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I know, I know — a post a day about this doggone series could get very tiring. But seeing as past artists who made the BBC’s “Sound of 2009” music-to-watch-for-in-the-New-Year series had pretty good years in ‘08 — MGMT, Santogold, The Ting Tings, Glasvegas, Black Kids — I feel I should prolly be following it to the very end (which happens to be on Friday, since only the top five artists, not the actual complete 10, will be revealed this week). The artist who placed third on the list is UK songstress Florence and the Machine (pictured, photo by Tom Beard Photography). And man oh man, is she ever great.

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BBC continues its ‘Sound of 2009‘ series — which spotlights the hottest up-and-coming talent for the New Year — with its fourth selection, Empire of the Sun. The name should tell you something about the band, an Australian electro-pop duo who does the I’m-taking-myself-so-seriously-it’s-not-serious-anymore schtick ala Gil Mantera’s Party Dream complete with outrageous costumes and theatrics. Check out the video for Empire of the Sun’s October 2008 single, “Walking on a Dream.”

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BBC Entertainment News named the first artist featured in its “BBC Sound of 2009” countdown series: La Roux, the stage name/alter ego of 20-year-old fiery-haired electro-pop songstress Elly Jackson (pictured) and her behind-the-scenes production partner Ben Langmaid.

The latest sassy lass to emerge from London sets her perfectly pop vocals against heavily synthesized beats that are straight out of the skating ring ‘80s, apparently her intention. From Jackson’s RMD Magazine interview:

“Electro music is so throwaway now. The lyrics don’t mean anything and it should be about how the words sound together rather then the overall sound of the songs. Proper songs are really emotional, like Why by Annie Lennox,” says the Eurythmics, Prince, CSS and Cure fan. “That’s a really emotional tune, but it’s all done on synth. We’ve got a couple of electro and synth ballads and we’re not scared to show a vulnerable side. There’s very few people doing it.”

BBC’s early January “Sound” countdown series was launched seven years ago as a way to find the hottest up-and-coming talent for the New Year, musical acts that haven’t (up to the point of the countdown) had a top 20 single or album. The list is based on tips from 134 leading UK critics and broadcasters, and is usually pretty dead-on. Among the featured talent of ‘08 were Santogold, Glasvegas, The Ting Tings, MGMT, Black Kids, and Vampire Weekend, all artists who managed to make a splash (and several end-of-the-year lists) in both the UK and America.

This year’s list has been scaled back from 10 top artists to five, who were selected from a list of 15 potential artists published last month. The remaining four featured artists will be revealed every day this week, with the number one announced on Friday.

Is La Roux worthy of the countdown? I’m not so sure. I have a hard time separating what she’s doing from what every pop songstress already did in the ’80s. Plus, she’s openly admitted that she’s trying to bring back that era’s “epic” style — which apparently means returning to cheesy over-emotiveness — and even taking personal credit for leading the ’80s pop revival simply because she thinks she takes it more seriously than the other 1,000 artists who are doing the same thing. I guess time will tell.

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Pitchfork recently ran a comprehensive guide to releases coming up in 2009. I’ve scaled it down to the highlights (no box sets, re-issues, vinyl, 7″ or overseas releases) and added a few as well. Click here to see Pitchfork’s complete guide.

JANUARY

06
*The Brighton Port Authority, I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (Southern Fried)
Glasvegas, Glasvegas (Columbia)
The Gourds, Haymaker! (Yep Roc)

13
Late of the Pier, Fantasy Black Channel (Astralwerks)
Lymbyc System, Carved by Glaciers (Magic Bullet)
My Dear Disco, Dancethink (Dancethink)
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Greatest Hits (Columbia Wal-Mart exclusive)
This Will Destroy You & Lymbyc System, Field Studies (Magic Bullet)
*Derek Trucks Band, Already Free (Sony Legacy)

20
*Andrew Bird, Noble Beast (Fat Possum)
*Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Antony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light (Secretly Canadian)
*Bon Iver, Blood Bank EP (Jagjaguwar)
Calexico, Live From Austin, TX (New West DVD)
John Frusciante, The Empyrean (Adrenaline Music)
Ice-T, Live in Montreux 1995 (MVD DVD)
Matt and Kim, Grand (FADER)
*The Modern Skirts, All of Us in Our Night (Modern Skirts Recordings)
A.C. Newman, Get Guilty (Matador)
Ben Nichols, The Last Pale Light in the West (The Rebel Group)
Or, The Whale, Light Poles and Pines (Seany)
Public Enemy, Revolverlution Tour 2003 (MVD DVD)
*Squarepusher, Numbers Lucent EP (Warp)
*Umphrey’s McGee, Mantis (Sci Fidelity)

27
*The Bird and the Bee, Ray Guns Are Not the Future (Blue Note)
Brian Wilson, That Lucky Old Sun (Capitol DVD)
Circlesquare, Songs About Dancing and Drugs (!K7)
*Cotton Jones, Paranoid Cocoon (Suicide Squeeze)
*Dan Deacon/Adventure, Split 12″ (Carpark)
*Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino/Epic)
Hot Chip With Robert Wyatt and Geese EP (Astralwerks)
Kylie Minogue, Boombox: The Remix Album (Parlophone)
of Montreal, Jon Brion Remix EP (Polyvinyl)
Owen, (the ep) (Polyvinyl)
Rush, Retrospective 3 (Atlantic CD/DVD)
*RZA, Afro Samurai: The Resurrection (Wu Music Group)
Duncan Sheik, Whisper House (Victor)
Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream (Columbia)
*The Sway Machinery, Hidden Melodies Revealed (JDub) (more…)

