Best of 2024 Lists – KALX 90.7FM Berkeley

~~updated 2025 March 13th~~

These lovely KALX crew share their faves of 2024:

Berkestir ··· Brickbats ··· Brooke Helena Kirchner ··· Carnacki ··· Control Issues ··· Cuppa Joe ··· da Flower Punk ··· dahlia ··· DangerVenture ··· desolation girl & ness ··· DJ Aahh ··· DJ Twinkle ··· Ears of Maize ··· ((echoplex)) ··· E. Lit ··· Film Close-ups ··· g. extrasauce ··· Hate Feeler ··· Imaginary Radio ··· Lance D’Amour ··· Last Will ··· Majority Whip ··· Mary Luce ··· Microtone ··· Mike ··· Poindexter ··· Roscoe 2000 ··· Sex 14s ··· The Silver Hawaiian ··· Sparkle Motion ··· Sully ··· Surface Tension ··· Vernal Pools ··· Vic Vocab

Read on to see their list, lists and more lists.

2024 KALX Annual Cumulative Charts!

Berkestir

New Stuff

Deena Abdelwahed – Jbal Rrsas (Remixes) (InFine)
Artificial Go – Hopscotch Fever (Feel It)
A Place To Bury Strangers – Synthesizer (Dedstrange)
Kee Avil – Spine (Constellation)
Mike Beck – Mike Beck (Mike Beck)
Belong – Realistic IX (Kranky)
The Bevis Frond – Focus On Nature (Fire)
Brown Dog – Lucky Star Creek (self-released)
Cruel Diagonals – Calcite (Beacon Hill)
Death And The Maiden – Uneven Ground (Fishrider)
Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune)
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (Domino)
Goat – Goat (Rocket)
Gnod + MC Sissi – Inner F****** Peace (Rocket)
Gnod – Spotland (Rocket)
Hawkwind – Stories From Time And Spaces (Cherry Red)
The Harlem Gospel Travelers – Rhapsody (Colemine)
Hermanos Gutierrez – Sonido Cosmico (Easy Eye Sound)
Robyn Hitchcock – 1967 Vacations In The Past (Tiny Ghost)
Jenny Don’t And The Spurs – Broken Hearted Blue (Fluff & Gravy)
John Langford & The Bright Shiners – Where It Really Starts (Tiny Global)
Kim – Sir Kim (Kim)
La Luz – News Of The Universe (Sub Pop)
Lucidvox – That’s What Remained (Glitter Beat)
Marbled Eye – Read The Air (Summer Shade)
Meridian Brothers – The Latinamerica Sufre (Ansonia)
N’gola (Sao Tome) – Our Ancestors Swam to Shore (Free Dirt/PM Press)
Parlor Green – In Green/We Dream (Colemine)
The PO’ Ramblin’ Boys – Wanderers Like Me (Smithsonian)
Raudiver – Leave Before Dark (Geodesic)
Ride – Interplay (Wichita)
Danny Schmidt – Dark Skies (Single) (self-released)
Chris Smither – All About the Bones (Signature Sounds)
Sylvaine – Eg Er Framand (Season of Mist)
Richard Thompson – Ship To Shore (New West)
Azu Tiwaline – The Fifth Dream (Remixes) (IOT)
Tristwch Y Fenywod – Tristwch Y Fenywod (Night School)
Veryan – One Universal Breath (Quiet Details)
Weary Ramblers – Weary Ramblers (self-released)
Jane Weaver – Love In Constant Spectacle (Fire)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Woodland Studio (Acony)
White Hills – Beyond This Fiction (Heads On Fire)
Ni Zheng – fetid things (self-released)

Old Stuff

CAN – Live In Aston 1977 (Spoon)
CAN – Live In Keele 1977 (Spoon)
CAN – Live In Paris 1973 (Spoon)
Coil – Moon’s Milk (In Four Phases) (Dais)
Hawkwind – Doremi Fasol Latido (Atomhenge)
Sylvaine – Silent Chamber (Season of Mist)
various artists – Back Up Dos / Mexican Tecno Pop 1980-1989 (Dark Entries)
various artists – Brown Acid Eighteenth Trip (RidingEasy)
various artists – Brown Acid Nineteenth Trip (RidingEasy)

Brickbats

Brickbats Favorite Releases of 2024

Avi C Engel – Strangling Vine
Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet – 4 Guitars Live
Chihei Hatakeyama – Hachirogata Lake
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Drew McDowell – A Thread Silvered and Trembling
Gerycz Powers Rolin – Activator
Jennifer Walshe & Tony Conrad – In the Merry Month of May
Jlin – Akoma
John Davis – Landlines
Julia Holter – Something In the Room She Moves
Ka Baird – Bearings – Soundtracks for the Bardo
Laura Cannell – The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined
Luxury Skin – It’s All Over
Mabe Fratti – Sentir Que No Sabes
Mary Halvorson – Cloudward
Moe Staiano – Away Towards the Light
Moor Mother – The Great Bailout
Olivia Block – Mountain Pass
Sarah Davachi – The Head As Formed In the Crier’s Choir
Skyminds – Echoes On the Shore
SML – Small Medium Large
Tara Jane O’Neil – The Cool Cloud of Okayness
Tashi Wada – What is Not Strange
The 180 Gs – Trout Mask Replica Replica
Water Damage – In E

Brooke Helena Kirchner

6 notable sound-related moments from 2024

A quote about Beethoven from the book Joseph Raffael by Mark Daniel Cohen: “Beethoven did not write from inspiration or any other motive. He discovered the music in the act of composition itself. This meant he never ran out of ideas, or interest, or motivation, or resources, because ideas ceased to be external things to be expressed in music and became self-renewing interactions that arose through his engagement with the act of composition itself.
Listening to a podcast while riding my bike up a hill, and glancing up to see a sign that read Banh Mi just as the people on the podcast said the words Banh Mi
Hearing Narduar’s voice in the flesh at the Great American Music Hall
Interviewing the guys at the chess club on Telegraph for a Longform news piece. One guy told us that you can trace the history of Berkeley through the club, and I believe it even more now. An awesome group of people and a really nice interviewing experience.
The sound a soda tab makes when you press down on it and let it go
A lyric from the song One For The Catholic Girls by Simon Joyner: “When you try to make the sweetness last.”

Carnacki

24 favourite albums of 2024 in alphabetical order

9T Antiope – Horror Vacui (American Dreams)
Leila Abdul-Rauf – Calls From A Seething Edge (Cyclic Law)
Anoice – Stories in White (Ricco)
Bevis Frond – Focus On Nature (Fire)
Zoe Boekbinder – Wildflower (Are and Be)
Charming Hostess – Feast (!aNGRr!)
Current 93 – Astral Crimes / Damn Imperium (Cashen’s Gap)
Curse All Kings – Feral Earth (Cyclic Law)
Avi C. Engel – Too Many Souls (Somnimage)
Chuck Johnson – Sun Glories (Western Vinyl)
Lia Kohl – Normal Sounds (Moon Glyph)
Lhasa – First Recordings (Audiogram)
Matmos – Return To Archive (Smithsonian Folkways)
Dren McDonald – Oceanic (Appearing)
Melt Banana – 3+5 (A-Zap)
Old Million Eye – Quartz Hive (Feeding Tube)
People Like Us – Copia (Cutting Hedge)
Pinkcourtesyphone – Arise in Sinking Feelings (Room40)
Max Richter – In A Landscape (Decca)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – of the Last Human Being (Avant Night)
somesurprises – Perseids (Doom Trip)
To End It All – Of Blood And Memory (Roman Numeral)
Väsen and Hawtktail – Väsen & Hawktail (Padiddle)
Vegan Butcher – Vegan Butcher, Baby (s/r)

Some favourite downloads in alphabetical order

Cosmeana – Swamp Lantern (s/r)
Amy Denio – Varianti (Spoot)
Domenica Diavoleria – Stephanie, Remember Me (s/r)
Dorothy Cutler – Where Are You? (s/r)
Ekin Fil – by-pass (s/r)
Hemlokk – Under The Harvest Moon (s/r)
Laibach – Strange Fruit (Mute)
Adrian Lane – Piano Day (s/r)
Lime Rickey International – Malayan Voices [Live] (s/r)
Kaitlin McSweeney – Mothership Sessions (s/r)
Michelle Moeller – Late Morning (AKP)
Jessica Moss – For UNREWA (s/r)
novemthree – Chasm (s/r)
Mariee Siou – Christmas Was Canceled In Bethlehem (s/r)
Tokyo Ambient Collective – The Gentle Island (Ricco)
Tom Waits – Get Behind Mule Spiritual (Anti-)

