It's the weekend before Christmas which means holiday party season has kicked into high gear.  This weekend there are so many shows to choose from {it's like a mistletoe'd SXSW or something} that my eggnog'd head is spinning. Might we suggest:

***Friday, December 18***

BOAT / The Exploding High Fives / Concours d'Elegance at the Sunset Tavern
A holiday party with BOAT? I'll take that! Also on the bill is The Exploding High Fives who have a song "Since You're Not Here for Christmas" on their myspace which is Ben Folds cute and catchy.  This confirms I'll be in Ballard tonight for this show.

The Head & The Heart / Star Lake Drownings / Your Favorite Book at Conor Byrne
As you may know, Your Favorite Book is one of my favorite Seattle performers. Star Lake Drownings killed it at hour Holiday show last year. Also, YFB shows are rare, so I'm hoping to catch a wee bit of this show tonight.

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Schoolyard Heroes are releasing a 2-song holiday single today: "I want your soul for Christmas" and "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel!".

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Please, help me make the best Hallowindie Mix EVER!

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Personally, I'd love to see something like a mini Nirvana museum or something similar installed in the sleepy former lumber town that Cobain used to call home -- something to draw a bit of business to the place. Or a fancy Cobain statue erected on the streets, ala the Hendrix one on Cap Hill.

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Some very local additions to this year's Capitol Hill Block Party have been announced.

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It’s always odd to revisit what you’ve reviewed over the course of a year. Sometimes, much can change – as after subsequent listenings, you realize that record you thought was pretty decent just blows (see The Killers’ Sam’s Town) or you come to love an album that you’d previously dismissed as mediocre (see “Into the Wild” soundtrack). The true test of a “best release of the year” is its stability, so I’ve tried to pick “long-haul” contenders—albums I’ll go to for months (or even years) to come, with no requirement for a set amount of finalists. Here’s what made the cut...

TOP ALBUMS:

• LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver (this one sits significantly higher than the rest)
• Interpol: Our Love to Admire
• The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
• Eddie Vedder: "Into the Wild" soundtrack
• Minus the Bear: Planet of Ice
• Aqueduct: Or Give Me Death

And, topping the list of what sadly wasn’t as good as I expected:
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I’ll leave it at that. I can hardly fathom how disappointed I was by that output (mixing the quirky fire of Modest Mouse with legendary jangler Johnny Marr? How did it fall so flat?).

TOP NORTHWEST ALBUMS:

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OK, the rain has let up a bit but I'm still not anxious to leave the apartment yet. Here's my 10 favorite local albums from 2007, complete with YouTube-y goodness - as best I could find it.

(I'm sure there'll be some continuity issues with the scores I've assigned - I wrote the reviews for four of the albums below. This is how I am ranking them at the end of the year.)

10. Fleeting Frequencies, Patience Please, Happy Happy Birthday to Me (song: "Bint"):

9.  ...The Art of Becoming One's Own Shadow, Lillydale, Mt. Fuji (song: unknown, at least to me, but it was the only one I could find):

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Schoolyard Heroes' release is one of the best, most hair-raising records out of the Northwest all year.

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Seattle's own Schoolyard Heroes are about to embark on a big ol' tour with a couple of heavyweights: Sum 41 and Birthday Massacre.

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Seattle band Schoolyard Heroes have just announced that they're leaving longtime Seattle-based label the Control Group and releasing their third record, Abominations, on the New York-based label Stolen Transmission.

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