26. Angelic Upstarts - The Murder Of Liddle Towers

1. The Murder Of Liddle Towers
2. Police Oppression

This is, I promise, a rare foray into Oi! territory. Liddle Towers was an amateur boxer from Durham who was beaten to death by the police ("justifiable homicide"). Angelic Upstarts are a socialist punk rock band, still going, defying the Oi! stereotype of racist skinheads. I'm of the opinion that just before Punk died, it gave birth to the intelligent, charming Post-punk and its evil twin Oi!, and that the latter ought to be ignored or derided. Especially the Skrewdriver contingent. However, this single is the exception; angry lyrics ("he was drunk and disorderly and now he's dead"), an important message and adequately imaginative music combining to produce a surprisingly powerful song. Police Oppression is just not as good, nowhere near as intelligent or interesting, and by now Angelic Upstarts have more than made their point. Anti-fascism and leftist politics aside, I don't think the band ever did anything else worth praising.

1978, Dead Records

Best of 2012

In a year without a Fall album, what could there possibly be to celebrate?

KENNEDY (TOQUIWA)
I saw Toquiwa support The Wedding Present in Camden about a month ago. I preferred them to Gedge's popular beat combo, who all look a bit too old and decrepid to still be singing about one girl. Toquiwa's album, which I bought at the gig, ends with this cover of one of the aformentioned indie miserablists masterpieces, Kennedy, which I've probably listened to every day since. Irritatingly, that was their last UK tour date, but if they return I recommend seeing them and their crazy stage antics.

HUSBANDS (SAVAGES)

Savages are more traditional post-punk, Husbands sounds like it could've been released in 1980. Which is obviously what we all want. Savages have clearly listened to Holiday In Cambodia and a bit of the Banshees. They did a set for that lickspittle Jools Holland earlier this year, on Youtube here.

SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (PERFECT HAIR FOREVER)

This is a bit more left-field. I just stumbled across Perfect Hair Forever on the internet somewhere. Research suggests that it's one anonymous bloke in Auckland who needs to get out more. There's some more stuff from PHF on Bandcamp, but this is the best one out there.

IT'S OK JOHN-JOE (DEXYS)
The first Dexys Midnight Runners (now simply Dexys) album in nearly 30 years came out in June. There's nothing great on there, but this is good. If you ignore the bits where he's whinging and bullshitting, which admittedly comprise a fairly large section of the song, the singing is beautiful. Then there's an upbeat and unnecessary bit at the end, which is mildly catchy but irrelevant. Jesus, though, it's an improvement on the ending to this early version (from 6:20).

THE BURSTER (THE NIGHTINGALES)
I wish I knew why The Nightingales aren't celebrated in the same way as The Fall. Pigs on Purpose, released in the same year as Hex Enduction Hour, is as good as anything Mark E Smith ever did or said (except when he said this). Their latest album, No Love Lost, has no amazing stand-out tracks but works brilliantly as a whole. Starting with the line "I was as dry as a dead girl's cunt in the desert", it's not an easy listen, but by track five you're in prog-punk heaven. Buy it.

SPITFIRE (PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING)
I really really love this song. This is my favourite song of the year, and with a cool video to boot. Spitfire appears on The War Room EP, and is the only reason for buying it. That bit where the guitar comes in at about 1:20 is so great. Lovely music goodness.

25. Les Cox Sportifs - Total Straightness

1. The Hand & The Heed (The Heel, The Teat, The Hair & The Beak Grew)
2. Wrong Side
3. It Gave Back

"We party to distract from the pointlessness of life, and to remind ourselves of the optimism of living. Viva autonomia!" Les Cox Sportifs, "a politically correct band from the North East", play a punk, folk, rock 'n' roll blend. To date they've done two albums (Never Heed and Scheiß Mit Reis). I've not heard the second but the first is excellent. This EP was released between the two, and you can download it for a very reasonable £2 here. Although, weirdly, the tracks are only 50p individually. It's been two years since their last album, but their Facebook page tells me that they will soon "unearth a keech load of new sh*t". The links I've put up are just to their Bandcamp page, because I couldn't be arsed to upload them to Youtube. Enjoy!

