The end (of the year) is nigh
Jim Carroll
December is around the coner which can mean only one thing. Yes, it’s time to recall your musical highs and lows of 2008.
In a week or two, The Ticket will be publishing its review of 2008. Aside from our music and movie writers recalling what rocked and what most definitely did not rock, we want to hear from you, our much loved readers.
What albums made you go wow? What gigs do you remember fondly? What movies impressed you so much that you recommended them to their pals?
Have your say in the comments field below.
Most Underrated album of the year: Beck – Modern Guilt
Discovery of the year: Primavera Sound – THIS is how to do a festival -will be a regular now if I have my way.
Insane gig of the year – Dan Deacon at the picnic.
Albums I’m most looking forward to in ’09: Passion Pit and after your blog, Animal Collective.
Open goal music related Christmas present of the year for her: Josh Ritter @ d’Marquee 09- Cheers Aiken
Fav albums
why?-alopecia
halfset – another way of being there
sigor ros album
deerhunter – microcastles
tv on the radio – dear science
paavoharju album
port o brien all we could do
fleet foxes
hauschka
pivot
and loads more…..
fav gigs
my bloody valentine manchester
silver jews,why? and deerhunter primavera
fav movie
the diving bell and the butterfly
“For Emma, Forever Ago” was probably my album of the year (bring on tonight), although “Sea Sew” is a VERY close second. Plus Lisa Hannigan is just so lovely. Please mention her Jim!
As far as gigs go, the credit crunch hit me about 12 months early (i.e. I’ve had a very broke year!) but, of the ones I managed to attend, Divine Comedy v Duke Special in Vicar Street stands out, it was brilliant. Two genuinely excellent musicians having fun on stage, their humour and good spirit infected everyone in Vicar St. Between great duets, covers and new versions of their own stuff it was proper live music, and will live long in the memory. Going through the motions on a 50-date tour it was not. Plus, where else would you get a lightsaber fight or an arm wrestle in the middle of a gig?
Someone above mentioned their blogs of the year too. While you probably don’t need it for the article, Annie Rhiannon’s account of her travels in the states the past few months have been amazingly well written, and the Spanish Exposition is a genuinely personal blog in an era of youtube clips and failed attempts at humour. Hopefully someone will see this and have a read if they haven’t already.
Oh and “On The Record” didn’t have a bad year either I suppose…
I’ve been to far fewer gigs this year that in the recent past. Tom Waits, first night, was just brilliant and now means that Uncle Tom joins the list of People I Was Lucky To See Before I Left the Planet.
El Picnic was aces as always, even if I was ill while I was down there. Rule No. 1 – lay off the dissolable Disprin if you want to have a rocking good time – and bring lots of tissues.
The Republic of Loose residency in April at the Academy was fun too. Seeing them with Sinéad O’Connor doing “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue” was very special.
REM at Oxegen Saturday night was definitely something special. The stars were aligned the correct way that night.
Supergrass at the Academy in September was quite fantastic. A band so tight you could bounce coins off them.
And Kraftwerk. Another act on the list mentioned re Uncle Tom. My 3rd time to see them and I still had a little cry when they did “Neon Lights”.
Biggest disappointment? Randy Newman cancelling due to his dodgy back. I love that guy.
I subscribed to the Season of Love at the Abbey and Peacock, as well as OD’ing at the Gate, the Helix and the Gaiety, so I can probably pass better judgment on the theatre I’ve seen rather than gigs. From the Gaiety Panto in January to The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui last weekend, they’ve all been great but the opening night of The Year of Magical Thinking will stand out – not only for the performance but for the bloody ignorant swines whose lives are so important that they just can’t switch off the mobile ‘phones during a one-woman-90-minute performance and almost completed ruined it for the rest of us mere mortals. I paid up as a friend of the Festival, both this year and last, and I know from the folks at the box office that the majority of people there on the night were there thanks to the corporate sponsors. Shame on them all.
