It has now been 2.5 years since I moved out of Seattle for the Golden State. I've slowly drifted out of the NW music culture, so sometimes I wonder if I know what to say on TIG these days.

Combine that with the fact that I was so distracted from music for a lot of 2008, this year's "best of" lists were especially difficult. Heck, I don't even think I can make a Best of NW music list this year, not because there was insufficient music, but because I just missed so many of those important-but-not-well-known releases that make these lists. I did enjoy Fleet Foxes, Common Market, Colin Meloy live, Malkmus and the like, but really, that isn't a "Best of the NW" list but rather a list of albums I liked that happened to be from the NW.

That being said, I did get a last minute music revival for the year. Maybe it was the election being over (and the good guys winning), maybe it was finally getting a faculty position after many years of trying (lets just say Erik will be moving east in 2009), maybe 2008 just didn't mesh with me musically. Who knows? However, there was a lot of great music anyway, and here are my top 20 (for your praise or fist shaking). Feel free to read the full commentary. 

 

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at Chop Suey

The small, intricate details in Thao's music lifted the set into something that the people outside would rave about later as they sucked their cigarettes down.

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Women as Lovers just extends Xiu Xiu’s winning streak (or losing streak, depending on who you are).

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There's just something that clicks when I listen to the crazed and paranoia music of Jamie Stewart.

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Not terribly excited with this early offering, but you know I'll be all over the Brunettes; and, if they're not trumped by other bands I want to see more, will also probably try for Spoon, Xiu Xiu, Eisley, Dan Deacon, and Deerhunter (though of course they'll all be playing sets at exactly the same time in venues far far away from one another, because that's just the way it is).

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"Oh well."

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The photo was taken at the Bowery Ballroom in the bathroom stall right before a Xiu Xiu show. He returned to the venue the next night for the Long Winters and, mysteriously, the writing was gone!

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Xiu Xiu fills the musical void between the anarchy of Aphex Twin experimentation and the vocal electronic of James Figurine (and yes, that is more than a void and more like a gigantic chasm).

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It's a tormented journey into his psyche, like Conor Oberst on an all-night bender in a recording studio with Richard D. James.

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