We’re already at my top 10 singles of 2020. Time’s already flying by!
#10: Liam Kazar – “Shoes Too Tight”
This came out of nowhere and turned out to be one of the catchiest, sharpest singles I heard all year. Mr. Kazar can’t come out with a full-length album soon enough for my liking. This song shows a level of playful artistry sorely lacking in a lot of music right now.
#9: Matt Karmil – “210”
This house track drops like an empty Red Bull can onto a dance floor full of sweaty, sexy people. I’m not sure I can sum it up better than that.
#8: Protomartyr – “Processed By the Boys”
This track from Ultimate Success Today is a great example of what Protomartyr do so well – blending mysterious lyrics and vocals with rock chops that border on psychedelia.
#7: Heartless Bastards – “Revolution”
This surprise single came out of Erika Wennerstrom being frustrated with damn well everything in 2020. She summed up how we all felt and gave us a rallying cry for 2021.
#6: Teenager – “Good Time”
Listening to this is some of the best music fun I had all year. It was stuck in my head for days after first hearing it. It’s a song about how love is fleeting to a sweet groove that is nothing short of smile-inducing.
Only five left to go! Who makes it to the top? Come back tomorrow to learn!
It’s a soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic / zombie / biker film that doesn’t exist (but should) made by four dudes who can swing musical styles (metal, doom, surf, prog) on a dime and love B-movies. You can’t miss.
#29: Oh Sees – Levitation Sessions
The folks at the Reverb Appreciation Society came up with a great idea this year – live-streamed shows that would coincide with a release of the live show in various formats (digital, vinyl, cassette). This one from Osees / Oh Sees was the first one I watched this year, and it was a blast. My wife, cat, and I were dancing around our house to the wall of sound at one point.
#28: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Chunky Shrapnel
Speaking of live music and prolific bands, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released one of several live albums this year, and this one was the soundtrack to a concert film that saw a limited streaming release and will hopefully be in theaters at some point. Like any live KGATLW show, it shreds.
#27: Damaged Bug – Bug on Yonkers
John Dwyer, lead cat in Oh Sees, not only released several Oh Sees projects in 2020, he also released a new Damaged Bug record – this one a tribute to outsider musician Michael Yonkers. The whole record is full of Yonkers covers, and all of them are great and make you want to search out his other work.
#26: Teenager – Good Time
This is a fun post-punk record and one of the singles from it, “Romance for Rent,” is one of my favorite songs of 2020. The whole album gets in your head and you won’t want it to leave.
Yes, the beginning of the year means the avalanche of “Best of…” lists from me. This year’s will include singles, albums, and albums of the last five years. Unfortunately, the only concert I got to this year was seeing BODEGA and The Wants in Chicago. It was a good gig, so at least the one show I attended was a blast (even though I might’ve caught a mild strain of COVID-19 there).
Let’s get on with the singles, shall we?
#15: October and the Eyes – “All My Love”
Good heavens, what a sexy track. This cut from October and the Eyes‘ excellent debut album, Dogs and Gods, instantly brought to mind Dum Dum Girls, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees – but somehow with more sweaty lovemaking.
#14: Khruangbin – “Time (You and I)”
This track off Mordechai is so funky you can hardly believe it. Listening to this while walking will instantly put a strut into your step.
#13: The Chats– “Pub Feed”
Coming from High Risk Behaviour, his is one of the most fun punk tracks I’ve heard all year. It’s brash, brazen, and a salute to eating and boozing in pubs. What’s not to like?
#12: Kelly Lee Owens – “Night”
This is one of two Kelly Lee Owens’ songs from Inner Song that made my top 15 singles of 2020. This one, like pretty much anything else she puts out there, almost makes me want to throw my digital turntables in the trash because, good grief, why should I even bother?
#11: Too Free – “No Fun”
This Washington D.C. band came out of nowhere for me and, like Ms. Owens, dropped two of my top 15 tracks of 2020. This one, despite its title, is a lot of fun.
Who makes the top 10? Come back tomorrow to find out.
