Our Favorite Local EPs, LPs, and Compilations of 2013

This was a pain in the ass to assemble. There are roughly 400 new bandcamp releases tagged “Seattle” on any given month (let’s not even get into how many “Washington” releases there are), and though we’ve been pretty diligent about assembling our favorite 12 from each month, the first run of this list still contained over 100 releases.

Nik said that 100 was too many and I begrudgingly agreed.  She said, “not all of them could have been THAT good, right?”, and I had to admit that this was true as well. After all, even I wouldn’t dig through a year-end post of that size. So, I had to come to terms with the fact that my post, no matter how well thought out, wouldn’t encapsulate every inch of what makes the Seattle scene wonderful.

But that’s not the point, is it? Despite the seeming absolutism of generating and presenting a list, every one that I’ve seen so far has largely been very different, and ours is no exception. Moreover, even if you heard every release on every list you still couldn’t recreate the state of music in 2013. Something would be forgotten or unjustly excluded. If that’s what you’re after, then all I can say is, “hey, there’s always 2014”.

The point to all of this rambling is to say that this list is intended to be read inclusively and not exclusively; we’ve gone out of our way to present releases that we feel wouldn’t have gotten the praise they deserved otherwise, and we ask that you concentrate on what is here instead of what is missing.

So, after 5 passes of positive and negative selection we arrived at the following list of 10 compilations, 14 EPs, and 17 LPs. As always, we ignored singles because, frankly, we don’t have the time. All records were released during 2013 by either a Seattle-based artist, or by a Seattle-based record company (who are just as important).

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment with anyone we may have left out. Thanks for a great year and thanks for reading!

Best Local EPs:

Airport, 'Sweat/Pleasure' (MOTOR)--mutant house

Black Hat, 'Covalence' (Field Hymns)--ambient industrial dance

Detective Agency, 'Detectius Privats' (self-released)--indie-pop

Golden Gardens, 'Narcissus' (Neon Sigh)--dream-pop

Grave Matters, 'Demo' (self-released)--crust punk

Heatwarmer with the Extended Universe 'Dessert Menu EP' (self-released)--future funk, nu-jazz

Knifecream, 'Bind, Torture, Kill' (Hanged Man)--dark noise

Land of Pines, 'The Long Defeat' (Fin)--alt rock

Moose Portrait, 'Psycho-Pop' (CTPAK)--psychedelic, freak-folk

Pitschouse, 'Pitschouse' (self-released)--indie, chill-wave

Placeholder, 'Under' (Hush Hush)--night bus, beats

Tangerine, 'Pale Summer' (Swoon)--alt rock, surf-pop

Tender Hips, 'City' (self-released)--alt rock

Wind Burial, 'Debut' (self-released)--prog rock, etheral rock

Best Local LPs:

Biosexual, 'The Window Wants The Bedroom' (Debacle Records)--experimental pop

Ecstatic Cosmic Union, 'XCU' (Eiderdown)--space rock, experimental ambient

Hausu, 'Total' (Hardly Art, Bridgetown)--post-hardcore, emotive hardcore, punk
iji, 'Soft Approach' (Lost Sound Tapes)--indie pop, experimental pop

Iron Lung, 'White Glove Test' (Iron Lung)--powerviolence

Jetman Jet Team, 'We Will Live The Space Age' (Saint Marie)--nu-gaze, dream-rock

Lindseys, 'Religious Sexts' (Off the Books)--garage punk

Midday Veil, "The Current" (Translinguistic Other)--psychedelic, krautrock

Mitts, 'E-Motions' (self-released)--experimental pop, alt rock

Monogamy Party, 'False Dancers' (Good to Die)--post-punk, noise rock

MTNS, 'All Songs Are Spells' (Trench Art)--noise rock, no-wave

Piano Piano, 'When I was not in myself, no one alarmed me' (self-released)--post rock

Play, 'Red Movies' (Medical)--minimal synth, new wave

Princess, 'Selling Sulphur' (self-released)--grunge, metal, post-hardcore

Weed, 'Deserve' (Couple Skate)--post-grunge? I don't even know...

Wimps, 'Repeat' (End of Times)--punk

Various, 'I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-90' (Light in The Attic)--new age

Best Local Compilations:

'Iron Lung Mixtape II', (Iron Lung Records)--powerviolence

'Threewaysampler' (Glory Kid Limited, Mayfly, Melotov)--hardcore

'Live Executions', (Hanged Man)--experimental doom, noise, psych

DJ Slow, 'Motor Mixtape' (MOTOR Collective)--EDM

'Electroconvulsive Therapy Vol. 1: A Collection of Rare Singles,' (Medical Records)--minimal synth

'Super Adaptoid Space Tape' (Lo Flydelity)--beats

'Neon Dream' (Neon Sigh)--nu-gaze, dream-pop

'Mixtape No. 2', (What’s Up Seattle)--dark punk

'The Kill Room Mixtape' (CTPAK)--ambient hip-hop, house, techno

            'Twitch and Gloam: Dark Sounds From The Pacific Northwest', (Flat Field)--dark punk