Maybe if I still had a shift at my old college radio station, whereby I could potentially be exposed to dozens of new bands that I wouldn't hear of otherwise, I'd be more enthusiastic. Technically, it may not even qualify given it's late December 2007 release, but chances are the tangible version of Modern Love, The Wooden Vehicle didn't make it into the hands of many people before '08.

There were many good to very good albums on my list, but the only one that I can honestly deem as exceptional was a three song ep, that comes courtesy of an unsigned Portland, OR band, The Lives of Famous Men (who amazingly have a mere eight songs in their entire recorded repertoire).

Assembling a top-20 list for '08 was agonizing. I know, I'm so September 10th, but dammit, I'm going to go out on a limb and pronounce that 2008 was the single most disappointing year for music, at least in my lifetime.and I can only hope that it will stay that way. However it's getting pretty tough these days to find quality new bands, or the continuing progress of established acts of merit, which is perhaps subconsciously why I've dedicated Wilfully Obscure to (mostly) pre-2000 recordings. First off, congratulations for making it to 2009 everyone! For many if not most of you who peruse Wilfully Obscure, you're probably aware that this is blog is shall we say 'retroactive' or even 'retrofitted.' That's right, the 21st century may as well have fallen victim to the Y2K 'bug' in this corner of cyberspace, BUT that hardly means I'm ignoring the here and now.

Wipers youth of america rar