Random Old Records Podcast #39

Whew, even after I promised myself last year that I would never do it again, I went ahead and made a top 25 albums of the year list that took me damn near a month to complete. Naturally, I posted the last of it yesterday long after all of the bigger, better, more relevant blogs had posted theirs and even longer after everyone was tired of reading "top whatever of 2011" lists, but I just couldn't help myself. 2011 was another AMAZING year for music, probably the fourth straight one in a row after most of the 2000s had been dominated by digitally-recorded pop drivel and painfully earnest singer-songwriting pussies masquerading as cutting edge indie rock. If you haven't yet, please do peruse my top 25 LPs of 2011 list and check out the track I posted with each entry. There was just TOO MUCH good shit that came out last year, so much that I might be writing an honorable mentions list sometime soon.

But anyway, we're entering the fourth year of Random Old Records Podcast, so what better way to kick off 2012 than episode #39, which is packed with as much killer rock n' roll as ever?! This time around, you'll hear the second straight KILLER single from ex-Mika Miko sisters Bleached, a selection from the current crop of garage punk releases from Wisconsin's Dusty Medical Records, hazy glam-psych from Cleveland weirdo Gap Dream, and stellar tunes from Mark Sultan, Wheels On Fire, Digital Leather, Burnt Ones, Coasting, Mikal Cronin, Xray Eyeballs, and more! It's a crucial sixty minutes that is the perfect soundtrack for blasting your way out of the winter blahs.

So yeah Random Old Records #39 is out and that is exiciting news, but I also have MORE exciting news to announce! I've been posting here and there about it on Twitter and Facebook, but I'm not sure if I said anything officially, but as of NOW, Random Old Records the blog and podcast is branching out into Random Old Records & Tapes: the LABEL! Our first release is from Cincinnati's loudest bubblegum rock n' roll band, 20th Century Tokyo Princess. ROR #001 is entitled I've Never Been Happy & I've Never Had Fun, and it contains eight tracks of raging pop music heavily influenced by The Modern Lovers and Velvet Underground. It was recorded to four track mono on 05/01/2010, and is presented in a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered RED cassettes complete with a free digital download containing two bonus tracks not on the tape. Here's a preview track, an feedback-drenched rock n' roll blowout called "99 Years."

Head on over to the band's site to stream the album in it's entirety and buy a digital download if that's your thing, or you can buy the tape at the brand new Random Old Records & Tapes Store! I'm also distributing the debut 12" EP from Cincinnati's #1 white boy soul rockers The Guitars, so pick one of those up too! You can stream that release at the group's Bandcamp site. Support Cincinnati rock n' roll music, and don't be surprised if these bands blow your minds.

In other news, I'm proud to announce that I'm now contributing to the national garage rock blog Get Bent as of now! Get Bent is the best blog going right now (apart from mine, naturally....HA!) devoted to underground, lo-fi, out-there garage, punk, whatever music and I'm positively giddy to lend a hand. Stay tuned to that site for reviews, news items, and coverage of Cincinnati bands from yours truly! As always, thanks for reading and supporting Random Old Records, and it's looking like 2012 is going to be our best year yet!!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #39

1. Digital Leather - "Mind Eraser"

(Sponge, Crash Symbols 2012)

2. Xray Eyeballs - "Sundae"

(Sundae 7", Hardly Art 2011)

3. Burnt Ones - "Gonna Listen To T. Rex (All Night Long)"

(Black Teeth & Golden Tongues, Roaring Colonel 2010)

4. The Barreracudas - "Baby Baby Baby"

(Nocturnal Missions, Douchemaster 2011)

5. Bad Sports - "Inside And Out"

(Kings Of The Weekend, Dirtnap 2011)

6. Wheels On Fire - "Dead Of Night"

(Dead Of Night 7", Milk N' Herpes 2011)

--Reform School Girl!

7. Mikal Cronin - "You Gotta Have Someone"

(Tide 7", Goner 2011)

8. Tomorrow's Tulips - "Eternally Teenage"

(Eternally Teenage, Galaxia 2011)

9. Radar Eyes - "Miracle"

(Miracle 7", HoZac 2011)

10. Gap Dream - "Go Ahead"

(Gap Dream, Burger 2011)

11. Swiftumz - "More Than Sleep"

(Swiftumz, Holy Mountain 2011)

--It came from Detroit!

