Paint It Black returned this year with their first album in 10 years, Famine, and Dan Yemin and Andy Nelson also released a new album with their band Open City, Hands in the Honey Jar. Both are on our list of the 50 best punk albums of 2023, and for deeper dives into both, Open City gave us a track-by-track breakdown of their LP and Dan came on a recent episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. With 2023 winding down, Dan, Andy, guitarist Josh Agran, and drummer Jared Shavelson have put together a list for BV of their favorite albums of the year, with commentary on each pick. Read on for what they had to say.
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Paint It Black’s Favorite Albums of 2023
Daniel Yemin:
Home Front – Games of Power
Really well-balanced collision of 80’s goth-inflected New Wave and Punk/Oi with a distinctly British flavor. As unexpected and exciting as a summer romance.
Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
Hands down my favorite rap/hip hop group of the past several years, the duo of E L U C I D and billy woods consistently deliver thought-provoking lyrics with staggering verbal dexterity. If Organized Konfusion signed to Def Jux in 2003 it might have sounded like this, but that would only be scratching the surface. The New York emcee’s delve deeper on this release, playing with abstraction and repetition as tactics for developing ideas and translating affective experiences. Superb.
Brain Tourniquet – …An Expression In Pain
From the greatest record label in the world comes this masterpiece of brutality, executed effortlessly by guys who seem to play in 95% of the bands that comprise the D.C. hardcore punk scene. I could take a lazy shortcut and describe this as powerviolence, and it does have a lot of stylistic reference points, but I hear strains of early Swans, Rorschach, and Walls as well. Worthy of hyperbole, which is my love language. Pulverizing.
Andy Nelson:
Everything But The Girl – Fuse
Perhaps it is no huge surprise, especially given the release of our Famine last month, that a sort of album I find an increasing affinity for with each passing year is “Elder Band Makes Incredible Late Career Record”. Last year it was The Psychedelic Furs, this year it is the wonderful surprise of a new EBTG album. I am reminded of Portishead’s monumental entry in the canon of late career classics, in that here, Tracey & Ben have never sounded better, more sophisticated, more mature, and although this is thankfully no throwback or nostalgia trip (the LP bears little resemblance to their previous work) it is both instantly recognizable as, and could not be anyone but, them.
Josh Agran:
Pachyman – Switched On
I am admittedly a lazy consumer of music, usually playing Brian Eno or The Cure and doing a bad job of finding new music. So when the dude who bartends at the bar next to my work mentioned (quite humbly) that he made dub, I was intrigued. Pachyman is an L.A.-based (though originally from Puerto Rico) multi-instrumentalist who records everything himself and performs live with live loops/samples/instrumentation, and with such wild exuberance, it is utterly joyful to watch. This album has peppered much of my sun-soaked SoCal experience for the latter part of the year.
Delco MF’s – 100% Complete & Total Motherfuckers
It would be fair to say I am incredibly biased to this record, as a born and raised Delconian Punk, but this record absolutely hits all of my favorite early 80’s punk vigor and pissed off rage that leaves me feeling a bit stressed! It’s like if S.O.A. and Poison Idea had a baby on West Chester Pike, hung out in Cawleys, and ate Pica’s its whole life.
TENGGER – TENGGER
I saw TENGGER at an outdoor ambient show while sitting on a blanket in the middle of Bronson Canyon. They are a father-mother-son trio who make ethereal psychedelic magic that is both gorgeous and sweeping, all while wearing outfits that looked like a mix of early 2000s nu-metal and scary cultish medallions.I was also very high on mushrooms, so the whole experience was kind of scary if I’m being completely honest. Considering my top played track on my Spotify was Pink Noise, this was directly up my alley.
Jared Shavelson:
La Lom – “Llorar”
It’s just a single, but it’s one of the most exciting bands of the year.
Samiam – Stowaway
These legends wrote another great album that makes me feel like a kid hearing them for the first time again.
Calexico – Feast Of Wire (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
I know this is kind of a cheat, but this has been one of my favorite bands since I first heard them in 1999. Having a fresh remaster of something I know so well allows me to hear all these songs in a new way. It’s a classic album for me.
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Top photo of Paint It Black by Stephanie Augello at Irving Plaza in 2022 with AVAIl and Kill Your Idols. More here.