YEAR-END LISTS typically hew to the comfy round number 10. And although Top 10 has a ring to it, Silicon Valley’s melting pot of musical talent fused genres, collaborated, innovated and turned out so many great LPs and EPs this year that it became a nearly impossible task to narrow it down to even the Top 15 releases, so we squeezed one more pick for a favorite 16. Here, in no particular order, are some of 2013’s best local releases.

The Bangerz: PRiSM
PriSM, the Bangerz’ second soundtrack LP for the Jabbawockeez Las Vegas stage show, showcases the crew going deeper into some amazing futuristic soundscapes. The crew has always straddled a line between throwback hip-hop and cutting edge electro-jams, but it’s all forward thinking with this release. In a sign of the times—as the line between EDM and hip-hop continues to blur—there’s a healthy dose of dubstep influence on this record, as well.

Rebelskamp: The Kill
Going into a recording studio without any written material doesn’t sound like a winning formula for an album, yet Rebelskamp produced a remarkable LP this year. They’ve gotten so good at improvisation that they don’t sound like they’re inventing the music on the spot. Yet, the spontaneity of such a freeform formula remains intact. These songs go any and everywhere, drifting through funk riffs, psychedelic space jams and crazy free-jazz. A highlight is “The Rebel,” with local rapper Dirtbag Dan freestyling a couple verses.

Philthy Dronez: Wepa Life
Up until recently, Matt Gonzales was known mostly as the go-to guitarist for local bands. (Anya and the Getdown, Raul y Mexia, Chris Reed—to name a few). Now the world gets a taste of his solo project: producing Latin-infused electro-beats under his alter-ego, Philthy Dronez. His debut EP, Wepa Life, was released on Global Bass Experience a few months back. It’s a short EP, about 15 minutes, but it’s bumpin’. It centers on the emerging new-cumbia sound, but also veers into electronic and hip-hop territory, and even some old-school cumbia.

Boboso: Grown Ass Man
There are three things Boboso raps about: food, cats and his love for the female derriere—often within the same song. Yet, he’s not exactly a comedy rapper. He can really rhyme. Plus, his production skills are top-notch: classic West Coast beats with surreal twists. The Beach Boys sample on “That Breathe In, Breathe Out Shit” is a particular highlight. Jeff Rosenstock from Brooklyn punk band Bomb the Music Industry also lays down an impressive verse on “Sartorial Panache.”

Careless Hearts: Alum Rock
Alum Rock isn’t just the latest album by Careless Hearts; it’s the culmination of five years of life-changing events. They started out a laidback Americana group, but since 2008’s Heart’s Delight, they’ve gone through some major lineup changes and played a life-changing show with punk legend, Stooges guitarist James Williamson. It shows in the roots-rock, power-pop songwriting on Alum Rock. The release rocks harder, louder and with more passion than their first two albums.

Antwon: In Dark Denim
In Dark Denim isn’t as accessible as Antwon’s prior work and takes the San Jose rapper in a new direction. His beats are grimier, the samples are darker and the lyrics are dirtier than ever. “Work 4 Me,” with its down-and-dirty hip-shaking beat and raunchy lyrics, sounds like he’s seducing the listener. All the while, Antwon’s fanbase continues to grow, with a successful run at SXSW, an appearance at Treasure Island Music Festival and two national tours during the last year.

The Albert Square: How’s Everybody’s Doings?
Last year, Sim Castro reformed his punk rock outfit the Albert Square. The songwriting is much in the same vein, subtly nuanced ’80s and ’90s post-punk-inspired, but the band’s performances are far more unhinged—a good thing. Their newfound spastic energy complements Castro’s reflective songwriting quite well. However, the strongest song, “(Proud) Parents,” is oddly the most reserved track on the EP.