12. Lantern - "I Don't Know"

(I Don't Know 7", Mammoth Cave Recording Co. 2011)

13. Head On Electric - "Here They Come Now"

(Sleep Slaughter Sheep, Dusty Medical 2011)

14. Dead People - "Misleady"

(Dead People 7", Windian 2011)

15. The Famines - "Faux Famous"

(The Complete Collected Singles, Mammoth Cave Recording Co. 2011)

16. Guilty Pleasures - "Put Your Mouth To It"

(Summer Strange, Dusty Medical 2011)

--Gary Busey has a big wednesday.

17. Bleached - "Searching Through The Past"

(Searching Through The Past 7", Suicide Squeeze 2011)

18. Coasting - "Snoozefest"

(You're Never Going Back, M'Ladys 2011)

19. Neverever - "Bitch Boys"

(Angelic Swells, Slumberland 2010)

20. Bazooka - "Back Tou You"

(Jupiter 7", Dusty Medical 2011)

21. Mark Sultan - "If I Had A Polaroid"

(Whatever I Want, In The Red 2011)

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 5: 05-01

5. Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

(Drag City)

If the slow, steady strum that kicks off this album didn't give it away, the press release written by none other than 60s Rolling Stones manager and bon vivant Andrew Loog Oldham sure as hell does. Goodbye Bread is garage punk prodigy Ty Segall's grown-up album, the one where he finally combines the fearless, ADD-addled fat kid at the buffet pop gluttony of his early work with the maturity that comes with being a somewhat respected rock n' roller with a handful of killer tunes under his belt before turning 25. Is anyone surprised that the ten tracks on Goodbye Bread flow seamlessly into one another and display a songwriter that taps directly into the same well of inspiration as John Lennon and Kurt Cobain without coming off as overly reverential or patronizing?! Segall's previous records sounded like they took a day or two to make, with schizophrenic highs of perfect fuzzed-out glam and dizzying lows of studio-induced unlistenable sludge fighting for equal time, but here he spent six months sculpting the sound, and Goodbye Bread immediately places Segall into a stratosphere above his legions of garage rock peers. If anything, this record makes a convincing case for Ty Segall the GUITAR HERO, as he packs some face-melting leads and solos into "Goodbye Bread," "The Floor," and "Where Your Head Goes" that add another layer to the package and proves that he's ready for a mainstream indie-rock close-up. Of course, he followed this up with the grinding sludge-metal moves of the "Spiders" 7", so who knows? Segall is a restless spirit, and combining such experimentation with classic singer-songwriter skills might not get him on the cover of Spin, but I highly doubt he gives a shit. and as a result, neither do I.

4. Strange Boys - Live Music

(Rough Trade)

After taking the top spot in last year's countdown, The Strange Boys return with a near-flawless follow-up that probably would have ranked higher if it didn't come out in November. As always, your enjoyment of the band will hinge on your feelings towards Ryan Sambol's adenoidal croon, which sounds likes a tone-deaf Texas teen impersonating Mick Jagger in front of his bedroom mirror. Personally, I think Sambol's voice is an impressive weapon, which makes up for its rough and whiny tone with conversational candor and passion, especially when he unleashes powerful lines like "I'm surprised you're still alive, after all the time you spent in the middle of the road" with a withering sneer reminiscent of classic Dylan. Live Music strips the Strange Boys of their earlier, Nuggets-inspired garage production style once and for all, presenting these fourteen tracks in a warmer, fuller setting that pushes all the band's strengths to the forefront. The twinkly pianos, bleating harmonicas, and gradually building sing-a-long choruses will have you convinced that this is the great lost Stones album that would have come out after Exile On Main Street if the greatest rock n' roll band in the world hadn't fallen into drug-induced burnout and apathy. Dig the lightly funky swagger of "Doueh" and try to tell me that it doesn't resemble an outtake from Some Girls. While Be Brave was front-loaded with rockers and finished up with a bunch of dirgey ballads, Live Music does a better job of mixing things up and settles into a melancholy twilight mood that drives the songs further into your brain with each listen. With this new LP, the Strange Boys cement their place as the best American rock n' roll band since the Replacements. Believe it!

