I didn't really listen to too much stuff this year buuuuuuuut the Hospitals album 'Hairdryer Peace' was really good. I mention them like every other thread but it's seriously a giant step up from what they've done before and is probably the best noise/punk/psychedelic/whatever album of the year. It's too weird and abrasive for me to recommend unreservedly or whatever but it's still worth a listen. Black Pus is the solo project of Lightning Bolt and Mindflayer drummer Brian Chippendale, he released 'Black Pus 4' this year which is also really good. It's a bit poppier than most of his stuff but it actually works really well. Crystal Antlers released their first EP this year and that was pretty cool, they sound kinda like a cross between Comets On Fire and Mudhoney and although it's not really anything new it's still a really fun record. Mudhoney's new album is pretty cool too, and Portishead's one was fantastic.
Also I was kinda disappointed this year because there was a lot of talk about how indie music was getting noisier, like bands like No Age and Sic Alps and Times New Viking are getting a lot of coverage, and I was excited for a while in the idea that there would be some big grassroots shift in indie music. When I listened to those guys, though, they all seemed kinda... underwhelming, I guess. Not even bad but it just felt really unexciting and staid. I dunno how to really describe it but it's kinda like how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were a pretty fun band but their music didn't really have any real personality or whatever, their music had style and energy but nothing really beyond that and it never really felt like they wanted to say anything or had any kind of unique viewpoint on things. It sounds really pretentious to say but that's kinda the way I felt about a lot of the stuff I listened to this year, like the music was well-made but it was also pretty faceless for the most part, and that made it pretty hard to have any real emotional investment in it other than just nodding head to the uptempo stuff or whatever. I'm rambling and I don't want to come off as just being music today *shakes cane* so I'll stop now but yeah, that's the impression I got off a lot of this stuff anyway.
