Favourite Releases for 2013

Tired of Best of 2013 Lists? Of course you are! Well here's one more–deal with it! I know I'm late to the party, but I wanted the inaugural post for Reverberation Mind to be something more than just a toss off. I might be half-witted, but I try not to be half-assed. I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship. So quit bitchin'! It's not even February '14 yet!
	Mikal Cronin  MCII (Merge) Already legendary in its first year. Great songwriting, killer sound. Next...
	White Fence  Cyclops Reap (Castle Face) What a year for Tim Presley, man; mind=blown. This is a record chock with nugs, but when you hear the way the band rips steadily through this and older material on the year's companion LP White Fence  Live in San Francisco (Castle Face), the subtle intricacies of Cyclops Reap will seem even trippier.
	Purling Hiss  Water On Mars (Drag City) Sweet baby born from all things righteous! Like Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney fused through Cobain–with soul. Might be my favourite rock record of the year.
	Fuzz  Fuzz (Drag City) The deadliest shit, again and again… and the bitchinest live show I witnessed in 2013.
	Polvo  Siberia (Merge) With another child on the way for guitarist/singer Dave Brylawski, there’s no way Polvo were set to tour any time soon, but they went ahead and put out this killer record anyway. Polvo’s evolutionary process further reveals itself here; this is not some throwback to 1992. If I have to wait a few years to hear this stuff live, so be it, but I'm in.
	Robert Pollard  Honey Locust Honkey Tonk (Guided by Voices, Inc.) Sure, any recent Pollard LP made with Todd Tobias sounds pretty much like the one before it, but Honey Locust flows better than any of them. Straight songs like “Airs” abound, yet those familiar 48-second blasts of deconstruction are all over the place to keep it weird. Organically certified Pollard.
	Sebadoh  Defend Yourself (Joyful Noise) I’ve damned near wore this and the teaser Secret EP out. Lou Barlow and especially Jason Loewenstein are writing songs as good and inspired as anything in their respective careers, and Bob D’Amico is a real drummer. Shit sounds good.
	Yo La Tengo  Fade (Matador) Yo La Tengo are Hall Of Famers. They still make essential records, and perform like motherfuckers. Great record.
	Teenanger  Singles Don't $ell (Telephone Explosion) Rockin’. Play it loud, get in the shower.
	Paul McCartney  NEW (Hear Music) Sounding like the musical equivalent of clothing from The Gap, this is as safe and groomed as it gets, but resistance is futile. I fell to the pop juggernaut on the second listen.
	Big Star  Nothing Can Hurt Me (Omnivore) That's right–previously unreleased Big Star studio takes. Can’t explain now...gotta move on...
	Guided by Voices  English Little League (Guided by Voices, Inc.) I played this record a lot during the spring and summer to a chorus of raised brews for rockers like “Flunky Minnows” and “Xeno Pariah.” I play it now, in the winter, for “Reflections in a Metal Whistle,” and (hello?) “Send to Celeste." Oh yes.
	Johnny Marr  The Messenger (Warner Bros.) Produced to death and sounding good; a bit of a bitch slap to a younger generation of Britpop kids.
	Boards of Canada  Tomorrow's Harvest (Warp Records) Bleak and deep, just the way I like ‘em. Your “70s malaise” connection for 2013.
	Thee Oh Sees  Floating Coffin and Moon Sick EP (Castle Face) Thee Oh Sees kicked so much ass in 2013 I’ve got all types of bruises.
	Chelsea Light Moving Chelsea Light Moving (Matador) I love hearing Thurston Moore in a sludgy rock band that has nothing to do with Sonic Youth. Overheard at one of their shows: “I love that Sonic Youth broke up. This is awesome!” Based on freshness, I have to agree.
	Superchunk  I Hate Music (Merge) All four cylinders hum as reliability here as in my friend’s ‘85 Toyota Tercel. The best surprise is that there’s no surprise. As good as any of Superchunk’s best records.
