Best of 2003

1.Saturday Looks Good to Me-All Your Summer Songs (and they were…the soundtrack of summer 03)
2.High Llamas-Beet, Maize & Corn (Warm welcome back after drifting off course with a couple of albums of vapor pop. Sounds like the missing link recording between the bucolic “Hawaii” and “Cold & Bouncy.”)
3.Aislers Set-How I Learned to Write Backwards-(short,slanting, sweet and sad)
4.Fleshtones-Do You Swing? (Instant party fun factor and “Are you Ready for the Mountain?” shoots this one near the top. The vanguard ‘80s garage revival bands(i.e., Fleshtones, Cynics and Chesterfield Kings) have come back with a vengeance in the last couple of years. Are the Swingin’ Neckbreakers ready to step tothe plate for the ‘90s bands?)
5.Thanes-Downbeat and Folked Up (sounds like Lenny Helsing has been listening to some Freddy Fortune records! Their Sandy Coast cover of “I’m a Fool”gives me the chills, it’s that good and jangly.)
6.Singles-Better Than Before (I have read Sire-era Flamin’ Groovies comparisons, but they sound morebetween a less indie Chisel, a less psych Resonars and less punk Hi-Fives).
7. FM Knives-Useless & Modern
8. Outrageous Cherry-Supernatural Equinox (“If You Want Me” Song of the Year? Yes!)
9.Riverdales-Phase Three (“I Believe in You and Me” is stripped-down, look-up brilliance.)
10.The Apricots-Swingin’! Smilin’!
11.Ted Leo & the Pharmacists-Hearts of Oak (This TL is frequently compared to Thin Lizzy, but notice the similarities in the travelogues of “The Ballad of aSin Eater” and Frank Black’s “Calistan.”)
12.Woggles-Ragged but Right ("Collector Of Broken Hearts," could be the best in their canon.)
13.Fondas-Coming Now (Sounding somewhere between theDetroit Cobras, Ko and the Knockouts, Gore Gore Girls and the early Pretenders.)
14.All Girl Summer Fun Band-2
15.Thermals-More Parts Per Million (Play loud)
16.Cuts-2 over Ten (It’s all so wrong with those Cars-esque vocals, but somehow it sounds almost right)
17.Hidden Cameras-Smell of Our Own (If they cut down on their lengthy lengths of their songs, they could be the new Chills.)
18.Chargers Street Gang-Through the Windshield (Not the breakthrough of their debut, but still a palimpsest of guys trying to make it through the bleak Midwestern muck.)
19.Thrills-So Much for the City (If only they didn’t parrot chunks of songs by the Carpenters and Nancy Sinatra.)
20.Visqueen-King Me

Best reissues and reissue collections:
1.The Sonic Adventures of Zekley & Grady (Retro ZG)
2.The Last-L.A. Explosion (Bomp)
3.V/A-Byrds Won’t Fly Today (Misty Lane)
4.The Spectors-Cockfights & Cakefights 92-96 (Get Hip)
5.Lolas-Silver and Gold (Snap Records-Espana)
6.Deep Six-s/t (Revola)-They could have competed with the We Five if the female vocals of Dean Cannon had a place of their own instead of sharing space with all those guys.
7.Five Americans-The Best of the Five Americans (Sundazed)