The Un-Herd Music Top 50 of 20211.
Art Bergmann Late Stage Empire Dementia
He's been a hard luck legend of the Canadian underground for 40 years now, and while it's something of a surprise this album exists at all I can't say it's any surprise that it's so effin' excellent.
2.
The Courettes Back in Mono
The echoed drums, baritone sax deep in the mix & girl group melodies wed Spector's Wall of Sound with the raggedy looseness of 60s garage punk. A triumph all around.
3.
Hayley Mary The Drip
There's a layer of melancholy lying just underneath the driving guitar buzz that lends these highly melodic tunes an impressive staying power. Technically only an EP, but match it with the previous year's "The Piss, The Perfume" and you've got an album for the ages.
4.
Steve Conte Bronx Cheer
An album that not only screams New York, but also offers - in its barrage of hard rock hooks - testament to the reasons why Conte was first choice as Johnny Thunders' fill-in in the reformed New York Dolls.
5.
Jelani Aryeh I've Got Some Living To Do
Precociously talented at such a young age, Jelani Aryeh grabs pieces from pop, soul, R&B, and indie and puts them together in refreshingly original ways.
6.
We Are The Union Ordinary Life
There are layers of social, political, and lyrical reasons to appreciate this album, but none of that would matter much if the music (a quantum leap forward for both ska-punk and pop-punk) didn't pack such a punch.
7.
Amyl and the Sniffers Comfort To Me
While Amy Taylor still doesn't exactly sing, she chants and rants with a charisma that sits perfectly amid the band's ACDC-meets-Radio Birdman attack. And while it's understandable she gets tagged as a female Iggy Pop, it's also evident that she's powered by a more righteous anger than any male counterpart might muster.
8.
Made Violent Wannabe
Every now and then I'll find a small miracle - in this case, garage punk with an infectious 50s sock hop sensibility in its melodic construction - that forces me to champion the band as an underdog. Will we ever hear from them again? Who knows. In the meantime, we've got "Wannabe."
9.
Sam Coffey & the Iron Lungs Real One
A declarative reminder this kind of music is far too scarce. Not metal, not punk, not indie or alternative - no need for a hyphenate at all - just melodic, aggressive, proudly electric rock that refuses to leave my player.
10.
Reigning Sound A Little More Time With Reigning Sound
Reaches back to their first 2 albums (the pedal steel of "Break Up Break Down" and the garage punk R&B of "Time Bomb High School") and creates what might be their crowning achievement.
11. L.A. Exes Get Some
12. Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders There's Pretty Things in Palookaville
13. Ike Reilly Because the Angels
14. The Blips The Blips
15. EUT Party Time
16. Brothers Steve Dose
17. Peppermint Kicks Peppermint Kicks
18. Daniel Romano Cobra Poems
19. Ryan Hamilton 1221
20. You Am I The Lives of Others
21. Sour Ops X
22. Shannon & the Clams Year of the Spider
23. Mad Rollers Get Mad
24. Ryan Allen What a Rip
25. Real Sickies Love is for Lovers
26. Tommy Womack I Thought I Was Fine
27. The Wildhearts 21st Century Love Songs
28. Kiss the Tiger Vicious Kid
29. Aimee Mann Queens of the Summer Hotel
30. Curtis Harding If Words Were Flowers
31. Radio Days Rave On
32. Split Squad Another Cinderella
33. Blunt Bangs Proper Smoker
34. Geoff Palmer Charts and Graphs
35. Too Much Joy Mistakes Were Made
36. Hurry Fake Ideas
37. Cocktail Slippers Shout It Out Loud
38. Ellen Foley Fighting Words
39. The Forty Nineteens The New Roaring Twenties
40. Suzi Quatro The Devil in Me
41. Boy Golden Church of Better Daze
42. Watts Shady Rock 'n' Rollers
43. Needles//Pins Needles//Pins
44. Yola Stand For Myself
45. The Fleshtones Face of the Screaming Werewolf
46. Beatrice Deer Shifting
47. Emperor Penguin Corporation Pop!
48. Parquet Courts Sympathy For Life
49. Elise LeGrow Grateful
50. Nick Waterhouse Promenade Blue
1. Art Bergmann Entropy
2. C0urettes Misfits and Freaks
3. Steve Conte Recovery Doll
4. Hay1ey Mary Would You Throw a Diamond?
5. Rea1 Sickies Give and Take
6. LA Exes Temporary Goodbye
7. Je1ani Aryeh Stella Brown
8. Y0u Am I The Waterboy
9. Sour 0ps Inside the Mind
10. Radi0 Days When I'm With You
11. We R The Union Broken Brain
12. Sam C0ffey & the Iron Lungs Lately
13. Amy1 & the Sniffers Security
14. Sp1it Squad Hey DJ
15. EUT Party Time
16. Peppermint Kicks Hey Fanzine!
17. Geoff Pa1mer This Monkey
18. Pat T0dd Cheap Nostalgia
19. Made Vio1ent You Had It Easy
20. Reigning S0und Oh Christine
21. Bros Steve Next Aquarius
22. Shannon & the C1ams Year of the Spider
23. The B1ips Wild Thing II
24. Danie1 Romano Nocturne Child
