Here is my ranking of the Top 25 albums released so far in 2008, as well as the albums I'm most looking forward to for the rest of the year.

Let me know what you think please.
#25- Foxy Shazam-Introducing
#24- Kings of Leon- Only By The Night
#23- Colour Revolt-Plunder, Beg, and Curse
#22- Able Baker Fox-Voices
#21- The American Dollar-A Memory Stream
#20- Crystal Castles-Crystal Castles
#19- Javelins-Heavy Meadows
#18- Thao-We Brave Bee Stings And All
#17- No Age-Nouns
#16- Lykke Li-Youth Novels
#15- I Was a Cub Scout-I Want You To Know There Is Always Hope
#14- Fuck Buttons-Street Horrrsing
#13- Born Ruffians-Red, Yellow & Blue
#12- Sybris-Into The Trees
#11- Subtle-Exiting Arm
#10- The Mountain Goats-Heretic Pride
#9- Thrice-The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 & 4: Air & Earth
#8- Conor Oberst-Conor Oberst
#7- Beck-Modern Guilt
#6- Bloc Party-Intimacy
#5- Why?-Alopecia
#4- Portugal. The Man-Censored Colors
#3- Man Man-Rabbit Habits
#2- Wolf Parade-At Mount Zoomer
#1- Sigur Rós-með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

MOST ANTICIPATED:
of Montreal-Skeletal Lamping
Anathallo-Canopy Glow
The Sound of Animals Fighting-The Ocean And The Sun
Mogwai-The Hawk is Howling
dredg- Title TBA

Hey folks,

This here's the last of the intern-laden playlists. From here on out, at least for another couple months or so, I'm free of their tomfoolery. Because if anyone's gonna be amateur and unskilled on my radio it's gonna be me.

The playlist:

Things that Are Square 8-21-08

(*) = New release

(*) Sigur Rós - Vid Spilum Endalaust - Med Sud i Eyrum Vit Spilum Endalaust

(*) My Morning Jacket - I'm Amazed - Evil Urges
Built To Spill and Caustic Resin - When Not Being Stupid Is Not Enough - Built to Spill & Cuastic Resin
Jesu - Silver - Silver

(*) Shearwater - Home Life - Rook
Sun Kil Moon - Salvador Sanchez - Ghosts of the Great Highway
Jens Lekman - You Are the Light (By Which I Travel Into This and That) - When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog
Tullycraft - Secretly Minnesotan - Disenchanted Hearts Unite

Matt & Kim - Yea Yeah - Matt & Kim
Best Fwends - Skate or Live - Alphabetically Arranged
The Dismemberment Plan - Pay for the Piano - Change
(*) King Khan & The Shrines - Shivers Down My Spine - The Supreme Genius Of...

Rye Coalition - Baby's Got a New Flame - The Lipstick Game (For Kevin in Seattle, WA)
****Intern Matt takes over****
Born Ruffians - I Need A Life - Red, Yellow, and Blue
Hot Chip - Shake a Fist - Made in the Dark

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Details of the war - Clap your hands say yeah
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema - Twin Cinema
Animal Collective - Peacebone - Strawberry Jam
Blitzen Trapper - 40 Stripes - Field Rexx

(*) Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
The Lovemakers - Whine & Dine - Misery Loves Company
The Mae Shi - Lamb and the Lion - HillyH
Xiu Xiu - Apistat Commander - A Promise

(*) Conor Oberst - Get-Well-Cards - Conor Oberst


Thanks to everyone that tuned in. If this caught your attention, tune in any Thursday, 6-8pm PST on KUCI 88.9FM in Irvine, CA, or worldwide live on the internet at KUCI.ORG, the public radio presets of iTunes, and the flash player on our myspace page.

<3,
Kyle

&,
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friend
She & Him - Volume One
Emily Jane White - Dark Undercoat
The Kills - Midnight Boom

1. right to lite tonight - Blood on the Wall
2, I'm A Wheel - Wilco
3. Heart Cooks Brain - Modest Mouse
4. Bitch - The Crust Brothers
5. I Need A Life - Born Ruffians
6. Shake It Around (Recorded live Melbourne, Australia. July 18, 2002) - Stephen Malkmus
7. Lounge (Closing Time) - Modest Mouse
8. Hold Music - Architecture in Helsinki
9. Western Homes - Pavement
10. The Navajo Know - Pixies
11. Goin' On - The Flaming Lips
12. Kids Don't Know Shit - Islands
13. Go Slowly - Radiohead
14. Lovesick (Bob Dylan cover) - The White Stripes
15. Saltbreakers - Laura Veirs
16. Oh Sister (Bob Dylan cover) - Andrew Bird
17. Standing At The Threshold - Deer Tick
18. Let's Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats

After the recent spike in projected bands to visit Columbus soon I began to tally up the bands I had already seen. I think without doubt I can claim 2008 as the year I saw more bands than any other. I'll admit that Pitchfork Festival will have a lot to do with it. I'm going to compile a quick list here of the so fars and hopefully soons.

Seen So Far:

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Pitchfork Music Festival * bands I paid specific attention to

Public Enemy <-kicked out after 4 songs

Vampire Weekend *

Jay Reatard <-heard more than saw

Caribou

Fleet Foxes * <-awesome

Dizzee Rascal * "say it like you fuckin' mean it!

!!! <-saw part of their set

Extra Golden *

The Hold Steady <-heard more than saw

Atlas Sound

Jarvis Cocker <-from a distance

Animal Collective *

Mahjongg * <-impressive

Times New Viking * <-live TNV > studio TNV

High Places * "do it again"

The Apples in Stereo <-heard more than saw

King Khan & The Shrines * <-wish I would have seen more of the set

The Dodos * <-great live set

Les Savy Fav * for the couple songs I caught

M. Ward <-more drinking, less listening

Ghostface Killah and Raekwon <-suprised wu-factor still exists

Spiritualized <-heard more than saw

Bon Iver <-much needed shade and good tunes

Dinosaur Jr.

Ohio Shows

Cortney Tidwell

Silver Jews

Hopefully Soon: * In Columbus

Times New Viking*

High Places

Stars *

Born Ruffians *

The Dodos *

Ahhhhh, so I like to do a half-year roundup. I did it last year and I'm feeling self-important enough this morning to do it again.

2008. Weird shit. I have not been really really impressed with releases so far because in all honesty, I'm still in afterglow about 2007. Still. 8 months later. I think the album I've discovered and listened to most this year would be The National's Boxer but I came late to that party and therefore it doesn't count. Oh well.

Things that DID come out this year that are awesome, in a list with extremely minimal form and structure:

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride.
I like the Mountain Goats a lot. I like new Mountain Goats better than old Mountain Goats (bite me, production values are nice on the ears). I like Heretic Pride quite a lot, and rank it high in his discography, although I still like the Sunset Tree a bit better. Consistency from bands is nice and John Darnielle is one of the most reliably good lyricists/musicians I know of.

Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
Man, I used to love Destroyer. Like, I still really enjoy him but I used to LOVE Destroyer. Something about Trouble in Dreams sort of broke me, with regards to him....I figured him out, I guess, and once the semi-mysticism was gone, so was the magic. Trouble in Dreams is solid from him, but it's not exciting. It's like Rubies redux. Still, My Favourite Year quickly ranked among my favourite Destroyer songs and it got me through about 5 midterm-study-allnighters so it's really quite good after all. OH MY GOD LOOK AT ME FLIP FLOP.

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours.
Awesome. This got me through the allnighters for ALL of my finals. It was seriously a week of this on repeat. I still like it. It's dance music that isn't horrifically repetitive or cheesy! It's got good basslines! I still study harder than I party! ALL RIGHT.

The Dodos - Visiter.
This gets better every time I listen to it, because each time I hear something new. I've heard comparisons to Animal Collective but that's not right, as much as I like each band.......to my ears, at least, the Dodos are the freshest thing I've heard in a long time and I can't come up with a comparison that IS valid. Not that a comparison is necessary. Anyways, every song is so so so so solid and I've put most of them on mixes aside from the one terrible one where he wails 'a-a-a-a-a-a-a-aaaaaashley'. Hahaha. Great album.

