Feature / Music / Year End 2014
2014: A Year In Review

January 13, 2015

2014: A Year In Review
2014: A Year In Review

It's time for our final retrospective look at 2014 – this time we're covering all the stuff we missed from last year, whether it's the best hip-hop records, weird album artworks, press onesheet mis-steps, reissues records or new discoveries at Fest. Read on to find out what things passed under your radar in 2014 and see if there's anything you can add to our lists.

The Best Hip-Hop Records of 2014

Its unlikely that there's another year-end rap list like this one, as outside of a few guilty pleasures I have little interest in the popular, hook-driven, thinned-out drivel that passes as "hip-hop" these days. Call me a grumpy curmudgeon if you must, but do so knowing that are very few things that I'm as passionate about as rap music. My approach to hip-hop is like that of a big man holding down the lane on a basketball court: Don't Bring That Weak Shit In Here.

  1. Run The Jewels (El-P & Killer Mike) - Run The Jewels 2

    (Mass Appeal)

    There's a common misconception that Kim Kardashian and her bare naked cosmetically enhanced buttocks broke the Internet. But that's impossible because the Internet was already broken by Run The Jewels 2. 

    On the surface El-P and Killer Mike may seem like an oddball paring. But onstage, like on wax, their interplay is seamless; surely a result of extensive recording and touring together. El-P, for all his titled cap buffoonery takes hip-hop very, very seriously. And Killer Mike, well he just goes hard. One of the things that makes Run The Jewels work so well is the personality that that pair have cultivated as a duo. While their music is tough-as-nails hip-hop, their outwardly appearance is a satirical caricature-like ode to a much more dangerous time in rap music. Read more...

  2. Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

    (Top Dawg / Interscope)

    Oxymoron is the first album out of the TDE/Black Hippy camp since good kid, m.A.A.d city catapulted Kendrick Lamar to stardom. And with its arrival, Schoolboy Q has emerged much in the same way: a conflicted individual whose rhyme scheme and subject matter is as varied as his beat selection.

  3. Apollo Brown & Rass Kass - Blasphemy

    (Mello Music Group)

    If you've heard one Apollo Brown loop you've heard them all. And that's a compliment. Dude is so consistent it should be illegal. Paired with D.I.T.C. legend OC and fellow Detroiter Guilty Simpson, he's made some of the best hip-hop in recent memory. This year he teamed up with veteran Cali emcee Rass Kass and the results are no different. Rass Kass been in the game for a minute—with releases dating back to ’96—and is enjoying somewhat of a resurgence thanks to Blasphemy. The synergy between the two is irrefutable; recalling rap history’s most revered deejay & emcee combos.

  4. Dilated Peoples - Directors of Photography

    (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

    Continuing the revitalization that began with 2011's Cats & Dogs on through to Lord Steppington, his Step Brothers collaboration with Alchemist earlier this year, Evidence regroups with fellow emcee Rakaa Iriscience and deejay DJ Babu for the first Dilated Peoples album since 2006. The result harkens back to those early underground backpack days: hard beats, record scratching, and slick dual emcee interplay.

  5. Has Lo & Castle - Live Like You're Dead

    (Mello Music Group)

    Two relatively unknown emcees coming together to create an album that is rooted in boom-bap but has a fair amount of experimental parts interwoven throughout it. Live Like You're Dead recalls Native Tongues legends like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest but still manages to sound unmistakably current.

  6. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

    (Madlib Invazion)

    Piñata is straight-up gangster rap. Madlib’s beats, which are culled from old-school soul, funk, and Blaxploitation, are the backdrop to Gangsta Gibbs signature misogyny, drug dealing, and pistol play. He’ll give the listener a glimpse of his softer side but he always holds back just enough as to not compromise his rugged ghetto-hardened exterior.

  7. Ratking - So It Goes

    (XL Recordings)

    Ratking is a group of youngsters from NYC made up of rappers Wiki and Hak and producer Sporting Life. They mix an alluring cocktail of post-everything/no-nothing (punk, wave, EDM, graffiti culture, whatever) noise that is strangely and undeniably hip-hop. So It Goes is their debut full-length LP.

