Dudes of Lee Street

Alright, I know we haven’t blogged/done a show in awhile, and I haven’t contributed one bit to the Bodhi Tree Experience in awhile. So, without further ado, I’d like to present my half of the 2008 Bodhi Tree certified albums of the Year. Hopefully Adam will have an equally awesome and somewhat similar list also to put up sometime soon. And also I do realize its only the beginning of December, but according to my research the only albums still to come out are from this babe and an over-hyped DVD/CD from these jerks (Justice).

(List is final, any complaints contact KCOU music programmer Jonathan Hutchenson)

10.Parc Avenue- Plants and Animals
-These Canadian’s first full-length album offered all the laid-back-folksy-chill-jamming of Dr. Dog (who also released a solid album), but really just worked better start to finish. Probably would be higher if it was still summer and I could listen to it with the car windows down or floating down a river. Solid stuff, can’t wait to hear more from them.

9. Attack & Release- The Black Keys
-Albeit, still maybe an inferior album to 2003’s Thickfreakness, but this Danger Mouse produced has all the heavy hitting guitar and drums any rock fan can handle. Plus enough Danger Mouse influence to groove to. Hopefully the Keys will continue to experiment with different producers and keep filling out their sound, or they would be fine just kicking out rocked out grainy blues hits. Probably the best party appropriate album of the year.

8.When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold- Atmosphere
-Top hip-hop album of year for me. Slug MC’ed and Ant Produced (who definitely has thrown his name in with El-P, Madlib and Danger Mouse for hip-hop producing), “When Life Gives You Lemons…” gives a surprisingly deep and introspective album, with the occasional club thumping track, mixed in between Slug’s mellow and serious style, rhyming over mostly a live band style jams. “Shoulda Known” is a heavy contender for track of the year.

7.Third- Portishead
-Probably will be higher on Adam’s list. I never really gave Portishead much of a chance until this year (thank you Radiohead for your acoustic cover on youtube) link. Never really bought into Trip-Hop much either. But “Third” proves how ignorantly writing off whole genre’s of music can sometimes cause you to miss out on something that really is beautiful and amazing.

6.Meo suo I eyrum vio spilum endalaust(???)-Sigur Rós
-Album translation “With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly”. Sigur Rós’ latest took home many Bodhi Tree awards this year. Best music to mindlessly listen to while studying or reading. Best music video of Icelandic hippies running around woods naked. Best music to imagine yourself walking around to as the last person on the face of the earth.

5.Soft Airplane- Chad VanGaalen
-The 5th spot on a yearly top 10 list should mean a lot for an album that I have only heard 3 tracks from and for the first time a week ago. Maybe some recency bias is in effect, but I don’t care, because the (freshly in my mind) 3 tracks that I haven’t stopped listening to in this last week are absolutely genius. Perhaps if I had been listening to “Soft Airplane” since it actually came out in September it would be even higher. Add in VanGaalen’s insanely tripped out and detailed artwork and music videos, and a track about a TMNT mask, “Soft Airplane” successfully beat out Destoyer’s “Trouble in Dreams” for a spot on the list for “destroying” Dan Bejar at his own game.

4.In Ear Park- Department of Eagles
- What is there to say about Department of Eagles? Everything I liked about Grizzly Bear I like just as much about D of E. I think Daniel Rossen proved with his cover of JoJo that he can sing about anything, in any quality, with any assortment of instruments, and I will find it vastly enjoyable. Yes, Grizzly Bear might still be better, and yes D of E is less depressing and offers a fuller sound (which shouldn’t take away from the album, but it kinda does). Nevertheless, “In Ear Park” is still worth listening to for a solid month out of due respect.

3. Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill- Grouper
-My one pick that hopefully seems obscure enough to validate my spot as a pretentious music college DJ. I don’t know what label works the best for Grouper, who from the little I can find out online is a solo act by the name of Liz Harris from Portland. Grouper’s sound is Ambient, drone, and shoegazer. Which basically means she plays sitting down surrounded by pedals with the audience silently watching their tight jeans rub together and uncomfortably shifting the weight of their feet, while she softly sings into a mic and lightly strums a guitar. However, “Dragging a Dead Deer…” is hands down the most beautiful and entrancing album of the year. The perfect album to fall asleep to. Harris’ soaring vocals really do float around the room mixing and overlapping with the soft guitar filling out a remarkably deep and layered sound.

2. Elephant Shell- Tokyo Police Club
-Complete opposite of the album mentioned above. Start to finish, short, loud, punk, attitude. Enough pop to make it accessible to basically everyone. Perfect for getting pumped for a night out or a late night LSD crowd.

Three way tie for #1

1a. In Rainbows- Radiohead
-I don’t really need to talk about this album, just explain why it’s sharing its spot. Official release date is Jan. 1, 2008. However, like most people, I got it online for free in October (I know, I didn’t pay anything, but I did buy the vinyl for 15 bucks later in the year). Not sure how other lists will handle this, but without protocol I’ll respectfully include “In Rainbows” as a potential winner of Under the Bodhi Tree album of the year (awaiting Adam’s verification).

1b. Kala- M.I.A.
-Maybe I only put this on the list to see if I can get Adam to seriously consider beating me to death with a barrage of PS3 controls and my own refugeed vinyl’s, or maybe “Paper Planes” is the biggest song in the world, and has more amazing remixes than “I’m from Barcelona” has members, or still, maybe M.I.A. is simply so trend-settingly hip that by mentioning her in a blog for the 7th trillion time I can get her blogosphere existence to swell so huge that she could possible explode, causing her hype to smash through everything trendy until the last 15 years of fashion, music, and art are completely destroyed beyond repair and we will be forced to go back to 1994 in terms of culture and I can happily wear flannel and listen to pavement as I ride a skateboard to the arcade quoting Pauly Shore in “Encino Man”.

1c. Devotion- Beach House
-My real top album of 2008. Like grouper, Victoria Legrand vocal’s can cause religious hallucinations at times, as her melodies glide across dreamy but more charming and alive instrumentation. The Baltimore duo will undoubtedly make a mark on many 2008 top lists, so I won’t have to defend my decision too much. Still, this album offers just so much in terms of easy but thoughtful listening, that it really is so completely perfect you can’t do anything besides fall completely into it.

Honorable Mentions
Oracular Spectacular- MGMT
Lost Wisdom- Mount Eerie
Made in the Darkness- Hot Chip
Alopecia- Why?
Trouble in Dreams- Destroyer
Saturdays + Youth- M83
The Devil, You + Me- The Notwist
At Mount Zoomer- Wolf Parade
Dear Science- TV on the Radio
Nouns- No Age
No Way Down- Air France