Lists

The 10 best albums of 2008 according to Citizen Analog.



Fitter Happier:
1. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
2. Tv on the Radio - Dear Science
3. Sigur Ros - Med Sud i eyrum vid Spilum endalaust
4. Shearwater - Rook
5. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
6. Wolf Parade - At Mt. Zoomer
7. Secret Machines - Secret Machines
8. Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
9. Aimee Mann - Smilers
10. The Dears - Missiles



Paul:
1. Jim White - Transnormal Skiperoo
2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestraße 68
4. Roma di Luna - Casting the Bones
5. Jeffrey Lewis - 12 Crass Songs
6. My Brightest Diamond - A Thousands Sharks Teeth
7. Matt Bauer - The Island Moved in The Storm
8. Herman Dune - I Wish That I Coiuld See You Soon
9. Bowerbirds - Human Hands
10. Why? - Alopecia



Old English:
1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
3. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
4. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
5. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
6. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
7. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
8. Prefuse 73 - Preparations (Technically released in late Oct. 2007, but i didn't hear it till 2008, and it's badass so i'm including it)
9. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Lil Tae Rides Again
10. Beck - Modern Guilt



MTS:
1. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
4. Dodos - Vister
5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
6. Deerhunter - Microcastle
7. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
8. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
9. Sigur Ros - Med Sud i eyrum vid Spilum endalaust
10. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Collaborative lists coming soon.

Snow is Pro-War?

Found after the blizzard of 12/18/08 that hit Fargo, ND pretty hard. This was my best/favorite blizzard so far, it actually kept people inside all Sunday evening.

Get the LED Out.

It's that time again. The end of the year. Time to compile and reflect on all the glorious noise released this past rotation. But more importantly the best time to find all the good music I missed throughout the year. So I'm working on a top 10 list and asking a few people to do the same. Hopefully in a week or so the cumulative/individual results will be posted for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to send your lists to citizenanalog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Below is MetaCritic's list of 2007's 30 best reviewed albums.

1 From Here We Go Sublime by The Field
2 Untrue by Burial
3 In Rainbows by Radiohead
4 Person Pitch by Panda Bear
5 Raising Sand by Robert Plant And Alison Krauss
6 Let's Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav
7 Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire
8 Children Running Through by Patty Griffin
9 Kala by M.I.A.
10 Sound Of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
11 Comicopera by Robert Wyatt
12 Mirrored by Battles
13 45:33 by LCD Soundsystem
14 Boxer by The National6
15 New Moon by Elliott Smith
16 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend by Miranda Lambert
17 The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams by Me'Shell NdegéOcello
18 Ire Works by The Dillinger Escape Plan
19 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon
20 Copia by Eluvium
21 Sweet Warrior by Richard Thompson
22 The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine
23 Beauty & Crime by Suzanne Vega
24 Vieux Farka Toure by Vieux Farka Toure
25 And Their Refinement Of The Decline by Stars Of The Lid
26 The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse by The Besnard Lakes
27 Grinderman by Grinderman
28 23 by Blonde Redhead
29 Andorra by Caribou
30 Overpowered by Roisin Murphy

Alela Diane's Roundabout

Alela Diane's Roundabout

In 2006 Alela Diane released "The Pirates Gospel" out on the small label Holocene Music. It's is a fine piece of musical artistry and remains one of my favorite discs. In 2007 she made her way to Texas and played the SXSW festival down in Austin. She stopped by an made this recording with DayTrotter (a pretty neat music blog). The recordings are here and it's all live versions of songs from "The Pirates Gospel" and some new stuff as well, you can download all of the tracks too... for frees!

Using the DayTrotter link we come to another one of my favorite artists, Shara Worden know in the musical world as "My Brightest Diamond." The people at DayTrotter have this cool little thing they do called Bookery in which artists choose books that they like and read them, Shara's choice is here. Some other artist/bands that have contributed to this bookery project include Jeffery lewis, Fiery Furnaces, Okkervil River, and Portastatic amongst others.

While in France, assumingly on tour Shara shot a video of her version of Nina Simone's "Be My Husband" and I think it's fantastic.


Nina Simone is jazz/soul musician from North Carolina who recorded over 40 albums in her lifetime. Somewhere in there she recorded the song "I Put A spell on You." After it's release John Lennon was quoted saying that it was the inspirations for the Beatles song "Michelle."

"Michelle" is quite a good tune if I do say so myself you can read up on it's history here. One of my favorite covers of it is by Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals. It has also attempted by over 30 bands including Booker T and the MG's, and even Bela Fleck has a version. Interesting side note the single beat out "Strangers in the Night" by Sinatra for the Grammy award in the category of song of the year in 1967.

Two albums after the release of "Michelle" on Rubber Soul, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album was rated the all time best rock record in 2003 by Rolling Stone magazine. The cover of the album featured a collection of life size cardboard cutouts of people surrounding the Beatles. Some of the people included are Sigmund Freud, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, and interesting enough Karlheinz Stockhausen is there.

Karlheinz Stockhausen was an experimental music composer of the 20th and early 21st century. His influence is wide spreading and it is said to be seen on the Beatles track "Strawberry Fields Forever." Where presumably the use of the Mellotron the worlds first sample/playback keyboard was used alongside an abundance of overdubbing and delays to pay homage to the the man.

One of the most interesting things I think that Stockhausen did is the Hellicpoter string Quartet Not to say most of his stuff isn't interesting, it is trust me :)



A string quartet popularized by Hayden traditionally consist of two violins, a viola, and cello, but the combination is not strict just the number. The violin as you may know has several nicknames including the squeak box :) and the fiddle. Over in Finland they have a specific variation of the violin they like to call the Jouhikko.




As you can see in the video the Jouhikko is played on the knee. Completing the roundabout if you look, you can find that Alela Diane credits Michael Hurley for his use of the knee fiddle in her band.

Alela or Michael, can we get confirmation that this knee fiddle is a Jouhikko?