2017

• Abronia – Obsidian Visions/Shadowed Lands (Waterwing)
• Sam Amidon – The Following Mountain (Nonesuch)
• Ariwo – S/T (Manana)
• RL Boyce – Roll and Tumble (Waxploitation)
• Richard Dawson – Peasant (Weird World)
• Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway (Nonesuch)
• Robyn Hitchcock – S/T (YepRoc)
• Ibeyi – Ash (XL)
• Kacy and Clayton – Siren’s Song (New West)
• LADAMA – S/T (Six Degrees)
• Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir (Nonesuch)
• Emel Mathlouthi – Ensen (Partisan)
• Oh Sees – Orc (Castle Face)
• Old Crow Medicine Show – 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde (Columbia)
• Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris – The Complete Trio Collection (Rhino)
• Rancid – Troublemaker (Hellcat)
• Omar Souleyman – To Syria With Love (Mad Decent Protocol)
• Tinariwen – Elwan (Epitaph/ANTI)
• Wailin’ Jennys – Fifteen (True North)
• Billy Woods – Known Unknowns (Backwoodz Studioz)

• Bad Mannequins – “I Hate You” – Deny Til U Die, Pt. I (Spinnup)
• Bad Nerves – “Dreaming” – single (National Anthem)
• B Boys – “Discipline” – DADA (Captured Tracks)
• Benjamin Gibbard – “December” – Bandwagonesque (Canvasback)
• Bombpops – “Be Sweet” – Fear of Missing Out (Fat Wreck)
• Damu the Fudgemunk – “Solitary Confinement” – Vignettes (Redefinition)
• Richard Dawson – “Beggar” – Peasant (Weird World)
• Diet Cig – “Sixteen” – Swear I’m Good at This (Frenchkiss)
• Downtown Boys – “It Can’t Wait” – Cost of Living (Subpop)
• Flat Worms – “Goodbye Texas” – Flat Worms (Castle Face)
• Coco Hames – “I Don’t Wanna Go” – Coco Hames (Merge)
• Jazz Spastiks – “Bubble Gum” – Scratch and Sniff (Jazz Plastik)
• Neutrals – “24 Pictures of You” – Promotional Compact Disk (s/r)
• Priests – “Appropriate” – Nothing Feels Natural (Sister Polygon)
• Pokey LaFarge – “Riot in the Streets” – Manic Revelations (Rounder)
• Proto Idiot – “Better Way of Life” – Leisure Opportunities (Slovenly)
• Rascalton – “Lust” – single (Public Records)
• Regrettes – “Hot” – Feel Your Feelings, Fool (Warner Bros.)
• Repeat Repeat – “Everybody’s Falling In Love” – Floral Canyon (Dangerbird)
• Rolling Blackouts CF – “French Press” – The French Press (Sub Pop)
• RPMs – “Oh My God” – single (Xtra Mile Recordings)
• Dave Ruder – “Candy and Slice” – Qualms Rectified (Gold Bolus Recordings)
• Songhoy Blues – “Mali Nord” – Resistance (Fat Possum)
• Teenage Bottlerocket – “Back and Forth” – Stealing the Covers (Fat Wreck Records)
• Touts – “Sold Out” – single (Hometown Records)
• Truckstop Honeymoon – “Do You Really Have to Ask?” – Big Things and Little Things (S/R)

• Gaye Su Akyol – Hologram İmparatorluğu (Glitterbeat)
• Tony Allen – The Source (Blue Note)
• Arca – Arca (XL)
• Battle of Santiago – La Migra (Made with Pencil Crayons)
• Jaimie Branch – Fly or Die (IARC)
• Brooklyn Raga Massive – Terry Riley in C (Northern Spy)
• Camille – Ouï (Balulalo)
• Clark – Death Peak (Warp)
• Jane Antonia Cornish – Into Silence (Innova)
• Grant Cutler – Self Portrait (Innova)
• Cornelius Duffalo– Journaling 2 (Innova)
• Ensemble, et al. – The Slow Reveal (Imaginator)
• Equiknoxx – ColÛn Man (DDS)
• Flat Worms – Flat Worms (Castle Face)
• Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble – Return (Innova)
• Stanley Grill– At the Center of All Things (Innova)
• Grooms – Exit Index (Western Vinyl)
• Andy Haas – Taballah II (Resonant Music)
• Hauschka – What If (Temporary Residence)
• Ibibio Sound Machine – Uyai (Merge)
• Jlin – Black Origami (Planet Mu)
• Marcel Khalife and Mahmoud Darwish – Andalusia of Love (Nagam)
• Kendrick Lamar – Damn (Top Dawg)
• La Misa Negra – La Misa Negra (Nam Entertainment)
• Arto Lindsay – Cuidado Madame (Northern Spy)
• Luka Productions – Fasokan (Sahel Sounds)
• Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition – Agrima (S/R)
• Man Forever – Play What They Want (Thrill Jockey)
• Midnight Sister – Saturn Over Sunset (Jagjaguwar)
• Juana Molina – Halo (Crammed Discs)
• Monster Rally & Rumtum – MR&RT EP (Gold Robot)
• Moon Duo – Occult Architecture (Sacred Bones)
• Gaby Moreno– Ilusion (Metamorfosis)
• Zeena Parkins – Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics (Good Child)
• Robot Koch & Savannah Jo Lack – Particle Fields (Trees & Cyborgs)
• Run The Jewels – RTJ3 (S/R)
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid (Western Vinyl)
• Alan Sondheim, Azure Carter, and Luke Damrosch – Limit (Public Eyesore)
• Visible Cloaks – Reassemblage (RVNG Int’l)

