I think it's safe to say, judging from the attention and involvement TNV has from Pitchfork that they''ve got a good chance to land on their year end list.

Last year they did 50 albums.

Speculation passes the time.

#4

10 bucks says #4.

39: Times New Viking
Rip It Off
[Matador]






Times New Viking make noise-pop but Rip It Off never forgets the "pop" side of the equation. It has some of the group's sweetest songs ("Drop-Out", "Another Day") next to some of its biggest riffs ("Teen Drama", "Relevant: Now") and most indelible choruses ("My Head", "The Wait"). The unconverted may regard the record's caustic EQ levels as a challenge, but plenty of others can hear where they're cribbing from and the love with which they soil the source material. In the end, Rip It Off isn't as hard to enjoy as some (this writer included) have made it out to be: "Faces on Fire" should have been the soundtrack to more people's summers, and if you hear Beth Murphy singing "let's do something that hasn't been done yet," and read it cynically, that may not be the band's fault. --Jason Crock

LOLZ

zero votes for where it actually landed.

Of course I'm biased. I also thought Rip It Off was a lock for the Top 10. But I'm beginning to think the "list" has a lot to do with blow jobs. And obvioiusly Sub Pop give great ones. That said, I do love the Fleet Foxes record and it's a nice safety-net pick for the top spot. I thought it would be Deerhunter, and they were close.

Still, there are some extremely mediocre records (matter of opinion) in the top 25 (and ones that scored lower than TNV and weren't Best New Music) so someone is lining the pockets of Pitchfork for higher placement.

Conspiracy theory? No Age at #3? Kayne so high? Santogold is OK, but that record is weak in retrospect, tons of filler? A more awful than normal Hold Steady record? the Walkmen's lame comeback? Really, who listens to the Mae Shi? Am I to old to enjoy Fucked Up? That's a whole lot of question marks.

No Age so high is absolutely ridiculous, as is the fact that anybody would rank that band ahead of TNV in any capacity. Sub Pop BJs indeed.

I think what's ridiculous is anybody that puts any weight into "Best of" lists. "Favorites" lists are a lot different in my book which is why you'll see the "Atomic Ned FAVORITES of 2008" as opposed to the "Best of 2008" early next week . Everybody's tastes are different - why would you take the time to argue about the placement of a band on a "Best of" list?

I have yet to find any (I think) CDs that I liked in 2008 on ANY lists.

or, like jawbreaker reminds us, our entire civilization is built on bj's.

"People are ambivalently amped-up on celebrities. They wildly worship them. They aim their adolescent adoration at them and get bupkis back. It's depressingly dissassociative. It's idiotic idolatry. Fan magazines fan the flames of fatuous fancy and reinforce the fact that your favorite stars will never fuck you. Scandal rags rip that reinforcement and deleriously deconstruct and deidolize the idols who ignore you. It's revisionistic revenge. It reduces your unrequited lovers to your own level of erratic eroticism. It rips the rich and regal and guns them into the gutter beside you. It fractiously frees you to love them as one of your own."
-- James Ellroy