Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys Have Some Christmas Songs

What says "Christmas spirit" more than America's favorite folk/punk/artcore/burlesque/steamcrunk act releasing some free Christmas music? The Army of Toys just put up some of their takes on holiday favorites up on their Bandcamp page. Titles include "Squidmas for Christmas" (complete with a special "chimpCRUNKS" version), "Hole in the North Pole," and "SlitWrist for Christmas." It's good creepy fun for the whole family! It's free, but you do have the "Name Your Own Price option," and I'm sure they won't turn down anything you'd like to throw their way.

To download your copies, check out Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys' Bandcamp page. You'll also want to check out their website for their various upcoming projects.

If It's Too Loud... Christmas Playlist 2014

I hate Christmas music. It's pretty dull and repetitive. But, this weekend you'll be subjected to work holiday parties and family and/or friend's holiday parties. Then next week someone will insist on putting Christmas music on in the background while you're wrapping presents and then opening presents. How many times can you be expected to listen to Mariah Caery's "All I Want for Christmas?" As an alternative, here is the If It's Too Loud... 2014 Christmas Playlist. It features some lesser known songs from The Sheila Divine, Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler, Jessica Lea Mayfield, a cover of Wham's "Last Christmas" (the greatest worst song ever recorded), and we had to end with "Christmas in Hollis." Enjoy!

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #1: Benjamin Booker

I've been obsessed with Benjamin Booker since he was added to this year's Newport Folk Festival. Since then, I posted about each single as they were released, and raved about his Newport performance and his headlining show at TT the Bear's. You'd think I'd have burnt myself out on his by now. But I don't think I can.

Booker's sound isn't anything completely original, except for the way he blends it all together. He blends Delta blues with 60s Detroit protopunk, all with the energy and charisma of Kurt Cobain. It's a sound completely fresh that feels totally familiar. The album starts with the opening roots riff of "Violent Shiver," and just takes off from there. His energy is high even in the ballads like "Spoon Out Your Eyeballs." He sucks the audience in like a seasoned veteran, and he's only 22. Booker is going to be huge one day. Catch him now before he's playing theaters, or maybe even arenas in 5-10 years.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #1: Field Mouse - Hold Still Life

Albums like this are why I like being able to write for this blog. Ken was raving about this band for a while, sent it over to me, and I fell in love almost immediately.

Hold Still Life is the first full length as a full band for Field Mouse, and it's really quite the musical achievement. Sometimes it's like Velocity Girl, sometimes it's like the hazy indie dream pop/rock that's been popular as of late, and far too often the structures of the songs remind me of one of my favorite bands of all time, The Reputation. All the songs just stay stuck in my head, with "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Reina" in constant rotation, and the lyrics definitely tell some really interesting stories. "Bright Lights" would have resonated heavily with me 10 years ago in particular.

I can't say enough good things about this album. By far, it was my favorite release of this year, and I'm hoping I can find some time/energy to see them live soon. You can stream the album below.


Song highlights: "Tomorrow is Yesterday," "Reina," "Asteroid," "Bright Lights."

First Listen: New Releases for December 16

With holidays the next two weeks and a slow release schedule, this will be the last First Listen of 2014. I'll be back with the first week of good new releases in the new year.

Still, we do have one high-profile release this week:

Charli XCX - Sucker: Charli XCX has had a pretty good year, with her work on Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" and "Boom Clap" from The Fault in Our Stars, and this follows her production work with Icona Pop to boot, so she's keeping herself busy. Still, her first release in the United States didn't wow me, and so I went into Sucker with a little bit of caution. It wasn't necessary, though, because it's really a solid pop album from start to finish, with a lot of rock-solid, radio-ready tracks to go along with some interesting deeper cuts. You should listen to this anyway, but with new music being somewhat rare at the moment, it's worth putting into the rotation.

