15 Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2012

 

I can't kvetch much about 2012; pop radio's song-writing improved a bit, some indie-rock got spikier, pop-punk kept its 21st century momentum, dub-step gave us all a genre to crack-wise about and, Hell, I even found a hip-hop album to love. As usual, I make no bones about the narrowness of this old geezer's listening regime, and hence this list reflects my taste for hard-hitting albums that didn't dominate the big name 'Best of the Year' lists.

(All artist name links go directly to a homepage - or some such place - for your listening pleasure.)

1.     Masked Intruder: Self-Titled
Wisconsin's Masked Intruder (more HERE) breathe fresh life into pop-punk not only by writing killer songs but also by taking it's favoured lyrical stance to its most extreme conclusion:




2.   Jake Bugg: Self-Titled
Bob Dylan-Lonnie Donnegan-Donovan-Oasis-Tallest Man on Earth. Fill in the dashes and you've got every review ever written about this young song-writer from Nottingham, the year's winner of my annual "Dylan-Was-a-Punk' Award.




3.  OFF! - Self-Titled
L.A.H.C. - fuck, yeah!



   
4.     Undecided by Default: Totally Undecided
Australian indie-surf-punk-garage-pop group were heralded by The Un-herd Music (and not many others), despite stand-out songs like, "Way Too Cool":
Undecided by Default - "Way Too Cool"


5.     Graham Parker and the Rumour: Three Chords Good
Three Chords Good is a cool, confident comeback from England's Graham Parker and The Rumour (more HERE), who've been estranged for thirty years.



6.     Duncan Reid: Little Big Head
Duncan "Kid" Reid from London's seventies pop-punks, The Boys, put out a solo album that expertly re-assembles all the pop, glam and punk elements that made his band so original.




7.     Chuck Prophet: Temple Beautiful
San Francisco singer-songwriter-rocker, Chuck Prophet (more HERE), formerly of eighties alt-rockers Green on Red, has been quietly releasing albums full of incredibly well-written songs for years to way-too-little acclaim.




8.     The Coup: Sorry to Bother You
Incendiary, rapier-witted but still catchy, Sorry to Bother You by Oakland's The Coup (more HERE) proves that this group's in it for the long haul.




9.     Teenage Bottlerocket: Freak Out
Despite being devout members of the Church of the Ramones, Wyoming's Teenage Bottlerocket (more HERE) are always up for a few heretical ideas - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse - which keeps their albums inspirational.




10.    Gentleman Jesse: Leaving Atalanta
Former Atlantan Gentleman Jesse (more HERE) delivers his finest set of driving rock n' roll songs.




11.    Futureheads: Rant
Scottish art-punks The Futureheads (more HERE) go A Capella to stunning effect.




12.    Terry Malts: Self-Titled
As I said about this California band recently (see HERE), "maybe the ever-fickle British press will get Terry Malts synthesis of various strains of independent guitar rock of the last thirty years (c86, indie-pop, new wave, pop-punk et al) and anoint them the next Kaiser Chiefs."




13.    Dan Vapid and The Cheats: Self-Titled
After an ignoble end to their long partnership, Ben Weasel kept the Screeching Weasel moniker for his shitty Carnival of Schadenfreude EP, while Chicagoan Dan Vapid (more HERE) got down to putting out this sing-long, pop-punk barn-burner.
Dan Vapid - Torture Chamber


14.    John K. Sampson: Provincial
Winnipeg's John K. Sampson (more HERE), also of The Weakerthans (more HERE), returned to working solo on this record, which was full of his usual mix of wistful longing, local history and electric-folk.




15.    The Dahlmanns: All Dahled Up
For our 'Anachronism of the Year', the one album from last year that whipped past our porous defenses, it's the a-fuckin'-mazing debut by Norway's Lords of Punk-Powereed-Pop, The Dahlmann's (more HERE) - one of my most listened to albums of the year.




While I'm sure I missed some great albums, that covers almost everything...

Did you hear anything you dug on this list? 
Did we miss something that might've fit?
Let us know in the COMMENTS section!

 

Update: Geographical references corrected.

15 Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2011

While there wasn't a bombardment of killer activity in 2011, there were some modest, hard-fought advancements and a few artist fearlessly raised there head above the parapets of mediocrity and fired with all they had.

Of course,  I'm still down here in the trenches slogging it out. Here amidst the rats, the vermin and the stench of corpses, I will seek music that which lives and fights, rather then that which seems to just meekly blend into its surroundings. Let the dullness be prepared for hand-to-hand combat!

So, in that warrior spirit, here is my list of fifteen albums by artists that didn't get to live in peace and luxury but rather marched into battle as possible canon fodder:


(All band name links go directly to MySpace - or some such place - for your listening pleasure.)


1) TV Smith: Coming in to Land
 TV Smith's body of work, as good or better then any of his fellow London punks of '76, is drastically under-appreciated (outside of Germany), which is cruel as every one of his albums, and Coming in to Land is a great example, is loaded with incisive, incendiary songs that you'll want to sing along to. (Video HERE)


2) The Carmines: Wider, Fatter, Louder
 Surf's-up, punks!


3) Dirty Wings: 30th Avenue Heartache
Great debut albums by a Brooklyn band who "...Sound like they love the Stones, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Social Distortion and a whole buncha other, less obvious kinds of stuff that they'll only tell you about once you buy them beer. (more HERE)


4) Van Buren Boys: Up All Night
 Attitude-fulled power-pop-punk straight outta Chicago! (Video HERE)


5) Peter, Bjorn and John: Gimme Some
Of course, this list always features our "token indie-rock' album on the list, not any misguided sense of fair play, but just because under the amorphous heading of 'indie-rock' there's always something that brings the songs and brings the noise like this 3rd albums by a Swedish band I was never sold on previously. (More HERE)


5) Frank Turner: England Keep My Bones
One of our tradition's here at MRML is to have a "Dylan Was a Punk" album of the year, and this is the second time Englishman Turner has snagged it for his latest (and near-best) set of sturdy folk-punk tunes. (More HERE)


6) John Wesley Harding:  The Sound Of His Own Voice
Y'know the pleasure of a good singer/song-writer album is underrated and quintessentially-English JWH and his American backing band, The Decemberists,  have pulled together a diverse but always witty and hummable brace of tunes here that more people need to hear. (more HERE)


7) Breakdowns: The Kids Don't Want To Bop Anymore
This lack of bopping by the youth of today must be stopped and The Breakdowns know just what to do - rock!    (More HERE)


8) Zebrassieres: Gooey Zoo
 So my country's capital, Ottawa, is in the grips of a sweater-vested, dictator-in-training and yet that modest-sized city is producing a shipload of great loud, rocking, tuneful  bands like Steve Adamyk Band, The White Wires, and Mother's Children and the slightly artier, fuzzier, new-wave-ier Zebrassieres! (
 

9) Will Varley: Advert Soundtracks
Frank Turner, Last Man on Earth and the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan might make good points of comparison but English folkie Varley is determined to make his own caustic soundtrack to the age. (Video HERE)


10) Steve Adamyk Band: Forever Won't Wait
Eff-er-fuckin-vescent pop songs played with punk bottle. Ottawa strikes again!


11) Junior Battles Idle Ages
 A pop-punk pot-luck from this Toronto [!] group who snitch for the more underground and more over-ground styles of that oft-misunderstood genre. (Video HERE)


12) Dropkick Murphys: Going Out in Style
Boston's Celtic-punks don't get a lot of respect due to their consistency of sound (and accusations of meatheadedness) but the fact is that the band have grown as writers and performers enough to make Going Out in Style "a flinty, hard-nosed affair with eleven new songs (plus two from back in the mists of time) that have a vintage freshness about them, steeped in history but fully in the moment."  (More HERE)


13)  Wrong Words: Self-Titled

San Francisco garagified-punk that'll have you singing along in seconds flat! (Video HERE)

14) The Slow Death: Born Ugly, Got Worse

Growly, catchy, angry, painfully self-aware, Rick-Springfield-quotin', high-lonesome heartland-punk which somehow manages to contain a former Erg. (Video HERE)

15) Geoff Useless: Don't Stop
The last MRML tradition that must be served is our token "Anachronism of the Year" by which a late-released album that whipped past us at hi-speed is formally acknowledged, such as this December 2010 record by Geoff Useless which imagines an accord between Buck Owens and The Queers.

