All the Small Things: Top Singles, E.P.'s etc. of 2013

If you missed our Best Albums 
of the Year list, please go HERE!

Our second BotY list covers all the releases too short for that "Best Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2013" (see HERE). Once again the list is a little punk/pop-punk heavy due to the fact that both genres worship at the altar of brevity plus I'm old and set in my ways. For more musical awesomeness Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

(All artist name links go directly to a homepage - or some such thing.)

The New Trocaderos - Money Talks/The Kids CD single
Geoff Palmer & Kurt Baker form their own Rockpile!

Jeffrey Lewis &The Rain - WWPRD EP
An ode to Pussy Riot from the New York ant-folk cartoonist/singer-song-writer Jeffrey Lewis.

Teenage Bottlerocket - American Deutsch Bag 7"
A German language original, a fun throwaway HC song and a Tony Sly cover from Wyoming's finest.

The Livids - (Some Of Us Have) Adrenalized Hearts  EP
A return to gunk-rock glory from Eric Davidson, formerly of The New Bomb Turks.

7 Seconds - My Aim Is You/Slogan on a T-Shirt 7"
Who-oah it's a comeback for Kev. & co.

Science Police - You Are Under Arrest In The Future EP

The Name Merry-Go-Round that the members of The Steinways have ridden since the band broke up five years ago (See Skinny Genes as well), makes for some bewilderment but ultimately the ride brings us a shitlot of great lo-fi and low-self-esteem pop-punk.

Bad Religion Christmas Songs EP
Bad Religion have been doing Christmas songs for years in live settings ("KROQ"S Agnostic Christmas") but till they recorded this fierce set of traditionals you had to track down bootlegs to hear them!

Young Rochelles - Cannibal Island E.P
Y'like hearing a juvenile phrase sung repeatedly over chugging guitars with a strategic key change? God, I do.

Anchovy: Get It Wrong EP
Did I mention The Power-Pop?

Barracudas - God Bless the '45 7"
A class of '79 band gets back on the board and 

The #1's S/T E.P.
More Songs About Chocolate and Girls from Ireland!

The Blendours - Here We Go Again split EP
C'mon "I Was a Teenage Drag Queen" is a good song title AND a fun sing-along, a combination at which The Blendours just rock!

The Slow Death - No Heaven EP

If Crimpshrine had moved to Minneapolis to get Paul Westerberg to produce their album of Merle Haggard covers, it might sound like just a bit like The Slow Death.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE SINGLES/E.P.'S?

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE SINGLES/E.P.'S OF 2013?

WE LIVE AND DIE BY FEEDBACK HERE, SO PLEASE SAY YOUR PIECE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!


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Fifteen Underappreciated Albums That Rocked 2013

The TL;DR version of all previous lists (see HERE) is: indie rock doesn't, so MRML vouches for the under-valued rocking and/or rolling albums of the year, based on our scatter-shot listening experience. Speaking of scatter-shot, there's an above average number of entries that straddle the years but that's just the nature of the fluid times we live in. For more musical awesomeness Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

All artist name links go directly to a homepage - or some such place - for your further listening pleasure.)

1. M.O.T.O. - Pack Your Troubles In Dreams

Paul Caprino's one man assault on American mediocrity has taken on ever greater force recently. Sure the recording/release date of this album is a bit muddled but whatever their vintage, these songs are timeless, fire-breathing rock n' roll.

2. Dirt Box Disco - People Made of Paper
Attitude-driven British punk rock with both a metallic edge and a pop coating. Early Wildhearts or Troublegum-era Therapy? would be workable points of reference. I heard PMoP and the the late-2012 album Legends this year and both deserve your attention now!

3. The Connection - Let It Rock
If Nick Lowe ever took a pop-punk band under his tutelage,  Portsmouth, NH band The Connection ("garage rock for now people" as they put it) is exactly how they'd sound!

4.  Upset - She's Gone
This new L.A. band, featuring members of Vivian Girls, Best Coast and...Hole [!], got some decent indie-press for the their first K Records meets Lookout! Records retro-riot grrl sound but were soon ignored for more typical indie fare

5. Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen
Pretty, echoey second album by this British band who sound a lot like what would have happened if a C-86 band had stumbled into The Batcave.