3. Mikal Cronin

(Trouble In Mind)

If you're like me and you couldn't stop spinning the shit-fi surf-punk jams of the self-titled debut Moonhearts LP from last year but wished they would have spent a couple more hundred bucks and let the hooks out from under the noise, then do I have an album for you! Moonhearts songwriter Mikal Cronin is a California boy through and through, and on his first solo record he fuses the surfy Moonhearts punk chug with dollops of 90s grunge and classic post-Byrds strummy 70s folk-rock into a sound that fans of everything from the Beach Boys to Fleetwood Mac to Nirvana can appreciate. Like frequent collaborator Ty Segall, Cronin is clearly a musical omnivore, mixing genres and decades with reckless abandon, picking, choosing, and rearranging disparate influences into a stew that just sounds GOOD without pretense or irony. But while Segall is an unhinged, restless punk rock rabblerouser, Cronin seems to be a bit more cautious and calculated, turning out songs that hit all the pleasure centers with a type of universal and timeless appeal. Lead-off track "Is it Alright" fades into a multi-track Wilson brothers chorale of his own voice, gathers a head of steam with jangly pop, and then blasts off into a punk rock coda featuring an intense flute solo from Oh Sees mainmain John Dwyer, and if that sounds intriguing, then the rest of Mikal Cronin will be pure ear candy. He's mastered the stop-start Buzz Bin angst pop style with "Apathy" and turned it on its head with relentless optimism, and he evokes the top-down chilled-out cruising bliss of "Ventura Highway" on "Again And Again" while the lyrics speak of a bittersweet failed relationship, and Cronin does it while playing almost all the goddamn instruments himself. Mikal Cronin is a pop-art collage of familiar sounds distilled into a creative and intensely personal vision, and it's just his first album. I'm eagerly anticipating the next one.

2. Natural Child - 1971

(Infinity Cat)

Nashville's Natural Child released the best rock record of the year on 04/20/2011, and you just have to take one look at the band's glazed-over expressions on the cover to determine that this trio is out to celebrate every strain of hedonism under the sun. Initially lumped in with the current crop of garage punkers after their first couple of singles, Natural Child slowed things down on 1971, touching on all the hallmarks of FM radio classic rock. Back in the summer, I wrote "These kids worship at the altar of Exile-era Stones, Sabbath, Zeppelin, T. Rex, Faces, and Deep Purple, and bring a healthy dose of youthful exuberance to the table, soaking these eleven tracks in tape hiss, sweaty denim, barely audible Bic flicks, weed smoke, and Southern Comfort puke. It sounds more like the band your dad's shitty friends formed to rock the keg party and less like some artless, overproduced Black Crowes-style pastiche or the coked-up Beatles worship Oasis peddled for years." The riffs might be familiar, but Natural Child is the classic rock n' roll band that you Black Keys fans REALLY should be listening to at your next weekend blowout.

1. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

(Fat Possum)

The Strange Boys grabbed the top spot on last year's list in February 2010 and like Be Brave, Dye It Blonde emerged way early as the front-runner and knocked all potential competitors out of the box as they tried and failed to knock it down a peg. The big, BOLD, swoony tracks on the second Smith Westerns LP set the entire tone of the year with its high school love letter romanticism and instantly catchy songcraft. It was a massive leap from the boombox-quality sound of their debut, but somehow they managed to duplicate the best part of that record PERFECTLY. That obnoxious blown-out Marc Bolan guitar sound is lifted out of its formerly dingy surroundings and grafted onto big-budget rock anthems that flawlessly duplicate the epic, escapist majesty of 90s Britpop with the optimistic guile of kids too dumb to know better. The range of emotions veer from "weekends are never fun unless you're around" to "everybody wants to be a star on a saturday night," and sometimes that's all you need to get through the year. Dye It Blonde is the soundtrack to young love, sunny skies, and endless weekends, and it's just about the best makeout record I've heard in forever.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 4: 10-06

10. Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin'

(Hardly Art)

I originally had this record placed a few slots lower, but after I realized how much I walk around singing Glazin's best hooks to myself like I quoted Simpsons references as a teenager, its position in the top ten was a given. I reviewed it back in October and said, "It's all sun-baked and easy-going and might be the best soundtrack for barrelling towards the beach in a sand-flecked beater that I've heard by a band not ending in 'each Boys.' Well, let me back up the hyperbole truck a little bit. It's not THAT good, not by a long shot, but it's definitely one of the top three mid-fi/glitter/beach/surf/punk/power-pop albums I've heard since the mighty King Tuff Was Dead record was unleashed back in 2008...It's slight and genuine and unassuming, and perhaps it treads too close to the T. Rex bubblegum formula that King Tuff perfected, but this trio of youngins have a real knack for crafting serious hooks, punctuated by frontman Gabriel Alcala's playfully bratty vocals." The POWER side of Jacuzzi Boys' power pop style was definitely on display when they played the Comet here in Cincinnati a few months back, giving these sugary tunes a stiff kick in the ass and proving that they aren't just a bunch of beach-baked softies. Let's hope that these Miami boys can keep this roll going on their next LP.

9. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams

(Sub Pop)

Kristin "Dee Dee Dum Dum" Gundred is a total anomaly in the world of lo-fi garage indie pop rock. Refreshingly free of pretense, she is happily married to a dude from noise-rockers Crocodiles and loves her mama so much that she put her on the cover of several Dum Dum Girls records. I've been obsessively listening to rock n' roll since preschool, and have gotten to a point where every simple three-chord punky love song sounds kinda PHONY, but Dee Dee's robust vocals imbue every inch of Only In Dreams with the kind of passion that is sorely missing from 93% of most music these days. With "He Gets Me High" (one of the greatest love songs written in my lifetime) in her back pocket, Gundred and her band evoke classic 60s pop music, nervy Prentenders-style new wave, and Madonna's 80s slow jams, making almost everything else that came out this year sound vapid and shallow by comparison. Mama Dum Dum passed away some time before this album was finished, and side two forms a gut-wrenching cycle of songs that could move even the most hardened cynic to tears. The slowly stopping heartbeat pulse of "Coming Down," the joyous, "don't give a fuck" hospital bed delusion of "Wasting Away," and the final track "Hold My Hand," where Dee Dee repeats over and over "Oh I wish it wasn't true, but there's nothing I can do except hold your hand till the very end" form an astonishing tower of real-deal emotion that will shake your ass up good and proper. No other album released this year comes close to the simple, honest emotional bloodletting on display here.

8. Blouse

(Captured Tracks)

Somewhere around the middle of summer, I fell out of love with the primal, punky garage rock n' roll that I've been tirelessly championing for the past few years. I'm still not sure if it was just burnout, or the releases coming out in that style were lame, but I'm 100% sure that Blouse's first 45 "Into Black" was the record that led me down a deep electronic pop hole for a couple months. It sounded like a lost top 40 radio hit from 1989, with vocalist Charlie Harper's smoky Julee Cruise croon and an insistent ringing guitar riff straight out of the New Order playbook inhabiting a Twin Peaks netherworld. Both tracks from the single appear on this debut LP, and the other eight songs travel along the same mysterious, hazy path, full of robotic drum machine beats, droning synth textures, and the kind of moody subtlety and depth missing from much of today's music. Dig the sultry groove of "They Always Fly Away," and don't be surprised if you wake up four minutes later in a different world, where pale kids with hairsprayed black tresses still made the pop charts every once in awhile. Sure, it kinda sounds like the music you'd hear seeping from the Starbucks sound system, but Blouse takes pop music in a dark, sensual direction that hits all the right spots. That's a slightly more articulate way to say that this record is full of SEX JAMS, but I'm sure you get the point.

7. Wax Idols - No Future

(HoZac)

Lots of punk rock bands put out perfectly acceptable records in 2011, delivering respectably tough slabs of standard-issue entertainment without stepping over any lines, but No Future stands on top of the lines and pisses all over them. One of the few things that bug me about the current wave of garage punk bands is that they're too busy singing about cavemen and candy and walking down the street next to their baby to say anything IMPORTANT. Sure, I love escapism as much as the next guy, but there's gotta be artists out there that can stir some shit or else the rock n' roll balance will implode on itself. Enter Hether Fortune and the Wax Idols, breathing fire all over the ten tracks on this record. A few months back, I wrote "No one wants to write anthems anymore, no one wants to hurt some feelings, no one wants to step on anyone's toes to make a point, no one wants to step up and speak out. Guts and passion are in short supply, and the silence is ready for voices of dissent to make a whole lot of fucking NOISE. In a world where Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon can get divorced and the fiery loudmouths of my youth can be turned into placid NPR correspondents and VH1 documentary talking heads, who can whatever percentage I'm supposed to be in look to for ideas?!...[No Future is a] a kick in the balls for the MOR indie rock dweebs out there that cling to tired 70s singer-songwriter retreads and dismiss anything more challenging as juvenile and unlistenable." Wax Idols took a bunch of classic influences, infused a steaming dose of passion, and made tons of bands look inept in the process.

6. The Paperhead

(Trouble In Mind)

