Carpathian
Isolation
Deathwish Inc.

Two Tongues
Two Tongues
Vagrant              

Say Anything frontman Max Bemis reached out to Chris Conley of Saves The Day to try to write some songs, and the result is the Two Tongues record. Something of a Voltron of emo rock, TT mashes Bemis’ rock-opera vocals and Weezer-like guitar licks over Conley’s patented, nasally quips and slack-rock axe-play. As a fan of both Say Anything and Saves The Day, I was more than curious to hear the fruits of these dudes’ labors. And while they certainly don’t make the wheel any rounder, Two Tongues capture the fun of making music for both of them (the musicians) and us (the listeners); it largely sounds like a blend of STD’s Stay What You Are and SA’s …Is A Real Boy. Say Anything drummer Coby Linder and STD bassist David Soloway of Saves The Day fill out the rest of the lineup, making an even split between the two camps. It’s endearing that the album ends with an obscure Ween cover, “Even If You Don’t”. Two Tongues is a fun record that makes me wish for warmer weather. It’s meant to be played with the windows down.         

 

Cymbals Eat Guitars
Why There Are Mountains
Self Released
 

I was more than a little thrilled when I discovered Cymbals Eat Guitars. There are few bands doing anything that can hold a candle to something like Modest Mouse or Pavement, including Stephen Malkmus himself. Why There Are Mountains is like a time capsule from the mid 90s, when music was fun and memorable. Granted, the argument can be made that since CEG play 90s-styled indie rock, they’re not really doing anything new. But CEG demonstrate distinctive charms and elements throughout these nine songs. There are strains of Built to Spill, 764-Hero, and plenty of Pixies for good measure. Singer Joseph Ferocious yelps out those big hooks and choruses, securing himself as a future famous frontman. The dreamy keys trickle in some elements of shoegaze now and then, and then phase into dirge-like swells. Everything about this record is completely intentional and utterly perfect. These guys will be hob-nobbing with Thurston Moore and the rest of the indie elite in no time. Take heed, 2009 is the year of Cymbals Eat Guitars. 

5.
These Arms Are Snakes
Tail, Swallower And Dove
Jade Tree

Seattle’s These Arms Are Snakes have delivered quite a gem with LP number three – and in this case it could be said that third time is certainly the charm. The record starts off with a swift kick to the shins via “Woolen Heirs”, with see-saw riffage ala Drive Like Jehu, arching up to a quiet/loud blast to the face. The synths as used in “Lucifer” are no stranger to TAAS. Though in the past the band has sometimes used them heavy-handedly (see their prior LP, Easter), synths take on a different role entirely here, contributing to the erupting din as opposed to distracting from it. So yeah, there is melody here – but not before it’s grinded down to dust. Chris Common’s blistering drumming, blurred and blaring synth lines and Ryan Frederiksen’s piles of guitar effects all add up to giant wall of wonderful noise. Vocalist Steve Snere sounds so focused, so raw with brutality, and then on a dime switches gears melodically or gets buried into vocal processing as on “Seven Curtains”. Tail, Swallower And Dove is pure cacophony and bliss. Sure, math core legends Botch are gone – but with their former bassist Brian Cook, TAAS are carrying the pocket calculator high for thought-provoking extreme music. This record leans into to the heavier side of Mogwai or the sludge of Torche, but has this aura of oddity that’s so refreshing. It’s heavy music for smart people. You want to be smart right? Then pick up this album.

4.
The Gaslight Anthem
The ’59 Sound
Side One Dummy

The hiss of a needle skipping its way into the start of “Great Expectations” perfectly introduces The ’59 Sound, a new record that sounds so familiar. After the first listen you’ll walk away humming “Young Boys, Young Girls” from the title track’s chorus, and it’s instances like that which explain in part the widespread interest in this band. Following the spiritual lead of seminal punk outfits like Jawbreaker, Avail and Hot Water Music, The Gaslight Anthem bring something punk rock has been sorely missing: music with meaning. It’s the perfect story of local boys done good. Vocalist/guitarist Brian Fallon’s gruff tone has been compared to that of another Jersey boy, Bruce Springsteen, which is kind of true – but there are worse comparisons to suffer, right? Overall, The ’59 Sound is a record the band obviously would have wanted to listen to themselves. Like an old beat-up car, it’s anthemic punk rock that’s not embarrassed of the rust spots.

