I haven't heard anything talk about Gentleman Jesse and His Men's s/t LP, it's a truly fantastic throwback to fun, upbeat and undeniably catchy 60's powerpop.

Give it a listen; "All I Need Tonight (Is You)" is probably the best track off the record, in my opinion. Check out their MySpace or something.

Gentleman Jesse and His Men

Breathe Owl Breahte- Ghost Glacier

Awesome lovely band from Michigan, I think. Great lovely guy singer, and guitar and twinkly stuffs, with female backing/joint singer who does some lovely cellos. They did my favourite album from last year, and one of my favourite albums from this year.

www.myspace.com/breatheowlbreathe

The Wave Pictures - Instant Coffe Baby

an instant classic

We were discussing this in the Year-End thread but Horse Feathers - House With No Home definitely is one of the best albums that very few heard this year.

Oh and there's these four guys from NYC with kind of an afro-pop sound...Vampire Weekend? Anyone hear of them??

quote:

...Oh and there's these four guys from NYC with kind of an afro-pop sound...Vampire Weekend? Anyone hear of them??

no offense but i would put Vampire Weekend in the over-hyped category

There's this thing called sarcasm ajar, you do well to learn it's meaning...

And to add something to the conversation..

PSY/OPSogist - Suffused with Static
Invincible - Shapeshifters
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Trifonic - Emergence
Any of the three albums released by Blue Sky Black Death this year.

quote:

Originally posted by Liberalkid:

PSY/OPSogist - Suffused with Static
Invincible - Shapeshifters
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Trifonic - Emergence
Any of the three albums released by Blue Sky Black Death this year.

Just a question...not directed at you only but where do you find out about these bands? I find Metacritic to be an incredible resource but very rarely venture beyond the albums they include (which are pretty indie anyway). I feel like I'd be broke if I ever got to know everything out there. Plus these obscure artists could potentially be hard to find (even online, which is where I shop anyway).

Well PSY/OPSogist gives his albums away for free at http://psyopsogist.blogspot.com/.

In general though if you want to listen to a lot of music and some of the more obscure stuff, you have to be willing to download some albums and then buy the albums afterwards if you find yourself really liking it.

As far as where I found out about each band...

Invinvible - www.popmatters.com
PSY/OPSogist - A blog called Chronic Music
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Bolachas Gratis
Blue Sky Black Death - http://poisonousparagraphs.blogspot.com/ could have worked I suppose, most of these are recommendations.

I've found the best way to find music is from recommendations from friends, but yes if you want to listen to a ton of music, either you have to be willing to enter a gray moral area or have a ridiculous amount of money and you can buy almost any album from an artist if you email them.

quote:

Originally posted by The Fall of Troy:
Much of my Top-10 is made up of under-appreciated gems:

The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line

Agreed. Gaslight Anthem is like if Bruce Springsteen fronted a punk band and Ra Ra Riot is just good chamber-pop.

quote:

Originally posted by Liberalkid:
Well PSY/OPSogist gives his albums away for free at http://psyopsogist.blogspot.com/.

In general though if you want to listen to a lot of music and some of the more obscure stuff, you have to be willing to download some albums and then buy the albums afterwards if you find yourself really liking it.

As far as where I found out about each band...

Invinvible - www.popmatters.com
PSY/OPSogist - A blog called Chronic Music
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Bolachas Gratis
Blue Sky Black Death - http://poisonousparagraphs.blogspot.com/ could have worked I suppose, most of these are recommendations.

I've found the best way to find music is from recommendations from friends, but yes if you want to listen to a ton of music, either you have to be willing to enter a gray moral area or have a ridiculous amount of money and you can buy almost any album from an artist if you email them.

Thanks for that. I definitely get music from friends but I'm really weird in that I don't consider it "mine" unless I buy it. I don't put their music on my iPod and I even keep it in a separate folder on my comp. Yeah I'm crazy...

But if I like what I hear I definitely get around to buying it. That's how I got into Antony and the Johnsons recently, who I got from a friend after I told him about Hercules and Love Affair. Not disappointed.

quote:

Originally posted by Liberalkid:
There's this thing called sarcasm ajar, you do well to learn it's meaning...

There's this thing called savoir vivre Liberalkid, you do well to learn it's meaning...

well obviously i didnt get the sarcasm at first...

All the Saints - Fire on Corridor X

man, awesome album. Dark, trippy rock in the vein of A Place to Bury Strangers.

There is no doubt in my mind that this year's most under-hyped Album of 2008 is Subtle's ExitingARM. I know it might be hard to get into at first, but I see people spending far more time getting into less effective albums.

