2016’s GREATEST HITS – Shane’s Annual Roundup

2016’s GREATEST HITS
By Shane Pinnegar

It’s impossible to listen to every new album, EP and single that we’d like to each year, much less write carefully considered reviews about them. The same goes for every movie, book, theatre event and live gig that catches our eye – there’s only so much time and money and energy and free dates in the calendar to go around, especially if we want to have a life and go outdoors from time to time!

We do our best to cover as much ground as possible, and if there was ever any doubt as to the eclectic taste of our reviewers, our annual roundups let you know where you stand.
ALBUMS

1. David Bowie – Blackstar

A musical tour-de-force that pips the rest of the field by virtue of its creator making it his last great work of art, entwining his death into the songs and music like no-one else could have imagined to do.

2. The Monkees – Good Times

3. Anti Nowhere League – The Cage

4. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – self titled

5. Metallica – Hard Wired… To Self Destruct

6. Tequila Mockingbyrd – Fight And Flight

7. The Fargo Railroad Co – This One’s For You

8. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

9. Cheap Trick – Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello!

10. Brian Cadd – Bulletproof

11. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
12. The Rolling Stones – Blues & Lonesome
13. Jaime Page – Dark Universe

14. Heart – Beautiful Broken
15. Datura4 – Hairy Mountain
16. Buffalo Crows – Bovonic Empire
17. Black Stone Cherry – Kentucky
18. M&J Blues – In The Presence Of Friends
19. Sixx A.M. – Prayers For The Damned Vol 1
20. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – The Skeleton Tree

21. Los Bastardos Finlandeses – Bad MF’s Ball
22. Madysin Hatter – Lose Your Mind
23. Beltane Fire – Spellbound

24. Southern River Band – Welcome To The Pleasuredome
25. Stacie Collins – Roll The Bones
26. Rival Sons – Hollow Bones
27. Bob Dylan – Fallen Angels
28. Beth Hart – Fire On The Floor
29. Ricky Warwick – When Patsy Cline Was Crazy…
30. The Drones – Feelin’ Kinda Free

31. Sixx A.M. – Prayers For The Blessed Vol 2
32. Lee Aaron – Fire & Gasoline

33. Hollywood Vampires – Hollywood Vampires
34. Volbeat – Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie
35. Bruce Springsteen – Chapter & Verse
36. Dead Daisies – Make Some Noise
37. Whitford St Holmes – Reunion
38. Simo – Let Love Show The Way
39. The Dirty Earth – Ascendancy
40. The Neptune Power Federation – Lucifer’s Universe

EPs

1. Hailmary – Evolve Dissolve EP

This Aussie group have evolved from grunge wannabes through international touring to being possibly the best unsigned heavy rock band on the planet. In days gone by they’d be headlining arenas already.

2. Graham Greene – The Guitar Vinci Code EP

3. Graveyard BBQ – Rx For Sx EP
4. Potato Stars – The Bill EP
5. The Ann Wilson Thing – #2 EP
6. The Mezcaltones – The Mezcaltones EP
7. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – A Little Something More From… EP
8. The Superesus – Love & Violence EP
9. Shit The Cow – The One With The Devil EP
10. Brian James – Anniversary Waltz EP

LIVE

1. IRON MAIDEN with The Raven Age – Perth, 14 May, 2016

The heavy metal legends did not disappoint on this lap around Planet Rock, delivering a set that nicely cherry-picked across their xx album and nearly-forty-year career.

2. THE MONKEES – Perth, 13 December, 2016

There’s only two original Monkees left on the road, but they delivered a tour de force show that celebrated fifty years of music, brought the late Davy Jones and reclusive Mike Nesmith to Perth via music, and made sure casual fans got the hits, and hardcores got the deeper cuts in a show that was a joy to behold.

3. BRIAN WILSON – Perth, 7 April, 2016
4. THE CURE, Perth – 31 July, 2016
5. TOM JONES – Perth, 13 March, 2016
6. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE – Perth, 26 Feb, 2016
7. AN EVENING WITH HENRY ROLLINS, Perth, 23 September, 2016
8. BLUES AT BRIDGETOWN – 11-13 November, 2016
9. MELISSA ETHERIDGE – Perth, 1 April, 2016
10. BLACK SABBATH with Rival Sons – Perth, 15 April, 2016

MUSIC DVDs

1. THE DAMNED – DON’T YOU WISH THAT WE WERE DEAD

A warts-and-all expose of the insanely influential but terminally underrated Punk originators, in which a belligerent and stubborn group of disaffected youths spearhead a new musical revolution, and grow into belligerent and stubborn old men with casualties thrown from the moving train left and right. Fascinating.

2. WE ARE TWISTED FUCKING SISTER

A serious challenger for #1, Twisted Sister’s similarly warts and all story documents the band’s many years as a serious local club drawcard, and stops just as they release their chart-destroying Stay Hungry. If anything, a little overlong in its obsession with telling every part of the story, but still riveting.

3. MORPHINE – JOURNEY OF DREAMS
4. SCARRED BUT SMARTER: The Life n’ Times of Drivin’ n’ Cryin’
5. STEEL PANTHER – Live From Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage

MOVIES & TV

1. SING STREET

Heartwarming and nostalgic tale of love and coming-of-age in the midst of the early ‘80s musical revolution, with a fantastic soundtrack of classics and new era-aping songs.

2. GREEN ROOM
Confrontingly depicting the brutality of a white supremacist enclave in which a young punk band get embroiled, Green Room shocked many with it’s gritty authenticity, excellent production on a budget, and the unexpected sight of Patrick Stewart as the ruthless and brutal gang leader.

3. WESTWORLD

4. LUKE CAGE
5. THE PEANUTS MOVIE
6. ZOOTOPIA
7. THE GET DOWN
8. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
9. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
10. STRANGER THINGS

THEATRE

1. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS – Perth

The ravenous Seymour was the star of the show in this latest production of the late ‘50s classic musical tale of an alien plant with a taste for human blood and world domination.

2. Black Swan Theatre presents Picnic At Hanging Rock
3. CATS at Crown Theatre, Perth
4. AVENUE Q – PERTH
5. THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Perth, 15 Sep 2016

NON-FICTION BOOKS

1. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

The Boss is startlingly frank and open about his life, his loves, and his failures and obsessions in this intricately woven and lyrically written book, making it a must-read for any fan of modern music.

2. LABYRINTH – The Ultimate Visual History by Paula M Block & Terry J Erdmann

3. Lemmy – The Definitive Biography by Mick Wall
4. Tara Moss – Speaking Out
5. 18 and Life on Skid Row by Sebastian Bach
6. Purple Reign by Mick Wall
7. Cured – The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys by Lol Tolhurst
8. Good Vibrations: My Life As A Beach Boy by Mike Love
9. Paul McCartney – The Biography by Philip Norman
10. Kill ‘em & Leave: Searching For The Real James Brown by James McBride

 

KID’S BOOKS

1. Artie and the Grime Wave by Richard Roxburgh

TV’s Rake serves up a rollicking adventure full of gross-out humour, criminal masterclutzes and surprising plot twists.

2. My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons
3. King Flashypants And The Evil Emperor by Andy Riley
4. Cheesemares by Ross Collins

 

FICTION BOOKS

1. Lucifer’s Universe by Mike Foxall

Mike Foxall’s graphic novel is an acid-drenched Hammer Horror homage best read to its own soundtrack: the second Neptune Power Federation album of the same name.

2. Nothing Short of Dying by Eric Storey
3. London Belongs To Us by Sara Manning
4. A Divided Spy by Charles Cumming
5. End of Watch by Stephen King
6. Maggie’s Kitchen by Caroline Beecham

 

FINALLY, let’s take a moment to remember the awesomely talented, iconic musicians, actors and world-changers who passed away this year. It seems like the very worst year for celebrity deaths – maybe because so many of 2016’s casualties were game-changers, massively influential to so many people that we find it impossible for their deaths to not affect us personally – especially when we have had so little recovery time between each.

Just a small cross-section of these iconic figures…

Lemmy Kilmister (yes I do know he died in 2015, on 28 December, but this is my list so I’m including Motorhead’s metal god); David Bowie; Alan Rickman (actor); Dan Haggerty (actor – Grizzly Adams); Glenn Frey (The Eagles); Jimmy Bain (Rainbow, Dio); Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane); Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire); Vanity (Prince); Harper Lee (author of To Kill A Mockingbird); Umberto Eco (author of The Name Of The Rose); George Kennedy (actor); Jon English (actor/musician); Nancy Reagan; George Martin (producer of The Goons, The Beatles, Cheap Trick and many more); Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer); Sylvia Anderson (Thunderbirds co-creator & actress); Frank Sinatra Jr; Gary Shandling; Ronnie Corbett (comedian); Merle Haggard; Victoria Wood (comedian); Lonnie Mack; Prince; Nick Menza (Megadeth); Muhammad Ali; Henry McCullough (Wings); Anton Yelchin (actor); Caroline Aherne (comedian); Ralph Stanley (bluegrass musician); Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic); Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley); Michael Cimino (director – The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate); Garry Marshall (creator of TV shows Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Mork & Mindy and others); Alan Vega (Suicide); Kenny Baker (Star Wars’ R2D2); Gene Wilder; Pete Burns (Dead or Alive); Shimon Peres; King Bhumibol Adulyadej; Leonard Cohen; Robert Vaughan (actor – The Man From UNCLE); Leon Russell; Sharon Jones (soul singer); Florence Henderson (actress – The Brady Bunch); Andrew Sachs (actor – Fawlty Towers); Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer); Fidel Castro; Ron Glass (actor – Barney Miller, Firefly); John Glenn (astronaut & politician); Zsa Zsa Gabor; Rick Parfitt (Status Quo); George Michael; Richard Adams (author – Watership Down); Carrie Fisher; Debbie Reynolds, Dr Donald Henderson (the man who eradicated Smallpox).

May they all Rest In Peace.

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