Why thirty-five albums in this list? I reviewed almost eighty albums released last year (and many others released at least a year ago). I always recap the top half of the list, so thirty-five was about right. Everyone agrees that 2020 was a crappy year, but we had a lot of good music. A lot of bands and artists had nothing else to do but create amazing music to keep them and us sane.
#35: Rituals of Mine – Hype Nostalgia
This is a sharp album about being an outsider, love and lust, and knowing when to draw a line in the sand. It mixes electronica and synthwave well and constantly intrigues you.
#34: Sofia Kourtesis – Sarita Colonia
This EP is one of the best electro / dance records I heard all year. It wasn’t on my radar until I stumbled onto it via Bandcamp. It was a breath of fresh air as lovely as it sky on its cover this year.
#33: Melkbelly – PITH
These Chicago punks / post-punks / rockers / do they really need a label? came out swinging with their new album. It’s one of those records that make you think, “Damn, they’re not screwing around.”
#32: Oh Sees – Protean Threat
Am I the only one who thinks that if you cut up the album cover for Protean Threat into four squares and rearranged them in the right pattern that it would reveal a secret image? The album is one of many releases from Oh Sees / Osees this year, who might’ve been the most prolific band of 2020. It’s a wild, fun time, of course, full of blazing rockers and krautrock jams.
#31: New Bomb Turks – Nightmare Scenario (Diamond Edition)
This is easily my favorite re-release of the year. Ohio punk legends New Bomb Turks released a raw version of their classic mid-1990s album Nightmare Scenario for the album’s twenty-fifth anniversary. It shreds and was a much needed adrenaline boost in a year when we didn’t have much to be excited about in terms of entertainment and did have a lot of anger to expel.
Who cracks the top 30? Come back tomorrow to find out!
One look at the cover of Frankie and the Witch Fingers‘ new album, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…, and you know you’re in for a weird, wild time. It’s like something out of a Thundarr the Barbarian episode that never aired. The music, recorded in just five days, is just as good…and it’s a double-album to boot.
Many influences abound on it. Opener “Activate” mixes Afrobeat and krautrock with its groovy bass and space guitars. “Reaper” is practically dipped in Ty Segall‘s sweat with its soothing verses and bone-crunching instrumental breaks. “Sweet Freak” seems to incorporate a little Earth, Wind & Fire into its groove and is a standout on an album full of good tracks.
“Give me your hand, I need to see. Where’s your reality?” they sing on “Where’s Your Reality?” – a fierce rocker that barely takes a breath. The instrumental “Michaeldose” keeps your toes tapping for almost two-and-a-half minutes, flowing into the short “Can You Hear Me Now?”, which flows into the sizzling, psychedelic “Simulator” – a rallying cry for all of us to snap out of our simulated realities and pay attention to the crazy, wild world happening around us. “Wake up, it’s a lie!” They’re right.
“Urge You” is trippy Oh Sees-inspired ooze (and FATWF did tour with them for a while). “Cavehead” seems to give a nod to Primus with its snappy groove, slightly distorted vocals, and power guitar riffs. The album ends with the rolling, rocking, and reeling “MEPEM…” for about eight-and-a-half minutes of chugging psychedelic garage…something. It’s a heckuva closer.
Because they apparently are incurable insomniacs, Osees recently performed a full live set at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. They later live-streamed the show and released it in digital format and limited edition vinyl as Live at Big Sur. It was a neat set that included a lot of material they don’t play often and an encore of cover tunes.
Starting off with the garage-punk “Rogue Planet,” the band (Tom Dolas – synths, John Dwyer – guitars and vocals, Tim Hellman – bass, Paul Quattrone – drums, and Dan Rincon – drums) shake the ground right away and get you moving in your living room, car, office, or wherever. “I Can’t Pay You to Disappear” has Dolas’ keyboards happily skipping around the front of the wild track. The double drumming on “Opposition” is so good that you can’t tell where Quattrone’s stuff ends and Rincon’s begins (which is pretty much the standard whenever they play together).
