It’s mid-June, and I’m back with a mid-year listening report. All of these songs are highlights from my annual, evolving mega-playlist. No genre constraints, no “newness” mandate, no rankings, no funny business. It’s just the shit I like, in chronological addition date order. But because I have no self-discipline, it’s only June, and it’s already a seven hour mess. You can skip around—just shuffle that bad boy and see where he takes you. Here are some points of departure.
Off we go:
1. The Flatliners – Performative Hours
| GENRE | Post-Pop-Punk; Post-Hardcore Lite |
| YEAR | 2022 |
| RIYL* | Fat Wreck Chords, the band Single Mothers, Canada |
The Flats were my favorite band for a long time, and I’m glad to see them still ripping after 20 years. This throws back to the Cavalcade era with a heavy-melodic airstrike guaranteed to make the rest of the kids at your high school think there’s something wrong with you. Get ready for a trip to the guidance counselor—somebody went and reported your edgy ass.
2. The Jesus & Mary Chain – In a Hole
| GENRE | Alternative rock; Fuzz-pop |
| YEAR | 1985 |
| RIYL | The Velvet Underground, Shoegaze, Grunge |
I saw this band blow out a festival PA system at a headlining set in Oakland back in 2019. Took me another few years to really dig back in. Nice fuzz, guys. You probably get that a lot.
3. Deerhoof – Dummy Discards a Heart
| GENRE | Experimental Rock; Noise-rock |
| YEAR | 2004 |
| RIYL | Battles, wild careening, the chaos of an early-2000s San Francisco mosh pit |
This is my year to finally get into Deerhoof—I am intimidated, and I am stoked. Apple-O was their first album to feature Chris Cohen, and he proves his worth right out the gate on this, the first track, with a healthy amount of twang-tacular riff-swing.
4. Ramsay Midwood – Monster Truck
| GENRE | Self-aware country-rock |
| YEAR | 2000 |
| RIYL | Hayes Carll, late-2010s indie country revival |
I always love a good nihilistic country-fried pre-9/11 satire of American patriotism. “[K]iss my ass, ‘cause I drive a monster truck.”
5. Dave Segedy – Car
| GENRE | Slacker Pop |
| YEAR | 2015 |
| RIYL | Sleeping Bag, Teenage Cool Kids, Mark Hoppus |
Spectacularly short-and-sweet, understated, ear-seizing solo album from Dave Segedy, the singer-drummer from Sleeping Bag (the most underrated Indiana indie band of the 2010s by a longshot).
6. Blacktop – Tornado Love
| GENRE | Garage-Blues |
| YEAR | 2003 |
| RIYL | Mick Collins, the Sonics |
Mick Collins’ other-other-other non-Gories band retains everything about him that makes the rest of his catalog so ferocious—riff, hook, crunch, and attitude. Unpolished by design, unrepentant by nature.
7. BO-PEEP – メランコリック (Melancholic)
| GENRE | Riot Grrrl J-Rock |
| YEAR | 2019 |
| RIYL | Otoboke Beaver, Guitar Wolf, Post-punk/New Wave |
Another toe-dip into BO-PEEP’s terrifyingly consistent, high-octane discography. This deep into the 2010s, almost 20 years removed from their first album, they hadn’t slowed down in the slightest. Military-march lead guitar, robotic vocals, and a drummer who refuses to even try and stop the runaway train.
8. Stephen Marley, Damian Marley – The Traffic Jam
| GENRE | Modern Reggae, Hip-Hop, Dancehall Rap |
| YEAR | 2007 |
| RIYL | Toasting, Hotboxing your beat-to-shit sedan |
The most playfully understated “fuck the police, smoke weed every day” song I’ve ever heard, with a hilariously unhinged sound-effect chorus and a Rube Goldberg machine of a beat.
9. Van Halen – Jamie’s Cryin’
| GENRE | Frat Rock |
| YEAR | 1978 |
| RIYL | Headbangin’ and crushin’ cans with yer forehead |
Trashy, hypermasculine throwback guitar noise with crooning harmonies detailing a tragic one-night stand, with a real pop-rock sensibility underlying all the shred.
10. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong – Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off
| GENRE | Big band, jazz, swing |
| YEAR | 1957 |
| RIYL | Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, smiling in general |
Come on dude, leave some space in your heart and your music library for something old, charming, silly, and sweet. The way these two icons bounce playfully off each others’ vocals is intoxicatingly, contagiously bubbly and warm. An imperfect, timelessly adolescent-themed love story—the only good kind of love song. As performed by two buddies singing their asses off, and seemingly having a blast throughout.
11. Sunny War, Particle Kid – My Sweet Demise
| GENRE | Psychedelic Folk-Blues-Rock |
| YEAR | 2018 |
| RIYL | Particle Kid, Sunny War, |
Crunchy, free-floating Blue Cheer-indebted blues-rock with accompanying ghost-acoustic soloing. This thing lurches and scrapes, wailing through the cosmos on a voyage to nowhere in particular. But when the chorus rolls around, it stone-faced shoves me to the pavement and kicks me hard in the ribs with a steel-toed boot. Outlaws on acid.
12. Dan the Automator – One Night Left
| GENRE | Throwback hip-hop instrumental film score |
| YEAR | 2019 |
| RIYL | Early Gorillaz, DJ Shadow, early Avalanches |
Boisterous, playful, and laced with character dialogue samples, this 90s alternative-style hip-hop instrumental (produced by one of NorCal’s all-time greats) proudly cool-uncool struts down the halls of its over-achieving South SF Bay Area public high school, hot off a makeover montage and a coming-of-age experience with some shrooms in the city. It bumps, grooves, whatever—pick your favorite descriptor for the sum of these carnival horns, toms, pink panther piano parts and record scratches—and it easily induces a playful smirk from everyone in earshot of my speakers.
13. Lassie – Phonecalls on My Deathbed
| GENRE | German Garage |
| YEAR | 2021 |
| RIYL | King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, 2010s SoCal garage revival |
Strapped with Kinks-style broken-amp ferocity, manic-punched synth keys, and the snarkiest-sounding singer I’ve heard in ages, this one kicks off with a literal emergency siren and it does not slow down for an instant throughout its entirety. It careens from side to side, gesturing vulgarities and threatening fisticuffs before it crashes hard to the floor in a cacophonous, discordant outro.
14. The Shangri-Las – Give Him a Great Big Kiss
| GENRE | 60s pop girl group |
| YEAR | 1965 |
| RIYL | The Ronettes, The Angels, perfect pop songs |
This has such a cute, irreverent attitude, and it’s melodically perfect. Think “Boots are Made for Walkin’,” but it’s a hopeless crush teeny love song about some mopey older bad boy. Punchy piano, hella bombastic horns, and a hook so relentlessly shout-along-able, you can practically mosh to it.
15. VaVa – 現実 (Feelin’ on My Mind)
| GENRE | Bedroom Pop-Trap |
| YEAR | 2019 |
| RIYL | Chiptunes, horn samples, inarticulable moodiness |
Don’t understand a word of these lyrics (ugly American, should’ve issued a disclaimer), but the song’s lovesick Gameboy Color aesthetic is really working for me here. Throw in a triumphant brass-blast flip and glue the whole thing to an ol’ reliable workhorse trap beat, and for some reason, it’ll stick with you for months.
16. Cobra Man – Everybody Party Tonight
| GENRE | Power disco |
| YEAR | 2019 |
| RIYL | Daft Punk, Carly Rae Jepsen, the ‘70s in music generally. |
Cobra Man gets down. Cobra Man fucks. Cobra Man is the coolest. It’s on-the-nose, self-aware alternative dance-pop with a profound vintage fetish high-glossing these duet vocals. Seems to share something inexplicable with acts like Daft Punk on a lot of Random Access Memories, and Carly Rae Jepsen on Run Away With Me. They do call themselves a power disco band, after all. And sure, all of the above descriptions probably just go to show how close-to-nothing I know about electronic music, disco, and dance-pop generally. Sorry about that. But I like it.
