by Sean Gray

So you’ve got three and a half months left in the year, and you’re probably revved up to get that goofy new Ariel Pink LP, or pumped you “discovered” some deep, dark punk band called Iceage. Maybe you’re super bummed you didn’t jump on the Frank Ocean train sooner so you could’ve seen him at the 9:30 Club (and Instagramed yourself there.) So in case if you were too busy with all of that, here are a few releases you may have overlooked this year.

FNU Ronnies – Saddle Up

Philadelphia is a weird fucking place. I’m from Baltimore, so I “get it,” and FNU Ronnies, for the most part, have always represented what pure boredom with a city can do to you. The Ronnies have been a band for over half a decade, and to think all they had out up until this year was a 7″ and cassette is pretty crazy. What’s even crazier is that those recordings were good enough to sustain their fans for 5 years and kept them relevant in “weird punk” discussions between record nerds. At the heart of this LP is a pop record that doesn’t sound like anything that’s already out there. It could be released ten years from now and still sound as vital as it does today. Think of the Mentally Ill doing Raspberries covers, and you have the FNU Ronnies.

FNU Ronnies – Saddle Up by Load Records

Technicolor Teeth – Teenage Pagans

Shoegaze in 2012 is pretty laughable. Everything thats been thrown at me has been a bigger snooze-fest than watching J. Masics discuss Discharge records. So when the debut LP by Technicolor Teeth was given to me, I had pretty low expectations. Unlike most bands that implement some swirly guitars and hidden vocals to cover up for bad songs, these guys seem to put the songs first. “Chrystalline” could be one of the catchiest songs you’ve heard all year, and “Is It Warm Enough For You” takes heavy cues from mid-90’s grunge with overtop, tremolo-drenched guitars. There are at least 20 other bands today that have unsuccessfully attempted to pull off what Technicolor Teeth do so easily; to say it’s something to behold is a complete understatement.

Ed Schrader’s Music Beat – Jazz Mind

I remember hearing “Sermen” late last year and not being able to get that pounding of the floor tom out of my head. With just a bass and floor tom, Ed seems to conjure up a certain kind of wall of sound all his own — especially on tracks like “Rats” and “When I’m in a Car”. He slows it down on “I Can’t Stop Eating Sugar,” which has a groovy bassline that allows the song to just drift endlessly. For some, Ed’s brand of minimal industrial might be too much to take. But for fans of the genre, “Jazz Mind” is pretty unstoppable.
Live at the Echoplex with Randy Randall!! 11/17/11 by Ed Schrader’s Music Beat

East Link – East Link

Recently, there’s been a lot of great music coming from down under, and East Link is no exception. The Australian band is a bit of a supergroup — with members from both Total Control and UV race, among other notable artists. “Angel Gun” sets up what these guys are trying to do, which may not seem too interesting on paper, (sloppy guitars, lo-fi production, simple drums.) But unlike some of the terrible lo-fi bullshit that came out of the wanna-be shitgaze stuff a few years back, East Link have a few tricks up their sleeves. “Bloody Money,” for example, has more of a High Rise/post-punk vibe to it — making it less straightforward than a lot of other bands would do with this template.

Bill Orcutt – Why Does Everybody Love Free Music But Nobody Loves Free People?

I’ll go on record and admit that when I was 19 and got my first Harry Pussy record, “Ride A Dove,” I couldn’t quite understand what was going on. I felt like it was just the most avant parts of Sonic Youth on steroids. But a few years later, I gave it another chance, along with “What Was Music,” and I realized that both records were extremely ahead of their time. Co-founder Bill Orcutt recently started a solo guitar project, and he’s taken some pages from John Fahey, Jack Rose and Keiji Haino. This is isn’t your average guitar playing; Orcutt channels Coltrane’s style of attacking notes in a harsh, brutal way — and it works. This release also features some live recordings from both the US and the UK, so it’s a great record to get familiar with his work, both live and in the studio.

