KYLE KING - Top Ten of 2013

   Kyle King: besides being my roommate AND co-worker, I've spent countless hours sitting next to him in dingy vans as we rumbled across both North America and Europe in our now-defunct band, NEON PISS. He's now playing guitar in COLD BEAT and, as you'll soon see, reading a lot. 


   2013, best seen in the rear-view. In a year that careened from the depths of abject fatalism to the rocky heights of social aloofness, there was shockingly much down time; thusly, I read. I read in a handful of airports in different countries, on several trains, inside a cold warehouse, et cetera - typical jet set.
   Naturally, I did other things with my time. I moved to San Francisco, stared at a myriad of glowing screens, and rediscovered a fondness for walking that I’d lost while living in Oakland. Music was a constant companion, as always, but the content of the following carried me from night into day and back again and thereby warranted a “year-end list.” Read at your own risk.
Honorable mentions go out to the books that keep me reading, the short and pulpy ones that infuse easy joy between interminable slogs of bleak foreign fiction. Simenon, PKD, the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard collection (Maj Sjöwall’s The Locked Roomespecially), Denis Johnson, et al.


Ten Fiction Books I Legitimately Enjoyed in 2013 (in no certain order)

1. The Hour of the Star– Clarice Lispector
Many thanks to E.R. Conner for directing my mind, at some point, towards Lispector. An excellent way to start a year while living under a staircase. (Hopefully, there is more Lispector to come now that I’ve escaped.)

2. A Fan’s Notes – Frederick Exley
Brutal clarity. Enough direct interaction with people whose stories don’t read so picaresque makes me approach anyone’s pseudo-fictional memoir of trips to-and-from the mental hospital with caution. Thankfully, Exley didn’t romanticize his degeneracy, he simply lived it, and lived it continuously. Hilarious, beautiful, and painful all at once.

3. The Elementary Particles– Michele Houllebecq
Having avoided this book due to the author’s reputation and the subsequent ado over its publication, I finally came around to it this year as it lay on a sale table at Moe’s in Berkeley. Complaints of misogyny via the poor characterization of female characters unfortunately ring true, yet the detached tone of narration – even regarding the two brothers at the story’s core – is one of misanthropy. With a current of speculative fiction running through this book (cloning, transhumanism, dystopian sexual deviance), Houllebecq throws the gauntlet at modernity with a sense of dark humor. Classically French, know what I mean?

4. Institute Zagreb 1986/The Air of Conquerors – S.T. Lore
Following an instinct towards the Ballardian brand of surreality, I came across this bewildering split novel courtesy of D.X. Stewart (distortcult.blogspot.com). The forced blur of consciousness that is air travel suited this book well, as the delusions of old age forge “detective fiction” unlike any I’d read thus far. It’s something of an inexplicable book that I’m looking forward to reading again.

“It was reassuring for her to view this landscape, to know that all that exists will return to molten form, whether it is a column of stone wrapped in molten metal or the figure of human beings themselves – all our landscapes will bloom and evolve along with dying stars. Just look around.”

5. Sátántangó– Lazslo Krasznahorkai
Like his collaborator Bela Tarr, Krasznahorkai uses minutiae as a tool, digging further and further into nuance, exploring every thought of each character. Notably referred to by Susan Sontag as “the contemporary Hungarian master of the apocalypse,” I was again ensnared as I perused the new releases at Green Apple, then found myself hugely affected by the fever-dream internality of his writing in this book. Binging on Krasznahorkai isn’t recommended, but the pieces in Music & Literaturemagazine were an excellent follow-up after Sátántangóhad me in search of more.

6. Astragal– Albertine Sarrazin
Something is lost in escaping – perhaps that’s the most transcendent part of each escape, the shedding of the bonds (literal or figurative).Disassembling oneself to fit neatly through the cracks in the door reveals a different escape plan entirely.After looking for a copy of this book for a couple of years – Sarrazin had been billed as a “female Genet” – New Directions put it back in print and I snagged it as soon as I saw a copy.Reading this book near simultaneously to watching Bresson’s A Man Escaped realigned my entire perspective of the world of crime/criminal fiction, as, like the best of them, Astragal meditates on “freedom” and its im/possibilities.

7. The Stars My Destination– Alfred Bester
Precipitating the “new wave of science fiction” and cyber-punk entirely, Bester made an absolute classic that I had the pleasure of reading this year and plan to read again in 2014. Teleportation, synesthesia, and hardly a sympathetic character to be found make this an essential read for a bright future.