The thumping, grooving “Crushed Grass” is the first song over two minutes. Dwyer’s guitar sounds like a ticking doomsday clock and Hellman’s bass is the soothing voice keeping us from falling into oblivion. “Heavy Doctor” is another fun garage rocker. They nail it so well that Dwyer gives himself and the band a guttural cheer at the end and proclaims, “Fuck you, song.”
“Ticklish Warrior” pounds out the fuzz, nearly melting your eardrums in the process. As always, any live version of “Gholü” is bonkers and ferocious. Dolas’ synths on “Withered Hand” sound like the wind coming in from the sea at Big Sur. Dwyer’s additional synths and effects are the sounds of ghostly gulls…until the whole band kicks in with the fury of the ocean hitting sharp rocks.
Dwyer’s guitar on “Voice in the Mirror” sounds like a pissed-off praying mantis. Hellman cuts loose on “Tunnel Time,” and band runs along trying to keep up with him (which they do, by the way, much to our delight). Another fan favorite, “Gelatinous Cube,” follows and I’m sure the Henry Miller Library’s grounds would’ve been a complete mess by this point if a crowd had been there, as a mosh pit would’ve already been up to full power and this song would’ve been like a collective Red Bull shot for everyone. Hellman takes the lead again on “Poor Queen,” putting down a cool bass walk that lasts the entire song.
A personal favorite, “Lupine Ossuary,” follows. That song always shreds and this live version is no exception. Dwyer seems to be exorcising demons with his guitar and Rincon and Quattrone sound like they’re shooting down German WWII bombers over France. The main set ends with “Dead Medic” – a wild jam that lasts over ten minutes.
The encore consists of four Black Flag covers (“Nervous Breakdown,” “Wasted,” “Jealous Again,” and “Fix Me), a rare Liket Lever cover (“Levande Begravd”) that absolutely kills, and a Faust cover (“J’ai Mal Aux Dents”). They have a blast playing these tunes, and their energy and enthusiasm is infectious.
It’s a fun record and, by the way, they released another album after they released this. They’re unstoppable.
Blending punk rock and krautrock, Oh Sees‘ Metamorphosedis a wild EP, but what else would expect from these cats? They’ve been incredibly prolific this year, which has been a boon to us fans of the band. Future live shows by Oh Sees might end up being three hours long just so Tom Dolas, John Dwyer, Tim Hellman, Paul Quattrone, and Dan Rincon can play half the material they’ve put out this year.
Opener “Saignant” is a minute-and-a-half blast of punk fury that leaves you wondering, “What the hell just happened?” “Electric War” unleashes double surf drums, trippy synths, and Hellman’s bass sounding like it’s doing a keg stand while Dwyer’s guitar runs around the room like a mean gremlin. “Weird and Wasted Connection” starts to bring in the krautrock elements, but stays at under two minutes with its post-punk tempo.
The first three tracks are each under two minutes in length. “The Virologist” (Could Osees be the first band in 2020 to come up with that song title? It seems unlikely, as it was ripe for the taking.), on the other hand, is an instrumental that’s over fourteen minutes long. Quattrone and Rincon put down a steady beat, Hellman goes for a bass stroll, Dolas kicks back and meditates with his synths, and Dwyer takes his time with his guitar – letting it stretch out like a cat in a warm window. “I Got a Lot” is over twenty-three minutes with Dwyer repeating “I got a lot on my mind.” several times. Don’t we all by this point? He also sings about wanting a future, to be a teacher, and, more or less, to, as Prince put it, “get through this crazy thing called life.” He also sings, “I wanna get ya real high.” The song nearly does that with its hypnotic drums alone.
It’s a fine EP and another piece of the big Oh Sees / OSEES / OCS catalogue just from this year that includes two live albums, a full album, a remix album, and multiple singles. Oh Sees have shown us that 2020 wasn’t a year to slack off. Sure, it gave some of us extra time to relax, but it was a year to create and focus and work for the betterment of ourselves and others (as every year should be). It was a year to transform, to metamorphose into something new. Put on this EP and get to work.
Bloomington, IN quartet Wenches (ex-members of Racebannon) share the first video single from their forthcoming debut album Effin’ Gnarly today via Metal Injection. Watch and share “Bad Man” video HERE.(Direct YouTube and stream the single via Bandcamp.)
