A handful of the favorite local releases from 2013.

As much as we love music here at DCist, we admittedly have a bad habit of not reviewing as much local music as we probably should during the calendar year. In the past, we’ve used this space to apologize and play catch up. And we’re not going to front: we goofed again, reviewing just Deathfix’s debut, Drop Electric’s sophomore follow-up to their excellent 2010 debut and The Dismemberment Plan’s first album in over a decade.

But even if we don’t put together the posts on local acts (it’s New Year’s resolution No. 1 for 2014), we still pay attention. Here are a few highlights from bands in the area over the past year.

Beautiful Swimmers: Son

The biggest complaint that I have about modern electronic music is the tendency of many artists to veer towards a soulless and often robotic pulse that creates more of a pounding headache than a head-bobbing groove. That’s why Son is such a breath of fresh air. The rhythmic progenitors on songs like “Cool Disco Dan” and “Swimmers Groove” are ’70s funk bands and every vocal or odd sonic sample picked to complement those beats seem primed to create a sense of comfort. As such, Son is a perfect album for both a block party and an hour of stress relief.

— Valerie Paschall

Beautiful Swimmers’ singles have each been not to miss, and the duo’s album is not only one of the best local albums of the year but one of the best albums of 2013, period. Between the locked in groove of “Running Over” and the funk raise-up of “Swimmers Groove,” Son is full of tracks that you can loose yourself all night to.

— Rohan Mahadevan

Priests: Tape Two

This four piece is on an upward trajectory with no end in sight in regards to both their fiery live shows and their equally incendiary recorded work. Whereas their previous recordings established their noisy and socially critical raison d’être (just listen to the lyrics on single “Radiation”), Tape Two both amplifies and refines their purpose. Katie Alice Greer’s voice alternates between a furious howl and a formidable belt over the sound of speedily precise beats and dissonant yet memorable riffs. I said in January that “Lillian Hellman” should be 2013’s theme song and I stand by that assertion.

— Valerie Paschall

The Dismemberment Plan: Uncanney Valley

Whereas previous Dismemberment Plan albums dealt sonically and lyrically with the anxieties of young adulthood, Uncanney Valley showcases a band that has let go of much of their fear. “Invisible” still invokes a sense of loneliness and insignificance and “White Collar, White Trash” is a sarcastic poison pen letter to their native Northern Virginia, but Uncanney Valley actually takes a more cheerful, funky and celebratory take on life, love and adulthood that, in its best moments, is downright contagious.

— Valerie Paschall

Zo!: ManMade

Since Lorenzo “Zo!” Ferguson moved from his native metropolitan Detroit several years ago to the D.C. area, his career has grown by leaps and bounds. When we interviewed him back in 2008, he’d established a foothold in the local music community as a keyboardist and educator. Now, music is his full-time gig and he’s part of a venerable music family that includes Grammy nominees, The Foreign Exchange. On ManMade, Zo! displays his talents as a producer and multi-instrumentalist. With the help of talents like Phonte, Jeanne Jolly and Sy Smith, Zo! created an album of R&B grooves that work for people old enough to have a mortgage but not looking to go to bed at 8 p.m. on a Friday night. “Tell Me Something New” features Jolly smoothly crooning over a soothing soundscape. All in all, Zo! has gotten consistently better over the course of every album.

— Jacarl Melton

Joy Buttons: Arkhipov EP

Joy Buttons is a relatively new project, but you’ve likely seen one or all of its members on stage at some point. A local supergroup (of sorts), the D.C. quintet is a hodgepodge of some of the area’s best groups—Typefighter, Deleted Scenes, Laughing Man, Lightfoot, Pray for Polanski. Their debut EP is a no-bullshit take on ’80s hardcore from dudes whose other bands rarely get this loud.

— Andy Hess

Coke Bust: Confined

Do you have 10-minutes? That’s more than enough time to listen the frenetic sophomore album from Coke Bust. Confined is a blistering assault on the senses. Opting for short bursts of vitriol and blind rage, the straight-edge band gets to the point in seconds. Put down your beer and open up a pit.

— Andy Hess

Maxmillion Dunbar: House Of Woo

Forgive the buddy cop metaphor, but Maxmillion Dunbar is the Murtaugh to Beautiful Swimmers’ Riggs. The unconventional dance record put together by Andrew Field-Pickering (one half of Beautiful Swimmers) still shares that great collaborative spirit of Son. But the appropriately titled House Of Woo is a bit more of wild-card. Filled with new age samples and thrift-store R&B finds, Woo could come off across as a neon-fueled nostalgia trip, but instead it delivers an inspired and carefree romp. You’re not getting too old for this shit.

— Andy Hess

Cigarette: gush

I’ve taken more naps listening to this record than any other in 2013. That’s a compliment, I swear. The quiet calm of Gush — the debut album from the D.C. six-piece — managed to be my own personal Buddha Machine after long days at the office.

— Andy Hess

Paint Branch: I Wanna Live

When I heard former Q And Not U bandmates Chris Richards and John Davis were making new music again, I was excited. But I Wanna Live, the debut of their band, Paint Branch, is eons away from the noisy dance-punk Q And Not U was known for. Soft, delicately melodies blend with gorgeous harmonies for one of the best, quiet, and breezy local releases of the year.

— Matt Cohen

Two Inch Astronaut: Bad Brother

Taking notes from D.C.’s arty, experimental punk past, Two Inch Astronaut plays the kind of jittery, angular post-hardcore that keeps you on your toes.

— Matt Cohen

The Shirks: The Shirks

Loud, fast, noisy, unapologetic garage-punk. The Shirks are easily one of the most fun and gritty bands in the District. Culling influence from punk’s earlier days—bands like The Damned and Dead Kennedys—their first, self-titled full-length is eight blistering tracks of punk bliss.

— Matt Cohen

Tereu Tereu: Quadrants

On Quadrants, the second full-length from noisy prog-rock duo Tereu Tereu, you can feel the band’s transformation—which includes several line-up changes in the few years it took to make the record—through each song. Walls of fuzzy, melodic guitar riffs and droning, electronic loops built around infectious rhythms course through the veins of this record, and each song seemingly adds more layers than the last.

— Matt Cohen

Lenorable: Disconnect

In D.C.’s ever-growing synth-pop scene, Lenorable are the shady glam-pop kids who evidently cut their teeth on moody ’80s goth and spent way too much time pondering the weird world of David Lynch. Disconnect is a brilliantly devious pitch-black synth-pop record, that’ll linger in your subconscious like a weird fever dream.

— Matt Cohen

Kill Lincoln: That’s Cool…In a Totally Negative and Destructive Way

If you thought third-wave ska died in the ’90s, you’d be wrong. Sure, it may not be nearly as popular as it was in its heyday, but D.C.’s Kill Lincoln is a fond reminder ska still kicks ass. Their latest LP, That’s Cool…In a Totally Negative and Destructive Way, delivers ten blistering, fist-pumping anthems. Ska is dead, long live ska.

— Matt Cohen