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Q's Compilations
Vol #147 – December
2022 to January 2023
Happy
new year! I hope everyone had a nice time over the holiday season. I feel a
little guilty saying this but 2022 was an excellent and milestone year for me –
I got married, turned 40, got a promotion and travelled well. Music-wise it was
pretty good too, I even got to see Del Amitri three times on their first US
tour in over 20 years. It felt like a bit of a legacy/nostalgic year for live
shows, seeing the likes of Supergrass, Rage Against the Machine, Porcupine
Tree, Jimmy Eat World, Pavement, Sigur Ros and Manic Street Preachers all for
the first time in years, decades for some, as well as seeing the likes of Elton
John, Tori Amos and the Lemonheads for the first time. I promise I also saw a
bunch of new acts!
01) Thus Love – Repetitioner: I used Inamoto on the previous mix so if you have been paying attention this Vermont trio should sound familiar! This track opens their debut album Memorial that came out in October via Captured Tracks and really nails that 80s goth/post-punk mix.
02) Gladie - Born Yesterday: Another band that featured on the previous mix, the band’s latest record, Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out, was released on the 18th of November and features some of Augusta Koch’s best songwriting. “Now the floodgates are open. The way I feel I could fill the ocean. The way I feel I could fill the ocean, on my own”
03) Weird Nightmare – Lusitania: METZ frontman Alex Edkins released his debut solo record under the moniker Weird Nightmare in May via Sub Pop. I used Searching For You back on Q#142 (Feb/March), it merits being a solo album by sounding different enough from METZ, but that’s probably more from a production point of view, the bones of METZ songs still seem like they’re there – but I love METZ so there’s nothing to complain about!
04) Beach Bunny – Oxygen: Beach Bunny can do no wrong, releasing second full-length album Emotional Creature in July on Mom+Pop Records (Gone featured on Q#144) and I was fortunate enough to see them at Brooklyn Steel in the summer. Oxygen was the lead single from the album but I could have picked any track. “Suddenly, everything is easy. I've never felt something so deeply. 'Cause with you, with you, I breathe again. Baby, you're my oxygen”
05) Horsegirl - Anti-Glory: Maybe the indie-success story of 2022 was Horsegirl’s album Versions of Modern Performance that came out in June, this track opens the record. I’ll take a smug hipster tap of my hat by featuring them in 2021 when they only had three tracks on their bandcamp page.
06) Kids on a Crime Spree - Karl Kardel Building: Nine years after releasing a handful of singles, Kids on a Crime Spree released their debut record Fall In Love Not In Line, 10 tracks zip by in under half an hour and it’s filled with all that lovely Slumberland Records jangle and fuzz.
07) Black Country, New Road - Chaos Space Marine: Black Country, New Road released my favourite album of 2021 (For the First Time) and followed it up with Ants From Up There in February 2022. Unfortunately, vocalist/guitarist Isaac Wood quit the band days before the album was released and while the band are continuing, it’s proven a little difficult to have much emotional connection with this release. It’s an excellent album, so that’s a shame, and I’m excited about what they’ll do in the future - they’ve so far said they won’t play any songs live from this or the previous album, however, so this just feels like a weird time capsule in some ways.
08) Matt Kivel – Blush: bend reality ~ like a wave was released in October (I used Find Love on the previous mix) and I’d describe it as a Sunday afternoon record, incredibly soothing.
09) The Mountain Goats - Make You Suffer: The 21st Mountain Goats Record! Bleed Out was released in August via Merge Records and was produced by Bully’s Alicia Bognanno. I think it’s their best album since 2015’s Beat the Champ (I also used Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome in Q#144). “Let your yes be yes, and your no come from deep in your belly. I'm going to make you suffer”
10) The Beths - Head in the Clouds: New Zealand’s current finest, The Beths released their third album, Expert in a Dying Field in September (Silence is Golden featured on Q#144). They also played a great show in February and I have tickets to see them at Brooklyn Steel in March. The show in February completed an excellent trio of shows that is always amazing to experience in New York, seeing them growing venue sizes from Mercury Lounge, to Music Hall of Williamsburg, to Webster Hall. It was hard to pick a track for this mix but it was probably the ripping guitar solo that sealed the deal.
11) Oso Oso - Computer Exploder: Sore Thumb took me a number of plays for it to really start clicking as well as 2019’s Basking in the Glow, but it was a record I just started coming back to over and over again. I also used Describe You on Q#143.
12) Young Guv - It's Only Dancing: Released three months apart, Guv III and Guv IV are a little hard to tell apart as records and I had to check which track this was on (for the record, it’s III). Ben Cook writes powerpop hooks as good as anyone. “Baby I just gotta move, but I’m forbidden to go outside, I got a brand-new pair of boots and a shirt so loud I wanna show the world how I can slide. It’s only dancing.”
13) DEHD - Empty In My Mind: This is the Chicago trio’s fifth Q-comp appearance since first appearing on Q#127. Latest record Blue Skies was released on Fat Possum Records (previous albums had all been on Fire Talk) and continues their upward trajectory.
14) The Reds, Pinks & Purples - Pour the Light In: Glenn Donaldson had a prolific year that was a little hard to keep up with, though strictly speaking I think this record, Summer at Land’s End was the only full-length album (I also bought the version that came with a bonus instrumental album), but there have also been a string of Eps and expanded reissues. “all this time spent, learning how to swim, through open clouds, pour the light in”
15) Pet Fox - It Won't Last: Boston trio Pet Fox and feature members of Ovlov and Palehound/Grass is Green, but I think they might be better than all those bands. After a few Eps, they released debut record A Face in Your Life on Exploding In Sound records in June.
16) The Smile - We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings: I felt very fortunate to get to see The Smile at King’s Theatre towards the end of the year, which was one of the best shows I saw. Radiohead’s existence is murky at the moment, but if Thom and Johnny continue to release records as good as A Light for Attracting Attention then, I won’t saw I wouldn’t miss them, but I could get used to it, it’s better than a few Radiohead albums, I think!
17) Plates of Cake – Nickel: And the award for best song that sounds exactly like Television goes to Plates of Cake! That isn’t mean as a slight, I love this song and finding eight and a half minutes for it on the mix should say it all. The band released Got a Feeling that I Live Here in September and this feels like the centre-piece.
18) The Ganjas - Space Trees: Chilean psych greats The Ganjas returned with their first studio album in eight years with Generation, released of course on the finest label, BYM Records. The album sounds like they’ve never been away.
19) Fliege - Sight for the Snowblind: It can be a little hard to sound objective when two of your best friends release records, but Fliege’s new album One Day They'll Wonder What Happened Here, retelling of John Carpenter’s The Thing (which celebrated a 40th anniversary last year) demanded to be on this mix. This song perhaps encapsulates everything about the duo, with more guitar licks than most bands fit onto a single album, the whole record is an ambitious triumph.
20) Erasers - Constant Connection: I used You See on Q#143 and this is the title track from the Aussie duo’s third album. They often sound like they could do a great soundtrack to an Italian horror movie.
21) Julia Jacklin - Be Careful With Yourself: A record that really grew on me towards the end of the year was Julia Jacklin’s Pre Pleasure. The album is very laid back and low key but slowly pulls you in. “I've seen enough now to know that this is special. So I'm just asking politely if you'd just try and be careful with yourself”
And there you go, some of my favourites from 2022, I hope 2023 treats you as well as last year treated me. If you ever discover anything from these mixes, I do love to hear from you, let me know!
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
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