Guest Year-End Lists

This is something I've wanted to do for a while mostly to get suggestions of music to listen to, but I figured that if I did that, I may as well share it with people. I asked a bunch of my favorite musicians and music-industry people around if I could get a year-end list from them about their favorite records and other things that happened and here's how it ended up!
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Scott Plant of Broken Prayer

Top 10 for 2013 (not including friends’ bands) 2013 rocked, rolled, noised and funked. This is a list of some of the stuff that affected me most this year. I hesitated to do the reissues because there is SO much good new stuff coming out - anyone who says otherwise is a registered dumb - but then I figured, you know, whatever. There are other lists out there. I tend to like novel production and cool sounds and rhythms, and generally in a bummer or headache producing direction. New Stuff: Wolf Eyes - No Answer - Lower Floors Cold cold beats for a bleak bleak record. This feels less like a sound track and more like a collection of songs than their other records, and it is a triumph. A triumph! They just keep getting better. Listen to it on real speakers and let the sonic volcano wash over you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbgI-DEk4U4 Mutant Video - Missing Fingers Beats, bass, synth, darkness. Here’s the futility of life put into cassette format. Their final release. http://ironlungpv.bandcamp.com/track/street-lightning Framtid - Defeat of Civilization I’m sure this will make many top 10 lists, as it should. Do you like having your head pummelled in by the kaotic hardcore noise of true distortion madness? You should. It’s for fans of that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fHRpnvnDrI Reissues: Devo - Hardcore Devo Vol. 1 & 2 Here are the coldest recordings, finally put to vinyl. If you’d like to hear Iggy and the Stooges on the Forbidden Planet, then you will like to hear this collection. Incalculably influential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo7bgRMrnZQ Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction A disgusted, disgusting record. Isn’t humanity disgusting? Carcass would agree. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdS9ICBEJEs Funkadelic - Maggot Brain The A side of this record singlehandedly redeems jamming, and has some of the best guitar sounds ever put through a mic. A joyous celebration toward taking down The Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3bleXWaCk Rulebreaker: Daylight Robbery - Distant Shores Just a great, sparse rock band with melodies other bands wish they could craft. They don’t get the attention they deserve in the states, but they do from me, so I’m giving it to them. http://daylightrobbery.bandcamp.com/track/distant-shores

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Andre Foisey of Locrian      

Top 6:

1)   Volcano Choir “Repave” (Jagjagwar)

Power ballady kind of stuff that I can listen to whenever and wherever: my apartment, during one of my yoga classes, while I’m at work, whenever. Infectious.

2)   True Widow “Circumambulation” (Relapse)

Some of the best songs that I’ve heard this year. Songs that don’t force you to feel anything, but that create a space for whatever it is you’re feeling at the moment to come up.

3)   Insect Ark “Long Arms” (Geweih Ritual Documents)

Dark, mysterious, and beautiful. Highly listenable without compromising intensity.

4)   Agarttha “A Water Which Does Not Wet Hands” (King of the Monsters)

Put this on, light some candles, and get in the zone. Doom metal, maybe, that’s not affected or corny.

5)   Iggy and the Stooges “Ready to Die” (Fat Possum)

James Williamson is back and nothing can ruin that.

6)   BLOODYMINDED “Within The Walls” (BloodLust!)

Not as intense as a BLOODYMINDED performance, but close.

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Bill Roe of Trouble In Mind/Permanent Records

In No Particular Order

Ooga Boogas "s-t" (Aarght)

LOVED their first record from a few years ago & while that one was a brutish take on Aussie thug-rock, this new one is a head-scratcher in the best way. LOTS of different (seemingly) disparate things going on here & they all somehow work. "Let's Do It For The Kids" may be the anthem of the year, & "Sex in the Chillzone" must be heard to be believed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwkNRO-gTGc

Eat Lights Become Lights "Modular Living" (Great Pop Supplement)

AMAZING motorik krautrock-inspired jams from this UK band (essentially one guy on recordings, but he has a killer live band). Reminds me a bit of Cave, but with more true  "kosmiche" in the grooves. The 6-minute title track is my jam - repetitive without ever seeming boring for one second. It's a song that moves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGX5s4gaig

Heliocentrics "13 Degrees of Reality" (Now Again)

These guys get categorized as hip-hop often (and honestly that's what I thought they were until I heard a sound clip of this record  earlier this year), but this is some super dense jazz/krautrock/funk happening here. Any record that can remind me of Can, "Bitched Brew"-era Miles, Sun Ra & the Art Ensemble is A-OK in my book. They are apparently killer live too - would love to see them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh4ekvifFbw

Thee Oh Sees "Floating Coffin" (Castle Face)

Best band in the world makes their best record yet (since the last best record)... takes their mutant pop to dizzying & sinister new directions. So focused it's scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTlOYvxZqdY

Life Stinks "s-t" (S-S)

A late-breaker for me. This one JUST came out & it's already glued to my turntable! Nihilistic, scuzzy back-alley skumrock from San Francisco. The singer Chad used to be in a great band called The Outdoorsmen, who were not too far from this (but in a more Mummies/Budget Rock direction), but Life Stinks has a health dose of treachery & menace that is missing from a lot of R'n'R & punk these days. To me they sound like the unholy collision of Fang, Flipper, Modern Lovers & VU. Yeah. It's that good. (Check out this 11-minute demo of the closing track "My My My" which is re-recorded & expanded to 16 minutes for the actual album. Geezus!)

