Flashback Fridays; My List Of Top 33 1/3 Albums Of 2008

This popped up my feed recently as something I wrote back in 2009 when I was still sorta doing album reviews. I didn't actually have a blog page back in January 2009 but I posted it to my Facebook blog (anybody remember Facebook blogs? No? Me neither) and I still think it holds up as a breezy piece of writing. One thing though; I can usually remember everything I ever wrote but honestly a few of these bands I don't recall at all. Side note does anybody remember albums? No? Me neither. Anyhoo join me as we travel back in time to the dying embers of the Bush Era shall we;

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My opinionated list of The Top 33 1/3 albums of 2008;

1. Andre Williams & The Hound Dogs ~ Can You Deal With It? ~ Bloodshot
After his odd country experiments with the Sadies the seventy something Detroit soul man (he co-wrote "Shake A Tail Feather") returns to the Garage Blues that has become his latter day trademark. This time out he has his hottest back up band yet with wailing fuzz guitar, tight rhythm section and a horn section to boot. Oh yeah; and it also has his best country song yet with "Pray For Your Daughter".

ANDRE WILLIAMS & THE HOUND DOGS ~ "PRAY FOR YOUR DAUGHTER";


2. The HorrorPops ~ Kiss Kiss Kill Kill ~ Hellcat
Serious psychobilly purists may pretend to despise them but they know how to make good catchy songs which is exactly why cd's were invented in the first place, unless I've completely misunderstood this whole rock n' roll thing, which is always a possibilty

THE HORRORPOPS ~ "MISS TAKE";


3. The Knifings ~ Superb Limb Of Such Magnificence ~ s/r
For their sophomere effort they continue to toss out their eccentric combination of Art Punk, Math Core, Cow Punk, College Rock, Glam Metal and what ever else they're listening to this week. So what's next? Ska/Metal? Bluegrass/Thrash? Prog/Grunge? I just hope it's not hip hop. Seriously guys, don't do that. I mean it.

4. Creepshow ~ Run For Your Life ~ Stomp
Few bands are able to replace their singer and carry on successfully, let's see, there's AC/DC and ...ummm...not Van Halen. Anyhoo Toronto's Psychobilly crew replaces Jen Hellcat with her (almost) twin sister Sarah Sin and misses nary a beat on their sophomore release. As was the case last time it's a little short so either they are rationing their material or they're not that prolific. We shall see.

CREEPSHOW ~ "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE";


5. The John Henrys ~ Sweet As The Corn ~ Ottawa always seems to have a couple of good country-rock bands hanging around, The John Henrys, besides having a cool name, have the most authentic Burrito Brotherish sound yet. Great songs too.

THE JOHN HENRYS ~ "SWEET AS THE CORN";


6. Gruesomes ~ Grusomemania ~ Riccochet
A rerelease of the Montreal garage teen kings 1987 sophomore (in every sense or the word) album in time to remind us what a solid garage band they were, and how fast they learned their chops. Less fuzz drenched than the first album and an ever so slightly less campy slice of garage trash, it still kicks the ass of all the various Estrus or Jon Spencer spawn that has passed for garage over the past decade.

THE GRUESOMES ~ "HEY!";


7. Gaslight Anthem ~ The 59 Sound ~ Side One Dummy
New Jersey's vaguely rootsy blue collar pop-punks who aren't The Bouncing Souls split the difference between Social Distortion and Bruce Springsteen. It could use a little more aggro, or at least bombast, (see The Roman Line below) but it's probably closer to Middle America (and Canada) than the Anglo-Centric Souls.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM ~ "THE 69 SOUND";


8. The Primordials ~ 14 Prime Numbers ~ s/r
A note perfect homage to sixties Brit-beat no frills garage, mostly made up of hopelessly obscure covers, in a perfect case of "we have better record collections than you" nerdly one upsmanship.

9.The Summerlad ~ City of Noise ~ Saved By Radio ~
Speaking of sprawling excess an Alberta psych-prog trio put out an album with only two tracks, one of which is forty minutes long, fully twice as long as "Inna-gadda-da-vida". Makes the Greatful Dead seem like D.R.I., sort of.

