Hi,

It’s the Holiday Season and while most bands work feverishly during these weeks, we here in PAPERMAPS have decided to take a 3-week sabbatical. We’ll be reconvening in January and plan to play our hometown  February 7 at one of our favorite venues in town (hint, it has the word “shoe” in its name – more details and to come).  Since distilling the lineup down to Betty, Bobby and myself, we’ve been working on new material with hopes of a summertime 2013 release and tour(s). Our secondary hope is to preview much of that new material at our February 7 show. Let’s keep the fingers crossed…

Every year I do a little “year end” list of vinyl albums that I purchased that year – not counting records from previous years, oldies or classic albums, etc., which I shamefully buy a lot of…As always, some of these records were the soundtrack of my year, while others collected dust…but something convinced me to buy them…Here they are in no particular order:

Tender New Signs – Tamaryn
Crayon Wars – Wendy Versus (ok, I played on this album, but it did come out on vinyl)
Self-Titled – Paper Beat Scissors
Clear Moon – Mount Eerie
Lowbanks – From East to Exit (ok, I produced this…but it came out on vinyl)
The Only Place – Best Coast
Worship – A Place to Bury Strangers
Wild Peace – Echo Lake
Self-Titled – Metz
Self-Titled – VISTAVISON (I also produced this one, but it’s out on vinyl now and one of my faves)

And there you have it…the 4th annual “Dean’s Year End List.”

Not counted here, but given honorable mention is the seminal post-rock/neo-jazz band, Talk Talk and their 2012 reissued/remastered Spirit of Eden.

Cheers and Happy Holidays,

-dean