The Critics Have Spoken - Master List Of Year End Top Ten Lists 2008.

Absentee Victory Shorts (Memphis Industries)
#09 Allmusic Blog Tim's Top Ten Albums of 2008

Akimbo Jersey Shores (Neurot Recrodings)
#15 Bill Gray of the Mae Shi - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Anathallo Canopy Glow (Anticon)
#04 Paste Magazine Andy Whitman's favorite albums of 2008
#05 Yoni Wolf of Why? - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#09 Nomo - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Matt Baldwin Paths of Ignition (American Dust)
#10 East Bay Express Tom Chandler's Top 10 The Best Music of 2008

Boston Spaceships Brown Submarine (Guided By Voices Inc.)
#12 Magnet Magazine Top 25 albums of 2008

The Bug London Zoo (Ninja Tune)
An album of the year in PLAN B "Poison Dart" DJ Magazine top 5 singles
#01 The Wire Magazine Top Albums of 2008
#01 The Quietus' Reductive & Subjective Albums Of The Year List: 14 to One
#01 "Poison Dart" Dusted Ben Donnelly's favorite songs of 2008
#02 Pop Matters best electronic albums of 2008
#04 Exclaim! Frequencies: Year in Review 2008
#05 Pop Matter best of Britain 2008
#07 "Poison Dart" The Clash Top 40 of 2008
#07 BJ Warshaw of Parts and Labor - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#09 Mojo Magazine The 50 Best Albums of 2008
#10 "Poison Dart" Dusted's Brad LaBonte 10 favorite recordings of 2008
#11 The Observer Music Monthly 50 Albums Of The Year
#12 DJ Magazine top albums of 2008
#12 Mixmag Top 50 albums of 2008
#16 The Fact magazine 20 Best Best: Albums of 2008
#18 "Poison Dart" Amazon Editor Picks: Best Songs of 2008
#19 Guardian UK Albums of the Year
#20 LiffeyMusicEtc Top 25 Albums of 2008
#22 Hip Hop Connection 2008 The Albums
#28 Beats So Fast Favorite Albums 2008
#31 Rough Trade Shop / Drowned In Sound albums of the year
#38 Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2008
#42 "Ganja" Mixmag Best single of year
#62 Boomkat favourite 100 albums for 2008
#80 "Poison Dart" Pitchfork The 100 Best Tracks of 2008

Caïna Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore)
#08 Pop Matters best metal albums of 2008

caUSE co-MOTION: It's Time! (Slumberland)
#08 Crystal Stilts - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#09 Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Miller Carr And The Chalants Passage Through the Wilderness vol. 2 (American Dust)
#01 “Hay” The Totam Blog Songs of the Year 2008

The Chap Fun & Interesting 7” (Lo Recordings)
#53 "Fun And Interesting" The Fact magazine 100 best: tracks of 2008

Coffins Buried Death (20Buck Spin)
#18 Pitchfork/Show No Mercy 20 albums of the year
#40 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08
#43 Guardian UK Albums of the Year

Crystal Stilts Alight The Night (Slumberland)
#04 Bradford Cox or Deerhunter - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#05 "The SinKing" Fucked UP - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#07 Washington City Paper Music 2008: Red Onion Goes To 11
#08 Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#14 “Crystal Stilts” Stereogum 50 most popular MP3s of 0f 2008
#13 Beats So Fast Favorite Albums 2008
#34 17 Dots blog best 88 albums of 2008
#49 Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2008

Damon & Naomi More Sad Hits (20/20/20)
#08 Magnet Best Of 2008: Reissues

Daedelus Love To Make Music To (Ninja Tune)
#05 XLR8R staff's quick 'n' dirty 2008 Top 25
#42 Mixmag Top 50 albums of 2008

Dark Captain / Light Captain Miracle Kicker (Loaf)
#33 Guardian UK Albums of the Year

Davila 666 S/t (In The Red Records)
#01 KCRW Mario Cotto's Top 10 of 2008

The Death Set Worldwide (Counter Records)
#11 Artrocker Top 35 albums of 2008
#78 "Impossible", Etan's Positive Outlook Remix The Fact magazine 100 best: tracks of 2008

Dirtbombs We Have You Surrounded (In The Red)
#81 Amazon Best of 2008: Top 100 Editors' Picks

Eat Skull Sick To Death (Siltbreeze)
#08 Dean Spunt of No Age - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Fern Knight S/t (VHF)
#02 SFGate/ SF Chronicle Ten Best Pop Albums That Were Ranked Too Low or Left off the Critics' Consensus Lists

Fink Distance and Time (Ninja Tune)
#86 Amazon Best of 2008: Top 100 Editors' Picks

The Gates of Slumber Conqueror (Profound Lore)
#05 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08
#10 Broward-Palm Beach New Times Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#10 Miami New Times Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#10 Phoenix New Times Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#10 Saint Louis Riverfront Times Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#19 Pop Matters best metal albums of 2008

Gods and Queens Untitled (Robotic Empire)
#19 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08

Hammers of Misfortune Fields/Church of Broken Glass (Profound Lore)
#01 Mick Barr of Krallice top ten list for Pitchfork
#07 Pitchfork/Show No Mercy 20 albums of the year

HANK IV Refuge In Genre (Siltbreeze)
#01 SF Bay Guardian The Most Intriguing Reader Top 10: Mitch Cardwell
#07 Unblinking Ear blog what was great in 2008
#08 WFMU - Evan Funk Davies Top 28 of 2008
#09 WFMU - Jason Grote, Acousmatic Theatre Hour Top Twenty Records of 2008
#09 KDVS/Art for Spastics RICK ELE's Best of 2008
#10 WFMU - Terre T's, Top 40 Best Faves of 2008

