Ep363: Top Records of 2023

stream/dl

Here is my annual show and list of records I really loved and spent a lot of time with. I hope you enjoy it and them. For the terminally impatient or ADD or for people that are only able to process things in the more or less unnatural format of lists. This is the list.

And a playlist on spotify

For everybody else, here’s the episode.

Worth mentioning that my own band, Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends, also put out a really cool split with the band Lung called ADULT PROM, that is also worth mentioning.

No video of this episode because youtube’s primary function is mindless copyright control and takedown notices on behalf of bands that would never initiate such a thing. Protonic Reversal is now and has always been a podcast first, tied to no medium of any kind. No Lords, No Masters, No Walled Gardens. But in the interest of those that would prefer to read rather than listen.

Here is a hilarious transcription of it… AI ain’t taking over just yet folks:

Every year, we do an episode.
This is my favorite records that came out in the year 2023.
And a lot of people say they find some value in it.
It’s kind of a pain to put together, honestly, if I’m telling the truth.
But I appreciate folks checking out the bands and doing it, as you might imagine.
A lot of the bands that I play end up on the show.
And that is not an accident, of course.
But it’s something that I put a lot of effort into.
So apologies to anyone that is expecting just another kick-ass episode of Patron Conversal featuring an interview of some kind.
Not what we’re doing.
Not what we’re doing right now.
Additionally…
I do need to mention that this is, I’ve expanded, it’s top 23 of 2023.
So there’s 23 different bands and records here.
And I really like all of them.
But I put out a record as well.
It’s a split LP with a band called Lung, who I love.
By my band, Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends.
If you like this show, you should really check it out.
It’s very good, if I do say so myself.
I consider putting the Lung side on.
as one of the choices that just seemed, didn’t pass the sniff test as they say.
But Adult Prom out Learning Curve Records, neutronfriends.bandcamp.com.
Go get that because we’re very proud of it and it’s a great record.
And I feel like it should be talked about a little more.
Anyway, so we’re starting things off with number 23.
This is Brett Bradford’s band, Suckling.
And they are a very cool band.
That’s Brett Bradford from the band Scratch Acid, if you’re familiar.
And this is not the self-titled record.
I did an episode with him in May, episode 333.
Three, three, three.
There is a really cool video for the song Sisyphus.
And this is Suckling.
And this is The Harvester.
Which is, they’re a band from Chicago.
Members of Big N and Salvation.
I guess they used to have a horn section.
I’m not that familiar with their history.
That was a long time ago, but just some flat out rock and roll.
Noisy, if you will.
Raucus.
Good record.
Kind of took me by surprise.
I was not super familiar.
I only ever heard the name.
But that is, yeah, Cougs.
Kind of a late entry for the list, but just goes to show you, people do their list too early, in my opinion.
For the list, but just goes to show you, people do their list too early, in my opinion.
Coming up next, Tunic.
Tunic!
This is the song Under Glass.
Episode 341, David Schellenberg of Tunic.
I had him on.
And we did a song by song of this record called Wrong Dream.
And it’s a good one.
Got to see him in Phoenix, of all places.
But yeah, David Schellenberg, Tunic.
This is Underglass.
Pontiac Grand Am.
Mr. Flies.
That’s P-H-Y-L Tripsy.
That’s right.
That is off of the Fat Chance record.
And, of course, great episode with them boys.
Danny and Clinton.
And you can find that in the archives.
That’s episode 347.
Where we go into a song by song on that one.
And that’s a good time.
They had a good year.
And a good band.
Good band.
Coming up next.
Train Dodge.
Rare talk.
These fellas, they’ve been around a bit, and I like them quite a bit.
And I had the pleasure of speaking to Jason before this record came out, episode 351.
The Alley Parade is the name of the record, and it’s their eighth one, which is pretty astounding, but it’s a great one.
So there you go.
Alley Parade.
This is Rare Talk.
Invelatration by Sandrider.
Invelatration.
That’s right.
It’s like penetration, but envelop instead.
Big fan of those dudes.
That is off of the record of the same name that also came out this year.
Love Sandrider.
Had John on.
Did not have him on for this record.
I’ll probably have him on in the future, but there is a great John Wazinski episode in the archives that
from last year, I believe.
And that’s, it doesn’t, you won’t hear about that record.
It’s episode 288, but you get to hear some pretty cool stories from Akimbo and Sandwriter both.
Cool.
So next up is Nina Nastasia, the new band that she has.
which is Jolie Laid.
