We Get Letters - Jeff M.'s Picks for 2008

I was at this concert. It was stinking hot. Jeff was keeping it cool. On the high hat

Occassionally we get letters. And occasionally I will post them.

Here we have another letter from longtime reader and my good friend Jeff M., former drummer for the now defunct Alphabetical Order.

Jeff was kind enough to send over his picks, so I said, hey, I'll post them. They're really good. Jeff's turned me on to a lot of new music over the past two and half years I've known him (FMCI GAO FOR LIFE!!!), and in true form, he doesn't disappoint.

Except for that Deerhunter pick.




i know it's bad form for a bunch of like-minded people to like the same albums, but so be it. we hear the same because we feel the same, to paraphrase Damon Albarn of Blur. Mr. Shimmy Shake is the person who turned me on to No Kids and i absolutely love that the spirit of "i love this band so much, you need to hear it!" lives on in my life. and besides, No Kids is the most interesting band i heard in 2008. in fact, music was so good this year that i was lucky enough to put albums at the top of this list from bands that are truly innovating, creating new sounds and mixing genres. these are the ones i spent the most time with.

1. No Kids - Come Into My House
2. Jaguar Love - Take Me to the Sea
3. Parts & Labor - Receivers
4. Calexico - Carried to Dust
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont'd
6. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
7. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
8. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
9. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
10. Rhymefest - Man in the Mirror mixtape with Mark Ronson

honorable mention:
All the Saints - Fire on Corridor X
Foals - Antidotes
French Kicks - Swimming
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
The Kills - Midnight Boom
No Age - Nouns
The Notwist - The Devil, You, and Me
Portishead - Third
Q-Tip - The Renaissance
Sigur Ros - Some Made Up Icelandic Album Name
Sun Kil Moon - April
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Vampire Weekend - self-titled
Vivian Girls - self-titled
Wire - Object 47

then there were a bunch of bands whose albums i didn't love all-around, but who put out some amazing songs nonetheless:

The Big Sleep - Bad Blood
The Broken West - Auctioneer
Coldplay - Lost!
The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Horse Feathers - Albina
Joan As Police Woman - Hard White Wall
Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Paranoia (Never Enough)
MGMT - Time to Pretend
Mountain Goats and Kaki King - Thank You Mario, But Our Princess is in Another Castle
Nada Surf - Weightless
Neon Neon - I Told Her on Alderaan
Santogold - You'll Find a Way
Santogold - Creator
Sebastien Grainger - American Names
Subtle - Exiting Arm

here are 7 excellent albums i heard this year that i either 1) didn't know existed or 2) had never even heard of the band before. this is the big lebowski "new shit has to come to light / we were not aware of that, dude" award:

Diplo - I Like Turtles mixtape
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
Meligrove Band - Planets Conspire
The Natural History - People That I Meet
Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River
Statehood - Lies and Rhetoric
Strategy - Future Rock

and finally, because they haven't gotten props anywhere else, i just want to shout out Radiohead for putting on a hell of a live show at nisaan "who the fuck designed this place" pavilion in may. i endured torrential rain and was sopping wet the whole show, but it was worth it. also, a shout out to Lupe Fiasco's show in january at 9:30 Club. he said he was under the weather, but put on an awesome two-hour show anyway. it was good to see a showman on stage, and he is definitely a showman.