Feature / Music
2006: A Year In Review

Posted pre-2010

Big Comebacks in 2006 Of Independent Music

Quick links: Top 5 DVDs | Most Anticipated Albums of 2007 | Reasons The Fresh Prince was awesome | Top 5 Singles | Big Comebacks of 2006 | Top 5 Shows | Top 5 Things That Sucked | Top 5 Things That Ruled | Noteworthy Songs | Top Reissues | Reasons the BBC Is Killing UK Music | Top 5 Vinyl-Only Releases | Worst Cover Art | Band Tour Stories

This year saw some incredible comebacks in the world of independent music. From bands, to whole record labels, there was some pretty impressive reversals going on this year.

  1. For many the latest offering from Planes Mistaken for Stars, Mercy, was an incredible record on its own. When you factor in the fact that their last album, Up in Them Guts, was a bit lackluster (possibly due to the recording quality), Planes plowed on and through to deliver a great slab of wax for our listening pleasure.

  2. The Hope Conspiracy also dropped an excellent album after a period of dormancy that could be considered some of their best material yet. Death Knows Your Name is a visceral tour de force that signals a new beginning for the much loved hardcore band.

  3. Lifetime has been making the rounds with tours for the first time in years as well as a late in the year seven inch teaser for their 2007 self-titled album. Could 2007 be the year of Lifetime?

  4. But perhaps one of the most interesting comeback stories belongs to Revelation Records. After 2005 saw the label releasing some discographies from its revered stable of straightedge bands like Judge and Bold, it looked as though Revelation were relying on their past glories to keep them going. In 2006, Revelation really stepped out and did what at one point they said they would not do and released a few new hardcore-punk records. They dropped Shook Ones' Slaughter of the Insole 7" and Facetious Folly Feat, Sinking Ships' Disconnecting, End of a Year's Sincerely, Down to Nothing's Higher Learning 7", Gracer's Voices Travel, and re-releases of the first Shai Hulud records. All in all it was an eventful year for the once lauded and degraded label. Let's see where 2007 takes them.

(Bob)

— words by the SPB team

Related features

Jenn L. Beckwith

One Question Interviews • July 29, 2026

Jenn L. Beckwith (All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones – author) SPB: Do you remember the first time you saw the Ramones live (or, alternately if it’s a better story, the first time you heard them)? Beckwith: My collaborator and researcher Gary Lynn Clevenger … Read more

Fail Harmonic Records

One Question Interviews • July 28, 2026

Fail Harmonic Records SPB: What is your turntable set-up? Our office turntable is vanilla. Audio-Technica, maybe? What we’re spinning is what counts: and that’s Savageheads - Service to your Country (Social Napalm Records), an FHR HQ staple. If you wanna pack records at a fast pace, this is the album … Read more

Andresa One Man Band

One Question Interviews • July 27, 2026

Andresa Nugraha (Andresa One Man Band) SPB: What instrument has been the hardest to add into your set? Nugraha: Kazoo. It's funny because it seems like an easy instrument to play, but when you scream through the entire set and lose your voice, you can't play it right. So, I … Read more

Deniz Tek

Interviews • July 25, 2026

There is a specific kind of velocity associated with the name Deniz Tek. To the aviation world, he was a flight surgeon and a pilot in the cockpit of an F-4 Phantom. To the medical world, he was the calm in the center of the ER trauma ward. But to … Read more

Alexandros Anesiadis

One Question Interviews • July 15, 2026

Alexandros Anesiadis (Tear It Down, Crossover, New Wind – author) Was there a particular record or moment that inspired the genesis of Tear It Down, about crossover? It wasn't the day I first heard the opening track on side two of the Cro-Mags' The Age of Quarrel. It wasn't when … Read more

More from this section

Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2026)

Music • July 13, 2026

That's right: we're halfway through 2026 already, although whether that means this year is a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of year... well, the jury's out. But we'll let you know in December. Despite another six months of chaos, war, conflict and uncertainty, one thing in life remains static and reliable: … Read more

Demos You Want To Check #4

Music / New Kids On The Block • July 7, 2026

The musical landscape is ever changing. New genres are popping up, new hypes burst out of nowhere and die out and new bands present themselves to the world. How on earth are you expected to keep up, right? Well, it never hurts to help! So here we are, your humble … Read more

Demos You Want To Check #3

Music / New Kids On The Block • May 8, 2026

The musical landscape is ever changing. New genres are popping up, new hypes burst out of nowhere and die out and new bands present themselves to the world. How on earth are you expected to keep up, right? Well, it never hurts to help! So here we are, your humble … Read more