Miami Music Blog

Many famous musicians have spent a day or three in jail for driving drunk, holding drugs, or something really stupid. But only the select few have spent a serious stretch of time in prison, which brings us to David Allan Coe. The original country outlaw performs Friday at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.

It's confirmed Coe did time at Ohio State Penitentiary and he has famously claimed to have been on death row for killing a man who attempted to procure a blow job from him -- this has not been confirmed or proven false. Although Coe is a redneck renegade who penned "Take This Job and Shove It," recorded the 1970s smash "You Never Even called Me By My Name" and recorded an album with the members of Pantera, he's by no means the greatest recording artist to do hard time. Here's a highly subjective list of the greatest musicians who worried about being some bulky dude's bitch.

1. Chuck Berry



One of the great pioneers of rock 'n' roll -- if not the greatest -- spent 1959-63 in prison for violating the Mann Act, which prohibits pimping and "white slavery." Basically, it appears Berry got busted because he was a black man with a ton of white teenage fans. No saint, though, Berry had already done about three years behind bars from age 18 to 21 for carjacking, a crime he admits to committing in his autobiography. In 1979, Berrry returned to the Big House -- via tax evasion -- for four months.

Chuck Berry performing a sizzling "Johnny B. Goode" in 1958. Clip includes great quotes from Keith Richards, Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts.

​The season for spooking is here, and to help awaken your inner ghoul who's been lying dormant, here is a list of ten songs to celebrate the holiday. Some are obvious, some have loose, vague, or quirky affiliations with Halloween themes (you'll be hard-pressed to find some of these on other Halloween top ten lists), and others are just local horrorific awesomeness. This is by no means an end-all Halloween list. In fact, such a list would probably be about 70 percent Misfits. So if you're thinking of hosting your own zombie zoo or rockin' to some tunes on your way to Moonfest, Propaganda, or the Bubble this Saturday, here is something to get you in the spirit.

Hit the jump for the list.

Leonard Cohen

​It's the tour those of us younger Leonard Cohen fans -- the ones who discovered his music through the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, covers of "Hallelujah," or when we walked into a tiny used CD store in Gainesville and heard "Take This Waltz" playing -- never thought would happen.

After gaining fame and respect in the literary world, Cohen began his singing career in the late 1960s, issuing the most brilliantly erudite, sad-sack folk stuff ever penned. Then, with 1988's I'm Your Man album, he introduced humor to his work -- while still exploring sex and spirituality better than any of his peers. Cohen's masterful 1992 album The Future teemed with darkness but, again, cynical smiles and wonderful romanticism are there as well. Having released about a dozen, mostly acclaimed, studio records and a couple terrific live albums, Cohen called it quits -- to live as a monk. But, then, like in a bad movie twist, a former business manager stole his money, forcing Cohen back on the road. Sounds like a perfect situation for the angry artist to drag his ass through the motions just to bank some much needed retirement cash. Judging by the CD/DVD Live in London, though, culled from a show last year, Cohen's craggy croon sounds delightfully expressive, as does his illustrious band and sultry backup singers.

It has been said before but it's worth repeating, Cohen's loss has become the world's gain. In honor of popular music's supreme poet performing Saturday in Sunrise, here's a highly subjective list of his finest songs.

Leonard Cohen, Saturday, October 17. BankAtlantic Center, One Panther Pkwy, Sunrise. Show starts at 8 p.m., tickets cost $19.50 - $252.75 via Ticketmaster.com.

It's like Beatlemania all over again. Not that I was there to witness the original madness, but, y'know... Last week, the Fab Four's re-mastered catalogue -- each album at least 40 years old (!) -- moved 2.25 million CDs in an era when the compact disc is suppose to be dead. "Underlining their timeless appeal and unique status in music, The Beatles have broken multiple chart records around the world following the September 9, 2009 (9-9-09) CD release of their digitally re-mastered catalogue," reads the e-mail EMI issued Tuesday.

