Top Ten Local Albums of 2008

Allá
Es Tiempo (Crammed Discs)
Ex-members of Defender boiled down their krautrock influences into a lush, gently psychedelic suite of Latin exotica.

Bound Stems
The Family Afloat (Flameshovel)
The teachers-turned-rockers quit their day jobs, gave up on their musical dreams, finally reconciled the two lives and wrote an album about it. The triumphant indie-pop and jubilant harmonies made us feel all warm and gooey in the middle.

The Cool Kids
The Bake Sale (Chocolate Industries)
Mickey and Chuck go all 808s, no heartbreak, on this giddy, old-school, party-rap, quasi debut LP-length EP. The duo brought back the infinitely cooler days of Rick Rubin producing stark beats for LL Cool J, not yoga-folk for geezer comebacks.

The Final Solution
Brotherman OST (The Numero Group)
Another stellar discovery from obscurity historians the Numero Group, Brotherman was meant to soundtrack a never-made blaxplotation flick. The loose, lo-fi funk is all the more unique and fascinating for never having been finished and polished.

Icy Demons
Miami Ice (Obey Your Brain)
Playful and funky, the demons revel in cheesy synths and tropical rhythms, turning traditionally cod sounds into delicious fast food.

Mass Shivers
Ecstatic Eyes Glow Glossy (Sick Room)
The Jesus Lizard just re-formed, but with these awesome knuckle-draggers in town, we weren’t exactly starving for hair-raising rock kicks. We always wondered what it would have sounded like if Brian Eno took over AC/DC when Bon Scott died.

Pit Er Pat
High Time (Thrill Jockey)
Like Icy Demons (and most indie bands), minimal trio Pit Er Pat dove into tropical rhythms with mesmerizing, wind-chime-like results.

Sybris
Into the Trees (Absolutely Kosher)
These dreamy shoegazers had the misfortune of putting out a driving, droning addition to the genre’s canon right when so many of the legends—My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver—re-formed. Drat.

Volcano!
Paperwork (The Leaf Label)
In the tradition of our city’s fine post-rockers, Volcano! made deconstructed art rock sound like easy listening, with one ear on melody and the other on discord.

Walter Meego
Voyager (Almost Gold)
The duo jetted for L.A. upon the record’s completion, but this long-in-the-works LP was crafted right here by two kids from the ’burbs. The synthesizer fanatics crafted head-in-the-clouds dance-rock at its best.

NEXT> Music staff picks of 2008