When EAR FARM considered our impending move and relaunch at the end of 2007, we decided to switch from a scrolling blog format to a more magazine-y layout that would allow for us to highlight a “cover star”/Band of the Week each week. In doing so we have featured 43 bands over the course of 2008, ranging from the lo-fi jangly noise pop of Throw Me The Statue to the blistering thrash of Goes Cube. We’ve had relative unknowns (such as The Laughing and Bombadil), interviews with indie-rock legends (see The Wedding Present and Silver Jews), live tracks from today’s top tribute band (The Fab Faux), an exclusive video interview (with Hey Hey My My), and an overall wide-reaching crop of some of the very best bands making music in 2008 (including Deerhunter, The Walkmen, Grizzly Bear, Man Man, Torche, and many many more).

In a little over a week we’ll be unveiling the first of our year-end special features, recapping the Top Ten Bands To Emerge in 2008 and Ten To Watch Out For in 2009. After that we’ll be on to our Top Albums and Concerts of 2008. As a precursor to list season, we’d like to take a look at each and every band that appeared as EAR FARM’s Band of the Week in 2008 (listed from most recent to oldest). Check out a brief summary, MP3, and snippet from each article below - we’ll be back after Thanksgiving to let you know who to look out for in ‘09.

• 

  Band: Deerhunter
  From: Atlanta, GA
  Sound: Left-field pop…smoldering, noisy, uncompromising and ever-evolving
  Similar Artists: Sonic Youth, Liars, My Bloody Valentine, Velvet Underground
  Listen Now: “Nothing Ever Happened”

  So far, Microcastle represents the pinnacle of their ever-evolving sound. The sheer accessibility of songs like “Never Stops” and “Agoraphobia” makes them seem effortless, but then a hundred listens later (when you’re still hooked, because unlike most gleaming pop songs, you will somehow never tire of these) the immaculate precision and harmony with which it all coalesces truly becomes evident. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Jean on Jean
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: lo-fi chamber pop; or, a folk-rock orchestra for the melancholic
  Similar Artists: Judee Sill, Kristin Hersh, The Shangri-Las, Beat Happening, Colin Blunstone
  Listen Now: “Tonight”

  Here are songs made specifically for your bedroom, for your lonely walks at dusk. The melodies and multi-tracked vocal harmonies resonate immediately, whispering by on the wings of familiar ghosts raised by a seance of shared experience. If there’s a more perfectly timed release for 2008, a record that exists as an ideal score to the seasonal transition from autumn into winter, we haven’t heard it yet. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Starfucker
  From: Portland, OR
  Sound: Disarmingly upbeat and catchy electro-pop pummeled home with dual drumsets and layers upon layer of entrancing loops and samples.
  Similar Artists: MGMT, Ratatat, Of Montreal, Air
  Listen Now: “German Love”

  Starfucker is FUN music, plain and simple. It is the belief that a coaxing beat and undeniable groove are the only things in life worth pursuing at that particular moment, a belief that’s provided the band with the sort of endless energy and unflappable enthusiasm usually reserved for cult leaders and speed freaks. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Jenny Dalton
  From: Minneapolis, MN
  Sound: haunting, ethereal, literate, and nostalgic pop rock
  Similar Artists: Kristin Hersh, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Natalie Merchant
  Listen Now: “Married to the Sea”

  Change moves Jenny Dalton through illusive soundscapes that often play out as though they were the piano explorations of memories personified. While melodies and song structures drift from dreamy folk-pop to country to waltz to musical poetry, the atmospheric touches throughout the album enhance the intended melancholia and shine a well-guided light upon the introspective adventure that is Rusalka’s Umbrella. It is a moony and fantastic record. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Women
  From: Alberta, Canada
  Sound: Warm and pulsing lo-fi goodness from a cold basement in Calgary.
  Similar Artists: Clinic, Velvet Underground, Animal Collective, the Zombies
  Listen Now: “Black Rice”

