In the spirit of UYLF, I also decided to make an Autoclamp compilation of sorts. With over 150 songs on this site, it’s become a challenge to sort through the growing Autoclamp song collection. I picked my sentimental favorites, and you can check it out here: Five Years of Confirmed Fears: Selected Songs 2004-2009.

Thanks for checking in!

Whatever your ability, you owe it to yourself to check out www.fawm.org. Drop in and say hi to Scott O. Clamp and Bri N. Clamp!

I’ve like a number of albums this year, but only two have blown my mind. First up, Future of the Left‘s incredible Travels With Myself and Another, which is released nationwide tomorrow.

If you want to get into the backstory of the two members of McLusky that formed this band, be my guest. But this second album by Future of the Left requires no previous entry point; it is loud, tight, boisterous, bilious, and hilarious. Totally recommended for thirtysomething cubicle drones who used to really like Husker Du and still listen to Pixies on occasion. Or, if you liked McLusky.

I am also the ten-millionth blog owner to sing the praises of Grizzly Bear‘s Veckatimest. You may have seen this bizarreness:

Though they don’t sound much like middle-period XTC, Veckatimest reminds me of the way XTC’s albums continued to unfold over many listens, revealing layers and shades that I swore weren’t there on the previous play.

Also growing on me is St. Vincent‘s similarly complex Actor.

When I first heard her previous album Marry Me, I liked it. It grew to be among my favorite albums of the year. I like Actor quite a bit, and I like it a little more each time I listen to it.

The Animal Collective’s Merriwether Post Pavilion starts a winter music roundup from the Martin hi-fi.

What bought us to this point? Rave culture? Radiohead’s knob twiddling in the early ’00s? Brian Wilson’s solo albums? Freak-folk? The Blue Man Group? Those Dairy Queen TV commercials with the talking lips? All of the above, perhaps?

For a band that follows their muse as relentlessly as the Animal Collective does, their new album Merriweather Post Pavilion feels like one for the fans. I mean that in the best way possible. At their best, the AC is capable of trippy, ecstatic journeys that expand your mind and keep your feet moving. At their aimless worst… well, why dwell on that? Their new album is focused and amazing.

A good litmus test to decide whether the Animal Collective is for you; visit the HD version of “My Girls,” and turn up your speakers as loud as they’ll go before the neighbors complain. If it doesn’t do anything for you, you can move on to the more conventional but equally excellent indie rock choices below.

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

Andrew Bird returns with another measured dose of stately chamber pop. He doesn’t seem to have a video out for any singles yet, but the above performance of “Anonanimal” captures his skill and appeal nicely. Note the inventive and effective use of a looper.

I’m thinking about starting a write-in campaign to see if we can get the BBC to consider hiring Andrew Bird as the first American Dr. Who.

A.C. Newman – Get Guilty

Why would the main man behind the New Pornographers need a solo project? A quick listen to his 2nd solo album Get Guilty suggests that it gives him an opportunity to let his hair down. Now, Carl Newman doesn’t have much hair, so the differences between his solo music and the New Porns’ are somewhat academic. Nonetheless, Get Guilty is a little shaggier and less devoted to a super-pop sheen, while still sporting more killer hooks than a full tackle box.

I’m also looking forward to the February release of the debut album from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Everything I’ve heard from this band suggests that they are serious students of early ’90s shoegaze pop (Pale Saints? Yes, please!), and with any luck their album will spark a huge revival of that long-lost genre.

Okay, probably not, but at least it sounds like it could be a decent album anyway.

Here is my top 20 albums list for 2008!

1. Frightened Rabbit – Midnight Organ Fight
2. Marching Band – Spark Large
3. Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling
4. Mates of State – Rearrange Us
5. Throw Me the Statue – Moonbeams
6. The Walkmen – You & Me
7. The Whitsundays – The Whitsundays
8. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
9. Sigur Ros – Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust
10. Jamie Lidell – Jim
11. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement
12. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
13. School of Seven Bells – Alpinisms
14. Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
15. Breathe Owl Breathe – Ghost Glacier EP
16. Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
17. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
18. Sloan – Parallel Play
19. Pete and the Pirates – Little Death
20. Deerhunter – Microcastle

Here’s to a great 2009!

Finished at last with a overwhelming sensation of Umbrage!

Thanks for following along this year. Autoclamp appreciates your support!

