I live and work in publishing in Burlington. All I need is craft beer, mountains, and live music. It seems like every time you turn around there’s a new Americana band or another folk singer-songwriter type and it doesn’t bother me at all. It was an amazing year for folksy music. Honorable mentions to
The Lone Bellow, The Lone Bellow
The Wood Brothers, The Muse
The Devil Makes Three, I’m a Stranger Here Myself
Bombadil. Metric of Affection
Gregory Alan Isakov, The Weatherman
Dawes, Stories Don’t End
The David Mayfield Parade, Good Man Down

I’m Tyler Machado and I’m the digital media manager at Seven Days, which is a good job to have if you like to listen to music. I feel like I’ve been out of the loop on music stuff for a few years now, but something this year happily kicked me back into it.

The list above is in a rough order at best and omits lots of stuff I loved both local (Rough Francis, Paper Castles) and not (Mazzy Star, Yo La Tengo, Kendrick Lamar). But I do have a few bonus category awards from the year to hand out.

Best Lazy Trippy Summer Saturday Afternoon Album: Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Best Inexplicably Under-the-Radar Album: Valerie June – Pushin Against A Stone
Best Album By a Member of the Sonic Youth Diaspora: Lee Ranaldo and the Dust – Last Night on Earth
Best Kiss-Off Breakup Song in the History of Ever: Josh Ritter – “New Lover”

I’m Justin.
I work in Financial Aid at VSAC.
I enjoy playing music, brewing beer, reading, writing, and talking about music all the time.

I cannot stress enough the embarrassment of quality albums that dropped this year. Here are some honorable mentions:

The Knife – Shaking the Habitual
Tim Hecker – Virgins
Savages – Silence Yourself
My Bloody Valentine – MBV
Arcade Fire – Reflektor

There’s a ton of others. I’m way too lazy to list them. What a year.

hi, my name is Karla and I work at Pure Pop! I love music and I love puppies. this year has been a crazy year for me – I was able to see so many great bands live and had the opportunity to interview some of my all time favorite artists. I had so much trouble trying to pick my top 5, but the above tracks were on HEAVY rotation in my collection. although I’m obsessed with all of these albums, there are a few others on my list that must be mentioned and are worth a listen. sorry I cheated.

6. What Surrounding by UN BLONDE
7. HS by Hello Shark (another local Burly album that was the soundtrack to my year)
8. Mala by Devendra Banhart
9. To Be Close to You by Julia Brown
10. Holo Pleasures by Elvis Depressedly
11. Split 7″ by Alex G and R.L. Kelly
12. Lonely Women by TV Girl
13. S/T by Wren and Mary (local from Burly)!
14. Humble Noon by Lisa/Liza
15. Persona Non Grata by Cosmonauts

happy almost new year 🙂

I’m a long time Pure Pop Person & Web developer – currently living up north with my dog, fixing up an old house.

Attached below is my end of year playlist thanks to Rdio

http://rd.io/x/QfMZDzMxSkc/

It’s list season! The best time of the year as far as I’m concerned. That actually might be because I get to stuff my face with delicious food and spend time with family, but whatever.

I usually agree fairly well with the critical consensus and year-end lists that come out, but I have to say that this year I think there’s been a lot of shit tossed around (no offense to everyone else posting lists here…). Almost all of the major releases that came out in 2013 were horrendous or at the very least forgettable. There were a few good ones in there – I must say that I do like the new Sigur Ros and Daft Punk albums – but even those didn’t have the staying power through the end of the year. There was a ton of good metal that came out this year but I feel like the rest of the music world was a bit of a desert. Oh well. Here are my honorable mentions anyway:

Fire! Orchestra – Exit!
Gris – À l’âme enflammée, l’äme constellée…
Wardruna – Runaljod: Yggdrasil
Eluvium – Nightmare Ending
Kayo Dot – Hubardo
Lycus – Tempest
Laura Marling – Once I Was an Eagle
Progenie Terrestre Pura – UMA

If you encountered a blue-eyed Lady Pure Popper behind the counter before, say, late May of this year– well, it sure as hell wasn’t me.

The above five albums are my five absolute least favorite from this year, but I also found Arcade Fire’s “Reflekor”, Ryan Power’s “Identity Picks”, Fuzz’s self-titled debut, and King Tuff’s “Was Dead” reissue to be particularly despicable. Among many others. Boy, 2013–what a crappy year for music.

About me? Well, I truly despise Ty Segall, college radio, eating hummus, drinking Darjeeling, sleeping in, and traversing by bicycle around my new digs (just outside Boston, Mass).

Oh, and I’m never sarcastic.

Phil Yates is a local musician who plays in Phil Yates & the Affiliates, a former DJ at WWPV 88.7 FM The Mike, and teaches mathematics at Saint Michael’s College. He is relieved that he didn’t have to count past 5 for this “Best of 2013” list.

Hi! I am Justin Gonyea. I teach visual art in the Burlington School District. I am the vocalist/guitarist for Vultures of Cult http://www.vulturesofcult.com. I produce, engineer, mix and master records for bands here in Burlington (Vultures of Cult, Paper Castles, Trapper Keeper, Mass of Tharsis, Cloudeyes, Iron Sword, In Memory of Pluto, Romans, ETC..). I own and operate a small record label with my wife, Audra, called Prolific Summer http://www.prolificsummer.com http://justingonyea.tumblr.com

I am really glad Vinyl seems to still be going strong, if not gaining strength, in these tough times for the music business. (Maybe the world really does have a way of evening things out?) I enjoy the fact that the new Lo-Fi trend seems here to stay, even if it has to compete for airplay with the Auto-Tuned and digitized sounds that seem to be so prevalent.