Stefan plays in the very crucial New Haven, Connecticut jangle punk pop band ESTROGEN HIGHS. They still have a myspace page, and are a ripping live band. Check them out if you haven’t already, ok? The band’s most recent record HEAR ME ON THE NUMBER STATION was released by, is available from the wonderful TROUBLE IN MIND RECORDS. He was kind enough to put together a Year Ender for us!
– Dan Shea

A 2014 Year Ender from Stefan Christiansen (of ESTROGEN HIGHS)

I mostly didn’t keep up with new music released in 2014, so my list is reissue heavy, but here’s my best attempt anyway.
Starting out with tapes… Worn Leather from my home city of New Haven released two fine EP length tapes of garage infused punk rock. Also from CT, Medication quietly released the ‘Home Truths’ tape for their European tour with Nerve City. But the finest tape of the year has to go to Ron House and Jared Phillips’ excellent Counter Intuits ‘Get on the Right Side of History.’ No surprise there, if you’re looking for a mark of true quality look no further than Ron House’s name in the liner notes.

Moving to vinyl… Predator ‘The Complete Earth’ LP from Atlanta was a great driving punk stomper. Here in New Haven Spit Take released ‘Garbage in my Heart,’ an excellent debut from some talented kids. Looking forward to their new 7″ and tape in the new year. Mordecai released ‘Neil’s Generator,’ which was a nice addition to their growing catalog. Finally, Protomartyr‘s ‘Under Color of Official Right’ was not as good as their debut, in my opinion, but is still better than 99% of music released today.

No better way to bridge the gap between new and reissue than with Siltbreeze Records reissue of New Zealand’s Shoes This High ‘The Nose One’ 7″, along with the never before heard ‘Straight to Hell’ live LP. A good year for New Zealand reissues in general with The Bats, The Clean, and The Dunedin Double, all seeing nice reissue packages. Bobby Soxx ‘Learn to Hate in the 80s’ and The Next ‘Make it Quick’ 7″ reissues were a wonderful thing. As was Superior Viaduct‘s Crime LP reissue and the X___X ‘X Sticky Fingers X’ LP. My favorite reissue of the year though was the seemingly unlikely bootleg of V-3 ‘Live at Bernies.’ A rarely heard CD-R released a few years after Jim Shepard passed away, masterfully recorded by Mike Rep, capturing an unbelievably intense performance of one of the finest artists the world has known. Though the intensely personal Mike Rep liner notes from the CD-R version are not included, the LP package is still great with paste on photographs and lettering.

the above pic was taken from the very cool CT Indie website