1. Waka Flocka Flame - Flockaveli
A lot of my rap critic friends have been really excited about this album, and for a while I was pretty resistant simply because they also loved Waka’s singles, and I was kind of indifferent to the first two and absolutely hate “No Hands.” But I have to admit, there is kind of a cool cumulative effect of hearing these kinds of crunk fight music anthems nonstop for 70 minutes, even if this album’s accomplishments are really only rare on a major label album level. I’m still not impressed by Lex Luger’s beats on the whole, especially the best known ones like “BMF,” but he does have a little bit of dope variety on here that makes me respect him more, and the other beats, like the great one on “Fuck The Club Up” by Boss-N’ Beatz kinda stand out more in this context. Also really enjoy hearing Pastor Troy on this album, crunk rappers need to pay homage to their elders more.

2. Mike Watt - Hyphenated-Man
A few days after I posted my reissued 2000 interview with Mike Watt, I learned that he had just released a solo album, his first in 6 years. And the reason I and barely anyone else has heard about it is that it’s only been released in Japan. I don’t know if there’s a plan to release it in America or whether it was Watt’s fault or simply his choice that a domestic release hasn't happened yet, but it kind of appalls me that no prominent U.S. indie labels seem to be in a rush to release a new album by one of the great living legends of underground rock. And his third “punk rock opera” really is a good record, too -- not as great as the first one, the 1997 classic Contemplating The Engine Room, of course, but quite a bit better than the second, 2004’s The Secondman’s MIddle Stand. I never expected Watt to return to Minutemen-style minute-long songs, but he did it here, 30 songs in 47 minutes, and it all kinda breezes by, in a good way, some really great thunder broom on "hammering-castle-bird-man." Also cool to finally hear a Watt album with Tom Watson on guitar, since I saw him play with Watt on so many Pair of Pliers tours over the years.

3. The Superions - Destination... Christmas!
Speaking of heroes of my adolescence that I’ve gotten to interview, I did a phoner with Fred Schneider of the B-52’s and wrote about the debut EP by his new side project, the Superions, earlier this year. And at the time he didn’t mention whether the group was working on a full-length, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear a few months later that they were, and that it’s actually a Christmas album. And yes, Fred Schneider doing a Christmas album is exactly as ridiculous as you could expect or hope for. Song titles like “Santa’s Disco” and “Crummy Christmas Tree” give you a good idea of the level they’re operating on here, but “Jingle Those Bells” might be the most ridiculous and wonderful song on here. The production by the other 2 Superions isn’t particularly impressive or imaginative, but it makes for a good solid foil for Fred. I’m hoping I have company over at some point this Christmas just so I can put this album on for company.

4. Pimp C - The Naked Soul of Sweet Jones
It’s bad enough that Bun B, in his super boring post-UGK lyrical decline has all too enthusiastically co-signed Drake, but he had to put the kid, who Pimp C surely never met or heard of when he was alive, on Pimp’s posthumous last album? Granted, Drake’s UGK super fandom is easily his most redeeming quality, but he still doesn’t really deserve to be here, and the song he’s on would actually be dope without him. That early stumbling block out of the way, though, this is a pretty enjoyable album, although it definitely feels like Pimp’s best unreleased stuff was already used on UGK 4 Life. It’s amazing that it took this long for someone to do a rap interpolation of “You Sure Love To Ball” with the modern definition of balling, and I’m so glad it was Pimp C that had the idea.

5. Max Bemis And The Painful Splits - Max Bemis And The Painful Splits
On Friday I saw Say Anything live for the first time, and I didn’t check out the merch table at the show, but then when I got home and started writing my review, I saw online that frontman Max Bemis was selling this little side project only at shows on the current tour. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard find online and download, and it is pretty good. The last Say Anything album had demos circulating around that sounded fairly slick and fleshed out compared to the finished product, but these are much more raw and lo-fi, with a kind of annoying vocal reverb on most songs. And really I like the bombastic, ambitious, funny Say Anything more than the sincere acoustic side showcased on here, so I’m not crazy about this, but Bemis is a great songwriter and it’s always good to hear something new from him, even a kind of deliberately minor 28-minute album like this.

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