2008 Juke Box

Part of why I am needed here at the Dose is to provide some ballast to the music end of the operation.  The others seem to have the folkie-bedwetter/ska-nebbish scene covered, so I get the metal beat pretty much to myself.  But now I have to admit… my ‘Best of 2008’ list didn’t come out very metal. Maybe it’s kinda… party metal.  At any rate, these songs do follow my preferred formula of loud guitars, crazy percussion, and songs that start fast and then speed up.  Unlike my friend Matthew, I rarely find an entire album I could recommend — this either makes me more discriminating, or less sophisticated, I can’t tell.  So my end of the year music review will be my favorite songs of 2008.

1. Caesars — ‘No Tomorrow’.  A hooky pop song… British Invasion by way of Sweden. (They did that song ‘Jerk It Out’ from the iPod commercial.)

2. Ponytail — ‘Die Allman Bruder’. Kids out of the Baltimore art school scene. Two guitars, no bass and the wacky vocal stylings of the adorable Molly Siegel. (Picture above.)

3. Dandy Warhols — ‘Mis Amigos’. Shambolic stoner music that makes you twirl around in circles like a hippie.

4. Weezer — ‘Troublemaker’. Lots of good songs on the Red album. This is the first of their albums I’ve really liked.

5. White Denim — ‘Mess Your Hair Up’. Texas trio, real garage-y. This one is a little challenging in that it has a repeated three-note bit of business on the guitar that starts to get on your nerves, but exactly when you’ve just had enough, they open up the throttle.

6. TV on the Radio — ‘Dancing Choose’.  This one speeds up nicely and is wicked fun to sing along with.

7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig’. Drunken revival hoochie-koo.

8. Eagles of Death Metal —  ‘Secret Plans’. Foot-stomping, beer-drinking, voodoo road house music. They should be on a bill with White Denim.

9. Supergrass — ‘345’. Still love them Brits.

10. Ting Tings — ‘That’s Not My Name’. New Brits to love.  It was hard to choose from several songs. Will be on NBC New Year’s Eve.

And I need to add that I loved the new Kills cd, but Matthew covered them in depth already.

Some video after the jump.

Caesars — No Tomorrow (Excellent, if mystifying, Michael Jackson type dance routine)

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TV on the Radio — Dancing Choose

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Nick Cave — Dig Lazarus Dig (Just goes to show what you can do on a small budget. Hope you like Nick Cave’s face)

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The Ting Tings — That’s Not My Name (Much prettier than Nick Cave.)

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Ponytail — Beg Waves (This is a great song too. Molly Siegel’s singing is rather eccentric. No lyrics really. Just happy yipping and chirping.)

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Eagles of Death Metal — Wanna Be in LA (Another good song from the new cd.  Video by Liam Lynch.)

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