The first year i actually put a link to this blog inside the CD art, i completely neglect to actually write the liner notes.
1. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
sleater-kinney.com
Sleater-Kinney, my favorite band of all time since 2007, is one band i never thought i'd get the opportunity to see live. They split up in 2006, something like six months before i actually discovered them. I'd never even been able to get out to see them individually, with their post-SK projects WILD FLAG, The Corin Tucker Band, or Quasi (not technically post-SK, i know, but let's move on). Then last year Bury Our Friends showed up out of nowhere, and all of a sudden they were back and touring and THEY HAD RECORDED AN ENTIRE GODDAMN ALBUM WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE. Seeing them early this year was an experience i can't put into words, so here's the title track from the new album.
2. Veruca Salt - Laughing in the Sugar Bowl
verucasalt.com
Veruca Salt's tour last year was roughly equivalent to what the Sleater-Kinney tour was to me this year, but i've already written about that. Their album, Ghost Notes, was finally released in July and absolutely lived up to the hype it was generating as the third proper Veruca Salt (ignoring Resolver and IV, which are now casually referred to as "Veruca Starship.") ABC News put Ghost Notes at #4 on their top 50 albums of 2015 list, which just makes me wonder what kind of world i'm living in where a mainstream media outlet besides AV Club actually put six albums that i bought this year on its best of list (ABC News knows about Speedy Ortiz? What?), but they didn't include No Cities To Love so it's not a sign of the apocalypse or anything, and i can still use a hipster scoff to dismiss them. Because i'm an asshole.
3. The Joy Formidable - Little Blimp
thejoyformidable.com
Continuing with this trend of bands whose live shows were life-altering experiences for me, we have The Joy Formidable. I've already written about that show a couple of times, but in the intervening years somehow i never picked up any of their albums. That changed this year, when a copy of their second full length, Wolf's Law, somehow made its way into the bargain bin at Half-Price Books, and reignited my interest in this band. I listened to it constantly for months, cursing previous incarnations of myself for not getting this into my life sooner. Every song is epic, and it totally works. This album is better than their first, by far, and they hadn't written it yet last i saw them. Hoping they come around again soon.
4. Screaming Females - Ripe
screamingfemales.com
The trend continues! I downloaded a free comp from No Idea Records in 2012 which included the song Buried In The Nude, had the opportunity to see them for free (plus a parking ticket) later that year, and just let them rip me to shreds. In the last three years i've consistently referred people to this band when they ask me for new music. They are the best band touring today. And this year, Rose Mountain became the first proper album that they've released since i discovered them, which would be a treasure in itself even if this were not easily the strongest material they've put out to date. I can't stress enough, and i think i've said this in every liner notes since 2012, that you have to see this band live. Whoever you are. Let their music pilot your soul for an hour.
5. Belly - Dusted
Unfortunately Belly, broken up since 1996, when i was but a wee bumpkin that listened to country music, has not jumped on the recent trend of female-fronted 90s alternative bands reuniting, which is definitely a trend that is happening and i couldn't be happier about it. Are male-fronted alternative bands from the 90s reuniting? I don't think so.
Anyway, i was using Spotify pretty heavily earlier this year and i went to make a playlist of all of my favorite songs of all time, and this was the first track that i added. I'm not sure why; it just kind of happened that way. But i liked that it happened, and i started putting my Belly albums on more often at home and at work, and it felt natural to drop this song onto the PAC this year.
6. Meghan Rose - In Your Bones
meghanrosemusic.com
A fixture of the Madison music scene, playing in multiple bands (including Damsel Trash, which you may recognize from last year's comp), Meghan Rose disappeared into Canada recently and reemerged with her first solo album, In Your Bones. I picked it up this year at a Damsel Trash show that included a taco bar and was also a roller derby after party. I think that sentence really says a lot about Meghan and her music and why i love it.
7. The Drain - Gun in Your Grave
facebook.com/thedrainmadison
This song was actually kind of on a PAC already - The Drain did a Wisconscene session in 2013 and played this song when it was new, and i included that on the bonus DVD that year. Well, they finally recorded it and put out a new album. I was incredibly impressed with the recording quality on their album, it sounds like it was done for a million bucks in LA. It's like being punched in the face over and over but in a good way. I wrote that sentence on purpose.
