Dorrk Dot Com

I’m pretty slow when it comes to embracing new music, which is why the “new” songs that I listened to most this year were not actually new, and many of them sat on my collection for a year or so before I discovered that, once listened to in earnest, I couldn’t turn them off.

Here are the songs I became addicted to in 2008:

Seahorse • Devendra Banhart (You Tube | Smokey Rolls Down)
Give this one a couple of lingering minutes for the smoke to aggregate. It’s the kind of jam that makes one long for another Woodstock, and I don’t really like hippies.

West Coast • Coconut Records (YouTube (apparently this is the official video) | Nighttiming)
Yes, this is actor Jason Schwartzmann going solo from his band Phantom Planet. So what. This is no “Party all the Time.” Timeless pop. I hope.

Savannah Smiles • Okkervil River (No video! | The Stage Names)
This is the clincher that made me listen to Okkervil River almost non-stop this summer. Will Sheff is now my favorite songwriter since late-90s Jarvis Cocker. No official video, but here’s a live clip that doesn’t quite capture the power of the album version. Not enough OR studio videos on YT. But here’s one for the song of theirs that first knocked me out:

For Real (YouTube | Black Sheep Boy Definitive Edition)

Flume and Skinny Love • Bon Iver (For Emma, Forever Ago)

I can’t choose between these two haunting mountain man pleas. They reek of musty, unwashed dirt-folk yearning. Sadly, the two “videos” linked above are mere unofficial montages set to the studi0 tracks. Here’s a video instead of their almost-as-good song The Wolves (Act I & II) from the same album (FYI, they have a new one slated for January 2009):

Enjoy!

(BTW, the main reason I don’t blog more: this post took me over an hour. Of course, I type with my right knee, but, come on.)

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