Thursday, December 4, 2025

Twist & Shout Staff Picks: The Best of 2025

Hey there, my name is Patrick and these are my faves of 2025.


Music:
1. Mekons – Horror
2. Various Artists – Notes From the Underground Vol. 2: Denver
3. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner – The Music of Anthony Braxton
4. Lambrini Girls – Who Let the Dogs Out
5. Amanda Shires – Nobody’s Girl
6. Todd Snider – High, Lonesome and Then Some.
7. Swans – Birthing
8. Myra Melford with Michael Formanek and Ches Smith – Splash
9. Superchunk – Songs in the Key of Yikes
10. Fieldwork – Thereupon
11. The Mountain Goats – Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
12. Mdou Moctar – Tears of Injustice
13. The Ex – If Your Mirror Breaks
14. Marshall Allen – New Dawn
15. Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu Plays Mulatu

Movies on Blu-ray:
1. Él (Criterion)
2. Killer Of Sheep (Criterion)
3. Night Moves (Criterion)
4. No Home Movie (Icarus)
5. Babe / Babe: Pig In The City (Kino)
6. Winchester '73 (Criterion)
7. Hard Boiled (dlx) (Shout Factory)
8. Shrouds (Janus Contemporaries)
9. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Criterion)
10. Born In Flames (Criterion)
11. The Cat (88 Films)
12. Park Lanes (Second Run)
13. Sorcerer (Criterion)
14. He Who Gets Slapped (Flicker Alley)
15. Je t'aime, je t'aime (Radiance)
16. Inside The Mind Of Coffin Joe (Arrow box set)


Hey there, my name is Abbey and these are my top things of 2025.


Vinyl:
1. Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend
2. Ashnikko – Smoochies
3. Ariana Grande / Cynthia Erivo – Wicked: For Good
4. The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow
5. Lady Gaga – Mayhem
6. Kali Uchis – Sincerely
7. Renee Rapp – Bite Me
8. Cardi B – Am I the Drama?

Movies:
1. Sinners
2. Wicked: For Good
3. The Monkey
4. The Conjuring: Last Rites
5. Mickey 17
6. Final Destination: Bloodlines


Hey there, my name is Adam and these are my faves of 2025.


the usual semi-eclectic mix of old and new.

1. BEAT – Neon Heat Disease: Live in Los Angeles
2. Chicago Underground Duo – Hyperglyph
3. Cymande – Cymande (reissue)
4. Alabaster DePlume – A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole
5. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration (and various other reissues)
6. Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol.18: Through the Open Window
7. Geese – Getting Killed
8. Grateful Dead – Blues for Allah (50th Anniversary)
9. Guerilla Toss – You're Weird Now
10. Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon
11. Hüsker Dü – 1985: The Miracle Year
12. Makaya McCraven – Off the Record
13. Osees – Abomination Revealed At Last
14. Pavement – Pavements OST
15. Phish – LP on LP 05/06
16. Pink Floyd – Pink Floyd at Pompeii
17. Prince – Around the World in a Day (deluxe reissue)
18. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief Live Recordings
19. Gwenifer Raymond – Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
20. Rose City Band – Sol y sombra
21. Say She She – Cut & Rewind
22. Slowdive – Souvlaki (reissue)
23. SML – How You Been
24. Stereolab – Instant Holograms on Metal Film
25. The Third Mind – Right Now!
26. Tortoise – Touch
27. Various – Roots Rocking Zimbabwe (Analog Africa No.41)
28. Various – Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain
29. Frank Zappa – One Size Fits All (50th Anniversary)


Hey there, my name is Amy and these are my top sounds of 2025.


