Best of The Year: Stacey Dee / Dominic Davi / Brian Shultz
Today we continue our annual tradition of posting the favorite records by musicians, producers and label honchos in the punk rock scene. Today, we check out the top picks of Stacey Dee of Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Dominic Davi of Tsunami Bomb and Alternative Tenetacles AND
Kung Fu Records, and Brian Shultz of Bridge Nine Records! These lists are brought to you by Joey, who does not appear to be particularly excited by wearing a Santa hat.
Stacey Dee
Stacey Dee is the bad ass singer and guitarist in Bad Cop / Bad Cop. They released
Not Sorry
this year.
I'm a singer.. I appreciate amazing singing no matter who it may come out of. This lady, though not super exciting to most, is a tremendous force when belting out heartfelt songs and the track, "Hello", is unbelievably great. She also writes her own songs. I respect that more than anything! Talented women must be recognized and thankfully she is worldwide. Okay, start making fun of me…. NOW! I don't care.
7. Good Riddance:
Peace In Our Time
Good Riddance is an incredible band. The way they go from Minor to Major chords will always be one of my favorite nuances in punk rock. So poppy yet always lyrically intelligent. I once asked Russ when he was gonna make a new GR record for us punk rock kids, then a year later I was listening to it. That's putting in work. I love it!
6. Darius Koski:
Sisu
Again, listened to this record in the van while on tour. I love the honesty and melodic feel of every song. So much so, after my first pass listening to it, I had to write to Darius to tell him how great I thought it was. It's got that real bluegrass punk feel to it that I'll never be sick of!
I've been a fan of Jack's songwriting and voice since One Man Army. It goes without saying that I was super excited for this record. I got stoked to hear the direction he went with his music and every song on this record is great. What a bad ass band of incredible players and people!
Okay, Yes… I worked on this record for a good 5 years, singing "Sue". That's not why I'm picking it. Fat Mike stepped out the box and wrote some Fucking killer songs! The combined effort of all of the musicians and singers on this record make it a one of a kind experience.
Joey Cape will always be one of my favorite songwriters. This album was highly anticipated by me and it didn't disappoint in anyway! The musicianship in a Lagwagon record is always top notch.
2. PEARS:
Go To Prison
Self-Released
My bud Ryan Young took a chance on PEARS and put out Go To Prison on his label Anxious and Angry in 2014. I was stoked to be part of shipping out the orders and fully believed in the band. Then Fat signed these New Orleans boys and rereleased this record in 2015…. I still listen to the record all the time. Their ability to mix hardcore with pop punk astonishes me. I love this band and everyone in it. Great dudes!
Jennie turned me on to this band when we were on the road. The title track "Silent Kill" got stuck in my head in the days after being home. I had to call Jennie to ask the band name and record, then immediately bought it. Now it's all I listen to! Serious… Everyday! It's phenomenal!
Dominic Davi
Dominic Davi is one of the guys that keeps two legendary record labels running - Alternative Tentacles and Kung Fu Records. He is also a founder of Tsunami Bomb, who got back together this year. We spoke to Dom about it.
10. Really Red:
Teaching You The Fear:The Complete Collection 1979-1985
Not every legend gets their due. For every Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, TSOL, etc., there are a ton of bands that opened for them and created a legacy for themselves that may not have reached as far, but doesn't mean it's any less valid. Really Red is a classic Texas hardcore band that really deserved to be known, and I'm really glad Jello got us to put out their discography….because there is so much here. They were a dangerous punk band giving the finger to the system back when it was actually dangerous to do so. Check them out. They deserve to be heard.
9. Legendary Shack Shakers:
The Southern Surreal
I really have a soft spot for Southern Gothic, and these guys have that sound down. A few times on the record they almost stray into a bluesy-bar-band feel that doesn't work for me, but for the most part they lay down these dark, twangy songs that weave this amazing story that is really captivating. It's a great record. These guys are the real deal.
self released
If Biffers takes me back to the punk scene I loved as a kid, then Jabber has completely recreated the punk scene of my childhood and planted here and now. This is so catchy and rad it hurts. I dare you not to smile while you listen to this. Dare you! To me this band is everything I loved about pop-punk before that term started meaning something entirely different then it used to. This band rules.
7. Biffers:
Frankie Road
Greenway Records/Kung Fu Records
This band of Italian punk rockers just takes me back to when I was just discovering punk rock and learning what Lookout Records was. Unapologetic, sincere punk rock from a band that loves what they are doing. It's hard not to love them for it. This is a great 7" I'm stoked we got to put this out with Greenway Records.
6. Night Birds:
Mutiny at Muscle Beach
A modern dark surf-punk band? What the hell is there not to like about this? The Night Birds manage to take well worn territory and make it feel exciting and new, that alone is an achievement. I can pretty much play this album anytime and it restores my faith in the modern music scene.
5. PEARS:
Go To Prison
Self-Released
I keep citing energy as a big thing for me, and these guys have it. I think this entire album is amazing and I'm not surprised they are really making a name for themselves now. Their video response to their MRR review is classic and brilliant. I'm super stoked about this band.
4. The Vandals:
I'm an Individual [single]
Soundwave
I don't think you can get this comp in the states, but you can hear this track on their bandcamp. I know it's only one track, AND it's a cover, but it's the first thing The Vandals have put out in years and it's amazing. It showcases everything about them that I love, and shows that after all this time they can put out a track that tears it up. Just listen to it, you'll understand why I included it here.
