5. Radiohead - In Rainbows
4. Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers
3. Tender Forever - Wider (this should count cause it was released in December 07)
2. Why? - Alopecia
1. Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Honorable mention: Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak, M83 - Saturdays=Youth

Dungen - 4
NOMO - Ghost Rock
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Throw Me the Statue - Moonbeams
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Albums:

Atlas Sound • Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Sure, Bradford Cox and his Deerhunter cohorts released the fine, fuzzy Microcastle this fall, but back in early spring Cox (as Atlas Sound) released the more personally engaging Feel, a dark, singular, cerebral vision of childhood trauma and aural growth. Listen to this in the dark with headphones while you try to fall asleep and your dreams just might come true.

Department of Eagles • In Ear Park
For someone who can barely stand Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear, I sure dig GB member Daniel Rossen’s side project Department of Eagles. If Simon & Garfunkel did the soundtrack for a Wes Anderson flick, In Ear Park is what it’d sound like. The sleeper hit of the year.

El Guincho • Alegranza!
If M.I.A. brought London-via-Sri Lanka worldbeat to the foreground with last year’s Kala, El Guincho’s Alegranza! should prove to be 2008’s introduction to Barcelona-via-Brazil tropical bacchanal. It’s like one-man-band Pablo Díaz-Reixa toured the world’s sweatiest backpacker nightclubs in Latin America and bottled it up, releasing that energy in track after track of trance-dub bliss.

Los Campesinos! • Hold On Now, Youngster… and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
So many British pop-rock and punk bands sound the same to me. Then I listened to Los Campesinos!, a septet of collegiates barely breaking age 22, and found something both familiar and explosively new. Buried within Youngster and its “extended EP” Doomed (both released this year) is a creative fire that touches on, yes, youthful transgressions, but also, in its lyrical screeds and all-hands-on-deck musicianship, sober conclusions: Our time is short. Let’s enjoy it.

Of Montreal • Skeletal Lamping
I was going to plug Girl Talk’s brilliant Feed the Animals in this space, but then Of Montreal went and made an album using GT’s schizophrenic arrangements but with all-original music. Skeletal Lamping takes over 20 repeated listens to get acquainted, but once it clicks the album erupts into flaming balls of gooey, poppy goodness. Identity crises don’t get any sexier.

Song:

"Poor Boy" by Blind Pilot

(sorry, cut-and-pasted from my blog: http://blogs.eugeneweekly.com/node/928

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Iggy and The Stooges - Raw Power
New York Dolls - New York Dolls

Oh, sorry. Those were the Top five albums of 1973.

Still, I think it rings true.

Off the top of my head, in no particular order:

• No Age — Nouns
• Abe Vigoda — Skeleton
• Times New Viking — Rip it Off
• Lykke Li — Youth Novels
• Ratatat — LP3

Beach House – Devotion
Valet – Naked Acid
Mt. Eerie – Lost Wisdom
Matmos – Supreme Balloon
Deerhunter - Microcastle

God, these are all great. I can't believe I left off Why? and Beach House from my list. Also, the The Tallest Man On Earth record as well. I think I might have been drunk when composing my top five.

Thanks for the beautiful music this year, Portland.

AU::: Verbs (jubilant and laborious, fiercely engaging)
GROUPER::: Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (This is what I want to listen to most of the time)
HORSE FEATHERS::: House with No Home (this is what I put on in a room full of people)
POINT JUNCTURE, WA:: Heart to Elk (this shit's so good! every damn song! nicely done guys!)
STARFUCKER::: S/T (....what's left to say?)

SONG: that's tough. but let's go by listens: "THESE FEW PRESIDENTS" by Why?

SM & The Jicks, "Real Emotional Trash"
NIN, "The Slip"
Born Ruffians, "Red Yellow & Blue"
Blitzen Trapper, "Furr"
School of Language, "Sea From Shore"

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

1. Walkmen - You & Me
2. Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
3. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
4. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue
5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Top five albums of 1973? No way!

2008 in no order
• Bon Iver- For Emma... (self released in 2007, but major in 2008!)
• TV on the Radio- dear science
• Lil' Wheezy- Tha Carter III
•The Roots- Rising Down
• Langhorne Slim- ST (just love the man even the album wasn't all that great)
• Horse Feathers- house with no home

1. "Passing Strange" cast album- Stew is simply unbelievable, the best songwriter working today. This cast album pretty much defies categorization- it's more than just songs about weed, threesomes, existentialism, Baptist fashions, and mom.

2. "The Seldom Seen Kid"- Elbow. Like Radiohead, for example, only better and more consistent.

3. "A Hundred Thousand Suns"- Snow Patrol. I'm supposed to hate these guys, but give credit where it's due- this is big music played big by a band that still puts the music before the players.

4. "Object 47"- Wire. There's hope for all of us when a bunch of 60 year-olds can out-punk and out-math any of the Portland kids.

5. "Dig Out Your Soul"- Oasis. Oasis makes an excellent Oasis album.

Sadly, there's nothing from Portland (or even from the USA) on my list. Portland music has sure taken a ive in the last few years- seems like every hipster without a job is starting a band showing how you don't need good songs or good music to start a band, just a beard and a guitar. Portland's music scene is the worst it's been in years- people spending too much time believing what they read about the city, and not enough time writing good songs and playing instruments with skill. Even the leading light of Portland music seem to have lost their way. Used to be, you could walk downtown or around southeast and pop in anywhere with live music and be treated to something fresh, original, and good. Now, you're treated to out-of-tune fuzz with unoriginal songs and snarky lyrics, surrounded by people who can't stop frowning at themselves. Sad, and pathetic.

This coming from someone who has always been an outspoken champion of Portland music. We had it for a few years, but too much self-congratulation has left the city flaccid.

Best live shows:
1. Swervedriver @ Wonder Ballroom
2. Jesus and Mary Chain @ Wonder
3. Coachella 2008
4. Oasis/ Ryan Adams at WaMu Theater, Seattle

Best reissues:
1. Jesus and Mary Chain- "The Power of Positive Thinking"
2. The Replacements- "Pleased To Meet Me"
3. Bob Dylan- "Tell Tale Signs- The Bootleg series vol. 8"

1. Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too
2. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
3. Beach House - Devotion
4. Alex Moulton - Exodus
5. Hot Chip - Made In the Dark

Fave tracks:

1. The Juan Maclean - Happy House
2. Grace Jones - Williams Blood (Aeroplane Remix)
3. The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
4. Jose Gonzalez - Killing For Love (Todd Terje Edit)
5. Estelle ft. Kanye West - American Boy (Danger Remix)

1) The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
2) The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
3) Excepter - Debt Dept.
4) Horse Feathers – House With No Home
5) Blitzen Trapper - Furr

5.Tie:Ponytail, Ice Cream Spiritual, Vivian Girls s/t
4.Extra Golden, Hera Ma Nomo
3.Walkmen, You and Me
2.Sm and Jicks, RET
1.Earles and Jensen, Just Farr a Laugh

Reissues:
Pavement,Brighten the Corners
Deertick, War Elephant

Worlds Greatest Ghosts - myspace live songs
Mongoloid Village - myspace ep
Wolf Parade - Mt Zoomer
Torche - Meanderthal
Fallout 3 video game songs

The cognitive dissonance between 15-year-old-me's image of Slim Moon and the real Slim Moon's Best of '08 list is giving me an aneurysm.