Assembled from broken bits and leftover chunks of various known and unknown groups in the punk, metal and post-hardcore world, Wenches hail from Bloomington, Indiana in the heart of the Midwest. Described by No Echo as “raw, no bullshit…undiluted rock realness” and in the vein of proto-punk bands like MC5 and The Stooges, the debut album Effin’ Gnarly is slated for a February 2021 release. Tracked at Russian Recording (Built to Spill, Tortoise, of Montreal) and mastered by James Plotkin(Sunn O))), Pelican, Earth, ISIS), the band portrays the album as “high-energy screaming hard rock played the only way long-haired punk metalheads know how. “After a rotating door of bassists and drummers, the band has finally landed on what hopes to be a lasting lineup. Effin’ Gnarly follows a previously sold out 3-song “demo” cassette and precedes the release of a limited edition 7″ single entitled State Fair Hair.
Effin’ Gnarly will be available on LP and download on February 26, 2021 via Master Kontrol Audio. Limited edition cassettes will be released by Small Hand Factory. Pre-orders are available HERE.
I’m not sure what is most impressive about Yardsss‘ new album, Cultus. Is it the epic riffs? The space / stoner jams influenced by early Pink Floyd? The way invites you to get lost in it like a hedge maze?
It might be that the entire album was improvised. Yes, Krist Kreuger, Robin Levy, and Paul Schaefer made up this entire record as they went along – completely trusting each other and letting the journey take them to unknown places.
It’s only three tracks (“Cultus I,” “Cultus II,” and, you guessed it, “Cultus III”), but the first two are over seven minutes each and the third is almost twenty-two minutes in length. All three are stunning pieces. “Cultus I” builds to a spacewalk playlist jam with swollen riffs, rolling drums, and rocket fuel synths. “Cultus II” dives straight into the deep end of the hard rock pool with furious riffs and then swims to the shallow end for a shot of tequila for a bit.
“Cultus III” could be a transmission from V-ger in the first Star Trek movie for all I know. It’s weird, wild, and cosmic. It rolls along like a war machine across a Jack Kirby-drawn landscape in a Kamandi comic.
It’s a stunning piece of work, and proceeds from its sale go to charities that focus on homelessness and prisoners. You can’t miss.
I love the cover of BRANDY‘s new LP, The Gift of Repetition. It’s a bunch of broken smartphones and ink blots that, if you look at them just right, spell out the record’s title. I can’t help but wonder if the pictured phones ended up in such a state from being dropped in mosh pits at BRANDY shows because the record is a fury of punk rock that is perfect for shaking you out of your smartphone-induced zombie state.
Opener “(Wish You Was) Madball Baby” has a great, yes, repetitive post-punk drum and bass beat while sings / yells about the desire that a lover would just go off the hinges now and then. The guitars on “Dangle” deftly move back and forth between roars and fuzzy fills.
“I’m Shipping Up to Boston” might have you stomping the gas pedal if you hear it while driving. It’s like fuel injection for your bloodstream that will have you turning into a bobblehead. The bass licks on “UFO’s 2 Heaven” are great, and the whole tune bumps with punk attitude and “We’ve got these chops and we’re going to flaunt them.” spirit.
“Christmas Colors” adds synths to the mix to make you turn and mess with your head and confound you with lyrics like “Wearing my red and greens, mistletoe magazines.” The jingle bells are also a nice touch. “Clown Pain” might be about kinky sex, as the band keeps yelling, “Thank you for my clown pain!” over fun and loud guitar chords before it devolves into trippy synth sludge. “Text Home” has the heaviest, fuzziest bass on the whole record – which I love. “Insane Screensaver” closes the album with New York Dolls-like swagger and kiss-off lyrics like, “Guess what? Your mommy don’t care!”
This is a fun punk rock record. We need more stuff like this right now, especially as winter bears down on us here in the U.S. We need to be slapped awake and encouraged to jump on our beds and dance around our places as we self-isolate, and this is a great record for that soundtrack.