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After several false starts, virus-laden downloads and out-of-control fan anticipation taken to an email hoax level, the real Merriweather Post Pavilion has finally surfaced on the file-sharing blogs. The much-anticipated eighth studio album of wildly avant-garde rock ensemble Animal Collective leaked this past weekend, and fans that were foaming at the mouth to listen are now foaming at the mouth while listening, soaking it up like a bunch of hipster sponges, IMing their friends about its greatness, about how “catchy” it is compared to their previous efforts and how it’s already the greatest album of ‘09, and has anyone ever thought of using an optical illusion as the cover of their album? How groundbreaking! (”Holy shit, it moves!“)

The buzz surrounding this album has been as big as I’ve seen buzz get, most likely because it took so long to leak in advance of its January 20 release date on Domino.

As a fan of Animal Collective, a music writer who tries to keep track of what’s going on in the music world and the wife of a man who happens to be an inexhaustive explorer of file-sharing music blogs, I snagged a copy and listened to it last night. There was no doubt about who created the album; it was pure Animal Collective, surreal meets out-there. I’m not sure whether or not it’s really catchy, although it is probably more accessible than other stuff I’ve heard by them (less melodic yells and screeches, more straighforward singing). Once I’ve recieved a concrete copy of the album, I’ll report back here with my review. Stay tuned.

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There are plenty of albums I listened to incessantly (or not so incessantly but still enjoyed) this past year that didn’t make my top ten, but are still worthy enough of mention. I’ve also included a few I missed all together when they came out and am just now really digging on — there’s just too much music out there, people. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War) [Universal Motown]
I only heard Badu’s fourth studio effort for the first time a couple days ago, and kicked my self profusely for not listening sooner. Love it, gives me an automatic head bob, and the only reason I ever avoided it was because I’d heard it was too political. It’s political, all right, but in a blacksploitation film sort of way, all hot funk meets justified rage.

Black Moth Super Rainbow, Drippers EP [The 70's Gymnastics Recording Company]
The five-member experimental ensemble released another album of colorful, synthified, psychedelic fizz – the sort of music you’d expect from the soundtrack to a 1970’s space odyssey. The album includes songs produced over the past year that won’t be on the next album, and each limited edition release comes with one of five scratch n’ sniff scents: fruit punch, campfire, firecracker, tomato and dirt.

Phish, At the Roxy CD Box Set [Jemp]
It’s just not fair to pit a three-night show performed by a band more than 15 years ago against new music, even if said shows do include one of the best versions of “Tweezer” ever known to Phish kind. A truly great box set that anyone who considers themselves a Phan should own.

Panther, 14kt. God [Kill Rock Stars]
Spastic fun rock music with big beats and a Mick Jagger swagger. This album is just a great time.

Beach House, Devotion [Car Park]
The second dream pop album by Baltimore duo Beach House is simple and elegant, each song leisurely, achingly lovely and marked by the soft, sweetly ethereal vocals of singer Victoria Legran. (more…)

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On 2007’s masterful Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer, of Montreal frontman/visionary/songwriter Kevin Barnes got up close and personal, expressing his fears, frustrations and failures against rainbow-hued synth-pop with a funky, disco-fied swagger.

Skeletal Lamping finds Barnes in much better spirits and back to mining his psyche for material, the album playing much like you’d imagine his psyche actually works — jumping from one memory to another, lingering on sexual fantasies and depravities, stopping to muse and ruminate on this incident or that person, mood-shifting from confident to downtrodden, from high and happy to contemplative to spazzed-out, thoughts and ideas spurting forth lucid and witty, or as disorienting streams-of-consciousness. Soulful ditties and synth-pop dance numbers mingle amid songs-within-songs that are made up of a few or more wildly divergent electro-symphonic movements, each with its own rhythm and sound and feel that either fits comfortably or crashes inelegantly into the movement before or after it to create an interesting and truly exceptional, if sometimes chaotic and sonically challenging, whole.

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Cross-posted at Burbex.com; by Creative Loafing-Tampa Events Editor Leilani Polk.

Louis C.K. is a disillusioned family man and no one knows it better than his fans. For the past several years, the New York-based comic’s anecdotal humor has touched heavily upon the day-to-day frustrations of being a husband and father, an apparently inexhaustible topic that he rants about with fine-tuned fervor and plenty of f-bombs. His new stand-up tour – which landed in Sarasota this past the weekend – featured all new material, including plenty of tirades about his wife (who hates him with such intensity that he respects her for it), and his two young daughters. The most hilarious highlight of his family-oriented bits, however, was one I’d already heard him relate on a recent episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, about getting a stomach ache, having to go to the hospital to prove to his wife that he’s really sick, the prescription for opiate suppositories he’s given to treat his “ailment,” his inner turmoil at having to stick said suppositories up his ass, and the subsequent blessed relief that spread through his body beginning at his asshole.

Not that his entire routine was family-related. He reflected on a range of topics – Rent-a-Centers and the sad saps who “shop” there, being 40 and half dead, his absolute hatred of deer, his need to jerk-off on a daily basis, using shocking words like “cunt,” and plenty else.

He breezed through the set like a pro and broached two potentially objectionable topics – cleaning the shit off his 2-year-old’s private parts and jerking off in the midst of the September 11 attacks – with such dynamic gusto that the room was forced to laugh rather than examine their own discomfort.  Overall, a great night of comedy and definitely worth the drive from Tampa to Sarasota.

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