My 2023 In Music, Pt. 12: Rollicking Rolling Rockers

Click here for a MUCH more complete version of this post. Thanks!

Gene Simmons is a clown. Read on and you’ll learn about one of the many reasons why!

Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

No album made me cry harder in 2023 than But Here We Are. The idea of losing a best friend and my mom is an overwhelming thought — one I’m still not emotionally prepared for. I don’t know how Dave Grohl and the boys got through that amount of loss, but the results are some of the most inspired music of the band’s storied career.

Required listening: “The Glass”, “Rescued”, “The Teacher”, “Rest”

Queens Of The Stone Age – In Times New Roman…

I don’t know why this album reminds me of a gleeful David Bowie riding a Ferris wheel, but it does (and I love it).

Required listening: “Paper Machete”, “What The Peephole Say”, “Emotion Sickness”

Tigercub – The Perfume of Decay

Sweet Christ, this album grooves and sounds humongous! There are elements of QOTSA here, but it’s hardly any sort of rip-off. When old pricks like Gene Simmons say things like “rock is dead”, Tigercub is the kind of band he isn’t hearing.

Required listening: “The Perfume Of Decay”, “Play My Favourite Song”, “Show Me My Maker”, “It Hurts When You’re Around”

White Reaper – Asking For A Ride

I love bands that choose to be unapologetically catchy. Somewhere back down the road, hooks got a bad name, and I call “bullshit” on all of that. Asking For A Ride is a glorious explosion of joy.

Required listening: “Bozo”, “Fog Machine”, “Pages”, “Getting Into Trouble”

Candlebox – The Long Goodbye

A full review is found here. Enjoy.

Required listening: “Maze”, “Nails On A Chalkboard”, “Punks”

AMP Ohio – Small Repairs

Small Repairs is just good, groovy, power chord heavy hard rock. It’s no frills, and none are needed.

Required listening: “Small Repairs”, “Music & Harmony”

OTTTO – Life Is A Game

Venice Beach trio that includes Tye Trujillo (Robert Trujillo’s bass-destroying kid) hard-charges through 10 tracks of thrash and funk metal.

Required listening: “My Pain”, “Skyscraper”, “Ride Low”

Hotline TNT – Cartwheel

Jangly shoegaze with a penchant for the big rock riff, Cartwheel is packed with power-pop perfection.

Required listening: “Protocol”, “I Thought You’d Change”, “Son In Law”

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Council Skies

Consider the breadth of Noel Gallagher’s career, then read the following words very carefully: “Dead To The World” is the most beautiful song he’s ever written. The melody, the strings, his vocals, and that effin’ “I’ll bend over backward for love” line — it’s all just perfect.

Required listening: “Dead To The World”, “Easy Now”

Spirit Adrift – Ghost At The Gallows

There are times when Spirit Adrift’s Ghost At The Gallows gives me Corrosion Of Conformity vibes (and I’m all about it). It’s just a good, hard-rockin’ heavy metal album from a bunch of cats who know their way around a memorable riff.

Required listening: “Barn Burner”, “Hanged Man’s Revenge”, “Death Won’t Stop Me”

Bad//Dreems – HOO HA!

I bumped into Bad//Dreems’ music in 2019 when I randomly heard the scattered genius of Doomsday Ballet. HOO HA! is more of the same frantic, barely hinged post-punk.

Required listening: “Mansfield 6.0”, “Jack”, “See You Tomorrow”

Private Function – 370HSSV 0773H

I heard Private Function for the first time three days before the end of 2023. 370HSSV 0773H is unabashed rock ‘n’ roll that hoots, hollers, riffs, and rolls without a care in the world. Oh, and the band’s cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow” is ridiculously rockin’.

Required listening: “Jusavinageez”, I Dunno What I’m Doing Anymore”, “I’m This Far (From Being The Worst Person You’ve Ever Met)”

That’s all for today! Check back tomorrow for the hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip hop-a you don’t stop the rock it to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat!