Fifteen Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2013

The TL;DR version of all previous lists (see HERE) is: indie rock doesn't, so MRML vouches for the under-valued rocking and/or rolling albums of the year, based on our scatter-shot listening experience. Speaking of scatter-shot, there's an above average number of entries that straddle the years but that's just the nature of the fluid times we live in. For more musical awesomeness Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

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

1. M.O.T.O. - Pack Your Troubles In Dreams

Paul Caprino's one man assault on American mediocrity has taken on ever greater force recently. Sure the recording/release date of this album is a bit muddled but whatever their vintage, these songs are timeless, fire-breathing rock n' roll.

2. Dirt Box Disco - People Made of Paper
Attitude-driven British punk rock with both a metallic edge and a pop coating. Early Wildhearts or Troublegum-era Therapy? would be workable points of reference. I heard PMoP and the the late-2012 album Legends this year and both deserve your attention now!

3. The Connection - Let It Rock
If Nick Lowe ever took a pop-punk band under his tutelage,  Portsmouth, NH band The Connection ("garage rock for now people" as they put it) is exactly how they'd sound!

4.  Upset - She's Gone
This new L.A. band, featuring members of Vivian Girls, Best Coast and...Hole [!], got some decent indie-press for the their first K Records meets Lookout! Records retro-riot grrl sound but were soon ignored for more typical indie fare

5. Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen
Pretty, echoey second album by this British band who sound a lot like what would have happened if a C-86 band had stumbled into The Batcave.

6. Willie Nile - American Ride

The troubadour of New York, Willie Nile, has been putting out fantastic rootsy rock n ' roll albums records for years to wide acclaim but limited fame. I hope that's gonna change one day soon...

7. BarrenceWhitfield & The Savages - Dig Thy Savage Soul
Bostonian Barrence Whitfield has been showing off his explosive garage-rock/R&B amalgam for years but may just have perfected it with this record. 

8. First Base - S/T
As the tags have it; "rock, bubblegum, garage, lo-fi, pop punk, Toronto".

9. Bad Religion - True North

These veteran LA punks have never disappointed (hey, I heard "Into the Unknown ten years after the fact and was surprised at how much better it was than I'd been promised!) in their thirty years+ and this return to No Control era speed-rock kept their streak alive, especially the classic Mr. Brett style-song, "Robin Hood in Reverse".

10. Louise Distras - Dreams From The Factory Floor
Winner of this year's Dylan Was A Punk Award (Cate Blanchett Division), Londoner Louise Distras rocks an acoustic so forcefully that she's the very image of what the offspring of Joan Jett and TV Smith would be!
Sidenote: I first heard of Distras when she followed me on Twitter before unceremoniously dumping me but spite ain't enough to make me ignore this record! 

11. The Crunch - Busy Making Noise

Punk supergroups are justly viewed with suspicion butt this album, dominated by support players, Dave Tregenna of Sham 69 and The Lords of the New Church, Mick Geggus of the Cockney Rejects and Terry Chimes of The Clash is innocent of nostalgia-mongering. Rather the band works in subtly and powerfully in service of the songs by Sulo Karlsson of nineties Swedish rock band, Diamond Dogs.

12. John Moreland - In the Throes

Country album of the year (along with Kasey Musgraves more mainstream but justifiably celebrated, Same Trailer, Different Park) comes from this Oklahoma City singer-songwriter who's punk rock roots keep this album grounded and clear-eyed, as tracks like "Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore" prove.

13. Phil Odgers - The Godforsaken Voyage

Phil Odgers, founding member of The Men They Couldn't Hang" put out a historically and traditionally minded Brit-folk album that doesn't need loud guitars and bashing drums to keep moving.

14. Badger - Stars, Guitars and Motorcars

This rocking power-pop album by Norwegian band, Badger arrived late 2012 and is hence our Anachronism of the Year.
 

15. Undecided by Default - Totally Undecided 

While Holdover of the Year is not a tradition I want to start, this was the year that Undecided by Default's Totally Undecided  physically came out on CD and you should all go listen to this band as they show the fucking hipsters how the rocking is done!!

