Best of 2015
Joe Pelone's picks (2015)
Joe Pelone
ALL THE PEOPLE ARE SO SAD AND WE’RE NEVER GOING HOME I turn 30 soon. I’m
twice as old as when I started my first band. I’m about as old as my dad was when he
became my dad. I grew a mustache and my wife let me keep it for one day but destroyed
all photographic evidence. Our first child is about to turn three, and he’s reached a
point where he says these awesomely esoteric one-liners, which I have scattered
throughout this piece. Sometimes I think about being 15 and feeling anguished and
isolated and fake, and then I look at where I’m at now and I get so stoked on being an
adult-type person. I hope you had a good year without too many fires or failures. Let
me tell you about mine: DINOSAURS ARE BIG AND STRONG AND THEY’RE NOT HERE: THE
LPS
20. Kylesa:
Exhausting Fire
Exhausting Fire feels like both a continuation of and a direct response against
Kylesa's last album, Ultraviolet. The guitars still shimmer with atmospheric
effetcs. But the songs also feel, well, a lot more metal again. Opener "Crusher" has
plenty of psychedelic pretty parts, but it's also got some bone-crunching riffage as
well. That slowed down take on Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" is tops too.
19.
Bjork:
Vulnicura
One Little Indian Records
Bjork didn't set out to make a concept record about her relationship dissolving,
but that's what happened. Vulnicura is a somber set, all swelling strings and
pulsing electronic beats. But it's not necessarily a sad record. Rather, it deals with
a break-up with the utmost emotional maturity. It's not about fireworks so much as it
is about fizzling out, making it ideal for the winter when it's cold and dark.
18. High On Fire:
Luminiferous
Seven albums deep, High on Fire only needs to make minor adjustments to its winning
formula. So while I can tell you that Luminiferous is a little faster and less
sludgy than De Vermis Mysteriis, it kind of doesn't matter. This is Matt Pike
we're talking about. He can pound out all the thrash metal he sees fit to produce. And
if he wants to talk about snake gods secretly running the country, well that's his
prerogative.
17.
Mark Ronson:
Uptown Special
I DON'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY SHIT TO YOU PEOPLE. "Uptown Funk" was a monster hit this
summer, and with good reason: it's goofy fun. Mystikal's James Brown- ish
contribution, "Feel Right," is even goofier, more fun. But those tracks are actually
outliers. Uptown Special was really a savvy move on Ronson's part to lure
Stevie Wonder into producing his best songs in maybe 30 years or so. And while that
ultimately leaves the record feeling a little disjointed, I'm still not
complaining.
Play It Again Sam
Dang, Mew, it has been a minute. But I want you to know I am still quite thrilled
by your swirling prog-pop. I even bought the deluxe edition, featuring a bonus live
album. +- meets a lot of needs at once. It's eminently danceable yet dizzyingly
intricate. The only thing bigger than the choruses are the guitar lines. In an
alternate timeline where John Hughes still lives, "Satellite" soundtracks someone's
first kiss.
15. Hop Along:
Painted Shut
Arguably their strongest release yet, Painted Shut finds Hop Along clicking
into perfect place. France Quinlan raggedly sings about her character sketches over
jangling guitars and crashing drums. Even when she sings about defeat, it has a way of
sounding triumphant.
14. Teenage Bottlerocket:
Tales From Wyoming
While Tales From Wyoming is now somewhat overshadowed by the passing of TBR
drummer Brandon Carlisle, it's still an awfully fun record. Goofy and giddy, it's the
same TBR fans have enjoyed for over a decade now. There's some catchy power pop love
songs ("I Found the One," "First Time") but mostly just awesome joke songs ("Nothing
Else Matters (When I'm With You)," "They Call Me Steve," "Too Much La Collina"). TBR
hasn't changed their songwriting formula…ever… but they never needed to mess with
it. I consider them my Ramones in terms of pop-punk productivity.
13. Tribulation:
The Children of the Night
Sweet, glorious death metal from Europe. Tribulation's live show is epically metal,
but The Children of the Night is almost defined by it's non-metal moves.
Tribulation does a ripping cover of the Cure's "One Hundred Years." They love jamming
out. Heck, they even love the occasional catchy chorus. A lot of death metal is nigh
indecipherable, but Tribulation comes across effortlessly.
