A Few Thoughts on Some Songs That I Loved Last Year... Part Two...

11. Love is All - "Last Choice" - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night (What's Your Rupture)

Buy the CD here.

Buy the record here.

Listen to the song here.

Out of all the mostly excellent bands that played this past year's (very well executed) Part Time Punks fest, Love is All put forth the only set that made me forget how sick I was for the proceedings. I was too busy dancing, jumping up and down, and just generally feeling happy that I was there witnessing something so ... life affirming? Yes, I suppose that's the only way to put it. That's the effect that Love is All had on seemingly everyone who was present. Recorded the effect is almost as immediate. I listened to this album non-stop during a recent marathon apartment cleaning session, pausing from my work only to turn the record over. After several listens to the record in it's entirety, this is the song that had me lifting the needle over, and over again. I can't quite figure out exactly why it's this particular song that grabbed me more than any other. Most of their songs (sometimes even the more quiet ones) tend to have a lot going on, but it always manages to work. Synthetic hand claps, glockenspiel, and one of the liveliest keyboard melodies that I've heard in some time are present in this track alone. It's more than kind of a disco track. Not exactly in the post punk tradition of no wave/no disco, but not really in the mainstream disco hit manner either. It's kind of a hybrid of both styles mixed with an element of non-irritating epic-ness that is purely Love is All. If that makes sense. Lyrically it details a type of purely validation seeking/drunken one night stand in a refreshingly self effacing, honest, and quite funny manner. The girl telling the story leaves a party with her, well last choice because it seems a better alternative than leaving alone. While the music around the story remains exciting and upbeat the band chants: "I'm not your kind and your not mine, but for tonight you'll have to do." The last words you hear are these: "I have since long lost my poise, I'm walking home with my last choice." Then there are a few last keyboard trills, and a single incredibly satisfying ding! to bring the song to it's necessarily abrupt ending.

12. The Tartans - "My Baby Doesn't Care for You" - My Baby Doesn't Care for You 7" (Cloudberry)

Buy the record, and listen to the song here.

This one was a tough decision. My favorite local band (who for the sake of full disclosure became close friends as well last year) released two singles within weeks of each other on two of my favorite existing labels. Since this was to be a single disc compilation, I knew that I could only pick one of their songs. "My Baby..." wasn't always my favorite Tartans song, in fact that title used to belong to the B-side of this single, "What About You." Still over the course of this year I began to notice just how strong of a single this song is. I would get it stuck in my head at work, I would play it from time to time when I was DJ-ing, and it fit in flawlessly, and it soon became a highlight of their live set often bringing more people out to the dance floor than there had been previously. The other day I noticed that this song also has the potential to become a classic brush off song in the tradition of "Our Love is Heavenly." The two songs share the similar casually bouncy pace, and tossed aside lyrics that kind of require girls as cool as Amelia Fletcher or Yvonne Sone to sing them in order to have their full effect. The cheery glockenspiel line is a perfect touch to add insult to injury to the poor hypothetical girl on the receiving end of Yvonne's skillful navigation of Brian Cunningham's exceedingly clever rhyming scheme. My personal favorite, "What's there to misconstrue? My baby doesn't care for you." This song is deceptively simple upon the first listen or two which is why perhaps more blogger's favor went to the (more than equally deserving) Cats of Camerford 7" which you can (and should) purchase here. Still, I couldn't shake just how much this grew into a favorite song of mine over this past year. I'm sure that I'll have plenty to say about a Tartans YAY! single next year when "West of La Brea" finally makes it's way to the 7" format...

13. Vivian Girls - "Where Do You Run To?" - Vivian Girls (In the Red)

Buy the CD here.

Buy the record here.

Listen to the song here.

This choice has more to do with my biography of 2008 more so than any sort of wow factor from Vivian Girls. As I've alluded to on this site before, I'm not really sure that wow factor is the point of this band. They were perfectly enjoyable, yet kind of non-descript live which is precisely what I imagined they would be. They released a perfectly enjoyable record that I only felt compelled to listen to a few times, and yet I can't think of any other contemporary band that I spent more time discussing in 2008. Trying to pin point why exactly it was good, and how it was that a considerably large contingent of people were now into this particular girl group filtered through post punk sound. It's interesting too, to see how it's already unfolding to receive even more attention in 2009 with bands like Dum Dum Girls, The Splinters, and Pens (more on all of them soon) offering even more new variations on that endlessly pleasing formula. The song that I picked for this list does happen to be one of the album's highlight in my opinion. I think it perfectly showcases their nonchalant harmonies, and how they are just skillful enough on their instruments to garner attention and acceptance from the more mainstream press, yet enough lack of skill to sound refreshing and charming to those same people. It's that sort of charming lack of skill that holds their appeal for me, and I suppose why this particular song made my list.

14. Liechtenstein - "Security by Design" - Apathy 7" (Fraction Discs)

Buy the single here.



Liechtenstein follow the girl group filtered through post punk pattern as well, but their charm is not due to any lack of skill. In fact, repeated listens to "Security by Design" reveal quite the opposite to be true. An unnerving, human heartbeat-esque, solo drum pattern sets the tone. Everything that follows in terms of the musical structure of the song serves to heighten the sense of paranoia that the lyrics entail. Even the Spaghetti Western inspired guest trumpet work from Kristin Lidell manages to feel vaguely threatening while also adding to the razor sharp wit that the song maintains. I'm not a musician myself, but I just can't imagine that this is an easy thing to pull off. "All of them are sharp," is the description that the song's narrator offers flatly, and dead seriously about her kitchen knives before she bounces right back into the chorus of, "I'm so happy here," over that same trumpet. Funny, I could offer the same description of every single Liechtenstein song that I've heard so far. Allegedly they will release a full length in 2009. Also allegedly, this will be 2009's best record.

