Chorizo Garbanzo’s Favourite Things Of 2023

In early December, I got together with Kicker to record our podcast number 125. If you listen to that you’ll hear me playing and discussing my 24 favourite songs of the year.

Here are some more things that I really enjoyed putting into my ears and eyes in 2023.

Favourite albums

My top 7 albums (in no particular order)…

Angel Numbers – Hamish Hawk
The Window – Ratboys
Phantasmagoria In Blue – Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo
Snake Sideways – Do Nothing
On Grace & Dignity – The Golden Dregs
Milksick – Yowl
Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In – Special Friend

25 more of my favourite albums …

2023 – A Certain Ratio
Live At Bush Hall – Black Country New Road
Rare Birds: Hour Of Song – The Bug Club
Things Of Very Little Value – Coal Canary
DK.01 – Das Koolies
Idiopath / Omniopath – Kenton Hall & The Necessary Measures

Hollow – The Handsome Family
Your Own Adventure – Hollow Hand
Pointe – Hooveriii
Versions Of Us – Lanterns On The Lake
Peak Dystopia – Life Strike
What’s The Matter? – The Medusa Snare

Ahora – Melenas
Gigi’s Recovery – The Murder Capital
PF7 – Pill Fangs
in|FLUX – Anna B. Savage
From A Land Of Glass Without Mirrors – Sissy Space Echo & The Invisible Collaborators
Twentieth Century – The Swansea Sound
Hagata – Teke:Teke

Idiopath / Omniopath by Kenton Hall & The Necessary Measures

Dead Meat – The Tubs
Dream Diary – Tufthunter
Afternoon X – Vanishing Twin
Everyone’s Crushed – Water From Your Eyes
Rat Saw God – Wednesday
Intimism – Nicky Wire

A record of nearly all the albums I’ve listened to this year can be found here.

Favourite EPs

Wild Garlic – Wesley Gonzalez
Field Trip To Coney Island – Hause Plants
Ultra Modern Rain – The Early Mornings
Pop.Thinking – The Wind Up Birds
My Eyes, Brother! – Opus Kink

Favourite instrumental albums

Endless Skyways – Bobby Lee
Hidden Camera Syndrome – Synthetic Villains
Open All Ears – Synthetic Villains
Enter J’s Chamber – Takeshi’s Cashew
A Henry Shade Of Winkler – Cameronoise

Favourite cover versions

So Long Marianne (originally by Leonard Cohen) – Naima Bock
The Drowning Man (originally by The Cure) – Julianne Regan (from this Cure tribute album)
This Is Yesterday (originally by Manic Street Preachers) – The Anchoress (so good they got her to sing it when they played Glastonbury!)

Favourite re-issue

See That Girl – Kirsty MacColl

There have been loads of Kirsty compilations before but finally here’s a definitive 8CD round-up of her brilliant and diverse catalogue. The albums we already know and love are here (Kite, Electric Landlady, Titanic Days, Tropical Brainstorm)

There’s also an unreleased album (Real from 1983) and unsurprisingly it’s really good. Plus a load of BBC Session and live songs and a chance to hear again Kirsty’s stunning demo version of Dear John, a break-up song so heartbreakingly sad she couldn’t bring herself to release it. (She gave the song to Eddi Reader instead)

Favourite music videos

Nerve – Do Nothing
Eggman – Ty Segall
The Feeling – Personal Trainer (This song should’ve been in my favourite songs of the year podcast, but I’d already finalised my list by the time it came out at the start of December)

Best gigs of the year

It’s been a very busy year! I’ve been to 74 gigs and seen more than 150 different bands. I’ll summarise my 2023 gig-going exploits in a separate blog post.

Sadly missed…

Sinead & Shane

Both key components in my music collection since my teenage years. Both have made records that can emotionally move me like very few others. Both of them have played gigs that are up there as the very best I’ve ever seen. No-one else can get a crowd bouncing like The Pogues could and nobody can sing like Sinead. I’ve also been lucky enough to talk with both of them in person, albeit fairly briefly in both cases. Sadly neither of their deaths came as a surprise. Their various health battles have been fairly public and like everyone else I’ve been kind of expecting to hear news that they’re gone for a few years now. But that doesn’t make it any less tragic or upsetting. Long live the music and the memories they’ve left us with.