https://soundcloud.com/life-stinks/my-my-my

Focus Group "Elektrik Carousel" (Ghost Box)

I think I'm including this one because it sounds like no other record I've heard this year. Mind melting fusion of Sound Library, exotica, electronic, pop & more. It's kind of baffling, in that it sounds like numerous radio transmissions cutting in & out over the course of the record. Bits of spoken word, some samples & tape collage... I dunno. It's essentially a pop record, but one made by aliens or witches or something. Its some weird stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro8L52mZ38M

Fuzz - "s-t" (In The Red)

We put out these dudes' first single, so they are near & dear to our hearts. And this album SHREDS. Just like I knew it would. A lil' Blue Cheer, Sabbath, Grounghogs a thrown into the heavy & heady riffs Charlie's spewing out. BONKERS live band too - don't miss 'em.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twylUtWKdt4

Obnox "Corrupt Free Enterprise" (12XU)

NO ONE is making the kind of KBD-inspired, weed-fueled, misanthropic Ohio scree like my man, Bim Thomas. Dude used to drum in Puffy Areolas (and still plays in Bassholes), so his pedigree is rock-solid. HOWEVER, when he launched his Obnox solo stuff last year I didn't expect this exploding pipe-bomb of sounds constructed from garage, punk, free-jazz, DIY, funk, soul & experimental music. Bim makes it all work & sound completely original & his own. MASSIVE PROPS.

https://soundcloud.com/obnox-1/obnox-drum-thunder-suite-ii

Birds of Maya "Celebration" (Little Big Chief)

These Philly dudes have been at it for MANY years now & the world is only just now catching up. These two tracks (both cut live at two different shows) Grab you by the throat & choke you seductively until you submit to their will! Busted-ass guitar wailing courtesy of Mr. Purling Hiss hisself Mike Polizze & bass-tumpage by Jason Killinger (aka "Spacin') - these dudes jam on trogolydyte Stooges repeato-riffery & Japanese psych-rock (see Flower Travellin' Band & Blues Creation) with a healthy dose of Blue Cheer. Power trios don't get much better than this. SOLD OUR right now, but a repress is somin' from Little Big Chief. Grip this as soon as you possibly can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wDT4PQhxN8

Cave "Threace" / Bitchin' Bajas "Bitchitronics"

I put these two together 'cuz they're both essentially springing forth from the mind of Cooper Crain, and while in previous years they have sounded like two disparate projects; Cave is where he worked out his yearn to rock & Bajas to bliss out in the warm embrace of THE DRONE. This year the two projects came closer than ever before - Bajas' "Krausened" EP on Permanent last year signaled a new road on the same path that eked ever-so-closer to Cave territory & "Bitchitronics" is Cooper in full-on Frippertronics mode (hence the reference in the title I'd imagine). Tape loops & blessed out guitars launch skyward in an attempt to get everyone to just CHILL OUT (ha!). "Threace" move Cave a slosh further away from their rocking' masterpiece "Neverendless" from last year & into, yes - Afro-Funk & electric-era Miles Davis (Tribute To Jack Johnson, anyone?) with some seriously funky & free sax & flute jams. A mesmerizing listen that makes you wanna move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLoC2fKll0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_ciyUDlY0Q

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All the Members of the Band Big Eyes

None of us really listened to much new music this year, so here is a combined top 10 list from the 3 of us

(in no particular order)
Crystal Antlers - Nothing Is Real
Obits - Bed and Bugs
Audacity - Butter Knife
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Uzu
Mikal Cronin - II
Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
Dead Ghosts - Aint Got No
Radioactivity - S/T
Night Birds - Born to Die In Suburbia
Death Fix - S/T

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Jeffrey Jinx

1.       Hoax-Hoax LP (Hoax self-released)

I admit it; I’ve been a serious Hoax groupie for a few years now. I loved their demo, all of their EPs and the half dozen times I’ve been fortunate to see them perform live. I’d already assumed that their debut album would be incredible, but they actually managed to exceed my already unrealistically high expectations. This is everything I ever want and need in a hardcore record…and then some. Even when this isn’t playing on the stereo, it’s playing in my head. If I’m ever over at your house and notice that you don’t have this record in your collection, I’m going to feel sorry/embarrassed for you and we probably won’t be friends.

2.       Brainbombs-Disposal Of A Dead Body 2LP (Skrammel Records)

Arguably, Brainbombs is my favorite band ever. After five years of waiting for a new album to finally surface, this release more than makes up for lost time.  Recorded over the previous four years, it consists of twenty four (!) songs, making this the most new material they’ve ever unleashed in a single stab. Rest assured the quantity does not diminish the quality or the depravity! Sure, the breadth of this release might be a little overwhelming for some, but if Brainbombs have proven one thing over the last two decades it’s that they’re consistent. Their sound and substance hasn’t changed. They’re not evolving or mutating. They’ve always been perfect and they continue to be perfect. Thank fuck.

