Davey's 2008 Music Awards

Wassup everybody, for those of you new to this (that makes around 87 of you) its time for my annual music awards to be handed out.  This is a little thing I started back in 1995, when I was in 6th grade.  At that time the only award was "Song of the Year", with the year's winner being "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by "The Smashing Pumpkins".  The competition has now expanded to include Best New Band, Best Overall Band, Rap Song/Album of the Year, Alternative Rock Song/Album of the Year, Overall Album of the Year, and my favorite, The Song of the Year 2008.  I'm gonna make this a week long event, introducing to you, tonight, the winner of the first pieces of hardware.  (The hardware doesn't actually exist, and even if I had something to give away, I'm nearly certain the winner would toss it along with any leftover pizza.)  So, without further ado, away we go!!!!!!!!!!!!


Los Campesinos!

Best New Band, Best Overall Band

7 performers.  Two guitars, bass, glockenspiel, keyboard, melody horn, 2 vocalists, and a drummer.  With so much going on you might assume the group sounds a mess, and at first they do.  The creativity comes at you from many different angles, the musicality overwhelming your thoughts.  It's hard to catch the rhythm, let alone pay attention to the lyrics.  And one day it hits you, you get the idea, what all the fuss was about, and you feel better for it.

To borrow a reference from Blender magazine, imagine "The Arcade Fire" meets "The Ramones".  Yeah, it's that deep.  The songs of "Los Campesinos" last anywhere from 1:45 to 6:15.  The ideas stretch from lonely afternoons of heartbreak, to contemplating the soundtrack to the end of the world.  The band had so much to offer the globe in 2008, they decided to release two discs.  The first "Hold On Now, Youngster" dropping in February, while the second "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" coming in late October.


"Los Campesinos" is a group without a true genre, without marketability, devoid of a niche fan base.  Their records this year do not speak to a time, nor do they tell of a certain place.  The unbridled nature of the discs, guitar solos that come out of nowhere, toe tapping beats that threaten to force your car off the road are all pieces of what makes this not just the best new band of the year, but also what sets them above stalwarts like "Metallica" or Kanye West.   



Youtube: "My Year In Lists",    "Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1"