Where are we, 2008? What's up with all this crazy music? It's pop music vs. indie experimental and just about everything in between. Let's see where we stand…my recommendations are marked with asterisks (one= yes, two=double yes, three=brilliant/must hear!)

*Abe Vigoda "Skeleton" - L.A. experimental

Alkaline Trio "Agony and Irony" - Goth-punk for the radio world.

**Amanda Palmer "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" - Creepy and brash, warm, discordantly beautiful.

Ashlee Simpson "Bittersweet World" - Cool synth riffs; please, stop singing.

Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime" - A gag album? Cute and entertaining.

*Beck "Modern Guilt" - Dystopian and danceable.…

In the spirit of this article, I'm going to make this month's reviews in 6 words or less, hopefully. Maybe 10, max, but i'll challenge myself for 6. Also, I heard that my friends are gonna be at a place in Fresno tonight called the Metal Mansion, and there's gonna be beer there, so I don't want to take too much time on this. I just want to be honest.

Be Your Own Pet's "Get Awkward" - Food Fight! Female vocals! Punk party-excellence!

Murder By Death's "Red of Tooth and Claw" - Dark, moody, rocky; strongest album yet.…

This starts with live reviews, sorta:

Went to San Francisco two weekends ago with my lovely girlfriend and had the opportunity to crash in on a few excellent shows. The first was The Ohsees (or maybe being called Thee Oh Sees according to Tomlab) and The Dodos, who just released an album on FrenchKiss yesterday. Thee Oh Sees new album doesn't come out officially until April, but they had a few copies at the show, and I'd recommend it without hesitation. It's called "The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In," and it finally translates all the energy…

(of Troubled By Insects)

on myspace
(also up are 3 unreleased tracks recorded acoustic straight to the computer in one attempt…with mixed results)

on virb
(also up is the "Probable Insults EP," a 3-track 30 minute post-rock jam collection recorded on one mic in one evening with my siblings.)

whoo!

<3, ds.

Ah, what unholy scourge.
The potential death and unnecessary resurrection of the IndieAsshat. journal!

But this is for a cause of mathematics.
In order for my end-of-the-year-best-of lists to actually make some lick of sense, my plan is to review each month (briefly), keeping a running tab of a top-ten list as the year goes by…so that, at the end of the year, it's totally unsurprising, and no one will read it.

Sorta like last year.
So!
Onward?
Yes!

January 2008. Only a few offerings really worth mentioning, so I'll rattle them off here pretty quick, and you can go…

Yeah, so…I've been really into tape lately.
Cassettes, mostly.
Also, the music label Tape, but I'm not really talking about them right now.

I'm talking about tape hiss, baby! and mix tapes. and all that bullshit.

so.

I made a mixtape for myself, because I have a tape deck in my car, and that's awesome.

It's called "So Cold You Forget To Breathe," and is kinda based on the same idea…all the songs are really wintery and sad, dark and dreary, and gorgeous. 60 min tape, because 90 is kinda pushing it.

so:

SIDE A

1. "Hopeless & Unsung…

I'm resurrecting myself with IndieAsshats. I let it die, but I get to be Dr. Frankenstein too, okay? deal.

but here's this, to get it (re)started.

TOP ALBUMS OF 2007

30. Paramore "Riot!"
- ripping off Refused takes guts. these kids have them, and do the job right.

29. The Snake The Cross The Crown "Cotton Teeth"
- the amazing transformation through an EP and two full-lengths into a most excellent group of storytellers.

28. The Chariot "The Fiancee"
- so gorgeous and violent. and the chamber choirs are lovely.

27. Avril Lavigne "The Best Damn Thing"
- just listen…

Hi!

I suck.

My apologies to everyone in the IndieAsshats group…I'm only slightly surprised no one has tried a coop to kick me out of power…but things are moving forward, and there's some exciting things on the horizon.

First off…I've started a music blog called The Two Headed Boy, which can be accessed at http://thetwoheadedboy.blogspot.com.
Soon I'll be posting a Top Albums of 2006 list there, but I'll also throw it on here, to get everyone's opinion of it.

Lately (here comes the whoring), I've been listening to ridiculous amounts of Anathallo, Some By Sea, Joanna Newsom,…

I'm hoping some of the thousands of Panic! At the Disco fans here at last.fm can explain this phenomenon to me.

Why did they choose (or allow their record label to choose) the two WORST songs on their album to be their singles?

Time To Dance and Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off are far better songs.

But, whatever. I've already wasted too much time thinking about this.

I saw Brand New in Las Vegas on Thursday night.

Drove all night through the desert, exhausted standing in line for the show…but excited. Nervous. Jittery.

…you see…this is probably the first show I'd ever been to where I'd been a fan of the band for more than two years or so. Sure, I've seen some musicians before that have been great influences on me (Radiohead and Pedro the Lion, for example), but none quite like Brand New. Deja Entendu, their last album (released in 2003) pretty much served to define my senior year of high school and…