs (I found it in the pop/rock section in the record store, after a few wasted minutes of looking for it in the metal aisle) shouldn't overshadow the fact that this is a solid release for a young, diverse musician who's maturing at a rapid pace.

Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town (2008)
Sludge, sludge, sludge.

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)
Post-rock with a little eastern influence.

Xoxobra's Best Other Stuff of 2008

Xoxobra's Best Other Stuff of 2008
In part two of the Best of 2008, I'll focus on the random categories. Tomorrow, I'll post my picks for the Best Albums.


Best Cover Art
Boris - Smile
A metal band makes an album with a bright yellow foam package encased in soft plastic with the front cut out in the shape of a heart. Nothing else even had a chance to top this. Not even close.



Best Music Video
"Toe Jam" by The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) [dir. Keith Schofield]
It may not be the most dynamic music video but the concept is pretty genius. Get a bunch of hot, young people to run around naked in a shag-carpeted house reminiscent of a 70's porn flick and make such creative and funny use of the censor bars that it actually makes you forget that a bunch of hot, young people are running around naked (kinda not safe for work, of course).



Best Debut
Ancestors - Neptune With Fire
They wore their Kyuss influence on their sleeves a bit, but that doesn't mean the album didn't rock. They managed to combine equal parts psychedelic rock, stoner metal, and post-rock. I'm anxious to see how many genres I like they can cram into their sophomore release. Bollywood, maybe?

Best Concert
Sigur Ros - 9/30/2008 at the Marquee Theatre (Tempe, AZ)
Yeah, so this was one of only three concerts I went to this year, but that doesn't mean it wasn't awesome. It was good enough to reestablish my faith in the band, which was wavering a bit as I had begun to realize that their last truly great album came out six years ago. They're still a good band on album, but when it comes to the live show, they're better than they've ever been. Three cheers for gratuitous confetti.



Most Disappointing Album
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
The fact that this album produced two of my favorite songs of the year shows how good TVOTR can be when they go out of their comfort zone. Unfortunately, for the majority of Dear Science and their previous album (Return to Cookie Mountain), they didn't stray from that zone often. This band annoys me, because they're so fucking talented and they've got what it takes to truly innovate music, bust through genre's at will, and dominate any form of music they attempt, but instead they waste their time pigeonholing themselves within the fickle realm of indie rock. They can be so much more than that.

Worst Album
Scott Walker - The Drift
I didn't pay money for this. It was actually at my local library and I checked it out because I remember it being one of the more acclaimed albums of 2006. I'm glad that I heard this under those circumstances, because that means I didn't have to waste anything but my time to listen to it. I'm not sure if there exists an analogy that properly explains how shitty this is. It's just one pathetic failed experiment. When it tries to be brooding and atmospheric it ends up being boring. When it tries to be dramatic and scary it ends up being utterly laughable, like some prepubescent crackly-voiced teenager in a cheap mask that jumps out at you and growls during any number of shoddy "haunted house" productions that go up around town during Halloween, except I have no incentive to hold in my laughter so as not to make the kid feel bad. I mean, at least he tried. I'm not sure if I could even say that much for Walker.

Weirdest Album
Scott Walker - The Drift
Did I mention the part in the middle where it sounds like someone's beating a piece of partially thawed meat with a stick? I think it's supposed to be artistic or some shit, making me contemplate the fragility of life. Or maybe aggressive masturbation, I don't know.

Best Movie
The Dark Knight
I guess if this movie proves anything, it's that I'm way less indie than I thought I was, and also that my Batman fanboy phase is determined to last well into adulthood thanks to Chris Nolan. But who cares if this was the biggest, most hyped movie of the year when it so emphatically lived up to the hype? Even the introduction and brief, awkward ending to the Two Face saga wasn't enough to derail it, and Two Face is one of my favorite villains.
Runner up: Milk
This could've been a really sappy tearjerker but it wasn't. The saddest thing about this movie is that I didn't know that Harvey Milk was an actual person until I heard this was coming out (I was familiar with the band, obviously, but I never thought to look up the origin of their name). He's pretty much the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the gay rights movement. It's baffling to me why gay rights advocates don't use his image to their advantage.

