These appear to be the final year-end lists, but for some stragglers. I’d like to give a gracious thank you to the writers here who submitted their lists early or on time. We didn’t forget about you, you’re just anchoring the joint. I hope everyone enjoyed reading and got turned on to new (old) bands, records, sporting events, snacks, what have you. Of course, if something on these lists does not come with a hyperlink, google the boy. It can’t hurt. Thanks again, everyone. Happy new year!
Ian Larrabee
Ian, who sang for Reach the Sky and Reason Enough (not in that order), is a left-leaning family man who went to the University of Maine on a hockey scholarship. When touring he visited places like Hanna, Alta. (birthplace of Lanny McDonald), and Point Anne, Ont., (birthplace of Bobby Hull) to pay tribute to the game, and ceded vocal duties to Matt LaForge on numerous occasions. Ian’s Bruins fandom is second only to his appreciation of Napalm Death’s Diatribes. If I ever go to law school and end up running the NHL, and things do in fact get better, rest assured all the good ideas came from Ian. I’m just the guy with Canadian citizenship:
Top Ten of the Decade:
10. Hatebreed Perseverance (Universal Records, 2002):
Sixteen years after Reign in Blood and Age of Quarrel, a most worthy successor is unleashed.
9. “LOST” (ABC, 2004 to present) & “The Sopranos” (HBO, 1999 to 2007):
Dynamic multi-character dramas that might have been the first to harness official and unofficial Internet tie-ins, blogs, wikis, etc to enhance the story (or at least help you follow along).
8. NHL Lockout (Jeremy Jacobs & Gary Bettman, 2004):
The players got crushed, the Bruins employed a terrible post-lockout strategy, and I followed the Premiership instead. (Nominating the Red Sox’s 2004 World Series was too predictable).
7. Roger Ailes and Fox News Channel (named chairman in 2005):
Fringe talk radio partisan sewage shotgunned at the Jerry Springer crowd through 24/7 fear and hate-mongering ultimately becomes accepted political discourse.
6. United States Presidential Election (Katherine Harris & William Rehnquist, 2000):
How different the decade would have been a.) if this election hadn’t been stolen and b.) if the people refused to accept the purported “outcome”?
5. Project for a New American Century “Rebuilding Americas Defenses” (2000) & The Bush Doctrine (2002):
Neo-con foreign policy’s time to shine (TIME2SHINE) brings us pre-emptive strikes and multiple, contemporaneous “winnable” wars in various theatres. Smart.
4. Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami (2004):
It lasted 10 minutes, shook the entire planet, displaced over one million people and killed 230,000 more.
3. September 11, 2001.
2. Climate Change:
Fact: The warmest decade on record.Two consequences (of thousands): say goodbye to the Maldives and hello to the mythic Northwest Passage (it is now possible to go from Asia to Europe through the Arctic). The resultant millions of climate refugees and water wars will be this century’s nadir.
1. Hurricane Katrina (2005):
The saddest and lowest point in American history and a true knockout blow to American exceptionalism. This was, and remains, a complete and utterly disgraceful failure of all levels of government and citizenry to provide fellow Americans with basic protection, support and comfort from relentless ecological, socio-economic, political, corruptive and malicious assaults.
Top Ten of 2009
10. Converge — Axe to Fall:
The Anderson Silva of heavy music: creative and intelligent, and punishing from all angles. What an awesome LP.
9. “Mad Men,” Season 3:
The best season yet.
8. Brock Lesnar/MMA is Mainstream:
The sport’s first superstar crests with an audience desperate for true competition, bros looking to scrap in an all-over-print skull T-shirt, a ballsy, foul-mouthed, industry-face, and a sports economy desirous for a cash cow.
7. Teabaggers:
Fucking idiots get out of my face.
6. H1N1 Pandemic:
The W.H.O. now reports 10,000 deaths worldwide, but early reports had the streets filled with phlegmatic bodies wheezing their last breath. Someone has to be making some serious money off of this thing.
5. Warren Buffett’s Purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad:
Is it “an all-in wager” on railroad infrastructure and resurrecting the American economy, or is he preparing for Chinese dominance? (B.N.S.F. is a primary carrier of coal and grain from the Midwest to West Coast ports serving Asian markets.)
4. Unemployment:
Close to 15% real unemployment, millions of jobs vanished, and very little real hope of recovery. Years in hardcore bands definitely look good on my resume.
3. The Economy:
Thanks for all the fun Iceland, Wall Street, auto industry, TARP, Dubai World, et al. And a hearty welcome to the star of 2010: commercial real estate.
2. President Barack Obama:
“I’m trying to … sum up President Obama’s first 11 months in office. He gave billions to Wall Street, cracked down on illegal immigrants getting healthcare, [sent] 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. You know something? He may go down in history as our greatest Republican president ever.” — Jay Leno, 12/3/2009
1. Growing Water Scarcity:
The single greatest crisis facing our world today. Only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater, and of that, less than one-third of 1% is accessible to humans. And what is left is being depleted at an alarming rate throughout the world (that includes the U.S.). Equally unnerving is that with one of the largest freshwater resources in the world, Canada could transform itself into a superpower (#MattLaforge).
Jeremy “N1pp3r” Harrington
I used to work out with Jeremy every day at the Reggie Lewis Center. That was a great year. Since then, Jeremy has moved to Richmond, Va., and has traveled much of the world. To be sure, he works a little bit too, doing technical back-end work on a number of high-profile Web sites. I have seen him once in the last four years, and am not happy about it:
Top 10 (sort of) things of the last decade (the oh’s? the zeros? whatever.)
Music:
I’d say it was a pretty good decade for music, but there was a lot of dumb stuff too. Rap became the prevalent musical form, mixtapes and the Internet and ringtones crushed the album. People went from having collections of a couple hundred CDs to fucking iPods with 160 gigabytes of music, which is probably like 10,000 CDs or something crazy like that. Obviously there are like 5,000 songs from the last 10 years that you should have on your iPod, so I’m gonna list some bangers you’d want to play in your car in the summer when you’re driving to the river and it’s like 100 degrees outside. The kind of day when you drive with no shirt on and the windows down.
Cam’Ron — ”Killa Cam“
This is just a straight banger. The chorus is catchy, the lyrics are all about how cool and real you are, it’s sort of an under-the-radar song from the Dipset fam. Banger.
Cam’Ron — “Hey Ma“
If the girl in your car DOESN’T know this song? Get her out of your car, A.S.A.P. Where was she in 2002 when this came out? I was fucking punk back then and I HATED rap (don’t ask) and I still know every word to this song. This song fucking rules and the video is good too. Even if you’re fucking 26 and your life really isn’t that crazy in 2009 (I am, it’s not) the part where he’s like, “I’m 18 and live a crazy life,” I fucking FEEL that part. This song also makes girls horny.
