Mazur's Best Songs of 2008

The Magnetic Fields - Drive On, Driver

The Breeders - Walk It Off

Islands - Kids Don't Know Shit

The White Eyes - No No No

I don't have a list of my favorite albums of 2008, because I only bought four cds this year. And they were all pretty good. So I guess those are my favorite albums of 08. Unrivaled and consistent, like Dutch food. This year saw new releases from bands I already deeply dig, namely The Magnetic Fields, Islands, and The Breeders. Four albums I expected to like, and that's just what I did, a lot. All solid, excellent releases by solid excellent bands. However, each album had one of two magnificent cuts that've been bounding through my head all year. So here is my VERY COMPETITIVE list of my favorite songs from 2008. Love, love, love em!

The Magnetic Fields - Drive On, Driver

This year's Distortion is perhaps the perfect The Magnetic Fields' album; the jagged highs and lows of previous outings sheared off but their impact retained, evened out into a steady stream of fuzzy, layered, untouchable prettiness. Even with so much noise and space between us and them, the sound still feels incredibly warm and lived-in.

The Breeders - Walk It Off

It's been a while since the under appreciated Title TK, but now Kim Deal is back, with sister Kelly, for a stripped down straight shooter of an album (even by Breeders' standards), which pairs stiff bar room rockers with slow pretty drifters. It's full of simple song writing in which The Deals never sounded more mature, in control, or at ease. My selection is from the former category, namely it rocks me. Fucking irresistible.

Islands - Kids Don't Know Shit

An excellent follow-up to similar concept album Return To The Sea, Islands sophomore effort Arm's Way rivals their impressive debut with perhaps a wider sonic breadth. It's complex song changes and repeating themes, and a deep and detailed narrative spanning the entire album, signal a move away from disconnected singles in a time of MP3s, and towards ambitious album craft in this impenetrable fortress of a record. When I first heard Unicorns in college, I hate hated it. But then I realized perhaps they weren't snobs, they were just smarter than me, and it was my offense that was perhaps insincere. Either way...Islands, great band.

As long as new bands keep making concept albums this airtight, the album may live on yet!

The White Eyes - No No No

The White Eyes - 多美好的人生 (Happy Life)

Why aren't The White Eyes super duper famous? I keep saying it and it keeps not happening. It just doesn't make sense, because they figured out exactly what Rock N' Roll means in the 21st Century. But be that as it may, my lazy goal to post them once a year until they blow-the-fuck-up had no bearing on their being in my best of. No, their debut EP, Get My Body if You Want it, was easily my favorite album of the universe in 2008. Just fucking incredible. This is what rock n' roll should sound like in twenty-ought-eight, for my money

One more year towards the apocalypse everybody! Happy year of the cow!

Break-up Mix Tape

Magnetic Fields - I don't want to get over you

Atmosphere - Fuck You Lucy

The Dials - Bye Bye Bye Bye Baby

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Hi Dear

Pavement - Box Elder (live)

The Cure - Pictures of You


I am in my mid-20s. And in all my years of human schooling, no one ever mentioned this odd last phase of puberty, which leads me to believe that, in fact, puberty never ends. The body never stops bloating and tightening in odd, unwelcomed places, with no care for purpose or need. This is surely the beginging of the end, and like all people faced with an abyss, everyone I know is either digging in, fleeing away, or jumping off. What do I mean? Marriage, that oddly masochistic impulse to trade fear and uncertainty for irritation and boredom. As many, many, of my same-aged friends, family and aquaintances are jumping up to announce their loving nuptuals, almost as many are cutting and running. Changing cities, careers, continents, and breaking up romantic dynasties. Big break ups. The kinds where apartment and record collections are involved. Even dogs and house plants. Recently, a friend who has held three relationships in the past year announced, on facebook (the future of the abyss), his plans for marriage this month. That same week, my "promising" rock n' roll band was rocked n' rolled by a breakup between drummer and singer, the breakup of a 3 year union of bass drum and vocal melody, leaving me bandless and jaded.

Well, I say, why face this crossroads when you can just stay up all night and listen to records? Breakups, general disillusion, and heartache have been the driving force of pop since time eternal. Every crooner has probably thrown in their opinion on the matter, but some of course do it better than others. Like a spread of horribly depressing options, the following hopeless souls each provide a different stance on the breakup, and the best path through the newly single world. As you can hear, there's a fine line between cartharsis and obsession.

Magnetic Fields - I don't want to get over you

No one does obsession like Stephen Merchant. And his strategy's pretty air tight, they can't can't really leave you if you just never, ever, ever let go. They're gone, so make that lack the nucleus of your life, and the hollow outline formed becomes a close 2nd to the real deal! Nifty!

Atmosphere - Fuck You Lucy

Next strategy, anger. Pigeon-holing Atmosphere's Slug (Sean Daley) as an angst rapper would do discredit to his broad philisophical wanderings, but ex and baby's moma "Lucy Ford" has been a central dynamo on most of his albums. Here, the spite is white hot as Slug shows us that you really can't love someone unless you really fucking hate them.

The Dials - Bye Bye Bye Bye Baby


The girls from Chicago's The Dials sneer with self-pity as they tell us they don't even care that we're leaving. Fuck your new girlfriend, and fuck California. You can't hurt me if I don't care, right, even if I actually do care a whole fucking lot. Isn't that what punk is all about?


Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Hi Dear

Jonathan Richman doesn't let rejection get him down. He'll just show up at your house everyday, snapping his fingers, until you admit that he's completely adorable, and go "rock a little" with him. Like an abused puppy...

