I really wanted to see Blitzen Trapper at Chop Suey on Friday night, but instead I sucked it up and went to…Dylan’s first piano recital ever! (This was an actual recital, not a lo-fi sadcore band called Dylan’s First Piano Recital Ever. Though that would be a pretty great band name.) Who needs the folky throwback pop of Portland’s beloved Blitzen Trapper when I could hear my son playing halting, one-finger renditions of “Jingle Bells” and eight bars of “Ode to Joy”? At least at Dylan’s recital the “band” was on stage by 7, off by 7:30, and then there were cookies. Let’s face it: I’m 34 and it was the more age-appropriate evening.

My top ten records of the year, since it’s the season of this sort of blog filler. Obviously I’m not some kind of musical omnivore who listened to hundreds of worthy 2008 releases in order to pick out the rock-snob cream of the crop. But, of the music I did happen to listen to, these were my favorites, ordered by awesomeness descending:

10. The Devil, You + Me, the Notwist
9. Yes Boss, Graham Smith & KGW
8. Re-Arrange Us, Mates of States
7. Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket
6. We Started Nothing, the Ting Tings
5. Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground
4. Lust Lust Lust, the Raveonettes
3. Furr, Blitzen Trapper
2. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
1. Microcastle, Deerhunter

A couple of those were only available by download in 2007 (also a brief vinyl release in Kay Kay’s case). For the record, the Notwist would have been higher if they had used the Oxford comma in their album title (or made a record as good as 2003’s Neon Golden, either one). Honorable mention to Sloan, Fleet Foxes, Mountain Goats, Beck, Bonny “Prince” Billy, Death Cab for Cutie, R.E.M., All Girl Summer Fun Band, Magnetic Fields.

If you have heard of any of those bands (R.E.M. and Beck don’t count; neither does Death Cab) congratulations on being young! What are you doing on this nerdy trivia blog? You really should check out Wires and Waves instead, which is my brother Nathan’s awesome new music blog.

I think I’m the only person who reads it right now, but the content is pretty great and includes a full (free) song a day to learn and share. Nathan’s in the middle of his 2008 top whatever list at the moment, so I hope I didn’t steal his thunder with my own list, since it’s probably markedly similar to his.

Part of that is “parallel evolution,” like on Star Trek when Captain Kirk would show up on some alien planet and it would suspiciously resemble gangland Chicago or Nazi Germany or something. You take two kids and start them off on the same Pixies and R.E.M. records in the late 1980s and they’ll probably be listening to the same music until they’re too old to rock. But most of it is cross-pollination, since Nathan has excellent taste and recommends me a lot of music. I am not so hip, so I guess there’s not much of a “cross-” in that cross-pollination, though I’m pretty sure I was crazy about Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! and the new Deerhunter before he was. Take that, Nathan!