Following up on my post about the best releases of 2014, here is a Mixcloud compilation of some the best garage and psychedelic tracks to come out in 2014. The tracks are arranged roughly in order of preference. My favorite of the year is “For My Own” by The Mystery Lights.
A Load Off My Mind: The Best of 2014 by Dead Man on Mixcloud
It’s that time of year (well, maybe I’m a little behind) to put together a list of the best releases of the year gone by. Great garage/psych releases have continued apace, and plenty of great music was produced in 2014. The first list is full-length releases and the second is EPs & 7″ releases. As digital releases online have now become the norm, bands have experimented more with formats, both in terms of the variable length and the physical media bands choose to use. The cutoff I used for “full-length” release was roughly 20 minutes, which, I admit, is a fairly arbitrary choice. Even so, 2014 was notable for its wealth of short releases. Where my 2013 list had only 10 EPs & 7″ releases, this year I have 25.
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Following up on my previous post where listed the best LPs, EPs & 7″ releases of 2013, here is a Mixcloud compilation of my favorite tracks released in 2013. As I said last year, there is an ever-growing wave of excellent garage and psychedelic releases. I would go so far as to say we are living in a golden age. Bandcamp in particular has made it easy for bands to release their own material in a way that is relatively easy for fans to find. I just hope this run of great material continues. The tracks are roughly in order of preference with the obvious #1 being “Cannonball” by the People’s Temple. Just a great, great track.
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The past year was an interesting one for Turn Me On, Dead Man. The most notable events were the release of two Creative Commons compilations: Conspiracy A-Go-Go, a collection of tracks referencing the JFK assassination released as the 50th anniversary of that event was approaching, and Who Break a Butterfly upon a Wheel?: A Tribute to Pussy Riot. I also interviewed several bands, most by email, a few on the phone and in person. I hope to be able to continue along those lines in 2014.
I don’t listen to everything that comes out. When I made my Best of 2012 list last year I missed a couple of great releases–I would have picked Whatever Forever by The Migs as my favorite EP and Private Airplane by Connections would have been near the top of my LPs list. My apologies for missing those and I’ll probably make similar late discoveries in the coming year. Still, I listen to my share, and the Turn Me On, Dead Man Best of 2013 list is what it is: a list of my favorite LPs, EPs & 7″s that were released in 2013.
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As a companion to my previous post listing the best albums and EP/7″ releases that came out in 2012, I have put together a CD-length mix of some of the best tracks released last year. There seems to be an ever growing wave of excellent garage and psychedelic music being released and it was hard to make this collection of tracks come in under the 80-minute mark. Adding to this difficulty was my determination to close out this mix with the insanely great 23-minute track “Living in the Cosmic Nod (Improvisations)” by Earthless, who demonstrate superhuman psychedelic stamina. Other than the Earthless track (which defies ranking) the tracks are arranged roughly in order of preference, and I’d give the nod to Still Caves for “Dutch” as the Turn Me On, Dead Man track of the year.
Half-Remembered Dreams: The Best of 2012 by Dead Man on Mixcloud
| 1 | “Still Caves” by Dutch |
| 2 | “Raise Them Up” by Brian Wilson Shock Treatment |
| 3 | “Mourning Light” by The Flight Reaction |
| 4 | “Okay” by Mmoss |
| 5 | “No Thanks” by LE Yikes SURF CLUB |
| 6 | “(The) Forest Speaks” by Peoples Temple |
| 7 | “Sun” by The Dalai Lama Rama Fa Fa Fa |
| 8 | “Green Balloon” by White Fence |
| 9 | “Moonlight Mile” by The Babies |
| 10 | “The City Sighs” by Zebra Hunt |
| 11 | “Sri Sai Flora” by The Sufis |
| 12 | “Stop What You’re Doin'” by Seven Long Years |
| 13 | “Snow Blind” by The Technicolor Teeth |
| 14 | “Cali in a Cup” by Woods |
| 15 | “Sejchas” by Sonic Death |
| 16 | “Midnight in the Garden of Evil” by Magic Shoppe |
| 17 | “Kids Don’t Live Enough” by The Modulated Tones |
| 18 | “Living in the Cosmic Nod (Improvisations)” by Earthless |
It certainly was a good year for music. I guess that’s enough of an overview. Now on with the lists. First, the top 25 albums followed by the top 10 EPs and 7″ releases.
| 1 |  |
Mmoss Only Children |
| 2 |  |
People’s Temple More for the Masses |
| 3 |  |
The Laurels Plains |
| 4 |  |
Brian Wilson Shock Treatment Operation Sun Probe |
| 5 |  |
The Babies Our House on the Hill |
| 6 |  |
Spider Fever Spider Fever |
| 7 |  |
Woods Bend Beyond |
| 8 |  |
The Modulated Tones Turning On |
| 9 |  |
Frozen Teens Frozen Teens |
| 10 |  |
Radar Eyes Radar Eyes |
| 11 |  |
The Cosmic Dead The Exalted King |
| 12 |  |
Ty Segall & White Fence Hair |
| 13 |  |
Audacity Mellow Cruisers |
| 14 |  |
Woollen Kits Four Girls |
| 15 |  |
Cheap Time Wall Paper Music |
| 16 |  |
White Fangs White Fangs |
| 17 |  |
The Future Primitives This Here’s The Future Primitives |
| 18 |  |
Broken Water Tempest |
| 19 |  |
Dead Luke God Takes LSD |
| 20 |  |
Bare Wires Idle Dreams |
| 21 |  |
The Snails The Snails |
| 22 |  |
Allah-Las Allah-Las |
| 23 |  |
Psychic Boots Rosenwasser |
| 24 |  |
Mary’s Kids Say No! |
| 25 |  |
OBN IIIs OBN IIIs |
| 1 |  |
Sonic Death Gothic Session |
| 2 |  |
Uranium Comeback Uranium Comeback |
| 3 |  |
Flight Reaction Mourning Light |
| 4 |  |
Magic Shoppe Triangulum Australe |
| 5 |  |
LE Yikes SURF CLUB LE Yikes SURF CLUB |
| 6 |  |
Blooper Go Away |
| 7 |  |
Crystal Swells HarshSideSludgeFreaks |
| 8 |  |
ExPlanets Debut EP |
| 9 |  |
The Janitors Head Honcho |
| 10 |  |
The Shakedown Project The Shakedown Project |