The new year's here, and I feel like starting with one of my absolute favorite bands.

The Brought Low: Another repost, but these guys really deserve it. They are probably the most perfect-rocking 70's style band of all time. The combine the perfection of Boston (sans the arrogance), the hard-rock fury of AC/DC, and the honest-to-goodness rock and roll of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and in so doing they create something that is very familiar, yet has never really been heard before. They also follow Boston's policy of "quality over quantity," but unlike Boston, they actually make it work: they have only produced two albums since 2001, but both of them feel like they were hand-picked chord by chord to be perfect, out-of-this-world rock masterpieces. Of course, this sort of 70's perfection will turn some people off, but I personally couldn't ask for anything better; in fact, these guys got me interested in 70's music to begin with, and I still return to them for a baseline, much the same way as I regarded Jefferson Airplane as my 60's baseline.

Also, I recently sent these guys a (drunken) letter praising them and asking them if they are still plugging away, and indeed they responded the next day, saying that they have six of the songs on their next record recorded, and expect it to be out, if not this year, then the next. So, if you like them, keep an eye out; more rock perfection may not be long in coming.