Best plays, though? Big Love at the Peacock in the summer and Black Watch over in the RDS at the festival. My bro’ in London recommended I see it. He’s never let me down.
I’ve not seen half the films that most people mentioned so my favourites will probably not be mentioned anywhere else – Son of Rambow and Female Agents. Not all the heroes in WW2 stormed the beach heads or wore green berets – that probably why it’s called his-tory and not her-story.
Big hurrah for the return of the Lighthouse.
Big hurrah for Elbow, the most deserving winners of the Mercury since probably Portishead.
CDs purchased were few and far between. The only ones that come to mind are Elbow and Neon Neon. A John Delorean concept album – who would have thought it?
Best thing seen? The Julian Opie lightboxes on O’Connell Street. Did we borrow them? Can we keep them? Far better than the dreadful Xmas frame currently residing outside the GPO that the Corpo (I know, I know they changed their name!) are claiming is our Xmas tree.
Best telly? Spooks, of course. But I miss What The Papers Say – that was best 10 mins of telly each week.
Most missed? Tom Jordan Murphy.
2009 – bring it on!
i know it was my show but ricardo villalobos in the tivoli was amazing……one of the best dj shows i have every been to, never mind promoted.
Fav albums
deerhunter
why?
halfset
tv on the radio
sigor ros
paavoharju
port o brien
fleet foxes
hauschka
portishead
fav gig
mbv in manchester
why?,deerhunter,silver jews,portishead at primavera
fav movie
the diving bell and the butterfly (think it was this year)
liam
Its a simple one from me. Album of the year with out a shadow of a doubt has got to be TV on the Radio’s ‘Dear Science,’. Its a musical masterpiece. They’ve combined their brilliant production skills and musical genius to create a multi layered album. And they’re fantastic live.
Other albums in no particular order:
Sigur Rós – Me› Su› í Eyrum Vi› Spilum Endalaust
AU – Verbs
CallmeKAT – Fall Down
The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The Understatement
Lykke Li – Youth Novels
Portishead – Third
Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
Singles:
Autolux – Audience No.1
Fake Male Voice – OMG!!!FMV!!!
Gig:
Sigur Ros, Barcelona
TvotR – London
Wolf Parade – Vicar St
Of course there are more but EVERYTHING can’t be included
In terms of gigs I haven’t yet seen mention of Explosions in the Sky in Tripod all the way back in January. A truly wonderful gig.
Final Fantasy’s two new EPs are awesomo, and Hello Saferide’s new album had some cracking tracks.
A little Scotland centric but whaddaya going to do?
Albums:
James Pants- Welcome
Actress- Hazyville
Zomby- Where were u in 92
Tv on the radio- Dear Science
Shed- Shedding the past
Gigs:
James Pants in Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
Dan Deacon in Cabaret Voltaire in front of a crowd of about 20 people, Edinburgh
Chris Corsano & Alan Wilkinson, Henrys Cellar Bar, eh, Edinburgh
Autechre @ Numbers, Glasgow
Leonard Cohen, Edinburgh Castle.
Theo Parrish at closing night of Triptych Festival (for a FIVER!), Edinburgh
Naji Hakim in St Giles, Edinburgh
Singles/Releases of the year:
Peverelist- Clunk Click Every Trip (Punch Drunk)
Theo Parrish- Love Triumphant (Sound Signature)
Donnacha Costello- It simply is (Minimise)
Cyclops- Where’s Jasons K (DFA)
Gemmy- Bk 2 the Future (Punch Drunk)
Shackleton- Shortwave (Pole Remix)/You bring me down (Peverelist Remix) (~scape)
Darkstar- Need you (hyperdub)
Reggie Dokes- Rain Redemptive Love (Philpot)/Release Yourself (Prime Numbers)
Joker- Everything he’s touched in ’08 (Kapsize/Hench)
STL- 51 North (Something)
Best things this year:
Peverelist- For releasing three of my favourite singles of the year as label boss,producer and remixer.
