Glitz

Still rounding up some of the gems that slipped through the cracks of 2013 before we officially start the new year. San Francisco's Glitz have been popping up with this slick chunk of glam everywhere over the year with a tape issue on Burger, US LP on Grazer and Italian LP on White Zoo; all three pretty great litmus tests as to what you should be slapping down on the turntable. The record's full of sunburned fuzz and a tight-denim swagger that feels on point with the neu-glam takedowns of Giuda and the power pop panache of Warm Soda. Somewhere between those poles the boys in Glitz are mixing perfect drinks and cranking out roller skate jams and Saturday night ravers. Naturally if you've been thumbing through the pages of RSTB for the rockers then this'll hit ya just right. Pick it up where you can.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (White Zoo) or HERE (Grazer)

TV Colours

Ah the inevitable year-end catchup of finding gems hidden in others lists that had gotten completely missed during the year. Despite RSTB's rather obvious obsession with all things coming out of AUS/NZ this year, somehow this nugget from Canberra eluded our speakers. The album is a sprawling concept record tied together with pop chunks, found sound interludes and noise experiments and the band's Bobby Kill has often referenced Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade as the main inspiration for the album, and it's certainly the Mould/Hart vein of anything goes, everything fits. The tales on Purple Skies, Toxic River wrap up the feeling of frustrated youth, flailing, failing, growing up and trying not to burn out. The bits and pieces of TV Colours feel instantly familiar but juxtaposed and unwrapped fresh. Somehow Kill seems to have dipped arms in the same fountain of pop rocks that exploded from the likes of Tony Molina this year but muddied up in a post-No Age slop of fuzz and static film. One that had gotten passed over earlier but shouldn't be missed any longer.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Magic Trick

Magic Trick has always acted as the softer punch to Tim Cohen's work. For all the moody jangles and darkened hooks of The Fresh & Onlys, Magic Trick just seems to breeze into the room and get comfortable. River of Souls turns a corner for the band, feeling like their most present and accomplished album yet, with the full lineup coalescing; male / female harmonies fully in force and a loose countrified swagger melting nicely into their folk maneuvers. Cohen's never felt more at ease, with songs baked in summer sun and an early happy hour glow. Its far and away from the early recordings that eked out under the moniker back in 2011, and proof that while Cohen may have helped birth the garage-pop upheaval in San Francisco, he's moved far beyond the constraints of that scene. River of Souls is a lush studio workout that never feels overwrought, polished for sure, but never labored. Its too bad we're heading into winter months, as this is such a great late summer record, but maybe its honeyed grooves will help hold onto those languid moments.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

All right 'tis the season for year-end lists and coming to terms with which releases are identifiably the best. I'm not one much for ratings around here and its always hard to narrow things down but these are the releases that were the most impressive and/or spent the most time curled up on the Raven turntable this year. They are in no particular order, though high praise must be singled out to Wooden Shjips for packaging on the deluxe edition. These are the 20 LPs and 10 singles you definitely need in your collection this year. Apologies that it includes one RSD release but it belongs on this list. I've included a Discogs search for that one for you intrepid completists.



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ALBUMS
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Ty Segall - Sleeper (BUY)
Mikal Cronin - MC II (BUY)
Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen (BUY)
Camperdown & Out - Couldn't Be Better (BUY)
Cool Ghouls - Cool Ghouls (BUY)
Fuzz - Fuzz (BUY)
Warm Soda - Someone For You (BUY)
Jacco Gardner - Cabinet of Curiosities (BUY)
Dick Diver - Calendar Days (BUY)
Forest Swords - Engravings (BUY)
The Hussy - Pagan Hiss (BUY)
John Roberts - Fences (BUY)
Wooden Shjips - Back To Land (BUY)
The Living Eyes - The Living Eyes (BUY)
Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven (BUY)
Tony Molina - Dissed and Dismissed (BUY)
Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (BUY)
Darkside - Psychic (BUY)
The Stranger - Watching Dead Empires in Decay (BUY)
Golden Gunn - Golden Gunn (BUY)