  8. Meyhem Lauren & Buckwild - Silk Pyramids

    (Thrice Great LLC)

    Meyhem Lauren, the man responsible for the standout mixtapes Respect the Fly Shit and Mandatory Brunch Meetings, returns with an official album alongside legendary D.I.T.C. beatsmith Buckwild. And as expected from these two New Yorkers the result is straight boom to the bap. Silk Pyramids is the perfect soundtrack for a transit commute through the city, which is a great way to judge a rap record's worth.  

  9. Gangsta Boo & Beatking - Underground Cassette Tape Music

    (mixtape)

    In what very well may be the Internet’s greatest achievement to date, Memphis’ legendary Gangsta Boo and Houston’s mostly unknown Beatking join forces to intermingle the best parts of their respective cities’ rap histories. Underground Cassette Tape Music is dark, sinister, hood shit, and a reenergizing shot of down south hip-hop that pays homage to the past in a brand new way.

  10. The Voyagers - Rise of the Black Kings

    (mixtape)

    This Connecticut group released once of the year’s best mixtapes to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. Plug in your headphones, close your eyes, and get transported back in time to an era of hip-hop when everyone was sporting construction boots, baggy jeans, and puffy jackets; and the beats were simplistic and big. This is a lot like Flatbush ZOMBiES but more focus on lyricism and delivery than psychedelic gimmickry. Rise of the Black Kings is on some Pharcyde / Lyricist Lounge / early Wu-type ish. Totally banging.

  11. Timeless Truth - Dominican Diner EP

    (Timeless Truth)

    Oprime39 and Solace, the largely unknown New York City-based duo that makeup Timeless Truth, returned with a new EP. Dominican Diner is a perfect combination of laid-back summer-y hip-hop and traditional New York rap at its most authentic.

  12. Your Old Droog - Self-Titled EP

    (mixtape)

    Amidst a shroud of mystery and speculation this 20-something Russian white guy from Long Island dropped one of the best rap records of the year. And it’s not the best just because he sounds like a younger, hungrier version of a certain legendary rapper (who many people still believe him to be despite there being loads of inarguable evidence to the contrary) but because he’s really fucking good.

  13. HaLo - Mansa Musa (Guest Starring Masta Killa)

    (Jamla)

    Although Wu-Tang's Masta Killa gets a mention in the title he appears on only five tracks. Mansa Musa is ultimately emcee HaLo's big coming out party, as much as it is a vehicle to showcase Jamla Record's production team, The Soul Council. Ka$h, AMP, Eric G 9th all contribute tracks, as does their newest member Nottz. But the brunt of the workload behind the boards is attributed to Khrysis, whose muted bass hits deep and lends the album a sonically cohesive tone.

  14. Adrian Younge & Souls Of Mischief - There Is Only Now

    (Linear Labs / Essential Music)

    Producer Adrian Younge's highest profile project to date was last year's 12 Reasons To Die with Ghostface Killah. Using the momentum from that record he's teamed up with Oakland veterans Souls Of Mischief for another outstanding concept album. There Is Only Now is a fluid stream of storytelling raps. It's largely uninterrupted, save a few interludes by A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who plays a radio DJ who is narrating the developing plots in the story, not unlike Lynn Thigpen in The Warriors.  

  15. Mutual Daps - Self-Titled

    (Megakut / Solidarity)

    Heads may remember Luke Sick from Sacred Hoop and more recently Grand Invincible and Grand Killa Con. Mutual Daps, his latest project, is a Bay Area supergroup of sorts with fellow emcee White Mic and producer TC BoneLoc. Mutual Daps is takes the listener on an underground rap journey through the Bay, flexing a variety of styles from boom-bap to G-funk and back again. This thing is so chock-full of guest spots that it plays like a Bay Area variety show. Emcees QM, Philo, Lightbulb, Trunk Drank, and Z-Man all get verses. Although TC BoneLoc has the majority of the production credits, DJ Eons One, Brycon, and Sick himself also contribute beats. And DJ Quest and DJ Pause take turns adding cuts to a few tracks. Destined to be criminally underrated, Mutual Daps is underground hip-hop at its finest, courtesy of some cats that have been in the game a long-ass time.

