We are music fiends and list makers, and here are the KBOO DJs Top Ten lists for 2018.
Marti Clemons - KBOO Archivist
1. Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer
2. boygenius - boygenius
3. Loma - Loma
4. Julia Holter - Aviary
5. Mitski - Cowboy
6. Beach House - 7
7. Marem Ladson - Marem Ladson
8. Mary Lattimore - Hundreds of Days
9. Christine and the Queens - Chris
10. Empress Of - Us
Crackety Jones, Back To the Egg_ First and Third Sunday 12-3am
10. Shopping - The Official Body (Fat Cat)
09. Parquet Courts - Wide Awake! (Rough Trade)
08. wimps - Garbage People (Kill Rock Stars)
07. La Luz - Floating Features (Sub Pop)
06. Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer (Sub Pop)
05. The Decemberists - I'll Be Your Girl (Capitol)
04. The Breeders - All Nerve (4AD)
03. Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start A Garden (Mama Bird Recording Co.)
02. Hillstomp - Monster Receiver (Fluff & Gravy)
01. Django Django - Marble Skies (Ribbon Music)
Rick Mitchell
Top Ten Albums of the Year (Across Category, based on Lester Bangs' honest criterion of what got the most play at home, in the car and on the radio)
1. Charles Lloyd and the Marvels + Lucinda Williams, Vanished Gardens (Blue Note)
2. Ry Cooder, The Prodigal Son (Fantasy)
3. Dr. Lonnie Smith, All In My Mind (Blue Note)
4. Buddy Guy, The Blues Is Alive and Well (Silvertone/RCA)
5. Chucho Valdes, Jazz Bata 2 (Mack Avenue)
6. Bettye Lavette, Things Have Changed (Verve)
7. Boz Scaggs, Out of the Blues (Concord)
8. Harold Lopez Nussa, Un Dia Cualquiera (Mack Avenue)
9. Julian Lage, Modern Lore (Mack Avenue)
10. Jose James, Lean On Me (Blue Note)
Dan Shramek, Cascadia Coffee House, 2nd and 4th Fridays 5:30-7am
1. Pharis & Jason Romero, Sweet Old Religion (Lula Records)
2. Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert, The Ledges (Dead Reckoning)
3. John Prine, The Tree of Forgiveness (Oh Boy Records)
4. Colter Wall, Songs of The Plains (Young Mary’s Record Co.)
5. Dead Horses, My Mother The Moon (self)
6. Martha Scanlan, The River and The Light (Rock Ridge Music)
7. Ana Egge, White Tiger (StorySound Records)
8. Tellico, Woven Waters (Organic Records)
9. Brent Cobb, Providence Canyon (Low Country Sound)
10. The Travelin’ McCourys, The Travelin’ McCourys (McCoury Music)
Erin Yanke, Life During Wartime _Every Other Wed 10-midnight
1) Special Interest - Spiraling (Raw Sugar) - has the best of the post punk jerk hurk but with the garage lofi, it embraces life the opposite of the way that the no wave gives it the cold shoulder. Grimey and fun with groove and aggression! the best record of the year!
2) Shopping - The Official Body (Fat Cat) - Their third record, this was not as immediately catchy to me as the earlier stuff, but it still got in me and stuck. I found the songs in my head quickly after hearing them for the first time. Post punk, fun, and mesmerizing... but also depth.
3) Pinen - Todo Está Corrompido (Self Released) - Ethics and politics are important to me, and to see Pinen live their ethics up close for the week they spent in Portland was so beautiful.Mutual aid and freedom was never so fun. No compromise for bullshit, this is the soundtrack of a good life! basic beat holding it down, shreading guitars and vocals breaking down barriers inside and out. Strong and true.
4) BB and the Blips - Shame Job (Thrilling Living) - Not a surprise that this record is so so good. That doesn't take away anything from it. Like all the best works of art, this is fun and political, snotty and heartfelt, primitive and deep, all the sides of who we are as individuals, and as humans, playing the same chords over and over and still making new sounds and creations!
5)Raise Your Voice Joyce- "Contemporary shouts from contemporary voices charting a small piece of the limitless history of women in revolt." such a great collection of feminist vitrol especially needed while we're being told to shut the fuck up. Lots of variety here,too, cause there are a lot of ways to protest.
6)Mulltute - They played their first show at Fuck Its as a benefit for Gray Kitty, and now they are gone and left this last record. I love the equal parts catchyness and franticness, the guest vocals, the simple yet not boring. Never boring.
7)Sad Horse - Fancy Panhandling - I love Sad Horse because they are my friends and becasue they write songs a out our lives. Literally, on this record with Slabtown “raise a toast to Doug and all the volunteers who shined the turd for a couple of years” and less literally on the other songs. The two peice keeps it energetic always, at the same time straight forward and surprising, familiar and mysterious, heart felt with ALL the feelings, not just the heart ones. Local Treasure.
8)Senyawa - Sujud (Sublime Frequencies) - What a cool mix of songs. Traditional Indonesian folk in the 13th dimension. There’s droning voices and chants and sounds I can’t identify layered on top of oscillating sounds like tuning a radio, breathing exercises, guitar freak outs delay effects and tension. Then there are songs where more traditional elements are prominent, or catchy vocals that lead the way. An environmental record of an undiscovered planet during a kind of tornado that we don’t have on Earth. A portal.
9) Physique - Punk Life is Shit (Iron Lung) - Physique live is incredible. Magnetic. Palpably changing the people in the room from stiff self consconscious spikey punks to participatory comrades ready “to fight the nightmarish reality of inept politicians, land stolen from indigenous peoples, gender struggles, genetic manipulations, Jesus useless Christ and impending nuclear war that we all live in.” The quote is from the Iron Lung web page, but yes, I’m all in, ESPECIALLY after the live shows. This record is a reminder what we’re up against, and whos side I am on.
10) Dead Moon Book - this would be my number one, except I was a co-author, and I don't have THAT much ego. But Dead Moon was the best band in the world from the minute they started to the minute they ended, and maybe even still. This is their story, and I'm so proud and lucky to have been a part of it.