  Brothers Patrick and Matthew Flegel, Michael Wallace and Christopher Reimer are Women. Let me rephrase that: these four young men from Calgary perform in a band called Women, a band that has just released a lo-fi masterpiece that clocks in at under 30 minutes but brims with deceptively tight pop hooks and languid walls of noise. Bookending these seemingly disparate elements are some of the most tastefully understated angular guitar lines you’re likely to hear, punching and counterpunching their way through the clouded static just to make sure you’re paying attention. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Bel Air
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: sparse and melodic, rooted in folk, country, and rock but not fully defined by any one category of American music
  Similar Artists: Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Jenny Lewis, Wilco, The Band
  Listen Now: “Looking Up”

  Bel Air isn’t trying to be all things to all people, they’re just simply being themselves. But given the band’s penchant for drifting from one form of American music into another and back again, they often succeed where others have failed. That is, they hit upon many of the foundations of American music on their debut album Pole to Pole - country, blues, pop, rock, and folk - with disarming ease; and, as a result, are handily inching towards pleasing fans of each of these divergently related genres all at once. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Love As Laughter
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: Raucous, joyous slabs of Americana told through the guileless filter of rock and roll
  Similar Artists: Built to Spill, Superchunk, Modest Mouse, The Replacements, Sam Champion
  Listen Now: “Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz”

  Do you want to know the real secret to surviving the music business? The key to longevity, respectability, and most importantly maintaining some semblance of sanity when you’re a “lifer” within the mad mad world of rock and roll? When your home is the van and your office a different sweaty stage night after night?

  “Mario Cart and books and fitness and conspiracy theories,” Love As Laughter’s Sam Jayne tells EF via email. READ MORE

• 

  Band: The Fab Faux
  From: New York, NY
  Sound: everything from Please Please Me (and before) to Let It Be (and after); literally EVERYTHING
  Similar Artists: The Bootleg Beatles, AC/DShe, Mini Kiss, Lez Zeppelin, The Machine, Dark Star Orchestra
  Listen Now: “Strawberry Fields Forever” (live at Radio City Music Hall)

  The Fab Faux are, without a doubt, the most well realized and musically satisfying Beatles tribute band that’s ever been. Anchored by two celebrity musicians, Will Lee (from “The Late Show with David Letterman”) and Jimmy Vivino (from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”), as well as a trio of industry veterans (Rich Pagano, Frank Agnello, and Jack Petruzzelli), The Fab Faux specialize in doing what The Beatles themselves never did. This is the band to see if you want to know what it might have been like if The Beatles toured behind their later albums. Imagine hearing undeniably complex material like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Within You Without You”, and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, performed in complete part-perfect renditions; or such harmony-driven songs as “Because”, “Nowhere Man”, and “Paperback Writer”, reproduced not only note-for-note, but with extra vocalists available to achieve a double-tracked effect. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Sister Suvi
  From: “Montoronto,” Canada
  Sound: Plucked, strummed and assaulted strings, Medieval vocal rounds stamped with barbershop harmonies and the sludge of 70s glam howls, all cauterized into beautifully meandering sonic roadmaps.
  Similar Artists: Oneida, Deerhoof, Bombadil, Pixies, Can
  Listen Now: “Lightning Train”

  Sister Suvi is Patrick Gregoire (vocals, guitar, bass), Merrill Garbus (ukulele, vocals, bass), and Nico Dann (vocals, drums). Gregoire and Garbus met while working at a summer camp in New Jersey and started writing songs together along with their Finnish friend Suvi. They initially called themselves The LMNOP’s (as in consecutive letters of the alphabet).

  “We had a song in which the chorus was just listing the vowels,” Gregoire explains. “I guess we had some sort of letter fixation.” READ MORE

• 

  Band: Sam Champion
  From: New York, NY
  Sound: A perfect bullseye of classic rock songwriting, muscular riffs and unbridled energy.
  Similar Artists: Tom Petty, The Replacements, Pavement, Built To Spill, The Kinks
  Listen Now: “Be Mine Everyone”

  Noah: It was kind of like, I don’t know where it came from. “You don’t bring the butter” is kind of like “You don’t bring the milk home,” or “You don’t bring home the bacon.” I always thought there was some sort of saying involving milk but I guess I messed it up. I don’t know, but I remember wanting to structure it like that Raconteurs song “Steady As She Goes” how it goes right into the chorus, I really like that idea. It’s just fun. I wouldn’t know what else to sing otherwise. READ MORE

• 

  Band: The Laughing
  From: Austin, TX
  Sound: dirty jungle smut; or, dubbed-out dance-psych-rock
  Similar Artists: Yeasayer, Wolf Parade, Talking Heads, Liars, Tapes ‘n Tapes, TV On The Radio
  Listen Now: “Canopy”

  Suddenly, here I was confronted with a band who captures the smiling mope of Robert Smith, mixes it with heavy doses of primal thunder, and then turns late-career Talking Heads jungle love inside-out. In fifteen short minutes I’d been thumped in the face by pop songs that got down, and weirded out, while also managing to preserve and cultivate melodies and hooks that were sure to last a little longer. I kept going back for more. The ‘repeat all’ button was even employed (rare). READ MORE

• 

  Band: The Walkmen
  From: New York, NY
  Sound: The brash, reckless, romantic soundtrack to a late night in reverb city, starring impossibly dramatic guitar swells, hazy cathedral organs, and cathartic croons
  Similar Artists: The French Kicks, Spoon, Calla, White Rabbits, U2
  Listen Now: “In The New Year”

  But in 2008, they’ve truly outdone themselves. You & Me is nothing short of a masterpiece; a sprawling meditation on the broad spectrum of sounds and emotions that have defined the canon of rock and roll, this record finally captures the band’s live intensity and refracts it through 14 of the most perfectly focused and immediately rewarding rock songs you’re likely to hear this year. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Grizzly Bear
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: haunting neo-psychedelic indie folk-rock constructed with heavy doses of Spector-esque vocals and a love for stretching the boundaries of sound
  Similar Artists: The Beach Boys, The High Llamas, Panda Bear, Mercury Rev, Pink Floyd
  Listen Now: “Two Weeks” (live on the Late Show with David Letterman)

  Based solely upon an evaluation of their ability as performers, this much is clear: Grizzly Bear possesses the power to grab hold of a group of people altogether, and at the same time one-by-by, seemingly by striking at the very essence of the audience’s collective musical conscience and lifting them up to a place most often visited in the great oratorios of Handel and Haydn. A realm that’s long been the domain of aural representations of the divine here on Earth. Not that Ed, Chris, Daniel, and Christopher are holy men leading a church choir; but truly, Grizzly Bear is a band edging closer and closer to total mastery of their own sound, blistering the air with vocal harmonies so well formed you’d think them unlikely to appear at all, let alone be so perfectly recreated in a live setting. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Extra Golden
  From: USA and Nairobi
  Sound: A blissful marriage of traditional rock and Benga with shades of Afropop, shuffling guitars, and stuttering rhythms
  Similar Artists: Konono No. 1, Kapere Jazz Band, Fela Kuti, Orchestra Extra Solar Africa
  Listen Now: “Obama”

  When asked if he thought Obama was aware of Extra Golden’s praise song for him, Eagleson deadpanned, “I’m sure he is, but I’m sure he has other things on his mind,” before then taking another moment to think it over and adding, “I mean, that would be cool. We’re available for rallies.” READ MORE

• 

  Band: Takka Takka
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: laid back layers of guitars upon percussion upon vocals upon percussion that ranges from bar band rock to tribal and new wave influences to folk and then back again
  Similar Artists: Orange Juice, Talking Heads, The National, Peter Gabriel, Yeasayer
  Listen Now: “Silence”

  It’s as if the album isn’t a final destination, but rather a stop along the way as the band continues its journey towards the next version of itself. In this sense, the titling of the album is obvious: at one moment they’re dipping their feet into the watery sounds of Africa, at another they’ve traveled due east and arrived at Qawwali vocal sounds and Asian textures. Migration. Don’t be frightened, Migration is still very much rooted in an overall Western sound and a definitively rock and roll percussive approach that delivers on multiple levels. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Torche
  From: Miami, FL
  Sound: Blistering metal that borders on entirely accessible: more smashing than the Pumpkins with tighter-than-Foo melodies
  Similar Artists: Melvins, Queens of the Stone Age, Baroness, Jesu, Saviors
  Listen Now: “Healer”

