The Late Great Gold Dust, the excellent sophomore effort from Stephen Pierce’s Gold Dust, solidified the Western Massachusetts artist who in the past has been prolific with heavier work in the screamo band Ampere as well as dense shoegazers Kindling as his own force of quiet loud psych-folk nature.
Pierce is also an artist immersed within the kindred work of the independent music community, and his list of favorite music proves that his complete body of work finds inspiration in surroundings near and uncovered, spanning uncanny songwriting craftmanship, heavy pillars of slowcore and punk, and fully amped zoneouts. Check out his list below, and revisit The Late Great Gold Dust as well…
Stephen Pierce of Gold Dust’s Favorite Music of 2022
Bill Callahan – YTI⅃AƎЯ [Drag City Records]
Highlights: “Coyotes”, “Natural Information”
Finally, a Bill Callahan record grabs me entirely. I’d been real casual on his prior stuff, appreciating it and all, but this is the first that’s been on pretty nonstop around here, mostly on the strength of “Coyotes”, and the directness of “Natural Information”.
Stream Bill Callahan’s YTI⅃AƎЯ
Chris Brain – Bound to Rise [Big Sun Records]
Highlight: “Flying on Time”
It’s like if Nick Drake made a record that seems to be all about birdwatching. There’s an uplifting melancholy to this LP. Hat tip to Henry Parker for putting Chris’ record on my radar. I was going to add Henry’s “Llamas Fair” LP to the list too, but turns out, that came out in 2021.
Stream Chris Brain’s Bound to Rise
Chris Forsyth – Evolution Here We Come [No Quarter]
Highlight: “You’re Going to Need Somebody”
“You’re Going to Need Somebody” might be my favorite song of the year, and it’s very much from the Richard Thompson school of songwriting and delivery. Familiar but new. Chris sure knows his way around a fretboard.
Stream Chris Forsyth’s Evolution Here We Come
Daniel Bachman – Almanac Behind [Three Lobed Recordings]
Highlight: “Recalibration / Normalization”
An unsettlingly beautiful and wildly visionary elegiac reflection on climate change.
Stream Daniel Bachman’s Almanac Behind
drowse – Wane into It [The Flenser]
Highlights: “Mystery Pt. 2″, “Wane into It”
I just heard this last week. It ended up on my radar because someone on twitter recommended this record and my new one together. One of the cooler things about putting a record out is finding out what your music makes people think of, what their reference points are. This isn’t to say this sounds anything like The Late Great Gold Dust to me, but I think there’s a really cool common thread there, and I’d bet that Kyle is just as obsessive an assembler as I am, and probably just as into Low and Bedhead and Early Day Miners as I was. He’s built a zone here, some specific world of his that you enter when you hit play. That’s a huge accomplishment, I think.
Dungen – En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog [Mexican Summer]
Highlight: “Om Det Finns Något Som Du Vill Fråga Mig, Nattens Sista Strimma Ljus”
I didn’t know this was out until I saw a copy for sale at Autumn Records in Winooski VT. I’ve been completely “in” on this band since “Ta Det Lugnt” made it onto my radar and they continue to put together a wildly consistent and unique body of work, always pushing forward. Reine’s guitar sounds incredible as ever.
Stream Dungen’s En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog
Elkhorn – Distances [Elk Lag Music]
Highlight: “Train”
This record absolutely rips and is such a thorough “level-up” for a band that was already operating on a plane above most others.
Garcia Peoples – Dodging Dues [No Quarter]
Highlight: “Here We Are”
Another band, like Dungen, that I’m “all-in” on. It was love at first listen with “Cosmic Cash” and it’s just been up and up from there. Sure doesn’t hurt that they’re among the sickest live bands you could hope to catch.
Stream Garcia Peoples’ Dodging Dues
Ivy Wye – Hope’s Convenience EP [Self-released]
Highlight: “Stone to a River”
Sounds like a labor of love private press from the early 70’s, made on an island in the North of the UK, a.k.a. “absolutely exactly my shit.”
Stream Ivy Wye’s Hope’s Convenience
Jeff Tobias – Recurring Dream [Self-released]
Highlight: “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”
Highly talented Jeff makes a highly catchy pop record that’s both accessible as fuck and transcendently inventive.
Stream Jeff Tobias’ Recurring Dream
Joan Shelley – The Spur [No Quarter]
Highlight: “Like the Thunder”
I’m not sure I’ve ever hit “preorder” so quickly. 2019’s Like the River Loves the Sea was and continues to be in heavy rotation around here, this one too. Beautiful follow-up to a perfect record.
Stream Joan Shelley’s The Spur
Lou Turner – Microcosmos [S P I N S T E R]
Highlight: “Empty Tame and Ugly, You Got Under My Skin”
This one just seems to radiate an amber warmth. It’s air is electric.
Stream Lou Turner’s Microcosmos
Milkweed – Myths and Legends of Wales [Devil Town Tapes]
Highlight: “Winifred and Caradog”
Trad folk that feels punk as fuck. This is the most exciting new band I’ve heard this year.
Stream Milkweed’s Myths and Legends of Wales
No Trigger – Dr. Album [Red Scare Industries]
Highlight: “Coffee From a Microwave”
Unexpectedly living for this gritty pop punk record by old friends from Central MA. It’s beyond nostalgia for me, though. This thing is sincerely incredible: It’s as smart, stupid, funny, political, and poignant as you’d want something like this to be. Submit to the Acid Lord.
Upapayama – The Golden Pond [Self-released]
Highlight: “Cuckoos From the House of Golden Tin”
Light as a feather, heavy as a brick. There are moments throughout this LP that remind me so much of Far East Family Band, particularly in how traditional instrumentation is made to feel like it’s being transmitted from outer space.
Stream Upupayāma’s The Golden Pond
Wild Pink – ILYSM [Royal Mountain Records]
Highlight: “See You Better Now”
John’s talent is supernatural. Fun thing about J’s solo in this one, it was recorded in the same sitting as the one in “Larks” from my record. It was an honor to have had the opportunity to sit in with them playing that solo at our show together this fall.
Gold Dust’s The Late Great Gold Dust is available now on Centripetal Force Records.
+rcmndedlisten 
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