Pavement - Box Elder (live)

"It was the way that you smiled, that made me know at once, that I had to get the fuck out of this town" Stephen Malkmus sings on the live cut from the second disc of Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Redux. Sometimes you just know. And then you get on the next bus for Missouri.

The Cure - Pictures of You

Perhaps not so much obsession, as and endless remembrance. One thing you can say about hearbreak and loss, it made for some extremely beautiful 1980's pop songs. Once again, hats off to Robert Smith.

Years Best New (for me) Music

So the year has been sweet of course. I have not really been into much new music though. The only new album I've really consistently been listening to is by a French band, go figure. I don't really know what else to say--except to my fellow blog-mates I spent another 50$US for ezarchive space so you better start using that $hit--so I'll just get to the songs.

Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

Oh how I have done you wrong Bruce. I bought Born to Run about 6 years ago, listened to it once or twice and forgot about it. Maybe I was too young, maybe I'm still too young.

Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun

Another group I slept on. Maybe I should have ignored the hype but I've really grown to love this album. I haven't even had the courage to move on to any of their other EPs or LPs, I'm still too infatuated with this one.

Ando Drom (Hun) - Sza Tele Zsav

Of course there is the obligatory gypsy song but it's so much more, I just don't have the words to do it justice, uhn-cha uhn-cha uhn-cha uhn-cha, or maybe La Luna La Luna La Luna La Luna...

M83 - Kim & Jesse

Yet another artist I initially didn't like, I think I'm starting to notice a pattern. The aforementioned French band, go figure. Reaches the utterly beautiful heights of MBV (while being totally derivative) but with ego taking the place of melancholy.

2008-the year of not quite so many books and some travel, part 1

Well, I guess I've started my yearly summary a little late this time. But that's OK, because I haven't really read all that much this year. I guess that's Doris Lessing's fault. She cursed my reading-year. Maybe. Or maybe it's because this year didn't suck nearly as much as last year so I didn't need to take refuge in the wonderful world of books in the same way.

Let's see, I already wrote a post about the books I read in January and February, so I guess I'll jump right into March. Right... March. I was super sick with a fever and reading a Swedish book called Myggor och Tigrar (Mosquitos and Tigers) by Maja Lundgren. When it came out it caused quite the stir because she wrote about all these sexist male journalists and authors, exposing their affairs and strange maneuverings. Put their names in there and everything. It was really "inside" and I didn't get a lot of the references, just enough to enjoy the gossip. At first I thought she was making a really good point and sort of standing up for women authors, but sadly through the course of the book I started to doubt her truths about these people. And the second half of the book was just about her living in Naples, spying on some mafia guys on the street corner and it was super duper boring. I want to read Saviano's Gomorrah though, because apparently it's the shit right now. Every fifth book I sell these days is Gomorrah...

I think I tried reading This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin right about here. But I didn't even make it half way through. I guess I don't care enough. Or, wait, no that's not it. I think it was these long chapters about the basics of music, like pitch and timbre and stuff like that, which he excused all musicians from reading. And me not being a musician, dutifully read them, and it was interesting, but I still somehow got restless and stopped reading. Hmm..

So after that, I went back to Vonnegut and Breakfast of Champions which I really liked. I'm trying to remember stuff now, but it's really hard for some reason. I liked the short descriptions of sci-fi stories that Kilgore Trout was writing, or ideas for stories. Sometimes you don't need more. Just "well , it's like, in this future world, you can just put like a remote control, or any object, on your head, and then you appropriate it's um, skills. So, with the remote control you'd actually be able to change the channels by blinking!" (Yes, that was lame, but it's the best I can do. I'm not made of sci-fi you know!)

Oh, and then there was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. And it was wonderful. The language was so perfect, especially the descriptions. ( "Her voice is full of money" is something I underlined with a pink pen). And the love story. Jesus Christ.

And then I started Welcome to the Monkeyhouse when I went to Taiwan, and I didn't really get a chance to read much there. But I loved it and I think that except for Slaughterhouse Five it's my favorite Vonnegut book so far. I definitely liked the story about how the body is just a parasite on the mind. I tried to wow people with that a lot, with very little success. I'm guessing I probably told the story enthusiastically enough, but somehow... wrong. Everybody should just read the damn story.

Chronicles vol I, by Bob Dylan came next. This was in China, on trains. There are several pages with praise for his Chronicles, "the book nobody thought he could write", " Dylan's voice is almost as good as his singing voice" etc. Someone even said it takes it's place next to Woody Guthries Bound for Glory, and On the Road. Yeah. But it's actually not that good, and I don't really think he can write books. Ok, ok, the first part was fine, it was interesting. But then, a huge chunk of it was all about some late 1980's recording of some album I have never heard. I couldn't believe it, I kept mumbling, god damn it Bob Dylan, not now. You see, I was really sick on the train right (stomach problems, but I wont get into the details, I'm sure you can imagine the horror), and we had folded ourselves into a very small area, right by the leaking train bathroom. We were sitting on cardboard and maps. There was pee everywhere and a man with 2 thumbs was chain smoking over our heads. And I was really sick. And it was a 7 hour train ride. And Bob would only give me stuff like " We listened to it later on the big speakers with the bass jacked up and Danny said we should leave it alone, that it's right the way it is.' Think so?' ' Yeah, it's got something.' And talk about it raining on and off. I don't care Bob, I don't care! Why did you have to be so boring?!!!

That's it for this week. There will be another installment shortly. Like on Monday maybe. Here, enjoy some songs.

A song that's quite possibly about aluminium

I don't know the name of the song or the artist. Kristoffer (the Agent Side Grinder guy, who also wrote String Strikes) sent it to me from up north. This song is guaranteed to put a giant smile on your face.

Impressions- I'm loving Nothing

It's pessimistic, but really pretty.