I\u2019ve always been one for guitar rock, and I\u2019ll be with it until the end. Even though it seems there are a variety of thinkpieces about its death, the pessimism of rockism, or whatever, I find that the opposite is true. Sure, the genre wanes from year to year like any style, and admittedly, 2014 wasn\u2019t the best year for rock either. But there\u2019s always something happening, even if subtle, with this drum-bass-guitar-and-sometimes-keyboard set-up (the basic characteristic of rock as I have defined it and the sole characteristic needed for qualification on this list), with new bands ever-delaying its demise. That rings especially true this past year; while it usually takes some sort of modern-day heavyweight like the previous year’s Japandroids or Titus Andronicus records to get things going on a grand scale, guitar rock\u2019s tradition in 2014 fell largely to up-and-comers, bands we haven\u2019t heard in a minute or artists that haven\u2019t done something this revved-up before.<\/p>\n
Outside of power chords, most of the songs below share one hair-raising trait: they can be qualified by the age-old buzzword \u201canthemic.\u201d I defend anthemic tunes in sound and purpose; by channeling a cathartic response from their listeners, this kind of song allows a sizable segment of the bands playing guitar rock to persist. Plus, they\u2019re often more fun anyway. Be it in the fashion of pop-punk, third-wave emo revival, throwback indie rock, or simply one of those blurry songs with equal amounts of glam rock and Yo La Tengo, these songs (listed in no particular order) hit hard.<\/p>\n
White Lung, \u201cFace Down\u201d (Domino)<\/strong> Joyce Manor, \u201cCatalina Fight Song\u201d (Epitaph)<\/strong> Cloud Nothings, \u201cI\u2019m Not Part Of Me\u201d (Carpark\/Mom+Pop)<\/strong> Cymbals Eat Guitars, \u201cXR\u201d (Barsuk)<\/strong> White Reaper, \u201cCool\u201d (Polyvinyl)<\/strong> Twin Peaks, \u201cSloop Jay D\u201d (Grand Jury)<\/strong> Martha, \u201cDust, Juice, Bones and Hair\u201d (Salinas)<\/strong> Diarrhea Planet, \u201cPlatinum Girls\u201d (Infinity Cat)<\/strong> Against Me, \u201cFUCKMYLIFE666\u201d (Total Treble)<\/strong> Beach Slang, \u201cFilthy Luck\u201d (Dead Broke)<\/strong> Honorable mentions I\u2019ve always been one for guitar rock, and I\u2019ll be with it until the end. Even though it seems there are a variety of thinkpieces about its death, the pessimism of rockism, or whatever, I find that the opposite is true. Sure, the genre wanes from year to year like any style, and admittedly, 2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2479],"tags":[1050,1049,487,830,1053,753,1052,776,600,1051],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-of-the-year","tag-against-me","tag-beach-slang","tag-cloud-nothings","tag-cymbals-eat-guitars","tag-diarrhea-planet","tag-joyce-manor","tag-martha","tag-twin-peaks","tag-white-lung","tag-white-reaper"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAm I the only one that hears remnants of Slayer all over Deep Fantasy<\/i>? Yeah, it’s a hardcore record through and through, but the pace and the licks that lather this LP front to back are a dumbfounding force. \u201cFace Down\u201d is best representative of White Lung’s precision in its proclivity to otherwise disrupt.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s hardly a minute long, but this song is the most raucous 60 seconds you\u2019ve ever heard. It was a great idea for this track to lead the Never Hungover Again<\/i> promotional train as it\u2019s so characteristic of Joyce Manor. In pounding power chords and audible disdain, the record\u2019s heaviest cut yields blood-boiling screams and compels one to repeatedly move the needle back to the beginning.<\/p>\n
\nFrontman Dylan Baldi has shown a knack for lo-fidelity catchiness. Though the Cloud Nothings\u2019 sound has expanded greatly in the past few years, \u201cI\u2019m Not Part of Me\u201d is not really a new compositional direction. That is to say that this song is an addiction, with a perfect verse-chorus ratio that luckily doesn\u2019t cut out too early. Also, keep an ear out for Jayson Gerycz inimitable drumming chops.<\/p>\n
\nThe featured harmonica on \u201cXR\u201d might bare homage to cowpunk or the unforgiving folksy moments of Titus Andronicus\u2019 The Monitor<\/i>, but while it inflects more gruffness and emotion than any guitar on the track, it\u2019s never as much as the throat of lead singer Joseph D’Agostino. Listen in, and let the fists fly.<\/p>\n
\nThink Japandroids before Post-Nothing<\/i>, when they just started to build their propensity for deep anthems in not a lot of words (a la \u201cWet Hair\u201d). \u201cCool,\u201d off of White Reaper\u2019s excellent self-titled EP, is an unpretentious crush song\u2014the mixtape track for some girl who meant absolutely everything to you in 10th grade.<\/p>\n
\nTake Rolling Stones swagger, mesh it with Big Star urgency, then have a kid recently graduated from high school sing it and you get Wild Onion\u2019s \u201cSloop Jay D.\u201d With riffage that matches \u201cThe Boys Are Back in Town,\u201d it lends itself to a spot in an upcoming Guitar Hero franchise and is as unabashedly classic rock as 2014 got.<\/p>\n
\nMartha\u2019s Courting Strong<\/i> is a delicate, well-balanced set of songs knit together by pure melody and guitar phrasing that doesn\u2019t necessitate articulation. For fans of Yuck\u2019s 2011 self-titled album and the band Defiance, Ohio, \u201cDust, Juice, Bones and Hair\u201d is a becoming tribute to being yourself.<\/p>\n
\nDiarrhea Planet (as if the name isn\u2019t an indicator) kind of does whatever the band wants. On \u201cPlatinum Girls,\u201d the nation\u2019s finest glam pop-punk band ties together four guitarists and id-fueled melodies as well as they\u2019ve done on their full-length albums. Not to mention the music video features DP doing a spoof of The Adventures of Pete & Pete<\/i> opening theme.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFUCKMYLIFE666\u201d is the first real banger from the first Against Me record since frontwoman Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender in 2012. What a rager it is, too. Grace slams down all of her grievances regarding how she\u2019s changed, or how others have as a result. It must be unimaginably tough, though \u201cFUCKMYLIFE666\u201d provides a narrow glimpse.<\/p>\n
\nIf a song in 2014 could make you feel revitalized, it\u2019s this one. On \u201cFilthy Luck,\u201d Beach Slang channels pent-up energy into an anthem suited for shouting with friends in your basement. It is like the moment when you heard \u201cChesterfield King\u201d for the first time.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Ex Hex, \u201cWaterfall\u201d
\nViet Cong, \u201cContinental Shelf\u201d
\nChumped, \u201cHot 97 Summer Jam\u201d
\nOught, \u201cHabit\u201d
\nParquet Courts , \u201cSunbathing Animal\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"