Here are the best local independent releases of 1999:
1. Freakwater, “End Time” (Thrill Jockey): Catherine Irwin’s opening line says it all: “I’ve been good, and I’ve been good for nothing.” Irwin and Janet Bean have become among the best songwriters of our time, taking the stark, metaphysical musings of the Carter Family and Hank Williams — about drink, death, temptation and salvation — and wrapping them in the heart-breaking humanity of their voices. Unflinching yet beautiful, deadpan yet compassionate, Freakwater hits a new pinnacle on the goth-country “Cloak of Frogs” and on “Dog Gone Wrong,” a potentially jokey song that lingers like a nasty hangover.
2. Vandermark 5, “Simpatico” (Atavistic): Though he’s renowned for the sheer, muscular energy of his solos, the tireless Ken Vandermark also has become a master of structure. Of all his projects, the Vandermark 5 remains the best showcase for his increasingly formidable composing skills, and “Simpatico” stands at the crossroads of jazz, the avant-garde and rock with an authority that is the essence of this city’s restless, genre-resistant musical underground.
3. Screeching Weasel, “Emo” (Panic Button): Ben Weasel hasn’t learned any new chords — four will do, thank you — but he has emerged as one of hard-core punk’s most incisive lyricists. His longtime band wrote the script for suburban snotcore on the 1988 classic “Boogadaboogadaboogada!,” and the likes of Green Day and Blink 182 should be permanently in his debt. But on “Emo,” he trades the whine that gave us “Murder in the Brady House” and “I Hate Led Zeppelin” for a deeper emotional language. Weasel tackles an unwieldly subject — what happens when a thirtysomething punk wakes up one morning to realize the future no longer holds infinite possibility — and chisels away at it with an artist’s passion for truth and, yes, even beauty (awkward as it is in a track called “Bark Like a Dog”).
4. Sally Timms, “Cowboy Sally’s Twilight Laments . . . for Lost Buckaroos” (Bloodshot): Timms, she of the gorgeous voice and pitiless attitude, sings midtempo lullabies that suggest our honky-tonk heroes were all just “Dreaming Cowboys” — that the wide open spaces of the West were just another metaphor for loneliness that no amount of booze could quench.
5. Diane Izzo, “One” (Sugar Free): Izzo slips into the mystic with her brooding voice, her lyrics aspiring to the deep-textured resonance of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, her songs rarely wasting a note — particularly any played by multi-instrumentalist Jim Becker.
6. Poi Dog Pondering, “Natural Thing” (Plate-tec-tonic): Frank Orrall’s vision is to merge the worlds of dance and rock — currently sworn enemies in North America — and “Natural Thing” is a transitional work made while he was losing interest in his old band and songwriting methods. Still, the moments where the beats swim in the lush string, horn and keyboard orchestrations are rapturous, and the cover of Ten City’s “That’s the Way Love Is” is a bold stroke that few, if any, American rock bands would attempt, let alone pull off with such panache.
7. Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel, “Things to Come” (self-released): Tuneful roots-pop that touches on country, blues and “Besame Mucho.” In a genre crammed with masterly songwriters, from Lucinda Williams to Robbie Fulks, Fermin’s songs still have some growing to do; but her splendid voice is grittier and more emotionally specific than her lyrics, and guitarist Andon Davis makes every precious note count.
8. Sam Prekop, “Sam Prekop” (Thrill Jockey): On break from his excellent band, the Sea & Cake, Prekop sings with a sly, agile delicacy that approximates the lilting, conversational cadences of Brazilian pop, while the purring melodies suggest the sparse after-hours cool of a Chet Baker session.
9. Loraxx, “Canada” (self-released): Singer-guitarist Arista Strungys commands attention with a sandpaper yowl that makes the pre-Hollywood Courtney Love sound like Shirley Temple, but much of this debut album’s relentless, room-wrecking momentum is supplied by one of Chicago’s nastiest new rhythm sections: bassist Santosh Isaac and drummer Elliott Talarico.
10. Ralphi Rosario, “45 Miles of Nerves” (Strictly Hype) and “Mental House Therapy,” mixed by DJs Teri Bristol and Psychobitch (Master Dance Tones): Two takes on Chicago house, with Rosario serving up a classic mid-’80s sound fortified by wailing divas and Latin beats, while Bristol and Psychobitch weave together a lush trance journey.
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Hear Greg Kot on “Sound Opinions” at 10 p.m. every Tuesday on WXRT (93.1 FM)