It seems anyone not busy buying a freshly minted Abbey Road or The Beatles stereo box set  got their fix playing The Beatles: Rock Band. (Many, of course, did both.) To celebrate the big-ass checks soon to be cashed by Macca, Ringo, Yoko, Harrison's loved ones, and whoever has control of the Michael Jackson estate, here are the greatest Beatles songs of all time -- just in case you can ever purchase them individually on iTunes.

1. "Strawberry Fields Forever"

Recorded at the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions but released as a single February of 1967, John Lennon reminisces about a childhood place of sanctuary while offering a brilliantly stirring self-analysis. Credit McCartney with the mind-blowing Mellotron playing. Here's the rather melancholy promo clip filmed in January of '67.

via lilwayne-online.com

Did Weezy make the cut?

​Self-proclaimed "greatest rapper alive" Lil Wayne performs Sunday at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise. That boast had serious clout when Tha Carter III dropped last year. But with Weezy's ruinous rock album Rebirth in delay hell -- latest news has it coming out in November -- it's time to reassess the "greatest rapper alive" title. By that, we mean the best rapper right now, and offer a top ten tally (in no particular order) after the jump.

Lil' Wayne, with Young Jeezy, Soulja Boy, and Pleasure P. Sunday, September 6. BankAtlantic Center, One Panther Pkwy, Sunrise. Show starts at 7 p.m., tickets cost $39.75 to $125.75. Livenation.com

​On Friday, August 21, Col. Bruce Hampton will bring his inspired, improvisation rock to Revolution in Fort Lauderdale. He's a jam band hero who helped form the highly influential '90s H.O.R.D.E. tours. With H.O.R.D.E., he employed future jam band all-stars Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band), Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic) as well as numerous others. But Hampton doesn't quite make into in our Jam Band God Pantheon. Sorry. Hit the hookah, peruse our tally, and if you still have any energy left, feel free to tell us why Dave Matthews really, really should have made the cut.

Hit the jump for the top ten list.

​As a baby of the '80s (well, I was actually born in '78), John Hughes' films played an important role in entertaining and, in all likelihood, shaping me. VHS copies of Vacation, Christmas Vacation, The Great Outdoors, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Mr. Mom all enjoyed regular rotation in our household.

Home Alone came out when my friends and I were in seventh grade. We rode our bikes to the theater the weekend it opened, and laughed so loud and hard that soda squirted out our noses. On my own in college I would later discover Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and the filmmaker's masterpiece The Breakfast Club.   

Hughes passed away suddenly last week at age 59, but will be remembered fondly for making movies that were at once humorous and humane. His soundtracks accomplished the same delicate balance. Here's my highly subjective list of the best songs to appear in Hughes' films.

Michael Jackson dies and all of a sudden he's the greatest entertainer of all time. Not so fast. MJ made three great albums, invented the moonwalk and, well.... Let us take another look at the performers who have truly proved most thrilling over the years.

1. Elvis Presley

Michael Jackson may have dubbed himself the King of Pop but Presley -- who has sold more records than anyone on this list -- has always worn the crown. An unstoppable sex symbol, he brought ass-shaking rock and roll to the masses and forever altered the cultural landscape of the '50s, paving the way for The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and so on. Check out Elvis the Pelvis doing "Blue Suede Shoes" in '56.

​Read part one of this series here.

The Miami Dolphins are for sale to the highest musical bidders. Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony have both recently bought minority shares of the franchise, leaving us all wondering: Who's next? We've compiled a list of 10 most wanted musicians with a tie to Miami who would be great partial owners for the Dolphins. Consider this an open letter to the following musicians:

Pitbull

The easiest way to stop all these Michael Vick to Miami rumors? Sell a share of the Dolphins to rapper Pitbull. He'll be staying far away after that. What other reason do you need?

