The Red Penguin Top 100 of 2008
What better way to start with a long pointless list brought upon us all by that special time of the year:
 |
100: Grates Burn Bridges Nice little tune to start or end the list off with. Met the band when they played the soon-to-be-dead Metro Club a couple of years ago and they were a really nice bunch of sweet roller-skating foul-mouthed Aussies. Well aren’t they all? Youtube |
|
 |
99: dEUS Slow This lot finally bothered to turn up and do some more music. Youtube |
|
 |
98: XX Teens Only You Met them at Reading in the summer, bunch of nutcases, very posh. I believe they tell everyone they’re from London even though they’re from Essex. Youtube |
|
 |
97: Cling Groovyshoes One of a number of nice relaxed ambient sounds from this unsigned duo from Epping. Myspace |
|
 |
96: Detektivbyran Partyland From the Swedish folktronica outfit’s second album. I’ve been keeping an eye on their website to find out when they’re touring the UK. Youtube |
|
 |
95: V Major Filth Another unsigned duo, this time from north London. Myspace |
|
 |
94: Beautiful Life Ritalin Boy A bit Levellerish, this outfit from Southampton have been around for donkey’s years, apparently, but only heard of them for the first time when they supported Carter USM at the Joiners this year. Myspace |
|
 |
93: Lionheart Brothers 50 Souls And A Discobowl Heavily sixties-tinged Norwegian psychedelic pop. Youtube |
|
 |
92: Neon Neon Dream Cars That bloke from the Super Furry Animals just keeps on going. Youtube |
|
 |
91: Subways Alright Despite having developed a full-on American accent, this lot from Welwyn Garden City still knock out the odd good tune. Youtube |
|
 |
90: Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip Look For The Woman A great follow up to last year’s Thou Shalt Always Kill. Youtube |
|
 |
89: Does It Offend You, Yeah? Epic Last Song I’ve always been biased against this lot because of the pretentious band name (I thought all the pretentious ones had been taken) and a conversation I had with their manager about 18 months ago which could have come straight out of Nathan Barley. Youtube |
|
 |
88: Grenville Harrop Make Believe I first saw him performing an excellent acoustic set on Channel M (Sky 203, if you are in the UK) earlier this year. The album of the same name is well worth investing in. Myspace |
|
 |
87: Serj Tankian Empty Walls I have less and less of these type of songs in my end of year chart each year – but this is still great beardy rock at its best. Youtube |
|
 |
86: Rosalita What Would Your Mother Say East Anglian pop punk at its finest! Youtube |
|
 |
85: Sara Bareilles Love Song So easy and inoffensive on the ear that I can’t think of a single thing to … Youtube |
|
 |
84: Jake Shillingford You Can’t Uneat The Apple From Written Large, a new album at the start of the year with some new songs and re-interpretations of songs he used to perform as lead singer of My Life Story. The Youtube link is from the original version. Youtube |
|
 |
83: Futureheads Radio Heart A definite return to form after the last disappointing album. Youtube |
|
 |
82: Crystal Castles Courtship Dating The spirit of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was still strong this year! Youtube |
|
 |
81: Last Shadow Puppets Standing Next To Me More good sixties-inspired stuff from the northern monkeys. Youtube |
|
 |
80: Jameson Small Terraced Town Unsigned band from Romford, nice guys all round, and a clear love of that 80s soft rock sound without a hint of irony. Myspace |
|
 |
79: Yeasayer 2080 I managed to see them at the Reading Festival and despite the awful sound all round they managed a great 15 minute set – almost as long as they spent setting up their stuff. Youtube |
|
 |
78: Choir Of Young Believers Action/Reaction Danish band who played the Slaughtered Lamb in London a couple of weeks ago. Youtube |
|
 |
77: Coldplay Violet Hill For some reason I just can’t seem to keep this lot out of my top 100, even though I swear that the two of us are finished. Sometimes music just creeps up on you and gets under your skin. Youtube |
|
 |
76: Colin MacIntyre Stalker More good music in 2008 from Mr Mull Historical Society. Youtube |
|
 |
75: Jessica Fletchers Downtown This band from Oslo are definitely worth having a listen to – it has “scand pop” stamped all the way through it. Myspace |
|
 |
74: Ra Ra Riot Suspended In Gaffa I thought this was a really unusual target for a cover version as it’s not one of Kate Bush’s better know tracks. Doesn’t deviate very far from the original musically which means it keeps its greatness. Youtube |
|
 |
73: Pigeon Detectives This Is An Emergency This is definitely one of those songs I found myself singing – and then stopping, and looking around to make sure no one saw me. Youtube |
|
 |
72: Thirst My Everything A lot of people tipped this band for big things in 2008 but it didn’t happen. Being on Ronnie Wood’s record label was clearly much more of a hindrance than a help. Youtube |
|
 |
71: Kaiser Chiefs Good Days Bad Days More Blur b-side joy! Youtube |
|
 |
70: I, Ludicrous Argument In The Laundrette This band have been around for many more donkey’s years and I was surprised to see they were still around. This song is suitably stupid. Youtube |
|
 |
69: Charlatans Oh! Vanity Good memories of a particularly good show at an unfeasibly small venue for a band this size – Chinnery’s in Southend, back in October. Tim Burgess was a very nice guy too. He offered me a warm bottle of free rider water. Youtube |
|
 |
68: (International) Noise Conspiracy I Am The Dynamite From the Swedish Marxists’ fifth album “Cross Of My Calling”, which was released on Burning Heart in November. Youtube |
|
 |
67: Vileevils Fucking & Fighting Graham and Adam, formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself, with a suitably radio-friendly ditty. This was one of a number of songs that Pop Will Eat Itself were writing around the time of their split in 1996, and started to rewrite around the time of their reunion in 2005, before they decided it wasn’t going to happen. Youtube |
|
 |
66: Poppy and the Jezebels UFO A slice of sparkly indie-pop from the girls who wowed the nation’s underage scene, according to the Guardian. Exactly how did they do that then? Youtube |
|
 |
65: Landon Only 20 A band I discovered by casually listening to excellently random internet radio station Error FM. Youtube |
|
 |
64: Fight Like Apes Something Global Another band I caught at Offset in Hainault in the summer, one of a number of unusual choices gracing the main stage. Youtube |
|
 |
63: Jyrojets Dead On Arrival From Inverness, a band I discovered through BBC Alba’s great music show Rapal. Youtube |
|
 |
62: Candy And The Raincloud In It A lot of big things were foretold for this folk/acoustic duo who released their first single in the summer and then promptly split in the autumn, oh dear! Myspace |
|
 |
61: Glam Chops Tell Us Are You Ready Eddie Eddie Argos side-project, thankfully not distracting too much from Art Brut’s third album, out soon. Youtube |
|
 |
60: Ten Tigers Superlucky A great tune from Southend’s riotgrrlish music collective. The thing I found most amusing was that according to their Myspace they have a great review from Suck My Left One Radio. Myspace |
|
 |
59: Stereolab Fractal Dream Of A Thing Best track from the band’s millionth album Chemical Chords. Myspace |
|
 |
58: Bertrand Soulier L’ABCD I don’t know where or how I found this one. Have a look at their Myspace – could this guy be any more Gallic? Youtube |
|
 |
57: British Sea Power Canvey Island The only band to stick three songs in my top 100 to year – and what a return to form after the seven out of ten-ness of Open Season. Youtube |
|
 |
56: Chris T-T This Gun Is Not A Gun From Chris’s fifth album Capital, released February. Youtube |
|
 |
55: Frank Turner Reasons Not To Be An Idiot Ex-Million Dead frontman now thankfully churning out some great songs and leaving all the emo kids behind. Youtube |
|
 |
54: Nancy Keep Cooler Female fronted Brazilian downtempo indie. Youtube |
|
 |
53: Mystery Jets Hand Me Down My favourite song from the generally excellent second album “Twenty One”. Youtube |
|
 |
52: Long Blondes Century Another band sorely no longer with us – a great lead song from their second and final album Couples. Youtube |
|
 |
51: Dirty Royals I’m In Love From the ashes of the much missed Samurai Seven, more Thrills-but-better stuff from the Oxford acoustic power-pop types. Myspace |
|
 |
50: Asteroids Galaxy Tour Around The Bend Some band from Denmark on some advert that keeps telling me my ipod is rubbish (which is true, it is) but I still like the song anyway. Youtube |
|
 |
49: Bloodgroup Hips Again Any decent top 100 list has “songs from Iceland” on it as we all know and this one has four. But in addition to the obligitory S.R., we have other great stuff too, like the female-fronted indie dance of Bloodgroup. Youtube |
|
 |
48: Vicky Pollard Tender Demand And the mad rambling girl punk rock of Vicky Pollard, of course. Please ignore the stupid Tv reference and the ridiculous endorsement they received from The Sun, who probably didn’t bother to find out what they sound like. Myspace |
|
 |
47: Stars and Sons In The Ocean “Nice sound! Well done you in Brighton.” That was the ringing endorsement from Jonathon Ross which appears on the band’s Myspace. Whatever happened to that guy? Youtube |
|
 |
46: Prince Edward Island Partlife The first of two songs from another band I discovered through Rapal, which I have helpfully linked for you but it might not help everyone find out much about it. Myspace (with video) |
|
 |
45: Parlotones Here Comes The Man Didn’t come across many South African indie bands this year, but this one is a great indie pop song. Youtube |
|
 |
44: Bloc Party Halo Best track from a poor album when you consider the brilliance of Silent Alarm – still love this song but I can’t help but feel they’re past their best. Youtube |
|
 |
43: Future Of The Left The Hope That House Built A song released on the band’s Myspace and may have a full release in 2009. Another brilliant performance at Offset and I also had the chance to meet up with Andy Falkous who was indeed a wonderful human being. Youtube |
|
 |
42: Howling Bells Into The Chaos Always seem to find them at festivals, but this was a great atmospheric offering, their best one to date. Youtube |
|
 |
41: Matt Trakker Hypathetic Went to The Road To V gigs in Islington in the summer to support another band but ended up enjoying this track more – from one of the two eventual winners. What good it will do them, who knows … Myspace |
|
 |
40: Utah Saints Something Good 08 (Van She tech remix) Great song from back in the day, plus great video, equals easy choice for anyone’s chart of the year. Youtube |
|
 |
39: Sigur Rós Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur Oh yeah, something Icelandic again, here we go. The best track for me on MSIEVSE, which I thought was quite patchy .. certainly had its highs and lows. Youtube |
|
 |
38: Asobi Seksu Me & Mary Shoegaze lives on and gets better and better. Youtube |
|
 |
37: Automatic Steve McQueen Can’t beat a good patchy pop song with a shouty chorus, and the Welsh windbags didn’t disappoint. Youtube |
|
 |
36: Beck Gamma Ray Still loving that episode of Futurama … Modern Guilt was a good album too and this was the best of the bunch. Youtube |
|
 |
35: British Sea Power No Lucifer Easy! Easy! Easy! Easy! Oh come on, I grew up with that chant. We only had three TV channels when I was a kid. Youtube |
|
 |
34: Ipso Facto Six & Three Quarters Female fronted psychedelic dark-garage-pop, two quarters of which at least coming from Southend. Now signed to Mute, and this was a great quirky offering. Youtube |
|
 |
33: Scenario Rock Skitzo Dancer (Part 1) Explosive French indie-dance – not heard this on any UK media at all this year – I was listening to Austria’s wonderful FM4 one lazy summer morning. Youtube |
|
 |
32: Chris T-T Where Were You? Best track from the aforementioned Capital – the whole album is heartily recommended. Myspace |
|
 |
31: Jenny Owen Youngs Hot In Herre Best cover version I heard all year, hands down. And since it was playlisted on Channel M this year, I’m assuming it was released in the UK this year because I think it might have come out last year … la la la la la, I can’t hear you … Youtube |
|
 |
30: Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. Fatherhood Another band I was lucky to catch live this year, and they sounded fantastic … looking forward to more stuff like this in 2009. Very hard to describe if you don’t know their sound – musically very Marc Almond without the campness (think Mother Fist, don’t think Bronski Beat!) Youtube |
|
 |
29: Prince Edward Island It’s All Over Bar The Shouting Second song from the Scottish, erm, eccentrics. Their Myspace blog is always an entertaining read. Myspace (with video) |
|
 |
28: We Are Scientists Chick Lit A song I almost completely forgot about – back to their old best with this one. Released in June from their second album Brain Thrust Mastery. Youtube |
|
 |
27: Friendly Fires Paris The future of rock music, if you never heard anything released between 1988 and 1993. All the better for looking that way though. Youtube |
|
 |
26: Ida Maria I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked Preferred this to Oh My God just for being a good radio-friendly pop song. Youtube |
|
 |
25: Housse de Racket Oh Yeah! French indie-pop very much in the vein of Phoenix – from their great debut album Forty Love. Youtube |
|
 |
24: Foals Cassius From one of three outstanding albums of the year – good memories of a great summer gig at one of London’s worst venues, the Cross Kings. Youtube |
|
 |
23: Future Of The Left Manchasm It’s funny but I had no idea what had happened to Mclusky until the start of the year when I stumbled across this. Youtube |
|
 |
22: Franz Ferdinand Ulysses Played this a lot at the end of 2008 so I don’t care it’s technically a 2009 release. Youtube |
|
 |
21: Your Friends Are Architects Figure One of the great new bands I discovered this year. They remind me of an early Bloc Party with less guitars and a lot more drums. Myspace |
|
 |
20: British Sea Power Lights Out For Darker Skies At 6 minutes 37 seconds the longest song in this year’s top 100, and an absolute epic. Myspace |