	Charles Bradley  Victim of Love (Daptone) Derivative of “Golden Age” soul? Who cares– Bradley’s sophomore record is tight. The old adage that you have a lifetime to put out your first record and twelve months to put out your second couldn't be truer here, but I get the feeling that Bradley has decades of reserve material in him that has sat for years in obscurity. Bring it.
	Micheal Beach  Golden Theft (Twin Lakes) Feeling more like a live set than a studio effort, there are times when Beach sounds unsure of himself, as in the closer “Eve,” and it shows like a badly stitched seam in an otherwise good debut LP.
	Lee Ranaldo and the Dust  Last Night On Earth (Matador) This is half of Sonic Youth plus the great Alan Licht on guitar, and astute bassist Tim Lüntzel having a good time getting deep with Lee’s new songs. It gets sleepy here and there, but it sounds like they cut this batch without having had much road seasoning on these tunes. Still a decent session.
	Ty Segall  Sleeper (Drag City) Not the most memorable bunch of tunes, but great acoustic ambience. Play it on Sunday.
	Black Sabbath  13 (Vertigo/Universal) Did producer Rick Ruben think no one would notice that this is mostly a handful of sewn together Sabbath hallmarks culled from their early records? Talk about milking clichés! Whatever––it's new Black Sabbath with Ozzy, and the heavy hammer swings, in parts, as good as it ever swung. I wonder what they'd have made if Rubin had had nothing to do with it.
	My Bloody Valentine  m b v (mbv) m b v has the dubious distinction of following Loveless, but that's not what makes it sound limp at times. Funny how you can't really experience this record without comparing it to its predecessor. I think we all know why that is, and it's hardly the fault of the listener. After a rock and roll lifetime, the record exists–there's that.
	Wire  Change Becomes Us (Pink Flag) A decent album but I’m craving something less retro. If this is some slam dunk to the questions posed by 1979’s 154, we’re good. I’m more interested in what comes next. Please Wire, get scary.
	Parquet Courts  Light Up Gold (Dull Tools) There’s pretty much one Modern Lovers-esque gear here, but it’s a good 'un.
	Scud Mountain Boys  Do You Love The Sun (Ashmont) Not quite full of the slow dirges that you might know the band for from their 90s output, but a great little record that wasn't ever supposed to happen.
	The Sadies  Internal Sounds (Yep Rock) There's always room for echoey country psyche, and The Sadies always deliver.
	Nikki Sudden  Waiting on Egypt, The Bible Belt, Jacobites, Robespierre’s Velvet Basement  (Numero/JR) As borderline, post-whatever, and rocking as they come. Thanks Numero! Please reissue three more Nikki Sudden LPs in '14.
	The Jimi Hendrix Experience  Axis: Bold As Love and Are You Experienced? (MONO mix) (Experience Hendrix) The packaging isn’t where it should be, but Experience Hendrix has always been clueless in that department; it’s all about the mixes anyway. Despite the inherent flaws in the masters of Are You Experienced?–which seem highlighted here in MONO–you need to play these loud–it ain’t illegal yet.
	Various Artists:  Which Way Does The Blood Red River Flow? (Mississippi Records) Where was this stuff when I was a teenager ready to put up for it? Back then I mostly got The Blues Live at Lincoln Center sponsored by the White House. Here we are in 2013 and Mississippi Records has put out this amazing collection of dirty old banged up blues, and it’s damn good. Word is born.
	White Fence White Fence (God?) All said and done, my favourite White Fence album. Ridiculously wicked.
	The Human Expression  Love at Psychedelic Velocity (Mississippi/Change Records) A band I knew from a couple of tunes on so many compilations have no business holding my attention for longer than four minutes, right? It just happened. Even with alternate takes of the same tune, this is great from beginning to end.
	Medusa  First Step Beyond (Numero Group) Sure, it has an embossed, crushed velvet gatefold cover. Yes, the dark garage metal contained inside was recorded on a 4-track, and self-produced in the mid-70s. And ok, it was pressed and issued in a small batch by a tiny label, never to be heard from again until now. And that's right–it sounds as good as all that.