If It's Too Loud...

The week between Christmas and New Year's is usually a pretty dull one, but it holds what has become one of my favorite holiday traditions: My now annual trip to the House of Blues to see the Mighty Mighty Bosstones for their Hometown Throwdown. This year they lessened the usual holiday theme and instead dedicated their entire three show run to The Rat, the legendary Boston punk club that used to be located across the Mass Pike from the House of Blue in Kenmore Square. For their openers, they chose bands they knew from their days of playing The Rat. For Sunday night, their openers were The Real Kids and The Queers. As I walked in, I noticed a list of set times posted at the door. The Real Kids had to drop out at the last minute due to John Felice being hospitalized. It was a huge disappointment, especially because I had never heard of their replacement, Unnatural Axe. Turns out Unnatural Axe are the  Boston punk originators, and started playing shows at The Rat in 1978. As th...

"Gloomy Tunes," the first EP from Weakened Friends, came out of seemingly nowhere and floored both Jeff and I earlier this year. They are back with an acoustic version of "95," a song that will be on their forthcoming EP, due this spring.  The video is a live, (mostly) single camera (or phone, with kids these days and all) recording of the song. It's more of a teaser at this point to help get us all ready for the new EP. It does that job, continuing the upbeat, slightly more indie version of Letters to Cleo that I loved on "Gloomy Tunes." You can watch the video for "95" below. Also, make sure you check out Weakened Friends' Bandcamp and be sure to like them on Facebook .

So, if you've paid attention to music news over this holiday time, you've heard the big news that The Beatles are on the streaming services now. So here's my dirty secret: I'm not a big Beatles fan. Kind of weird, since I love a lot of music that apes the Beatles sound, and all that. It's not to say the Beatles are a bad band, but I've never been able to get into them. For example, my favorite Beatles song? "And Your Bird Can Sing." Kind of weird, right? The Big Super Duper Hits don't really do it for me, either. But this isn't about the Beatles, but I figured with our readership and such, maybe you can help me change my mind. So here's what I want to do: either here, or on our Twitter page , or over on Facebook , leave a comment with a Beatles song you think I should know. Maybe it's a big hit I should reconsider, but I'm really more looking for those hidden gems that I might have missed along the way. In a perfec...

Without any new releases to speak of, we still have a few albums left over from this year that we didn't look at: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Paper Mache Dream Balloon : I'm always intrigued with bands that do the psych rock thing, if only because the Elephant Six pastiche was so well-rooted in that tradition. Out of nowhere comes King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and I think the best way I can describe them is like a throwback to late-1990s/early 2000s Of Montreal in all the best ways. A fun, frolicky acoustic affair that deserves a listen, it's something I wish I heard a long time earlier. Maybe the best of the batch of stuff we missed initially. Absolutely give this a shot this week. Babes - Untitled (Five Tears) : I was obsessed with " ATMO ," a song from Babes's debut EP (and a video that's probably NSFW for most places), for some time. I had missed that they had finally put out a proper album. This band of siblings does the whole ...

It was a solid year for music, and a lot of really great songs came from the madness. Below are my 40 favorite songs of 2015 (think of it as my own personal Discover Weekly Yearly), and, below that, my yearly playlist of every single song I loved. I hope you find something new to explore in the lean release weeks.

We actually had a new release this week! Kid Cudi - Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven : Kid Cudi is interesting. He had some really great rap stuff, but got bored with/irritated with rap music and has been exploring rock music. This is sort of an "indie/alt rock" attempt from him, and... it doesn't work. I can't sugarcoat it, but this is really more a labor of love than anything else. If you're into his post-rap stuff, this might be something of value to you, but, for me? This really didn't do the trick and I couldn't even get through it. Avoid this. Cage the Elephant - Tell Me I'm Pretty : I haven't kept up with Cage the Elephant, although "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked" was a great song back whenever that came out. At some point they became a full-on bluesish rock band, and I didn't see that one coming. So in terms of meeting expectations, this is pretty interesting, but in terms of something I might want to revisit, that ...

