Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Twist & Shout Staff Picks: the Best of 2021

Paul Epstein’s list - Did I Dream This? 2021

New Releases
1) Steve Gunn - Other You
2) Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders - Promises
3) Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
4) Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raise The Roof
5) Nathaniel Rateliff - Red Rocks 2020
6) Daniel Lanois - Heavy Sun
7) Los Lobos - Native Sons
8) Goose - Shenanigans Nite Club
9) John Hurlbut and Jorma Kaukonen - The River Flows II
10) Chrissie Hynde - Standing In The Doorway
11) Wanda Jackson - Encore
12) Billy Strings - Renewal
13) Lucinda Williams - Runnin’ Down A Dream
14) Sturgill Simpson - Ballad Of Dood & Juanita
15) Valerie June - Moon & Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers


Reissues
1) Jefferson Airplane - Acid, Incense And Balloons
2) Can - Doko E: Live In Cologne
3) Neil Young - Way Down In The Rust Bucket
4) Bruce Springsteen - The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concert
5) Tim Buckley - Bear’s Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round At The Carousel
6) Grateful Dead - Light Into Ashes
7) Bob Dylan - Springtime In New York 1980-1985
8) Joni Mitchell - Archives Vol. II
9) Rolling Stones - Tattoo You - 40th Anniversary
10) Ali Akbar Khan - Bear’s Sonic Journals: That Which Colors The Mind

Hello, my name is Patrick Brown and these are my top things of 2021.

MUSIC RELEASES:
1. Claire Chase – Density 2036
2. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
3. No-No Boy – 1975
4. Tim Berne / Chris Speed / Reid Anderson / Dave King – Broken Shadows
5. Sons of Kemet – Black To The Future
6. Julius Hemphill – The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony (archival)
7. Tune-Yards – Sketchy.
8. Courtney Barnett – Things Take Time, Take Time
9. Star Feminine Band – Star Feminine Band
10. Henry Threadgill Zooid – Poof
11. Electric Jalaba – El Hal
12. Parquet Courts – Sympathy for Life
13. Wild Up – Julius Eastman, Vol. 1: Femenine
14. Todd Snider – First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder
15. Yola – Stand For Myself
16. Goat – Headsoup
17. Sun Ra – Egypt 1971 (archival)
18. Wau Wau Collectif – Yaral Sa Doom
19. Vijay Iyer Trio – Uneasy
20. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & London Symphony Orchestra – Promises


BLU-RAY RELEASES:
1. Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia
2. World of Wong Kar-Wai box set
3. After Life
4. The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs
5. Satantango
6. Celine and Julie Go Boating
7. Memories of Murder
8. Devi
9. Nightmare Alley
10. Judas and the Black Messiah

Adam Reshotko’s two years of tunes for pandemic times

All Them Witches - Nothing As the Ideal
Belle & Sebastian - What to Look For In Summer
Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975
Angel Bat Dawid - Live
Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York
Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways
Goat - Headsoup
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead 50th Anniversary
Green Druid - At the Maw of Ruin
The Heliocentrics - Telemetric Sound
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Chunky Shrapnel
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
Phish - Sigma Oasis
John Prine - Crooked Piece of Time
Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future
Stereolab - Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol. 4)
Sun Ra - Egypt 1971
The Third Mind - The Third Mind
Fantastic Negrito - Have You Lost Your Mind Yet
Richard & Linda Thompson - Hard Luck Stories 1972-1982
Trees - Trees: 50th Anniversary Edition
Various Artists - Spiritual Jazz 13: NOW! (Parts 1 & 2)
Amy Winehouse - Live at the BBC
Neil Young - Way Down in the Rust Bucket
Frank Zappa - Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show

Hello, my name is Amy and these are my top things of 2021:

1. Skee Mask - Pool
2. Black Midi - Cavalcade
3. Senyawa - Alkisah
4. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth
5. Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix
6. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready
7. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time
8. Kessler - Ambivalent EP
9. Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - Made Out of Sound
10. Iglooghost - Lei Line Eon
11. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee AT STATES END!
12. Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders - Promises
13. Kučka - Wrestling
14. Ad Nauseum - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
15. Blanck Mass - In Femeaux
16. Turnstile - Glow On
17. Yu Su - Yellow River Blue
18. Ross From Friends - Tread
19. Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes
20. Panopticon - …And Again Into the Light
21. Leon Vynehall - Rare, Forever
22. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince
23. Andy Stott - Never the Right Time
24. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
25. Yves Tumor - The Asymptomatical World EP
26. Spelling - The Turning Wheel
27. Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés - Clamor
28. Papangu - Holoceno
29. Aesop Rock & Blockhead - Garbology
30. Ka - A Martyr’s Reward