17. Hank Wood & the Hammerheads – Love is a Cold White Tile
| GENRE | Post-hardcore blues |
| YEAR | 2017 |
| RIYL | Barn burners, The Jim Jones Revue |
I’ve reviewed this before, but I’m still listening. Hank & the boys raze the minefield routinely, spewing toxic garage-blues on an overdose of Jimmy Neutron’s Megalomanium injections. Somebody better call the EPA, because they’re gonna choke out the whole planet. This shit swings. It’s an unexpected insult-to-injury uppercut of a song, with death-defying vocal howls and guitar tone stolen from an Oregon Trail planet under James Merendino’s maniacal, tyrannical rule, somewhere way beyond our solar system.
18. Dazy – Perpetual Motion
| GENRE | Fuzz-pop, Indie Rock |
| YEAR | 2021 |
| RIYL | 90s Alternative, guitar distortion, pristine vocal melodies |
I’ve been playing this compilation nonstop since I heard a new single earlier this year. Ridiculously fun hooks and an absolutely impossible-to-machete jungle of dense-vine distortion and feedback. But the guy sings like a heartbroken 90s East Bay punk rocker with a brain computer-engineered for pop songs, and a soul engineered for lighting amp stacks on fire. The kids need to know about this. Please tell me I’m not the only one who cares.
19. Bobby Womack – Nobody Wants You When You’re Down And Out
| GENRE | Classic soul |
| YEAR | 1973 |
| RIYL | Music. Period. Come on, it’s Bobby Womack dude. |
I shouldn’t even need to explain why I love this. OK—admittedly, I don’t need to explain why I love any of these songs. But what I’m trying to say is that Bobby Womack in particular is musically and charismatically incomparable. Everything I’ve ever heard this guy sing is incredible. This album has a great Jimi Hendrix cover too. Remarkable, remorseless, and ballsy as hell, considering ten years earlier, Bobby was singing Frank Sinatra—and calmly killing it, wailing all the while. Here’s a story about backstabbing so-called-compadres, only good for a good time when the dough’s piled to “plenty.” Bobby’s bitterness is palpable. This man’s been hurt. And he’s absolutely punishing this track to get revenge.
20. BUSDRIVER – Much
| GENRE | Indie Rap, avant-hop |
| YEAR | 2015 |
| RIYL | Breezy kickback rap, Sega Genesis game soundtracks |
This might be the most accessible BUSDRIVER song on the most accessible BUSDRIVER album. Boasting about your crew is a genre trope for sure, but Driver makes it playful enough to suit a sunny weekend bicycle ride to the convenience store. Video game beeps and bloops make this one a blast, and the lightest little guitar lick really blows the clouds away. Shed your worries and your sleeves, young headnod squad. Get your tallboys and your hand-rolls and your kickback tracks out—it’s summer, and you’ve been doin’ too much.
21. Gangstagrass – I’m Gonna Put You Down
| GENRE | Bluegrass-rap |
| YEAR | 2010 |
| RIYL | Dirtwire, Flogging Molly, Golden Age of Hip-Hop flows |
Is this gimmicky? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think so, at least a little bit. But it’s got a great thesis embedded in its genre blend, and the verses are (oh man, I’m actually gonna say it) conscious in an unpretentious way. This band’s music has been featured all over contemporary space western-style media, so it’s an understatement to say that they sound nostalgic and alien at the same time. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but maybe it’s the only music that sonically captures the bleak social reality facing the drain-circling working and middle classes of this post-apocalyptic country we’re sharing. Maybe it’s tailor-made for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and arguably a lot to love.
22. Eric B. & Rakim – Eric B. Never Scared
| GENRE | Golden Age Hip-Hop |
| YEAR | 1988 |
| RIYL | You should just know this already. |
Just one of many visionary DJ cuts from one of the most visionary DJs in recorded rap history. But you knew that already, right? I don’t know if it’s aged perfectly—but hey, who does?
SNOT ROCK BOT RADIO 