We've been sitting on this one for a while now, saving it for just the right time, and today's combination of cloudy with a slight chance of snow and a 100% chance of Superchunk provides the perfect backdrop to offer this free download. Friendly Foes burst on the scene a few years ago and we immediately fell in love with them. As too often happens to genius bands that get little notice it proved Friendly Foes were not long for our world, and the group disbanded earlier this year. As also often happens, Friendly Foes broke up with a finished EP done and no band to promote it. So what did they do? They decided to give it away for free! more ›

Yup, here it is, the inevitable "Best of 2008" music list (a later post centering on the top local offerings is forthcoming). In order to spare our readers the pain of reading through yet another list that tries too hard to impress with obscure releases or toe the party line on Stereogum / Pitchfork approved artists, we continue our personal decade-plus tradition of merely listing what we actually liked in 2008. That means that the albums below are the one we kept finding ourselves turning to when we wanted to kick back and enjoy some tunes. Sure, there was more artistically challenging stuff released this year than some of the selections below -- and we certainly do appreciate that sort of thing -- but our year end list reflects which music ultimately did for us what we think rock and/or roll is ultimately meant to do to any listener: it grabbed us by the heart and/or crotch and wouldn't let go. more ›

Friendly Foes' debut, Born Radical, doesn't drop until next January, but we've already heard the whole thing and it would have easily made it into this year's Top 20 list. (O.K., technically it's already out in digital format, but we're not counting it as a 2008 release since their "official" release date is January 13, 2009). You want a taste of what's making our mouth water NOW though, right? more ›