1. Everyone Everywhere - S/T

Everyone Everywhere made an album that appeals to me on the metaphysical level. I can feel these songs in my bones and in my brains. The bass on these songs are fat and heavy and the lyrics are half-stoned and upbeat in a downer way. Most of these songs are lovely and honest about how we’re just walking organisms hallucinating and fabricating our own experiences. No Furniture, Big Hat and Wild Life are super solid album closers. No Furniture is an acid song for sure; or a song that reminds me of my experiences with the substance. ‘Spare me the car ride home. I can stay here. I’ll just lay here.’ Big Hat reminds me of letting go of my ego and just experiencing life to its fullest. Then, Wild Life ends with more contemplation of the confusion of being. I would have never expected Everyone Everywhere to take the top spot earlier this year. But it became my go-to album to pump while smoking bongs and going to bed. So obviously I listened to it a lot.

2. Chalk Talk- Bad Influences

This is a short yet very full and satisfying EP from Chalk Talk. It starts out with the surfy pop jam ‘You’re In’ which might be some of their best lyrical writing yet. These dudes make songs that are completely inviting you to sing along with. It’s fucking amazing. There’s a darkness to this song that invites itself in the song’s bridge that invokes the color blue in my mind. The next song, Orchard Torture, bring on the pop and self-loathing at the forefront. The highlight for me are the one two punch of ‘bad influences’ and ‘babe paralysis.’ These two sound like classic Chalk Talk of course so they make a great soundtrack to taking huge bongrips and going down the most giant hill in town on a skateboard. This EP does not disappoint one bit.

3. Sirs - S/T

This album will grab your shitty polo t-shirt by the collar and throw you on the ground and fuck your world. I’ve been looking forward to this album since they put the best song from the album on a compilation like a year and a half ago. The song, Parading, expresses wanting to pigs in their graves and that’s pretty fucking awesome. Like Ape Up!, I feel these boys have a lot of other things on their mind than just making radical punk music.

‘Building weapons to blow ourselves to hell’

4. ape up! - Kemosabe

This album and the Sirs LP are both good stand-by’s when I want to listen to some music while working out or slashing skeletons on Dark Souls. this band is so fucking tight and Kemosabe sounds like much more of an effort being put into the finished product of the sound compared to their 2009 demos. But honestly, i feel like Ape Up! could probably put a laptop in a room with them for 20 minutes and produce something that still sounds fucking righteous. If I had to choose a favorite song it would be the hilariously titled ‘1-800-WILD-DAD.’ It’s Ape UP! at their most anthemic and grounded with a sense of youthful energy like cap’n jazz in this song. Other songs like Nothing Serious are much greater in scope. The lyrics really impress me most for their sense of distance with the ways of the world. Basically, these lyrics sound like journal entries of somebody on acid who is dumbfounded by the amazingly beautiful everyday things like the sunset and hurt by the ways in which existence can seem meaningless.

5. Teen Suicide - i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body

Teen Suicide fucking owns.

6.  High Pop- Hip Hip Hooray

I was hooked instantly at the first song with a ghostly voice singing ‘getting stoned alone, makes me feel at home.’ The simplicity and honesty of it really catches my attention. This album became a really great way to take care of background silence while being stoned and alone. The melodies of the guitars are fucking beautiful. They have such a wonderfully smooth and poppy tone. Listen to Sparkler to get a taste of what im talking about. As poppy and fun as this album is, there is a sense of self-deprecation throughout most of the album that gives it a nice contrast.

7. parquet courts - light up gold

parquet courts is an excercise in seeing how cohesively one can move between the sounds of 70s powerchord punk and 90s Pavement/Guided By Voices style punk nonsense. My favorite track is probably ‘careers in combat,’ Andy Savage perfectly captures how it feels to be a sarcastic, angry, post-grad looking for work in a dismal world. The lyrics are as sharp as a butterfly knife. The bottom line is: This is an album about what it’s like to be an American. For real.

8. NAH

Homie came out with a few releases this year. They all will melt your brain and make you feel like you’re either in a John Carpenter movie or just got thrown throuh a glass window.

9. Coping - Nope

Coping kicks off their record with the song ‘Somewhere in Skokie’ which reminds me of springtime sunset skateboard ride home. The rest of the album slugs along at a speedy pace as you would expect with a release from these Chicago punk homies. This band has kick butt drums and bass and sweeping guitars playing off each other along the lines of Superchunk or Archers of Loaf. Get into this if you want a burst of frantic energy on a bike ride.