Due to work from home and the pandemic, I listened to and made more music than ever, probably to keep the dark clouds at bay. I didn’t eat out as much too, so that money was channeled into the indie vinyl industrial complex. I tried to avoid streaming (mostly) and concentrated on physical releases, even CD’s which are often cheap and not controlled by the internet gods. There were other new releases I wanted to luxuriate in (Hotline TNT, Toner), but I’m still waiting on some pre-orders that probably got caught in the great vinyl slowdown of 2021. There were a ton of releases I wanted to get, like all that Swedish DIY magic (JJULIUS, Monokultur, etc.), but alas I am only one man on an hourly wage…
Here are some sounds that I got a lot of enjoyment from this year.
New Music:
- Rosali – No Medium (Spinster)
- Alien Boy – Don’t Know What I Am (Get Better)
- Cindy – 1:2 (Tough Love/Paisley Shirt) and Standard Candle Demos (Paisley Shirt)
- Grouper – Shade (Kranky)
- Wurld Series – What’s Growing (Melted Ice Cream/Osborne Again/Meritorio Records)
- April Magazine – live shows around SF
- Quivers – Golden Doubt (Ba Da Bing)
- Flowertown – Time Trials (Paisley Shirt)
- Mister Baby – Sidewalk Pop (Paisley Shirt)
- Nap Eyes – live at the Balboa Theater
- Hits – Cielo Nublado (Paisley Shirt)
- Ed Dowie – The Obvious I (Needle Mythology)
- The Gabys – S/T (All Gone)
Reissues:
- The Fall – Middle-Class Revolt (Demon Records)
- Cindytalk – Wappinschaw (Dais)
- Melvins – Gluey Porch Treatments (Ipecac)
- Seam – Headsparks (Numero Group)
- Screaming Trees – Invisible Lantern
- The Clean – Unknown Country (Merge)
- Durutti Column – Sex & Death (Factory Benelux)
Rediscoveries/Older Stuff I’ve Been Playing a Ton:
- In Embrace – Passionfruit Pastels (Glass Records)
- Flipper – Gone Fishin’ (Subterranean Records)
- Bruce Springsteen – The River (Columbia)
- Psychic TV – Beyond the Infinite Beat (Wax Trax!)
- Lucksmiths – Why That Doesn’t Surprise Me (Candle/Clover/Drive-In/Fortuna Pop)
- Adorable – Against Perfection (Creation Records)
- Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell (Profile Records)
- Bl’ast! – It’s In My Blood (SST Records)
- The Detonators – Just Another Reason (National Trust)
- Helen – The Original Faces (Kranky)
- Bob Marley – Rastaman Vibration (Island Records)
- Let’s Active – Big Plans for Everybody (I.R.S. Records)
Bonus Review:
Robert Stillman – What Does it Mean to Be American? (Orindal/KIT)
Here’s an upcoming LP by a UK (but via Maine) artist that caught my ear. Both Orindal and KIT are labels you should follow, both eclectic but easy to love, and this is no exception. Stillman is a one-man avant-jazz band. Immediately, I thought of Tori Kudo’s universe of amateur orchestras, but this is maybe more like Don Cherry’s hippie-era or a laid-back Soft Machine gone DIY. A more contemporary reference point could be The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden, but really this is a fresh stew of free-jazz, mellow folk, film soundtracks and ???