A heart-racing synthesis of heavy metal, horns, and videogame scores, Godswounds’ debut album is half psychedelic trip, half nutty science experiment gone right.
Saving the best for last, we’ve chosen our 51 favorite albums of 2013, pulled from the acclaimed and the unsung — some of the best as well as most boundary-pushing releases from rock and beyond.
Victory and Associates are here to inspire heroism in the pit with new track “We’ll Have To Be Our Own Heroes”.
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Marriages: Kitsuné (Sargent House, 5/1/12)
“Ride in My Place”
Emma Ruth Rundle has a belated Christmas gift for you. While most of us braved awkward reunions with relatives last winter, the guitarist/singer and her new band Marriages were cooped up in a studio, challenging the very notion of what it means to be “post-rock.”
Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.
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(The) Melvins: Freak Puke (Ipecac, 6/5/12)
Twenty-one studio full-lengths could spell one thing: redundancy. But the Melvins, whose back catalog reads like the Library of Congress, has recognized and conquered this plague with two tools in hand: reinvention and unpredictable match-ups.
As if writing with Lustmord and Jello Biafra wasn’t enough, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover recently joined forces with famed Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn to form “Melvins Lite.” The trio’s first effort, Freak Puke, has it all: bowed and plucked upright bass, metal riffs, classic-rock flourishes, pick harmonics, punishing drums, and Osborne’s distinct vocal delivery. And to bring it to the masses, the band undertook an ambitious fall tour of the 50 United States plus Washington, DC, in 51 days. We chatted with King Buzzo about the band’s (latest) new direction.
Indian Handcrafts: Civil Disobedience for Losers (Sargent House, 10/30/12)
“Red Action”
Indian Handcrafts: “Red Action”
If one is company, two is an all-out riot. That’s the reigning message championed by this newest effort from Indian Handcrafts, the Ontario-based duo of Brandyn James Aikins (drums) and Daniel Brandon Allen (guitar).
Ty Segall: Twins (Drag City, 10/9/12)
“The Hill”
On last year’s Goodbye Bread, garage-rock singer-songwriter Ty Segall displayed a newfound sense of maturity — most notably on “Comfortable Home (A True Story),” in which he announced the rather adult decision to invest in some real estate. Now the San Francisco wunderkind prematurely grapples with his own mortality on his newest solo release. “Took 22 years to die / 22 years to lose to my mind,” he laments amid the grinding guitars of “Ghost,” imagining himself as a specter who haunts the California coast. It’s heavy stuff — musically and lyrically — especially from a guy who used to sing about girlfriends and Coca-Cola.
Ty Segall: Twins (Drag City, 10/9/12)
In light of his third release in just a year’s time, the ever-prolific garage/lo-fi wunderkind Ty Segall has just released a video for his new single, “The Hill,” a psychedelic throwback to VHS spliced together by the man himself over a series of three days. Think John Lennon singing over the grimy distortions of Big Business or Lightning Bolt…in a bear/dog/eagle costume.
Garage-rock revivalist Ty Segall has a brand-new bag of heaviness coming 10/9 from Drag City, and its first single, “The Hill,” sounds like a heavy bass-and-drums duo channeling John Lennon.