Lisabö - Berak Ekoztua (1999)

Berak Ekoztua is Lisabo's first recording.  The album was self-released and super rare.  Hopefully some day this band will get the recognition they deserve.  For fans of Fugazi, Shellac and Unwound.

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Plows - Those People (2007)

I first heard of Louisville's Plows because of a split single they did with Young Widows.  I loved that song and have been looking all over the place for anything else by the band.  It turns out that their only other recorded material was their debut album which only had a pressing of 200 copies.  Only 200 copies for this fantastic album!?  It's a shame that it's not more available although according to their Myspace page they have a second pressing in the works.  I know that the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Louisville scene are the mathrock bands of the 90's like Slint, Bastro, Rodan etc.  Recently the town seems to be producing some great young hardcore acts that are really putting Louisville back on the map again.

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Teith - Oak City (2006)

Teith is a side project of Pelican guitarist Trevor de Brauw.  Teith are much more experimental and abstract than Pelican.  They're like a mix between The Dead C and Throbbing Gristle but with a little lighter touch.

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Pinto's Top Ten Of 2008

So I see that a lot of blogs do these lists toward the end of the year so I thought I'd try to put together a list of my favorites of 2008.  I know I'm going to forget a bunch of albums.  I'm sure I'll remember ones that I forgot about in the weeks to come but these are what's coming to mind now.  2008 as a whole had been a pretty good year for music if you ask me.

1- Young Widows - Old Wounds

I've already posted this before and I'll say it again.  The best album of the year.  I just can't get enough of it.  The best noise-rock album to come out since the 90's in my opinion.  Download

2- Earth - The Bees made Honey In The Lion's Skull

With this album they improved on what was missing from Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method.  Hex marked return of Earth after a long hiatus.  Dylan Carlson came back with a whole new band and a whole new sound.  But with Bee's the sound is filled out a lot more and has a bit more weight to it than Hex.  This album brings back a little bit of the old Earth sound.  This was probably the record I listened to the most this year.  Download

3- Dead Meadow - Old Growth

Old Growth is probably the bands most accessible album.  Not quite as fuzzed out sounding as some of their older material.  I guess you could say that Old Growth is Dead Meadows most mature album.  Who says you can't have a little Pop in your Stoner Rock?  Download

4- Heroine Sheiks - Journey To The End Of A Knife

So Shannon Selberg moved back to the Cows home town of Minneapolis and started a whole new Midwest version of the Heroine Sheiks.  It resulted in his most Cows sounding record since the Cows.  Download

5- Russian Circles - Station

This album is all about precision and control.  Station also has some of the best drumming that I've heard all year.  My favorite post-rock/metal album of the year.

6- Spiritualized - Songs In A & E

It's the Christmas season.  What's more appropriate than songs about drugs and Jesus?  Download

7- High Dependency Unit - Metamathics

I had waited 7 long years for HDU's next release and it was well worth the wait.  Download

8- Mills Of God - Call Of The Eastern Moon

Sludge never sounded so groovy.  Download

9- The Dead C - Secret Earth

I guess you could consider Secret Earth a return to form for the band.  It's the most "rock" sounding album they've put out in years.  Every song has vocals and only one song runs longer than 15 minutes.  Download

10- Bardo Pond - Circuit VIII

It's only one song but it sounds as if it were four.  Circuit VIII has these epic movement that go from drone to acoustic to rock and back to drone again all with in the same song.  It has a clean studio recording and seems more well thought out than the typical Bardo Pond jam.   Download

Other great albums of 2008...

