You may not be thinking about it now, but it’s just around the corner and will be here quick enough. You blink and thousands of musicians and industry folks are flooding into town for one of the best weeks of the year.

The folks over @ SXSW just released the latest confirmed acts for the 2009 edition of SXSW just before the holidays got underway. You can find the earlier batch of confirmed and rumored over @ the Do512 blog, and the most recent here.

Who stands out for me? St. Vincent, Dappled Cities, Primal Scream, Black Lips, Beach House, Hansome Furs, just to name a few.

Ra Ra Riot (Syracuse, NY)
Gabriella Cilmi (AUSTRALIA)
Ximena Sariñara (Mexico City, MEXICO)
Primal Scream (Glasgow SCOTLAND/UK)
Friendly Fires (St Albans, ENGLAND/UK)
B.o.B (Atlanta, GA)
Sage Francis (Providence, RI)
Buraka Som Sistema (Lisbon, PORTUGAL)
Arc Angels (Austin, TX)
Courteeners (Manchester, England/UK)
Raul Malo (Nashville, TN)
8Ball & MJG (Memphis, TN)
Reflection Eternal (New York, NY/Cincinnati, OH)
Wale (Washington, DC)
Pete & the Pirates (Reading, ENGLAND/UK)
Ben Harper and Relentless7 (Los Angeles, CA)

I don’t listen to enough albums in a year to really quantify a “best of” list, so instead I provide you with the music that I listened to the most over the course of 2008. This process of putting together year end lists is, to say the least, unpleasant. Of course these recordings were all released in 2008.

Before I forage into this list, I have to say that some of the lists that I have seen, have been a bit…interesting. Interesting is a safe enough word? I’m sure that the same could be said for the list that I’m putting together as well.

-Dead Confederate Wrecking Ball

Shouldn’t be of any surprise to anyone, should it? To stand alone musically these days is an accomplishment that few bands could ever hope to achieve. While Dead Confederate stand tall on the shoulders of giants, they stand tall with their bootstraps tight and their own sound wound deep within the trenches of those giants. Understanding a bands influence is one piece of the puzzle, but understanding the band’s talent aside from those influences is where many critics have failed this band. In a society of now, and in seconds, Dead Confederate take the time to create music that demands a patient listen. You may not get it in 5 min, or 10 min, but if you give it the time it deserves, patience will be rewarded. It’s everything that is, can be, and has always been great about rock-n-roll.

MP3> Dead Confederate ‘Goner’

-Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago

Aside from my addiction to guitar heavy rock, I have a lighter, patient, acoustic, singer-songwriter side to me that I indulge from time to time. There’s nothing more completely inspiring to me than an individual that can sit down with a mic and a guitar and craft songs so intimate, so personal, and so complete within the minimalist confines of that structure. Bon Iver tapped into that side with me with the incredibly beautiful and haunting release For Emma, Forver Ago. It’s one of those recordings that you put on, absorb quietly, and then suddenly realize that you have reached the end, wishing for it to start over once again. Hopefully you all know the story by now, and if you don’t, it’ll provide you with a greater appreciation for the recording. We’ll all be keeping eyes on Justin Vernon over the next couple of years.

MP3> Bon Iver ‘Blindsided’

-Colour Revolt Plunder, Beg, and Curse

I’m probably one of few that is putting Colour Revolt on their year end list, and I’m damn proud of that fact. Back to my desire for guitars, these guys have 3 working in the band, and working damn fine if I might say. Yes Andy, you were right. The 5 guys in Colour Revolt, hailing from Mississippi, are doing something special. They confront and question in dark lyrical passages wrapped in complex, building song structures accentuated with math-like guitar work. Vocalist Jesse Coppenbarger screams are the honest voice that many of us fail to find or exercise and the music so perfectly sets the tone for that honesty.

MP3> Colour Revolt ‘Elegant View’

-Land of Talk Some Lakes

I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Powell ever since I witness her passive aggressive youthful performance while touring in support of Hiss, Boo, Cheer last year. Some Lakes finds Powell in a more patient writing mode, finding and exploring the essence of each song, understanding the true potential for taking time to complete the journey. Lyrically playful, musically, a talent of minimalist structure that works extremely well.  A truly unappreciated attempt, is what I feel this recording will end up being, much to my disbelief. As a side note, Justin Vernon worked on this recording, you know the guy from Bon Iver? I think that he and Powell are pretty good friends.

MP3> Land of Talk ‘Death By Fire’

-Fleet Foxes (self-titled) & Giant EP

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the mighty Fleet Foxes. If there is any buzz band that I hopped on board with this year it has to be these guys. I resisted, and resisted, and finally caved. There is an honest pureness, humility, and sense of genuine that this band exudes that cannot be denied. That, and they are some talented guys who harmonize like muther fukcers. What is to come from the band in 2009 will confirm or deny their ability to remain relevant.

