Jon Wolf's Best of 2008

Editor's Note: The follow post/article is by Jon Wolf.


Hi All, I am not above obligatory year-end praise, so here is my wrap-up, I am not doing a straight-up "ten best" whatevers, but I do want to re-spotlight the best new bands I came across, and a few other honorable mentions that may have gotten passed over the first time around.


BEST NEW BANDS

This is all relative to me, if you were into one of them in '94, good for you.

These bands were able to produce more than ONE good song, and I'm a sucker for a single, but these were bands that were able to string together an actual consistent sound of their own and I am looking forward to hearing more from them.

Start the new year a cooler person, get to know these kids now before they get an iPod commercial and are too popular to like anymore (too late, Submarines: here).


The Constellations - I'm biased, but I do believe these guys are an iPod commercial away from being huge, I look forward to not liking them.

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Pete & The Pirates - Don'tsayjanglydon'tsayjanglydon'tsayjangly.... Catchy jangly guitars (DAMMIT!) make this great little album, one of the best complete albums of the year. I could see them being a lot of kids' first favorite band (other than Vampire Weekend). Just added new 2009 stand-alone single "Jennifer" which may be as strong, if not stronger, than anything on the album:

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Situationists = The Futureheads + The Lucksmiths / Mystery Jets. That makes no sense, just check them out:

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Envelopes - French alt-rock sounds like this, both this and the P&TP album were released on the same day at the beginning of the year and I never stopped listening to either.

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Five O'Clock Heroes - Pretty straight forward, well-produced rock, leaning toward punk, like Maroon 5 if they didn't suck.

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Anthem In - Unironic pop-punk, best Ben Gibbard impression of the year, like Death Cab For Rogue Wave.

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Tartufi - Heavily under the influence of Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, and Pinback, but in the best way.

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Republic Tigers - They defy convention on each song, hard to pin down, but fun to try, insert favorite alt-label here.

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Submarines - Guy/girl vocals are hard to beat.

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Plants & Animals - One of my fave new voices of the year, I could listen to "Good Friend" three times in a row and not even notice.

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Lemuria - Sigh, you girls can even make yelling: "Like a goddamn dog!" sound cute. In the proud tradition of Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield, even Lisa Loeb.

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I Love Math - Do you really love math or are you just saying that because it's in front of you? Great DIY bedroom rock.

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Lackthereof - Ha, more like Embarrassmentofriches, um, yeah, anyway, a perfect little 28-minute album from this Menomena side project.

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Ketch Harbour Wolves - The National go camping. Might be my fave album of the year, if I was awarding that to someone, but I am not, just go get their album for FREE before it gets releases on iTunes:

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SUPERLATIVES!

Best Emo Song I Would Have Loved Circa 1998:

Ludo - Hum Along (The epic run-on-sentence of a closing verse contains the awe-inspiring lyric: "Singing nonsense songs in 12 bars to the jaguars.")

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Best Noise:

Like a Pixies song buried on an out-of-range radio station.

Wildildlife - Things Will Grow

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Best Band With the Worst Name:

I realize that "FUCK" was the must-have band name accessory of the year, sorry exclamation point, but to quote a friend: "I don't want to like a band named Starfucker, what do you say when someone asks you what you're listening to: STARFUCKER?!" Flaming Lips filtered through a Super Nintendo, they take the 8-bit obsession seriously.

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Best Mixtape Deal Closer:

The original was already boombox-over-the-head-worthy, but this quieter version is even more so.

Frightened Rabbits - The Twist (live)

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Best Female Rock Vocal Sung By a Dude:

Best rocker I never got to post. Can a song rock too hard? I like a good face-melter as much as I like hyphenated phrases, but the MALE lead singer's voice threw me a little after I thought I had found the next great chick rocker, I had a similar Crying Game moment with the Silver Sun Pickups, but I got over it, and this band still rocks hard, esp on this song off their EP.

Jaguar Love - Videotape Seascape

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Best Avalanches Song Not By The Avalanches:

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

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