This is it everybody, the last photo post of SXSW ’08. That means it’s time for our superlatives, so welcome to our list of the SXSW 2008 Top Five. These are the bands who delivered sets we could not stop talking about, to friends, to strangers on planes, to people in line for cabs. These are bands that have special places in the Stereogum Hall Of Fame. They are…

1. Fuck Buttons
2. HEALTH
3. Islands
4. These New Puritans
5. Man Man

Awesomely, we’ve already flashed some footage from three of those sets … and we’ve got video for the top two on its way this week. Even more awesomely, Fuck Buttons and HEALTH did their damage in the same place on the same day, for the most Stereogummy day of our party at Volume, joining forces with High Places, Blitzen Trapper, No Age, and Kevin Barnes for what was an absolute dream multi-band bill. The only way to come down from it was with a quiet and lovely church set from M. Ward and Jim James, who collaborated, duetted, and generally charmed the congregation into steady and deep adoration. A nice exeunt to a crazy week.

Meanwhile, Abbey was messing with Texas on Saturday at the Mess With Texas party. We’ll update with those pics shortly — for now, here’s what first row view at the Breeders set there looked like:

To help pass the time while you wait for Ms. Braden’s Texas messing, we’re rounding this post out with her pics from the day prior’s IHEARTCOMIX show (Santogold, Diplo, Cut Copy, Black Ghosts, Flosstradamus) and some of what went down at that intregenrerational Stubbs show (Sia and Cribs, in particular).

Before we send you off into pictorial bliss, though, we have a lot of folks that need to hear how much we love them. Thanks go to Paste for all their hard work on our party, thanks to Volume for hosting it, and thanks to all of the artists, readers, and friends that came by to make the event such a success. We had an amazing time meeting and speaking and drinking with all of you. We can’t wait to do it all over again.

As is festival tradition, we extend our gratitude to Abbey Braden for helping us capture the sights of South By, and also to Kyle Dean Reinford for his supplemental, remote photo processing.

We hope you guys enjoyed the video stuff this year. On that front, we couldn’t have asked for a better, crazier, or more talented crew than we had in Matt Neatock and Raph Rodriguez. Also big thanks go to Shea Hess for saving our ugly mugs from being on camera too much.

Now, the photos.

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While we were watching Voxtrot stretch into the wee at Bowery, Abbey Braden (who’s back and snapping shots to help us rove as many day parties, showcases, and afterparties as possible) made her way to 200 Orchard for ‘Sup Mag’s afterparty, featuring a set from Black Ghosts. Maybe you already know ‘em. Or maybe you need Abbey’s primer on why you should. Calling all Simian Mobile Disco fans…

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