6. Willie Nile - American Ride

The troubadour of New York, Willie Nile, has been putting out fantastic rootsy rock n ' roll albums records for years to wide acclaim but limited fame. I hope that's gonna change one day soon...

7. BarrenceWhitfield & The Savages - Dig Thy Savage Soul
Bostonian Barrence Whitfield has been showing off his explosive garage-rock/R&B amalgam for years but may just have perfected it with this record. 

8. First Base - S/T
As the tags have it; "rock, bubblegum, garage, lo-fi, pop punk, Toronto".

9. Bad Religion - True North

These veteran LA punks have never disappointed (hey, I heard "Into the Unknown ten years after the fact and was surprised at how much better it was than I'd been promised!) in their thirty years+ and this return to No Control era speed-rock kept their streak alive, especially the classic Mr. Brett style-song, "Robin Hood in Reverse".

10. Louise Distras - Dreams From The Factory Floor
Winner of this year's Dylan Was A Punk Award (Cate Blanchett Division), Londoner Louise Distras rocks an acoustic so forcefully that she's the very image of what the offspring of Joan Jett and TV Smith would be!
Sidenote: I first heard of Distras when she followed me on Twitter before unceremoniously dumping me but spite ain't enough to make me ignore this record! 

11. The Crunch - Busy Making Noise

Punk supergroups are justly viewed with suspicion butt this album, dominated by support players, Dave Tregenna of Sham 69 and The Lords of the New Church, Mick Geggus of the Cockney Rejects and Terry Chimes of The Clash is innocent of nostalgia-mongering. Rather the band works in subtly and powerfully in service of the songs by Sulo Karlsson of nineties Swedish rock band, Diamond Dogs.

12. John Moreland - In the Throes

Country album of the year (along with Kasey Musgraves more mainstream but justifiably celebrated, Same Trailer, Different Park) comes from this Oklahoma City singer-songwriter who's punk rock roots keep this album grounded and clear-eyed, as tracks like "Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore" prove.

13. Phil Odgers - The Godforsaken Voyage

Phil Odgers, founding member of The Men They Couldn't Hang" put out a historically and traditionally minded Brit-folk album that doesn't need loud guitars and bashing drums to keep moving.

14. Badger - Stars, Guitars and Motorcars

This rocking power-pop album by Norwegian band, Badger arrived late 2012 and is hence our Anachronism of the Year.
 

15. Undecided by Default - Totally Undecided 

While Holdover of the Year is not a tradition I want to start, this was the year that Undecided by Default's Totally Undecided  physically came out on CD and you should all go listen to this band as they show the fucking hipsters how the rocking is done!!

Fin

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE ALBUMS?

WHAT ARE YOUR UNDERAPPRECIATED ALBUMS THAT ROCKED 2013?

WE LIVE AND DIE BY FEEDBACK HERE, SO PLEASE SAY YOUR PIECE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

 

Follow @jeffen69 on Twitter

 

Bad Religion Live in Dusseldorf, 1992 (FM Broadcast)

After the ferocious one-two punch of Suffer and then No Control Bad Religion began toying with their sound. The changes were not drastic, as they had been on the prog-rock, non-classic Into the Unknown, but beginning with Against the Grain and growing more pronounced with Generator (powered by the stronger drumming of Bobby Schayer) the band's musical straitjacket got loosened. While the band would make more use of slower tempos, complex vocal arrangements and abstract lyrics they would always return to their safe harbour of loud, fast n' accusatory within a song or two. Many fans think the band took a turn for the worse in his era but this early nineties span of albums (yes, I admit Recipe for Hate has some dead-ends) does contain a lot of Bad Religion's best moments. With that in mind, let's check out this German radio broadcast from the Generator era and and abide by Mr. Brett's words, "I'll remain unperturbed by the joy and the madness that I encounter everywhere I turn".




Set List
1     Turn On The Light
2     Suffer
3     Generator
4     Anesthesia
5     Get Off
6     Too Much To Ask
7     Operation Rescue
8     Along The Way
9     Do What You Want
10     Change Of Ideas
11     Heaven Is Falling
12     The Answer
13     Flat Earth Society
14     Modern Man
15     No Control
16     Fuck Armageddon... This Is Hell
17     Two Babies In The Dark
18     Tomorrow
19     You Are (The Government)
20     21st Century (Digital Boy)
21     Automatic Man
22     We're Only Gonna Die
23     Only Entertainment
24     No Direction
25     Atomic Garden
26     I Want To Conquer The World
27     Best For You

Let us know your opinion on the early nineties BR sound in the COMMENTS section!