THE SUMMERLAD ~ "CITY OF NOISE";


10. Various Artists ~ Life is Hard, West African Music in Britain ~ Honest Jon's
An intresting collection of fiendishly rare recordings made by the community of East African immigrants in Britain in the 1920's for export back to Africa. Since these were done for a small audience of Africans rather than to entertain whites the recordings make no attempt to pander or "Tom" and the songs are in various West African tongues rather than English. As this is the same region of Africa that most American and Caribbean slaves originally came from it's a unique opportunity to hear where the blues truly came from, and how they must have changed once they got here not to mention how these latter African musicians were in turn influenced by the Blues and Country records they heard. It's textbook cultural exchange. Excellent job of remastering as well, they sound brand new, unlike the scratchy field recordings of Lomax and the like. This English label has also put a similar comp from Iraq and probably more for all I know.

JACOB SAM & THE KUMASI TRIO ~ "PALM WINE MUSIC";


11. Various Artists ~ The Great Lakes Surf Battle ~ s/r
A comp of Toronto's oddly vibrant surf scene featuring highlights from The Blue Demons, The Robots, Vo Drats and the Calrizians along with Dr Mysterion and the Wolfman and Montreal's Trebelmakers. The Calrizians mash-up of Black Sabbath and Blondie is a brilliant coup even if some writer (I think it was Chuck Eddy) thought of it first.

THE BLUE DEMONS ~ "CASBAH";


12. Elliott Brood ~ Mountain Meadows ~ Six Shooter
Their second full lengther continues their odd genre of Goth-Grass. I'm not sure what it all means but it's plenty atmospheric.

ELIOTT BROOD ~ "THE VALLEY TOWN";


13. No No Zero ~ Rough Stuff ~ Folk Brand
Ex members of the Exploders continue their odd genre of sleaze-core. I'm pretty sure what it means and it's plenty noisy.

14. Drunkulla ~ All New Moves ~ s/r
Toronto's answer to The Hellacopters (with two ex Sinisters, one ex Illuminatti and one ex Flamejob) offer up more ridiculously excessive trash n' roll sleaze garage on their second album. Chock full o' flying guitars and windmill drums, the songwriting has also improved (songs are longer than 90 seconds) since the debut, so has the production.

15. The Fleshtones ~ Take A Good Look ~ Yep Roc
I don't know how many albums they've done by now because some of them frankly sucked; but when they're on point their trademarked (literally) "Super Rock" shames those half their age (literally), like say the Hives, Vines, Jet etc. Oh, and they also put out a pretty cool xmas album this year.

16. Bravo Johnson ~ The Crooked & The Straight ~ Stone Junction
An Americana Country/Folk rock group from California make a bid for serious cred with a sprawling double album, just like the Band or Dylan...sigh. Any comparisons to the Band, Byrds, Burritos, Buffalo Springfield, and especially Tom Petty are entirely intentional and the whole thing's exessive length pretty much means that at least some of it has to be waste but you have to admire their ambition.

BRAVO JOHNSON ~ "ACE IN THE HOLE";


17. The Pack A.D. ~ Funeral Mixtape ~ Mint
Some folks do the two man band thing because they saw the White Stripes do it, some do it because it's just easier and cheaper and some do it because they really know what to with it. The Pack are the latter, their Joplinsque blues drenched roar is tougher and more authentic than the Stripes, to say nothing of Jon Spencer. In fact lets say nothing more of him.

THE PACK AD ~ "MAKING GESTURES";


18. The Roman Line ~ Between The Stirrup & The Ground ~ indie
They get the obvious comparisons to Social Distortion with their itchy throated vaguely rootsy So-Cal punk. It's not paticularly original but it is well done and considering that most others insist on copying Blink 182 or worse I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And they manage to write a couple of anthem-like numbers that I can picture an audience of drunken punters bellowing along to.

19. Hollywood Fats & The Paladins ~ Live 1985 ~ Topcat
The California bluesman played with everyone from the eighties revival including the Paladins, Blasters, Kid Ramos and The T Birds and he no doubt would have been a star if he had lived. As it is we have only a few rare recordings and the occasional unreleased obscurity like this one to show his chops. The Blues are in sore need of another hot guitar man right about now.

HOLLYWOOD FATS & THE PALLADINS ~ "LET'S HAVE A PARTY";


20. Blue Rodeo ~ Blue Road ~ WEA
They've put out so many albums that we kinda forget they're there, but this live quickie gives them a chance to get all stipped-down and back to bascis enough to remind us that they were Alt-Country before it had a name, and they can still deliver the goods. It is a little short though, the Sadies have already managed to put out a double live, so they fleshed it out with a full DVD.

BLUE RODEO ~ "TO LOVE SOMEBODY";


21. Fuad & the Feztones ~ Beeramid ~ Riccochet
Ex Gruesomes Bobby Beaton and John Davis take time out from their creative loafing to put out their tribute to the frat-rock garage that pimply and pale white boys got drunk to in the early sixties before the bluesier trash garage of the mid sixties which the Gruesomes themselves would later riff on. If they keep this up they could either go forward and start a prog rock band or go back further and start jitterbugging or something, actually John Davis was in the Crazy Rhythm Daddies so he already did that, or was that the Charleston?

22. The Screamagers ~ The Screamagers ~ s/r
All their lo-fi minamilist trash garage tidbits are less than two minutes long, and are either about monsters, zombies, martians or spiders. And the singer sounds like Glen Danzig's younger brother. I'm not sure why this is so catchy but it just is. This is the sort of thing you would have found on one of those "It came from Canada" comps on OG records in the 1980's. It's a Canadian thing, you wouldn't understand, I'm not sure I do either.

THE SCREAMAGERS ~ "DAY OF THE CENTIPEDES";


23. The Weirdies ~ In 3D ~ s/r
Formed out of various moving parts left over from the Tijuana Bibles and the Threat, they sound more like the former than the latter. As for the original touch, the new girl singer sounds disturbingly like Betty Rubble. A acquired taste that I'm not sure how many others will acquire but strangely catchy I thought.

THE WEIRDIES ~ "PARTY OVER HERE";


24. Oscar B ~ La Morte Aux Trousses ~ s/r
To everything there is a season Turn Turn Turn; Montreal loses one great psychobilly band, The Alley Dukes and gains a new one, out the ashes of the Alley Dukes' last lineup no less. Most of their songs are in French which I don't speak so I'm not sure what the title means, something about dead pants...no that can't be right..oh well what the hell, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter.

25. The Stolen Minks ~ High Kicks ~ New Romance
Halifax first full length (more or less) slapdash girly garage combo are ever so slightly less slapdash and girly at times sounding rather like Boss Hog. Lest we forget this is exactly how Neko Case started out, not to mention Boss Hog.

THE STOLEN MINKS ~ "CONSECUTIVES";


26. The Speaking Tongues ~ Wild Sounds ~ indie
Yeah I know another crash boom bang bluesy two piece Toronto band, maybe it has something to do with the impossibilty of finding parking down town for a van. Anyway you have to admit the formula still rocks. Highlights include a harmonica hodown, yippie-ky-ay!

THE SPEAKING TONGUES ~ "HELL DOWN BELOW ME";


27. I'm Not Jim ~ You Are All My People ~ Bloodshot
A side project from Silos frontman Walter Salas-Humara (Or is it a side project? Silos bassist Drew Glakin died this year) collaborating with a novelist I 've never heard of and Jon Spencer's producer for some artsy Americana. It's pretty wordy (natch, with a novelist aboard) and gimmicky (Jon Spencer's producer ditto) but it has it's interesting moments. It's worth noting this is not the first time the Silos have gone experimenting, they once did an album with Tortoise I believe.

28. The Wilders ~ The Wilders ~ Free Dirt
Their take on the whole Alt Country thang is less twang and more hoedown, less honky tonk more old timey. The only cover here is of a Skillet Lickers number, and if you don't know who they were then you might not be a redneck. They still put in enough country rock for the younguns' though.

THE WILDERS ~ "HEY LITTLE DARLIN";


29. The Warped 45's ~ The Warped 45's ~ s/r
Debut from Toronto country rock outfit borrows shamelessly from Uncle Tupelo, Golden Smog, Rank & File and Wilco to good effect.

THE WARPED 45'S ~ "RADIO SKY";


30. The Bicycles ~ Oh No It's Love ~ Fuzzy Logic
Not everything in the sixties was all surf, garage, psyche, folk rock, country rock and blooze jams you know. Some pasty kids just liked to make catchy non threatening pop songs, some still do.

THE BICYCLES ~ "OH NO IT'S LOVE";


31. Sarah Blackwood ~ Way Back Home ~ Stomp
Solo debut from the new Creepshow singer reveals that in her heart of hearts she'd rather be Emmy Lou Harris. With tattoos. Remember that cool ballad that Creepshow did on the first one? Like that.

SARAH BLACKWOOD ~ "LONELY PARADE";


32. The Brutal Knights ~ Living By Yourself ~ Deranged
If you're going to recreate 1980's hardcore this is how you do it, short songs with maybe one and a half chords apiece, way too much treble on the guitar, spastic drumming and even more spastic shouting about being a drunken sleaze bag. Then repeat.

THE BRUTAL KNIGHTS;


33. Like a Martyr ~ The North ~ s/r
So what if you haven't bought a new cd since Pearl Jam went into seclusion or wherever, that doesn't mean you should be totally banned from the air waves does it? No? Oh well, I heard this after sitting through yet another collection of cds from that cookie cutter Emo/Screamo/Pop-Punk crap that passes for non-metal or hardcore hard rock these days and thinking that it was pretty cool that these guys from B.C. obviously have no clue how anachronistic they are and don't care.

1/3. Gowiiee ~ The Door ~ Sweetreleaf
Normally the mere thought of a "rock opera" about deforestation in B.C., which is also a fundraiser for said no doubt worthy cause would be enough to make me want to run out and buy a rusty chainsaw, and I actually care about such things, really I do. However; good intentions do not necessarily make for good art, I hope the class is taking notes. Fortunately this Australian dude's tastes run to Led Zep and Free Bird rather than Ani DiFranco and the Dixie Chix so this is actually pretty cool. And it is a good cause for which he's apparently raised a bucket of cash, so there.

Honorable mention: NQ Arbuckle, Baskery, Bellevue, Black Lungs, Micheal Brennon, Christian D & the Hangovers, Galatus, The Get Rights, Gunsmoke, Merle Haggard, The Heavy, The High Dials, Japandroids, Waylon Jennings, The Micronite Filters, My Morning Jacket, Owl Farm, Wyckam Porteous, The Psychs, Micheal Rault, Mr. Rick & Biscuits, Mavis Staples, The Streetdogs, Surefire Machine, Telepathic Butterflys, Teenage Head w/ Marky Ramone, Luther Wright & the Wrongs

Box sets;
1. Johnny Cash ~ At Folsom Prison ~ Sony
2. Hank Williams ~ Rare and unreleased ~ Time Life
3. Various Artists ~ Steelin' it, The Steel Guitar Story ~ Proper
4. Various Artists ~ Rockin' Memphis ~ Proper
5. White Zombie ~ Let Sleeping Corpses Lie ~ Geffen

DVD's;
1.American Hardcore
2.Jandek on Corwell
3.Gram Parsons; Fallen Angel
4.The Last Pogo (reissue)

TEENAGE HEAD FROM "THE LAST POGO";


Dishonorable mention;
Guns & Roses ~ Chinese Democracy ~
After taking at least as long to finish as the Great Wall of China itself (with marginally fewer casualties) Axl finally releases a full album. It doesn't actually suck but it doesn't rock either, slick and ponderous and less fun than cock rock has any right to be. This year their old rivals Motley Crue also put out yet another of their seemingly endless series of comeback albums that was at least cheerfully aware of their anachronistic stupidity, hell they shamlessly revel in it and therein lies the differance. Axl (and Metallica, and Megadeth) always took themselves way too seriously as brooding artistes while the Crue are perfectly happy to be lunkheaded Peter Pans. Who knew that the Crue, (or at least Nikki) would turn out to be the smarter of the two. So it kinda does suck after all.

GUNS & ROSES ~ "CHINESE DEMOCRACY";

The top 40 greatest rock and roll songs about radio

1. Mexican Radio ~ Wall of Voodoo

Who else could be number one really? An instantly memorable song, even if they never did anything else, and as far as most people are concerned they didn't, this would still earn them kudos. Also a great video BTW, clearly the reason videos were invented in the first place. To bad the only copy I could find is a second generation copy. Fucking copyright Nazis.



2. Border Radio ~ The Blasters

One of the all time great opening riffs courtesy of brother Dave Alvin, one of the great all time vocals courtesy of brother Phil. Great piano too. No real video though.



3. Transmission ~ Joy Division

Only Joy Division could make a depressing song about the radio, but nobody ever made depression sound so inviting either. Bernard Albrecht is a sadly underrated guitarist, especially by Bernard Albrecht. And Stephen Morris is a drum pounding bastard.



4. Do you remember rock and roll radio ~ The Ramones

They may have led the leather jacketed punk hordes but hey were old romantics at heart. That Phil Spector collaboration wasn't all that crazy after all, although he clearly was. Later covered by Kiss. But they suck.



5. This is Radio Clash ~ The Clash

The exact moment when they left three chord bashing punk behind. But not too far behind.



6. Top Twenty ~ The Undertones

Granted the relationship between this song and radio is actually pretty slight, title notwithstanding, but what the Hell.



7. Radio Free Europe ~ REM

The master of mumblings finest moment. No I don't know what he's on about any more than you do, but there's a good chance he doesn't either.



8. Rock and Roll ~ The Velvet Underground

Turns out that Lou Reed was another old softy after all. Who knew? Actually after Sunday Morning that should have been pretty obvious.



9. Road Runner ~ The Modern Lovers

Also an even greater driving song, for those who like to multitask.



10. The Spirit of Radio ~ Rush

I don't even like Rush, actually I actively dislike them, but you have to give credit where it's due. Their tribute to the old CFNY is refreshingly unpretentious and has their best guitar riff by far.



11. Moondog ~ The Treniers

Originally done as a tribute/suck up to legendary DJ Alan Freed done circa 1956 by the R&B Doo Wop twins. But he didn't care for the song so it got forgotten. So no video.

12. The Radio Boogie ~ L.C. Smith & His Southern Playboys

Another early track; this time a hillbilly boogie number from 1954 from this otherwise obscure guy. It's since been covered by various bluegrass and rockabilly bands giving it a second life.



13. Do you remember Rock and Roll Radio ~ The Ramones

The Boys take another shot at breaking onto the airwaves with a radio anthem. Cleaner production this time. Radio ignores them again. Hey they even made a video, what more did you people want?



14. Radio Radio ~ Elvis Costello

The Ramones might not have been able to bludgeon their way onto the air but Elvis somehow managed it.



15. The left of the dial ~ The Replacements

However the Replacements couldn't buy a hit and had to rely on campus/community radio stations in Canada and the USA which are normally found on the left hand side of the FM dial. This was their tribute.



16. Listen to the radio ~ Tom Robinson Band

Normally known for his radical gay anthem (which pretty much doomed him in America of course) but this is yet another romantic ballad to the radio. Later resulted in a hit cover version in Canada by The Pukka Orchestra.



17. The 59 Sound ~ The Gaslight Anthem

The New Jersey Boys do their tribute to radio and Springsteen.



18. Sound System ~ Operation Ivy

The California boys do their tribute to radio and ska/punk.



19. Capital Radio One ~ The Clash

"You know what guys? We'll never get on the radio like this". Not in America anyway.



20. Blacks/Radio ~ The Psychedelic Furs

Only on the original UK version of the first album as some twits at the record company thought that Americans would find it offensive. Which is a little odd since nobody can make out most of the lyrics anyway.



