Friday, January 2, 2009

Some Favorites of 2008 (Part 1)

Been meaning to do a little post about some of the albums we've been digging this past year, so here they are in the order we came across them:

Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
[myspace]

We went up to play a show at Cake Shop in NYC in January of '08 and when we were hanging out with some friends in Brooklyn we asked if there were any sweet up-and-coming Brooklyn bands. They gave us a copy of Yeasayer's new album (technically a 2007 release) and it blew both our minds collectively on the drive home the next day. We went and saw Yeasayer later that month at the Black Cat in DC. They played downstairs to a writhing sold out madhouse. MGMT opened for them. MGMT has really blown up this past year but I personally think Yeasayer is a much stronger band both live and on recording. Although I must say Yeasayer is even better live than on the record. It's hard for an album to capture the energy of a live show as spectacular as Yeasayer's blend of psychedelic / spiritual world-prog. The prog rock aspect comes out a lot more in the live show. Kind of like Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, TV on the Radio, and Kansas all rolled into one. SEEEEEE

Check out '2080'


Beach House - Devotion
[myspace]

Absolutely one of our favorite bands. Devotion is their second album, although Lindsay and I were both really into their debut when we first met. We went to go see them at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC with Papercuts, another very cool and retro band back in August of 2007. When we saw them, Beach House was a guy-girl duo (although now they tour with a drummer). The guy (Alex Scally) plays guitar and the girl (Victoria Legrand) plays keyboard and they play over simple beat tracks and use lots of reverb. Lindsay and I were thinking of getting a band together to play the stuff we were recording (Cardboard Wings) and we were like "ohhh, we can do this for Birdlips; we can just be a duo!" Their first album was great and the second, Devotion, is even better.

The awesome video for 'Master of None' from their first album:


More to come tomorrow.

Clifford John

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