Monday, December 29, 2008

#4.... top singles 2008

Here's a list of my favorite singles from the last year:

I've already posted about "Robocop" by Kanye & TI's "Whatever You Like", so here's a few more that I dug...

Erykah Badu - Honey *
This is like record/wax/vinyl porn... ohgod

Radiohead - House of Cards *

the video was made all with lasers. and lasers are COOL

* - tie for my favorite videos of the year.

Estelle - Pretty Please (feat. Cee-Lo)

"American Boy" was a bigger hit, and a great song too (Kanye on the verse is damn good) but there's something about the playfulness of this that gets me.

Young Jeezy - Put On

this is my "hard" song for the year.

The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis

didn't love the new album as much as a I wanted to, but this has a great singalong feel.
the video for Stay Positive was pretty great too, directed by Jake Davis.

Kanye West - Flashing Lights (kinda NSFW)


the video was a little disappointing (Kanye + Spike Jonze, was expecting craziness) but still a dope song
thought this was pretty great too

Indie/Hipster Jam:
Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna...
Debated on including MGMT, but decided they weren't worthy (I'm sure they're devastated) mostly because their live show was subpar.

Guilty Pleasures:
Ne-Yo - Miss Independent



There weren't any songs that really blew my mind this year... I was hoping for another Kelly Clarkson "Since You Been Gone" type to come along, but all I got was crappy Katy Perry.
There's always next year. Here's hoping that one of the Olsen Twins or Mikey Rourke hooks up with Just Blaze or the guy from Of Montreal for something truly weird/awesome...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

#3.... top albums of 2008

Here's my top 5 for the year:

5.) Drive by Truckers - Brighter than Creations Dark
If Jeff Tweedy, from Wilco, would have grown up in Alabama I think he would have ended up in a band like DBT.
I was more happy with this album for introducing me to a great countrified rock band. I had heard of them before, but this was the first album of theirs that I purchased.

4.) Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak
This took a few listens before I realized how much I like it.
soul-sides talked about Kanye does the same thing every time he releases an album, he makes people talk about music. At first it was just hip-hop/rap, but now it's the whole pop world.
And here's Robocop (I'm still not sure what the whole "ack-in' like a Robocop" is all about, but I'm sure that I like it!)

3.) Q-Tip - The Renaissance
There's something about his voice... it just makes me smile.

2.) Vampire Weekend - s/t
Feels like this album is more than a year old. I had the EP downloaded summer of 07, I think. The best thing about this album is that I'm pretty sure that 20 years from now it will seem fresh.

1.) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The first 2 weeks I had this album, I listened to it every morning at work... I'm still not tired of it.


I posted links to Amazon's mp3 store and as luck would have it #1-3 are all on sale for only 5 bucks and 808's is only $3.99. I usually use Amazon for mp3 downloads, rather than iTunes, because they have a higher bitrate (256 vs. 128). I'm not really sure what it means, but I assume that bigger is better.


and now a few honorable mentions:


Esau Mwamwaya - Mixtape
this is $free.99 and lots of fun

Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Guilty Pleasure, everybody's gotta have one or two... or three or four

Al Green - Let it Down
if ?uestlove is involved, count me in.

Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

R. said he recorded this entire album on old school equipment with all live instrumentation (most of which he played himself) with no computer help, it has the feel of an old Marvin Gaye Motown album.

Sigur Ros - new one (not going to type it out!)
The "Them Jeans" remix of Illgressi from thefader.com is great too.

Wale - Mixtape about Nothing
I f**ks with Seinfeld, Wale f**ks with Seinfeld, therefore, I f**ks with Wale

The-Dream - Love/Hate

See also, Coldplay

I also, would have included In Rainbows, but technically it was released in 2007.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

2nd.... for kw

on the side project tip the strokes have a few:
from the ok
to the still not sure
even the quiet guy has one. I heard a few tracks on Mark Ronson's show a while back and they seemed pretty alright.

this one looks the most promising though:


check out Devandra in the background with testicular maracas

they remind me a little of this
and according to Mr. H maybe a little of this... these would only be known if you live in Iowa or the surrounding states. if you've never heard of/seen them before, count your blessings

Thursday, December 11, 2008

1st

Ok, here we go...

TI's "Whatever You Like" might be favorite song of 2008.
While it's not his best song (this is) it just makes me happy.

Here he is performing it live on Kimmel:


My favorite part of this performance is that he has no hype man. Instead his backup singer sings along with him on parts of the verses... amazing.
It seems like usually rappers/hip-hoppers just rap over their own song and you can usually even hear the vocal track behind them.
so, way to go TIP.
he's just a fascinating dude... more on him later.

lastly... can some one please please please make a remix of this song with the girl from Coming to America that Prince Akeem is supposed to marry?
Prince Akeem: What kind of music do you like?
Imani: Whatever kind of music you liiiiiiike (spreads arms)

that is all