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Bad Religion: Live at the Hung Jury (1986)

A reminder that at one point in the history of American Hardcore, Bad Religion's (more HERE) containing two members of The Circle Jerks (guitarist Greg Hetson, obviously, but also on this tour drummer Lucky Lehrer) would be their greatest selling point. Reversals of fortune occur, even in punk rock. This surprisingly decent-sounding recording comes from a ten-date East Coast tour that the band did in 1986 promoting  the EP Back to the Known, all of which gets played here. As well we're treated to a Germs cover and, fittingly, a Circle Jerks cover. A fine night's entertainment.





    1.  We're Only Gonna Die
    2.  Part III
    3.  Latch Key Kids
    4.  What Can You Do
    5.  Damned To Be Free
    6.  Along The Way
    7.  New Leaf
    8.  Faith In God
    9.  Yesterday
    10. Voice Of God Is Government
    11. Bad Religion
    12. Politics
    13. Media Blitz (Germs Cover)
    14. Doing Time
    15. Parade Of The Horribles (Circle Jerks cover)
    16. World War Iii
    17. Fuck Armageddon
    18. Slaves


Let us know your take on this less celebrated era in BR history in the COMMENTS section!


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Bad Religion: Along the Way (1989)

This is Bad Religion at one of their peaks, the 1989 European leg of the Suffer tour. Considering the band was still comparatively low-profile in the late eighties, it's kind of amazing that they had fourteen shows filmed so well. The video's editors decided to cut back and forth between the footage from the different shows, meaning that the band member's shirts (or lack thereof!) seem to change from shot to shot. The soundtrack is, however, of one piece and it's pummeling!





Let us know your take on this era in BR history in the COMMENTS section!


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Bad Religion: All Our Yesterdays (Live, 1983)

Hey, please come check out our Ten Bad Religion TV appearances over at The Big Takeover!

Considering it's from '83 this Bad Religion, All Our Yesterdays, bootleg has surprisingly strong sound quality. While the encore of piss-takes of  rock n' roll standards is only funny once, the full-on guitar-centered takes on two songs from the long-disavowed keyboard-heavy Into the Unknown LP are are of inestimable historical value. Enjoy, coReligionists!

Song title            
   
1     We're Only Gonna Die        
2     Part III                         
3     Faith in God                        
4     It's Only Over When...                     
5     Latch Key Kids                         
6     The Dichotomy                    
7     Fuck Armageddon... This Is Hell        
8     Voice Of God Is Government                 
9     Slaves                    
10     Johnny B. Goode                    
11     Rock 'n' Roll                
12     Louie Louie

Let us know your take on this transitional era in BR history in the COMMENTS section!


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Bad Religion: Live at KROQ (2013)

A new Bad Religion album is still a fearsome thing!


Red Bull Sound Space

Link

Bad Religion: Fuck You (2012)

The first single from the new Bad Religion album, True North, is called, rather indelicately, "Fuck You".  It's got the charging tempos, oozin  ahs, clattering guitar and erudite verbosity we associate with prime BR, even if the song seems more restrained then the title promises. I'm gonna guess this is a Mr. Brett song, not only for the more artful lyrics ("sometimes just a word/Is the most satisfying sound") but for the compelling bridge that shows off one of the man's signature contributions to the band's sound.





The songs foretells a strong record (it's scheduledd for 2013) but it sure ain't gonna top one of my all-time fave Bad Religion curse tunes, "Hooray For me (and Fuck You)":





HOMEPAGE

Germs of Perfection: A Tribute to Bad Religion (FREE and LEGAL Download)

Why does the phrase "The Best Tribute Album of the Decade" sound like an insult? Better scribes then I have limned The Tribute Album Paradox (i.e. the better the artists involved in the tribute album the more disappointing the results) but suffice it to say this one succeeds where others have failed painfully.