  That fucking lying redcoat limey bitch. “Doors at 7, Clouds at 8, Torche at 9, Boris at 10,” she said, all nice and pretty and English-accented. Might as well have been reading from A Million Little Pieces, the amount of truth there was in the bullshit she fed me. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Albert Hammond, Jr.
  From: New York, NY
  Sound: Guitar-driven, melodic rock with laid-back tinges of reggae and glassy-eyed soul softening the edges
  Similar Artists: Sean Lennon, Spoon, T. Rex, Ambulance LTD and uhh, The Strokes
  Listen Now: “GfC”

  That Hammond chose to start the evening’s festivities crooning alone and offstage seems a natural and fitting choice given his activities over the past few years. While the rest of The Strokes welcomed the downtime that followed their last record, 2006’s First Impressions of Earth, Hammond seized the opportunity to record a set of songs that would eventually become his first solo album, Yours To Keep. Still unwilling to take a break, he headed back into the studio after a lengthy tour and recorded ¿Cómo Te Llama? (out July 8th), this time choosing to produce the album as well. Alone and offstage, a reflection of his rekindled passions for both performing and producing, Hammond chatted with EAR FARM the morning after taking over Mercury Lounge about why it feels like he’s 18 all over again…. READ MORE

• 

  Band: The Wedding Present
  From: Leeds, England
  Sound: angst-ridden guitar rock that ranges from jangly to thunderous; witty lyrics to boot
  Similar Artists: Superchunk, The Fall, Buzzcocks, Pixies, Teenage Fanclub
  Listen Now: “The Thing I Like Best About Him is His Girlfriend” (Jet Age Remix)

  After an eight year hiatus, David Gedge revived The Wedding Present with the 2005 release of Take Fountain, an album that found the band moving away from the more lush and orchestrated sounds of Cinerama and back towards the six string attack they’d made their trademark time and again. Three years later, Gedge and crew headed back into the studio with Steve Albini to record El Rey, and the resulting album is as powerful, witty, lovelorn, catchy, loud, and dynamic as anything the band has produced. You’d be hard pressed to find a better matched combination of songwriting and production anywhere else in 2008.

  EAR FARM was very fortunate to be able to catch up with David on the phone to talk about the new LP, his love of cover songs, working with Steve Albini once again, and his potential future career penning songs for American Idol winners… READ MORE

• 

  Band: Silver Jews
  From: Nashville, TN
  Sound: Profoundly literate, wry sketches and tales delivered with laid-back swagger and bittersweet grace
  Similar Artists: Sebadoh, Will Oldham, Stephen Malkmus, Beck
  Listen Now: “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat”

  How does Berman continue to do this? It’s in his ability to turn a familiar phrase on its head and appear exotic as much as in his gift to make a strange and foreign situation intimate and knowable. It’s also the conviction that every character and setting ever given life in a Silver Jews song seems to exist beyond the three-and-a-half minute world in which it was created. And it’s the unshakable impulse to go back and change your high school yearbook quote to any of the thousands of Berman’s lyrical gems that express a direct truth you never knew existed. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Ratatat (or RATATAT depending on who you ask)
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: Imagine majestic melodic 8-bit video game soundtracks played in perfect intervals by Eddie Van Halen and the ghost of Duane Allman
  Similar Artists: Daft Punk, Walter Meego, Hot Chip, Trans Am, Laromlab
  Listen Now: “Mirando”

  The beauty of all this is that Ratatat appears to have further tweaked a winning formula while maintaining what has been so immediately identifiable and transcendent about their music: Stroud’s guitar. That trademark wail, channeled and manipulated through god-knows-how-many analog and digital middle men, still commands the spotlight throughout much of the album. That’s very much a good thing. READ MORE

• Band: Steinski
  From: New York, NY
  Sound: the O.G. of sample-based hip-hop sound collages
  Similar Artists: DJ Shadow, Girl Talk, Cut Chemist, Liam Howlett, RJD2
  Listen Now: “The Payoff Mix”

  The history of hip-hop has been built upon the shoulders of itself time and again. It got its start as a unique genre at house parties and clubs in New York city with MCs rapping over beats provided by DJs who were looping breaks in dance, soul, rock, and funk records. It got its start as an art form a few years later when Steinski “took hip-hop’s tradition of reformatting existing material and made it a postmodern funhouse.” Postmodern funhouse! Jam on it. READ MORE

• 

  Band: These United States
  From: Washington, D.C.
  Sound: Delicately dense portraits and hyper-literate lullabies to the American soul and spirit
  Similar Artists: M. Ward, Andrew Bird, Iron & Wine, Bon Iver
  Listen Now: “First Sight”