12. Modest Mouse:
Strangers to Ourselves
After a lengthy hiatus, Modest Mouse returned with a record that…sounded an awful
lot like all the other Modest Mouse records. But at 15 tracks, no one can accuse
Strangers to Ourselves of being phoned in. Rather, the band just knows what
works for them: discordant guitars, lyrics skirting the lines between crazy and
genius, dance beats. While frontman Isaac Brock does experiment a little bit here and
there (check out the rap track!), mostly Strangers just feels like a much
deserved victory lap.
11.
John Carpenter:
Lost Themes
Sacred Bones Records
John Carpenter's music direction was such a key component of his filmmaking that
it's kind of ridiculous that he only just now got around to putting out records.
Sacred Bones is comparable to all the classic Carpenter scores. Loaded with
brooding synths and pulsing beats, each of the nine tracks lives up to the album's
title. These cuts could've all been used to score the likes of Assault on Precinct
13 or Prince of Darkness. While there's the occasional prog-rock gesture,
Lost Themes is mostly a throwback to the days when Carpenter would score his
movies with just a synth and a lot of patience.
10. Beach Slang:
The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
My only regret is I wish I could've heard this record as a thoroughly serious
teenager. On the surface, Beach Slang sound like another gruff Replacements tribute,
but they carry so many Springsteenisms with them. Their songs tremble with sincerity
and nostalgia and longing. They also pack in big, grand, sweeping rock 'n' roll
gestures throughout this, their full-length debut. So what you get here are all the
feelings and all the noise and maybe all the salvation. My favorite punk bands always
care too much.
9. Waxahatchee:
Ivy Tripp
Ivy Trip is indie rock and alt country and synth-pop Frankensteined together.
Katie Crutchfield's introspective storytelling is what anchors all the tracks
together. Well, that and her soaring voice. The album feels like a mix between
Crutchfield other two solo records, alternating between sparsely arranged,
contemplative numbers and fuzzier full band arrangements. Crutchfield's full
discography is all over the place, but for now she seems to exist somewhere between
Belly and Weakerthans.
8. Envy:
Atheist's Cornea
Post-rock/post-hardcore/metal/screamo/something/something/something from Japan.
Atheist's Cornea is a lot less sprawling than Recitation, but no less
grand. This band takes quiet/loud dynamics to extreme opposites, ensuring that every
song is like a mini-album onto itself. Get ready to bump dat fist. I cooked to this
record a whole, whole lot.
7.
Cetus:
The Remnant Mass
Dullest Records
In which I rep Lansdale hardcore. Or at least technical hardcore. Or maybe Cetus is
just a straight up metal band now. I do not know. But I do know this, deep down in my
bones: My friends made a killer record that screams and wriggles and grooves its way
through nine riffy ragers. And now they can brag about topping higher than Bruno Mars
on somebody's best of 2015 list.
6. Colleen Green:
I Want to Grow Up
Hardly Art
My favorite pop-punk album of 2015 is really a stoned out Lemonheads/Juliana
Hatfield Trio throwback. I Want to Grow Up is the kind of bubblegum rock we
need if we're going to colonize Mars, beat cancer and save the whales. Green sings
about craving adult responsibilities but succumbing to channel surfing instead, and
she does so over a resonant low end and plenty of dope guitar solos. Golly this is a
fun set.
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE
TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE TORCHE .
4. Sleater-Kinney:
No Cities to Love
"Invent our own kind of obscurity." The most powerful of power trios,
Sleater-Kinney roared once more in 2015. While I loved Wild Flag and the Corin Tucker
Trio, it's so very cool to have them back. If anything, the years have made them
better. No Cities to Love is a heavy both in subject and in sound. "Price Tag"
and the title track weigh convenient ends versus ethical means. "A New Wave" and "No
Anthems" talk about relationships with music and with people. Epic classic rock riffs
and pounded out dance beats burst forth. The vocals are full-throated. Everything is
loud and living.
