Best of 2012

Hard to believe, but our BrooklynVegan “Blog Radio” show has been airing weekly on satellite radio for over 6.5 years. It started on Sirius which then merged with XM and became Siriu…

Gardens & Villa at Webster Hall in October (more by Amanda Hatfield) Santa Barbara indie pop crew Gardens & Villa haven’t given us an album since their 2011 self titled debut on Secretly Canadian, but they did treat us to some music this year with a cover of “Gypsy” for the the Fleetwood Mac tribute album, Just Tell Me That You Want Me, and a remix of their tourmates Polica‘s “The Maker” for Polica’s remix EP…

Brooklyn Bowl during a Deer Tick show (more by Tracy Allison) As you probably know, we’ve been posting a bunch of year-end lists from artists this year, and we’ve also posted a few from venue guys like Josh Moore and Johnny Beach from Bowery Presents, Jack “Skippy” McFadden of Emo’s in Austin, and Andy Bodor from Cake S…

In case you missed it, check out BBG aka Fred Pessaro’s ‘Year in Heavy’ which pretty much sums up our thinking on metal in 2012. Then head over to Invisible Oranges to compare how they rated this year’s metal releases, though note: as of this post they’re only up to #21 (1-20 to be posted before the end of the year)…

Akron/Family at LPR in 2010 (more by Anna Scialli) Freaky folkies Akron/Family released Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT in 2011, and they’ve announced that they’re planning on releasing a followup in 2013…

You are probably familiar with Dave Hill by now. He’s the brains behind the book Tasteful Nudes, which was released earlier this year, he performs locally in NYC a good deal, was one of BV’s own Klaus Kinski’s favorite local comedians this year, and he reviewed Morrissey‘s Radio City show for…

Lucero at Brooklyn Bowl in 2011 (more by Andrew St. Clair) Earlier this month, we posted a pretty eccentric year-end list from Todd Beene of Lucero and we’ve since received an even more eccentric list from the band’s drummer Roy Be…

Because I have a terrible memory and personal tastes that change from week to week, coming up with a “Best of” list spanning an entire year is absolutely impossible…

Cadence Weapon @ MHOW, June 2012 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo) Some of you may recall that before he became known as Cadence Weapon, Rollie Pemberton spent time as a music critic, having penned a number of reviews for Pitchfork in the early ’00s…

Nashville’s PUJOL got their start with the Nashville garage scene but this year’s United States of Being (the band’s first for Saddle Creek) is a crunchy, big-sounding record that, like the new JEFF the Brotherhood, owes more to early-’90s alterna-rock than anything else…