Best of Month; the top 10 EPs of 2023
This year, EPs were in a way, bigger records to me than full lengths. Normally we sort of scramble for that number ten slot, this year it was hard to sculpt ten from twenty-five. I think we did it, however, hopefully you haven't heard all of these and if you have, I hope it inspires you to pay it another visit or at least gives you a fond memory for the day.
Our top albums of the year are next week. Hopefully we have one other little year end surprise left in us. We're already working on some posts and changes for the new year, so hopefully we'll have a news post soon as well.
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#10: Skyler Acord - True Viridian
I’ve talked a lot in the past about how running this blog has made me more aware and up to date with new releases. In doing that though something else happened, I started taking note of what I like to call “backwards influence.” What I mean by this, is when people put on older music I start to see where modern artists weaved their sound from. My partner has a pretty in-depth knowledge of older music, everything from classics to lesser-known sounds that she’s played so much that at this point I know quite a bit of it. There was one day where she had a song on, and I recognized a vocal melody that Skyler Acord uses on “knew it all along.”
I didn’t realize how much I had missed Scout’s songwriting in these last few years. If I’m being honest, I sort of missed the boat on the final Issues album. When Skyler moved on to Twenty One Pilots I didn’t know if I'd ever hear it again. I was really happy to see him put out something all his own. This scene has been drenched in nostalgia pandering for the past few years and sadly a lot of that is toward white men who've done a lot more bad than good socially. It’s nice to see everyone celebrate a songwriter of color, especially as Issues enters their final tour.
#9: MIDI Bunny EP (Plantasia)
While all of the other projects on this list are just around twenty minutes or less, the debut from the duo of Cecily Renns and Biddy Fox is a half an hour of power pop. On their self-titled, MIDI Bunny explores chasing love and the woes that come with it, all coming to a screeching crescendo with their untitled track. Here they go over a list of reasons they shouldn’t be alive, all while remembering the people they wouldn’t be there for and eventually step off the ledge. It’s an effective moment that says life can be worth living, even if it isn’t always easy. There’s still a true closer and some bonus tracks to speak of after that, but this one feels like the conclusion every time.
In the spirit of indie exploration, I discovered MIDI Bunny first, before I knew anything about its members. These two artists each have a massive back catalog just waiting to be navigated, something I plan on getting into now that things have wound down for the year.
Our review of the Midi Bunny EP (The only post on this blog with a comment!)
#8: Mediocre - To Know You’re Screwed (Dangerbird)
We didn’t get to review everything we enjoyed this year and the shorter the project the tougher it was to actually write on. It’s even tougher when info is scarce and we’re having a hard time finding anything on this LA based pop duo. I did, however, have quite a few thoughts on To Know You’re Screwed. On this fourteen minute, five track project, Piper and Keely tackle the emotional expectations of women in the industry and at large while layering it with topics I don’t feel I completely grasp.
There’s a lot of talk of finishing dinner? Not sure I get the inspiration, but not my art!
It’s funny how I really resonate with a project like this, when year after year I spill so much of my own personal life into Best Of month. I did it a lot less frequently on the actual blog this year, but Best Of month is always where I get to show I was feeling the whole year round. I don’t have to, that’s not what makes the hard work valid. What makes it valid and worth doing is that I’m doing it. I get something out of it, I hear new music and meet new people because I do it. I hope you get something out of it too but it doesn’t really matter.
#7: Climb - Keep Me from What I Want
When you hear a new artist it's natural that you want to learn something about them, maybe it just comes up naturally. More often than not, when you hear about something new, it’s usually through social media. Climb, however, is an anomaly. Not only can I not recall what post led me to this pretty small band but I can’t find anything about them now. Granted, a DIY band in New England might just be in my purview anyway, but the trail goes cold everywhere you look with this one. All this band’s social media accounts are gone, save for a BandCamp and a Facebook, the latter of which only has their last shows from this summer posted as well as the bio;
“Climb is a band when we want to be.”