Howdy! My name is Anna Lathem and these (in no particular order but kinda also a lil bit in a particular order) are my top things of 2021:

1. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary
2. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed
3. Durand Jones & the Indications - Private Space
4. Magic Castles - Sun Reign
5. Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers Sound
6. Yola - Stand For Myself
7. Valerie June - The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers
8. Brittany Howard - Jaime (Reimagined)
9. Curtis Harding - If Words Were Flowers
10. Olivia Rodrigo - Sour
11. Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic
12. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
13. The Killers – Pressure Machine
14. Electric Six – Streets of Gold
15. Hiatus Kaiyote – Mood Valiant
16. The Vaccines – Back in Love City
17. Parquet Courts – Sympathy for Life
18. Jose Gonzales – Local Honey
19. The Beatles – Let it Be 50th Anniversary
20. St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home
21. Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
22. Bo Burnham – Inside
23. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000
24. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color (Deluxe Edition)
25. Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Reissue)

Ben's Top Musical Items of 2021

1. Elton John - Regimental Sgt. Zippo (RSD reissue of 1968 album)
2. Wau Wau Collectif - Yaral Sa Doom
3. Bill Fay - Time Of The Last Persecution (UK RSD reissue)
4. El Michels Affair - Yeti Season
5. Tintern Abbey - Beeside - Complete Recordings (CD only)
6. Star Feminine Band - Star Feminine Band
7. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
8. Salah Ragab - Egypt Strut (RSD reissue)
9. Toumani Diabaté - Kôrôlén
10. Damon Albarn - The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows
11. Makaya McCraven – Deciphering the Message
12. Adele – 30
13. Tony Allen - There Is No End
14. Durand Jones & the Indications - Private Space
15. La Luz - La Luz
16. Imelda May - 11 Past The Hour
17. Pharoah Sanders & Floating Points - Promises
18. James Taylor - Dad Loves His Work (40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set with personalized welding gear)

My name is Blake Britton and this is a list of stuff I enjoyed this year.

Vinyl:
1. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So
2. El Michels Affair - Yeti Season
3. Orquesta Akokán - 16 Rayos
4. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises
5. The Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - Expansions
6. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
7. Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975
8. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
9. Museum of Love - Life of Mammals
10. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha


CD/digital:
1. Ilyas Ahmed & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - You Can See Your Own Way Out
2. Les Filles de Illighadad - At Pioneer Works
3. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince
4. Tony Allen - There Is No End
5. Skee Mask - Pool
6. Wau Wau Collectif - Yaral Sa Doom
7. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home
8. CHAI - WINK
9. Madlib - Sound Ancestors
10. The Velveteers - Nightmare Daydream


DVD/Blu-ray (not all of these are new, but they were new to me):
1. Rear Window (1954)
2. Touch of Evil (1958)
3. Love & Mercy (The Life, Love, and Genius of Brian Wilson) (2014)
4. Vampyr (1932)
5. タンポポ [Tampopo] (1985)
6. She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
7. El ángel exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (1962)
8. North by Northwest< (1959)
9. Born in Flames (1983)
10. Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)

Hello, my name is Brian Albright and these are my top things of 2021.

New Music:
1. Cheap Trick – In Another World
2. Steve Almaas – Everywhere You’ve Been
3. Los Lobos – Native Sons
4. Legal Matters – Chapter Three
5. Jesse Daniel – Beyond These Walls


Reissues/Collections:
1. Various Artists – Rockets of Love: Power Pop Gems
2. The dB’s – I Thought You Wanted To Know 1978-1981
3. The Beat Farmers – Tales of the New West - Deluxe
4. Tom Petty – Angel Dream
5. KISS – Destroyer 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe

Hello, my name is Brian W and these are my top things of 2021:

Not in any order:
Kikagaku Moyo - live at levitation
Menahan Street Band - exciting sounds
John Dwyer - endless garbage
Sonic Boom - almost nothing is nearly enough
Reining Sound - a little more time with
Magic Castles - sun reign
Night Beats - Outlaw R&B
Link Wray - Sings and Plays guitar
Murlocs - bittersweet demons
Monophonics - it’s only us
Rugged Nuggets - odds and ends
Amyl and the Sniffers - comfort to me
King Gizz - butterfly 3000
Jr. Thomas and the Volcanos - beware
Goat - headsoup
La luz - s/t
Orquesta Akokan - 16 rayos
Various - soul slabs vol. 3
Tony Allen - there is no end
King Woman - celestial blues (that’s for you Squirrel)


Reissues/Collections:
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Upsetters - return of django
Spiritualized - J. Spaceman reissue series
Digable Planets – reachin’
Frankie & the Witch Fingers - brain telephone
Kashmere Stage Band - our thing
BJM audiophile series continues….