Some favourite small things in alphabetical order

Alula Down – Here I Am Where I Must Be lathe cut 10” (Snide Polifonico)
Avi C. Engel – Bestiary lathe cut 7” (Fenny Compton)
Motion Sickness Of Time Travel – The Mandala Effect 3”cd (Hooker Vision)
Marissa Nadler / Happy Rhodes – Where Do I Go 7” (Numero Group)
Nurse With Wound – Recenenates Revenantes / The Bloy Enigma 3”cd (Lenka Lente)
People Like Us – You Wish / Nature lathe cut 7” (Bladud Flies!)
oFFice chAIRs– Cross Passages 7” (Surplus Industries)
Real Tuesday Weld – Crow dbl3” cd (Antique Beat)
Semiotic Ghosts – No 5 lathe cut 10” (s/r)

Some favourite cassettes in alphabetical order

Andrew Anderson & Colin Sheffield – Clarioned Elegies (Grisaille)
Sholeh Asgary – Aban (Crystalline Morphologies)
Natalia Beylis – Lost For Annie (Outside Time)
MF Clarke – Arrays (Oxtail Recordings)
Cruel Diagonals – Calcite (Beacon Sound)
Domenica Diavoleria – Orange Clearing (Eiderdown)
Dust Bowl Faeries – Magic & Mayhem (Violet Hour Transmissions)
The Fast Set – Home Recordings, 1978-1980 (The Tapeworm)
Golem Mécanique – Sheol (Distant Voices)
Kitchen Cynics / Margery Daw / Grey Malkin – Weeping Stones (Cruel Nature)
Matchess – Stena (Drag City)
Skyminds – Echoes On The Shore (Inner Islands)
Twile – Hunger Moon (Cruel Nature)

Some favourite series in alphabetical order

irr. app. (ext.) – Convoluntary Drift Monthly Digital Single series (errata in excelsis)
Harvestman – Triptych parts one, two, three (Neurot)
Laura Cannell – Lore monthly cd eps (Brawl)

Some favourite live shows in chronological order

Väsen and Hawktail – Freight & Salvage, 15 February
Dax Pierson – Gray Area, 3 April
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Faun Fables, Surplus 1980, Kitka – UC Theatre, 6 April
Matti Bye Häxan live score – Palace of Fine Arts/SF Silent Film Fest, 12 April
Luxury Skin – Eli’s, 19 April
Vegan Butcher cd release listening party – Milk Bar, 4 May
Julia Kent – Smuin Ballet, YBCA, 5 May
To End It All, Eeriaermor, Strega Domono – Spire, 10 May
Melt Banana – GAMH, 22 June
Marissa Nadler, Scout Gillett – Cafe Du Nord, 27 June
somesurprises – Golden Bull, 20 July
Matchess – Lost Church, 22 July
Moe Staiano, Post Doom Romance, etc. – Outsound New Music Summit/Finnish Hall, 27- 29 July
Rakish – The Back Room, 31 July
FRKSE – Stork Club, 6 August
Chuck Johnson – Stork Club, 19 September
Free Salamander Exhibit, Už Jsme Doma – Bottom Of The Hill, 17 October
Sholeh Asgary and Leila Abdul-Rauf – Temescal Art Center, 26 October
Emma Ruth Rundle – GAMH, 3 December
Cruel Diagonals – C4NM, 5 December
Dire Wolves – Make-Out Room, 29 December

Control Issues

In no order at all

Valley Queen – Chord of Sympathy (self-released)
Sheer Mag – Playing Favorites (Third Man)
Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)
ML Buch – Suntub (15 Love)
Mould – Mould (self-released)
Juicebumps – JUMBO (Rocks in your Head)
Mermaid Chunky – Slif Slaf Slof (DAF)
Finom – Not God (Joyful Noise)
Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer (Ba Da Bing)
Mammatus – Expanding Majesty (Spiritual Pajamas)
Bug Club – On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System (Sub Pop)
British Birds – Sucking Funny (self-released)
Getdown Services – Your Medal’s in the Post (Breakfast Records)
Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice – Total Reality (Marthouse Records)
Broken Chanter – Chorus of Doubt (Chemikal Underground)
Slift – Ilion (Sub Pop)
Adam Hopper – Beauty in Sadness single (Bandcamp)

Cuppa Joe

Fave 2024 Records

Arooj Aftab – Night Reign (Verve)
Maggie Antone – Rhinestoned (Big Love/Thirty Tigers)
Circles Around The Sun and Mikaela Davis – After Sunrise (Jealous Butcher)
Mikaela Davis And Southern Star – Play Dead: The Relix Sessions (Relix Media Group)
Fontaines D.C. – Romance (XL)
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – Live At The Ryman Vol. 2 (Southeastern/Thirty Tigers)
The Jesus Lizard – Rack (Ipecac)
Kneecap – Fine Art (Heavenly)
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (Anti-)
Mdou Moctar – Funeral For Justice (Matador)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Wild God – (PIAS)
Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) – Passage Du Desir (High Top Mountain Records)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – of the Last Human Being (Avant Night)
The Softies – The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter Records)
The Staves – All Now (Communion)
Mary Timony – Untame The Tiger (Merge)

Fave 2024 Records – Local Edition

For Your Pleasure – I Wanna Call My Mom (S/R)
Grooblen – A Wormhole Is A Freeway To The Stars (S/R)
please don’t eat me – please don’t eat me (S/R)
Prog Frog – Frog Prog (S/R)
The Starling Six – Five By The Starling Six (S/R)
The Strange – The Strange EP (S/R)
Yorn’s Apostles – Festivities In Your Native Language (S/R)

Fave 2024 Singles

Rebekah Heller w/ Steve Reich – “Grand Street Counterpoint” (Cantaloupe Music)
Mekons – “You’re Not Singing Anymore” (Fire Records)
Mommy Mommy – “Love Song” (S/R)
Poncho And The Wizards – “Constantly Torn” (S/R)
The Strange – “Be Happy” (S/R)

Fave 2024 Compilation

Cardinals At The Window (not on label)
Mixtape For Palestine (not on label)
(both available on bandcamp.com)

Fave Reissue

Sonic Youth – Walls Have Ears (Goofin’ Records)

Best Cassettes I Bought

Grooblen – A Wormhole Is A Freeway To The Stars (S/R)
Gumby’s Junk – Apple House (S/R)
Plague Dad – Home And On The Road (Ashmont Beacon Records)
please don’t eat me – please don’t eat me (S/R)
Starship Casual – Orbit One (dBpm Records)

Best Old Records I Discovered

Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Mr Love Pants (Ronnie Harris Records)
Gumby’s Junk – Demo 2023 (S/R)
Heatmiser – The Music Of Heatmiser (Third Man Records)
Lou Reed – Words & Music May 1965 (Light In The Attic)
Skullcrusher – Quiet The Room (Secretly Canadian)
Snail Mail – Valentine Demos (Matador)

Best Old Records I Discovered

1/14 – PSDSP, Gumby’s Junk, Ellie Stokes (Grooblen) solo, @ Little Hill Lounge
1/25 – Carnacki @ Berkeley City Club
2/10 – 28th Day, Downsiders @ Sierra Nevada Brewing Co
2/27 – Poncho & The Wizards @ Kilowatt
3/2 – Snail Mail @ Great American Music Hall
3/3 – Mt Eerie, Skullcrusher @ Grace Cathedral
3/7-9 – California Honeydrops @ The Fillmore
4/2 – Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott @ Davies Symphony Hall
4/6 – Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Surplus 1980, Faun Fables, Kitka @ The UC Theater
4/15 – Milk For The Angry @ Kilowatt
4/19 – PSDSP @ Smiley’s Schooner Saloon
4/20 – Yorn’s Apostles @ Marin Made warehouse
4/22 – The Staves @ Great American Music Hall
5/24-26 – Bottlerock Fest: Gogol Bordello, Grace Bowers, Pearl Jam, Bully, Stevie Nicks
5/30 – Dead Bob @ Great American Music Hall
6/6 – The Sadies @ Great American Music Hall
6/28-30 – Solid Sound Festival: Wilco, Mikaela Davis And Southern Star, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Horsegirl, Etran de L’Aïr, Hailu Mergia, Iris DeMent
7/6 & 7 – Mosswood Meltdown: The B-52s, Gumby’s Junk, The Mummies, The Space Lady, Gibby Haynes, Bush Tetras
7/24 – Gumby’s Junk, Pateka @ The Warehouse
7/27 – Quasi @ The Chapel
7/30 – Mikaela Davis And Southern Star @ Café du Nord
8/18 – Bikini Kill @ The Warfield Theater
9/24 – Fontaines D.C. @ the Warfield Theater
10/5 – Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: Jon Langford and the Far Forlorn, Greensky Bluegrass
10/6 – Prog Frog @ a house party in Bolinas
10/19 – For Your Pleasure @ The Knockout
10/25 – Mdou Moctar @ The Regency Ballroom
11/4 – King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard @ The Frost Amphitheater
12/20 – Grooblen, Surplus 1980, Mommy Mommy, and Jas Stade @ Neck Of The Woods

da Flower Punk

20 Favorite Albums of 2024 (in alphabetical order)

Adrienne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)
AJ Lee & Blue Summit – City of Glass (Signature Sounds)
Billy Strings – Highway Prayers (Reprise)
Billy Strings – Live Vol. 1 (Repirse)
Browyn Keith-Hynes – I Built A World (Sugar Petunia)
Cassandra Lewis – Lost In A Dream (Low Country Sound)
Cris Jacobs – One Of These Days (Soundly)
Fruition – How To Make Mistakes (Downtown DLJ)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Woodland (Acony)
Jenny Scheinman – All Species Parade (Royal Potato Family)
John Craigie – Pagan Church (Zabriske Point)
Johnny Blue Skies – Passage Du Desir (High Top Mountain)
Khruangbin – A La Sala (Dead Oceans)
Laurie Lewis – Trees (Spuce and Maple)
Mary Halvorson – Cloudward (Nonesuch)
Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (Matador)
Sierra Ferrell – Trail of Flowers (Rounder)
Teja Gerken – Test of Time (tejagerken.com)
The High Hawks – Mother Nature’s Show (loHi)
Waxahatchee – Tiger’s Blood (Anti-)