3.
The Walkmen
You & Me
Gigantic

The Walkmen drop their pop semantics and return to form with You & Me, their fourth album of original material – (fifth if you count Pussycats , their Harry Nilsson homage). You & Me is what you’ll find me listening to at three a.m. after a bad night at the bar. It’s a dark, heady record full of despairing lyrics and misanthropic dirges. The Walkmen seem to have finally found their stride with You & Me; You won’t find another “single” on here like “The Rat” from their sophmore racket, 2004’s Bows + Arrows. Hamilton Leithauser - the seemingly boozy troubadour – spins tales of heartache, good luck and bad luck. This is an album in the truest sense of the word – you are meant to hear these songs in their intended order, in their entirety – not as cherry-picked results on iTunes, eMusic or wherever. You & Me just sounds so effortlessly vintage without pretense,  and that’s hard to pull off. With all their old-timey antics and depression-era aesthetic, The Walkmen have established their benchmark, and things will only get better from here on out.

2.
Radiohead
In Rainbows
TBD/ATO

It seems like only yesterday when I heard “Creep” on the local college radio station. The year was 1992; I was a freshman in high school and I couldn’t get this song out of my head. I went to the mall with my girlfriend, purchased Pablo Honey on cassette and listened to it repeatedly. And here we are now, this little “one hit wonder” band is “all growns up” with In Rainbows, their seventh album (yes SEVENTH, as in one number more than six). Radiohead turned the music industry on its collective ear by releasing this record digitally in August 2007 without the aid of major labels, offering it as a “pay as much as you’d like” download. This January they released a physical version of the record; I really was excited to purchase it, as it was released in a very forward thinking fashion: the CD packaged with low carbon footprint, merely a sleeve bundled with stickers for applying to a case of your own. This then let the band ship more CDs with less physical weight and minimal useless plastic.

Musically, In Rainbows is the Radiohead you know and love, sounding something like a healthy mix of Kid A being played though The Bends. Plus, we finally get the epic swooner “Nude” properly released after nearly ten years of bootlegs floating around. “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” whirs around like a post-punk anthem, Phil Selway’s flawless drumming skittering in. Ed “the secret weapon” O’Brien reprises his role as backing vocalist that you thought was Thom. Jonny Greenwood displays more guitar and symphonic wizardry, while his brother Colin lays down the dirty bass. Thom seems happy, even though lyrically it sounds otherwise. “Video Tape” starts as a piano ballad and spins out into a depressing digital bath. It wouldn’t be Radiohead if it weren’t a tad morose, right?

You can tell the guys had fun making this record, because it shows. I’ve listened to In Rainbows over a hundred times this year, and I’m sure that number will be even higher next year. Without the shackles of a major label, I eagerly anticipate the future of Radiohead.

1.
Fucked Up
The Chemistry Of Common Life
Matador

By the time the flute intro of “Son The Father” bleeds into the humming, dissonant guitars starting their muted march, the listener realizes that The Chemistry Of Common Life is something different. Not since the polo horns that start the Gorilla Biscuits anthemic “New Direction” has an unexpected instrument seemed so fucking cool. It doesn’t end with horns either – bongos, banjos, and seemingly endless guitar overdubs help create one of the most important, if not THE most important punk record in years. Fucked Up has written a hardcore punk record on their own rules.

As far as hardcore, they even signed with a non-traditional label. One might think to find a Dischord or Revelation Records logo on ChemCom’s sleeve. Instead you’ll be surprised to find it’s on Matador – placing Fucked Up among the likes of Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian and Yo La Tengo. Regardless, The Chemistry Of Common Life mashes the likes of hardcore, metal, punk, shoegaze and indie, emerging with unbridled raw power and a record chock-full of anthems. “No Epiphany”, with it’s phasing keyboards, oozy ahh’s (complements of the Vivian Girls) and spacey riffs sounds more like Ride or early Oasis until Pink Eyes‘ guttural shouts belt in. “Black Albino Bones”, the record’s poppiest selection, is like a mash-up of Husker Du and Sheer Terror. “Twice Born” finds fellow Canadian Sebastian Grainger (ex-Death From Above 1979) delivering the call and response chorus “Hands up if you think you’re the only one / we all have our hands up,” a song seemingly designed for pile-ons and stage dives.

The first time I heard this album, I knew it was something else – something landscape-changing. We’ve needed a band to kick us on our collective asses for a while. I’m just thankful we have Fucked Up to thank for that.

10.
Sigur Rós
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
EMI

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (or With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly) is the fifth full-length studio album by this revered Icelandic post-rock four piece, and it’s quite a departure from prior releases. And yeah, those naked people hopping the fence on the album cover is a photo by Ólafur Arnalds, the same guy who envisioned those waterfalls all around NYC this past summer. Sweet, right? So what’s new with these dudes? For starters, their dream pop and ethereal antics have largely been traded in for a more relaxed indie/twee pop sound resulting in something along the lines of groups like Animal Collective, The Vaselines or Unrest - but Icelandic. With songs like “Gobbledigook”, you can tell the band was actually having fun in the studio with its bam-bam drumming and Muppet-like “la la’s” in the background. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust also has “All Alright”, the first song the group sings entirely in English. This is a fantastic album and a departure for Sigur Rós, similar to what you’d expect from a punk rock band releasing a post-punk record. The result is a freaked-out folk version of the Sigur Rós we’ve come to love, and a brilliant record.

9.
The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
Domino

Oh, those crafty Germans and their electronica! First it was Kraftwerk, now we have The Notwist. These dudes have been at it since 1990, starting with their grunge-heavy self-titled debut record; thankfully, since then they’ve changed genres, trading in their flannels for samplers. The Devil, You + Me is the their sixth studio album and follow up to Neon Golden, which received much critical praise on both sides of the pond for their seamless blend of math-rock and electro beats. On “Where In This World”, Markus Archer’s near deadpan delivery is buried under layers of white noise, strings and pulsing beats that swell up and stutter into messy piles of sound; the result is both alienating and exhilarating. “Gloomy Planets” has this Belle & Sebastian-styled pop sense twill inspire head bobbing. My personal favorite is the trip-hop-ish “On Planet Off”, with its static pings and clicky swagger. The Devil, You + Me might be sorely exempt from other year-end lists and that’s a sorry oversight. When your patience wears thin waiting for the next Postal Service record – give this record a chance.

8.
The Dodos
Visiter
French Kiss

I’ll make this one easy for you. Put the Smoking Popes, Modest Mouse and The Shins in a blender and the resulting fine mess is San Francisco’s The Dodos (aka Dodo Bird) – the unstoppable duo of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber. Long’s training in West African Ewe drumming is expressive and finely syncopated with Kroeber’s guitar throughout Visiter (misspelled intentionally due to a child drawing their cover art), their third record. With its twangy guitar, echoing “oh”s and tinkering xylophone, “Red and Purple” is as close to perfect as music gets; it must be heard by anyone reading this. Yet Visiter can’t be wholly experienced by hearing just this one song; otherwise listeners would miss the bluesy send-up “Send The Rust”, and the swamp-folk of “It’s That Time Again”. The lo-fi recording often leaves buzzing on the tracks, which some might find bothersome; I embraced that buzz as if it was a third member of the band. There’s something to say about hearing something so raw and without the sheen of Pro-Tools these days that make me love it more.

7.
Paint It Black
New Lexicon
Jade Tree

After a slight lineup shift, Philly’s Paint It Black came back in ‘08 with a vengeance to deliver New Lexicon, one of the finest hardcore punk records of the new millennium. Their second record – 2005’s Paradise – was lauded as a more melodic approach then their explosive debut, CVA and it’s here that New Lexicon bridges both records. PIB’s third LP sees some electronic tinkering dappled sparingly throughout, somewhat similarly to what The Refused did in their opus, The Shape Of Punk To Come. The stark cover art – a dark empty parking lot with street lamps eerily glowing – offers a poignant juxtaposition: a quiet image for a loud record. There’s this underlying Ink & Dagger vibe on New Lexicon that seems finely tuned for it’s fellow Philadelphia brethren. J. Robbins must have gotten his hands more in the mix this round. Ultimately, this album seems tailored for luring all the old heads back into “the core,” even if they’ve traded in their records for beer money; New Lexicon reminds me why I got into hardcore in the first place. On “We Will Not”, vocalist Dan Yemin ends with the line, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” That seems like what Paint It Black is all about: it’s a call to arms. It’s time to listen up, and New Lexicon is a good start.