Fight Amp - Hungry For Nothing

5ive - Hesperus

Capricorns - River, Bear Your Bones

The Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded

Don Caballero - Punkgasm

The Goslings - Occasion

Wavves - S/T

Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town

Boris - Smile

18th Dye - Amorine Queen

Scul Hazzards - Let Them Sink

Ufomammut - Idolum

Grey Daturas - Return To Disruption

The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace

H.O.F. - A New Kind Of Hate

Gown - For The Maples

Monno - Ghosts

Across Tundras - Western Sky Ride

Bongripper - Hate Asbury

Deerhunter - Microcastle

Melvins - Nude With Boots

I didn't want to take the time to upload all of these so I did take a few from other sites like Sordo Music and others.  So as of now all the links are active, but everything on this list is still in print I believe so please buy anything you like.  Christmas gifts maybe?

Uzeda - Waters (1993)

This is Uzeda's last album they made before making the move to Touch And Go Records.  Although I wouldn't say it's their best release (each album seems to get better than the last), it is the first record where they really established their own sound.  Their first album sucked and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.  This is also their first recording they did with Steve Albini who has recorded every record of theirs since Waters.

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Lowercase - The Going Away Present (1999)

This album was already posted by me in the comments somewhere on this blog before I was a contributor and I thought I'd bring it up front to any readers who may have missed it.  The Going Away Present is one of my favorite albums of all time.  It should really be a lot more well known than it is.  It's not as heavy as their earlier records but also not as emo as Imaad's post-Lowercase music.  It's just kind of a perfect combination of the two.  More mature than their first two albums but still has the aggression that's missing from Alaska, Folk Implosion etc.  The bands progression reminds of Nirvanas actually.  Just the simplicity and the same sort of dynamics as Nirvana even though they don't actually sound much a like.  If people had actually heard this they could have maybe reached that level of popularity.  Ok, well maybe half that level of popularity...

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Final - 1 (1993), 2 (1996) & 3 (2006) (By Request)

Justin Broadrick's (Jesu, Godflesh) power electronics/drone/ambient project.  Technically this is his first band with the original demo tape made when he was only 11 years old.  For fans of Whitehouse or Throbbing Gristle.

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Garage Rock "Combo Pack" with Bob Log III - Trike (1999), Fireworks - Lit Up (1997) & Yikes - Whoa Comas Or Blood Bomb (2007)

I really love scuzzy lo-fi garage rock. There are a few artists playing today that take Garage, Rockabilly, Country, Delta Blues and execute it in a punk rock fashion. So I threw together a couple of my favorites into one RAR file.

Bob Log III is a one man band that evolved out of the break up of his two man band Doo Rag. Trike features tit clapping used as a instrument on some of the songs.  I'm not kidding.  I always imagine walking into some hole-in-the-wall strip club in the south and seeing a stripper sliding down a pole to the songs on this album.

Fireworks is a band Darin Lin Wood (Black Snakes, Blacktop, Dig Dat Hole) started in Dallas and it definitely has more of a Garage sound than his previous bands (all of which I've already posted on this blog).  The difference with Fireworks is that it really is "his" band this time.

Yikes is another project of John Dwyer (Pink And Brown, Coachwhips, Thee Oh See's and about a dozen other bands...) so if you are familiar with him you already know what to expect.  Similar to Bob Log but maybe even more distorted and raw.

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Godflesh - Cold World (1991)

Two great Godflesh songs with two unnecessary remixes.

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Crunt - Crunt (1994)

Crunt was a one-off side project of Stu Spasm (Lubricated Goat), Kat Bjelland (Babes In Toyland) and Russell Simins (Blues Explosion!).  Crunt came about around the time that Stu and Kat got married.  The band and the marriage didn't last very long but it resulted in one great record.  I guess it resembles Lubricated Goat the most because Stu sings the majority of the songs, although Kat and Russell each sing a song themselves.  I personally think it's tighter and more focused than Lubricated Goat.  Another great release from the sorely missed Trance Syndicate label.

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The Goslings - Full Hunter's Moon (2005)

The Goslings are a husband/wife duo from Florida.  They play drone/doom in the vein of Sunn O))) or Thrones but with more of a higher end treble(ish) distortion than the sub-tones of those bands.  Similar to the wall of noise you get from My Bloody Valentine but with more of a bleak tone to it.

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