There are a few things that didn't make the cut. Both Wu-Tang Clan and Ghostface Killah put records out but due to their late in the year release dates I was unable to digest them properly. In addition I left deejay and producer-based albums off the list. A-Villa's Carry on the Tradition got a lot of play around SPB HQ though. And I would urge mix fans to find Unearthed, DJ Revolution's mix of the Coalmine Records catalog. As for additional mixtape suggestions, both Ugly Frank's BobbyHill EP and Da Mafia 6ix's Hear Sum Evil are worthy downloads.

Follow Nathan on Twitter at: @OMG_NOB

- Nathan G. O'Brien

5 Records We Missed in 2014

There are more records that come out in a year than there are days, and while SPB tried to stay atop of it all, sometime a record or 5 will slip through the cracks.

Here are 5 releases that might have made another list, if only time had allowed.

  • Shellac - Dude Incredible

  • Swingin' Utters - Fistful of Hollow

  • Tim Barry - Lost & Rootless

  • Sims - Field Notes

  • Deerhoof - La Isla Bonita

- Loren

The Best Punk & Hardcore Records of 2014

Another year has passed and another million punk & hardcore records have been ingested. I find it interesting to see how my tastes within the genre have altered over time. This past year I shifted slightly away from the thrash, crust, D-beat, and blown-out raw punk that had been ruling my turntables for several years; instead becoming increasingly interested in post-punk revivalism and stuff that's a little bit more, for a lack of better term, experimental. In addition I've allowed myself to enjoy some of the more melodic, poppy punk that I'd all but sworn off a more than a decade ago. (I'm not totally comfortable admitting that last part actually.)

While this list isn't comprehensive by any stretch, I am confident that those who like their music loud, fast, dirty, and totally fucked up will find plenty to identify with here.

I encourage you to share your thoughts. If I missed something, tell me what it was. If you don't agree with me, tell me why. But before you question my validity know that I wrote this in the middle of the night while wearing pajama pants and an Aus Rotten tee shirt that I found in the gutter after a giant rainstorm in 2000. So I'm pretty much an authority on this stuff.  

  • Acid Fast - Rabid Moon

    (Protagonist)

    Angst-y, bouncy punk rock from Oakland. Melodic male-female vocal tradeoff gives it a sense of charm that’s hard to ignore. Close your eyes and let the fuzzy basslines, driving drums, and spirited guitar transport you to some damp basement party in 1993. Read more...

  • Boston Strangler - Fire

    (Boston Strangler)

    One of the more anticipated albums of the year that nobody knew about. And by nobody I mean me, until I heard about it on Twitter, at which point I began anticipating it being sold out everywhere.

    All the angry, punishing hardcore mosh from Primitive is still intact, but they've expanded their sound  somewhat. These songs are more melodic (think Blood For Blood) and there's even a touch of Oi! in there, which is likely the result of being from the same area as legendary groups like The Bruisers. This is tough guy stuff but not in a shoving-kids-in-lockers-y way.

    Good luck finding this one. Maybe sell plasma or something so you can pay collector scum prices on Discogs. 

  • Brain F - Empty Set

    (Grave Mistake / Sorry State)

    Same as Acid Fast, except the amps have been cranked, the riffs are harder, and the cocaine guy just showed up.

  • Condominium - Thug 7"

    (Condominium)

    The latest from this Twin Cities veteran trio, and the first offering since their Sub Pop excursion a year ago. Pounding pissed-off hardcore and art-damaged creepiness that has you grinding your teeth so hard you need a mouth guard just to listen to hit. My friends are probably really sick of hearing me talk about this band, but I’m sorry, I just can’t stop. Totally essential.  

  • Creative Adult - Psychic Mess

    (Run For Cover)

    Moody, reverb-heavy post-punk/post-hardcore with flourishes of goth and garage rock. Underneath everything lays a pulsing rhythm that allows them to hop in and out of genres while maintaining a cohesive tone.

  • Cross Examination - Dawn of the Dude 7"

    (Organized Crime)

    Sometimes I just want to eat a bunch of pizza, drink a 30 pack of Special Export Light, smoke one million doobies, make out with chicks in a swimming pool, stay up all night tripping on mushrooms while watching hippies swirl glow sticks and eat fire, and then make out with more chicks in a tent as the sun comes up. And sometimes I’m way too old and way too married to actually do those things anymore, so I just want listen to a record that reminds me what it was like to do those things. Read more...

