First, I have to say that 2012 has been a super exiting year in terms of music, and also that I LOVE making list. So many good LPs went out this year. Here is my Top:

Natural Child - For The Love Of The Game

Natural Child - Hard In Heaven

Le Kid et Les Marinellis - Les Jolies Filles

The Cry - S/T

Guantanamo Baywatch - Chest Crawl

The Tough Shits - S/T

Paint Fumes - Uck Life

White Wires - WWIII

Black Jaspers - Scum Of the Moon

Cheap Time - Wallpaper Music

Dagger Eyes - S/T

Crusaders of Love - Take it Easy but Take it

Gentleman Jessie - Leaving Atlanta

Top EPs:

Denney & The Jets - Slick Rick

Primitive Hearts -S/T

Top 7'':

Cozy - Cola Shock Kids

No Tomorrow Boys - Animal Eyes

Warm Soda - Reaction

Oh yeah, I'm 100% sure that I am forgetting a bunch of good releases. So I guess those are my favorites! And also, Am I the only one that has been disapointed by Ty Segall this year?

Jake Bugg live on new years eve. Stunning!

Wow! Parov Stelar. Blast from the past there. 'Coco' is a great album. I haven't thought about him for years. great tune. check the 'Coco' album, you won't be disappointed. reminds me alot of mid 90's Coldcut or Hextatic. If you get the chance to hear Kid Koala's new blues album, take it. luuuuuverly!

Oh, that´s kind of crossover to me. Freakish stuff!

Let´s see if any one of you guys dig this kind of electro-swing:

Check these guys out. Not new but just got sent this. Amazing stuff

Yeah , like a throwback to The Monkees if they'd been doing HEROIN , instead of just The Frotis. Kidding aside , My beginnings  were similar , but , prior to '79 , there were also exploitation mags on Punk , I remember looking at them in the bookstore. But , what little Punk Rock I was hearing before 1980 was also on Dr. Demento's show , tho' I remember more stuff like The Flying Lizards than The Ramones or The Sex Pistols. ONCE , I HEARD A CLASH SONG ON THE RADIO , BEFORE THEY HAD A HIT. The Rock station played their version of "I Fought The Law" when it came out , here , in '79, in the afternoon , just to let their listeners hear what was going on with this Punk Rock stuff in The UK. They were NOT allowed to make it a habit. This was Dallas , we did'nt have a WXRT or a Rodney on The Roq , but , a rescue was in order in the form of DJ George Gimarc .

I CLICKED ON THE CONNECTION TO 50'S AND 60's Rock , too , when I was finally able to hear this stuff , in earnest (Though I'd read and heard of said connection.). The look was cooler , and more referential to those eras , as you could still get great old clothes (What "Vintage" used to be called.) in thrift stores and mostly affordable boutiques. The first local bands I was seeing (Telefones , Ft. Worth Cats , Ejectors , Chef Physique , Jetsons , Frenetics.)referred to the 60's Garage sound without being Retro 60's bands.
 
James Porter said:

I was twelve years old. For me, it was a combination of (a) reading Creem magazine, (b) listening to Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show, and (c) some of the more accessible "new wave" bands were starting to make minor inroads that year (1979).

I should also add that I was a fan of 50s and 60s rock, thanks to oldies radio. Punk and new wave, to me, sounded like a return to those bygone eras. Looked like those bygone eras, too. At a time when the typical rock star looked like THIS:


...the typical punk rocker looked like a throwback to the Monkees:

^^^This may appear to be standard rock star attire now, but for the mid-late 70s, hair this short looked almost stark.

I didn't get into punk....It got into me and has bin there ever since 'Vive le Difference!'

Dave wrote:
"the breakthrough for me was hearing the Nuggets collection that Fall at a friend's house (which was ultimately the more powerful argument for non-commercial sounds)."

Kinda ironic you'd say those sounds were non-commercial, since several of the songs on that album were AM radio hits.

I was twelve years old. For me, it was a combination of (a) reading Creem magazine, (b) listening to Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show, and (c) some of the more accessible "new wave" bands were starting to make minor inroads that year (1979).

I should also add that I was a fan of 50s and 60s rock, thanks to oldies radio. Punk and new wave, to me, sounded like a return to those bygone eras. Looked like those bygone eras, too. At a time when the typical rock star looked like THIS:


...the typical punk rocker looked like a throwback to the Monkees:

^^^This may appear to be standard rock star attire now, but for the mid-late 70s, hair this short looked almost stark.

I was 15 big into Mudhoney and the Screaming Tree's when I was in a record store and seen the cover to Social D's heaven and hell album was blown away and haven't looked back since!

 I WON'T LIE , I LET MY EGO GET WAAAAAY AHEAD OF ME WHEN I WAS SINGING WITH A WORKING BAND. BUT , I ALSO LET MY EGO BE TAKEN DOWN A NOTCH , BY AGREEING NOT TO PLAY GUITAR , WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN. "REAL MUSICIANS" ALWAYS ASK ME TO JUST SING, INSTEAD. HA HA !

This is why I'm a solo act , or , if you wanna generalize , a "One - Man Band". Mine is the only ego I need to worry about , and it does'nt get much strokin' in this here town.

I must have worked with an easier-to-deal-with class of singers.  I always found I could get them to stop the egotistical rants by simple rattling my car keys at them.  No wait, those were drummers.  Sorry.  I've worked with a few dictatorially-minded singers, but my theory was always that it was their asses out there on the front line, that they were the ones who were gonna take the brunt of the hate if we sucked up there, so they had the right to voice opinions a little louder than the rest of the band, maybe.  A little.  But I've definitely known the Naziesque lead guitarists, too.  Their deal always seemed to be nothing more than their own mistaken notion that they were geniuses and that the rest of us should genuflect in their presence.  

Ramones, 50's rock'n'roll, 60's punk, early Black Flag,  or the combination of those 4  things...

Thank you Dave.

Yeeeeeeaaaaah !!! Of course I love "good ol' Northwest-style breaks" !

Give me as  many ear-tearin' breaks, ass-kickin' riffs and mind-blowin' licks as you want !

But pleeeeeeeeeaaase, no endless crappy solo. I know you're the best musician around but I don't care about your great ability and fabulous velocity !

Keep your finger tricks and give us kicks !

dave said:

Yep 100% agree !

Andy Climax said:

Anyone mentioned 'the soul' yet? Lets face it we all know when a song is bullshitting us. When the soul and the gnarl are in perfect harmony then we gotta groove!

just found this, and that's pretty good !

lugnoro - oga for oga

I think our guitarist/spiritual guide may have it on order. I'll ask him tomorrow!

Looks cool.

One more post-Christmas Christmas song:

Power Pop Santa:

Which outlets in Seattle happen to get it?

@Rod, it gets into Seattle & Olympia & Vancouver. Vincent, what other kind of magazines are there?

DAMN!!! Got alot of catching up to do.

Looks like a great read. Glad someone is still doing print magazines.

I'm just outside of Seattle, WA.

Hey Rod, where are you at? PORK is in a lot of cities & towns you might not expect!

I guess when we think about the Dylan-Donovan comparisons, we tend to forget that Donovan only did folk type material for a year.  We also forget that during that year, Dylan went rock and roll which boarders on a sixties punk type of sound.  A lot of good outtakes from 1965 and 1966 have been released from time to time in his bootleg series.