I know D’Angelo’s new record is coming out Tuesday, but–I’ve waited for him long enough already.
(Above: The sleeper of the bunch….)
Top 10 Rekkids
- Wussy: Attica! (Shake It!)
- Allen Lowe: Mulatto Radio–Field Recordings 1-4 (allenlowe.com)
- D’Angelo and The Vanguard: Black Messiah (RCA)
- Chris Butler: Easy Life (Future Fossil)
- Run The Jewels: 2 (Mass Appeal)
- Ty Segall: Manipulator (Drag City)
- Noura Mint Seymali: Tzenna (Glitterbeat)
- Homeboy Sandman: Hallways (Stones Throw)
- Ross Johnson and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans: Vanity Sessions (Spacecase)
- Jemeel Moondoc: The Zookeeper’s House (Relative Pitch)
Top 10 Songs
- Wussy: “Teenage Wasteland”
- Wussy: “To the Lightning”
- Natural Child: “Don’t the Time Pass Quickly (When You’re Making Love)”
- Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias: “We Come to Rumble”
- Angaleena Presley: “Pain Pills”
- Young Thug and Bloody Jay: “No F—s”
- Chris Butler: “Easy Life”
- D’Angelo and The Vanguard: “The Door”
- Ross Johnson and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans: “Three-Beer Queer”
- Withered Hand: “Horseshoe”
Top 10 Reissues/New Issues of Older Music
- Sun Ra: Marshall Allen Presents Sun Ra & His Arkestra (Strut)
- Various Artists: Haiti Direct! (Strut)
- John Coltrane: Offering—Live at Temple University (Resonance)
- Jerry Lee Lewis: The Knox Phillips Sessions (Saguaro Road)
- Bob Dylan & The Band: The Complete Basement Tapes (Columbia/Sony)
- The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground—45th Anniversary Edition (Universal/Polydor)
- Sid Selvidge: The Cold of the Morning (Omnivore)
- Various Artists: Dylan’s Gospel—Brothers & Sisters (Light in the Attic)
- Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: Riding Your Way–The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-7 (Real Gone Music)
- TIE: Charlie Burton: Rock and Roll Behavior (Sound Asleep)/Horace Tapscott: The Giant Awakens (Flying Dutchman)
Top 10 Old Records I Bought for the First Time
- Rats: Intermittent Signals (Whizz Eagle)
- Jessie Mae Hemphill: Feelin’ Good (Shout Factory)
- Lazy Lester: I’m a Lover Not a Fighter (Ace/Excello)
- Khaira Arby: Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont)
- Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Capitol)
- New Jazz Poets (Folkways)
- Allen Lowe: Blues & The Empirical Truth (Music & Arts Programs)
- Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
- Quintron and Miss Pussycat/Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys: “Haterz”/”Chatterbox” (Rhinestone Records 45)
- Melvin Peebles: X-Rated by an All-White Jury (A&M)
Top 5 New Books with Pop Music Connections
- Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings (Penguin)
- Todd Snider: I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like—Mostly True Tall Tales (Da Capo)
- Carl Wilson: Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (Bloomsbury Academic)
- Greil Marcus: The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs (Yale University Press)
- John Waters: : John Waters Hitchhikes Across America (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
Top 5 New (or newly available) (or not available—so DO something!) Music Documentaries
Werner Herzog testifies to the genius of Les Blank
- Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank (Criterion)
- AKA Doc Pomus (dir. William Hechter and Peter Miller) (Clear Lake Historical Productions)
- Rahsaan Roland Kirk—The Case of the Three-Sided Dream (dir. Adam Kahan) (http://www.rahsaanfilm.com/)
- Bayou Maharajah (dir. Lily Kleber) (http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/) CLEARANCE ISSUES!
- This Ain’t No Mouse Music! The Story of Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records (dir. Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon)
Top 5 Favorite Concerts of 2014
- Billy Joe Shaver
- Natural Child/Pujols/Planchette/Heavy Lids
- Chucho Valdez/Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side (w/Joe Lovano)
- Barrence Whitfield and the Savages
- Pine Leaf Boys