3.       Church Whip-Psychedelic Nightmare LP (Vinyl Rites)

Church Whip has certainly gotten a lot attention from armchair activists and message board nerds in the last year. Unfortunately, most of it has been negative. Coinciding with their debut LP release, they’d planned a string of Southern/Eastern/Midwestern U.S. performances, the first time playing their raw Black Metal outside of their native state of Florida. However, the provocative and unapologetic titling of their tour, “Raping the East,” proved too much for the PC scene police to bear.  Most of their shows (including Chicago) ended up getting canceled, apparently in fear that our great nation’s geographical territories might be sexually violated. Their latest EP, published only a few weeks ago, was sadly announced to be the final flagellation. The whip may have unraveled, yet the congregation remains permanently kneeled.

4.       Pharmakon-Abandon LP (Sacred Bones Records)

My pretend girlfriend, Margaret Chardiet, has had a banner year. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve undoubtedly heard (or at least heard of) Pharmakon. Her material has been reviewed and critically acclaimed in every cranny of cyberspace while she’s been busy touring her ass off, across the U.S. and Europe, in support of her first full length release. Much like her live performances, this record is a cathartic ritual, an exorcism of personal demons.  Her atmospheric power-electronics are structured with clarity and sophistication. There is also an inherent vulnerability present in her work, underlying the often overt brutality. This is top shelf Industrial music and evidence that all of the praises she’s been receiving are wholly deserved.

5.       Raspberry Bulbs-Deformed Worship LP (Blackest Ever Black)

Raspberry Bulbs originally started as a Marco Del Rio (aka He Who Crushes Teeth) solo project, in the wake of Bone Awl being on indefinite hiatus.  After numerous tapes and an LP recorded on his own, with “Deformed Worship” Raspberry Bulbs have finally blossomed into a full five piece band. This is spastic black metal punk on Xanax, guaranteed to make you stomp and twitch. Incidentally, this is the second release on my list (the other being Pharmakon) which was recorded at Sean Ragon’s (Cult of Youth) Heaven Street Studio in Brooklyn, NY. There’s clearly some magic in the air over yonder…

6.     Society Nurse-Society Nurse LP (Iron Lung Records)

After the release of their first EP in 2010, I thought that Society Nurse were a “good” hardcore band.  In the interim between then and this, their full length debut, they have clearly become an “amazing” hardcore band. Personnel changes, including a new singer, have helped their focus, urgency, and desperation increase exponentially. The twisted and surreal cover art by Salvation’s Matthew Adis foreshadows the anxiety and social claustrophobia found within.  Double thumbs up for the lyrics printed on the back cover like asylum inmate wall scrawling, in both style and content.

7.       Ancestors-Ancestors III LP (Youth Attack)

Ancestors  is one of Mark McCoy’s (Youth Attack) innumerable projects.  This is simultaneously their debut LP and the third part of a trilogy, following two EP releases spread out over the last five years.  While technically released at the end of 2012, copies didn’t actually ship or get distributed until this year. This is thematically based around spectral activity and Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), buried beneath cacophonous crescendos. If you’re looking to open portals to other dimensions, this just might be the perfect catalyst. Getting through both sides of this record in a single sitting is a real endurance test, though. It‘s just absolutely unrelenting, like a 21 minute long amphetamine-fueled tour through a haunted house in Hell. 

8.       The Repos-Poison Head Cs (The Repos self-released)

The unreleased first and last LP by The Ropes before alleged threats of litigation forced them to revert back to The Repos. This limited cassette first appeared early in 2013, produced by the band and initially exclusively sold at the Los Crudos show that they performed in support of.  More recently, an expanded, remastered, and retitled edition was issued by Youth Attack as “Lost Still Losing.” I’ve spent most of the year getting acquainted with (read: obsessively playing) this version, but the reissue will certainly give more bang for the buck and should be easier to track down in physical format. Tight and vicious, as usual.

Archival/First time on vinyl:

Anenzephalia-Funkspeile LP (Tesco Archaic Documents)

Rectal Hygienics-Even The Flies Won't Touch You mLP (Torn Light)

Sol Invictus-In The Rain LP (Auerbach Tonträger)

Deviation Social-Tempus / Deathwatch LP (Dais)

Martial Canterel-Navigations LP (Electric Voice Records)

Rusted Shut-Rehab LP (Dull Knife Records)

Alberich-Machine Gun Nest: Cassette Works, Vol. 0 LP (Hospital Productions)

Demos/EPs:

City Hunter-City Hunter Cs (Blackout Rage)

Die- Die EP (Sonic Terror)

Rectal Hygienics-Cold Meat 7" (Diseased Audio)

Druglust-Dusted EP (Cruel Noise)

Haus Arafna ‎– All I Can Give EP (Galakthorrö)

Gag-This Punk Shit is Cool 12” (Bedside Records)

S.H.I.T. Demo II  (S.H.I.T. self-released)

Stoic Violence-Tour flexi   (Stoic Violence self-released)

Fugitive Demo (Twerp Records)

Lumpy And The Dumpers-Sex Pit EP (Muckraker)

Live:

Vatican Shadow @ Empty Bottle               

King Dude/Chelsea Wolfe @ Schubas

Cold Cave/Boyd Rice @ Empty Bottle

Pharmakon/Marshstepper @ Bottom Lounge

The Repos/Stoic Violence @ Albion House

Martial Canterel @ Burlington

Hoax @ Club Rectum

Death in June/Cult of Youth @ Otto's (Baltimore)

