Sam's Best of 2017

Jonestown-Scruffy and the Janitors

The year end post for this song and my initial impression of it were the most viewed post on this blog.

That say's a lot and 2017 was a year where I seemed to try the whole journalist approach and it was interesting if not inconsistent beyond comprehension....I also was a fucking drunken mess of a person that was dealing with a host of isolation and drinking problems that I don't and haven't really told anyone about and while I've so severely cut down on my booze consumption to a point where I could be considered sober to some regard this year was my last ditch effort of things to be and yeah looking back the bands I covered went on to some really great places and I did some pretty fucking cool ass stuff that year that made the depression easier to hide.

I made some good friends in this community Scruffy in question being among many musicians that have showcased a lot of love for my kind words about them so much so to a point where I've convinced them to do some show's for me in my personal endeavors which is something I have a hard time truly expressing just how good that makes me feel I'm sure I'll come up with something come February but yeah this song it's special in a weird way because re-listening to it as I'm typing up all of these nostalgia post and looking at the post I made those years I'm brought back to seeing them at the tank room along with Rachel Mallin and the Wild Type and Momma's Boy in what was maybe one of the best bill's I'd seen in a long time and I remember the performance of this song and the venue just kind of not doing it justice because it was too clean sounding in there you didn't quite feel just how real this song really was and I remember not thinking much of it and the eventual snowballing of momentum it'd build and it's crazy just how it went from that to this and even now the rare times they play it I can't help but still be blown away.

Well that was the various best songs of the years now I'll probably keep getting more and more personal with a host of random songs that all mean something to me here and there so stay tuned.

Sam's best of 2016

Cool Heat-Momma's Boy

This year I tried to truly help this community out by letting people know about how fucking good the music in this city is but it also didn't help the fact that 2016 in mainstream radio sucked ass through a fucking straw and I started to really fall off with the buzz because most of their programming started to go to fucking shit and the following 2 years have gone on to me pretty much never listening to them for more than a few minutes a month.

Now with that bit of vitriol out there this year's offerings in the local alternative music scene were fucking great and this song OHHHHH I spent so many drunken fucking nights just alone and blaring the ever loving fuck out of this surf inspired bit of garage rock glory and if you go back and read the incredibly expletive filled post about this song you'll know it was a track that just kind of came out of nowhere and opened a world of possibilities to me because this is not only an outstanding piece of music from who may be the best band this city has to offer but the song that kind of really got me to attempt to truly start trying to heal the wounds from years prior by going out, making an ass out of myself, and living my fucking life it also happen to be about this time frame that I had started to get a job that wasn't a complete shit hole of toxicity and realize that growing up is inevitable and that I'm going to have to be a fucking adult and do some shit all for myself.

The transition was made and while it was a rough ride to get there this song showed me that I can become a thing again it's just gonna be uncomfortable and also the most rocking time of your life fucker.

OH and one more thing Momma's boy FUCKING RULE! And their live show is a religious experience you should all experience yourself because when they fire on all cylinders they'll blow your fucking mind dude.

Sam's Best of 2015

Sorry for the delay i got sick and that's no fun but now that I managed to remember here's this years selection...

Entropy-Grimes Fet. Bleachers

This was the first year I really started to take note of the local Kansas City music scene  which this years list actually had 3 bands who've gone on to do some pretty spectacular things which is fucking bad ass.

Now on the topic of this song this 3 minute piece of pop perfection that even now almost 4 years later I hear and truly and agree with what I did back then I'd started around March the day I first heard this song and made a list of songs I thought where great that year and this was the first song I put down and to this day I still believe it to not only be the best song of that year but one of the best of the decade no fucking shit.

Now go back to my post about Cee-Lo Green a few day's ago and you can almost apply the same thing to this track switching the disco tones for tribal beats and a very large and in charge character in Cee-Lo for a very petite and unassuming Grimes and take the questions and throw them straight out the window because this is a great piece of pop music that blends a certain amount of joy even with some fairly sadish lyrics.

Sam's Best of 2014

I Love You(But I hate your Friends)-Neon Trees

Neon Tree's are maybe my guiltiest pleasure and one of the most criminally underrated commercial pop rock bands to ever walk the face of the earth and I truly would put their 2012 release Picture Show in my top 10 albums of all time looking back and as cheesy as it is that and this album both inspired me to write a story I am still working on to this day and would one day hope to turn into a comic or movie or even Netflix series or something.

