A couple of things:

I think I totally forgot about Trouble in Dreams when putting together my top 10 list. I think I just thought it was older than it actually was, maybe because I bought it at the same time as a bunch of older albums.

In any case, I'd probably put it at #9 in place of Field Manual. Which isn't to say I'd take Adele off the list. I'd just take Chris Walla off.

This is the kind of logic that I employ when making lists like this. The numbers are only vaguely representative of any real concept.

The other thing (I have this nagging feeling that I've blogged about this before, or that I should've blogged about this before, or something like that, but it doesn't seem to be true): Thingpart, by Joe Sayers

I've never been big on the web comic thing. Most of them seem far less hilarious than everyone makes them out to be. This one seems both hilarious and completely under the radar.

I first saw some of Joe Sayers' work in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005. There were 3 or 4 comics in there, and they were hilarious. Apparently they all came from her Passing Periods collection, which I just stumbled upon and bought here.

I highly recommend checking them out. Here are a few favorites:

My top albums of the year, part 2

Ok, one list down, one to go. In case you missed last night's post, I split this up into two lists. This is the second of two:

Non-Local Albums

Honorable Mentions:
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Not really a 2008 album, but it missed my list last year and it's absolutely one of my favorite albums I heard for the first time this year. I heard a new song by him/them that's done with the vocals completely autotuned. It made me long for the simple brilliance of this album.
Best Songs: "For Emma", "Skinny Love"

American Music Club - The Golden Age
This one probably would've made the list if I had listened to it as much as it deserved to be listened to. I picked it up after seeing them play with Cloud Cult. I listened to it a little then, then forgot about it until seeing it on the Onion's best albums of the year list. After listening a few times since then, I've realized I was really missing out.
Best Songs: "All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco", "The Windows on the World"

K'Naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Like Bon Iver, this is another older album that got a 2008 re-release. It's crazy to me that, in a year when guys like Kanye and Lil Wayne get all kinds of credit for putting out albums that "take rap in new directions" and other such comments, an album like this can fly almost completely under the radar. Solid throughout, and occasionally brilliant.
Best Songs: "If Rap Gets Jealous", "I Was Stabbed by Satan", "In the Beginning"

10. Adele - 19
In a market that seems to become more and more inundated all the time with British soul singers, it's hard to stand out. She does. She has a big voice, and unlike, say, Duffy, she actually has the songwriting to back it up. She even took a song I've heard a bunch of different versions of and managed to make it sound original and new.
Best Songs: "Make You Feel My Love", "Chasing Pavements", "Hometown Glory"

9. Chris Walla - Field Manual
I never really got into the new Death Cab album. This always seemed to be more like what that album should've been. It comes across as a slightly more straightforward version of older Death Cab. A very catchy pop record.
Best Songs: "Everyone Needs a Home", "Two-Fifty"

8. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
It's no Hissing Fauna, but it's really been growing on me the more I listen. It seems a little too disjointed at times, but its best moments are as good as anything they've ever done. I think people underrate this because they were expecting too much. As it is, it's a quite good album that just falls short of the greatness of their recent stuff.
Best Songs: "Touched Something's Hollow", "An Eluardian Instance"

7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
This one seemed to have been the internet consensus pick for album of the year since the moment it came out. It's a damn good album, but because of all the praise I almost feel like I have to justify not putting it higher. I like it, but I wasn't as blown away by it as everybody else seemed to be.
Best Songs: "Ragged Wood", "Quiet Houses"

6. Why? - Alopecia
I don't know what you'd classify this album as, but whatever it tries to be, it seems to accomplish really well. Kinda rap, kinda rock, kinda just really good. Vaguely reminiscent of a lot of things I like, but never to the point that it seems like it's been done before.
Best Songs: "Good Friday", "The Hollows"

5. Colin Meloy - Colin Meloy Sings Live
Normally I'd feel weird about putting a live album on here. But there's no question that it's one of the best I've heard this year. At worst, there are times when it's little more than a live but stripped down Decemberists show (as if that would be a bad thing). At best, there's new/rare material (Bandit Queen, Wonder, Dracula's Daughter). It's a compilation of most of his best work, put together in a format that's far more interesting than a "greatest hits" album could possibly be.
Best Songs: "Bandit Queen", "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade / Ask"

4. She & Him - Volume One
Charmingly throwback-y. Simple arrangements and straightforward vocals make this feel familiar even before we get to the covers. I can't think of a better word than "charming" to describe the style of the whole affair. It just makes me want to like them.
Best Songs: "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here", "I Should Have Known Better", "Sweet Darlin'"

3. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
I like Night Ripper, but I think that one felt a lot more like a novelty than an album. To me, Feed the Animals seems a lot more complete. It flows better from one moment to the next and seems to have more fun with itself, going beyond "this sounds good" to "this sounds good, but there's also a payoff for people who pay attention" (the lyric "We popping champagne" over the guitar from "Hunger Strike", for instance).
Best Songs: "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)", "No Pause", "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)"

2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Their first three albums all seemed to take on unique directions and change distinctly from one to the next. This was the first time they seemed to say "Ok, we've figured out what we want to be, now lets just do it better." Stylistically, it's a lot like Boys and Girls in America. Everything just feels tighter, like they've gotten better with experience. "Lord, I'm Discouraged" is like "First Night", only now they're not afraid to just throw in a crazy guitar solo just for the sake of throwing in a guitar solo. The whole album has that feel of something familiar but improved.
Best Songs: "Constructive Summer", "Magazines", "Slapped Actress"

1. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
I have yet to see this show up on any year-end lists. That amazes me. Mates of State were always the kind of band that I enjoyed when I heard them, but never really cared enough to go out of my way to listen. Then this album came along. It's just one brilliant pop song after another. Five of the first six songs on the album are near-perfect, and the rest of the album is solid. I can see how people think of them as annoying cutesy, but I can't see how anyone would let that get in the way of music this good.
Best Songs: "Get Better", "Jigsaw", "Blue and Gold Print"

My top albums of the year

It seems like a lot of these lists are coming out right about now, so I figured I'd put mine together now too. I decided to do two lists this year, one for local albums and one for non-local albums. It just seemed like a more fair way to include everything I wanted to include. I'll start with the local ones now and move on to non-local in the next couple of days.

It's also worth noting that there are probably a bunch of things that I haven't heard yet that would probably make this list if I wrote it up after hearing them. So I'm just working with what I've heard so far, if only for the sake of timeliness. Anyway, on to the lists.

Local Albums

Honorable mention: Cecil Otter - Rebel Yellow
This was basically a reworked version of an album he released 2 years ago. Half of it's new and the other half is all updated. I have trouble calling it entirely new though. If not for that, it probably would've taken the 8 or 9 spot.
Best songs: "Rebel Yellow", "Black Rose"

10. Muja Messiah - Thee Adventures of a B-Boy D-Boy
I loved his MPLS Massacre mixtape last year. This is almost as good. A lot of excellent guest appearances (Slug from Atmosphere, I Self Divine, Maria Isa) and the willingness to experiment with a variety of styles makes it hard to pin down exactly what kind of rapper Muja wants to be, but it also makes it hard to not find something to like about the album.
Best Songs: "So Far So Good", "Beautiful"

9. Action vs. Action - Sentimental City
Good straightforward power-pop. Listening to it, you get the feeling that they wanted the music to be something big, and it seems they lived up to that. Very catchy, too.
Best Songs: "The Last Time You Were Here", "Billions & Billions"

8. The Plastic Constellations - We Appreciate You
A fitting curtain call. Every bit as good as their last two albums, and a little more mature to boot. It's amazing how something as simple as adding a couple of horn parts can make a song so much better. Like with AvA, it aspires to be bigger than anything they've done before, and they found ways to do it.
Best Songs: "Floated Down and Flew Around", "Perched on a Porch", "So Many Friends"

7. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
I have no problem with calling this their best album to date. The full band setup works incredibly well, with everything coming together much better than it had on the last couple albums. "Yesterday" and "You" are two of the best songs I've heard all year. The album's incredibly varied, but unlike most of their older stuff, there's not a bad song in the bunch.
Best Songs: "You", "Yesterday", "Dreamer"

6. Roma di Luna - Casting the Bones
They went for a fuller sound, adding a band and moving slightly away from their largely acoustic guitar/violin dynamic. However, the songwriting remains as fantastic as it ever was, which it what allows them to go in a new direction and still seem like the same band. Also, Channy gets bonus points for her fantastic guest vocals on "Puppets" by Atmosphere.
Best Songs: "I Can't Afford to be Broke", "These Tears Ain't Mine (Reprise)", "I'm Gone"

5. Doomtree - Doomtree
Easily my most anticipated album of the year. The fact that it's at #5 isn't so much me saying it was disappointing as it's me saying it was a good year for local music. If I were to make a list of my top ten songs from the year, I'd probably have 3 from this album. It allowed every member of the group to show off their talents collaboratively. The only thing keeping it from the top of the list is that it lacks the cohesiveness of other albums. It's more a collection of great songs than it is a great album.
Best Songs: "Kid Gloves", "Dots and Dashes", "Accident"

4. Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
Without question, their best album. It's as emotional as anything they've ever done, but it also feels like a more unified album than Meaning of 8 or Happy Hippo. It takes everything I loved about their previous two albums and condenses it down, without losing anything in the process.
Best Songs: "No One Said it Would Be Easy", "The Ghost Inside Our House", "Story of the Grandson of Jesus"

3. Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble - Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble
I always have trouble putting EPs on lists like this. 6 songs hardly seems like enough to qualify for something like this. But it's six brilliant songs. It takes the best parts of Crescent Moon's rapping style and Heiruspecs' affinity for melding jazz and hip-hop. It's bold (hip-hop in 5/4? Why not.), it's original, and it's just really good from start to finish.
Best Songs: "Broken Dishes", "St. James Infirmary"

2. Dillinger Four - Civil War
Six years after their last album, they finally gave us something new. Not quite Chinese Democracy, but definitely a significant wait. But this one actually exceeded expectations. It's their most grown-up album, with lyrics that delve into things deeper than sarcastic social commentary. Beyond that, they actually seemed to give their vocals a little credit for once, bringing them to the forefront and making their message all the more clear.
Best Songs: "A Jingle for the Product", "Clown Cars on Cinder Blocks", "Minimum Wage is a Gateway Drug"

1. Mike Mictlan and Lazerbeak - Hand Over Fist
This is what happens when an album comes together. Mictlan has long been the best of the Doomtree MCs at live shows, but his other albums have always seemed lacking in some ways. Lazerbeak has been putting together great beats for years but has never had an album to really showcase his work. This album features both of them at their best. Without question, it's the most cohesive album anyone in Doomtree has put out. The beats are stunning, to the point that you almost feel like you're missing something if you don't focus all your attention on them. And Mictlan finally has a record that shows the talent he's been showing live for years.
Best Songs: "Prize Fight", "LA Raiders Hat", "Shux"

Shut up and play that guitar

I don't know where to start.

It's been a busy week or so. I mostly want to post about Saturday night, since it was a good night. There's another big story that I could go through along the way there, but it's almost overwhelmingly long and I don't want to go into too much detail about it on here anyway. So I guess I'll briefly start with that and then you can ask me more about it later if you're desperate for more information.

So, someone stole $100 from my bank account. Or something like that. It's still not clear exactly how it happened (though the general idea was that they went into a bank, filled out a withdrawal slip, and took the money). I'm hoping I'll get some more resolution eventually, but right now they're still "investigating" so they won't tell me anything yet. All I know is that, aside from the money, nobody stole anything (e.g. my ID, my check card, etc) from me. So aside from a teller doing a really shitty job, there's not much explanation as to how someone who's not me could get money from my account.

The money's not even that big of a deal. It's not a huge amount and I'll get it back, so I'm kinda ok with that. The big pain in the ass was closing my account and opening a new one. It took about an hour at the bank to get that all worked out, and now I have to wait on new checks and a new check card. So I'm pretty much broke until all that comes.

The whole process was pretty bizarre, too. Like, once I realized something was wrong, I called the 800 number for stolen cards. They put me on hold for a while, then hung up on me. So I started calling banks, trying to get someone to help me. And after wasting like 45 minutes on hold with the 800 number, it was like 5 minutes to 6 and all the banks closed at 6, so nobody was particularly helpful at first. Finally I called a bank, the banker I talked to put me through to a manager, and she stayed on the line with me for like 40 minutes despite the bank being closed. And after going through the whole thing and having her help a bit, she was like "You know, I think I went to school with you." She was right. It was weird.

But anyway, on to better things.

So, this was supposed to be a busy weekend for me. And it kinda was, just not exactly how I planned. About a month ago, I bought a ticket for the Lucero show at the Triple Rock on Friday night. I also bought a ticket for the Doomtree Blowout on Saturday at First Ave. I figured I could handle two nights of concerts in a row.

So, finally, Friday rolled around. And it was snowing all night. And I hate driving in snow, stemming from some past incidents. I particularly hate the idea of driving around downtown on a snowy Friday night when bars are emptying out. So I decided to skip the show, despite the fact that I had been looking forward to seeing them for something like 3 1/2 years now.

I had a plan, you see. I didn't know if it would work out, but I figured it was worth trying. The Doomtree show was early (doors at 6:00). Lucero was playing two nights, and their show was late (doors at 9:00, with two openers).

And so, Saturday became a fantastic expedition.