MP3> Fleet Foxes ‘Ragged Wood’

-Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight

MP3> Frightened Rabbit ‘Heads Roll Off‘

If you are anything like me, Frightened Rabbit has a song for you. The Scottish band of 2 brothers, formulate songs that spell out a regular diet of alcohol hazed events and relationships as a result of, that speak volume’s to many. If you think back hard enough, you’ve  been there, like it or not, and they say it better than you wish you would’ve at the time. A hazy love affair with modern folk music that is quite…honest.

-Deerhunter Microcastle

I know what you’re thinking.. jump on the bandwagon muther fucker! To be quite honest, I first saw the band @ Emos inside awhile ago, and not knowing anything about them, I was drawn to the music. I bought the Kryptograms release and was marginally unimpressed. I didn’t forget them though, as they left a mark on me for some reason.  2008, Microcastle is released, and as the album is much more palatable, the live show seals the deal. The recording is ambient, rock, and sometimes simplistic, yet it conveys a sound that represents a band that is in control of something, something that feels and sounds good.. Sometimes it’s a package with the recording and live performance that seals the deal.

MP3> Deerhunter ‘Agoraphopia’

-The Walkmen You & Me

MP3> The Walkmen ‘Red Moon‘

Not going to lie, I built my original liking for The Walkmen based on the single “The Rat”, which coincidentally is a song title on the Dead Confederate album aforementioned. Aside from that, this latest recording reveals a band bound in romantic ideals of relationships connected to a sense of constant movement. As if the main character bounds about the globe with the constant reminder in his suitcase of the life that is, or could have been.  Once again, the live performance from this band secured my belief in the music. Incredibly executed, with simple instrumentation, and not so simple passion. Classic and modern.

Well, that’s my list, I did it and have to admit, it wasn’t all that bad. I apologize if I offended anyone with the muther fucker language, and yes I am aware that it’s mispelled once. 9 recordings, not 10. I could’ve stretched to the usual round number of ten, but it would have been a stretch. I didn’t count until I had finished writing, so it wasn’t something that I had planned. Hope you enjoy. Now go out and buy some damn music!

From the label that turned me on to bands like The Pixies, Throwing Muses, Dead Can Dance, and Cocteau Twins years ago, a collection of MP3s for your downloading pleasure. Thanks to a label that continues to bring us some of the most interesting independent music around.

via pamplemoose, via Largehearted Boy

One band I discovered a bit late in the game, but much to my delight, The Constantines have had themselves a pretty decent year. The band released Kensington Heights earlier this year and followed up with months of touring that unfortunately didn’t have them playing anywhere near these parts. A shame, as I hear great things about the bands live performance. “Credit River” isn’t my favorite track from the recording, but seemingly appropriate.

The video please:

A little MP3 offering from the band’s Shine A Light release:

Me likey!

MP3> The Constantines ‘Night Time/Anytime (It’s Alright)’

I don’t know why this show is of any interest to me, but it is. It’s Ice Cube @ the Mohawk, and something about smells of fun!

You might want to consider passing on checking out opener Trick Trick, unless you share in his hate.

Music speaks to me on many different levels and can represent times, places, experiences, and specific situations in my life. Now that the temperature here in Austin is beginning to resemble a season of  fall and winter, certain songs come forward in a comfort of years past and present remembering this dry, colorful, celebratory season.  Some songs more for feeling musically relevant to the winter-like conditions , and others for random personal feelings related to the season.

Or maybe just a nice way to spend a chilly Friday night at home sipping wine and sifting through music?

Just push play and listen.

Bon Iver ‘The Wolves Act I and II’

Doug Burr ‘Graniteville’

Monahans ‘The Answer to All Our Prayers’

Frightened Rabbit ‘Keep Yourself Warm’

My Morning Jacket ‘By My Car’

The National ‘The Mansion on the Hill (live)’

Shearwater ‘The Snow Leopard’

Josh Rouse ‘My Love Has Gone’

The Cocteau Twins ‘Lorelei’

Our good friend Navdo is celebrating 3 events this coming Monday. 1 year of promoting shows here in Austin, 10 years as a promoter, and December birthdays, including his. In traditional Navdo style, he’s put together a party.

Monday night at the Parish, $5 gets you into the party, gets you killer drink specials, as well as some nibbles from Jimmy John’s. Oh yeah, there’s music as well. Brownout! The Steps, Eagle Claw, and DJ GMAU provide the beats. Kinda hard to beat.

click the poster for full details

With Deerhunter, we have a band that takes their name from an impressive war film of the 70′s, but their music has more to do with unnerving Russian roulette scene that seared itself into our collective conscious, than it does the entire film. With every song, Bradford Cox has transformed himself into Christopher Walken’s character and is spinning the barrel of his existential revolver, squeezing the trigger, smiling at his luck, and inviting us to try.

From the onset, we were met with oscillating fuzz and feedback loops that felt more like creatures from the ether swooping down on Emo’s and perching on the rafters as onlookers. Cryptograms kicks in and Cox’s voice swoons over the microphone with a ghostly reverb, the drawbridge extends itself over the hazardous moat, and we are in Deerhunter’s eerie Microcastle.

