so far

Said the Gramophone's Sean has posted his top 5 albums of the year thus far, and in doing so he's inspired me to think about my favorites of '06 so far. And because we believe in quantity over quality here at gorilla vs. bear, we're going to do our top 8, in no particular order. Of course, I'm probably forgetting some, and if you ask us tomorrow it could be totally different, but we really, really like these:

Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies
Midlake The Trials of Van Occupanther
Sunset Rubdown Shut Up, I Am Dreaming
The Knife Silent Shout
Birdmonster No Midnight
Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere
Beirut Gulag Orkestar
Ghostface Fishscale

As StG also points out, Beirut has made a couple more tracks from his wonderful Gulag Orkestar available on his website. I've been enthralled by his work with since I first heard his demos back in February.

Beirut Mt. Wroclai (Idle Days) mp3