First off the compilers, Spin Magazine, MySpace Music and the band, found a few artists willing to fuck with the originals. While such irreverent reverence itself does NOT guarantee a great tribute it is a must. As well a tribute needs to bring out something different about the band. Germs of Perfection does this by paying tribute to both the band's folkish song-writing and its' punk performance. We begin with the folkiness; Iowan William Elliot Whitmore doing an an country-blues version of "Don't Pray On Me", Englishman Frank Turner doing his folksinger take on "My Poor Friend Me", Christian-popsters Switchfoot going soft on "Sorrow", Winnipeg's The Weakerthans drawing out the melancholy in "Sanity"and even indie-punker Ted Leo's doing a slow if threatening take on "Against the Grain". The speed and distortion then roars back with bands like NYC's Polar Bear Club, Denmark's New Politics and Reno boys The Cobra Skulls (ft. Fat Mike) giving their own spin to BR's loud n' fastisms:

Tribute albums are a difficult beast but this one deserves shelter.

01. William Elliott Whitmore, “Don’t Pray on Me”
02. Frank Turner, “My Poor Friend Me”
03. The Weakerthans, “Sanity”
04. Switchfoot, “Sorrow”
05. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Against the Grain”
06.Cheap Girls, “Kerosene”
07. New Politics, “Generator”
08. Cobra Skulls ft. Fat Mike, “Give You Nothing”
09. Polar Bear Club, “Better Off Dead”
10. Guttermouth, “Pity”
11. Riverboat Gamblers, “Heaven Is Falling”
12. Tegan and Sara, “Suffer”

And since MRML is being kinda gender-biased these days here's Anathema (proponents of some sorta over-hyphenated Euro-metal sub-genre) who, while not appearing on this compilation, do offer up a prettified version of "Better Off Dead"

Download Germs of Perfection: A Tribute to Bad Religion right here.

Bad Religions Vs. Daredevils

Every great, long-running band or artist has a terrible spell. Or two. Bad Religion first bottomed-out surprisingly early - 1983 - after just one seven inch e.p. and their debut album. Following the debacle known as Into the Unknown, the band made a religion of absolute musical consistency, so the next bad spell was harder to spot.

Still, the departure of Mr. Brett in 1994 almost hobbled the band. Graffin's songs - cheat notes for your science class set to a polka-punk beat - may define the Bad Religion sound but it's the melodic and lyrical invention of Mr. Brett's songs - "21st Century Digital Boy", "Skyscraper", "Atomic Garden", "Stranger Than Fiction" that keep the formula from getting drab.


So as a follow-up to the brilliant Stranger Than Fiction, the Brett-less album, The Gray Race from 1996 is as colourless as the name implies. Sure "A Walk" is an enjoyable tune but the lyrical angle is so banal ("I'm going for a walk/Not the after dinner kind/I'm gonna use my hands/And I'm gonna use my mind") that you suspect Graffin could pull this sort of thing off in his sleep.

Also in 1996 Mr. Brett, supposedly once again struggling with drug problems, released, "Hate You" the sole single by his band, Daredevils. "Hate You", a venomous sing-along purportedly about Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley, exhibited exactly the sort of fire The Gray Race needed. Of course Daredevils sorely missed the guitar-power of Bently and Greg Hetson plus Graffin's voice just kills on this type of material. As well, the men of BR would've put some much-needed bollocks into the almost heartland rock-like, "Rules, Hearts". When a cleaned-up Mr. Brett re-appeared for a cameo on the excellent The New America before permanently re-joining the band for The Process of Belief (back on Brett's Epitaph's label!) it was time for a yet another new spell.

Daredevils "Hate You" link is in the comments.

Speaking of comments: Is "Hate You" a great punk rock break-up song?


If you like the songs buy them on iTunes

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Bad Religion: Rarities Part TWO

So Mr. Sarcastic and Mr. Punk Rock walk into the 'punk' section at the local music store:

Mr. Sarcastic: Why do all these punk bands have such bad names. Why not Good Religion or the Good Brains?

Mr. Punk Rock: Well there is Good Riddance...
Mr. Sarcastic: (Sighs) No, that's not it either.