And this is an awesome record.
And it’s quite the contrast to her last solo record.
But it is a different band.
So Jolie Laid, if you want to hear all about this record, Nina was on for a fantastic, in my humble opinion, episode.
Episode 359.
And this is Pacific Coast Highway.
White Stone Eyes by Dead Bob.
That’s next up on the Hip Parade.
Dead Bob, of course, the project of Mr. John Wright of a certain band called No Means No.
That’s a record called Lifelike.
And that was a really cool episode and a really, really nice surprise.
That’s probably, that is, as we learned in the classic, now classic, return to commercial episode.
Episode 336.
That is actually a No Means No record.
b-side that that was repurposed for dead bob but that whole record is very cool very interesting episode 336 you can learn all about that record and what’s up with dead bob of which there’s gonna be more dead bob stuff and i’m very excited about that that was a good time uh this next up uh former guest of the show i didn’t have him on for this record but i do really dig it hey colossus all the way over from england
This is off a record called In Blood.
Came out earlier this year.
It was not this year, but I did have two of these fellas on the show for their last record, which also was awesome.
And that was Chris and Joe from Hey Colossus.
That was back in 2021 for Dance’s Curses.
And this is off In Blood.
This is called Pearl.
Borno Man off of the Young James Long record.
Young James Long.
Orogeny.
Orogeny is the name of that one.
It’s like orogenous plus progeny, I guess.
No protonic to speak of for that, but that’s, of course, P.W.
Long of The Incredible Mule.
And I would love to talk to P.W.
Long someday.
That would be lovely.
Really cool record out on Learning Curve.
And good times.
Coming up next is Rid of Me.
This is I’m So Lonesome I Could Die.
And this is… There is a… I did an episode with Mike at Rid of Me.
I did it right before tour.
And this wasn’t even out yet.
Now it is.
It’s a good one.
Access to the Lonely is the name of the record.
And you can find that…
in the archives and not that long ago that is uh episode three five five you’ll find mike mcginnis he’s also in that fight amp lodos knife he does knife it’s records all that good stuff but this is rid of me i’m so once i could die access to lonely let’s go
Royal Ray.
Facet.
Oakland Boys.
Oakland Boys.
That’s off of the latest record, which is just self-titled.
It’s also called Facet.
F-A-C-E-T.
You can go get that on your local internet.
Good stuff.
Enjoy hearing from them Facet boys, for sure.
Let’s keep it Bay Area.
How about Shutter by The Tunnel?
That was a good record.
This is also a Learning Curve Records joint.
A lot of these are.
Makes sense of theme.
But they put out good stuff.
And these guys are from the Bay Area, and they’re great.
And I’ve had them on.
Not for this record, though.
But if you want to dig back into the archives to hear more about the tunnel and what makes them tick, episode 223.
I guess it’s been a couple years then with Jeff Wagner, Michael Jacobs, and Sam Black, all three of those fellas.
That was for their shapeshifter record.
This is off of Shudder.
This is off of Shudder, which is the new one.
This is Zealot.
Say what you got to say.
That’s right.
By MSSV, that is Stephen Hodges, Mike Watt, Mike Begetta.
I had all three of those guys on the show to talk about this record.
This is a human reaction OP.
So 362 for Hodges, the drummer, Mike Begetta, 315, and of course the legendary Mike Watt, 314.
And I think when I originally had WAD on, I don’t think the record was actually out yet, but of course it was out and toured, tested by the time I had Hodge on.
But all three of those episodes are great.
That’s a great record.
Highly recommended.
Different from the stuff with Keltner.
But yeah, lean into those three episodes if you want to know more about it.
It’s worthwhile.
Okay, how about DC Special, Scream?
The legendary punk band Scream.
I had the brothers Stahl, Pete Stahl and Fran Stahl, who also were in Wool as well.
Episode 339 for that one.
I didn’t really get a chance to listen to this record before having them on, but I knew it was going to be awesome.
And it is.
This is DC Special.
Sha-la-la.
Episode 339 to hear the gentleman Stahl Bros and hear about this one.
Ridley Scott Walker by the band John.
You can find as John times two if you are a Spotify user.
John and Johnny, right?
John Newton.
He’s episode 340.
A Life Diagrammatic is that one.
And Ray Adams is on that song as well.
lot of ruckus for a two-piece band and i gotta see them play in arizona too strangely enough but very good highly recommended to check that out episode 340 for that life diagrammatic for the uh for the record you can find out where you where you find your records at uh next up here’s another one i had the whole freaking band on for i don’t do that that often
But this is a long time coming.
This is Maplestave.