Krallice S/t (Profound Lore)
#01 Jordan Buck of Wrath of the Weak top ten list for Pitchfork/Show No Mercy
#02 Ryan Adams top ten of 2008 for Filter Magazine
#03 Pitchfork/Show No Mercy 20 albums of the year
#03 Mary Pearson of High Places - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#03 Marnie Stern - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#04 Pop Matters best metal albums of 2008
#04 Zah Hill - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#04 Aesop Dekker of Ludicra top ten list Pitchfork/Show No Mercy
#12 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08

Larkin Grimm Parplar (Young God)
#02 John Darnielle of Mountain Goats - top ten of 2008 for Filter Magazine
#02 John Darnielle of Mountain Goats - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#08 Boomkat favourite 100 albums for 2008

Mr. Scruff Donkey Ride / Giant Pickle 12” (Ninja Tune)
#68 'Donkey Ride' Amazon Editor Picks: Best Songs of 2008

µ-Ziq: Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (Planet Mu)
#01 Dreck Factory DF's Top 10 Electronic Albums of 2008

Murcof Versailles Sessions (Planet Mu)
#43 The Wire Magazine Top Albums of 2008

Pop Levi Never Never Love (Ninja Tune)
#09 Kamau High 2008 Billboard Critics Choice Top 10s
#29 Under The Radar Top 50 Albums Best Of 2008

The Present World I See (Lo Recordings)
#06 Brian DeGraw of Gang Gang Dance - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Terry Riley The Last Camel in Paris (Elision Fields)
#30 The Wire Magazine Top Albums of 2008

Restiform Bodies TV Loves You Back (Anticon)
#07 Subtle - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Roots Manuva Slime & Reason (Big Dada)
Guardian UK The best albums of 2008 - by the hot artists
#19 Mixmag Top 50 albums of 2008
#33 'Buff Nuff' The Clash Top 40 of 2008
#65 'The Show Must Go On' The Fact magazine 100 best: tracks of 2008

Samothrace Life's Trade (20 Buck Spin)
#30 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08

Sic Alps USEZ (Siltbreeze)
#47 Uncut's Top 50 of 2008
#48 The Wire Magazine Top Albums of 2008

Son Lux At War With Walls and Mazes (Anticon)
#01 NPR.org Top 10 Great Unknowns, From Second Stage
#02 Paste Magazine Andy Whitman's favorite albums of 2008

Sparks Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Lil Beethoven)
#18 8/1 Blog Best of 2008

Syclops! I've Got An Eye On You (DFA)
#18 XLR8R staff's quick 'n' dirty 2008 Top 25

Tobacco Fucked Up Friends (Anticon)
#05 KCRW Eric J Lawrence's Top 10 of 2008
#10 Diplo - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#10 Subtle - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#22 XLR8R staff's quick 'n' dirty 2008 Top 25

Torche Meanderthal (Robotic Empire)
#01 Decibel's Top 40 metal albums / Year-End Critics' Polls '08
#02 Pitchfork/Show No Mercy 20 albums of the year
#02 East Bay Express Kathleen Richards' Top 10 The Best Music of 2008
#03 Exclaim! Aggressive Tendencies: Year in Review 2008
#05 Last Blog On Earth best albums of 2008
#06 BJ Warshaw of Parts and Labor - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#10 Dusted Daniel Levin Becker's favorite albums of 2008
#10 Pop Matters best metal albums of 2008 #34 Paste Top 50
#44 Rough Trade Shop / Drowned In Sound albums of the year

Triclops! Out Of Africa (Alternative Tentacles)
#10 East Bay Express Kathleen Richards' Top 10 The Best Music of 2008

U.S. Girls Introducing… (Siltbreeze)
#01 Dusted's Brad LaBonte 10 favorite recordings of 2008

Vetiver Thing Of The Past (Gnomonsong)
#01 SFGate/ SF Chronicle Best Covers Album
#03 Everest top ten of 2008 for Filter Magazine
#10 Titus Andronicus - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#11 The Perfect Prescription My Favourite Albums of 2008: A List of 29

Vivian Girls Vivian Girls (In the Red)
#03 Chicago Sun Times 2008 Jim DeRogatis' 10 best albums of the year
#05 Best Rock Album Vinus Zine VZ's 2008 Hottt List
#05 Unblinking Ear blog what was great in 2008
#06 All Songs Considered The Year's Overlooked Gems
#06 Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes top 10 of 2008 for Filter Magazine
#06 "Tell The World" Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#07 Bradford Cox of Deerhunter - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#08 KCRW Mario Cotto's Top 10 of 2008
#09 Coke Machine Glow Top 50 Albums of 2008
#09 Rough Trade Shop / Drowned In Sound albums of the year
#09 2008 Pitchfork Readers Poll Best New(ish) Band
#10 "I Believe in Nothing" Fucked Up - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#11 Largehearted Boy Favorite Albums of 2008
#11 Washington City Paper Music 2008: Red Onion Goes To 11
#16 Exclaim! Pop Rocks: Year in Review 2008
#16 Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2008
#19 "Where Do You Run To" Pitchfork The 100 Best Tracks of 2008
#29 Beats So Fast Favorite Albums 2008
#54 Amazon Best of 2008: Top 100 Editors' Picks

