#50 M Ross Perkins M Ross Perkins SofaBurn Records [2016] It was a good year for Dayton, Ohio native M. Ross Perkins. He had a track premiered by the High Times website, an album feature/stream on AllMusic, and recorded both his own solo album and a record with fellow Daytonians Me Time. His self-titled record … Read more
Let’s face it – not every album we enjoyed can end up in our year end Blazing Top 50. Many times, there are records that almost make the cut and honestly probably could have replaced another record but for one reason or another they were just left out. Realizing that, you will find 12 of … Read more
It’s been a rough couple years for Prog with the losses of Chris Squire of Yes, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake of ELP, Nektar’s Roye Albrighton and Daevid Allen of Gong. The heroes of the Golden Age of progressive rock are entering their twilight years. Along with that comes the realization that anyone born after … Read more
The Fire Note wouldn’t be possible without the talented writers that share their educated thoughts and true enjoyment of music with our readers. The time and commitment that goes into writing consistently is appreciated by TFN and taken for granted by everyone else! Our year end Top 50 is coming soon but clearly everyone has … Read more
#50 Radioactivity Silent Kill Dirtnap Records [2015] Punk rock has been getting a bad rap over the last decade or so for not being creative, fresh or even fun. What once was a thriving genre, especially on college radio, is now one of the harder styles to find reliable information on. I like to think … Read more
The Fire Note wouldn’t be possible without the talented writers that share their educated thoughts and true enjoyment of music with our readers. The time and commitment that goes into writing consistently is appreciated by TFN and taken for granted by everyone else! If you want to be on this list next year send us … Read more
#50 The Safes Record Heat Wee Rock Records [2014] #50 is one of the hardest positions to select because there are plenty of albums that just missed the list. What made Chicago’s The Safes stand out is their solid 60’s style garage power pop on Record Heat that had us from the first strum. The … Read more
We will admit that we are only human. 2014 flew by and as always there were plenty of albums that never hit our review page that should have been included in our upcoming Blazing Top 50 but missed the mark for some reason. There are several reasons (excuses) for records not making the final cut … Read more
The Fire Note wouldn’t be possible without the talented writers that have signed on here to share their educated thoughts and true enjoyment of music with our readers. Our year end Top 50 is coming early next week but clearly everyone has different tastes and ideas when naming the best album released in 2014. So … Read more
#50 Joanna Gruesome Weird Sister Slumberland Records [2013] Boy/girl vocals, teenage angst, noise pop, loud guitars, high energy, feedback and double time drums are just some of the great rock n roll moments you will hear on the debut from the Cardiff-based five piece named Joanna Gruesome. It is this type of effort that makes … Read more
The Fire Note never claims to know all about the mighty guitar riff but we’ve given a listen to plenty of albums this year. I’m even sure there are some riffs that happened to slip through the cracks but we did our best to efficiently scour the 2013 releases. Hours went into listening from Deafheaven … Read more
Let’s face it – not every album can end up in our year end Blazing Top 50. Sometimes there are records that almost do make the cut and honestly probably could have replaced another record in the 40-49 range. Realizing that, you will find 12 of those such records below that came so close to … Read more
The Fire Note wouldn’t be possible without the talented writers that have signed on here to share their educated thoughts and true enjoyment of music with our readers. Our year end Top 50 is coming later this week but clearly everyone has different tastes and ideas when naming the best album released in 2013. So … Read more
#50 Nada Surf The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy Barsuk Records [2012] The combining of Nada Surf’s focus with their high spirits made The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy one of the most optimistic records the band has released to date. The same confidence that has been with band over the years felt even stronger … Read more
The Fire Note wouldn’t be possible without the talented writers that have signed on here to share their educated thoughts and true enjoyment of music with our readers. Our year end Top 50 was created based on reviews from the collective but clearly everyone has different tastes and ideas when naming the best album released … Read more