Raspberry Bulbs/Alberich/Rectal Hygienics @ Club Rectum

Architeuthis @ Liquid Lizard Lounge

Gag @ The Ice Cream Shop

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Tanner Garza of Tanner Garza/Black Leather Jesus

The List - 2013 - Tanner Garza 1. A.P. Felix - Electronic Tonalities (I Had An Accident Records) - Cassette A.P. Felix is actually Andrew Felix. This cassette differs from his other work in that it is made only from the sounds of his handbuilt modular synths. Great work that sounds like it was recorded in the 60's. 2. Brahms - Shimmer/Suffocate (Bridgetown Records) - Cassette Sounds like childrens toys. Weird abstract-ambient sorta stuff. 3. Jonwayne - Cassette 2 (Stones Throw) - Cassette The best current Rapper/Producer in my opinion, and this second cassette of the three released really shows off his skills as both. 4. Waves Crashing Piano Chords & Tanner Garza - de Sade (Forever Escaping Boredom) - Cassette Probably unfair to add myself to this list, oh well. The collab I did with WCPC, the Juggalo madman, is an odd pairing. It outdid either of our expectations for sure. Weird meshing of Ambient tape loops & Power Electronics. 5. Pedestrian Deposit - Eleventh Hour (Tour Only Release) - Cassette Pedestrian Deposit is THE GREATEST current noise act in the United States. Nuff said. 6. Kevin Greenspon + Former Selves - Betrayed by the Angels / Apropos of Golden Dreams (Bridgetown Records) - Vinyl LP Comes off like a modern take of what Steve Roach used to do, but in song form.. more or less. 7. BANKS - London (Harvest & Good Years) - Digital/CD/Vinyl Amazing Pop singer that has heavy R&B influences. Definitely worth checking out. 8. Wet Dream Asphyxiation – Hearse Sessions II (USR Records) - Cassette Got this tape from Ques himself while I was on tour with Black Leather Jesus. Wonderful Long form Wall Noise. 2 hours total on the tape. 9. TALsounds/Greyghost – Mugen: Volume 2 (Hausu Mountain) - Cassette Words fail me in trying to describe how good this tape is. Just go buy it. 10. Andy Loebs - Hibernation Sickness (Twin Springs Tapes) - Cassette Made with a borrowed synth. Recorded on a karoke machine. Spacey/dreamy/abstract. So good.

Top 20 albums of 2013

Just A Pictcha of Ya Boy - These Posts Won't Lean on Themselves

2013 was kind of overwhelming. In general, I try to listen to three or four new albums a day, which is easy to do since I can listen to music at work. When I mean new albums, I don't necessarily mean albums that just came out, but albums that I haven't heard before. One of my pet peeves is not knowing about a certain style of music, but it's also one of my greatest joys because it means that there's a ton of really awesome music that I haven't heard. 

This year I discovered that I knew nothing about Crabcore (attn: Chris Defusco, Corbie Hill). Just kidding.

The kinds of music I've been trying to get to know in my back catalog are neofolk, industrial, japanese psych, noise (japanese and others), new wave, and minimal synth. I realized that I knew next to nothing about these genres and so I've been trying to learn about them and made a ton of new friends on the way, which is another great part of the music community. People love to introduce you to things they love. It's why I started this website for pete's sake!

This is going to be the first installment of my year-end list of music. I'm trying to bring as much attention to people who really rocked my socks off this year, so I'm starting with a typical "top x albums from this year" list. I'll do another list on EPs and 7 inches, one on cassette releases, and one on reissues and archival releases.

In addition, I'm super proud to announce that I'm going to be putting out a list of top albums by some of my favorite people in the music scene. Honestly, it's mostly just so I have some recommendations for things to listen to, but I figured other people may want to know about them too.

Without further ado, here are my favorite records of the year.

1. Kurt Vile – Waking on a Pretty Daze

Face it. Any year that Kurt Vile comes out with a record, it will probably be my favorite album of the year.  Kurt Vile’s drawn-out Americana is laced with stoned wisdom and seriousness. It is easy to discount Vile’s lyrics as they are mumbled into existence. Upon closer inspection, there are some downright heartbreaking lyrics. The first song, for instance, is about a friend killing himself. “Phone ringing off the shelf/I guess he wanted to kill himself” transitions to later “Don’t worry about a thing/It’s only dying.” But the lackadaisically meandering guitar tone and delivery disguise the emotion. It’s a recurring theme throughout the album that ultimately can become unsettling. But there’s a startling beauty in the undertow, which is the real draw.

2. Jacco Gardner – Cabinet of Curiosities

I had no idea what I was getting into when I heard this album. There’s a feeling of swirling magic spells that whisper throughout this album, pulling the listener into Gardner’s psychedelic-tinged imagination. It’s like you’re simultaneously underwater and airborne. See, I’m not even making any sense. This album is gorgeous and has some memorable transitions between lighthearted verses and deepened choruses. Gardner is a master at changing chord progressions. There were some melodic lines that I had never heard in my life in this album. Diminished chords mix with majors and minors like a baroque pop Philip Glass. “Clear the Air” is the obvious single of this album, having been released in anticipation of the full-length and is a great introduction to the fantastic miasma of Jacco Gardner.