Off the Record at the Soundhaus in Glasgow- best kept secret in Scotland.
Edinburgh in interesting new clubs shocker! Club Fabbriken, ItaloBLACK, Wasabi Disco, Definition, Substance all kicking against uninspired safe, staid straitjacket electronic music that was all too typical of the city in recent years.
Tip for 09- Werk Discs.
Gigs of the Year: Roisin Murphy in The Olympia on Monday(fucking savage)
My Bloody Valentine in London
Radiohead in Malahide
Albums of the Year: Santogold
Mgmt
Ryan Adams
Crystal Castles
Brian Cullens Love Bullets new EP
(not technically an album but the fact that it comes with a 100 page book is deadly)
Movies of the Year: There Will Be Blood
Roll on 09 for more music/films and Gigs.
Gigs of the Year: Roisin Murphy in The Olympia
My Bloody Valentine in London
Radiohead in Malahide
Albums of the Year: Santogold
Mgmt
Ryan Adams
Crystal Castles
Brian Cullens Love Bullets new EP
(not technically an album but the fact that it comes with a 100 page book is deadly)
Movies of the Year: There Will Be Blood
Roll on 09 for more music/films and Gigs.
Two of the albums of the year for me were Bon Ivor and Fleet Fox’s debut albums. Both are absolutely amazing.
I’d forgotten about Richard Hawley’s February gig until reminded by other people’s comments! It seems so far away now, but I would definitely second (or third!) that recommendation.
2008 has been such a great year for music. Fine, I missed Leonard Cohen but still some some spectlacles…
Greatest gig of my life: Tom Waits at the Ratcellar: http://www.darrenbyrne.com/wordpress/?p=348
Second best gig of my life: Duke Special vs Divine Comedy: http://www.darrenbyrne.com/wordpress/?p=684
My first festival ever: Oxegen 2008: http://www.darrenbyrne.com/wordpress/?p=225
Albums from 2008 that I liked:
Deerhoof – Offend Maggie (Yay! Return to form!)
Anna Järvinen – Jag Fick Feeling
This Is The Kit – Krülle Bol
Pokett – The Peak (FD: I put out his previous LP)
Eddie Marcon – There is a Face
Tenniscoats & Tape – Tan Tan Therapy
Hmm. Loads of folky lady music so.
My gigs of the year were Leonard Cohen & Tom Waits. I thought IMMA was an amazing venue and Leonard still has the voice and on the Saturday night it was such a lovely evening. I really never thought I’d get to see these two amazing musicians in Dublin.
Favourite Irish Festival is still Electric Picnic, I also really enjoyed Pinkpop in Holland, where I saw Rage Against The Machine & Queens of The Stone Age.
My Top Films are the Dark Knight, In Bruges & Gone Baby Gone & Juno.
Fav albums
Why?
Deerhunter
TV on the Radio
Sigor Ros
Halfset
Fleet Foxes
Paavoharju
Portishead
Port o Brien
Haushka
Fav gigs
MBV at apollo Manchester
Why?,Portishead,Silver Jews and Deerhunter @ Primavera
Fav movie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly(this year i think)
Fave album: David Holmes – The Holy Pictures
Fave discoveries: God Is An Astronaut, Tinariwen, Soha
Fave gigs: MBV and Underworld at EP, Kraftwerk in Kilmainham, God Is An Astronaut in Cork
Fave musical pilgrimage: visiting Stax in Memphis
Fave films: I’ve Loved You So Long, In Bruges
Fave football match: St Pats v Elfsborg
Hey, someone else who has been to Meim-fuss this year!
My Memphis pen friend (letters! remember them, folks?!) of over 26 years got married in March of this year so I just HAD to go. It was my second time there and last time (October 1998) the Stax building was just a shell. It was eventually torn down and the building that now stands there is a built-from-the-ground-up replica. You can still see bricks from the original place on sale on eBay, I believe – some enterprising guy in Memphis took some from the site when it was being demolished.