The Doomtree show was good. Maybe I just have my expectations set too high, maybe I was just too worried about making it to the late show, maybe I've just grown too used to them, but it was all kind of underwhelming. I suppose part of it was that I went into it looking forward to (and expecting) hearing one song (a new one by P.O.S. that he's done the last couple times I've seen him), so I was let down when he didn't do it. I mean, there's nothing about the show that I'd really complain about, but it just didn't seem to have the same appeal that their last few full crew shows have had.

The highlight of the show, for me, was Dessa doing a couple songs with Aby Wolf who I've been dying to see for a while now but kept missing. The songs were good, and I'm totally looking forward to new albums by both of them early next year.

I picked up the DVD/CD that Doomtree released as well as the book of short essays/poetry that Dessa just put out. The DVD was fantastic, the CD was underwhelming (the P.O.S./Dosh collaboration was especially disappointing, given my expectations), but the book was everything I could've hoped for. It was mostly just polished versions of things that she had posted online before, with a few new things, but she remains one of my favorite writers. I don't know if you can buy it anywhere right now, but I totally recommend it. Anybody who wants to check it out is welcome to borrow my copy.

So the show got done just a shade before 10. I figured I had plenty of time to make it to the Triple Rock by the end of the opening set, and I still had enough cash on me to get a ticket (seeing as the advance ticket I got was for the wrong night and I don't have any way to get more cash until my new card comes). This was largely because First Ave has the decency to let you buy drinks with credit cards (and for a modest 10% fee, no less!).

I hurried over to the Triple Rock, found somewhere to park for free, and got into the show with about 3 songs left in the first band's set. That was perfect. I was there long enough to know that I hadn't missed anything, but not long enough that I had to really spend time listening to a band I didn't care about.

I neglected to mention before that the second band to go on was The Evening Rig. Although, in fairness, I think I neglect them a lot. At this point, they've gotta be one of my favorite local bands. There's nothing really flashy about them, but they're just a really solid bar band. They kinda remind me of The Hold Steady in their guitar-ing (in that they've got a singer/rhythm guitarist, and then a lead guitarist who comes across as really unassuming, but every once in a while just busts out a wicked cool riff or solo). I was thrilled to see them, and they didn't disappoint. I get the impression that they must be working on a new album, since at least half of the songs were new.

I stood next to the stage for their whole set. My left ear is still recovering. I've found that a lot of times the best place to avoid overwhelming volume is by the stage (you can kinda get in front of the big house speakers and only hear what's coming from the amps on stage), but the aforementioned lead guitarist had his amp up really loud, to the point that I would've considered getting earplugs from the bar if not for the fact that: a) I had no money left, and b) I would've lost my spot by the stage, thereby eliminating the need for such earplugs.

Between sets, I went to the bathroom. Normally mundane details such as this would get ignored. But, this one seemed noteworthy. As I walked away from the stage, they started playing Springsteen. Born to Run. I was kinda singing along as I got to the top of the stairs. I looked up and there was some drunk guy singing along as well. We kinda connected as we got to the "Strap your hands 'cross my engines" line. And then we high-fived. I've never felt more relatable in my life.

And then Lucero came on. I saw them in Kansas City like 3 1/2 years ago, and had vaguely followed them since, but they weren't really the main attraction then, so I had no idea how good they really were.

I was absolutely blown away.

Their singer/guitarist (Ben Nichols, who I'll probably refer to as Ben for simplicity's sake) was probably the most passionate musician I've ever seen at a concert. The band came across as basically a bunch of old dudes who knew how to play with a lead singer whose ethos dominated the band. The bassist and drummer were barely noticeable. The second guitarist and keyboardist/accordionist were damn good at what they did, but the show clearly wasn't about them. It was Ben's show, and the rest of the band was just there to make things go as smoothly as possible.

They played for well over an hour. A rough guess would put it at something like an hour and a half. I was so engrossed that I really have no real idea.

I can say with absolutely honesty that it was the best show I've seen in at least a few years. Maybe the best show I've ever seen. That's what passion does for you, I guess.

I can't recall exactly what they did or didn't play. I know I was thoroughly impressed by their selection. I heard pretty much everything I wanted to hear. They went between upbeat rockers and slow singalongs. Like, they literally had a Triple Rock full of people singing along with them. Like on "She Wakes When She Dreams" I got the impression that every person in the room was singing along with them. I've only ever seen that at the Matt Pryor/Chris Conley show, and this seemed a lot less "bad emo cliche" than that show.

They did a cover of "Kiss the Bottle" by Jawbreaker. I've never liked Jawbreaker as much as I aspire to. I've never liked that song as much as I did Saturday night. It was perfect for them.

I've always liked the concept of music as a way of pouring your heart out. I think they did that as well as anyone I've ever seen. They take their music seriously, while still making it fun.

I can't believe I almost missed it.