8. The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Up for Sale
The (International) Noise Conspiracy became one of my favorite bands so slowly, so subversively, that i didn't even notice it happening. They've probably been high in that pantheon for years. In 2008, i should have included A New Morning, Changing Weather on the comp but i was still so sick of everything we had listened to in New Zealand that even Biffy Clyro didn't make the disc that year.
While traveling through Ontario this July, i had forgotten to bring the aux cable to plug my iPod into the van's stereo with me, and was stuck for the first day and a half of my journey with only The Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady and The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers to keep me and the dog company. When i did finally break down and enter a god damned Wal-Mart specifically to buy an aux cable, the first thing i put on was the Survival Sickness album. And that's when i realized just how high those play counts were. I regret only that this is another band that i will never have a chance to see.
9. Parov Stelar - Booty Swing
parovstelar.com
Amanda's roller derby team, the Reservoir Dolls, have a tradition of putting together a mixtape every year to introduce the rookies to the team, where each skater chooses a song to represent them. Last year, somebody had chosen Parov Stelar and Cleo Panther's collaboration Sally's Dance, which hit me in a weird way. Techno beats under swing music? What's happening? This year, i decided to investigate that a little further, and found that Parov Stelar isn't even the only artist doing this kind of thing. I've stumbled upon an entire genre called Electroswing, and through the magic of Pandora, have been plumbing its depths all year long. I had considered including more songs of this genre (hello, Caravan Palace!), but by the time i got there the PAC was already pretty loaded with rock tracks, and i'm still pretty happy about that, actually. But i wanted to include a hit of the gateway drug that led me down this path, so here's Booty Swing.
10. Lizzo - Batches & Cookies (f/Sophia Eris)
lizzomusic.com
I thought it was weird that Sleater-Kinney had chosen a rapper to open for them on their milestone tour this year, but after seeing Lizzo in action it all makes perfect sense. Sleater-Kinney was the perfect way to bring Lizzo's work to a wider audience, an audience that needs her. Which is everyone, really. Social justice on a popular platform that isn't mired in Tumblr's tangled web of bullshit and oneupmanship. Her messages are positive, supportive of all people and states of being. It's very good to hear these messages, especially in rap, which is often concerned mostly with spewing testosterone as hard and far as possible. I'm not very familiar with rap music in general, outside of what's on the radio and, by extension, internet popular culture, so if there are more gems like this out there, then hit me with them.
Lizzo's got a new album out now, too, so you can probably expect more next year.
11. Deluka - Mean Streak
facebook.com/deluka
What an energetic, upbeat song about domestic abuse.
I'm not sure what inspired me to even buy Deluka's album at all, i grabbed it at Borders when that went out of business a couple years ago, and i didn't really listen to it until recently. But in the early months of this year, i had this on constantly, thus perpetuating a trend of me being really into pop singers named some variation of Ellie (Ellie Goulding, Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor), Elly Jackson from La Roux, and now Ellie Innocenti of Deluka).
12. Espectrostatic - Escape from Witchtropolis
facebook.com/espectrostatic
The first of two Alex Cuervo projects that Mike Cogley introduced me to this year, Espectrostatic is basically 80s horror movie soundtracks gone rogue. It's all instrumental electronic music, suitably creepy for Halloween, and also for the rest of the year if you're a horror enthusiast, or me. I've also been actively working on building a playlist of instrumental songs to listen to while i'm doing video work, and the two Espectrostatic albums have fit that bill nicely.
13. I am Dragon - Rise from Your Grave (Intergalactic Dragon Slayer)
facebook.com/iamdragonrock
My friends I am Dragon released their second EP, Triumphs, Doubt, and Everything Between, this year, which coincided with their return to Wisconscene. The first time i had them on the show, they (and, uh, kind of me also) were drunk out of their minds, and things went askew in an awesome way almost immediately. This time around, we've been filming in a dry studio, but they quickly proved that they didn't need the alcohol to find "askew."
14. The Buzzcocks - Something's Gone Wrong Again
I've been listening to a lot of classic punk this year, facilitated by a four-disc compilation on the roots of the genre that i picked up from the library. The Buzzcocks are also a band that my coworker and foil Robert has been telling me to listen to for years, ignoring the fact that i have been listening to them for years. As mentioned above, Singles Going Steady was one of only two albums that i had to listen to for the first 518 miles of my Canadian excursion. My current band, Cats on Leashes, also had toyed with the idea of covering Ever Fallen in Love earlier this year (conversation interpolation: Jeri: "Do you guys know The Buzzcocks?" Me: "Actually i had been kind of thinking of covering..." Jeri: [puts "Ever Fallen in Love" on from her iPhone] Me: "...that song exactly."). Coupling these three seemingly unrelated items, it only made sense to include a Buzzcocks song on the comp this year. I had initially been angling toward Ever Fallen in Love, but Something's Gone Wrong Again seemed more...me.
15. Hex Dispensers - Personality X-Ray
thehexdispensers.com
The second of Alex Cuervo's projects that Mike Cogley introduced me to this year is more punk. I've described Hex Dispensers to friends as Misfits-style guitars and bass with Ramones-style vocals, putting them right up my alley. I actually really want to cover this song. I just love yelling the line "That person is a nightmare factory!" alone in my car, and can't imagine that i wouldn't enjoy screaming it at an audience.
16. Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
subpop.com/artists/sunny_day_real_estate
Shit you guys, why didn't anyone ever tell me about Sunny Day Real Estate? Oh wait, yeah, actually several of you have over the years, i just kept putting them on the "to do" pile and forgetting about them. I mentioned earlier in this long-winded, self-indulgent document that i had been using Spotify pretty heavily earlier this year. Well, over the summer, they changed their terms to something more unsavory, and i switched back over to Pandora. A station i'd built to include Cursive quickly started throwing Sunny Day Real Estate at me, repeatedly, and i got a little hooked. I entered the Mobyfort and extracted two of their albums which i had picked up years ago and apparently just filed away, and started giving them the attention they needed.
It's a little funny, i had originally intended to include a Sunny Day Real Estate song called 8, but decided against it, and listened through their albums a few more times to find a suitable replacement, eventually coming up with...Seven.
17. Cursive - Some Red Handed Slight of Hand
cursivearmy.com
Speaking of Cursive! Early this year they came around to the High Noon Saloon, probably the best place in Madison to see a bigger band, playing The Ugly Organ in its entirety as they were out on tour promoting the 10th anniversary deluxe reissue. I was originally hesitant to go, as i rarely go to concerts that cost more than $5 and i had already been to Sleater-Kinney and Helmet (20th anniversary of Betty tour) within the previous couple months, but Josh (at the time the bass player in my band) and Shayne talked me into it. Shayne's argument was something along the lines of, "Fuck you! I want to go to the show but they won't come to Indianapolis and you're UNDECIDED? FUCK YOU."
Obviously, it was very worth it.
18. Droids Attack - Astro Glider
droidsattack.com
One of Madison's finest. I woke up one morning with this song stuck in my head. I hadn't been listening to Droids Attack while sleeping, or anything for that matter, it just popped in there. In the dream, it was scoring a movie scene that was so badass that i don't even want to describe it here, because i am probably going to film it at some point in the future.
Droids have been promising a new album for years at this point, and i was hoping it would be out in time for Poor-Ass Christmas, but as i'm writing this it's actual Christmas and we still haven't seen its release. Come on, dudes, Must Destroy was five years ago now...
19. Foo Fighters - Outside
foofighters.com
Foo Fighters albums take a while to grow on me these days. When i was first getting into rock (see "wee country bumpkin," above), The Colour and the Shape was one of my touchstones, and after that i devoured Foo Fighters like gospel for the next ten years. Everything since Echoes Silence Patience and Grace, however, just has not hit me immediately. Wasting Light in particular i didn't like much at all the first time i heard it, but it's since become one of my favorite Foo Fighters albums. Similarly, last year's Sonic Highways was added to the Mobyfort on Black Friday, but didn't get much play until later this summer, possibly during the Canada trip. This song is the standout from that album for me.
If this keeps up, you can probably expect something from Saint Cecilia next year; i grabbed the free download on release day and i think i've only listened to it once.
20. Blind Melon - Toes Across the Floor
I never gave Blind Melon much of a chance, like a lot of people in the 90s. I've got their CDs sitting in the Mobyfort, but until recently all that's meant is that No Rain is on my 90s iTunes playlist. But a recent AV Club article, part of their series on the 20th anniversary of 1995, extolled the virtues of Blind Melon's final studio album, Soup, and encouraged me to give it another look. What i found is that No Rain was never indicative of Blind Melon's sound; they were all proficient musicians who never fit a mold and therefore had a hard time establishing an audience and getting a hit. The record company also didn't respect them, probably because they didn't respect their record company (which is a common sentiment among the types of bands i tend to like), and could never make much headway. Listening to Soup now, after reading that lengthy article on the album, has really given me a new appreciation for that much-maligned 90s alt rock outfit.