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SINGLES / EPs
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Bloods - Golden Fang ( BUY)
Pangea - Snakedoog ( BUY)
Sic Alps - She's On Top (BUY)
Haunted Heats - Something That Feels Bad is
Something That Feels Good (BUY)
Veronica Falls - Nobody There (BUY)
Proto Idiot - You're Wrong (BUY)
Teenage Burritos - Danya (BUY)
New Bums - Slim Volume ( BUY)
The Fresh & Onlys - Soothsayer ( BUY)
Rainbow Gun Show - Cinderella Sizzle ( BUY)

Acid Mothers Temple & Space Paranoid

Nothing says holiday time like a release from Acid Mothers Temple. This time the crew is back with the moniker Acid Mothers Temple & Space Paranoid, digging into their heavy stoner rock template and going for sludge over psych. Black Magic Satori takes off on a Black Sabbath meets Flower Travelin' Band aesthetic, digging deep into the monster squall but at leaded boot pace and appropriately creeping like the hand of doom across the horizon. The set's made up of two extended AMT jams, the first building from a ambling start to a sonic hurricane pace with amplifier shred whipping through the air like loose debris in a trailer park while the second soars out of the gate with viscous, thick riffs that only end in just as much shredded damage as the first. They tighten things up to a neat five-minute shred for the closer based on Sabbath's own "Paranoid", taking the original through the cosmos, laying its usual frantic pace into a heady trip around the listener's skull complete with phased sonics and vocals sung from an asteroid cave just north of the sun. Excellent fodder for Acid Mothers enthusiasts, and in fact the LP's already getting hard to find. Pick it up where you see it and set the controls to burn.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Veronica Falls - Nobody There 7" In support of their last tour, and as a reminder of how great their early 2013 album Waiting For Something To Happen was, Veronica Falls release a double shot of sweetly jangled pop. The a-side is pure VF, triple vox melding into a shimmer of
sugar sweetness and crippling ennui while the guitars swell in the background. B-side, "Need You Around" delves even deeper into the heartache hole the band tends to fill with each new song, and though it might serve well to remember their previous release, this single mostly makes me wish for a new one immediately. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Life Stinks

San Francisco's no stranger to punk, but the garage typhoon seems to have swept out the old barnacles of the Mabuhay era and ushered in a scrappier set. Life Stinks hearken back to the pound and grind of classic California punk, sneering and tearing at the landscape with a nihilistic throb that would make Crime and Flipper proud. The album was helmed by two of the modern day luminaries of studio squelch, with Kelley Stoltz repping his hometown scene at the boards and Mikey Young putting that touch of Aussie boot-neck scuzz into the mix. A damn fine team to have behind any record but Life Stinks would rip the seams on any platter regardless of who's pressing record on the reels. They've been hailed elsewhere as San Francisco's last true punk band and that tag may suit them best. They're pretty much stitched from bullied black leather, bar smoke and beer residue. This is the kind of record that finds its way to the undiscovered echelons years later, echoing through 'shoulda been there' chronicles and critics’ lists in kind. Best get on it while it's fresh in mind rather than long out of print.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Blank Realm - "Falling Down The Stairs Video"

Blank Realm are following up their excellent 2012 album Go Easy with another long player for Bedroom Suck. Teasing with a first track off of the LP, entitled Grassed In, the band put some high anticipation for its release in January. The video's pretty straightforward but it showcases their spacey brand of jangle-pop well. Definitely keep an eye out for this one!

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

Steve Moore

Zombi's Steve Moore has always captivated in the solo realm, from his solitary synth rumblings on a fledgling Mexican Summer to his recent (and extremely apt) horror studies for Death Waltz. He's a master of the synth within an emotional context, not merely sounding like a bygone echo cut out of time, but instead always eliciting visceral, gutwrenching soundtracks to unseen forces. In this case, Moore soundtracks the possibility of Pangaea Ultima, a theoretical landmass of colliding continents that may or may not form through forces unfolding over the next quarter billion years. Without ever laying on the syrupy sci-fi of that premise too thick, the tracks form a kind of hopelessness, tension and wonder that might easily evoke being plunked down on such a landmass, but regardless of context the set moves the listener to examine the colliding forces in their own thoughts just as heavily. The tension, wonder and hopeless drift that seep out of the record find their way under the skin, colliding cells on a micro level and forming and unforming worlds in the listener's consciousness. This is Steve's first for the venerable Spectrum Spools, but it seems like a pairing far overdue. Pick this one up on sight.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Nikki Sudden - The Bible Belt Numero Group continues to kick ass on the reissue circuit, proving that they have their hands in more than just the dusty crates of funk and soul and the occasional tubs of Power Pop (get back to the Buttons series when you get a chance guys). Focusing on the catalog
of Swell Maps' Nikki Sudden, the label is reissuing his first pre-Maps LP, Waiting on Egypt, his work with the Jacobites and this chestnut of a second album, The Bible Belt. Both of his solo albums pulled at the tatters of Swell Maps' legacy but this sophomore offering marked Sudden's connection with guitarist Dave Kusworth, with whom he would go on to form The Jacobites. The two spiraled down a path of T. Rex glam and post Bowie hangover with just enough of a penchant for "Salt of the Earth" Stonesian maneuvers thrown in to keep things somehow humble. Whatever the recipe, it all ends up making sense in the end. Sadly the Numero reissue sticks to the classic tracklist here, reproducing the original in its truest form but it could have benefited from a double disc treatment that roped in previously issued CD bonus tracks "Gold Painted Nails (vocal version)" and the dub-plated "Six Hip Princes (version)". Those omissions notwithstanding, this is an essential piece to be resurrected for your vinyl collection. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Kevin Morby

Kevin Morby steps away from his roles in Woods and The Babies to craft an intimate tale of desperation, loneliness and addiction. Stepping his songwriting up a notch from the ramshackle lullabies of The Babies, here he's in full on troubadour garb, reaching from the moment that "Miles, Miles, Miles" cues up for the plaintive ache of personal experience, and universal resonance. Weaving his path through a tangle of influences with whiffs of Dylan, Tim Buckley and Leonard Cohen but also sitting well with his latter day contemporaries Alex Bleeker and Kurt Vile. The album is dipped in a kind of twilight hush that sways between wistful and wanting. This tends to leave Morby's songs teetering through last call swallows and pre-dawn wanders, where the endless sidewalks allow a few hours of stumbled rumination. In that sense Harlem River seems to stand up as Morby's self-described ode to New York, but the noir production on the title track and a bit of the sun-baked guitar picking elsewhere certainly fit it in well with his new Los Angeles digs. The album has more bite than his previous work with The Babies and here's hoping that he only finds his way deeper into the solo stint.

Listen:

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	New Bums - Slim Volume 7"" Donovan Quinn and Ben Chasney team up for a new project under the name New Bums, pinning Quinn's plaintive call to Chasney's deft picking for a brilliant first single that's wrought with high, wistful nods and a country heft
that's hard to ignore. The four tracks here have a dusted ease to them that draws on Quinn's solo work, often cut through with a dark troubadour wit and quavering with his silvered drawl. Chasney on the other hand pulls the reigns back on his cinder and smoke psychedelia, instead focusing on his masterful picking, giving the record a solemn twang that goes down easy. As a bonus the pair close out the set with a cover of Nikki Sudden's "The Road of Broken Dreams". Definitely a highlight for 2013 and reason to be anxious for their full length just announced for the spring on Drag City. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Magik Markers

