When I compiled my original Best Of 2008 list last December, it was a snow day. The sky dropped about a foot, maybe a foot and a half of fluffy white stuff and we lowly sub-compact drivers could go nowhere. Between ranking albums and locating album art, I took a stroll around town with my camera. The above image comes from that trek. Overall, I was pretty happy with last year’s list but, in revisiting all the albums from 2008, I now see quite a few …

The summer of 2003 was a hot one in eastern Washington, and my concrete bunker of an apartment contained the heat like no other. Granted, the above image wasn’t shot by yours truly until 2004, but it sure seemed hot enough to ignite even the least combustible of items. I wrapped up my undergraduate that December, which was cold as Antarctica, and upon that milestone I moved to Seattle. It was a good year for the Northwest; many of my favorite albums came from Seattle labels like …

It was mid August, 1999 and my parents pulled into the small college town of Pullman, Washington. They left me standing at the side of the road as I waved goodbye. Thousands of miles away in Paris, The Lucksmiths were recording an EP. Years later, the music they defined themselves by would become the pleasant music of my dreams. The EP was Staring At The Sky, a well crafted pop album that comes to us from a group of Australians whose mastery of song brings pleasant twists and turns, accented …

The Lucksmiths’ recently hit the states on a rare tour for the Australian quartet in support of their latest album, Spring A Leak: A Collection Of B-Sides, Covers, Rarities, And Other Treasures Of The Deep. With select exclusive material, the album does take several vinyl-only tracks and gives them a digital edge. It’s the unreleased live versions and hard to find b-sides that make Spring A Leak a joy.

I cannot decide which item I’m more excited about, the free mp3 of “Dead Hour” or the video of “Mouse Vs. Mountain” by The Guild League. This band has been around a while and hints strongly of The Lucksmiths (thanks to their indie-pop nature, Australian home, and the frontman being none other than Tali White), and their following even includes… President Obama?

This material, though new, is not really new. There are so many parallels between First Frost and the earlier work of The Lucksmiths (MySpace), that it virtually dwarfs any element that could be considered a fresh direction from Australia’s pop darlings. And that is what makes First Frost both extremely comforting and a damn great album.