2020 has been one of the strangest years of my lifetime. The world pretty much closed down due to Corona Virus, and as a result I have spent the last 9 months of the year at home, only straying more than 2 miles from my house about 5 times. However, I'm not going to complain about it one bit, because compared to a lot of people I feel quite lucky. I was able to work from home all year and receive full pay, and due to not being able to go anywhere or do anything I also saved a decent amount of money. But the effects of this virus will live on for years to come, I am sure, although I don't think that anyone can predict what the long term effects will be at this point. Also, smack bang in the middle of the virus came the Black Lives Matter protests, which will also no doubt have a huge global impact on future life, and which led to a whole bunch of record auctions and raffles. And right in the middle of it all was Donald Trump, embarrassing himself and shocking the rest of the world with his ignorance, selfishness and stupidity on an almost daily basis. I think that probably every American that I know breathed big a sigh of relief when Trump ended up losing the election, although from what I can tell he probably still thinks he won. And then right at the end of the year (at 11pm today) the UK will have completed Brexit and formerly left the European Union which, just like the other things I have mentioned, will no doubt also have a huge impact on daily life for a lot of people in the UK for quite some time. Right now the biggest question I have is whether it will have any impact on postage prices or import charges from mainland Europe. If it affects me buying records, it's serious.
Moving on to the important stuff, i.e. records, and it was a funny year for those too. I spent a fair portion of the year buying cheap stuff from within the UK. It was kinda cool being at home to open the door to the postman, and I found some nice bargains and took advantage where I could. I got into a rhythm of buying cheap records and getting pretty stoked on them too. I also made sure to listen to a reasonable number of new releases for a change, and I managed to pick up a few hot items from my wants list along the way.
MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF 2020
My mind seems to have played a trick on me, because when I sat down to write this I genuinely felt like I listened to more new releases this year than I did in the last few. I think that this was because there were a couple of occassions where I wasn't feeling too fussed about a particular record, but then made a conscious decision to buy it because I felt that I should buy more new releases. For example, the Coriky LP only came on black vinyl and wasn't much to look at, but I figured I should buy one anyway, and I really enjoyed it. So there I was thinking that this was a big year of new releases, but when I looked back at my 'end of 2019' post from 12 months ago, it seems that I did actually listen to more new releases last year. But the other main difference this year was that I managed to get the vinyl in my hands for the year's new releases, whereas last year I listened to more via downloads and picked the vinyl later on.
Anyway, for what it's worth, here's are the 2020 releases that I spent the most time listening to:
Shown above are: Coriky 'S/T' LP (Dischord Records) Shades Apart 'Eternal Echo' LP (Hellminded Records) Be Well 'The Weight And The Cost' (Equal Vision Records) Heavy Discipline 'S/T' LP (Painkiller Records) Rated X 'United Front' LP (Painkiller Records) Bitter Branches 'This May Hurt A Bit' 12" (Atomic Action Records) Don't Sleep 'Turn The Tide' LP (Mission Two Entertainment) Change 'Closer Still' LP (React! Records) Every Scar Has A Story 10" (Equal Vision Records) Drain 'California Cursed' LP (Revelation Records)
I'm not going to attempt to put these in order of preference, partly because it's too difficult to choose. But if I had to choose one favourite then I would probably have to go with the Be Well LP. I imagine that this is the one that will get the most future play, based mainly on the lyrics.
The one thing that stands out from this list is that I clearly seem to mainly listen to either old bands, or new bands made up of old dudes. There can't be too many younger kids listening to some of the above records, as the average age of the people in these bands is probably about 45. Does the average 20 year old hardcore kid care about Ian Mackaye's new band, or that the singer from Deadguy has a new band? I'm guessing not.
