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Wire – 154 (Pink Flag)
Though I’m puzzled by Wire’s decision to jettison all the bonus tracks from the last round of CD reissues on Restless in 1993 of their first three must-have albums, 1977-1979, this third LP was the one with the least essential bonus tracks, anyway (just the four odd and stange, incongruent experimental tracks that came with the bonus 7” that was originally slipped into the import version of the vinyl album), so you’re not missing anything in this case, and the sound here is genuinely pristine. And it says here that 1979’s 154 was one of the 15 or 20 greatest albums ever made. It’s an absolute atmospheric post-punk masterpiece and it still sounds like no other album I’ve ever heard, 27 years later.
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Hazey Janes – Hotel Radio (Measured U.K.)
It’s amazing that the postage-stamp-sized kingdom of Scotland has turned out such an astonishing wealth of talent during this last decade (as if they’d been hoarding it!), routinely beating England, even. The latest is these Dundee newcomers, who wildly fulfill the potential shown in their 2004 six-song mini LP and 2005 “After All” single. These four great songwriters and three ace singers encapsulate the singular strengths of Scotch godfathers TEENAGE FANCLUB, then ram a boatload of the best country-rock pegs into the crystalline power-pop base.
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Sleepover Disaster – Oceanographer EP (Overcast)
This is the best shoegaze/dreampop MY BLOODY VALENTINE-ish record I’ve heard in eons, even better than the Fresno, California band’s LP last year. This should make my Top 10 for the year!
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We March – The Madness Ends Here (Non-Prophet)
We March aren’t getting any slower as they get older. Like 2002’s debut Life in a Bubble, these Athens, OH guys bring back everything worth loving in early ‘80s punk/first wave of hardcore (before it became all mindless thrash, speed, and shouting). Fast, intense, crazy.
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Sing Sing – Sing Sing and I(Aerial/Reincarnate/Sony BMG)
It took five years of no-label financial hardship and donations from fans for recording to produce this follow-up to 2001’s debut The Joy of Sing Sing (Manifesto). (Twenty-six of those fans are thanked here.) But and I is another assured creation resulting from the experience of singer/songwriters LISA O’NEILL and former LUSH star EMMA ANDERSON.
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The Go-Betweens – That Striped Sunlight Sound CD + DVD (Welfare)
Just another reason to cheer the return of ROBERT FORSTER and GRANT MCLENNAN, who resurrected their partnership as Go-Betweens some years ago and have thankfully kept it going. This CD/DVD package is a chance to either watch and listen, or just listen to their triumphant homecoming show back in their native Brisbane, Australia, August 6 last year.
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Jon Auer –
Songs From the Year of Our Demise (Pattern 25)
Such a beautiful debut solo LP by THE POSIES veteran, I just keep playing and playing and playing this! Really lovely stuff, not at all like his band, much as I love them too. This is what solo LPs are for!
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The Knickerbockers – Rockin’ With the Knickerbockers (Sundazed)
Sundazed has already served collectors and fans by reissuing both albums by this ‘60s group originally from Bergenfield, NJ, whose members moved to L.A. to be a recording act. So here’s the best introduction for those who only know the Knicks from “Lies,” their hoppin’, Beatlesesque slammer on the famous Nuggets compilation.
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Tarkio – Omnibus double CD (Kill Rock Stars)
Before leading Portland’s DECEMBERISTS, COLIN MELOY fronted this alt-country quartet in Missoula while majoring in English at the University of Montana. Start with the much better disc two: Here alt-country is barely an accent, while the now-familiar SMITHS influence and Meloy’s fanciful narrative genius show themselves on “My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist” and other folksy tracks.
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Johnny Cash – Live at Austin, TX DVD (New West)
Those inspired by JOAQUIN PHOENIX’s respectable imitation of Cash in Walk the Line to view the deceased real thing are advised to seek out the TV-special footage of Cash’s famed late-’60s prison concerts (Folsom and San Quentin). But even much later in this 1987 taping, it was clear that, even in his 50s, the great man in black was still thriving and entertaining, albeit as a less rockin’, more adult-oriented act.
