My 2020 Top Albums.

Extra-late this year.

Frayle – 1692
If Mykur was doom metal instead of black metal. Doom-gaze.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2844130517 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=4088332119]

Painted Doll – How to Draw Fire
A comedian/musician and the drummer from Autopsy make great power-pop.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2876561271 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=811658820]

Hum – Inlet
Surprise release that was surprisingly good.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3100454109 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=248517784]

Fake Names – s/t
Not that this sounds like Dag Nasty but it’s what Dag Nasty should sound like in 2020. Best thing Brian Baker has been on since the first Junkyard album.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries%3Flist%3DPLcZMZxR9uxC_tqvIbhj0AtngMaVUnvFCb

Melkbelly – PITH
Sounds like the Breeders with a speedfreak drummer and a bit more noise.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3066901464 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=1493145712]

JG Thirlwell & Simon Steensland – Oscillospheria
Epic symphonic soundtrack like music.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=903360454 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=4211531015]

Wytch Hazel – III Pentecost
Jesus jams with the NWOBHM and Wishbone Ash.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=4061016096 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=1024024131]

Myrkur – Folkesange 
Euro folk. No black metal.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2926876501 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=2982835918]

Huntsmen – Mandala of Fear
Mastodon type metal with Wishbone Ash and Yes thrown in,
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2223258098 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=1367674435]

Henrik Palm – Poverty Metal
Ex-Nameless ghoul makes a record that sounds like Ghost. Go figure. Great cover of Twisted Sister’s “Destroyer.”
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2153634582 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=1503957102]

My 2020 Top Albums.

Hate Your Friends No.5

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Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.

Many more things to hate this week.

Pavement “Zürich Is Stained” A band that always sound like they don’t care. The anti-Archers of Loaf. 10 seconds, maybe.

Dismemberment Plan “Follow through” This band has one good song and this isn’t it. 23 seconds then skipped.

Dinosaur Jr. “See You” Passible reunion era Dino Jr. This is where you should go listen to “Bug” instead. Listened to it all.

Cymbals Eat Guitars “And the Hazy Sea” Worst band name ever contender. Sounds like a manic depressive Built to Spill but without the songs. Listened to all of it.

Decibully “Uncle Sam’s Yard” Sorry friends but I don’t do Americana. :23 seconds as I was writing this.

Japandroids “Continuous Thunder” You say thunder, give me some. Lasted 1:09 .

Nada Surf “Do It Again” Nada rock. 10 seconds of tedium.

Maritime “It’s Casual” Decent dream pop. Make me a mixtape. Made to it 1:55.

Yuck “Sunday” More dull ass indie guitar rock but with more jangle. Pass. A sleepy 35 seconds.

Pinback “Fortress” Christ what with the bland indie guitar rock. People like this? Must have insomnia. 20 seconds.

Hefner “Grandmother Dies” Probably should change the name of these post to “My Friends Like Boring Music”. 1:18 waited for it to kick in.

The French “Wu-Tang Clan” Regardless if you are referring to the hip-hop group or the Shaw Brothers movies a song named “Wu-Tang Clan” shouldn’t be this banal. :35 seconds of annoyance.

The Flaming Lips “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” From the pinnacle of the Lips catalog. It’s all shitting the bed after this. Listened to it all.

Mojave 3 “Return to Sender” Fuck off with the limp honkey tonk shit. 41 seconds of pain.

Ex-Hex “It’s Real” Indie rock trying to be Bad Company. Passed at 1:03.

The Dream Syndicate “Put Some Miles on It” Motorik dream pop that I don’t like. Made it to 1:12.

Astride Sonne “Strong, Calm, Slow” Pointless, bland, dull. woke up at 1:26 in a daze.

Jay Som “Superbike” Wow this week is the soundtrack to the cure for insomnia. 32 seconds, reaching for some caffeine.

Pingrove “Hairpin” More americana torture. 23 seconds of looking for some Mountain Dew.

Andy Shauf “Try Again” Limp twee bullshit that appears to worship Paul Simon. 23 seconds of wondering what the hell is going on.

Brainiac “Hot 53At Can’t 51T Down” YES! This one saves the day. Go watch the Brainiac documentary. Turn it way the fuck up and listen to it all.

Les Savy Fav “The Orchard” Listened all the way through because I want to like them but I don’t.

Hoover “Distant” Competent 3rd tier Discord. Listened to all of it.

Zomes “Beckoning Breeze” An organ, a bland beat and some breathy wailing. 1:37 to see if it got any better, it didn’t.

Bass Drum of Death “Fine Lies” Another shit name, also false advertising the bass drum is rather normal. Listened to all of it but the “fake” over distorted recording really turns me off.

Hate Your Friends No.5

Day Late and a Dollar Short, My Favorite Music of 2019

Even later than last year. My favorite 15 albums from 2019 in alphabetical order. Dedicated to Mike “Old Man Juke Box” Bailey who I would have discussed this with. Rest In Peace.

Giuda E.V.A.
Sure this isn’t as good as their first two but it’s damn fun glam rock.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3312560575 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Hurry Up Shotgun This Crystal Vessel
90’s style alt rock.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1616394342 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Le Butcherettes bi/MENTAL
Finally combined the chaos with great songs.

No/No Diagnostic
Nuwavy goodness, well when the guitars are prominent. Tapers off and gets more generic on the songs with less guitar. Go Wisconsin!
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2418662106 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Raketkanon #3
This is a weird one. Kind of like Faith No More without the funk and more Gary Numan. Listen to a few tracks as it’s all over the place.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3426652370 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Redd Kross Beyond the Door
Classic glam/power pop/punk rock kings return. Once again they make a catchy album that retains their sound but is different than all they did before.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2122783215 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Ride This Is Not A Safe Place
An odd case of liking the band better after their reunion. “Kill Switch” is my favorite song of the year.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1969405503 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Starcrawler Devour You
An amalgam of 70s and 80s rock that they put their own stamp on. Lots of hooks. Why isn’t everything on bandcamp makes this much easier.

Swervedriver Future Ruins
On par with their first two albums. Nice surprise.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3288388686 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

The Hussy Looming
Garage rock usually isn’t my thing. Usually the songs aren’t this good. Go Wisconsin!
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1813453384 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

The Neptune Power Federation  Memories of a Rat Queen
Aussie classic metal done with lots of flair lead by the  Imperial Priestess. Pretty over the top which makes it better for me.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3805787157 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

UV-TV  Happy
Punk shoegaze. Great when the woman is singing, less so when the dude is. Some killer songs on this.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1043076915 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Versing  10000
These guys love Sonic Youth. Very 90’s alt rock.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3068514945 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

White Reaper  You Deserve Love
Power pop that stands out above the deluge.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2361582558 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Young Gov  Gov 1
The best of the year. Power pop as good as anything that has come before it. “Gov 2” isn’t remotely as good.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3776892109 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Day Late and a Dollar Short, My Favorite Music of 2019

Hate Your Friends no.4

ImageEvery week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.

Again giving me a bunch of stuff I like. Maybe I need to listen to more metal on Apple Music?

Sparklehorse “Someday I Will Treat You Good” Was ready to hate the hell out of this. I think I like it. Listened to it all.

Replacements “Valentine” Week 4 with Replacements. “Please to Meet” me is equal to Cheap Trick’s “Lap of Luxury”. Totally limp. I tried, lasted to 1:59.

Seaweed “Start With” Hey, we talked about this album last week, it still rips and it’s still better than the city Spanaway . Listened to all of it.

Echo & The Bunnymen “Do It Clean” I like Ghost’s cover of their song “Noturnal Me”. This song isn’t as good as “Nocturnal Me”, either version. Listened to all of it.

Mission of Burma “Progress” A lesser Burma song is better than most.. Listened to all of it.

Superchunk “Mower” From the “classic period”. I like the faster songs better. Listened to all of it.

Guide By Voices “Drag Days” Prefer the super rock production on “Isolation Drills” and “Do the Collapse.” At least this is a whole song. Listened to all of it.

Moving Targers “Less than Gravity” Sounds like Hüsker Dü filtered through Boston (the city). Big fan. Listened to all of it.

Nervebreakers “Hijack the Radio Down to the Hospital” Don’t know this. Shrug. Listened to 2:26.

Seam “Dust and Turpentine” Another one I listened to last week and it shows up here. Of course I like it, I listened to it last week. Listened to all of it.

Reigning Sound “Drowning” Sloppy vaguely 60s sounding, I’ll just listen to something from the 60’s. Made it to :53.

Big Black “Bazooka Joe” A novelty band. Listened to all of it.

Half Japanese “Firecracker” Nope, I hope someone got stuck listening to Primus as I listened to a bunch of that last week. :22 as I was across the room and it took a little bit to skip this.

Oblivions “Bad Man” Overly distorted generic garage rock. Tried but only got to 1:27.

X “Johny Hit and Run Pauline” Any Cow Punk is too much Cow Punk, save X and The Gun Club. Listened to all of it.

Wire “Two People in a Room” I would have hated this when it came out, time cures some things. Listened to all of it.

Crass “General Bacardi” Somebody was listening to a ton of Crass last week so I expected this. It’s fine. Listened to all of it.

The Spitfire Boys “British Refuge” For all that is holy use distortion on both guitars. Listened to all of it.

Fugazi “Repeater” Ahhhh the Fugazi album that everyone pisses themselves over. Whatever. I particularly don’t like this song. :15 then skip.

Black Flag “Black Coffee” I listen to “Everything went Black” for all my Black Flag needs. Listened to all of it.

Bikini Kill “Alien She” I don’t think I ever listened to Bikini Kill. Don’t think I missed much. Listened to all of it.

Pansy Division “Pee Shy” This is a really dumb song. 1:59 as I was doing something.

Texas is the Reason “The Magic Bullet Theory” Does anyone else in a band think, “people are going to find out I listen to my own band?” I do but don’t care if everyone knows. Listened to all of it.

The Cure “Fight” Robert Smith could go toe to toe with any thrash metal band’s white high tops. Listened to all of it.

Beck “Side of the Road” The only Beck album I like all of, I like Nick Drake too. Listened to all of it.

Hate Your Friends no.4