Friday, February 6, 2009

Another Year End List For The Fire

Punctuality has never been my strong suit, just ask anyone who knows me and they're bound to tell you I'm always a few minutes late for everything. So the fact that I'm just getting around to posting this list should come as no surprise.

In 2008 the small staff at The Ash Gray Proclamation had a few eureka moments thanks to some great releases from Deerhunter, Times New Viking, TV on The Radio, and the pop rock gold found on the debut from Boston Spaceships.

As far as the list goes, these are merely our favorite records of 2008. I've assigned numbers to give this list some kind of order. I started with a simple criteria for witch an album must qualify for this list.

1. The album was released and purchased in 2008
2. No re-issues
3. No greatest hits
4. Spins- how often an album was played

Although I've been doing these lists for a number of years in some form or another, this is only the second year that the list has been made available on this blog. This year I've added some audio links, most of those are single track streams, in some cases full album previews are available. I also added links for purchasing all of these fine releases that saw the light of day in 2008.

Honorable Mention:
Some albums worth mentioning but were not included on this years list.
Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid
Fucked Up- The Chemistry of Modern Life
Circus Devils- Ataxia
The Mountain Goats- Heretic Pride
The Magnetic Fields- Distortion.


The AGP Top 20

20. Sloan- Parallel Play (Yep Roc)

Listen: Parallel Play full album stream
Buy it at the Yep Roc Store.

19. Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night (Slumberland Records)

Listen: Crystal Stilts- Shattered Shine
Buy it from Slumberland

18. Spiritualized- Songs In A & E (Fontana/Spaceman)

Listen: Spiritualized- You Lie You Cheat
Buy It at Newbury Comics.

17. Times New Viking - Rip it Off(Matador)

Listen: Times New Viking- (My Head)/R.I.P. Allegory
Buy It from the Matador store.

16. Nada Surf- Lucky (Barsuk)

Listen: Nada Surf- See These Bones
Buy It from the Barsuk shop.

15. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed(Arts & Crafts)

Listen: Los Campesinos!- We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Buy It from Arts & Crafts.

14. Silver Jews- Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea (Drag City)

Listen: Silver Jews- Strange Victory, Strange Defeat
Buy It from Drag City.

13. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar)

Listen: Okkervil River- Lost Coastlines
Buy It from the Jagjaguwar store.

12. Super Fury Animals- Hey Venus (Rough Trade)

Listen: Super Fury Animals- Run Away
Buy It from the Beggars Group.

11. Portisehead- Third


Listen: Portishead- Machine Gun
Buy It from the Island store.

10. Robert Pollard- is Off To Business (Guided By Voices, Inc)

Listen: Robert Pollard- Gratification to Concrete
Buy It from Rockathon.

09. Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer (Sub-Pop)

Listen: Wolf Parade- Language City
Buy It from the Sub-Pop store.

08. No Age - Nouns (Sub-Pop)

Listen: No Age- Teen Creeps
Buy It from the Sub-Pop store.

07. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Continues (Kranky)

Listen: Deerhunter- Nothing Ever Happens
Buy It from Kranky.

06. Los Campesinos!- Hold on Now, Youngster
(Arts & Crafts)

Listen: Los Campesinos!-Death To Los Campesinos!
Buy It from Arts & Crafts.

05. TV On The Radio- Dear Science (DGC/Interscope)

Listen: Dear Science Full Album Stream
Buy It from Cinder Block.

04. Sigur Ros- Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (EMI/XL)

Listen: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust Full Album Stream
Buy It from Sigur Ros shop.

03. Boston Spaceships- Brown Submarine (Guided By Voices, Inc.)

Listen: Boston Spaceships- Go For The Exit
Buy It from Rockathon.

02. Frightened Rabbit- The Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat)

Listen: Frightened Rabbit- The Modern Leper
Buy It from Fat Cat Records.

01. The Walkmen - You & Me (Record Collection)

Listen: You & Me Full Album Stream
Buy It from Merch Lackey.

4 comments:

March2theSea said...

i guess i need to listen to the walkmen cd again. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood, but I listened and it just didn't grab me. cool list, wish you wrote a little about each..but ahh well.

Bryan Hamill - Executive Editor said...

I decided to try something different for the this years list. Perhaps next year I'll go back to the old format.
The Walkman disc is a real return to form after the last two mediocre releases from the band. I dug it from 1st spin.

Thanks for reading

Echos Myron - Writer said...

what a wanker..New Rule. Pick one album by an artist...two from Los Camps? Two from Pollard? Brown Sub hands down.. where's Blitzen Trapper, Death Cab?? what do you have some sort of "Greys Anatomy" disqualifier?? Adding some FUN to your indie-snob list:
The Mae Shi
The Late Greats
The Futureheads
Malkmus' best solo record..what "too jammy" for you? guitar solos are not evil- do not fear the buckethead!!! lastly...the crystal stilts are ok, but I liked them 25 years ago when they were called THE LYRES!...Its called reverb..get over it....geez..

Bryan Hamill - Executive Editor said...

Nice name dude.
You get kudos for that.
Otherwise I think I hate you!

Where's you're list...then sshhhhut it!

Our brotherly love is always a treat.