8/9. The Face of Another/Inter Ice Age 4– Kōbō Abe
I read these two books by Abe – likely most famous outside of Japan for Woman in the Dunes– one after another, drawn in by his rigorously scientific style of speculative fiction. Not unlike The Elementary Particles, both novels deal with a kind of corruptive singularity theory; as technology enables human beings to do more, they become increasingly removed from humanity in thought and deed. As each story progresses, the plot becomes almost maddeningly claustrophobic as characters lose all mooring in what had previously appeared to be a rational universe. Psychedelic and portentous all at once.

10. Speedboat – Renata Adler
This was the last book I read in 2013, started in the back of a MUNI bus and finished on a couch in Big Sur. A fitting book to close out on. In Sátántangó, the mulling over of detail and every thought was like a slow rumble, a building collapsing from within, ice cracking underfoot. Adler does the same, but her prose hums along persistently, cyclically buzzing with a manic energy that crafts vignettes and takes each scene apart, bit by bit, with razor-edged finesse. Hers are the notes of a journalist, written in short hand on the backs of blank checks, and though discontinuity abounds, she draws some sort of narrative along, spellbindingly. Glad to have seen NYRB put this back into print, as well as her second novel, Pitch Dark, which I plan to dig up in 2014.

NO STATIK - "Earhammer Soundsystem" - Tape - 2013

   I decided to take a break from the barrage of top ten lists today and just share a completely badass tape with you. If you're even a casual reader of this blog, my thoughts on NO STATIK are probably no secret to you. In short, I think they are one of the best contemporary hardcore bands that you could possibly have the pleasure of experiencing. I'm aware than many readers don't visit this corner of the internet to get their hardcore fix, but please do yourself a favor today and push the download button at the bottom.
    This tape is the band's 2012 LP "Everywhere You Aren't Looking" remixed and completely fucked with by the band and their engineer, Greg Wilkinson. It starts off innocently enough with the band ripping through their song "Regrettably" , but you quickly know something is different as the guitars start to change tone or just drop out of the mix altogether. From there on out, it just gets weirder and more fucked up to the point where some of the songs don't even resemble their former selves. They incorporate elements of techno, noise and loop effects to tear their songs apart and put them back together anew. I'm still on the fence, but this might be my favorite NO STATIK release to date.
    The download doesn't split up the songs at all because, as you'll see, it's pointless to try. Track one is side A. Side B of the tape is 20 minutes of mostly blank space with a hidden track placed ten minutes in. I was confused if I should leave it as is or edit it down. Luckily for you, I decided to crop it down so that track 2 is just the nutso song featuring mouth drums on side B...no blank space.

DOWNLOAD

Is this tape still available? Fuck if I know. Iron Lung Records had some for about 5-6 seconds, but they're gone now. Go ahead and write to the band. If you ask nicely and send them some cash, they might be able to help you out. 

nostatikhc@gmail.com

ERIN YANKE - Top Ten of 2013

    Erin Yanke lives in Portland, plays drums in SOCIAL GRACES, works at KBOO, used to write the entire demos column for Maximum Rock n Roll and has given me better life advice that most other people. Here's the ten things that kept her going this year.

Spray Paint – S/T LP and Rodeo Songs - SS Records

   I knew of Spray Paint from their singles, but the records and getting the absolute treasure of seeing them live in 2012 TWICE gave me high expectations for their first full length record. They scoffed at my expectations, while blowing me away. And THEN did it again! I gush... but they are worth it. PLEASE listen to and love this band. Everything good about punk – freedom to create loud catchy and weird music that resonates deeply.

Neo Boys - Sooner Or Later - K Records 

   The first all female punk band in Portland. Before this record, there were only about 8 songs out in the world that they wrote, now there's a double album! They were a fantastic band, they are fantastic people who are still so dedicated to women's equity and freedom and fun! I love them. I love that this record is finally out.

 Una Bestia Incontrolable - Observant com el mon es Destrueix – La Vida Es Un Mus 

   I love when bands take hardcore and push the limits. Who knows if anyone else is attracted to the drone, the bird noises, the depth, and the wait that's going on here, but I certainly am. There are other things to love about this record, but I'll stop there.