Compilations – EPs – Box Sets – Archival Releases – Reissues

Africa Negra – Antologia Vol. 2 (Bongo Joe)
Bear’s Sonic Journals: Sing Out! – Berkeley Community Theater 4/25/1981 (Owsley Stanley Foundation)
Grateful Dead – Friends of the Devils: April 1978 (Rhino)
Jerry Garcia & David Grisman – Bare Bones (Acoustic Disc)
Joni Mitchell – Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) (Rhino)
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway – Into The Wild (Nonesuch)
Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77 Deluxe Edition (Rhino)
Various Artists – Can’t Steal My Fire: A Tribute To David Olney (New West)
Various Artists – The Mouse That Rocked: A Tribute To Stanley Mouse (Blue Rose)
Various Artists – Tonight I’ll Go Down Swinging: A Trbute To Don Heffington (Nile Mile)

dahlia

Favorite Songs Released in 2024 In Alphabetical Order By Artist

Addison Rae – “Diet Pepsi” (Columbia)
Adrianne Lenker – “Vampire Empire” (4AD)
The American Dawn – “Her” (DAWN)
april27 – “into a g**” (Music Soup)
Beak> – “Denim” (Invada)
Billie Eilish – “THE DINER” (Interscope)
Boeckner – “Lose” (Sub Pop)
Brijean – “Bang Bang Boom” (Ghostly International)
cacophony – “Don’t Tell My Papa” (POCLANOS)
Camera Obscura – “Only a Dream – Demo” (Merge)
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!” (Island)
Charli xcx – “Von Dutch” (Atlantic)
Charli xcx, Troye Sivan – “Talk talk featuring troye sivan” (Atlantic)
Chloe Slater – “Nothing Shines On This Island” (AWAL)
Cigarettes After Sex – “Baby Blue Movie” (Partisan)
Clairo – “Echo” (self-released)
Cults – “Left My Keys” (IMPERIAL)
The Cure – “Alone” (Polydor/Universal)
dethcaps – “Little Secret” (self-released)
Doechii – “CATFISH” (Top Dawg Entertainment/UMG)
Ethel Cain – “Punish” (Daughters of Cain)
fantasy of a broken heart – “AFV” (Dots Per Inch)
Flower Face – “Cat’s Cradle” (self-released)
Gojira, Marina Viotti, Victor Le Masne – “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” (International Olympic Committee)
Halsey – “Arsonist” (Columbia)
Haunt Me – “Ven Aquí” (self-released)
Healers – “Get Away” (self-released)
Hinds, Beck – “Boom Boom Back” (Lucky Number)
Hozier – “Too Sweet” (Columbia)
Kendrick Lamar – “euphoria” (Interscope)
The Last Dinner Party – “Caesar on a TV Screen” (Universal)
Lusus – “Exquisite Corpse” (self-released)
Megan Thee Stallion – “HISS” (Hot Girl Productions)
Molchat Doma – “Ты же не знаешь кто я / Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh Kto Ya” (Sacred Bones)
NewDad – “Sickly Sweet” (A Fair Youth)
Olivia Rodrigo – “obsessed” (Geffen)
Shovels & Rope – “Colorado River” (MNRK)
Sister Wife Sex Strike – “Kill the Locals” (Clamshake)
St. Vincent – “Broken Man” (Total Pleasure”)
Sunken Planes – “Constellation Light” (Poor L’amour)
Susannah Joffe – “Omophagia” (Open Management)
SZA – “Saturn” (Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA)
Taylor Swift – “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” (Republic)
Total Blue – “The Path” (Music From Memory)
Wisp – “Luna” (Interscope)

DangerVenture

10 Most Listened to Debut LPs

Been Stellar – Scream From New York, NY (Dirty Hit)
Combat – Stay Golden (Counter Intuitive)
English Teacher – This Could Be Texas (Universal)
FREQz – Grizzly Pear
Friko – Where we’ve been, Where we go from here (ATO)
Font – Strange Burden (Acrophase)
The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy (Universal)
Lime Garden – One More Thing (So Young)
Sprints – Letter To Self (City Slang)
This Is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box For Star (Double Double Whammy)

10 Most Listened to Local Releases

Cardboard People – Tigress Lane (War Chant)
Fake Fruit – Mucho Mistrust (Carpark)
French Cassettes – Benzene (Tender Loving Empire)
FREQz – Grizzly Peak
La Doña – Los Altos de la Soledad
Ritmos Tropicosmos – La Vida Es Pa Vivir
Shannon & the Clams – The Moon Is In The Wrong Place (Easy Eye Sound)
Silverware – One True Light
Sour Widows – Revival of a Friend (Exploding In Sound)
Yea-Ming & the Rumours – I Can’t Have It All (Dandy Boy)

Top 10 Local Shows

Dandy Boy Records Showcase – 924 Gilman, 1/5
Typhoon – Great American Music Hall, 3/15
Cardboard People – Tamarack, 6/13
The Greeting Committee – The Independent, 8/4
Pulp – Bill Graham Civic, 9/16
Mitski – The Greek, 9/23
Pillow Queens – Rickshaw Stop, 9/29
Foxing – The Independent, 10/7
Chinese Football – Cornerstone, 10/19
Lime Garden – Bottom of the Hill, 10/29
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – The Fillmore, 11/15

desolation girl & ness

Favorite 2024 Releases

ZAZEN BOYS – らんど/Rando (Matsuri Studio)
Say Anything – …Is Committed (Dine Alone)
Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal (Capitol)
Foxing – Foxing (Grand Paradise)
Drought – Drought EP (Iodine)
Everyone Asked About You – Never Leave EP (Numero Group)
Your Arms Are My Cocoon – death of a rabbit (self-released)
The Civil War In France – There You Are! (self-released)
ATLUS Sound Team – Persona 3 Reload + Episode Aigis Original Soundtrack (ATLUS GAME MUSIC)

Favorite Songs Released in 2024

Slutty Henry – Death of Elvis (self-released)
Girl Ultra – bruce willisss (Big Dada)
Foxing – Hell 99 (Grand Paradise)
Say Anything – I, VIBRATOR (Dine Alone)
Nappy Nina, Swarvy – Sprouts (Lucid Haus, Stimulated)
MJ Lenderman – She’s Leaving You (Anti)
Present – Easy (self-released)
Hello Mary – 0% (Frenchkiss)
elizabeth whitington – dead horse shape (self-released)
Frances Quinlan – Another Season (A24)
Eyedress feat. Bb trickz, Elvia – Skater Dater (RCA)
Meat Cube – Monster (self-released)
Mannequin Pussy – Sometimes (Epitaph)
Everyone Asked About You – We’re All Losing It (Numero Group)
ZAZEN BOYS – チャイコフスキーでよろしく/Tchaikovsky, Yoroshiku (Matsuri Studio)

Most Listened To In 2024

ribbon fix – some Saturday this has been (Grafton)
Paramore – All We Know is Falling (Fueled By Ramen)
Alex G – God Save the Animals (Domino)
Urusei Yatsura – Slain By Urusei Yatsura (Sire)
The Sidekicks – Runners In The Nerved World (Epitaph)
The Worst Is Yet To Come – women’s routine (Polar Summer)
Current Joys – LOVE + POP (Secretly Canadian)
SUPER JUNKY MONKEY – Super Junky Alien (Sony)
Giveaway – Giveaway EP (self-released)
Reggie And The Full Effect – Promotional Copy (Vagrant)
Strictly Ballroom – Collected Recordings 1994-1999 (Tenderness)
Laura Jane Grace – Baby, Baby (Red Scare Industries)
Ditch Effort – Anry Guiltar (self-released)
Oasis – Definitely Maybe (Creation)
ano, lilas ikuta – 絶絶絶絶対聖域/ZeZeZeZettai Seiiki (TOY’S FACTORY)
stella – stella EP (Grafton)
Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Amusement)
ATLUS Sound Team – Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Original Soundtrack (ATLUS GAME MUSIC)

