Category Archives: Songs from 2008

Album: Side-Stepper, 2008

Justification: So, given my opinion of Kings of Leon spans broad indifference (first two albums) to outright hostility (everything since) and also that my love of soul and funk post- about 1975 is, to be generous, fairly patchy, you may justifiably ask: why is this on the list?

Take a guess.

I don’t know what it is about Ms Washington’s voice, but it hits me very deeply. As I’ve said before, I think she’s one hell of a songwriter and musician and that we’ve seen but a glimpse of what she’s capable of doing to date – but hers is one of the very, very few voices that I listen to as much for the pleasure of her timbre as the songs themselves.

It helps that the Melbourne-based Bamboos know how to pen a snappy arrangement, and those drum fills leading into each chorus are downright sassy. Also, flute solo. C’mon.

Still can’t abide KoL, though. God, ‘Sex on Fire’ is an awful song.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010: Another one I haven’t written up as yet: ‘Teenage Kicks’ by the Undertones. Sorry. Have ‘Mexican Radio’ by Wall of Voodoo from the 15th instead.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

492. Modest Mouse: Satellite Skin (9 July)

493. The Trammps: Disco Inferno (10 July)

494. The Waitresses: I Know What Boys Like (11 July)

495. Health: Die Slow (12 July)

496. Metric: Monster Hospital (13 July)

Album: The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV, 2008

Justification: Yes, it’s a song from a soundtrack. To a video game.

Also, note that there’s no actual video for it (at least, as far as I’m aware) – the one above is a fan made affair using in-game footage from GTA IV, which is why it’s all Niko Bellic running around catching on fire. It’s also easily my favourite a) Rapture song and b) song produced by Timbaland. Make of that what you will.

The song itself is barely a track at all. It was a throwaway joke that the band tossed off at the expense of a friend of their then-bassist Matt Safer. The subject is one Ben Rymer, a member of UK band the Fat Truckers, who is also a DJ and remixer – hence the ultra-cruel couplet “Cheap faker, cheap cheap faker / Lookin’ like a poor man’s Arthur Baker” (Baker being a legendary NYC DJ, best known in my record collection for his production work with New Order and the Pet Shop Boys). Apparently Rymer wasn’t sure if it was an affectionate dig or an outright diss, but could it be mere coincidence that Safer quit the band the same year? Alright, yes, it absolutely could.

Oh, and apparently Justin Timberlake recorded a vocal for it because he’d worked with Timbaland before, and was in the same studio complex at the time guesting with Duran Duran on their awful, awful Red Carpet Massacre album. However, his voice was mysteriously wiped from the final mix by shadowy forces beyond the Rapture’s ken.

Rolling Stone reckoned this was one of the best tracks of 2008, and I was obsessed with it when I was playing GTA IV, deliberately driving around Liberty City until it came on Radio Broker, and just the other day I had it on repeat while I was doing a maddeningly repetitive task at work. Now your stats are all over the freakin’ place, last.fm.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2011: Perhaps appropriately, it’s a dance music classic made by indie-guitar types dicking around: it’s M/A/R/R/S with ‘Pump Up The Volume’.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

415. Carter USM: After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)

416. De La Soul: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) (24 Jan)

417. Grant McLennan: Easy Come, Easy Go (25 Jan)

418. Wire: Eardrum Buzz (27 Jan)

419. Jellyfish: The King is Half Undressed (30 Jan) 

Album: Partie Traumatic, 2008

Justification: Here’s the actual justification: I was watching Role Models while lying on the couch feeling incredibly ill and feverish earlier this week (it’s not a bad film, you know – and nerdish fans of 90s US comedy should note that Ken Marino and David Wain from The State co-wrote it with Paul Rudd, Wain directs, and State alumni Kerry Kenney-Silver and Joe Lo Truglio are also in it, as is Matt Walsh from Upright Citizens Brigade), and this was playing in the party scene. And it reminded me of this album, which I very much enjoyed at the time, and made me wonder “hey, are Black Kids still around?”

The answer to the question is apparently yes – they’ve got an album due this year, and they’re still called Black Kids despite every instinct in every fibre of their being surely – surely – telling them it’s a terrible name.

Since their album was produced by Bernard Butler, late of Suede, and that they sound like a good version of the Wombats I was freakin’ amazed to discover they were from Florida. Jacksonville, to be precise. Jacksonville! Who knew it had a verdant post-Britpop underground?

Oh, and the gender-bending “you are the girl that I’ve been looking for / Ever since I was a little girl” line? Apparently it’s a childhood in-joke between the band’s brother’n'sister team of Reggie and Ali Youngblood.

Like so many songs, however, it now has to ensure the zombie-like death-in-life that is eternity as a Glee cast cover.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2011: Um, it was David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’. Do you really need to rediscover that? What was I thinking?

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

403. Echo & the Bunnymen: Bring on the Dancing Horses (21 Dec) 

404. Not From There: Frisco Disco (23 Dec)

405. The Flamin’ Groovies: Shake Some Action (4 Jan)

406. Blur: Popscene (6 Jan) 

407. Murray Head: One Night In Bangkok (9 Jan)

Album: Narrow Stairs, 2008

Justification: I hated Narrow Stairs. It was the moment when DCFC went from wistful , articulate indie rockers playing the songs written by Ben Gibbard (in a garret, presumably) to a robust, well-toured live act that were jammin’ out songs in the rehearsal space, man. Narrow Stairs just seemed really weirdly like any other band, especially coming off the back of the gorgeous Transatlanticism, yet this – their first single, which stretches for eight minutes when you’re not listening to this radio edit – is easily my favourite Death Cab song.

I think it’s partially because of its hypnotic bassline (especially in the ful length version where it’s absolutely relentless – see also Shout Out Louds’ ‘Hard Rain’ and Yo La Tengo‘s ‘Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind’ for other Long Songs What Andrew Dug In 2008) and partially because hearing Gibbard play the part of the obsessively arrogant would-be Lothario is just so weirdly out of character. Also, it’s just a great song.

Still hate the rest of the album with a passion, though.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010: Dinosaur Jr’s mighty ‘Freak Scene’.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

374. Portishead: Sour Times (3 Nov)

375. The Cloud Room: Hey Now Now (4 Nov)

376. The Buggles: Clean, Clean (7 Nov)

377. ELO: Don’t Bring Me Down (9 Nov)

378. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax (10 Nov)

Album: Modern Guilt, 2008

Justification: I’ve already spoken about my deep ambivalence about Beck The Musician vs Beck The Crazy Scientologist, but until he stops making songs like this, the former will always beat out the latter. This came and went with his last full-length album, the thoughtful Modern Guilt, and manages to create the post-apocalyptic surf-rock of the future in a tight three-minutes. Genius.