BEST (or something like that) OF 2014!

Well whaddaya know! 2014 wasn't that bad of a year at all, at least compared with some of the dudsville ones we've been encountering ever since the death of rock 'n roll as a viable source of jamz inna early eighties. Yeah, the Big Beat did not make a triumphant return and life in general got even more degenerate than it was in 2013 (and forget the tee-vee situation which is pretty much nada unless you can pull in a station airing nothing but fifties/sixties classix), but there were more'n a few releases that came out that made the act of existing (if not living) a little more palatable and hey, I really didn't feel like 86-ing myself or even hiding under the bed given that there were some interesting recordings making their way to my door that were worth sticking around for. Hopefully 2015 will continue on the trend even if for all intent purposes rock 'n roll is the new Bix Beiderbecke firehouse gang band playing for the PBS cameras, but at least when we age we really know how to ruminate!

And so here's the best of the past orbit IMHO and all that which I know you will disagree with, but then again what else is old under the sun. Sorry that none of the chart toppers this time belong to any of those patented and precocious critics choice faves that I quit paying attention to a good thirtysome years back, but then again you all know what kind of a genre-smashing maverick I have been, am and will remain and like, why expect otherwise?

ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-TECHNICOLOR SKULL! Who would have thought that the best music to have been made this year (or the previous years prior) would have been created by none other than Kenneth Anger? One of the most incredible electronic storms I've heard in ages, and it puts all of those SOUND CHOICE cassette culture bedroom practitioners I've heard over the past few decades who thought they were creating music to smash the spheres to utter shame!

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SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-Simply Saucer's "Bulletproof Nothing" double-sided wowzer (c/o The Mammoth Cave Recording Company). Is this one archival though? Oh wha' th' hey...

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CD OF THE YEAR!-PD 5

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LIVE CD OF THE YEAR!-Figures of Light's FEEDBACK MUSIC, a re-creation of the group's legendary concert where they set their guitars on ten, leaned them against the amps and stepped back to enjoy some Metal Machine Music just like the Velvet Underground did in San Francisco way back in 1966! Yeah it ain't the actual live show, but then again how much studio finagling went into some of YOUR fave live albums of all time!?!?!?!

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BOOTLEG OF THE YEAR!-AGENTS OF MISFORTUNE which might not exactly be a bootleg in the Rubber Dubber sense but it sure looks illegal enough for my tastes! Cliff Burton with his pre-Metallica trio live at some 1981 Battle of the Bands probably stymieing the audience who think they're gonna be in for yet another Van Halen tribute band. And don't you think it's strange/telling that both the LP and bootleg of the year are one-sided affairs which only goes to prove that if you can say it all in twenty 'stead of forty minutes why bog the listener down with extraneous crap?

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ARCHIVAL CD OF THE YEAR-Pip Proud's A FRAYING SPACE is definitely one of if not thee top reissues on the planet these past 365, and in a year of a whole load of powerful worthies that's not just idle mouthflap!

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ARCHIVAL LP OF THE YEAR-Ex-Blank-Ex's X-STICKY FINGERS-X which is about twenny/thirtysome years overdue, but at least those obscure rarities are finally available to those who missed out the first time. Well, at least these are (were?) available to the scant few who were able to gobble up this 500-only impossible to find album back during the few seconds the thing was out on the market (right!).

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ARCHIVAL EP OF THE YEAR!-Vom LIVE AT SURF CITY.

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ARCHIVAL SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-the LOOSE HEART release on Danger Records (France), concrete proof that not only were the French a whole lot more serious about underground rock 'n roll than us Amerigans but they could play it just as well! Considering the groundswell of talent that was coming out in the mid-seventies, too bad there couldn't have been some international punk rock festival pre-Mount de Marsan with groups like Loose Heart along with Umela Hmotas 2 and 3, Rocket From the Tombs and the Electric Eels amid many other worthies. Well, we can always have a good dream about it tonight, right? (I sure will!)

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JAZZ RECORDING OF THE YEAR!-THE JIMMY GIUFFRE 3&4 NEW YORK CONCERTS (Elemental)

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BEST POST OF THE YEAR!-Undoubtedly the Stuart's Hammer piece that popped up last August, a fitting piece on a neglected act if I do say so myself. Close #2---the P.D. FADENSONNEN interview!

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FORGOTTEN FAVE OF THE YEAR!-JUMP (Kismet) with future Stooges/New Order/Tom Petty/Jackson Browne/Bonnie Raitt... keyboardist Scott Thurston and the rest of the band doing a good enough El Lay Doors-ish cum KILL CITY rock that won't make you vomit. In fact it might make you feel uplifted more'n an entire cartload of living bras because of its energy and snide pop moves that seemed in such short supply back when this album was released in 1971. And the thing originally came out on Janus Records of all labels, can you beat that???

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THE WELCOME BACK (I think!) AWARD!-THE PLANETEERS (ex-Man-ster).

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BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE YEAR!-The Mirrors CD-r burns that Fadensonnen made for me...still bedside spins all these months later!

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TEASE OF THE YEAR!-the Magic Tramps sampler of material that hopefully will come out shortly but don't bet on it.

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VIDEO OF THE YEAR!-Geofrey Crozier and the Indian Medicine Magik Show! This is what I watch when I want to get some rock 'n roll inspiration flowing in my veins as well as other vital organs. When's the album coming out (heck, I'd even settle for a burnt CD of this and other early Crozier performances let alone its appearance on some BONEHEAD CRUNCHERS-type compilation!)???

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BOOK OF THE YEAR (ROCK 'N ROLL DIVISION)!-Mick Farren's ELVIS DIED FOR SOMEBODY'S SINS BUT NOT MINE which yeah is a good three years old but the ONLY new rock 'n roll book I've read this year so it's like I have little choice. Some good, some blah and of course the politics don't settle well especially if you disagree, but who else was continuing on in that classic speak to you punkoid rock writers fashion this late in the game. Now that Bangs and Farren are dead and Meltzer is for all intent purposes comatose, I guess all that we have left to read as far as rock 'n roll as a force of danger to be reckoned with is me...

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BOOK OF THE YEAR (SECULAR DIVISION)!-NANCY LOVES SLUGGO! The recent ARCHIE collection oughta fit in here as well. RAY AND JOE too.

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MOOM PITCHER OF THE YEAR!-RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA, a cinematic wigout par excellence!

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DEATH OF THE YEAR!-Paul Revere.

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HERO OF THE YEAR!-like I told you back in May, Elliot Rodger! And I'm sure you all forgot who the guy was by now, right? Close runner up...Gavin McInnes, for getting fired because he wrote some things that might possibly have hurt people's feelings and you just can't do that anymore...unless you're writing for a big city Democratic Party-hyping paper that has that God Given Right to offend people who just don't tow the line. And don't you just know it, you sniveling hard-working ethnic Catholics and Southern Agrarian types you! Yeah the guy has been sucking up to Sean Hannity, but I guess that's only because he wants his own news show and well, who can blame him in these felch-specific times?

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BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR!-The DENIM DELINQUENT collection didn't come out.


Anyhow. see you like uh, next year!