UGK — “International Playas Anthem“
Fact: all girls fucking LOVE Outkast, so you’re scoring points from the beginning, and then when the intro ends and the song kicks in with a line about never fucking without a rubber, (yeah right, haha) and now she’s thinking about banging, and this song is makin you feel like the fucking man. You’re like “I am down with UGK!”
Young Jeezy — “Soul Survivor“
You probably got real sick of this song by the middle of 2006, but right about now you SHOULD be ready for the comeback.
T.I. — “Rubber Band Man“
Are you fucking kidding me with this? “Rubber band man, wile as the Taliban”? Holy shit, this is awesome.
Shyne — “Bad Boyz“
Shyne’s was the first rap record I ever owned. (Weird, right?) Also if you’re with a girl and she is paying attention to the songs you’re playing, this is probably not the very best choice, but how fucking awesome is Shyne? Dude spent the WHOLE fucking decade in jail! For DIDDY! WTF! And then when he got out, just wanting to fucking chill for the rest of the ‘oos, he got fucking deported to Belize! Free Shyne!
Rick Ross — “Push It“
I mean Rick Ross might have been a cop and soft and shit, but this is for the summer, worry about that shit in the winter.
Gucci Mane — “Shirt Off“
This one came out late in the game, so who knows how it’ll hold up, but this is a great song when you’re rolling up to a summertime house party. Gucci definitely knows how to put you in the right frame of mind to party. And the video is straight up retarded, like looks like a bunch of retards lip syncing. Real funny.
Lil Wayne — “Shooter“
Regulators for the 2000s? Naaaaaah, but such a chill vibe to this song. Lil Wayne took off after this shit and his industry callout was dead on, Southern rap fucking stormed shit from here on out.
M.I.A. — “Paper Planes (feat. Bun B & Richboy)” (Diplo remix)
You might be sort of embarrassed to bump this too hard thanks to “Slumdog” and sweatpants college girls discovering M.I.A. but, 1.) This song is good. It’ll come back around again in like three years, and, 2.) This remix is AWESOME. Bun B destroys shit. Plus, driving around, pointing your finger-gun in the air might be gay as hell, but it feels great if you just roll with it. The remix verses make this sort of hard: “Excuse me, lemme introduce you to my lady, her name is Beretta, and she mothafuckin crazy.” Yup.
Other good stuff from 2000-2009:
TV:
“The Wire”, “Arrested Development”, “True Life”, “Planet Earth”: I guess if you read this Web site (or really just read anything) you probably know all about “The Wire.” “Arrested Development” was the fucking weirdest, funniest show ever. “True Life” was fucking awesome. remember the plastic surgery one where that douche NEEDED calf implants? Or the bodybuilder one where the guido dude’s dad is shaving his fucking ass? Or how shitty the “I’m poor” one made you feel? “My Parents are Embarrassing” where the rapper dad keeps saying “n****r” and “sand n****r” and trying to justifty it, then slaps his son on camera for saying “bitches and hos”? Do I even need to mention the Jersey Shore cheeseballs episode? The entitled Staten Island girls, or the eating disorder one, where the girl like, saves all her puke in Tupperware? What the hell, man. “Planet Earth,” just so cool. Slugs fucking, monkeys swimming, birds dancing, starfish moving, real sweet.
Tattoos:
Find somebody who is between 30 and 45 years old, ask if they have any tattoos. I bet if they do they look like this or this. All tattoos done in the ’90s sucked. It was like everybody just agreed around 1990 that they were gonna tattoo the shittiest things they could for the next 10 years, consequences be damned. Then, sometime around 2000, some fat tattoo artist was like, “Holy shit, I bet I could make a lot more money if I stopped tattooing anime girls, wiggers holding spray paint cans, and glocks on people, and started doing shit that actually looks cool.” Tattoo renaissance! Now tattoos look like this! and this! and this!
The technology to do stuff:
Remember when you were 16 and if you wanted to do anything you had to call you friend at his house? And you had to have that number memorized or look it up in an actual book? And if he didn’t answer the phone, you were fucked until he came home, or maybe you could leave a message and hopefully he’d call you back later and you’d still be home? How the fuck did people actually ever get together and fucking do anything? How did three or more people ever coordinate ANYTHING? How the fuck did you get from one place to another without getting lost and dying? If you were supposed to meet somebody at a fucking park or bus station or something but you were on opposite corners of the block, how did you ever find each other? I bet so many people just died of exposure waiting for their friends to meet them at the park, when really their friends were standing 300 feet await waiting for them and nobody ever knew. How did people ever do ANYTHING without cell phones, text messaging, Google Maps, GPS? I didn’t even have a cell phone until like 2003 and text messaging wasn’t really functional and widespread until what, 2004-2005? How the FUCK did anybody do anything? Did people just walk around with a compass and a map and a megaphone and $25 in quarters and a phonebook?
The Internet (specifically how it lets people pigeonhole themselves, and expose weirdo sub-sub-sub-subcultures to the light of day):
How awesome was it when you first found out about Juggalos and googled the shit out of them? Or those weird “Ana” girls who like help each be anorexic together? Remember when you first heard what a fucking bug chaser was? In the ’90s you had your thing. Like maybe you were really into shoegaze or something like that, but you couldn’t just go to the library or fire up your Apple IIe and start digging deeper. The Internet made it so much easier to discover who you REALLY ARE, and it made it SO SO SO much easier for us to laugh at what you really are. Suspension freaks, guys who buy dirty underwear on craigslist, body modders, people who think they are actually vampires, adult babies, furries, Japanese people, etc. All these weirdos were around 10 years ago, but nobody knew about it, and the weirdos didn’t know about how many other people like them existed. Thanks to AOL, MSN, chat rooms, newsgroups, Geocities fan sites, blogs, etc … It’s all connected, documented, up on YouTube and Facebook and Flickr, and now we can laugh at it without having to worry about getting hit in the face with a two-liter of Faygo.
Style:
Sure there was a lot of ugly bullshit going around the last 10 years (Ugg boots, Von Dutch hats, Ed Hardy gear, any track-bike related clothing, Gaucho pants, sweatpants with words on the butt, pink Red Sox hats and jerseys, brown butthole lipstick, sub-dermal implants. Just a short list off the top of my head). But look at us now. Good, fitting jeans (black people were like eight years behind but they’re finally catching on!), American Apparel (obviously a little played now, but still better than the alternative), good sneakers (dunks though? ‘fess up you dorks, that shit was never cool), aviator sunglasses and Ray Bans are undeniably cool, Crocs (seriously, so comfortable), flat shoes for girls, throwback jerseys, flannels are cool again, girls rock heels and boots instead of white sneakers (gross), black people dressing like: gay Puerto Rican bikers (rhinestone jean jackets with like purple sweatpants), or gay white people (tight purple Am. App. jeans and a yellow T-shirt with those shade sunglasses with ugly colorful Nikes), or the hardest dudes around (jean shorts that stop two inches above the ankle, sagged to show off basketball shorts which are sagged to show off boxers, and a big white tee with cool black Nikes). I dunno, maybe it wasn’t such a great decade for style after all. At least girls don’t get perms or do the scenester shotgun blast hairdo anymore.