Don’t hurt ‘em Steph.


Hello, my name is Chris Bjork and these are my top things of 2021:

1. Good Morning – Barnyard
2. Fleet Foxes – Shore
3. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Shyga! The Sunlight Mound
4. Black Midi – Calavcade
5. Meatbodies – 333
6. Let Your Hair Down – Waiting Room
7. Hoovenii – Water For the Frogs
8. Oriens Belte – Villa Amorini
9. Kit Sebastian – Melodi
10. Silver Synthetic – Silver Synthetic
11. Badbadnotgood – Talk Memory
12. Babe Rainbow – Changing Colours
13. Good Morning TV – Small Talk
14. The Murlocs – Bittersweet Dreams
15. Menahan Street Band – The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band
16. Triptides – Alter Echoes
17. Monophonics – It’s Only Us
18. Maston & L’Clair – Souvenir
19. Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band – Music Is Dead
20. Hello, I’m Sorry – Buddy


Hello, my name is Eric Curley and these are my top things of 2021:

1. Menahan Street Band - The Exciting Sounds Of (2/26)
2. Hail the Sun - New Age Filth (4/16)*
*---> Fun Fact: one of our former LA roommates is the bass player. :-)
3. The Black Keys - Delta Kream (5/14)
4. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000 (6/11)
5. Steve Gunn - Other You (8/27)
6. The Bronx - VI (8/27)
7. Various Artists - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo (10/1)
8. Between the Buried and Me - Colors II (10/8)
9. Every Time I Die - Radical (10/22)
10. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim (10/29)

Ethan’s Top albums/reissues (alphabetically by artist):

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - Expansions
Beatles – Let It Be (Super Deluxe)
dB’s – I Thought You Wanted To Know 1978-1981
El Michels Affair – Yeti Season
Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G-d’s Pee at State’s End
Steve Gunn – Other You
Idles - Crawler
Durand Jones & the Indications – Private Space
La Luz – La Luz
Menahan Street Band – The Exciting Sounds Of Menahan Street Band
Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything/Loveless/mbv Remasters
R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Remember Sports – Like a Stone
Replacements – Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash
40th Anniversary Remaster Rolling Stones – Tattoo You
(40th Anniversary super deluxe vinyl box, specifically) Spirit of the Beehive – ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH
Stereolab – Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol. 4)
Various – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live! At The Apollo
War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Lucinda Williams – Bob’s Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs


Movies I saw and liked (alphabetically by title)
Annette (Leos Carax)
Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) RELEASED IN U.S. THEATERS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021
Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain (Morgan Neville)


BEST SHOW I SAW: ROLLING STONES “NO FILTER” TOUR @ THE DOME AT AMERICA’S CENTER ST. LOUIS, MO on SEPTEMBER 26TH

Extra Kool’s Best of 2021 in no particular order:

Top 10 albums:
1. DJ Muggs – Dies Occidendum (my album of the year)
2. Atmosphere – Word?
3. Hide – Interior Terror
4. Dark Time Sunshine – Lore
5. Atmosphere – God’s Bathroom Floor 7”
6. Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
7. John Carpenter / Cody Carpenter – Halloween Kills
8. Digital Underground – Sex Packets (vinyl reissue)
9. Aesop Rock & Blockhead – Garbology
10. DJ Abilities – Photograph Phoenix


Top 12 Blu-rays:
1. Witching & Bitching
2. Elvira’s Haunted Hills
3. Scanner Cop 1&2 box set
4. Batman: The Long Halloween Parts 1&2
5. Born For Hell
6. Jakob’s Wife
7. The House on Sorority Row
8. Delirium
9. The Suicide Squad
10. The Day of the Beast
11. Saint Maud
12. Sacrifice

Hello, my name is Harrison Mains and these are my top things of 2021.

