Bill’s Rockpile  2024008

 

Welcome back, and thanks for checking out the 2024 Rockpile. Another year, another chance to collect and share the songs that stayed with me, sparked countless replays, and soundtracked everything from late-night drives to early morning coffee sessions. These songs are more than favorites; they’re markers of time, bursts of inspiration, and reasons to keep exploring the news songs out there.

As always, this isn’t a “Best Of” list, but a personal curation of tracks that I couldn’t get enough of. Each one of these songs is one I own (yes, even in 2024, I’m still buying the occasional CD but more often something off Bandcamp). While streaming is convenient, owning the music ensures it’s always yours.

I did get to see a lot of shows again this year, and even made it to 2 Festivals (Solid Sound, Merge 35), both of which were fantastic. Other highlights out on the road were seeing Sprints, Ride, Fontaines D.C., Quivers, and Waxahatchee.

For this year, I think for the first time, all the tracks were available on Spotify (link at bottom). So I will just be posting the Spotify link for the playlist, as well as Bandcamp links for each song if you want to listen from there or jump to their bandcamp page and buy a song.

Thanks for tuning in again this year. Feel free to reach out with your own favorites or thoughts on the list. And as always, support the artists and keep the music alive. See you in 2025!

Cheers,

Bill

 

1.   “Drunk” Healees

2.   “Blue Skies” Finnoguns Wake

3.   “Soonish” Dummy

4.   “The Lawn” The Green Child

5.   “Raleigh Arena” Jim Nothing

6.   “Dist B” Dehd

7.   “Never Be Lonely” Quivers

8.   “The Coin-Op Guillotine” Los Campesinos!

9.   “I Wasn't Made For War” Peel Dream Magazine

10.   “Coeur d'Alene” Work Wife

11.   “Truck” Skylar Gudasz

12.   “If It's Gone” Good Looks

13.   “Standing In The Yard” Rick White & The Sadies

14.   “Chemtrails” Chastity Belt

15.   “Cellar Door” Wussy Duo

16.   “SHAKE!” The Courettes

17.   “Fried Rice” Royel Otis

18.   “Who I Am” Eilidh Bradley Project

19.   “kleber” The bv's

20.   “Docket (feat. Bully)” Blondshell

21.   “Gift” Glow

22.   “lucky boy” Mo Dotti

23.   “Sooner or Later” Soft Skies Inc

24.   “Gravits” Crayon Case

25.   “Clear” DAIISTAR

26.   “Frog In Boiling Water” DIIV

27.   “Calling Off The Rescue” +/-

28.   “Le feu” Bibi Club

29.   “Clouds” The Blue Herons

30.   “Crowbar” Waxahatchee

31.   “Babyfaced God of Terror” Futurebirds

32.   “Wrong Way Round” The Bevis Frond

33.   “Sucker” Lupo Citta

34.   “(Maverick) Can't stop beatning” MADDAM

35.   “Wild God” Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

     Here is the link the the Spotify stream:

Bill’s Rockpile  2023008

Hi! Thanks for checking this out. Here again is a list of my favorite songs over the course of the year. How do you I know? Well, particular songs that really grab me get filed immediately and then around this time of year I see what I bought and review to see if I am missing anything. But I own all these songs and I would encourage others to do same with your favorites. You never know if in 5, 10 or 15 years Spotify, Amazon, or Apple decides to take back your rights and make you pay for songs you love. Plus I want to be able to get high fidelity versions like FLAC for future needs (you know…like the Maxell commercial guy).

Once again, it was a good year for seeing bands back out on the road. We know that has become their lifeblood with the way the industry is managing artists royalties, but just the same was good to catch bands like Pinback, Wednesday, Yo La Tengo, Aimee Mann, Ratboys, and bar italia out on the circuit. And especially seeing Eyelids and Hallelujah The Hills in a matinee in a small club!

As with last year I am posting streamable links in both Spotify and Mixcloud to listen or download the list. And you can also check out each song (and buy if you like) on the list via the Bandcamp link for each.

Links for Spotify and Mixcloud below the list links.

