TOP ALBUMS OF ’08!

December 8, 2008 5 Comments

Disclaimer: I didn’t listen to everything that came out this year (I know, it’s a shocker). There are albums that I know are good but that I didn’t listen to till way later than I should have (i.e. Fleet Foxes, She & Him), so I can’t really justify putting them on this list. Also, I can’t get the freakin’ apostrophe in the ’08 to go the other way and it’s really bothering me. Anyway:

15. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us (Barsuk)
14. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar)
13. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
12. Adele – 19 (Sony)
11. Hercules and Love Affair – s/t (Mute)
10. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular (Sony)
9. Kaki King – Dreaming of Revenge (Velour)
8. Santogold – s/t (Downtown)
7. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer (Roadrunner)
6. Noah and The Whale – Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down (Cherry Tree)

Top 5 after the jump!

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Live photos (+ interviews): Lollapalooza

August 9, 2008 Leave a comment

Lollapalooza was a week ago and I’m still catching up on life … didn’t get back to NYC till Tuesday afternoon because my flight got canceled Monday due to weather.

This is the third year in a row I’ve gone to Lollapalooza and each has been way different. In ’06 some friends and I just bought tickets and stayed with my friend’s brother in the city. Last year I was living in Chicago and covered the fest for venuszine.com, and then this year I was there coordinating the coverage for venuszine.com — which you can and should check out here! It was pretty hectic (huge understatement), but I had a lot of fun.

During the weekend I interviewed Chuck Inglish (Evan Ingersoll) of the Cool Kids, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, and Ninja and Nick Parton of The Go! Team. I also “met” (as in shook hands with, so I guess it doesn’t totally count) the Ting Tings, Gregg Gillis (Girl Talk), Saul Williams, and Nicole Atkins. It was pretty neat.

Click the photos below for my interviews:


I think my favorite sets of the weekend were Okkervil River, The Go! Team, Radiohead, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.

Some of my Lolla photos after the jump!

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New Pornographers & Okkervil River @ the Crofoot

April 12, 2008 Leave a comment

Okkervil River, courtesy of my cell phone

(Okkervil River, courtesy of my cell phone)

Last night my friends and I went to go see the New Pornographers and Okkervil River at the beautiful Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac (seriously, it’s so nice). Okkervil River was phenomenal and totally blew me away. Will Sheff has amazing stage presence and his voice actually was right on live, even the high parts in “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe.” So, so good.

It was my sixth time seeing the New Pornos so it really wasn’t anything new, although Neko Case being there was definitely a plus. However, there were sound problems at the beginning (thank-you to my friend Tony for yelling for them to turn down the bass), and although I really do like Challengers, they definitely played too many songs from it. At least they didn’t play “The Spirit of Giving In,” my all-time least favorite NP song, and they did get in some good ones, like “The Bleeding Heart Show,” “Mass Romantic,” “These are the Fables,” and others, and they were fun, as always.

Best part — I got to call the last song of the encore! They were taking requests and A.C. Newman pointed at me to pick a song (“Letter from an Occupant,” which everyone around me and I were yelling for), so that was pretty sweet.

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