A Comeback Tease: Shoe's Music Best of 2011

Readers of Shotgun from the day will recall that the original webmaster, Shawn Delaney, wrote the column Shoe's Music.  Shawn helps us gear up for the impending Shotgun reunion with this list of the Best of Music from 2011, in his humble opinion.  Take it, Shawn!

Welcome all! 2011 seemed to be the year of ostensible single-member bands (Washed Out aka Ernest Greene, Cold Cave aka Wesley Eisold, Wild Nothing aka Jack Tatum, New Division aka John Kunkel, Neon Indian aka Alan Palomo, etc). I’m not sure what this signifies for the future (or present) of music, but it’s certainly a curiosity. Anyway, on with the countdown...

ALBUMS

10. The Drums – Portamento
Not quite the tour-de-force as last year’s brilliant debut, but at least The Drums didn’t change their winningly lo-fi 80’s sound one iota.


9. Neon Indian – Era Extrana
Featuring enough distortion and electronic bits to open their own indie music shop.

8. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
The first PBPH record to really grab me, NYC’s own heart-on-their-sleeve indie poppers released a pretty dynamite set of tunes.

7. Yuck – Yuck
At times seemingly a Dinosaur Jr tribute (not that there’s anything wrong with that), newcomers Yuck scripted a solid rocker from start to finish.

6. The Horrors – Skying
The Horrors continue to defy expectations, thoughtfully evolving their early creepshow rock into a remarkable atmospheric sound all their own. This band is somehow important.

In February . . . it lives again . . .

SPARKSHOOTER IS COMING.

Sparkshooter is a new webcomic from me and Sarah Vaughn.  Like it here, and we'll update you later with the URL when it launches in February.

NOTE

Greetings!  If you're here, you've found your way to the temporary holding cell of ShotgunReviews.com.  The Mighty Shotgun launched in June, 1999, and essentially ran without interruption until 2009/2010ish.  I took the site down for a while to facilitate a move, but life and other projects got in the way of its return.  For now, the URL will point here.  Perhaps a new form of Shotgun will appear; maybe we'll even post some old columns.  But for now, it's resting.  And it was inarguably always fun.

Thanks,
Troy Brownfield
Editor-'N-Chieftain
ShotgunReviews.com