Born Ruffians - Red Yellow Blue.
Born Ruffians are so much fun. This album is so much fun. Hummingbird makes any situation instantly fun. I have seen them live 3 times this year and I'm so glad that this album at least somewhat captures the spirit and bouncy energy that they have on stage....that other EP they have doesn't do them justice. So I'm listening to this album right now and it's making writing especially fun. Party at 9 am on Tuesday in my bedroom, guys!

Adam & the Amethysts - Amethyst Amulet
I have a big crush on Adam Waito's music. This is an Adam Waito semi-solo project. It's about my hometown. Pretty damn cute, and if need be I can throw on the title track and remember that I got an AMETHYST AMULET AROUND MY NECK THAT DELIVERS ME HOME.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
I didn't really get this album until last night, to be honest. Then I saw these songs live....and now, it doesn't sound like an awkward combination of Sunset Rubdown/Handsome Furs anymore. It's Wolf Parade. And it's awesome.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
It's pretty and nice to sleep to. I was getting tired of sleeping to Kings of Convenience. That's why I have absurdly high playcounts of this band....the album itself is nice but sort of boring and um, easy to sleep to. Which isn't a bad thing after all.

Then......I thought about writing about the new Brendan Canning and Islands albums but I realized that I don't really like them that much. And I have other shit to do this morning. Then I realized that I haven't written about the new Tokyo Police Club and Plants and Animals albums but I really DID like them, so I guess I'll come back to this later.

AND I was going to write something scathing about Crystal Castles because sweet baby jesus, why are they popular? They are TERRIBLE. Anyways. Done for now.

Where are we, 2008? What's up with all this crazy music? It's pop music vs. indie experimental and just about everything in between. Let's see where we stand...my recommendations are marked with asterisks (one= yes, two=double yes, three=brilliant/must hear!)

*Abe Vigoda "Skeleton" - L.A. experimental

Alkaline Trio "Agony and Irony" - Goth-punk for the radio world.

**Amanda Palmer "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" - Creepy and brash, warm, discordantly beautiful.

Ashlee Simpson "Bittersweet World" - Cool synth riffs; please, stop singing.

Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime" - A gag album? Cute and entertaining.

*Beck "Modern Guilt" - Dystopian and danceable.

The Black Angels "Direction to See a Ghost" - Psychedelic reverbed bliss.

**Blood on the Wall "Liferz" - RAWK

*Born Ruffians "Red, Yellow & Blue" - If only all indie was this good.

**Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning "Something For All of Us..." - Gentler, more guitar rock; so good.

*Capillary Action "So Embarrassing" - Post-punk avant-jazz spazz-rock.

*Charlotte Sometimes "Waves & the Both of Us" - Intelligent and captivatingly sultry.

Coldplay "Viva La Vida" - Yeah, we get it.

Crystal Castles "Crystal Castles" - RemixCity!

*Dan Friel "Ghost Town" - FEEDBACK

Death Cab for Cutie "Narrow Stairs" - Again: yeah, we get it.

*E-603 "Something for Everyone" - The title doesn't lie.

*Eat Skull "Sick to Death" - Bloody hell noise; good dirty fun.

*El Buzzard "Songs for Total Dicks" - Metal on mute; mixing-board mayhem.

**Ellen Allien "Sool" - Minimal ambient dance, gorgeous and haunting.

The Fashion "The Fashion" - You hang out at the mall too much.

**Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes" - Anthems from mountain tops.

**Foot Village "Friendship Nation" - Yelling. Drums. ta-da!

*Genghis Tron "Board Up the House" - The synths are turned up, the metal arriving.


(more to come...)

Can Warp do no wrong at the moment? There was a time when you knew exactly what lay between the grooves on the labels’ release without needing to read a review or undo the cellophane wrapping. Gone are those days and replaced by a label that has a truly eclectic roster, from then jerky indie of Maximo Park, through the Trip Hop of Leila, the jaunty quirky pop of Born Ruffians and finally on to the cleverer than Einstein math rock that is Battles. So where do Pivot come in to this? Read More...

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