DJ Aahh’s Shortwave Z to A 2024

Prefuse 73 – New Strategies for Modern Crime Vol. 1 & 2 (Lex)
Logic1000 – Mother (Because Music)
Justice – Hyperdrama (Ed Banger)
Fcukers – Baggy$$ EP (Technicolour)
Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune)
Eli & Fur – Dreamscapes (PIAS)
DJ Raff – Encontrar (Nacional)
Crystal Murray – Sad Lovers & Giants (Because Music)
Catpack – Midnight (Tru Thoughts)
Brijean – Macro (Ghostly International)

DJ Twinkle

10 (+23) favorite releases from 2024 (in no particular order)

Ana Tijoux – Vida (Victoria)
Nabihah Iqbal – DREAMER (Remixes) (Ninja Tune)
Love Child – Never Meant to Be: 1988-1993 (12XU)
Leyla McCalla – Sun Without the Heat (Anti-)
My Black Country – The Songs of Alice Randall (Oh Boy)
Brittany Howard – What Now (Island)
Zoe Bookbinder – Wildflower (Are & Be)
Alice Russell – I Am (TRU Thoughts)
Meklit – Ethio Blue (self-released)
Emel – MRA (Little Human)
La Luz – News of the Universe (Sub Pop)
Sahra Halgan – Hiddo dhawr (Danaya)
Mei Simones – Kabutomushi (Bayonet)
Howie Lee – At the Drolma Wesel-Ling Monastery (Mais Um)
Peggy Gou – I Hear You (XL Recordings)
Finom – Not God (Joyful Noise)
The Staves – All Now (Communion)
Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)
Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching (Partisan)
Artificial Go – Hopscotch Fever (Feel It)
Brijean – Macro (Ghostly International)
Sis – Vibhuti (Native Cat)
Jake Blount, Mali Obomsawin – symbiont (Smithsonian Folkways)
Bizhiki – Unbound (Jagjaguwar)
Stix Bones – Olimpik Soul (self-released)
Mermaid Chunky – slip slaf slof (DFA)
Ruby Ibarra – Bakunawa ( DISTROKID)
Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope (Loma Vista)
Charming Hostess – Feast (!aNGRr!)
Badiâa Bouhrizi – KahruMusiqa (Akuphone)
Laiz and The New Love Experience – Ela Partiu (Agogo)
Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (Epitaph)
Kaia Kater – Floodlights (Free Dirt)

Ears of Maize

Album of the Year, the one to rule them all…

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Realistik)

Favorite Albums, the best of the rest…. (in no particular order)

Raymond Richards – Sand Paintings (ESP Institute)
Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)
Will Veeder – The Lost And Found (Carbon Records)
Orgone – Chimera (Palm Records)
Ghost Funk Orchestra – A Trip to the Moon (Karma Chief)
Mary Timony – Untame the Tiger (Merge)
David Nance & Mowed Sound – David Nance & Mowed Sound (Third Man)
Karate Boogaloo – Hold Your Horses (Colemine)
Shannon & The Clams – The Moon Is In the Wrong Place (Easy Eye Sound)
Howie Lee – At The Drolma Wesel-Ling Monastery (Mais Um)
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Sonido Cósmico (S/R)
Somesurprises – Perseids (Doom Trip)
Ki!– Yong-Gwanglo Part One/Two (Crunchy Frog)
Anna Moss – Amnesty (Moss Tones)
Shay Hazan – Wusul (Batov)
Parlor Greens – In Green We Dream (Colemine)
Angelo Outlaw -Axis of Time (Eraserhood Sound)
Atarashii Gakko! – AG! Calling (88rising)
LA LOM – The Los Angeles League Of Musicians (Verve)
Gong Gong Gong III – Mongkok Duel (Rose Mansion Analog)
Yin Yin – Mount Matsu (Glitterbeat)
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us (Columbia)
Amen Dunes – Death Jokes (Sub Pop)
SML – Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
Amyl and The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness (S/R)
Bizhiki – Unbound (Jagjaguwar)
Father John Misty – Mahashmashana (Joshua Tillman)
Thee Sacred Souls – Got a Story to Tell (Daptone)
Onra – Nosthaigia (All City)
John Craigie – Pagan Church (S/R)
Various Artists – Synthesizing The Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia (Ostinato Records)
Kenny Segal – Genuine Dexterity (Backwoodz Studioz)

Singles

Loving – No Mast (Last Gang)
Dana and Alden – Coyote, You’re My Star (S/R)
DJ Raff – Solsticio (Nacional)
Goat – Goatbrain (Rocket Recordings)
Larry Wish – Being There (Bumpy)
Mei Semones – Inaka (Bayonet)
Sote – River of Pain (SVBKVLT)
Church Cords – Sweet Magnet (Otherly Love)
Buzzi Ayazi – Buzz’ Ayaz (Glitterbeat)
Michael Kiwanuka – The Rest of Me (Universal)
LATRALA – Uptown (Otherly Love)
Jaime XX – Treat Each Other Right (Young)
Violence Gratuite – Iséo (Hakuna Kulala
Prefuse 73 – Vast Wildlife Poison (Lex)
Brijean – Roller Coaster (Ghostly International)
Charley Crockett – Solitary Road (Son of Davy)

EP’s

Circles Around the Sun – After Sunrise (Kill Rock Stars)

Local Feature

King Dream – Glory Daze Vol: V (S/R)
TRB – Long Time Later (Mover) *(KALX LIVE! guests 10/26/2024)
Desiree Cannon – Radio Heat (Gar Hole)
Muunjuun – Should’ve Been a Frog, Maybe (S/R)
Sallstrom Brothers – The Orchard Sessions EP (S/R) *(KALX LIVE! guests 1/4/2025)

Throwback album of the year

Nena – Nena (1983, BMG)

((echoplex))

2024 Face Melters

Ana Lua Caiano – Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado (Glitterbeat)
Artificial Go – Hopscotch Fever (Feel It)
Beak> – >>>> (Invada)
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (Domino)
Borusiade – THE FALL: A Series of Documented Experiences (Dark Entries)
Broadcast – Spell Blanket – Collected Demos 2006-2009 (Warp)
The Bug – Machine (Relapse)
Champagne Dub – Rainbow (On The Corner)
Chris Cohen – Paint A Room (Hardly Art)
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Cindy Lee)
Coral Morphologic & Nick León – Projections of a Coral City (Balmat)
Dame Area – Toda La Verdad Sobre (Mannequin)
De Beren Gieren – What Eludes Us (Sdban)
DJ Anderson do Paraíso – Queridão (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Don Melody Club – Zonder Pardon (Bongo Joe)
Gesloten Cirkel – I Live In The Midwest (Selvamancer)
Ghost Dubs – Damaged (Pressure)
Helado Negro – Phasor (4AD)
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)
Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador)
L.F.T. – Minecrawler (Osàre! Editions)
Laura Cannell – The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined (Brawl)
Legowelt – Like A Song From Your Dream (L.I.E.S.)
Loving – Any Light (Last Gang)
Memorials – Memorial Waterslides (Fire)
Milan W. – Leave Another Day (Stroom)
naemi – Dust Devil (3XL)
Nídia & Valentina – Estradas (Latency)
Peace De Résistance – Lullaby for the Debris (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Peel Dream Magazine – Rose Main Reading Room (Topshelf)
Rejoicer – This Is Reasonable (Circus Company)
Seefeel – Everything Squared (Warp)
SUUNS – The Breaks (Joyful Noise)
Violence Gratuite – Baleine à Boss (Hakuna Kulala)
Zeroh – Sumlyte (Leaving)

Reissues & Compilations

Ahmed Malek – Musique Originale De Films, Volume 2 (Habibi Funk)
Alain Goraguer – Rare Soundtracks & Lost Tapes (1973-1984) (Transversales)
Dorothy Carter – Waillee Waillee (Palto Flats)
various artists – Soft Summer Breezes (Numero Group)
various artists – They Move In The Night (Numero Group)