Fin

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE ALBUMS?

WHAT ARE YOUR UNDERAPPRECIATED ALBUMS THAT ROCKED 2013?

WE LIVE AND DIE BY FEEDBACK HERE, SO PLEASE SAY YOUR PIECE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

 

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The Price: The Price You Pay 7" (1988)

We've been covering the UK's political-punk underground of the eighties ('cause we're specific that way here at MRML), which allows me the honour of bringing to light the largely undervalued  Uxbridge band The Price.

The Price were led by guitarist Leigh Heggarty (his fascinating blog is here), who currently may have one of the best jobs of the 21st century - playing guitar with The Ruts, The Advert's TV Smith, Back to Zero and more besides! Heggarty's guitar word, so in demand these days, is what gave The Price's sound a fluent urgency and a melodic intensity in the same way Mick Jones did in The Clash.

Heggarty had previously led a studio-only band, Society (get it here) whose sole single came out in l980 and then another band The Others, who recorded a strong demo in the mid-80's.






The Price, also featuring Malcolm Andrews on vocals, Huggy Harewood on bass and Mick Francis on drums, did manage to tour and create a small, cogent discography in the late 80's and early 90's.

The band's debut single on So What Records (SW 001) has a propulsive reggae track, "The Price You Pay" as the AA side and a fast rocker, "The Man With the Plan as the A-side ("So What Records, the label with no B-sides", went the slogan). It's a powerful opening salvo but there was much more to come!






All rips, scans and info come courtesy of the man himself, Mr. Leigh Heggarty, please consider leaving him (and your friendly neighbourhood blogger) a COMMENT about this material!


Leigh's Mad World of Guitars

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What Music Did You Buy This Week? (04/03/13)

Watch out bank account, I'm spending like a right-wing politician elected on a balanced-budget platform! I've been pretty cautious these last few months, so I guess a splurge would not be out of character. The Moxy Fruvous (Canadian novelty-folk, unlikely to be profiled here) was only $5.00 and a cool find because it's a radio promo of a cassette that was never released on CD.

 

I paid full freight (about $22.00) for the new UK Subs album, XXIV, which is fierce affair, all 'pensioner-punks' slights aside.





The Graham Parker bootleg box was a cool item that I was hesitant buy until the price dropped to $21.00 for a six CD set [!]





The Rodriguez album, Cold Fact, has been inevitable since I watched the spell-binding Searching For Sugarman twice, once by myself, once with my wife and a friend.

I also downloaded the the re-issue of TV Smith's 1975 glam-rock band Sleaze (it was only $4.99 and the vinyl is $21.00!) plus the debut by NYC's Pedico because "Nixon Now" rocked.





So readers, tell us what music you've bought recently in the COMMENTS section!

TV Smith w/ Leigh Heggarty:12 Bar Club, 2012

Few artists are as emblematic  of everything this blog stands for than former Advert, TV Smith (more HERE) and his never-shut-up, never-mellow-out and never-say-die philosophy. So it is fitting that we break our longest silence ever, with a bootleg of the indefatigable Mr. Smith accompanied by an even more subterranean punk figure, Leigh Heggerty. Heggerty, who here provides superbly tasteful guitar back-up, currently plays with The Ruts D.C. and well as... well, here's a link to his blog and a promise that I'll try to run down some more of this under-appreciated figure's accomplishments this month.  What we have here is a super-clear audience recording of a powerful show with a varied set-list - big thanks to exedore for the stellar work.





TV Smith w/ Leigh Heggarty - 12 Bar Club - 07 Dec 2012

01. Intro Banter
02. No Time To Be 21
03. Bored Teenagers
04. Tomahawk Cruise
05. Have Fun
06. Coming In To Land
07. It's Expensive Being Poor
08. Banter
09. Ready for the Axe to Drop
10. You Saved My Life Then Ruined It
11. Buried By The Machine
12. Buried By The Machine Breakdown
13. In The Arms of Our Enemies
14. Banter/Bringing Up Pascal Briggs
15. The Lord's Prayer
16. The Lion and the Lamb
17. Gary Gilmore's Eyes
18. One Chord Wonders
19. Farewell Banter
20. Good Times Are Back
21. Encore Banter
22. Runaway Train


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All the Small Things: Best Singles + E.P.'s of 2012

As I said in the Albums of the Year post (see HERE), this list cannot claim much omniscience but rather it just offers my perspective on the kind of undervalued but ferociously alive releases that the big name lists tend to ignore.