3. Mountains – Centralia

Easily the most realized Mountains record as well as the most organic. The album starts on somewhat familiar ground with “Sand,” an ambient drawl with reverberating tones and synth lines before going into my personal favorite song “Identical Ship,” a finger-picked acoustic dream that seems to drop the listener in the middle of a desert littered with sand dunes for three minutes and five seconds. On a personal note, I listen to this album when I am overcome with anxiety and it really helps me. Naturally, it has a special place in my heart.

4. Hoax – Hoax

I don’t know how many times I listened to this record with my friend Jeffrey while we were touring around with Death in June. During this time, Jeffrey, his dog Ahlfa, and I spent a few nights in Sean Ragon’s record shop Heaven Street in Brooklyn because we didn’t want to pay for a hotel. One night, after we went to a show at Don Pedros, Jeffrey and I went back to Heaven Street and put on Hoax’s record and blasted it as we pogoed around the room screaming “I’m sick/I’m sick/Lost control/Lost control.” For me, this record is tied to that week or so that we drove 3500 miles around the East Coast and back. I guess I should talk a little bit about the record. It’s the best hardcore record of the year and you should listen to it. That’s what I got.

5. Culo – My Life Sucks and I Could Care Less

I think that the guys in Culo inject a speedball into the vinyl as each LP is pressed. This record is oozing with drugs and self-loathing. You don’t really have to go further than noting that there’s a song called “I was supposed to be an abortion” to realize that. This band is Chicago hardcore royalty and I got to see them a few times last year. The first time I saw them was in what was arguably the best show all year, the day-long Not Normal Showcase at the Albion House and Swerp Mansion in celebration of Nor Normal’s “Welcome to 2013” compilation. Culo plays a frantic, anxious vein of hardcore that is both fun and nerve-racking. This record is full of exciting hooks and dangerously cheesy verses. The record is made of twenty songs, impossibly long for a hardcore album, and yet it doesn’t seem so. Rather, the band expertly weaves hilariously self-deprecating lyrics to catch the listener a little off guard each time the song changes.

6. Iceage – You’re Nothing

Iceage is a band that has matured quickly. Their first LP New Brigade was interesting, but only gave us a clue as to what the band would become. The band’s second album is a demonstration of just how much young musicians can accomplish in two years. You’re Nothing possesses a variety of songs from the new wave-inspired “Ecstasy” to “Morals,” the first song in Iceage’s repertoire to feature a piano. “Coalition,” for me, is the best song on the album and maybe the best song that the band has done. “Somehow things last till I die/For a show to feel animated/That face is integrated/Some figure out the coalition we chose/excess, excess, excess, excess.” There’s a fascination with ephemera in Iceage’s lyrics, but also a fixation on a final destruction, which, of course, results with Elias screaming “excess.” The album is a whirlwind of search for answers and blame disguised by music. I doubt they found any answers or who to blame, but judging by their age, they have a while to figure it out.

7. Mikal Cronin – MCII

Mikal Cronin was one of the first people I ever interviewed for my blog a year and half or so back. He was really nice to me, which goes a super long way in my book. He’s also from the same place that I was born, which is Orange County. At the time, Cronin had released his first self-titled LP, Reverse Shark Attack, and been touring with Ty Segall. That first album was much more garage-heavy than his second album. MCII begins with a piano and soft goading. The songs here focus on orchestration, but retain the property of pleasant pop. This should be no surprise as Cronin, a master multi-instrumentalist, studied music in college. That said, there are still more punk-infused ditties for those who love his first LP like “See It My Way” or “Change.” The path of the songs lead to “Piano Mantra,” a piano ballad with strings and light drums. It’s the slowest of Cronin’s songs and a great peek into the talented songwriters abilities.

8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away

Nick Cave is interesting. You know he’s old, but he retains this hip, languid ease to his music and performance. When I saw Cave at the Chicago Theater this year, I kept thinking that he looked like an acrobatic scarecrow. Nick Cave possesses an uncanny demeanor where you know that he is human but has an otherworldly unease to his personage and music. A sort of mysticism. This legacy continues on Push the Sky Away with songs like “Mermaids” or “Jubilee Street,” where familiar terrain becomes ground for fairy tales. “I got a fetus on a leash,” Cave croons before the climax of “Jubilee Street,” where he professes he’s flying. Where does Cave fly to? Does he float to the final heavenly sphere or does he simply vanish once again into Neverland? Stay tuned, sportsfans.

9. Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe

I didn’t expect to like this album as much as I did, but I gave it a chance mostly because I find Lauren Mayberry fetching and I liked what she said about women in the music industry. When I heard the song “Recover,” though, I was a believer. When I listened to the whole album, it took me a few listens. I just thought it was pop. And that’s when it hit me. It IS just pop! Really really well done pop with an awesome vocalist and interesting synthesizer textures. It’s an album that is so unpretentious that you forget that it’s trying. The songs are expert crafts of songwriting and this is a textbook of song structures for the aspiring indie pop artist.

10. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual

Shaking the Habitual is an exercise in amalgamation. “A Tooth for an Eye” begins with a seemingly simple syncopated rhythm before a challenging vocal emerges from its tectonic maw. The Knife have outdone themselves in creating something novel but familiar. There are remnants of pop sensibility lurking in the outer limits of their traditional songs. And then there is “Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized,” a twenty-minute drone piece right smack dab in the middle of the album. It’s so perfect! In my opinion, it ends up making the album complete. The Knife continues its trajectory of making drawn-out, hypnotizing songs and succeeds, which ultimately makes an entrancing album that constantly challenges and changes its listener.

