ASW (in alphabetical order)
Alvvays Blue Rev. A Maxell mixtape on a rainy drive to Lakeforest Mall before grunge broke.
Built to Spill When the Wind Forgets Your Name. A wall of cabs contains one false cab, which opens up into a social hall containing an elaborate miniature village, depicting scenes fantastic and not appropriate for miniatures.
City of Caterpillar Decider. A derelict office park at night comprising glass ziggurats, each in worse repair than the next, with the Greek MEANDROS as the most prominent motif, to the point of grotesque.
Fuss We’re Not Alone. A vending machine in a desert outlet mall that never returns the right soda, sometimes returning a soda in an alphabet not human, sometimes a soda in an alphabet not even rightly mammal.
Hammered Hulls Careening. A bank of ten Xerox machines, running continuously, in a subterranean corner of L’Enfant Plaza dedicated entirely to printing bootleg copies of Benjamin’s "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" with additional liner notes on “ aura ” and “authenticity” interspersed generously.
Meat Wave Malign Hex. A full day spent reading Baudrillard on the Monorail. [perhaps my favorite album of this year, basically flawless].
MJ Lenderman Boat Songs. A Food Lion within fifteen minutes of closing time on a soft summer night with a malfunctioning in-store PA system, cloaked in fuzz, emitting rays, receiving far off AM signals.
Pet Fox Face in the Crowd. An escalator in the Glenmont Metro station that deposits passengers in a dentist’s office somewhere in outer Cambridge.
Plosives s/t A very large machine, designed for Churning (and only for Churning) in a warehouse in a Pacific beach town, the machine fashioned out of an alloy (and only out of the alloy).
Tony Molina In the Fade An Advance Auto Parts store that guards the edge of town, where the weedy meadows and overgrown orchards start and continue, until that is, the next Advance Auto Parts store.
Does the world at this time of the year need another “Best of” music listicle? We offer a list of 2022’s best records, sorted by one ’ s answer to this question:
"Like a brick to the head!"
Deaf Club – Productive Disruption
Spastic hardcore of squelched-out shredding and blastbeats featuring Justin Pearson's lung flecks (ex- Locust, Retox, Some Girls, etc.). 14 songs in 23 minutes of nimble foot-in-yr-assery https://deafclub31g.bandcamp.com/album/productive-disruption https://open.spotify.com/album/6lLm9qqE2xamtSDZGUgCG7
"HARD YES - I need to namedrop a funner, hipper take on Parquet Pavements when I see old friends from NYC at the bar over the holidays" dumb - Pray 4 Tomorrow
Talky, disheveled slacker rock with charmingly off-kilter guitars, one liners, and likely threadworn v-neck sweaters, saggy jeans, and shorts onstage. https://dumbband bandcamp com/album/pray-4-tomorrow https://open.spotify.com/album/1UXBDOqExmVUVIioEq7ZbR
"Duude don’t let that thing go out Humphrey Bogart! Uh what was that?” Ecstatic Vision – Elusive Mojo Fried stoner jams with the spirit of MC5... simply the best way to do this genre. https://www amazon com/Elusive-Mojo-Ecstatic-Vision/dp/B09TMN8W2W https://open.spotify.com/album/1w7hnVe7yVPRMrwEo4kEsY
"Dunno my older sister makes me listen to her weird “indie rock” stuff in the car all the time." [too-true credit to bandcamp writer]
Disq – Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet Wisconsin band with at least three singers who cover a crateful of indie styles with precocious polish, from early REM to Wand to Beebadobie. https://disq bandcamp com/album/desperately-imagining-someplace-quiet https://open.spotify.com/album/7cYFcPZ0TMDsDefppHIbgG
“Ya, if its real rock like Creed er Nickleback, not that woke snowflake lib-tard indie bullshit!”
Viagra Boys – Cave World Fun music makin’ fun of toxic masculinity and conspiracy theory bros, courtesy of yet another group of punky, studio-savvy Swedes. The bizarro-comedic lyrics approach the genius of Andrew Falkous or David Yow. Jason Williamson of The Sleaford Mods makes an appearance so you know you ’ re in proper big boy company.
https://www.vboysstockholm.com/ https://open spotify com/album/2IC2TP7bnwkfl56vjabLQt
“Right mate I’ll get right on ya listy as soon as I’m done workin’ all weekend, ya bougie breeder ”
Totally Unicorn – High Spirits // Low Life https://totallyunicornmusic.bandcamp.com/ https://open spotify com/album/6W6zaIqdqBdUjb7UtRtKGQ
Also witty self-depricative noiserock riffage delivered with pissed Aussie F&B worker delivery.
“Yes I’ve heard there’s a 1990s nostalgia wave and I’m no longer a snob about catchy grunge alt pop tunes In fact I’m dying to hear something with guitars and a pulse.”
Momma – Household Name https://mommaband bandcamp com/album/household-name https://open.spotify.com/album/19trggALcFlGFsJDUiyVYn
If Veruca Salt convinced Soccer Mommy to stick with the rock, name checking Pavement songs and guitar lines, dropping big fuzz choruses. Not to be denied.
“No I don’t need some tastemaker to push pop grunge and faux-alt on me AGAIN. I prefer Sister-era SY and C86 stuff, and I hope you don’t know what any of that means. ”
Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Performance https://thisishorsegirl.bandcamp.com/album/versions-of-modern-performance https://open.spotify.com/album/435br4I9UOHTrQI5qbxVbI
The hype is to-be-believed and well-deserved: frosty, swirling, wonderful combination of all you liked about otherworldly 90s indie.
“No I don’t need some tastemaker to push dreampop and shoegaze on me AGAIN. I prefer Atombombpocketknife and Lync, and I hope you don’t know what any of that means. ”
Lifeguard – Crowd Can Talk https://lifeguardband100.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/album/3EeKZyGwGyXjKI5GaxX4tq
The next band to break if the world was fair, Horsegirl & Chicago -related, doing edgier postpunk and 1st generation emo.
“I’m too old to worry about any of this and I’ve likely heard better before Let’s step outside and hit this while the kids are still playing Xbox…”
Swami John Reis – Ride the Wild Night https://soundcloud com/swamijohnreis https://open.spotify.com/album/6yjsr85b2YehjLqOco7jEa
Horns-up solo album from the guy that brought you Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, and Hot Snakes. Consistently uptempo songs that could have been RFTC hits, with winkingly jaded old guy topics like “I Hate My Neighbors in the Yellow House” and “Do You Still Want to Make Out?”
JC’s 2022 Tip Toppers
Horse Lords - Comradely Objects
Adrian Quesada - Boleros Psicodelicos
Scarcity - Aveilut
Chat Pile - God’s Country
FACS - In A Present Tense
Black Flower - Magma
Jeff Parker - Mondays At The Enfield Tennis Academy
Sexual Jeremy - The Real Sexual Jeremy
Chris Forsyth - Evolution Here We Come
Joys Union Group - Boredom Euphoria
The Center for Understanding New Trigonometries - Shapes, for Experts
Hack
Chat Pile - God’s Country
Szun Waves - Earth Patterns
700 Bliss - Nothing to Declare
Oren Ambarchi, Jonah Berthling, Andreas Werliin - Ghosted
Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn - Pigments
Various - Valley of the Sun - Field Guide to Inner Harmony
Brian Eno - FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE
Lucy Liyou - Welfare / Practice
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
Beyonce - RENAISSANCE