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #2: The Dead Milkmen - Pretty Music For Pretty People

The 2nd album in a comeback/reunion isn't supposed to be good. Pretty Music For Pretty People is great. Maybe it's because the Dead Milkmen were never hard particularly hardcore band, but they haven't lost a step. While many of their peers have been releasing music about half as aggressive as their classics (or even novelty Christmas albums), this is their hardest album to date. It might be that some of their favorite topics (celebrity, gun control, and even Ronald Reagan) are just as relevant as they were back in the 80s. "Ronald Reagan Killed the Black Dahlia" may be my favorite punk rock conspiracy theory of all time. "The Great Boston Molasses Flood" ties my favorite obscure historical event with the Dresden Dolls. If you still break out any of the Dead Milkmen's back catalog, you'll want to own this one, too.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #2: FKA Twigs - LP1

If I'm ranking albums this year solely on musical ambition, the first album from FKA Twigs would be in first by a mile. If Portishead and Bjork had a baby that loved R&B, it might start sounding a little bit like LP1, and that's not a bad thing at all.

I have a lot of trouble describing this, and even more trouble trying to pinpoint it. In a way, that's the point - she's getting a lot of credit for her trippy videos as she is for her music, and that's fine but really misses the point about how really great this is. It's a challenging record, for sure, but not difficult to listen to. While none of the songs are likely to be your favorites, as they pop up in the playlists (most notably with "Two Weeks" for me) you're going to get them drilled right into your head again. I don't pretend this album is for everyone - my wife in particular would prefer I not listen to this at all - but it's definitely an album I didn't realize I was looking for until I had it.

Stream this one below:


Song highlights: "Two Weeks," "Lights On."

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #3: Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else

Back when Somewhere Else first came out, Jeff pointed me in its direction declaring he just discovered my new favorite singer. Based on the fact that my 10 most played songs on Spotify in 2014 are on Somewhere Else, he might be right. Lydia Loveless hits this sweet spot for me. She's a perfect blend of Lucinda Williams and Paul Westerberg, playing edgy roots rock with just the right amount of twang, filled with swirling, countrified guitars. The fact that I became obsessed with a song called "Head" about oral sex performed by a 22 year old female while in my late 30s would be more embarrassing if it wasn't the best song to come out in 2014. Her voice contains a grit to it that usually takes an artist decades to develop. I can't wait to see how she develops over the next few years.

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #3: Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Against Me! is generally not the kind of punk rock I'm into when I want to listen to punk at all. With the big story surrounding Against Me! over the last couple years being around lead singer Laura Jane Grace's gender transition, the fear is that, like many other non-musical attention given to musicians and bands, that the music takes a back seat. I know I fired up Transgender Dysphoria Blues in part due to my curiosity as to how the band adjusted to the attention and the situation at hand, and not only does the album title pretty clearly demonstrate that they're not afraid to tackle the topic head-on, but it ends up being one of the most raw, most emotional, and most honest albums of recent memory.

The opening title track is one of the best songs on the album and wastes no time addressing the elephant in the room, and the album continues to go full-force from there, not letting up at all until the very last minutes (where "Black Me Out" is also a standout track). Not all of the album is talking about what everyone else is talking about, though, and that feels like a conscious choice to not be defined by it (which, as a reviewer, makes it kind of difficult to not point out). Still, they've made a fan out of me in a number of ways I didn't expect. This album was in constant rotation for me for months, my favorite songs on here still end up being some of my favorites of this year, and I am very excited to see where they'll go next. Maybe it will be back to the harder punk rock I can't get into, maybe we're seeing a further evolution into a more mainstream pop-punk, but the exposure they've gotten and a high-quality album that pulls no punches surely doesn't hurt in terms of bringing on a larger fanbase, and I can get behind that.

You can stream the album below.


Song Highlights: "True Trans Soul Rebel," "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," "Black Me Out."

Ken's Top 10 of 2014 - #4: Joe Fletcher - You've Got the Wrong Man

As much as I always liked Joe Fletcher & The Wrong Reasons, I never quite got why people were completely obsessed with the band. On his first solo record, You've Got the Wrong Man, I found out why. Recorded as Fletcher moved from Rhode Island to Tennessee via Georgia, it's a striking four track home recording. It's lo-fi, raw, and gritty, while being as lush and full as a mostly acoustic solo singer-songwriter can get. In a world where Mumford & Sons are folk and Taylor Swift is/was country, this brings back a level of authenticity the mainstream versions of those genres are severely lacking. It's almost corny to compare artists to Hank Williams or Johnny Cash at this point, but those are the direct forefathers to You've Got the Wrong Man.