Best Of 2019
Albums /Cd’s /Ep’s (Part One)
This is my compilation of the best music I reviewed last year.
In the past, I tried to make it a Top Ten, but that was impossible. I had to expand it to fifteen.
So this is a two-part. This week it’s my Top Five, with a number one, along with four more mentioned, chronologically.
Next week, it’s the last ten, chronologically, starting from the beginning of last year.
And I take excerpts from the reviews and put them in this item.
I always feel guilty leaving certain releases off this list, just remember, even if you’re not picked- you beat out a lot of bands that send their links to me or that I check out on my own, and decide not to review. Not because they’re “bad” but because they don’t inspire me enough to write.
And it’s awful hard to exclude so many great bands and great music from my list.
But remember, this is just one persons opinion.
My pick for best recording of the year is:
Marko & The Bruisers- “M.A.T.B.”
I listened to this fairly early in the year, April, and if a recording was going to surpass it, I would’ve been shocked! And it would appear that never happened.
Here’s a part of the review.
But the music here hits me like an oncoming locomotive splattering my expectations, destroying my parameters and blowing up any preconceptions I had to smithereens…
After the bloodshed and debris is cleared away, I’m left with some great music. Something too wonderful for me, not to call it punk. Something that speaks to me deep inside my soul that makes me cry while listening to it, in recognition and amazement.
And I like to think I have imagination.
But I can’t imagine anything better than that.
Or better than this.
The following four best releases:
State Of The Union- “Panaflex Blue”
If you’re hoping to get some 80’s influenced, especially from the Boston scene, new wave/punk songs that are intense, powerful and full of substance that reflects and expresses all that was best from those years- then I believe you will be more than pleasantly surprised.
(Sandy, the drummer of this band, said she wants to get the following lines tattooed on her back!)
I got the radio on. But it doesn’t matter anymore. It just keeps playing the same old, goddamn tunes with the same old, goddamn platitudes- consisting mostly of, lies about life and love.
But what I hear here is something more true, more distinct, more relevant, more gut clutching real.
I’m gonna turn off the radio, turn off the news. Turn off all mainstream media because it really doesn’t say anything new to me or what I want to hear anymore- and turn myself on to the State Of The Union.
I suggest you dial yourself in.
Funeral Cone- “Turn Me On Dead Man”
Funeral Cone has roller rink, sixties Farfisa organ over frantic, hysterical male and sometimes, female vocals, energetic and short songs that sounds like a roller coaster going off its’ rails, in unexpected twists and turns. That is aggressive as it’s surreal, exciting as it is harrowing.
This band is equal parts surf, garage, punk and koo-koo (experimental).
I’m not lying when I say Funeral Cone contains the true spirit of the original punk scene, something I rarely hear in the bands I write about…And it most certainly will be in my top picks of the year, you can bet your stash of horse tranquilizer on that.
The following two bands had two great releases and are my two favorite new bands of last year!
Disco Rice- “1.17.19” and “4 Walls Screaming”
This music contains powerful, intense aggression. These songs strike you like a knife in the gut.
But instead of mortally wounding you, it makes you feel alive with pure joy and the excitement of hearing music that is so uncompromising, that is so true, that is harsh but also beautiful.
But then that vision is suitable for a band that conjures up some unpleasant music that is so rough and raw and uncompromising. They are anything but smooth and subtle, sounding much like an electric drill coming down upon an exposed nerve in your mouth. That also, rips your life apart and tares away at its’ falsities, conventions and niceties and leaves a gaping wound in your pain-stricken being.
But what arises is a sense of peace by facing the cruelties of life, head on, without any lies or banalities obstructing the way. Allowing you to enjoy the power and passion of truth when it shines through, into your eyes, seeping in through your ears and illuminating your mind with a simple, true beauty that can only be described as art.
Cheap Buzz- “EP” and “Live At
Cheap Buzz is a great, new punk band from Maine, joining others like Uncle Spudd, No Good, Phallus Uber Alles and USA Waste from up there.
Hey look!- Brett Threat from USA Waste plays bass and sings in this band.
These folks touch on elements of punk, hardcore, Oi and crust in their style and deliver a sound that is loose and unpolished, but rings true with it’s promise of passion, power and truth.
Soon a male vocals swoops, echo-ing in while a high-pitched, fearlessly, intense female vocal answers in riot-grrl style as the guitar grinds out terrifying chords along. The lo-fi feel, the engaging emotion of the vocals all scream out “punk” to me. Punk of the original stream, the ’77 kind, along with a current twist- of lemon. Which sounds great to me and tastes great along with my Cossack vodka! As this song does, as well- satisfying and death defying delectable punk!
Next week the next top ten!
