SemiConscious Dot Org

We’re already almost three months into 2006, which means only 290 days until the year-end Best Of List! Might as well start assembling the early contenders right now, eh?

Wolfmother, Wolfmother
They’re Australian. They sound like they’re channeling Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin simultaneously. They will be the biggest band on the planet by the end of this year. Then the critical backlash will begin. The critics will be wrong.

Soledad Brothers, The Hardest Walk
Detroit’s best band continues their evolution away from blues revivalism to dirty, stripped-down Southern garage rock.

Motorpsycho, Black Hole/Blank Canvas
This criminally underappreciated Norwegian band has been around for 16 years and dabbled in every style under the sun, from metal and grunge, to acid rock, country, power pop, Krautrock, and jazz. This is their first new studio album in three years, and finds them mixing the psychedelic power trio sound of their late 90’s work with the jazziness of their more recent material. As with all their albums, it will be totally ignored in America, which proves that Americans are stupid.
(Note: I couldn’t find an English-language review online yet, so I linked to their homepage instead)

Boris, Pink
Kables clued me into these Japanese sludge-metal masters. If you play this loud enough, you can actually feel your eardrums being pressed inwards by the waves of distortion and feedback. This is a good thing.

The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth
The critics landed on this one, and I’m not sure why. Yeah, it’s too long, and could have benefited from chopping out four or five filler songs. Yeah, Julian Casablancas can’t write lyrics to save his life – but then, he never could. At least he’s finally dropped that annoying “singing in a telephone booth” vocal effect he used on every single track of the first two albums. But the band rocks harder than ever, and they’re trying new things sonically. It’s no Is This It?, but it’s a million times better than that turd sandwich Room on Fire.

Bonus St. Patrick’s Day Rotation
These aren’t new releases, and won’t figure into the year end list, but they’re currently in heavy spin on the mp3 player. Erin Go Bragh!
Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies
Dropkick Murphys, Live on St. Patrick’s Day from Boston, MA