1. Huremic – Seeking Darkness
2. Erika De Casier – Lifetime
3. Djrum – Under Tangled Silence
4. Gyrofield – Suspension of Belief (EP)
5. BRUIT ≤ – The Age of Epheremality
6. Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
7. Snakes With Human Traits – Found Myself Here
8. Tropical Fuck Storm – Fairyland Codex
9. TRAKA – Aptid
10. Geese – Getting Killed
11. 256 Pi – Real Life and Postcard Use
12. Sudan Archives – THE BPM
13. FKA Twigs – Eusexua
14. Dijon – Baby
15. Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound
16. Cosmic Ear – Traces
17. Daniel Brandt – Without Us
18. Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
19. Deftones – Private Music
20. YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds
21. Nourished By Time – The Passionate Ones
22. Snakes With Human Traits – Sun’s In My Eyes
23. Julek ploski – Give Up Channel
24. Jefre Cantu-Ledesema – Gift Songs
25. Maruja – Tír na nÓg
26. SY/N – Life Anew
27. Hesse Kassel – La Brea
28. Pink Siifu – BLACK’!ANTIQUE
29. FKA Twigs – Eusexua Afterglow
30. Dean Blunt & Elias Ronnenfelt – Lucre (EP)


Howdy! My name is Anna Lathem and these are my top albums of 2025… In no particular order, but also kinda a little bit in a particular order.


Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
Taylor Swift – The Life of a Showgirl
Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
Lady Gaga – Mayhem
Lorde – Virgin
Durand Jones & the Indications – Flowers
Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter
Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend
CMAT – Euro-Country
Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving
Prince and the Revolution – Around The World In A Day (40th Anniversary Edition)


blake britton - 2025


1. chime oblivion - chime oblivion
2. sudan archives - the b.p.m.
3. clipse - let god sort ‘em out
4. kali malone & drew mcdowell – magnetism
5. brìghde chaimbeul – sunwise
6. joshua redman - words fall short
7. geese - getting killed
8. wednesday – bleeds
9. lael neale - altogether stranger
10. fka twigs - eusexua


Hey there, my name is Brian A and these are my faves of 2025.


1. Superchunk – Songs in the Key of Yikes
2. John Howie – The Return Of…
3. The Beths – Straight Line Was A Lie
4. L.A. Witch – Doggod
5. Sloan – Based On The Best Seller
6. Lightheaded – Thinking Dreaming Scheming
7. Jesse Daniel – Son Of The San Lorenzo
8. The Minus 5 – Oar On, Penelope!
9. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska ‘82
10. Various Artists – I Wanna Be A Teen Again: American Power Pop 1980-1989


Ahoy-hoy, this is B-Y with the things that have been sizzlin' the skillet in '25...


1. Raveonettes – Pe'Ahi II
2. Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives – Space Junk
3. Les Big Byrd – Kattguld-Pnkslm Singles Volume 1
3. All Seeing Dolls – Parallel
4. Tappa Zukie – In Dub
5. Babe Rainbow – Slipper Imp & Shakaerator
6. Nils Frahm – Paris
7. Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
8. Dead Meadow – Voyager To Voyager
9. The Hives – The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives
10. Liminanas – Faded
11. Osees – Abomination Revealed At Last
12. Neil Young – Oceanside Countryside
13. Public Enemy – Black Sky Over The Projects: Apartment 2025
14. Barrington Levy – Bounty Hunter
15. Frankie & The Witch Fingers – Trash Classic
16. Clarence White – Melodies From A Byrd In Flyte: 1963-1973
17. Adrian Sherwood – Collapse Of Everything
18. King Gizz – Phantom Island
19. Third Mind – Right Now!
20. Sessa – Pequena Vertigem De Amor
21. Nils Frahm – Night
22. Adrian Quesada – Vol.2 Boleros Psicodelico
23. Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts – Talkin' To The Trees
24. L.A. Witch – Doggod
25. Slick Rick – Victory

To the Hound, The Squirrel and The Sparrow - Jeg elsker dere, fortsett a rocke og rulle!!!!


