the last really good new album i heard

...no idea. one of the reasons i've been absent from the mammoth realm is the absolute dearth of good new music. i'm not quite sure how noisy punk & feedback queens became the toast of the blogosphere (times new viking, no age, titus andronicus, crystal antlers, these are powers, abe vigoda, etc.), because none of them are actually good/listenable for more than 35 seconds, but that has been pretty unbearable. that au album was okay, but too derivatively animal collective, lp3 only confirms the fact that i don't like ratatat, i can't understand why fleet foxes are "the best new band on earth," the appeal of crystal castles wore off about two songs into their full-length (and the storm of controversy about their version of music piracy just adds fuel to the fire), i don't even know what dark meat IS, the black ghosts blow, monotonix put on one hell of a live show, but music doesn't really factor into their performance much, black kids, of course, still suck at life, the new girl talk leaves something to be desired, whatever excitement hercules & love affair provoked burned off quickly; as established, stay positive makes me sad, arm's way isn't much better, modern guilt is solid without being impressive, a thousand shark's teeth is meh, don't know why is anyone attracted to the sound of the ting tings (besides that one really good song they have)?, the one track that has leaked from the hawk is howling is weird, dude, sam sparro's press quotes ("like lcd soundsystem plus marvin gaye) are better than his songs, kaisercartel makes me want to stab myself in my thigh with a fork, and crystal stilts just plain suck. ponytail shows a healthy level of eclecticism, but can't say i would ever really want to listen to them voluntarily.

i liked songs in a & e enough to buy $40 tickets for the seated spiritualized show at music hall of williamsburg, and i'm currently having a serious crisis because why? and mount eerie play the same night as mogwai and fuck buttons (all four of which have [or, in mogwai's case, will] put out great records this year). in all honesty, it's probably the toughest decision i will make all year. if i didn't have tickets to mogwai already, it wouldn't even be a question, but i think i'll have to wait and see if the hawk is howling is better than mr. beast. if it ain't, i'll see you at bowery.

anyway, now that i've shat all over bands you like/dislike/don't care about, we can get to the meat of the matter. i'm finally getting into situation after digging that buck 65 orchestral show for a couple months, but i haven't heard anything, new or old, that matches up to alopecia, antidotes, or at war with walls and mazes, and it's totally killing my mojo. i've been enjoying some classics lately, as well as nas's new not-nigger, but 2008 is shaping up to be a year of bad albums. there are plenty of good songs, but i don't want to overabuse the "awesome song day" anymore than i already have, and one reason i've been so quiet is because there aren't any albums i really want to talk about. i've had a couple ideas to get myself involved in blogging again, so fingers crossed those go somewhere, and you can count on me weighing in on whatever the next seriously good album of 2008 is, if it ever arrives.

where the hell is heartland?

correction: oracular spectacular is another album without many peers.