Best Book
Hokkaido Highway Blues (re-released in the US as Hitching Rides With Buddha)
A travel writing book by a Canadian-born writer who made a living teaching English in Japanese high schools, and later, inspired by Alan Booth, decided to hitchhike the country from one end to the other and document his travels. Very funny, insightful and well-written. I read a number of books on Japan this year, and this was one of the few written by a Westerner that analyzed the culture without making broad generalizations or portraying the Japanese in a condescending manner, as if the writer were viewing some sociological experiment featuring some lesser species. As a result, I feel like I learned more about the culture than anything Lonely Planet has ever put out. And on top of that, I laughed out loud more times than I can count; more than any book has managed to do in recent memory. This was one of my favorite passages, when he's reflecting upon the origin of the sometimes perplexing use of English in Japanese pop culture:

"My students in Japan were determined to reduce English to mathematical dictums that could then be reassembled...When I ran into one [of them] out of uniform in a t-shirt that read ENJOY MY BROTHER!, I challenged him to explain the phrase. It was a wager, really, because I promised him ten thousand yen if he could do it. This young man was our top student, destined for one of Japan's finest universities, and he took up the challenge with confidence. "Enjoy is the verb," he said, "my is a possessive pronoun and brother is the object. The subject is understood to be you, which makes the sentence a command phrase. The exclamation mark adds urgency." He then held out his hand for the money. "But what does it mean?" I said. He looked at me, utterly baffled, and said "Enjoy is the verb, my is a possessive pronoun, brother is the--" Needless to say, I didn't pay him the ten thousand yen and he is still bitter about it. In his mind, he did explain it and all I did was welsh on a bet."

Best Website
Rate Your Music (www.rateyourmusic.com)
The design might not be attractive, and it's not going to drop recommendations into your lap à la LastFM or Pandora, but those people who really like to dig for music will find no better tool than this user-supported database. If it's not the place where I find out about a new artist, it's the first place I go to learn more about them.


Stay tuned for the best albums list!

Xoxobra's 22 Best Songs of 2008

Xoxobra's 22 Best Songs of 2008
It's that time of year again, when music fiends worldwide start sharing opinions on the best stuff they've heard all year. I'm no different. For the next few days I'll post my picks for the best music that I've heard in 2008; emphasis on the words "I've heard". Like most music fans, a lot of good music I hear in a given year could range from 4 weeks to 40 years old, give or take. So I pile them all together regardless of release date. Today, I'll discuss the songs.

As I was working on this list, I listened again and again to the songs that made the greatest impact on me this year. The ones that blew me away, and demanded repeated listens. When it was all said and done, I had twenty-two songs, and was left with somewhat of a dilemma: I could add on a few more songs and post my twenty-five favorites of the year, or I could subtract a couple and post my twenty favorites. After giving it some thought, I felt adding songs that were merely good but not memorable would compromise the integrity of the list (I like to think that my opinions have integrity), so I chose to subtract. But then I had another problem: I just couldn't find it in myself to rid of any two of the tracks below. They all deserve to be there. So fuck it. Here's my top 22 Songs of 2008:



22) "Goliath" by The Mars Volta [from The Bedlam In Goliath]

The Mars Volta haven't sounded this good and made a song this tight since 2003. It plays like a homage to those fans who got fed up waiting for another De-loused In The Comatorium. Makes me feel like I'm in college again (but in a good way).

21) "Who You Think I Am?" by MF Doom (featuring King Ceasar, Rodan, Megalon, Kamakiras & Kong) [from Operation: Doomsday]

Okay, yeah, so it's pretty much a "Protect Ya Neck" for 1999, but doesn't it deserve credit for even reaching those heights? I say so. It shows how great a group rap track can be when done well.

20) "Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa" by Mono Mono [from Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6]

Cruising music. Through Nigeria, I imagine. It's quite a smooth ride despite the fact that it's interrupted by distant chanting and a guitar solo midway through. But no matter, when all that ends, it just picks up right where it left off, as if nothing happened. I feel cooler when listening to this.

19) "Crying" by TV On The Radio [from Dear Science]

TVOTR summons the ghosts of 1980's R&B, as performed by the Commodores, and make a song that's as modern sounding as it is a throwback.

18) "Thirty One Today" by Aimee Mann [from @#%&*! Smilers]

A theme song for every unhappy, direction-less woman in their 30's. I'm not in that demographic, but this song almost makes me wish I was so I could declare this the soundtrack to my life.