Hey there. I’m Chris Bjork and this is a list of my top 10 favorite albums that came out this year. 2025 was packed with lots of superb music so it was a little tough in narrowing it down, but that is a good thing. The top 3 is in order and then in no particular order after that. 😊


1. Artist: Goon     Album: Dream 3
2. Artist: Biche     Album: B.I.C.H.E
3. Artist: Freckle     Album: Freckle

Artist: Spilly Cave     Album: Sixty-Four
Artist: Triptides     Album: Shapeshifter
Artist: Thee Oh Sees     Album: ABOMONATION REVEALED AT LAST
Artist: Population ii     Album: Maintenant Jamais
Artist: Teen Mortgage     Album: Devil Ultrasonic Dream
Artist: Cory Hanson     Album: I Love People
Artist: Leo Blomov     Album: Blomovinho


Hi, my name is Chris McLaughlin and these are my top albums of the year.
My buddy and I have a thing where every time we are trying to introduce one another to a band we ask “Three word description?” From that you choose three words that you feel encapsulate the sound of the record. I will do the same for you all here, but I cheat cause 3 words is never enough. Note: FFO = For Fans Of


1. Ditz - Never Exhale
Atmospheric, groovy, quiet/loud. Genre: Post punk/post hardcore. FFO: Model/Actriz, Disappears

2. YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds
Dizzying, strange, DRUUUUUMS. Genre: Uhhhh idk, noise rock/experimental? FFO: Battles, Death Grips

3. Little Barrie and Malcom Catto - Electric War
Snakey, tasteful, immaculate guitar work. Genre: Krautrock/psych rock. FFO: CAN, Neu

4. TRAKA - APTD
Dark, mechanical, inhuman. Genre: Dubstep (but good)/Drum&bass. FFO: JK Flesh, Burial

5. Sudan Archives - The BPM
Sensual, playful, DANCEFUL. Genre: Neo soul/Deep house. FFO: FKA Twigs, Santigold

6. Good Morning - The Accident
Sweet, warm, youthful. Genre: indie rock/slacker rock. FFO: Mac Demarco, Kurt Vile

7. Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound
Dissonant, melancholic, chaotic. Genre: Blackgaze/sad ppl shit. FFO: Deafheaven, Oathbreaker

8. Cosmic Ear - Traces
Cinematic, sprawling, improvisational. Genre: Free jazz/jazz odyssey. FFO: Ornette Coleman, Lounge Lizards

9. Mambele - BAOBAB
Sunshine-y, funky, Africa. Genre: Beat tape/afro-everything. FFO: Baaba Maal, Francis Bebey

10. Puce Moment - Sans Soleil
Foreboding, lonely, meditative. Genre: Japanese horror/dark ambient. FFO: Akira Yamaoka, The Haxan Cloak


Hello, Denver! My name is Eric, and despite the state of the world right now, it was still a great year for music. Here are 30 of my favorite music releases from 2025:


1. Rose City Band: Sol Y Sombra (1/24)
2. The Motet: Love Time (1/14)
3. Cymande: Renascence (1/31)
4. moe.: Circle Of Giants (1/31)
5. Phish: LP on LP Vol. 5 & 6 [vinyl] (2/7)
6. Sure Fire Soul Ensemble: Gemini (3/28)
7. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Death Hilarious (4/4)
8. Dead Meadow: Warble Womb (4/22)
9. Femi Kuti: Journey Through Life (4/25)
10. Goose: Everything Must Go (4/25)
11. Pelican: Flickering Resonance (5/16)
12. Stereolab: Instant Holograms On Metal Film (5/23)
13. Black Moth Super Rainbow: Soft New Magic Dream (6/6)
14. Frankie & The Witch Fingers: Trash Classic (6/6)
15. North Mississippi Allstars: Still Shakin' (6/6)
16. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island (6/13)
17. Steve Gunn: Music For Writers (8/15)
18. Deftones: private music (8/22)
19. Phish: The Siket Disc [vinyl] (9/5)
20. Say She She: Cut & Rewind (10/3)
21. Tame Impala: Deadbeat (10/17)
22. Hail The Sun: cut. turn. fade. back. (10/24)
23. Seefeel: Pure Impure (Expanded EPs Edition) (10/24)
24. Tortoise: Touch (10/24)
25. Steve Gunn: Daylight Daylight (11/7)
26. Phish: Slip, Stitch & Pass [vinyl] (11/7)
27. Antibalas: Hourglass (11/21)
28. Phish: Undermind [vinyl] (11/21)
29. Snarky Puppy w/ Metropole Orkest: Somni [vinyl] (11/21)
30. Umphrey’s McGee: Blueprints (11/21)