3. The Mountain Goats:
Beat the Champ
John Darnielle wrote a concept album about wrestling. It is amazing because, like
everything else he writes about, Darnielle approaches the topic with complete
sincerity and understanding. Check out how he forges some very specific, obscure facts
into a coherent rhyme scheme on "The Ballad of Chavo Guerrero" (heck, check out how he
got the real Guerrero to appear in the music video. And yeah, he's a little tongue-in-cheek on tracks
like "Foreign Object" and "Choked Out," but those songs are also totally bitchin'.
These songs about emotional failure and physical ruin are very much in Darnielle's
wheelhouse. Mountain Goats Mania is here, brother.
Sunbather was real darn good; New Bermuda is real darn great. The whole
thing is sequenced to perfection, ramping up the black metalgaze as it goes along.
Discerning between songs is pointless; this is a five-track suite. By the time I get
to palate cleanser/album ender "Gifts For the Earth," I'm excited to start the process
of washing myself in noise all over again. Speaking of which…
Settler came out around the same time I started commuting about an hour each
way to work. I'd drive or take the train into the city, get my ass kicked by the
dangerously assertive people of Philadelphia, and then go home and stress eat. But I'd
also blast Settler over and over and over until I felt normal again. So yeah,
metal saved my life. I love the Devil now. THE END.
SOMETIMES COULD BE SOMETIMES: THE SHORT PLAYERS
5.
Ex-Friends/F.O.D.:
Split [7-inch]
SRA Records
JP Flexner and Joel Tannenbaum are all over this list, and with good reason. Ex
Friends fire off one last salvo from beyond the grave, and hey F.O.D. sounds good
too.
4. Braid:
Kids Get Grids
"Kids Get Grids" is an original; "Because I Am" is a Broken Hearts are Blue cover.
Both are top notch angular emo.
3. The Rentiers:
Black Metal Yoga [7-inch]
Tannenbaum is the Tannen-bomb on these folksy tracks about better living through
black metal.
2. The Rentiers:
Here is a List of Things That Exist [EP]
Death to False Hope / Square of Opposition
Black Metal Yoga is a snack; Here is a List is a meal. Lush melodies
float over driving pop rock. Even the art is pretty.
1. Didi:
Didi
Self-Released
While working in Columbus, OH for a week, I got to attend a local punk rocking
ceremony at a rather neat Buddhist-themed bar. Cayetana headlined and were awesome,
but I was also struck by local heroes Didi. Live they were the loudest thing in the
whole state, balancing guitar squals and perfect harmonies, chaos and disorder. On
record, they're a bit fuzzier but just as fun. Either way I'm going to compare them to
Pixies, Lemuria and maybe that dog. Please
href="https://didicolumbus.bandcamp.com/releases">go listen to them so they can
become a big deal and maybe come play Philly sometime.
JAMMIES AREN’T COOL: THE VERY HONORABLE MENTIONS
A. Beach Slang:
Broken Thrills / Here, I Made This For You!
Business Casual / Polyvinyl
Beach Slang released SO MUCH MUSIC this year. Broken Thrills consolidated
their fiery first two EPs. Here, I Made This For You! is a cassette collecting
covers. I'm all types of stoked for that Ride cover, but my favorite is Dramarama's
"Anything, Anything." Perhaps you know it as the awesome song from A Nightmare on
Elm Street 4: The Dream Master?
B.
John Carpenter
Soundtrack reissues
Death Waltz Recording Company
I wasn't kidding about Carpenter's wizardy with a synthesizer, and Death Waltz
knows it too. They put out a gorgeous set of vinyl reissues for his numerous scores.
Prince of Darkness and the Halloween films look and sound particularly
nice.
D. Various Artists:
Whatever Nevermind
My only complaint is I wish Torche could've covered Nirvana's Nevermind in
its entirety. But the other bands on this tribute are pretty good too. Extra points to
Thou for covering B-side "Even in His Youth."
E. Science Club:
Day Job / Ska
self-released
Punknews reviewed my old band twice this year. They hated the shit out of Day
Job but they liked Ska. To be fair, Ska is better.
       I DON’T WANT TO SEE KIDS: ANTICIPATING 2016 1. Abbath -
Abbath 2. Black Tusk - Pillars of Ash 3. David Bowie - Blackstar
4. Deftones - TBA 5. School of Seven Bells - SVIIB