  These United States appears to be a pack of musical gypsies, a life-affirming ethos of goodwill and tall tales, proof of Johnny Appleseed’s enduring legacy in 21st century America (don’t worry, more on this later), and an all around kick ass band. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Kelley Polar
  From: Sullivan, New Hampshire
  Sound: Body-movin’ zero gravity pop filtered through the ’80s… the 2080s
  Similar Artists: Isolée, Human League, Thomas Dolby, Daft Punk, Junior Boys
  Listen Now: “Entropy Reigns (In The Celestial City)” (live on “Fair Game”)

  Imagine music that delivers on the promise of both ’70s krautrock and ’80s synth-pop at once while managing to highlight the warmth of the human voice in a manner that’s as comforting as it is danceable. Music that feels at home alongside The Human League and New Order that isn’t strictly derivative of such New Wave landmarks in a way that a band like Cut Copy is - music that’s not blown out Zoo TV-style like Daft Punk but still enlivens in a similar manner - and, frankly, music that delivers a jolt of originality and fresh life into a genre (dance) that’s most often about predictability, re-hashed ideas, and conformity. As proven on 2005’s Love Songs Of The Hanging Gardens, and again on this year’s standout album I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling, the music of Kelley Polar is an expanding universe unto itself in which one “could spend a thousand years just drifting through the atmosphere.” Welcome. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Plants and Animals
  From: Montreal, Quebec
  Sound: Lush, 70s AM rock gets sprawling, epic treatment with incredible results
  Similar Artists: Buffalo Springfield, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, Loose Fur
  Listen Now: “Feedback In The Field”

  The album cover is also as good a place as any to delve into discussing a band that has as much to offer as Plants and Animals. Without getting too preachy about the necessity of listening to certain albums start to finish - or too curmudgeonly by wishing for the bygone era of sitting down with a tangible piece of art in your hands (ie vinyl) - let’s just say that Parc Avenue makes a strong argument for the simple joys found in fully losing oneself within the nooks, crannies, and broader landscapes of an entire album. READ MORE

• Band: All the Saints
  From: Atlanta, GA
  Sound: Soaring, crashing - all the while buzzing - reverb-drenched rock
  Similar Artists: The Stone Roses, Alice In Chains, Black Sabbath, Dead Confederate
  Listen Now: “Sheffield”

  “Suffice it to say any Atlanta band you find will have more grit than most,” All the Saints’ Titus told EF back in March. “Honesty too. And this eerie basement trend, where everyone practices and hibernates. Marinating in the dirty-dirty if you will.” READ MORE

• 

  Band: I’m From Barcelona
  From: Jönköping, Sweden
  Sound: Uplifting, joyous bedroom pop to the 29th power
  Similar Artists: Polyphonic Spree, Beulah, Bodies of Water, Architecture in Helsinki
  Watch: “Paper Planes”

  Seeing is believing. Led by charismatic frontman Emanuel Lundgren, the 29-member ensemble have made considerable strides since “accidentally” forming a few years ago. As the now-famous origin story goes, Lundgren decided to record some songs in his apartment over a month-long vacation from work. To flesh out the tracks, he invited his friends to come over and record various vocals, hand claps, and whatever spare instruments happened to be lying around.

  To truly experience the band though, you MUST see them live. It’s as though a stadium-sized show somehow got crammed into a much smaller space, causing a technicolor explosion of goodwill, balloons, smiles, and frantic sing-alongs (and broken lights) in the process. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Bombadil
  From: Durham/Chapel Hill, NC
  Sound: You got intricately arranged indie-pop in my playfully literate lyrics! You got playfully literate lyrics in my intricately arranged indie-pop!
  Similar Artists: Danielson, Vampire Weekend, Ben Folds, Sufjan Stevens, Jonathan Richman
  Listen Now: “Julian of Norwich”

  A splash of yellow to capture the group’s upbeat and exquisite harmonies, scribbled over with a burnt sienna to show the depth and muscularity (read: the absence of fey or twee-ness) within these harmonies. A midnight blue to suggest the depth and emotive range behind such clever passages as “sing all alone, singing’s just talking in tones, rhymestones, and get off your cellphones because they’re tracking you home, skin and bones all alone” (from “Smile When You Kiss”); perhaps a brown and green combo for the earthy acoustic guitars and plaintive vocals that anchor the entire song cycle? True, the end result would certainly resemble the child-scribble fridge-art most likely found in this woman’s home, but Bombadil make all these elements work with a fluid grace, in the process sculpting 11 pitch-perfect pop songs that sound even better as a cohesive whole. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Tapes ‘n Tapes
  From: Minneapolis, MN
  Sound: Jittery, fuzzy, intoxicating rock anthems for those who don’t necessarily like “rock anthems”
  Similar Artists: Wolf Parade, Modest Mouse, Pixies, Wire
  Listen Now: “Hang Them All”

  We’ve had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time with Tapes over the last month: eating BBQ and kicking it down in Austin, celebrating the album release last week, and even catching the Conan performance from the studio audience. Throughout all the fun and games, we talked constantly and informally about everything and anything related to music. Of course, when I sat down to begin working on this piece, I realized that none of it was “on the record” so I did what any hard-hitting muckraker would do…woke Josh up with a phone call the morning after the first show of their tour while they headed towards Chicago. Check out our Q&A… READ MORE

• 

  Band: White Hinterland
  From: Jamaica Plain, MA
  Sound: Summer and winter combined as one: light and dark, complex yet playful… dense and lyrical and jazzy with classical undertones.
  Similar Artists: Joni Mitchell, Lavender Diamond, Rufus Wainwright, Vincent Guaraldi, Sufjan Stevens
  Listen Now: “Dreaming of the Plum Trees”

  Unlike her first album, White Hinterland’s Phylactery Factory does not offer immediate comfort. Instead it eats away at you like a great novel might. Listen once and you’ll be intrigued, but you’ll perhaps miss a lot of the nuance. Listen again and again and the record will climb inside your mind and stay there, perhaps until list season, perhaps forever… Frankly, it’s an astonishing record that truly rewards repeat listens; and, to say that it’s been playing a lot in the EAR FARM headquarters lately would be a bit of an understatement. “Can’t stop listening!” would be much more accurate. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Man Man
  From: Philadelphia, PA
  Sound: Ramshackle pop songs and throaty sing-alongs coaxed from everything including the kitchen sink
  Similar Artists: Captain Beefheart, Gogol Bordello, Ween, Sunset Rubdown
  Listen Now: “Top Drawer”

  EF was lucky enough to catch up with the man with the 10 lb. moustache himself, Honus Honus, while the rest of the Man Men - Sergei Sogay, Pow Pow, Critter Cat, and Chang Wang - were off relaxing and gearing up for the tour. What follows is a mostly unabridged conversation about hate mail, the new album, the regenerative power of moustaches, and how the songwriting process is like killing zombies… READ MORE

• Band: We Barbarians
  From: Long Beach, CA
  Sound: sinewy blasts of reverb-soaked melancholic anthems, impassioned vocals and taut, fuzzed-out bass
  Similar Artists: The Constantines, The Walkmen, U2, Calla
  Listen Now: “Yesmen and Bumsuckers”

  “The evolution of We Barbarians has been very accelerated,” Warkentin said. “We began writing songs in August, played our first string of shows with our friends Delta Spirit in September, recorded our EP in October, and toured with Cold War Kids in November and December. Since then we have done two residencies, in L.A. and Orange County, and now this Tokyo Police Club tour. It has all been quite a blur…But a good blur.” READ MORE

• 

  Band: The Dodos
  From: San Francisco, CA
  Sound: Percussion spliced from thunder and rattlesnakes synced with gritty but nimble acoustic guitar and desperate, soaring vocals
  Similar Artists: Animal Collective, Elliot Smith, Caribou, Islands, Magnetic Fields
  Listen Now: “Fools”

  The Dodos are a San-Francisco based collaboration between Meric Long (guitar, vocals) and Logan Kroeber (percussion). Individually, they bring masterful levels of technical proficiency to the music, Long effortlessly unspooling intricately fluid finger-picked acoustic guitar lines and Kroeber - a former metal drummer - approximating the shifting dynamics of a thunderstorm with each rim shot and tribal floor drum run. And yet, it’s when these elements come together in service of the larger song that interesting things start happening. READ MORE