Lyrics:

Umbrage!
I’ve never been so offended in my whole life
I can’t believe you said those things about me
I can’t believe you want to press ahead without me

Shocker!
I’ve been comfortable for so long
Once I might have been prepared
But now you’ve caught me unaware and

If you have felt that way so long
Then why not speak to me?
If even on your mind for a minute
Who better to help? Who better equipped to see?

Umbrage!
I can’t think of anything else
My mind is focued on betrayal
And what I read in the morning mail

Outrage!
We’re dividing friends by the hour
Who of mine can I reach first?
Whose story now will make the worst?

If you have felt that way so long
Then why not speak to me?
If even on your mind for a minute
Who better to help? Who better equipped to see?

Umbrage!
Shocker!
Umbrage!
Outrage!

A gently refurbished 50/90 song represents November: The Long Fade.

It’s a love song, and it’s completely non-fictional. This makes it an anomaly in the Autoclamp catalog.

Lyrics:

I’m fascinated by the long fade
The slow, leisurely promenade
We’ve been friends for so long now

I’m eager to let this all unfold
And every last story we told
Underlined all of the ways how

You were meant to watch my decline
I was meant to hope you’d trade
A minute of yours for a minute of mine
As we arc the long, long fade

I’m okay with the scenic way
And if I can’t recall a day
I know that you will mark it if needed

Fortune followed every move
You’d think we knew just what we’d lose
But it was just a faint hunch that we’d heeded

You were meant to watch my decline
I was meant to hope you’d trade
A minute of yours for a minute of mine
As we arc the long, long fade

A simultaneous ode to loneliness and to two great movie studios on different continents, October’s belated song-of-the-month is called Toho and Ealing.

I’ve been kicking this one around since at least April.

Lyrics:

I spent an evening with Toho and Ealing
To try and find a way to disprove the feeling
I’ve never really been this lonely before
I tell myself that soon you’d appear at the door

The radio is hardly receiving
The papers tell me things that aren’t worth believing
If I could afford to I’d drink it away
But the landlord took his share earlier today

So why not roll that movie again?
Where Alec Guinness hatches a foolproof plan
Why not spend a few hours hoping that
Toshiro Mifune will get his man, yeah?

I spent an evening with Toho and Ealing
One eye on the screen, and one on the ceiling
How many hours has it actually been?
Who is going to care if I watch this one again?

I’m tired of being the one who is needing
To find a way to keep my heart from constantly bleeding
Cause I only wanted to do as I pleased
And now I know how little room one man needs

So why not roll that movie again?
Where Alec Guinness hatches a foolproof plan
Why not spend a few hours hoping that
Toshiro Mifune will get his man, yeah?

So why not pick up that phone again?
Why not play right into my plan?
Why not spend a few short hours thinking that
The one who slipped away was meant to be your man, yeah?

In a mad dash to the finish of 2008, here’s a reworked 50/90 song called Patsy Tipton.

I’d like to do this again someday with a more on-point vocal and a less egregiously weird solo, but that’s the kind of thinking that got me into this situation in the first place (i.e., posting the September song in December).

Lyrics:

Patsy Tipton
What are you still doing here?
We made our solemn promises
We sealed them with two pints of beer

But here you are, so I must say
I thought you’d be well on your way
I’m sure to get an earful now
For causing this delay

Patsy Tipton
I thought my words were pretty clear
I used to love you
And I just cannot have you near

But here you sit, and I surmise
My fiancee would be surprised
To see you holding my hand here
My story compromised

I’d take it back now if I could
My last birthday in the park
Yeah we were drunk and it got dark
Patsy Tipton

She thinks I’ve spent each day since
Tryin’ to make amends
I’m sure she doesn’t know
The love letters I’ve sent

But I’ve made her wait for far too long now
It’s time for you to run along now
I’ve made too many promises
My follow-through is clearly not too strong

I’d take it back now if I could
My last birthday in the park
Yeah we weren’t that drunk when it got dark
Patsy Tipton

But here you are, so I must say
I might just join you on your way
I don’t want to get an earful now
About where I’ve been on my wedding day

I wouldn’t take it back now if I could
My last birthday in the park
Yeah I saw so clearly when it got dark
My dear Patsy Tipton

There will be a fall FAWM Midwest Songwriters Showcase on Saturday, September 6th from 7 to 11 p.m at Ginko Coffeehouse in St. Paul. This great show will feature Traitor Mouse, Missile Wings, Static Captain, Dapple Throat, Todd Norem, T-Spoon, as well as your good friends in Autoclamp. The show is free to the public! Thanks to Eric Distad of Traitor Mouse for putting this together.

Hope to see you there!