15. Crystal Stilts - "Departure" - Alight of Night
(Slumberland)

Buy the album, or the CD here.

This is another one that is more to do with biography than the actual song. Crystal Stilts contributed to two of my favorite live shows this year. The first was in Oxnard incidentally the same show where I witnessed my favorite performance from Catwalk thus far,) and the second was two days later at Part Time Punks. The show that they presented in Oxnard was shockingly engaging. I liked their recordings, but I was fully expecting observe their show in an almost reverent manner. Instead, I found myself dancing in a small crowd while others sashayed across a wooden plank over a bonfire in the background. Needless to say, the experience was slightly magical. This was even regardless of the fact that they were operating with a very newly borrowed drummer, Jock from Cause Co-Motion! Cause Co-Motion! were also great fun live, yet I regretfully didn't spend enough time listening to their recordings this year to include them on this list. I should offer in their regard, that they saved one of my mornings a few months ago as I was getting ready for work, and my roommate was going through a surprisingly loud period of obsession with Ray Lamontagne... Back to Crystal Stilts. Their show at Part Time Punks was absolutely dreamy with full time drummer Frankie Rose (formerly of Vivian Girls) providing backing vocals. The lead singer Brad Hargett seemed to be in a completely different world throughout both sets that I witnessed. This felt precisely correct for the murky pop songs that Crystal Stilts create. The fact that they manage to be ultra-engaging at the same time, is still something of great mystery to me. I suppose it's a similar effect to the one that the Airfields manage with their echo drenched production. The distance hold commands your attention, as you can't help but long to be closer. After their set that Sunday night we danced with them well into the very early part of a Monday morning. They threw flowers out to various attendees, and slowly but surely we began to throw these flowers around as we danced to things as disparate as Brian Eno's "Needle in the Camel's Eye," to Fire Engines' "Get Up and Use Me." We all sang all of the lyrics to "Part Time Punks," at 2 A.M. We did this at the top of our lungs. Perhaps upon further review, this was actually my favorite show of the year. So I guess for this list I tried to pick the song that I felt best represented the feeling of that live show.


16. Wake the President - "You Can't Change That Boy" - Split 7 w/the Kingfishers (Aufgeladen & Bereit)

Buy the single here.

Listen to the song here.

Read the description that Alistair Fitchett offers about this song in the post that I have linked to above. I have nothing else to add.

17. Catwalk - "Past Afar" - Past Afar 7" (YAY!)

Buy the single here.

Listen to the song here.

If only there were such a succinct, and completely accurate way to describe Catwalk as there is for Wake the President. Catwalk delivered some of my favorite performances in 2008, and I've been continually wowed by how cohesive they have become as a band. Their Halloween cover of the Stooges' "No Fun," for example was a one of my biggest highlights this year because it absolutely shattered all of my expectations. It would have shattered any expectations really of what you might think this band should always sound like. I suppose that's why I always feel like there is no succinct way to sum them up. While every band member adds something essential to this project, the more I listen to this single the less I am able to shake the feeling that Nick Hessler will be a name that future generations (especially musicians) will revere on some level. He certainly has that sort of pop songwriting sensibility that could easily yield songs that will be appreciated by a good portion of the general public, and obsessive music fans alike.

18. Beach House - "You Came to Me" - Devotion (Carpark)

Buy the CD here.



I fell in love with their first, self titled record, a bit late. It took a trip to Seattle, a chilly fall day, and a three hour walk for the album to have it's full effect on me. Based upon that, Devotion was one of my most anticipated releases of last year. Victoria Legrand, and Alex Scally were already easily categorized as one of the most compelling two piece bands in contemporary music with the minimal instrumentation and production on the first album. This album, however takes their sound to a different level altogether. For me personally, this song was the best example of that. It begins in a haunting minor key with the expected minimalism, then the sound of the timpani appears which should cause your jaw to fall to the floor due to the sheer magnitude of the sound that it produces, but even after all of that the song changes course entirely with the dreamy lalalas that eventually usher in the phrase that the song's title was taken from. The fact that they were able to pull this off at all is nothing short of amazing. The fact that they were able to pull it off so seamlessly is a perfect testament to why they are a band well worth paying close attention to for years to come.

Robert Forster - "Did She Overtake You?" - The Evangelist (Yep Roc)

Buy the CD here.

Listen to the song here.

I strongly feel that I still have a long way to go before I fully grasp the genius of the Go-Betweens. That being said, I spent a large part of my year listening to their music, and wishing that Grant McLennan were still around. This record from the other half of the brilliant Go-Betweens singer/songwriter team, while extraordinarily bittersweet, was also one of the most lovely accomplishments of last year. To pull off a song like the one I've listed here that is heartbreaking, and thought provoking, yet ultimately catchy and enjoyable surely cannot be easy. It's a good thing that Robert Forster mastered that tricky combination ages ago. A song like this comes across as effortless because to someone like him, it surely is.

20. Northern Portrait - "Our Lambrusco Days" - Napoleon Sweetheart EP (Matinee)

Buy the CD here.

This song closes the EP that it appears on, and it truly feels like an album closer. I usually try to avoid closing a mix with a song that feels like an obvious closer, however this one I felt just couldn't be helped. I didn't really listen to this EP until the very last week of 2008, but for that week it was really all that I wanted to hear. I think that I always subconsciously search for a good, well paced waltz in a pop song because my mom used to teach ballroom dancing to top 40 songs, and she always claimed that a waltz at proper teaching speed was the hardest thing to find. Perhaps this one would have been a bit too fast for teaching, but it certainly deserves to be danced to nonetheless. It really is that elegant.