This song is a bombastically catchy and snarky fucking tune that showcased a band like me hiding their eventual decline into obscurity though one last bombastic effort of vitriol covered in some false sense of joy that is this songs poppy instrumentals, Tyler Glenn's cheeky vocal performance, and the kind of playful lyrics.

Overall looking back at this list there was a host of strong fucking songs from the criminally overlooked, "Black Soap," by Ex cops, Kimbra's, "90's music," and many many more that didn't even make the list it's rather crazy in all honesty.

What's also crazy to think of for me because I almost didn't make it beyond this year and this album at the time was basically an emotional crutch that I clung onto for dear life because I was confused, scared, and on the constant verge of wishing I'd never decided to get better but rather fade away so it's hard to reflect on these emotions and reading that number 1 post I figured that I had a lot I wanted to say but never really could bring myself to actually bringing forth and this is when my writing really started to be affected because of it.

Sam's Best of 2013

The Mother We Share-CHVRCHES

If there was ever a time frame when 96.5 the Buzz truly defined me it was this year and looking back at that particular year end list it's like basically letting the machine dictate my taste and while there's a few odd ball choices here and there are plenty of tracks that are me doing exactly what they wanted, but even with that in mind this list holds a special place for me because even with that knowledge there's some genuinely great stuff on there and I really do legitimately still have a big adoration for this tune especially considering where this band went since then.

This song is really a sign of things to come because over the past couple of years the whole let's rip off Depeche Mode and New Order style really seems to have picked up steam and a host of new wave inspired tones are really starting to become a thing to the detest of some rock journalist and the joy and elation of some listeners I'm not a hundred percent sure my stance considering I like these things but at the same time it is a tone that could let more pop in than I'd care to listen to for any reason.

I like this band but I'm over the honeymoon phase and it was the day after one of their show's the following year that I had the worst day of my life so it's hard to look back on them too fondly or listen to a lot of music from this or the following year very fondly and while 2013-15 where some of the most involved and consistently strong year end list in retrospect they also happen to be soundtrack to a guy trying to cover up trauma.

Sam's best of 2012:

Anyway-Cee-lo Green

I'm just gonna admit it I fell off the bandwagon in regards to my fandom of this guy after his follow up to the Lady Killer and even that record in retrospect hasn't aged as well as the music it clearly tried to be but god fucking damn it I FUCKING LOVE THIS GOD DAMN SONG.

You ever watch a movie that you know isn't a quality piece of media but you love every fucking second of it because it just makes you feel good in it's lack of quality?

Well that's kind of how I feel about this song disco infused ball of cheese courtesy of a man who's kind of a douche bag, but like I said at the time this song's quality is similar to Discovery-era Daft punk in that it's quality is similar to child like innocence it's good because it makes you feel good you have a tune that has a lot of warm tones, and simple lyrics that are easy to sing along to and just goofy enough to look past the sheer absurdity of them (“for worse or for better, you make me better,”) and I from what I can remember of 2012 as a year I needed an escapist piece of music that wasn't dumb ass angry white boy music and Cee-Lo as a whole opened my eyes up to giving R&B a chance and while I still love me some aggressive rock and roll I don't just listen to that I kind of explore it all and this man is honestly partly why that's a thing for me.

Now if only Cee-Lo would put it ON FUCKING SPOTIFY!

Sam's Best of 2011

Rope-Foo Fighters

Prior to this song I personally thought Dave Grohl was a fuck riding the coattails of Kurt Cobain's legacy and that the Foo Fighters made OK at best music then one morning I was woken up by this song's world premier in the KC area and that all changed.

I couldn't ever really consider myself a fan of this band beyond a handful of tracks but of that handful of tracks that make me get why people enjoy this group this song is probably still the one that I'd stand behind as being the track that is everything great about this band.

It's a straightforward high energy rocker with a simple but effective solo near the end point, Grohl perfectly mixing his scream/sung style of vocals, and at the time it didn't get overplayed to a point of making me hate it which is quite the rarity when it comes to this band because like a host of other acts I've enjoyed over the years the radio makes and breaks everything you could possibly love and this song managed to avoid that fate and be an anomaly of a decision I can look at in retrospect and whole heartedly say is still a legitimately great piece of work.