Also, I'd like to give honourable mentions to these 2020 releases, which I also listened to quite a bit, but didn't include in my top 10 above:
Big Cheese 'Punishment Park' LP - I liked this a lot but just didn't get around to buying the vinyl Higher Power '27 Miles Underwater' LP - I was big into this one at the start of the year, but I found myself getting tired of it quite quickly. It didn't have the longevity for some reason. Chubby And The Gang 'Speed Kills' LP - Seventies style punk from a young British band, this one proved to be a lot of fun, and it's good to see them getting global recognition as a result. Winds Of Promise 'Cut.Heal.Scar' LP - I got it too late in the year to really give it a good go, but after a couple of listens it sounds just like I was expecting. Mil-Spec 'Worls House' LP - I have listened to this a few times in the last week or two, but don't have the vinyl yet. Gets better with each listen. Casket Lottery 'Short Songs For End Times' LP - technically a 2020 release, but the vinyl got delayed so it will feel more like a 2021 release.MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS OF 2020
As ever, the year afforded me a few opportunities to pick up some cool records and brag about them to the 5 people who still read this blog. My favourites were these:
Shown in the photo are:
Walleye 'Familiar, Forgotten' LP - test press Dwarves 'Blood, Guts & Pussy' LP - pink vinyl Movielife 'Forty Hour Train Back to Penn' LP - test press Integrity 'The Blackest Curse' LP - test press Black Flag Jealous Again' 12" - clear vinyl Down To Nothing 'Live On The James' LP - test press Bold 'S/T' 7" - orange / pink mix vinyl Black Flag 'Six Pack' 7" - clear blue vinyl Swiz 'Rejects' 7" - test press A bunch of Wreckage Records test presses (represented by the Neglect 7" in this pic)STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT IN 2020
I've done this list the last few years as I find it interesting to make a record of other music that I have spent a lot of time listening to. It's interesting for me to look back on if nothing else. But other than the records shown above, I have listened to all manor of crap this year.
System Of A Down 'Toxicity' LP - I'm not sure what made me listen to this, but I probably listened to this more than anything else this year. I have a vivid memory of playng this whilst excavating a drain in my back garden that I am sure will last a lifetime.
Metallica 'Death Magnetic' LP - I never listened to this before this year, and it rules. And it became the soundtrack for me painting my fence, haha.
Pantera 'Cowboys From Hell' LP - I used ot have this on CD a long time ago & rediscovered it this year. The soundtrack to evening workouts this year in the gym (aka loft).
76% Uncertain 'Nothing But Love Songs' LP - I've had this on vinyl for a long time but rediscovered it after downloading the songs this year. Sounds just like the first Descendents LP if you're interested.
The Cry 'Beautiful Reasons' LP - Originally released on cassette only in 1990, this vinyl reissue made a lof of old skatebaorders very happy.
Smile 'Maquee' LP - an old San Diego band that sound a lot like Helmet in places. I need the colour vinyl in my life ASAP!
Ex Youth 'Oakland Intervention' 7" - A raging hardcore 7" from a couple of years old with the guitarist of Ceremony on vocals. I feel I'm gonna need to buy additional copies of this one.
The Bombpops 'Fear Of Missing Out' LP - I was tricked into listening to this band simply because the singer is so hot, but I stayed with it because it's catchy as hell.
Crossed Keys 'Saviors' 12" EP - this would have been in my favourite releases for the year, had it not come out at the backend of 2019. A great melodic band from Philly, I hope they deliver more in 2021.
AND FINALLY...
If there's anyone still out there reading this, you may have noticed that I managed to put more effort into this blog this year than I have for quite some time. I posted more this year than the previous two years combined, and somehow 2020 has ended up being the joint second highest number of posts I have made in all the years since I started this thing. I think it's partly to do with the lack of anything else to do this year, plus the fact that I was at home most of the time, so there were more opportunities to take photos. But it all made easier by the whole process of taking photos becoming less time consuming. Previously I used to have to take 10 or more photos of each record to get a good one. These days I take one or maybe two of each. It saves so much time and it makes this thing just less of a task generally. So after years of thinking that I am on the verge of giving this thing up, I'm back at a point where I feel I can comfortably continue. And of course, I'm still collecting records, which helps ensure there's always stuff for me to talk about.
See y'all in 2021...
5 comments:
Love reading your year‘s end postings. 2021 can only be better, hopefully.
I got into the Chubby And The Gang LP only the other day. Real fun record. Where did you read that it was released on 2019 though?
2020 is given as release year on Discogs and on the Bandcamp page it says January 2020.
Happy 2021.
I'm not sure if I'm more surprised to see this post up here today, and not back-dated four days from now, or to find you talking about System Of A Down and Pantera albums. I feel like you need to include the last Slipknot album in your rotation...no joke, I loved it. Either way, this was a great wrap up, and kind of funny that we started both of ours with the same theme...if I'd known, I would have just cut and pasted from yours. Ha! Thanks for sticking around and not leaving me as the last loser doing this blog thing.
Fun fact - I watched an hour long TV show on Slipknot yesterday, and decided halfway through that I should probably download one of their albums.
Love the blog, record collecting is still cool in 2021 !
Still enjoy your blog a lot, happy new year!
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