Daniel's Best of 2024 List

So let’s jump right in with my top 10 new releases of 2024 (in no particular order, of course).

PURA MANÍA - Extraños Casos De La Vida Real 7” (Roachleg)
PUBLIC ACID - Deadly Struggle LP (Beach Impediment)
INVERTEBRATES - Sick to Survive LP (Beach Impediment)
MARCEL WAVE - Something Looming LP (Feel It)
SUBDUED - Abbatoir LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
THE CARP - Knock Your Block Off LP (Total Punk)
TOZCOS - Infernal LP (Toxic State)
TIIKERI - Tee Se Itse 7” (self-released)
ALVILDA - C’est Déjà L’heure LP (Static Shock)
STRAW MAN ARMY - Earthworks LP (D4MT Labs / La Vida Es Un Mus)

Maximum Rocknroll asked me to contribute a year-end list again this year, so you’ll have to tune in there for my two cents about each record on my list. It looks like MRR hasn’t run their year-end lists yet, but I’ll drop a link in a future newsletter.

A couple notes about my list this year: 1. Typically I would never be so gauche as to include a release I didn’t own a physical copy of, but like a lot of you I haven’t been able to lay my hands on a copy of the Alvilda LP to call my own. We sold a lot of first and second press copies at Sorry State, but both times I was like, “eh, I’ll place my pre-order tomorrow,” and then suddenly it’s sold out. I didn’t make the same mistake with the 3rd press, but we’re still waiting on those so it’s not in my photo. 2. Last year I wrote a whole essay about my method for crafting my list, but this year it was a lot more from the hip. I looked through a few sources (Sorry State’s Record of the Week, the records I actually bought this year, and what I added to my digital library), made up a short list of around 30 releases I really liked, and pruned that list down to 10. Every year there are some things on the bubble, but I’m pretty happy with the 10 I landed on. For me, a record needs to feel “important” in some kind of way to merit a spot on the list, and I think all 10 of these clear that bar.

If you’re wondering about my shortlist, here are the artists on it. I thought all the releases these bands put out were awesome: Viscount, Nightfeeder, Tia Rosa, The Dark, Excess Blood, Savage Pleasure, Peace de Résistance, Homemade Speed, Class, Naked Roommate, Yellowcake, the Massacred, Guiding Light, Gimic, Thought Control, Paranoid Maniac, Kriegshög, Why Bother?, S.H.I.T., Muro, Bloodstains, Flower.

I also saw a lot of sick gigs this year. Some of my favorite sets were: Tiikeri, Lebenden Toten, Paranoid, KOS, Putkipommi, Meanwhile, Larma, Physique, Mob 47, Personal Damage, Paranoid, Kohti Tuhoa, Slan, Yambag, Deletär, and a bunch more I’m probably forgetting. And there are a ton of incredible bands I got to see multiple times this year, including Public Acid, Invertebrates, Destruct, Ultimate Disaster, Paranoid Maniac, Meat House, Mutant Strain, DE()T, and Vidro. I should get out to gigs more than I do (especially ones I’m not playing), but it feels like my social awkwardness is in full bloom lately.

Now let’s look at my year in record collecting. Every year, friends post pictures on Instagram of their favorite scores of the year, and it always makes me reflect on my collecting philosophy. I rarely buy records on Discogs, and I don’t aggressively pursue certain records the way many people seem to. I’ve always been more of an accumulator, happy to appreciate what the universe puts in my path. Usually that’s more than enough to keep me satisfied and my budget fully blown, and that was certainly the case this year. That being said, if anyone wants to help me get any of these into my collection in 2025, please get in touch:

La Banda Trapera Del Rio: 1st LP
Nerorgasmo 7”
Ratsia: 1st LP (I’d settle for a reissue of this one at this point!)

As for what I found this year, I’ll break it into chunks. (It is both sad and embarrassing that I have to break it into chunks.) Since I rarely go to the other record stores in Raleigh, I’ve developed a habit of splurging when I go out of town. This year Scarecrow toured Scandinavia, and I definitely went hard while we were there. Here are a few of my favorites that I picked up on the trip.