Vinyl
1. Backxwash – I Lie Here Buried With My Rings And My Dresses
2. Viagra Boys – Welfare Jazz
3. Kero Kero Bonito – Civilisation
4. Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic
5. Space Afrika – Honest Labor
6. Spellling – The Turning Wheel
7. Black Dresses – Forever In Your Heart
8. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
9. Sturgill Simpson – The Ballad of Dood and Juanita
10. Czarface & MF Doom – Super What?
11. Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort to Me


Hello, my name is Jack Brown and these are my top things of 2021.

1. Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
2. Porter Ricks – Porter Ricks
3. Menahan Street Band – The Exciting Sounds of
4. El Michels Affair – Yeti Season
5. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – Expansions
6. DJ Muggs – Dies Occidenium
7. Alan Vega – Mutator
8. Mort Garson – Music From Patch Cord
9. Seefeel – Rupt & Flex 94-96
10. Bug – Fire

Hello, my name is James Mabry and these are my top things of 2021.

CD:
1. Girl In Red – If I Could Make It Go Quiet
2. Paul Weller – Fat Pop
3. Chai – Wink
4. La Luz – La Luz
5. Devlon Lamarr Organ Trio – I Told You So


DVD/Blu-ray:
1. Summer of Soul
2. Sparks Brothers
3. Annette

Hello, my name is Jase Jones and these are my top things of 2021.

1. Shakey Graves – Roll the Bones X
2. Zeal and Ardor – Zeal and Ardor
3. Zero 7 – Shadows EP
4. The Drums – Portamento
5. Radiohead – Kid A Mnesia
6. Various Artists – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo
7. Madlib – Sound Ancestors
8. Madlib – Bad Neighbor
9. The Velveteers – Nightmare Daydream

Hello, my name is JEagle and I’m an alcoholic…. Er, sorry, wrong meeting. This is my favorite shit from 2021

New Albums
1. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders + the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises
2. Fire! – Defeat
3. Payroll Giovanni & Cardo – Another Day Another Dollar
4. Mike Lust – Demented Wings
5. Chris Corsano + Bill Orcutt – Made Out of Sound
6. The Flatlanders – Treasure of Love
7. Noga Erez – Kids
8. Reigning Sound – A Little More Time with Reigning Sound
9. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
10. Hayes Carll – You Get It All
11. Electric Boys – Upside Down
12. Flying Lotus – Yasuke
13. Poets of Rhythm – Discern/Define
14. L.A. Guns – Checkered Past
15. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
16. El Michels Affair – Yeti Season
17. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Carnage
18. Steve Roach + Serena Gabriel – Temple of the Melting Dawn
19. Whit Dickey, William Parker + Matthew Shipp – Village Mothership
20. Jim O’Rourke + Elliott Sharp – Sakuraza


Films
1. Nobody (Ilya Naishuller)
2. Dune (Denis Villeneuve)
3. No Sudden Move (Steven Soderbergh)
4. The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright)
5. Respect (Liesl Tommy)
6. Once Upon a Time in Queens (Nick Davis)
7. Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King)
8. The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes)
9. Pig (Michael Sarnoski)
10. Violet (Justine Bateman)


Hello, my name is Kevin McGrellis and these are my top things of 2021

1. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
2. Snail Mail – Valentine
3. Lingua Ignota – Sinner Get Ready
4. Nick Waterhouse – Promenade Blue
5. Buck Meek – Two Saviors
6. Patrick Paige II – If I Fail Are We Still Good?
7. Grouper – Shade
8. Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
9. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
10. Jon Hopkins – Music For Psychedelic Therapy

Hello, my name is Linden Jackson and these are my top things of 2020.

CD:
1. Turnstile – Glow On
2. Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort To Me
3. Every Time I Die – Radical
4. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
5. Poppy – Flux
6. The Bronx – Bronx VI
7. Manchester Orchestra – Million Masks of God
8. Idles – Crawler
9. Architects – For Those That Wish to Exist
10. Vaccines – Back in Love City

Hello, my name is Maggie and these are my top things of 2021.

