January 3rd, 2017 | by Staff | published in Best of the Year | 1 Comment »
Fuck 2016. Excuse my French, but there’s no other way to say it. This past year was as horrible as it gets. We not only lost an inordinate number of creative talents, but the morons who make up a large portion of our country’s population elected king dipshit to lead our country for the next four years. Add in a big helping of police murdering …
January 15th, 2016 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
Each year, when looking back at the 12 months of music that have passed, it is always tempting to make a definitive qualitative statement. But whether or not 2015 was on the whole a good year for music is completely irrelavant. If the takeaway is one incredible record or a handful of good but not great albums, I’ll take the former every time. Anyway, I …
January 13th, 2016 | by Josie Rubio | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
10. Bristol, Bristol (Kwaidan Records)
While the rampant ’90s musical nostalgia this year has mostly been grunge- and indie-focused, Marc Collin turned to trip-hop. Collin—the man behind Nouvelle Vague, which gave us brilliant French-accented bossanova covers of new wave, punk, and post-punk classics by Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, Buzzcocks, and Blondie, among others—now has created Bristol to give the ’60s …
January 11th, 2016 | by Nate Knaebel | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
Agit Reader head honcho Stephen Slaybaugh recently asked me if I heard anything in 2015 that really moved me, and my response was, “No, not really.” Yet here I am, able to name 30 different full-length new releases and reissues that genuinely did stir me this year. I suppose I answered hastily. I truly believe there’s always great stuff out there if you want it. …
January 8th, 2016 | by Kevin J. Ellliott | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
10. Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style (Matador Records)
Given the dearth of rock records on this year’s list, it’s easy to assume we need more guys like 22 year-old Will Toledo in our lives. Teens of Style is a spark of an album, like Is This It?, On the Mouth, or Slanted and Enchanted. It has an immediacy …
January 6th, 2016 | by Matthew Lovett | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
Guitar rock in 2015 solidified two already growing trends: one, female and trans voices fronting more bands, bringing with them a fresh perspective rock really needed; and two, vibe over energy. The best rock this year moved from just being gnarly sounding to making you feel gnarly feelings.
So yes, there were significantly less anthemic tunes this year …
January 5th, 2016 | by Dorian S. Ham | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
10. Dr. Dre, Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre (Aftermath/Interscope Records)
After 11 years, Dr. Dre threw in the towel on the mythical Detox record. Instead, he broke his hiatus with this relative quickie album inspired by his involvement with the Straight Outta Compton movie. It raises the question: If he could just bang this record out, why in the world did …
January 4th, 2016 | by Richard Sanford | published in Best of the Year | 9 Comments »
10. Algiers, Algiers (Matador Records)
This Atlanta band starts with the dark gospel heart that’s always been the engine powering rock & roll and adds noisy, choked guitar and keys over layers and layers of raw percussion. The sparseness of these arrangements makes the intensity of the songs almost unbearable, but intoxicating at the same time. Algiers is a magical record with …
December 31st, 2015 | by Matt Slaybaugh | published in Best of the Year | Leave A Comment »
Here are the highlights from my year in music, in vaguely chronological order.
Sleater-Kinney
My whole year revolved around Sleater-Kinney’s words and guitars. It started in late 2014, as their joyously designed vinyl boxset, Start Together, waited on the porch for me to return from vacation. That box contained a lot of surprises, none more exciting than the unlabeled 7-inch which turned out to …
December 30th, 2015 | by Staff | published in Best of the Year | 1 Comment »
#10Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas once told me, “I am pretentious and I revel in my pretensions, but I don’t like elitism, particularly.” The title of this boxset of Ubu’s earliest work flies in the face of that assertion and is no doubt more than a little tongue-in-cheek. But whatever you make of the …