Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

In no particular order this year. Dawn Landes- Meet Me At The River (Yep Roc) Austin Lucas- Immortal Americans (Cornelius Chapel) Pig Destroyer-Head Cage (Relapse) Fucked Up-Dose Your Dreams (Merge) Sleep-The Sciences (Third Man) Ken Mode-Loved (Season of Mist) Grant Lee Phillips-Widdershins (Yep Roc) Damien Jurado-The Horizon Just Laughed (Secretly Canadian) Superchunk-What a Time To Be Alive (Merge) Nothing-Dance on the Blacktop (Relapse) War on Women-Capture the Flag (Bridge 9) Neko Case-Hell-On (ANTI-) Jeff Rosenstock-POST- (Polyvinyl) Lucero-Among the Ghosts (Liberator) Bettye Lavette-Things Have Changed (Verve)

20. The Night Marchers - Allez Allez (Swami) John Reis always has his hand in so many projects that sometimes it's hard to keep up. The release of the second Night Marchers' album, Allez Allez keeps up his tradition of putting out high voltage rock 'n' roll at a time when it is almost extinct from the shelves. Not as vibrant as See You In Magic , but just as raging, the tight guitars and manic drums deliver Reis's amped-up message to the masses. While it might not be as raging, chaotic, or fun as another Rocket From The Crypt release, it is good to know that Reis is still making music. Long may he "wear the horns." 19. Dawes - Stories Don't End (HUB)  "Stories Don't End" is another minor triumph from Los Angeles's Dawes. The songs drift in like an amalgamation of 70's Laurel Canyon song-writing mixed with all too modern Suburban housewife ennui. Each seems so knowable and so perfectly formed that they seem to have been...