  UV Race - Greatest hits volume 2 

    Maybe this record only exists Digitally, because it's actually 7”s complied. But damn geniuses living on the other side of the world make it hard to keep up with the releases, and I'm not so quick on picking up records these days, blah blah blah. “Garbage In My Heart” was my go-to bad mood song this year, and “Speed Freak” was my go-to late night dance hit song of the year.

 Las Otras – Las Otras 12” - Discos Sense Nom

   Yes, it makes me riled up and makes my anger and frustration cathartic and fun! Feminist, political, smart, interesting, critical, a fantastic modern band critiquing our world. And great people on top of it! So good!

Long Knife – Wilderness – Feral Ward

   Best Poison Idea record in a long fucking time! And yet, so much more than local boys/local hero worship. There is one song where the vocals go all backwards and fucked up, and that's when I went from fan to total fan. This is a soundtrack to my experiences on late night public transportation, waiting rooms and holding cells, the heroin burger king, etc. This record makes me feel sane and grounded.

  Gas Rag – Human Rights – Beach Impediment 

   I think the first 10 times Cissie played this on the radio show this year, I asked her what it was. Classic no frills no fuss hardcore. Thrash part thrash part mosh part thrash part. Thank you!

 Flesh World – Flesh World – La Vida Es Un Mus

   I heard tales of this in the summer, and I'm glad it came out in the stormiest Portland month. It's dark and energetic, catchy and coy.

 Love Triangle – Clever Clever – Static Shock

  Thank you Greg Harvester for pointing this one out to me! Scratches the same itches as Jay Reatard with more bounce, more zest or the Marked Men with more snot. I listened to this over and over at work one day and was asked who this band was a lot! Pretty good job making the hippies and the activists take notice!

 The worst news this year was the fact that Richie Ramone put out a record called “Entitled”. Do you believe that shit? Fuck that guy.

MEGAN MARCH - Top Ten of 2013

  Besides having a tremendous head of hair, Megan March is also an outstanding drummer and has been a good friend for a long time. She doesn't remember this, but once she taught me how to tune a set of drums....a skill I promptly forgot...and a skill she claims to not possess. Tuned or not, she still makes them sound good and, more importantly, she hits really hard. She does a lot more than just hit drums, but this is what this is all about...so there. You can find her playing in STREET EATERS and WILD ASSUMPTIONS. (P.S. I'm honored that I showed up on this list among such other skilled wizards)


   My top ten this year is about drummers I saw play live in 2013. Of course this is in no real order other than alphabetical - just 10 really great talented drummers that I enjoyed gawking at while their bands played. We don't need a media machine's idea of a rock idol because our friends and community are so bad ass. Plus, everybody seems to overlook all the busy work most drummers are doing, so this is a small homage to all the creative, rudiment driven, stick breaking wild asses that kept the beat in 2013. Some of these bands broke up this year, or decided to go into hiding. I can guarantee you I've forgotten a few, so this is by no means an end all list of good punk drummers!!

 1. Adrien Tenney - SPOKENEST

 2. Chris - SURVIVAL KNIFE

 3. Greg Harvester - NEON PISS (RIP)

 4. Jamie - STILLSUIT

 5. Jawsh - CRIMINAL CODE

6. Justine and Hozoji - LOZEN

7. Lillian Marring - GRASS WIDOW (RIP?) and WET DRAG

 8. Rich Gutierrez - SOURPATCH (RIP) and PERMANENT RUIN

  9. Sean Nieves - NO BABIES and WILD ASSUMPTIONS

 10. Susie - QUAALUDES

MIKE TAYLOR - Top Ten of 2013

    Mike Taylor is another person on this list who I wish I saw more. He is an artist living in Brooklyn, NY, most notable for his zine, Late Era Clash, and completely unknown for his current band, Young Ruins. His solo show No/Future opens at Booklyn Artist Alliance on January 18th. 

1.) Broken Water, live at Death by Audio, 5/13.

I was late arriving to this boat, but here I am now. Recorded, Broken Water sound just like, you know, S-----Y---- to me.  Live, however, they are genuinely weird. When your ears or eyes correct a small gap in input, as in making moving film of stills or actual music digital sound waves…my mind did a similar thing as I watched Broken Water. The musical landscape is so cluttered with imposters that it sometimes takes a moment to recognize realness; it is often initially perceived as an imperfect facsimile. Japanther and Extra Feeler also played this show; it was a solid bill.

2.) Paul McCarthy all over Manhattan, fall, 2013.