Our second BotY list covers all those EP's and singles not applicable for that "Best Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2012" (see HERE). As usual, this list is heavy on the punk and pop-punk heavy 'cuz punk bands have always had a thing for short, explosive releases.

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

1.     Channel 3 - Land of the Free EP
A viscous comeback by Cerritos, California's CH3 (more HERE), who have kept at it for thirty years just for the love of loud n' fast rock and anthemic song-wring!




2.     Max Levine Ensemble - Elephant in the Room EP
Washington D.C.'S Max Levine Ensemble (more HERE), a quirky loud-guitar band beloved in the pop-punk community, put out what might be their best single this year.




3.     Japandroids - House that Heaven Built 7"
Celebration Rock by Vancouver's Japandroids was huge on indie-rock-based lists, which is fitting because with songs like 'The House that Heaven Built', a loud, fuzzy anthem, they deserved some damn accolades.




4.     Kurt Baker - Want You Around EP
Portland power-pop-punk Kurt Baker (more HERE) keeps racking up the hits (his album Brand New Beat would've been on my Albums of the Year list if I'd had more room).




5.     Will Hoge - Modern American Protest Songs EP
A rough country-rock attack on American indifference by Nashville misfit, Will Hoge (more HERE).




6.     The Street Dogs - G.O.P. 7"
A sing-along street-punk attack on the Grand Old Party (courtesy of British Oi! band, Menace) by The Street Dogs (more HERE), a Boston-based off-shoot of the Dropkick Murphys.




7.     Dead Ending - Self-Titled EP
Some might call Dead Ending (more HERE), featuring Rise Against bassist Joe Principe, Alkaline Trio drummer Derek Grant, The Bomb and  Noise By Numbers guitarist Jeff Dean and Articles of Faith singer Vic Bondi, a Chicago punk super group but judging from this furious E.P, they're really more of a celebration of the  joy of rage.




8.     Capitalist Kids - Sarah/Ayn 7"
T'was a big year for political singles and Austin, Texas's Capitalist Kids (more HERE)  knew they had to  go big and consequently went after two movement conservative babes, Sarah Palin and Ayn Rand who's influence in right wing circles subsequently declined - COINCIDENCE?




9.     Big Eyes - Back From the Moon 7"
On this single, Seattle punk/pop band Big Eyes (more HERE) puts the hooks and the crunch together just so, in a decidedly Fastbacks-ian manner

 


10.   Teenage Bottlerocket - Joy Division 7"
Wyoming pop-punkers Teenage Bottlerocket (more HERE) branch out by effectively covering two less-known tracks by Manchester's favourite doom merchants, Joy Division.




11.    The Dahlmanns - Dumb Me Down 7"
Norway's Lords of Punk-Powereed-Pop, The Dahlmanns (more HERE) just go from strength to strength!




12.    House Boat - 21st Century Breakroom 10"
This concept 10" jumps from brilliant idea to brilliant idea to dizzying effect - far and away their best release (more HERE)  



13.    The Swingin' Utters - The Librarians are Hiding Something
Punk rock + librarians = Utter perfection (more on San Francisco's Swingin' Utters HERE)




14.    TV Smith - Dangerous Playground EP
Just when this four-song'er, recorded to accompany a German play, threatens to be a minor entry in Englishman TV Smith's (more HERE)  catalog along comes the anthemic "The Rock n' Roll" to blow you away.

 


15.  The Mockers: Man of la Mancha EP
Long-running Virginia band The Mockers (more HERE) are a straight-up power-pop with a weakness for show tunes and political satire.