17) "The Wrong Coat for You Mt. Heart Attack" by Liars [from Drum's Not Dead]

This song sounds so transparent and ghost-like. I guess "haunting" is the word. Cliche but appropriate, as this song doesn't seem of this world, existing only on a subconscious level.

16) "Deshominisation (I)" by Alain Goraguer [from La Planète Sauvage]

It's like funk music as played in your dreams, in outer space, while high on something. You could almost call this sexy if it weren't so damn weird instead.

15) "My Melody" by Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid In Full]

On the first track of Paid In Full ("I Ain't No Joke"), Rakim told me how great he was. On the second track ("Eric B. Is On The Cut"), Eric B. demonstrated the same. After "My Melody", the third track, they had me convinced.

14) "The Natural Man" by Grails [from Doomsdayer's Holiday]

It seems to tell a story not with words, but with acoustic guitars, airy layered flutes, and spacious atmospherics. The story varies depending on the listener, but the soundtrack is pretty badass.

13) "Fredag" by Dungen [from 4]

They've already proven their ability to write pop songs and demonstrated their mad jam session skills. Now they're just about the groove. Look beyond the hypnotic guitar and piano in the foreground, when that bass shows itself it shouldn't be ignored.

12) "Roses" by Harvey Milk [from Life...The Best Game In Town]

A deceptive title, a deceptively tender opening piano melody, followed by an onslaught of sludge so dirty and thick that even Mike Rowe wouldn't want anything to do with it.

11) "Reality Check" by Binary Star [from Masters of the Universe]

Takes it's time getting started. A simple beat plays over the piano intro, the piano drops out, and then, very calmly, One Be Lo drops one of the best verses I've heard in the relatively short history of rap music. "You ain't never heard an MC speak like this." You probably have, yet you still believe him somehow.

10) "DLZ" by TV On The Radio [from Dear Science]

The dark side of "Staring At The Sun". Ominous and brooding atmospheres replace hope, but hot shit the soul, emotion, and immediacy are still present.

9) "My Body Is Made Of Sunlight" by Circulus [from The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent]

Renaissance era-inspired folk made by a group of English hippie LARPer's who have yet to realize that it's 2008? Sure, why not. The tempo changes are masterfully handled, it's like three songs in one.

8) "Fried Chicken" by Nas (featuring Busta Rhymes) [from Untitled]

It would be foolish to let yourself be thrown off by the inherently ridiculous concept of this song: the personification of a delicious fried chicken meal as a lover. But even once you stop laughing, you'll still want to keep listening.

7) "I'm Gone" by Dead Meadow [from Old Growth]

Damn, Dead Meadow have come a long way since the meandering (though infectious) stoner epics of their past. Now they're writing acoustic folk-rock tracks so incredibly tight it threatens to cut off circulation to their weed crumb-infested fingers.

6) "Waddlin' Around" by The King Khan & BBQ Show [from The King Khan & BBQ Show]

Garage rock with soul. Really, how many songs recorded in the past few years sound like they could've come out of any decade since 1950?

5) "The First Broken Promise" by Capricorns (featuring Eugene Robinson) [from Ruder Forms Survive]

Previous attempts to remove myself from Eugene Robinson's balls were made much more difficult after hearing his guest spot in this song. A masterpiece of abstract sludge metal.

4) "Dambala" by Exuma [from Exuma]

If Exuma had put any more soul into this song it might've seeped out of your speakers and swallowed you whole. This, right here, is power.

3) "Bug/Golem" (excerpt) by Nadja [from Truth Becomes Death]

To call this heavy is an understatement. An insult almost. This is crushing; suffocating. Like the earth is in the palm of the hands of a god and he's ever so slowly forming a fist...or something of that nature.

2) "メッセージ" by Boris [from Smile]

Like a drum-driven, Japanese version of a song off the Twin Peaks soundtrack, stripped to its elements, played at a slightly higher BPM, added flourishes of wailing electric guitar, fed through badly broken speakers, and at least three minutes longer than it needs to be. Q: How does a song with failure written all over it succeed so hard? A: Duh, it's Boris.

1) "Prospectors Arrive" by Jonny Greenwood [from There Will Be Blood]

It's a rather unemotional part of the film (ya know, just prospectors...arriving), but this song gives it such a beautiful, emotional punch; foreshadowing this overwhelming sadness and tragedy. That violin part at one minute, thirty-six seconds into the song? Putting it pretentiously, I could die to that.


Stay tuned for more best of stuff in the coming days!