Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2023

Well, I guess we're still blogging once a year, so here goes. 

I thought 2023 was a very good year for noises. Lots of cool, interesting sounds. In a past life we were arsonists, it's the 2023 list!

1) feeble little horse - Girl with Fish: Saddle Creek Records is known for aggressively twee music, but my favorite album of the year is tweely aggressive. The scuzziest, horniest record the label has ever put out, there's not one clean guitar note on the album, indebted to both 4AD/Creation and Sarah/K albums. Or, if Wet Leg sniffed a lot more glue. 

2) Popular Music - Minor Works of Popular Music: Achingly gorgeous goth-tinged, synthy chamber pop.

3) The Armed - Perfect Saviors: From maximalist hardcore on their last album to maximalist rock, and pop, on this one. 

4) Smote - Genog: It's drone, it's folk, it's psych. I fell into its spell. 

That's the top 4. Want to quibble with the rest of the list? Fine by me. Really, quibble all you want, it's just opinions. 

5) bar italia - Tracey Denim: "Aggressively British" post-punk in the vein of the xx and Young Marble Giants. They have three singers, and none of them are any good, but that's part of the charm. They have a second album, The Twits, that's pretty good, too. 

6) MSPAINT - Post-American: The "is it hardcore" debate is boring, so here's an identifiably hardcore album with no guitars. Instead you get multiple synths, fuzzed out bass, and drums. Get in the pit! 

7) Home Front - Games of Power: Ever wondered what it would be like to get curb-stomped by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark? Wonder no more! A new wave band that sounds like When in Rome, but they tour with hardcore bands (produced by the drummer from Fucked Up), lyrically are closer to Gang of Four, and are ready to beat your ass. 

8) boygenius - the record: By law this must appear on every 2023 best of list.

9) Altin Guen - Ask: Turkish psych from the '70s, today!

10) Inevitable - Summer Haze '99: None of this makes any sense, not the name, not the stylistic departures from heterodox black metal to... Spanish-language pop, with scat!, but I kept listening to it, so here we are. 

11) Mandy, Indiana - i've seen a way: Industrial, beat-driven noise rock in which the aura of capitalist violence permeates everything. There's blood on the dancefloor!

12) Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall: When the lead singer and lyricist left the band the rest of them chose to sing, and wrote all new material to perform live. It's still very good. 

13) Oxn - CYRM: It's folk, it's doom, it's psych, I fell into its spell.   

14) Gisli Gunnarsson - Momentos: The only post-whatever Icelandic album you need this year.

15) Joel Ortiz - Signature: It's kinda funny to hear Andre 3000 talk about rap as a young person's genre when you could just rap about how hip hop got you a house in the 'burbs and reflect on how you came up. 

16) Czarface - Czartificial Intelligence: It's kinda funny to hear Andre 3000 talk about rap as a young person's genre when you could just rap about having fun with the comic books of our youth over boom bap beats with the occasional keyboard flourish. 

17) Ragana - Desolation's Flower: A gorgeous mix of doom and black metal. 

18) Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert: Still post-punk, but with more doom, plus they made a beer with my friends. 

19) Algiers - Shook: The vocalist and drummer cede a lot of space to guests on this album, which is a radical move for a radical band. A glorious, overstuffed mess of a record that parties at the end of the world. 

20) Wednesday - Rat Saw God: '90s style indie/alt rock, some shoegazey noise, and a great alt-country song, all in one package. 

Also, because why not: To Be Gentle - What Keeps Me Here; Katie Gately - Fawn/Brute; Nation of Language - Strange Disciple. I've got 5-10 others I could mention here, but I'd like to get this list out, so here we are. 

Cheers to: Slowdive, for aging gracefully, a shoegaze Yo La Tengo; Lankum, for kicking off the micro-genre of folk/drone/doom from the Isles; and both Danny Brown and Joel Ortiz had themselves a good year in what I think was a down year for rap. Two remastered reissues that sound great: Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense and REM's 25th anniversary of Up. Two albums I missed in 2022 that could have been on last year's list: Ashenspire and Liminal Shroud. 

Beer

We only appear to have lost two breweries inside the Beltway this year (Astro Lab became Third Hill and I'm not counting them for our purposes), and one of them, The Public Option, could return in 2024. Given what a shit year it was for restaurants, it could have been a lot worse and I hope that it doesn't get worse in 2024. The rough rules of the game are that the beer should be new or new to market in 2023. We'll do the DMV in alphabetical order, then the others. 

Atlas - Yawn, Barrel Aged Quad: I don't like quads, but both the base beer and the barreling really shine here, plus I put them in contact with one of the distilleries, so I might be biased. Just a very well done job, with layers of dark fruit complemented by boozy, oaky tannins from four different barrels. 

City-State - Air and Space, West Coast IPA: I'd put this up against any other beer in the style made in the DMV.

DC Brau/Pink Boots Society - Pink Phase IPA: A blast of fruit punch and tropical fruit notes from the hops, and a bit of stone fruit esters from the yeast as well. Very well done. 

Denizens - Turkey Fest, barrel-fermented Marzen: Too many Oktoberfest beers are too sweet, so here's a clever solution: ferment the beer in a barrel and let the oak dry it out a bit. 

Right Proper - Raised by Giant Wolves, Pale Ale: Raised By Wolves is something like 60% of this brewery's production, but I don't love the hopping on it. I do love the hopping on its bigger sibling, named for the Giant grocery chain. I hope to see it again in 2024.

Liquid Intrusion - South of DC Cream Ale: This and Right Proper Senate were probably the two beers I drank the most of this year. Beer flavored beer. 

Lost Generation - Back to Oblivion IPA; Dying Moons and Shadows Czech Dark Lager; Tiger Spirit Witbier (with Bluejacket and 50 Hertz Tingly Foods): This is the brewery I drank at the most this year. Just over a year in and it's already the best in the city.

Ocelot - Formal Growth in the Desert, Lager: Ocelot's lager game has never been better, and I thought this was the best one. The brewery's logo is a guitar pick and they're named after a Phish song, so a partnership with Merge Records shouldn't be too surprising. 

Port City - Colossal II, imperial smoked porter: A re-brew of their second anniversary ale

Troddenvale - Dickie Brothers Orchard, Cider: Virginia Winesap and Black Twig apples from an orchard that's been active for nearly 300 years, with no commercial yeast added. Dry, but not too dry. Funky, but not too funky. Tart, but not too tart. Cider perfection. 

Wheatland Spring - Return Estate Piedmont Pilsner and Goslar, Gose. 

The out of towners: 

Lindeman's - Cuvee Francesca, Geuze: This came out in 2022 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the namesakes' marriage, but it was new to me in the first half of 2023 and whenever I saw it I bought it. 

Troegs and Warwick Farm Brewing - Foraging for Clouds, Hazy DIPA - The unlikely featuring of Azacca as a lead hop, along with BRU-1, Citra, and Simcoe makes for one of my favorite IPAs of the year. Pillow soft, with unexpected notes of vanilla to go along with the obvious citrus and tropical fruits. 

Sacred Profane - Dark, Tmave: I have no idea how there is enough of this to go around that DC got kegs and Virginia got cans and kegs, but I'm not complaining. A 4% crushable dark lager. 

Schilling and Human Robot - Tmave 10: The day after Snallygaster the best thing you can do is head to Other Half and drink three pints of this and hang out with friends old and new. 

Tilquin - Cuvee Marie-Catherine, Gueze: Perhaps the best beer I had at Snallygaster; so good that I bought a bottle the next week. 

Xul - PB&J Mixtape, fruited hard seltzer: I can't write this and then not include the "beer." 

Next year is an election year, it's going to be bad. Here's hoping it's as least bad as possible. Cheers and thanks for reading. 

Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2022

On Wednesday, September 23rd I saw New Order and The Pet Shop Boys; on Friday the 25th it was Earth and Iceage. Sunday the 27th was The Veldt. That was a good week. Here are my favorites of 2022. 

 

1) Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful: The Brian Wilson of space rock, Jason Pierce's late-career renaissance continues with seven gorgeous songs whose obvious influences start in the '60s (The Beach Boys, Brill Building pop, The Beatles on drugs,...) and continue into pysch, Krautrock, drone, and more, yet the whole album sounds grounded, a man at peace with himself. Long may he run. 

2) Sadness - Tortuga: About 30 seconds into the first track it begins to sound like Swervedriver kidnapped The Polyphonic Spree and forced them to sing at knifepoint in a swimming pool, if you're into that kind of thing. Sure, there's some atmospheric/depressive black metal going on here, but mostly there's something else, maybe post-hardcore, maybe post-rock, maybe slowcore, and whatever it is I want more of it. 

3) The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention: The best Radiohead album in a decade. 

4) Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There: A weird slow burn of jazzy, folkie indie that absolutely explodes in the second half of the album... and then the lead singer up and left the band right after the album came out. Nice way to leave, I suppose.  

5) Ellende - Ellenbogengesellshaft: There's nobody doing atmospheric black metal better right now. It's their world, we just live in it. 

6) Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately: Gibbs has been on my radar for a while now, and I'm not sure why this one, and not his work with singular producers like The Alchemist or Madlib, resonated with me. Gibbs is equally at home on trap beats and soul samples, and is enough of a formalist that he put celebrity voicemails on this album even though doing that was wack in 2001. It's good. 

7) Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems: An exhilarating, bone-crushing, genre-hopping indictment of punk and hardcore, and of race in America and beyond. "Everybody in the pit" means everybody. 

8) Drug Church - Hygiene: A crunchy slice of '90s-style post-hardcore that rips through 10 songs in 26 minutes, as it should be. 

9) Wet Leg - Wet Leg: Look, we knew this was going to be on this list since hearing "Wet Dream" and "Chaise Lounge" last year. 