It was such a great weekend and, apart from seeing my buddie get hitched (and she and her husband dancing into their reception to “Viva Las Vegas” in matching gold Elvis sunglasses), the highlight was the 4 hours I spent at the Stax Museum on McLemore Avenue. The Otis Redding exhibition had been retained for another month so I got to pour over photos of the great man himself and all the telegrams his wife and family were sent when he was killed.
The bf even joined in with the dancing at the Soul Train bit in the exhibition. He was most impressed with Isaac Hayes’ fabulous OTT car. Little did we know that the great man would be gone just a few weeks later.
My Stax mug is here on my desk as I type.
So if you see a not v. tall female dashing around the streets with a Stax Museum messenger bag that way too big for her – that’s me that is!
C.
billy lyons @ 100…
…i completely forgot about the natural snow buildings album… that double lp was fantastic… definitely one of (if no THE) albums of the year for me…
Ooooooh Memphis! Had great fun when I was there in May.
And you’re right, the Stax museum is awesome. I mean, how can you go wrong with a place which has Isaac Hayes’ Cadillac? Just a word of advice, don’t fecking try to walk like this eejit did from Sun Studios to Stax. It’s longer than you think.
I also got to Nashville and New Orleans on that trip, one of the highlights of my year
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/travel/2008/0719/1216389359984.html
I love these kinds of lists, mine aren’t all musical though.
Highlights:
Gigs – Tom Waits, Duke Special v Neil Hannon, The Boss, Kanye West -ish, Republic of Loose twice, Stevie Wonder, Roisin Muprhy, Jay-Z,
Other stuff: Dizzee Rascal goes mainstream with an AWESOME song,
discovering Burlesque,
Dan Le Sac V Scroobius Pip,
Flight of the Conchords,
TV on the Radio,
Girls Aloud,
Santogold,
Juno,
Dara O Briain,
Meeting that fella from the Blizzards,
Soundcheck,
The Dark Knight,
On the Record,
Man on Wire,
Will Ferrell,
Ken Hammond,
Barcelona,
Getting Internationally Blog-rolled,
A few astronomical delights,
In Bruges,
Poetry,
State.ie,
That story on Red Lemonade about Bono and The Boss,
MIA,
AU magazine,
Julian Opie,
The Lighthouse,
Some lovely art,
Camille O’Sullivan,
Neon Neon,
Fleet Foxes,
Sigur Ros,
Lowlights:
Gigs – Radiohead (sorry)
Coldplay in general,
Gwyneth Palthrow and her lifestyle website,
Drug addict Amy winehouse,
Madonna anything,
The closure of some great blogs,
I could go on all day…
Nice one Jim, except I went one better – started with the Blues Fest in Chicago at the start of June then headed down I62 to Nashville, then Memphis, then N’awlins (with a daytrip to Clarksdale in between).
Hope you caught Daithi O Sé’s excellent “Highway 61″ documentary on TG4, I ran into him and his film crew on Beale St one night, where they proceeded to buy me several of those 32oz. beer buckets
Though my uninformed opinion and vague memories are probably worth less than two cent, in this day and age, nobody should be turning their nose up at 2c…
Best albums are probably very obvious, as I’ve been hugely addicted to Bon Iver for virtually the whole year. Not since a squeaky Joanna appeared 4 years ago has an album insisted that I play it so much. Fleet Foxes, Born Ruffians, Lykke Li and Sigur Rós. Though I’m just now getting to properly listen to TVOTR and Dept of Eagles and really enjoying them. Oh, and top-notch Irish album of the year most certainly goes to Richie Egan for delivering the kind of quality record that we knew someone on this island was capable of.
The best gigs of the year for me were:
Bon Iver – for the incredible and unique atmosphere in Tripod for that first gig.
Tom Waits – for the incredible downpour of rain that night as we sat under one of the Phoenix Park’s finest trees, sheltering and listening. Well worth the free admission price.
Dan Deacon – for the incredible chaos he consistently causes every time he visits Dublin/Laois.
