Stereogum’s 50 Most Popular MP3s Of 2008

Affordably priced music is great, but free, legal MP3s are even greater. And arguing anonymously with strangers on the MP3 blogosphere would be a lot less constructive without them. So again we’ve crunched the last twelve months of database activity and come up with a list of the fifty most downloaded promo tracks we’ve hosted this year. Several cuts come from your favorite albums of 2008 (Hercules And Love Affair, Los Campesinos!, She & Him, Okkervil River, Department Of Eagles, Ra Ra Riot, Sigur Rós, Wolf Parade, Fleet Foxes), but there are surprises, too (a recently posted single from Iran, two tunes from Band To Watch Fredrik, etc.). And it wouldn’t be a 2008 playlist without “Time To Pretend” and a gratuitous “Paper Planes” remix. Collectively, these songs were downloaded over one million times from the Stereogum server, so what’s a few thousand more? It’s Hanukkah after all.

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The 20 Albums We’re Most Excited To Hear In 2009

There a few more days of pretending to look busy at work ahead, but as far as our iTunes are concerned 2009 can’t get here soon enough. We’re done with the lists. It’s time for the new. We pored over the album-release sheets, took myriad Progress Reports, and narrowed the field to a list of twenty records we can’t wait to prematurely evaluate over. It’s gonna be a good year.

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Broken Social Scene Give Letterman Something For Everyone

A-grade chocolatiers Broken Social Scene brought a slice of their latest Presents… project — Brendan Canning’s Something For Everyone — to David last night. It’s a very BSSy track, this “Churches Under The Stairs“, with a very BSSy band … because it’s basically BSS. Kevin Drew and Brendan take turns on the vocals, and as we saw at NYU earlier this year and certified in this performance, Land Of Talk’s Liz Powell is the new female face of the Canadian collective.

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Premature Evaluation: Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Andrew Bird hasn’t been shy about previewing tracks from his fifth album during his various live sets. That, and the fact that Noble Beasts opens with “Oh No” and then the previously heard “Masterswarm” and “Fitz And The Dizzyspells” along with “Natural Disaster,” “Effigy,” and “Anonanimal” later in the track list, gives the collection a familiar air even on first listen. Of course, Bird takes the songs to a different place in their studio renderings.

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Stereogum & team9 Present… MySplice III

For the third year in a row, we’ve turned to master bootlegger team9 to take some of our favorite songs of the year and mash them together. On Stereogum & team9 Present… MySplice III you’ll hear familiar blog hits from artists like Lykke Li, of Montreal, the Breeders, Bloc Party, Crystal Castles, and Beck remixed with beats and vocals borrowed from some of the year’s most inescapable pop hits. (There are some oldies thrown in, too.)
As always with our original compilations, you may download all the tracks for free, as individual MP3s, ZIP or torrent. There is no better way to celebrate 2008 for no money.
One hitch: we need an album cover! You’re creative, will you make one for us?

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Axl Answers More Questions, Stereogum Gets Its Free Dr. Pepper

On Friday we looked at Axl Rose’s Q&A with fans on a Guns N’ Roses message board. The next day the reclusive rocker answered more queries from fans in the chinesedemocracy.com forum. (His username and avatar is Dexter.) Among the revelations was that Axl would participate in a GN’R reunion for a charity cause “if it feels right” and if the money actually went to victims. Then, yesterday, Dexter reached out a third time, in the form of 4,500-word, emoticon-laced message board post titled “My homework assignment. Just the Tip…. (of the iceberg).” Many of those words concern why Chinese Democracy was credited to Guns N’ Roses and not Axl Rose.

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Kanye’s “Love” Letdown On SNL

Last time Kanye did Saturday Night Live he ended “Champion” with a clumsy freestyle that left some viewers convinced he bombed. Tonight’s performance on the Hugh Laurie-hosted Christmas episode likely garnered similar reactions. We’ve already heard how, despite the assistance of live Auto-Tune, Kanye’s vocals on “Love Lockdown” literally fall flat on TV (see Ellen, Kimmel). But because this show was live, KW didn’t attempt the high notes, instead going silent while they piped in a female backup singer. Awkward. “Heartless” brought less strain on his voice, and benefited from the cool rotoscoped video behind him, but halfway through morphed into “Pinocchio Story,” the laughable live track that closes out 808s. “There is no Gucci I could buy/ There is no Louis Vuitton to put on/ There is no YSL that they could sell/ To get my mind out of this hell.” To quote the departing Amy Poehler … REALLY!?! [...]

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Lily Allen Covers “Womanizer”

Did you watch Britney Spears’ For The Record “documentary” a few weeks ago? The pop star came off sad and confused like a character in a Christopher Guest movie (”People shave their heads all the time…“), but hey — she looks great. (So good at exercising, that girl.) While Britney was never far from public consciousness, Circus‘ catchy comeback single “Womanizer” (written and produced by the Outsyders) is actually the singer’s first #1 hit since “…Baby One More Time.” So only a matter of time before HypeM is flooded with winking acoustic versions a la “Toxic.” Leading the pack is Lily Allen, whose own new tune “The Fear” pokes fun at celebutards. Her jazzy barroom version was premiered by mate Mark Ronson on East Village Radio’s Authentic Shit last night. Gigwise quotes him: “As promised, Lily has a habit of making some great bootlegs, remember her ‘[Nan, You're A] Window [...]

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Indie Rock In Memoriam 2008

While there were a lot of great new bands that came on our radar this year, we also said goodbye to some favorites. Sorry to end the week on a bummer, but it’s time to pay our respects to the departed with an “In Memoriam” tribute video. Hopefully you’ve been paying attention to MySpace bulletins over the past twelve months as we hate to be the bearer of bad news. On the bright side, some of these acts will get back together in twenty years, presumably having skipped the drug overdoses and declarations of bankruptcy that precede reunions in Behind The Music.

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Deerhunter, Violens & Bell Gummy Awards Live Videos

We filled you in on this past Monday’s Gummy Awards ‘08 Live at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg with Deerhunter, Violens, and Bell. Now we can offer you video from each set to backup the words we typed about the event. Add this to Videogum’s The Best Viral Videos Of 2008 In 5 Minutes, a High Places DJ set, and a slight alcohol buzz, and you’ll almost feel like you were there. A couple treats include Deerhunter’s “Saved By Old Times” and a new Bell song, “Hero.”

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