Alec and Kyle's 2008 Discovery of the Year

Once again it's time to present the band Kyle and I have chosen as our discovery of the year, this time for 2008. As always, the discovery represents a band that neither of us new about before the beginning of the year, but over the course of which has become a favorite of ours and usually one we predict big things for. The winner for 2008 is the band Sunfold, a very musically-inclined group from North Carolina. Kyle wrote about them recently here, so be sure to go back and re-read that post for a nice description of them.

Personally I felt this year was somewhat difficult to choose, and as I told Kyle, this is probably the least excited about the discovery of the year since we've been doing it. Most of our picks have gone on to greater successes and more publicity, and while I see a nice future for Sunfold among indie music lovers and audiophiles, I'm doubt they will achieve the commercial success of previous winners.

Since we're now on year six of this I thought it would be cool to go back and look at what has happened to the previous winners in the years since -

2003: Armor For Sleep - Their debut album, Dream To Make Believe, was a space rocker and emo kid's dream (pun intended), that gained them some national attention. Since then they have released two more albums which have taken on more of an edge and pushed towards the post-hardcore side of their sound, but they have been solid albums and made some slight rumblings on the Billboard lists, not too shabby for the Jersey rockers.

2004: The Format - Once again a band with an amazing debut which catipulted them into the music world, that being Interventions & Lullabies. This was probably the easiest discovery to sell people on, because as soon as you heard the album for a second time, you were automatically hooked. They followed it up with 2006's Dog Problems, which saw some success, but struggled to live up to the legend that was I&L. Unfortunately 2008 witnessed the end of The Format, as the members have decided to go their separate ways. Lead singer Nate Ruess comes back in 2009 with his newest band Fun.

2005: Say Anything - These guys started an underground movement that grew rapidly as people began flocking to lead singer Max Bemis' addictive style of brash and punky lyrics coated with a healthy dose of Bi-polar disorder. The result was a emo punk rock band that snowballed into a high school and college kid favorite. They followed this up with 2007's In Defense Of The Genre, which followed many of the similar ideas and styles of their debut and was met with mostly positive reviews. Plans call for another album due out sometime in 2009.

2006: The Band Of Annuals/ Westbound Train - We went a different way this year, picking bands operating in smaller genres instead of our usual alternative/emo/punk/indie spheres of music. While Band Of Annuals (alt country) and Westbound Train (reggae/ska) make beautiful music and continue to tour and perform for crowds that are smaller than they should be, I think the ceiling is unfortunately pretty low for both of these groups due to their relatively obscure genres.

2007: Dear and The Headlights - After The Format, these guys are the secondest easiest discovery we have had to get other people to like. Their debut album Small Steps, Heavy Hooves became an underground hit and garnered them a lot of fans through grassroots promotion and touring. They came back again in 2008 with Drunk Like Bible Times, an album that while lacking some of catchyness and addicting characteristics was a solid album and well received by many critics. These guys still have a bright future, and as they continue to tour and write great music they could see their legions of fans grow into a base that can sustain them on headlining tours.

Where Sunfold will be in 5 years who knows, but I think they'd be happy to have a similar level of success compared to some of the previous discoveries. The one difference I think exists between them and most of the previous groups is that while most of them had completely amazing debut albums that were almost impossible to top, I think Sunfold has left more room for improvement and could see are more polished sophomore release.


- Alec