 

Cheers,

 

Bill

 

1.   “Bang” Melenas

2.   “An Imposed Exile” The High Water Marks

3.   “Sixes and Sevens” Jetstream Pony

4.   “The Presence” Emma Anderson

5.   “Little Bronco” Golden Apples

6.   “Empty” Ratboys

7.   “Chosen To Deserve” Wednesday

8.   “Awakening” Las Robertas

9.   “Changer” bar italia

10.   “Paperback” Tape Runs Out

11.   “Here and Gone” Constant Smiles

12.   “Anything” Frankie Rose

13.   “Give A Little Time” Belle and Sebastian

14.   “Wonder” En Attendant Ana

15.   “Give Myself Away” Withered Hand

16.   “The Sky Is Melting” Alex Lahey

17.   “Caesar” The Popguns

18.   “alife” Slowdive

19.   “Before” Blonde Redhead

20.   “Backwards Forever” Whitney's Playland

21.   “Desperation I Know” Nicole Yun

22.   “Love Affair” Maud Anyways

23.   “Right Hook” Corvair

24.   “Bright Lights” Flyying Colours

25.   “Scapa Flow” Drop Nineteens

26.   “Ikea Boy” HOORSEES

27.   “The Star” Grrrl Gang

28.   “Dead Meat” The Tubs

29.   “Snitch Olympics” Ringlets

30.   “Ahegao” Provide

31.   “Time For You” Cable Ties

32.   “Melancholy Molly” Seablite

33.   “No Patience” Hurry

34.   “Between Stations” Oyvind Holm

35.   “Aselestine” Yo La Tengo

36.   “All I'll Ever Be” Film School

     Here is the link the the Spotify stream:

Here is the link for the the Mixcloud stream:

 

Bill’s Rockpile  2022008

Winding down another year and chronicling favorite songs --- since 2005! What started as a CD compilation and mailed out has long ago evolved to a streaming endeavor, but you have to keep up the times. This is not meant to be any kind of “Best Of” list. These are just favorites of mine, songs I played repeatedly and probably played on Turntable. While the entire compilation is once again uploaded to Mixcloud, I am also posting on Spotify --- however --- that list will be missing a couple of songs because those artists don’t support that service. I’ve also included a streamable link to each song on Bandcamp. So..if sampling, come back to this page and hit the links. If streaming, hit the Mixcloud link and that will play the entire mix. And Spotify also has the list for convenience, minus great songs by The Loyal Seas and smiles. Please consider buying and downloading songs that you like to support the artists. 

2022 saw a lot more bands going back out on the road, as Covid waves continued to recede (but not completely go away). This was a welcome development, and led to many opportunities to go see bands. I probably went to more shows this year than any year since my college days. Similarly, there seemed to be a ton of releases during the year as many people went back to the studio to record songs written over the lockdown periods. And thankfully I don’t have to burn my favorites to a CD because I had almost 50 songs saved and could only reasonable cull it down to this year’s 38. Thanks for checking in! 

Links for Spotify and Mixcloud below the list links.

Cheers,

Bill

* Does not appear on Spotify

1.   “Off Motion” Fontanarosa

2.   “Pretty” Arts & Leisure

3.  “Paradise” Healees

4.  “Wretched Lie” Cotton Crown

5.   “Fastest” Frontperson

6.   “Lola” Lande Hekt

7. “Still Life” Flasher

8.   “Beggar” Launder

9.   “No Other Way” Ex-Void

10.   “Should I” fine.

11. “Patterns” Stars

12.  “Option 8” Horsegirl

13.  “Into” Castlebeat

14.  “Full of The Joys of Spring” The Sundries

15.  “Nobody Knows Me, Anyhow” Cozy Slippers

16. “I Never Thought I Was Clever” The Orchids

17*.  "(So Far From) Silverlake The Loyal Seas

18.  “Behind Her Lovely Smile” My Raining Stars

19.  “Velveteen” Alvvays

20.   “Ink Bleeds” seablite

21.  “1000%” Panda Riot

22.   “Foreshadowing” Submotile

23.   “Only You Know” Beach House

24.   “Take It Slow” Bleach Lab

25.   “Wide Eyed” Thought Forms

26*.  “nothing matters anymore” smiles

27.  “Good Time” Young Guv

28.  “Clover” The Radio Field

29.  “Eyes Wide Shut” The Shop Window

30.  “define myself” wake up

31.  “Kidney Bingos” Vietnam (NZ)

32.  “When You Know You Know” The Beths

33.  “Pinos Altos” Terra Pines

34.  “Lighthouse” Mattiel

35.  “Delia Smith” sprints

36.  “Rain Song” Whitney's Playland

37.  “Mistakes” Sharon Van Etten

38.  “Your Time Doesn’t Exist” Elk City

 

 Here is the link the the Spotify stream:

Here is the link the the Mixcloud stream: