RPM Challenge

Last year, a friend of mine ("For Privacy's sake, lets call him Pat S...Wait thats too obvious. How about P. Stura") suggested our "band" try to participate in the RPM Challenge, a non-competitive invitation to record an entire album in one month's time. Specifically, the month of February.

The rules are pretty simple - record ten songs or 35 minutes of music, burn it to CD and mail it to the RPM HQ with a postmark no later than March 1. It does not have to be professional quality, or even remotely good. There is no prize for being first, being best, or being cool. The whole project deadline is really just an excuse to get people off their butts and be creative and productive, with whatever means they have available.

At that time, we gave it a little thought but realized, due to scheduling conflicts and lack of material, it would not be feasible. But this year I've decided I want to give it a shot.

My friend Andy and I have about 20 hastily written and recorded bare-bones songs from the past 8 years or so. As a side project to our primary band, Kemman, we call ourselves "Wild Pitch," and we've decided to record full-band versions of at least 10 Wild Pitch songs over the month of February for the RPM Challenge. It will be a DIY affair, as we don't have money for professional studio time. We're not expecting it to be perfect, but we can surely improve upon what we have, and hopefully enjoy the process.

If it goes well, I may try to do an entire album by myself next year. Finally there's something in February to look forward to.

2008 Mix CD

I compiled a bunch of songs from 2008 into an iTunes playlist - a lot of singles and tracks downloaded from blogs - and it totalled 71 songs. I then pared it down to the favorties and future classics that would fit on one 80-minute CD with some sort of flow. I had to cut a lot of cool tunes, including my own band, but here is what remained:

1. The Broken West - "Perfect Games"
2. Parts & Labor - "Nowhere's Nigh"
3. Secret Machines - "Last Believer, Drop Dead"
4. The Dodos - "Walking"
5. Dr. Dog - "From"
6. Blitzen Trapper - "Not Your Lover"
7. Bon Iver - "Skinny Love"
8. She & Him - "This is Not a Test"
9. Sloan - "All I Am is All You're Not"
10. Kaiser Chiefs - "Addicted to Drugs"
11. M83 - "Graveyard Girl"
12. MGMT - "Electric Feel"
13. Cut Copy - "Feel the Love"
14. David Byrne & Brian Eno - "Strange Overtones"
15. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - "Glue Girls"
16. The Night Marchers - "I Wanna Deadbeat You"
17. The Futureheads - "This is Not the World"
18. The Kooks - "Always Where I Need to Be"
19. Keane - "The Lovers are Losing"
20. The Killers - "Losing Touch"
21. The Explorer's Club - "Last Kiss"

Favorite Albums of 2008

After a long wait, here are my favorite albums of 2008. I think I listened to more new albums this year than any of the last several years, yet I still found myself feeling that very few of these records really deserved to be ranked as "top ten" or whatever. A whole lot of albums were "good" but not "great." Also, of course, there are many albums I never heard in their entirety, and certainly many more I've never even heard OF. Forgive me if I don't mention your favorite album, or if my list seems to follow too many trends.

1. Kemman - "The Long Rocker"
Hell yeah, I put my own band in the #1 spot. Screw everyone else. This CD Rocks!

2. Dr. Dog - "Fate"
A surprise find, Dr. Dog has an organic, earnest feel that reminds me of The Band or Wilco, with a lot of Beatles influence. Over the last month, this album emerged as the one I enjoyed more than the rest.

3. Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever Ago"
Quiet, solemn record of primarily one man and his acoustic guitar.

4. M83 - "Saturdays = Youth"
Synthy and 80's sounding, but still heartbroken and moody.

5. Sloan - "Parallel Play"
Another great Sloan record. A couple of dud tunes, but mostly fun rock singalongs.

6. The Futureheads - "This is Not the World"
A good British rock record that stood out amongst some others by similar bands. I still think of this band as XTC on crack.

7. Secret Machines - "Secret Machines"
Not as likable as their previous album "10 Silver Drops," but still the same loud drums!

8. Blitzen Trapper - "Furr"
Another surprise. Another more rootsy indie-rock album (see #2), but quirkier?

9. Parts & Labor - "Receivers"
Really cool indie-rock album.

10. MGMT - "Oracular Spectacular"
Apparently this was released online in 2007 so not sure if it qualifies. Electro and dancey but not too much? Got a few fun songs on it.

Runners up:
Just Added: French Kicks - "Swimming"
Kaiser Chiefs - "Off With Their Heads" (Brit-pop)
The Dodos - "Visiter" (Would have ranked higher but unique sound gets old after a while).
The Kooks - "Konk" (see #6. Liked their last album better)
Cut Copy - "In Ghost Colours" (Some good tunes. Would rank higher if I was more into dance music).
The Night Marchers - "See You In Magic" (Great rock album from former Rocket From The Crypt singer)
Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin - "Pershing"
The Broken West - "Now or Heaven"
Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
TV on the Radio - "Dear Science"
She & Him - "Volume One"
Torche - "Meanderthal"
The Explorers Club - "Freedom Wind"
Ness - "You Can't Afford to Feel"

Almost done!

Sorry for the wait, whoever reads this, but due to some computer issues (they keep breaking) I am slow in getting my Best of 2008 lists together. I think I just finished my mix of 2008 songs (might need some slight tweaking yet). My list of fave 2008 albums will be finished soon too. I got, like, 7 new albums in the last ten days, so it's hard to really evaluate them and rank them along with the rest of the year's albums in such a short time.

Anyway, sometime this week I will have things wrapped up.

Still the best release of 2008:
Kemman, "The Long Rocker"
www.kemman.com