E. Lit

Favorite Albums of 2024. Alphabetized. Three asterisk *** denote albums that are the best of the best

andrew – Swan Dive (Swimming Costume)
andrew & Height Keech – Can I Write a Requiem for You When You’re Dead? (Swimming Costume)
Awol One & Kool Keith – Aponia (Speakerface)
B. Dolan – The Wound Is Not the Body (House of Bees)
Blu – Los Angeles (Bigger Picture)
Blu & Exile – Love (the) Ominous World (Dirty Science)
Boldy James & Nicholas Craven – Penalty of Leadership (Near Mint)
Brycon – The Shape of Things That Went (Star Bakery)
Candy’s .22 – Neon Room at the Davenport (Alpha Pup)
Cavalier – Different Type Time (Backwoodz Studioz)***
Cavalier & Child Actor – Cine (Backwoodz Studioz)
Ceschi – Bring Us the Head of Francisco False Part 1 (Fake Four Inc)
Clever 1 & Lord Beatjitzu – Master Sip (Grilchy Party)
Dillon & Batsauce – What Have We Done (Full Plate)
DJ Muggs & Raz Fresco – The Eternal Now (Soul Assassins)
Estee Nack & Futurewave – Stone Temple Pyrex (Wavgodmusic)***
Fat Tony, Fatboi Sharif & Steel Tipped Dove – Brain Candy (Fused Arrow)
The Fortunate Ones – RESIN (Something Wonderful)
Gangrene – Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (ALC)
Gel Roc, Paris Zax & D-Styles – Loss Control: Buttons, Fades & Memoirs (Abolano)***
Gretzky da Sumo – The Killah Tape (Holy Thursday)
Jesse the Tree – Not Fade Away (Chong Wizard)
KA – The Thief Next to Jesus (Iron Works)
Kay the Aquanaut & Factor Chandelier – New Physics (Side Road)
Kit Sebastian – New Internationale (Brainfeeder)
k-the-i??? & Kenny Segal – Genuine Dexterity (Backwoodz Studioz)
Louis Cole – nothing (Brainfeeder)***
MidaZ the Beast & TzarIZM – The Vivid Laser Eye Guy (Midnight Society)***
Midnight Sons – Money Has No Owners (Chong Wizard)
Milc & Televangel – Extra Phish (Old Soul)
Nacho Picasso & Televangel – Jesse’s Revenge (Old Soul)***
NAHreally & the Expert – BLIP (Rucksack)
Nolan the Ninja – I’d Rather Not (Sport Cast)
OKnice – Talking to My Dogs (Swimming Costume)
Pastense – Sidewalk Chalk, Parade Day Rain (Uncommon)
Paten Locke – Dance On My Grave (Full Plate)
Phiik & Lungs – Carrot Season (POW)
PremRock & Willie Green – Through Lines (Backwoodz Studioz)
R.A.P Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura – The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap (Ruby Yacht)
Real Bad Man & Lukah – Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. (Old Soul)
Rich Jones & SINAI. – Sour Dub (Three Dollar Pistol)
Sadistik – At Night the Silence Eats Me (Old Soul)
Sadistik & Maulskull – Oblivion Theater (Old Soul)***
Serengeti – Kenny Dennis IV (OTHAR)
Shape – Midnight Geometry (We are the Karma Kids)
ShrapKnel – Nobody Planning to Leave (Backwoodz Studioz)***
Sleepingdogs – Will We Ever Dance Again? (Three Dollar Pistol)***
Stress Eater – Everybody Eats! (Silver Age)
Substance810 & Observe Since ’98 – The Lion’s Share 3: Pride of the Lion (Loretta)
Teller Bank$ & Ed Glorious – The Pride & Glory (self-released)
Vic Spencer – Being the Bigger Person Sucks (Old Fart Luggage)
Wave Generators – After the End (Fused Arrow)***
Wavy Bagels & DRIVEBY – A Carfull (Break All)
Yungmorpheus & Alexander Spit – Waking Up and Choosing Violence (B.A.S.E.M.E.N.T.)

Film Close-ups

Top Films of 2024 (Alphabetical)

A Different Man
A Quiet Place: Day One
All of Us Strangers
All We Imagine As Light
Anora
At the Door of the House, Who Will Come Knocking
Black Box Diaries
Blitz
Challengers
Civil War
Cuckoo
Daughters
Didi
Dune: Part 2
Early Riser
Flow
Heretic
I Saw the TV Glow
Juror #2
Kinds of Kindness
La Chimera
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
ME
Memoir of a Snail
Nosferatu
Oddity
Perfect Days
Planetwalker
Queer
Sing Sing
Sugarcane
The Damned
The Substance
The Taste of Things
The Wild Robot
Thelma

g. extrasauce

KALX taught me how to DJ in 2024 so the year became more about songs than albums as I dusted off my 80s mix tape chops to put together sets

24 Fave Songs from 2024 – Zoe takes the top spot then alphabetical from there

Zoe Boekbinder – “Mycelium” – Wildflower (Are and Be)
Naomi Ashley – “Keep My Secrets” – Love Bug (self-released)
Bibi Club – “Parc de Beauvoir” – Feu de garde (Secret City)
Naima Bock – “Kaley” – Below a Massive Dark Land (Sub Pop)
Stella Burns – “My Heart is a Jungle (feat. Mick Harvey)” – Long Walks in the Dark (Brutture Moderne)
Liana Flores – “Orange-coloured day” – Flower of the soul (full bloom) (Verve)
Phillip Glass – “Mad Rush” – Phillip Glass Solo (Orange Mountain Music)
The Harlem Gospel Travelers – “We Don’t Love Enough” – Rhapsody (Colemine)
Cassandra Jenkins – Delphinium Blue – My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)
Kit Sebastian – Camouflage – New Internationale (Brainfeeder)
MJ Lenderman – “Joker’s Lips” – Manning Fireworks (Antis)
Adrianne Lenker – “Real House” – Bright Future (4AD)
Charles Lloyd – “Booker’s Garden” – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note)
Marcel Wave – “Bent Out of Shape” – Something Looming (Feel It)
Denman Maroney Quartet – “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare” – The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (self-released)
Leyla McCalla – “Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls)” – My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (Various Artists) (Oh Boy)
Neutrals – “Wish You Were Here” – New Town Dream (Slumberland)
Molly Nilsson – “Jackboots Return” – Un-American Activities (Dark Skies Association)
Max Richter – “And Some Will Fall” – In a Landscape (Decca)
Silver Skylarks – “Number One Set and Sound (feat. Large Professor)” – Number One Set and Sound (Eastwood Music Group)
Kitty Solaris – “Follow The Beatnicks” – James Bond (Solaris Empire)
Thee Sacred Souls – “My Heart is Drowning” – Got a Story to Tell (Daptone)
Villagers – “Truly Alone” – That Golden Time (Domino)
Kamasi Washington – “Prologue” – Fearless Movement (Shoto Mas)

Hate Feeler

Favorite Releases of 2024

Consumer Electronics – surge (Dirter Promotions)
Sutcliffe No More – Cute (Zoharum)
Dame Area – Toda La Verdad Sobre Dame Area (Humo Internacional)
Jlin – Akoma (Planet Mu)
Shizukana – Domestification of Domestic Violence (self-released)
Meat Beat Manifesto & Merzbow – Extinct (Cold Spring)
Pharmakon – Maggot Mass (Sacred Bones)
Melt-Banana – 3+5 (A-Zap)
Kleistwahr – Where The Word Is Never (Fourth Dimension)
Prurient – Destroyed Electricity (Hospital Productions)
Burial – “Dreamfear” (XL)
clipping. – “Run It” (Sub Pop)

Favorite Tracks Discovered in 2024 That Sample Blue Velvet (RIP David Lynch)

Spit – “Blue Velvet” – You Would If You Loved Me (Nailed To Sound)
Powderburns – “Powderburns” – What Kind of Heaven Do You Want? (A Slumberland Compilation) (Slumberland)
Manufactura – “Sacred Sin” – Regression (Auricle Media)
Cabaret Voltaire – “Here to Go (Live Drum Jacknife Remix by Adrian Sherwood)” – Here to Go (Parlophone)

Imaginary Radio

Top 20 New Releases

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)
Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham – Cunningham Bird (Loma Vista)
BADBADNOTGOOD – Mid Spiral (XL)
Bonny Light Horseman – Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar)
Camera Obscura – Look to the East, Look to the West (Merge)
Charley Crockett – $10 Cowboy (Son of Davy)
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Realistik Studios)
Faye Webster – Underdressed At The Symphony (Secretly Canadian)
Geordie Greep – The New Sound (Rough Trade)
Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive (Nonesuch)
Iron & Wine – Light Verse (Sub Pop)
Jessica Pratt – Here In The Pitch (Mexican Summer)
Khruangbin – A La Sala (Dead Oceans)
Los Bitchos – Talkie Talkie (City Slang)
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (Anti-/Epitaph)
Parlor Greens – In Green We Dream (Colemine)
The Hard Quartet – The Hard Quartet (Matador)
The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend (Slumberland)
Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (Anti-)
Yasmin Williams – Acadia (Nonesuch)

Top 20 Live Acts

Loretta Lynch – Ivy Room, 7 January
AJ Lee & Blue Summit – Independent, 2 February
Hawktail & Vasen – Freight & Salvage, 2 February
Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola – Ivy Room, 28 March
Particle Kid – Ivy Room, 30 March
George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners – French Quarter Fest, 12 April
Luke Allen – French Quarter Fest, 13 April
Lost Bayou Ramblers – French Quarter Fest, 13 April
New Orleans Klezmer Allstars – French Quarter Fest, 14 April
Waxahatchee – Fox, 18 May
Iron & Wine – Fox, 25 June
Clive Carroll – Back Room, 17 July
Khruangbin – Greek, 16 August
Jessica Pratt – Hardly Strictly, 4 October
Cat Power – Hardly Strictly, 4 October
Cunningham Bird – Hardly Strictly, 5 October
Big Star Quintet’s “Radio City” 50th – Hardly Strictly, 6 October
Bonnie Light Horseman – UC, 9 October
Clem Snide – Ivy Room, 22 October
Helen Gillet & Scott Amendola – Ivy Room, 20 November

