my roommate is responsible for my minor obsession with gene clark. he recently let me read his copy of of the gene clark biography "mr tambourine man" and even though its as poorly written as this blog i cried like a little child man in michelle panache's house upon finishing the final chapter. i don't want to ruin it for you but he dies at the end. its fucked up that such beautiful people can just destroy themselves time and time again and that the people that are suppose to be there to help usually just make it worse but what can you do right?

this came out this year and has an incredibly haunting version of set you free this time amongst other haunting versions of tracks mostly off "no other" and "two sides of every story", the real tragedy is that his backing band on this recording wouldn't go on to record two sides of every story with him so instead of a minimal soulful country record it turned into a over produced honky tonk country trash record (of which i still totally enjoy) this gives you a little glimpse of what two sides could've been had they stuck together.

set you free this time

puppy dog from los angeles is the most exciting new band that formed this year. i use to manage them (the most difficult job i've ever had, i'm sure you could guess why) but was recently fired for being just to damn attractive to work with. fortunately even without me to guide them through the treacherous music industry they managed to finish their first recordings with the help of the guru of heavy himself bobb bruno ,the result is absolutely inspiring. think ethereal minutemen but kept minimaly perfect with three of the prettiest girls you've ever seen making a fool of all those dudes who in a post puppy dog find themselves being nothing more than posers. i mean puppy dog even makes me feel like a poser. its just that real!

harmoniums

obviously the best in the red release this year. no surprise there..this is almost to obvious for me to post (a frames, popular shapes, dipers etc.) but whats wrong with being obvious? the answer is nothing. theres nothing wrong with being obvious. best video of the year easy.
dating cops

minimalist psychedelic southern rock circus awesomeness from Howling Hex. pitchfork really fucked this one up (big surprise) for not having it in the top 10 of 08 for sure. drums are so overrated right now, especially when your trying to get where you want your mind to go at the most ungodly hours of the darkest nights imaginable. my only complaint is that there hasn't been a tour at least not one that i know of. what can you do. right now this is my favorite record everrrrrrrrrrr.
no good reason

zeb shoaib and hassam are the best live show in the world at the moment and they could care less. their band's called the popo but they don't really want you to know. maybe they would but the idea of having to impress anyone would make them want to rock even less. they really tap into that caveman thing just kinda pounding away but then have these absolutely soaring melodies worthy of the persistent repetition they receive.its so incredibly instinctual that you can't help but feel like your part of something bigger than yourself...or three somethings bigger than yourself...if their music wasn't magical enough they just happen to be incredibly sexy brothers who's height averages at about 6'5. TOTAL PACKAGE.
i don't even think this record came out "officially" but i got my copy from the dudes at their merch which means its RELEASED to me. it sounds great...recorded in some dude from darkmeat's kitchen in Athens all analogy. drool.
THE POWER

"keep it legal"

so what the fuck is wrong with people. its still 2008 and everyone has already posted their best of lists. shouldn't we wait till 2009 to judge the willing (and unwilling) participants of pop trash this year of our lord 2008. way to jump the judge gun assholes. its seems a ton of blogs and reputed magazines got it wrong this year (again) but i feel slightly surprised still...i mean seriously..herk and the love jerks or the kinda whatever grrls? everything seems so irrelevant...then i had a vision of my own irrelevance...absolutely terrifying. god just told me we're all wrong. he also told me to get a job. whatever. i got to do a best of list with jacob for the pitchfork thing (yea dude i know). i already regret not putting more on it so this is suppose to make up for it but it isn't soooo overly comprehensive that i could fool you into thinking i know what the fuck is going on but i 'm just trying to say if your not on here its not because i don't love you...its just that i forgot about you cause i don't have your mp3's so overly accessible to me at the moment....that's why you should make digital copies that come with yr records OK. and i'm not doing some kind of cheap list either this is going to be a whole series to last until the early days of 09' prepare!

i made a damned post last night and i wanted to give reference to a somewhat simular stranglers song so i could justify saying 80's damned ripped off 77' stranglers hard. 80's stranglers never really got the reconition it deserved either. i'll probably post about that later. pshhhh.
english tonws
from the lp "no more heros"