2006 Surprises

Some of the albums that surprised me either came from unexpected artists that I didn't listen to much before or came from seemingly nowhere.

Harvey Milk - Special Wishes: Until this year I had never heard of Harvey Milk. When I saw a documentary and 3" CD release for sale on the archivecd.com shop I had to see what the fuss was about. Turns out that "Special Wishes" is one of their best albums to date and one of my favorite releases of the year.

Charalambides - A Vintage Burden: I had listened to them a bit for hearing "A Vintage Burden" but this album just blew me away with it's gorgeous songs and simple but effective guitar playing.

The Goslings - Grandeur Of Hair: "Grandeur Of Hair" is by far their best release so far. It's a crushing album that never fully relents and has many sounds buried beneath that can be discovered with repeated listens.

Monkey3 - 39 Laps: Being a huge fan of 35007, as is Monkey3, I'm surprised I hadn't heard about this band until this year. They take what 35007 has done and give it some crunch in places and add more of the space effects that Acid Mothers Temple are known for.

GHQ - Heavy Elements: Although it's one of the shortest drone albums that I own, it's also one of the best. After hearing their previous release "Cosmology Of The Eye", I though they were a decent drone group, but Three Lobed were excited about this album so I ordered it.

Modern Containment CD series from Three Lobed Recordings: When the lineup was announced for the series it certainly had some potential to be great. Not only did it live up to my expectations but it surpassed them. The only weak album was by Sun City Girls, but the rest ranged from great to fantastic.

Xasthur - Subliminal Genocide: I've never really cared for black metal but this album sparked my interest into the genre, particularly black metal coming from the United States. I'm sure their are some better albums out, but the atmosphere Malefic creates is fantastic.

Inoxia Order

My order from Inoxia arrived today from Japan. Their mailorder is excellent and very fast considering where they are located.

New arrivals:
Boris With Michio Kurihara - 2006 - Rainbow
Greenmachine - 2004 - The Archives Of Rotten Blues
Khanate - Khanate (expanded 2-disc set)
Khanate - Things Viral (expanded 2-disc set)

A very expensive order but they do some excellent CD packaging.

2006 Disappointments

Now that I have a best of 2006 done I was thinking of albums that didn't live up to my expectations this year. The following albums range from horrible to decent (but not as good as I expected):

Audioslave - Revelations (For whatever reason I liked their first album but the last two have been generic and boring.)
Boris - Vein (After all the delays this record finally came out and certainly could not live up to the anticipation. Gorgeous slab of wax though.)
Circulus - Clocks Are Like People (I loved their debut so it was hard for them to top it. Not a bad album though)
David Gilmour - On An Island (After hearing Island Jam which was not included on the album, I had high expectations but the songs ended being over produced in places.)
Eagles Of Death Metal - Death By Sexy (I love that there's finally some bottom end but this album didn't have the sloppiness and quirkiness of the debut.)
Isis - In The Absence Of Truth (I don't mind them going in the direction that they are, but the last two albums were epic and this one doesn't have that quality. The rhythm section is getting good though)
Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways (Definitely the weakest of the series and a return to the more mellow material of the first, but the songs aren't as good.)
Kalas - Kalas (Great music but the vocals just kill this album. If they had a different vocalist this might be on the other list.)
Les Claypool - Of Whales And Woe (One of the worst albums he's put out in a long time.)
Mudhoney - Under A Billion Suns (I really enjoyed the last. The addition of adding horns to the mix was a nice step forward. This lacks the great opening and closing jams that the previous one had.)
Neil Young - Living With War (He obviously rushed this out and it shows. Nothing on here is interesting musically.)
OSI - Free (The debut was a fantastic album but this is just to monotonous and boring. The compositions have no life to them.)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium (The curse of the double album remains intact. If they had taken the best from the two discs, it would have been a solid Chili Peppers album. The vocals seem to be in a rut and over produced to a point where everything is radio-ready. Some fine playing by Flea and John.)

Top Albums Of 2006

While I have two more CDs ordered that haven't arrived yet, I do have a list of some of my favorite albums of the year. I've yet to put them in any kind of order yet, but here's the list:

The Mars Volta - Amputechture
The Goslings - Grandeur Of Hair
Tool - 10,000 Days
Sunn O))) - La Mort Noir Dans Esch/Alzette
Six Organs Of Admittance - The Sun Awakens
Om - Conference Of The Birds
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
Mammatus - Mammatus
John McBain - The In-Flight Feature
Jack Rose - (Untitled)
Harvey Milk - Special Wishes
GHQ - Heavy Elements
Comets On Fire - Avatar
Charalambides - A Vintage Burden
Bardo Pond - Ticket Crystals
Wooden Wand & The Omen Bones Band - Horus On The Horizon
Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar
Monkey3 - 39 Laps
Bass Communion - Loss
Hush Arbors - Landscape Of Bone
Hypnos 69 - The Eclectic Measure
Burning Saviours - Hundus
Khlyst - Chaos Is My Name
Colour Haze - Tempel
Grails - Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 1, 2, & 3
Battle Of Mice - A Day Of Nights
Boris With Michio Kurihara - Rainbow
Suishou No Fune - Where The Spirits Are

Now I have to pick a Top 10 from that list which is going to be tough. Once that is done I'll do a mini writeup for each album.

This is also the first Christmas (since 1995 I believe) that I did not receive any CDs as gifts. Being that I buy so many, it was actually a relief. I have quite the stack I still need to get through. Then again, a trip to the Lou's Records or Tower Records (if they are still open) might be in order before the year is done.

Order To Corwood

Today I sent a check to Corwood Industries for $24. The order was for the new Jandek studio album, 'The Ruins Of Adventure' 0787, and for the DVD of 'Newcastle Sunday'. 0787 is the sixth album of the year released by Corwood and a return to fretless bass that was last heard on the 2005 release 'Raining Down Diamonds' 0780.

New arrivals from Robotic Empire:
Battle Of Mice - 2006 - A Day Of Nights (CD)
Probot - 2004 - Probot (CD)
High On Fire - 2002 - Surrounded By Thieves (CD)
Neurosis - 1996 - Through Silver In Blood (CD)
Neurosis - 2004 - The Eye Of Every Storm (CD)
Mastodon - 2002 - Remission (CD)
Mastodon - 2004 - Leviathan (CD)
Xasthur/Leviathan - Split CD - 2005 (CD)

Beginnings

My goal is to track music purchases, post some pictures of worthy CDs and LPs and offer some reviews of albums and (the few) live shows I attend. Various editorials and rants will turn up occasionally as well.