Krunch I’d never really spent much time with, but I played this 7” a ton once I got home. My Totalitär collection pales compared to my bandmates’, but I was stoked to fill this gap. Like Krunch, I didn’t know the Pohjalla compilation well, but it’s stayed close to my turntable. The Hilselp compilation I actually bought online once I got home, but I learned about the record on the trip when we stayed with our friends Markku and Kerttu. It’s one of many records I snapped a pic of that night and checked out online when I got home. When an original copy with the zine popped up on Discogs for a good price, I jumped right on it. Gauze is the one non-Scandinavian record here, but I got it on the trip thanks to my friend Anders. This completes my collection of Gauze OGs! Eppu Normaali… I mean, it’s just an awesome record, and finding it at a flea market in Turku is too perfect a provenance. Finally, the Huvudtvätt / Kurt I Kuvos split LP is probably my favorite record I got this year. It was so cool to find it in Sweden, and it’s even more important to me because it’s Staffan from Vidro’s old band. Every time I look at it, I think of all the great times we’ve had with our (twice!) tourmates in Vidro.

This next batch is kind of a made-up category, but it makes sense to me. These are all classic records that I knew to a degree, but this year I nabbed OG copies that significantly deepened my appreciation. I’ve loved the Feederz’ LP for decades, and we’ve had many copies of the Placebo pressing of Jesus come through over the years (and even one OG copy), but I’ve never taken one home until this year. When I blasted this one at home, it cracked my brain open… I now consider it one of the most unique and best American punk records. The Wipers… I got kinda sick of them for a long time. For a while they were name-checked and poorly imitated so much that I didn’t even want to hear the original. But I picked up this totally beat, water-damaged first pressing and couldn’t get it off the turntable. Alternative had already gotten me with Sealed’s reissue a while back, and finding this minty OG rekindled the love affair. Reagan Youth is another one we’ve had many times at the shop, but this year the invisible voice finally said, “take me home and have your mind blown.” Personality Crisis is a record I was always kinda meh on, but after a bunch of folks (including Jeff!) talked it up on What Are You Listening To?, I gave it another shot. It really clicked this time, so much so that I had to invest a pittance in this charmingly partied-on copy.

This next stack features a few heavy hitters (for me, at least) that came my way this year. Modern Warfare got me so hard it sparked a whole sub-obsession with Bemisbrain Records. Chemotherapy is a record I never thought I’d own, but after flipping out for the reissue a few years ago I couldn’t turn down this nicely priced, minty OG. I think in a previous staff pick I put it out into the universe that I really wanted the Svart Framtid 7”, and this year I finally connected on one. Wretched / Indigesti was, amazingly enough, an extremely generous gift that I’m not allowed to be weird about. And U.B.R. had been high on the want list for a long time and got a lot of play time once it was in my hands.

And now for this fourth (and thankfully final) stack, which collects a few other records that were significant to me for different reasons. It’s crazy it took me this long to find the Zounds LP. I think I’d found all their singles on previous trips to the UK (going back some 20+ years), but the album proved elusive. I swear these never pop up… after waiting for years for a reasonably priced copy I finally had to buy this one from a Japanese seller. Annie Anxiety I’d never listened to before, and it just blew me away (see my staff pick on this record here). The Alley Cats was another gift, and another one that has stayed close to the turntable. And finally, I also wrote a staff pick about this Hugh Mundell record, so you can read that for the full story.

I hope this list hasn’t been too indulgent, but it’s nice to reflect on everything I’m grateful for. Honestly, it’s been kind of a rough holiday season for me personally, so it’s good to feel the warm and fuzzy feelings I get when I think about all the friends all over the world who enhanced my life so much this year. And likewise the friends and family at home whom I get to spend my days with, including my wife Jet, my pets Patti and Tobio, my bandmates, and everyone who works at Sorry State. Cheers everyone, and happy new year!