Vinyl:
1. Nirvana – Nevermind 30th Anniversary Reissue
2. Lorde – Solar Power
3. Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain Reissue
4. PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea Reissue
5. ABBA – Voyage
6. Duran Duran – Future Past
7. Brandi Carlile – In These Silent Days
8. Adele – 30
9. Jackson Browne – Downhill From Everywhere

CD:
1. Original Soundtrack – The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film by Todd Haynes
2. Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version)

DVD/Blu-Ray:
1. The Night House (d. David Bruckner)
2. Old (d. M. Night Shyamalan)
3. Judas and the Black Messiah (d. Shaka King)
4. Malignant (d. James Wan)
5. The Green Knight (d. David Lowery)
6. Nomadland (d. Chloé Zhao)
7. Zola (d. Janicza Bravo)
8. Saint Maud (d. Rose Glass)
9. Spiral (d. Darren Lynn Bousman)
10. Candyman (d. Nia Da Costa)

Matt Spivack's 2021 Top 10 (in order of release)

CD/Vinyl:
Soen – Imperial – 01/29/21
Transatlantic – The Absolute Universe: Forevermore – 02/05/21
Black Midi – Cavalcade – 05/27/21
Neal Morse Band – Innocence & Danger – 08/27/21 CD – 09/17/21 Vinyl
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu – 09/03/21
Steve Hackett – Surrender of Silence – 09/10/21
Caravan – It's None of Your Business – 10/15/21 CD – 11/19/21 Vinyl
Dream Theater – A View From the Top of The World – 10/22/21
P. F. M. - I Dreamed of Electric Sheep – 10/22/21 CD – 11/12/21 Vinyl
Mastodon – Hushed & Grim – 10/29/21

Honorable Mention for Reissues:
Jethro Tull – A (A La Mode) 40th Anniversary Stereo/5.1 Remix by Steven Wilson
Jethro Tull – Benefit 50th Anniversary Stereo/5.1 Remix by Steven Wilson
Gentle Giant – Free Hand Stereo/5.1 Remix by Steven Wilson

Highly Anticipated 2022 Releases:
Porcupine Tree – Closure/Continuation – 06/24/22
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene – 01/28/22

Hello, my name is Max Kaufman and these are my top things of 2021.

Top 3 Albums of 2021 (in no order):
King Woman – Celestial Blues
Black Midi – Cavalcade
Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders – Promise

Other things that came out in 2021 that are amazing (in no order):
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
The Armed – Ultrapop
Carcass – Torn Arteries
Converge w/ Chelsea Wolfe & Stephen Brodsky – Bloodmoon:1
La Luz – La Luz
Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine of Hell
Xenia Rubinos – Una Rosa
Wau Wau Collectif – Yaral Sa Doom
Madlib – Sound Ancestors
Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
Porter Robinson – Nurture
Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic feat. Bruno Mars & Anderson.Paak
Vince Staples – Vince Staples
Injury Reserve – By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Viagra Boys – Welfare Jazz
Squid – Bright Green Field
Turntstile – Glow On
The Descendents – 9th & Walnut
Various Artists – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo
Jeff Rosenstock – Ska Dream

Reissues:
Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse
Bad Brains – Bad Brains & Pay to Cum 7”
KMD – Mr. Hood RSD tri-color vinyl
My Bloody Valentine – catalog The Mars Volta – Deloused in the Creamtorium(VMP version)

Favorite Movie of the Year:
Last Night in Soho – dir. Edgar Wright

Quinn Theis – List 2021

Flaco Jimenez - Los Recuerdos del Troquero
Vivien Goldman - Next is Now
Karen Black - Dreaming of You (1971-76)
Nas - King’s Disease II
Wau Wau Collectif - Yaral Sa Doom
Terravault - Terravault (cassette)
Shirley Collins - Crowlink
Gift of Gab - Finding Inspiration Somehow
Yves Tumor - The Asymptotical World
Carcass - Torn Arteries
Bill Fay/Steve Gunn - Dust Filled Room (single)
Esperanza Spalding - Triangle
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Live In Seattle
Deerhoof - Actually, You Can
Nubya Garcia - Source ⧺ We Move
Grouper - Shade
Xiu Xiu - Oh No
Georgia Anne Muldrow - VWETO III
William Parker - Migration Of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
Jane Birkin - O! Pardon tu dormais
Pharoah Sanders/Floating Points/LSO - Promises
Vijay Iyer Trio - Uneasy
Skee Mask - Pool
Kessler - Ambivalent
Roscoe Mitchell and Mike Reed - The Ritual and the Dance
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
St. Vincent - Daddy’s Home
John Prine - John Prine and Friends live at Newport Folk 2017
Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975
Tricky - Lonely Guest

