DenverSurfReport: December 2008

well I used to listen to a lot more music than I do now, but here's what I think are my 10 faves for the year of 2008 - in no order:

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark (killer packaging on the vinyl, embossed copper printed cover)

Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher (more great packaging, cover art by the fabulous Heather Reynolds with the back cover lettering done by another former Hooligan Jon Killough)

The Sword - Gods of the Earth (if you like Black Sabbath as much as I do, this one is a must)

RJD2 - Magnificent City Instrumentals (much better than last year's "Third Hand" this one gets back to the sounds I like of RJD2. This one I'm having trouble tracking down on vinyl - holler if you got a hook)

AC/DC - Black Ice (yeah, you know what it sounds like)

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (this is my official Saturday morning clean the house album, great pumped up stuff)

Nick Cave - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (another one that you can imagine what it sounds like, still kicking against the pricks)

Bauhaus - Go Away White (this one blew me away, not nostalgic but really sounds like they've evolved and progressed as if they'd still been doing this all these years. Packaging is killer too - white printing on white cover, white vinyl, and a sticker included!)

Dungen - 4 (whoa, I don't even know what to say about this.....it's so kick ass in a kind of Ennio Morricone soundtrack-y kinda thing meets Tortoise and bathed in LSD pschedelia sung in Swedish)

Misfits - 12 Hits From Hell (not 2008 by any stretch, recorded in August of 1980, these 12 tracks were supposed to be released as an album, but ended up being cut up into a couple singles, Bobby Steele was being thrown out of the band and Doyle was replacing him - this recording uses both Doyle's as well as Steele's guitar work so it's the only recordings where the Misfits are a 5 piece and it has a distinct sound. Caroline Records was in talks with Danzig and Jerry Only about releasing this in 2001 but they couldn't get everyone to agree so it got scrapped. Of course the tapes got leaked and someone pressed vinyl with the Caroline Artwork and liner notes, I paid 20 bucks for the vinyl and am stoked to hear my high school years again.)