And of course, Maplestave, Chris Williams, the lead Maplestave, sure, lead Maplestave, has been on the show before.
But I’m talking about episode 345 where we had Chris Williams, Chris Rasmussen, Andy Hall and Evan Rowe, whole band, most of which resides in Durham.
And that’s a whole thing.
This is Cincinnati Hairpiece, and this is off of their awesome record, Arguments, which is fantastic.
If you want to hear all about that, again, episode 345 for the details from Maple State.
Nothing is as good as they say it is by Sparks.
That’s off of the Girls Grinder Latte.
Came out this year.
What can I say?
I love Sparks.
I would absolutely love to have the Brothers Mail on the show.
And it has yet to happen.
But I’m a huge fan of what they do.
And this is no exception.
Saw the show.
It was fantastic.
Would love to have the Sparks Brothers on.
I like that that’s a song from the perspective of a baby.
It’s already disillusioned just after being born.
It’s a very Sparks thing to do.
Next up, Resurrectionists.
This is New Winter by Milwaukee’s Resurrectionists.
Now, conflict of interest alert.
I put this record out.
So, of course, I like it.
They’re great.
And I highly recommend people take it out and give it a listen.
Episode 328.
I had Joe, Jeff, and John, three quarters of the band on.
And we talked about it.
Obviously, I’m a fan.
This is the New Winter.
And the record is Now That We Are All Ghosts.
Icy, white, and crystalline.
The legendary Oxbow.
So rad.
That’s off of Love’s Holiday that came out this year.
That’s the latest Oxbow record.
Another banger.
They’re very consistently interesting, cool.
And they’re turning around quicker now than they used to.
But if you want to hear…
I’m half about that and mostly about his latest book, Eugene S. Robinson, Return to the Show, for episode 350.
So you can hear all about Love’s Holiday as well as A Walk Across Dirty Water and Straight into Murderer’s Row, which is his new book.
And as well as everything else, Eugene’s a fascinating fella.
Lovely guest.
Love having him on.
Good times.
And yeah, Love’s Holiday.
Icy White and Crystal in the name of that one.
Next up, Dry Nurse.
As opposed to Wet Nurse, right?
Elephant Rifle.
That’s Broken Water.
And I had two of these boys on.
Clint and Brad from Elephant Rifle.
Pride of Reno.
Pride of Reno.
So this is Broken Water.
It’s the name of the record.
Dry Nurse is the name of the song.
Love these fellas.
Great record.
Also known as Learning Curve.
So there you go.
That there’s Fighting Talk by the St.
Pierre Snake Invasion.
Galore is the name of that record.
It’s a bit different than their other ones, and I like that.
I embrace the weirdness of it and the noisiness of it.
I think that that’s a great record.
Damien also plays McCluskey, of course.
You can hear all about that as well as the St.
Pierre Snake Invasion record.
Episode 330.
good times hell of a guy lots of moods lots of metallica talk on that record i’ve heard that specifically but uh yeah i i don’t know why people slept in that glory record but i guess that’s number three if we’re if we’re counting right number three out of uh 23 so good for them okay so last two arnie stern
This is a working memory.
This is off of the record, The Comeback Kid.
This is real recent.
This didn’t come out that long ago.
I love Marnie Stern.
I love this record.
I think it’s one of her best records.
And that conversation was killer, if you ask me.
Really, really interesting.
Super cool.
And I…
Love talking to Marnie Stern.
Episode 361.
Pretty recent.
Last month to check that out.
But let’s listen in here to number two.
Working memory.
Okay.
And that was Faithan.
That’s Juna.
That’s Juna.
Donna Diane.
Repeat guest of the show.
It’s been an incredible seeing Juna just give this larger skill of attention than the band had before and really connect with people because it is a hell of a record.
So Femina Forenz is the name of that record.
It’s an absolutely nuts video for Seven Winds of Sekhmet.
Donna is a uncompromising, wonderful artist.
And that’s my favorite record of 2023.
So thank you very much for listening to this playlist.
But if you want to hear a breakdown of that record, which is my favorite record of the year, the one I probably listen to the most as well, episode 325 to hear Donna Diane and I talk about deadbeat dad gods and suggestive Santas and things along those lines.
That’s it.
Those are my favorite records of 2023.
Thank you so much for listening to the show.
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Once again, Adult Prom as well, available.
Learning Curve Records are split.
Kona Neutron and Secret Friends split with the band Lung.
Highly recommended for that as well.
Always love sharing these lists.
Tell me if any of this strikes your fancy or you find that one of these bands is your new favorite band or whatever.
Let me know on social media.
on, I think, all of the things for all I know.
And otherwise, yeah, stay safe out there and take it easy.
I’ll check you later.
Thank you.