YTD recordings listened to: 247
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 147
Not good music: 84
Honorable Mentions: 8
Buys: 5
Possibles: Boyd Rivers, Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, Bill Horist, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, About Group, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Bone Dance, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Debruit, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, Alexander Hawkins, Cheryl Pyle, Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, Spacesuits, T.O.M.B., Fofoulah, Lozen, Erase Errata, Mohammed Abozekry, Dawn Richard, Torche, Leo Welch, Astral Swans, Mastery, Leviathan, Lightning Bolt
@@@ John the Conqueror: Gimme Gold (Alive Naturalsound, 2015). Some swamp rock with a pube of punk attitude that I got to via a music publicist. Rhythm tight as fuck with a nice variety of guitars both strummed and melodic and a deep voiced singer. The layered background vocals lend a kinda campy vibe to the proceedings.
Stream it over here.
@@@ Bohannons: Black Gold, Black Cross (This is American Music!, 2015). A little stony and a little slack on the opener to this rock record I got to via a music publicist. I hear more Pearl Jam than Black Sabbath who get name checked in the marketing blurb. Oh, I like the singer, super rock ‘n roll but without all the bullshit. I like it all right, it’s a little tough without being super satisfying in that department and frankly I lean more towards the more working class Black Sabbath than the wiener boy Pearl Jam action.
Stream it up over here.
@@@ Alfa: Harmattan (Head in the Sand, 2014). In the hip hop section of the weekly CFUV weekly email the opening tune is a rock guitar, with funky Latin rock drum beats, chill organ and synth action in the chorus and an MC that raps but also toasts, An interesting blend of rock, world, and hip vibes.
@@@ Sons of an Illustrious Father: Sons (Big Picnic, 2015) A downtempo, gloomy indie sound on this first tune, No Mercy. Organ swells, dour female singer, hey I dig the bummer people. The second tune features a different vibe with an medium urgent male singer, a more rockin’ flow, I like this better. Much better. The third tune has a different singer and the electric organ reminds me of Supertramp so these guys are definitely committed to one particular sound, which is cool. I coulda used a whole record of that second song. I can’t find anything from the new record but here’s something from a recent one.
Deep In the Music 