It’s that time of year again when everyone is posting their “best of” year end lists. For me, it would be ridiculous to think that my list is going to be a whole lot different in content then somebody elses, there may be some differences, but mostly I just want to feel important by posting my list for everyone else to read:
1) Polar Bear Club-Clash Battle Guilt Pride-This was was not my favourite album of the year, although it would definitely be near the top, I think it is the best written album of the year and really shows the group coming into their own.
2) The Horrible Crowes-Elsie-This album contains some of my favourite Brian Fallon songs, as well as some of my least favourite, but what I respect most about this album is that Fallon and bandmate Ian Perkins were able to step out of the shadow cast by The Gaslight Anthem and create something uniquely their own.
3) The Rebel Spell-It’s A Beautiful Future-My personal favourite album of the year, it has all the ferocity of their prior releases plus a sense of urgency that is a direct reflection of the time it was written.
4) Red City Radio-The Dangers of Standing Still-The bands Paper and Plastick debut built off of their earlier EP and showed that they are continuing to get better.
5) Mall’d to Death-The Process of Reaching Out-This was another of my favourite releases and also contains my favourite song of the year “Migraine Belt.”
6) Banner Pilot-Heart Beats Pacific-This album is currently on repeat in my truck and I blame it for my speeding.
7) The Slow Death-Born Ugly Got Worse-This is the album I turn to if I just want to enjoy listening to music.
Junior Battles-Idle Ages-It took me a long time to catch onto this album, but when I did it was as close to a revelation as I came this year.
9) Have Nots-Proud-This album was the one I anticipated the most, and it did not disappoint me.
10) Against Me!-Total Clarity-I know this album was made up of mainly demos that weren’t all that different then the songs that went on the album, but the unreleased tracks brought me back to when I first heard them and was quite inspired.
Cubicle is an L.A. based punk band, rocking out with near total corporate schtick; Songs of coffee, languishing in noward* mobility, and Ponzi Scheme greed abound. The sound is somewhat comical ala Guttermouth and certainly classic punk reminiscent of Circle Jerks. The later influence goes even so far as to include a very convincing cover of “Beverly Hills”
The album I have been listening to lately is one that I have been wanting to listen to for a long time, but so much music that I am interested, or have become interested has come out since its release date that it has been put on the back burner. But lately, I have been back on the hunt for new music and not finding anything of particular interest. Well about two weeks ago Rebel Time Records sent out a tweet seemingly from above about a sale that they were having. Their entire discography was put on sale for 5 dollars a cd (you can still take advantage of this deal until the new year), a price I couldn’t say no to. So I finally decided to do what I had set out to do in September 2010, and purchase a copy of Broadcast Zero’s Some Concerns Regarding This Revolt. Considering the album is over a year old and the band is no longer together, I’m not really sure if what I am about to write is a review or a revisit.
I have been a fan of mid-west pop punk for some time now, but I am still new enough that I am unfamiliar with the other bands that The Slow Death members belong to (Pretty Boy Thorson, or The Ergs for example), and maybe is that ignorance that is skewing my perception of the record. But I have heard enough to know that these guys aren’t reinventing the wheel, but what they are doing (and it comes out in the music) is making the type of music they love, and loving it all the while.
The Shell Corporation, to be confused with the Shell Corporation is what comes up when you google the band and see the link to the group’s website. A lot of times bands won’t have an accurate picture of what they really sound like, but this time I think they hit the proverbial nail on the head. I may not have said that after the first listen. After initially hearing Force Majeure (the group’s new album), I was really looking for a frame of reference and someone to compare them to. I had been listening to Holding Onto Sound’s The Tempest EP recently and I heard (imagined) so much of them in the Shell Corporation that I had to check to see if any members of the band happened to be in both groups (the answer is no). Like I said the comparisons were imagined and the only song that I could even hear what I thought I had was on “Ozymandias”, the second last track of the album. 
Boston band Burning Streets has a new release. “Sit Still” is out now on Sailor’s Grave Records and with it you get 11 tracks of emotionally charged rock and roll. On the whole, Sit Still hovers in the punk rock vein, but is heavily laced with a melancholy that accompanies other similar acts like The Loved Ones or American Steel and to a lesser degree, Dead to Me.