polaroids of androids

Our favourite Australian/New Zealand artists of 2008

Every year Sean A Reminder asks a bunch of music nerds, bloggers, DJ's and 'hip peeps' to compile a list of their favourite Australian and/or New Zealand artists for the year. The only rule is that they must be an 'active' artist or group (ie. not broken up). He then takes everyone's lists, mashes them together into a special machine powered by Canadian Club, lust and a single piece of Thom Yorke's hair to create The Super List.

The results of this year's poll are IN! You can view the full final list HERE.

Once again we had the honour of contributing to this great project AND (for once) it seems like some of our picks actually made the final top 28 list. We are all mainstream and cool now.

The list that we submitted:

1. Die! Die! Die!
Still the best LIVE band in the world. If you disagree I will wrestle you.

Here is a video of them performing the CLASSIC track Blue Skies in Melbourne. The footage was shot by the same guys behind the fantastic Super8 Diaries project.

AND if that didn't get you WET, here is a photo of the drummer doing a flip of his drum kit to conclude a show...

2. Snowman
The Horse, The Rat and The Swan will surely end up being at the top of our favourite albums of the year list when we get around to compiling it sometime in February. Snowman are an exciting, scary and undeniably brilliant group and on the new album they really took their sound to a whole new (dark) place which I never knew even existed.

Snowman - We Are The Plague

3. Further
The most underrated Sydney band EVER! Tactics, released back in February, is their finest work to date and their live show blows me away every single time (no homo). It's criminal that these guys don't play more shows. Oh, and NO they haven't broken up. FACT!

4. Ohana
No other local act 'arrived' more in the oh eight. Well, in our world anyway. I am happy about Ohana's placement in my list for this year because for a while they have existed on the 'cusp', only missing out on cracking the top five because I felt they hadn't quite found the right mix of their math rock precision and their sharp punk edges. Dead Beat found the absolutely millimetre-perfect blend of these styles. They exceeded all of my expectations by about a billion percent.

Ohana - When Things Come Alive

5. The Drones
The Melbourne group really took it up a notch on their new album. Mature, raw, honest and unbelievably engaging. They have found the perfect balance between the dueling sides of their sound - the emotive pain soaked ballads and the raw, head-smashing insanity.

The Drones - Nail It Down

6. Witch Hats
Near perfect dirty swamp music. If you haven't wrapped your ears around Cellulite Soul yet then we highly recommend you sort that out PRONTO.

7. Talons
These young ruffians are getting better and better as they mature their sound and begin to drag their signature punk rock style into unfamiliar and slightly more experimental places. They are growing up with me. I think we will all end up in a nursing home together, talking about the good old days when they used to dedicate songs to my facial hair.

Talons - Mudrockets

8. Dead China Doll
Their self-titled album is an intense piece of music BUT still pails in comparison to their live show. Ring leader Eddy is the sexiest AND most menacing AND most scary frontman in Sydney. He also has the best beard the world has ever laid eyes on. If beards were rap abilities we would be the love child of 1992 Nas and 2008 Lil Wayne.

9. The Mint Chicks
The New Zealand punksters had a fairly quiet year due to the fact they relocated to Portland and lost their drummer (to love). They did however 'leak' a couple of songs that will be on their new album. They are taking their sound to a new and exciting place and it sounds surprising, exciting, incredible and awesome. I wouldn't be at all suprised if they top this list at the end of next year.

What A Way To Start The Day

10. Charge Group
Slow, melodic, emotional music has to be REALLY REALLY good to sucker me in. There is no middle ground. Charge Group's album won me over fairly quickly and even when revisiting it months later I found it to be just as powerful. The perfect accompaniment to a cold night indoors with your friend Mr Gin and his life partner Lady Tonic.

Charge Group - Lunar Module

11. My Disco
Head-thumping. In a good way. Fuck it - when is head-thumping not good? I mean, my lady wakes me up almost every night at one in the morning and asks if I want a good head-thumping and no matter how tired I am from mining, pillaging and writing 'code' I am always up for it. I normally first put My Disco's new album on though. They are good at keeping time and my lady (as much as I lust her) is pretty hopeless at that. Sexual metronome.