10) Defcee and BoatHouse - For All Debts Public and Private: I'm into Armand Hammer, euclid and billy woods, but I'm more into their Chicago associates Defcee and BoatHouse, who effortlessly mix boom bap and arthouse. 

11) Conway the Machine - God Don't Make Mistakes: The first album from the Griselda crew that all came together for me is Conway's first for Shady Records, in which the rapper mixes word play with the traumas of his past so deftly that it feels like both an exorcism and a celebration. 

12) Danger Mouse and Black Thought, Cheat Codes: Dense and knotty, with no room to breathe, and yes, that's a Massive Attack sample. 

I also enjoyed: Vargatand - s/t; Panda Bear and Sonic Boom - Reset; Half String - A Fascination With Heights; MWWB - The Harvest; Rich Aucoin - Synthetic: Season One; The Reds, The Pinks, and the Purples - They Only Wanted Your Soul. 

Singles: Alvvays, Pharmacist; Big Thief, Simulation Swarm; Knifeplay, Promise; Pusha T, Diet Coke. 

Beer: Losing 3 Stars and Rocket Frog sucked, especially the former. Small consolation that so many breweries, including the locals, have really upped their lager games. As usual, I'll do the out of towners, then the DMV, and the rough rules of the game are that the beer should be new to market in 2022. 

Allagash, Seconds to Summer, Lager - This is basically a 10 Plato Czech-style Pils, except there's Belgian yeast. Crushable. 

The Bruery, Portified Black Tuesday, Imperial Stout - This beer-wine hybrid falls just barely on the beer side of things. Bottled still, it's marvelous, as is their Petit Mardi, a worthy replacement that was released later on in 2022. Both are well-balanced post-dinner sippers. 

Burial, Deliver Us to Evil, Imperial Stout - Every so often you have a beer and all conversation just stops as people sip. That happened at a bottle share thanks to this beer. Barrel, adjuncts, and base all in perfect harmony. 

Fair Isle Brewing, Alicel, Saison - This Seattle-based all-farmhouse outfit started shipping to DC in January and hoo boy is this one of the better saisons you'll have this year or any year. 

Fifth Hammer, Jib and Jigger, foeder-aged Vienna Lager - The Andy's Pizza beer game is sneaky good and this was one of the most memorable beers I had there. 

Fast Fashion, Hidden Gems IPA - You can read the award-winning article about these folks at DC Beer. 

Fox Farm, Annata 2021 Foeder-Aged Mixed Fermentation Ale w/ Wine Grapes - The very first beer I had at this year's Snallygaster, the Cohesion lagers lived up to the hype, too. 

Lawson's, Black IPA - Perhaps fashionably behind the times to wait until 2022 to release this style, but it was worth the wait, remarkably well balanced between West Coast hops and dark malts. 

Locally your rookies of the year are Landmade and Lost Generation. The former's lager game has been impressive right off the bat, with a keen understanding of how foeders can add a little "tang" or "snap" to lagers--Czech out both Maggie (Pils) and Lewis (Helles)--while the latter struck gold immediately with Grave Shift dark lager and Feather Kitty, one of the area's better hazies. 

3 Stars, Chillum Lite, Lite Lager - Grim irony that just as this brewery ran out of time their lager game was never better. A plurality of the beer I drank from March to July was probably this. RIP. 

Denizens, Barrel-aged Low County Common - Bringing a 4.1% alcohol by volume six-year old beer (!!!) to an event focused on barrels, which usually means big stouts, is a risk, but it paid off here. With nothing else under 11% brewers and guests alike returned to this table to drink this remarkably well-balanced rye barrel-aged Kentucky Common, featuring notes of chocolate, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and coffee. They should bottle it, and in 2023 I think they will. 

Elder Pine, Summon the Moon Lord, Barrel-aged Barleywine - A 24-hour boil to really cook those malts, and then a year and a half in bourbon barrels. Dangerously easy to drink a tallboy. 

Ocelot, Jacks and Jokers, Hazy IPA - One of my favorite hop combinations is Amarillo and Simcoe, producing almost bubble gum flavors. The addition of Citra to this year's batch really kicked it up a notch for me. 

Other Half and Schilling, 8th Anniversary Lager - Other Half came here billed as an “IPA factory,” but I’m really digging their lagers instead. They ended the year with the Halfway Crooks collaboration Monotonous Miles, a Belgian-style pils that's also very good. The best IPA I had from them was All Riwaka Everything. 

Red Bear, 3rd Anniversary IPA, Hazy IPA - Strata remains one of my favorite hops for hazy IPAs. This was a blast of strawberries. Lovely stuff. 

Wheatland Spring, Estate Barleywine, Barrel-aged Barleywine - Barley from their fields, whiskey barrels from the closest distillery, Catoctin Creek, and Georges Mill even made a goat cheese washed in it. 

Here's to 2023, may it treat us better. 

Beer and Music, Music and Beer 2021

There's still no commute, but at least the kids are back in physical school (knock on wood), which affords me more time to listen, headphones or not. I've got Buffalo 66 on DVD, hit the lights, it's the 2021 music and beer list!  

1) The Armed - Ultrapop: This album sounds like everything, all at once, which makes sense because their might be 19 people credited on this album. Think a post-hardcore XTRMNATOR and you're getting closer.

2) Iceage - Seek Shelter: It's kind of scary how good this group has gotten and their principal lyricist is just 30. Post-punk, and somehow getting a bit "Brittier."

3) The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore: It's not as good as the last one, but it's still pretty fucking good. What Granduciel has done over the past 3-4 albums, updating the corporate rock sounds of the 1980s in the service of his own nostalgia and memories, is so impressive, both musically and as a meta-narrative. 

4) Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion: When an album gestates for 15 years, and takes 12 months across home studios on two continents--during a pandemic--to record, it better be worth the wait. Well, it's epic as fuck and you should listen to it. 

5) Idles - Crawler: A most welcome return to form for this band. I wrote this about 2018's Brutalism and it applies here: "A sneering, searing piece of post-punk that's alternately witty and too clever by half, propelled by near-industrial drumming."

6) Sadness - Rain Chamber: What is it? Like that song at the end of True Romance, turned inside out, mutated into orchestral dream pop, blackgaze, ambient, a Polyphonic Spree song, and more. Fucking magnificent. They dropped like 3 other albums this year that are worth a listen, too. 

7) Chubby and the Gang: The Mutt's Nutts: Yes, it does feel dumb to type out these band and album names, but listen to tracks like "Life on the Bayou" and you'll see that this group is dead serious. A winning mix of early '80s-influenced punk and hardcore. Get in the pit! Or, yanno, don't. 

8) Lucy Dacus - Home Video: "Thumbs" is an absolutely gutting song. One of the best lyricists in the business. 

9) Gruff Rhys - Seeking New Gods: I'd like a new Furries album as much as anyone, but if Rhys is going to put out solo stuff this good then everyone can take their time. A bit more rock action on this release compared to others, which is nice. 

10) Wednesday - Twin Plagues: My favorite shoegaze album of the year marries guitar squalls with some Roger Moutenot-esque wistful indie and alt-country.

I also enjoyed:

Ellende - Triebe: They, uh, got bored during the pandemic and revisited an album from 2014. These reworked versions are better. Much better. Loud-quiet-loud dynamics where post-rock meets atmospheric black metal.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G-d's Pee AT STATE'S END!: They almost sound happy towards the end of this one, which is odd. Look around, what's to be happy about???

Koldovstvo - Ни царя, ни бога: I think they're Russian, and of all the atmospheric, doomy metal I listened to this year, this album is the most atmospheric, thanks to chanting I don't understand. It's pay what you want, so get lost in it. 

Uncommon Weather - The Reds, Pinks, and Purples: Your sad-bastard-bedroom-pop album of the year. 

Violet Cold - Empire of Love: Progressive both politically and musically, this is nominally a black metal album, but has a banjo lead on "Working Class" and chopped and screwed Houston-style rapping on another track. Dementedly joyous fun. 

Singles: Chvrches and Robert Smith, How Not to Drown; Tyler the Creator, Lumberjack; Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, Like I Used To; Kanye West featuring Jay Electronica and Jadakiss, Jesus Lord pt 2; Parquet Courts, Walking at a Downtown Pace; Ducks Ltd, 18 Cigarettes. 

Cheers to: 

Your Old Droog, whose Space Bar is probably my favorite rap album of the year, plus... he's Jewish! The Alchemist had a pretty good year on the production side of things, too. 

Quicksand, for being my first indoor concert since early 2020, and for "Phase 90," easily the best post-hardcore song about trying to get into a book. 

Wet Leg, for dropping two clever singles, with a The-Breeders-meet-The-Violent-Femmes vibe.

Des Demonas, for their 17-minute Cure for Love EP. All killer, no filler.

What a great year it was for rauchbier, that smoky, slightly sweet collection of styles where malted barley is dried via wood fires, thus picking up some of the smoke flavor. Both Dovetail's (IL) and Suarez's (NY) excellent versions were available because those breweries ship to DC, and Port City's seasonal Rauch Marzen was excellent, as usual. At one point in my fridge I had those, plus Von Trapp's Torsten (VT), Wolf's Ridge Buchenrauch (OH), Halfway Crooks Smoked Helles (GA), Fox Farm's The Cabin Smoked Helles, Notch Rauchbier (MA), Montclair and Mack's collaboration Fume (NJ), and Commonwealth's Grodziskie-style Puff (VA). What a time to be alive.

If you're looking for an introduction, maybe Wheatland Spring will make another batch of Reunion, their "smoke-kissed" lager that is a training wheels version of a rauchbier. 

Beers, the locals:

Pic via Dynasty

I'm not going to choose between Dynasty's 838 Irish-style Dry Stout, perfectly to style, and Other Half/Rothaus Zipfeltännle Pilsner for my favorite beers of the year. Guinness is kinda sorta local now, but the former is your replacement. I wish it were year-round. As for the latter, if you told me this was the best lager ever made in the District I wouldn't argue and I hope Other Half's Ivy City location makes it again. I've been lobbying a few of the brewers already. Elsewhere, in alphabetical order...