Photo via Instagram After the release of their third EP this year, Jeff commented that Kingsley Flood could pretty much do no wrong . To drive that point home a bit further, and to celebrate the upcoming holiday, Kingsley Flood have shared a cover of the Christmas classic "We Three Kings." It was originally shared with just PledgeMusic pledgers, but now it's available for everyone for a free download. It's shockingly true to the classic song and done without a hint of irony. You get the fantastic rootsy sound of Kingsley Flood with some Spanish horns and a beautiful cover of one of the most iconic traditional Christmas songs of all time. You can download your own copy of Kingsley Flood's version of "We Three Kings" here . Of course, you should make sure to check out their website  (where you should sign up for their email list since that's how this cover was sent out) and be sure to follow their various social media.

Overall, I thought this was a good year for music on a whole. I think the most interesting point, for me at least, was the lack of a truly transformative album that really got me super excited. There was a lot of great music, but nothing truly exceptional. Anyway, the rest of my favorites this year: 11) Gary Clark Jr - The Story of Sonny Boy Slim 12) Sarah Bethe Nelson - Fast Moving Clouds 13) All Dogs - Kicking Every Day 14) Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color 15) Mal Blum - You Look a Lot Like Me 16) Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit 17) Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow is My Turn 18) Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free 19) YACHT - I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler 20) Jamie xx - In Colour And the best of the rest: Hop Along - Painted Shut Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People Colleen Green - I Want to Grow Up Drew Holcolmb and The Neighbors - Medicine Heather Maloney - Making Me Break Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp ...

My love for Lady Lamb's music is very well established here. Ripely Pine, from back when she went by Lady Lamb the Beekeeper,   was my favorite album of 2013 , plus I've reviewed two live shows just this year alone .  After  is a bit more accessible than Ripely Pine , but that's not a bad thing. There are still the layers within songs that made me love Ripely Pine , plus multiple tempo changes and complete swerves halfway through a song. But this album feels like something everyone but your most top 40 listening friends could appreciate. Just listen to "Violet Clementine" for an example of this. It just keeps progressively changing from a quirky folk song to a bizarro indie rocker. Plus, if you know anyone that can hear "Billions of Eyes" without instantly loving it, you need to stop talking to that person.  If you haven't, please check out Lady Lamb's After  below.

My favorite album this year as well as my #1 album is The Lonesome Trio's self-titled debut. It was easy for me to initially write this off. A project from Ed Helms ( The Office , The Hangover ), my first thought was Andy Dwyer playing the banjo. And Helms's voice is unmistakable, don't get me wrong, but the album, from the first minute, shows that this is a serious project with a lot going for it. What I love most about it, though, is how much of a throwback bluegrass album this is. It's a mix of storytelling and humor, of lightness and of some heavy themes. "Appalachia Apologia" feels new and fresh while keeping with tradition, and "Whiskey Drink" is a song that might be my favorite of the year. I still continue being shocked at just how good this is, and upon learning how long these three have been playing together, the only negative is that this is the only album we have to enjoy so far. Truly the best experience of the year musically ...

Hop Along's Painted Shut  is the album that came out of nowhere this year and just floored me. I had heard the name Hop Along before, but until this album was released I had never actually heard them. An obsession with this album slowly blossomed all year, as I kept playing Painted Shut  week after week, long after I grew tired of other releases that came out after it. The true secret of Hop Along is Frances Quinlan's voice. In the same song she'll go from a soft, pretty, fairly standard in indie rock voice, to a more powerful screech that dances right on the line of being too pretty and too harsh. It's the bouncing between beautiful and abrasive that just sucks me in every time. Just listen to "Buddy in the Parade" and you'll see exactly what I mean. Musically, Hop Along land squarely in the 90s inflected indie rock that I'm thrilled is all the rage right now, with jangly, fuzzy guitars that seem to wander around the songs on their own. If you hav...

My #2 album this year is by The Decemberists, their latest, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World . This might be a surprise, and I'll be honest, it surprised me too. I loved the album when it came out, it's one of my most listened-to albums of the year, and when I went back to the best albums, this one just ranked so highly. It's similar to Picaresque in many ways, and while they're not quite continuing the trajectory of their previous album, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The soul of The Decemberists is alive and well in this album, from the lighter "Philomena" "Make You Better" a modern take, "Anti-Summersong" feeling more classic. It's an album that works in an era where albums seem to have less and less meaning. I think that matters on a whole, and perhaps my response to this album is a response to that overall situation during this era. You can listen to the stream below, assuming you haven't already...

