saule

There’s only so much you can get to in a given year. So many albums, so many bands, so many genres and sub genres and niche genres and one-offs and splits and reunions and supergroups and…you get the drift. It’s easy to have a few albums slip through the cracks for whatever reason, but it’s doubly weird when those same albums you missed appear on the very site you write for on another contributor’s list. I swear: we talk ALL THE TIME – sometimes even about music!

Anyway, one of my favorite things about Nine Circles is catching up on what my fellow 9C knuckleheads are banging their craniums to. So here’s nine selections I should have listened to, but didn’t in 2017. Continue reading →

9C 2017 EOY Header Image

2017 was an interesting year. While the trend of decreased album coverage continued to pave the way for increased show coverage, I still managed to get my hands on several dozen records that left an impact with me. Naturally, trimming that population down to my Best of 2017 list was daunting as any preceding year. While we did see some familiar names return with impressive new work over the past twelve months, my personal listening experience arguably covered more ground than ever. This theme was undoubtedly tied to the aforementioned increased time spent on the live setting. I was exposed to artists and styles I was previously unfamiliar with (there’s a reason I rarely skip openers). Of course, this meant that I missed some albums I was told I simply couldn’t. But in return, 2017 ended up being one of the more important years I’ve had in covering music. The live performance has a crucial impact on how an audience reacts to an artist, and that, at least in part, explains how I came up with the list below. Continue reading →