I discovered the catalogues of Rush, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Built To Spill, Queen, and Phish.

Discoveries of the Year

Music: Magazine, Pere Ubu, Mission of Burma. Dug deeper into the Jazzy side of the Detroit Techno/ House /Broken Beat scene with Kenny Larkin, Recloose & Moodyman. Instead of resting on just Carl Craig & the Brits influenced by Detroit.

TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm. Had seen episodes before but this last 3 months having free HBO really made me a big fan.

Film: Spaghetti Westerns, Wong Kar Wai, Polish cinema

Food: Peruvian, Chinese Chicken Salad

Sports: rediscovered a love of MLB

Fuck yeah, Recloose is SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK... you have to check him out live if you get the chance, saw him spin at Bossanova a couple of years ago- WOW. And Kenny Larkin owns. I'm sure Vidal will bring him back soon.


Oh yeah, I forgot to add: Magazine.

2004 stuff:
Sightings - Arrived in Gold
Turing Machine - Zwei
Radioinactive and Antimc - Free Kamal

Older artists I just got into this year:
Magazine - first 3 albums
Harmonia - both albums
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? & Duty Now for the Future
B-52's - first two
Al Green - Let's Stay Together, I'm Still in Love With You, & Call Me
Swell Maps - A Trip to Marineville (I plan on picking up the next one soon)

2005 release of an older artist:
Orange Juice - Glasgow School. If this could count as part of my year end list, it would easily be #1.

I always have new discoveries due to the my lack of exposure to a lot of music. This year, it would have to be Queen and Pink Floyd, particularly the latter. That was surprisingly good.

anything worthwhile?

god, i wish they were still around or just for gregg to put out a solo record. another band to check out (found around that time 97-98) is Drill Team, pitchfork hated it, but damn good in my opinion.

Gregg Alexander's best work outside The New Radicals was with Danielle Brisebois (another member of NR), Ronan Keating, Sophie-Ellis Bextor and Carly Hennessy.

If I had to recommend a few albums off the top of my head, I'd say get Ronan Keating's Destination (10 Gregg tracks), Danielle Brisebois's Arrive All Over You (95% Gregg), and Carly Hennessey's Ultimate High (50%+ Gregg).

In my opinion, the three best tracks he wrote after 1998 are "Inner Smile" by Texas, "I Won't Change You" by Sophie-Ellis Bextor and "Break Me Shake Me" by Enrique Iglesias. That Michelle Branch/Santana song "Game of Love" is good too. It's probably his biggest hit in the United States after "You Get What You Give." However, he hits the Top-10 charts in Europe all the time.

I've owned the Stooges' first album and Raw Power for years, but somehow never got around to Funhouse until this year's reissue.

DEAR GOD, WHAT I'VE BEEN MISSING ALL THESE YEARS!

Me too! How I lived so long without hearing these guys, I'll never know. Still need to pick up the latest two remasters (Giant for a Day and Missing Piece,) along with the first two non-remastered albums that I can't find anymore, but I will soon . . .

I wholeheartedly agree. The funniest thing is how I discovered them. On the remaster of Aqualung by Jethro Tull during the interview track Ian mentions a few bands, one being Gentle Giant. One day that was going in my head for some reason and I decided to check them out.

thin lizzy
the stranglers
drive like jehu
snow patrol

i mean i'd heard songs by thin lizzy and the stranglers before but never really got into any of their albums until this year.

I just discovered this year:

Green Pajamas
Wellwater Conspiracy
Midlake
Wax Mannequinn

Do you think you could expand on this a bit, please?

world music and jazz.

You should post more often Zombeels. What's your favorite Green Pajamas? I was listening to Strung behind the sun a couple of weeks ago and thinking how great it is and wondering why I haven't picked up more of their albums. I have All Clues Lead to Megan's Bed also but those are the only two full lengths.

For me, I've been obsessing over:

Bill Fay Reissues:

Uncut calls him the missing link between Nick Drake, Ray Davies, and Bob Dylan. High Praise indeed but not rediculously so. I hear a lot more Lennon in him than either of those and would say more Lennon crossed with Leonard Cohen...just great great stuff

As a genre, I've been pretty obsessed over the spiritual jazz stuff Radcliffe was referring to...Archie Shepp, Eddie Gale, Art Ensemble of Chicago, William S. Fischer, etc.

Fugi "Mary Don't Take Me On No Bad Trip"

Fuzzed out, psychedelic black rock with heavy funk mixed in...riyl Jimi Hendrix, early Funkadelic or the Barkays when they rocked. Its basically
Black Merda fronted by Ellington Jordan.

Raulzinho "Impacto 8"

Brazilian Trombonist Raul De Souza's mad stew of samba, soul, funk and bossa nova.

Annette Peacock

Don't know why she's not more well-known and revered.

Doris Monteiro

Just one of the most beautiful voices in the world.

And lots of great soul and funk discoveries like Joe Quarterman & Free Soul, Magnum, Black Nasty, Black Heat

For me, I think the answer is:

Not a discovery per se' , & I've known some of their songs over the years...but this year I've gotten deeper into the greatness that is Slade.

Funkadelic

I have always been a fan of the Parliament side of things, but I never really realized how sick Clinton's "other" band was

Afrobeat

Thanks to Billy G for the great mix. I have also been trying to soak in as much Fela as I can.

Also, on the hip-hop side of things, I picked up Straight Outta Cashville by Young Buck and R&G by Snoop Dogg, and love the hell out of both. Some of the best mainstream hip-hop I've heard in a while.

I missed this a few days ago, sorry, but...

Turing Machine is a kinda repetitive Krautrock/jam instrumental band. My friend's brother is their drummer so I went to check out their live show. I loved it. I bought their most recent album a little while later and found myself listening to it a lot more than I thought I would. It's fun stuff, very energetic.

That's okay, there was no rush implied.

Thanks -- will check it out.

The Gloria Record

I never liked Mineral but I've had Start Here for about 2 years. Finally started listening to it. Quite a few good tracks on it.

Jellyfish

I bought Bellybutton real cheap last year. The only song I really got into at the time was "That is Why." I bought Spilt Milk recently and like it a lot. And I didn't realize that Jon Brion was so heavily involved with these guys.