Ty's top ten of 08

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Here is my compendium of the best cds released last year. I will be posting them, hopefully, daily.

10. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

Lead man Jim James long ago solidified his presence as one of the most recognizable and talented songwriters and voices in the alt-country genre. And, yes, the ska tinged, keyboard heavy experimentation of 05's Z was unexpected and refreshing, but his work on Evil Urges puts him the upper echelon of american singers of this era. Evil Urges sees him switching styles trackt to track with ease, drawing inspiration from legends of the past. "Highly Suspicious" sees James forgoing his tennessee twang for a wierd, psychotic Prince-like croon. "I'm Amazed" is a straight forward southern rocker that coulda been a lost track from Skynyrd. Very few could transition from James Taylor to Neil Young without losing the essence of their band like James does.

Evil Urges is a classic.

[Partial]

I enjoyed the album Z back in the day. I should redownload that.

[HowardRoark]

#20

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/rad...pecials/top89/

[Tyrone Bigguns]

#20

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/rad...pecials/top89/

We are going to trust Minn voters now?

I will say that one of their top ten is my #1.

[HowardRoark]

We are going to trust Minn voters now?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Time for #9.

Girl Talk. Feed the Animals.

In a year/time when sampling, a hip hop staple, was largely abandoned in favor of dull re-treads dressed up as groundbreaking experimentation (i'm talking to you, mr. west), Girl Talk's Feed the Animals is a welcome use of the familiar as anything put out in 08. Gregg Gillis, without any shame, uses 322 unauthorized samples into a party moving, master mix to end all master mixes; a creative, dynamic effort that's equally hilarious and daunting. It's a pop cultural grab bag, a concoction that utilizes Roy Orbison, Outcast, Pete Townshend, Rage Against the Machine, Huey Lewis and the News, and Sinead O'connor and fuses them together seamlessly - and that is just on track one!!

I haven't heard something like this since DJ Shadow's Endtroducing or The Avalanches Since I left you.

I would take a keenly tuned ear and multiple times listening to note them all, but the recognizability of them makes every listen feel like a welcomed friend is right around the corner.

The number of samples

[HowardRoark]

Scottsdale, hello. Is the caller there?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Scottsdale, hello. Is the caller there?

Ty has been a bit busy...as he prefaced it with he hoped it would be daily. But, because you prompted:

8. Sleeping in the Aviary, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Motel(Science of Sound)

Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Motel (2008’s most visually vivid album title, to be sure) is a far cry from last year’s, Oh, This Old Thing?, a handful of punk tracks that clock in at under 25 minutes.

Instead, the Madison band churns out a raucous, whiskey-slurred bit of lo-fi folk that’s a big change and an even bigger improvement.

The new material sounds as if lead man Elliott Kozel has been listening to just as much Sebadoh and Neutral Milk Hotel as the Kinks and the Violent Femmes. The result is an unpredictable conglomeration of wry alt-country and some wicked harmonica.

It all makes for a 45 minutes of youthful desperation, intoxicated exuberance and catchy pop. One of the year’s best.

7. The Dutchess and the Duke, She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke (Hardly Art)

The beauty of simplicity is gleaming on The Dutchess and The Duke’s debut album, She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke. A guy, a girl and a guitar (with the occasional handclap and flute toot, for good measure) make for a most endearing end result: a near-perfect road-record.

Signed to Hardly Art, the duo is unlike most of their counterparts at sister label Sub Pop, shunning grandiose production for an understated, folksy lo-fi soundtrack suited for the dusty trail. Certain albums were born to wander the country (almost everything from Neil Young and Springsteen’s catalogs), and this one certainly qualifies.

Pair it with a windy mountain road (well, as mountainous as AZ gets), as I’ve done, and it only seems natural. The points of reference are numerous – and perhaps hard to believe. She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke stands on its own, starched stiff by nothing more, perhaps, than unrepentant honesty. Not cheerfulness, necessarily, but truth, a quality even the most jaded can appreciate.