Last week I published my list of the best local releases of 2012. Today I’m writing about a few more that weren’t mentioned then, but were good enough to be cobbled together in a follow up list. I’m not yet done, it seems, with the year that was.

Loyal Caskets 7” by Tyler Jon Tyler
Gossip Wolf pitched a zinger in November when it printed that Tyler Jon Tyler was calling it quits. It was a casual surprise to read at the time considering the three-piece had released new material – packaged as Loyal Caskets – a few months prior. Per the Wolf, though, a new band emerged from the debris of the break up that is parts TJT and Uh Bones. Uh Bones’ self-titled was #3 on my list last week so already I’m looking forward to what’s to come. I saw Tyler Jon Tyler just once before they died at a free February show at the Empty Bottle with the Runnies and Nones. I would have liked another show, to be sure, but it doesn’t appear like I’ll get one. Loyal Caskets was never a real contender for my list because it’s only a pair of songs. Anything less than four or five is hard to justify. The stuff on Loyal Caskets is sweet and unoffensive. It continues in the TJT tradition for being cozy and sunny. TJT warms me in ways that seems nostalgic even though their music didn’t exist at a time that would drum up yesteryear memories.
Buy: 2 dollars | Recommended: 

Dangerous Living by Wedding Dress
Suns’ When We Were Us was a thing of beauty. So much so that I named it the best local release of 2012 last week. Three of their kind – Mike Russell, Clinton Weber and Matt Lemke – are in a new band called Wedding Dress with guys from Maps & Atlases and Joan of Arc. They released their first bit of music on Bandcamp in October and it is promising. I don’t think it’s the bias in me speaking. Wedding Dress is soulful and a little sexy. I like the lead vocal almost as much as I do Dave Sampson of Cains & Abels. Like Loyal Caskets, though, Dangerous Living is just two tracks. A nibble, really. Already the guys released another two-fer they’re calling The Mange. I haven’t had a good chance to listen to it yet, but I like that they’re rolling along.
Buy: Name your price | Recommended: 

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