My Bloody Valentine – for the incredible noise-making mini-marathon and more importantly being a band I never thought I’d see live who didn’t dissapoint.
Films/TV/Books/Sports Cars/Celebrity Meltdowns/Goal of the Season:
I had very little time for any of these during 2008. I still haven’t even watched The Wire. Though I did enjoy the obviously brilliant films There Will be Blood, No Country for Old Men and Diving Bell & The Butterfly.
Stilian Petrov.
Lowlights: the busker outside and the other guy who will be in the Quays Bar tomorrow, like every other Friday playing horrific covers of OCS and Oasis.
The end.
Oh shite, I forgot to mention the Hot 8 Brass Band gig in Whelans in February, for just being incredibly incredible and turning a Dublin gig venue into a proper New Orleans street party.
Best albums: For most of the year, music with words involved got in the way of my brain so it was Mogwai’s “The Hawl is Howling” and The Jimmy Cakes “Spectre and Crown” that did it for me all year long, and still leave the few hairs I have left standing.
Most of the rest of the music has been old, or released decades ago, but of this year’s crop Tom Morello (him out of RATM) & The Nightwatchman’s “Fabled City” is rarely away from a speaker. It’s like a mixture of blues, folk and rag & bone dances as performed by The Pogues featuring Mark Lanegan. Speaking of which, The Gutter Twins album and EP of this year were just sublime and “Sunday at Devil Dirt” with Isobell Campbell was mighty fine. Other faves over the carvery included The Aftermath’s impeccable but criminally overlooked debut album “Friendlier Up Here”, Deerhunter’s “Microcastle”, Neil Halstead’s beautiful “Oh Mighty Engine”, Luke Vibert’s “Moog Acid”, Paul Weller’s barmy but beautiful “22 Dreams”, Sigue Ros’s whatever-it-was-called, Portishead, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Black Mountain’s awesome “In The Future”, Goldfrapp’s exquisite “Seventh Tree”, the fine-return-to-form that is “The Dream” by The Orb, the really sweet “Holy Pictures” by David Holmes, “Live at Gdansk” by David Gilmour, “Luna” by The Aliens, Secret Machines new self-titled one, Tinderstick’s new(ish) one, James’ new(ish) one, Jape’s super “Ritual”, Shearwater’s “Rook” and Elbow’s “Seldom Seen Kid” but that album saddened me in some ways as they got so big with it, so it was like losing my band to the masses. Practically everything I’ve been listening to all year has been downloaded for free so there’s loads of albums by people whose names I never got so all those as well and everything that was released years ago by loads of auld fellas, gals, DJ’s, gurus and bands, cool, uncool and many who dress head-to-toe in leather. Oh, The Rapture’s “!K7 Tapes” is a cracker of a compilation as is the “Living Bridge” compilation I got from Pedro’s site a few days ago. Cheers man. Sad to report but very few Irish albums made the grade this year. Just got God Is an Astronaut and so far so good, so that’s, er, five.
Best gigs: What with recession 2.0, no job where other people pay my wages etc it was a relatively quiet year gig wise, but standouts included Neil Young at Malahide (“Love and Only Love” was just an impeccable opener, one to divide the crowd instantly and send the hit-hopers home early), The Pale at a few places, especially a magical summers night gig in The Stables, Jape the two times I saw him/them was just great, such a shame he has yet to crack it.
Meanwhile, The Orb rediscovering what they’ve been missing for years at Electric Picnic (at least until they did “Mother Nature” and the fucking heavens opened) was the highlight of that particular weekend, Ministry at Tripod was mindblowing for about 5 songs at the end of their farewell gig, The Gutter Twins at Electric Picnic were stone cold great, Elbow in Vicar Street was top, as was Richard Hawley at the same venue. Speaking of crooners, Joe Dolan:The Reunion Show – where Joe’s old band played to projections of the man in white – in Killarney in July was genuinely an incredible concert experience. To spend a few nights watching 10,000 people lose it to a series of screens for a few hours and then leave the arena in floods of tears was something to behold. The band will probably never pull it off again – the emotions will never be there that were there those nights – and technically it wasn’t a gig as, like that Elvis show, the main attraction was up on a big screen, but by God it was great fun. Bruce at the RDS was good, not great, but solid entertainment. I had more fun watching him bomb about the place than anything. Fuck me he covers a lot of ground for an auld fella.
