A slight case of overblogging - Best of the blog mix 2017.

2017 was probably my least prolific year on these pages, and quite frankly, on many occasions I felt a self-inflicted flogging was in order (metaphorically, of course).  Yet after assembling this compendium of highlights, not only is it my opportunity to offer you a "shortcut" or a taster, or whatever, it became apparent that the past year wasn't quite as fruitless as I was wont to convince myself.  In fact, despite 2017's relative deficiency of content, this 25 song exercise turned out to be one of my most cohesive and gratifying collections to date, bejeweled with some pretty seismic left-off-the-dial nuggets.  There's a bevy of tunes from excellent one-album-wonder outfits like the Casual T's, Holiday Slides, Suburban Sprawl, Cement Trampoline, Plasterscene Replicas and the Fingers that were worth tuning in for alone.  And how about not one, but two paeans to the nation of Canada, courtesy of the Ceedee's and Macchu Picchu?

You're also getting perfect tens from the likes of Fire Town, Chixdiggit, The Fingers, and Fudge, not to mention true-blue obscuros Red Buckets, Squirrels From Hell, Our American Cousins, and The Clamheads.  As has been tradition, I'm tacking on a handful of tunes that haven't been made available previously.  Real beauts too, like a primo, non-LP prize from the Pezband, and a vintage, unreleased kernel from Guided By Voices.  And lend an ear to Rebel Waltz, a bygone Wisconsin punk-pop quartet, whose glorious Rubber Walls LP has been reissued digitally.

01. The Reels - Prefab Heart
02. Macchu Picchu - Canada
03. Pezband - Waiting in Line*
04. Cement Trampoline - Pushing the Panic Button
05. Soup - Hangin' Out With Myself
06. Chixdiggit - Best Hung Carrot in the Fridge
07. Rebel Waltz - Highway of Doom*
08. Our American Cousins - Ice 9
09. Side Effects - French Forest
10. Squirrels From Hell - Cinderella Girl
11. Holiday Slides - The Fall of Rome
12. Glass Penguins - Out of the Rain
13. Seven Simons - Lavendar Bubbles
14. The Pony - Broken Kites
15. Suburban Sprawl - Serious
16. Casual T's - Rose Colored World
17. One Plus Two - Much More
18. Red Buckets - Palm Sunday
19. Plasterscene Replicas - What Could Be Incomplete
20. Fudge - Patty Hearst Machine Gun
21. Fire Town - She Reminds Me of You
22. The Clamheads - Everybody Loves Me Cept You
23. Fingers - Too Young
24. Ceedees - Patriotic Song
25. GBV - Tell Me*

* = Appearing for the first time.

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