Traindodge - On a Lake of Dead Trees - Traindodge seems to occupy the space where Fugazi and the Deftones overlap. I'll let you read that sentence again before continuing. Barked post-hardcore vocals over cerebral rhythms and atmospheric heaviness. Music nerds will notice this record has a very specific sound that could only have come from the two or three years that started off this century, after rock music disappeared from the mainstream again, but before indie rock's muscles atrophied.
Shiner - The Egg - Their last and finest record, The Egg is where Shiner took everything they'd learned about both accessibility and obfuscation from their three previous releases and bolted it all together into a challenging, satisfying listen. There's a little bit of everything here, big guitar rock, electronic experimentalism, straightforward melodies, and mystifying soundscapes. Difficult to explain but hard to forget, The Egg is a little-known treasure.
KMFDM - Kunst - Look, this is KMFDM's eighteenth album. If you're not already on board, you've missed the boat. This release is, like all their post-reunion albums, a bit uneven and maybe a little overly familiar, but it's always nice to get a dose of their self-referential, less-than-serious take on heavy industrial. KMFDM is nearly as old as I am, and it's hard to imagine living in a world without them.
The Reatards - Teenage Hate - Jay Reatard, man of a million bands, may have gone on to greater notoriety with his later work, but to my mind, it's 1998's Teenage Hate that remains the most satisfying of his efforts. The first thing you notice about it is that it sounds pretty terrible, even for a punk rock record. There are very few rules of music recording and production that this album leaves unbroken, and yet the weird, trashy charm of the record comes through unobscured. If you can learn to accept the awful production quality, it becomes obvious that the wild, passionate punk gems found here just wouldn't be as good without it.
Toadies - Play.Rock.Music. - The Toadies should have been able to ride the success of their two hit singles "Possum Kingdom" and "I Come From The Water" straight into an equally successful second album, but Interscope rejected their follow-up to Rubberneck, and they lost momentum as the alternative boom faded at the end of the millennium. (Sidenote: that rejected follow up has circulated on the internet for years in various forms, and those Interscope suits dropped the ball, as it would've made a fine sophomore album) Nevertheless, the Toadies continued on to release several quality albums on a smaller scale as something of a cult band. The most recent of these is 2012's Play.Rock.Music., which once again proves that we shouldn't have taken our eye off of them.
Soundgarden - King Animal - I've been giving this record a lot of attention lately because I'm seeing Soundgarden live soon, but even if that's not true for you, this is still a record that deserves a lot of attention. Upon hearing of their reunion, I figured Cornell's voice would be the weak point of the deal. I mean, it'd been sixteen years since he'd sung the Soundgarden stuff, and there's a real physiological reason that even Robert Plant doesn't hit those high wailing notes these days. But Cornell pulls it off with aplomb, as does the rest of the band, sounding for all the world like it could still be the late 90's. The distinct sound of Kim Thayil's guitar has been missing in the world for far too long, and it's supremely gratifying to hear that the strange tensions and releases particular to Soundgarden's style of writing are still here in all their glory.
