Editor’s note: To accompany Flagpole’s list of our 10 favorite albums of the year, we invited representatives from some of our favorite local record stores to weigh in with their own 2018 favorites and report on their shops’ best-selling releases of the year.
Nate Mitchell (Wuxtry Records)
Favorite new releases:
1. The Nude Party: The Nude Party
The best new signing to New West, this motley crew of former Appalachian College stoner buds picked up the classic-rock torch from mid-period Stones, Loaded-era Velvets, CCR and Bob Dylan at his smirkiest and knocked out a solid gem of a debut. These cats seem poised at the cusp of becoming young America’s new boy band who are also a bar band.
2. Khruangbin: Con Todo El Mundo
Slippery grooves, crisp breakbeats, trebly/reverb-y surf-psych guitar instrumentals with a beguiling spaghetti western feel made this album a treat to keep coming back to.
3. Tangents: New Bodies
Picking up right where the 2016 full-length Stateless left off, these Australians exemplify post-rock in a clean and sophisticated Can/Tortoise/Four Tet mode. Lots of tight and tricky hypnotic overlapping parts that feel nicely sculpted but not forced.
4. Eric Copeland: Trogg Modal, Vol. 1
A solo joint from one of the dudes responsible for neo-no-wave antagonists Black Dice, although this steers away from stirring the tsuris and serves you a clunky, chunky stew of lo-fi synth and drum machine doodles.
<a href=”http://ericcopeland.bandcamp.com/album/trogg-modal-vol-1″ mce_href=”http://ericcopeland.bandcamp.com/album/trogg-modal-vol-1″>Trogg Modal Vol. 1 by Eric Copeland</a>
5. Circuit Circuit: Circuit Circuit
This disc was literally dropped into my lap from Jacksonville, FL folks passing through the Classic City and sounds like an oddball blend of Silver Apples’ cosmic theremin oscillations, drunkenly lethargic Kid Koala samples and scratches, and Mr. Oizo’s puppet-approved flat beats.
Best reissues: I’d be a real turd if I didn’t say The Glands, but here are some others that tickled my fancy: ESG’s Come Away With ESG, Preacherman Plays T.J. Hustler’s Greatest Hits, The Real Kids’ The Kids 1974 Demos/The Real Kids 1977–’78 Demos/Live at the Rat, Boy Harsher’s Lesser Man EP and Yr Body Is Nothing, Nurse With Wound’s Homotopy to Marie, David Axelrod’s Pride and Calexico’s The Black Light.
Favorite local release (vinyl): Melted Men: Roast Beef Carving Station
Favorite local release (cassette): Group Grope: Earth & Sky
Favorite local release (non-physical): Eric Hat: A Grip
Michael Levasseur (Low Yo Yo Stuff)
Best-sellers: The Glands: The Glands, Double Thriller, Double Coda and box set; Linqua Franqa: Model Minority
Best-selling reissue: The Glands: Double Thriller
Favorite new releases: Gabriella Cohen: Pink Is the Color of Unconditional Love, Kurt Vile: Bottle It In, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs
Favorite reissue: Ted Lucas: Ted Lucas
Favorite local albums: All the Glands stuff, T. Hardy Morris: Dude, the Obscure, Lydia Brambila: Migraineur, Nihilist Cheerleader: Riot, Right?, Gumshoe: The Governor’s Brother
John Fernandes (Wuxtry Records)
Favorite new releases: Lonnie Holley: Mith, Various: To Catch A Ghost—Field Recordings from Madagascar, A Hawk and A Hacksaw: Forest Bathing, Marisa Anderson: Cloud Corner, Drinks: Hippo Lite
Lonnie Holley’s Mith
Favorite reissue: Evan Parker: Evan Parker With Birds
Favorite local albums: Halfway Places: Halfway Places, Immaterial Possession: Attic Tape, Severe Blush: Damp Cave Safari
Joe Eldridge (Shadebeast Records)
Best-sellers: Conan: Existential Void Guardian, Domkraft: Flood, High on Fire: Electric Messiah, Sleep: The Sciences, Yob: Our Raw Heart
Best-selling reissue: Metallica: The $5.98 EP—Garage Days Re-Revisited
Best-selling local album: Double Ferarri: Double Ferrari
Favorite new releases: Boss Keloid: Melted on the Inch, Corrosion of Conformity: No Cross No Crown, Eagle Twin: The Thundering Heard, Sumac: Love in Shadow, Voivod: The Wake
Favorite reissue: The Obsessed: The Obsessed (a November ’17 reissue, but it was big for me this year)
<a href=”http://mahapralaya1.bandcamp.com/album/purified-by-decay” mce_href=”http://mahapralaya1.bandcamp.com/album/purified-by-decay”>Purified by Decay by Maha Pralaya</a>
Favorite local and regional albums: Coffin Torture: Dismal Planet, DayGlo Mourning: DayGlo Mourning, Fart Jar: Revolting Creatures, Maha Pralaya: Purified by Decay
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