The Limousines: Hush
It’s been a couple years since synth-pop duo the Limousines released their brilliant debut, Get Sharp. Despite all the views they were getting on YouTube and radio play they received, they had major problems to sort out with their label, but Hush was worth the wait: Its synth beats are dancier, the production is more refined and in place of their signature clever nihilism, Hush offers lyrics that are raw and honest. Hush was made with funds from a Kickstarter campaign that sought $30,000 but ended up raising $75,000.

Dinners: Black Rabbits
If such a thing as a San Jose “supergroup” exists, Dinners might be that band, featuring members from Worker Bee and Doctor Nurse. Dinners go into a different direction than either Worker Bee (moody indie rock) or Doctor Nurse (psychedelic folk) with lo-fi noise-pop and a heavy dose of Guided By Voices influence. At first listen, Black Rabbits sounds like the kind of four-track recording popular with ’90s indie bands, but it’s actually a quite meticulously, thoughtfully crafted album. The cover art is amazing, too.

Rey Resurreccion, M-10, Locsta Villan: First Street Sessions
Some of rapper Rey Resurreccion’s finest works are collaborations. Last year, he worked with the Bangerz to make some killer old school hip-hop tunes. This year, he got together with emcees M-10 and Locsta Villan and created the 1st Street Sessions. Together the trio has produced eight laid-back, dreamy hip-hop songs that should be on urban stations all across the country.

Raul y Mexia: Arriba y Lejos
Brothers Raul y Mexia released a fun, passionate Spanish-language album this year on Nacional Records, the current leaders of cutting-edge Latin music. Arriba y Lejos combines elements of cumbia and other traditional Latin sounds with hip-hop and electronica. The duo, who are sons of Hernán Hernández, bassist of famous Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte, has created something that both pays tribute to classic Latin music, like their father created, and all the newer American music they grew up with here in San Jose.

Sean Blak: #Basslife
Sean Blak books live hip-hop shows, puts on battle-rap events and holds a weekly Tuesday night residency, “the Trap Shop” at Johnny V’s. He’s also a prolific rapper, with a ton of lo-fi, surreal homemade hip-hop records online. His best this year is the LP #Basslife. On it, he takes some of the strangest, most intimate beats and makes them sound like outrageous club bangers.

Slime Girls: Vacation Wasteland
By the time Slime Girls came together, the chiptune scene was already well-established. Yet they’ve still been able to find their own sound within it, taking all the old Nintendo chip Gameboy sounds and mixing them with surf, punk and ska. Their latest EP, Vacation Wasteland, is a seriously fun collection of instrumental chip-rock tunes. It was originally pressed on cassette because they’re that into old technology.

David Brookings: The Maze
The Maze is David Brookings’ sixth full-length album since 2000, yet he’s still working on building his fanbase in the Bay Area. He moved to Northern California from the Memphis by way of Richmond, Virginia, in 2009, and produced his five albums before heading West. The Maze, like its five predecessors, brings together ’60s psychedelic-rock and ’80s New Wave.

Derek See: She Came This Way
The title track to Derek See’s She Came This Way is an amazing psychedelic-pop gem. At first, See, who normally plays guitar in soul group the Bang, recorded it, along with a couple other tunes, just for fun. It was good enough for an indie label to offer to release it, and they even ran out of the first pressing. It’s the kind of song that, had it been written in 1967, would have been a Summer of Love FM hit, no doubt.

Noothgrush: Split LP with Coffins
Back in the ’90s, sludge metal group Noothgrush were a pretty big deal. Along with Sleep and a few other bands, San Jose boasted a strong doom metal scene. Noothgrush just recently reformed, and they also just released a split record with Japanese metal band Coffins. The third track, “Thoth” is particularly special, as it contains spoken clips from the late, great, much beloved KFJC DJ, Cy Thoth, who died earlier this year.

Mike Park, owner of Asian Man Records, has done his fair of touring over the last 25 years, whether it was with local ska-punk legends Skankin’ Pickle, the Chinkees, the B. Lee Band or with his solo material. He takes and interesting detour with his latest project: touring with popular children’s act Yo Gabba Gabba.

