✨ IC Community Weekly #42: The End of Year List Edition
ft. billy woods and Backwoodz Studioz' big year, critic lists, IC staff picks, an open role at Joyful Noise, Alvvays stop by the NPR Tiny Desk, your holiday sales & more!
Hey and welcome to the last edition of IC Community Weekly of 2023.
In the week where Senators introduced a comprehensive ticketing industry reform package called the Fans First Act, the IC community was recognised in a hell of a lot critic year end lists. Keep reading to see which ones, but before that we just wanted to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a happy and relaxing-as-it-can-be holiday season from all of us here - see you in 2024!
👋 If you’re an IC catalog and you’ve got news, releases, or other fun stuff you want us to include, just reply and let us know - this goes out to 2500+ inboxes every week!
END OF YEAR LISTS
It’s end of year list time again and not surprisingly there’s an abundance of big-hitters released by the labels that make up our community.
Instead of the usual release round ups and announcements (as there aren’t many this close to the holidays) we’ve included IC Community releases below from a selection of the lists. But first, we wanted to give a special mention to Backwoodz Studioz, “New York’s Best Underground Rap Label” according to Pitchfork.
The label is run by NYC indie rap hero billy woods, who released two widely acclaimed records on it this year: Maps with LA producer Kenny Segal and We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, as one half of the duo Armand Hammer.
He’s one of the most exciting and essential experimental rappers in the world right now and this has really been his year. Here’s just a small selection of the year-end features he’s appeared in for the two records:
Paste Magazine: 50 Best Albums of 2023 (#23)
Flood Magazine: Best Albums of 2023 (#7)
Pitchfork: The 50 Best Albums of 2023 (#3)
Stereogum: The 50 Best Albums Of 2023 (#3)
Treble: The 50 Best Albums of 2023 (#2)
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
Crack Magazine: The Top 50 Albums of the Year (#47)
Paste Magazine: 50 Best Albums of 2023 (#46)
Rough Trade: Albums of the Year 2023 (#8)
Vulture: Craig Jenkins - The Best Albums of 2023 (#6)
Treble: The 50 Best Albums of 2023 (#4)
Massive praise and respect due to him on his amazing year and kudos to everyone else who released great music this year, including these notable records that have been cropping up widely in critics’ lists:
+ L’Rain - I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ Mandy, Indiana - i’ve seen a way (Fire Talk)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ Ratboys - The Window (Topshelf)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ Jess Williamson - Time Ain’t Accidental (Mexican Summer)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ 파란노을 (Parannoul) - After the Magic (Poclanos / Topshelf)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ Jeff Rosenstock - HELLMODE (Polyvinyl)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ The Clientele - I Am Not There Anymore (Merge)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony (Captured Tracks)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ Marnie Stern – The Comeback Kid (Joyful Noise Recordings)
Lists | Listen | Buy
+ The Mountain Goats – Jenny From Thebes (Merge)
Lists | Listen | Buy
END OF YEAR LISTS: IC
And here are some of the albums we’ve loved, songs we’ve had on repeat and shows we were blown away by here at IC:
Adam
Favourite album of the year:
Joanna Sternberg - I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
Favourite song of the year:
Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover - Ragweed (Son Canciones)
Favourite show of the year:
The Moldy Peaches (Rough Trade)
Roundhouse, London
Ari
Favourite album (s) of the year:
Neoplatonic Aquatic Symposiums - Fourth World Magazine III (Poole Music)
Elephant in the Snow - Star (Hospital Productions)
Saab Fanfare by Amber Meulenijzer (Edições CN)
Baba Soirée by Pierre Bastien and Michael Banabila (Pingipung)
Favourite song of the year:
Nifty Rambler by Darien Rectangle
Favourite show of the year:
Liquor Store - Union Pool, NYC
Austin:
Favourite album of the year:
Titanic - Vidrio (Unheard of Hope)
Favourite song of the year:
Virginia Astley - The Singing Places (self-released)
Favourite show of the year:
Tarta Relena (La Castanya) - The Old Church, Portland
Hunter
Favorite album of the year:
Katie Von Schleicher - A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night (Sipsman)
Favorite song of the year:
Little Simz - Gorilla
Favorite show of the year:
Damon & Naomi (20/20/20) - Cafe OTO, London
Josh
Favourite album of the year:
Allegra Krieger - I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane (Double Double Whammy)
Favourite song of the year:
Prefab Sprout - Bonny (Kitchenware Records)
Favourite show of the year:
Tomberlin (Saddle Creek) - Prospect Park Bandshell, NYC
Rachel
Favourite album of the year:
Beirut - Hadsel (Pompeii Records)
Favourite song of the year:
Mighty Poplar - Up on the Divide (Free Dirt Records)
Favourite show of the year:
Lana Del Rey (Polydor/Interscope) - First Bank Amphitheater Franklin, Tennessee
END OF YEAR SALES
As well as their holiday sale, Fire Talk are having a Scratch & Dent sale to close out 2023. From time to time they receive dinged up records from the manufacturer or back from their distributer and offer these up in their webstore at a steep discount. While supplies last choose from over 30 different titles for just $5 each.
+ for a big list of our community’s holiday sales from last week’s edition, head here.
JOBS IN THE COMMUNITY
🧑💻 Joyful Noise Recordings is seeking a new Lead Project Manager! This is a full-time, salaried leadership role that includes day-to-day spearheading of album campaigns, communication between label and artist/management during album campaigns, oversight of album budgets, coordination between label and promo teams and much more. If you think you could be a fit, click here to get more info and apply.
NEW SIGNINGS
✍️ PREACH Records announced the signing of LA/London/Italy-based FLAVIA - check her out on Spotify and Instagram
VIDEOS
🖥️ Kill Rock Stars released a music video for Wicked Little Town this week, the new track by New Zealand / US-based singer-songwriter Miriam Clancy:
🖥️ Fresh off their Grammy nomination Polyvinyl band Alvvays stopped by the legendary Tiny Desk at NPR to perform a handful of songs, including live renditions of Belinda Says, Pressed, Tile By Tile and Very Online Guy.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
🖥️ The latest outing of a new section where I'll choose a video I love from YouTube’s treasure trove of music videos, live performances and curiosities.
In the first holiday season since she sadly passed away, I’ll be listening a lot to the breathtakingly beautiful Sinead O’Connor rendition of Silent Night:
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you in the new year for more of the same. Happy Holidays!
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew