NYGeog: NYGeog's Best New Music of 2008 Mix download and a whole lot of other stuff

I've been trying to reproject some .dem files in ArcGIS and had to go all the way to using ArcInfo Workstation commands. It was one of those, 'oh this will take an hour' kind of thing to taking much longer to figure out. It looks like Global Mapper is the better software to do this rather than ArcGIS.

NYGeog's Best New Music of 2008 Mix
Download it here or from the FTP folder here.

1. Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace) - Yo-Yo Ma
I picked this song because 2008 felt like a tumultous year with violence and global economic meltdown and with hope that 2009 will be more peaceful than 2008.

2. Brothersport - Animal Collective
Brothersport will be released with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion in late Jan. of 2009 but was leaked in November. This shows the transition of AC to a more mainstream yet still interesting sound.

3. Music Which Feeds the Guests - We All Have Hooks for Hands
We All Have Hooks for Hands is a cool band from North Dakota or Montana or something. I love this instrumental track from their album.

4. Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes
The Fleet Foxes experienced great success in 2008 with their wonderful harmonies and and pastoral songscapes. Enjoy this one and check out all their material.

5. rr Vs. D - Au
Au's rr Vs. D is a fun whirling instrumental sounding piece that really displays the exposiveness of this Pac Northwest band.

6. Keep Marchin' - Rafael Sadiq
Former Toni toni tone member Rafael Sadiq steps up from the producers chair and up to the microphone for this new soul record with an old soul sound.

7. Jitterkadie - Death Vessel
Death Vessel is a fairly new to me but has quite a few pleasant surprises on his latest record.

8. Kids - MGMT
MGMT has enjoyed a huge amount of growth from its hit track Time to Pretend. Here's another good song from their wildly successful Oracular Spectacular.

9. Pull This Blanket Off - The Raconteurs
Hardly as good as their last record, the Raconteurs have a few decent cuts from their release in 2008.

10. Souled Out - Conor Oberst
Bright Eyes frontman goes for the first self-title album in a while. Good album overall for Oberst.

11. See Fernando - Jenny Lewis
A more disjointed effort from Lewis, who's first solo effort Rabbit Fur Coat was amazing, yet a few songs are really an enjoyable listen.

12. Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros
A fun weird song from a weird band.

13. Borrowed Your Gun - Spiritualized
The meloncholy of Spiritualized is very addictive and is evident in his great record Songs in A + E.

14. My Bucket's Got a Whole In It - Willie and Wynton
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis released a great Country blues/jazz record that captures how fun that old-time music can be. What a unlikely great album for 2008.

15. Flume - Bon Iver
I didn't get Bon Iver at first. However, once fall turned into winter here in NYC I learned what was so appealing and endearing about Justin Vernon's ode to solitude of a Wisconsin winter.

16. Eraser - No Age
No Age's Nouns had to be one of my top 3 favorite albums of 2008. I have no idea how to classify it but it really represented a great collection of songs/sounds.

17. Old Paint - Medeski, Martin & Wood
I haven't listened to much new jazz in 2008 but MMW's kids cd Let's Go Everywhere is truly fun.

18. Street Flash - Animal Collective
AC's 2008 release Water Curses EP was a great offshoot of the Strawberry Jam effort. I love listening to this song walking on the sidewalk or riding the subway.

19. Mansard Roof - Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend, however divisive, released an upbeat pop album at the start of 2008 that elevated them to the spotlight, proving that in the day of blogs, bands can be too popular before they even release an album.

20. All the Pretty Little Horses - Laura Gibson
Laura Gibson's hauntingly beautiful covers of old songs shows that no matter how many synths and loops a band employs sometimes the best sounds are just a voice and an acoustic guitar.

NPR is streaming Andrew Bird's album Noble Beast. The album comes out late this month but click here to listen to it in its entirety from the NPR music website.