Lance d’Amour

All lists ordered alphabetically

7″

Added Dimensions – Time Suck / Hellbent (Domestic Departure)
Fake Last Name – Three Persuasion Domains (Yes We Cannibal)
The Gabys – The Gabys II (Fruit & Flowers)
Grazia – In Poor Taste (Feel It)
Pardoner – Paranoid in Hell (Convulse)
Ryli – I Think I Need You Around (Dandy Boy)
Zenxith – The Girl Who Waved At Trains (Salt Mine)

12″

Artificial Go – Hopscotch Fever (Feel It)
Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Realistik)
Clickbait – At Your Leisure (Clickbait)
Cuneiform Tabs – Cuneiform Tabs (Sloth Mate)
Itchy and the Nits – The Worst Of … (Total Punk)
Mordecai – Seeds From The Furthest Vine (Petty Bunco)
Soup Activists – Mummy What Are Flowers For? (Inscrutable)

Cassettes

Angry – 4 Songs (Deluxe Bias)
Anonymous Carpetting – Anonymous Carpetting (Pee Blood)
Guiding Light – Guiding Light (Stucco)
The Living Rainbow – The Dusty Clock (INFOrmatiON)
Nights Templar – Half the Year (Paisley Shirt)

Last Will

Favorites of 2024

Tracks:

Melt Banana – “Scar” (A-Zap)
People Like Us – “Camera Obscura” (Cutting Hedge)
Matthew Shipp – “The Function” (ESP Disk)
Thinking Fellers Union – “Outhouse Of The Pyreeee” (Bulbous Monocle)
Kim Gordon – “Bye Bye” (Matador)
Merzbow – “Cannibalism Of Machine-Minotauros” (slowdown)
Merzbow – “Vice Versa” (slowdown)
Cheryl Leonard – “Autumn Orisons” (Small Press Traffic)
Thomas Carnacki – “Not Normal” (Alethiometer)
Masonna – “Testicles Candy” (re-issue originally released in 1992) (Cold Spring)

Albums:

Melt Banana – 3 + 5 (A-Zap)
People Like Us – Copia (Cutting Hedge)
Matthew Shipp – New Concepts In Jazz (ESP-Disk)
Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador)
various artists – Noise Forest (re-issue originally released in 1992) (Cold Spring)
Merzbow – Variations For Live Performance 2023 (slowdown)
Cheryl Leonard – Littoral (Rural Situationism)
Thomas Carnacki – Cadavre Isole (Alethiometer)
Thomas Carnacki & divers hands – Recontre Fortuite (Alethiometer)
DJ Female Convict Scorpion – Paradise Re-lost (self-released)

Live performances:

Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase – live at Center For New Music September 21 2024
Rubber (() Cement – KALX live June 1 2024
Kanoko Nishi-Smith and Ben Davis – house concert in Berkeley August 18 2024
Mahsa Vahdat and Atabak Elyasi – house concert in Berkeley December 15 2024
Black Uhuru – live at Sweetwater Inn September 6 2024

Majority Whip

Favorite Albums of 2024

Abadir & Nahash – Marchadair (SVBKVLT)
Bed Maker – Bed Maker (Dischord)
Body Habitat – Cala Lilly (Lies)
Brijean – Macro (Ghostly International)
Ana Lua Caiano – Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado (Glitterbeat)
Champagne Dub – Rainbow (On the Corner)
Dame Area – Toda la mentira sobre Dame Area (Màgia Roja)
Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (4AD)
Nadah El Shazly – The Damned Don’t Cry (Asadun Alay Records)
Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly – MESTIZX (International Anthem)
Amaro Freitas – Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
Anton Friisgaard – Teratai Åkande (Stroom. Tv)
Gafacci & Sam Interface – Public Information (More Time)
Dana Gavanski – LATE SLAP (Full Time Hobby)
Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador)
G13ck – Le Perdí El Miedo a Los Aviones (Secuencias Temporales)
Gustaf – Package Pt. 2 (Royal Mountain)
Charlotte Jacobs – Atlas (New Amsterdam)
Khôra – Gestures of Perception (Marionette)
Kokoko! – Butu (Transgressive)
Kendrick Lamar – Gnx (Pglang)
Howie Lee – At the Drolma Wesel-Ling Monastery (Mais um)
Hanno Leichtmann – Outerlands (Discrepant)
Marcel Wave – Something Looming (Upset the Rhythm)
Mavi – Shadowbox (Mavi 4 Mayor)
Memorials – Memorial Waterslides (Fire)
Meridian Brothers – Mi Latinoamérica Sufre (Ansonia Records)
MIZU – Forest Scenes (NNA Tapes)
Luko M – Night Walking (Specious Arts)
Muqata’a – La Lisana Lah (Souk)
My Brightest Diamond – Fight the Real Terror (Western Vinyl)
Oki – Live at Café Oto (Mais Um)
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique (Bongo Joe)
Peel Dream Magazine – Rose Main Reading Room (Topshelf)
Polido – Hearing Smoke (Holuzam)
PS5 – Echologia (Hyperjazz)
QOA – SAUCO (Leaving)
Raymond Richards – Sand Paintings (ESP Institute)
Peni Candra Rini – Wani (New Amsterdam)
Natascha Rogers – Onaida (Nø Førmat!)
Kamala Sankaram – Crescent (Neuma)
Otis Sandsjö – Y OTIS TRE (We Jazz)
Elena Setien – Moonlit Reveries (Thrill Jockey)
Bagus Shidqi – Njondhil Njondhal (1000HZ)
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (warp)
Sm^sher – Pit of Mine (Scrawl)
SML – Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
Alex Sopp – The Hem & The Haw (New Amsterdam)
Mark Templeton – Inner Light (Enmossed)
Violence Gratuite – Baleine à Boss (Hakuna Kalala)

Mary Luce

Sounds that stuck. The “Worth revisiting” List of 2024

Geese – 3D Country
The Raincoats – The Raincoats
Avi C. Engel – Hatching Under the Stars
The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa – Susurrate
The American Analog Set – Know By Heart
Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal
Ulver – Perdition City
Mostly Other People Do the Killing – Blue
various artists – I Saw the TV Glow (Original Soundtrack)
Four Tet – Rounds
Linda Martell – Color Me Country
Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity
Cindy Lee – Three Love Songs
Tapir! – The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
Courting – New Last Name
Taylor Skye – Kode Fine & Sons
Cassandra Jenkins – An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
Winter – What Kind of Blue Are you?

Microtone

Albums & EPs from 2024 to Soothe a Grievous Year (chronological by release date except one)

Skyminds – Echoes on the Shore (Inner Islands)
Akini Jing – Villain (88Rising)
Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Carlos Nino – Subtle Movements (Leaving)
Nailah Hunter, Lovegaze (Fat Possum)
Sons of Zöku – Ëndlëss (Copper Feast)
Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu, & Marta Sofia Honer – The Closest Thing to Silence (International Anthem)
Ghost Lemurs – Wombs and Alien Spirits (Haunter)
Canberk Ulaş – Echoes of Becoming (Jazzland)
Eric Hilton – Sound Vagabond (Montserrat House)
Lair – Ngelar (Guruguru Brain)
Laryssa Kim – Contezza (City Tracks)
Adhemar – Birth of Mist (Huinali)
Bolis Pupul – Letter to Yu (Deewee/Because)
HJirok – Hjirok (Altin Village & Mine)
Golden Brown – Kindness (Aural Canyon)
Li Yilei – NONAGE 垂髫 (Métron)
Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be Here Tomorrow (Blue Note)
Ka Baird – Bearings: Soundtrack for the Bardos (Rvng Intl.)
MIZU – Forest Scenes (NNA Tapes)
Wye Oak – Shriek Variations (Merge)
Arushi Jain – Delight (Leaving)
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
VVD WNDWS – … an interior song (Glowing Dagger)
Khôra – Gestures of Perception (Marionette)
Ki! – Yong-Gwanglo Part One/Two (Crunchy Frog)
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin – Ghosted II (Drag City)
Zoe Boekbinder – Wildflower (Are & Be)
Raymond Richards – Sand Paintings (ESP Institute)
Huang Yuching 黃雨晴 – The Crystal Hum (Night School)
Kyab Yul-Sa – Murmures d’Himalaya (Nangma)
Shakali – Rihmastossa (Not Not Fun)
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (Domino)
Cola Ren – Forest Drone (QEONE)
Arooj Aftab – Night Reign (Verve)
Ezra Feinberg – Soft Power (Tonal Union)
Đ.K. – Spiral Shape (Worship)
Lara Sarkissian – Born of the Sea (Lower Grand Tapes)
Loma – How Will I Live Without a Body? (Sub Pop)
SML – Small Medium Large (International Anthem)
Saphileaum – Mirage (Intervision)
Ritmos Tropicosmos – La Vida Es Pa’ Vivir (Econo Jam)
Brijean – Macro (Ghostly)
Yetsuby – b_b (All My Thoughts)
Chuck Johnson – Sun Glories (Western Vinyl)
Jon Hopkins – Ritual (Domino)
Meridian Brothers – Mi Latinoamérica Sufre (Ansonia)
Orquesta Akokán – Caracoles (Daptone)
Sarah Davachi – The Head As Form’d in the Crier’s Choir (Late Music)
Hair and Space Museum – Human Presence (Beacon Sound)
Channelers – Ringing in An Open Sky (Inner Islands)
John Davis – Landlines (Students of Decay)
Umi Hsu – Departures / Arrivals 出境 / 入境 (Ting Shuo Hear Say 聽說)
Orchestra Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique (Les Disques Bongo Joe)
Guzz – Botanical Garden of the Soul 灵魂植物园 (self-released)