​The Miami Dolphins are for sale to the highest musical bidders. Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony have both recently bought minority shares of the franchise, leaving us all wondering: Who's next? We've compiled a list of 10 most wanted musicians with a tie to Miami who would be great partial owners for the Dolphins. Consider this an open letter to the following musicians:

Luther R. Campbell

Luke Skyywalker of 2 Live Crew fame would be perfect as a partial owner for the Dolphins. First off, "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" needs to be the team's slogan next year, and Uncle Luke would certainly let them use that name free of charge. Secondly, you know the Dolphins cheerleaders could learn a thing or two under his tutelage. The dance routine practically writes itself:

Jackson inspiring Bjork's fashion.

While Michael Jackson's music was undeniably influential to a lot of artists, he is a product of the MTV generation. What does that mean? Michael Jackson was a video artist and took pride in making his videos into cinematic masterpieces.

Though music videos are on the decline, they are still being made, and thankfully a lot of them push the envelope. Here are some of the best videos in recent years that have done Michael proud. They feature not only great visuals but give the King of Pop plenty of shout outs.

The Mitchell Brothers "Michael Jackson"



The 2007 Calvin Harris-produced single by the British duo the Mitchell Brothers is probably the most obvious Michael Jackson-influenced video of the bunch. The song is basically a tribute to the King of Pop and the desire "to be like Michael Jackson."

The Purple One made a downpour sound good

For us Floridians, a few consecutive days of rain can feel rather depressing. We're the Sunshine State, damn it, and demand clear, blue skies 365 days a year! To help get you through the gray gloom that lurks outside your window here's a highly subjective list of the greatest songs of all time featuring the "rain" in the title. Let us know what we missed.


1. "Purple Rain," Prince

A moving, melodic, pop-soul ballad featuring a killer guitar solo, his purple majesty's signature song is eternally cool.

via myspace.com/katyperry

Before Katy smooched and sang, there were others

Former Christian singer Katy Perry's mischievously cute ditty "I Kissed a Girl" made her a pop star even hipsters could appreciate -- at least until the next Lily Allen album dropped. "I Kissed a Girl" is fun, catchy and has the killer line about "the taste of her cherry ChapStick." Really, though, there have been much better songs about kissing -- even girl-on-girl kissing -- over the years. In honor of Perry's sold-out show at Revolution, here are 10 of the best.

1. "And Then He Kissed Me"/ "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)," The Crystals
Both songs were produced by Phil Spector, who co-wrote the wonderful teen romance  "And Then He Kissed Me." Spector also produced the equally compelling yet highly controversial "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)." But he didn't write the song that many claim endorses domestic abuse. The authors are famed Brill Building couple Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

ZOMG, ya'll! Winter Music Conference is finally here. Hopefully, you've already picked up our kick-ass guide and checked out our listing online to plan your entire week. Still, there a few things you should keep in mind if you are going to come out of this weekend alive. So here are a few pointers that hopefully will help you have the best WMC:

1. Accept the fact that you won't be able to attend every event. Smart way to plan is to list the acts you really want to see and check what events they will be performing at. You might not be able to catch an act on Wednesday, but they might be performing somewhere else on Friday. Also, keep in mind some parties and events have exclusive performances by DJs and bands, so if you really want to see that exclusive appearance put it as a high priority.

2. Sleep is good, so plan on getting plenty of it. You'll always hear people claiming to have stayed up five days straight during Conference. Those people are either lying or exaggerating. Unless your name is Amy Winehouse and you have a crystal meth addiction, your body is still going to need to rest.

3. Save the booze for the weekend. Alcohol will bring you down quickly if you don't watch yourself. Don't plan on drinking six-days in a row. Trust me, your body won't forgive you. Instead, keep a slow and steady pace the first few days and leave the really hard partying for the Friday-to-Sunday stretch.

It's almost here! Winter Music Conference is always our favorite time of year thanks to the non-stop musical assault on the Magic City. But in preparation for our Winter Music Guide 2009, which hits New Times boxes across the city tomorrow, music editor Arielle Castillo and I decided to make the choice of picking out the best parties during WMC easier for you.

There were a lot of factors involved in choosing our editor's pick -- yes, personal taste being one of them seeing how we are only human, but we also wanted to choose parties that get you plenty of bang for the buck, showcase a wide variety of talent, and have good track records of delivering what's promised.

Click here to view our choices.

Stiff Little Fingers gave us some of the best Irish punk rock

St. Patrick's Day is today. So before we hit the pub to celebrate, we thought we'd put together a mix for you of some tracks our favorite Irish and Irish-American bands. Enjoy them -- preferably with a pint of Guinness. The streaming playlist comes at the end of this post, after the jump.

Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town"
Though founded in Dublin in 1969, Thin Lizzy was as diverse in its line-up as it was in its influences. Frontman Phil Lynnot remains one of the few black men to find major success in hard rock, while the band was made up of members from both sides of the Irish border as well as the Protestant and Catholic faiths.

Sinead O'Connor, "Nothing Compares 2 U"
Remember when Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live? Yeah, that was pretty much the beginning of the end. She continues to record powerful music even if not many people are listening.

via www.villagevoice.com

TV on the Radio's win for best album was not exactly a stunning upset

New Times' sister paper, the Village Voice, has been running its annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll since 1971. And while it's among the last in the "best-of" national roundups, it's been one of the most influential due to the sheer number of critics who participate (albeit by invitation). Using a sort-of obscure system of point values, the end is a semi-logical tally of what everyone thought were the best albums.

No surprises on the winners. TV On the Radio's Dear Science took best album; M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" took best single. Neither appeared on my personal ballot because, 1) I figured enough people would vote for TV on the Radio, 2) that M.I.A. song actually came out in 2007, and if I never hear it again, ever, I'll be okay with that.

Of local interest: Torche's Meanderthal came in at an impressive number 31 on the best albums list, with 26 people (including me) voting for it. Yay.

1. Carcass
Necroticism (Earache)

Arguably grindcore's finest hour, Necroticism captures Carcass hitting previously unheard-of heights of technical proficiency with such jaw-dropping skill that the album sounds absolutely fresh 16 years after it came out. Rarely has a grind band achieved the thrilling, epic majesty of classical music, but Carcass took the cake here. The first Carcass album to feature second guitarist Mike Ammott (now with Arch Enemy), the twin guitar work stuns -- as do the outrageously over-the-top gross-out titles that each came up with for their solos. Necroticism also marks Carcass' last stab at its hilarious fixation with gross anatomy (with an emphasis on gross) -- something that no other band before or since has nailed with such tongue-in-cheek flair. Also the first grind album to bear truly excellent production values (courtesy of Colin Richardson), Necroticism singlehandedly proves why the guys of Carcass are still revered and referred to as "the gods of grind" to this day.

6. Jesu
Why Are We Not Perfect (Hydra Head)
Technically not a heavy release, but how can we discount Justin Broadrick, founding member of both Napalm Death and Godflesh? Fed up with the single-minded bludgeoning of those classic acts, Broadrick's intention from the start in forming Jesu was so that he could balance his heavy side with melodicism and thick, shoegaze-y guitar layering.

But on this EP he reveals some of the most delicate sentiments of his career. Metalheads should be listening to stuff like this; it gives the heavier stuff more weight -- and shows just how profound a seasoned heavy-music veteran can be with the skillfull application of introspection and mellowness. Prong's Tommy Victor once spoke of the importance of expressing vulnerability while making a heavy sound. Kudos to Broadrick for bringing vunlerability to such fully-realized, emotionally affecting fruition, and for having the bravery to do so without diluting the power of his work.

Boris
(Photo via Boris' MySpace page.)

Was 2008 another renaissance year for metal? Well, yes -- but the point should be moot by now. Whether metal is "in" or "out" during any given year, the music has gone through a creative revitalization every year -- especially when you consider heavy music and all of its sub-genres as a whole. While the musicians who kick-started what we consider metal today may have set out to make the most raw, gutteral music imaginable, since the early Eighties, those musicians have collectively followed a twin trajectory.

For every band that's trying to push further and further toward levels of extremity previously thought unimaginable, there have been other bands who've focused on progression and getting a tighter grip on nuance and craft. Many bands do both at the same time, and it's always a good idea to look both inside and outside of whatever's currently mainstream, because you can always find gems in both areas.

