BEST LOCAL CD OF THE YEAR

Josh Catalano & the Dirty Thoughts

With the early May release of Give Away the Night, Josh Catalano and crew produced a record that resonated to our readers as the best CD of 2013. A couple of years in the making, the full-length album contains a blast of band-performed, studio-enhanced, listener-friendly tunes that rock and roll, simmer and boil, entice and capture in a shimmer of contemporary American pop-rock that sits next to any national releases on the shelf or the radio. Catalano, a founder and member of other popular local bands, such as the Damwell Betters and Lazer Dudes, found the right combination of live playing and studio recording to make this collection of songs a keeper. Brushville received enough votes for its yet-to-be-recorded album to come in a close second, with the Blue Gs, Hipbone Sam, Brooke Thomas, Ben Bedford and Our Lady also scoring well in this new and much welcomed category for original music providers on the local music scene. Runner-up: Brushville