7" Singles
5. JOHN WIESE
"Exhausted Spectral Incantation" - Interesting ONLY for the
idea. A single lock groove of
never-ending white noise on one side of a 7" …really it's a smug joke on the buyer but
I gotta admit, I like showing it off.
4. EVENS 2 song 7"
- I heard something more special in these two songs than in their whole
previous album.
3. PART CHIMP "You
Decide/Big Bird" - Scoring higher cause it's Part Chimp's swan song or
something.
2. SMASH DETOX 7"
- hardcoah
1. THIRD MAN RELEASES -
(LANIE LANE, JEFF THE BRO-HOOD, EDGAR OLIVER, JERRY KING, AMY WALKER) - I
couldn't really decide on which Third Man record I bought this year that I
liked best so I'm just picking them all as a tie. And even then it's really more of a props for
the label. I like what Jack White does
with the blue series and I LOVE what he does with the green series.
Albums
10. EARTH "Angels
of Darkness" - similar to Hex and …Lions Skull, but somehow, less
interesting to me than those. I'm
buying less each year so an "ok" record by a band I really like
always has a chance.
9. ZOMES "Earth Grid" - Fans will appreciate this, and I put myself there too. I think I liked the first Zomes album a little better, but with more listens I might change my mind. It's solid and I'm always gonna buy the Lungfish side projects.
8. JOE LALLY - "Why Should I Get Used To It" - I hated the first LP, ignored the 2nd… then (illegally) downloaded this one to check it out. Surprisingly good to my ears. It's basement-jazzy, grooves, laid back vox…
7. FREDDIE T AND THE PEOPLE "People In" - Fred is kinda in the fraternity with the Golden/Extra Golden guys… this is similar to the world music vibe of those bands and still got the blues stamp of his older band The Boom.
6. CRAIG WEDREN "Wand" - Lapland it aint, but still cool. I think Cupid and Make Me Hurt You are the two best songs of the year.
5. TIA CARRERA "Cosmic Priestess" - Heavy stoner rhythms. All recorded on the fly. Instrumental Improvisational Heavy Metal. A little more blues in this one than their older pure-stoner albums. But side B is a must-repeat over and over again.
4. NASA SPACE UNIVERSE "Across the Wounded Galaxies" - Pissed off punk, fast enough for me. Some like it faster if they have something to prove. But I like my punk this way. Best "hardcore" (don’t even debate this shit with me, I don’t care) album of the year.
3. VOID "Sessions" - I always liked their side of the Faith split better, and the FYH songs, but I wasn't sure this was a necessary vault issue… I was wrong. Even with 3 or 4 variations of the same 10 songs I find this amazing and interesting. I don’t really get tired of the reapeating guitar assaults.
2. MITCHELL and MANLEY "Norcal Values" - Not for everyone, but for fans of ambient, Earth, Gary Hoey. It's a sound track for waking up on the beach with Bodhi and Johnny Utah, then going hang-gliding and landing it on the deck of an aircraft carrier with the jets roaring.
1. THE MEN "Leave
Home" - The levels on this record had to have been all in the red on the
mixing console. Blistering, Repeating
punk… with hooks. You've all heard
this.