So, despite my ready-aye-ready talk, I'm not proposing declaring war on all those big name lists. I'm willing to admit that I haven't even heard the majority of albums within my allied genres, never mind my supposed enemy styles. It's time to admit that those in the other trench are just people with different taste and perhaps it's time for a Christmas truce.

Good grief people, the last list (see HERE) went without the support of (almost) any missives from those of you on the home front. What do you think of these albums Did you hear anything you dug? Did we miss something that might've fit? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!

Best Songs of the year list will be coming after Christmas!

Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2010

Hey, in 2010 music got some of its wrath back. Thanks entirely to my relentless push for relentless, the music world picked up the pace and the delicacy declined, the preciousness plummeted and the hush got hammered!


Of course my work here in the dark is never done. Wherever there's a band who throw their everything into their music to minimal recognition, I'll be there, yellin'. Wherever some slackasses are getting praised for their cheekbones, I'll be there, spittn' nails. I'll be in the way the critics yell when they're mad - I'll be in the way fans laugh when they're find something new but old under the sun. An' where flesh and blood people are making music for themselves and those around them, I'll be there too.


So, in that slightly Steinbeckish spirit, here is my list of sixteen albums by artists that didn't get to live off that fatta the lan' this year but maybe should have:


(All band name links go directly to MySpace for your listening pleasure.)


1) Mother's Children: That's Who
Frenzied Canadian power-pop-punk.



2) Jesse Malin: Love it To Life
Punk survivor Malin rocks like hell.


3) Peachfuzz: Everything Takes Forever
Like Jawbreaker meets the Replacements.









4) Steve Adymyk Band: S/T
More of that power-poppin' punk rock that's gonna go over a storm in Spain and be ignored elsewhere.









5) Sugar Stems: Sweet Sounds of..
If Blondie had been on the C86 comp!





6) Jason & The Scorchers: Halcyon Times
J & S rock like a hurricane in a trailer park.



7) The Roman Line: Morning Portraits.
This blazing roots-punk album came out in December '09 but it's this year's well-deserving anachronism.



8) Tim Barry: 28th & Stonewall
Off-the-grid punk-folk.




9) Chumbawamba: ABCDEFG
With the disco and the punk gone it's just the folk that remains.




10) David Dondero; Zero With a Bullet
The Dylan-was-a-Punk album of the year.




11) Piney Gir: Jesus Wept
Spaghetti-country-punk-gospel-pop born in a thunderstorm.




12) Gaslight Anthem American Slang
Made some of the Cool Lists but never got its rockin'
due.




13) John Moreland: Things I Can't Control
Both punk and country work best in a dingy bar-room, here's a band that could rock either room .








14) Young Evils: Enchanted Chapel
Not a Mini-Pops Misfits but melodic indie-pop like Beat Happening with more pre-Beatles pop and less post-punk rock.



15) Cyanide Pills
Deliriously retro bubble-punk, like The Dammed City Rollers!


16) Young Veins Take a Vacation
Sure it's a mite ridiculous for the young alum's of Panic at the Disco! to make an album redolent of all things Beatles, Kinks and Beach Boys but it still a joyous work.



All that music listening and I still don't even recognize all the artists on the Big Name best-of-the-year lists! Like so many other list-compilers, I've only heard what broke through into my little bubble. So if you want to let your own bubble expand, thou mayest.


As Good 'Ol Charlie Brown requests below, some SUPPORT, in the form of comments that detail what made YOUR list of under-appreciated albums would be great.


Best Songs of the year list will be coming after Christmas!

MRML's Under-Appreciated Albums that Rocked '09

To continue adding to the saturated market of best of lists, I'll add yet another dose of subjectivity with this one caveat: I chose albums which show drive, grit and passion and yet, too rarely grace typical best-of-the-year lists. Being a tad retro-minded may taint my list in some eyes but with all these nature-named bands and their delicate sound-sculptures dominating best-of lists someone's gotta highlight albums that kick ass - not just punk but driving country, folk, glam, power-pop, gospel, hell even an indie rock album if it shows some damn fortitude.

1. The Parasites (more here) Solitary
New Jerseyite Dave Parasite, a one-man force in pop-punk for decades waited till two-thousand-and-fucking-nine before releasing his best record, full of racing guitars and soaring tunes - score one for the late-starters!
Listen here
2. Ripchord Beginner's Luck
If I told you I'd discovered a band whose two greatest influences are the Kaiser Chiefs and the Housemartins would you run away or listen closely? Choose carefully...
Watch here

3. Those Darlins’ S/T
Always nice to have a funny, pretty and catchy country album on the list; even if gets a bit arch in spots.
Watch here

4. Houseboat The Delaware Octopus
The lame name (but netter than Barrakuda McMurder!) can't disguise the fact that Grath Madden, formerly of New York's Steinways is starting to grow up. Now backed by members of Dear Landlord and the Ergs, Grath's more musically developed songs show that his old cute self-loathing is veering towards self-disgust, ("everyone's fucked and alone" he sings on "Alonelylonelylone") which he still makes sound pretty appealing.
Listen here

5. Frank Turner (more here) Love, Ire & Song
An odd entry due to the Frank Turner Overdose on the net this year and this album being from 2008 but as the hype focused on the disappointing Poetry of the Deed and since Epitaph did release this wordy-but-wonderful folk-punk album in North America this year (though without the corrosive "Thatcher Fucked the Kids") and I need a "Dylan-was-a-punk" album of the year we will have to bend the space-time continuum just to the left.
Watch here

6. Used Kids Yeah No
Nato Coles (self-described as, "like Bob Mould, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Weller, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Westerberg, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Mike Ness, the baritone guy from the Coasters, the slightly less baritone guy from the Coasters ... all rolled into one giant burrito." put out two heartland punk records this year and I'm giving this one the edge for the astounding ballad, "Desperate Times".
Listen here

7. Michael Roe (more here) We All Gonna face the Rising Sun
I've already raved to ridiculous degrees about this gos-pel ex-plosion, which is basically a one man condensation of the the Goodbye Babylon box set (the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack would be a more widely known, if less accurate, comparison).
Listen here

8. The Leftovers (more here) Eager to Please
Another one I've spilled many words over, but how can you resist such sparkling power-pop melodies being given the pop-punk once over?
Watch here

9. TV Smith (more here) Live at NVA
Thirty songs hammered out by one skinny fifty-something balladeer with an acoustic guitar who'd sooner kick the shit out of James Taylor then confess his inner demons.
Watch here

10. The Takeover UK Running With the Wasters
The kind of swaggering egotistical glam-pop thievery that the British music press would usually salivates over, if the band wasn't from Pittsburgh - yup the Takeover UK are from steel-town.
Watch here

11. MewithoutYou It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright
Experimental post-hardcore band who, despite their roots is Sufism and Judaism record for Christian label Tooth and Nail, find the Neil Young and Sufjan Stevens within, thereby breaking all my stupid rules (it's even number eleven!) and make an album that when described sounds like a pretentious bag o' shit but in execution aches, shines and refuses to relent.
Watch here

Okay, MRML Readers, leave us a comment on our choices and then tell us your picks for the great album of '09.

MRML's Under-Appreciated Albums that Rocked '08

(Image courtesy of Chapter One)

To continue adding to the saturated market of best of lists, I'll add yet another dose of subjectivity, with this caveat:
- I chose albums which show drive, grit and passion and yet, rarely grace best-of-the-year lists.
(Living in the past makes such a post an arduous task, but with ever more delicate, woozy indie-ness dominating year-end lists someone must highlight albums that kick ass.)


