What's Playing on GL's iPod?

The answer? These four songs, on infinite repeat. They're all from 2007, but since I didn't make a year end list, I thought I'd throw 'em up now.

1. The Besnard Lakes - "Devastation"

Reminds me a lot of Secret Machines, what with the heavy, propulsive beat and all the cool sound effects. I wish the rest of The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse was half as good.

2. Kevin Drew - "Backed Out On The..."

Drew got J. Mascis to play guitar on this one off of Spirit If... I love it so hard. The video is great, too.

3. Bon Iver - "Skinny Love"

Gorgeous song from Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver. Not your typical Rockist offering, but wonderful nonetheless.

4. Panda Bear - "Bros."

I really wanted to hate this album - it was so hyped I could hardly stand it. But I'll be goddamned if it isn't one of the best albums I've heard in years. This one's longish at about 12 minutes, but there's a reason it's the centerpiece of the album, Person Pitch.

Break Through Bands of 2008

Here are my predictions of bands* we will see in the upcoming year:

Wolf Great Uncle
Spatula
The Temp Agency
Asiatic Black Bear
The Boils
Fuck Balls

Any others?

*G.H., these aren't real bands. Don't pretend to have listened to them.

From the mouth of Bob Pollard

"We saw the world. We were the kings of lo-fi! We entered the world in the early 90s when people were staring at their shoes. And we brought back rock and roll."

- Robert Pollard, "Secret Star (live")

A Saturday afternoon list

Bands I've been lying about actually listening to:

Echo and the Bunnymen
The Knife
Low
Wire
Clinic
Like four or five New Zealand bands
Shellac
The Microphones
Primal Scream

Scotch_Mist

I know everyone has posted this already, but I didn't get a chance to watch it on New Year's.

My favorite line: "One day I found out that my urine was acting like a powerful foaming agent. I don't know why. I thought that I could take advantage of my ability by hosting piss-centered foam parties in the pub toilets. My landlord wasn't keen. He didn't think that people would be interested. In fact, he said that it was a disgusting idea. I said that I would rather go to a piss foam party than watch the f*cking football. But he said that I'm in a very small minority, and the big screen stays."

Conan O'Brien w/The Max Weinberg 7: "Blue Moon of Kentucky"

This one's for you GH. We're keeping Honest Abe, though.

R.E.M. Release New Album Details

Yeah, so this was already posted on Stereogum, but it caught my eye. According to NME, R.E.M.'s new album will be titled Accelerate and will be released on April Fool's Day.

I can't speak for the other Rockists, but I'm actually looking forward to this. After a few disappointing albums recently, let's hope R.E.M. gets back to what they do best: vague, almost incomprehensible lyrics with political and social commentary over solid pop rock licks.

R.E.M. - "Superman"