Hi, I'm Ethan Griggs, I am JustOneGuy™, and here is my alphabetically organized B/O 2025 list:


Antibalas - Hourglass
Ata Kak - Batakari
Ms Ezra Furman - Goodbye Small Head
Alex G - Headlights
Geese - Getting Killed
Guerilla Toss - You're Weird Now
Cory Hanson - I Love People
Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
Jenny Hval - Iris Silver Mist
Lady Gaga - MAYHEM
Kendrick Lamar - GNX (came out right after last year's list was due)
MIKE - Showbiz!
Nation of Language - Dance Called Memory
Oneohtrix Point Never - Tranquilizer
Osees - ABOMINATION REVEALED AT LAST
Panda Bear - Sinister Grift
Adrian Quesada - Boleros psicodélicos II
Rosalía - LUX
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Sudan Archives - The BPM
Tame Impala - Deadbeat
Water From Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place
Wet Leg - moisturizer
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal (came out after last year's list was due)
Wolf Alice - The Clearing

Reissues:
Ata Kak - Obaa Sima (remastered CD reissue)
Cymande - Cymande (remastered CD reissue)
Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly (remastered reissue)
Sly & the Family Stone - The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967
Yo La Tengo - Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo (LP reissue)


Hi, my name is Jon Linskey, and these are my top things of 2025:


CD:
1 - Daniel Avery - Tremor
2 - Oneohtrix Point Never - Tranquilizer
3 - Sectra - Through The Static
4 - Cronos Compulsion - Lawgiver
5 - Primitive Man - Observance
6 - Author & Punisher - Nocturnal Birding
7 - Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out
8 - Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo 2
9 - Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love
10 - Adrian Sherwood - The Collapse of Everything

Vinyl:
1 - Sister Nancy - One, Two (LONG Overdue Reissue)
2 - Starkey - Vacuum State
3 - GDP & Fatboi Sharif - Endocrine
4 - Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves
5 - Mike Jones - Who Is Mike Jones? (Reissue)
6 - Eightball & MJG - On Top Of The World (Reissue)
7 - Sophie - Oil Of Every Pearls Un-Insides (Reissue)
8 - Intensive Care & The Body - Was I Good Enough?
9 - Commodo & Gantz - 89! Gloom
10 - Burial - Comafields / Imaginary Festival

Movies:
1 - The Thing (Universal 4k)
2 - Shin Godzilla (Shout Factory 4k)
3 - Spawn (Arrow 4k)
4 - The Mask (Arrow 4k)
5 - The Cat (88 Films 4k)
6 - Yongary (Vinegar Syndrome 4k)
7 - Until The Light Takes Us (Factory 25 Blu Ray)
8 - Dirty Work (Vinegar Syndrome 4k)
9 - Prophecy (Kino Lorber 4k)
10 - 964 Pinocchio (Media Blasters 4k)


Hey there, my name is Josh and these are my faves of 2025.


CD:
1. Fib – Heavy Lifting
2. Shox – Shox
3. Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place
4. Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon
5. Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
6. Dutch Interior – Moneyball
7. Guided By Voices – Universe Room
8. Bonnie Prince Billy – Purple Bird
9. Wombo – Danger In Fives
10. Barbara – So This Is Living

Vinyl:
1. Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place
2. Shox – Shox
3. Barbara – So This Is Living
4. Packaging – Packaging
5. Bonnie Prince Billy – Purple Bird
6. Guided By Voices – Universe Room
7. Dutch Interior – Moneyball
8. Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
9. Hotline TNT – Raspberry Moon
10. Wombo – Danger In Fives

Movies:
1. Friendship
2. One Battle After Another
3. Weapons
4. Frankenstein
5. Highest To Lowest
6. The Men In My Basement
7. Conjuring IV
8. Sinners
9. The Substance
10. Roofman


Hey there, my name is Keegan and these are my faves of 2025.