  • Dark Blue - Pure Reality

    (Jade Tree)

    This Philadelphian trio traverse in the dark-punk/post-punk/gothic style that's risen in popularity in the last few years. John Sharkey III nails the Ian Curtis/Andrew Eldritch harrowing baritone style in a way that will make you forget a band like Interpol ever existed.

    So if I understand this right, this dude John moved his family from Philly all the way across the world to Australia where he worked as a night watchman on a college campus. It was cool kinda cool. After two years he moved them back to Philly where he hates his neighborhood and his life, which is not cool. Somewhere in the midst of all of this he wrote this really fabulous album about it.

  • Eastlink - Self-Titled

    (In The Red)

    Featuring members of Total Control, UV Race and other Melbourne acts, these guys bring fuzzed-out, droning punk weirdness to the forefront and then slather it in laborious riffs and monochromatic dual vocals for maximum LSD brain burn.

  • Ex-Cult - Midnight Passenger

    (Goner)

    Like the majority of the bands on this list, this Memphis crew—led by Chris Shaw of Vile Nation on vocals—understand that the best punk is a result of mashing a whole bunch of styles together to create something uniquely original. They take Krautrock, post-punk, psych, anarcho-punk and whole bunch of other stuff and throw it all in a blender. Then they pour it in a turkey baster, jam it in your ear, and force it deep into the recesses of your brain. You’re totally fucked but you feel kind of tough. Like a lanky punk walking down the street in the dead of winter, smoking a cigarette and wearing an open leather jacket with no shirt underneath.

  • Gas Chamber - Hemorrhaging Light

    (Iron Lung)

    I think I like this mostly because it confuses the shit out of me by combining genres of music I don't normally listen to, and often times, don't even like. It's like some bizarre amalgamation of tech metal, prog, and grindcore. I took a nap to this once and had the most messed-up dreams ever.

  • Gas Rag - Beats Off 12" EP

    (Beach Pediment)

    With a title like that, do I really need to say anything here? Snarling, hurtful, thrashing, D-beaten, and dumb as shit. Basically the best punk rock ever. Saw 'em this summer at Extreme Noise's anniversary bash and I instantaneously got twice as drunk as I already was, which was already questionable. 

  • Institute - Salt 12" EP / Giddy Boys 7"

    (Sacred Bones / Katorga Works)

    This year saw two more solid releases (in addition to the 12" vinyl reissue of their 2013 demo cassette) from this Austin, TX-based group. Anarcho-influenced post-punk is the name of the game. If someone told me this stuff came out on Crass Records in the '80s I would have no reason not to believe them. I totally dig the dejected teenage loner vibe the singer puts forth, even if it is a bit contrived. One of the better new bands of the last two years. 

  • Iron Hand - Injected Fear

    (Safety Meeting)

    D-beat hardcore that swims in the Scandinavian / Portland epic crust end of the pool; in the instrumentation at least. The vocals lend it some tough-guy-metal-core vibes, but not in a way that conjures up images of varsity logos, sXe calf tattoos, and Nike Cortez’s. Nike Cortez’s are dope though. Read more...

  • Kontaminat - Self-Titled 7"

    (Lengua Armada)

    Another in a long line of great releases from Martin Sorrondeguy's Lengua Armada label. Angry USHC with flourishes of Oi! mixed in. Call it working class hardcore if you will. I call it badass. Red, unlabeled vinyl and a jacket and liner notes that are printed on tracing paper makes for a really nice package too.

  • Legendary Wings - Do You See

    (Dirtnap)

    Anthemic poppy garage punk. There's a nice amount of distortion, especially on the vocals, that keeps the sound from veering into straight '90s pop-punk. Take any Dillinger Four song, add an extra shot of whiskey, and ramp up the pop sensibilities. I dislike a lot of similar-sounding stuff but this shit's A-OK by me.

    Now let's all go to the bar—somewhere in the Midwest preferably—have some drinks, sing along to the band, and then get sentimental about some stuff and maybe send a few texts we'll regret/not remember in the morning.

  • The Murder City Devils - The White Ghost Has Blood on its Hangs Again

    (Murder City Devils)

    Off-stage Spencer Moody is a quiet, awkward if not unassuming man. But when he takes center stage for The Murder City Devils he transforms into a rascally, howling maniac. On this album, the Seattle-based band's first full-length since 2000, he's more hoarse-throated and irate than ever before. The White Ghost, in all its eerie, emotive garage punk glory, is quintessential Murder City Devils.  

