Moosic, 2008 and Yesterday

1. Frequent OG-comment(at)er GabbaGabbaHey continues his Hoover Genealogy Project with a highlight: vintage live WFMU sets from Hoover, Crownhate Ruin and Lincoln over at (xxx)HardcoreforNerds(xxx). Fans of the DC-Louisville-Chicago axis of 90s indie rock simply cannot afford to miss these sets, in particular the Hoover, which outshines even their amazing Lurid Transversal of Route 7. Despite many noble acolytes - like Athens' At the Price of the Union, par example - this "moment" in the punk/hardcore/indie/emo synthesis remains unmatched.
   
2. Over at a truer sound (ed - fixed link!) you can check out Son Volt's 1995-1996 acoustic radio sessions, a collection that's both a very worthy supplement to the original lineup's essential Straightaways and Trace albums. In particular, I'd call the versions of "Ten Second News," "Back Into Your World," and "She's More to Be Pitied" definitive. I'm loathe to dwell upon the greatness of early Volt because I feel like it goes without saying, and because I (for one) really identify with Jay Farrar's post-2000 efforts to destabilize the place of "traditional" American music in his ouevre. That said, there are plenty of his weird-er acoustic songs here - "No More Parades," "Creosote," "Last Minute Shakedown" - and people not suffering from my Farrar obsessions and esoteric biases would do well to start with this amazing collection. I'd humbly submit to you that this outshines both Tupelo's March and Gob Iron's Death Songs when it comes to the acoustic Jay.
   
3. Onwards to the DC-NYC-Chapel Hill axis. 'Member the Prisonship's epic "'member them 90s" thread? I do. And I'm pleased to announce that a kind soul in Spain has started a wonderful blog called Outdoor Miner that'd have to be called a primary resource, replete with all the Archers of Loaf, Sentridoh, Velocity Girl, Pavement et. al. that you could possibly need to jog your memory and revive that dialogue. Also, Mike Lupica's podcast and semi-torpid blog deserve mention alongside agony shorthand, usedbinforever and beyond failure, when it comes to 90s-ish, Benjamin-ish "archaeology of the future" vibes. Yes, that last bit is going too far.
   
4. Best albs of 2008, so far? I think I prefer the Walkmen, Make Believe, Ilyas Ahmed, Bob Mould, Prisonshake... I'm not sure what order yet. And god knows there's that new Cardinals coming...What do you players think? Let's have a conversation about records for a galldarn change!