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

The Year in Music 2013 - Part 1

EPs, Singles, Live Shows, Miscellanous

If you only read one year-end music list this year, please don't read this. Read someone else's, since it'll probably be better than mine. Also if you really like music, you should probably read more than one. That would be pretty silly, right?  So in that case, you might as well read mine and read everyone else's too. Without further ado, the most least essential music list of 2013. I have a good feeling about this year's list, it's at least in my top five best year-end lists of the decade.

Miscellaneous - Worth Your Time

These releases are worth checking out and/or some highlights from 2012 that I slept on until this year.

Bad Religion - True North (Epitaph)

Connections - Private Airplane (Lost Weekend) - 2012

Diarrhea Planet - I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams (Infinity Cat)

Dr. Dog - B-Room (Anti)

The Fresh & Onlys - Long Slow Dance (Mexican Summer) - 2012

Grant Hart - The Argument (Domino)

Minor Alps - Get There (Barsuk)
My Bloody Valentine - m b v (self-released).

Kevin Morby - Harlem River (Woodsist)

Outside World - S/T - EP (Night-People) - 2012
Outside World - Seaside Nowhere - EP (Night-People) - 2012
Polvo - Siberia (Merge)
Sonny & the Sunsets - Antenna to the Afterworld (Polyvinyl)

Swearin' - S/T (Wichita) - 2012

Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob (Vapor/Warner Bros.)

Those Darlins - Blur the Line (Oh Wow Dang)

Toy Soldiers - The Maybe Boys (Rocket Science Records)

Uniform Freaks - Demo 2012 - EP (self-released) - 2012

The Vaccines - Come of Age (Columbia) - 2012
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (XL).

White Lung - Sorry (Deranged) - 2012
Woolen Men - S/T (Woodsist)

Some song highlights from these releases:

Connections - "Miller's Grove" (skip ahead to about 1:00 mark for song)

Dr. Dog - "Distant Light"

Minor Alps - "Waiting For You"

Outside World - "Paid in Full"

Polvo - "Light, Raking"

Swearin' - "Movie Star"

Tegan and Sara - "Closer"

Toy Soldiers - "Tell the Teller"

The Vaccines - "No Hope"

Vampire Weekend - "Unbelievers"

White Lung - "Glue"

The Woolen Men - "Mayonnaise"

Live Shows

I feel like went to more shows than this. I guess I just considered going to more and then passed on them.

Jesse Malin - 1/16/13 - @ Johnny Brenda's

Pissed Jeans - 2/15/13 - @ Underground Arts

Wavves - 4/9/13 - @ Johnny Brenda's

Superchunk - 9/24/13 - @Union Transfer

Pearl Jam - 10/21/13 - @Wells Fargo Center

Sebadoh - 11/2/13 - @Johnny Brenda's
Deer Tick - 11/6/13 @ Union Transfer

EPs and Singles

Best Coast - Fade Away (Bratty BC). I know many like-minded indie music fans have soured on Bethany Cosentino and Best Coast in the last few years but I'm not one of them. I enjoyed last year's follow up LP and this EP is another keeper, as Best Coast appears to be transitioning more into Rilo Kiley than the Vivian Girls. You could make the case this is their best release to date.

Best Coast - "Who Have I Become"

Clearance - Dixie Motel Two-Step (Microluxe). Do you like Pavement? Of course you do if you're actually reading this and between the ages of thirty and fifty. Well, this band does a pretty good Pavement imitation (in a good way).

Connections - Tough City (Lost Weekend). This would probably win "EP of the Year" for me. But basically if Male Bonding tried to sound like Guided By Voices, the result would be something like this. "Cul-De-Sac" is on my short list for "Song of the Year."

Albert Hammond Jr. - AHJ (Cult Records). The Strokes guitarist releases his first solo material in nearly five years and it's a solid EP. And aside from that one song the Strokes had on their comeback LP a few years ago, these songs are better than anything else the rest of the band has done together recently.

Albert Hammond Jr. - "Strange Tidings"

Palehound - Bent Nail (Exploding in Sound). Another really good retro-90's lo-fi sounding release. This reminds me quite a bit of Speedy Ortiz' Sports EP from last year.

Palehound - "Pet Carrot"

Parquet Courts - Tally All The Things That You Broke (What's Your Rupture?). Another really good release from this band. Continuing their Pavement meets Minutemen sound with a little more experimentation on this EP. 

Parquet Courts - "You've Got Me Wonderin' Now"

The Pixies - EP1 (Pixies). Weren't the Pixies supposed to release "multiple EPs" this year, hence the title? Anyway, this is the only one and it's pretty solid and in a weird but good way doesn't sound all that much like vintage Pixies to me. For instance "Indie Cindy" sounds more like Oasis than the Pixies. And "What Goes Boom" has an intro that sounds like mid 90's Soundgarden. I'd be as stoked to hear an updated version of "Wave of Mutilation" as much as the next guy, but this is just different enough to sound like classic Pixies without repeating themselves.

Pixies - "Another Toe in the Ocean"

Prince - Screwdriver (single). A really great single by Prince featuring possibly his most interesting guitar work in nearly thirty years. Well, just listen for yourself.

Prince - "Screwdriver"

The Replacements - Songs for Slim (New West). This is an EP of covers to raise money for guitarist Slim Dunlap, who suffered a stroke in 2012. So it's Paul, Tommy, and Chris all making music again (but not on the same songs together). And Chris did the album artwork. It features a pair of Slim solo covers among the five songs. The highlight is "I'm Not Sayin'" - a somewhat obscure 1965 pop song written by Gordon Lightfoot and most famously covered by a pre-Velvet Underground Niko, with pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page producing and playing guitar. The Replacements version sounds nothing like either of the previous versions and it's pretty great. And it's actually a fitting song to begin what hopefully is a reunion with new material, since so much of the early Replacements live shows consisted of somewhat obscure covers that the band kind of made their own. Let's face it, many American indie music fans (me included) in the 1980s and early 90s were probably first introduced to Sham 69, the Soft Boys, and the Only Ones mainly because the Replacements frequently covered their songs live.

The Replacements - "I'm Not Sayin'"

Various Artists - Songs for Slim (New West). After the Replacements reunited for their EP of covers to raise money for their former guitarist, other artists who are friends with/fans of the band got involved. So this features covers of Slim songs by Lucinda Williams, Craig Finn, Tommy Keene, and Steve Earle, among others.


Next: Part 2 - the Top 20 and Honorable Mention

Year in Music 2012 - 20 to 11

20. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Magic of Youth (Big Rig). After slowly fading and going on indefinite hiatus in the early 00’s, the Bosstones have quietly returned with 2 very good albums – Pin Points and Gin Joints released in late 2008 and this current one released late in 2011, which are both on par with their best releases from their heyday in the early to mid 90’s. After nearly 25 years they are still pretty much the best around at what they do. The best tracks are “Like a Shotgun”, “Sunday Afternoons on Wisdom Ave”, “They Will Need Music”, “The Horseshoe and the Rabbit’s Foot”, “The Magic of Youth”, and “The Upper Hand.”

19. Dr. Dog – Be the Void (Anti). There may be fewer highs on this release than on previous ones, but this may overall be the strongest album overall from Philly’s Dr. Dog yet. “Lonesome”, “These Days”, “Do the Trick”, “Vampire”, “Over Here, Over There”, and “Warrior Man” are my favorites.

18. Screaming Females – Ugly (Don Giovanni). Her voice may be an acquired taste, but Marissa Paternoster plays guitar and writes songs that recall Dino Jr. or Sleater-Kinney with appropriate shredding throughout. Indie-rock god Steve Albini produced this and you can hear his influence with the rougher edges in these songs. The highlights include “It All Means Nothing”, “Rotten Apple”, “Expire”, “Crow’s Nest”, “Help Me”, and the seven-and-a-half-minute “Doom 84.”

17. Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten (Mercury). The ’59 Sound and American Slang were going to be difficult albums to top and they weren’t able to do that with Handwritten. Nonetheless it’s still a good album. The highlights are “45”, “Handwritten”, “Mulholland Drive”, “Keepsake”, “Too Much Blood”, “Howl”, and “Blue Dahlia.”

16. Ty Segall – Twins (Drag City). I was not as into Segall’s previous work or his many other releases in 2012, but I really enjoyed this one a lot. Think John Lennon with fuzzy guitars or Jay Reatard I guess. My highlights include “Thank God For Sinners”, “You’re the Doctor”, “Inside Your Heart”, “Would You Be My Love”, “Love Fuzz”, and “Handglams.”

15. Nada Surf – The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy (Barsuk). The last three Nada Surf albums have all kind aged similarly with me. I sort of like them at first but put them on the back burner when more anticipated albums are released. But I’ll be darned if they don’t stick with me longer than most. Then at year end, I find them higher on the list than I had figured they’d be. This is one is no different, but a notch below their last 3 releases, but still very solid power/pop. The highlights include “Clear Eye Clouded Mind”, “Waiting For Something”, “Teenage Dreams”, “Looking Through”, and “No Snow on the Mountain.”

 14. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture?). This band seems like an old school indie rock band, recalling the indie/pop/rock of Pavement (particularly Crooked Rain) or Nodzzz or even a little GBV on some songs, but more like Sonic Youth or even the Minutemen on some of their noisier songs. My favorites are “Master of My Craft”, “Borrowed Time”, “Light Up Gold II”, “Stoned and Starving”, and “Picture of Health.”

13. Golden Gurls – Typo Magic (self-released on Band Camp). This MD-based band combine shoegaze in a Pains of Being Pure at Heart way with an indie punk sound reminiscent of Sebadoh or Dino Jr. I even hear some Afghan Whigs on some of their groovier songs. The highlights include “Kid Tested”, “I Can See the City”, “Tidal”, "Uphill Fight", and “Excited”. 

12. Pile – Dripping (Exploding in Sound). This music is not just for any old “Gomers.” While Boston’s Pile is heavy and raw-sounding their songs have more melody and groove to them than many of their peers' output. On some of their songs they take a while building up to the crescendo, but after they get there it makes it worth the wait. Check out “Baby Boy”, “So Hard”, “Prom Song”, “Bump a Grape”, and “Bubblegum.”

11. Soul Asylum – Delayed Reaction (429 Records). I’ve always had a soft spot for Soul Asylum and think they are one of the most underrated bands of the last 30 years. And after you hear this record you think “where have these guys been?” This is probably their best album since Let Your Dim Light Shine. Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy are still writing really solid guitar-based pop/rock songs. Michael Bland is the official semi-permanent drummer and Tommy Stinson is now the official semi-permanent bassist (at least in the studio), a role he’s served for the most part since original bassist Karl Mueller began his fatal battle with cancer in the early-aughts. The best tracks are “The Streets”, “Take Manhattan”, “Let’s All Kill Each Other”, and “Into the Light.”

Next: 10 to 1 and Honorable Mentions

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