Back to back nights – The Walkmen and White Rabbits. While I love the intimacy and sound quality of Schubas, I will say Lincoln Hall is a better place to snap photos. At Schubas you can get close, but you can’t really get a whole lot else. That being said Lincoln Hall still seems to be working out some sound issues. From the floor there was a general agreement between Dan, Matt, Aaron and me that the sound was off. It didn’t help that The Walkmen were a bit more sauced than the previous night (or at least appeared so).

As with the night before, White Rabbits opened the show and again the people I was with thought they (White Rabbits) put on a better performance. I would argue against such sentiment. Both nights The Walkmen busted out a slew of new and unreleased tunes while White Rabbits played almost exclusively from their two existing albums. Not that they weren’t playing great – I just have a soft spot for The Walkmen even on a bad night.

The Walkmen returned to Schubas for a Wednesday night show before moving over to Lincoln Hall for a two night run on Thursday and Friday. While this show could have played out as a low key warm up for the following two shows, it didn’t. Hamilton came out with more of his trademark howl then I’d ever seen, perhaps even too much. Used selectively it really helps to emphasize and empower certain material or lyrics but when overused it quickly fades into hairband wailing.

That being said, it was another great outing from the Walkmen. They played at least four new songs that will hopefully show up on their forthcoming (and untitled) album which is slated for release in the Spring of 2010.

As Jim Anchower often begins: Hola, amigos. It’s been a while. The bitter cold has left me disinterested in writing but seeing as it’s near the end of 2008 I thought I’d compile my top ten albums of 2008. After much deliberation and hand-wringing, here they are:

1. The Walkmen: You and Me

Ever since first hearing The Walkmen perform “The Blue Route” at Schubas way back in January I’ve been waiting for this album to arrive.  Needless to say it lived up to my expectations and would have to be my favorite of theirs to date.  I’ve seen these guys play a number of times and highly recommend checking them out.

Top Tracks:

The Blue Route, In The New Year, New Country & I Lost You

2. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

The next few are really hard to put in a specific order.  For Emma has some stunning vocal phrasing and beautiful layering in it. Justin Vernon’s voice pleasantly reminds me of Chad VanGaalen minus some of the quirkiness or a Sam Beam with noticeably more range. Also, I always gotta give props to an album cut in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

Top Tracks:

Re: Stacks, Flume, For Emma, Lump Sum… damn, just about everything on it.

3. Vetiver: Thing of the Past

Andy Cabic and Vetiver really pulled out some hidden gems from a number of artists I’d never heard of.  Not to mention a few songs from some of my faves like Loudon Wainwright and Ronnie Lane.  Should be noted that Vetiver also released a short EP follow-up titled More of the Past that’s only 5 songs but definitely worth checking out as well.

Top Tracks:

Roll on Babe, Swimming Song, Houses, To Baby

4. Pete and Pirates: Little Death

This is my “Say Who?” choice for 2008.  Pete and Pirates are an English band based in Reading and this was their first full-length release.  The lead singer also has another band called Tap Tap which released a noteworthy album in 2006.

Top Tracks:

Ill Love, Come on Feet, Knots, Bears

5. David Byrne and Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Always great to get new material from David Byrne… his first album since 2004.

Top Tracks:

My Big Nurse, Strange Overtones, One Fine Day

6. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

A slight bit over-hyped but damn good all the same. Seeing as lead singer Robin Pecknold was only 21 when this was released we’ll have plenty of time to see if they live up to the hype.

Top Tracks:

White Winter Hymnal, Quiet Houses, Oliver James

7. Beach House: Devotion

I might be alone on this one but LOVE Beach House’s sound.

Top Tracks:

Wedding Bell, D.A.R.L.I.N.G., Home Again

8. Jason Collett: Here’s to Being Here

This could go higher… another solid effort from a member of the Broken Social Scene fam.

Top Tracks:

No Redemption Song, Nothing to Lose, Roll on Oblivion

9. Frightened Rabbit: Midnight Organ Fight

No sophmore slump for Frightened Rabbit. A solid step up in song craft.

Top Tracks:

Old Old Fashioned, The Twise, Poke

10. She & Him: Volume One

Nice pairing of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel.

Top Tracks:

This Is Not a Test, Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?, Sentimental Heart

The Walkmen played a sold out show at Schuba’s on Sunday night and you better believe I had gotten my tickets way in advance. From what I heard the show sold out 2 months back, which shouldn’t be all that surprising since they packed The Metro (which I would estimate at 3 times the size of Schuba’s) not all that long ago.

The show sold out so quickly in fact that Schuba’s decided to schedule a 7pm and 10pm show, which sounded like a noble gesture until I found out that the opening act I was hoping to see (Ferraby Lionheart) would only be playing the 7pm show and that The Broken West would open the 10pm show. I knew nothing about The Broken West and I gather for good reason since their material was about as interesting and original as that of a band you might find playing a sports bar Sioux Falls, SD. With that I will move on to The Walkmen performance.

I’m guessing Hamilton Leithauser (lead singer) likes to hit the sauce before he takes the stage – which is all well and good when you play one show but when you take a 3 hour break and return for a second performance well… let’s just say he seemed pretty wooden. He made a few introductions between songs but I’ll be damned if I could understand one word coming out of his mouth. Fortunately, once a song began everything seemed to fall into place… minus perhaps a few guitar miscues on ‘Another One Goes By’.

The most pleasant (and surprising) element of the show was the number of new songs they rolled out. I was caught off guard because they’ve released two albums in the last year and have plenty of stuff to work with. Not only was the new stuff solid, but they also had two guys on horns who played on almost all the new material. If you’re a fan of ‘Louisana’ then you’ll most likely dig their new direction. I admire them for their willingness to venture into new territory. Some of the more memorable standards included ‘The Rat’, ‘Louisana’, ‘We’ve Been Had’, and the aforementioned ‘Another One Goes By’.