3. Shannon And The Clams:
Gone by the Dawn
Hardly Art
I don't even want to admit how late to the party I was with this band. They are from my city and I should have known about them looooooong before I did. Now that I know them I'm so stoked I do. Don't get me wrong, I know the whole retro-garage thing is being done to death right now, but this band has something about it that just sets it apart. This has been my go-to record lately when we have company over, and people always ask about it.
2. Mischief Brew:
This is Not for Children
Great band, great people, great album. This band has it all and I really think this is a great showing for them. Their last time through at the Gilman St. Project was an amazing show, and sold me on an already great band I kind of felt like I was the last to discover. I highly recommend.
Punk rock without guitars?!?! Something about this EP just keeps me coming back to it. I really love it. They have a frantic energy that just grabs me and I'm a sucker for keyboards in punk rock. I think they might be the coolest band that everyone hasn't discovered yet, plus I'm super stoked to play with them soon.
Brian Shultz
Brian Shultz is one of the capos over at Bridge Nine Records. Specifically, he's the head of distribution! He's ALSO a Punknews alumni, having acted as reviewes editor from 2005 through 2011- and he STILL writes live reviews for us! Wow! What a guy!
10. Creepoid:
Cemetery Highrise Slum
Collect Records
Creepoid both expanded and refined their style on their newest full-length, their third in nearly as many years. Cemetery Highrise Slum paints lurid imagery masking fraught relationships via a seething a stew of alt-rock subgenres synonymous with the groundbreaking grunge and shoegaze boon of the early '90s, and it's a uniquely mesmerizing result.
9. Foxing:
Dealer
"Emo revival" became something of an Internet trope by New Year's 2015, the very phrase conjuring up tired ideas of rehashed math rock and overly earnest vocals. Foxing, while perhaps an important part of the narrative, largely ignores its hallmarks on the intricate and hauntingly beautiful Dealer, opting instead for an artful, breathtakingly intimate chamber rock album about Catholic guilt with shades of post-rock atmosphere, hushed anguish, and a sense of emotional desperation that sounds thoroughly sincere and lived-in.
Closed Casket Activites
Discourse called it quits not long after their sole full-length's release, but left an important release right behind them. It's certainly in right now to revive the heavier, metallic edge of '90s hardcore, but by their demise, Discourse was doing it with far more clarity, coherence, chaos and musical surprises than their peers.
It's been an increasingly rewarding trajectory since mewithoutYou released the folky it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright to mixed blessings in 2009. 2012's Ten Stories was a splendid comeback, but Pale Horses marks an even stronger return to the brilliant post-hardcore/art rock of their mid-2000s releases while retaining the fable-influenced universe of personified woodland creatures and harvest food analogues they've developed more recently.
6. The Sidekicks:
Runners in the Nerved World
Over the course of four albums, the Sidekicks have morphed from a rough-around-the-edges house-punk act to an amazingly graceful and patient indie rock band cribbing sonic notes from Band of Horses and Built to Spill to wonderful effect.
5. Citizen: Everybody Is Going To Heaven
Run For Cover Records
Noise emo. You heard it here first. No, but this young quartet did shatter expectations on their sophomore full-length that had frontman Mat Kerekes turning the blame inward for the first time, and it resulting in a bravely abrasive and unsettling album that cops the Jesus Lizard's discordant nature and Brand New's cold environments.
4. Envy:
Atheist's Cornea
A new Envy album is always exciting, and one that touches upon all their strengths in revitalized ways even more so. They can sound triumphant and shockingly major key, like on opener "Footsteps in the Distance", while also returning to the brilliant, flailing screamo of their earlier fare, like on "Blue Moonlight", and compose a majestic, keyboard-dotted cinematic epic like "Shining Finger" in the process too.
3. Beach Slang:
The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
Punk's new darlings finally released a full-length and it's just about as glorious as fans could hope, with fuzzed-out melodic punk that maintains full momentum for just under a half-hour, with alt-rock accessibility and a direct sincerity about why they do what they do. It'll be hard to call themselves outcasts on the next record around.
2. Title Fight:
Hyperview
Title Fight have had one of the more interesting progressions of their kind, to say the least. Hyperview is a record marked by shades of nausea and discomfort ("Chlorine"), but also aching beauty ("Your Pain Is Mine Now"), while actually retaining the inherently scrappy energy they've captured so well since their beginning ("Mrahc"). At its core, Hyperview's a shoegaze record (with a self-develped concept of intense focus the band came up with specifically for it), but it takes chances and has unexpected twists to make for another intriguing and rich chapter in the band's history.
Speaking of bands with interesting progressions… Ceremony's newest album was met with derision from the get. A post-powerviolence band that's been throwing listeners for a loop the last decade, they culminated their journey on a breakup record with cover art mocked for resembling a dejected Simpsons character's line-drawing depiction of "dignity," with a new sound seemingly modeled after the ripened post-punk of Interpol. But for all intents and purposes, it's pretty fucking good at it. Unpopular opinion as it may be, The L-Shaped Man is a well-crafted, memorable and compelling record that sounds desperate and demented at most turns, yet its track listing reveals the restraint and thoughtfulness its central protagonist practices throughout its madness.
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