11. The Haxan Cloak – Excavation

Get a subwoofer before you listen to this. If I ever saw someone listening to this album on tin-sounding laptop speakers, I would break that computer. I would take the laptop out of the person’s reach, snap it in half, throw it into the wall, eat a slice of pizza, and stomp all over the bastard. That’s not how we enjoy to Haxan Cloak. Upon first inspection, Haxan Cloak is an experimental project that makes drone music. I see it as a dance record. A dance record that’s spinning into a black hole. Excavation is chock full of jarring beats that seem to jerk the body into submission. After a couple listens, it becomes familiar. The cover shows a noose-like rope dangling in oblivion. Except it isn’t a noose because there is no knot. It merely resembles a noose. The same sort of questioned darkness permeates Excavation.

12. Locrian – Return to Annihilation

This is new ground for Locrian. As opposed to some of the earlier Locrian releases, Return to Annihilation is made of pieces that could be concretely called songs. “Obsolete Elegies” is one of the best things I’ve heard all year – it spins out from quietude before the widening gyre takes hold. Return to Annihilation is set up like a suite or an opera. The liner notes make this clear: there are even different movements in songs, emphasizing its thoughtful layout. There’s magic too. This album seems to have influence from an older world. No, that’s not right. This album seems to be from an older era. No, that’s still not right. I don’t know where this album came from and I don’t know what I’m trying to say. But this is what I want to rule the world to.

13. Ty Segall – Sleeper

Sleeper is a different Ty Segall album. It’s a slow acoustic question drawn across forty minutes or so. Sleeper is the first Ty Segall album to come out after the passing of his father and his estrangement from his mother. It’s lonesome and uncomfortable. “Sleeper” has a heart-destroying chorus: “I dream sweet love, I dream for you, from your baby for you/ I dream sweet love, I dream for you, from your baby for you /Oh I wanna sleep all day, oh I wanna go away/Okay I want to sleep all day with you.” There’s real pain and it pervades the album. “Crazy” is a song about his mother and her mental illness. There are no lighthearted songs. Even the last song “The West” is an open thought as to where be his home now that his mom and dad are gone from his life. It’s a personal album with the ever-present hooks, but it becomes truly rewarding when Segall’s story tags along.

14. Vampire Weekend –Modern Vampires of the City

Each time Vampire Weekend releases something I think I’m too punk. But goddammit I never am. Their classically-trained virtuosity and inspired vocal lines consistently impress me. Few bands use falsetto as effortlessly or weave together strains of music history. “Every time I see you in the world, you always step to my girl” is an example of classic sampling from Souls of Mischief. Classic sampling is a hip hop technique often used to give reverence to an artist – like when Kanye says “When I reminisce over you my God,” in “Can’t Tell me Nothin’,” he is paying homage to the line in Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s “T.R.O.Y.” It isn’t done as much in rock-based music so it’s cool to see Vampire Weekend sampling a hip hop song in their music. Vampire Weekend know their music history and this collection of songs continues to demonstrate their abilities.

15. Steve Gunn – Time Off

Steve Gunn released two albums this year. One was his solo album Time Off on Paradise of Bachelors and the other was a collaborative album he did with Hiss Golden Messenger for Record Store Day. Both are worth a listen, but I chose to put this one on the list. Simply put, Steve Gunn is one of the best guitar players around. I saw him a few times this past year at a different capacity each time. I saw him solo. I saw him play with Kurt Vile. And I saw him play with Lonnie Holly. Each time, the performance was different. I am still astonished how he can play such complex guitar parts in tempo and sing. Time Off doesn’t quite do it justice since it may have been recorded in two parts, but he can do it live! The witch-fingered guitar parts with a soothing voice make for a stand out album.

16. Broken Prayer – Broken Prayer

The members of this band have been in so many awesome groups it’s unfair. There are people from Libyans, Manipulation, Civic Progress and more. I’m really proud to have these guys as a Chicago hardcore staple. I saw them at my first Chicago punk show after I moved back from North Carolina, which was at the Mouse Trap with Double Negative. Later, they released this album on Sorry State Records. “Settle for Less” is my favorite track on the album –I love the synth line throughout the song and the guitar break at the chorus. The synthesizer appears frequently in the album, which differentiates it from other hardcore records.

17. Oozing Wound – Retrash

These dudes are a hoot. One of the song titles is “Welcome to the Spaceship, Motherfucker.” But the band has some serious chops when it comes to making thrash metal. Take their song “Call Your Guy.” The song begins with sludge infested guitar and bass parts before blasting off into more familiar thrashing ground. The album clocks in a little over thirty minutes, but it’s a trip that gives back. The lyrics in the songs are really fun and a reminder that metal doesn’t have to be all serious in order to be good.

18. The Men – New Moon

Musicians take note. This is how you start an album. “Open the Door” begins with an ambling piano progression before a friendly guitar joins in. Each album by The Men gets a little more cohesive. New Moon takes ideas from their previous efforts, like the twang of “Candy,” and scatters them through the songs on the rest of the album. We get some familiar rock n roll with songs like “The Brass” and “Half Angel Half Light,” but there’s a lot more folk in this album than in previous works. These guys also work nonstop. They toured around pretty much since this album came out and just announced a new album coming out on Sacred Bones next year, after which they will tour. Dreams really do come true.