The Week That Was S/t (Memphis Industries)
#08 Mojo Magazine The 50 Best Albums of 2008
#09 Uncut Best Of 2008
#10 London Sunday Times The 100 Best CDs of 2008
#44 The Observer Music Monthly 50 Albums Of The Year
#47 Under The Radar Top 50 Albums Best Of 2008

Why? Alopecia (Anticon)
#02 Dusted Daniel Levin Becker's favorite albums of 2008
#05 Gareth, Los Campesinos! - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#05 Fred Nicolaus of Department of Eagles - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008
#07 Drowned In Sound Top 50 Albums Of 2008
#10 East Bay Express Nate Seltenrich's Top 10 The Best Music of 2008
#11 Tiny Mix Tapes Favorite Albums of 2008
#13 Stereogum The 2008 Gummy awards
#16 2008 Pitchfork Readers Poll albums of the year
#24 Coke Machine Glow Top 50 Albums of 2008
#47 Culturedeluxe`s Top 50 Albums of 2008
#94 "Fatalist Palmistry" Pitchfork The 100 Best Tracks of 2008

Devon Williams Carefree (Ba Da Bing)
#09 Dan Bejar of Destroyer - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008

Wire Object 47 (Pink Flag)
#04 Jonathan Cohen 2008 Billboard Critics Choice Top 10s
#09 Troy Carpenter 2008 Billboard Critics Choice Top 10s
#17 The Perfect Prescription My Favourite Albums of 2008: A List of 29
#30 Chicago Sun Times 2008 Jim DeRogatis' 10 best albums of the year

Wooden Shjips Vol. 1 (Holy Mountain)
#6 Crystal Stilts - Pitchfork Guest List: Best of 2008 Yacht Summer Song 12” (DFA)
#41 "Summer Song" The Fact magazine 100 best: tracks of 2008

Zomes S/t (Holy Mountain)
#25 XLR8R staff's quick 'n' dirty 2008 Top 25

Killer Vetiver / Black Crows Hootenanny Photos.

Wikipedia definition: Hootenanny was used in the early twentieth century America to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in "hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". Now, most commonly, it refers to a folk-music party.

Photographer Alissa Anderson captured these amazing photos of Vetiver & The Black Crowes doing a mega jam of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" in Milwaukee on December 7th ot this year. Anderson has taken countless photos of such artists as Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Espers, Fern Knight, Meg Baird, Port O' Brien along with many other folksters, rockers & hipsters. Check out more of her work at http://alissaanderson.com/

Vetiver In No Depression's 2008: In Review Series.

2008: In Review
Vetiver
Thing Of The Past / Gnomonsong
Vetiver, in a reflective mood.

"Music discovery" is a newish buzzword of this decade, now that it's easier than ever to make a recording yet harder to figure out which ones are worth listening to. Independent bloggers and web software tools have joined traditional press, radio, and our friends to guide us toward music of interest. But the musicians we like have always helped to cultivate our tastes as well, through their own social networks and the cover songs they teach us.

You probably hadn't heard half of the songs that Vetiver essays on Thing Of The Past, an all-covers album and the band's third full-length disc, before it appeared in May. You almost certainly hadn't heard Dia Joyce's "Sleep A Million Years" unless you'd been to Vetiver frontman Andy Cabic's house, because it appears he has the only copy in existence. Joyce's rescued song nests among artifacts from Iain Matthews, Elyse Weinberg and Bobby Charles that are far from obvious, as well as less obscure cuts that appeared on albums by Townes Van Zandt, Ronnie Lane, Hawkwind and Loudon Wainwright III.

Vetiver's approach is quite straightforward – they feature Cabic's close voice, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, and maybe some backing vocals, steel guitar or violin – but the band also divines a powerful atmosphere from taste and intuition. Cabic coos over fluttering strings as Garland Jeffreys' sad "Lon Chaney" portrait reaches its end; that's chamber music to my ears. Hawkwind's "Hurry On Sundown" becomes an unholy incantation to raise the spirits, with a bit of Led Zeppelin III mysticism. Perhaps best of all is sometime comic Biff Rose's solo piano lament "To Baby", remade with a wistful, drifting groove.

Vetiver's original songs are typically subtle and understated, with the overheard quality of a shared secret. This well-curated set has the same feeling of discovery, but with a sweet permanence that runs much deeper than ephemeral buzz.

iTunes SALE!: NOW until January 12!

We hereby alert you to the existence of Revolver USA/Midheaven's first iTunes Sale!

From tonight until January 12th we're offering a special selection of Revolver USA-distributed titles digitally on the iTunes Music Store at savings up to $4.00 off the usual price of $9.99 (or so).

A full list of participating titles is here:

http://www.midheaven.com/iTunesSale.html

The links on that page will take you to the iTunes Music Store album page (assuming you have iTunes installed on your computer) for the particular album you're interested in.

The page mentions December 23rd as the starting date, but the prices on the iTunes Music Store are in effect NOW and the discounts will be granted until 1/12/09.

Please take a look and tell your friends!

(For our customers outside the USA: some titles listed on the above webpage may not be available for sale in your country, but albums that ARE ok for your territory-- and are delivered to iTunes by Revolver USA-- should be on sale at equivalent discounts, as well!)


also, a friendly reminder about:

http://www.midheaven.com/downloads.html

The Downloads page also gives you a complete rundown on all free and for-pay downloads-- including iTunes, e-music.com and AmazonMP3-- available from Midheaven/RevolverUSA-exclusive (and otherwise!) artists, as well as directing you to all Midheaven site entries where free MP3s, RealAudio and AACs reside.