Regardless of what I know of them personally, I thought about and spun Climb’s EP constantly this year. Five tight thrash punk songs all two minutes or less and all killer with no room for filler. This one released very early in the year all the way back in January, so the songs have been in my head for pretty much all of 2023. When I went back to do my re-listens it was obvious that this would be an easy top ten inclusion, if not even higher.
#6: God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys (MNRK)
With most records on these lists, I offer an anecdote, a story, someway I personally connected with the art. In the case of The Callous Daoboys, however, I just think this project rips. The Daoboys made our year end last year with Celebrity Therapist, a record that encapsulated everything I love about heavy music in a full powered, thirty-seven-and-a-half-minute album. Everything from breakdowns to eerie sections to heartfelt choruses. On God Smiles they did it in twenty-four minutes less. These three songs are a fully realized metal record that leaves you no room to catch your breath.
The Callous Daoboys are also an Atlanta band, the first of three on here. There’s something in the water in that scene and they do not play around with their -core bands. Between that and the backing of so many of my friends in this space, I need to catch a Daoboys set sooner or later.
#5: Scowl - Psychic Dance Routine (Flatspot)
Prior to coming out I was not too Intune to misogyny. You hear it all the time, people talk about it, I guess what I mean is I didn’t know how to identify it. This year Taco Bell collaborated with a lot of bands in the alternative genre including Turnstile, Meet Me @ The Altar and Scowl. Only two of those received major push back, only two have women in them, can you guess which one this was “such a good opportunity” for? Scowl received the worst of the treatment, with a lot of men around the timelines claiming its completely unethical for a band that came from the hardcore scene to take any sort of corporate money and doing the usual; calling them “posers” or “industry plants” or whatever they conjure up that day.
The point to me bringing this up is; you look silly, let bands get paid.
I don’t want to make this all about that, however, as it would be disingenuous to the band in question. Scowl really won me over with this EP, brand deal or not. On Psychic Dance Routine Scowl encapsulates all of their influences in about ten minutes, there’s traces of hardcore, veers into other -core genres as well as some catchy pop rock sing-alongs. It's another one of those EPs, like a lot of these here, that accomplish an album feeling in half the time.
Our review of Psychic Dance Routine
#4: Dev Lemons - Delusional
It’s hard to tell when you’re in a relationship that isn’t good for you, romantic or otherwise. It’s even harder when you’ve already been there. You start to see every little negative way you feel as the other person emitting a red flag. The important thing to remember though is that everyone is struggling with their own method of operation and not everyone means to harm or control you. Granted, I’m still learning this lesson myself, sometimes it's hard for me to stop and consider someone's train of thought, but I can genuinely say I try my best. All I can do is hope I stay safe and that I’m not the red flag either. At least now when I feel an alarm go off I give myself a grace period before I go too far.
Delusional, the “debut” EP from Dev Lemons, captures every step of this process. Each song covers a different step in letting go. We start off in the midst of it coming undone, you live together, you feel like you can’t get away, yet you avoid each other. From there you try, desperately, to remember what it was you even liked about this person in the first place but come up short every time. Eventually you let yourself admit that this is killing you before it all comes to a close in one, huge, explosive curtain call. You leave, hopefully never look back and you’re free but it never leaves you.
Hopefully though, it doesn’t leave lasting bad habits on you. Not everyone is out to get you, but it’s good to be able to advocate for yourself when they are.
#3: Mega Infinity - Chaos Magick (Ska Punk International)
Running this blog, I can honestly say I stand by every opinion I put out. Something I always try to remember though is there is a person behind that music. Someone went through writing, composing, recording the record I’m writing a few paragraphs about. That they sometimes spend months or years so that anybody will listen, hopefully someone will like it and support them in another way. Sometimes though, even in spite of this, I can’t be dishonest and tell you I like something when I don’t. The hardest time I’ve ever had doing this was Mega Infinity’s last full length. The band on Rainbow Heartache was one I saw promise in, but one I thought had a lot of room to grow. I wanted so badly to love it because I loved the people behind it. It deserved more to be a paragraph in a post with four or five other reviews mixed in a month past release date.