“Monster” Joe Cristando
Joe, a Long Island native, plays bass in Sleepwall and tapes and loops in Phantom Sounds. His dad outfitted the 40/40 Club in leather. He bought a pair of Espos four years ago, and we all thought he was crazy for paying $300, but who’s laughing now? I’m not sure:
Top 10 of the Past Decade: “Compiling a list of the top 10 records of this past decade is no easy task, particularly since my taste in music has expanded into nearly every genre during the time period in question. Primarily, this list is organized with frequency in mind: These are (probably) the albums I have listened to the most throughout the decade, though they may not reflect current listening habits.”
1. Lost In Translation Soundtrack
2. Reigning Sound — Too Much Guitar
3. Eyehategod — Confederacy of Ruined Lives
4. Exploding Hearts — Guitar Romantic
5. She and Him — Volume One
6. Ghostface Killah — Supreme Clientele
7. King Tuff — Was Dead
8. Grouper — Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
9. Think I Care — S/T 7″
10. Interpol — Turn On The Bright Lights
Top 10 of 2009
1. Pains of Being Pure at Heart — S/T LP
2. Reigning Sound — Love and Curses
3. Mudlark — S/T
4. Death — …For the Whole World to See
5. Marked Men — Ghosts
6. Sleepwall — Four song 12″ EP (This inclusion isn’t on account of a giant ego on my part, but is merely something I’m extremely proud of and am happy to have taken part in.)
7. Pissed Jeans — King of Jeans
8. The Spits — IV
9. The Raveonettes — In and Out of Control
10. The Slowmotions — Mystery Action
Chris “Cooch” Minicucci
Above all else, Cooch (far right) is a hardcore scholar. A West Massachusetts native, Cooch helps run Painkiller Records, as well as a family, with great attention to detail. He has an engineering degree and once spent quality time hanging out with Raybeez (RIP). Cooch wrote the NYHC piece we did a little bit ago, an article that only scratched the surface of his breadth and depth of genre knowledge. Cooch can recite issues of Bullshit Monthly by heart. The man probably has another three books in him:
Top 10 of the Decade:
10. The Berwick, 2000-2002
The worst possible venue ever turned into the best scene ever.
9. Scheller getting a folding chair to the back of the head during Gordon Solie Motherfuckers
At Chicago Fest, 2001, courtesy of Tony Erba, and after the show saying, “I think I got hit with a trash can or something.” Also, at this show, Felix Havoc told a cop to “FUCK OFF PIG!” and jumped out a window (and was promptly arrested).
8. Mental/Righteous Jams/Dumptruck basement gig in Indiana, summer, 2005
Over 100 people packed into a shoebox-sized basement, you couldn’t walk one step without sweating out a gallon. A few songs by each band, notable as the first RJs show played without Joey C (Standhard sang). The evening ended perfectly when I walked out the house’s back door and ran face-first into Jeff Perlin.
7. The discovery of Kinder Happy Hippos at a 7-11 outside Oslo, in Norway
Shoot outs to Joey C for the discovery of these delectable hazelnut-creme-filled creatures. Snacking has never been the same since.
6. The Cro-Mags
Three unreleased early CRO-MAGS songs surfacing out of the blue, and BEEF AIN’T OVER Records.
5. Agnostic Front
The existence of this video. And having temporary possession of the original AGNOSTIC FRONT SKINHEAD shirt art.
4. Acquiring the studio version of Straight Ahead “Knockdown”
Had this thing on a tape in my backpack for two of what seemed like the longest days of my life, until a tape player could be secured. I thought my brain (or CC’s) was going to explode.
3. Not wearing glasses anymore
Can’t believe I waited this long to get contacts.
2. June 17, 2008
K.G.’s postgame interview, and the Celtics winning the 2008 title (Al Bite fuck off).
1. Painkiller Records
John Liam “Pboy” Policastro
John Liam, better known as Pboy, grew up on Mission Hill in Boston and recently moved to New York. He submitted a story about squirrels early in our site’s tenure. Not only is Pboy a comedy buff (and a right funny fellow), but he sings for the fine New Lows, whose record is available from none other than Lockin Out. He lives with Jarrod Shanahan, or at least did, in Jersey City. Good combo, to be sure:
Top 10 Events this Decade:
1. The night I had dinner with Larry David (July, 2006)
If only I had the stones to ask for a picture with him, it may have been the most important candid since Bill Clinton met J.F.K. in the Rose Garden. But let’s be real here, this is Larry David. This is the guy who said, “Where did you find these fucking people?” to the CEO of Comcast, and is also owner of a $10 million cypress-walled house where a bunch of guests who use “summer” as a verb dined, along with a friend of mine. Most of these people had no clue who Larry was, but this was my hero, my idol. I was even cut down with sharp sarcastic barbs by the man himself, as I nervously tried to engage him in some sort of banter. Yeah, I think it was pretty evident that there was not going to be a photo-op, and I am either a genius or a fool for not asking.
2. Receiving praise from Ian Roberts (August, 2002)
I signed up for a sketch writing course with Ian Roberts of the Upright Citizens Brigade, who at the time was my hero in comedy. I was living in Boston, and did not know how I was going to go back and forth to New York City, but I knew I was going to do this. Each week I would travel down with a new sketch to read at class, and each week I was receiving great feedback. Until the second-to-last week, when I scrawled something down quickly for a last-second entry, as the class had shrank over the prior six weeks. There are few feelings better than your hero belly laughing at something you’ve created, but this time was different., since it was also followed by: “This piece really followed none of the guidelines I have shown you in this class or any of the structure we’ve laid out … but I really think it’s great and you should do more of them.” I remember that exact sentence because I called everyone in my phone immediately afterward, repeating it while waiting to catch the ferry to Staten Island. As luck would have it, I came down with a vicious flu in what was heatwave weather, which forced me out of the last class. It also forced me out of seeing Poison Idea at CBGBs, and Poison Idea and Slapshot in Cambridge. This day proved to be the catalyst which would bring me back down to NYC. It was the spark, but sadly, I was out of gas.
3. My 22nd birthday (Feb. 2, 2003)
This is a “Groundhog Day” I wish I could wake up to over and over. When you wake up and go to sleep smiling to bookend making and eating a great breakfast with friends, and a b-day blowout at The Choppin Block, how can it not be the best day of your life?
