As the end of the year rapidly approaches blogs, magazines and every other source that reviews music starts to compile their end of the year lists. I myself am no different and am busy sorting that list out now as well (should be up the week of xmas). It's going to be a very difficult task considering so many great records were released this year. One thing that I've discovered over the years of avidly searching for new music, is that you can typically gauge what region the best of the current trend is pouring out of. In recent years I've seen a swell of great scenes rise and fall from Athens GA, Portland OR, Austin TX, and Brooklyn among others.
This year it was very easy to tell what city had the most exciting music scene. San Francisco hands down. Currently a swell of slime-garage rock bands are pouring out of the bay area that are receiving national attention. Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Sonny & The Sunsets, and The Fresh & Onlys are just a glimpse of this very fertile, very exciting new movement of artists. There have been several garage revivals over the past decade, but no group of artists have experimented and have expanded the traditional garage rock sound as much as these San Francisco artists. I would go as far to say that this scene is the most important music revolution to come out of San Francisco since the psychedelic movement in the late 60s.
Download via Mediafire:
Ty Segall - Imaginary Person
Thee Oh Sees - Everything Went Black
Sonny & The Sunsets - Lovin' On An Older Gal
The Fresh & Onlys - Waterfall