Vinyl:
1. Kenny Barron – Sunset To Dawn
2. Beta Band – Three E.P.s
3. Pharoah Sanders – Izipho Zam (My Gifts)
4. Scratch Acid – Box Set
5. Andrew Hill – Andrew!!!
6. Grachan Moncur III – Some Other Stuff
7. Sam Rivers – A New Conception
8. Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
9. Descendents – Milo Goes To College
10. Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain

Movies:
1. Wages of Fear
2. Sorcerer
3. Straight, No Chaser
4. Punch-Drunk Love
5. Creepshow 2
6. Carlito’s Way
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. Drugstore Cowboy
9. Night Moves
10. Full Metal Jacket


Hey there, my name is Maggie and this is my favorite stuff of 2025.


Music
1. Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
2. Lorde – Virgin
3. Wednesday – Bleeds
4. Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl
5. Chameleons - Arctic Moon

Movies
1. Frankenstein (d. Guillermo del Toro)
2. Caught Stealing (d. Darren Aronofsky)
3. Eddington (d. Ari Aster)
4. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (d. Mary Bronstein)
5. Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (d. Bruce David Klein)
6. Bugonia (d. Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Together (d. Michael Shanks)
8. Mickey 17 (d. Bong Joon-ho)
9. The Phoenician Scheme (d. Wes Anderson)
10. Weapons (d. Zach Cregger)
11. The Long Walk (d. Francis Lawrence)
12. Friendship (d. Andrew DeYoung)
13. One Battle After Another (d. Paul Thomas Anderson)
14. The Shrouds (d. David Cronenberg)
15. Sinners (d. Ryan Coogler)
16. Bring Her Back (d. Danny & Michael Philippou)
17. Presence (d. Steven Soderbergh)
18. The Smashing Machine (d. Benny Safdie)
19. Companion (d. Drew Hancock)
20. Roofman (d. Derek Cianfrance)


Hi there my name is Molly and these are my top things of 2025


Albums
1. Sudan Archives - THE BPM
2. FKA TWIGS – Eusexua
3. Ata Kak – Batakari
4. Pink Lady Monster - Ponk (local)
5. Patrick Cowley - Hard Ware
6. Sextile - Yes, Please
7. Madonna - Veronica Electronica
8. Brutalismus 3000 - Goodbye Salo The Remixes
9. Rosalia – Lux
10. Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys
11. Supreme Joy - 410,757,864,530 Dead Carps (local)
12. Hunx & His Punx - Walkout on this World
13. Pixel Grip - Percepticide: The Death of Reality
14. Rico Nasty – Lethal
15. CMAT - Euro-Country
16. Lady Gaga – Mayhem
17. Wednesday – Bleeds
18. Kathryn Mohr - Waiting Room
19. Model/Actriz – Pirouette
20. Baxter Dury – Allbarone
21. Neko Case - Neon Grey Midnight Green
22. Air - Virgin Suicides Redux
23. FKA TWIGS - Eusexua Afterglow

DVD RELEASES
1. The Substance
2. Bottoms
3. Weapons
4. Eyes Without a Face (criterion release)
5. Chungking Express (criterion release)


Quinn’s 19 new albums I listened to, mostly on the highway:


Pink Siifu - BLACK’!ANTIQUE
Jonathan Richman - Only Frozen Sky Anyway
Adrian Sherwood - The Collapse of Everything
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore - Lost In The Crowd
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Bonnie Prince Billy - The Purple Bird
Kelela - In The Blue Light (Live at The Blue Note, mentions while onstage having seen Amel Larrieux at the same venue and calls her a “legend”)
Little Simz - Lotus
Cory Hanson - “I Love People”
Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out
Huremic - Seeking Darkness
Marshall Allen - New Dawn
Myra Melford with Michael Formanek and Ches Smith - Splash
Geese - Getting Killed
Rico Nasty - Lethal
Pulp - More
YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds
Squid - Cowards


Hello my name is Reggie and these are my faves of 2025


1  Brutalismus 3000  Goodbye Salo  04/04/25
2  Patriarchy  Manual For Dying  11/05/25
3  Pixel Grip  Percepticide: The Death Of Reality  10/17/25
4  Lady Gaga  Mayhem  03/07/25
5  Sextile  Yes, Please  05/02/25
6  Kap Bambino  No Domination  03/14/25
7  Marina  Princess Of Power  06/27/25
8  Kneecap  O.S.T.  02/28/25
9  Model/Actriz  Pirouette  05/02/25
10  Debby Friday  Starrr Of The Queen Of Life  08/01/25
*  Sleigh Bells  Bunky Becky Birthday  05/09/25
*  Garbage  Let All That We Imagine Be The Light  05/30/25
*  Alison Goldfrapp  Flux  08/15/25
*  Heartworms  Glutton For Punishment  02/07/25
*  Sudan Archives  The BPM  10/17/25
*  Aya  Hexed!  05/23/25


hi! i'm robin and these are my favorite things of 2025 in no particular order :)


- chat pile & hayden pedigo - in the earth again
- wednesday - bleeds
- agriculture - the spiritual sound
- ethel cain - perverts
- ichiko aoba - luminescent creaturesneve
- deafheaven - lonely people with power
- cameron winter - heavy metal
- backxwash - only dust remains
- ragana & drowse - ash souvenir
- haley heynderickx & max garcia conover - what of our nature
- spellling - portrait of my heart
- black country, new road - forever howlong
- planning for burial - it's closeness, it's easy
- bon iver - sable, fable
- viagra boys - viagr aboys
- model/actriz - pirouette
- swans - birthing
- ethel cain - willoughby tucker, i'll always love you
- geese - getting killed
- adrianne lenker - live at revolution hall
- big thief - double infinity
- la dispute - no one was driving the car
- anna von hausswolff - iconoclasts
- danny brown - stardust


Hi there! My name is Sam Seymour and these are my top albums of 2025:


Wednesday - Bleeds
Wet Leg - moisturize
Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars
Greg Freeman - Burnover
They Are Gutting a Body of Water - Lotto
Geese - Getting Killed
Royel Otis - Hickey
The Velveteers - A Million Knives
Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon
Tiny Tomboy - Psychic Scar
Coral Grief - Air Between Us
Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place
Quinn Cicala - Gold
The Beths - Straight Line Was a Lie
Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
Benjamin Booker - Lower
Bartees Strange - Horror
Barbara - So This Is Living
Alex G - Headlights
Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky
Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up
Sprints - All That is Over
Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On
Perfume Genius - Glory
Blondshell - If You Asked For a Picture
Dijon - Baby
Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
Sir Chloe - Swallow the Knife
Rocket - R is For Rocket


Hello my name is Scott and these are my top 30 VINYLS/Albums of 2025


1. MIKE – SHOWBIZ
2. Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
3. Hayden Pedigo – I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away
4. Armand Hammer – Mercy
5. Cory Hanson – I Love People
6. Wednesday – Bleeds
7. Billy Woods – Golliwog
8. Earl Sweatshirt – Live Laugh Love
9. Open Mike Eagle – Neighborhood Gods Unlimited
10. Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
11. YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds
12. Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes
13. Frog – 1000 Variations On The Same Song
14. Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
15. Winter – Adult Romantix
16. Buddy Ross – K Were Here
17. Mountain Goats – Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
18. Water From Your Eyes – It’s A Beautiful Place
19. Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film
20. Freddie Gibbs &The Alchemist – Alfredo 2
21. Tyler The Creator – Don’t Tap The Glass
22. Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out
23. Viagra Boys – Viagr Aboys
24. S.G. Goodman – Planting By The Signs
25. Lucy Dacus – Forever Is A Feeling
26. Bruiser Wolf – Potluck
27. Horsegirl – Phonetics On And On
28. Cheekface – Middle Spoon
29. The Beths – Straight Line Was A Lie
30. Friendship – Caveman Wakes Up

Thursday, September 11, 2025

John Prine – Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings (Oh Boy Records, 1995, expanded reissue 2025)

