Best of 2006

Adam's picks (2006)

Adam White

.gh-artwork { background: url('/images/icons/albumborder.gif'); padding: 5px; float: left; margin-right: 0px; border: none}
.gh-name { font-variant: small-caps; border-bottom: 1px solid #C5C5C5; width: 400px; padding: 1em 0 0em 7em; }
.gh-label { font-variant: small-caps; padding-left: 7em;}
.gh-blurb { clear: left; padding: 1em 0 2em 2em;}
.gh-title { font-size: 1.75em; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; color: #AAA; }
.gh-number { font-size: 1.5em; font-family: verdana, sans-serif: color: #AAA; }
.gh-table, .gh-table td { background: #fff; border: none; }
.gh-title { clear: left}

Adam White is a news editor and reviewer here at Punknews.org -ed

Crisis on Infinite Orgs

If my efforts this year seem a bit abbreviated, I moved into the house I've been renovating for the past month on December 27th. To say this has been a busy, stressful month is an understatement, and it caps off yet another frantic year for me. We're still beaming with pride over at PNR because of Ryan's Hope's fantastic Apocalypse in Increments and Punknews.org continues to grow and thrive with the addition of some hard-working, passionate writers and editors. I have to personally thank everyone for upping their game and picking up the slack I've left while refinishing floors and painting walls.

2006 was too easy a year for music and that ultimately made it boring. In the punk scene, and particularly the narrow slice that Punknews' readership really responds to, we saw record after record that more or less delivered on expectations. The Lawrence Arms, the Draft, the Bouncing Souls, the Loved Ones, NOFX: all these bands released fine records this year, quality releases I'm happy to own and would recommend without hesitation -- however you won't find them on this list. Tell me if you're hooked by this story: "band with decent track record releases yet another decent album that fans agree holds up well with their catalogue." I didn't think so. It's too episodic.

We started calling it "Orgcore" and maybe that's part of the problem. Did we really start taking the in-joke seriously? It all feels too much like complacency to me. We can't be triggering the bullshit detector ourselves.

I know it's a frustrating criticism, as the bands I'm excluding I consider myself a fan of. Perhaps those are just the "meat & potatoes" of my listening habits. They're the givens, the necessary foundation, and as such they just don't seem very provocative to me. Successful formulas don't quite make the same splash as unexpected finds.

I'm Adam White. I've been an editor and reviewer here at Punknews.org for about six years and I'm based out of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Here's my look at `06.

Who Rocked the Casbah in 2006

20. The Modern Machines - "Take It, Somebody!"
May 30 on Dirtnap Records

I think I used the term "immediately likable" in my review. The Modern Machines make it quite clear that they're out to revive the ghosts of Replacements long gone, and they do it with such life that you can't help but be won over. This is the sort of band that should be releasing a full-length every six months, if for no other reason than to maintain that loose, effortless, warts-and-all charm they've achieved here. […read the review]

17. Neil Young - Living with War
May 9 on Reprise Records

Completely divorced from context this isn't close to Young's best work, but context is everything with this release. Angry with the Bush administration the veteran rocker hits the studio for three days of breakneck writing and recording, cranking out a full blown protest record (backed by a hundred-piece choir) before his label even knows what to do with it. Taking full advantage of the Internet, the record was released online leaving the label running behind to play catch-up, and the accompanying website is a wealth of content, videos, and user-submitted protest music. Neil's blunt, vicious, and unlike so many political punk bands is able to reach a huge audience.

16. The Futureheads - News & Tributes
June 13 on Vagrant Records

This is a much more subtle effort than their debut, almost frustratingly so for a band that won us over with angular, urgent, bouncing songs. On repeat listens however introspection suits the group. The Futureheads, despite being lumped in with so many fashionable post-whatever revivalists, were always a bit less assuming, a bit less boisterous than those contemporaries. News & Tributes just shows that the well runs deeper, the roots are stronger, and the band has the chops to make it work. […read the review]

15. Buzzcocks - Flat-Pack Philosophy
March 7 on Cooking Vinyl

The Buzzcocks' post-post-revival resurgence continues. After the breathtaking rejuvenation that was their last record the legends don't tamper much with the formula, although more of the nervous charm that complemented their original run creeps through here. There isn't a band from the original punk era that's still creating at this calibre. […read the review]

14. The Bronx - The Bronx
July 18 on White Drugs / Island Records

Love this band. Love the imagery. Love the sound. Love the approach they take to everything. Love the unexpected Black Flag meets Queens of the Stone Age turn this album took. They're destined to fail from a major label perspective and I highly doubt Island has a clue what to do with them, but seeing them go for the public throat right out the gates makes it a fun ride. […read the review]

10. The Nice Boys - The Nice Boys
August 29 on Birdman Records

…and this is what the Cuts would sound like if they were completely sincere. Formed by members of the Riffs and the last surviving member of the Exploding Hearts, the Nice Boys come from punk roots but take an entirely different road. Glam rock influenced, the power-pop band takes the retro route but gives it some gravity. The three vocalists on the record never sound entirely confident but that meekness works to its benefit. A really interesting record, and one with enough strengths that it stands apart from the Hearts' legacy.