Mike

some faves of 2024

Sumac – The Healer (Thrill Jockey)
Necrot – Lifeless Birth (Tankcrimes)
Coffins – Sinister Oath (Relapse)
Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day – Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day (Leaving)
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)
Still House Plants – If I don’t make it, I love u (Bison)
Nappy Nina & Swarvy – Nothing is My Favorite Thing (Stimulated)
Nathan Bowles Trio – Are Possible (Drag City)
Lee Baggett – Waves for a Beagull (S/R)
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
William Parker, Cooper-Moore & Hamid Drake – Heart Trio (AUM Fidelity)
The Spatulas – Beehive Mind (Post Present Medium)
Witchpit – Forever Spoken (Heavy Psych)
Bat – Under the Crooked Claw (Nuclear Blast)
Tzompantli – Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force (Buck Spin)
Alabaster DePlume – Cremisan: Prologue to a Blade (International Anthem)
SW Hedrick– Devotional Drift, Vol. 1 (Red Left Hand)
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin – Activator (12XU)
Jeff Parker & the ETA IVtet – The Way Out of Easy (International Anthem)
Danny Paul Grody & Rich Douthit – Arc of Night (Three Lobed)
Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few – The World is on Fire (Division 81)

Poindexter

A dozen albums that brought me the most joy in 2024 list

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Fake Fruit – Mucho Mistrust
Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend
Lightheaded – Combustible Gems
Peel Dream Magazine – Rose Main Reading Room
Lunchbox – Pop and Circumstance
Wut – Mingling with the Thorns
Dummy – Free Energy
The Softies – The Bed I Made
Marcel Wave – Something Looming
La Luz – News of the Universe

Roscoe 2000

Ten Pretty Good Albums from 2024 or that I slept on in 2023

Owen Ambarchi, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin – Ghosted II (Drag City)
ML Buch – Suntub (15 Love)
Burnt Envelope – I’m Immature: The Singles Vol. 2 (Hozac)
Eric Chenaux Trio – Delights Of My Life (Constellation)
Chris Cohen – Paint A Room (Hardly Art)
Creation Rebel – Hostile Environment (On-U Sound)
Meernaa – So Far So Good (Keeled Scales)
Raymond Richards – Sand Paintings (ESP Institute)
Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)
Bobby Would – Relics Of Our Life (Digital Regress)

Sex 14s

Top Albums of 2024

Beak – >>>> (Beak 4) (Temporary Residence)
Arooj Aftab – Night Reign (Verve)
Emily D’Angelo, Sophia Muñoz & Bruno Helstroffer – Freezing (Deutsche Grammophon)
Fred Hersch – Silent Listening (ECM)
Philip Glass – Solo (Orange Mountain Music)
The Gesualdo Six – (William Byrd: Mass for 5 Voices & Other Works) (Hyperion)
Jenny Scheinman – All Species Parade (The Royal Potato)
Caroline Shaw & So Percussion – Rectangles and Circumstance (Nonesuch)
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note)
Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune)
Jamie XX – In Waves (Young)
Peter Perrett – The Cleansing (Domino)
Yunchen Lim – Chopin: Etudes (Decca)
Vince Clark – Songs of Silence (Mute)
Ghost Train Orchestra – Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondow (Cantaloupe)
Maya Beiser – Maya Beiser x Terry Riley, In C (Islandia)
Klasmos – II (Erased Tapes)
SOPHIE – SOPHIE (Transgressive)
Belong – Realistic IX (Kranky)
Chrystabell / David Lynch – Cellophane Memories (Sacred Bones)
Cadence Weapon – ROLLERCOASTER (One Canada)
James Blake & Little Yachty – Bad Cameo (Motown / Quality Control)
Sylvaine – Eg er framand (Season of Mist)
Bolis Pupul – Letter to You (Because)
Lakecia Benjamin – Phoenix Reimagined (Ropeadope)
µ-Ziq – Grush (Planet Mu)
T-Bone Burnett – The Other Side (Verve)
Richard Thompson – Ship to Shore (New West)
Meshell Ndegeocello – No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note)
The Jesus Lizard – Rack (Ipecac)
Ariel Kalma – The Closest Thing to Silence (International Anthem)
Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)

The Silver Hawaiian

Knoll– As Spoken (Total Dissonance Worship)
Torrey– Torrey (Slumberland)
Malignancy– …Discontinued (Willowtip Records)
Replacire– The Center That Cannot Hold (Seasons of Mist)
Belong– Souvenir (Kranky)
Nails– Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast)
Wishy– Triple Seven (Winspear)
Peel Dream Magazine– Rose Main Reading Room (Topshelf)
The Cure– Songs of a Lost World (Fiction)
Swervedriver– Doremi Faso Latido (Outer Battery)
Burrrn– Without You (Dreamwaves)
Smush– If You Were Here I’d be home Now (Candlepin)
Judas Priest– Invincible Shield (Columbia)
Full of Hell– Coagulated Bliss (Closed Casket Activities)
Chat Pile– Cool World (The Flenser)
Undeath– More Insane (Prosthetic)
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis– The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (Impulse)
Saint Etienne– The Night (Heavenly)
Seefeel– Everything Squared EP (Warp)
Skyminds– Echoes on the Shore (Inner Islands)
Dummy– Free Energy (Trouble In Mind
Blushing– Sugarcoat (Kanine)
Plant Cell– Botanical
Vijay Iyer– Compassion (ECM)
Kim– Sir Kim (Death Maiden)
Anthony Pirog– The Hunger Artist (Otherly Love)
Winged Wheel– Big Hotel (12XU)
Melt-Banana– 3+5 (A-Zap)
The Jesus Lizard– Rack (Ipecac)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor– No Title As of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (Constellation)

Sparkle Motion

Top 25 in Alphabetical Order

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)
Andrew Bird Trio – Sunday Morning Put-On (Loma Vista)
Arooj Aftab – Night Reign (Verve)
Beak> – >>>> (Temporary Residence)
Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (Domino)
Brian Landrus – Plays Ellington & Strayhorn (Palmetto)
Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)
Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note)
Clarissa Connelly – World of Work (Warp)
Einsturende Neubauten – Rampen – APM: Alien Pop Music (Potomak)
Four Tet – Three (Text Records)
Jane Weaver – Love in Constant Spectacle (Fire Records)
Ka Baird – Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos (Rvng. Intl.)
Kali Malone – All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)
Laetitia Sadier – Rooting for Love (Drag City)
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp)
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthing, Andreas Werliin – Ghosted II (Drag City)
Peter Perrett – The Cleansing (Domino)
Richard Carr w/Caleb Burhans, Clarice Jensen and Carrtoons – August Light (Neuma)
Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)
Sarah Davachi – The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir (Late Music)
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
The Bevis Frond – Focus on Nature (Fire Records)
Tindersticks – Soft Tissue (City Slang)
Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey – Compassion (ECM)

Fave Compilations/Archival

various artists – Cardinals At the Window (136 unreleased songs supporting flood relief efforts in Western North Carolina) (self-released)
various artists – TranSA: Selects 8 Disc set (46 songs by different artists!) (Red Hot Org)
various artists – Ghana Special Volume 2: Electronic Highlife Sounds in the Diaspora 1980-93 (Soundway)
various artists – The Power of the Heart – A Tribute to Lou Reed (Light In The Attic)
various artists – My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall (Oh Boy)
various artists – European Primitive Guitar (1974-1987) (NTS)

Best Cover Art

Henry Kaiser, Michael Manning and Scott Amendola – Haunted by Eternity (Fractal Music)

Sully

10 Favorite Albums of 2024 For Now

Anna Moss – Amnesty (Moss Tunes)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Wild God – (PIAS)
Sahan Arzruni – By Women: Piano Works by Armenian Women Composers (Agbu)
Amen Dunes – Death Jokes (Sub Pop)
Bonny Light Horseman – Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar)
Rejoicer – This Is Reasonable (Circus Company)
X – Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)
various artists – The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed (Light in the Attic)
Yin Yin – Mount Matsu (Glitterbeat)
Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd (Ruination)

