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Was 2008 a ground-breaking year for music? Probably not. But the past 365 days did bring us many sonic surprises, some good and some bad. Here are a few highlights, as well as our Top 3 Bands of the Year (all, incidentally, from New York).
Jen Carlson's Band of the Year: Apes & Androids
While we've been championing Apes & Androids since catching them at Sin-e (R.I.P.) in August of 2006, this year was really a break-out for the Brooklyn band. They released their Blood Moon LP, amped up their live shows, and started playing to overflowing crowds of colorful fans at larger venues like Bowery Ballroom. You simply cannot leave one of their shows without a smile, and possibly a few errant sequins stuck in your hair. But while the confetti, glow sticks, dancers and over-the-top surprises (hand-made monster costumes!) add to their "best live show" status, the band's music can stand alone. We'd listen to them even if they were performing in potato sacks in a glitter-less dive bar. Luckily, they're set to play the Music Hall of Williamsburg on January 30th, so expect all the bells and whistles! (Photo of Apes & Androids at Bowery Ballroom via sgoralnick's flickr.)
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MGMT sounds good on your ipod and all, but when your songs are so overproduced that you can't accurately re-create them live, the hipsters will turn on your shitty live act pretty quickly.
Unlike Radiohead who have been mesmeric live for years and were the main reason for the success of APW.
Apes and Adroids use a ridiculously overwrought stage show to distract their dumb-as-hell fans from noticing how bad their music is. Style over substance at it's worst. I can't help but pity people who actually enjoy that crap.
Happy New Year!
Color me confused. Was it major labels that have been co-opting "indie" music that ruined CMJ, or the lack of big-name bands from said labels (ie Sub Pop, who, incidentally, are %49 owned by Warner Brothers.) If major labels co-opting "indie" music is really a bad thing, why are Columbia Record's darlings MGMT listed here as one of the year's best bands? And since when is a band from MA considered local?
This post left me with more questions than I came to it with!
this is a half-ass end of year music post if I've ever seen one.
apes and androids? really? with all of the great music out there, that's your best band of 2008?
gothamist, can you PLEASE get someone on your staff who looks beyond MTV, crappy street art and ridiculous (dare i say trendy) bands for their entertainment/pop culture 'news?' good god, wake up already.
MGMT is a perfect example of major labels "co-opting" indie music. Columbia signed 2 kids who with an indie aesthetic and no previous releases, and hooked them up with one of the most respected producers in the world of indie rock. The catch here is that it worked incredibly well with no sacrifice in quality. Band of the year? maybe not, since their album came out in october of 2007...