The Authors pick their top albums of 2008

…posted this in a few places but didn’t even think to put it on this blog.  Anyway, the band I am in is called the Authors.  Justin and I put up our top releases of 2008 and for the interest of the music lover who might stumble across this blog, it’s listed below.  Most of these have already been featured here although I need to get on the ball and put up the “Very Best” Esau videos(thanks to gorilla vs bear for turning me on to them).

Justin’s:
1. Cut Copy “In Ghost Colours”
2. Friendly Fires “Friendly Fires”
3. Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend”
4. Fleet Foxes “Fleet Foxes” & “Sun Giant EP”
5. TV On The Radio “Dear Science”
6. Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit “The Very Best Mixtape”
7. Hercules & Love Affair “Hercules & Love Affair”
8. Kanye West “808 & Heartbreak”
9. M83 “Saturdays = Youth”
10. Crystal Stilts “Alight of Night”
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Ben’s top 11 in no particular order
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Vampire Weekend – S/T
Fleet Foxes – S/T
Hercules and Love Affair – S/T
M83 – Saturdays=Youth
Dr Dog – Fate
The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion
Chad Van Gaalen – Soft Airplane
Little Joy – S/T
Women – S/T
The Walkmen – You and Me

Honorably mentioned
Vivien Girls – S/T
Atlas Sound – S/T
Nigeria 70 (compilation)
Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit – The Very Best Mixtape
Crystal Stilts – Alight of Night

Women

…so I love women but now I also love the band Women.  Not a lot out there in the way of videos on the  “interwebs” for these guys except these two poorer quality recordings(that don’t hold a candle to the album versions).  Anyway, if your even marginally into these videos do yourself a favor and pick up the self titled album out now on Rough Trade label in the US and Flemish Eye in Canada.  Also note that SoV’s favorite Chad VanGaalen recorded these guys – actually they are made up of members of his touring band.

Big props to the operators of KOOP’s program “The Great White North” who feature great music from Canadian artists and who turned me on to both Women and Piano.  Those crazy Canadians sure to do like to reappropriate words don’t they?

Black Rice by Women

Camera by Women

Chad Van Gaalen or is it VanGaalen?

I was about to do a post on Devin Flynn and Chad Van Gaalen as musician animators and then I just decided to give Devin’s band Pixeltan(his animation series is called Ya’ll So Stupid) it’s own post(from a few weeks ago) and here is Chad’s.

Chad is an animator and musician who happens to do many(if not all) his own videos and also many of the bands he shares a record label with on Sub Pop. I’m actually shocked Chad isn’t a household name…in indie fans houses at least. Take Neil Young vocals(Chad is also a Canadian – Calgary to be exact) and add some amazing lo fi folk a la the Microphones and you have Chad…but then again, that’s almost too limiting as he seems to truly have a unique style that never quite fits into one specific category. See for yourself.

Molten Light by Chad Van Gaalen or maybe it’s VanGaalen – I have seen it spelled both ways multiple times and honestly I don’t know which is correct.

Flower Gardens by Chad VanGaalen – starts off curiously but you must hear him make stuttering really cool.

Mini TVs by Chad Van Gaalen – this is a pretty good live version but the recorded one is even nicer because it has all kinds of atonal guitar parts and weird sound effects.  The harmonica melody sounds a lot like something on a Neil Young album but I can’t remember which song it is now.

The Glow Pt 2 by The Microphones – this is just for bonus points since I mentioned them earlier.

Chad VanGaalen or Musicians who animate

I meant for this to be a post of musicians who also animate but I am having a hard time finding videos where the musician animates his own video so this is just going to be a post on Chad VanGaalen and later on I’ll feature the music of Pixeltan(bassist Devin Flynn animates), The Cheap Suit Serenaders(the famous R Crumb plays in that band), and Lightning Bolt’s bassist Brian Gibson(the drummer does music for Devin Flynn’s animations too).

So Chad VanGaalen is the bomb – I suppose he is the most underrated guy on a major indie label that I know of. His voice sometimes reminds me of Neil Young a bit(I think Chad is Canadian like Young). My favorite tune of his is MiniTVs which I can only find in this mix youtube video (fast forward to 10 minutes into the video for Chad’s song – also there is a great Mike Andrews song before and an old Jeremy Jay song after). Anyway, he is also a talented animator and does a few videos for other Sub Pop label mates. Here is one of his own songs with the video he made for it.

Clinically Dead by Chad VanGaalen