#0073 – MMVIII CE MF

My Best Albums of 2008 Show!

These are the albums I have decided are the best albums that a) I’ve listened to, b) have an official 2008 release date, and c) are full-length LPs, not EPs or compilations.

Since I listen to a broad variety of music, some of the segues are a little jarring. Some voiceovers might help there but since my microphone isn’t currently available that’s not going to happen. Since the mix clocks in around 80 minutes, you don’t need me babbling on anyway.

I’ll be playing one song from each of my 20 favorite albums of the year, counting down from #20 to #1.

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20. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
Wild fun mashups. No source is sacred. For instance, in the sample track, Queen, the Police and the Jackson 5 are shaking their asses along with Busta Rhymes and Wu Tang. Can’t beat that.
Song: What It’s All About

19. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
Perennial favorites of mine. This won’t go down as one of their true classics but there are some darn fine songs on here.
Song: 3 Dimes Down

18. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
Rocking Boss worship
Song: Miles Davis & The Cool

17. Darkestrah – The Great Silk Road
Kryg black metallers, second year in a row they’ve appeared on my list
Song: Cult Tengri

16. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Lie Down In The Light
Will Oldham’s back, didn’t care too much for his last one but plenty to make up for it here.
Song: So Everyone

15. Kiuas – The New Dark Age
Finnish Heavy/Power Metal favorites of mine, they typically use elements of more extreme metal but the sample track is more of a straightforward acoustic powerballad.
Song: After The Storm

14. Neuraxis – The Thin Line Between
Melodic Technical Death Metal with progressive elements
Song: Oracle

13. Clutchy Hopkins – Walking Backwards
Mysterious purveyor of chill beats
Song: Song for Wolfie

12. Amon Amarth – Twilight Of The Thunder God
Swedish Melodic Viking Metal. And of course as you know, Vikings are awesome. Also wins for best album cover of the year and best video of the year.
Song: The Hero

11. Blitzen Trapper – Furr
Fantastic blend of pop and Americana, alternately channeling the Beatles, Neil Young, Tom Petty…
Song: Saturday Nite

10. Spiritualized – Songs in A & E
Intense psychedelic rock, I was blown away by their set at Pitchfork
Song: I Gotta Fire

09. Justin Townes Earle – The Good Life
Just some good old-fashioned country music
Song: South Georgia Sugar Babe

08. Harvey Milk – Life… The Best Game In Town
Chugging churning sludge metal that still manages to contain some surprising pop hooks
Song: Motown

07. The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns
Canadian Americana? fuzzy low-fi energetic rock/pop with eager vocal harmonies, just very pleasing to the ears.
Song: Don’t Haunt This Place

06. Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows
More Canadians, they call their sound “Death Country” This album seems to combine the things that worked in their Tin Type EP and their last full-length Ambassador
Song: The Valley Town

05. Cynic – Traced In Air
Progressive Tech Metal with robot singers? Actually less of the robotic voices this time around, and the sound is a little more prog and a little less metal but still musically sound and deftly performed.
Song: Evolutionary Sleeper

04. Guillotine – Blood Money
Swedish thrash metal that brings to mind some great older German thrash metal. Tight, energetic. Great riffs, pummeling drums.
Song: Welcome To Dying (Death, Destruction, and Pain)

03. Týr – Land
Faroese Viking Metal, calling heavily on traditional poetry and Viking choruses.
Song: Valkyrjan

02. Akimbo – Jersey Shores
Epic hardcore, reminiscent of Oceanic-era Isis, a concept album about sharks. Sharks, like Vikings, are awesome.
Song: Great White Bull

01. Murder By Death – Red of Tooth and Claw
Southern Gothic, deep-voiced crooner singing over rich instrumentation. I’ve described it as Nick Cave singing an Ennio Morricone western soundtrack with cellos.
Song: Ash

#0061 – File under: Year Two New

AaronCan you believe this podcast has been up for over a year?  Four different hosts and sixty shows later, we’re still doing this and the shows are only getting better.

Sorry to have disappeared for the last month or so since Iron Deejay in June, but it’s been busy.  We had a second kid.  Work’s been rough.  There’s been some summer wind-down as the weather finally gets good enough in Chicago to be a distraction.

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Nevertheless, as we are already into Year Two for Radio Gen1us, I’m going to showcase a bunch of new music that’s been on heavy rotation on the iPod:

  • Vuja De – The Orb
  • Deep Blue – Ladytron
  • Give Me a Beat – Girl Talk
  • Milk Crisis – The Go! Team
  • Keep Your Head – The Ting Tings
  • Harder Than You Think – Public Enemy
  • List of Demands (Reparations) – Saul Williams
  • Discipline – Nine Inch Nails
  • All Kinds of Stuff – The Cure
  • Inside the Fire – Disturbed
  • The One With ‘Kid’ – Local H
  • We Call Upon the Author – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
  • Chemtrails – Beck
  • Going On – Gnarls Barkley
  • 100 Days, 100 Nights – Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
  • The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit
  • Long Division – Death Cab for Cutie
  • Lost – Coldplay
  • Down to Earth – Peter Gabriel

#0039 – File under: Altered Beast

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First off, thanks to all you listeners and subscribers for a record week of people checking us out.

Have you ever had a love that was lost in the annals of time and space, only to have that voice echo across the room in a pitch of serendipity that took you back to a time and place where you felt completely vulnerable? This mix is not about that. It’s just a collection of tunes that I’m listening to this week.

Tracks inlude:

  1. Rock and Roll – The Velvet Underground
  2. I Wanna Be Your Dog – Uncle Tupelo
  3. If She Wants Me – Belle & Sebastian
  4. I Wanna Be Adored – The Stone Roses
  5. My Favourite Book – Stars
  6. Gravity Rides Everything – Modest Mouse
  7. Triops Has Three Eyes – They Might Be Giants
  8. They Are Night Zombies!! – Sufjan Stevens
  9. If You’re Into It – Flight of the Conchords
  10. Section 32: The Championship – The Polyphonic Spree
  11. Black Like Me – Spoon
  12. Alex Chilton – The Replacements
  13. The Wrath of Marcie – The Go! Team
  14. The Wild Sea – The Aquabats
  15. D.A.N.C.E. (with Spank Rock and Mos Def) – Justice
  16. Smash Your Head – Girl Talk