From: jaffe AT ypn.com (Jay Jaffe)
Subject: Top 20 of '96
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 18:51:13 -0400

A very good year for music, as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps it was just
the improved proximity of great record stores in NYC (Other Music, Adult
Crash, Mondo Kims), but without fail I always found the sounds to keep me
going. Much of it was new, but I also got ahold of plenty of old,
undiscovered sounds (by me, at least) in the above stores which I listen to
and cherish as much as any of the new stuff - Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, Eno,
George Jones, Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family, James Brown, John Fahey. You
know the drill.

Checking out the list below, I'm a bit alarmed at how many major-label and
major-affiliated releases dominate it - though nearly all of those ('cept
the Mo Wax, if they count) is by someone whose (indie) records I've bought
before.

Alphabetical list, though if I had to rank more subjectively the top 5
would probably include Beck, Stereolab, the Ubu box, DJ Shadow, and the
most criminally underappreciated band in America, Railroad Jerk.

Beck - Odelay! (DGC)
Boss Hog  - S/T (DGC)
Dead C - Repent (Siltbreeze)
Directions in Music - S/T (Thrill Jockey)
Dirty Three - Horse Stories (Touch & Go)
DJ Shadow  - Endtroducing (Mo' Wax)
DJ Spooky - Songs of a Dead Dreamer (label?)
Drain - Offspeed and In There (Trance Syndicate)
Gastr Del Sol - Upgrade and Afterlife (Drag City)
Guv'ner - The Hunt (Merge)
Home - X (Emperor Jones)
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry (Matador)
Nirvana - From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (DGC)
Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero box set (DGC)
Railroad Jerk - Third Rail (Matador)
Six Finger Satellite - Paranormalized (Sub Pop)
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Elektra)
Tortoise  - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (Thrill Jockey)
Wilco - Being There (Reprise?)
Yo La Tengo  - Genius + Love = (Matador)
____
Honorable mentions:
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture (Tough & Go)
RL Burnside - A Ass-Pocket Full of Whiskey (Matador)
Cul De Sac - China Gate (label?)
Home - XI (Jetset)
Money Mark - Mark's Keyboard Repair (Mo' Wax)
Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island (Merge)
Six Finger Satellite - Clone Theory (Load)
Stereolab - Fluorescences EP (Duophonic)