grip the greats

Packing up all your belongings and moving to another place makes for a great time to reflect on where you've been and where you're going. When thinking about my favorite music from this past year, I ran into trouble trying to narrow down the myriad choices of fantastic releases from 2014. But during the process of transitioning my record collection from its Ikea Expedit shelving unit into milk crates I came to the conclusion that showcasing the albums I loved so much that I actually forked over cash for them is more in line with the spirit of what music means to me. So without further adieu here's my list, complete with pictures and in no particular order:

My 10 Favorite 2014 Records & Tapes That I Actually Bought

Spray Paint "Clean Blood, Regular Acid" (Monofonus Press)

Alex G "DSU" (Orchid Tapes)

Two Inch Astronaut "Foulbrood" (Exploding In Sound Records)

Angel Olsen "Burn Your Fire For No Witness" (Jagjaguwar)

Blank Realm "Grassed Inn" (Fire Records)

Tonstartssbandht "Overseas" 2xLP (Company Etc)

Mannequin Pussy "Gypsy Pervert" (Tiny Engines)

Ricky Eat Acid "Three Love Songs" (Orchid Tapes)

Thee Oh Sees "Drop" (Castle Face Records)

Big Ups "Eighteen Hours Of Static" (Dead Labour)

Best Witches "Tour Tape" (Self-Released)

Jon McCallum "Surf Nazis Must Die" OST (Strange Disc Records)

Dura "Silver/Lawns" (Wounded Knife Records)

Pinkwash "Your Cure Your Soil" (Sister Polygon Records)

The Beds "Ride Again" (Ranch Records)

The Effects "Blister b/w Old Soul" (Self-Released) 

Parasol "Not There" (Lost Sound Tapes)

Jerry Paper / Andy Boay "Jerry Paper / Andy Boay" Split (Hausu Mountain)

The Rebel "The Shingles Collection" 2xCS (Monofonus Press)

Olive Drab "The Big Sleep" (Bird Tapes)

Before signing off, I'd like to thank the Washington City Paper for their nod to Big Hush, including the Wholes EP on their list of The Best Local Albums of 2014. Lastly, there were a lot of great releases I haven't bought yet and therefore could not include on this list, but one final shout out goes to all the independent artists and labels for making my world a much more enjoyable place. Cheers to another year of great music. ♥ Brett

narwhalmilk

The DYVNZMBR2 mixtape has at long last been released to the wild. The compilation contains 21 tracks, each uniquely voltaic and illustrative, from DZ homies near and far, spanning from east to west across the entirety of this new weird America that I call home, to the outskirts of distant mother Russia's electrowasteland, and a freckling of spots spaced out in between.

Available as a free stream and download below, the mixtape is also (naturally) available on cassette as part of a limited edition release of 50 professionally dubbed C75s housed in bumblebee-yellow shells. At the time of this posting, almost half of these tapes have already been spoken for, but you can still visit the shop to claim one for yourself.



We've also got something new to whet your appetite for ocular entertainment from DZ favorite It Is Rain In My Face., who has been busy this year having just recently released his new Languish In The Evening EP and is currently on tour with Tom Kitty Oliver to promote the release of their joint project Pressed And's latest release Stone Candles on Mush Records. Now we revist one of the singles from his self-titled full-length debut, "Duck In A Row", with a new video directed by Tobias Stretch. Check out the chilling scene below, and grab one of the last few copies of DZ06 at the shop if you're looking for something to keep you cool this summer.


"Duck In A Row" - It Is Rain In My Face. from Mat Jones.