Happy New Year! Here are three albums I've loved in 2008.
Banderas: Beast Sounds and Parlour Tricks
It's a cocksure rock 'n' roll party, and you're invited. Listen to guitarists Jesse James and Cu Silvio flex their muscular guitar riffs, which call to mind youthful AC/DC and Motörhead. The storyteller and host of the evening is Jeremy Constantinople, who's happy to offer "50 Dollar Pyramid Scheme" and scenes from a grindhouse movie (as he does in the video of the aforementioned song).
The Sundresses: Barkinghaus
This blues-rooted trio pretty much wants the controlling authorities of America to die - or move on - and relieve us of depression, recession, wars and greed. And they explain why on this clever, genre-defying album. It's scarier than a burlesque show on acid.
Seabird: 'Til We See the Shore
Have faith in this alt-rock quartet. Its latest album is so uplifting - especially the single "Rescue" - you'll be soaring in the clouds and wishing Coldplay never existed. Because if it didn't, Seabird - and its contemporaries like Lovedrug and Keane - might rule the world.
Honorable mentions:
Faux Frenchmen: Oblivion
Daniel Martin Moore: Stray Age
Turnbull AC's: Small Town Parade
Peter Adams: I Woke Up with Planets in My Face
Brandon Dawson: Becoming Human