The tour with Yo Gabba Gabba comes to the San Jose Event Civic Center on Tuesday March 5th. We caught up with Mike to talk about the experience, thus far.

You are on a three-month tour with Yo Gabba Gabba. What exactly are you doing during the show?

I am the super music friend. The live show follows the TV format, so they try to incorporate parts of the TV show live. My segment comes in at the 15 minute mark; I play one song and then I’m done. It’s the easiest gig I’ve ever had in my life. I did one of the live shows last year and the right people saw it. When they discussed this year’s tour, my name was thrown into the mix and somehow they picked me.

This isn’t your first foray into kid’s music. Your album Smile is an accessible kid’s album that adults will enjoy listening to as well. What made you decide to get into kid’s music?

Being a dad of two young kids had me fiddling around on guitar making up silly songs. It made my toddlers smile and from there I just started writing songs. It’s a lot of fun and I hope to do a lot more of this in the future.

What have the Yo Gabba Gabba shows been like?

They’re quite surreal, to be honest. I’ve never been on a tour of this magnitude before. I get nervous before every performance, but that’s normal for me. It’s the same if I’m playing in front of 15,000 people or if I’m playing in front of 30 people. That’s what makes it still worthwhile for me at least. But it’s been a blast playing some beautiful historic theaters across the U.S. that otherwise I’d never get the chance to perform at.

How do children compare to adults as audience members?

They don’t go on message boards and talk shit about you. They’re just having fun and they don’t care what’s cool or not. That’s the big difference. I love playing music for both adults and children, but I’m having a lot more fun lately playing for kids.

Who are some of the other special musical guests that you’ve been on the road with?

Basically, the company gave me a green light to invite guests to join me on stage, so I’ve just had friends from my time in music come on out in different cities. Thus far I’ve had members of the following bands: Darkest Hour, Lawrence Arms, Big D and the Kids Table, Bouncing Souls, Suicide Machines, Lita from WWE, MU330, The Pilfers, Bomb the Music Industry, Five Iron Frenzy.

Do your kids come to see the show when you play locally? What do they think of seeing Dad on stage with Yo Gabba Gabba?

Yes, they definitely are coming to the show on Tuesday. I’m not quite sure what they think? It’s hard to gauge what goes through the mind of a 4 and 6 year old. They used to listen to Smile a lot more but these days it’s been a lot of Toots and the Maytals. Ha!

Biz Markie is also on this tour with you, right? Have you been hanging out with Biz?

He’s an interesting person. He has his blu-tooth connected 24/7 and he’s constantly on the phone and so you have no idea if he’s talking to you or somebody else? But at least he knows my name, which is more than Tom Morello after touring with him for three weeks.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! “Get the Sillies Out” comes to the San Jose Civic Center on Tuesday March 5th.

The Bomb The Industry concert on August 25 at Homestead Lanes could be the last South Bay appearance for the New York punk rockers after the band announced it could stop touring after this summer tour.

“There’s no weird riffs or anything,” singer Jeff Rosenstock wrote on the band’s website. “To put it simply, the 9-10 months of our lives when we are not playing music are not fantastic. It seem like it’s just time to see if there’s anything out there that can provide us with full-time joy instead of part-time joy.”

The future for Bomb the Music Industry isn’t completely clear, but the band is not breaking up. Rosenstock pointed out that they might tour again if the conditions were right. He just wanted to make sure his fans understood that it was a definite possibility that they may never play outside of the New York area again. The band will most likely continue to record, but the attention and drive Rosenstock previously gave Bomb the Music Industry will decrease.

“Keep in mind that Bomb the Music Industry was never really supposed to be a touring band that put out records, had a steady line-up, made money off of anything, continued anywhere outside our house,” Rosenstock wrote.

Bomb the Music Industry plays Homestead Lanes on August 25th with the Phenomenauts, Kepi and the Prima Donnas. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $10.