             30 years ago (can it really be that long?) John Prine released one of his best-ever albums, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. I remember at the original Twist & Shout location on South Pearl Street that we needed to order and re-order the album because Prine was definitively back with this album. But where had he even gone? Nowhere really – he just kept being himself and releasing album after album of good-to-great material from his classic 1971 debut John Prine (which every single time we play it here people ask if it’s a Best Of record) right on up to 1991’s excellent The Missing Years. There were hiccups, sure – a longer gap than usual after he left Atlantic in 1975 before his 1978 Asylum debut, then another pause after three albums for Asylum, deciding he wanted to control his own fate and founding his own label Oh Boy, where he put out every album he made for the rest of his life at his own pace.

After the first two albums on Oh Boy did reasonably well – artistically great, but not as commercially kick-ass as he wanted – Prine waited nearly five years to start a new album. He discussed the idea with his then-manager of enlisting fan Howie Epstein, of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, to produce a new album and Epstein enthusiastically dove in, bringing half of the Heartbreakers with him (and Petty himself – along with a slew of other famous Prine fans – to sing backing vocals). The result, The Missing Years, a great collection of songs that’s undergirded by his divorce that happened in the interim – check “All the Best” for possibly the kindest and yet most final separation songs you’ll ever hear. And many said between a five-year absence and a saved-up batch of great tunes that Prine was “back” with this album, with critic David Fricke even noting later that he felt the songs were the equal of those on John Prine. I think it’s great, but not quite John Prine – after all, what is? Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings is, that’s what is.

            For me, this one’s hands-down the best one since his debut. It doesn’t hurt that it’s the first Prine album I really dug into – this is the one that got me into the debut rather than the other way around – but I think back to all those folks making us need to reorder box after box of the album and I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks it’s in the upper echelon of his catalog. There was a Christmas album in the interim and a great two-disc collection for the CD era to catch people up – that probably helped boost this one too – but it’s really boosted by the songs. Second time out, Epstein and Benmont Tench have really dialed in their work with Prine, and Epstein knows how push Prine in just the right direction to decorate the album with hooks. Take “Lake Marie,” which became a concert staple performed in (I believe) every single live show I saw from Prine afterward, or “Ain't Hurtin' Nobody,” a (slightly) more grown-up version of the debut’s “Illegal Smile.” Check the way his divorce still haunts him seven years later on “Humidity Built the Snowman” – and probably the way “Day Is Done” and “This Love is Real” announce his burgeoning relationship with his new manager Fiona Whelan, who’d be named Fiona Prine by the end of 1996. Revel in his goofy sense of humor bordering on the surreal on “Leave the Lights On” and “He Forgot That It Was Sunday,” and his jabs at the overwhelmingly consumerist world on “Quit Hollerin’ At Me.” Enjoy guests from Marianne Faithfull to Waddy Wachtel livening up their respective bits. Enjoy the bonus tracks, five alternate versions and the completely prev-unrel “Hey Ah Nothin”  on the deluxe CD reissue. And I’ll leave the rest of the discovery to you. Top to bottom, he doesn’t have a better album. You ain’t gonna catch me saying this is his best, I swear, because the debut and maybe the next one, In Spite of Ourselves, are basically just as good, but neither one is better than this.

-          Patrick Brown

Thursday, August 7, 2025

RSD SUMMER CAMP 2025


           
Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr.
Every year at the absolute hottest time of year, hundreds of indie record store folks from the around the country – and sometimes the world – descend on New Orleans’ French Quarter for the annual “RSD Summer Camp” a conference of independent record stores, indie and major labels, artists, and vendors. These are the people who came up with the idea of Record Store Day and have guided it throughout its existence based on what we’ve observed that works (or doesn’t!) and on feedback from customers about both the event and what works in stores throughout the year. Every year we come away brimming with ideas from the dozens of great record stores we get to hang with there – in the conference rooms, around the hotel, and less officially, out and about over dinners and drinks in the Quarter and elsewhere in the Big Easy. We always come home exhausted (and full) from the long days, but it’s worth it every time. If anything, I wish it could be longer – there’s never enough time with the folks we really want to hang with, meet new folks, and get actual face time with our industry partners; before we know it it’s Friday and we’re on a plane back home.