21. The Submarines - 1940 (AmpLive remix)
thesubmarines.com
Here's one of the artists i've discovered by plugging Parov Stelar into Pandora. They're not so much electroswing, per se, but they fit in with that crowd. I'd heard this song pop up in the shuffle, but forgot to give it a thumbs-up or mark it in any way, which made trying to find it later for inclusion on the PAC rather difficult. I had torrented their album, yielding the regular version of 1940, which i thought was what i was looking for, but it didn't sound quite like i remembered. After burning the beta test of this year's comp and listening to it in the car a bit, i decided that i needed to investigate this further, and then found this remix.
Honestly, i could do without the faux guitars and weird computerized opening voiceover that the remix has, but i like the backbeat and the vocals on this version much more than the original. Don't get me wrong, the original track is pretty great also and i wouldn't have hesitated to drop it on this album, but the AmpLive remix exists.
22. In Kahoots - Stepping Stones
There are two things i know about this band. 1. They are (or were) from Indianapolis. 2. They had a song on the Indy mp3 Project Compilation, and that song was this song. I picked that compilation up at an Indianapolis Half-Price Books for twenty-five cents. I've been searching, but i can't come up with a damn thing on this band. I just really like this song.
23. The Applicators - My Weapon
theapplicatorsatx.com
I mentioned last year that i put all of my (arguably) punk compilations on a playlist and hit shuffle. Well, that action has once again led me to a great find, one of my new favorite bands, The Applicators. This was the song that popped up on that shuffle, and as soon as i heard it i knew it was going to be the closing track on this year's PAC; it's got exactly the right energy to finish off a blistering set of rock tracks. I looked up The Applicators on Spotify and i've been enjoying both of their albums fully, including the best damn Sleater-Kinney cover i've heard.
From Wikipedia, i thought that they were broken up, but just now i've discovered that they are either still around or have reformed and put out another album. It truly is Christmas, you guys.
1. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
sleater-kinney.com
Sleater-Kinney, my favorite band of all time since 2007, is one band i never thought i'd get the opportunity to see live. They split up in 2006, something like six months before i actually discovered them. I'd never even been able to get out to see them individually, with their post-SK projects WILD FLAG, The Corin Tucker Band, or Quasi (not technically post-SK, i know, but let's move on). Then last year Bury Our Friends showed up out of nowhere, and all of a sudden they were back and touring and THEY HAD RECORDED AN ENTIRE GODDAMN ALBUM WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE. Seeing them early this year was an experience i can't put into words, so here's the title track from the new album.
2. Veruca Salt - Laughing in the Sugar Bowl
verucasalt.com
Veruca Salt's tour last year was roughly equivalent to what the Sleater-Kinney tour was to me this year, but i've already written about that. Their album, Ghost Notes, was finally released in July and absolutely lived up to the hype it was generating as the third proper Veruca Salt (ignoring Resolver and IV, which are now casually referred to as "Veruca Starship.") ABC News put Ghost Notes at #4 on their top 50 albums of 2015 list, which just makes me wonder what kind of world i'm living in where a mainstream media outlet besides AV Club actually put six albums that i bought this year on its best of list (ABC News knows about Speedy Ortiz? What?), but they didn't include No Cities To Love so it's not a sign of the apocalypse or anything, and i can still use a hipster scoff to dismiss them. Because i'm an asshole.
3. The Joy Formidable - Little Blimp
thejoyformidable.com
Continuing with this trend of bands whose live shows were life-altering experiences for me, we have The Joy Formidable. I've already written about that show a couple of times, but in the intervening years somehow i never picked up any of their albums. That changed this year, when a copy of their second full length, Wolf's Law, somehow made its way into the bargain bin at Half-Price Books, and reignited my interest in this band. I listened to it constantly for months, cursing previous incarnations of myself for not getting this into my life sooner. Every song is epic, and it totally works. This album is better than their first, by far, and they hadn't written it yet last i saw them. Hoping they come around again soon.
