Hi, I’m Josh LaClair, and I worked at Pure Pop a long time ago. I pretty much only listen to electronic music these days, as you probably can gather from my list. Here are the five other releases that rounded out my top ten this year:

6. Shifted – “Crossed Paths”
7. Old Apparatus – “Realise/Alfur/Harem”
8. Gerry Read – “Jummy”
9. Peter Van Hoesen – “Perceiver”
10. Phon.o – “Black Boulder”

Hi, I’m Gary. I’m a songwriter, guitarist, electronics tinkerer, Doctor Who fan, and former Burlingtonian doing a little stint out in the Phoenix for the time being. This list was difficult to compile and arrange in a ranked format, all of these were my #1 at some point this year.

Honorable Mentions:

Black Dice: Mr Impossible
Eric Copeland: Limbo / various 7″ releases
Xiu Xiu: Always
Scott Walker: Bish Bosch
Metz: S/T
Grizzy Bear: Shields
Andy Stott: Luxury Problems
Bob Mould: Silver Age
Converge: All We Love We Leave Behind

I am a former Pure Pop employee and have been putting together my favorite albums every year since my wonderful tenure at the ol’ Pop.
In addition, I really enjoyed:
Xiu Xiu – Always
Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze EP
Burial – Kindred EP
Holy Other – Held
Aluna George – You Know You Like It EP (For anyone that loved that Katy B album last year)
Grimes – Visions
Ty Segall – Twins
Swans – The Seer
Crystal Castles – III

I’m John, but you can call me Travis Birkenstock. I’m a senior at UVM. I review music and DJ at WRUV. For all the excellent music that came out around the world in 2012, some of the best are yet to come and most of it is coming from Burlington. Maryse Smith’s new album is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard, tooth ache.’s new project Slow Oceans is amazing, and Shelly Shredder is recording their debut!

Besides these five albums, here are a few that I also dug:
Japandroids-Celebration Rock
Swans-The Seer
White Suns-Sinews
Death Grips-The Money Store
Cloud Nothings-Attack on Memory
Until the Quiet Comes-Flying Lotus
Fiona Apple-The Idler Wheel is Wiser……

A life long VT resident, St. Michael’s student, and employee at Pure Pop, I like the usual things: music, coffee and books. There’s other stuff too but I don’t what. Hooray for all the music this year. It’s been fun.

I’m a family man who lives in the woods. I also love food. Cheers to the 2012 amigo’s!

Honorable mentions:
The Babies – “Our House on the Hill”
Moonface – “Heartbreaking Bravery”
Father John Misty – “Fear Fun”
Emily Wells – “Mama”

Senior at UVM. Interested in fine cheeses & arts. Catch me on the radiowaves, Lady Grey, on 90.1 WRUV fm.

Sorry.

My Year End Pure Pop Top Ten List

Well, that was a weird year.

10. Reservoir Dogs, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I just started working at a movie theater, Loews Nickelodeon, downtown. It’s across the street from Pure Pop. The movies are free, I sweep up a lot of crap (the house music is fucking ENYA), and I hate the smell of wet popcorn. But on my first day I noticed that Reservoir Dogs was playing. I caught a few glimpses but didn’t get my mind blown until the next day, when I wasn’t working. Then I saw it eight times. Someone walked out during the ear scene at every showing. Then it was gone. Then I bought the soundtrack. “Little Green Bag” is the shit. Can’t wait to see this guy’s next movie.

9. Catherine Wheel, Ferment

I like this “shoegazer” stuff. The songs are noisy and pretty at the same time and everybody wears striped t-shirts in Raygun. “Black Metallic” is an awesome song with some pretty clumsy lyrics. I saw them play it last month on 120 Minutes. Dave Kendall sucks, but at least he plays Drop Nineteens.

8. Helmet, Meantime

Holy shit, a metal band with short hair. This record is pretty amazing. And it has one of those new see-through CD cases. The song “In The Meantime” has one of the coolest openings ever, where it repeats and then stumbles for a second (on purpose).

7. Sugar, Copper Blue

Bob Mould’s last album Black Sheets Of Rain was fucking great. This is even better. For some reason Rykodisc’s cassettes sound as good as CDs. My favorite song is “A Good Idea”, mainly because it sounds like the Pixies.

6. Singles, soundtrack

I bought the CD, but when I got in line for the movie I decided to see Bob Roberts instead. My favorite songs are “Seasons” by Chris Cornell and “Breath” by Pearl Jam. Alice In Chains are overrated.

5. The Lemonheads, It’s A Shame About Ray

I’m not supposed to like this Dippy Dando sort of thing, but I do. I especially like “Rudderless” and Juliana Hatfield’s backing vocals. It’s at least better than that Soul Asylum “Somebody To Shove The Runaway Black Gold Up My Ass-train” crap. Should I check out this Pavement band?

4. Lou Reed, The Blue Mask

I know it came out more than ten years ago, but this one’s a wowser. The title track is out of this fucking world. I didn’t realize how angry I was about not finishing high school until I heard this.

3. Dinosaur Jr., Whatever’s Cool With Me

As if Green Mind wasn’t awesome enough, Dinosaur Jr. comes out with this cheapie EP thing. It has “Sideways” and a great cover of Bowie’s “Quicksand” on it, along with a bulldog on the front.

2. Sonic Youth, Dirty

My friend Ben Scaccia gave me a surprise birthday present by taking me to NYC for the first time to see Sonic Youth (also for the first time) for free in Central Park on the fourth of July. He doesn’t even like Sonic Youth, that’s how nice he is. They played a whole bunch from this album that wasn’t out yet. Thurston Moore threw a banana at me and I stupidly put it in my pocket. MTV News was there and I swear you can see my head bobbing around in the video of it.

1. Beastie Boys, Check Your Head

Well, damn. They aren’t going away, are they? I’m glad. Paul’s Boutique may have bombed but they’re still cool in my book. And now they’re playing punk. Everybody who was in 8th grade when Licensed To Ill came out is now in college. When I bought the tape at Pure Pop the guy behind me was buying it on record. Vinyl. It was $11.99. I instantly asked if they had any more. They didn’t. I decided to start buying records again.