It's impossible to listen to the debut LP from Nashville's The Paperhead without thinking about the story surrounding its recording. These three pals graduated high school, spent the summer putting together this psychedelic daydream of a record, and went their separate ways off to college in the fall. Every second of The Paperhead is soaked in woozy summer nostalgia, and it sounds way more mature and poised than a bunch of eighteen year-olds reminiscing about junior high bong sessions. Wait a minute, these are teenagers?! This music was made by recent high school graduates in 2010, not journeymen British blues rockers tripping balls on brown acid back in 1969?! No fuckin' way! Daring and heady and just skirting the edge of proto-prog rock, The Paperhead crafted an album which sounds like a gritty reboot of S.F. Sorrow sans pretension, and reclaimed the good name of jam bands from peasant-shirted folk singers who fill amphitheaters with ghastly fusions of world beat and bad 70s Zappa. They dig into the same record collection and sense of small town isolationism as the Elephant 6 collective, but this collection of swooping tape loops, out-there tabla freakouts, and carefully constructed Rubble-style pop moves combine into an album that sometimes jolts and jars like fitful, anxious sleep, guiding the listener into blissful candy-colored dreams and terrifying nightmares depending on where you drop the needle. They've already accomplished more that most people do before they reach drinking age, and The Paperhead sound like they're ready to close the door on childhood and push on to a new dimension.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 3: 15-11

15. The People's Temple - Sons Of Stone

(HoZac)

When I first picked up Sons Of Stone, it didn't really register. After the first couple of plays, this Michigan band of brothers just seemed like regular ol' garage rockers, even if they did get the primal, sun-baked 60s sound down pretty well. After awhile, the sprawling opening title track seeped its way into my brain and never shook itself out. Jesus, are these dudes really singing "Do you care if I'm alive? Do you care if I died?" The People's Temple back up their sick joke name with some of the most sinister, downright scary psychedelic rock n' roll music I've heard since Phosphene Dream by the Black Angels came out last year. They manage to sound more like a Texas band than a Michigan one, more 13th Floor Elevators than the Stooges. The busy guitars twang and bend and drone and never fucking stop, the drums pound all tribal and swing sometimes like a low-rent go-go-bar band, and the tinny speakers on the keyboards sound like they're about on their last legs. "Axe Man" is the most evil sounding three minutes waxed in 2011, and the rest of the record tries it's best to be as otherworldly and mean. Sons Of Stone is an album that demands repeated listening.

14. Vivian Girls - Share The Joy

(Polyvinyl)

After the tepid reception of their second LP Everything Goes Wrong, Vivian Girls ended their association with venerated garage punk label In The Red, lost one-dimensional drummer Ali Koehler to Best Coast, and started intriguing side-projects La Sera and The Babies. Such seismic change usually crushes a band, but Vivian Girls emerged on their latest album with a more technically advanced drummer in Coasting's fantastic Fiona Campbell, a richer production courtesy of Woods' Jarvis Taveniere, and a focused set of tracks that betters their debut by a hair. With a solid foundation for the first time, the focus is on Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman's vocals, and they light up the two-step explosions of "Trying To Pretend," the Shangri-las'-inspired silliness of "Take It As It Comes," and the sinister cover of Green On Red's cowpunk classic "Sixteen Ways." The Pitchfork set shrugged and went back to pimping James Blake or whatever, but Share The Joy is an exciting leap for a band most people had already written off.

13. Heavy Times - Jacker

(HoZac)

Heavy Times is rough, loud, and Chicago as FUCK. Jacker sounds tailor-made for tattooed, Old Style-swilling dudes in beards and Fidel Castro hats, and its thirteen brief songs are piled with heads-down chugging guitars and pounding drums. While its geographical sound is easy to pinpoint, trying to figure out WHO Heavy Times is most similar to is a trickier concern. Usually, it's easy to listen to a band, throw out a quick "welp, they're like a cross between X and Y," and go on your merry way. After playing Jacker dozens of times, I can pull out bits of the beery shout-along Archers Of Loaf style in the vocal hooks, but their deliberate, driving rhythms don't sound anything like the Archers more easy-going moments. There are moments of Superchunk's hyperbolic, bratty kid punk, but singer Bo Hansen's throat-shredding bellow bears no resemblance to Mac McCaughan's strained tenor. They kinda sound a bit like the Wipers too, with a whole bunch of gruff Greg Sage angst but not so much of his end of the world epic heft. Jacker is swift and brutally efficient, and it's easier to listen and enjoy it than it is to get too hung up in comparing it to everything else.

12. Bare Wires - Cheap Perfume

(Southpaw)

Bare Wires main man Matthew Melton doesn't seem too keen on putting a cork in his prolific, seemingly bottomless jug of tough rock n' roll songs, and who am I to stop him? Last year, I wondered if the sugary doo-wop pop of Seeking Love's closing track "The Last Thing On My Mind" was a hint that Melton might be looking to expand the Bare Wires' vision past leather jackets and bubblegum, and Cheap Perfume expands the band's sound until shit is about to BURST from the sides of this 10" cherry red EP. Opening track "Don't Ever Change" came out way back in the winter on a limited edition 45, and it sounds like a teen movie closing credits theme, or at least a suitable substitution for "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" when the Ramones come into town in Rock N' Roll High School. Tracks like "Back On The Road" and "Sweet Little Stranger" are prime examples of the lean, muscular proto-punk rock n' roll that got me listening to Bare Wires in the first place, but elsewhere the songs take a little bit longer to develop, give the blunt-force hooks a rest, and instead evolve into something a bit more sticky and insidious. Melton played all the instruments, sang on, and produced "Now Or Never," which sounds like a nervous, jittery Tin Pan Alley reject. Buried deep on side two, it proves that the Bare Wires aren't running out of gas, and Melton is probably stockpiling songs for the next record that will probably be out before your ears and wallets can adjust.

