2016 was a blur to me, music-related. A lot of changes happened in my life, and I ended up moving away to work abroad.
As such, it was my last year at KALX for the indefinite future. As fate would have it, I perhaps left during a time period that socially contentious music will be on the rise – even more so than what we currently have in place! We certainly haven’t seen this kind of open, mainstream patriarchal aggressivity in politics since perhaps the 1890s! Or, maybe it’s always been this way, but as such, I thought I’d post my last list to praise some of my favorite cutting-edge American female musicians and female fronted bands that I had the opportunity to listen to this year (with some other bonus stuff that’s more free-for-all).
Kickass Feminist Garage Rock and Punk
- Tacocat – Lost Time (Hardly Art)
- Dark Beach – Ouija EP (S/R)
- The Coathangers – Nosebleed Weekend (Suicide Squeeze)
- Burnt Palms – Back on My Wall (We Were Never Being Boring)
- Hinds – Leave Me Alone (Mom + Pop)
Wonderful, Ethereal Female Singer-Songwriters
- Angel Olsen – My Woman (Jagjaguwar)
- Marissa Nadler – Strangers (Sacred Bones)
- Ceu – Tropix (Six Degrees)
- Moon & Pollution – The Box Borealis (F I X)
- Emily Wells – Promise (Thesis & Instinct)
Muses of Darkness and of the Strangely Indescribable
- Insect Ark – Portal/Well (Autumn Songs)
- Sarah Neufeld – The Ridge (Paper Bag)
- Anna Homler and Steve Moshier – Breadwoman + Other Tales (RVING Intl) [reissue]
- cross record – Wabi-Sabi (Ba Da Bing)
- Heidi Krutzen and Ariel Barnes – Serere (Maxwell, Muhly & Couloir) (Ravello)
Bonus Mentions That Defined 2016’s Chaos to Me
- Bombino – Azel (Partisan)
- Public Memory – Wurthering Drum (felt)
- Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (XL)
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree (Bad Seed Ltd.)
- V/A – Scream Queens Magazine Issue #1 Compilation (S/R) – Particularly for having Them Are Us Too’s “Angeline” on it.
To all of the KALX staff, volunteers, and community listeners, thanks for the memories. Be with you always.