Thank you for your kind indulgence and happy holidays!

Sounds From The Stacks: Employee Top Tens 2008.

CAMERON BLACKWELL
1. Teenage Jesus & the Jerks - Beirut Slump/Shut Up & Bleed CD (Atavistic)
2. Flipper - Sex Bomb Baby CD (Water)
3. Miss Pussycat & Quintron - Trixie & the Tree Trunks Season 1 DVD (Rhinestone)
4. Subhumans - Death Was Too Kind LP (Alternative Tentacles)
5. George Coleman - Bongo Joe LP (Mississippi)
6. Zomes - s/t LP (Holy Mountain)
7. Sharron Kraus - Foxes Wedding CD (Durtro/Jnana)
8. Drinking on the Oakland Alameda Ferry
9. V/A - Sprigs of Thyme: 78s from the EMI Archives LP/CD (Honest Jon's)
10. V/A - Victrola Favorites CD+Book (Dust to Digital)

CRISTIAN CEIA
1. The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent CD (Castle)
2. Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI: Ambleside CD (Probe Plus)
3. The Bug - London Zoo 3xLP/CD (Ninja Tune)
4. DJ/Rupture - Uproot CD (Agriculture)
5. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles 2xLP/CD (Warp)
6. Portishead - Third 2xLP/CD (Island)
7. V/A - Mary Ann Hobbs Presents Evangeline 4xLP/CD (Planet Mu)
8. Neil Landstrumm - Lord for £39 3xLP/CD (Planet Mu)
9. Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals 2xLP/CD (Type)
10. Genghis Tron - Board Up the House 2xLP (Lovepump United)
Single of the Year: DJ Mujava - Township Funk 12-inch (Warp)

JERRY CONNOLLY
1. V/A - Des Jeunes Gens Modernes 1978-1983 LP (Born Bad)
2. V/A - IVG: French Futur Anterieur 1979-1985 CD (Born Bad)
3. Mayyors - Live & Singles
4. Cheveu - s/t LP (S-S)
5. Aufgehoben - Khora CD (Holy Mountain)
6. Black Boned Angel - Endless Coming Into Life CD (20 Buck Spin)
7. Houston's - Veggie Burger
8. Rosso Pizzeria & Wine Bar
9. White/Light - Black Acts CD (Smells Like)
10. Ludella Black & the Masonics - From the Witness Stand LP/CD (Damaged Goods)

THEE MIKE DOYLE
1. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends CD/LP (Anticon)
2. Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night CD/LP (Slumberland)
3. The Week That Was - s/t CD/LP (Memphis Industries)
4. V/A - Notwave CD (DFA/Rong)
5. Eden Express - Que Amors Que CD/LP (Holy Mountain)
6. Diplo & Santogold - Top Ranking CD (Mad Decent)
7. Sic Alps - A Long Way Around to a Short Cut CD (Animal Disguise)
8. Jonas Reinhardt - s/t CD (Kranky)
9. Eddie Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colors CD/LP (Goner)
10. Personal & the Pizzas - Live!!!

ULI ELSER
1. Devon Williams - Carefree CD (Ba Da Bing)
2. The Duke Spirit - Neptune CD (Artist First)
3. DJ/Rupture - Uproot CD (Agriculture)
4. Diplo & Santogold - Top Ranking CD (Mad Decent)
5. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals CD (Illegal Art)
6. 16 Horsepower - Live 2001 2xCD (Alternative Tentacles)
7. El Perro Del Mar - From The Valley To The Stars CD (Control Group/TCG)
8. John Maus - Love Is Real LP/CD (Upset The Rhythmn)
9. Kill Surf City - EP (Morr Music)
10. Zomes - s/t LP/CD (Holy Mountain)

THURSTON GRAHAM
1. XYX - Sistema de Terminacion Sexual 7-inch (S-S)
2. Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night LP/CD (Slumberland)
3. Animals and Men - Never Bought Never Sold LP (Mississippi)
4. Sic Alps - U.S. EZ LP/CD (Siltbreeze)
5. V/A - IVG: French Futur Anterieur 1979-1985 CD (Born Bad)
6. Zomes - s/t LP/CD (Holy Mountain)
7. Jean-Pierre Massiera - Psychoses: Freakoid 1963-1978 LP/CD (Mucho Gusto)
8. Los Llamarada - Take the Sky LP (S-S)
9. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends LP/CD (Anticon)
10. Mac Blackout - s/t LP/CD (Deadbeat)

DAVE GULBIS
Wow, this was a really hard list to make this year, not even to mention all the incredible reissues that came out. Keep it up, music!
1. Burning Star Core - Challenger LP/CD (Plastic Records/Hospital)
2. Sight Below - Glider CD (Ghostly International)
3. Sic Alps - U.S. EZ LP/CD (Siltbreeze)
4. Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me CD (Audika)
5. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna LP/CD (Social Registry)
6. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill LP/CD (Type)
7. Billy Bao - Dialectics of Shit LP (Parts Unknown), Accumulation 7-inch (Xerox), Fuck Separation 10-inch (S-S)
8. Dead C - Secret Earth LP/CD (Ba Da Bing), DR503 & Eusa Kills 2xLPs (Ba Da Bing/Jagjaguwar)
9. Pigeons - Virgin Spectacle LP (Black Dirt)
10. Grey Daturas - Return to Disruption CD (Neurot)
Re-issue of the Year: Better Beatles - Mercy Beat LP (Hook or Crook)
Live Show: clearly, Celine Dion