• Band: Hey Hey My My
  From: Paris, France
  Sound: Playfully quirky and melodic, smart acoustic rock
  Similar Artists: The Shins, Badly Drawn Boy, Rogue Wave, the Dodos

  Julien is soft-spoken, while Julien tells jokes. Julien has a bookish charm that’s part punk and part Apostrophes, while Julien - all bedhead and toothy smile - has the scruffy laid-back cool of a late-for-schooler. And although they seem to get along like childhood friends, Julien and Julien couldn’t be more different. For one, Julien plays guitar in the French band Hey Hey My My, while Julien…well, also plays guitar in the French sensation Hey Hey My My. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Amy LaVere
  From: Memphis, TN
  Sound: country and jazz-tinged ballads touched with breathy vocals to help the weighty subject matter go down nice and smooth
  Similar Artists: Jenny Lewis, Katharine Whalen, Norah Jones, Dolly Parton
  Watch: “Killing Him”

  Far from slowing down, LaVere has added even more footnotes to her ever-evolving autobiography, honing her chops as a burgeoning actress in such films as Walk the Line and Black Snake Moan while also working with Memphis legend Jim Dickinson - whose production credits include Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder and Aretha Franklin - on her excellent 2007 album Anchors & Anvils. Curious about the extent to which all these varied experiences helped shape the album (as well as her broader musical perspective), EAR FARM grilled LaVere via email just hours before she headed back out on the road with touring band members Steve Selvidge (guitar) and Paul Taylor (drums). Check out our exclusive Q&A after the jump. READ MORE

• 

  Band: Beach House
  From: Baltimore, MD
  Sound: dreamy, shimmery ballads; think melancholy but hold the depression
  Similar Artists: Mazzy Star, Cat Power, Galaxie 500, Nico
  Listen Now: “Heart of Chambers”

  Let’s begin with a simple plea: go get Beach House’s new album Devotion right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you. Wait, where are you going? You don’t have to leave the comfort of your computer/cubicle/sofa, just click above on the album title or troll the digital store of your preference.

  Okay, time to regroup; everyone back here and all ready to go? Good. Hit play on track one and let’s do this… READ MORE

• 

  Band: Computer Perfection
  From: near Detroit, MI
  Sound: jangly indie pop with sunwashed synthesizers
  Similar Artists: Bishop Allen, Evangelicals, Michael Andrews, Broadcast
  Listen Now: “Able Archer”

  Thank goodness for these occasions that find Amy, Gene, Little Tommy Daniels, and Nathaniel F.H. Burgundy IV together making music as Computer Perfection. They’ve so far produced a quartet of songs that have been spinning ’round the clock at EAR FARM central for a couple of weeks now, including two songs that just about everyone reading this is certain to adore. Oh you’ll like these songs alright, “I’ll stake my Pulizter on it.” (don’t get confused, this one is from another movie altogether - anyway, stop staring at my movie quote and let’s get to the music!) READ MORE

• 

  Band: Goes Cube
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: heavy ’80s & ’90s hardcore/metal influences, ’00s sound
  Similar Artists: Helmet, Slint, Melvins, Fugazi, Isis
  Listen Now: “Goes Cube Song 57”

  Goes Cube… say it with me now… is one of EAR FARM’s top, most favorite, best loved, bands in the WORLD. “Yeah yeah, we know we know,” I can hear you now mocking me like those chipmunky vocals in “Jam On It”. But, well, it’s true. And I have to keep reminding everyone because not enough people are believing me! Come on world, there’s no time like the present to wake up and smell the Cube (ew), right? Metal is cool again, the ’90s are back, and the time couldn’t be any more perfect for you to suddenly discover your inner loud-music-oholic and dive headfirst into one of Brooklyn’s top unsigned bands. Here’s your wicked simple cheat sheet: Helmet + Slint + Melvins + Fugazi + Isis = Goes Cube. If that combination doesn’t whet your appetite then you’ve got some serious research to do once you realize how much you love this band. READ MORE

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  Band: Magic Arm
  From: Manchester, UK
  Sound: folk, electronica, pop
  Similar Artists: Badly Drawn Boy, Belle & Sebastian, Iron & Wine
  Watch: “Getting the Way”

