Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

10. Black Joe Lewis - Electric Slave (Vagrant) Black Joe Lewis and company serve up a healthy dose of lo-fidelity R and B that will get your ass shaking and leave a spring in your step. Rawer than 2011's Scandalous, but even more driving, if that is possible, Electric Slave pulses from the first dirty notes of "Skulldiggin" until the last of "Mammas Queen." The energy remains palpable and the melodies simmer long after. "Young Girl" is more garagey, but the tempo never lets up. "Dar Es Salaam" is just as manic as Scandalous' best cut "She's So Scandalous." While not as cohesive as that earlier effort, Electric Slave piles on one classic track after another, filtering it through a lens of blues, rock 'n' roll, and funk, and it just never lets up. 9. Subrosa - More Constant Than The Gods (Profound Lore) Salt Lake City's Subrosa slowly infiltrates the psyche. Their albums are like little else out there an...

Now that summer is here in the wilds of Illinois, I have the time that I wanted in order to read, write, camp, hike, and ride my bike. Bike riding is all I have accomplished so far. Here is a nice mix of my top riding albums (the reasons aren't so obvious).  1). Eleven Hundred Springs --This Crazy Life 2). Scott H. Biram -- Graveyard Shift 3). All -- Greatest Hits 4). Birdcloud -- Birdcloud EP 5). All Eyes West -- All Eyes West 6). American Aquarium -- Burn, Flicker, Die 7). The Avengers -- Avengers EP 8). Baroness -- Blue Record 9). Bottle Rockets -- The Brooklyn Side 10). Chelsea Light Moving -- S/T 11), Crimpshrine -- Duct Tape Soup 12). The Dictators -- Blood Brothers 13). Fifth on the Floor -- Ashes & Angels 14). Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit -- Live in Alabama 15). The Leghounds -- Various Demos 16). Lifetime -- Jersey's Best Dancers 17). The Menzingers -- On the Impossible 18). Mudhoney -- Vanishing Point 19). Night Birds -- Fre...