While I'm sure I missed some great little releases, that covers almost everything  - EXCEPT YOUR VOICE!

Did you hear anything you liked on this list?
What wold make your list of best singles/E.P's of 2012?
LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!! 

Punk Aid: 'Ere's Your Xmas (2003)

This little three song'er will have to kick off my dis-contiguous series of Christmas posts. This wildly-tacky looking 2003 single is a benefit featuring TV Smith (The Adverts), Captain Sensible (The Damned), Charlie Harper (UK Subs) and Martin Newell (the Cleaners from Venus) which slags the pop charts in a pop chart-friendly kinda way. The song bears the Captain's theatrical absurdity ("Say Captain, Say Wot") and is pretty fun, as his re-make of the old Damned obscurity "There Ain't No Sanity Clause".





The big ticket item under this dead tree, however, is TV Smith's "Christmas, Bloody, Christmas" a broadside aimed squarely at the big man in the red suit's symbolic fat ass. While it attacks all that is ridiculous about the season, it's not terribly mean spirited, it just demands more of the season while being a virulent ear-worm (ask my eldest child and his none-too-pleased mother if you don't believe me!)





For more video of this TV Smith/UK Subs show from yesterday, go visit the ever-excellent Aural Sculptures.

 (Thanks to atvmpdiscography for the images)

Support the bands!

A few copies available here.

TV Smith's home Page

The Damned's home page

 UK Subs Homepage

TV Smith: Lucky Us (2012)

I haven't yet secured a copy of the new volume of rarities from TV Smith (more here), formerly of The Adverts (more HERE), this donation-only pair of out-outtakes (especially "The New You") promise some lost wonders



 
 
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Die Toten Hosen: Rock Me Amadeus (2012)

German punk-stars, Die Toten Hosen (more HERE) - and massive TV Smith fans (see HERE) - recently unleashed a new album called Ballast Der Republik. The album has all the expected massed guitars and soaring choruses that make you want to shout-along to whatever the fuck they're saying.





As the bonus disk, the band recorded a set of amped-up covers of influential German artists. I'll confess to my own ignorance and say I only recognize Kraftwerk's "The Model" and eighties synth-pop staple, "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco:





Let us know what you make of DTH giving Amadeus a roughing up in the COMMENTS section.


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T.V. Smith & Die Toten Hosen: Only One Flavour (2001)

TV Smith (more here), formerly of The Adverts (more HERE) re-recorded some of his best work with German super-punk-stars Die Toten Hosen (his fourth biggest fans). The album, Useless: The Very Best of T.V. Smith proves his peculiar genius. Specifically, TV proves what a deft re-interpreter of his own material he really is because he never gets caught in that old stuff vs. new stuff war that artists and their fans can get dragged into. To TV, it's all the present:





Musically, Die Toten Hosen's (more here) backing him up on material spanning much of his career (but, sadly, not 1979-1983) proves how devastatingly consistent and relentlessly inventive the man is. Lyrically, TV and co. chose songs like "Gather Your Things and Go" and "My String Will Snap" that portray a world out-of-sorts, a world unjustly turned upside down. While Smith's never had truck with religion, he decries the wickedness of the world like a biblical prophet, just listen to his voice-of-one-screaming-in-the-wilderness anthem, "Get Ready for the Axe to Drop" for proof. To hear TV and the Dead Pants (as they might be known in English) work this theme to its most brutal effect, witness "Expensive Being Poor" one of the most excoriating broadsides ever written, a sharp paradox wrapped in a tune you could hum yourself to death with:





Smith's worldview is never clearer than on the album's sole new track, "Only One Flavour". Here, TV hoists himself up onto the rickety platform of the post-Communist left and, in a pique and at a peak, decries the monotony of political discourse in a capitalist society (see how even that sentence sounds awfully pre-1989). Useless, which shows off Smith's catalog of stirring songs that mix punk brio with folk tropes and that joyously hammer away at the the necessity at looking at our problems through different eyes (though maybe not Gary Gilmore's), is anything but.





