Dave's 2008 Music - Year in Review

so I was in a discussion about Jay Reatard and this flowed out of me, feel free to flush it as trash.........


Dave's 2008 "The Year in Music"



prologue and disclaimer after writing this: this was going to be a quick list but my fingers just kept writing. i am always insecure about writing music reviews since from my perspective i hate the people that get into " oh you don't know that band, oh you really should, ive been listening to them for years, these are my favorites from this year, you know nothing about music"- hipster jerkoff-... so then usually think of myself that way and I can't stand it and stop writing. anyway here goes...

I think i discovered a lot this year. I used to be a one trick pony of bluesy rock ie.. stones, white stripes, racs, MMJ, black keys, etc but now I'm open to quieter more reflective stuff, noise, electronic, indy dance, you name it. In 2008 I finally "got" Velvet Underground one night for example. I finally really "got" Grateful Dead. I discovered Pavement. Really got into Tom Waits. Got high with Eryn and now know some sick DJs. etc etc ...worlds opening up.

I truly believe each year gets better as more genres mix.....more and more people our age and younger are getting into music with more passion than ever. 10 yr olds now know entire collections of beatles, dylan, stones, zepp, sabbath. Shit I saw a little 9 r old girl at a Wilco show this summer, and this girl knew EVERY word to EVERY song. That shit blows my mind. The thirst of the hipster, jam, jazz, blues, rock, punk, you name it..every population has a hunger for new sounds and new music is bigger than ever as well. It's becoming extremely difficult to keep up with all the good stuff out there(20 music mags must have sprung up this year)...let alone the "great" stuff. You have to filter through the "great" stuff as well, since the music industry machine is still trying to feed us garbage.

having said that, this is the stuff that bubbled up for me this year and I can't stop listening to and probably never will.... (aside from the typical Racs, KOL, DEAD!, Radiohead,etc.)

My thought was these are the albums that I could get stoned with a handful of friends like you guys and listen to on NYE and I'd enjoy every minute of it.

And another thing is that I'm confident I did not have the time to figure out what the 100 albums that came out this year that were most likely better than all of these anyway. So this is my favorites from 2008 out of the 5% of fun music that I was able to get into.


Yeasayer - all hour cymbals (2007)
Akron/Family -
Bon Iver - for emma
Bob Dylan - bootleg 8 ( all of his "throwaway" songs over the last decade, blow away most anything else i listen to)
Iron and Wine - shepherds dog (2007)
Wilco - sky blue sky (2007)
Black Angels - directions to see a ghost
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
LCD Soundsystem - Sounds if Silence
Wolf Parade
Blitzen Trapper (of course)

the weird and annoying to some but can't stop it:
Holy f&ck (highlight of monolith fest)
Ghostland Observatory
Panda Bear & Animal Collective



I can truly say I'm ecstatic with 2009. Already have tix to Andrew Bird, Devotchka, Blitzen and a few Dark Star shows coming. Dead touring! so many tours.... New albums from Wilco , Pearl Jam, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Decemberists, Dave Matthews,

Just too much to even list and I'm sure once we get into a few new bands the tours will follow shortly.

2009 will rule and music will be a top contributor to breaking me financially