4. Screaming Females - Ripe
screamingfemales.com
The trend continues! I downloaded a free comp from No Idea Records in 2012 which included the song Buried In The Nude, had the opportunity to see them for free (plus a parking ticket) later that year, and just let them rip me to shreds. In the last three years i've consistently referred people to this band when they ask me for new music. They are the best band touring today. And this year, Rose Mountain became the first proper album that they've released since i discovered them, which would be a treasure in itself even if this were not easily the strongest material they've put out to date. I can't stress enough, and i think i've said this in every liner notes since 2012, that you have to see this band live. Whoever you are. Let their music pilot your soul for an hour.
5. Belly - Dusted
Unfortunately Belly, broken up since 1996, when i was but a wee bumpkin that listened to country music, has not jumped on the recent trend of female-fronted 90s alternative bands reuniting, which is definitely a trend that is happening and i couldn't be happier about it. Are male-fronted alternative bands from the 90s reuniting? I don't think so.
Anyway, i was using Spotify pretty heavily earlier this year and i went to make a playlist of all of my favorite songs of all time, and this was the first track that i added. I'm not sure why; it just kind of happened that way. But i liked that it happened, and i started putting my Belly albums on more often at home and at work, and it felt natural to drop this song onto the PAC this year.
6. Meghan Rose - In Your Bones
meghanrosemusic.com
A fixture of the Madison music scene, playing in multiple bands (including Damsel Trash, which you may recognize from last year's comp), Meghan Rose disappeared into Canada recently and reemerged with her first solo album, In Your Bones. I picked it up this year at a Damsel Trash show that included a taco bar and was also a roller derby after party. I think that sentence really says a lot about Meghan and her music and why i love it.
7. The Drain - Gun in Your Grave
facebook.com/thedrainmadison
This song was actually kind of on a PAC already - The Drain did a Wisconscene session in 2013 and played this song when it was new, and i included that on the bonus DVD that year. Well, they finally recorded it and put out a new album. I was incredibly impressed with the recording quality on their album, it sounds like it was done for a million bucks in LA. It's like being punched in the face over and over but in a good way. I wrote that sentence on purpose.
8. The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Up for Sale
The (International) Noise Conspiracy became one of my favorite bands so slowly, so subversively, that i didn't even notice it happening. They've probably been high in that pantheon for years. In 2008, i should have included A New Morning, Changing Weather on the comp but i was still so sick of everything we had listened to in New Zealand that even Biffy Clyro didn't make the disc that year.
While traveling through Ontario this July, i had forgotten to bring the aux cable to plug my iPod into the van's stereo with me, and was stuck for the first day and a half of my journey with only The Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady and The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers to keep me and the dog company. When i did finally break down and enter a god damned Wal-Mart specifically to buy an aux cable, the first thing i put on was the Survival Sickness album. And that's when i realized just how high those play counts were. I regret only that this is another band that i will never have a chance to see.
9. Parov Stelar - Booty Swing
parovstelar.com
Amanda's roller derby team, the Reservoir Dolls, have a tradition of putting together a mixtape every year to introduce the rookies to the team, where each skater chooses a song to represent them. Last year, somebody had chosen Parov Stelar and Cleo Panther's collaboration Sally's Dance, which hit me in a weird way. Techno beats under swing music? What's happening? This year, i decided to investigate that a little further, and found that Parov Stelar isn't even the only artist doing this kind of thing. I've stumbled upon an entire genre called Electroswing, and through the magic of Pandora, have been plumbing its depths all year long. I had considered including more songs of this genre (hello, Caravan Palace!), but by the time i got there the PAC was already pretty loaded with rock tracks, and i'm still pretty happy about that, actually. But i wanted to include a hit of the gateway drug that led me down this path, so here's Booty Swing.
10. Lizzo - Batches & Cookies (f/Sophia Eris)
lizzomusic.com
I thought it was weird that Sleater-Kinney had chosen a rapper to open for them on their milestone tour this year, but after seeing Lizzo in action it all makes perfect sense. Sleater-Kinney was the perfect way to bring Lizzo's work to a wider audience, an audience that needs her. Which is everyone, really. Social justice on a popular platform that isn't mired in Tumblr's tangled web of bullshit and oneupmanship. Her messages are positive, supportive of all people and states of being. It's very good to hear these messages, especially in rap, which is often concerned mostly with spewing testosterone as hard and far as possible. I'm not very familiar with rap music in general, outside of what's on the radio and, by extension, internet popular culture, so if there are more gems like this out there, then hit me with them.
