2014

Best Albums Of 2014

• The Black Angels – Clear Lake Forest (Blue Horizon)
• Allah Las – Worship The Sun (Innovative Leisure)
• Hawkwind –  The Flicknife Years (Cherry Red)
• Ty Segall – Manipulator (Drag City)
• Thee Oh Sees – Drop (Castle Face 33)
• Swans – To be kind (Young God)
• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Give the People What They Want (Daptone)
• Dan Melchior Und Das Menace – Hunger (Castle Face)
• FKA Twigs – LP1 (Young Turks)
• Nightmares On Wax –  N.O.W. Is The Time (Warp)
• Boris – Noise (Sargent House)
• Dr. John  – SKE-DAT-DE-DAT The Spirit Of Satch (Concord)
• Billie Joe + Norah  – Foreverly (Reprise)
• Wooden Shjips – Back to Land (Thrill Jockey)
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Live from KCRW (Bad Seed)
• Nick Waterhouse – Holly (Innovative Leisure)
• Beck  – Morning Phase (Capitol)
• Bart Davenport – Physical World (Lovemonk)
• Warm Soda – Young Reckless Hearts (Castle Face)
• Kryzysztof Komeda – Dance of the Vampires (Series Aphonos)
• Meridian Brothers – Salvadora Robot (Soundway)
• Dolly Parton – Blue Smoke (Dolly Records)
• Budos Band – Burnt Offering (Daptone)
• Big Freedia – Just Be Free (Queen Diva)
• White Fence – For the Recently Found Innocent (Drag City)

Best Compilations Of 2014

• Vamps Et Vampire (Ace)
• Krautrock Classics: A Tribute to German Cosmic Music (Dublab)
• Captain Beefheart – Sun, Zoom, Spark : 1970 to 1972 (Rhino)
• Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society – Get A Job, Get A Car, Get A Bed, Get Drunk! Underground Punk and Post-Punk In The UK 1977-81 (Soul Jazz)
• Classic African American Songsters (Smithsonian Folkways)
• Los Nuggetz: Volume Uno (RockBeat)
• Haiti Direct (Strut)
• The Sound of Siam 2: Molam & Luk Thung 1970-1982 (Sound Way)
• Psychedelic States: Maryland in the 60s (Gear Fab)
• Catch Action: The Sophisticated Boogie Funk Of Sheridan House Records (Luv N’ Haight)

Best Live Shows Of 2014

• All Star Funk Band at the New Parish, Oakland, 3/4
• Neutral Milk Hotel at the Fox, Oakland, 4/11
• Willie Nelson at the Greek Theater, Berkeley, 4/12
• Kermit Ruffins at the New Parish, Oakland, 7/25
• Meshell Ndegeocello at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, 9/20
• Lumerians and White Manna at the New Parish, Oakland, 10/24
• Rebirth Brass Band and Kermit Ruffins at Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, 10/30
• Quintron and Miss Pussycat at One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, 10/31
• Rebirth Brass Band at the New Parish, Oakland, 11/7
• Funky Meters at the New Parish, Oakland, 12/18

1. Future Islands – Singles (4AD)
2. Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire for No Witness (Jagjaguwar)
3. Shabazz Palaces – Lese Majesty (Sub Pop)
4. White Lung – Deep Fantasy (Domino)
5. Marissa Nadler – July (Sacred Bones)
6. OOIOO – Gamel (Thrill Jockey)
7. Makthaverskan – II (Run for Cover)
8. Swans – To Be Kind (Young God)
9. Flying Lotus – You’re Dead! (Warp)
10. The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian)
11. D’Angelo – Black Messiah (RCA)
12. Stone Jack Jones – Ancestor (Western Vinyl)
13. Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong – Savage Imagination (Thrill Jockey)
14. Ishraqiyun – Perichoresis (Web of Mimicry)
15. Strand of Oaks – HEAL (Dead Oceans)
16. Carla Bozulich – Boy (Constellation)
17. Priests – Bodies and Control and Money and Power (Don Giovanni)
18. Joan as Police Woman – The Classic (PIAS)
19. Caribou – Our Love (Merge)
20. Alvvays – S/T (Polyvinyl)
21. Burnt Palms – The Girl You Knew (WWNBB)
22. Perfect Pussy – Say Yes to Love (Captured Tracks)
23. Current 93 – I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell (Spheres)
24. The Haden Triplets – S/T (Third Man)
25. Cibo Matto – Hotel Valentine (Chimera Music)
26. Curtis Harding – Soul Power (Burger)
27. Scott Walker and Sunn O))) – Soused (4AD)
28. Luluc – Passerby (Sub Pop)
29. A Winged Victory for the Sullen – ATOMOS (Kranky/Erased Tapes)
30. Freeman – S/T (Partisan)

• Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything (Constellation)
• Elise Melinand – Gray Hoodie (n5MD)
• Hauschka – Abandoned City (Temporary Residence)
• Man Forever with So Percussion – Ryonen (Thrill Jockey)
• Wye Oak – Shriek (Merge)
• Yann Tiersen – Infinity (Mute)
• Meridian Brothers – Salvadora Robot (Soundway)
• Luluc – Passerby (Sub Pop)
• Call Super – Suzi Ecto (Houndstooth)
• My Brightest Diamond – This Is My Hand (Asthmatic Kitty)
• Goat – Commune (Sub Pop)
• Malfinia Ensemblo – Varsovia (Kvitnu)
• Tony Allen – Film of Life (Jazz Village)

• At The Gates – At War With Reality (Century Media)
• Devin Townsend Project – Z2 (Inside Out Music)
• Chumped – Teenage Retirement (Anchorless)
• Youth Code – A Place To Stand (Dais)
• Pup – S/T (Side One Dummy)
• Iron Reagan – The Tyranny of Will (Relapse)
• Every Time I Die – From Parts Unknown (Epitaph)
• Gates – Bloom and Breath (Pure Noise Records)
• Godflesh – A World Lit Only By Fire (Avalanche Recordings)
• This Will Destroy You – Another Language (Suicide Squeeze)
• White Lung – Deep Fantasy (Suicide Squeeze)
• Beach Slang – Cheap Thrills On A Dead End Street (Tiny Engines)
• Fucked Up – Glass Boys (Matador)
• Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Total Treble Music)
• Trap Them – Blissfucker (Prosthetic)

• Ausmuteants – Felix Tried to Kill Himself (Goodbye Boozy)
• Flesh World – A Line in Wet Grass (Iron Lung)
• The Intended – Huguenot (All Gone)
• King Tears Mortuary – Asleep at the Wheel of Fortune (Vacant Valley)
• Life Stinks – Portraits (Total Punk)
• Mystery Date – You and Your Sister (Pinata)
• Pang – Young Professionals (Melters)
• Primetime – S/T (La Vida Es Un Mus)
• Terry Malts – Insides (Slumberland)
• Sheer Mag – What You Want (Wilsuns)
• The Suburban Homes – Suburban Home (Market Square)
• Synthetic ID  – Escapement (Crime on the Moon)
• Video – Cult of Video (No Good)
• VeLO – Tight Time (Close Up)

Favorite LPs

• Cold Beat – Over Me (Crime on the Moon)
• Good Throb – Fuck Off (White Denim)
• Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal (What’s Your Rupture?)
• Watery Love – Decorative Feeding (In the Red)
• Hank Wood  & the Hammerheads – Stay Home (Toxic State)

• Cold Beat – Over Me (Crime on the Moon)
• Ex Hex – Rips (Merge)
• Hearts Revolution – Ride or Die (S/R)
• Nots – We Are Nots (Goner)
• Spoon – They Want My Soul (Loma Vista)
• Kelis – Food (Ninjatune)
• History of Apple Pie – Come Undone (Marshall Teller)
• Caribou – Our Love (Merge)
• September Girls – Veneer (Kanine)
• Coathangers – Suck my Shirt (Suicide Squeeze)
• Bleeding Rainbow – Interrupt (Kanine)
• Perfect Pussy – Say Yes to Love (Captured Tracks)
• Chastity Belt – Evil (Help Yourself)
• National Wake – Walk in Africa 1978-1981 (Light in the Attic)
• New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers (Matador)
• Punk 45 Vol 3: Sick on You! One Way Spit! After the Love & Before the Revolutions (Soul Jazz)
• Dark Beach – Scream Queen (Unicorn Power/Dark Beach)
• Deerhoof – La Isla Bonita (Polyvinyl)
• Burnt Palms – The Girl You Know (We were never boring)
• Swans – To be kind (Young God)
• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Give the People What they Want (Daptone)
• Kids on a Crime Spree – We’re so good (S/R)
• Useless Eaters – Bleeding Moon (Castle Face)
• Curtis Harding – Keep on Shining 7″ (Burger)
• Bob Mould – Beauty & Ruin (Merge)
• Ibibio Sound Machine – Let’s Dance (Soundway)
• Jessica Pratt – S/T (Birth)
• Childbirth – It’s A Girl! EP (Help Yourself)
• Burnt Palms – The Girl You Knew (WWNBB)