It feels like a world away since the last time that a Magik Markers album showed up on RSTB, back during the heyday of Ecstatic Peace, though it was later than that huh, since their previous album was on Drag City as well; but still that enclave of noise and grit seems so synonymous with the Markers' Sonic Youth scrawl that they're forever locked in an early aughts noise prison. The band has continually evolved though, despite our wishes to relegate them to a specific time and place in musical history. Where Balf Query saw them eke ever towards accessibility, they've run those ideas through the shredder, re-embracing their noisy roots here, draping even their more melodious moments ("Mirrorless," "Young") in a gauze of fuzz and the faraway looks of tape hiss. They've grown some and tendered, especially on those two tracks, but they've not lost any of their sting. They're still balancing on the fringe. Mostly, they do what they've always done best here, saw at the mind of the public, stirring the pot of noise and nuance and unconscionably screaming into the abyss. Its good to have someone to do that for you and Magik Markers will always have a closer relationship to the din than you or I could ever hope to. The din is their backyard, their hometown, their county and they're just sending postcards from the fray so you can go on with your day.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete

A year on from their last exploratory mission to the caverns of fuzz and froth, Guadalajara's Lorelle Meets the Obsolete return to the fray and this time with some impressive help on the sidelines. Produced by Cave's Cooper Crane and mastered by none other than Sonic Boom, Chambers is the band's most direct statement yet. Stripping away just a touch of the obfuscation that's often shrouded their songs, this time the band tumbles headlong into their impulses and influences, marrying the dark grooves of Krautrock to a distended garage-blues and the funhouse psych tendencies of Broadcast and Stereolab. The album's ever a slave to the pulse thumping underneath, driving every track with a low-grade fever towards a cliff of hazy psychedelia. The duo seem comfortable in the arms of echo, but here they expand the palette even further with some acoustic strums, low-swung swagger and a stated affinity for the works of Ty Segall and White Fence, which seem to slip in at the edges of the album. Though, its clear that this is no mere copy, the album stands as their strongest of three and a heady bit of psych swamp to get your 2014 off to a proper start. As with the rest of their albums, recommended that you pick this one up.

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Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Groundhogs - Split The Groundhogs kinda got overlooked here in the US on their first go 'round, but leave it to the reissue circuit to shed some light on well deserved classics of the proto-metal spectrum. The band formed originally in the mid-60's during the first wave of British
Blues revivalism, changed ever so briefly to Herbal Mixture to cash in on the spread of psychedelia and then reformed back as Groundhogs with a power trio lineup and churned out three of their best albums, with main man TS McPhee hitting a bit of a creative stride in the early 70's. Split lies in the middle of that run of albums and is marked by a suite of songs all under the title's name in parts 1-4. The album stretches and rumbles, digs through piles of riffs and then turns supersonic on highlight "Cherry Red". The band have gotten some well deserved recognition of late with Earthless and Ty Segall covering tracks from this and Thank Christ For The Bomb, both of which stand at the top of their catalog. However, regardless of high profile hat tips, any fan of heavy Brit-rock should have this in their collection stacked neatly next to copies of Leaf Hound, Zep and Cream. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Nerve City

Jason Boyer's Nerve City has been crankin' out solid recordings for Sweet Rot, Sacred Bones, Kill Shaman, HoZac and the like for some time now, mostly covering all the recording bases himself with a noise pop fodder that keeps things shaggy and shakin' at the same time. Returning again to Sweet Rot for a second LP, this time Boyer's pulled in the full band to record Asleep On The Tracks at Memphis' Electraphonic Recording, pumping up the energy without losing a step on his own brand of thick, chemical garage. The record's embraced a bigger sound, moving from his VU / Sic Alps grind into a sunnier territory that befits his move from Virginia to Florida. The studio fits him well, with those slight production touches, a smattering of organ and Boyer's trademark slippery guitar and southern garage twang all pulsing through in thick waves; rattling speakers and melting hearts with the best of them. The album's limited to 330 and housed in a silk-screened sleeve, best nab one while they're still around.

Listen:


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE