Son Volt’s Jay Farrar
Son Volt’s Trace marked its 20th anniversary, Velvet Underground’s Loaded turned 45 and John Coltrane’s Love Supreme celebrated its 50th birthday. All three albums were reissued with a lot of extra music. Two other masterpieces — the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks — also got the reissue treatment this year.
That means five of the best albums ever made were reissued in expanded releases this year, exciting both longtime fans and newcomers.
I am as geeked out as anyone about these special reissues. These celebrations of truly big albums are great, but I also like the rare occasion where I discover bands and artists that I — for some reason — overlooked over the years. Lizzy Mercier Descloux was one of those discoveries for me in 2015. The French disco punk’s 1979 debut album, Press Color, was reissued in August.
Ork Records: New York, New York was one of the best albums released in 2015. A compilation of mid- to late ’70s punk and post punk singles, I included it in my top 10 albums because, frankly, how many people remember some of these releases? While Television, the Feelies, Alex Chilton and others became music legends, some of the bands released by the New York label had short, overlooked careers. But just as Nuggets shed light on an amazing time in rock history (the psychedelic ’60s), the Ork compilation shows the brilliance of New York music in the 1970s.
Other highlights from the year:
Cass McCombs – A Folk Set Apart. McCombs released 19 songs — rare tracks and a few unreleased songs. There’s some really good stuff here.
The Fresh & Onlys’ Early Years Anthology is a must-have for fans of this great band.
Light In The Attic, the label that reissued Press Color, unearthed a collection of songs from 1960s garage band the Kitchen Cinq. Check out When the Rainbow Disappears: An Anthology 1965-68.
Grizzly Bear’s debut album, Horn of Plenty, was reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day. The album included a download for 17 cool remixes.
Chicago’s Pink Frost reissued its debut, Gargoyle Days, which sounds great. (The band was known as Apteka when the album originally came out in 2011.
All the Young Punks 