Photo by Ken Sears Mid-December is a weird time to see a show. Most people are in full on holidays mode and don't have the time (or money), to head out. Plus, Allston is truly a college neighborhood and most college kids are fully into finals preparation or have already headed home for break. Maybe it was that, or maybe it's because this is the third time they've played Boston this year, but Sunday's show at Brighton Music Hall was fairly poorly attended. Photo by Ken Sears Not that you'd know it from the band's performance. Or the audience's reaction. Anyone who didn't make it to the show truly missed out. The mother and son pair started off as a duo with the very low key "Down in Mississippi." It's a great choice since it shows off both of their vocals equally. Neither of them have the type of voices you typically hear in the current neo-folk scene, but it gives their music this heartfelt and gritty feel, even when the songs are...

No Cities to Love has no business being truly great. When a band takes eight years off (and doesn't release an album for ten years), you're usually just happy they're back and touring. Reunion albums are usually filled with songs you have to sit through in between the songs you care about at a live show. But all of No Cities to Love  holds up with everything in Sleater-Kinney's catalog.  "Surface Envy" is a driving force of a song. It's the perfect shout along anthem you wish every band had, which is ironic considering another song on the album is titled "No Anthems." "A New Wave" might be my favorite song on the album. I'm only saying might because the video featuring members of Bob's Burgers  might be influencing me unfairly against other songs. Comeback albums are a dubious prospect, as are any albums from a band that have been around for 20 years. I don't mind waiting ten years between albums if they'll all be ...

My #3 of the year is Hands Together by Spirit Family Reunion. Going into this album, my thought was that "this album has no right to be as good as it is." Seeing them open for David Wax Museum back in 2011, the band had a very raw but boisterous quality to them that I warmed to almost immediately, but I couldn't help but think that this was a band that might stick to the sort of lo-fi indie quality that was working so well for them. Instead, they improved markedly as performers, as musicians, and as songwriters, and came up with an album that retains the fun of their initial recordings while absolutely moving forward as an act. Songs like "Put Your Hands Together When You Spin the Wheel" make it impossible for you not to get a bit of a groove on, and "Skillet Good and Greasy" succeeds in making an old standard their own. It's largely what you want from an Americana act these days, when the genre is reaching a popularity of sorts that deman...

Right from the start of album opener "Every Time Katie," you know that this album will be different from the usual David Wax Museum releases. While the Mexican influences are still there and lurking, they are far less prominent than they have been in the past. What you get with Guesthouse  is a band trying something else and knocking it out of the park. When a band breaks through based on their breakout performances at the Newport Folk Festival, you don't really expect them to pull off electronic elements well. But they do by hinting at them just enough. The only time this falters a bit is with "Dark Night of the Heart," which put a little too much of a digital effect on their voices for the chorus. It ends up being as much stronger song live, but I would never fault a band for experimenting a little. By the third track, "Guesthouse," you get a true feel for the album. It's more of a celebratory song that defines David Wax Museum at their finest....

My #4 of this year is Rose Mountain by Screaming Females. I was surprised when I listened to this, not only because it was better than I anticipated, but also because it had a sense of polish and completeness that their previous albums lacked. This is a brash, confident album that really works on all levels as a cohesive whole. Even still, songs like "Wishing Well" or "Empty Head" successfully stand on their own as well, resulting in an album that just has a lot of solid pieces to go with its straightforward delivery. In terms of a basic rock album, it's the best one of the year and it's not even close for me. Nothing else from this genre impressed me as much as Rose Mountain did, and Marissa Paternoster's work on other albums (both from a production and songwriting standpoint) makes a strong case that she might be my favorite musician of the year. Regardless, listen to the album streaming below:

With the release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens coming up this week, I had this bizarre urge to listen to some Star Wars music besides just "The Imperial March" over and over again. This birthed the If It's Too Loud "Songs About Star Wars" mix. I tried to avoid songs that simply make one reference to Star Wars and aim for songs actually about Star Wars. Of course there is some nerdcore (MC Chris), forgotten 90s bands (2 Skinnee J's), 90s bands that are still with us (Blink-182, Presidents of the United States of America), bands you would never think of doing Star Wars covers (Queens of the Stone Age, Ash), and "Weird Al," of course. It's perfect to listen to while you're at work waiting for it to end so you can head out to the theater, on your way to the theater, to avoid figuring out name mix up games in the theater, etc. 