So while the physical version (LP, CD) of Useless is seemingly out-of-print, the MP3 is back at iTunes, but to hear the single go to the COMMENTS section

                                       

                         (Images courtesy of Record Collectors of the World Unite)

 

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TV Smith and Suzy & Los Quattro (2003)

TV Smith (more here), formerly of The Adverts (more HERE), drafted Spanish punks Suzy & Los Quattro to be his partners-in crime for this 2003 release.




Smith and Suzy rip off the Adverts "New Church" from Crossing the Red Sea and also take TV's solo song, "What If" from Generation Y.





The gang pulls it off with guts but it's the cool vocal interplay with Suzy that once again proves just how much TV can get away with.

MRML Readers, give us your take on Suzy and Smith's misdeeds and tell us if you want me to keep the TV  blaring!

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TV Smith: Live in Blackpool, 2001

TV Smith (more HERE) formerly of The Adverts (more HERE), kicking ass and kicking up a racket in Blackpool in 2001. Nice clear, audience bootleg.





 


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TV Smith and Punk Lurex O.K. (2000)

(Image courtesy of Record Collectors of the World Unite)

TV Smith's (more here), formerly of The Adverts (more HERE) elasticity, demonstrated in his ability to play full-on whether the material is old or new, electric or acoustic, is one of his defining traits. The strongest proof of this elasticity, however, is seen and heard in TV's ability to play solo, just man and guitar or with any number of musicians. We've already heard him play with the Adverts, the Explorers, Cheap and Tom Robinson and even though we've so far ignored his guesting with Florida metal band Amen and German punk band the Nervous Germans, we've really just begun to explore the infinite permutations of TV Smith.





Punk Lurex O.K., a Finnish band whose origin story is cooler than the Joker backed up TV Smith on a tour and then recorder this little corker. The fact that the record kicks off with re-recorded Adverts song (Alongside his "Punk Rock Poem") prove TV Smith remains in touch with his own past but it's the two new songs, "The World Just Got Smaller" and "The Future Used to be Better" proves that TV's as incisive, melodic and elastic as ever.





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TV Smith: Thin Green Line (1995)

TV Smith (more here), formerly of The Adverts (more HERE) has never lost his knack for penning songs with cutting lyrics that assail the privileged with unforgettable tunes that can rouse almost anyone. "Thin Green Line" isn't so-called folk-punk but a blazing punk song hammered out on an acoustic guitar. How TV Smith keeps his energy and passion burning so hot is a mystery I'm not sure I want solved:

Thin Green Line

We're faced with mile-high piles of money
Sitting in banks
Gold bars, credit cards
Aeroplanes and tanks
Buy, buy, satisfy
Call me when you're rich
Cheap food, cows dying in a ditch

We're having a hard time
Holding the thin green line

We're faced with out-of-town shopping malls
Suburban housing boom
Inner city empty lots
Damp in all the rooms
Bulls and bears, speculators
Marks, francs, yen
And the baby's crying again

We're having a hard time
Holding the thin green line

So come on down to the bottle bank
Make your deposit and relax
Nothing's going on behind your back
We'll make all the big decisions
You just watch the television
Smash the brown!
Smash the green!
Smash the clear!
It won't happen here

We're having a hard time
Holding the thin green Line

We watch the last of the species
Vanish from the screens
And get replaced by killer dogs
And their man on the scene
There are peeping toms, pop songs
Crime and sin and sex
All spewing out on newsprint
While the forest dies a death
They're cooling down reactors
While the natives die of thirst
They say let's all pull together
You first

We're having a hard time
Holding the thin green line

They say let's all pull together - you first
But they never pull together
No wonder we're having a hard time
Holding the thin green line

This Tom Robinson fortified E.P. also includes a sturdy version "The Lion and the Lamb", a pile-driving take on "Runaway Train Driver" (both originally from March of the Giants) and a hard-strumming attack on the Adverts "Gary Gilmore's Eyes". Like the album, the single is way-out-of-print.

(Image courtesy of Record Collectors of the World Unite)

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