King Blood – “Vengeance, Man”

I am a big fan of basically everything Richie Records/Testoster Tunes puts out. King Blood’s last LP, “Eyewash Silver,” was on heavy rotation last year. This year, “Vengeance, Man” continues that trend. From the first note of the title track, it’s a full-on guitar assault. The one sheet says this LP will sit nice beside your Skullflower and Les Rallizes Denudes LPs, and that’s extremely accurate. The most surprising and interesting stuff on this record comes from the song, “I’ll Take What’s Mine,” a slow-burner that runs all over the place with fuzz and slide guitar, but doesn’t explode or overpower the way Dead Meet does. There are very few bands who can combine this type of harsh recording with guitar licks that will stick with you for days, and King Blood does it perfectly.

Vengeance, Man by KING BLOOD from Vengeance, Man by TestosterTunes

Speedy Ortiz – Sports

I am a total sucker for The Breeders; I still jam Thingy and Heavy Vegetable LPs all the time. Speedy Ortiz picks up right where both of those left off, and the fact that “Sports” is, well, all about sports, only adds to its appeal. Tracks like “Basketball,” and “Indoor Soccer,” (see a trend here?) play on Sadie Dupruis strength as a guitar player and vocalist. None of the songs take the math rock thing too seriously, and they underscore more of a pop feel than anything else. “Sports” has some of the best lyrics of any release this year. I found lines like, “I fucking hate playing indoor soccer,” to be extremely relatable because I fucking hate watching any soccer.

Indoor Soccer by Speedy Ortiz

The Boston Strangler – Primitive

Ok look, most hardcore nerds either own this LP, have pissed on it, or have flipped it. So let’s just get it out of the way now: this is one of those LPs that every punk record nerd already knows about. Typically with albums like this, it’s all talk and nothing much else behind it. But “Primitive” goes far beyond the Viva La Vinyl message board nerd chatter. It hits you like a brick in the face from the moment it starts. “Primitive” and “Overdose” speed by so fast it’ll make you forget your SSDecontrol LPs. (Ok, no not really but it’s still great stuff.) “Gonna Make You Pay” is the album’s “sing-along” track. You can almost picture dudes in Negative Approach shirts they bought on eBay trying to grab the mic from the vocalist when they play this live.

Horsebladder – Not I’m Not

Horsebladder is the project from Northampton, MA resident Elaine Kahn. I rarely, if ever, use the terms “pretty” or “beautiful” but there’s really no other way to describe how good this LP actually is. “Pioneer” is one of the darkest openers you’ll hear all year with it’s moody, floating vocals and synths over tribal-like drums. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of a deeper and more extreme Juliee Cruise. Kahn is somewhat masterful at using minimal instrumentation for maximum effect. On “Fountains,” it’s just vocals, a keyboard, and what seems to be a drum machine of sorts. She gives the song enough space to breath and lets the simplicity do the talking for her. “Boys,” though, is the real jewel here as the moody organ and bass seem to flower effortlessly between her sparse vocals. I’ve been told she’s already working on a follow up, and if this is any indication what she’s capable of — we’re in for a treat with the next release.

Pioneer by Horsebladder

Aaron Dilloway – Modern Jester

The name might look familiar if you’ve heard of Wolf Eyes, as Dilloway was a founding member of the sub-pop band. Once Dilloway left Wolf Eyes, I started to lose interest in them. “Modern Jester” was originally a cassette-only release in 2008, but it has since been expanded to double vinyl. Don’t expect the same grimy, industrial noise exercises of Wolf Eyes in this release. “Modern Jester” is comprised mostly of found sounds, minimal noises — some of the pieces even have a Musique Concrète feel to them. “Body Chaos” is an 18-minute track that seems small at first, but about a fourth of the way in it explodes into a wall of noise that leaves just as fast as it came. Throughout the track you hear everything from bells to chanting, all they way back to another wall of noise. It’s actually unfair for me to keep trying to describe what “Modern Jester” sounds like. In the end, this is one of those LPs that you can’t fully understand until you hear it for yourself. How many records have you heard this year that you can say that about?

aaron dilloway – modern jester (album preview) by experimedia