Tried The Orwells yet? They aren't on my list but would probably qualify.

in addition to Parquet Courts,

Angel Olsen
Ought
Cloud Nothings

are rock and roll, more or less. The new album by The Men definitely is, but I haven't really spent any time with it yet to know if I like it or not.

The Men is definitely rock and roll.

You guys have encountered Haq before, right?

It's been a long time. Who is he again?

Thanks, dudes, I have added all of these to my Rdio collection and will actually listen to them.

This was not an encounter. It was a reflection. A hologram.

Haq, you've encountered Obner before, right?






Always a good policy to solicit suggestions for a genre from the people who don't like that genre.

Jesus, Starbucks? Do they even have pourover?

Watery Love - Decorative Feeding
Obnox - Louder Space
Greg Ashley - Another Generation of Slaves
Yi - Crying
Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
Doses - S/T

Woods - With Light And Love
The Men - Tomorrow's Hits
Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt
Birth Of Joy - Prisoner
Murlocs - Loopholes
James - Le petit mort
Angus & Julia Stone - Angus & Julia Stone
Donkeys - Ride The Black Wave
Spoon - They Want My Soul
My Sad Captains - Best Of Times
Temples - Sun Structure
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - Chambers
Soundcarriers - Entropicalia
Girls In Hawaii - Refuge EP
Dandelions - Dandelions EP
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Revelation
Ty Segall - Manipulator
Margot And The Nuclear So & So's - Slingshot To Heaven
Thee Oh Sees - Drop
Halls - Love To Give
Elbow - The Takeoff and Landing Of Everything
Honeyblood - Honeyblood
Cult Of Dom Keller - The Second Bardo
Passenger - Whispers
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
Erland & The Carnival - Closing Time
Good Sports - Mandarin Time
New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers
Paws - Youth Culture Forever
Interpol - El Pintor
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
Christian Fitness - I Am Scared of Everything That Isn't Me

Edited to add a few

Second volume of my fave songs of the year:

1. Spoon They Want My Soul
2. Sloan Keep Swinging (Downtown)
3. Brand New Hate Feeling Bad Feels Good
4. Happyness It's On You
5. Army Navy The Mistakes
6. Lydia Loveless I Really Wanna See You
7. Harlan Pepper TV/ Let It Slide
8. Stephen Lawrenson Obscuriosity
9. The Solicitors If You Let Me Hold You
10. Biters Indigo
11. The #1s Sharon Shouldn't
12. Twin Peaks Making Breakfast
13. Reigning Sound My My
14. Blue Skies for Black Hearts The Past
15. The Dwarves Sluts of the USA
16. Sugar Stems Some Might Say
17. Nude Beach For You
18. Split Squad Feel The Same About You
19. Alvvays Archie, Marry Me
20. The Orwells Bathroom Tile Blues
21. The Phenomenauts One in Seven Billion Girl
22. Strand of 0aks Goshen '97
23. The Muffs Paint By Numbers
24. The Empty Hearts I Don't Want Your Love (If You Don't Want Me)

Rads,

forogt if i brought it up...
you hear, JPNGRLS yet? record is called 'Circulation'
think it might be right up your alley...
top 10 for me most likely this 2014.

A mere 9 new albums listened to so far this year, I'm Mr. Radio 4 these days....I need to challenge myself to get to 25 before the end of the year.

Ranked roughly in order using the ME LIKEY/ME NO LIKEY system that I've developed to replace Konstantiranks.

Spoon - They Want My Soul [Of course it's frustratingly short of being great but these guys are a rare thing in music these days in that they are actual artists]
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Wigout At Jagbags [Malkmus for me is a unique and special talent, if anything I like his solo career more than Pavement]
Black Lips - Underneath The Rainbow [Black Lips pilfer the dusty forgotten annals of garage rock and inject energy and life into them. This isn't there best album but I love these guys more than any other current band]
------------------------^ ME REALLY LIKEY ^--------------------------

Roddy Frame - Seven Dials [Just a great singer, great guitarist and great songwriter rolled into one. You can just tell he's making music for himself now and that's great even if it's basically old man music.]
Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animals [I like it but it didn't hit me like their previous LP]
---------------------------^ ME LIKEY ^----------------------

~~~~~~~v THE MEH ZONE V~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Withered Hand - New Gods [This albums sounds a little rushed, maybe if this was the 1970's and bands could actually spend time in a studio working things out this would have been better, couple of nice tracks on there though]
Happyness - Weird Little Birthday [A bit pedestrian overall, but two or three tracks with a slow slacker type groove going on.]
Reigning Sound - Shattered [I've only heard this once so far but seemed to tail off after the first track]
~~~~~~~~~^ THE MEH ZONE ^~~~~~~~~~~~

----------V ME NO LIKEY V-------------------------------------
Little Barrie - Shadow [I liked Little Barrie's two previous albums but this one just hasn't caught my imagination, they have tried to take what was quite a 'traditional' rock sound and make it more stylized and it's not really come off. Sometimes basics are better.]

Only streamed it so far. Sounds decent enough to track down (although I'm getting a little weirded out by Vancouver bands' apparent need to toss the word Japan in their name).

Its all them AYJUNS y'all got up there, amirite?

Or the impending Fukushima radioactive death.

This one is pretty great:

HERE IS MY REVIEW

Check it and see what you think.

I'm obviously getting old and all these bands are getting old with me. The new Bishop Allen is growing on me, despite being all mature and mid-tempo. Also the new Army Navy is full of 4 minute rock/pop songs, which normally I do not care for, but for some reason I find it enjoyable and soothing.

Here's what else I've kept in my itunes,

Allah-Las - Worship The Sun
Allo Darlin - We Come From The Same Place
Haden Triplets - s/t
Inspiral Carpets - s/t
Literature - Chorus
Martha - Courting Strong
Muffs - Whoop De Doo
River Monks - Home Is The House

I'm really liking this "Rips" album by Ex Hex. So far it's Top 20 material. A hock movgerg, indeed.

Just checked and it's on Spotify, so I'll definitely give it a listen. Really dig the YouTube clip.

Been listening to a bunch of new shit, but at this moment listening to and really digging Hollie Cook, Paul's little girl, light soulful reggae/pop mix. The album is called Twice, her second.

I like it a lot - thanks for the rec, Rads!

New stuff is out by The Men?

-runs to spotify-

...This does NOT sound like what I expected. Hmm...

Been looking forward to this one for a while.



My favorite moment of a band's existence is that point when they realize they're good enough to play the sounds they hear in their head and consequently they're exploding with ideas and directions. The Clash's "London Calling" is an obvious example, and last year's "Safe City Blues" by the Bamboo Kids is a more recent one. This year it's Nude Beach's "77" - 18 songs that make good on all the promise of their previous two releases. It's slightly more polished, more focused, but mostly retains the messy spirit of the band. Next release might sound entirely like a Tom Petty album, but this one gets it totally right.