Silverchair's Daniel Johns wants an inflatable sheep. No, really. It's after the jump.

We've been having trouble figuring out what to buy our friends and family for Christmas this year. To help out on the idea front, we decided to draw inspiration from some of our favorite musical artists' Christmas wishes.

"What I would really love for Christmas is the new Knight Rider GPS navigation system. This way, when I'm lost, I'll have both KITT and Mr. Feenie from Boy Meets World helping me out." -- Mikey Way, My Chemical Romance

"This year, all I want for Christmas is world peace. And I would really like to catch Santa Claus in the act. And I want a glowing power-scepter." -- Andrew Volpe, Ludo
 
"This Chrismtas, I'm hoping somebody buys me the Illinois Senate Seat! Also I'd like an iPhone." -- Aimee Mann

Back in my days over at Miami Nights, I liked to close out the year by looking back at all the music I discovered where I spend most of my time -- in nightclubs. It's always interesting to see what makes it big the following year, because downtown club in particular tend to be ahead of the curve. So maybe I should call this list the Club Hits of 2009?

But feel free to argue with me -- in fact, I encourage it. I love a good "You're music list sucks!" argument.


10. M.I.A.
"Paper Planes (DFA Remix)"
(XL/Interscope)

While everyone was boucing drunkenly to David Guetta's "Love is Gone" in 2007, downtown had already embraced the Clash-sampled "Paper Planes" from M.I.A.'s sophomore effort Kala. In an album full of great songs (with the Timbaland-produced "Come Around" being the lone exception), it was "Paper Planes" that easily stood out. By the time the trailer for Pineapple Express came out in 2008 and broke this song into the mainstream, helping it reach number 4 in the Billboard Hot 100, downtown patrons were already over it. It was James Murphy's take on the track, which gave it a funky bassline and glittery swells, that reignited for many a love for the track.



9. The Ting Tings
"Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix)"
"That's Not My Name (LA Riots Remix)"
(Columbia)

The Ting Tings by themselves are mediocre at best. Pair them up with a DJ and they become dancefloor gold. Proof are in the remixes by Calvin Harris and LA Riots for their singles "Great DJ" and "That's Not My Name," which begged to be danced too.

You don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished by a Midwestern black man, and gender barriers were hurdled by an Arkansan and an Alaskan.

Democracy has a few awesome new dance moves rolling into the Obama presidency, and it'll be a feast for the wonks to break 'em down. It's for those wonks that we've done some number crunching. When future pointy-headed academics are scouring data in attempts to better understand America in 2008, might it not be instructive to offer a snapshot of a different sort, one that attempts to explain the People and their mindset from a quasistatistical/analytical ethnomusicosociological perspective? 
Specifically, let's address the population in a head and/or heart space it cares deeply about: through its music.

How does it sing and dance? Who does this singing? Who best moves our collective booty and tugs at our heartstrings? I've been crunching Billboard album and singles chart data in order to better understand Who We Are in 2008. I've compiled information on every artist who cracked the Top 10 album chart and the Hot 100 singles chart this year. I've researched each artist and tallied the lot of them based on a number of factors, including gender, ethnicity, nationality, state of origin (if American) and record label. I've then analyzed these numbers. What follows are some conclusions.

(Note to Nate Silver: I'm a lowly music journalist who can add, subtract, multiply, divide, and use a calculator, but not much else. Let this serve as a springboard. Margin of error: 4 percent. Results reflect chart positions up to and including the Dec. 6 issue of Billboard.)




Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category.

Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the album's instrumentation includes both banjo and a hammered dulcimer. And while we certainly returned to releases by Bon Iver and Bowerbirds throughout the year, we actually heard both records last year, when they were first independently released.

After this arduous vetting process, these are the records that survived: ten releases that dabble equally in meat-and-potatoes alt-country, soft-focus '70s pop folk, and the old, weird America of Greil Marcus.

As a Zooey Deschanel character once put it, long before she ever met M. Ward: "Listen and light a candle, and your future will become clear."