By contrast, the first time I heard of Richard Laviolette was when I read of his passing in September. I’ve since become a big fan of his music and 2 albums in particular, Taking The Long Way Home and All Of Your Raw Materials. These and many more are available to buy on his Bandcamp page. He was a very talented songwriter with amazing lyrics and it’s sadly ironic that I’ve only become aware of him posthumously because he’s got the best song about funerals that’s ever been written!

Favourite fiction books

Not necessarily released in 2023, but that’s when I got round to reading them!

If you like well-written horror stories with a sense of humour then I can’t recommend Grady Hendrix highly enough. I first found out about him when I read his book The Final Girl Support Group in 2022. This year I’ve read 4 more by him and I think they’re even better.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism
How To Sell A Haunted House
The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires
Horrorstör

My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Getting Rid Of Mr Kitchen by Charlie Higson
Devil House by John Darnielle
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (the TV series of this is apparently really good too, not watched it yet)
A Man At War by Johnny Mains
The Book Of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

Favourite fiction audiobook

Cutey & The Sofaguard by Chris Wade

I don’t even know where to begin describing this but you can buy it here for a bargain 3 quid. It’s narrated by exactly who you’d want to hear narrating such a strange story full of barking mad characters, the late, great Rik fucking Mayall, dialling his Rik Mayallness up to 11 and beyond.

If you’re a Rik Mayall fan you will absolutely love this. If you’re not, then fuck off because you’re wrong.

Favourite music books

I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke

I borrowed the audiobook of this from my local library, read by The Bard Of Salford himself. Your local library gives you free access to the Borrowbox app so get listening to this book as soon as you can because it’s a wonderfully great listen! The man has a way with words as we all know and his frequent tangents about films, breakfast cereal, fashion or whatever are equal parts fascinating and hilarious. As the tagline from the After Eight adverts quoted in the book several times puts it, listening to this was “Luxury, pure unashamed luxury”

The Philosophy Of Modern Song by Bob Dylan

This one is also freely available on on that same app. There’s an impressive cast of narrators here, Bob himself of course but also Helen Mirren, Sissy Spacek, Oscar Isaac and the whole of The Dude’s bowling team, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi and John Goodman.

If it was up to me, I’d have these 3 narrating every audiobook.

Other recommended music books I read this year:

Paper Cuts: How I Destroyed The British Music Press & Other Misadventures by Ted Kessler
Why Karen Carpenter Matters by Karen Tongson
Born in the USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition by Jim Cullen

Favourite non-fiction books

Lucky Jack (1894-2000) by Sue Bavey
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
From Winning Teams To Broken Dreams by Dominic Ball

Favourite films

Top 10 films I’ve seen this year:

Lapsis
The Trip
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A Dark Song
Smile
The Harder They Fall
Men
Evil Dead Rise
Ventoux
Triangle Of Sadness

15 others I really liked too:

The Oak Room
Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
The Banshees Of Inisherin
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent
Amsterdam
Willy’s Wonderland
Nocebo
No One Will Save You
Nobody
The Hater
Brightburn
Violent Night
Come To Daddy
The Menu

Favourite TV shows

All my favourite TV shows this year have the word “dead” in the title. Don’t know what that says about me?

Deadloch

Scandi noir if it was set in Tasmania. And had shitloads of swearing. Incredible writing and acting, best TV series I’ve watched in many years.

Ash Vs Evil Dead

I watched the first series of this when it came out nearly 10 years ago! I didn’t even realise they’d made a 2nd and 3rd series until it popped up on Netflix. Safe to say this won’t be to everyone’s tastes but if you like your horror dark, daft and gory then get into this. Great to see Lee Majors, the bionic man himself, turn up as Ash’s dad.

Dead End

This Polish-made series is the old story of a heist gone wrong but with great characters and several twists and turns along the way.

Favourite documentary

Ian Cognito: A Life & Death On Stage – brilliant and touching film about the stand-up comedian who died onstage in 2019. I caught him several times when I used to frequent the comedy clubs of Ealing / Acton / Hammersmith / Chiswick back in the 1990s. He was always uncompromising and a bit of a loose cannon onstage and sometimes off it too it seems. As with Sean Lock, the phrase “the comedian’s comedian” comes up quite a bit and love for both the performer and the man comes across very well from many of his fellow comedians that appear in the film.