Bon Iver - For Emma
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Vampire Weekend - VW
Conner Oberst - CO
Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Frightened Rabbit--Liver!Lung! FR!
Let's Wrestle--In Loving Memory
Bon Iver--For Emma
Lykke Li--Youth Novels
Blind Pilot--3 Rounds and a Sound

In no particular order

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Jib Kidder - All On Y'all
Esau Mwamwaya + Radioclit, aka the Very Best - "The Very Best' Mixtape
Starfucker -S/T
Charles Hamilton - The Pink Lavalamp

Song: Travis Wiggins "I'm Not The Same No More"

HEY! MIKEY GOLIGHTLY! - I dig what you are saying -- basically you hate Portland's "indie pop synth folk" epidemic. Try listening to some of my favorites on for size. All are musicians who have been playing their instruments for over 15 years. They are talented and dedicated to their craft:

Ste. Goldie's Top 5

1. Jefrey Leighton Brown - "Dreams"
2. Rollerball - "Aura"
3. We're From Japan! - "Now Breath" (HOTTIES!!!)
4. The Great Northwest - "Widespread Reign Of"
5. Westfold - "Morning Commute"

My top 5 are all from Portland, OR. Portland was my musical savior/hero this year despite the fact that I hate most of the popular music in this town. I really got off on these albums. For the first time in my life I was listening to PDX music more than any other kind. I am currently discovering shit from different regions of the earth but most of it is not from 2008... Will I ever catch up!??!?

irrelevant to this years list yet my current favorite song:
"Running the world" - Jarvis Cocker

...judge me slowly and hard like a champ xoxo - g.

We're From Japan- Now Breathe
Nine Inch Nails
Westfold- The morning commute
The Great Northwest- The widespread reighn of

We're From Japan- Now Breathe
Of Montreal - Skelatal Lamping
Why? - Alopecia
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Church - With all our love for Francisco the Man

5. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale
4. v/a - Ninja Tunes's comp: "You. Don't. Know."
3. The Estranged - Static Thoughts
2. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
1. Portishead - Third

5. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
4. The Mae Shi - HLLLYH
3. Evangelicals - Evening Descends
2. Fleet Foxes - S/T
1. TV On the Radio - Dear Science

Love my Portland bands:

black mercies - Murder It Sweetly
Westfold - Morning Commute
AristeiA - You give me strength, You give me patience
Diesto - Isle of Marauder
Sirhan Sirhan (San Diego) - Blood

Favorite song of the year is NEW DRESS by Prize County - another favorite Portland band. This song came out on Clutches, a split 10" vinyl with LOOM from SLC.

Ezra -- When are you closing the this poll? Also do you want to do a cross blog promotion campaign with me? Crappy's sexiest for The Merc's top 5?

new century schoolbook - the first album was better
clinic - do it
starfucker - s\t
of montreal - skeletal lamping (I heard it was bad, didn't go to their show, and am kicking myself because I love it.)
hercules & love affair

I have to correct my previous post - my favorite song is NEW DRESS by PRIZE COUNTRY! Sorry guys - dropped a letter.

I was surprised by a comment someone made about the bands in Portland. I saw so many good shows this past year and the best ones were local bands -

I haven't listened to much new recorded music lately, so here's my grossly under-informed top 5:

Nick Jaina - Wool
Dengue Fever - Venus on Earth
Telescope Vehicle - Skies & Butterflies EP
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Dykeritz - Rearrangerologyistics

Song:

Amanda Palmer - "Oasis"

...and if the EP doesn't count, I'll replace it with The Conundrum Tree by The Visitations.

top seven:
helio sequence -- keep your eyes ahead
neil halstead -- oh! mighty engine
bon iver -- for emma, forever ago
the walkmen -- you & me
q-tip -- the renaissance
albert hammond, jr. -- como te llama?
bloc party -- intimacy

song: the muslims "extinction"

1/ Black Elk - Always a Six, Never a Nine
2/ Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
3/ Helms Alee - Night Terror
4/ Triclops! - Out of Africa
5/ Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt

1. Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town
2. Vic Chestnut / Elf Power - Dark Developments
3. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight
4. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill
5. Breeders - Mountain Battles