4. Integrity plays The Choppin Block (July, 2003)
I still can’t understand how this really happened. Integrity had a show in Stoughton that got cancelled last second, and it was looking as though there was no place for them to play. I happened to be at The Block that day — after all, it was Sunday — and I phoned up the Deathwish office with the notion that Integrity should hop on a show there the next night. I am pretty sure either Jake or Thomas howled at the thought. But the next morning it became official that this was going to go down. I helped make (literal) last-second flyers, and threw them all over the Hill all the way down to Newbury Street. There was a cartoonishy full-size Provost tour bus on the corner of Calumet St. and Huntington Ave. when I returned to the Hill. It all added to the legend that we knew this day not only already was, but would stand to be. I need not say anything else, because if you missed it, you won’t understand. If you were there, you know all too well.
5. The night that changed my life for the best. (March, 2007)
This night was sadly no different from others at the time. I was laying in bed near 3 a.m., unable to sleep after a day of work, and was channel-surfing my way into a slumber until I scrolled to A&E. They were showing a UCB performance of “Asssscat” (their signature theatre show). I had always been more interested in writing than performing, simply because the thought of improv terrified me. Seeing what I saw brought me back to the unfullfillment I felt after my sketch class had ended prematurely. I finally found myself saying, “Wow, I think I can do this.” And I signed up the very next day.
6. My first improv show at UCB Theatre (July, 2007)
After eight weeks of an improv 101 course (two of which ended with a vicious verbal beating I administered myself after nerves had overcome me, and especially after getting lost in the city trying to find Mr. and Mrs. Morgado), it was time to perform in front of strangers for the first time in my life. The scene I ended up being in was the lighter and the fuse that would ignite something inside me I never knew I had. This was also the scene where I learned how important agreement and making your partner look good was. A much more important part of this, was my partner. Her name is Christine Nangle and this summer she was hired as a staff writer on “Saturday Night Live.” It is no coincidence that the show has been incredible this season. It will also be no surprise when I am reading mainstream Top 10s in 2019 and seeing her name and work in many of them.
7. The worst day of my life (December 3, 2005)
This was when I finally hit rock bottom after a couple years of slow free-falling. This may also prove to be the greatest day of my adult life because the next day is when I began picking myself up and getting back on track. I will not get into details now, simply because I haven’t looked back since and I am better for it.
8. 12.14.07 (December 14, 2007)
This was the great, grand, wonderful year end celebration of the New Scene. This day is perfectly encapsulated on the LOC board, and proved to be a perfect day of New Scene giggery at Jamaica Plain’s Midway Cafe and Jimmy Flynn’s Movie Loft. The day also held the greatest New Lows set of all time. Basement pitting at its zenith.
9. 5th Street four-day San Diego (February, 2004)
Myself and Colin took a break from the Death Before Dishonor California tour, which we weren’t really road doggin’ for, to hang out with my brother Jimmy, and Wes in San Diego. This impromptu hangout not only produced my favorite picture of all time but introduced me to Pokez cuisine and the madness that proved to be San Diego’s Mardi Gras, a celebration in which we became enveloped. Colin would also later get thrown off a Greyhound, but after some sweet talking via Jimmy, we get on a hellish 8 p.m.-8 a.m. ride to Sacramento and a flight home. It was sheeting rain the whole time.
10. Death of Danny Edge (11-04-00)
A downery end to a top 10, but a deeply important day for me, and for the decade, in terms of the impact it left. I was sitting in the kitchen at 103 Calumet when I was told the awful news, and it certainly put a whole new perspective on life right after that. I still can’t believe that I am well past the 21 short years that were all Danny unfortunately had in this world. I mourned his passing in a thrice-felonious manner, and sat in a cell the morning George W. Bush stole the election. Three short weeks later, Davey Kinosian would join Danny Edge in the unkind embrace. What followed those next few months was a group of people who pulled together in a manner that that came to define friendship for me. I recently revisited the group photo taken at the first benefit show, and it was bittersweet. There are friends in that picture who sadly did not make it out of this decade alive, either. Danny, Davey, Caruba, and Mike G, Rest In Peace.
AOL Instant Messenger’s Man Of The Decade: iansonthenerd. Furious nerding at its finest.
Top 10 of 2009
1. The first baby steps I took in my parents’ Mission Hill kitchen after a broken ankle halted regular movement for eight weeks.
Getting arrested and breaking my ankle in the span of 30 hours would make a worst of list. Shout out to Brandon “Smokey” for dragging me through the rain barrooms in the L.E.S.
2. Mind Eraser in M.R.R.
I thought it was funny. Shoutout to “Ghostbusters” library and Strawberry Fields. Poor MoJo dead and gone. This is my favorite band of the decade.
3. Maybe Sherman @ Under St. Marks/The First Annual Backey Awards in Brockton weekend.
These two shows blurred the lines between improv and punk rock for an incredible split second.
4. Rorschach @ The Charleston.
When you’re in a cramped bar basement and Rorschach is there ready to play with the question, “So, what do you wanna hear?” and launches into “Checkmate” when requested, you know you’re at the greatest show you’ll ever see.
5.Iron Age.
The Sleeping Eye. Their set at Sound And Fury. Their set at ICC. Even that set in Brooklyn. There is not a better live band these days.
6. Sound and Fury.
Shawn called our set the greatest he’s ever played in his life. He’s supposed to write a top 10, so I wanna see if it makes the cut. I agree with him, though. Jo Kelly couldn’t make it and we required four fill-ins, making him the human equivalent to a bowl of Total. Thank you again Bob, Todd and Riley. With the addition of Pearse. a Taco spot and Bud Light Lime, my bank statement called it “the lime-time bash of the century.”
7. Rival Mob at Sound and Fury.
I’m glad they finally topped the Stones set at Altamont. But just as with “Under My Thumb,” if you play “You Could Be Mine” under festival circumstances, it’s gonna get sketchy.
8. The 11th annual Del Close Marathon.
I was honored to perform at this with Maybe Sherman and was reminded that improv marathons put music fests to shame. Literal non-stop improv for better than 48 hours (we went on Sunday at 5:45 a.m.). A fantastic and dizzying amount of terrific shows and laughter, which led right into No. 9:
9. Dinosaur Jr./The Walkmen in Central Park.
Got three hours sleep on Zach Sherman’s couch after the marathon and made it up to Central Park in time to catch The Walkmen with Miles Klee. They’ve been a favorite band of mine for the last few years and were fantastic live. Owen thought they were “faggy.” It was my first time seeing Dinosaur Jr. since 1993, when they opened for Alice In Chains, in what was my first rock concert ever. Excellent set. Great to finally see Lou Barlow playing bass with them.
10. Austin, Arya, Dube, Edson, Eli, Kei, Jarrod and to brand new musical, theatrical and literary projects in 2010.
It’s gonna be a great year.
Jason Bil
Jay Bil is tied with Ritter for coolest person I know. Jay Bil lives in Japan, though, so they don’t have to fight for it. Jay was wearing Schism shirts in high school and co.jp’s when they dropped. A Connecticut native, Jay toured with Death Threat and is in a live photo on the back of an early-era Hatebreed shirt. He has been into Cash Money since the ’90s. He was going to write up a list of top 10 Air Force 1s but didn’t want anyone blowing up his spot. He may or may not stay in Japan forever. I’m not about to tell him what to do:
“Don’t be fooled, I was on weirdo Kit Kats and snacks since any tour I was on.”
Top 10 Kit Kats of 2010 (not to be confused with best tasting Kit Kats of 2010)(not in order)
10. Ginger Ale flavor
Biggest bumout of the year. Great, great, great premise. Tasted nothing like it. Maybe a bit like ramune flavor with a hint of lemon. Gets on the list for the idea alone though.
9. Sour Orange flavor
This was also near the top for the year. Not really sour, but a little tart, and you can’t fuck with orange and chocolate together. Would have been the best of the year if it was dark chocolate instead of milk.
8. Wasabi flavor
Not bad, wished it was hotter though. Actually tasted like wasabi but with ZERO heat.
7. Hot Pepper flavor
Another banger. A great dark chocolate with a very slight spice in the wafers. Your mouth started to feel some slight heat about a minute after consuming. A++
6. Lemon Vinegar flavor
Biggest-bumout-of-the-year contender. Just tasted like chocolate covering a lemon wafer. Good, but not a hint of vinegar. I wanted to be disgusted, instead I was hoodwinked.
5. Slight Lemon flavor
Maybe my favorite of the year. Just a pleasant treat.
4. Ramune Soda flavor
You’ve all had Ramune before. You know the soda in the cool bottle with the marble on top that is held in place by pressure and no matter how hard you try not to shake it before you open it, it still manages to spill all over your hands? Like that, but Kit Kat.
3. Grilled Corn flavor
Tasted like white-chocolate-covered wafery “niblets.”
2. Miso Soup flavor
Miso and chocolate? Sign me up!
1. Yuzukosho flavor
Yuzukosho is a paste made from an Asian citrus fruit and hot pepper. My favorite Japanese food. This flavor mixed with wafer and dark chocolate. Oh fuck! Game over.
Mimi Luse
Mimi was my editor in college. That took some patience. From Connecticut, she lives in Brooklyn, and writes a lot. Some of her work has appeared in The L Magazine. She is into a bunch of tight art:
Top cultural phenomena I was privy to this year:
March or so, 2009:
Oliver Laric, Versions 2009.
Laric’s video essay on image appropriation, dissemination in popular visual culture discusses creative corruption of the image; photoshopped Iranian test missiles , bootleg movies, “celebrity” porn, and [Zinedine] Zidane.
April 14, 2009
Seth Price at Light Industry
Circuitous, lecture remix.
June 12, 2009
Galaxie Disco Party in a modified former sex club in Chelsea
Designer Alison Child’s sweaty dance party/light-show featured weird drug-den decor, a light-up dance floor, DFA D.J. Justin Miller and the magic D.J. Love Fingers.
June 24- 28, 2009
No Soul For Sale, at X-Initiative
Independent art fair, including an arcade room of new video games curated by Mark Essen. A much needed ballast to the Armory, et al.
July 19, 2009
The Invisible Committee’s Coming Insurrection book launch, Barnes and Noble, Union Square
A insurgent book reading turned into a protest, and spilled into Sephora. Arthur Mag does a play-by-play here. Download the book text here.
September 22, 2009
Disposable Film Festival 2009 at Anthology Film center
Thirty minutes of Red Bucket Films’ series of street-video haikus, Tiny Buttons, on a massive screen.
September 28, 2009
Baltimore Annex Theatre’s Beowulf Production at the Silent Barn
Heartfelt, threadbare, and adaptation by Baltimore’s best theatre troupe.
October 7th -January 2010
For five months, art and a temporary branch library, to make up for lost Sunday hours at the Brooklyn Public Libraries, have filled the empty space next to the Applebees at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in downtown Brooklyn.
October 13, 2009
“PEN America and the ACLU : Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the ‘War on Terror’”
One of the most effective ways to disseminate the truth is for fiction writers to read it aloud. Testimonies detailing abuses suffered by detainees since 9/11 in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, as well as declassified CIA procedurals on torture, like this one, were read aloud by Don Delillo, George Saunders, Jonathan Ames, Eve Ensler, and A.M. Homes.
October 18-24 2009
College Music Journalism Marathon, Union Pool
At CMJ this year, there seemed to be an influx of talented kids from Ridgefield, N.J. (Fluffy Lumbers, Frat Dad, Big Troubles). Also loved the campy metal of Wilkes-Barre, Penn.-based An Albatross.
November 2, 2009
Readings from DeCapo’s Best Music Writing 2009, Housing Works Cafe
Nick Sylvester’s rambling, “theoretically unpublishable” piece on Girl Talk, posted to his blog, Riff Market, was included in this year’s book. Sylvester didn’t read from the piece so much as explain Girl Talk’s (Greg Gillis) response to it, which was, of course, to send him a re-mix of the article.
November 1, 2009 – April 5, 2010
100 Years at PS1 Contemporary Art Center
At once modest and comprehensive, an evolving exhibition that was an adjustment of the history of performance art with Russian Constructivist ballets (costumes designed by Oskar Schlemmer and Malevich). Following that, a room of the videos of Chris Burden, Dan Graham, Yoko Ono ‘s performances, followed by more rooms screening contemporary artists like Alex Bag, Ryan Trecartin, and Forcefield.
November- December 2009
Beginningless Thought/Endless Seeing: The Works of Stuart Sherman curated by Yolanda Hawkins at 80 WSE (NYU) and Stuart Sherman: Nothing Up My Sleeve curated by Johnathan Berger at Participant Inc.
A funny, sensitive performance artist honored eight years after his passing.
November 1-22, 2009
The First/ Last Newspaper, Port Authority Station window
Dexter Sinister published a broadsheet twice a week, featuring writing by Jan Verwoert, Rob Giampietro, Dan Fox, Walead Beshty, during the Performa09 Festival.
December 30, 2009
Roky Erickson at Maxwells’ in Hoboken
This should be good.
