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.
This time we start off with the new music from Steve Earle. We also hear the new stuff from Kentucky’s Legendary Shack Shakers, as well as the new one from The Allrighniks. We also hear a bunch of new introductions. Ruby Force is a supergroup from LA and Zebra Hut is from Spain. We have two new bands from Sweden, Black River Delta and Josefin Öhrn with her Liberation. Breanna Barbara is a New York based singer songwriter who made a new record over in Nashville with Andrija Tokic. Don’t forget to check out an exceptional live show from The Cairo Gang.
We start the show with the new rhythm and blues band from Memphis, Southern Avenue. They we check out the new tune for Janiva Magness. We also check out the music from Rickie Lee Jones and Madeleine Peyroux, who are collaboration on a new tour together. The New Pornographers have a new record and so does the singer of The Ettes, Coco Hames. Guided By Voices recorded a new, lengthy double album too. But a special treat today is a block in which we check out separate projects of each new member of Ty Segall’s band. Charles Mootheart has a new CFM album and so does Emmet Kelly with his Cairo Gang. We introduce the pianist Ben Boye and his band Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society, who also have a new album out.
Today we start off with the recently reunited Australian 80s band Ratcat. Then we check out Sweet Apple covering April Wine, just as they are preparing the new album Sing The Night in Sorrow, which is due this Summer (but you know how those things always get delayed…). NE-HI are a new band from Chicago and Samantha Fish is hailing from Kansas City with her cigar box guitar. Arbouretum are back with the new record and so is Rodney Crowell. Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang is back with the new record, as a result of collaboration with Ty Segall. Jaye Jayle is a new name for us from Louisville, KY!
We start off with two new tunes from Ezra Furman from Boston. Then we have a new super-duet by Neil Michael Hagerty from Royal Trux and James Jackson Toth from Wooden Wand. The band is called Hagerty Toth Band. We play a brand new tune from The Cynics, which I recorded at their live show in Cleveland. Cairo Gang come from Chicago. The brightest spot in today’s show is the introduction of the new LP Gravy for Faux Killas from Memphis, which is probably the best album that came out this year so far.