We continue our list of best albums in 2017, this time with top 14 albums. This year was full of albums that will surely stay and I will definitely keep coming back to these many times in my life. Chris Church has came up with with a power pop album that can stand next to all the classics from that disarming genre that only seems effortless on the surface. Big Hogg offered us their extremely playful version of modern day prog rock. If you think Alien Lanes are a classic record, you should definitely look into Stevens and their album Good. Similar albums with great melodies, low fi and clever segues were always in the top of my albums in the past years. Matthew Melton and his wife Doris started a new project Dream Machine and The Illusion definitely made a mark, even politically (although unwittingly). Hayley Thompson-King and her concept record about the biblical woman is truly a deep album that goes from country over garage rock and ends up in opera. Tin Foil are newcomers from Detroit with an addictive set of songs on their album without a title. Pink Tiles return with a record that definitely puts them on a map of serious bands with fun content. David Nance comes from Omaha and has created an album sounds so well crafted, as if he was putting albums for a really long time. Americans on I’ll Be Yours reach depths and territories that were only visited by House of Freaks in the past. Emmett Kelly and his Cairo Gang continue with a series of truly timeless albums with Untouchable. Harlan T. Bobo’s new album came out only a month ago, and there was not enough time to come back to it many times, but it definitely made me rearrange my playlist and put him up on the high third place. It might be his strongest yet. On the top we have Sweet Apple and Bash & Pop. There’s a lot in common to these albums. Both are genre defying and disarmingly playful works of rock’s veteran warriors who know exactly where the sources of this music is. It was a good year for rock.
01 Bash & Pop - Anything Could Happen
02 Sweet Apple - Sing The Night In Sorrow
03 Harlan T. Bobo - Hector, A History of Violence
04 The Cairo Gang - Untouchable
05 The Americans - I'll Be Yours
06 David Nance - Negative Boogie
07 The Pink Tiles - #1 Fan
08 The Stevens - Good
09 Dream Machine - The Illusion
10 Hayley Thompson-King - Psychotic Melancholia
11 Tin Foil
12 Tall Juan - Olden Goldies
13 Big Hogg - Gargoyles
14 Chris Church - Limitations of Source Tape
Chris Church – Fall Into Me;
Big Hogg – Gold and Silver;
Tall Juan – Cuida Coaches
Tin Foil – Shapes of Savannah;
Hayley Thompson-King – Teratoma;
Dream Machine – Diamond In The Rough;
The Stevens – Grandstands;
The Pink Tiles – Writer’s Block;
David Nance – Ambulance;
The Americans – Stowaway;
The Cairo Gang – Real Enough To Believe;
Harlan T. Bobo – Storied;
Sweet Apple – You Don’t Belong To Me;
Bash & Pop – Breathing Room;
Bash & Pop – Anybody Else;
Bash & Pop – Never Wanted To Know;
Sweet Apple – Everybody’s Leaving.
Today we start off with the new volume of The Warfaring Strangers from The Numero Group, Acid Nightmares. Then we stay with The Replacements, and we hear the brand new music from Chris Mars and Bash & Pop. Tommy and Bash & Pop teamed up with Nicole Atkins for a new single. We introduce a duet called Whiskey Charmers from Detroit. Also, M.O.R.T. from Croatia is in our show for the first time. San Mikulec and Å tajner Bend are back with the new record. We also play a tune from ESC Life, who are also from Zagreb, and they used to serve as Grant Hart’s backing band for his Ajvarpalooza toor. Finally, Patsy Gelb and her Rats are back with a new song.
Today we introduce several interesting relatively new names on the female songwriting scene. Katie Von Schleicher comes from Brooklyn and Esmé Patterson is from Denver, CO. Nicole Atkins from New Jersey is particularly interesting because she teamed up with Tommy Stinson of The Replacements and Bash & Pop for her upcoming new album. Tommy is also out touring with Chip Roberts as The Cowboys In The Campfire. They stopped by at Cleveland’s Blue Arrow Records and played a few new tunes. We hear one of them today. Talking about Cleveland, Matthew Wascowich is back with his Scarcity of Tanks. They have a new album called Garford Mute, inspired by growing up, and it contains a stellar line up of Pere Ubu and Terminal Lovers bands, plus Doug Gillard and the legendary Steve Mackay, the Stooges sax player with his posthumous appearance. We also check out the new music Left Lane Cruiser and and introduce two new heavy bands, ’68 from Atlanta and Gorilla from UK.
Today we start off with the brand new song from a really cool new record for Bash & Pop. Then we check out another cool song from a band that puts records much more frequently, Electric Six. 1-800-Band is a quartet that comes from Brooklyn – they hired legendary Mitch Easter to help them out with the new album entitled High Beams. We also introduce Rob Clarke and The Wooltones are from Liverpool, England and Kill West from Argentina. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announced a new album that experiments with microtonal scales. Greg Stackhouse Prevost of The Chesterfield Kings is back with the new solo record. And we finish things off with the new album for Sloming Moops that just came out, entitled Dance Drool
In our first show in 2013, we remember some of the great rock’n’roll heros who left us in the past year. During our year end reviews, we got sad news on passing of Dave Brubeck, a jazz pianist who influenced rock’n’roll greatly. Also, Ray Collins, who was a founding member of Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. And finally, Mark Reynolds who played drums in Carnival Season and on the last tour of the Windbreakres also died. In the reminder of the show, we remember all those that passed away last year and that we recognize here at the Little Lighthouse as the great rock’n’roll characters. Bill Doss from Olivia Tremor Control, Robin Gibb from the Bee Gee’s, Scott McKenzie, Nick Curran, Hal David, Michael Davis from MC5, Joe South, Jon Lord from Deep Purple, Perry Baggs from Jason and The Scorchers, Jennifer Miro from The Nuns, Tusta from KUD Idijoti, MCA from The Beastie Boys, Donald Duck Dunn from Booker T. And The MG’s, Etta James, Bob Babbitt of the Motown Funk Brothers, Doug Dillard, Levon Helm from The Band, Chris Ethridge from The Flying Burrito Brothers, Davy Monkee Jones, Tim Mooney from the American Music Club, Bob Welch and Johnny Perez from Sir Douglas Quintet. We lost too many of them… And in the end, I would also like to dedicate this show to brothers Foley, Steven and Kevin who died in 2008 and 2011, and played in Bash and Pop with Tommy Stinson. Steven also replaced Chris Mars shortly in Replacements towards the end of their career. I only heard about this recently.