Jeff Pickett
Jeff, a California native, has been a Lakers fan all his life. That’s the lame part. The cool part is that he grew up in a Manhattan Beach home blocks away from where Thomas Pynchon wrote Gravity’s Rainbow. Then again, there’s nothing lame about being a fan of Cedric Ceballos. Jeff is a tight and proud basketball fan. He is one of many friends who we simply don’t see anymore. Jeff played guitar in Jaguarz, and is now in Pulse Out:
Top 10 Words Lived By in the Naughts:
1. “What we must learn to do, we learn by doing” — Aristotle
2. “I wanted to be left alone, so I left alone” — Miki Dora
3. “Know all that you say, but don’t say all that you know” — My Mother
4. “Let’s get weird” — Proverb
5. “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes” — Carl Jung
6. “How much of human life is lost in waiting?” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. “Don’t fall in love with potential” — Wise Man
8. “If you do it all, there’s no reason to go back” — Nik
9. “I’d make my promises now if I weren’t too busy arranging to keep them” — Citizen Kane
10. “Try again in 2010″ — Anonymous
Top 10 iTunes play count as of 12/31/09
1. Love “My Little Red Book”
2. My Bloody Valentine “Thorn”
3. The Clean “Tally Ho”
4. Deerhunter “Never Stops”
5. Jay Reatard “Oh It’s Such a Shame”
6. The Jesus & Mary Chain “The Hardest Walk”
7. Undertones “Teenage Kicks”
8. Vivian Girls “Where Do You Run To”
9. Atlas Sound “Ativan”
10. The Homosexuals “Vociferous Slam”
Adam Rifkin
Adam plays drums for Bad Seed and for No Tolerance. He is a huge Bad Trip fan. A Wilkes-Barre native and a pretty good thrifter, Adam is touring all year with various outfits before he settles down for that clinical psychology guap:
Top 10 Best Hardcore Releases of 2009:
10. Mother Of Mercy — III
9. Bracewar — Whatever It Takes
8. Rival Mob — Raw Life
7. Nails — Obscene Humanity
6. War Hungry — Four Song Cassettes
5. Mind Eraser — The Prodigal Son Brings Death
4. Iron Age — The Sleeping Eye
3. Rise and Fall — Our Circle Is Vicious
2. Blacklisted — No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me
1. Trapped Under Ice — Secrets of the World
Travis Grillo
Trav started making pickles last year, Italian style dills from his family’s recipe, and runs a cart in downtown Boston. His pickles are now in every Whole Foods in the Boston area, and they are flying off the shelves. He has expanded to spicy dills, chips and a couple other things. I’m no food writer, but the pickles are delicious. They taste fresher than fresh fruit. He also runs not “a” Twitter, but “the” Twitter. Required reading. I don’t wish him success, I see it:
Top 10 Travis Grillo:
10. Pickle cart downtown Boston huge success!
9. Twenty-six Whole Foods stores
8. Jordan III 1994, Nike Air on the back, coped
7. Gucci Bandana
6. Crashed the van, we lived and it’s still driving
5. Still never borrowed a fucking dime from anyone to start Grillo’s Pickles. But without the support of friends and family I would have never made it. Truth be told my Boston crew showed nothing but love and all you VEG heads I got the crack. (Pickle fix, to the exclusive peppers only the Lockin Out boys get.)
4. Girl, smoke and ginger ale
3. LIFE’S a GiFT!!!
2. Spend money to make money!
1. Riding my bike from the common to Brookline two times a day when opening the pickle cart. Grinding!!!
Alex Russin
Alex was a guitar prodigy growing up in Wilkes-Barre. He is a lifelong Phillies and Steelers fan (somehow), and hates all things Boston sports. Alex plays guitar in Cold World and in Gypsy. He once got flipped off by Albert Belle in the 1996 ALDS, but got Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome’s autographs. Alex’s father is a Browns fan, and had a lot of fun at his expense a few weeks ago:
“I don’t think anyone would/should care what my top 10 albums of the year, decade, all time are. Why? Because I don’t care what yours are. You probably like Queens of the Stone Age, Gucci Mane, or Stop and Think. So! I don’t care what you listen to, and you won’t care what I listen to … so here are my:”
Ten Notable Deaths this Past Decade:
TOWERS
1. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Everyone will remember where they were when they heard the news. I was in my freshman dorm room at Temple University and my entire floor gathered around the same 13″ TV to watch what would forever change America. There are lots of “theories” as to what happened on September 11, 2001. Some people believe this guy masterminded the whole event, and others believe that this guy was really behind it all. Regardless, from that day forward we would never live the same way.The victims numbered 2,995, and we are reminded of it almost daily. A country that once believed itself impenetrable now has to live under codes of orange, red, yellow, and whatever other color. At least we got some revenge.
Racism
2. RACISM IS DEAD! ITS OVER!!! We have a black president!! Fear not, our civil rights leaders of the past, all is finally well! We no longer will judge people on facets of their life that they cannot control. Not race, not sex, not religion. FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST! Except the gays. You’re still not even allowed to get married. Sorry. Priests can give a seven-year-old boy a Snickers bar to touch their pre-pube-having penis, but you two fully-grown men, who contribute to society, with jobs, and pay taxes,that love each other unconditionally … WE WILL RECOGNIZE IT!! So yeah … Racism. Phew. Glad that’s over.
Michael Jackson
3. M.J.! I remember where I was when I heard the news … In my friend Greg’s back room about to record some music. His wife called and asked if we had heard the news about Michael Jackson. Why do I remember this? BECAUSE IT WAS SIX GODDAMN MONTHS AGO. Will I remember this in five years? No. Probably not. Because I’m going to law school, and will be filling my head with information I actually will need for the rest of my life. But, good songs, great dancing, and it even turns out he probably didn’t do that, but Jesus Christ help me … if I have to hear Thriller one more time and watch a group of fat self-loathing sorority girls try to do “the dance,” I swear to god I’m going to piss my pants and throw up on a werewolf.
CDs
4. Compact Discs. Seriously tell me the last time you bought one. If you’re reading this site, I’m betting it was 15 years ago because you’re probably a dork. But shocking news for you, Urkel: The real death didn’t come until this decade. Record labels are all but done making CDs. Back to vinyl, but now including a download card, so you can put the songs right on to your new-fangled portable music device …Which is cool with me. But, you pecker-heads need to start actually buying said vinyl. It looks better, sounds better, and purchasing music will inevitably help more musically-proficient bands surface, and you can stop complaining about all the music you complain about now … Well, maybe not. But stop being cheap tight-pocketed dicks. Oh, you don’t have a job so you can’t spend money? That leads me to …
The Economy
5. The Economy! So, apparently, when you give someone credit you’re suppose to look at their salary, credit history, and if they are wearing sweatpants when they came in to the bank that day. I guess no one took this into account … Except Warren Buffet. Anyways, everything got so screwed up that the stock market has consistently hit record lows, and everyone lost their job. Don’t worry though, because you still have your retirement fund. What? You put yours in the stock market? Oh, well, you’re fucked, too. It’s gotten so bad that not even the American cornerstone of employment, the automobile industry, could stay afloat. Our newly-appointed president had to step in and lend them 20 bucks or something like that. So now, there are no cars on the road except hybrids because we can’t even buy gas anymore. What? You didn’t get the memo, Chris “Birdman” Anderson?
Hova
6. JAY-Z. It’s a shame. He died after the Black Album came out, because it smoked Blueprint 2, and I really think he could have kept bringing some heat. “Fade to Black” was so dope too. Saw that in theaters three times. But Jigga man’s untimely death is just another in the long line of great deceased rappers.