19. Crowhurst – Memory Loss

Jesse’s been more or less of a pen pal for about a year and a half. When he makes music (or pretty much anything I guess), he usually goes by the alias Jay Gambit. He is the only consistent member in his group Crowhurst. It’s a motley crew that works with him. Crowhurst makes a Merzbow-like amount of recordings. I’ve listened to most of them and a lot have been really good, but Memory Loss is the one that stands out the most to me. It’s cohesive. It has a consistent theme. It sounds like an album rather than a collection. It’s an album that you can pay extreme attention to or just be in for the ride. I’m helping put together a show for Crowhurst in Chicago in March and am super excited. So hop on in. The water’s great.

20. Taxpayers – Cold Hearted Town

I first started listening to this band this year after seeing that they were going on tour with Ramshackle Glory, one of my all-time favorite bands. I had heard rumors of a band that recorded and practiced in a storage box from the Northwest. It was this band! This album is what happens when you combine goofpunx with Bruce Springsteen. The first two songs on this album, aptly titled “Cold Hearted Town pts. 1 & 2, sound like they could have been on Greetings from Asbury Park, which is my favorite Springsteen album if anyone cares. I got to interview them too and Rob Taxpayer was a totally awesome guy. There’s depth in his lyrics. This whole album is about a really messed up town and the background of folk-driven punk rock makes the whole album uncannily appropriate.

Stay tuned for more of the year's best stuff!!!

Jordan

Interview with Locrian

Over the last few months, I've gotten more and more into noise music on all fronts from drone to harshnoise. I began by asking myself what makes something musical. Is it chord changes? I thought about this a lot because the truth is that we end up hearing the same exact chord progressions in different songs several times a day, but by the nature of effects, vocals, instrumentation and other things, they become "new" songs. So I started to think about the things that were furthest from typical pop songs and I stumbled upon noise of all varieties. Granted, some stuff that gets labeled "noise" is more similar to a pop song and some of it is very far from that. For me, noise is an exercise in the ethic of music as well as a training ground for the ears. I had to learn to listen to music in different ways to understand it. But after I had gotten the hang of it, I found it an extremely rewarding process and experience.

One of the bands that helped me through my sonic journey was Locrian. Locrian is a band spread across a continent. The three members of the band are spread across the United States, but create a precise style of music. It's a darker style of noise that I found to be influenced by black metal a lot, especially the vocals when they emerge from the static miasma. I first picked up their collaboration album with Horseback New Dominions, which introduced me to their music, though didn't ready me for the bleak landscape that accompanies a solo Locrian album, though that album in itself is bleak. What I mean by bleak came from when I heard their album "The Crystal World," which features some seriously impressive vocals that ride the crest of a blackened noise wave. It was unlike most of the noise I had heard before. It's really an incredible album.

I got in touch with Andre from the band. He lives in Chicago and is also a crossfitter/rower like myself, which was pretty cool to see. We talked a bunch and he relayed the email to Terrence, who ended up answering all my questions. I really enjoyed talking to these guys. I was really impressed by how nice these guys were along with how multifaceted their talents are. A really incredible band and I'm honored to have interviewed them.

You can check them out on their FACEBOOK PAGE, check out their horseback collaboration ON SOUNDCLOUD and listen to solo Locrian albums on their BANDCAMP PAGE

Jordan: Where does the name Locrian come from? I saw something on Wikipedia on Locrian mode - like a diatonic scale, but am unfamiliar with it.

Terence:  André came up with the name when we started, but I liked how it was a now extinct Mediterranean people and the connotations of the difficulty of the scale and how dissonant it is.  I guess it set us up in a way.

Their newest album - It's a double

J: Who all is in Locrian? How did you guys start, how do you know each other, and when did you start making music?

T:  Well it just started with André and I, we had been introduced by our pal Aleks (who is now in the band OKO from Germany) and we were in a band together called Unlucky Atlas.  But we just kept it as a duo for a while and we collaborated with Andrew from the black metal band Velnias.  But I guess we had admired Steven's drumming for a while in different groups, like with Haptic.  So it was mutual, he wanted to work with us and we thought he was the only guy out there who could drone on drums and then be a heavy hitter.  Plus it is nice to be around him.  Then we made "The Crystal World" like a few weeks later.  It was crazy.  So its been the three of us ever since.

J: Do you guys come from a musical background? There's a lot of really interesting stuff going on in your records with different textures

T: I played guitar a lot, and was collecting synthesizers.  So I guess a musical background.  I went to school for visual art but always played music.  Even though most of my art is about the music experience in some way.  I think when Locrian makes music texture is the goal, we talk a lot about narrative in the song or even across an album.  I think often to certain progressive rock or kosmiche music was my main inspiration for that, or even like electronic music.  I think with the new record "Return to Annihilation" we really were thinking a lot about some of those influences.

The cover of New Dominions

J: You guys often get called bleak, which I totally get from the music - how'd you guys arrive on that darker style of noise music? Was it a conscious thing or just something that happened?

