Ghost Cult continues our “2021 End of Year Guest Post Extravaganza” with a slew of posts from bands, industry, PR pros, and more! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe. In this edition, Adam Joad of Scattered Hamlet breaks down his top albums (read: more than 10) of 2021! Their new album – Stereo Overthrow is out now and can be purchased here. https://www.scatteredhamlet.com
(1) Anti-Mortem – Self-Titled
We toured with Anti-Mortem this summer so I already heard some of these tunes, even hopped up on stage to help sing on occasion even if I didn’t know the words. For those that don’t know these fellas have been around for awhile and took a hiatus with Rado and Nevada now playing in Texas Hippie Coalition too. Anyway, great people, great band, I wish them success with this album and I’m stoked to write about it. If you don’t know, that’s your bad.
(2) Scattered Hamlet – Stereo Overthrow
I can’t not include our own album or I’d be lying. Probably more than all the others I’m most excited to get our third full length out. We put out an EP last year but this we were working on even before that. We cut a bunch of tracks for it and we picked what we thought were the 10 best for the album. I think it really represents us and where we are as a band right now. It kind of lays the foundations for where we’re headed too. It’s got my favorite track we’ve ever recorded, “See You in Hell” on it. That’s a song penned by Pete Berwick and we got Marty Rifkin (Springsteen, Tom Petty) to play pedal steel on it. I’m really happy with the way that one came out. I’m super proud of this one. If you don’t like it your ears are broke and you should see a doctor.
(3) Alice Cooper – Detroit Stories
Alice Cooper is great. I really enjoy all his eras. Whether it’s killer guitar harmonies on Billion Dollar Babies, a ripping horn section on Welcome to My Nightmare, Nu Wave inspired Flush the Fashion or his more 80’s leaning Poison or 90’s “Feed My Frankenstein”. So hearing he’s working with Bob Ezrin is just awesome and pound for pound, there may be more musical badasses from the Detroit area than anywhere else in the world – MC5, Iggy, Seger, Cooper, Nugent, Smokey Robinson, Suzi Quatro, Stevie Wonder, Madonna.. all the Motown OGs.
(4) Iron Maiden – Senjustu
Iron Maiden are the GOAT of metal. There’s a tune on the new album, I can’t remember it offhand, but it’s straight swamp groove. I heard it and was like, damn, leave it to Iron Maiden to be better at that Hill Rock sound than people like me living here and then they seamlessly weave it into their own Steve Harris epic thumping march style. Yeah, Maiden wins. This is not my favorite Maiden album but if they never made another album again what else do they have to accomplish. They are the best, if you argue with me you’re wrong.
(5) Tedeschi Trucks Band – Layla Revisited Live
Derek Trucks and Duanne Allman made me realize I have to do my own thing with Slide because I can’t touch these guys. You have to find your lane and not be a mediocre version of things someone does really well. Anyway, when they play I’m listening and trying to pick up stuff I can morph into my dirty slide mojo I’m constantly trying to perfect. I wasn’t familiar with his work with his wife. Unfortunately when spouses start working together after one or the two of them are already legends the result is usually a pile of suck. I’m sure it’s awesome for spouses to work together because it makes touring and life on the road way easier and it’s fun so I get why people do it. If you disagree with me let me know the next time you reach for a Wings album over the Beatles or for The Evens over Fugazi or Minor Threat. BUT, I have high hopes because if anyone can make it work and buck my observation it’s Derek Trucks.
(6) Tom Morello – The Atlas Underground – Fire
I really dig the collaborations Tom Morello is doing with different artists. It’s super cool and innovative, which is what he’s known for. He’s a sonic wizard on six strings and one of the nicest people I’ve met in the industry I’ve been honored to call a friend for many years now. There’s guitar technique nerds that will say “he just makes weird sounds…” that’s ridiculous and those people need to shut up and take notes. While they are sitting in their bedrooms trying to play more notes and be really really fast, they don’t have a fraction of the funk and groove Tom has in his right hand. If you can’t bob your head to it, I don’t want to hear it. Before I cut my tracks for Stereo Overthrow I made sure to practice playing along to RATM and Audioslave songs so I could work on not rushing and keeping the groove on point. I caught Atlas Underground last time we were in the same area. It was a great show and I curse him because he got me fixed on high end bourbon after the show when we were out and about… so now I’m not satisfied with Old Crow and I have to drink high fallutin whiskey much to the dismay of my wallet.