Even in the face of this, the band continued to be part of my life online. Michi and Diglo have always been so inviting to me. I used to be a very active member of their Discord, a great community, and the two of them helped me in a lot of ways, even helping convince me to move out west and my life has continued to get better day after day.
So hey, thanks for the advice.
When Chaos Magick was released, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s their first project on a label so I expected somewhat of a shift. The first track drew me in with its opening chords and messaging about community and coming together in the face of everything bad out there. From there they tackle toxic men in the scene and an Alanis Morrisette cover all while expanding on everything sonically, they’ve ever been about. They didn’t genre shift, they didn’t lose focus, but this is a huge level up from everything they’ve always said they were about. They have always deserved the praise, they have always deserved my adoration, but with these songs I can honestly say I’m a fan in a whole new and exciting way.
#2: Sister Sleep - In Bad Faith
It’s odd to me to think about In Bad Faith as an October release because I heard it months before. This year I started to earn trust and had heard ten band’s music before street date. I’m honored that anyone would let me do this at all, but Sister Sleep felt special. This band, and their lead singer Jamie Shelton in particular, trusted me with their entire process. Singles, music videos, studio updates, lyrics, I had everything on this release every step of the way. For that trust and the friendship Jamie and I developed in the stages of it, I am very grateful.
Really, Jamie, thank you and congratulations on everything this year.
I didn’t put this here out of favoritism though. In Bad Faith is really something special. In today’s music scene everyone is chasing the sound of the old greats in the wake of their return. The issue is, none of them are doing it in a way that makes it their own. Anyone can make an “I’m Not Okay” style cut or another “Bleeds No More” but those songs worked because of the point of time we were in during their release. Sister Sleep takes all of the heart, soul and passion of decades old post-hardcore delivery but mixes it with a sense of modern presentation that will make these songs just as timeless as the ones mentioned above. This is a truly special release and I’m just as honored to present it here as I felt during its creation.
#1: glimmers - Human Furnaces
As the year comes to a close, pretty much every year, I find myself homing in on one project. “This is, without a doubt, album of the year.” This year, however, that was a bit harder to do. In 2023, my favorite release by far, was a six song EP.
One night, about a month after a breakup, I took a moonlit walk to my local gas station for depression snacks and decided to throw this project on. I had heard “Scared to Lose” before on a playlist so I knew what to expect there. I expected the other songs to break me but that wasn’t quite what happened. “Midas Touch” actually perked me up, the fun, bouncy chorus, the themes of someone seeming so perfect that you, imperfect by comparison, could only bring them to ruin. It was all exactly what I needed at that moment.
The rest of Human Furnaces gave me a lot to think about. A split is sometimes what you both need. So, for the next seven months, I absorbed every song here. It tells the story of a love doomed from the beginning, something both sides want so badly that they destroy it from the offset and in the end are left to admit to themselves, finally, that what you want isn’t always what you need at the time. This was a hard lesson to learn, I had to do a lot of reflection to get there. But I eventually did.
Sometimes, however, it can work out. Like I said, it took seven months, but we worked it out. We’re back together now. It’s going a lot better, we’ve both grown up so much this year. Every single day I’m surprised by just how much that is. I’m proud of her and myself. And I can thank a band from her hometown for helping me get there.
By the way, if you're interested. Here's the other fifteen picks. Click the artis for a way to support them directly, the record for our review. We hope to see you next week.
25. Princess Nokia - i love you but this is goodbye
24. Dry Cleaning - Swampy EP
23. TURNSTILE & BADBADNOTGOOD - New Heart Designs
22. Cafune - Love Songs for the End
21. Better Lovers - God Made Me an Animal
20. Jamie's Elsewhere - Paradise
19. Softcult - See You in the Dark
18. The Pool Kids and POOL "split"
17. Pinkshift - suraksha
16. Hoity-Toity - As Above & So Below
15. Bayway NJ - The Newport Sessions
14. FIDLAR - That's Life
13. Resilia - Well Intentioned: The Name of the Game
12. Least - Sitting in the Best Light
11. Lambrini Girls - You're Welcome
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