  Who IS Magic Arm would probably be more accurate. The alias of Manchester-based Marc Rigelsford, Magic Arm creates music that is alternately playful and somber, organic and electronic, dressed-down and intricately layered, but always in service of a well-constructed pop gem… READ MORE

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  Band: Drink Up Buttercup
  From: Philadelphia, PA
  Sound: like a psychedelic carnival ride
  Similar Artists: Syd Barrett, Man Man, Bombadil
  Listen Now: “Gods And Gentlemen” (Demo)

  Not that surprising then that Harvey lists Mothers of Invention, early Pink Floyd, David Bowie, his own training with classical singing, and even talk radio as personal influences that have shaped the band’s sound. Check out the two demos below to hear these forces at play, as “Gods and Gentlemen” approximates “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” being simultaneously covered by a 60s garage band and a boys choir while “Seasickness Pills” is pure Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart melodic weirdness. READ MORE

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  Band: The Big Sleep
  From: Brooklyn, NY
  Sound: psychedelic, noise pop, experimental
  Similar Artists: Sonic Youth, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine
  Listen Now: “Bad Blood”

  Abundant praise and early comparisons to Sonic Youth and My Bloody Vanlentine did a bit of a disservice to The Big Sleep. Yet somehow they’ve remained focused, drawing on what makes them unique and amplifying their strengths with great success. Here’s to hoping that the premature hype the first time around won’t make you hesitate to check out the band when the timing is right, because the time to let this band (back) into your life is now. With a live show/record release here in New York scheduled for February and countless dates across the US sure to follow, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of The Big Sleep. No shit, there’s proof below. READ MORE

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  Band: Pete and the Pirates
  From: Reading, England
  Sound: ’80’s post-punk, new wave
  Similar Artists: Franz Ferdinand, Art Brut, The Buzzcocks
  Watch: “Knots”

  The band will release their debut full-length album Little Death on February 18th in the UK on Stolen Records (also the home of Band of the Week alums Screaming Tea Party). A collection of 13 taut blasts of spirited guitar pop, Little Death mines the familiar territory of love and relationships from a disarmingly simplified perspective. Make no mistake, these pirates are romantics through and through. And though their vocal harmonies and brash energy may recall the Futureheads and Franz Ferdinand respectively, they manage to expertly ration such overtly poppy 4-on-the-floor moments and dole them out at precisely the ideal moments. As a result, Little Death stands up to multiple listens - I should know, I’ve listened to it at least two dozen times over the last four weeks - in a way that albums by their immediate predecessors never could. READ MORE

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  Band: Dead Confederate
  From: Augusta, GA
  Sound: moody, epic, and loud Southern rock
  Similar Artists: All the Saints, Kings of Leon, Neil Young
  Listen Now: “The Rat”

  Dead Confederate favors depth, darkness, romance, and emotion in the songs they create, and in at least one moment of all of their songs is the power to slay the listener with greatness. Each track evolves and builds upon itself, nearly imploding, before exploding in rhythmic waves of music as equally informed by post-punk as it is grunge; combining shoegaze, noise-rock, and good old-fashioned rock and roll into a mixture that draws you deeper into their world the more you listen. Further and further under their control you’ll fall, until suddenly, it’s too late. You’ll be a ghost* before you know it. READ MORE

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  Band: Throw Me The Statue
  From: Seattle, WA
  Sound: lo-fi, jangly noise pop
  Similar Artists: Grandaddy, Panda Bear, The Microphones, Beulah
  Listen Now: “Lolita”

  Guided By Voices seems to be the go-to comparison here and yet “mid-nineties commercial pop-rock” is the enduring phrase that won’t leave my head, as I can’t shake making parallels to outstanding debut albums by the Rentals and even more specifically Self (perhaps the whole aspect of one guy making a big-sounding album in his bedroom has something to do with it) some 12 years ago. Heck, I’ll even throw in the Presidents of the United States of America as grist for the comment mill. And remember, these are all very good things, albums that have withstood time through infectious melodies and solid songwriting. READ MORE

There you have it: 43 EAR FARM Bands of the Week in 2008. If you’ve made it this far, you’re our hero. Watch out for another crop of outstanding bands in 2009 and a whole lotta lists in December. Happy holidays!