(7) Jackson Browne – Downhill From Everywhere
I have to admit I haven’t listened to much new Jackson Browne. Most of the listening to him I do is from older vinyl I have from his work in the 70’s and early 80’s. It’s amazing and iconic. I saw him come out for an encore at a Springsteen show in Washington DC once and it was epic. Covid gave me more of a chance to check out new stuff from artists because I wasn’t on the road and my life slowed down a lot. Anyway, I was looking forward to checking this one out.
(8) Blues Traveler – Traveler’s Blues
Kind of like Jackson Browne, I hadn’t listened to much of the newer Blues Traveler stuff and I’m not sure why. I’m always inspired by these guys. Like the name suggests, it’s just really good blues based rock and you can’t have too much of that I don’t think. You can definitely have too much Nikii Minaj or whatever her name is, too much cookie monster metal and too much backing track hot topic Kemper metal, BUT not too much blues rock that’s done well. When we played with The Supersuckers at the Viper Room I met John Popper. After watching me play harmonica he was gracious enough to teach me a few things and it really elevated my playing.
(9) Debbie Gibson – The Body Remembers
Who does’t want to hear what Debbie Gibson is up to these days! Ok I’m sure a lot of you reading this don’t and some of the younger folks may not even know who that is. Anyway, I was looking forward to it.. I admit I don’t get the title of the album, it sounds like it could it be like a Slayer album title with dismembered body parts and pentagrams on the front… Wouldn’t that be awesome if she decided to put out a thrash album? I’d be really excited for that.
(10) The Bronx – Bronx VI
This band apparently has 6 albums if I can read my Roman numerals correctly and I just discovered them. They were playing with Rancid and Dropkick Murphys and Scattered Hamlet’s Grant Jenkins told me I’d really like them so I made sure I caught their act and didn’t get caught up drinking or talking to folks. Anyway, cool band and I dug it. I’d like to see them in a club atmosphere. I think they’d really shine there. It’s a whole different world being a club size band and then opening for bigger bands at large outdoor festivals. The whole show dynamic changes. I know, when you go from a room that holds a few hundred people to like MainStage at Sturgis, you don’t have the same chance to hone your big stage show that you’ve had to hone your small stage show. I think my band comes across better live in smaller atmospheres like that and I bet they would too. I’ve seen Reverend Horton Heat in two types of situations like that and I really enjoyed their club show better for the same reasons. Anyway, I want to learn more about this band!
(11) Dee Snider – Leave a Scar
The stuff Dee, Charlie and company have been putting out is great. We ended up having some cross over with that camp. Then SH guitar player Adam Newell and myself got asked to audition to fill in for Dee’s shredders at a few dates they couldn’t be at after we released our cover of “Stay Hungry”. That’s way way out of my wheelhouse so graciously didn’t even audition but SH Adam Newell ended up doing a few dates with them to help the show go on. We also opened for them not long after – it was Scattered Hamlet, Dee and Disturbed. Dee blew us all away and was a total class act. Their version of “Burn in Hell” was complete fire, no pun intended. That day was like sit back and take notes on how to be a legend.
(12) Melissa Etheridge – One Way Out
Melissa Etherdige is great. On Karaoke nights my wife and I frequently sing along to her stuff. My studio is like a giant Karaoke machine so we often go down and sing along to our favorite songs. Some better than others. Anyway, we have a lot of fun and I’d like to see what she’s up to in 2021. Maybe my wife and I will collaborate on something in the future and we’ll be really stoked about it and then you can call me out and mention my comments on #5!
*****Anyway, that’s it, I”m not talking about anymore releases for the year, Ghost Cult rules, you guys rule for reading this and you should check out these albums.