My Favorite Albums of 2016

What a year 2016 was. Unpresidented, you might say. Definitely one of the top five best years of the last half of this decade. But it was a tough year. We lost Bowie, a Prince, and a Princess Leia and gained a President only 46% of the voters wanted. The Cubs and the Cavs ended decades of championship futility. The year in music was not a transformative one. It appeared to be the year of the comeback album in the rock world, with veteran rockers releasing either records hailed as "return to form" or just first albums in many years by various artists. Spoiler: most were not "return to form", but some were. Overall, a solid year of new music.

20. Lydia Loveless - Real (Bloodshot)

19. The I Don't Cares - Wild Stab (Dry Wood)

18. Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math (ATO)

17. Joyce Manor - Cody (Epitaph)

16. Whitney - Light Upon the Lake (Secretly Canadian)

15. Big Thief - Masterpiece (Saddle Creek)

14. Brian Fallon - Painkillers (Island)

13. Split Single - Metal Frames (Inside Outside)

12. Rogue Wave - Delusions of Grand Fur (Easy Sound)

11. Wilco - Schmilco (Dbpm)

10. Eleanor Friedberger - New View (French Kiss)

9. Face to Face - Protection (Fat Wreck Chords)

8. D Generation - Nothing Is Anywhere (MRI)

7. Drive-By Truckers - American Band (ATO)

6. Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial (Matador)

5. Angel Olsen - My Woman (Jagjaguwar)

4. Lucy Dacus - No Burden (EggHunt)

3. Parquet Courts - Human Performance (Rough Trade)

2. Connections - Midnight Run (Anyway Records)

1. Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (Polyvinyl)

Honorable Mention

Bob Mould - Patch the Sky (Merge)

Eric Bachmann - Eric Bachmann (Merge)

Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack (Canvasback/Atlantic)

Hinds - Leave Me Alone (Mom & Pop)

The Lees of Memory - Unneccessary Evil (John Davis Brand Music)

M. Ward - More Rain (Merge)

Metallica - Hardwired...To Self-Destruct (Blackened)

Methyl Ethel - Oh Inhuman Spectacle (4AD)

Mount Moriah - How to Dance (Merge)

Purling Hiss - High Bias (Drag City)

Nada Surf - You Know Who You Are (Barsuk)

Summer Cannibals - Full of It (Kill Rock Stars)

TacocaT - Lost Time (Hardly Art)

Teenage Fanclub - Here (Merge)

Tyvek - Origin of What (In the Red)

Wye Oak - Tween (Merge)

Other Stuff Worth Checking Out

Against Me! - Shape Shift With Me (Total Treble/Xtra Mile)

Bleached - Welcome the Worms (Dead Oceans)

The Coathangers - Nosebleed Weekend (Suicide Squeeze)

Dinosaur Jr - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (Jagjaguwar)

Guided By Voices - Please Be Honest (GBV Inc)

Honeyblood - Babes Never Die (FatCat)

Jeff Rosenstock - Worry (SideOneDummy).

Julia Jacklin - Don't Let the Kids Win (Polyvinyl)

LVL UP - Return to Love (Sub Pop)

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter (Third Man)

Mitski - Puberty 2 (Dead Oceans)

Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost (Run for Cover)

Pinegrove - Cardinal (Run for Cover)

Pixies - Head Carrier (Pixiesmusic/PIAS)

Robert Pollard - Of Course You Are (Fire)

Savages - Adore Life (Matador)

Slingshot Dakota - Break (Topshelf)

St. Paul & the Broken Bones - Sea of Noise (Records LLC)

Steve Gunn - Eyes on the Line (Matador)

Weezer - White Album (Atlantic/Crush)

White Lung - Paradise (Domino)

Woods - City Sun Eater in the River Light (Woodsist)

2016 Shows

Wow after 2013-2015 years (SXSW, Mats in MPLS, numerous shows around town), I guess there was nowhere to go but down as far as show attendance, but quite a drop off this year. Just the "Dad Rock" shows for me this year, I guess.

Bob Mould - 04/26 - Underground Arts.

Pearl Jam - 04/28 - Wells Fargo Center

Pearl Jam - 04/29 - Wells Fargo Center

Wilco - 06/04 - Mann Music Center

My Favorite Albums of 2015

WOW, so I didn't post a single entry to this blog in 2015.