Bonnie Prince Billy
Lie Down in the Light
(Drag City)
Perhaps even besting his 1999 high-water mark I See a Darkness, Lie Down is surely the most diverse and listenable outing of Will Oldham's lengthy career, with a sweet, playful side not often found on the Bonnie Prince's earlier records. From the Dead-does-country of opener "Easy Does It" to the earth-shaking duets with Canadian Ashley Webber (sister of Black Mountain's Amber Webber) on "So Everyone" and "You Want That Picture," the album is proof positive that Oldham is only getting better with age.

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
(Sub Pop)
Seattle's Fleet Foxes were the critical darlings of 2008 -- and rightfully so, given how artfully the band farmed the rich soil of Laurel Canyon with the harmonious folk rock of its self-titled debut. Sure, the reverb-heavy production resulted in eye rolls and cries of "My Morning Jacket," but while Jim James toyed with soft rock on this year's Evil Urges, Robin Pecknold and company perfected it, making a much better record in the process.

It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.

BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young" - banned from several college-radio stations for its unseemly insinuations about Catholic schoolgirls - is still a corker.

Extras: Complete June 1977 Carnegie Hall concert; DVD of Joel's March 1978 appearance on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test; thirty-minute making-of doc and facsimile of his lyric sketchbook, scratch-outs and all.

WILLIE NELSON
Stardust
(Columbia/Legacy)
Nelson's 1978 dunking of the Great American Songbook into his whiskey river, with producer Booker T. Jones riding soulful shotgun, shattered all sorts of precedents. It gave Irving Berlin ("Blue Skies") and Hoagy Carmichael ("Georgia on My Mind") their first number-one country hits, proved record-buyers wouldn't blanch at long-haired rednecks covering Duke Ellington and Kurt Weill (more than five million copies sold) and set the tone for this year's stellar Wynton Marsalis Quartet collaboration, Two Men With the Blues.

Extras: A complete second disc of Stardust outtakes, wherein Nelson unleashes trusty acoustic guitar Trigger on "What a Wonderful World," "Stormy Weather," "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" and more.

Hip-hop A-listers including Rick Ross, Akon and Plies were caught grossly exaggerating their gangster credentials this year. (Turns out they were painfully law-abiding. The horror!) But even if your favorite rapper wasn't caught in a lie, you can bet he or she put out a hilariously absurd record or two in 2008. Here are the most preposterous rap songs of 2008.

RICK ROSS, FEATURING T-PAIN
"The Boss"
(Def Jam)

Though Rick Ross claimed on his debut album, Port of Miami, to know Manuel Noriega, The Smoking Gun website found that Ross was a prison guard rather than an international drug kingpin before he was famous. Perhaps they met in the can? In any case, his assertion on "The Boss" that he "made a couple million dollars last year dealing weight" is absurd. Still, we're tempted to give him a pass on his claim that "I don't make love/Baby we make magic," because, well, we wouldn't know.

USHER, FEATURING YOUNG JEEZY
"Love in This Club"
(LaFace)

Sex in a puddle of Patrón, anyone? The story line on Usher's latest album, Here I Stand, is roughly "former playboy takes on fidelity and diapers." But on "Love in This Club," all that goes out the window. Ursh combines hip-hop and R&B's two great passions (discos and humping) without, sadly, elaborating on his exhibitionist fetish. It's clear from Young Jeezy's verse, however -- "It's going down on aisle three/ I'll bag you like some groceries" -- that he prefers to make love in the Piggly Wiggly.

A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience--these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age when many year-end lists should be subtitled "Ten More Albums You've Never Heard of and Will Never, Ever Hear," plenty.

Technology has made the world smaller, and in response, we've found smaller and smaller worlds to inhabit. Think of a specific era--in some cases, a specific artist's work from a specific era, or even a specific year--and someone, somewhere is re-creating those very sounds. Which is fine, and sometimes a lot of fun. It's just that those folks who are still striving for the Big Shared Experience were the most interesting stories of the past year in hip-hop. They were the people who believed that hip-pop didn't automatically equal T-Pain, or the real pain of automatic IQ loss.