|
 |
19: Fields Are You Ready Yet Another song which probably should have been in next year’s chart but I’ve been playing it so much I had to drop it in. Myspace |
|
 |
18: Ting Tings Great DJ A song which truly grew on me like no other this year – I hated it at first but now think it’s the strongest one on We Started Nothing by a long way. Youtube |
|
 |
17: Das Pop Underground Extremely radio-friendly Belgian pop which should have had a lot more airplay than it did in the end. Youtube |
|
 |
16: B-52’s Funplex Another massive return to form after the idiocy of the Flintstones thing – a song which could have sat alongside any on their best album, 1989’s Cosmic Thing. Also, the only song to call 7 Up stupid in its lyrics. Youtube |
|
 |
15: Absent Kid Retaliate First Another unsigned band from Essex, this time Colchester, and another band now defunct according to their website. This was the first track from their debut album and not being into the rock like I was in the old days, this is the best rock song on the list. Myspace |
|
 |
14: Dandy Warhols The Legend Of The Last Of The Outlaw Truckers AKA The Ballad Of Sheriff Shorty Ranking up with the best of their stuff, a mere album track on Earth To The Dandy Warhols which was quietly released in May. Youtube |
|
 |
13: Boys In A Band Black Diamond Train Probably the only band on the top 100 to have an endorsement from their Prime Minister on their Myspace – but since we’re talking about a band from the Faroe Islands, they’re probably next door neighbours or something. Youtube |
|
 |
12: Late Of The Pier Heartbeat Another band growing on me – didn’t like their earlier singles anywhere near as much as this one. Youtube |
|
 |
11: Ladyhawke Paris Is Burning Not a little bit Gary Numan sounding, you can’t help wondering why more pop music can’t be like this. Youtube |
|
 |
10: Young Knives Counters Best track on the band’s second album, Superabundance. Youtube |
|
 |
9: Robots In Disguise We’re In The Music Biz Elastica-like rant about something or other, the music biz, probably! The first part of the description gives the song its greatness. Youtube |
|
 |
8: Hera Hjartardottir Feels So Good Found this hidden gem while watching TV in Reykjavik in the summer. Another Icelander but living in New Zealand now, playing laid-back folk-pop-rock and guaranteed not on any cool lists of the year! Youtube |
|
 |
7: Foals Red Socks Pugie Most people plump for the faster ones but I think this homage to exploding vessels is definitely the stand out track on Antidotes. Youtube |
|
 |
6: Amanda Palmer Leeds United I steered well away from this song but after I found it had nothing to do with the football team – well I’m still at a loss as to what it’s actually about – I grew to love it immensely. Youtube |
|
 |
5: Rosie and the Goldbug War Of The Roses (Because You Said So) Definitely bringing back memories of the Heartthrobs and Transvision Vamp among other bands, good times! Youtube |
|
 |
4: Hot Puppies Clarinet Town The Hot Puppies’ best offering to date, no mean feat considering the excellence of their debut album Under The Crooked Moon. This bittersweet indie pop classic is the best track on second LP Blue Hands. Myspace |
|
 |
3: Kaiser Chiefs Never Miss A Beat Sounds like Blur – tick. Funny lyrics that mean nothing – tick. Lots and lots of repetition marking the point where the lyric writing gives up – tick. Best Kaiser Chiefs song in ages. Youtube |
|
 |
2: Manda Rin DNA Was sad to see the demise of both Bis and Data Panik but there’s still a few good tunes left in the tank and this is as good as electronic music gets. Youtube |
|
 |
1: Sons and Daughters Darling This Gift – the band’s third album which came out in January – was full of great songs but I’m totally at a loss as to why I picked this one over all of the others. I just liked it that much … Youtube |
|
Last time I did this I had a lot of comments from people who wanted to download the songs so I have uploaded them up in big batches, even though you’ve probably already got them:
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning A-B
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning C-D
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning F-G
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning H-J
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning K-M
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning N-R
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning S-T
Top 100: MP3s for artists beginning U-Y
I am using uploadjockey because they use multiple mirrors. The links are close to the bottom of the page. Sorry if it’s a bit rubbish with the popups and all that.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Charts, Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