The total number of 2015 albums that I initially listened to in the year when they were actually released is probably greater than any other year in my life. But not as many stuck with me as in previous years. This 4th or 5th wave of garage-rock and Paisley Underground homages have kind of run its course with me. Honestly I spent more of 2015 listening to older music. The Replacements, Superchunk, Sleater-Kinney, the Kinks, Guided By Voices, and Yo La Tengo were in my rotation a lot more than any 2015 releases.  And I finally took that deep dive on some other artists I've been meaning to check out for years: Mountain Goats, Yo La Tengo, Meat Puppets, Wire, Velvet Underground, and the DB's to name a few.

Anyway, here is my dumb list in descending order:

Top 25

   25. Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes (Trouble in Mind Records)


   24. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free (Southeastern)



   23. Yo La Tengo - Stuff Like That There (Matador)


   22. EZTV - Calling Out (Captured Tracks)


   21. Widowspeak - All Yours (Captured Tracks)

   20. Tommy Keene - Laugh in the Dark (Second Motion)


  19. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down (Matador)


  18. Mikal Cronin - MCIII (Merge)


17. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Milk!)


   16. Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer (Car Park)


   15. Torres - Sprinter (Partisan)


  14. The Woolen Men - Temporary Monument (Woodsist)


  13. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp (Merge)


 12. Bully - Feels Like (Columbia)


11. Mike Pace and the Child Actors - Best Boy (Self-Starter Foundation)








      10. Robert Pollard - Faulty Superheroes (GBV Inc), Ricked Wicky - I Sell the Circus (GBV Inc) / King Heavy Metal (GBV Inc) / Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair (GBV Inc)


  9. Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes (El Camino)


  8. Wavves - V (Ghost Ramp/Warner Bros.)



  7. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)


   6. Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect (Hardly Art)


   5. Royal Headache - High (What's Your Rupture)



  4. Wilco - Star Wars (dBpm Records)





  3. Jesse Malin - New York Before the War / Outsiders (One Little Indian).


    2. Twerps - Range Anxiety (Merge)


    1. Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us (Polyvinyl)

Honorable Mention

Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands (HUB Records)

Dilly Dally - Sore (Partisan)

The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (Rough Trade)

Houndmouth - Little Neon Limelight (Rough Trade)

The Juliana Hatfield Three - Whatever, My Love (American Laundromat Records)

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey (Contender Records)

Mac McCaughan - Non-Believers (Merge)

The Mountain Goats - Beat the Champ (Merge)

Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Merge)

White Reaper - White Reaper Does It Again (Polyvinyl)

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Harmlessness (Topshelf/Epitaph)

Other Stuff Worth Your Time

Adult Mom - Momentary Lapse of Happy (Tiny Engines)

Advaeta - Death and the Internet (Fire Talk)

Built to Spill - Untethered Moon (ATP Recordings)

Ceremony - The L-Shaped Man (Matador)

Colleen Green - I Want to Grow Up (Hardly Art)

Deerhunter - Fading Frontier (4AD)

Joanna Gruesome - Peanut Butter (Slumberland)

Albert Hammond Jr. - Momentary Masters (Vagrant)

Hop Along - Painted Shut (Saddle Creek)

JEFF the Brotherhood - Wasted on the Dream (Infinity Cat)

Lucero - All a Man Should Do (ATO)

Of Monsters and Men - Beneath the Skin (Republic)

Palehound - Dry Food (Exploding in Sound)

Pins - Wild Nights (Bella Union)

Seapony - A Vision (Self-Released)

Title Fight - Hyperview (Anti-)

Wildhoney - Sleep Through It (Deranged Records)

Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (Dirty Hit Ltd.)

Worriers - Imaginary Life (Don Giovanni)

2015 Shows

Purling Hiss/Dark Blue at Johnny Brenda's - 2/13/15
Sleater-Kinney at Union Transfer - 2/28/15
Jesse Malin at Main St Music in store show 3/31/15
Protomartyr/Amanda X at Johnny Brenda's - 4/14/15
The Replacements/Superchunk at Festival Pier 5/9/15
Soul Asylum/Meat Puppets at Underground Arts 6/19/15
Mudhoney/Pissed Jeans/Amanda X at Union Transfer 7/9/15
Archers of Loaf at Union Transfer 7/11/15
Jesse Malin at Boot and Saddle 7/25/15
Old 97's at Union Transfer 10/29/15
Jesse Malin at Johnny Brenda's 12/17/15