Lizzo's got a new album out now, too, so you can probably expect more next year.
11. Deluka - Mean Streak
facebook.com/deluka
What an energetic, upbeat song about domestic abuse.
I'm not sure what inspired me to even buy Deluka's album at all, i grabbed it at Borders when that went out of business a couple years ago, and i didn't really listen to it until recently. But in the early months of this year, i had this on constantly, thus perpetuating a trend of me being really into pop singers named some variation of Ellie (Ellie Goulding, Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor), Elly Jackson from La Roux, and now Ellie Innocenti of Deluka).
12. Espectrostatic - Escape from Witchtropolis
facebook.com/espectrostatic
The first of two Alex Cuervo projects that Mike Cogley introduced me to this year, Espectrostatic is basically 80s horror movie soundtracks gone rogue. It's all instrumental electronic music, suitably creepy for Halloween, and also for the rest of the year if you're a horror enthusiast, or me. I've also been actively working on building a playlist of instrumental songs to listen to while i'm doing video work, and the two Espectrostatic albums have fit that bill nicely.
13. I am Dragon - Rise from Your Grave (Intergalactic Dragon Slayer)
facebook.com/iamdragonrock
My friends I am Dragon released their second EP, Triumphs, Doubt, and Everything Between, this year, which coincided with their return to Wisconscene. The first time i had them on the show, they (and, uh, kind of me also) were drunk out of their minds, and things went askew in an awesome way almost immediately. This time around, we've been filming in a dry studio, but they quickly proved that they didn't need the alcohol to find "askew."
14. The Buzzcocks - Something's Gone Wrong Again
I've been listening to a lot of classic punk this year, facilitated by a four-disc compilation on the roots of the genre that i picked up from the library. The Buzzcocks are also a band that my coworker and foil Robert has been telling me to listen to for years, ignoring the fact that i have been listening to them for years. As mentioned above, Singles Going Steady was one of only two albums that i had to listen to for the first 518 miles of my Canadian excursion. My current band, Cats on Leashes, also had toyed with the idea of covering Ever Fallen in Love earlier this year (conversation interpolation: Jeri: "Do you guys know The Buzzcocks?" Me: "Actually i had been kind of thinking of covering..." Jeri: [puts "Ever Fallen in Love" on from her iPhone] Me: "...that song exactly."). Coupling these three seemingly unrelated items, it only made sense to include a Buzzcocks song on the comp this year. I had initially been angling toward Ever Fallen in Love, but Something's Gone Wrong Again seemed more...me.
15. Hex Dispensers - Personality X-Ray
thehexdispensers.com
The second of Alex Cuervo's projects that Mike Cogley introduced me to this year is more punk. I've described Hex Dispensers to friends as Misfits-style guitars and bass with Ramones-style vocals, putting them right up my alley. I actually really want to cover this song. I just love yelling the line "That person is a nightmare factory!" alone in my car, and can't imagine that i wouldn't enjoy screaming it at an audience.
16. Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
subpop.com/artists/sunny_day_real_estate
Shit you guys, why didn't anyone ever tell me about Sunny Day Real Estate? Oh wait, yeah, actually several of you have over the years, i just kept putting them on the "to do" pile and forgetting about them. I mentioned earlier in this long-winded, self-indulgent document that i had been using Spotify pretty heavily earlier this year. Well, over the summer, they changed their terms to something more unsavory, and i switched back over to Pandora. A station i'd built to include Cursive quickly started throwing Sunny Day Real Estate at me, repeatedly, and i got a little hooked. I entered the Mobyfort and extracted two of their albums which i had picked up years ago and apparently just filed away, and started giving them the attention they needed.
It's a little funny, i had originally intended to include a Sunny Day Real Estate song called 8, but decided against it, and listened through their albums a few more times to find a suitable replacement, eventually coming up with...Seven.
17. Cursive - Some Red Handed Slight of Hand
cursivearmy.com
Speaking of Cursive! Early this year they came around to the High Noon Saloon, probably the best place in Madison to see a bigger band, playing The Ugly Organ in its entirety as they were out on tour promoting the 10th anniversary deluxe reissue. I was originally hesitant to go, as i rarely go to concerts that cost more than $5 and i had already been to Sleater-Kinney and Helmet (20th anniversary of Betty tour) within the previous couple months, but Josh (at the time the bass player in my band) and Shayne talked me into it. Shayne's argument was something along the lines of, "Fuck you! I want to go to the show but they won't come to Indianapolis and you're UNDECIDED? FUCK YOU."