  • Nots - We Are Nots

    (Goner)

    I'm kind of sick of the term "weird punk" because punk by nature is supposed to be weird. That being said, Nots is weird punk (i.e., they have a keyboard player). Also, I predict Nots will blow up and become a band that's not supposed to be cool to punks anymore. And oh boy will that ever be a shame for those silly punks. 

  • Obediencia - El Angel Exterminador 7"

    (Solo Para Punks)

    Spanish language female vocals that are melodic and urgent. Garage-ish punk that's played a little bit faster than mid-pace. You pretty much have to dance to this or risk having your punk membership card clipped yours truly. Reminds me a lot of the Weird TV demo from a few years ago. Also of a band that would play an in-store performance during the day where you'd sneak a beer in.

  • Oblivionation - Cult of Culture 7"

    (Hardware / Man In Decline)

    Ex-Out Cold dudes doing their thing. Loud fast rules. Super strong build-ups, mean riffs, and throaty vocals that remind me a bit of DS-13. Really tough-sounding hardcore that vibes intellingent rather than meatheaded. 

  • Priests - Bodies and Control and Money and Power 12" EP

    (Don Giovonni / Sister Polygon)

    A lot of people have a lot of things to say about this Washington DC band. I am not one of them. I have only a few things to say about them and they are this: This EP totally reminds me of Bikini Kill’s first EP and that’s never a bad thing. I saw them play early in the year and they totally killed. That is all.

  • Puff - Identitatsverlust 7"

    (Slovenly)

    Classic-sounding punk punk. Albeit a little bit faster than they were doing things in the '70s and with enough erratic synth tossed in that it also makes it kind of new wave-y. The oddball vocals and German lyrics really give it that old-school punk effect I was talking about two sentences ago. Probably not as difficult to describe as I'm making it but oh well.

  • Replica - Beast 7"

    (Prank)

    Take menacing bass lines; mash them against blast beat drums (the kind that predate grindcore) and mean-sounding guitars; top it all off with Dharma Moony’s pissed-off snot-tinged vocals, and you’re left with this erratic little monster. Read more...

  • S.H.I.T. - Collective Unconsciousness 7" / Generation Shit 7" / Feeding Time 7"

    (Iron Lung / Lengua Armada / Static Shock)

    Big year for these Torontonians. Same as with Lumpy & the Dumpers, everyone from Maximum Rocknroll to DIY fanzine writers to Noisey/Vice is singing their praises, and not for lack of reason. They have all the style and grace a punk band could ask for. Leather jacket-clad front man who sings with nasally, echo-y vocals and puts forth creepo energy galore, backed by skilled players that bring the hardcore noise.

  • Teenanger - E P L P

    (Telephone Explosion / The Orchard)

    More Toronto folks here. Weird nasally vocals and Gang of Four/post-punk-driven garage rock. They toss in a bit of saxophone on one track which lends it some fringe punk/no-wave mileage. Soft female vocals on another for the '90s alt effect. Love the album cover pic of them posed inside a mall food court, taking pics with their cell phones. Also kind of want to try that burrito place they're standing in front of.

  • Teledrome - Self-Titled

    (FDH / P. Trash)

    How many hardcore bands screaming about “until the day we die” can you take, am I right? When some super ’80s style digi-punk comes along, it gives my eardrums a boner and my actual boner a hard-on. Dark, moody, and synth-heavy one man gig out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

  • The Estranged - Self-Titled

    (Dirtnap)

    The Estranged’s members are associated with crusty hardcore acts like Hellshock, From Ashes Rise, Lebenden Toten, and Remains of the Day so it might come as a surprise that they play post-punk, death-rock, and other subgenres that require hyphenated descriptors that sounds textured, un-cold, and, well, fun.

  • Lumpy & The Dumpers - Collection

    (Space Ritual)

    Like S.H.I.T. these St. Louis dirtbags have had a prolific couple of years. Thanks to a handful of slimy demos and singles and noteworthy live shows they've caught the attention of purest-of-heart punks and taste-making culture vulture media conglomerates alike.

    This LP brings together all of their recorded material to date, including the Total Punk 7", which features the punk song of the year, “Gnats in the Pisser." It's hard for me to continue talking about this band without using the F word multiple times a sentence, so I'll fucking quit right the fuck now. 

  • Vexx - Self-Titled 12" EP

    (M'lady's / Upset The Rhythm)

    This has all the fury and forwardness of hardcore but with a healthy dose of Pacific Northwestern rock 'n' roll punk attitude shot all up in its guts. Lead vocalist Maryjane zig-zags between rugged soulfulness and abrasive wailing, bringing to mind revered throats like Mia Zapata and Kathleen Hanna. It’s enchanting and terrifying all at the same time. These guys are from Olympia, so like, duh. 

  • White Lung - Deep Fantasy

    (Domino)

    Word is singer Mish Way doesn't like when you compare her band to a certain other now-defunct PNW-based band, which is weird because it's pretty much undeniable and usually meant as a compliment of the highest regard.

    If there's one album from this year who's songs I walk around humming even when it's not on it's been this one. This is this Vancouver punk’s third and most spirited album to date. Chock full of anthemic melodies and pulse-manipulating guitar work that sticks with you long after the tone arm has returned to its resting position.

  • Watery Love - Decorative Feeding

    (In The Red)

    Aside from rap music, this is probably the one record that annoyed my wife the most this year. And that's usually a pretty good indicator that it's the best punk. Shit, this record is so damn good I can hardly stand it myself. They're from Philly, and much like fellow Pennsylvanians Pissed Jeans, they play loud, heavy punk that's driven by an unsettling vocalist who screams scathing admonitions.

    On "Face The Door" Richie Charles (formerly of Clockcleaner) repeats the line, "unlike you dickheads, I welcome death" so many times that by the end of the song I'm like, yeah me too! The first few times I heard it I thought he was saying "I like you dickheads", which was funny. But either way is cool to me because he's using a childish, derogatory term and welcoming death at the same time, which is so punk I can barely handle it. 

I didn't put any compilations on here, but one that's worth mentioning is Maximum Rocknroll Magazine's 2xLP international punk comp, Sound The Alarms!! Do yourself a favor and track that one down.

Follow Nathan on Twitter at: @OMG_NOB

- Nathan G. O'Brien

The Year in Onesheet Mis-steps

The onesheet is always a losing proposition. As a writer, it's a useful piece with dates, membership, discographies, and the like. However, along with those essential pieces of factual tidbits, there's the inevitable hyperbole, flowerly language, and attempts to be funny.

There are also a lot of trend-hopping, and we've identified five of the worst from the past year.

  • "blackened [insert genre]"

    Yes, black metal is popular. That doesn't mean your band sounds like it.

  • "female fronted"

    This sounds like an accessory not a band member.

  • lyric videos

    Lyrics are good, but news they are not.

  • sending the same press release 3 times

    Starting off with "in case you missed this" doesn't get you off the hook, it just suggests that we don't read our email.

  • reissuing year old releases to drum up news

    It's called a second pressing. 

- Loren

Top 10 Reissues of 2014

"Sooner or later, everything old is new again."

-Stephen King, The Colorado Kid

  • The Bellicose Minds - The Buzz Or Howl Sessions

    (A389)

    Dark, early-‘80s-style goth/post-punk act from Portland, OR. This was originally self-released in a run of 500 dubbed cassettes. A389 picked it up for it’s first-ever 10” vinyl release. The initial masters were completely remastered, which gives a warm deepness to the overall sound. The artwork and layout and artwork was given a full overhaul as well. Sinister, depressing, angular, and catchy as heck.

  • Bikini Kill - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

    (Bikini Kill Records)

    In 2013 in honor of their 25th anniversary, this influential band released their debut EP on vinyl through their own recently-formed label. This year they continued the trend by putting out this expanded version of their side of the 1993 split with Huggy Bear on vinyl. This includes seven previously unreleased live tracks, as well as updated liner notes and new photos.

    “Rebel Girl” still surges forth with all the piss and vinegar that it did back in ’93 and is a reminder of why Kathleen Hannah was the face of riot grrrl. And newly unearthed tracks like “I Busted In Your Chevy Window” and “Girl Soldier” show us why she always will be.