11. Wax Museums - Eye Times

(Trouble In Mind)

Consider this an all-inclusive blanket slot for the INSANELY prodigious output of the Denton, Texas punk rock scene, including fantastic LPs from High Tension Wires, Bad Sports, OBN IIIs, Video, Silver Shampoo, Wiccans, Mind Spiders, and probably three or four other bands I'm forgetting about right this second. The Wax Museums self-titled LP on Douchemaster from 2008 was my gateway into that scene, and their long-awaited second album is a killer from start to finish. Back in September, I wrote, "Really, the Wax Museums have simply remade their first album, only a lot tougher, smarter, and BETTER, but 'maturity'? Eh...I dunno about all that. The two longest songs are 'Bruiser,' which retells 'Whole Lotta Rosie' with a bratty sneer, and 'Breakfast For Dinner,' which is sludgy and kinda heavy and rhymes with 'I'd rather be in her.' Love songs, I guess? Just as much as 'Mosquito Enormo' is a love song about a big-ass bug bite." Eye Times is straight-up classic dude punk rock at its silly finest.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 2: 20-16

20. Pure X - Pleasure

(Acephale)

Like a lot of people now afraid to admit it, I was entranced by My Morning Jacket's brand of reverb-drenched hillbilly rock back in the early 2000s. Back then, I had a lot of free time on my hands and liked to drive around aimlessly frequently, and I spent a lot of time digesting the sprawling jams on the first couple of MMJ records. I barely have time to digest my own lunch anymore, and luckily Austin trio Pure X has taken the basic template of Jim James and crew, cut out all the pointless jamming and Neil Young worship, and laid it all out into a concise, hypnotic trance of an album called Pleasure. In a year where reverb became the most overused studio effect since auto-tune, Pure X use it as enhancement instead of a mask. Minimal, pounding drums crawl along, clean, surfy guitar lines butt up against shoegaze noise, and the vocals fight their way to the top like a town crier stuck in a well. Fans of Galaxie 500, Low, and other slow-core heroes might have just found their favorite new band. Judging by the garish red and gold color scheme of the cover and s&m artwork, you might think Pleasure is a lousy Euro disco record, but it's really a thirty-eight minute daydream for any lazy Sunday afternoon.

19. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream

(In The Red)

Up until this year, I didn't much care for Thee Oh Sees and leader John Dwyer's musical output. I think the Coachwhips sucked, and I much preferred the lysergic campfire folk tunes of Dog Poison to the heavier sounds of LPs like Help and Warm Slime. Those records reeked of half-baked, drug addled experimentation at its worst, and the layers of lo-fi psychedelic crud was totally a crutch to prop up songs that didn't have shit going on to begin with. Dwyer kicked off 2011 by dropping a sunny, sprawling sequel to Dog Poison called Castlemania that had a few classic jams, and then outdid himself with Carrion Crawler/The Dream, which sounds like it had enough time and money invested in it to show off what Thee Oh Sees are REALLY all about. Gone are the studied attempts to get "weird," and all that floundering is replaced by huge psychedelic groove MONSTERS! Maybe adding a second drummer did the trick, since these songs throb and grind like prime Krautrock, making Carrion Crawler/The Dream the best road trip soundtrack of 2011. Crank it up and watch those highway lines melt and disappear.

18. The Babies

(Shrimper)

Holy shit, did this album give me happy feet in the first few months of the year. HAPPY FEET! Every single bit of this record sounds bouncy and goofy and coy and downright FUN. Side A kicks off with a bit of playful guitar noodling, and develops into "Run Me Over," a song that defines the entire record with Kevin Morby of Woods' whiny yelp and Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone's flat bray winding in and out of tunefulness and occasionally meeting in harmonies that seem way better than most because of their brief and hard-fought joy. Side B starts off with "Breakin' The Law," which is the best approximation of June and Johnny's romantic outlaw push and pull since "Jackson" or maybe Natural Born Killers to make with a more current reference. I don't know shit about my favorite bands' personal lives and I like it that way, but it's impossible to listen to this record without imagining that Ramone and Morby had some kind of romantic entanglement with this much passion and giddy fun dripping from its grooves. The Babies is a voyeuristic gas.