21. On my radio ~ The Selector

One of the most beloved and versatile and also the most unstable of the 1980's Ska bands. Taken from their one and only album. They later reformed and covered their own song for this video.




22. Radio waves ~ Orchestral Maneuvers in the dark

Taken from their experimental Dazzle Ships album, before they got really lush and poppy.



23. Blasting Radio ~ The Desperate Bicycles

Another hopelessly obscure track; this time from one of the early UK post punk bands who put out one album and disappeared without a trace. No video of course.

24. R.A.D.I.O. ~ The Candidates

A now defunct band from Kitchener Ontario with a rousing radio anthem. That was of course completely ignored, so no video.

25. Rue Morgue Radio ~ Creepshow

It's the most blatant example of product placement/sucking up since...umm...The Treniers (see number 11) but that doesn't mean it's not a catchy song.



26. Gasoline Radio ~ Real Gone

Another defunct independent band from Toronto with a radio anthem you will never hear.

27. Radio ~ ~ System of a down

It's really stoopid but it's catchy.



28. Who listens to the radio ~ The Sports

A post punk band from down under who showed up in 1978 sounding like Thin Lizzy or The Boomtown Rats, had a couple of near hits and then vanished, at least in this hemisphere.




29. Clap for The Wolfman ~ The Guess Who

Yet another tribute to radio's past, although when this was done in the 1970's it was still possible to not sound bitter about it (see below). Later redone by Winnipeg rockabillies The Rowdymen.



30. The Last DJ ~ Tom Petty

This time it's not a wistful tribute to radio like those of Lou Reed, Tom Robinson or the Blasters, but a bitter rant about a lost age innocence. Which frankly has been gone for a long time.



31. Love her by radio ~ Billy Jones

Dating back to 1927 for this first radio ballad, at least the first one anyone can remember. Jones was also a member of a radio vaudeville troupe called the Happiness Boys who had a bunch of hits at the time. No video though. Too bad.

32. Turn the radio on ~ Lulu Belle and Scotty

From the 1930's, an old time country duo who also did the original version of "I told lately that I love you". No video again.

33. Cool disk jockey ~ Boyd Bennett

A 1950's rockabilly best known for his hit "My boy flattop" does his radio tribute/ suck up. (See numbers 11, 12 and 33) With similar results. Did this sort of thing ever work? No video of course.

34. Don Williams ~ Listen to the radio

A gentle ballad to the radio by the laid back country crooner



35. Rockabilly on the radio ~ Jack Smith

Latter day tribute to a radio that no longer exists.

36. The Radio Stars ~ Radio Stars
A Britsh post punk group on Stiff Records sing a song about themselves. It doesn't become a hit. Too small of a target audience?

37. Radios in motion ~ XTC

One of the first and best loved of the British post punk bands follows up the roll they were on with their "This is pop" single.



38. Black stations white stations ~ Martha and the Muffins

In which the very white Canadians Martha and the Muffins get all funky and make a point about about segregation on radio at a time when MTV played almost no black music at all. Great video as well, wonder why MTV didn't like it.



39. Radio Ga Ga ~ Queen

The very idea of Queen mocking radio for being trivial is, well, trivial. But it it's at least not bombastic (by Queen standards) and even catchy. Bonus points for the video swiped from Fritz Lang.



40. Turn up the radio ~ Autograph

A radio anthem from a 1980's hair metal band? What could possibly go wrong. Actually it's better than it really needed to be.



Honorable mention;

The radio still sucks ~ The Ataris

Yes I know it's only 30 seconds long. I didn't even bother to look for video for this one.

Honorable mentions (instrumentals);
1. Radio 4 ~ Public Image Ltd.
2. Whatever happened to radio valve road ~ Martha and the Muffins
3. Time Zones ~ Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark

Dishonorable mentions;
1. We built this city ~ Starship

Widely considered to be one of the worst songs EVER. And one of the worst videos as well so kudos Starship; you have clearly earned your mark in Rock and Roll history.