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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).
John Del Signore's Band of the Year: Dirty Projectors
Since their big blog buzz show at Mercury Lounge in October of '07, Brooklyn-based Dirty Projectors have been steadily rising above obscurity to indie rock prominence. They've done NPR, sold out the big Music Hall of Williamsburg, and even—gulp—caught the dark, sinister eye of MTV. (The latter bit of exposure was redeemed by chief projectionist Dave Longstreth telling the network: "F*ck this we can do it ourselves, we're not represented by MTV.") The band's unpredictable, idiosyncratic sound is distinguished by dizzying time signatures, soaring vocal harmonies, and infectious passion. And miraculously, you can sort of dance to it. Or at least bob your head until your neck hurts. Which we'll be doing tonight at their sold-out New Year's Eve show at the Knitting Factory, where they'll be joined by Deerhoof, Akron/Family, and a cast of thousands in a fitting climax to Dirty Projectors' breakthrough year. (Photo of Dave Longstreth/Dirty Projectors by Jen Carlson.)
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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...