Reggie's top ten 2021

1. Noga Erez – Kids 03/26/21
2. Royal Blood – Typhoons 04/30/21
3. El Michels Affair – Yeti Season 03/26/21
4. Sleigh Bells – Texis 10/08/21
5. Piroshka – Love Drips & Gathers 07/23/21
6. Marina – Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land 06/11/21
7. DJ Muggs – Dies Occidendum 03/12/21
8. Garbage – No Gods No Masters 06/11/21
9. Freezepop – Fantasizer 05/14/21
10. St. Vincent – Daddy's Home 05/14/21


* Hide – Interior Terror 06/04/21
* Jane Weaver – Flock 03/05/21
* Space Afrika – Honest Labour 08/27/21
* Anika – Change 07/23/21
* John Grant – Boy From Michigan 06/25/21

Steph’s 2021 Jams

Idles – Crawler
Bia – For Certain
Amyl and The Sniffers – Comfort to Me
The Alchemist – This Thing Of Ours
Mannequin Pussy – Perfect
Doja Cat – Planet Her
Madlib – Sound Ancestors
Kari Faux – Lowkey Superstar
Isaiah Rashad – The House Is Burning
Turnstile – Glow On
BADBADNOTGOOD – Talk Memory
Goat – Headsoup
Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
Angel Olsen – Aisles
The Velveteers – Nightmare Daydream
MIKE – Disco!
Vince Staples – Vince Staples
Mac Miller – Faces
Nightmares On Wax – Shout Out! To Freedom…
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Thursday, February 11, 2021

2021 - It’s a start.

Hi everybody. I hope you all fare well. Things at Twist And Shout are pretty good. We have stuck with our safety measures and as a result we have gotten through three major national peaks with nobody on our staff getting sick. I’m so pleased with this. It was my most fervent desire that customers and employees remain safe above all else. Happily, business has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, even with the limited capacity shopping. You, our beloved community of music-lovers, have figured out the rules and just gone about your music-loving ways. We are all so grateful for you patronage and friendship. In spite of the fact that we could be doing much more business if we’d just throw open the doors and damn the torpedoes, that’s not what’s going to happen. We will continue with this course until we as a staff feel that it is safe to do otherwise. Things are starting to look better, locally and nationally, but we have learned that relaxing regulations has resulted in explosive growth. This time it’s a little different, because we (thankfully) have vaccines nipping at the heels of this damn disease. So, the end of this hell is in sight, but we are going to wait a bit longer before we start the party. Maybe this year’s Record Store Day - Saturday June 12th - will signal the return to our old lives - we’ll see. Until then let’s stay safe everybody!

I believe we will all be permanently changed by the events of the last year. I know I will. Here are two reasons. Many customers continue to ask me about ‘Stereo Pete.” Pete Fassoulis, also known as Peter Fast and Stereo Pete, passed away two nights ago. He had been struggling with a terrible disease called PSP for a few years. Pete was one of my best friends and a building block in the Twist And Shout story. Years ago, I did a Fred Neil radio special on KGNU in Boulder. The next day a guy came into the store and said “Are you the guy who did the Fred Neil special?” I was, and it was the beginning of a long friendship. We bonded over music. Pete lived for music. He was such a true believer. He had moved to New Orleans for a number of years so he could be closer to the source. He lived his life without fear or artifice. He didn’t care about being cool, or rich, or with it - he was just Pete, a guy who loved music, fixed stereos and made life more interesting for others. Pete would eventually become the stereo fixit guy for Twist And Shout, building a loyal clientele of old-school hi-fi nuts who trusted Pete to diagnose and fix their sound woes. For me, the important thing was that I got to eat lunch at El Taco De Mexico with a great friend every Saturday for over a decade. Oh man did we laugh. I will miss Pete for the rest of my life.

Hard to believe someone could be even more important to me, but on January 25th I also lost my Mother, Miriam Epstein. She was 99 and succumbed to COVID 19. It was awful. The last year has been so hard. I haven’t been able to hold her hand and comfort her in the last year of her life. I felt so helpless. Any good thing about me came from my Mother. She taught me to not judge people, but find the good in them. She was incredibly proud of Twist And Shout and never wavered in her support of me. Over the years, I’ve seen how debilitating a bad parent can be to people. When I think about my life, the one overriding truth is that a good Mother can set one up for a good life. I had the best Mother. The best! Here’s a picture of my Mother, my wife Jill (right) and my sister-in-law Peggy. Three women I love!

I wish you all the best. Hold on to your favorite records and hold on to those that you love.
Paul Epstein