For her 2015 album, I Want to Grow Up , Colleen Green lost some of the lo-fi noise of her previous recordings and went for a more full, produced sound. That can sometimes be the signs of a disaster, and after the first listen, I was a little bit disappointed. A few months later, I stumbled across the title track "I Want to Grow Up," immediately loved it, and was shocked to rediscover it was Colleen Green. Sometimes you need to listen to a song blindly without the artist's back catalog to realize how great it is. I Want to Grow Up  mixes 90s noise with 60s doo wop quite a bit, kind of like a smoother version of Jemina Pearl's solo work. The song "I Want to Grow Up" starts off faurly quietly, and then evolves into the greatest power pop noisy rocker recorded in the past 20 years with an honest to goodness guitar solo. The title of the album is also a recurring theme throughout, with most songs about self improvement and leaving your bad habits aside. The s...

My #5 album is from an artist that has been slowly morphing her sound and getting better for it every album, Nora Jane Struthers. Wake is her latest, and it is both her most accessible and perhaps best listen so far. Back when Turntable.FM was a thing, I spent a lot of time in the bluegrass channels, and one artist that popped up was Nora Jane Struthers and her song " Mocking Bird ," which just absolutely blew my mind in a way I didn't expect. Her albums since then have veered away from the bluegrass and toward a more accessible country, but that's not a bad thing at all, as Wake shows. It's more mature songwriting, it's more complicated melodies and lyrics, and it's just a better outcome. Typically, as bands become more mainstream, we don't entirely expect the results to be solid, but, so far, Struthers is bucking that trend. Definitely one of the best roots-based records of the year, and one everyone who reads this and likes the Americana s...

#6 of 2015 is Courtney Barnett's Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. I can't think of anyone who came seemingly out of nowhere to take over the entire year of music. From discovering her due to her phenomenal cover of The Lemonheads' "Bein' Around" in 2014 , I've become almost completely obsessed with hearing as much of her as possible.  Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit opens with my least favorite song on the album, "Elevator Operator," but immediately hits perfection with the second track, "Pedestrian at Best." It's a breakneck pop rock song that I had no idea anyone was still making. The more time I spend with the album, the more I start to love some of the quieter songs like "Depreston." The whole album is this perfect blend of Liz Phair meets the ferocity of Kurt Cobain and the could care less attitude of Evan Dando. If that sounds appealing at all, you'll love this album, w...

It's no secret that we love ourselves some Laura Stevenson at the blog. Cocksure is her best album to date, and it's only a testament to the rest of the releases this year that it's only my #6. Cocksure ups the ante in a lot of ways. The songwriting is tighter, the lyrics more direct, the potty mouth intact. It feels as much like a culmination of years of efforts as it does a fresh album, and, while the song that made us fall in love with her, "Master of Art," feels light years away in comparison to something like "Torch Song" or "Jellyfish," being able to balance the folkish aspects of Stevenson's songwriting with the punk background and obvious desire to crank things up a bit, the overall piece still feels extremely familiar. I feel like I'm always looking for "The Next Kathleen Edwards," but it's almost as if Laura Stevenson is filling that gap for me at present. For now, I'm enjoying what we're gettin...

It's impossible to listen to Brown Bird's Axis Mundi  without thinking about the passing of Dave Lamb. The album was written and recorded during his battle with cancer, and there is a sense of darkness and foreboding throughout the album. "Adolescence" is a plodding dark folk song heightened by crashing drums throughout. "Bannerman" might be the most typical Brown Bird song on the album, with it's up tempo Eastern European guitar sound. The duo also let loose their metal influences for the first time on Axis Mundi. "Blood From the Tree" starts off more typically for the band, and then turns into a metal-folk anthem. Even an instrumental song like "Shadrach" takes on a contemplative and resigned feel. Please listen to Axis Mundi below. You should also head over to Brown Bird's Bandcamp where they're once again offering their Christmas album for purchase. 

Pale Honey is an album I came to late this year, and I'm glad I tracked it down before it was too late. It's got a lot of what I want in indie rock right now - a good balance of interesting songwriting, a blast of sound, and a unique sound that still feels familiar along the same lines. I compared it in my initial review to Mynabirds, but it also does a lot of interesting alt-rock things along the way. I think it's definitely one of the more interesting listens of the year, for sure, and you should really give this a listen via the stream below:

Photo via Facebook Yesterday Those Darlins, an absolute blog favorite, announced an "indefinite hiatus," which we all know means they're done. They're also referring to the few dates they have in January as their final tour, which seems to make it much more official. To say goodbye, they're leaving us with one final song: A cover of Divine's "Female Trouble." It keeps more in line with their more recent slinky 60s sound than their original trashy rock n roll honky tonk than they started out with, which makes sense given the source material.  The only time I made it out to see Those Darlins was a show at TT the Bear's with Deer Tick that will always be remembered as one of the best shows I attended at that legendary club. Both will be dearly missed. You can listen to Those Darlins doing "Female Trouble" below. Below that are the dates for their farewell tour. Unfortunately there is nothing near Boston, so hopefully you'll ha...