Johnny Ramone Dee Dee Ramone Joey Ramone
7. Three-quarters (fifths) of the Ramones. Wow. I’d probably be playing in jam bands if it weren’t for what these guys did to NYC punk. Can’t even make a joke. Except this one: “Rock N Roll High School.”
George Harrison
8. No, that’s not Jesus Christ … That’s George Harrison. He was in a band called The Beatles, and put out the best solo records of the four after their breakup, but no one will ever give him that credit, because he didn’t bang girls with one leg, or take naked pictures with psychotic Asian ladies. He was a great guitar player, and that scumbag Eric Clapton stole his first wife, and then wrote a song about it. Slowhand my ass … more like WORST FRIEND EVER-hand.
Ronald Reagan
9. “RONNIE REAGAN, HE’S OUR MAN, IF HE CAN’T DO IT, NOBODY CAN!”- Murphy’s Law. Honestly, no one person has had such an influence on punk rock. He fueled Bad Religion, MDC, Black Flag, the Descendents, Fugazi, and almost every other band in the 1980s. And I think it’s pretty safe to say, with the exception of the aforementioned lyric, he really wasn’t liked very much. Trickle-down economics, listing ketchup as a vegetable, tearing down the Berlin Wall. And I learned in “Back to the Future” that he was an actor.
Steroids
10. So there was a time in the ’90s when baseball basically became the NHL … no one cared about it. There was a strike, a missed World Series, and no one cared anymore. Until one day … the two assholes pictured above began hitting home runs every other at-bat. At the time, we all believed it was because, “the balls were wound so much tighter,” or, “the bats were so much better constructed.” What the hell does that even mean? It doesn’t matter, because we accepted it. So much so that after the most holy of all records was broken by one jerkoff who won’t make it into the Hall of Fame, another prick decided he had seen enough, and would now come in and hit even more home runs in one season. BASEBALL WAS BACK!! But then, we found out that it was all a lie, because these guys were basically pro wrestlers who took steroids and other “performance-enhancing drugs” to help them achieve these astronomical numbers. The commissioner of baseball decided to do something about it, by watching it all happen. (Watching is doing SOMETHING, technically). The Senate came in, and with the help of the Red Sox created a list of everyone who did steroids as long as they weren’t Red Sox. Then it turned out that even Red Sox players were doing it. But no one does it anymore.
Honorable Mention:
Heath Ledger
I know I know. Heath Ledger isn’t dead, he’s in jail. BUT! By the time he gets out of prison, his acting career will basically be dead. I’m happy he got locked up for a few reasons: 1.) Dog fighting is disgusting and anyone who does it should be locked up for the majority of their life, and, 2.) He sucked. Yeah that’s right. I said it. “Brokeback Mountain”? I didn’t see it. Not because I’m a homophobe, I’m not by any means, but because it was a love story. I’m not falling for your tricks, Ledger. “Oh, but what about ‘Dark Knight’? He was perfect as the joker!!” SHUT UP. You’re probably one of those dipshits who dressed up in green and purple for Halloween. This basically created the new Crow costume. Everyone wanted to dress up like this idiot. If you dressed up as the “Dark Knight” Joker you fall somewhere on the line between Juggalo and Guido.
TOP TEN THINGS ARTHUR HAS SAID/DONE IN 2009:
10. “If you were on a desert island, what three ingredients would you bring?”
9. “You should buy your girlfriend $100 worth of snacks for Christmas … Why the hell wouldn’t she like that? … Then give it to me. Cause I promise I’ll like it.”
8. “The guitarist of Mind Eraser plays such heavy riffs. He is so good.”
7. (Later that night:) “Saw the guitarist of Mind Eraser play in some other band. He fucking sucks.”
6. (On working sound for an ICP show) “I’d just be like ‘GET OUT OF THE WAY,’ and they’d say no. It made me want to be a Juggalo.”
5. “My new band is called Menstrual Stench. I’m gonna soak the tapes in a bucket of water with dead fish in it, and then send them out.”
4. “You gonna get that Snow Po Piece?”
3. “Whats your favorite MeatShits song?”
2. “I got a new vom bag.” (A vom bag is a sick-bag on an airplane. Anytime Arthur flies, he takes said bag and uses it to hold all his possessions, and then stores said vom bag in a microwave for some reason. He also fits all of his belongings into a guitar case when he travels, whether he needs the guitar or not.)
1. Working sound for Duff McKagan’s new band, Arthur stood over the mixing board and, with a handful of Indian food, gave Duff daps.
Chris Corry
Some (like Arthur) know Chris as the guitarist of Mind Eraser, a heavy band that has been evolving admirably. Others might know the man from Mentally Challenged, which has three guitars. Some, I hope, know Chris from Stop and Think. Some from No Tolerance, or Step Forward. Or as one-third of Painkiller Records. Chris has played and plays in some fine bands, and indeed, has a songwriting style. Now in Boston, he grew up a block away from the 9:30 Club, rooting for the Redskins. CC used to be a bad guitarist and is now a great soloist. It’s impressive. He’s a bit of a ghost these days, so I’m especially excited for this list:
“Being entertained in 2009 was a task of high difficulty for the likes of me. I’m a music guy, sort of, (sort of not), but never before have I been so disinterested in the larger musical landscape. This could mean music is at a point in which it has little resonance with me, it could mean I’m getting old, it could mean that the way I consume and internalize music has changed. At any rate, compiling my best of 2009 list has been more difficult than in past years. Maybe I’m just not motivated. Below follows a list of this year’s more pleasant musical experiences.”
1. Paintbox — Trip, Trance, Traveling (Prank — USA; HG:Fact — Japan)
This LP is the swansong for Japanese HC guitar legend Chelsea (formerly of Deathside, Poison Arts, etc.), taking several years and an untold number of tracks to realize, and having as much in common with traditional Burning Spirits-style Japanese HC as it does with J-Pop and Willy Wonka’s technicolor candy factory. Paintbox is a band that has always harnessed feelings of beauty and joy, even on their more straightforward and immediately aggressive releases, so it’s with a little bit of sadness I realize the irony of Trip Trance Traveling. This is a hardcore record like Queen’s A Night At The Opera was a hard rock record. It’s wasted on the genre, as I suspect many of its supporters (perhaps myself included) will never truly understand how tied to the hearts and souls of its creators this album was, and for many genre enthusiasts, it might just be more of an extravagant oddity than anything else. It’s a travesty that while the wider musical world is intellectualizing and absorbing such swill as Rated R, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and Them Crooked Vultures, this will fly under their (admittedly unworthy) radar, and be relegated to the (equally unworthy) hardcore blog-o-sphere and remaining punk newsstand publications. Enough negativity. There are so many transcendent moments on this album, it’s really a shame Chelsea couldn’t live to see it to completion. While Earthball will always remain my personal favorite, I’m filled with great admiration for the band’s achievement on this album.
2. Chaos In Tejas, May, 2009
Fests suck. It’s a well-known fact. They’re expensive, they go from sunup to sundown, they take place in shitty gymnasiums 40 minutes from any kind of real civilization, you eat fast food all weekend, everything is overpriced … Except when you go to Austin for Timmy Hefner’s Chaos In Tejas. Eyehategod, Cocksparrer, Amebix, Cro-Mags, each headlining one of the four days, with luminaries such as Judgement, Crude, Midnight, Annihilation Time, Ai, Skitkids, Harvey Milk, Iron Age, Hatred Surge, etc. filling out the supporting slots. The shows barely begin before the Texas sun has set, most of them are, mercifully, in open-air bars, and they’re all right in the heart of Austin, where there’s plenty of cool shit to do when you’re not stage diving. All killer — no filler, this might have just been my lucky year, because it’s like someone went into my most-played artists iPod list and made an extended concert out of it.
3. Black Sabbath’s S/T, Paranoid, Master of Reality — deluxe edition 2CD reissues (Sanctuary)
These albums will be reissued until the end of time, and each time it happens the party line will go that the newest is the most definitive version. I don’t really expect there can much to be done to top these releases, though. A much more tasteful mastering job than on the 2004 “Black Box” editions, with each reissue containing a bonus disc of alternate takes. One even has an honest-to-God “lost track” (the playfully-titled “Weevil Woman ’71,” which appears on the Master Of Reality bonus disc). My only complaint: Why hasn’t this been done for Sabbath’s entire pre-Tony Martin-era catalog yet? I NEED IT.
4. Low Threat Profile 7″ (Deep 6)
A long-lost relic … a power violence supergroup … I never thought this would exist. Andy Beattie (No Comment, Man is the Bastard) on vocals, Matt Domino (Infest, Neanderthal) on guitar/bass, Bob Deep Six (Lack Of Interest) on drums. Musically, it’s between Infest’s No Man’s Slave and the first two Capitalist Casualties 7″s. Pure thrashing hardcore, and proof my taste has not matured from when I was 17. Eleven songs in about five minutes, no commercial potential.
5. Finnish Death Metal
For a while I’ve prefered Finnish to Swedish when it comes to brutal and ancient death metal sounds, but this year I feel like Finland really took the cake, serving up Vorum’s Grim Death Awaits (Woodcut) and Claws’ Absorbed in the Nethervoid (Razorback). Vorum are a young band, Claws a solo creation of Lasse Pyykko (who was behind last year’s exceptional Fufill The Curse as Hooded Menace). Both bring to mind the prowling, deathlike tendencies of Finnish greats of yesteryear, like Abhorrence, Convulse, Demigod, and Belial. This is the real thing (e.g. “Only Death Is Real”). No uptown Brooklyn art student noise, no sieg-heiling fat guys in clown make up with political agendas. Just truth. Hails to Finland.
6. The Lo-Fi Basement Garage Pop Jangle Explosion
Thank fucking God that Pitchfork, Vice, and whatever people younger and hotter than me read, have now picked up on all these four-tracking, reverbing, off-key-singing dweebs. The Vivian Girls, The Blank Dogs, The Kurt Viles, The Wavves, The Times New Minnesota Vikings, and everything else have gone where they belong: Indie rock’s minor leagues. IT’S GETTING OLD doesn’t even begin to describe it, so please, go forth, form a habit, sell your CDs in Urban Outfitters, get three stars in Spin, I’m not going to miss any of this drivel or its feigned connection to the “underground”. Just kidding, there’s no such thing as the underground, but I was getting sick of weak basement imitations of Pavement, the Slits, and The Cure, being passed offf as “punk.”
7. Heaven and Hell — The Devil You Know (Rhino)
A reunion of Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules lineup that proved to be much more dense and epic than the three tracks they recorded in 2007 would have led me to believe, and while nothing here is as perfect as “The Shadow Of The Wind” from that session (probably Tony Iommi’s best riff since “Falling Off The Edge Of The World,” or “Zero The Hero”), The Devil You Know is still a formidable doom metal album. In fact the biggest shock was how steeped in traditional ’80s vintage doom the record seems to be, sounding like a classier take on Candlemass, Penance, or maybe even some Trouble. The songs are slow burners, for the most part, not always delivering an easy hook, but still crushing you. Get well, Ronnie James Dio.
8. Mammoth Grinder — Extinction of Mankind LP (Cyclopean Records)
A lot of records I liked came from Austin this year, and if this were a proper “best LPs of the year” list, you’d see Iron Age’s The Sleeping Eye and Hatred Surge’s Deconstruct near the top, along with at least a mention of the Sacred Shock LP and Vaaska’s debut 12″ on 540 Records. But it’s one thing when a band you know is great delivers a great record, and it’s another when one you’ve never heard of comes out of nowhere and does the same thing. It’s maybe even more shocking when they don’t have the best name. A bunch of hardcore youths coming out and sounding like Carnage without solos, or Terrorizer without blast beats, but not just kind of sounding like what I’m saying. They really sound like it. This is an excellent reboot for a young band (they previously had been dealing in unremarkable sludgecore), and I think it hints that there are a lot of great things to come. At the very least it’s the first important statement from an emerging voice in brutality. I won’t give any minus points for Relapse reissuing this on CD, because they’re young.
9. Amebix — Live
I wasn’t born an Amebix fan, it took until my 20s. Liking Killing Joke and Joy Division and really wanting to hear a grimier, glue-huffing version of those bands, though if you had asked me a year ago, I would have said these shows sounded like the worst idea. As it turned out, this was one of the best punk reunions I’ve ever been party to, with every detail well-planned and meticulously executed. A good song selection, a pro-level drummer to hold the rhythms together, pre-recorded interludes and keyboard sections perfectly synced with the band. In all likelihood, Amebix sounded better in 2009 than they did in the early ’80s.
10. Grind Madness: Live At The BBC 3CD (Earache)/Trapped In A Scene: UK Hardcore 1985-1989, by Ian Glasper (Cherry Red)
Both the record and the book focus on the late 80′s UK hardcore scene, with the 3CD set documenting most of the Earache-related bands that played John Peel’s radio show in what were their most relevant eras (Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass, Godflesh, Unseen Terror, Bolt Thrower, Intense Degree, Heresy, and on). For some of the bands on the comp, these BBC sessions were the definitive document. While Glasper’s Trapped In A Scene documents most of the groups, it also acts an encyclopedia of also-rans, and since we’re talking bands from the UK, many have the worst names ever. Highlights include: Skum Dribblerzzzz, Bad Beach, Doctor and the Crippens, Snapping Bogseats, Sofahead, Sons Of Bad Breath, Bad Dress Sense, Salad From Atlantis, Immolato Tomatoes, and of course, the infamous Pink Turds In Space.
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