A best songs of the year is inherently ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of songs released over a twelve moth period. So let us suspend our disbelief in the comprehensiveness of this blogger's listening and enjoy some ripping tunes. And ripping it must be, for this list is tightly bound by my taste for the punchy over the swishy, the pounding over the lilting, the catchy over the fancy and for just the relentless pursuit of relentlessness.Unlike my unappreciated albums list, neither acclaim nor sales (nor the lack thereof) are a factor here - and no crossover betwixt the two lists is allowed - this time it's strictly about the songs!
In no particular order...
1. The Biters Hang Around
Races like an Exploding Heart!
2. Bad Religion The Devil in Stitches
Those melodic songs with the maddeningly allusive lyrics of Mr. Brett are always the highlight of a Bad Religion album.
Listen here
3. Frank Turner I Still Believe
I fuckin' love Rock N' Roll Retrenchment songs!
4. OFF! I Don't Belong
Really, you could pick any song at random from the The First Four 7"'s and lay waste to much of the contemporary music landscape.
More here
5. Graham Parker: First Responder
GP still knows.
6. Len Price 3 I Don't Believe You
Mod-punk lives in the UK!
Listen here
7. Candy Hearts: Don’t Go Blocking the Sunshine
Indie-twee-punk-pop!
More here
8. Leatherface My World Ends
By rule of custom and law all staff of The Big Takeover must adore Bad Religion, Teenage Fanclub, The Buzzcocks and Leatherface - well I'm batting .750...
9. Rev Peyton: Clap Your Hands
If every generation gets the white bluesman they deserve, perhaps the millennials will anoint Warp Tour vet Reverend Peyton (whose new album, The Wages, was produced by former Zero Boy Paul Mahern and released on Side One Dummy) their Delta man.
10. Varsity Weirdos: Why I Didn't Like August '93
Pop-punk band covers 90's East Coast indie-rock band Elevator to Hell: Goodness ensues
Listen here
11. Miniboone "Cool Kids..."
Indie gets some of it's rock n' roll back.
More here
12. Sleigh Bells Infinity Guitars
Sure hype is toxic but you just need to minimize your contact with it to avoid the ill-effects.
More here
13.Butch Walker: She Like Hair Bands
No matter his twisted history, Walker cuts a fine and clever power-pop line between Marshal Crenshaw and Fountains of Wayne.
Listen here
14. Mark Bates: Death Sucks
Catchy folk-rock song full of desperately clever lines.
Listen here
15. Vampire Weekend: Ruby Soho
Contra was a fine follow-up but I always loved the way the hipsters didn't realize that they were digging a ska band and that the band was unashamed to show it (by say, covering a Rancid song!)
See here
16. Justin Townes Earle: Harlem River
A little of his Dad, a little of his namesake, a little of the Freewheeelin' Dylan and something altogether different.
See here
17. Van Buren Boys Told You So
"I know it's only rock n' roll..."
See here
18. NoMeansNo Something Dark Against Something Light
There's still a some twisted, dark little secrets in the NMN formula.
19. The Dahlmans: Holiday Road
Lyndsey Buckingham (and Chevy Chase) move over, this song has a brand new owner!
See here
20. The Queers: Back to the Basement
Yup, the new Queers album does represent a return to "1-2 Fuck You" sorta punk rock but Joe King has a way with a tune that all the snottiness in the world can't hide.
See here
21. The Lanskies: Bank Holiday
Franco-British Cure-Meets-Futureheads goodness.
More here
22. World Inferno/Friendship Society: Paul Roebson
Ya really can't nail this band down, I mean who guessed they were holding back an A Capella e.p. recorded back in 2005?
23. The Contrast: Coming Back To Life (or "Caught in a Trap")
Such retro-sixties-ness is blatant Little Steve's Underground Garage bait but we're all the richer for it.
24. Superchunk "Crossed Wires"
A nineties resurgence I never expected
Listen here
25. The Alarm Direct Action
Mike Peters has beaten cancer and an unpleasant mid-career gulch (much of the 1990's) to hit a sustained career high in the aughts.
More here
26. Houseboat DC Showcase Presents: Inferiority Complex, Volume 420
As they warn, "You want novelty? Innovation? Vicissitude?!? You're outta luck!"
27. Betty & the Werewolves: Paper Thin
Twheeeeeeee!
More here
28. Forgetters Vampire Lessons
Blake Schwarzenbach is bach.
See here
29. Magic Kids Super Ball
C'mon that's adorably ridiculous...
30. Article of Faith Back with a Vengeance
Another unexpectedly furious surprise reunion.
31 Wavves King of the Beach
"Noise-pop" is what Nathan Willliams's work gets labeled, as if The Velvet Underground, The Buzzcocks, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pixies and Jay Reatard were all reference points, which they kinda are but with more Beach Boys (noise-surf?)
32. The Rags "Love is a Lie
Smart Irish guitar-pop.
THE RAGS - LOVE IS A LIE from The Rags on Vimeo.
More here
33. Less Than Jake TV Medley
I admit that the novelty factor and the visuals (and not the dreadful run-though of the That 70's Show theme*) got these long-running ska-punks on the list. * Yes, I know...
Well...
LEAVE A COMMENT:
A) TELL US IF WE GOT YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW!
B) TELL US WHAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE ON THE LIST!!
C) TELL US WHAT SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE THE LIST!!
D) Level with us now, is thirty-three songs too damn much? (This was kinda back-breaking work and part of me wonders if I shouldn't scale it back for everybody's sake.)
AND, OF COURSE, IF YOU LIKE THE MUSIC - SUPPORT THE DAMN BANDS!!!
