Year-end recommendations - 2012

Along with everyone else, here are my recommendations for the best bits of 2012. Much like last year, this year’s highlight was a gig - this time it was THE SPECIALS. Back when I was but 10 or 11, I bought the band’s ‘Too Much Too Young’ EP and have loved the band ever since. I really did not expect to get to see them live after missing the initial reformation a few years ago, so this was a big bonus. Great warehouse style venue too. Anyway - on with the recommendations!!

ALBUMS

1. PARANOID VISIONS - Escape From The Austerity Complex (Overground)

2. THE MAGNIFICENT - Bad Lucky (JSNTGM)

3. THE DICKS - Kill From The Heart/ These People reissues (Alternative Tentacles)

4. TOYS THAT KILL - Fambly 42 (Recess)

5. ANTHRAX - All For The Cause (Grow Your Own)

6. CROSS STITCHED EYES - Decomposition (Alternative Tentacles)

7. BOB MOULD - Silver Age (Mearge)

8. OFF! - OFF! (Vice)

9. NOFX - Self/Entitled (Fat Wreck)

10. REVENGE OF THE PSYCHOTRONIC MAN - Shattered Dreams Parkways (TNS)

Notable mentions: 45 GRAVE - Pick Your Poison (Frontier), D.O.A. - We Come In Peace (Sudden Death), DOWN AND OUTS - Forgotten Streets (Boss Tuneage), DOWN BY LAW - Champions At Heart (DC-Jam), STICKY FILTH - Fourth Domain (1157), POLITICAL ASYLUM and EXIT CONDITION reissues (Boss Tuneage), JAH WOBBLE AND KEITH LEVENE - Yin And Yang (Cherry Red)

 

SINGLES/ EPS

1. THE BRIEFS - Singles Only Box Set (Modern Action)

2. THE CROWD - No Other/ Landmark (Hostage)

3. DEAD ENDING - Dead Ending (Alternative Tentacles)

4. CHANNEL THREE - Land Of The Free (Hostage)

5. PUSRAD - Smart Trams (Just4Fun)

Notable mentions: STATE FUNERAL - Protest Music 7" (Artcore), GLAM - 7" (La Vida Es Un Mus), RATIONS - How Much Land Does A Man Need (multiple labels), SEX PEST - Sexx Pest Epp (Batshitinsane), CITIZEN FISH - Dancing On Spikes (Bluurg)

 

BOOKS

1. Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History Of Grunge - Mark Yarm

2. We Got Power! - David Markey and Jordan Schwartz

3. Punk: An Aesthetic - Johan Kugelberg and Jon Savage

4. Commando: The Autobiography Of Johnny Ramone -Johnny Ramone

5. Armed With Anger: How Punk Survived the 90s - Ian Glasper

 

Most of those have reviews on the Scanner site, so go there for more info.