Top Tuneage of 2008

UPDATED 1/5/2009

I won't call these my favorite albums of the year, because the word "favorite" would lead you to believe that I liked these albums more than others. This is not true at all. There were several albums released in 2008 that caught my attention. Let's just say these were in the heaviest rotation at the Layne house, how 'bout that? So, in no particular order:

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Imagine if you woke up one day and realized you had been asleep for twenty years and someone says to you, "Dude! The new Metallica album came out today!" Then you went to the record store and bought this album and realized that this is just another in a long line of great Metallica albums. However, you'd never heard the Black Album, Load, Reload or St. Anger. In fact, you didn't even know those albums existed (especially the last three). This would be what you would expect of the next Metallica album.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

If you like My Morning Jacket, you will love this album. If you like Prince, Radiohead, Gov't Mule, Phish or any number of laid-back seventies love songs, you, too, will love this album. With Evil Urges it seems that My Morning Jacket really couldn't decide what kind of album they wanted to release, so they just threw everything they had at it and the finished product came out sounding like an old jukebox on random. Normally, this would piss me off. But that is exactly what I dig so much about it! Although I must say I like Z and It Still Moves much better.

R.E.M. - Accelerate

Normally, I really have to be in the right mood to listen to R.E.M. This is a band I have always respected, appreciated and paid attention to, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are one of my favorites. As much as My Morning Jacket ran the gamut of musical styles with their latest effort, R.E.M. did just the opposite. They stuck to the "two-to-three-minute-rock-song formula" and it worked for them. Less is certainly more in some cases and this is one of those cases. I guess the reason I really dug this album is that I didn't expect it! It might be the surprise album of the year for me.

Whitesnake - Good To Be Bad

I think everyone has things from their youth they carry around with them well into their adult years. For me, it's music and movies (i.e. Metallica and Star Wars). Back in the late '80's, Whitesnake released a self-titled album with those classic rock anthems "Still Of The Night" and "Here I Go Again". I still love that album. In fact, every time I hear "Still Of The Night" I have to crank it up! As Donnie Baker would say, "You have to crank it up, man. State Law!" "Here I Go Again", on the other hand, wore out its welcome years and years and years ago, in my opinion. The only thing I'll say about Good To Be Bad is this: If you play guitar and are heavily influenced by hard rock riffs that can tear the roof off an arena, this is your album. I think I've stated on here before... this is a 59-minute riff fest. It's just a solid rock guitar album. It won't go down in history as one of those albums that changed the world or anything, but its a great guitar album. Every time I play it, it takes me back to that self-titled Whitesnake album from the '80's and reminds me of a simpler time before mortgages, car payments, actual responsibilities, etc.


Ray LaMontagne - Gossip In The Grain


Sometimes we all just need to chill out and unwind for a bit, right? This was my chill out and unwind soundtrack of 2008. I love it when you hear an artist and immediately know who it is. Ray is the man, OK? He has a playing style and voice that are his and his alone. There is no mistaking Ray when you hear him. Great album from start to finish. Two thumbs up.

Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night

The only clever thing I can say about this album is that this is what I think U2 would sound like if they were from Nashville instead of Dublin. Great album from beginning to end. It's one of those few albums that you can put in, push play and get lost. Awesome!

I guess that'll do it for this year's list. I tried not to put any live albums on the list, although I really really really wanted to put Pearl Jam at Bonnaroo on there. But since it was only released on their website and wasn't really an official release, I opted not to include it. Also, because I was staying away from live albums, Dave Matthews Band at the Mile High Music Festival didn't make the cut, either.

I'm really anxious to see what 2009 has to offer music-wise. I know we're getting new albums from Chris Cornell, U2 and Dave Matthews Band (I'm sure at least two of the three have their spots reserved on next year's list already). But I want to be impressed. I want to be amazed. I want something new to move me. Where is the next great musical genius? I hope I find him/her in the coming year.

Three More Weeks!!!

Calling All Obscure Music Fans

I need help. I have been looking for this album for years with little or no luck at all. The album is called Imagine We Were by a band called Tribe of Heaven. Here's what amazon.com has to say about it:

Mark Roebuck, formerly of the 80s power-pop band The Deal, began work on Tribe of Heaven in 1989. He invited then fellow bartender Dave Matthews to assist him in writing and recording a CD-length project. Tribe of Heaven would produce a rich, folk-acoustic sound, woven with dark, sometimes melancholy themes. The Tribe of Heaven project included nine songs, five written by Mark Roebuck alone, three written by Mark Roebuck and Dave Matthews together, and one a cover of U2's "In God's Country." Mark and Dave both sang and played on all songs. Greg Howard added keyboards on "Imagine We Were" and "Half the Time." Mike Rosenski played guitar on "Touch." The recording was done locally in Scottsville, Virginia on 8 track reel to reel at the home studio of Greg Howard during two sessions separated by about 6 months. Tribe of Heaven was informally shopped around in early 1990, but without success. Dave would go on to form Dave Matthews Band the next year and include a Tribe of Heaven song, "The Song that Jane Likes," on the band's first release, Remember Two Things. The Tribe of Heaven project lay dormant for more than a decade until a revival of interest in Mark's various musical projects, and interest from Dave's many fans, led to this release.

As luck would have it, the album is listed as "Out Of Stock" at amazon.com (It's not on iTunes, either). I don't want to go the ebay route because you never really know what you're going to get. I've found it on several independent sites but I don't know how reputable they are. So I need your help. Does anyone out there know where I can get a copy of this? Are there any really good online record stores that I could try without becoming a victim of identity theft?

Thanks in advance for your help!

The Countdown Has Begun

I was really bored at work yesterday afternoon, so I decided to make myself a Countdown to Season Five Calendar. This is hanging on my door at work. It's really great because there are only three other people in my building who watch LOST and "get" the calendar. Everyone else walks by with these bewildered looks on their faces. It cracks me up!

"What's that?"

"It's a LOST thing, you wouldn't understand."

I know, I know. I hear you. "What a dork!" "What a dweeb!" "What a geek!" "What a nerd!" "What a tool!" "Get a life!" "Grow up!" "You need help!"

You know what I say to that? I'm cooler than you. Get over it!

Official U2 Album News

Found this a few days ago. I guess it's time to start thinking about my U2 Tour plans!!!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Irish rockers U2 have named their new album
"No Line On The Horizon," and will release it worldwide in early March,
their label said on Thursday.

The quartet's 12th studio album was originally expected to be released
by the end of this year, but the band announced in September that it
would keep writing more tunes. Recording took place in Morocco, Dublin,
New York and London.

Interscope Records will release "No Line On The Horizon"
internationally on March 2, and a day later in North America.

It marks the follow-up to "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb," which was
released in late 2004 and went on to sell 9 million copies worldwide,
according to Interscope. It also garnered U2 their second album of the
year Grammy, following 1987's "The Joshua Tree."

The new album was produced by long-time collaborators Brian Eno and
Daniel Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite. Tunes
recorded in 2006 with producer Rick Rubin, the man behind Johnny Cash's
comeback, have been jettisoned.

Tour plans have not been announced. The "Vertigo" world tour for the
last album ran from March 2005 to December 2006.

I Believe In Father Christmas - U2 Style

Quote of the Day

"If my life was a television show, it would probably get cancelled." -Me