Pre-dinner at Etolie
This year was something special because the coalition of stores that Twist & Shout is part of, the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) celebrated their 30th anniversary (in style, I might add!). CIMS was formed in a very different time, 1995, when a group of like-minded stores fought with the industry at large against things like Best Buy’s loss-leadering of CDs, huge chain stores receiving special discounted pricing and exclusive products, and the like – with chain stores often cashing in on artists who broke through at our stores. CIMS consists of some of the best record stores in the country: Waterloo Records in Austin, Music Millennium in Portland, Record Archive in Rochester, Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, and many more (you can see the full list of their amazing stores and find out more about them HERE). As the retail landscape has changed, the stores of CIMS have continued to modify our approaches to whatever challenges the industry tossed up, with one of the chief successes being the Record Store Day event itself. But CIMS alone didn’t do this – within a few years of CIMS forming, another coalition sprung up: the Dept. of Record Stores (DORS - featuring such heavies as Bull Moose in the northeast, Graywhale in SLC, Reckless in Chicago, Zia in the southwest, and others which you can find the details for HERE) appeared to do work in a similar vein. Soon after followed the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS – with Atlanta’s Criminal Records, Austin’s End of an Ear, Grimey’s in Nashville, Seasick in Birmingham, and of course many more which you can learn more about HERE), furthering the spread of the seed that CIMS planted that although all the independent stores in the country retain their own identity, we are all working toward the same goals. Flash forward to 2021, when another coalition joined into the fray – 
Candid group pic
Forever A Music Store (FAMS), focusing on Black-owned music stores like DBS Sounds outside  Atlanta, Offbeat in Jackson MS, VIP Records in Long Beach, and of course, many more (details HERE again). All these stores ultimately chose to invite non-coalition stores into the mix too – again, affiliated or no, we’re all working toward the same goal and as part of the same industry.

If there’s one thing that’s clear to me every time we go to this, it’s this: each of these stores retain their own personality, their own flavor, reflecting the tastes and interests of the owners and staff of course, but also of the region and the customers. We’re all different, but all ultimately engaged in the same kind of community-oriented efforts to connect with customers over a shared love of music and culture in a personal and direct way in an increasingly mechanized and dissociative world. Music and art heal and sustain us all, and THAT is what independent record stores bring you, and that goes for all the stores mentioned above as well as every indie store here in Denver and beyond – Wax Trax, Black & Read, Chain Reaction, Angelo’s, Invincible Vinyl, Drop To Pop, Recollect, City Records, Sold Out, Records On Main, and outside of the metro area Paradise Found in Boulder, Leech Pit in the Springs, Absolute Vinyl in Longmont, All Sales and Driver 8 and Bizarre Bazaar in Fort Collins, and so on. We’re all working different facets of the same goal – keeping our communities less homogenized, unique, and locally-focused. It’s always flowing through my mind when people ask me if I’m concerned about the number of other stores in town, to which I always answer “No, the more the merrier – every one that opens is good for the health of the independent music industry and culture.”

Pool of Hotel Monteleone

So it was incredibly validating this year at Summer Camp to be shown this reel, from Ben at YELLOW RACKET RECORDS in Chattanooga TN, putting the words that have long bounced around my head on the topic into a fantastic short reel on the subject, which you can watch in-full HERE. Go visit them if you’re passing through Chattanooga and say hi to Ben and tell him you saw his video. Check out all these Coalition sites and see where the best indie stores are wherever you’re traveling. Do a quick online search anyway even if you don’t see one in a coalition, because there are an estimated 1500 independent record shops in the U.S. alone, there’s almost certainly one nearby, and they’re all worth visiting to help keep the uniqueness of our cities alive. And with the current construction along the Colfax corridor wreaking havoc on many small businesses, this is on my mind a lot these days – keep this principle in mind as you consider who you’re supporting in every realm, not just record stores. Shopping local makes a difference in the makeup of the landscape and keeps our city, and every city, more interesting places to live, work, and have fun.