1. Ergs - Hindsight
For their swansong, the Ergs laid out their 7" history in inverse chronological order. Pop-punk is usually determinedly simple but there's a prickly, challenging side to these Jersey boys who throw out Miles Davis, Steely Dan and Black Flag in-jokes, while covering The Beatles, the Apers, Vince Gauraldi and Nirvana. Sadly, it's thirty-three track epitaph as the band is calling it quits. (Live)

Listen: It's Like I Say, Y'know

*

2. 241ers - Murderers
Folk-punk that is by turns The Jam and by turns the Dubliners. That might come across as Dropkick Murphys'-ish but instead by adding the political fury of early 80's hardcore and the mad acoustic strumming of the early 60's folk bands this New York band creates their own bracing noise. (Live)

Listen: Little Town of Bethlehem

*

3. Sloppy Seconds - Endless Bummer
As with their last album*, too many songs (i.e. throwaways like “Achy Breaky Skull", which grafts Ice Cube level misogyny to a Billy Ray Cyrus allusion) are not up to this Indianapolis band's junk culture standard. While the surfeit of songs hurts the flow a bit, it's still great to hear what is only their fourth album in twenty years. Ace Hardware's Chuck Berry-isms rock but it's B.A's lyrics, which at their best (and only then), exemplify pop-punk's mix of clever and stupid in ever-shifting proportions. Check out "Shut up and Pour Me a Drink" to hear this dichotomy at full blast.
(*Video for "Fifteen Minutes or it's Free")

Listen: Shut up And Pour Me a Drink

*

4. Lenny + the Piss-Poor Boys - S/T
Can you handle hurtin' tunes about jukeboxes, whiskey and the wrong side of the tracks which also name-drop Motorhead and the Ramones? Yes, of course you can. (Live)

Listen: Cambridgeport Saloon

*

(Note: actually a 7" cover and not the album in question)

4. Gordon Gano’s Army - S/T
Indie-rock tainted English pop-punk akin to the Zatopeks. Check out Russ Rock with it 's sad chorus of, "We won't be here tomorrow, we're only here today - we'll fade away". (Live)

Listen: Russ Rock

*

7. TV Smith – In the Arms of My Enemies
Englishman TV Smith's song writing exists in a terminal present - all of his songs could have been written at any point in his career. This is far from a fault and, in fact, proves his genius. Arrangements vary from punk to new wave to folk to full on rock n' roll but they're always played full force - gritty vocals, strong words, charged guitars and - let us make this the official word of MRML - anthemic, anthemic, anthemic (spell check claims its not even a word!).

Listen: Weak Glue (Clone Town video)

*

6. Cute Lepers - Can't Stand Modern Music
Retro-minded, perhaps but this Seattle crew have their mind stuck in that sweet spot of 1979 - the Buzzcocks, the Rezillos, The Boys and the Circles - which makes for punk-mod-power-pop-new-wave joy.

Listen: Terminal Boredom (Video)

*

8. Ezra Furman and the Harpoons - Inside the Human Body
The "Dylan Was a Punk album" of 2008 and also the band who really deserve the name, "Gordon Gano's Army". (Perhaps, with all this attention, the Violent Femmes' frontman's cultural re-birth is at hand.)

Listen: Take off Your Sunglasses (Video)

*

9.Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click - Gallery
Heartrendingly catchy power-pop from this resurrected former leader of the mid 80's San Francisco also-rans Translator.
Listen: Cartoon Safe (Video)

*

10. Kung Fu Monkeys - Christmas for Breakfast
Another single collection detailing a pop-punk band's erratic evolution, except this time it's all sunshine, lollops and la-la-la's as the Kung Fu Monkey (the New York twee-punk band not the Tijuana ska-punk one) prove why they are "America's Favorite Band". (Live)

Listen: America's Favorite Band


There, now you can ring in the New Year to the tune of 2008.