3 Stars Munich-style Dunkel - There's nothing flashy about it, just a beer you can drink three of from one of the newer lager programs in the area. 

Dogfish Head Barrel-Aged 120 Minute IPA - I can't hang with the original, but this IPA/barleywine/old ale gets mellowed by blending a Sam Adams Utopia barrel-aged version and a Sagamore Spirit rye barrel version. A great beer for a bottle share.

Elder Pine 10 Plato Pivo - Elder Pine's yearly entry into the best beers in the area; hopefully in 2022 I can have it on a side pour in their brewery. 

Other Half Jumbo Slice Double IPA - I was let down by a lot of the hazies coming out of this IPA factory for the first few months. This one, canned on 12/30/2020, tasted the most like those coming out of their original NYC location. 

Silver Branch/Right Proper Edge of Time Rice Lager - Two of my favorites making an adjunct lager together? I'm all in! 

Streetcar 82 Don't Throw Away That Xmas Tree! - A late contender, this IPA is brewed with 1.5 pounds of spruce tips per barrel (!!!), creating a piney, herbal, dank IPA. 

Triple Crossing Precursor Hallertau Blanc - A German lager base and then egregiously hopped with Hallertau Blanc for a nice kick of white wine and herbal notes, all while retaining that crispness you know and love. 

Wheatland Spring East Crib Lager - Is this the best Crib? Maybe!

Further afield: 

Keeping Together - We Are Not the Counterculture: Pretty cool of Anxo to bring these in. I'm partial to this 6% ABV mixed fermentation saison brewed with wildflower honey, but like Pokemon you should catch 'em all. Anxo is also selling Garden Path's The Spontaneous Ferment, a blend of saisons aged up to 3 years, continuing the ex-Jester King theme. 

Rothaus Marzen - The best of the 'fests this year. Glad it made an appearance locally. 

Tripping Animals One Tom Triple IPA - I don't usually put hazies on this list, let alone a triple one, but this beer stopped a few of us in our tracks at a beer share. Orange juice (from Citra), lime (that's Motueka), a little dankness,... really well put together. 

Troeg's When in Doubt Helles Lager - I bought a six-pack, drank a can, then bought a case.

Wild East Little Patience - I bought two cans, drank one, then came back for a six-pack of this 10 Plato Czech-style Pils. 

Here's hoping I'm able to get on a train, with headphones, and work in person at some point in the new year. As of now I don't see any signs of having a commute in early 2022, which means more time for  beer, to start. We'll see. 

Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2020 Edition

I miss my commute. Well no, not really. What I miss is that "me time," surrounded by people, yet alone. I miss living with an album, inhabiting it. A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory and Midnight Mauraders, Nas' Illmatic, and Quicksand's Manic Compression on the 1/9 train in high school. My commute junior year abroad in Japan, bumping Radiohead's OK Computer and REM's Up, perfect albums about displacement and the surreality of it all as I walked blocks that were at once instantly recognizable and quite literally foreign to me. For two months in 2000 I worked at Bell and Howell, on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, MI. The bus ride out of the small city and into the post-industrial, hollowed-out Midwest, which included walking across two exit ramps of Interstate 94, can't be separated from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's F♯ A♯ ∞.

I learned to love these albums through repeated plays on mass transit, or a 2-kilometer walk through Osaka, or a ferry from the north to the south island in New Zealand, in which a patch of fog in the Cook Straight suddenly had to be soundtracked by Mogwai. 

On Friday, March 13th, 2020 all that ended. That was the last day I had a commute. You always go to the show, yes? Well, on March 12th a friend and I bailed on a concert (Algiers and Hammered Hulls at the Black Cat) because of the pandemic. We still ask each other if we should have gone, now knowing it would have been a last hurrah. We made the correct choice.  

So much has been taken from us over the past nine months. People's health, people's livelihoods, people's lives. Hugging, dapping, hand-shakes. Great and small, people and customs, bars and restaurants and shops... they're gone. 

I mourn my commute not because of physically going from home to work, but because that was my time to discover and live with an album and make it mine, tying it to a place, whether that place is physical or mental. Now my commute is to go down a flight of stairs, becoming both a library worker and a hall monitor for the virtual schooling of two children. No more music, no more audiobooks, no more podcasts; it just doesn't work that way for me in 2020. 

The physical time I've gained back is not for nothing. More home-cooked meals, more time with immediate family and pets, and more time to--see below--drink beer. But damn, being able to turn up the volume and get into an album on the train,... I really miss that.

Would I fall in love with Helena Deland's debut album Someone New over the course of two weeks on the Yellow Line, my headphones accentuating the musical flourishes, the huskiness in her voice? Which part of the album would play as the train exited the tunnel after L'Enfant Station, transitioning to a bridge across the Potomac River? I don't know, and well, that sucks. I like it well enough on my laptop, often played while onions cook on the stove and two children discuss Legos, The Mandalorian, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Minecraft in the background. But it's not the same. None of this is. 

And so none of these albums are really mine. I've heard them and I enjoyed them. But they're shoes I bought, tried on, and wore a few times. They haven't yet adapted to my contours, nor mine to theirs. I really hope in 2021 we get to change that. 

Here goes. 

1) Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death: More mature lyrically, slower, darker, and more muscular than their excellent debut. The switch from punk-based rave ups to something closer to post-punk has treated them well.  

2) Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher: Baroque chamber pop, singer-songwriter fodder, and occasional alt-country and psych about... Dodgers fans beating up and killing Giants fans, and how Eric Clapton sucks. Anyway, it's really good.  

3) New War - Trouble in the Air: Melbourne commissioned this hometown band to perform and record on the largest pipe organ in the city. The result is minimalist and claustrophobic, appropriate soundtracking for a year of teleworking and doing without. 

4) Feminazgul - No Dawn For Men: Here are the tags for this album on Bandcamp: appalachian, metal, antifascist, atmospheric black metal, feminist. Interested? Bonus points: one of the band members works at a brewery. 

5) Dogleg - Melee: Post-hardcore/screamo that's maybe learned a thing or two from bands like Japandroids in that it's cathartic and fun to sing/scream along to. 

6) Osees - Protean Threat: John Dwyer released a lot of music this year. These 38 minutes of psych-punk are my favorite of the bunch. 

7) Nothing - The Great Dismal: Shoegaze with loud-quiet-loud dynamics, and the loud gets really loud. 

8) Stay Inside - Viewing: "What if Interpol, but post-hardcore?" It's kind of something like that. Taut, wiry, and insular, this is not the stuff is sing-alongs or fist pumps, but of quiet headbanging on a commute. Maybe one day.  

9) Gum Country - Somewhere: If Electropura-era Yo La Tengo got on the C-86 cassette it would sound something like this. 

10) Kvelertak - Splid: Touching on the past 40ish years of metal from the late '70s British new wave to '80s arenas to '90s metalcore to the present, singing in two languages, and just a joy to listen to. 

The best of the rest, or eight more albums I liked: 

Bartees Strange - Live Forever: Impressive genre-bending from across the indie-rock spectrum to RnB and rap. 

Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network - Ballet of Apes: Slow psych, both breezy and languid, from this sometimes Osees collaborator. 

Fleet Foxes - Shore: Same as it ever was for this band. 

Kiwi Jr. - Football Money: Hits that same jangly, breezy spot as the most recent, woke, Parquet Courts album. 

No Joy - Motherhood: Things I heard in the first three songs of this album include dream pop, black metal, EDM, and slap bass. Somehow, all these in juxtaposition work. 

Porridge Radio - Every Bad.

Run the Jewels - RTJ4: Same as it ever was for this band. 

Touche Amore - Lament: I've long been aware of this band, but hadn't paid them much attention. I'm listening now. 

Best album ruined by a lead singer: Oranssi Pazuzu's Mestarin Kynsi, which sounds something like Acid Mothers Temple doing post-metal.

Singles, songs, whatever: Silverback - Klub Silberrucken; Bartees Strange - Mustang; The Weeknd - Blinding Lights; Algiers - We Can't Be Found; Protomartyr - Processed By the Boys.

In 2019 I kind of gave up on IPAs. I don't really know why, it just shook out that way. Well, they're back, including two stellar double IPAs, normally the bane of my existence. Go figure. Which style declined at IPAs' expense? Saison. I saw significantly fewer cans of that style around, which is a bummer. From March 13th to the end of the year I had three draft beers. Three! On the plus side, everyone put everything in cans, because they had to. Here's what stood out. 

In 2020 it was Port City's world, and we all just lived in it. My favorite beer? Pretty much any Port City lager in a can, but also in a bottle like their Helles and Weizenbock. Let's rank them: 

Rauch Marzen - Just a perfect, flawless beer. 

German Pils - Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner for a reason. 

Mexican-style Dark Lager

Helles (bottle)

Tmave Pivo - I saw a lot of this style around, which is great, and this one was the most "tmave" in terms of having a Saaz hop bite. 

Dopplebock - I've only had one of these, but it was very very good. I should get an Andechs' and go side-by-side. 

Kellerbier

Weizenbock (bottle) - This was to be 2020's Colossal release, but in a very 2020 move, it just didn't didn't meet the brewery's standards, so they brewed it again later in the year. It's very good. 

Note: I didn't have the Export. Not sure how I missed that one. 

Elsewhere in locals (plus, uh, Delaware, because why not): 

Ardent Ales Schwartzbier

Black Narrows Brewing Company Salts - A gose with oysters makes a lot of sense, hence the name of the beer. Maybe "a creamy, briny, minerality with notes of lemon" isn't for you, but it really works here. 

Dewey Beer Co Surf Wax Double IPA

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Utopia barrels edition - That this was ready to drink upon an August release was most impressive. 