My number 9 album,  Coming Home,  feels like the summer to me. The album stayed in the stereo of a rental car during a family trip to South Carolina, where it flavored our entire stay.  In my opinion, Leon Bridges' Coming Home  is the best of the current soul revival. It doesn't sound like it's mimicking 60s soul, it sounds like it was recorded in the 60s. Right from the opening song, the title track "Coming Home," it pulls you right in with a sound you might not have realized you love. "Lisa Sawyer" is my personal favorite, and is just this beautiful ballad, complete with these layers of backing vocals throughout. His background singers are Bridges' secret weapon. As with any truly great 60s soul song, it's the background singers you end up singing along to more than the lead. "Flowers" shows off the best of his more uptempo sound. He's already gone from playing clubs in 2015 to setting up a large theater tour for 2016. You can...

My #8 album is Grimes's Art Angels . If I ever revisit my lists in the future, this might be one I ranked too low. Or maybe too high. That's the magic of Art Angels . Grimes is the true anti-pop pop star, constantly reworking and reinventing herself along the way, doing it largely on her own, and not being tied down nor allowing the trends to define her sound or aesthetic. When " Go ," her Blood Diamonds collaboration, came out last year, I was interested in seeing where this was heading. Then Grimes went, scrapped the whole thing, and went in the direction that resulted in Art Angels . It's kind of a crazed masterpiece, with songs like "Kill V. Maim" sounding mainstream while also being completely ridiculous, "Flesh Without Blood" being a really angry, sassy punch while sounding like it would fit in next to Katy Perry. I have listened to this quite a bit since its release, and I don't even think I've started to figure it out,...

When a band releases two albums in the same year, it can be hard to choose your favorite. Since Consumer Complaints came out first, I'll go with that one since it seemed to come out of nowhere. It seems like there's a huge post-punk revival going on right now, with a ton of new bands borrowing heavily from Gang of Four and Joy Division. For some reason, I'm 100% ok with bands doing their best impressions of both Gang of Four and Joy Division, so this has been a stellar year for me. What elevates Shopping above the rest is that they have really nailed the backbeat of early Gang of Four, and have incorporated a less is more aesthetic while still being able to make you dance. Plus, "In Other Words" may be my favorite song of the year. You can stream Consumer Complaints below via Spotify. If you enjoy it, be sure to also check out Why Choose , their second release of 2015.

My #9 album this year is Wolf Alice, an album I loved when I first heard it and really couldn't let go of at all. If this didn't come out the same week as Bully's Feels Like , it was very very close, and I think the two bands will forever be aligned in my brain because of how they filled the same sort of throwback alt-rock aesthetic, but in very different ways. The Bully album did not make my top 10, but was a contender for a time, and Wolf Alice ultimately came out ahead because there are just so many interesting things going on. You have more straightforward stuff like "Moaning Lisa Smile," you have a great alt-rock groove in "Freazy," and album opener "Turn to Dust" sets the table for one of the better audio rides of the year for me. Overall, this was a must listen months ago when it came out, and it's a must listen now. Absolutely one of my favorites of the year, as well as one of the best musical albums, and it's streaming ...

Ever since 2009 when Mission of Burma and Buffalo Tom played the Orpheum, Boston's First Night has had a layer of cool to it. Since then, First Night celebrations have included blog favorites like Mavis Staples, Yo La Tengo, The Magnetic Fields, Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, and more. This year... not so much. I know their budget is drastically lower this year, but when every single Boston area blog I read has no idea who any of these bands, and most seem to be provided by Berklee, it's not really enough to get us to head into town. Luckily, there are still some If It's Too Loud... approved options in and around Boston to make getting a sitter and staying up far too late worth it. Hallelujah the Hills, Great Scott, Allston, MA Hallelujah the Hills were fantastic when I saw them at this year's Harvard Square Mayfair , and that was playing mid-afternoon on a makeshift stage in front of a beer tent that seemed to be more interested in listening to the in...