• Slowdive – Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
• Beach Fossils – Somersault (Bayonet)
• Xiu Xiu – Forget (Polyvinyl)
• Cold Beat – Chaos By Invitation (Crime on the Moon)
• Damaged Bug – Bunked Funk (Castle Face)
• Angel Olsen – Phases (Jagjaguwar)
• Moon Duo – Occult Architecture Vol.2 (Sacred Bones)
• OCS – Memory of a Cut Off Head (Castle Face)
• Sleaford Mods – English Tapas (Rough Trade)
• Priests – Nothing Feels Natural (Sister Polygon)
• Zola Jesus – Okovi (Sacred Bones)
• Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked at Me (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
• Perfume Genius – No Shape (Matador)
• Pharmakon – Contact (Sacred Bones)
• Downtown Boys – Cost of Living (Sub Pop)
• Shabazz Palaces – Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star (Sub Pop)
• LCD Soundsystem – american dream (Columbia/DFA)
• Fred Thomas – Changer (Polyvinyl) 
• Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent (Domino)
• Kelley Stoltz – Qua Ara (Castle Face)
• Mane – Alpha Female (Digital Regress)
• Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives (Warp)
• EMA – Exile In The Outer Ring (City Slang)
• John Maus – Screen Memories (Ribbon Music)
• Widowspeak – Expect The Best (Captured Tracks)
• Blanck Mass – World Eater (Sacred Bones) 
• Foxygen – Hang (Jajaguwar)
• Sandy (Alex G) – Rocket (Domino)
• A$AP Ferg – Still Striving (RCA)
• Juana Molina – Halo (Crammed Discs)
• Clark – Death Peak (Warp)
• Planning For Burial – Below the House (The Flenser)
• Cherry Glazer – Apocalipstick (Secretly Canadian)
• Alessandro Cortini – Avanti (Point of Departure)
• Chastity Belt – I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone (Hardly Art)

Fave Live Shows of 2017

• Boy Harsher – The Knockout, February 10
• Alex Cameron – The Swedish American Hall, March 31
• PJ Harvey – The Masonic, May 9
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Greek Theatre, June 24
• Nicolas Jaar  – First Avenue (MN), July 14
• Sparks – The Chapel, October 20th
• John Carpenter – The Warfield, November 4

• Chino Amobi – PARADISO (NON)
• Colleen – A Flame My Love, a Frequency (Thrill Jockey)
• Dang Olsen Dream Tape – Peppermint (Illuminated Paths)
• Drab Majesty – The Demonstration (Dais)
• Gas – Narkopop (Kompakt)
• Robyn Hitchcock – Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
• Inner Travels – Sea of Leaves (Inner Islands)
• Zola Jesus – Okovi (Sacred Bones)

And a Few Favorite Reissues of 2017

• Alice Coltrane – The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (Luaka Bop)
• Jan Jelinek – Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records (Faitiche)
• Rich La Bonte – Mayan Canals (Dark Entries)

My favorite albums of 2017

• Yvonne & The No Regrets – Nothing Compares To You (S/R)
• feedtime– Gas (In The Red)
• Chrome Reverse – They Wanna Fight! (Mag Wheels)
• Heavy Metal – LP2 (Static Age)
• Mary Bell – Mary Bell (Danger)
• Mark Cone – Now Showing (Neck Chop)
• Proto Idiot – Leisure Opportunity (Slovenly)
• Peter Perrett – How The West Was Won (Domino)
• Taiwan Housing Project – Veblen Death Mask (Kill Rock Stars)
• girlSperm – gSp (Thrilling Living)
• David Nance – Do The Negative Boogie (Ba Da Bing!)

My favorite EPs of 2017

• James Arthurís Manhunt – Staring At The Sun (Spacecase)
• CTMF featuring The Dear Watson Sound – Billy Childish 45 Club (Damaged Goods)
• Nots– Cruel Friend (Goner)
• Lemonade– Pink (Thrilling Living)
• Mommy Long Legs – Rock Product (Youth Riot)
• Mozart – Nasty (Iron Lung)
• Celebrity Handshake – Also Starring Celebrity Handshake as Celebrity Handshake (Eastern Prawn)
• Zerodent – Soul Mender (Almost Ready)
• Sex Crime – Song That You Love (No Front Teeth)
• Johnny Moped – Catatonic (Damaged Goods)

My favorite reissues of 2017

• Memphis Jug Band – American Epic: The Best of Memphis Jug Band (Third Man)
• Sites Ní Sounds – The Night Is So Dark (Black Gladiator)
• Neon – Neon (Water Wing)
• Husker Du – Savage Young Du (Numero Group)
• Slime – Controversial (Damaged Goods)
• Cheater Slicks – Destination Lonely (Almost Ready)
• Danny Burk & The Invaders – Ain’t Going Nowhere (Certified PR)
• Carsickness – 1979-1982 (Get Hip)
• Debils – Debils (Static Age)
• Bad Daddies– Over 30 Singles (Emotional Response)

My favorite live shows of 2017

• feedtime – Hemlock Tavern
• David Nance Band – El Rio and Octopus Literary Salon
• My Name Is Joe – El Rio, Bender’s, Hemlock Tavern, Make Out Room, etc.
• Van Morrison – Fox Theater
• Phantom Surfers – Ivy Room
• Derv Gordon – Elbo Room
• Nots – The Night Light
• girlSperm – Octopus Literary Salon
• Adam Ant – Masonic Auditorium
• Mane – Hemlock Tavern and KALX Live