Obviously, it was very worth it.
18. Droids Attack - Astro Glider
droidsattack.com
One of Madison's finest. I woke up one morning with this song stuck in my head. I hadn't been listening to Droids Attack while sleeping, or anything for that matter, it just popped in there. In the dream, it was scoring a movie scene that was so badass that i don't even want to describe it here, because i am probably going to film it at some point in the future.
Droids have been promising a new album for years at this point, and i was hoping it would be out in time for Poor-Ass Christmas, but as i'm writing this it's actual Christmas and we still haven't seen its release. Come on, dudes, Must Destroy was five years ago now...
19. Foo Fighters - Outside
foofighters.com
Foo Fighters albums take a while to grow on me these days. When i was first getting into rock (see "wee country bumpkin," above), The Colour and the Shape was one of my touchstones, and after that i devoured Foo Fighters like gospel for the next ten years. Everything since Echoes Silence Patience and Grace, however, just has not hit me immediately. Wasting Light in particular i didn't like much at all the first time i heard it, but it's since become one of my favorite Foo Fighters albums. Similarly, last year's Sonic Highways was added to the Mobyfort on Black Friday, but didn't get much play until later this summer, possibly during the Canada trip. This song is the standout from that album for me.
If this keeps up, you can probably expect something from Saint Cecilia next year; i grabbed the free download on release day and i think i've only listened to it once.
20. Blind Melon - Toes Across the Floor
I never gave Blind Melon much of a chance, like a lot of people in the 90s. I've got their CDs sitting in the Mobyfort, but until recently all that's meant is that No Rain is on my 90s iTunes playlist. But a recent AV Club article, part of their series on the 20th anniversary of 1995, extolled the virtues of Blind Melon's final studio album, Soup, and encouraged me to give it another look. What i found is that No Rain was never indicative of Blind Melon's sound; they were all proficient musicians who never fit a mold and therefore had a hard time establishing an audience and getting a hit. The record company also didn't respect them, probably because they didn't respect their record company (which is a common sentiment among the types of bands i tend to like), and could never make much headway. Listening to Soup now, after reading that lengthy article on the album, has really given me a new appreciation for that much-maligned 90s alt rock outfit.
21. The Submarines - 1940 (AmpLive remix)
thesubmarines.com
Here's one of the artists i've discovered by plugging Parov Stelar into Pandora. They're not so much electroswing, per se, but they fit in with that crowd. I'd heard this song pop up in the shuffle, but forgot to give it a thumbs-up or mark it in any way, which made trying to find it later for inclusion on the PAC rather difficult. I had torrented their album, yielding the regular version of 1940, which i thought was what i was looking for, but it didn't sound quite like i remembered. After burning the beta test of this year's comp and listening to it in the car a bit, i decided that i needed to investigate this further, and then found this remix.
Honestly, i could do without the faux guitars and weird computerized opening voiceover that the remix has, but i like the backbeat and the vocals on this version much more than the original. Don't get me wrong, the original track is pretty great also and i wouldn't have hesitated to drop it on this album, but the AmpLive remix exists.
22. In Kahoots - Stepping Stones
There are two things i know about this band. 1. They are (or were) from Indianapolis. 2. They had a song on the Indy mp3 Project Compilation, and that song was this song. I picked that compilation up at an Indianapolis Half-Price Books for twenty-five cents. I've been searching, but i can't come up with a damn thing on this band. I just really like this song.
23. The Applicators - My Weapon
theapplicatorsatx.com
I mentioned last year that i put all of my (arguably) punk compilations on a playlist and hit shuffle. Well, that action has once again led me to a great find, one of my new favorite bands, The Applicators. This was the song that popped up on that shuffle, and as soon as i heard it i knew it was going to be the closing track on this year's PAC; it's got exactly the right energy to finish off a blistering set of rock tracks. I looked up The Applicators on Spotify and i've been enjoying both of their albums fully, including the best damn Sleater-Kinney cover i've heard.
From Wikipedia, i thought that they were broken up, but just now i've discovered that they are either still around or have reformed and put out another album. It truly is Christmas, you guys.