  • Blank Pages - Self-Titled

    (Dirt Cult)

    This Berlin-based band's 10-song self-titled LP was originally released in Germany in 2013 on Hardware Records. Las Cruces, New Mexico label Dirt Cult, god bless their soul, picked it up for a US release that coincided with the band’s August tour of the West Coast. It’s not as snotty, dumbed-down, or as fast as the Ramones, but their unpretentious approach and melody is similar. They also delve into the dark punk spectrum that’s been picking up traction lately.

  • Bl'ast! - Expression of Power

    (Southern Lord)

    These Santa Cruz, CA hardcore legends recorded their debut several times before finally emerging from the studio with their cult tour de force The Power of Expression. Two versions have floated around for quite some time but now a third is available for the first time. Titled The Expression of Power, this 3xLP collection brings together the three—all recorded between ’84-’85—as well as a 28 page booklet with photos from the era. It’s a cool look back a burgeoning period of hardcore history. Personally, I like the rawness of demo version, which will come as no surprise to anyone that’s ever read anything I’ve ever written about punk and hardcore.

  • Death - Leprosy

    (Relapse)

    This is the seminal death metal band’s pioneering second album—originally released in 1988—given the deluxe treatment for a whole new generation. A remastered version of the original album is packaged with a cornucopia of bonus material, including nearly an hour of previously unheard demos and rehearsal material and a 24 page book with updated liner notes and newly-released photos.

    Songs such as “Choke On It”, with its complex riffs and shredding solos serves as a reminder that death metal was born out of thrash metal. And actually the same can be said for the album as a whole. It’s a nice snapshot of death metal in its developing stages, expanding from the musical structure of thrash and incorporating more brutal extremities both in lyricism and imagery.

  • Electric Funeral - Total Funeral

    (Southern Lord)

    This is the entire anthology-to-date of Electric Funeral, the one-man Swedish raw punk project manned by Jocke D-Takt. 53 songs that, to the untrained ear, are nearly indistinguishable from one another. The whole thing clocks in at over an hour and half of music. Although it does come as a double LP (on "blood red" and "beer piss yellow" vinyl) which makes it easy to split into four separate listening sessions if need be. Read more...

  • Frantix - My Dad's a Fuckin' Alcoholic

    (Alternative Tentacles)

    These guys tore up the early-‘80s punk scene in Colorado for only a few years before calling it quits. (Eventually they reformed as The Fluid, and were the first non-Seattle band to sign to Sub Pop.) They played skuzzy, fuzzed-out punk rock that was slathered in total creeper vibes. Like Generic-era Flipper meets Rollins-era Black Flag blasting from a tape deck in the parking lot outside the dirt track, while dudes are fighting over who drank the last tall boy Coors banquet beer.

    This vinyl rerelease includes everything they ever did—My Dad’s A Fuckin’ Alcoholic 7”, Insane Tunnel demo tape, and Face Reality 7”—in addition to a handful of live recordings. The song “Dancin’ to Punk” sounds like James Murphy fronting Mudhoney awash in KBD slime. So crucial.

  • Fugazi - First Demo

    (Dischord)

    It’s been over a decade since The Argument, the last full-length proper from this prolific post-hardcore band. Fans longing for new material will have to accept these demo recordings in lieu of that happening anytime soon, or perhaps, ever.

    It’s confusing, as this is called First Demo and is said to be recorded in January of 1988. Meanwhile there’s a demo tape that’s been floating around for years called Inner Ear Demo 1987. These may be the same tracks but with Fugazi, nothing is certain. And there’s no extensive liner notes like there normally are with vinyl reissues of this sort.

    With the finished versions of these songs already appearing on 13 Songs and Repeater + 3, the existence of “Turn Off Your Guns”, the lone unreleased track isn’t likely to appeal to casual fans. But for the hardcores it’s a unique opportunity to hear a band that’s known for their richly-produced studio sound work-shopping these songs out in an unrefined, edgy manner.

  • Institute - Demo

    (Deranged)

    Anarcho-style post-punk weirdness from Austin, TX. This is their acclaimed 2013 demo cassette pressed to vinyl for the first time. It's now available as 12" EP that plays at 45 RPM, which is an increasingly popular format for punk and hardcore these days.

    They've since released two more EPs, which show them experimenting with longer, stranger compositions. With this release it's cool to see where that evolved from.