KYLE KRAMER
10. The Breeders - Mountain Battles (4AD)
9. Aidan Baker - I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed 2xCD (Important)
8. Darkspace - III CD (Avantgarde)
7 1/2. Ladytron - Velocifero 2xLP (Cobraside)
7. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing 2xLP/CD (ATP)
6. Sic Alps - U.S. EZ LP/CD (Siltbreeze)
5 1/2. The Pink Noise - Dream Code LP (Sacred Bones)
5. Cobalt - Landfill Breastmilk Beast CD (Profound Lore)
4. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. 2xCD (Kranky)
3. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends LP/CD (Anticon)
2 1/2. Trelldom - Til Minne CD (Regain)
2. Blank Dogs - On Two Sides CD (Sacred Bones)
1. Gnaw Their Tongues - An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood CD (Crucial Blast)

POTSIE "UTRILLO" KUSHNER
1. Eric Chenaux - Dull Lights CD (Constellation)
2. Clark-Hutchinson - A = MH2 Expanded CD (Sunbeam Records)
3. Earth - Bee Made Honey in the Lion's Skull 2xLP/CD (Southern Lord)
4. Padded Cell - Savage Skulls CDEP (DC Recordings)
5. Zomes - s/t LP/CD (Holy Mountain)
6. Devon Williams - Carefree CD (Ba Da Bing)
7. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends LP/CD(Anticon)
8. Burning Star Core - Challenger LP (Hospital Productions)
9. The re-opening of Sam Adato's Drum Shop
10. Kurt Vile - Constant Hitmaker CD (Gulcher)

MATTHEW J. LAMMIKINS, JR.
1. Der TPK - Games for Slaves LP (Siltbreeze)
2. The Bug - London Zoo LP/CD (Ninja Tune)
3. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton LP/CD (PPM)
4. Devon Williams - Carefree CD (Ba Da Bing)
5. Nodzzz - s/t LP (What's Your Rupture)
6. Earth - Bee Made Honey in the Lion's Skull 2xLP/CD (Southern Lord)
7. Colossal Yes - Charlemagne's Big Thaw LP (Ba Da Bing)
8. Eat Skull - Sick to Death LP/CD (Siltbreeze)
9. DJ Rupture - Up/Root mix CD (Agriculture)
10. Vampire Weekend - s/t LP/CD (XL)
Oh yeah, and reissues (too easy to list in the top 10): V/A - Auteur Labels: Object Music CD, Earles & Jenson - Just Farr a Laugh (Matador), V/A - Victrola Favorites CD+Book (Dust to Digital), The Lines CD, Performing Ferret Band & all the new Messthetics comps

ANDY LARSEN
1. Black Time - Double Negative CD/LP (In The Red)
2. Der TPK - Games For Slaves LP (Siltbreeze)
3. Viva l'American Death Ray Music - Sangre Libre 2xLP (Sangre Libre)
4. Irma Thomas - Sings LP (Change)
5. XYX - Sistema de Terminacion Sexual 7-inch (S-S)
6. Cold Cave - Trees Grew Emotions and Died 12-inch (Dais)
7. Human Eye - Fragments of the Universe Nurse LP (Hook or Crook)
8. V/A -Local Anesthetic CD/LP (Smooch)
9. Mystery Girls - Incontinopia CD/LP (In The Red)
10. The Nixe - s/t LP (Polly Magoo)

MURPH
1. Common Eider, King Eider - Figs, Wasps, & Metronomes CD (Root Strata, please buy it)
2. Hank IV - Refugee in Genre LP (Siltbreeze)
3. Get Offs - Airplane Fight 7-inch (self-released)
4. The VSS - Nervous Circuits CD/DVD (Hydrahead)
5. Bum Kon - Drunken Sex Sucks LP/CD (Smooch/Maximum Rocknroll)
6. V/A - Local Anesthetic CD (Smooch)
7. Soul Merchants - s/t 2xCD (Smooch)
8. Horn of Dagoth - demo
9. Woven Hand - Ten Stones LP/CD (Sounds Familyre)
10. Git Some - Cosmic Rock LP/CD (1-2-3-4 Go!)

KEN OLSON
1. V/A - Weird Records Compilation 4xLP (Weird)
2. The Clean - Compilation LP (Little Axe)
3. The Rats - s/t LP (Mississippi)
4. Sex/Vid - Communal Living 12-inch (Dom America)
5. V/A - Local Anesthetic CD (Smooch)
6. Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night LP/CD (Slumberland)
7. XYX - Sistema de Terminacion Sexual 7-inch (S-S)
8. Subhumans - Death Was Too Kind LP/CD (Alternative Tentacles)
9. Animals and Men - Never Bought Never Sold LP (Mississippi)
10. Leuzemia - s/t LP (Lengua Armada)

RANDY RANSONE
1. Lebenden Toten - Near Dark CD (Wicked Witch/Feral Ward)
2. XYX - Sistema de Terminacion Sexual 7-inch (S-S)
3. V/A - Obsession 2xLP/CD (Bully)
4. V/A - Psychedelic Snarl LP (Rubble)
5. V/A - Pop Sike Pipe Dreams LP (Rubble)
6. Leuzemia - s/t LP (Lengua Armada)
7. Debris' - Static Disposal LP/CD (Anaopheles)
8. Zomes - s/t LP/CD (Holy Mountain)
9. Hunches - Exit Dreams LP/CD (In The Red)
10. Subhumans - Death Was Too Kind LP/CD (Alternative Tentacles)