12. Ghosts Of Television
The Sydney collective ripped me a new one with their new EP and then ripped me several new ones (and reopened the previously 'ripped' one) with their live show. They used to be kinda hit and miss when they performed but they have really sorted that shit out this year. The EP's closing track, Buzzrds, is THE fucking balls.

Ghosts Of Television - Buzzrd

13. Dead Farmers
Record more. Play more shows in dirty warehouse spaces. Promise me you will play Violence at every show. Evolve into the best band ever already. Fuck.

14. Tucker B's
I only need to see the Tucker B's play once a year to keep my love for them. They are an old pair of socks - comfortable, warm and occasionally used as a 'cum pocket'. I mean... these guys are awesome and their new stuff is on par with everything they have served up in the past.

15. SPOD
The one man excitement machine released an incredibly tight new album this year and his live show is still the most fun you can have with your clothes on and/or without being 'coked up to the eyeballs'.

The video for Dead is pretty mindblowingly amazing.

16. Baseball
There is very little tempo change. It's on. I mean - it's ON! All the time. It sounds like Gladiators (with violins).

17. Naked On The Vague
Jangly off-off-off-centre pop that has been smothered with a dirty pillow and left for dead in a trash can in some seedy back alley.

18. The Nevada Strange
Exciting and fucking scary. I have only seen these guys once but hopefully they haven't been too damaged by the loss of some of some of their members (peeps from The Mercy Arms who have fucked off overseas) and I will get a chance to see them many more times in the not-too-distant future.

19. Violent Soho
These stoner Briscunts invented grunge (again) in 2008 and walked the thin line between homage and theft. Thankfully, it all worked out well.

20. Lindsey Low Hand
These guys are fun, disgusting, sloppy and scummy. Australian pub rock just got stabbed in the face with a smashed longneck bottle.

Lindsey Low Hand - Dull and Ordinary

21. Leader Cheetah
This is more of a future one. These guys will be the top of everyone's list next year. As soon as they (finally!) get their debut album out people will cream their jeans from coast to coast. It will be coast to coast jean creaming the likes of which the planet earth has never witnessed. So, in summary - Adelaide, ex-Pharaohs, jean creaming, Bloodlines, melodic as fuck, 2009.

22. Yes Nukes
The trio of misfits sound better and better every time I see them. Hurry up and move from 'yeah?' to 'fuck holy shit I will fly to Perth to see youse cunts play' please. Thanks.

23. Eddy Current Suppression Ring
ECSR have moved up in the Oz Rawk Ranks^TM in the last twelve months YET have still managed to keep their hard-working DIY ethos in tact. These guys seem to have no separation between their sound and their daily lives and this is what I think makes them such an incredibly engaging band.

24. Damnbuilders
One word - Snake Bite.

Damnbuilders - Snake Bites

25. Atrocities
Seeing these guys live is either unbelievable or confusingly fucked. I think it depends a lot on how drunk and/or 'messed up' they are. Right now they exist in that funny middle ground where it feels like they might explode (or implode) or actually become an amazing band.

26. The Stabs
Raw and painfully good. Their guitar screeching skills are THE fucking balls.

27. Mercy Arms
They really surprised me with their (long overdue) debut album. Easily the trendiest band that made this list.

Mercy Arms - Down Here, So Long

28. Batrider
Much like The Mint Chicks these guys (or more accurately - girls) probably rank higher on my 'favourites of all time list' than on this list, but only because they also headed overseas this year to try and win some new fans and lovers. I only need to listen to Tara once every six months to remember how much I love this band.

29. The Grates
They really surprised me this year and their new album is A LOT better than I thought it would be. They have matured, not a lot BUT they have undeniably moved their sound forward. I think it helps that I don't listen to the radio anymore. Triple J almost murdered these guys for me before the new stuff came out.

30. Devastations
Dark and intense. Like my torrid love life (when I was 19).

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Feel free to drop your own top 10/20/30/100 in the comments.