  • No Fraud - Revolt! 1984 Demos

    (Six Weeks)

    Another unearthed gem of 80s American hardcore punk pressed to vinyl for the first time. These are the first demos from “The longest running punk/hardcore/thrash band in Florida.” There are 17 tracks here of cheap beer-soaked, suntanned skate-punk out of Venice, FL.  

    In addition to a brief memoir by the band’s lead singer Dan Destructo, there are awesome photos, fliers, and other ephemera from the time period. This includes newspaper clippings, including one about the anti-slam dancing rules put in place at the community center after a No Fraud show and another about a high school graduation party they were advertised to play where 11 kegs of beer were seized in a police raid. (Cops must have shown up early because the invite for the party promised 12 kegs.) There’s also a flier for their “Ramp Jam” show which you can watch all of here and here.

- Nathan G. O'Brien

Top 5 Bands Discovered at Fest 13

  1. Rational Anthem

  2. Dead Bars

  3. Not Half Bad

  4. Lipstick Homicide

  5. Walking Targets

- Loren

Worst Cover Art of 2014

It's been a strong year for album sleeves that are weird, unsightly, poorly designed or just plain bizarre. In our semi-annual roundup, here are our favorite of the worst (and perhaps by that we mean "best") album artwork of 2014.

Adebisi Shank

This Is the Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

It's always a clue when the name of the record is smugly self-referential. The cover is almost a mixture of the Offspring's 2003 Splinter cover mixed in with 80s video game Space Harrier for the background. I bet this band have "funny" song titles like Minus The Bear, too. Also I think I've seen this guy at my gym. Always hogs the crosstrainer.

Anguish

Mountain

I think this scene was perhaps one of the most underrated in Lord of the Rings: the hobbits arrive at Mount Doom to find that Sauron is in fact a sexy naked babe holding a fox's head. The White Tree of Gondor, just to the left there, shines with an ethereal beauty and mystic runes (presumably some dialect of the Black Speech) mark the mountain itself. I think in the movie version there was an overblown CGI orc and some comic relief involving dwarfs and inneundos, but I'm glad all the same that Anguish chose to immortalise that chapter for this brilliant album cover.

Astrakhan

A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin

No joke, I think this guy was the final boss in Half-Life. The colour work here is kind of beautiful though, and the evil-looking bird popping out of the right hand sea of goo looks quite perturbed at the flecks of colour surrounding him.

Awar & Vanderslice

The Winning Team

Cupped breasts: the sign of a classy record. These ones are oddly bloated though, as though a pair of miniature Alien-esque facehuggers are about to burst from each one. What is this saying about Awar and Vanderslice (the names of two hip hop badasses if ever I've heard them) – they're a pair of tits? Zing!

Pussy Cactus

HE'S FAST

I actually like this in a weird, quirky way. In another way, though, it's terrifying: Sonic looks trapped, afraid: stuck in that wrong-formed body, his eyes narrowed and scared, screaming silently into the void. His fingers, unevenly numbered, are spread, Christ-like, as he prostrates himself two dimensionally before us. "HE'S FAST", Pussy Cactus reliably inform us. This Sonic doesn't look fast. His feet are different sizes; he doesn't seem to be able to turn left or right; he has no ears. I sort of want to kill him out of sympathy.

RX Bandits

Gemini, Her Majesty

I can't work out which one, but this is clearly a weak mashup of one of NASA's top 100 space images and a sexy-looking woman or two. This might equally be an unreleased promo poster from Interstellar; it's hard to say. Either way it's a bit bizarre and looks like a junior art project from Photoshop 101,

Nadja and Uochi Toki

Cystema:Solari

This one is here solely because I'm a web developer and the "code" on display in this cover hurts my head. The XML(?) elements (</NADJA</UOCHI TOKI>) aren't closed properly (and only include closing tags, not opening ones!!111) which drives my inner OCD pedant crazy. The icon linking the two areas of text also looks suspiciously like a floppy disk, which makes me angry for different reasons as I find myself recalling installing Windows 3.1 on 3.5" disks back in the 90s. An unwelcome nostalgia trip and some malformed code are not the ways to my heart, folks.

Thanks to Loren for his frequent nominations for this list!

- Matt

— words by the SPB team • January 13, 2015

2014: A Year In Review
2014: A Year In Review

Series: Year End 2014

Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2014.

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