I highly encourage anyone that has only listened to this album a few times earlier this year and then forgot about it, to give it one more solid objective chance before you write your year end list. And if you find yourself not finding anything of interest in a song, stay till the 2:00 mark, because nearly ever song on the album has a shift at 2:00 where the song kicks into over drive.

There are driving beats, great melodies, amazing mood shifts, awesome dynamic shifts sometimes mid song. I admit it's not as solid as For Hero:For Fool was, but this is definitely a step forward for them, and still a great album that belongs on more than just one top 20 list this year. Checkout "Gonebones" and tell me that they haven't taken their music style to a different level of sound and texture. This is a mature band and this album is a showcase of talent that should not be disregarded.

I just have to try. I mean, come on, Pitchfork even liked it...

Chunk of Change [EP], Passion Pit
The Horse, the Rat and the Swan, Snowman
HLLLYH, The Mae Shi
Where You Go I Go Too, Lindstrøm

quote:

Originally posted by ezatldude:
A Weather Cove

Also getting a little more notice lately, but not enough. People, do yourself a favor, if you still don't have this album, get it. Now. It's a gem. It feels like a guilty pleasure, without the guilt. Just make sure you devote your full attention to it - like a baby. You won't appreciate it as background music. It's too quiet and unassuming for that. But, if you give it a few spins - really listen - you'll start to appreciate the complex, yet delicate, harmonies this male/female vocal duo have assembled. Better than She & Him, Him and Her, or Whoever and Whatever else.

Am listening to their myspace now, and it sounds quite lovely! May perhaps purchase.

quote:

Originally posted by Elitist_Pretentious:

quote:

Originally posted by Liberalkid:

PSY/OPSogist - Suffused with Static
Invincible - Shapeshifters
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Trifonic - Emergence
Any of the three albums released by Blue Sky Black Death this year.

Just a question...not directed at you only but where do you find out about these bands? I find Metacritic to be an incredible resource but very rarely venture beyond the albums they include (which are pretty indie anyway). I feel like I'd be broke if I ever got to know everything out there. Plus these obscure artists could potentially be hard to find (even online, which is where I shop anyway).

Personally, I find out about the bands I love from forums (this one and one other) and blogs (PM me if you want a list of some of my favorites). Occasionally I'll discover something through Soulseek, either by talking to other users or just trying something from a user who shares music similar to mine. To save time I almost always check a band's MySpace page to make sure it's something I'll be interested in. Virtually every band has a MySpace page with 4 or more songs you can listen to.

Oh, and Popmatters "Short Takes" section, which features about 4 short reviews daily of lesser-known bands is a real resource as well.

!!!

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Grand Salvo - Death
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
AGF - Dance Floor Drachen
Jamie Lidell - Jim
The Bridges - Limits of the Sky
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

quote:

Originally posted by goathouse's jolliness:
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Probably because it was a bitter disappointment. I got the impression that Ben Gibbard has finally run out of things to say and is now wallowing in dull generalizations about loneliness, heartbreak, etc. While his lyrics were snappy and genuinely clever in every album prior to this one, now they are totally flat. Seriously now, since when has Ben settled for metaphors about birds in cages, empty beds, and ice melting under one's feet?

I still get the shivers when listening to Transatlanticism. One can't possibly expect them to match that magical effort, but Plans came close. Narrow Stairs is both a step backward and a stumble down the staircase away from those two.

Sure, there are a few lazy metaphors here and there, but his lyrics on Give Up were like that and right there you have a dark horse for album of the decade. He does the whole "purposefully simplistic" thing better than just about anyone. Also, there are some genuinely good lyrics as well.

The odd sequencing is worth noting, because I think putting two of the longest songs on the album as track one and two was striking, if stupid. I lot of people might have struggled to get to the heart of the album, which accounts for much of the meh reception, I think.

"Would someone please call the surgeon / to crack my ribs and repair this broken heart." To me, this lyric from Give Up represents the "purposefully simplistic" style that we all adore in Ben Gibbard. But I cannot name one lyric from Narrow Stairs that is this perfectly facetious and playful, yet oddly sentimental at the same time. Nothing even comes close! I know he's trying to convey an entirely different mood and atmosphere than on Give Up, but that doesn't mean you have to rely on cliché to do so.

I do agree with you that putting "I Will Possess Your Heart" at the beginning of the album was a huge mistake. But in my opinion the only true "heart of the album" is the opener, "Bixby Canyon Bridge." From there it's like falling down a long, narrow stairs...