The Atlanta quintet drew from all of their recorded material to date and followed their intro with the propulsive Never Stops. Josh Fauver and Moses Archuleta held down the fort with a steady-punch bassline and a compelling kick drum, which then gave way to the epic, metal-wind chorus, as the band locked in to drive the song’s message home. It was made clear early, we were witnessing something special, something unaware of its own end.

As they intently moved through their discography, an insight began to dawn on me. The crew’s music functioned more like an incantation, the space we occupied felt more like a meeting ground for the living and the dead, and I was never more comfortable with my own mortality. There was a strange reassurance looming in the air comprised of banshee wail and Deerhunter music. Gone was the contrived head-bob and inappropriate mosh-pit, in it’s place, a committed engagement by a mesmerized audience. This was a full-blown trance, and despite my talkative friend’s wishes that “everyone should be jammin’ out,” I concluded the only thing jammed was her noodle and it prevented her from receiving transmissions from this ghost frequency. I was tired of Cox having all the fun, so I took the gun, spun the barrel, pulled the trigger, got lucky, and smiled back.

By the time they reached Nothing Ever Happened, a song that could make a serious run for song of the year in the underground circuit, I couldn’t imagine anything going wrong for these ATLiens.  Nothing boasted it’s undulating hiss, exclamatory bass, Whitney Petty’s infectious lick, the tandem shimmer of Lockett Pundt and Petty’s guitars, Cox’s math-rock guitar trickery a la Van Halen, a climax culminating into a pitch-bending audio assault, and a challenge to one’s musical palate and sanity. What a great place to be!

Deerhunter’s last half of the set bounced around from new to old, to mistakenly-leaked, and back to new. At one bookend there was the grimy dance-pop of Weird Era release Operation, and at the other Twilight at Carbon Lake, a modern-day version of Santo and Johnny’s Sleepwalk. Everything in between confirmed a peculiar feeling. Although every member of Deerhunter is an integral part of its anthem(ic) sound, it’s Bradford Cox that appears to be in two realms at once, in the here and now and the hereafter, a beacon transmitting messages from a frequency which we should all hope to be attuned to. He possesses a musical soul that extends itself from the beginning of Rock’s musings to places Rock music has yet to go. At Carbon Lake’s thunderous, crescendo into tremulous, guitar fury, abrasive shrill, and percussive cacophony, I was relieved to find that we all survived this daring game of sonic Russian roulette and comforted by this thought. Once in blue moon, we encounter a band that reaches conceptual bliss, and Deerhunter is that band.

I’ve been pining for those days when rock was rock, and when the music kicked you in the gut and made you scream at the top of your lungs while guitars howl and drums thump. Dead Confederate fulfill that desire, and this video shows you why.

After the break-up of Austin’s noise rock/punk outfit Scratch Acid, David Yow relocated to Chicago and formed The Jesus Lizard with Duane Denison and former Scratch Acid bassist David Wm. Sims. Noise rock/post punk/alternative were used to describe the band’s music, which featured Yow howling like a tortured animal at times while forming lyrics that painted the darkest of images. The band was known most for it’s live shows, where Yow was known to flail around the stage recklessly, expose himself, and inevitably end up in the crowd.

The band’s career spanned a little more than a decade, and produced numerous albums on both Touch and Go and Capitol, while building a reputation as one of the best live shows around.

May 2009 finds all of the original members reuniting for a string of dates that begins with All Tomorrow’s Parties and ends sometime in November in the band’s hometown of Chicago. All that’s left is to fill those 7 months, and chances are good that Yow and company will return to the city where it all really began. I for one, am quivering with anticipation.

MP3> The Jesus Lizard ‘Gladiator’

MP3> The Jesus Lizard ‘Whirl’

My first experience with the band Deerhunter came about purely by accident as they were on the same bill as some other band that I had set out to see (which may have been the Ponys) @ Emo’s one night a bit more than a year ago. Knowing nothing about the band, the music resonated with me mostly because it touched on a few different genres that had been, and sometimes still remain of interest to me at times. Minimalist, sometimes sparse, psychedelic, garage rock, all represented while being fronted by a most curious vocalist, Bradford Cox.

Although pleasantly surprised by the bands performance that night, my purchase of Cryptograms failed to encourage much more than minimal interest in the bands recorded material. It came across like the ending of a bad acid trip with nerves frayed and on edge and the idea of reaching some sort of level of comfort, a lost cause. Not that I would know from personal experience.

Bradford Cox has remained an artist of interest for various reasons since then, managing to stay a fixture in the Pitchfork limelight for a myriad of reasons, and releasing Microcastle which has stirred my interest into a reasonable murmur. Smooth the edges with a familiar approach to the music, as warm, soft glowing songs melt away one by one, feeling more like a comfortable soak in heroin bliss. Once again, I wouldn’t know from personal experience. I watch a lot of movies.

Emo’s outside on Tuesday 12.2 Deerhunter returns with new baggage in tow. Baggage that you should check. Times New Viking opens the event.

Tickets

MP3> Deerhunter ‘Never Stops’