{"id":2135,"date":"2017-01-16T01:15:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T06:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2017-01-16T01:16:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T06:16:57","slug":"best-albums-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/?p=2135","title":{"rendered":"Best Albums of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
\nThe Blind Shake<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Celebrate Your Worth<\/em>\u00a0LP (Goner)
\nAfter 12 years of flexin’ midwest\u00a0muscle, this Minnesota trio has honed their craft into something bigger than the\u00a0punchy garage punk scene they’ve flourished in. Their jams are\u00a0instantly craveable and continue to reap endless rewards with every listen.\u00a0Each\u00a0release\u00a0has gotten better and better and\u00a0this one is easily\u00a0the best\u00a0written and best recorded one yet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Leather<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leather Towel<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Leather Towel IV<\/em>\u00a0(Hozac)
\nLeather Towel takes postpunk’s angular, severe regimen and shocks the shit out of it with punk’s reckless energy and speed. Decoding the twin guitar attack as it circles over you with a reverbed bass throb and breakneck 1-2-1-2 hardcore beat will put the wheels-flying-off thrill of this record on your must have list in no time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong>
\nLithics<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Borrowed Floor<\/em>s LP (Water Wing)
\nYa might think in the year 2016 that there’s not much life left in angular postpunk tunes, but this Portland quartet, true to the hype they’ve garnered over the last year or so, deliver the goods on this 10\u00a0song platter. They’ve injected vibrancy into the form by punching out smart, tightly knit songs that crackle with an assertiveness that’s somehow both detached\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0impassioned. It’s an impressive debut with solid songwriting executed perfectly. Looking forward to hearing more from Lithics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong>
\nLumpy & The Dumpers<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Huff My Sack<\/em>\u00a0LP (Lumpy)
\nThese St. Louis freaks are pretty much the jizzy cream of the punk crop.\u00a0After a number of killer 45s and demos\u00a0below their belts, like 2013’s “Sex Pit” and 2014’s “Gnats in the Pisser” \u2014 recently collected on their\u00a0Collection<\/em>\u00a0LP for your listening pleasure \u2014 Lumpy & The Dumpers have proven that they can keep their crude punk damage fun in larger doses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Oranssi<\/strong>
\nOranssi Pazuzu<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0V\u00e4r\u00e4htelij\u00e4<\/em>\u00a02xLP (20 Buck Spin)
\nThis Finish metal band’s double album expands on their shamanistic sound often described as black metal psych, but that really doesn’t give a satisfactory description of what’s going on the 4 sides of this beast. Sure it’s massive and it does have a\u00a0buzzing psychedelic squall, but the\u00a0sounds here are warped and fucked beyond anything else you’ll hear in this world. Texturally, their sound is layered and dense in a way that’s wholly unique and intriguing, and even more remarkable is that the songwriting also pushes\u00a0things a few steps further out with riffs that mutate to\u00a0defy expectation\u00a0and convention with every expansive minute. Give this monster your undivided attention and get ready for a journey you’ll not likely forget.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PUFF!<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Living in the Partyzone<\/em>\u00a0LP (Slovenly)
\nPretty much knew after hearing\u00a0PUFF!’s\u00a0Identit\u00e4tsverlust<\/em>\u00a0\u200e7″ that anything this Berlin group put out would be required\u00a0listening. And even though this album doesn’t match\u00a0the explosive electrospasm of that brainstomping single, it does take their mutant synthpunk sound into so many twisted\u00a0directions that your attention will not wander.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Terry<\/strong>
\nTerry<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Terry\u00a0HQ\u00a0<\/em>LP (Upset the Rhythm)
\nFuckin’ A Australia is cranking out the quality jams. I’ll admit that I was a little put off with my first spin of this record, since I was expecting something more in line with Total Control and UV Race with a little more\u00a0grit\u00a0and in-the-red volume. So after tabling my disdain for acoustic guitar (featured on just a few\u00a0tracks) and the overall cleaner sound of Terry, I gave it another listen and\u00a0soon realized that I was approaching it all in the wrong way. Now\u00a0Terry HQ<\/em>\u00a0has had more listens than pretty much anything else this year. Its Breeders-by-way-of-The Fall sound is charming and plays well for pretty much any mood. It’s a patchwork\u00a0of great ideas bringing life to staid rock elements with a level of creativity that few bands are brave or playful enough to explore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong>
\nT\u00f8rs\u00f6<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Sono Pronta a Morire\u00a0<\/em>LP (Sorry State)
\nOkay, so this technically came out Dec 2015, but for all intents and purposes this rager made big waves well into 2016 with ferocious hardcore played fast and hard as hell. There are plenty of D-beat hardcore groups out there plodding similar territory, but few are able to whip up the feral energy T\u00f8rs\u00f6 has on all 11 tracks of their debut LP. Every song thoughtfully builds and explodes with enough power\u00a0to level your local all-ages space and the gazillions of by-the-numbers hardcore bands unfit to share the bill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Useless<\/strong>
\nUseless Eaters<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Relaxing Death<\/em>\u00a0(Castleface)
\nYou may\u00a0remember at time when Jay Reatard was releasing a ridiculous amount of material. It was impossible to keep up with his prolific output and\u00a0too easy to stop paying much attention. Fast forward past his sudden departure in 2010\u00a0and of course it became crystal\u00a0clear that all\u00a0those records he was cranking out year after year were all\u00a0worthy\u00a0of attention\u00a0even if it seemed like overkill at the time they came\u00a0out. I’ve taken that lesson to the equally prolific Seth Sutton and his flagship Useless Eaters band who continue to make instant classics ever since they started spitting out wild ass 7-inches in 2009. With increasing frequency the Eaters have sharpened their sonic attack and\u00a0traded in\u00a0the frantic garage fury of their earlier releases with a finely tuned machine that hooks you in and continues to\u00a0hook deeper and deeper as every one of the\u00a012 tracks on\u00a0Relaxing Death<\/em>\u00a0wraps itself into your DNA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wet
\nWet Ones<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Wet Ones<\/em>\u00a0LP (Black Gladiator)
\nEnsuring that punk still aims straight for the jugular, Kansas City’s finest lowlifes spat forth one of the nastiest piss-colored slabs of hate ever committed to wax with their self-titled debut. Merrily puking out\u00a0gnarly punk in its basest, visceral form, the Wet Ones push the punk rock needle well\u00a0past the point of accessibility\/mediocrity into something so beautifully ugly one can’t help but to mainline it\u00a0again and again and again\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blind Shake\u00a0–\u00a0Celebrate Your Worth\u00a0LP (Goner) After 12 years of flexin’ midwest\u00a0muscle, this Minnesota trio has honed their craft into something bigger than the\u00a0punchy garage punk scene they’ve flourished in. Their jams are\u00a0instantly craveable and continue to reap endless rewards with every listen.\u00a0Each\u00a0release\u00a0has gotten better and better and\u00a0this one is easily\u00a0the best\u00a0written and best recorded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2135"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions\/2139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2.dougkubert.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}