Elder Pine Pilsner (little bit of oats and a lot of Loral hops) and Bien Veillen hoppy saison, which scratched all the right itches.

Ocelot Ebenezer IPA.

Right Proper Le Flaneur - Sherry barrel-aged "barleywine" that was our consensus pick for Boundary Stone's Battle of the Barrels.

Right Proper/Pizzeria Paradiso Friend Blend Sour Ale - Just a great balance between stone fruits and their acidity, Right Proper's house character, and foeder conditioning. 

Wheatland Spring Corn Crib American Lager - So good it spawned a hashtag. Also, I'm going to take a bow for writing this on February 3rd, "On the other hand, a lot of people are about to find out how good Wheatland Spring, Dynasty, Elder Pine, and Manor Hill can be, and we’re looking forward to chatting with a lot of familiar and friendly faces." 

Outside the DMV:

EOC Coolship Black Lager

Halfway Crooks Smoked Helles Lager

Other Half Small Riwaka Everything IPA

Rogue Coast Haste Wet-Hopped Double IPA

Schilling Alexandr (10) and Palmovka (12) Pilsners - And I hear a 13 plato amber beer is coming soon. 

2021, please treat us better. Thanks for reading, and be safe. 

Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2019 Edition

I wasn't too thrilled with doing a top ten list this year come September, but then something like "Oscar season, but for music!" happened and I feel pretty pretty good about what follows. I go back and forth on my top three, but here's the order as it stands now.



1. Somos - Prison on a Hill: Gorgeous antifa new wave.
2. Elbow - Giants of All Sizes: Aggressive, off-kilter guitars; synth gurgles; strings, 7/4 time signatures; and lyrics to match. “Empires crumble all the time / Pay it no mind / You just happened to witness mine.” Elbow shows no interest in playing it safe and their weirdest, yet most direct, album to date is also their best.
3. Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel: “Dublin in the rain is mine/A pregnant city with a Catholic mind.” The "go go Rimbaud" aesthetic suits these Irish punk rockers, coming through like Mark E. Smith at his most focused.

4. Danny Brown - uknowhatimsaying: Q-Tip isn't the obvious choice to produce this album, but this pairing really does work.
5. Ty Segall - : No guitars, no problem. Segall uses Japanese, Greek, and other stringed instruments to create his tightest psych-rock album yet.

6. Alcest - Spiritual Instinct: The band at their most dark and brooding. Someone needs to add "goth" to the blackgaze sub-genre.
7. DIIV - Deceiver: Heavier than previous efforts, and more economical at 10 songs and 45 minutes.
8. Beth Gibbons, Henryk Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs: Gibbons is the voice, Górecki the composer, and Penderecki conducts the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. I can't recall ever placing a purely classical work on a year-end list (shout out to Kronos Quartet!), but this is excellent.
9. Bon Iver - i,i: Justin Vernon's actual voice is quite nice, and here it's not hidden behind auto-tune, processors, and other effects. More, please.
10. Low Life - Downer Edn: It's post-punk, it's coldwave, it's goooooooood!




The best of the rest:

Courtney Barnett - MTV Unplugged Live in Melbourne: Did you know these were still a thing? Well they are, and Barnett's excellent rearrangements are worth a listen.
Kaatayra - No Ruidar da Mata que Mirra: Heterodox melodic black metal from Brazil, with asides into traditional and Portuguese-inflected instrumentation and arrangements. Very good.
Wand - Laughing Matter: There's a lot going on on this album and while I don't like all of it, I like most of it (and I admire all of it).
Thom Yorke - Anima: That I enjoyed this is perhaps the most pleasant musical surprise of 2019.

Cheers to: Sturgill Simpson (Sound & Fury), for keeping country weird; and Lankum (The Livinglong Day), for doing the same with Irish music; Hammered Hulls, for bringing back that harDCore sound.

Best album that I'll never listen to because it hurts too much: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen.

Best use of pedal-free tremolo to recreate 1990-era My Bloody Valentine sound: Fleeting Joys - Speeding Away to Someday.

Singles: L'Eppee - Springfield 61; Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall; Wand - Scarecrow; Schammasch - A Paradigm Of Beauty; Brutus - War; Danny Brown - Dirty Laundry; Weyes Blood - Movies; A.A. Williams - Control; Stormzy - Vossi Bop; Hammered Hulls - Written Words.



Now on to the beers. When I started doing these lists there were 1,500 breweries to choose from. Now there are about 8,000. I know I'm missing some stuff. It's going to keep happening. One thing that makes it easier: I've pretty much given up on double IPAs as a style. Hazy, East Coast, West Coast, it doesn't matter. The combinations of over-hopping and high-gravity just don't do it for me anymore. So it goes. The locals, in no particular order:

Guinness Milk Stout - A 5.something percent milk stout from the people who know a thing or two about stout. Here's a pastryboi you can session?
DC Brau Joint Resolution - The savviest brewery in DC pivoted from a Belgian-style golden ale to a year-round hazy IPA (and later added hard seltzer). Here's one you can drink two of.
Aslin Baby Shark - Here's another hazy IPA you can drink two of.
Black Narrows Wild About It - A lager brewed with corn, and then bretted for an extra dry finish. More please.
Commonwealth and Allagash Toji - These two collaborated on a foeder-aged saison, brewed with dates and yuzu. It was an excellent pre-Thanksgiving meal beer.
Port City German Pils and Tmave - One of these took a Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal. I'll add that 2019's Rauch Marzen was their best version yet.
Silver Branch Glass/Killer Castles - One of the really nice things about 2019 is how many new breweries hit the ground running. Right from the start Silver Branch was making very good beer. Killer is the unfiltered pils, Glass is the easier to find one. You can't go wrong.
Silver Branch Umlaut Love - Or you could drink the Kolsch-style ale.
Precarious Leicht - This also took gold at GABF and I just happened to be maybe 5 miles away from the brewery when the win was announced. I had never heard of them (Williamsburg, VA) before. This 3.9% lager is excellent.
Triple Crossing Pathway Pils - I tried to kill the keg of this at Brookland Pint.
Red Bear/DCBeer Ruby Lager - We did a few collaborations this year, and this one was my favorite. Really well balanced with a pillowy soft water profile.
Right Proper Scenicruiser - It's billed as a biere de garde, but there's grapes, and exotic hops, and it's fermented in a foeder. There's a lot going on here and all of it is good.
Union Schmoke - The second best beer name of the year (thanks, Crispocurrency!) and my favorite smoked beer. More on that over at DCBeer.com soon.




Also, we podcasted about the year that was.

Elsewhere:

OEC Coolship Lager - Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores isn't known for stuff like this, but maybe they should be. Proof that they can stand on their own two without the B. United imports.
Anderson Valley Black Rice Ale - I'm not going to find Asahi Kuronama around, and if I do it won't be fresh. This beer takes me back to what I remember drinking so often in Japan (yes, one is an ale, the other a lager).
Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest, with Bitburger - These are reliably very good.
Casa Agria Stone Fruit in Harmony - It's a saison, it's a fruited sour. Excellent blending going on here.
Fernson Plains Beer - Late into SAVOR I visited this table and hung out drinking light lager for the rest of the night.
Switchback, Flynn on Fire series - This Vermont brewery brought three smoked beers to SAVOR, each helpfully labeled with a "smoke-o-meter." The saison was my favorite, but what a cool thing.

Cheers to 2020, may it be better.

The BeerBrarian's Guide to... ALA Annual in DC!

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference, which meets at the Walter Washington Convention Center from Thursday, June 20th to Tuesday, June 25th.

A brief word about the guide:

With a few exceptions these are places I frequent, or at least have been in.

7th and 9th are the main commercial streets near the Convention Center, 5th and 6th are more residential (8th Street gets cut off by the Convention Center).

Blagden Alley, off of 9th, is pretty cool, and there will be a pop up market on Saturday the 23rd.

Coffee is important. I'd go with La Colombe and Buttercream, both on 9th Street. There's a Compass Coffee inside the Convention Center. That convenience wins out.
So is beer. I vote for Lost and Found, also on 9th.

If you don't mind walking, the Shaw and Penn Quarter neighborhoods, along with what's left of Chinatown, offer a bit more. The same is true of private developments like City Center DC and City Vista.




Go forth, enjoy, and say hi.

Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2018 Edition

Well, that was a year. 2018, with the never-ending news cycles, sapped much of my ability to concentrate. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that. To "celebrate," my top ten of 2018 is unranked, in alphabetical order.

Smash that play button and let's go.



Beach House - 7: Their biggest, most extroverted album.
Charles Bradley - Black Velvet: You come for the searing cover of Nirvana's "Stay Away," but you stay for his voice and the Daptones on his final record. Rest in peace.
Holy Fawn - Death Spells: Shoegaze with touches of black and doom metal. The sequel to Sigur Ros' Kveikur you didn't know you needed.
Kraus - Path: The shoegaze album of the year marries emo-style lyrics to breathtakingly loud guitar and pedal work.
Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness Parts I and II: A double album that's black metal and bluegrass, doom and Americana, with an ecological bent. And yet it works. Loud or quiet, it's beautiful.
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake: I didn't know they had it in them to make a political record, but it's here and it works.
Pusha T - Daytona: At 21 minutes I've got hardcore albums that are longer, but here are 7 bangers with no filler. Maybe burn it onto a CD-R with his highly entertaining diss track-slash-investigative journalism of Drake.
Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin: The Use Your Illusion of psych-garage-punk maybe could have benefited from being edited into a single album, but it's surprisingly funky and well-done.
Shopping - The Official Body: Gang of Four-style post-punk. Most impressive.
Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt: Jason Pierce aging gracefully, making Brill Building-, Beatles-, and Brian Wilson-style pop and R&B. Some songs are warm, some are abrasive, all are exceptionally well-crafted.



The best of the rest:

Amen Dunes - Freedom: Damon McMahon sounds like early Mick Jagger on a few of these slow-burners. Most impressive.
Belle and Sebastian - How to Solve Our Human Problems: Nice to have them back, making perfect pop songs.
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy: I've come to terms that the boom bap sound of my youth isn't coming back, and maybe, finally, that's a good thing. I wish that JID album hadn't come out so late in the year.
Des Demonas - s/t: The album came out in late 2017, but I didn't discover it until early 2018. US Girls seems to get the critical love as far as bands from DC go, but this political and polemical garage, surf, and punk band is well worth a listen.
Iceage - Beyondless: They've become one of the more interesting bands out there, and they're not even 30 yet. This album's more post- than punk and it works. The Jam for our times?
Jesus Piece - Only Self: The year's artiest hardcore album.
Lucy Dacus - Historian: This, plus the boygenuis EP.
Mitski - Be the Cowboy: I didn't get the hype before this one. Now I do. What a lyricist.
Nicholas Paschburg - Oceanic: My favorite ambient record of 2018.
Sleep - The Sciences: They're back, so pass the bong.
Thee Oh Sees - Smote Reverser: They sound more like Sleep now, so pass the bong.
Anna Von Hausswolf - Dead Magic: Something like a goth Kate Bush making doomy, funereal pop.

Singles: Tracey Thorn - Sister; Cardi B - Get Up 10; Shopping - The Hype; Snail Mail - Pristine; 1975 - Love It Cause We Made It.

Jeers: I wasn't into albums from a few bands I'm normally into. Sorry Courtney Barnett, Churches, and Deafheaven.


Beer

I thought DC Brau had comfortably entered their middle age, making beer that's "good enough." They killed it in 2018, releasing an excellent British-style barleywine in Sleep Standing Up; then made a hoppy rice lager, Tuk Tuk, that's very good, and that was just last winter. They followed it up with the Jameson-barrel aged Pet Your Cow milk stout this fall and then finally put their keller pils in tallboys. They had a really good year.

Some thoughts:
1) Our post-whalez scene continues, with Bourbon County and Canadian Breakfast Stout sitting on shelves, which is how it should be. Overall I saw a lot fewer lines in 2018, too.
2) There's more attention being paid to how breweries conduct their business, from dealing with intellectual property and trademarks, to racism and sexism, and wages. Keep shining a light and calling it out.
3) I don't know if this is good or not, but the DMV burbs are where it's at right now, maybe at the expense of some of the city's breweries. Sure, the quality in the city is there; see the DC Brau rave above. And Right Proper and Bluejacket are particularly locked in, but Port City's lager series continues to impress, as do Crooked Run's IPAs, and pretty much everything I had from Ocelot and Dynasty. And that's just Virginia.
3a) Then again, I saw a local brewery charge $65 for a bottle of stout at a pop-up event in the city. Not for a case of stout, but for one 500ml bottle. Do what you want with your money, but that's foolish.
3b) And I continue to be unimpressed with the most of the breweries in Montgomery and Frederick counties, especially those along MD-355 and I270/70.

The locals, in no particular order:

Port City Schwartzbier and Baltic Porter.
DC Brau Sleep Standing Up barrel-aged barleywine, Tuk Tuk rice lager, Jameson barrel-aged Pet Your Cow, and Keller pils.
3 Stars and Finback Low Riderz IPA: 3 Stars did a whole series of these and this was the most floral, and also the lowest ABV.
Ocelot Home IPA: a new hazy version.
Ardent Pils.
Rocket Frog Wallops Brown Ale, and, uh, Snark-Infested Waters Schwartzbier was pretty good, too.
Penn Druid Table Beer.
Dynasty and Lost Lagers 1858 Mild Ale and Dynasty Festbier, the most Teutonic of the locals. The hazy pale is also very good.
Right Proper White Bicycles aged in peach mead barrels from Charm City.
Black Narrows How Bout It American Lager.
Devils Backbone and Chuckanaut Dunkle.
Anxo Cidre Blanc in cans: Goldrush is bae.
Bluejacket For The Company in cans.
Mad Fox's Brut IPA was my favorite of the ones I've had. I know it's a divisive style, but I'd pay to drink this one.

The out-of-towners:

Suarez Palatine Pils and Round the Bend porter. I'm not sure if these were 2018 releases, but they showed up in DC this year, and I'd like to see more of them.
Fat Orange Cat White Stout.
Deschutes and Bells Schwartzbier collaboration, if you're noticing a trend.
Allagash Brett Pils and Brett IPA: So pretty much anything they do with Brettomyances is good.
The Bruery's Yount, a blend of Black Tuesday imperial stout and cabernet that somehow works. The perfect beer for Savor.

Want DCBeer's take on the year that was? Here ya go.

Here's hoping 2019 treats us better than 2018 did. Cheers.

Beer and Music, Music and Beer, 2017 Edition

Overall I thought 2017 wasn't as strong a year as 2016, as last year's top 5 is still in my regular music rotation, but hey, we got Radiohead's remastered OK Computer with magnificent studio version of b-sides, OKNOTOK, and that Black Thought freestyle. I'll take it. Here's my clear number one.



1) The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding: Adam Granduciel's masterpiece, a flawless album that updates 80s rock tropes with textured, processed guitars and everything-in-its-right-place layered studio perfection. Yeah, it'll remind you of Bruce Hornsby and Dire Straits, but it'll also remind you of Kraftwerk's Computer Love.

Two through four are also easy choices.

2) Slowdive - s/t: Songs of love aboard an interstellar space station. The vocal interplay between Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead is reminiscent of Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubble and Ira Kaplan's coos, and the rhythm section keeps Slowdive a poppier affair than their first go around. Unsurprising that the band would use Beach House's producer to make a spacey, slow burning album.

3) Bjork - Utopia: Bjork has been threatening to make an album surrounded by small woodland creatures pretty much her whole career, and so here we are. Birds chip and strings swell, but there's more beats on this album than you'd expect. Along with Bjork's increasingly direct lyrics, the result is a surprisingly tight and focused album.

4) MC Eiht - Which Way Iz West: An absolute banger for old heads like myself, with all the 90s west coast touchstones guesting in top form. There's something to be said for a hip-hop album with a few chefs in the kitchen; it leads to a more cohesive and coherent listen. Overseen by Executive Producer DJ Premier, Producer Brenk Sinatra's drums hit, the scratches and cuts are well-placed, and ain't a damn thing changed for a whole bunch of dudes who were gruff and gravely-voiced twenty years ago. And yes, Lady of Rage bats leadoff on a track, with a Rakim-esque internal rhyme scheme.

Next, rounding out the top fifteenish.

5) Los Campesinos - Sick Scenes: This is about where these albums usually end up on end-of-year lists, so why stop now?
6) Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound: Up to the Surface and Enter Entirely were two of the better rock songs of the year, and the rest of the album is pretty good, too.
7) Ryan Adams - Prisoner: Mining similar territory as The War on Drugs, Adams updates his Heartbreaker album for 80s synth-rock.
8) IDLES - Brutalism: A sneering, searing piece of post-punk that's alternately witty and too clever by half, propelled by near-industrial drumming.
9) Jay Som - Everybody Works: Literally bedroom pop since that's where it was recorded and full of indie hooks. Like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville and more recently Waxahatchee? Odds are good you'll like this, too.
10) Fleet Foxes - Crack Up: Predictably gorgeous.
11) The Horrors - V: The Horrors update the dance-punk of the aughts with zero-gravity guitar sounds from shoegaze revivalists, vocals that hearken back to Julian Cope, and more than a little Depeche Mode. Notes bend, shimmer, and fade into synths.
12) Algiers - The Underside of Power: If Hank Shocklee's Bomb Squad met TV on the Radio circa 2004 it might sound something like this.
13) The National - Sleep Well Beast: An update to their sound that is particularly American in its lack of subtlety. Matt Berninger's red wine-soaked croon is backed by what passes for blasts of noise and sonic departures for the rest of the band, and we're all the better for it.
14) Rihannon Giddens - Freedom Highway: The only album I've put on one of these lists from a MacAurther Genius Grant winner.
15a) Kronos Quartet - Folk Songs: The Quartet backs Rihannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and more on nine folk songs. Their restrained and subtle interpretations anchor, but don't upstage, the singers.
15b) Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Ladilikan: Same, but with singers from Mali.

Singles: Alvvays - Dreams Tonite; Grizzly Bear - Mourning Sound; Mogwai - Party in the Dark; Ryan Adams - Do You Still Love Me?; Cloud Nothings - Enter Entirely and Up to the Surface; Perfume Genius - Slip Away; Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires.




Beer

The number of breweries in the US has doubled since 2013, tripled since 2011, and quadrupled since 2007, as such I can't keep up with the growth. This is especially true in the exurbs - there's breweries in Columbia, Maryland and Sterling, Virginia I've never heard of!

Outside of the lines for the Craft Brewers Conference events, one of my favorite things about 2017 was DC's new post-whalez environment. Multiple bars made 3 Floyds Zombie Dust a happy hour special, and it was around for about a month. Hill Farmstead's Edward could be had for $4 at the late Red Apron Burger Bar (RIP to that happy hour, though you can find something just like it at EatBar). And nearly two weeks after its release, you can still walk into both bars and stores and buy a bottle of Founders' Canadian Breakfast Stout (which remains a gloppy mess that needs at least a year in the bottle, but that's another story). I think it's a sign of a maturing market.

Anxo released the first DC-made cider and opened a 2nd location; The Sovereign cemented its status as the best beer bar in DC; DC Brau added a snazzy new brewhouse; Port City's lager series was a success and will continue into 2018 with a dopplebock batting leadoff; Bluejacket is doing some very good things with lagers and their cask game;... I could go on, but let's get the the beers, locals first, in something like alphabetical order.

3 Stars, Technicolor Dreamlife (IPA): A fuckton of Mosaic and the malt is smart enough to get out of the way. Here's hoping they bring it back, along with their session IPA, D is for Diamonds.
3 Stars, Trouble in Paradise (Fruit/Sour): It took them a while to get a first batch out, and then even more of a while to dial it in and get this right. Your 2018 beer of the summer is a slightly tarter take on the Florida Weiss that's garnered some press.

Bluejacket, For the Company (Helles): Their cask game is top notch and now they've got a lager to go with it. Moon Cabbage, Open Window, and The New Colossus are excellent IPAs, as well.

Burly Oak, Berry Cherry J.D.R.E.A.M. (Fruit/Sour): Peak 2017 in beer isn't a hazy IPA, it's a fruit-addled kettle sour with lactose that tastes juuuuuuuuuust enough like a beer to count here.

DC Brau, Barrel-aged Citizen (Belgian Golden Ale): The Citizen, aged in rye whiskey barrels that also held Langon Wood's maple syrup. The banana esters from the yeast and Old World hops play very well with the sweetness of the syrup, the rye spice, and the wood.

Manor Hill, Barrel-aged Grisette: Low ABV, full flavor, plus a sauvignon blanc barrel and whatever berries happen to be in-season on their farm. Here's hoping they've got more of it in 2018.

Any Ocelot IPA, and their collaboration IPA with increasingly recognized Triple Crossing out of Richmond.

One Eight Distilling, Rock Creek Bourbon: No, it's not a beer, but it is the first grain-to-glass bourbon made in DC since Prohibition, and it's already very good at two years old. 95 proof, high rye.

Any Port City lager in their rotating series, but especially that smoked Marzen. One of the more surprising things about beer in 2017 to me is that Colossal 6, a Russian Imperial Stout, didn't medal at the Great American Beer Festival.

Right Proper, et al, Soused (IPA): The hoppiest beer they've made got on the kveiss fermentation trend a few months before it blew up, and you can still get a hint of smokey juniper between all those stone fruit and citrus hops and esters.
Right Proper, Baron Elijah (Bier de Garde): Baron Corvo in a very wet Elijah Craig bourbon barrel is as close to a Manhattan as a beer is going to get. Cherry up front, whiskey in the back, and an oaky, dry finish.

Elsewhere, new to market, new packaging, and new to me: any Offshoot IPA, and that Pils, too; Upland's sours and Champagne Velvet; Crux's Gimme Mo IPA; Ommegang's Pale Sour; Left Hand's Saison Aux Baies Ameres; Suarez Family's porter and pils; Schlafly's reintroduction of their Scotch-barrel aged Scotch ale; Lodgson's Peche 'n Brett; being able to get Urban Chestnut's Schnicklefritz hefeweizen with some regularity; Otter Creek's IPA game remains strong with Daily Dose; Atlas putting Dance of Days in cans; Allagash's Brett IPA; Burial and Interboro's collaboration IPA with Run the Jewels, Stay G-O-L-D; Grimm's Magnetic Tape IPA; Bell's Uberon and Whiskey Barrel Cherry Stout.

Imports: Cadejo Brewing's witbier; Ayinger's new-to-the-US pilsner; Rodenbach in cans; Weihenstephaner Kristalweizenbock.

Here's hoping 2018 treats us better than 2017 did. Cheers.

The BeerBrarian's Guide to... ACRL in Baltimore!

Having been a visitor to Baltimore for the past thirty years and living all of forty miles away, a guide to the city from someone who knows a thing or two about a thing or two might be useful for librarians attending the Association of College and Research Libraries conference.

A brief word about the guide:
I've vetted anything posted below. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in.
The area around the convention center isn't exactly exciting, nor is it known for good food. Expect a lot of touristy spots and chains, and sometimes touristy spots that are chains. Some of those chains are pretty good (Cava, Nando's), and some are not (Phillip's).
Your best spots for good, cheap food are Lexington Market, a few blocks north of the convention center, or a short ride east on either light rail or the Charm City Circulator, which is free, toward Fells Point (Maiwand, Miss Shirley's).

For beer, I recommend pretty much anything from The Brewer's Art or Union Craft Brewing. Oliver Ales does an excellent job with the British styles, and both they and Heavy Seas are the rare American breweries that understand proper cask ale.

For coffee, The Bun Shop is your best bet if you want the good stuff near the convention center. Otherwise, it's Starbucks and Dunks and such.

If you are missing Portland, the Hampden neighborhood is your best bet.



The Arts Section of ACRL has a map of art in the city that's worth a look, and the conference website itself has a useful page on the city. Better yet, two locals wrote an article in February's College and Research Libraries News with a good overview.

Shameless plugs:

On Wednesday I'll be at the Critlib Unconference.
On Thursday at 9:40am in room 308 Angela Galvan, Eamon Tewell, and I are presenting on the concepts of grit and resilience in libraries. You should be there. Here's the summary:

Librarians representing diverse backgrounds in North American higher education will introduce resilience, its origins, and its implications as a strategy and concept within academic libraries. We will problematize resilience, demonstrating the intentional and unintentional relationships between it and structural issues in academic libraries, including librarian burnout, disaster capitalism, adjunctification, and feminized labor space. Attendees will learn how resilience took root in librarianship and discuss what can be done to resist this concept.

Anyway, say hi.


* I tend to do these for Computers in Libraries, but since that conference has moved back to the hinterland that is Crystal City from just north of Dupont Circle, here you go.

Beer and Music, Music and Beer: 2016 edition

This year was a trash fire. It took Bowie, then Prince, and maybe our representative democracy, too. Look at this body count. Here's the soundtrack to the shit year it was.



1) A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service: That this exists is impressive. That it's good is a minor miracle. Tip's lush production, always an underrated aspect of his game, is on point and he knows it, letting the beat in "Moebius" stretch out for DJs to use. As he's gotten older he's learned how to use his voice more, singing hooks and rapping double-time in addition to playing the abstract we know and love. Phife, rest in power, doesn't haunt this album like a specter; he's in it and of it, putting that Trinidadian patois to good use more so than in the past. Jarobi got more or less left off Tribe's top two, but he's back here, dropping gems. That vaunted Tribe chemistry extends to guest stars, as Tip and Andre 3000 trade off verses on "Kids" and folks who are basically members of the group like Consequence and Busta Rhymes know what to do. This isn't The Low End Theory or Midnite Marauders, but it might be their third-best, and since those other two are in the G.O.A.T. conversation, here we are.

2) Drive-By Truckers - American Band: Even before Trump became president-elect, artists were making protest music in 2016. There's nothing subtle about this record, but Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley's lyrics and riffs are spot on and I think it's DBT's best since Isbell left.

3) Shearwater - Jet Plane and Oxbow: This, forgive the reference, bird's eye view of America is lyrically powerful and understated, with Jonathan Meiburg embracing more electronic elements, integrating them into theatrical, operatic music that borrows from early 80s Bowie, prog, and Replacements-era American punk.

4) David Bowie - Blackstar: His parting gift to us is a searing, slow burn mediation on the end, full of his wry, sardonic wit. His best since either "Scary Monsters" or the Berlin trilogy, you choose. Regardless, what a way to go out.


The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:

Anderson .Paak - Malibu: He also dropped a mixtape with Knxwledge called "Nxworries." Get both.
Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings: Never has an album title been more correct.
Charles Bradley - Once 2016 started claiming bodies I was worried Bradley wouldn't make it out of this year. Peep his cover of Black Sabbath's "Changes" and stay for some of the best soul music around.
Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition: Yes, he did name a record after a Joy Division song, what of it? Anyway, starting with "Lost" Brown begins to tear into some utterly bizarre beats and the results are spectacular.
Car Seat Headrest - Teen of Denial: That deliberately ramshackle punk-tinged indie rock we all know and love.
Daughter - Not to Disappear: From shoegazey coos to indie wails, with electronics integrated, yet somehow sounding consistently whole.
Jesu/Sun Kil Moon - Jesu/Sun Kil Moon: Yeah, it's Mark Kozelek basically talking over crunchy riffs from Justin Broadrick. Your new lazy, hazy  weekend morning soundtrack.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree: Halfway through the making of this album's Cave's son died, completely changing the meaning of it. Try to listen without crying.
Savages - Adore Life: Less thrash subtext, more straight-up post-punk, still very good.
Swans - The Glowing Man: Eerier, and doomier, than in the past.
Vektor - Terminal Redux: A thrash-metal space-opera concept album with some left-field additions, like a choir. And somehow it works.
Yuck - Stranger Things: They dropped a lead singer and now I like them more even though they're still filtering 90s indie rock. Go figure.



Cheers: To the pure joy of Chance the Rapper. To "Identikit" appearing on an album. To R&B getting real weird thanks to Blood Orange, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver, ANOHNI, and yes, even Beyonce. To Iggy Pop and Bob Mould, long may they make records.
Jeers: To Radiohead putting "Daydreaming" as track 2, ensuring their album was a joyless slog. To Vinyl, because holy hell was that an awful TV show about music.

Singles

Radiohead - Burn the Witch; 21 Pilots - Heathens; DJ Shadow f. Run the Jewels - Nobody Speak; Chance the Rapper - No Problems; Beyonce - Daddy Lessons.

Beers 

A word on orange juice/milkshake IPAs. Some of the worst beers I had this year were in this category. For example, I had multiple beers from Tired Hands that were clearly not finished fermenting. I won't be ordering any IPAs from that brewery any time soon, and it's incumbent on local bars to implement some quality control standards rather than chasing trends. I recognize that this style can be done well - see below, and locally we have Aslin - but it's also possible to make juice bombs that are less opaque and consequently pleasing to the eye.

But on to the good news. The cozy bar at Right Proper Brookland, 3 Stars cool Urban Farmhouse, that kick-ass train board at Atlas,... drinking on-premise is where it's at in 2016. To wit, while I still enjoy Churchkey, and The Sovereign was the best new beer bar of the year, the prices keep creeping up above a dollar an ounce on an awful lot of beer at bars. Meanwhile, brewery-slash-restaurant Bluejacket has excellent renditions of both an ESB and a dark mild, on cask, on a consistent basis, for $6 per pint. District Chophouse continues to be overlooked; you can get a real good nut brown or oatmeal stout for $3.50 during happy hour.

To go along with The Sov, Anxo gave DC something to brag about in terms of both space and cider selection; there are plenty of cities that don't have what we do.

Ocelot made a name for themselves with hops, but Mike McCarthy honed his chops at Capital City, and it showed this year with an excellent pilsner and bitter to go along with all those IPAs.

DC Brau turned 5 and threw a cool party with bands and one of the more inventive 6-packs out there. Their collaboration with Port City on a dark lager, Zehn von Zehn, was my favorite.

3 Stars got their sour program up and running and pretty much immediately started making good beer. There's a reason Ricky Rose sixtels kicked so quickly.

Pekko Beer is bringing some real good stuff, much of it at H Street's Craft Beer Cellar, clearly the best new bottle shop in the area.

On the grey market front, Melvin Brewing out of Wyoming brought some excellent IPAs to the area for about a month around SAVOR.

As always, what follows is either new to the market or a new brewery release in 2015, in alphabetical order.

The locals:

3 Stars and Other Half, Ricky Rose - American wild ale: The first offering from 3 Stars sour program is a winner, bursting with tart berries and finishing bone dry. There's a reason sixtels of this barely lasted an hour.
Atlas, Dance of Days - Hoppy wheat: The best beer they've made, IMO, and I really like their double black IPA, NSFW.
DC Brau, Belgian Space Reaper - Double IPA: I was skeptical that Mosaic hops would play well with this yeast, but the esters and the fruit are a winning combination.
DC Brau and Port City, Zen Vohn Zen - Dunkle: The best of the Brau collaborations, with a brewery that knows its way around a lager. Maybe with Brau's expansion we could get some more of this?
Devils Backbone, Smoked Porter: 5.5% and not too smokey, with just enough sweetness.
Jailbreak, Dusk 'Til Dawn - Imperial Stout: It doesn't hurt that I drank this surrounded by puppies, but I had a Dark Lord shortly thereafter and this is the better beer.
Manor Hill, Grisette: My favorite new canned beer.
Ocelot, Sunnyside Dweller - Pilsner: That this brewery took a medal for something other than an IPA is impressive.
Pen Druid, Earth - Saison: I need to drink more beer from Virginia. I bet this space has room for The Answer, Triple Crossing, and a host more.
Port City, Double Wit - Amaro barrel-aged witbier: The brainchild of ex-DCBeer-er Chris Van Orden, it's twice the Optimal Wit with oaky tannins and spice.
Port City and Schlafly, VaStly Mild: I drank two pints of this on cask in about 30 minutes.
Right Proper and Pizzeria Paradiso, Maslow - Farmhouse ale: As Pilsner-y as an ale is going to get, dry and crushable, too.
Victory and Bluejacket, Brett Dixon - Pale lager: Slightly overhopped and dry and just about perfect.
Anything hoppy from Ocelot.

National and/or new to market:

Allagash, Little T - Brett pale ale: We all knew Allagash would do a great job with this style. Morval!
Anchor, Our Special Ale - Winter warmer, I guess: I've been drinking versions of this for about 20 years and this one might be the best yet. If you like malt, this is the winter beer for you.
Foundation, Epiphany - IPA: It's a Heady Topper clone! And you might not have to wait in line for it! (But you do have to go to Maine.)
Deschutes and Hair of the Dog, Collage 2 - Strong Ale: Since this technique is all the rage, check out this well-integrated blend of barrel-aged versions of The Abyss, The Stoic,  Fred, and Doggie Claws. Massively malty, with notes of prunes, raisins, cherries, jammy Cabernet, and great barrel character.
Great Raft, Come What Mayhaw - American wild ale: One of the first beers out of their foeders makes excellent use of Hawthorne berries.
Lodgson, Seizoen Bretta - Saison: Even brettier than Boulevard's Saison Brett. Welcome to DC, fellas.
Lost Abbey and Wicked Weed, Ad Idem - American wild ale: One of the better sours at SAVOR. Fruity, tart, but balanced.
Melvin, 2x4 - Double IPA: For a few weeks around SAVOR this beer was everywhere in DC and it was glorious.
Modern Times, Fortunate Islands - Hoppy wheat: So many of this brewery's recipes originated here - thanks, Mad Fermentationist! - that it's only fair that we get the finished product.
Sierra Nevada and Mahr's Brau, Oktoberfest: This collaboration isn't as good as last year's with Riegel, but it's still pretty darn good.
Stillwater and Other Half, Rockstar Farmer - Belgian IPA: Or maybe it's a farmhouse IPA. Regardless, that Stillwater yeast and Other Half hopping do good work.
Trillium, Double Dry Hopped Fort Point - IPA: I am still not a fan of the orange juice-milkshake Northeast IPA, but this has some bitterness to go with the hop juice and it's damn tasty.
Wicked Weed, Garcon de Ferme - American wild ale: Nice to have them in market, too. Blending a saison into a golden sour ale and adding peaches makes for a beer that's dry, but not overly tart. Now we wait for the inevitable sale to a macro.
Anything hoppy from Singlecut.

Cheers!

Music and Beer, Beer and Music in 2015

My new job makes it harder to listen to music (note: do not interpret this as a complaint, yet), so we're going to do things a bit differently this year. Rather than ranking, here are twenty albums I liked in 2015, and continue to like, in alphabetical order by artist. Not interested in music? Beer here.



A few trends, if one can call it that:

Two Australian artists, Courtney Barnett and Royal Headache.
Heterodox black metal, or if you want to be snide about it, "hipster metal." The orthodoxy around genres sure was fun to argue about in the 90s. Now I reap the musical benefits of bands that sit slightly outside a scene.

Albums

Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color: Not sure I’d ever find myself in the position of praising a soul revival group for their use of negative space and minimalism in arrangements, but here we are.

Algiers - s/t: An incendiary, politically and otherwise, mix of post-punk, and no-wave. Picture James Baldwin fronting early TV on the Radio with Liquid Liquid and ESG producing and you're close.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Sit: Wry, ramshackle alt-country reminiscent of both Uncle Tupelo and Pavement. One of the smartest lyricists around.

Cheatahs - Mythologies: These year-end lists usually contain a nu-gaze group, so here you go. (In all seriousness their first album sounded like a 90s tribute and they’ve done a good job breaking out of that mould here, incorporating post-punk rhythms, synths, and nifty production tricks.)

Beach House - Depression Cherry: Some subtle tweaks to their formula (louder guitars, organ loops, and even EDM) result in their best album yet. Throw a second 2015 release, Thank Your Lucky Stars, too.

Bjork - Vulnicura: Arca’s not my cup of tea, but the interplay between his beats and the strings are often challenging, and lyrically this is as real as Bjork’s gotten. It’s nice to have her back. Her best since Vespertine.

Chvrches - Open Every Eye: At times harsher, more industrial, and angular than their first. Closer to Depeche Mode. As it should be.

Dead to a Dying World - Litany: At their most beautiful they sound like a Godspeed You! Black Emperor 33 1/3rd LP being played at 45.

Deafheaven - New Bermuda: A bit more black metal, especially in the drumming, this time out, and none the worse for wear.

Holly Herndon - Platform: Out of chaos, order.

Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts - Manhattan: A man with a voice that can be described as “a more nasal Weird Al” does a Jim Carroll Band/Jonathan Richman thing, which reminds me of all that New York has lost.

Myrkur - M: I like the one that opens with haunting, ethereal vocals; Nordic folk instruments; and piano followed by abnormally well-produced, punishing black metal.

Obsequiae - Aria of Vernal Tombs: Putting the “folk” in folk metal.

Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper: An oddly funky psych-pop record, co-produced by a member of Spacemen 3, that still feels grounded, rooted, and homey.

Pinkish Black - Bottom of the Morning: Dungeon synths, metal, krautrock, and that drumming.

Royal Headache - High: The best album to sing along to this year.

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell: Another quiet gem. His most personal album, and maybe his best.

Tall Tales and the Silver Lining - Tightropes: Hook-heavy west coast 70s AM radio goodness.

Viet Cong - s/t: “March of Progress” alone is worth the price of admission.

Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp: Indie rock has taken a beating lately, but Waxahatchee’s last two albums have carried the torch.

Cheers: The triumphant returns of Belle and Sebastian, Bjork, Cannibal Ox, Faith No More, Sleater-Kinney, and The Sonics. Whatever is going on with Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift.

Jeers: I just can’t with a lot of hip hop these days. Sad. So it goes with getting older? The Swift-Adams thinkpieces.




Songs (in no particular order)

March of Progress - Viet Cong
The Blacker the Berry - Kendrick Lamar
Ondine - Lower Dens
Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Should Have Known Better - Sufjan Stevens
Energy - Drake
Need You - Royal Headache
24 Frames - Jason Isbell
Ex’s & Oh’s - Ellie King
Something to Believe In - Tall Tales and the Silver Lining
Signs to Lorelei - Cheatahs




Beer (Either new to the market or a new brewery release in 2015, in no particular order)

The locals:

Home - Ocelot (IPA): An admitted homage to Alpine's famed Nelson rye pale ale, see below, with slightly more cereal and grain in the body.
Nanticoke Nectar - Real Ale Revival (IPA): This brewery is crushing it. Big things. One thing a beer professional can do is introduce people to new things and champion them. Jace Gonnerman did that with RAR and Fairwinds, see below.
Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne - Right Proper (Berliner Weisse): Not too sour that I can't drink three of them. Floral, bone dry, and made within walking distance of my house.
Raspberry Dissonance - 3 Stars (Berliner Weisse): Not sure I can drink three of them, but I can drink two.
Black Twig - Albemarle Ciderworks: Their single-apple varietal ciders continue to impress.
Siren’s Lure - Fairwinds (Saison): Always nice when a brewery opens and immediately medals at the Great American Beer Festival.
Now in cans: Union Old Pro Gose, Port City Optimal Wit, 3 Stars Ghost White IPA.

National:

Oktoberfest - Sierra Nevada-Brauhaus Riegel: Basically liquid perfection.
Left of the Dial - Notch (Session IPA)
Down to Earth - 21st Amendment (Session IPA): These session IPAs are the two best examples of hop-bursting I've encountered so far, moving this style away from what I'd ordinarily call a "bitter" to a category of its own.
Coffee Cinnamon Barrel-Aged Abominable - Fremont (Imperial Stout): This beer was so good that it literally silenced the room at a tasting.
Deux Rouges - Yazoo (Sour/wild ale): My favorite sour from SAVOR, no small feat.
Vinosynth White - Upland (Sour/wild ale): My second favorite, sorry Allagash.

New in the market:

Anything from Tired Hands: Greg Engert's persistence pays off yet again, as NRG bars and restaurants carry this Pennsylvania brewery. Look for more of this kind of arrangement in 2016.
Anything hoppy from Alpine: Not paying the six-pack prices, but it's nice to have these guys on tap.
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin (IPA): My official beer of the summer.
Avery Liliko'i Kepolo (witbier): White Rascal was already my go-to Belgian in a can. Tropical fruit flavors and tartness take it up a notch.
Firestone Walker Pivo Pils: Yet another stupid good beer from a stupid good brewery.
Boulevard Ginger Lemon Radler: Danner knows what's up.

Cheers!

The BeerBrarian's Guide to Computers in Libraries 2015

Since I live in DC, I thought an insider's perspective might be useful for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2015 conference, which meets at the Hilton just north of Dupont Circle from Monday, April 27th, to Wednesday, April 29th.

I won't be presenting this year, but I'll probably be around the expo hall, doing the lobbycon and firecon thing Monday and/or Tuesday. Come say hi.

A brief word about the guide:
With a few exceptions, anything posted below have been vetted by me. These are places I frequent, or at least have been in. Not mentioned is that west of the conference there are many embassies, which would be a nice walk during breaks, or after the sessions have ended for the day.

The Washington Post's Going Out Guide is a bit unwieldy and probably needs to be updated or taken offline, but remains useful.

I write for DCBeer.com on the side. Here's their guide to beer in the area, which also needs some updates.

Though it's a bit of a hike for lunch, 14th St NW has blown up in terms of dining and bars; there's something for everyone at multiple price points that would be worth the walk for dinner.

If you're familiar with Dupont Circle and think I missed anything, please let me know.

The #acrl2015 post

The 2015 Association of College and Research Libraries conference is in Portland, Oregon this week. Here's where I'll be.

Wednesday, March 25th:
Critlib Unconference. Critical theories and librarianship at Portland State University.
Battledecks. Even The Wall Street Journal is on it.

Thursday, March 26th:
There's so much going on with regards to conference sessions that I'm still narrowing down where I'll be when on this day and the next.
Everylibrary is hosting a reception at Deschutes' brewpub in the Pearl District in the evening. One of my favorite library organizations and favorite breweries, together. For those who don't imbibe, the ginger ale at Deschutes is fantastic.

Friday, March 27th:
Presenting a paper, Faculty Perceptions of a Library: Paneling for Assessment," from 11:20-11:40am in room D135-136. Here's the abstract:

This paper introduces librarians and library staff to “paneling,” a technique employed here to analyze the discourse around and within how faculty perceive an academic library at a small university. The concept of panels comes to librarianship from anthropology, and shows great promise as not only an assessment tool, but also one that informs library practices and behaviors.

Watch this space for more on the topic.

The conference reception is Friday night. It involves desserts and drinking in museums, two things I am fond of.

Saturday, March 28th:
The Portland Farmhouse and Wild Ale Festival. The timing on this was excellent, and a bunch of librarians are going to this after Lawrence Lessig's keynote. Have a gander at the beer list so far.

Speaking of beer, here's what's on my radar in Portland: Upright Engleberg Pils, Breakside IPA, Pints Schwartzbier, and Upright Fantasia and Lodgson Peche n Brett, if I can find those last two.
I'm staying within walking distance of Cascade, Hair of the Dog, and Commons, among others, and I hope to visit Gigantic as well. In sum, for both libraries and beer, I'm like a kid in a candy store here.

Cheers!

Beer and Music, Music and Beer: 2014 Edition

I wasn't enamored with new releases in 2014. I can't remember a year I thought was weaker, though maybe 2009 comes close, so let’s focus on what’s really good about 2014:

• ageless wonder Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds wonderful version of “Mermaids” live in Prospect Park, 
• the live return of Slowdive, 
• the album returns of Godflesh and The Vaselines, 
• the weirdness of Dean Blunt, Caribou, and Aphex Twin (I’ll have whatever they are having), 
• The Wu-Tang Clan rapping (well) together again, 
• Michael Gira and Swans continuing “comeback,” 
• Ghostface and AZ on multiple tracks together, 
• the concept and execution of Kreezus, Killed by Deathrock, Vol. 1 (aka, the best reissue of 2014), and 
• Run the Jewels being an actual rap group.

My top albums, in order:

1) Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow: There are moments of pure, liquid joy on this album, and in 2014, that’s enough.

2) Lydia Loveless - Somewhere Else: An alt-country album with a song called “Verlaine Shot Rimbaud” is something I am interested in.

3) Makthaverskan - II: Maja Milner has some Debbie Harry in her voice, and none of the icy composure, in this loose, cathartic album.

4) TV on the radio - Seeds: They’re back, albeit slightly poppier, and with stronger vocals.

5) Los Campesinos! - A Los Campesinos! Christmas: You know the drill; whenever they release an album, it gets slotted about here. Even if the album is a seven-song EP.

6) The Men - Tomorrow’s Hits: Rock. Action. Not a wasted note on this album.

Tier Two, in alphabetical order:

Alcest - : French metal band goes shoegaze, with sexy results.

Alvvays - s/t: Jangle so hard there’s a love song to Archie Moore on this album.

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness

Beck - Morning Phase: A worthy sequel to Sea Change.

Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else: Seething post-grunge.

The Coathangers - Suck My Shirt: A sleazy mix of garage punk, early ‘80s Sunset Strip rock, and jangle.

D’Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah: The “Chinese Democracy” of R n B is exists, with an album of jazzy, slinky, brittle funk that sounds both loose and composed. So maybe more like the My Bloody Valentine of R n B, then.

Eagulls - s/t: Just as much emphasis on the “punk” as on the “post.”

Eternal Summers - The Drop Beneath

Fear of Men - Loom: There’s a Stereolab-fronted-by-Nico vibe here that’s quite nice.

Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World: I saw a publication refer to this music as “shitgaze,” which made me want to cry. But I guess that’s shorter than calling it shoegaze/post-hardcore/post-rock.

The Horrors - Luminous: Now they’re making songs that would play during the edgiest scenes in John Hughes movies. Yes, that’s a compliment.

Mogwai - Rave Tapes: They continue to mellow, but are no less fine, like a barrel-aged stout.

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music: Alt-country gives way to psych-folk freakouts on what’s maybe the 2014 album with the most staying power.

Trust - Joyland: I got a lot of recommendations for EDM in 2014, and the most Teutonic of them was the best, dark and brooding.

The Vaselines - V for Vaselines: No signs of rust here. Weird, weird power pop, same as it ever was.



Songs:

Lydia Loveless - Wine Lips
Freddie Gibbs and madlib - Shitsville
War on Drugs - In Reverse
The Horrors - I See You
The Fresh and Onlys - Animal of One
Lust for Youth - New Boys
Parquet Courts - Pretty Machines
Sturgill Simspon - The Promise
Total Control - Flesh War
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Food for Clouds
Mogwai - Remurdered
Against Me! - True Trans Soul Rebel



Beer (either new to the DC market in 2014, or new to the brewery, in no particular order):

via Untappd

Jester King Viking Metal - They're calling this a Gotlandsdricka, which is then aged in gin barrels. Smokey, spicy, gin-y.

Hill Farmstead-Cambridge-Kissemeyer Arctic Saison - Lemony deliciousness.

3 Stars-Millstone Brandy Lyn - a 60/40 blend of beer and cider that's perfectly balanced and blended. Light malts, nelson sauvin hops, apples, and brett all shine.

Great Raft Reasonably Corrupt - Schwartzbier is a hard style to get right, and I'm not being a homer when I say this is great.

Off Color Troublesome - Kinda Gose-y.

Oakshire Hermanne - Vinous, bright, and sour.

Anderson Valley Gose - Either the regular or blood orange version. I'm not picky.

Deschutes Black Butte 26 - An imperial porter with the kitchen sink in it, including pomegranate molasses and cranberries. I love that I can walk into a grocery store and buy this.

Adroit Theory Brandy barrel-aged B/A/Y/S - It seems like it's not a year-end beer list unless these guys have a barrel-aged stout on it.

Virtue Ciders Sidra de Nava - I can't wait for these guys to distribute in DC.

Lost Rhino Bacterium Blondus - Their first attempt at a sour was so good they didn't even have to blend it, they just bottled a barrel.

Albermarle Ciderworks Gold Rush - My favorite all-purpose apple now has a cider.

Additional shouts to the entire state of Virginia, which is killing it. Devils Backbone, 3 Brothers, Strageways, Hardywood Park, cideries... to DC Brau's Alpha Domina Mellis, which is Hopslam for people who know better.

I've done this before, and I'll do it again:

2014 Edition
2013 Edition
2012 Edition
2011 Edition