There were several such moments in 2008.

Kanye West
808s and Heartbreak
(Def Jam)

West's fourth album almost completely dispensed with rapping, perplexing and vexing scores of fans and supporters. The music itself was low-key, chilly techno that featured West's Auto-Tuned croon as the most prominent element; inevitably, what support West loses from his fan base will be replaced with critical hosannas for 808s, even though the recycled 1980s licks and equally familiar (and tiresome) "It-ain't-easy-bein'-rich-and-famous" sentiments mean it's merely solid and not spectacular.

Yet West's stated rationale for creating the album is fascinating. He has spoken of wanting to reach the level of a McCartney or a Bono and has presented what is essentially a pop record as a step toward that goal. We shouldn't read too much into the statement, perhaps--he's already at work on a follow-up, supposedly, which might well end up a return to verse--but you could also view it as a rare admission of hip-hop's limitations (or at least its limitations without the olive branch of pop). And almost 20 years after hip-hop took over the world, that's a startling idea.

That a star of West's magnitude would court scorn in this way is the sort of chance only a great artist can take and survive--a potential Prince Under the Cherry Moon moment.

Gym Class Heroes
The Quilt
(Atlantic)

Another keynote moment of 2008 came while listening to rough mixes of this album aboard the Heroes' tour bus last summer. Frontman Travis McCoy is an inveterate and enthusiastic tune selector; his iBook was constantly pumping out his favorites of the moment. One track that stood out ended up being left off The Quilt. Produced by hip-hop titans Cool & Dre, it was a song called "Cold Revolver" that featured McCoy on bass and was a dead ringer for the Cure. More to the point, McCoy spoke of how Cool & Dre viewed the song as a chance to stretch beyond their usual audience. In other words, it apparently wasn't a move made solely for the benefit of GCH.

The comment made more sense after spending some time with the Heroes on the Warped Tour, seeing the racially mixed crowds moshing to a Lamb of God cover and hearing the band's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink (in a good way) new album. There have been the usual naysayers reluctant to see their cult band go global (something McCoy addresses in "Don't Tell Me It's Over"), but The Quilt's mashup makes the same point, in its way, as West's 808s. Neither is hip-hop with hooks to make a buck; both are the products of intelligent artists who refuse to be slaves to the same old boom-bap or the same old boom-pap in their quest for wider acclaim. In short, they want it all: credibility and commercial clout. Both efforts are worth supporting.

And now it's time for the "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" memorial Worst Lyrics of 2008, March Madness-style tournament, this year a terrifying mélange of appalling oral-sex requests, bargain-bin philosophies, grammatical atrocities, and cringe-inducing pillow talk. To elevate the drama, I provided a trusted colleague with the 16 artists who qualified and had him assign seeds--Lil Wayne you expect to go deep into a showdown like this, but Lucinda Williams? Some fantastic match-ups resulted, but in the end, nobody is topping Nickelback's backstage-pass bon mot, as devastating a blow to feminism as Katy Perry and Sarah Palin combined. Oh, for those innocent days of 50 Cent.

Click to see the full "Worst Lyrics of 2008" finals.

-- Rob Harvilla

In 2008, independent rock returned to the underground, where it belongs. Given the grand catastrophe that is today's record industry, most major-label executives don't have the time or energy to convince music fans they might like something a little out of the ordinary. They're too busy recycling variations on what were once sure things while desperately searching for career exit strategies that don't involve tall buildings, open windows and running leaps. As a result, fringier artists have had the opportunity to develop outside the spotlight, sans the sort of unrealistic commercial expectations that can lead to self-consciousness, compromise and a lifetime of regret. Not selling means not selling out, as the following albums demonstrate.