6.
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago
Jagjaguwar

After beating illness, breaking up with his girlfriend and leaving his band, Justin Vernon decided his father’s hunting cabin in the remote wilderness of the dairy state of Wisconsin was the perfect getaway. For Emma, Forever Ago was mostly written and recorded over a period of three months in that cabin, but no, there is no cheese here. The name Bon Iver is from the French greeting “Bon Hiver” which means “good winter.” Justin Vernon came to decide on this name since the record is thematically based on that winter, and it’s eventual thaw. And For Emma, Forever Ago makes you feel that thaw, because for such somber songs, they really make you feel warm. “Skinny Love” has this soul feel to it while sounding more like the early works of Elliott Smith being played by Spiritualized. The falsettos in “The Wolves (Act I And II)” coo out like its TV On The Radio, and then he sings, “What might have been lost/ Don’t bother me.” Then the vocoder kicks in – and it’s like, “WTF!?” The vocal overdubs in “Creature Fear” lull up a church choir, and it’s incredible, especially as it swirls up to a stirring chorus. Of course, this record is for anyone who loves Iron & Wine and Elliott Smith – but it’s more than a singer/songwriter ethos; Bon Iver evokes this communal experience in his live set, often handing out lyric sheets to encourage audience members to sing parts of songs. The line is drawn, the idea of audience is then erased, and you become part of the music. Of course this is nothing new for those of us who grew up in punk & hardcore, but when was the last time you were encouraged to sing along to a non-punk band?

14.
French Kicks
Swimming
Vagrant

Swimming is the fourth LP from the gentlemen of French Kicks, and it is their best – their OK Computer; their Blonde On Blonde. A blend of melancholy pop ala Elvis Costello & The Attractions with nuances of British Invasion mod pop, this is an essential release that oozes with cool timelessness. I can easily see myself throwing this on in ten years and still loving every bit of it. There is a blanket of reverb that everything seems to envelop everything on Swimming, making it seem like it’s much older record than it really is. And I think that’s part of its charm. It’s a nostalgic record that still sounds fresh. 
 

13.
+/- (Plus/Minus)
Xs On Your Eyes
Absolutely Kosher

When I started compiling this list I never considered that any record included would boast a touring member of Kelly Clarkson’s band – but thanks to drummer Chris Deaner of Plus/Minus, I see otherwise. Xs on Your Eyes - the band’s fourth full length and second on Absolutely Kosher – shows the boys really stretching out and getting a little weird, but ultimately better. The album opens with “Tired Eyes”; after a few moments of soothing mellotron and xylophone tones it switches pace with crashing guitars and drumming bombast at full tilt.  When other bands try to incorporate electronics or beats, it usually ends up being top heavy. Plus/Minus strike a balance in ways only Radiohead knows. Xs On Your Eyes is an ambitious record, but to me it is 48 minutes of math rock brilliance that I suggest it to any fans of Jawbox, Frodus or Pinback.

12.
No Age
Nouns
Sub Pop

Sub Pop – the label that brought grunge to the mainstream – has managed to release the first neo-grunge record of the naughty oughties. It takes L.A.-based duo Randy Randall and Dean Spunt all of 15 or 20 seconds to melt your face clean off in “Miner”. I can safely say that most of the songs on Nouns could have easily been released in the 90s alongside music from the likes of Nirvana and Mudhoney.  Sparser songs like “Things I Did When I Was Dead” or the white noise trance of “Keechie” owe more to Sonic Youth than Melvins.  Nouns surely keeps it interesting for the listener all the way through, making it one my favorites of 2008. If you like what you hear, see them live. Their live show is the real deal. For serious. 
 

11.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dig, Lazarus, Dig! 
MUTE 

Only Nick Cave can take the biblical story of Lazarus’ rise from the grave, set it in NYC, throw in some homage to Harry Houdini and come out with a cohesive and thoroughly amazing record. Dig, Lazarus, Dig! finds Cave fronting what is essentially the same band from his most recent musical outlet, Grinderman, plus the the stripped-down rawness we remember from his days in the seminal post-punk outfit The Birthday Party.  This is the 14th album from the Bad Seeds, but it’s also the second record without the presence of guitarist Blixa Bargeld (formally of Einstürzende Neubauten); frankly, I don’t notice any changes.  If you enjoyed the Grinderman record, then you’re more than likely going to love this. It’s dirty and dark, full of string sections that invoke hysterics over and over again. If you’re unfamiliar with Nick Cave then I suggest you look at those who wear his influence pretty plainly – bands like Murder City Devils, The Make Up and the circus-like Man Man. I really love Dig, Lazarus, Dig! It may take some time for you to warm up to the half-waning croon of Nick Cave, but once you do you’ll be down for life (or death).

To be continued!