Lisa Hannigan was great earlier this year in a tiny theatre in Longford; dunno about the other gig of hers I saw in Dublin. Very odd, almost too nicely ‘designed’. I saw Chequerboard somewhere and he was deadly. Sigur Ros were good at the Picnic, as was Goldfrapp, MBV, Wilco, Elbow, Candi Staton, Hercules & Love Affair, fuck it, in fact most of my gig going this year was done at the Picnic. For the first time ever at a festival I saw more bands than pints.
Saddest event of the year: The death of Rick Wright.
Disappointments of the year: Electric Picnic losing its edge. Sure I had a great weekend, but it felt like there was a great gaping hole in the entire weekend that good times and a few sporadically great performances alone certainly couldn’t fill. It’s time to sack the board, or at least get some fresh booking talent in. The likes of U:Mack, Foggy Notions, Forever Presents and more need to brought on board pretty sharpish before the music and arts festival becomes a musical arse festival.
oh, i really enjoyed erykah badu’s “New Amerykah Pt 1″ too.
totally overlooked too for some reason.
Gig of the year was Hamell On Trial in the spirit store, in dundalk. this guy is unbelievable good.
Album wise this has been a great year for music. Outstanding albums have been many. For me the best has been “London book of the dead” by the real tuesday weld.
However let’s not ignore the fine releases like RSAG’s organic sampler, Lightspeed champions album, Cadence Weapons “afterparty babies” (what a year for hip hop. i am not a hip hop fan but albums by roots manuva, cadence weapon and del tha funkee homosapien have all been outstanding), Jim by Jamie Lidell, “Do you like rock music” by british sea power”, “year of the husband” by the dudley corporation, “All rebel rockers” by Michael Franti , “O” by Tilly and the wall, Flowers Forevers S/T, Dan Le Sac V Scroobius Pip.
And then the former beta band members were in for with The Aliens giving us “Luna” (despite some rehashes from Lone pigeons album) and Black Affairs “Pressure Pleasure Point”. Sigur Ros’s album “With a buzz in our ears” was good aswell. David Holmes’ “The holy pictures” was well worth a listen, a very touching album dedicated to his parents.
Other irish albums of note were Japes “Ritual” and Autamata’s “Colour of Sound”.
Honestly, i good spent all day listing the fine fine releases this year. Personally i don’t think i’ve ever spent so much money on music and i’m not really dissapointed with any album i bought.
I forgot Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! , and She and Him.
Albums
Third Portishead
Devotion Beach House
Spectre and crown The jimmy cake
Gigs
Deerhunter whelans
Radiohead malahide
Fujiya and muyagi The button fac
More tiny giants Whelans
Films
The visitor
Waltz With bashir
No country for old men
man on wire
@125: Sing it, I had forgotten about the Orb, what an amazing end to the Picnic.
My consistent love for Johnny Flynn’s album A Larum will be what I treasure from 2008. A lot of head bopping has been done to the strains of TV On The Radio too.
First time going to a non-Irish festival, Exit, worked out pretty well, so that’s on the 2009 to-do-again list.
By the by, I thought the attack on Super Extra Bonus Party by Tony Clayton-Lea in today’s Ticket was a little harsh, no? “A total joke” is a harsh turn of phrase. I’m not their biggest fan but singling them out as one of his lows of the year doesn’t really sit right.
@ 118- pen pal of 26 years class, just out of curiosity do you email now or continue with actual letters out of tradition?
This is a great thread, making up my own “must listen to/see” list based on what’s being posted…
Own contribution to follow…