Marnie Stern
This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That
(Kill Rock Stars)
In "Prime," the first song here, Stern declares, "Defenders, get onto your knees," then forces them to do just that by way of roller-coaster rhythms, staccato vocals and guitar fragments sharper and deadlier than Chinese throwing stars. In an age of dial-twisters and digital manipulators, she's a genuine instrumental virtuoso. Still, she isn't searching for the perfect note on tracks such as "Shea Stadium" and "Steely." Instead, she merges artsy intentions with unfettered passion and takes her listeners to destinations as unexpected as they are exhilarating.

Fucked Up
The Chemistry of Common Life
(Matador)
There aren't many genres more hidebound than hardcore punk, whose rudiments have hardly changed for decades, and the essential conservatism of the style's fan base makes trying to broaden its scope seem like a suicide mission. Nevertheless, these Fucked Up Canadians take on the challenge, and at album's end, they're still standing tall. Chemistry's instrumentation, which includes French horn and congas, is unusually diverse by hardcore standards. Yet the idiosyncratic arrangements of songs such as the oddly Wagnerian "Royal Swan" enhance the sonic drama in ways even a purist can appreciate.

Any knucklehead with DSL and a laptop can now make an electronic track. With a half hour of clicking and fiddling, you can sample enough cheesy beats and mashups to clog arteries from here to Berlin. Simple dropdown mouse maneuvers can transform electro tracks into progressive house tracks (from dry and synthetic to wet and gushy), rhythm tracks can be tempo-tweaked with an upward toggle to change a Timbaland beat into a Chromeo one. Add some T-Pain-esque pitch-correction vocals to your between-track banter for that 2008 feel (actually, please don't). The rail guiding it all: that four-on-the-floor stomp. Herewith: nine collections of dance music (and one licentious exception), some of them mixed into sets, others unmixed for your own sampling pleasure.

Simian Mobile Disco
FabricLive 41
(Fabric)
At least four different Fabric mixes could have landed on any reputable list of the year's best dance collections. Depending on your mood and your hormonal levels, either Metro Area's syrupy Demerol disco mix, M.A.N.D.Y.'s 25-track thumpfest (featuring Yello, Gui Burrato and Booka Shade), or DJ Yoda's insanely diverse FabricLive mix (Violent Femmes, Jurassic 5, Bell Biv Devoe, Adam F, Wiley), could effectively wobble your azz. Simian's stands a little above the rest (save one - see below) in its audacity, inclusiveness and ability to celebrate electro and house without resorting to the stupid futuristic robotic stuff. The set opens with Japanese 1970s cheeseball Tomita, features the year's best dance track, Hercules & Love Affair's "Blind," transforms "Suite Equitra" by the late NYC street composer Moondog (who's having a very healthy afterlife as a mixtape MC) into a dancefloor stomper, hits on current faves Deadmau5, and digs deep in the crates to uncover genius inventor/musician Raymond Scott. It closes with a great threesome: Plastikman's "Spastik" into Green Velvet's "Flash" into (of all things) the Walker Brothers' "Night Flight." This mix will totally transform your rush hour slog home from work.

Plastikman
"Spastik"
(M_nus) (from Simian Mobile Disco's FabricLive.41 mix)

Sascha Funke
Watergate 02
(Word and Sound)

Part of Ellen Allien's BPitch Control posse out of Berlin, Sasha Funke creates crisp, clear, antiseptic beats on his own tracks, and this mix, released by the popular Watergate club in Berlin, hits all the right riddims if you like your techno with funny chirps, bloops, hisses and electro-riffs swirling around heavy bottom-end bass bump. It's a cool mix of minimalism, one in which repetition is dotted with tidbits of oddball melodies and sampled voice-wisps. You're not going to hear any raucous divas pretending to lose their virginity, not going to hear dumb k-hole trance washes or dirt-covered electro. Rather, Funke offers a mixed sampler of mostly 21st century, mostly German techno (DJ Koze's masterful "I Want to Sleep" included), with one glorious surprise smack dab in the middle: Midwest rave legend (Wisconsin) Woody McBride's "Boy Girl Boy Girl."

Minilogue Vs KAB
"That's a Nice Way to Give Me Feedback"
(Autobahn)
from Sascha Funke's Watergate 02 mix