17. Shannon & The Clams - Sleep Talk

(1-2-3-4 Go!)

Shannon Shaw is a national treasure, no lie. After adding crucial vocals and songwriting assistance on Too Young To Be In Love by Hunx & His Punx (which just missed this list), Shaw dropped the second LP from her own band, Shannon & The Clams, who mine an always-pleasing, John Waters-inspired trash rock aesthetic. That kinda shit can get a little too cutesy at times, but Shannon's voice is a big, boomy, scratchy weapon that reminds me of Wanda Jackson or Brenda Lee on her British rock n' roll singles, and guitarist foil Cody "King Lollipop" Blanchard provides the right amount of silly sweetness with his Buddy Holly/Tiny Tim hybrid backups. On Sleep Talk, the Clams front-load things with big, swoony doo-wop inspired ballads, but the real gem is lurking somewhere in the middle of side two. "Toxic Revenge" is a straight-up blast of early 80s California punk rock with a skronky saxophone solo, and it suggests that Shannon & The Clams have somewhere to go after perfecting this collection of banged-up malt shop jukebox 45s.

16. Peaking Lights - 936

(Not Not Fun)

It's 2011, and if you start your album with a few seconds of clanging beats and trippy dub echo and a bassline that sounds suspiciously like "Push It" by Salt N' Pepa, then you'll get my attention. Even the most forward-looking and original record on this list rips off the past mightily, and 936 proves that there's still a lot to be said for taking a whole bunch of influences that don't sound good on paper and trying to cram those awkward parts into an entertaining whole. This duo of Wisconsin weirdos smear fragments of commercial pop onto the genre-smashing experimentation of Public Image Limited and the psychedelic trip-hop of Black Moth Super Rainbow and come up with a unique set of six extended tracks that loop the good parts with determined gusto and leave hyped headliners like Animal Collective in the dust. Peaking Lights have happened upon a sound that is both fearless and familiar, perfect for nodding in dazed approval or dancing in a dimly lit room. 936 is cut and paste internet generation pop at it's finest.

The 25 Best LPs of 2011, Part 1: 25-21

25. Widowspeak

(Captured Tracks)

Sure, Widowspeak vocalist Molly Hamilton is a dead ringer for Hope Sandoval, but the band's new spin on dark, mid-80s post-punk cowboy rock is a lot different from Mazzy Star's elegant, noisy torch ballads. On tracks like lead-off single "Gun Shy" and "In The Pines," Widowspeak evoke a seductive, gothic vision of dusty highways haunted by murderous villains and back them with big western guitar riffs. They should have included their perfect cover of Chris Issak's "Wicked Game" though.

24. Wooden Shjips - West

(Thrill Jockey)

Fire up the candles, turn off the lights, become acquainted with your drug of choice, tune in, turn on, and drop out to the latest LP from bay area space cadets Wooden Shjips. After several years of releasing every half-baked jam they could come up with on a myriad of formats, their particular brand of exploratory psychedelic rock is peaking HARD on West. All seven tracks are built on a bed of Can-inspired drum beats that allow the guitars , keyboards, and vocals to wander all over the place in search of a perfect spot to come down. West is a perfect soundtrack for your next journey to the center of your mind.

23. Run DMT - Dreams

(Culture Dealer Media)

Mike Collins of Run DMT made a 30 minute cassette tape called Dreams this year, which melted shards of classic pop music and hypnotic sound collages of trippy, split-second hooks into a pair of extended suites that rewarded both intense and passive attention. Back in October, I wrote "Pressing 'play' on this tape is the gateway to another planet, where feelings and colors and sparkling flashing lights drift without a tether, where showers of syrupy synth muck rain all over your face, and sunshine pop, doo wop, northern soul, and post-Motown 60s 45s make you wanna dance listlessly until they fade out in washes of beach waves and clarion calls of lighthouse spotlights..." Yeah, that sounds about right!

22. Earth - Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1

(Southern Lord)

Once Dylan Carlson finally kicked hard drugs and discovered major chords, Earth became one of the most interesting bands on its namesake planet. He'd already spent a decade-plus in the deepest of trenches, making torturous sludge epics that wallowed in despair, feedback, and speaker-wrecking Black Sabbath worship, so a turn towards the light seemed like the perfect idea. The press for this record indicated that Carlson was influenced by classic British folk-rock this time, but the expansive tracks on Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 confirm that Carlson is one of the most distinctively AMERICAN composers working today. Things are still slow as balls, and that allows Earth to build monoliths of every day 99 percenter dread that move like rain clouds creeping over suburban strip malls. With his all-black clothes, craggy face, and storyteller's eye, Dylan Carlson is emerging as the Johnny Cash of post-9/11 America.

21. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain

(Vice)

Remember when Jim Suptic of the Get Up Kids came out and basically said "don't blame us for all that awful mall emo bullshit"?! I'd imagine the Black Lips feel the same way for unleashing all the mediocre Nuggets-inspired garage rock bands that litter the internet right now like so many eager sheep. Instead of cranking out another LP that revisited their heydey as the hippest band on the planet, they took a left turn and enlisted pop superproducer Mark Ronson for some much-needed gloss and direction, and trusted Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt to produce the rest. Arabia Mountain might be a bit on the longish side, but it packs in the best songs the band has written to date, kicking off with the sleazy saxophones of "Family Tree," and then it rounds itself out with the Ramones-worship of "Raw Meat" and the joyous classic rock n' roll of "New Direction." It's the best album the Black Lips have released so far, and it shows all their half-ass imitators what's up, for real.

Random Old Records Podcast #38

2011 is almost over, and holy shit, where did the time go?! The past twelve months were filled with all kinds of good things for me on the life front, and much like last year, there was a HUGE amount of crucial rock n' roll records released and a bunch of killer shows that damaged my eardrums even further. Episode #38 of Random Old Records cuts away all of the bullshit and somewhat clever soundbytes and presents an hour of my personal favorite songs of 2011 with no interruptions!

You'll hear all the songs I've been raving about since January, including heavy hitters like "Gold Sneakers" by Wax Idols, "Weekend" by Smith Westerns, and "Into Black" by Blouse. You'll hear heavy-duty psychedelic blowouts from The Paperhead, Thee Oh Sees, and The People's Temple, and perfect pop from Dum Dum Girls, Colleen Green, and The Babies. Later this week, check back for my top 25 albums of 2011 list!

After it took me a month to complete it last year, I swore that I would never even attempt to write a long-ass list of 25 records again, but so much good shit came out this year that I felt kinda obligated to dive back in and give it a go. My loss is your gain, I reckon! 2012 is just around the corner, and I sincerely thank every listener and reader that clicks on this blog on a regular basis, and hope that you stick with me into the new year. I'll have some big announcements coming soon that revolve around a certain http://randomoldrecords.bigcartel.com! In the meantime, enjoy the podcast!

STREAM/SUBSCRIBE/DOWNLOAD: HERE or HERE

DIRECT DOWNLOAD WITH PLAYLIST: HERE

Random Old Records Podcast #38
1. Smith Westerns - "Weekend"
(Dye It Blonde, Fat Possum 2011)
2. Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom Eyes"
(Only In Dreams, Sub Pop 2011)
3. Wax Idols - "Gold Sneakers"
(No Future, HoZac 2011)
4. Colleen Green - "Y Do U Call Me?"
(Green One, Hardly Art 2011)
5. Vivian Girls - "Dance (If You Wanna)"
(Share The Joy, Polyvinyl 2011)
6. Natural Child - "Chris' Blues"
(1971, Infinity Cat 2011)
7. Black Lips - "New Direction"
(Arabia Mountain, Vice 2011)
8. Bare Wires - "Sweet Little Stranger"
(Cheap Perfume, Southpaw 2011)
9. Jacuzzi Boys - "Automatic Jail"
(Glazin', Hardly Art 2011)
10. Mikal Cronin - "Again and Again"
(Mikal Cronin, Trouble In Mind 2011)
11. The Babies - "Breakin' The Law"
(The Babies, Shrimper 2011)
12. The Paperhead - "Can't Keep My Eyes Open"
(The Paperhead, Trouble In Mind 2011)
13. Thee Oh Sees - "Chem-farmer"
(Carrion Crawler/The Dream, In The Red 2011)
14. The People's Temple - "Axe Man"
(Sons Of Stone, HoZac 2011)
15. Blouse - "Into Black"
(Blouse, Captured Tracks 2011)
16. Widowspeak - "In The Pines"
(Widowspeak, Captured Tracks 2011)
17. Ty Segall - "Goodbye Bread"
(Goodbye Bread, Drag City 2011)
18. The Strange Boys - "Mama Shelter"
(Live Music, Rough Trade 2011)
19. Jeffrey Novak - "Looking Down At You"
(4 Track Solo EP, Trouble In Mind 2011)