TIM SOETE
1. V/A - Obsession 2xLP/CD (Bully)
2. Kurt Vile - Constant Hitmaker CD (Gulcher)
3. Jonas Reinhardt - s/t CD (Kranky)
4. Ariel Pink - Oddities Sodomies vol. 1 LP (Vinyl International)
5. Lindstrom - Where You Go, I Go Too 2xLP/CD (Smalltown Supersound)
6. Bum Kon - Drunken Sex Sucks LP/CD (Smooch/Maximum Rocknroll)
7. La Dusseldorf - Viva LP/CD (Water)
8. John Maus - Love Is Real LP/CD (Upset The Rhythm)
9. Wooden Shjips - Vol. 1 LP/CD (Holy Mountain)
10. Sic Alps - U.S. EZ LP/CD (Siltbreeze)

TOPPE
1. The Week That Was - s/t CD (Memphis Industries)
2. V/A - Notwave CD (Rong/DFA)
3. Chap - Mega Breakfast CD (Ghostly International)
4. Dark Captain Light Captain - Miracle Worker CD (Loaf)
5. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends LP/CD (Anticon)
6. Milk & Cookies - s/t 2xLP (Radio Heartbeat)
7. Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel CD (Kranky)
8. Kelley Polar - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling CD (Environ)
9. Sexy Kids - Sisters Are Forever 7-inch (Slumberland)
10. Rodriguez - Cold Fact LP/CD (Light in the Attic)

Vashti Bunyan Commercial On Year End Wrap Up.

Vashti Bunyan's 'Trian Song ' used on the Reebok: Join The Migration commercial made it on the Advertising Age top ten ad songs of the year list. Ad songs of the year? Wow man, there really are year end lists for every conceivable topic (shitty or otherwise) known to man.

9. VASHTI BUNYAN: "TRAIN SONG"
REEBOK

Many of you will probably recognize players in this spot like Eli Manning, Peyton Manning and about 18 others trudging through deserts and abandoning half-mowed lawns to arrive at a stadium in a migratory V formation for the fall season. Of course, we were drawn to the recently rejuvenated folk hero Vashti Bunyan, who sings about glow worms; we're not the type to get chills just thinking about fourth-and-goal crunch-time, so McGarryBowen has obviously done something right.

Some Much Deserved Murcof Coverage.

Murcof's stunning Versailles Sessions has been getting some much deserved media attention. Among the more notable accomplishments Murcof made the cover of Italian music magazine Rockerilla (pictured above), was #43 on Wire's Record of the Year list, and has recieved reviews from Exclaim, Tinymixtapes and Almostcool.

Here are a few relevant web links:
Tinymixtapes
Irishtimes.com
Exclaim.com
Thefourohfive.com

More on The Versailles Sessions:

"Fabulous...It brings nothing to mind so much as Vangelis in his Blade Runner mode, performing to Louis XIV" The Word

"it's freaking massive" Almost Cool

"impressive in its reach and seriousness" BBC Music

"sublime" **** Time Out

"a grand and elegant opus" Metro

“Corona’s exquisite touch, attention to detail and disarming sense of originality remain as haunting and beautiful as ever” 4/5 DJ

"an absolute pleasure" The Wire (#43 Record of the Year 2008)

"Corona’s work is becoming increasingly complex and fascinating, and this piece shows him at his most versatile and confident yet." 4.9/5 Album of the Month, themilkfactory

"Mind-blowing" 8/10 AU

Unreleased Wooden Shjips Holiday Tracks Posted.

Those Wooden Shjips guys are always thinking.... Just for fun the band recorded a couple holiday-themed stompers to send out as a limited cassingle to their friends. For a short period of time the band has graciously posted the two tracks on their website. Check it here. Hjo Hjo Hjo!

Cobra Verde Reviewed On Dusted.

Dusted Reviews
Artist: Cobra Verde
Album: Haven’t Slept All Year
Label: Scat
Review date: Dec. 5, 2008

Ostensibly nothing more than a solid mid-western rock band from the indie underground, Cobra Verde has always been about much more than the sum of its deceptively simple parts. Rising from the ashes of Cleveland’s Death of Samantha in the early 1990s, Cobra Verde puts an arty, glam-tinged spin on bad-ass bar rock. And quite frankly, no one does it better.

The group’s latest, Haven’t Slept All Year, works as an interesting companion piece to its previous release, 2005’s Copycat Killers. The latter album is a strangely brilliant collection of covers that runs the gamut from the Easter Monkeys’ “Underpants” to a deliciously menacing recasting of Pink’s dance-pop anthem “Get This Party Started.” Haven’t Slept All Year is all new original material, yet it exhibits the same willingness to tackle any genre with both a dead-on stare and an arched eyebrow that made Copycat Killers so much twisted fun.

Establishing the album’s carefree romanticism is the opener "Riot in the Food Court, " which features a gargantuan hook for a chorus and plays like a lost track from the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This may seem like an unlikely pose for a bunch of middle-aged rust belters to strike, yet not only does it works, it’s quite contagious. Frontman John Petkovic croons like he’s getting ready for the prom on the synth-poppy “Something About the Bedroom” and contemplates being stuck “between a boy and a man” on “Freeride,” evoking a genuine sweetness that should play well with any post-OC fans the band may have made.

