Best of 2nd Quarter 2008

Sorry I had to hi-jack the Q1 thread anew, as it was way too hard to follow and somehow devolved into baseball for f'k sake.


So a month late, but best of Q2 2008 (reissues don't count)

Amon Tobin-Taxidermia (always pulling out something interesting of an otherwise dying genre)
Black Keys-Attack & Release (strange how some bands make back to basics sound so good)
Brian Jonestown Massacre-My Bloody Underground (back from the dead)
Broken Social Scene (Presents Brendan Canning)-Something for all of us... (the steady stream of solo projects from BSS have all been worthwhile)
The Bug-London Zoo (****top pick)
Cure-Freakshow (Mix 13) 7" (I haven't bought into the Cure for quite sometime, but this single is a corker)
The Death Set-Worldwide (****top pick)
Endless Boogie-Focus Level (nice to hear new serious classic rock)
Flying Lotus-Los Angeles (****top pick)
Human Bell-Human Bell
KRS-One-Maximum Strength
Leila-Blood, Looms & Blooms (Warp is just an AMAZINGLY diverse HQ label)
Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog-Party Intellectuals (****top pick)
Nomo-Ghost Rock (****top pick)
Pink Skull-Zeppelin 3 (MySpace tweaker and E dealers turning into the next Kid606)
Portishead-Third (it was worth the wait)
Praxis-Profanation (ditto-and if you haven't tuned into team Praxis in awhile check out their live Bonnaroo 2004 release - official and bootleg via archive.org)
Santogold-Santogold (I did want to hate this, but her voice if pretty addictive)
J Spaceman & Sun City Girls-Mister Lonely OST (****top pick)
Syphilitic Vaginas-s-t (extreme metal lives)
Wire-Object 47 (the boys go arty again)

various-Disco Not Disco 3
various-Soul Jammin' vol. 1 [by Nostalgia 77]
various-Nigeria Rock Special (****top pick)

these don't count, but Ryko's Replacements reissues, the new Killing Joke reissues and SY's Master=Dik are way up there.

Ha! And having just posted my relative dismissal of Broken Social Scene in the "meh" thread, I open this post and see someone else whose opinion I respect praising them. Okay - I'm going to give them another chance now.

Portishead definitely. But of course am now drawing a blank on anything else. Will be back later after I've dug through the mound of discs on the floor of my car.

Westerberg's download only 49:00 is extremely groovy - the best thing I've heard in the last few months if not this year altogether........ and him back on form after the last 2 records (although I know some people on this board disagree about the quality of the 2 before this, there was a thread about 49:00 that died out pretty quick).

I like the Alejandro Escovedo record........the Black Keys record didn't knock me out at first but I find myself going back to it. A real grower......

> there was a thread
> about 49:00 that died out pretty quick).


amazon wants me to download something that is not compatible with my box. therefore, no 49:00 4:me.


alan and richard bishop's the brothers unconnected was the best show i saw during the 2nd quarter and the companion disc is pretty great, too.

yeah, after seeing 49:00 cast about here I wanted to check it as well but it's "sold out" on Amazon. WTF - They get exclusive distribution and then stop distributing it? apparently they're not too enthused with popular micro-payments.

Also something to add that would qualify for Q3:
The new Diplo/Santogold mix - Top Ranking is FANTASTIC!
If anyone liked his Piracy Funds Terrorism with M.I.A., this one is even better. Diplo's Aretha Franklin into Devo transition is gold and redoing the Clash as "Guns of Brooklyn" is very fine.

Probably not exactly up the alley of most of the folks on this board, but I think Harvey Milk's new one is pretty great. And I saw them on Saturday night and they were one of the tightest and best bands I've seen in a while. Amazing to be so tight when some of the songs are so slow. Their new drummer was maybe one of the best half dozen drummers I've ever seen live - friggin' Keith Moon incarnate!

Apparently "49:00" was yanked due to a cease and desist order for copyright violations on the snippets of a classic rock medley it contained.

That's not definite because Westerberg hasn't said why it's off Amazon but he has penned a pretty nasty new song that seems to suggest this available below (for 99 cents).

It's called "5:05" a nod to the "5:05" that was missing from the original "49:00" (running time was actually 43:55)

[studio.tunecore.com]

Alejandro Escovedo's Real Animal has dominated everything so far this year for me.

4 by the Atomic Bitchwax and Head Off by the Hellacopters are the loud rawk & roll records to beat so far.



Post Edited (08-08-08 09:42)