Sunday, November 16, 2008

Festive 'Spill (Best Of 2008)


Thought it might be fun to do a mega-playlist for the holidays of all our favorite 2008 tracks, in the tradition of John Peel's festive 50. Here's how it works (I think):

- Each 'Spiller (or wandering gypsy from RR) can nominate 3 songs.
- Songs must be new releases from 2008 (or very late 2007).
- Email your 3 nominations in order (#1 most favorite) to shoemail@earthlink.net
- Your e-mail should contain URL links to actual mp3's (Boxtr). Thanks to Blimpy and a QT upgrade, can also do Podbean URL's, but they are a bit of a pain.  Sorry Deezer ladies, can't cope with those. You can also try to include actual mp3's. If all else fails, as a last resort, just list the song's and will attempt to find mp3's for them.
- Be sure to include your RR/'Spill name in the e-mail.
- Nominations are on a first come, first served basis. If one of your picks is taken, I will e-mail you back so you can make another pick.
- Let me know when you want to publish the final playlist(s) (Depending on demand may have to do #3 choices first then #2 and #1)?
- Fingers crossed that this will work, will keep you posted on progress and any changes needed.

44 comments:

Luke-sensei said...

This looks like a great idea, I always used to send my nominations to Peelie! Can it be any song at all from 2008?? It doesn't have to be RR/Spill related?

Anonymous said...

Anything you want from 2008, Japanther.

Anonymous said...

Great idea!!

I haz ponder.....

blimpo

tincanman said...

love it. ty for thinking of this and taking this on.

Blimpy said...

I CAN'T NARROW IT DOWN TO THREE!!!!

Blimpy said...

STILL CANT DECIDE!!

is anyone else having probs with this?

ejaydee said...

I'm having probs with boxstr! I think I've made a decision on 2.

saneshane said...

I'm setting myself a date...say 1/12/08 @ 10.03pm
then upload the tracks on my mind at that time..

and I can't change my mind..

(can't decide the next track I want to play now.. viva voce has come on.. okay that's a good choice, but not for this year.)

but no.. 3 in a year.. then cross reference to make sure it was this year they were released..

I am thinking of three hour long xmas megamixes.. is that cheating?

glasshalfempty said...

Blimpy, I feel your pain.

I've got it down to about 10 albums, and each does indeed have one favourite on it. I'm inclined to choose less obvious nominations, from 08, in the hope someone else will bag, say, Elbow's 'One day like this'. I'm also counting on you, Blimpy, to bag Lykke Li and Laura Marling. Then I'm trying to spread my three finalists amongst the many genres I track (world, zydeco, folk, indie etc). But you're right, it's tough.

But I'm convinced the final result will be seriously interesting, and I dond the many thanks to Shoey for curating this venture.

Blimpy said...

nae lykke li or marling for me 3!

marling did do one of the best albums of the year, but on pure good songs, she ain't even top 20!

Anonymous said...

Had a few noms so far, please keep 'em coming as a constant stream is easier to manage than a last minute rush (am uploading to Boxtr as I go). Think the e-mail thing has blown my secret blog identity, but a small price to pay for keeping the final list a surprise.

saneshane said...

lykke li
If anyone I would've gone EJD..
Marling is a though one.. as blimpy says great album.. not stand out track.
as a stand out track
Noah and the Whales '5 years time' is class but MOTD has ruined it (not ruined..over played it) for me as a behind the goals scored music..(means nothing to those that don't watch football)

Blimpy said...

exactly "5 years" would've been a shoe-in (!) but since Feb, when I think i first posted it on the spill it's been played out somewhat (i'm guilty in this too)

ditto "time to pretend" by mgmt....

saneshane said...

time to pretend
is in any year perfect pop
but yeah ..over played by me so...what do I decide?


shoe- in.. I believe that has the legs to run through this thread.

steenbeck said...

Yes! I'm having trouble. I just wikied a list of albums that were released in 2008 and realized that I've been completely out of touch with new music this year. All of the CDs I've bought have been very very old music. And then I realized that I was actually excited about exactly 4 new albums if you count Dec '07, and suddenly the choice became too difficult.

Thanks for doing this, Shoegazer, it's an epic and very generous effort and I'm looking forward to the final list.

glasshalfempty said...

Time to pretend - great vid too (originally courtesy of Blimpy, I recall)

Blimpy said...

yes, it's true, i was all over marling, noah and whale, MGMT et al like a rash- then a good few months later everyone else cottoned on, and it's been top ten singles and award nominations from there on in. . .

consequently I win the "considerably-more-indie-than- yaaaaw" award for forward thinking "i was into them first" snobbery.

of course now, i hate all of them, because ***insert obscure band x +y here*** is well good and are the bestest rocking, yeah?

Blimpy said...

The Postmarks

Marnie Stern

Empire Of The Sun

Iran

Women

Vivian Girls

Bill Cosby

2009, yeah?

ejaydee said...

re: overplaying. That's one way of looking at it, but I don't think it should matter, if I'm trying to recount my musical year, well surely the ones that got played to death are part of the story. Then again it all depends on how you want to define a favourite track.

ejaydee said...

By the way, Shoey, if you upload the files to your own boxstr account, your bandwidth won't last long when the post is up. If you just use our URLs, wouldn't it then use each user's bandwidth, thus sharing the burden?

Anonymous said...

Ejay, I have the Boxtr upgrade - 10x the bandwidth & it still resets every 24 hours, so it should be fine. Thanks for thinking of this though. Probably going to have to hide the titles, putting so many recent tracks up at once, it's likely we'll get a request to take 'em down if we don't disguise what we're up to a little.

glasshalfempty said...