*

I own nine Bad Religion CD's and one L.P. The only studio albums I'm missing are How Could Hell be Any Worse? (meaning to pick it up since selling 1980-1985) The Grey Race and No Substance (No Mr. Brett, no go) and New Maps of Hell (only a few songs really hit home). Except for the L.P., (Into the Unknown of course) the albums all pretty much sound the same and that's one of their greatest virtues. Bad Religion decided a long time ago, likely as far as the 1984 e.p. Back to the Known, that they were gonna be the traditional So Cal punk band melding Black Flag's guitar buzz with The Germs verbosity, X's harmonies, the Circle Jerk's speed and The Adolescents' melodicism. Whatever they borrowed they made their own, stopping to throw in the entirety of the O.E.D and On The Origin of the Species into the mix, because a band grows whether the audience notices it or not.
CD2:
01. Do What You Want (Acoustic)
02. 1000 more fools ( Acoustic )
03. Suffer (Acoustic)
04. Media Blitz (Germs Cover)
05. The Defense ( Pre-Mixed )
06. You (No Control Demo)
07. Billy (No Control Demo)
08. No Control (Electro-Mix) (No Control Demo)
09. Change Of Ideas And Anxiety (Electro-Mix) (No Control Demo)
10. Do What You Want (1980 Studio Days Demo)
11. Politics (1980 Studio Days Demo)
12. We're Only Gonna Die (1980 Studio Days Demo)
13. Land Of Competition (1980 Studio Days Demo)
14. FucK Armageddon (1980 Studio Days Demo)
15. Frosty The Snowman (Live KROQ Acoustic Christmas 2001)
16. Silent Night (Live KROQ Acoustic Christmas)
17. Parade Of The Horribles (Circle Jerks Cover Live)
18. Were Only Gonna Die (With Biohazard)
19. Go Your Own Way (With NOFX)
20. Were a Happy Family (Ramones Cover)
21. I Saw The Light (Hank Williams Cover Live)
22. Fuck Christmas (Live Corrected Version)
23. Give Punk a Chance (Live Corrected Version)
24. Institutionalized (Suicidal Tendencies Cover Live)
25. Hurry Up Harry (Sham 69 Cover Live Corrected Version)



Bonus, Compilation, Cover and Rare Live Songs Part TWO link is in the comments.

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Bad Religion: Rarities Part One

I've spent an unhealthy amount of time listening to Bad Religion. Back in 1984 when I first heard "We're Only Gonna Die" (later besmirched by rap-metal merchants, Biohazard) I listened to it incessantly, absorbing the university-grade pessimism and that folk-ish melody all delivered at top speed. I wanted more. For years, I searched for their then-scare records. The lucky few spoke in awe of their 1988 comeback album, Suffer, their full-length follow-up to their universally-hated prog-psych album Into the Unknown from 1983. When I finally got both the then-new No Control and Suffer on the same day, I knew why Fat Mike called the latter "The record that changed everything". Suffer established smart, angry, melodic So Cal punk as unchanging ideal, cut off from either following or negating larger trends, it brought about an endless winter of discontent.



Tracklist:
CD1:
01. God Rest You Jerry Mentleman (Holiday Sampler CD)
02. Joy to the World (Holiday Sampler CD)
03. Leon (Holiday Sampler CD)
04. Lose As Directed (New America B-Side)
05. Pretenders (New America Single)
06. Queen of the 21st Century (New America B-Side)
07. The Fast Life (New America B-Side)
08. Follow The Leader (No Substance Limited Edition CD)
09. Tested (No Substance Limited Edition CD)
10. The Dodo (No Substance Limited Edition CD)
11. Universal Cynic (No Substance Limited Edition CD)
12. Out of Hand (Short Music for Short People)
13. The Surface Of Me (The Empire Strikes First B-Side)
14. Shattered Faith (The Process of Belief B-Side)
15. Who We Are (The Process of Belief B-Side)
16. Punk Rock Song (German Version) (The Grey Race EU-CD)

(This compilation, part of a two-disc set, was taken from Schrabbel Punk but the bonus tracks from the still-very-much-in-print New Maps of Hell Deluxe Version have been removed.)

Bonus, Compilation, Cover and Rare Live Songs Part one link is in the comments.

Speaking of comments; Did Suffer really change everything?

This excellent bootleg of newer b-sides will not convert the skeptical, it's for those who know already. If you don't know, now is the time to Suffer:

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