Cobra Verde have always been stylistically restless and unpredictable, but never to such a degree over the course of a single album. While this is a rock album first and foremost (see “World Can’t Have Her”), there are touches of country (the aforementioned “Freeride”), debauched beat cabaret (“Wasted Again”), synth anthems (“Run Away”) and subtly swingin’ acoustic numbers (“Together Alone”).

The only thing more surprising than Cobra Verde’s existence this far into the new millennium is the quality of its recordings. Fifteen years since Viva La Muerte, their debut on Scat Records, Petkovic and Co. continue to rock hard in the face of the impending cultural apocalypse. With that in mind, Haven’t Slept All Year is an ideal soundtrack for the current trash heap that is our society. Cobra Verde cast their net wide and work with whatever comes slithering back, compressing it all into a weighty chunk of glittering pop-rock smite to be hurdled at whoever needs a knock on the head.

By Nate Knaebel

Tiny Mix Tapes Gives A HEAVVVY Review Of Pussygutt.

Pussygutt
She Hid Behind Her Veil
[20 Buck Spin; 2008]
Styles: doom-noise
Others: Hammers of Misfortune, Samothrace, Rakhim
Original review

Even in an era when a huge strain of sub-guitar noiseniks are doing anything they can to sound as dark and ominous as possible, the bands of the 20 Buck Spin label sound, well, just a little extra dark and ominous. It’s at least the case with Rakhim, a positively grimy duo with an excellent doom-noise album to their credit, and now with Pussygutt, who vomit out 45 minutes of impending wrath like vengeful gods with She Hid Behind Her Veil. It makes all the sense in the world that they hale from the methland that is Idaho, as they can’t seem to put together a collage that doesn’t sound dipped in drugs.

A single-track, sitting-on-a-cloud drone excursion that plays like a deathly, wordless after-school special minus the commercials, the cliché images you’d expect march through your mind as Veil unfolds: red, fiery timpanis larger than the earth itself banging out a sparse rhythm; an orchestra of skeletons playing strings atop a floating piece of ice, just drifting to nowhere; decapitated bunnies — you get the idea. It has a dank-dungeon feel and smell, the sound of six-foot nails being driven into the earth, with a downpour of fuzz that doesn’t relent until it’s time to neatly tie it all up with the aforementioned string of strings.

There are more complex thrills out there if you’re looking for obscure product, but Pussygutt is what they is. Don’t begrudge them for that.

1. She Hid Behind Her Veil

by Gumshoe

Listen To What's Upcoming On DFA.

Give a hoot about DFA? Check out the following links for upcoming release promo players.

Capracara
Cage & Aviary
Woolfy (In Flagranti Mixes)
Woolfy (Whatever/Whatever Mixes)

Restiform Bodies 7.1 Review On Pitchfork Today.

Restiform Bodies:
TV Loves You Back
[Anticon; 2008]
Rating: 7.1
Original Review

California is a big state. And hip-hop aficionados, with their firm sense of place, tie Oakland to a unique style of rap that bears little resemblance to its famous counterpart in Los Angeles. The brightest lights of the Bay Area, E-40 and Too $hort, never fully bought into the dark, trigger-happy sensationalism of the Death Row artists: Guns simply weren't part of their vision of, or path to, the good life. Emphasizing the joy of letting loose, the hyphy movement that sprang up a few years ago only cemented the scene's drama-free outlook.

But Oakland's Restiform Bodies are agitators. And what better place for this hall of modest fame-- the indie-rap supergroup of Passage, Bomarr Monk, and Telephone Jim Jesus-- than Anticon? Their debut on the label, TV Loves You Back, presents a furious, righteous, and not entirely subtle dissatisfaction with capitalism. Thanks to the recent tumult in the world's markets, the album, like the DNC platform, has an added punch of timeliness. To be fair, mindless consumerism is more the target here than, say, overly leveraged banks. In short, the rappers mount their attack on low culture, not high finance.

"Consumer Culture Wave" suggests a fight-the-Man mission with its title. Luckily, the song is better than that, too gloriously strange and oblique to be pressed into the service of jam-band leftism. (Love and gender seem to be the real subject, anyway.) Better to revel in the fluorescent textures and spastic rhythms, an accurate evocation of life in the attention-deficient multimedia slipstream, than to grope for political provocations in the lyrics. After all, it would have sufficed to attack QVC in only one song, you'd think. Docking too many points here isn't fair, anyway: Laid out on the page, even the best songs forfeit their essence. But when you spit nonsense with the apocalyptic ferocity of El-P, in many ways the hyperpolitical white rapper's template, that nonsense may as well be scripture.

Ever eager to disquiet, the Bodies even stoke the listener's anxieties about machines (on the sludgy, horror-string-laced "Pick It Up, Drop It") and modern medicine ("Ameriscan"). If there's a paranoid style in American hip-hop, this may be its purest expression. Nodding to the post-Thanksgiving virus that turns the lanes of Wal-Mart into the Ben-Hur chariot race, "Black Friday" bounces between drum'n'bass speed and trip-hop languor to manic-depressively link consumerism and domestic life. That the Bodies lean on everything from the New Romantics to crunk to post-rock to ghettotech to paint this cultural self-portrait only amplifies the strangeness-- and accuracy-- of TV Loves You Back.

"Movies are for entertainment," Louis B. Mayer famously stated. "If you want to send a message, send a telegram." The role of art isn't quite that narrow, of course, but the legendary producer knew that audiences didn't want to be lectured. And sadly that's what a lot of independent rap does. The Restiform Bodies avoid this. As Passage put it: "All the information on TV Loves You Back is stuff I'm trying to make peace with as a person, and that I think we all have to make peace with as a society." That sums up why the record is not only digestible, but outright luscious. We're not watching a presentation or reading a complaint. We're not being condemned for watching "The Hills". We're living, for a YouTube minute, inside three minds warped and wracked by our national addiction to the screen. It's equal parts unsightly and arresting in the way that most pathologies are.

- Roque Strew, December 10, 2008

Tour plans for next year:
02/19/09 Portland, OR @ Backspace (w/ EGADZ)
02/21/09 Boise, ID @ he Bouquet (w/ EGADZ)
02/22/09 Salt Lake City, UT @ Uprock Records (w/ EGADZ)
02/24/09 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive (w/ EGADZ)
02/27/09 Winterhaven, CA @ Open Aired (w/ EGADZ)
03/03/09 Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse (w/ EGADZ)
03/05/09 San Francisco, CA @ Underground SF (w/ EGADZ)

Lakin Grimm In Time Out New York.

Time Out New York / Issue 688 : Dec 4–10, 2008
By Jay Ruttenberg
Photo: Ports Bishop
GRIMM TIDINGS Singer-songwriter Larkin Grimm chronicles a berserk American experience on her new album, Parplar.

The itinerant folksinger Larkin Grimm has come downtown from her current home in Spanish Harlem—length of residence: one week—to grab breakfast on her way out of town. Rain tumbles down with a ferocity generally seen in movies about shipwrecks, yet she dines outside, beneath the restaurant’s modest canopy, remaining miraculously dry as the city soaks. To the musician’s right sits a drunk, welcomed to Grimm’s table after he drifted by requesting money. “Arggh!” he mumbles. “No mucho English.” The aromatic stranger drifts in and out of consciousness, missing the fantastic, at times unbelievable life story that the singer recounts with a monologuist’s poise.

Grimm is 27, the colorful tattoos of her generation splayed across her arms. Her riveting new album, Parplar, is her third full-length, yet the first to feature nonimprovised material and gain wider distribution, courtesy of Young God Records. Her songs are at once witchy, funny and intensely sexual—as befits an album that she claims to be “about Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and the battle between male and female energies in the world.”

Like many eccentric young artists, Grimm is a child of hippies. “There are a lot of us making psychedelic folk music, and we’re not freaky or fakes,” she contends. “We’re just our parents’ children—this is our culture.” Parplar was recorded earlier this year, but its roots lie in the late ’60s, when Grimm’s mother dropped acid on a family sailing trip, “realized that everything was messed up” and ran away from home. The future Mother Grimm hitchhiked to Haight-Ashbury, where she minded children of the Grateful Dead and enlisted in the Holy Order of MANS, a religious commune into which Larkin was born.

The singer’s parents left the Order when she was six. “In the ’80s, the utopian communities that thrived in the ’60s started transforming into the weird cults that we have now,” explains Grimm, who continues to dabble in various factions “because they remind me of home.” The family moved to the Appalachian Mountains so that her fiddler father could immerse himself in hillbilly music. The young singer, accustomed to socializing with pacifists, reacted to the rednecks she suddenly encountered in predictable fashion: When her parents found Grimm throwing knives, they enrolled her in a liberal boarding school. “No longer was I the delinquent bad kid,” she says. “Now, I was class president.”And so, a decade after leaving the Holy Order of MANS, Grimm matriculated at Yale, where she soon befriended the scion of a far more demented American sect: presidential daughter Barbara Bush. “She was interesting,” Grimm claims. “Her best friend was a black gay guy—the gayest man on campus. She was in love with a radical environmentalist, who broke up with her because he didn’t want the Secret Service snooping around. She drank a lot and had problems with boys. There was this very mean plan to get her pregnant and then follow her when she got her abortion. Guys were trying to sleep with her and they were planning to poke a hole in the condom.”

“Hech hech!” the homeless man murmurs. “Acapulco mucho bueno.”

“You can’t blame people for who their parents are,” Grimm adds.

The singer had her own plans for the President’s daughter: She hoped to involve Bush in a performance-art piece, “turning her into a fabulous Paris Hilton character.” Before this could unfold, however, an unpleasant drug experience caused Grimm to cease talking for months and flee to Alaska, where she fasted on a mountaintop. She was discovered there by a kindhearted shaman—named Jezebel Crowe!—who taught her the ways of the medicine woman…and encouraged her to return to Yale. (These days, even witches harbor Ivy League ambitions.)

Returning to school, Grimm broke her silence. She began playing music both as a member of the Dirty Projectors—a band she has since left—and solo. “I realized that when you’re singing, all your emotional truth comes through,” she says. It’s these voices from Grimm’s life that aggregate on her broad, bizarre, uniquely American record, with its collegiate folk and Appalachian howls, ’60s spirituality and contemporary pop culture, chaste hymns and sexual deviance.Her story drawn to the present, the singer rises from the table, gives a piece of corn bread to the homeless man and walks alongside Tompkins Square Park. The rain has cleared, casting the city in a luminous glow. “That Mexican guy totally just felt me up,” she says. “I’m probably the only woman he’s touched in ten years, which is so sad. I’m okay giving him a little bit of sexual healing.”

Larkin Grimm plays the Charleston Fri 5, the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine Sat 6 and Housing Works Bookstore Café Wed 10.