2009, Clunk Click Records.

24. Pere Ubu - 30 Seconds Over Tokyo

1. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
2. Heart Of Darkness

It was about time I acquainted myself with Pere Ubu, founders of "avant-garage" and influential art-rockers; so that's just what I did, working my way through their entire singles discography in one sitting (I don't have a job). They started 37 years ago, in Cleveland, and have never had any actual success. Only David Thomas remains from the original line-up, while 12 others have left - impressive, but obviously not a patch on The Fall. I tend to pride myself on my enjoyment of tiring, attritional music, but even I found this lot tough to handle. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo I've always known and had a soft spot for - it's about six minutes of noise, although you can discern a melody if you listen hard - and the rest of their output is well worth a listen to as well. Incredible to think that this came out a year before New Rose and punk rock. The b-side, Heart Of Darkness, is just as "fun" - if you like the same thing done over and over again, or The Fall, then the commercially nonviable Pere Ubu are definitely for you. I'm no expert but I'd also recommend Non-alignment Pact from The Modern Dance (1977). I have so much catching up to do with this band, I hope the neighbours like experimental art-punk. Watch out for their new album, Lady From Shanghai, due out in January. "No-one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio."

1975, Hearthan
Thanks to @ackleite for the suggestion

23. Half Man Half Biscuit - Look Dad No Tunes

1. Look Dad No Tunes
2. Ecclesiastical Perks
3. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes

Nigel Blackwell is the greatest poet of the 20th century and Half Man Half Biscuit are better than The Smiths. They're a funny band, but don't make the mistake of thinking they're a naff comedy band - "No disrespect to the Grumbleweeds, but I think there's a bit more to us", as Blackwell puts it. Although Look Dad No Tunes did not even make it through the group stages in 2011's Lux Familiar Cup, it's wonderful and brilliant. The other songs, admittedly, are below par for our Birkenhead pals. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes is fairly conventional observational comedy, and as such worthless. Their masterpieces, or some of them, are A Country Practice, A Lilac Harry Quinn, National Shite Day and the Fall-esque Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not. There's a whole army of dedicated Biscuit fans out there - have a look at the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project, which has grown into so much more (best site on the internet?). God, I love this band. And now you shall too. Lyrics

1999, Probe Plus

22. Vic Godard - Better Not Turn On

1. Better Not Turn On (Vic Godard)
2. Entre Les Marolles Et St Gilles (Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino)

Vic Godard was, along with Perry, Devoto and Lydon, one of the four great figures of the punk era. You definitely ought to get acquainted with their second single, Ambition. Thirty five years later and he's still plugging away, sometimes still under the Subway Sect moniker. Vic very rarely indulges us with any new material, so a new a new single should be cherished - Better Not Turn On, this year's offering, is fine. Not great, but fine. As usual, you can't hear a word he's saying, but as with Mark E Smith that somehow barely matters. The b-side is not Godard, but Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino. How is it? Meh. More mellow, and less good. I only paid £1 for the single of their website, so it was just about worth it. Also listen to Vic's 6Music session with The Sexual Objects here. We can expect a new album next year, 1979 Now! which I think is a re-recording of the album which got lost in a flood back in 1979.

21. Public Service Broadcasting - Everest

1. Everest

Spitfire (reviewed here), which came out in March, is probably the best song of the year. The EP it was on, The War Room, was new and interesting - I actually paid money for it. By now you'd hope the band would've evolved a bit, but Everest follows the format of its predecessor far too closely, to the point where it sounds like a parody of itself. The music is very good - I won't pretend that PSB aren't very good at making music - but J Willgoose, Esq. and Wrigglesworth haven't really taken the band in a new direction. Also, they look like twats. I wondered what the point of the song was, what it was trying to communicate to me. It might just be that it's a bloke from the fifties talking over some admittedly fairly catchy melodies. And that's been done. I'm pretty disappointed with this single (three irritating remixes are also available), but I'll buy the album when it comes out. I just hope that it's different somehow.

2012, Public Service Broadcasting