Stereogum

MySpace has it up now. Hurrah.

By opening the polls yesterday to the most important vote of 2008, we understandably set off a firestorm of doubt, unrest, and confusion: Best Video Of The Year? But who remembers all the videos? Well we remember all the videos. That's because we blog. It's understandable that, if you don't spend your days resizing YouTube embed codes, you might not remember every video to hit the internet this year. Also it's understandable that, if you've been on the internet this year, you've come to think of most "indie"-oriented videos as cheaply constructed press-cycle-extending promo material. HOWEVER I think you're being a little cynical and depressed about this whole thing, and someone has to win this category, and really at the end of the year there were a few clips worth remembering. To help jog the brains, here's 11 that, while maybe not the best, might remind you of the good times we had together in four-minute intervals in 2008:

After all the leaks and Auto-Tunes, Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak is finally out next week (11/24). In the meantime, we have one more tidbit: The Brooklyn artist KAWS created a cover for the iTunes release that offers a variation on the official version: Get literal.

The new Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel film Yes Man features nine Eels songs, including the new track "Man Up," which is currently streaming at MySpace. On top of Eels -- E's other tracks are all previously released "classics" -- there are four songs by Munchausen By Proxy, Deschanel's Von Iva-helmed band in the flick (and now on the soundtrack).

The Yes Man soundtrack is out 12/9 via Lakeshore.

FoW's "Valley Winter Song" is featured in a new holiday-themed L.L. Bean commercial, which means you get to listen to it while watching a person dressed way better than you and who lives in a house much nicer than yours, play with an obedient pedigree dog, smile warmly as their private-schooled kids make snow angels, and otherwise pretend the economy isn't collapsing around them: Happy Holidays.

We filled you in on Beach House's "Used To Be" 7", then the Baltimore duo headed down to a beach (complete with waterfalls) to perform it. At first glance I thought Victoria and Alex raised the conceptual arc a notch by shooting the "Used To Be"'s Matt Amato-directed video in -- yes -- a beach house (or at least a beach-side hotel), but alas: It was shot in a desert outside L.A. and features the sharp-dressed band waiting around, contemplating themselves, and generally feeling the tug of time.

Mr. Simon continued being awesome with a stop over at Stephen Colbert's place last night. Paul was on hand to promote his new book Lyrics 1964-2008, a title which Colbert deemed utterly unpoetic (his suggestion: Word Salad Jazzmatron). Simon's stay spanned two segments. The first had Stephen ask Simon to defend some of his hippie-era lyrics, explain what exactly Julio was doing down by the schoolyard, and why Paul needed to walk out on Cecilia to wash his face. ("Well it was the '60s so I don't remember.") After wits were traded, Paul performed "American Tune," with the stars of the flag and the city skyline hanging behind him. Utterly poetic.

The longtime jazz trio Bad Plus (no, not Bad Pus) are releasing a new album For All I Care in a couple months. It includes the trio's first recordings with a vocalist: Wendy Lewis adds her voice to the bass, drums, and piano. The band explains that the approach and the recording were inspired partly by the 1963 collaborative work of John Coltrane and vocalist Johnny Hartman.

Coltrane's quartet had already developed a group language, and then they enlisted this incredible singer without changing the language of the band," says King. "In that same sense, this is still very much a Bad Plus record. We just happen to have a great singer singing the songs with us.

Except Coltraine never got around to covering the Flaming Lips' " Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."

Mark Kozelek's removed both his Sun Kil Moon and his earlier Red House Painters moniker for The Finally LP, a collection of ten covers including Low's "Lazy," Stephen Sondhiem's "Send In The Clowns," Will Oldham's "New Partner," and this week's 'Gum Drop, Hüsker Dü's "Celebrated Summer." Many of the songs originally showed up on compilations, but his take on the New Day Rising classic was previously unreleased until it debuted today. We asked Kozelek for this thoughts on the original and his version. Read his words and take a listen Bob Mould's here.

The Finally LP is out 12/9 via Caldo Verde.

This week we also offered the chance to win a Hello Kitty guitar.

Recently you had a mixed reaction to AYWKUBTTOD's soaring, piano-lined "Inland Sea," from the Texan rockers' forthcoming Festival Thyme EP. Another track's up for grabs at RCRD LBL, "Bells Of Creation." Conrad says it's inspired by School Of Seven Bells, and Mormons. One is more obvious than the other.

"Bells Of Creation" comes from the Festival Thyme EP, and also appears on the band's as-yet-untitled full-length, out in early '09 on their Richter Scale label.

Ryan's unadulterated idolization of the Gallaghers is rubbing off on him in all the wrong ways. Unless you're a hot beef-craving blogger (nullus?) who scours the web for this sort of stuff, in which case nevermind, Ryan you're doing great. Actually reader Danielle did the scouring for us this time, pointing to Ryan's "Is This It?" feature for the Guardian where the estimable British publication poses existential lyrical questions ("Where's your head at?", "Who got da funk", etc.) and asks for freely associated answers. So Ryan, "What's the frequency, Kenneth?":

You've heard Scott "Paddington Bear" Weiland's second solo album in bits and plenty of pieces, but now a week before its release (11/25), you can listen to all of Galoshes in one fell swoop.

New Pornographer A.C. (Carl) Newman's pop-drenched Get Guilty, the followup to 2004's Slow Wonder, is out at the beginning of '09. You've already heard the opener "There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve" and now there's maybe one or one Go-Betweens covers to add to the Newman canon. It's a non-album track. He did it live at the Bell House in Brooklyn. See if you can guess the tune without peeking.

It's getting to be that time when people start asking you to make lists and rank the year in music. Fun! Texan outfit and BTW Fight Bite are on my shortlist for the year's finest debuts, and "Swissex Lover" is its signature track. The duo of Leanne Macomber and Jeff Louis crafted their swirling, cinematic ten-song set Emerald Eyes in a bedroom in Denton, and their first video combines those charms in this simple, stirring black-and-white visual: homemade images of the pair superimposed on film footage of playgrounds and armies, families and office spaces. It's a moment of heartbreak and acceptance on a dorm-room budget. Fair enough. It's been that sorta year.

It was Glasvegas' drummer Caroline McKay who made it to 10 on NME's 2008 Cool List, but that doesn't stop vocalist James Allan from wearing sunglasses at night. Of course, everyone's cool in this one. The imagery's atmospheric, autumnal, dark. You see dead leaves, a concerted choir, and lots of colorful lights punctuating the black backdrop. The video's for the depressing, but anthemic "Please Come Back Home" from the Scottish quartet's forthcoming "mini-album" A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss).

Conan and Letterman always win the award for best music guests that I just made up. They're both based out of NYC. Coincidence? I hope so -- Mr. O'Brien's days in the city are numbered, and it'd be a shame for him to inherit the empty-pop minded booker Leno's leaving behind. Anyway, it's nice to see Blitzen Trapper get a nod from the Late Night staff, bringing their Sub Pop country strumming harmonica jam "Furr," from the album of the same name, to 30 Rock last night. Watch it at Hulu, and take notes on how to make your show more bloggable, Jimmy Fallon. You're off to a good start.

The schedule came out last week and now Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... has a website that features clips from the first episode, including Costello doing a cover of this week's interview subject EJ's "Border Song" with Allen Toussaint. We also find out why Sir Elton changed his given name (Reggie).

Now that it's almost December, you've no doubt been thinking about the best entertainment offerings of the year. You also probably haven't cast a vote for anything in weeks! So now is a perfect time for you to make your 2008 favorites official. It's the third time we've turned to our readers to rank the best releases of the last twelve months. This year is more fun because Videogum is on board. So in addition to asking you to rate this year's musical highlights, we wanna know the best TV show, movie, and Web video.

Yesterday we heard the result of Kevin Barnes putting his work into the hands of Beatles-obsessed supermusicguy Jon Brion. Today we hear Kevin Barnes put the work of Lennon/McCartney into the hands of Beatles-obsessed supermusicguy himself. of Montreal are never shy about sharing the covers, and on this spectacular, horse-filled tour of theirs, they've been unveiling one practically ever night -- Nirvana, R.E.M., Franz Ferdinand. This pair -- of the Rubber Soul classic "Nowhere Man" and the Lennon solo classic "Instant Karma!" -- come in relatively clean audio form, from a recent session the band did with KUT in Austin. Come and get your share:

Crayola's already discovered the childlike wonder of Animal Collective, so it's not surprising they chose the sounds of the hypercolorful, banana-iPod toting hipster cheerleader Dan Deacon for their latest campaign. (Also, the product is The Glow Station and Dan loves his glowing green skull so really what took you so long, Crayola.) It is however a little surprising that Dan went along for the ride; he's not always amenable to companies co-opting his wares (especially when it's done without permission). This was the first time Dan's ever licensed his music to "a large company," in fact, and he told his MySpace friends why he thought this was a course change he could believe in: