Greg Beets

1) Xetas, The Tower (12XU)

2) John Wesley Coleman, Microwave Dreams (Super Secret)

3) Sweet Spirit, St. Mojo (Nine Mile)

4) Opposite Day, I Calculate Great (Future Banana Replacement)

5) Knife in the Water, Reproduction (Keeled Scales)

6) The John-Pauls, Forget to Remember to Forget (Aagoo)

7) Suspirians, Ti Bon Ange (Super Secret)

8) Spoon, Hot Thoughts (Matador)

9) Phoebe Hunt & the Gatherers, Shanti’s Shadow (Popped Corn)

10) Kay Odyssey, What’s a Woman to Do (Little Bit)

Thomas Fawcett

1) Hard Proof, Stinger (Modern Outsider)

2) Sweet Spirit, St. Mojo (Nine Mile)

3) Magna Carda, Somewhere Between

4) Third Root, Libertad

5) Kiko Villamizar, Aguas Frías (Discos Peligrosa)

6) Leti Garza, El Unico Para Mi

7) Black Pistol Fire, Deadbeat Graffiti (Rifle Bird)

8) Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Backlash (INgrooves)

9) Leopold & His Fiction, Darling Destroyer (Native Fiction)

10) Kalu & the Electric Joint, Time Undone (Spaceflight)

Raoul Hernandez

1) Spoon, Hot Thoughts (Matador)

2) Molly Burch, Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)

3) Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (Universal)

4) Sunny Sweeney, Trophy (Thirty Tigers)

5) Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Backlash (INgrooves)

6) Magna Carda, Somewhere Between

7) A Giant Dog, Toy (Merge)

8) Xetas, The Tower (12XU)

9) Dallas Acid, Spa Hunter (Flying Moonlight)

10) Crack Pipes, Beauty School (Sonic Surgery)

Abby Johnston

1) Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (Universal)

2) Spoon, Hot Thoughts (Matador)

3) Sweet Spirit, St. Mojo (Nine Mile)

4) Whiskey Shivers, Some Part of Something (Clean Bill Music)

5) A Giant Dog, Toy (Merge)

6) Magna Carda, Somewhere Between

7) Balmorhea, Clear Language (Western Vinyl)

8) Knife in the Water, Reproduction (Keeled Scales)

9) Sunny Sweeney, Trophy (Thirty Tigers)

10) Octopus Project, Memory Mirror (Robot High School)

Lauren Modery

1) Adam Torres, I Came to Sing the Song (Fat Possum)

2) David Ramirez, We’re Not Going Anywhere (Thirty Tigers)

3) Balmorhea, Clear Language (Western Vinyl)

4) Palo Duro, Ryou Cannon (30th Century/Song)

5) Emily Gimble, Certain Kinda EP (Bismeaux)

6) Hard Proof, Stinger (Modern Outsider)

7) Magna Carda, Somewhere Between

8) Jenny Parrott, When I Come Down

9) Matt the Electrician, The Doubles

10) Octopus Project, Memory Mirror (Robot High School)

Rachel Rascoe

1) Molly Burch, Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)

2) Caroline Says, 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Western Vinyl)

3) US Weekly (Night Moves)

4) Julia Lucille, Chthonic (Keeled Scales)

5) Growl, Won’t You (Austin Town Hall)

6) Big Bill, Stand by Your Bill (First Humans)

7) Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, Stranger Things 2 (Lakeshore)

8) Magna Carda, Somewhere Between

9) Balmorhea, Clear Language (Western Vinyl)

10) Alex Napping, Mise en Place (Father/Daughter)

Tim Stegall

1) Spoon, Hot Thoughts (Matador)

2) A Giant Dog, Toy (Merge)

3) Ghost Wolves, Texas Platinum (Hound Gawd!)

4) Pocket Fishrmen, The Greatest Story Ever Told (Saustex Media)

5) Worm Suicide, Too Hung to Fall in Love (Wiseass)

6) Golden Boys, Better Than Good Times (12XU)

7) Scott H. Biram, The Bad Testament (Bloodshot)

8) Black Angels, Death Song (Partisan)

9) Jimmie Vaughan Trio featuring Mike Flanigin, Live at C-Boy’s (Proper)

10) ST 37, Fuck You, You Rule: ST 37’s Greatest “Hits” (Blue Circle)

Michael Toland

1) Tommy Howard, Storybook (Destiny)

2) Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s Time Machine, Hong Kong Cab (Self Sabotage)

3) Randy Reynolds, Positiveness (Rock Tumbler)

4) Obscured by Echoes, Avidonia II: The Arrival

5) Black Books, Can’t Even

6) Evil Triplet, Otherworld (Super Secret)

7) Transit Method, We Won’t Get Out of Here Alive (Brutal Panda)

8) Suspirians, Ti Bon Ange (Super Secret)

9) Xetas, The Tower (12XU)

10) Kalu & the Electric Joint, Time Undone (Spaceflight)

This article appears in December 29 • 2017.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.

Thomas Fawcett has been freelancing for The Austin Chronicle since 2007. He likes good music and does not fake the funk.

San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.

Tim Stegall contributed to The Austin Chronicle 1991-1995, and was a staff writer 1995-1997. He returned as a contributor in 2013. He has also freelanced for publications ranging from Flipside to Alternative Press to Guitar World. He plays punk rock guitar and sings in the Hormones.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.