Didn't have a single record really get on top of me this year, other than Slayer's Reign in Blood. I'd say the Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale is the substance of the year, but you bastards cling to the water or to lo alc Irish mud sludge, so what would you know? Here's some good, if not transcendent, music from the year of Amy, 2006-

1. Fucked Up- Hidden World- the year I came back to aggro and even metal, this ruled that particular angry roost. Not as good as Epics in Minutes, but good enough.

2. LiveFastDie- Bandana Thrash- weird punk with teflon, at least half of these won't leak out the escape hatch. Absolutely awful live, but that's probably fitting in a year that found me asleep on the couch every Friday night at 8:30.

3. FeFiFoFums- Shake All Night- grand prize winner in the lo fi sweepstakes, this includes song of the year, "My Baby Got the Boom Boom," Lucas's personal fave.

4. Ray Davies- Other People's Lives- Ray killed morning depression dead on several occasions simply by crooning "Life After Breakfast" from my kitchen speakers before I had even warmed the self-pity up to love-me levels.

5. Boris- Pink- Nipponese metalmeisters were big winners during Lawton latenights (after 9)- I even dig the My Bloody Valentine wanking and I support Motorhead worship in any form.

6. Jay Reatard- Blood Visions- in which our hero crafts sensitive paeans of wistful yearning and Gaia worship- OK, well, he pops it up and synths it out but still delivers hook after hook after hook with all the hate you grind your teeth for.

7. Hank IV- Third Person Shooter- listen to the second side first and you'll get it- listen to the first side first and you might lack the patience for the second side, but you'll be wrong again as "Got Got" gets it just right in the Old Man The Fall midlife crisis catharsis party.

8. King Khan and BBQ Show- What's For Dinner?- better than first listenings, but like Daisy Buchanan before them, ain't no music gonna match the expectations that listeners will store in their ghostly hearts after the first record masterpiece.

9. Country Teasers- The Empire Strikes Back- moodier and less immediately available to the faithful's demand for politically incorrect Fallisms, this still further solidifies Mr. Wallers as one of the only islands out there doodling.

10. Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers- Flipside Kid- solid Jack is better than a greatest hits package of post-72 Stones fodder.