MUSIC By Chris Shaw
Top Releases of 2016 Music Editor Chris Shaw picks his favorite albums and singles of the year.
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ext week our music staff writers and I will tackle the best local releases of 2016, but I’m sticking with albums not from the birthplace of rock-and-roll for this list. In no particular order, here are my picks for the albums and singles of the year. Tim Presley — The Wink (Drag City) White Fence has long been one of the most interesting psych bands to come out of California, and the mastermind behind the many LPs the band has released is San Francisco artist Tim Presley. After recording a killer record with Cate Le Bon under the name DRINKS last year, Presley released The Wink, his first record without the White Fence moniker. The Wink is a departure from
Presley’s mad-scientist style of home recording, as Le Bon produced the album earlier this year in a proper California studio. The result is a kaleidoscope of krautrock, California psych, free jazz, and late ’70s New York City rock, and the album hasn’t moved more than a few feet from my turntable since I bought it. Heavy Metal — LP (Static Shock) A completely odd and perfectly offensive punk album from the band known as Heavy Metal. There isn’t a whole lot out there to learn about the two-piece band hailing from Berlin, Germany,
save for BandCamp with a link to buy the album. The internet yields no other information on Heavy Metal, and the album’s “lyric sheet” is just a piece of construction paper that reads “ANTI LYRIC SHEET.” Probably the best punk record I’ve heard this year. Merchandise — A Corpse Wired for Sound (4AD) Merchandise fans knew a change in the band’s sound was probably coming after the Florida boys signed to indie label titan 4AD. Their first offering for the label — After the End — was met with Tim Presley of White Fence, DRINKS