Surface Tension

A Grab Bag of Stand-out Tracks

Beige Banquet – “Collapse / Crisis” + “Condition Report” – Ornamental Hermit (Just Step Sideways)
Bud Boyd – “Red Leaves of Autumn” – Drive (s/r) – re-release from ’23
The Briefs – “High Society” – High Society b/w You Can Move Me (TKO)
Desborde – “Hartxs” – (v/a) Este Sinte Mata Fascistas (Fichines Ruido Zafaria)
DJ Female Convict Scorpion – “Mercy Electric” – Paradise Re-Lost (s/r)
Greater Than One – “Slava” – Book of Noise (Dataflow)
The Green Child – “Arrows and Microtones” – Look Familiar (Hobbies Galore)
Sahra Halgan – “Sharaf” – Hiddo Dhawr (Danaya)
Ibibio Sound Machine – “Pull the Rope” – Pull the Rope (Merge)
The Jesus Lizard – Moto(R) – Rack (Ipecac)
La Luz – “Moon in Reverse” – News of the Universe (Sub Pop)
Language Field – “Link Rot” – At Odds (Waxing Crescent)
Greg Lisher – “Snowblind” – Underwater Detection Method (Independent Project)
Nihil Impvlse – “Mythologies for the Age of Control” – (v/a) Cut UP. Deconstructing W. S. Burroughs (Unexplained Sounds Group)
Ayjay Nils – “Birds” – Microdosing (Force, Inc. / Mille Plateaux)
Molly Nilsson – “Jackboots Return” – Un-American Activities (Night School)
Nekron 99 – “Here Comes Johnny Peroxide” – Visions of the Trapdoor Man (s/r)
OYO – “La Repre” – (v/a) Este Sinte Mata Fascistas (Fichines Ruido Zafaria)
Poladroïd – “Message to Henry Hearse” – Danse Macabre EP (Meta Moto)
Dan Rincon – “Metropolitan Doctor” – Spotlight City (Castle Face)
Shizukana – “Domestication of Domestic Violence” – Domestication of Domestic Violence (s/r)
Smokers – “Silver Tongue” + “Cutting Class” – The Rat That Gnawed the Rope (Mouth Magazine)
Sunroof – “Conspiracies” – Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 3 (Mute)
Violence Gratuite – “Olive” – Baleine à Boss (Hakuna Kulala)
X – “Sweet ’til the Bitter End” – Smoke & Fiction (Fat Possum)
Zamilska – “Golden Tooth” – United Kingdom of Anxiety (No Paper)

Mini Playlist for Fans of Stereolab

Laetitia Sadier – “Cloud 6” – Rooting for Love (Drag City)
Peel Dream Magazine – “Lie in the Gutter” – Rose Main Reading Room (Topshelf)
Ghost Funk Orchestra – “To the Moon!” + “Infinite Dark” – A Trip to the Moon (Colemine)
Clairo – “Echo” – Charm (s/r)

Most Modestly Swiftian Proposal

JD Pinkus – “Baby Back” – Grow a Pear (Shimmy-disc)

Albums for Quality Flomping

Ka Baird – Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos (RVNG, Intl.)
Bestia Astrum – Fury 161 (Cold Spring)
Sarah Davachi – The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir (Late)
Andy Haas – For the Time, Being (Resonant)
Peace de Résistance – Lullaby for the Debris (La Vida es en Mus Discos)
People Like Us – Copia (Cutting Hedge)
Sote – Ministry of Tale Tales (SVBKVLT)
David Wallraf – The Commune of Nightmares (Karl)
Ni Zheng – Fetid Things (Don’t Look Back)

Vernal Pools

Best 50 Releases of 2024 (alphabetical by artist)

Arooj Aftab – Night Reign (Verve)
Laurie Anderson – Amelia (Nonesuch)
Maria Chiara Argirò – Closer (Innovative Leisure)
Şahan Arzruni – By Women: Piano Works by Armenian Women Composers (Agbu)
Lynn Avery and Cole Pulice – Phantasy & Reality (Moon Glyph)
Ka Baird – Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos (RVNG Intl.)
Ana Lua Caiano – Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado (Glitterbeat)
Sarah Davachi – The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir (Late Music)
Ibelisse Guardia Ferraguti and Frank Rosaly – MESTIZX (International Anthem)
Mabe Fratti – Sentir Que No Sabes (Unheard Of Hope)
Asher Gamedze and The Black Lungs – Constitution (International Anthem)
Julia Holter – Something in the Room She Moves (Domino)
Maria W Horn – PANOPTIKON (self-released)
Arushi Jain – Delight (Leaving)
Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer (Ba Da Bing)
Jlin – Akoma (Planet Mu)
Chuck Johnson – Sun Glories (Western Vinyl)
Laryssa Kim – Contezza (City Tracks)
Lia Kohl – Normal Sounds (Moon Glyph)
Laraaji, Agnes Martian, Music For Connection, and Hair And Space Museum – Coincidence (Centripetal Force)
Howie Lee – At The Drolma Wesel-Ling Monastery (Mais Um)
Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)
Little Arcs – Little Arcs (self-released)
Loma – How Will I Live Without a Body? (Sub Pop)
Kali Malone – All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)
Briana Marela – Teardrop Star (self-released)
Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat (Chrysalis)
Drew McDowall – A Thread, Silvered and Trembling (Dais)
Meklit – Ethio Blue (self-released)
Mermaid Chunky – slif slaf slof (DFA)
MIZU – Forest Scenes (NNA Tapes)
Moor Mother – The Great Bailout (Anti)
Mount Eerie – Night Palace (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding – Milton + esperanza (Concord)
Helado Negro – PHASOR (4AD)
N’golá (São Tomé) – Our Ancestors Swam to Shore (Free Dirt/PM Press)
Nídia & Valentina – Estradas (Latency)
Antonina Nowacka – Sylphine Soporifera (Mondoj)
Katsy Pline – Devotion (self-released)
Bolis Pupul – Letter To Yu (Deewee/Because)
claire rousay – sentiment (Thrill Jockey)
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp)
Skyminds – Echoes On The Shore (Inner Islands)
Astrid Sonne – Great Doubt (Escho)
The Staves – All Now (Communion)
TRAИƧA – Various Artists (Red Hot Org)
Violence Gratuite – Baleine à Boss (Hakuna Kulala)
West of Roan – Queen of Eyes (SPINSTER)
Immanuel Wilkins – Blues Blood (UMG)

Best 20 Shows of 2024 (in order of occurence)

CST Imprint label launch – KADIST, 2 February
Ana Roxanne, Nailah Hunter, Cole Pulice – Gray Area, 3 March
Ak’chamel – Beauty Supply Arts, 20 March
Dax Pierson – Gray Area, 3 April
Kara Jackson – Cafe du Nord, 7 May
MIZU – Gray Area, 19 May
Little Arcs – Ivy Room, 25 May
Drew McDowall – Gray Area, 14 June
Garden Of Memory – Chapel of the Chimes, 21 June
Juana Molina – Swedish American Hall, 26 June
Evicshen – The Lab, 5 July
Her Only Light: A Connie Converse 100th Birthday Celebration – Constellation, 3 August
Bolis Pupul – Cafe du Nord, 13 August
Anohni – Fox Theater, 1 October
Ann Annie – The Lost Church, 9 October
Cassandra Jenkins – The Rickshaw Stop, 13 October
Sarah Davachi – The Lab, 16 November
Lynn Avery and Cole Pulice – The Lab, 20 November
Roco Cordova – Beauty Supply Arts, 24 November
Soft Landing – Berkeley Alembic, 21 December

Best 20 Films I watched in 2024 (alphabetical by title)

All Shall Be Well (2024)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Anora (2024)
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Between the Temples (2024)
Dìdi (弟弟) (2024)
Earth Mama (2023)
Empty Nets (2023)
Frances Ha (2012)
The Holdovers (2023)
Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All (2023)
Janet Planet (2023)
Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill (2022)
Oslo, August 31st (2011)
Perfect Days (2023)
Porcelain War (2024)
Sisters With Transistors (2020)
Thelma (2024)
The Wild Robot (2024)
The Zone of Interest (2023)

Vic Vocab

Favorite Songs of 2024

Diane Birch – “Jukebox Johnny” – Flying on Abraham [Legere]
Brainstory – “I Will Be” – Sounds Good [Big Crown]
Brijean – “Workin’ On It” – Macro [Ghostly International]
Finom – “Haircut” – Not God [Joyful Noise]
Andrew Gabbard – “Everywhere I Go I Don’t Belong” – Ramble & Rave On [Karma Chief]
MJ Lenderman – “Joker Lips” – Manning Fireworks [Anti-]
The Lostines – “After Party” – Meet the Lostines [Gar Hole]
Marcel Wave – “Something’s Looming” – Something’s Looming [Feel It]
Neutrals – “Steven Proctor, Bus Conductor” – New Town Dream [Slumberland]
Smokers – “The Strand” – The Rat That Gnawed the Rope [Mouth Magazine]
Yeule – “Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl” – I Saw the TV Glow SOUNDTRACK [A24 Music]