9. The Slackers - Peculiar
February 21 on Hellcat Records

Half of these songs are re-recorded from last year's EP and that somewhat dulls my zeal to rate this highly, but the Slackers remain the absolute best at what they do. They actually had some competition on the trad-ska scene this year, what with nice music flowing from the Aggrolites, Westbound Train, the One Night Band and the Expos, however none of them come close to the heights that Vic, Glen, Dave and company so consistently reach. Perhaps as a ska band they'll always be overlooked, but I maintain that there are few better pop songwriters working today. […read the review]

8. The Evens - Get Evens
November 6 on Dischord Records

It's hard to look at Ian MacKaye's work from an objective standpoint, especially since he's been more or less beatified by the scene and held up as this caricature of punk morality. It's nice then that the Evens is such a low-key group and a bit of a fresh start. As someone who adored Fugazi's quiet moments (loved The Argument) this is a terrific extension on those. The Evens maintain a really interesting political dynamic: looking at Washington from both a local hometown perspective and as the symbol it is to the rest of the world. A unique wartime record.

7. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
October 3 on Vagrant Records

It looks like everyone's hopped on this wagon, and while Boys and Girls has a higher profile it's simply doesn't have the gravity of Separation Sunday. The band sounds fantastic, mind you, and their ambition makes for an interesting ride, but after the gutter-resurrection we were gifted with last time these disjoined relationship studies make for decidedly lighter fare. Still, the band proves to be one of the more interesting indie acts to flirt with mainstream success.

3. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
March 7 on Mint Records / Anti-

So much of Neko Case's prior studio work has been frustratingly brisk. She'd be in the middle of a fantastic, moving song and right when you were gearing up for her to revisit some soaring refrain the track would end. Fox Confessor takes her songwriting somewhere entirely different, and while the tracks run longer they do so via unexpected turns. From a songwriting perspective Case never takes the easy route, and that makes this album so rewarding to figure out. Was there ever any question why an alt-country chanteuse finds so much of her audience in the indie rock world?

2. Jon-Rae and the River - Knows What You Need
October 31 on Baudelaire

Jon-Rae Fletcher. You really have to see him to understand. Here's an awkward, unassuming indie-geek who can somehow get on stage and channel a frantic preacher over a set of charging gospel fuelled alt-country. Here is the son of a Baptist minister delivering a set of sexually explicit, alcohol-fuelled and all around depraved material with a passion that borders on that of a religious fanatic. If he pushes it, Rae's voice reaches near comical levels of twang, yet for all the bravado there's heart and depth and a vulnerability that makes it believable. It's remarkably frustrating to try and describe the River, and it's that fact that's hooked me. 2006 is a year of easy releases, good records that we expected to be good, but this rises above that.

1. The Sadies - In Concert Volume 1
August 8 on Yep Rock Records

Toronto's surf / garage / alt-country / indie-pop / whatever combo hit a stride with the phenomenal Favourite Colours, but this life record simply dwarfs it in scale. The list of collaborators here is amazing: Neko Case, Garth Hudson of the Band, Jon Spencer and members of the Deadly Snakes among them. This isn't simply a live record that any band could make, you've got to cultivate a ton of good relationships to bring something like this together. Kudos to the Sadies for pulling it off.

Too Soon!

Which band breakup hit me the hardest this year? I'd be tempted to say Death From Above 1979 if not for another fantastic Toronto-based act that called it quits. So here's to the Deadly Snakes! What a fantastic band! The progression from their early garage punk to the soulful, haunting, genre-defying final LP Porcella is something that all bands should aspire to achieve. While Andre Ethier did quickly follow up with a solo record, as great as his voice and songs are he's merely one part of a brilliantly successful formula. They'll be missed.

2006 Mixtape

Looking Forward

Not that there's been much talk about them, but new records from both the Weakerthans and Constantines are bound to arrive soon and I'd put my money on 2007. The next Bad Religion record, if anything like the last two, will be something to keep an eye on for sure. However my favourite thing about 2006 has been tuning into Radio 3 and finding tons of great independent acts I had no idea existed. More than anything established band, I look forward to the discoveries that 2007 will bring.

Happy New Year's everyone, once again it's your contributions and participation that keeps this site running and we're grateful for it. Cheers!