T: It is deliberate, we shoot for that sound.  For me, at least, I've always been attracted to the darker side of things.  Looking for those notes and tones, but even in what I enjoy listening too I always sought out stuff that was a bit more abject or occult or cast a pall.

J: 2012 saw a bunch of Locrian releases - how do you choose who to work with, like Horseback and Christophe Heemann?

T: Some happen organically like the Horseback collaboration and some are suggestions by labels like Christoph Heemann by Handmade Birds.  All are great learning experiences and creative endeavors, where we get challenged a lot.  They're all just so different, and Mamiffer too, just different people in these scenarios.  I think at the end there is always something about it that stands out, our touch is still there.

J: Contrarily, how do you decide on making a purely "Locrian" record - what do you think is the difference between a record purely from "Locrian" versus one with collaboration?

Steven

T:  Well we cut out a lot.  We tend to be very deliberate, like we'll collaborate for some times and then most recently or like when we made "the Clearing" we say "no other cooks in the kitchen".  I mean there are no extra voices in on the process.  Just the three of us and I think the three of us talk a lot even if we're not all in the same city and we discuss and shape what we want to do.  We're a very concept driven group, so we can kind of have this set of ideas and each of us comes with different approaches to instrumentation or structure.  But we can agree and work towards a big idea.  So the new record really is this unique expression I think.  And one thing is we're all very encouraging of each other like when one of us has an idea we always try and put it down and then we can decide if it works or not.  We're also pretty honest with each other so when it doesn't work there's a lot of give and take.

J: The first time I heard you guys was on one of your earlier albums "The Crystal World." The vocals in it blew my mind the first time I heard it. It seemed to take a little influence from a black metal aesthetic. How do you figure out when and where to use vocals?

T:  Well thanks, those are mine.  When we talk about dark music or bleak sounds I think certain black metal releases definitely had an influence on me.  I think probably Abruptum did the most for me or even some Burzum before prison just established these atmospheres.  When we use vocals, I always try and let the larger idea for the album or suite of songs guide me.  Though sometimes I have an idea and other times Steven or André will say they hear something so I give it a shot.  I like to let parts breathe and then fill up a spot with vocals and just try and make it unexpected.  It goes back to this idea about texture.  Like vocals are a texture as well.  So I can use a few different types of vocals or let the music dominate.

J: What kind of music, ethos, events, and ideologies influence the music that you all make? It seems like there is a ton of different stuff that end up finding their way on a Locrian track.

Andre

T: I listen to a lot of different stuff, I mean obviously the progressive rock like King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis but also the kosmiche music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Cluster.  But going back I am a big fan of extreme music like heavy metal and its varied offshoots and that can be from Black Sabbath to Suffocation to Voivod, power-electronics and a lot of early industrial to pure noise and ambient.  I think certain events definitely influence me like the Deepwater Horizon or the Kingston Coal Ash Spill, these cataclysms definitely inspired entire records.  I guess I came of age during a lot of very idealistic hardcore music and saw the failure of many of the ideals and realized a 7" isn't going to save anything or even direct action is pretty useless.  So to me I have a very pessimistic kind of worldview and there is always the struggle between the horror of an event and the beauty it creates.  To me that is sublime in a way.  The convergence of terror and awe.  I'd say most Locrian themes try to fold that in with an obsession with science fiction like Samuel Delaney, JG Ballard or Nancy Kress.  Just like a more confusing occluded vision that may not be positive for the future.  One of more uncertainty.  I mean we live in very uncertain times.

J: I've never seen you all live before, but I'm really excited for your show at the Burlington coming up! What is a live show by Locrian like? What can we expect and how does Locrian live differ or resemble a recorded version?

T: That's a great question: I'd like to know myself.  It's been almost two years since we've played live.  I know we'll be performing some new stuff from the new album.  There'll be no stage banter, I seriously can't stand that kind of stuff.  We tend to blur songs together and extend a lot of parts.  There's quite a bit of improvisation when we play and we try and make it more ritualistic, more of an event and not just another show.

J: Do you guys ever play shows with people that you do collaborations with?

Terrence

T: No.  We used to intend to but it wound up being too hard to do it - I know we'd like to sometime but it is hard enough getting the three of us together now.  It can be done just needs some determination and organization from some benefactors I think.  But at the moment, especially with the new record coming out I am just excited that the three or us get to do what we do.

J: What's up for the future with you guys? Ideas for releases or live shows? Would you ever go on a "tour"?

T:  Well the new album will be out on Relapse in late May or early June.  And we're planning some shows in mid-June on the east coast.  Maybe something in August, again it is tough to organize with us so spread out.  But we're really committed to the ideas we've put down and playing them live when it works.  As far as releases we always have ideas but our focus is really on seeing "Return to Annihilation" get the treatment it deserves.

J: What are you guys most excited for in 2013 aside from Locrian? I'm simply excited to be in a year where the last two digits are a prime number.

T: My son turned one this year and my daughter will turn four in a few months, that is great - it is an accomplishment.  Other than Locrian I have my first book coming out called "Anno Yersinia Pestis Spiritus" on Kiddiepunk, and a solo LP and zine out on Shelter Press.  Also I am wrapping up a series of art books and cassettes for Accidental Guest Recordings, working now on the third one which is a collaboration with artist Scott Treleaven.

J: Anything else you all would like to say?

T:  Thanks for interviewing us and see you in Chicago.