(Through gritted teeth) Yes, Blimpy, you do win that prize. But through the wonders of RR we get to hear your farsighted (farheard?) picks (gnash)and can blissfully slipstream (grind)

treefrogdemon said...

Oh dear: I'm with steenbeck on this one - when I looked at the records I've bought this year I found they were all old, except the 'new' Fotheringay 2 which isn't really new as most of it was recorded 30 years ago.

So I promise to listen to everyone else's.

glasshalfempty said...

tfd, I don't think the 'rules' restrict you to songs you've bought

Anonymous said...

Agree to whatever rule relaxations needed to get some folky selections from TFD in the mix - wouldn't be the same without you!

goneforeign said...

This isn't one for me but I do have a question. What the hell is JP standing in front of, that's not 12" vinyl, so what is it?

Anonymous said...

@ gf - John had over 20,000 7" singles at his home when he died, and a sizeable proportion of the BBC's vault came from his show too.

BTW, how's your leg?

Anonymous said...

By my standards I've bought very, VERY few albums this year, but I'm still struggling to pick just three songs for this. It's probably one of four from DBT's Brighter Than Creation's Dark, one of half a dozen from The Zutons' You Can Do Anything, and then a fight's broken out between Sigur Ros, Campbell & Lanegan, Calexico, Absentee and Elbow. And that's before I even get home to have the music collection to hand!!

treefrogdemon said...

Thank you, Shoey; gfe - if I haven't bought them I won't have the mp3s, will I?

Am working on a solution...

Anonymous said...

STILL CAN@T DECIDE!

steenbeck said...

I think Ejaydee's right, and it SHOULD be songs you've played over and over, and since I tend to post my obsessions on the Spill, it might even be 3 songs that are already in my Boxstr account. I like the idea of it being a musical record of the year, so if you play something from an album you were crazy about in January it zooms you back to that time. It's still hard picking one from an album, though. And it seems to be Hip Hop heavy for me this year, which doesn't really reflect ALL that I listen to. Sigh.

Dsd--I heard Calexico on the radio and really liked them a lot. It was a live concert and I especially liked an instrumental number they did. I have one track of theirs, with Charlotte Gainsbourg from the I'm Not Here soundtrack. Can you recommend an album to start with?

May1366 said...

It's strange - been thinking about my favourite tracks from this year and the ones that spring to mind aren't those I'd have to go into the nooks and crannies of my musical universe to find, but the ones that, a bit like what steenbeck says, made an impact on the year, the sort you might play with the windows wide open so you can see other people nodding their heads, Obama rather than Chomsky, if you like. But I've not settled on three yet so you never know.

ToffeeBoy said...

I've sent my three choices off to Shoey but, like DsD, wasn't exactly spoiled for choice. Not a vintage year, perhaps - or it may just be that I've spent so much of my listening time this year tied up with new discoveries - thanks to all you guys, of course...

Anonymous said...

@ steenbeck re Calexico - try this before you buy:

http://www.fabchannel.com/calexico_concert

My favourite album is Garden Ruin, but that's actually atypically rocky.

Mnemonic said...

@steenbeck re Calexico

Hot Rail is worth trying too. And if you like them, try also listening to Giant Sand, the band they were in before they broke away to be Calexico. Some critics maintain that neither Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) nor Calexico have ever been as good apart as they were together. Fairly acrimonious split though, so they are unlikely to reform. If I had to choose, I'd go for Howe Gelb over Calexico, especially live. He's one of the world's greatest raconteurs.

steenbeck said...

Thanks DsD and Mnemonic. I'll see what I can find.

Tim (Kalyr) said...

Almost impossible to narrow it down to just three.

BTW, what's the copyright position on including songs in playlists?

I guess it's nothing like in the same order of bad as uploading music to illicit filesharing sites, but some of my nominations may well be from independent artists rather than eeeevil major record companies. And since I know oneof two of the artists personally I'd rather be safe than sorry.

GarethI said...

Blimpy, have you tried picking the first three tracks you'd stick on a mixtape? Not saying it'll work, but it may help.
I've got this down to a dozen contenders. Maybe the magic three will emerge while I do the ironing.
Calexico – I'd recommend starting with Feast of Wire. And the cover of Ocean of Noise, which is a vast improvement on the original and I may spill over the weekend.

Tim (Kalyr) said...

Can I count a song from an album which had a limited edition pre-order release back in September 2007, but only had a full retail release at the beginning of this year?

This is becoming more common as more and more bands do pre-orders, the pre-order version is often sent out months before the retail edition hits the shops. Really confuses things for 'best of year' lists, it does.

Shoegazer said...

@Tim (Kalyr)- sure you can if you want, but if this would be crossing a line for you over artists' rights, it's also perfectly understandable if you decide not to participate.

ToffeeBoy said...

Is it just me or is that picture one of the most erotic sights you've ever seen? No, not the fat balding guy at the front, the racks of shelving behind him, full of god knows what joyous music!!!

Proudfoot said...

1.
You DID say late 2007. T'was not until this summer I heard Bon Iver's 'Re:Stacks'.This song really makes sense now it's all gone frosty in the UK. 'Crispy Realisation' as the lyrics say.
2.
Sun Araw's 'Horse Steppin'. Thanks Blimps. This really blew me away. Or as Saneshane said: "... sparkly jangle mind swish..... the headphones have just given my ears a weird cuddle." Yes, that describes it.
3. The Courteena's 'Cavorting'. Ye may titter but my stepdaughter played it to death for ages and I still like the riffs. It sounds like a mixture of an Undertone's B-side called 'Really Really' and Tenpole Tudor's 'Swords of a Thosand Men' played at the wrong speed. Or something.
They're good live too.

Proudfoot said...

PS I meant to say I will send the actual tracks ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Bon Iver wasn't released in Britain until late May 2008, so he's good for the festive fifty.