I hate it as much as anyone when New Yorkers start that best city in the world shit, but I admit that it feels fortunate when one of the biggest cultural events of the year is Paul McCarthy taking over the Park Ave. Armory to stage a multimedia psychosexual Disney nightmare. As the centerpiece to his two simultaneous, completely different shows at Hauser and Wirth’s two Manhattan locations,  WS at the Armory was Mannerist  restaging of New York City at its most debased: a wrecked home within a Technicolor forest, full of ugly gnomes and beautiful Princesses throwing up all over one another.

3.) Humanbeast/ Russian Tsarlag, live at The HO_se, 7/13

This show was one of the most disgusting, humid pits I’ve been in for years. But I stayed and enjoyed it.  Maralie and Eli of Humanbeast have been playing all sorts of music in the underground so consistently, it’s a pleasure to see them show up, plug in, and casually slay. They don’t have to try anymore, but they do. For you. Carlos Gonzales, of Russian Tsarlag, is America’s premier talent. I’m sure I don’t have to elaborate on that point for the readers of this particular site.

4.) Witchhat/Dungeon Broads, 6/13, The Observatory, Chicago

I miss Witchhat already. They were one of the few bands that imagined Nirvana as a band that “actually mattered” (Nirvana was a fine rock band, but I personally reject the narrative that places them at the fulcrum of a cultural shift), and in doing so, made awesome Nirvanish rock music that swings afield of pop and further towards the genuinely ugly. At this show, they played a battle set with Dungeon Broads, which maybe is the ideal way to experience both bands.

5.) Neuron, by Robert Russett, at the New York Film Festival. This film was made in 1972, but was recently restored by the Academy Film Archive. Mike Stoltz invited a bunch of us out to the Lincoln Center to see the Views from the Avant Garde program at the NYFF, where we were treated to a wide swath of varying degrees of difficult viewing. Neuron, however, threatened to send people out of the theater. True psychedelia, all analog, nothing kind about it. Another hidden master in whose wake we’re still swimming.

6.) Lord Dog Bird, live at Silent Barn

7.) Lord Dog Bird, The Trinity Knot LP

For the recent incarnation of Lord Dog Bird, Colin has traded the guitar drone for organ. I first heard these songs live at Silent Barn and was wholly unprepared. I’ve known Colin since he fronted The Don Martin 3 in, what, 1995, 96? He has always, always been just enough ahead of the listener’s expectations. His new songs always land like buckshot; I remember thinking at each interval in the last 20-odd years, “OK, finally he has recorded some songs that just aren’t for me”, and without fail, the songs formerly in question become the new gold standard. I’m not sure if the record buying public is in agreement, but artists don’t seem to be making great livings off writing heart wrenching songs about truth.

8.) Total Control, live at 285 Kent

The first band ever from Australia was AC/DC. This is the second. Pretty good, for a bunch of 13 year old male models.

9.) Mary Robison

I’ll zero in on Why Did I Ever, a short novel comprised of 536 short chapters that began as index cards she used to write her way out of a severe spell of writer’s block in the 90s. Her most recent novel is One DOA, One on the Way. I haven’t read it yet. I just found Why Did I Ever this year, and it’s as terse and sad as all those Raymond Carver stories you already like, but the narrator has a heart, and a preference for things turning out OK. It’s easy to love minimal fiction, but it’s surprising when there is blood flowing between the wry observations and sad surprises.

10.) Mickey Z. /Michael Deforge/Patrick Kyle as a casual comics juggernaut. “Rain Comic”, “Butler Comic”, “Pixar’s Cars”, “Batman”, “Basketball”. As much as I am a fan of each of these artists individually, as a team they seem to highlight how everyone else just tries too hard. You can’t try to be funny and you can’t try to be weird. 

SHELLSHAG - Top Ten of 2013

    SHELLSHAG (Shell on guitar and Shag on drums) is a band that has been around for what feels like a lifetime now. I've seen them play their fucked up, beautiful songs flawlessly to absolutely no one in rooms while acting like they were selling out Madison Square Gardens. I've admired their ability to persevere through rough times, including the late 90's Mission punk scene when it seemed like no one would make it out alive. I've also danced and cried along with rooms full of beautiful freaks while they have played hit after amazing hit. SHELLSHAG is timeless, freaky, amazing and I'm proud as hell to know that they are my friends. Huge sighs. 

TOP TEN THINGS THAT FUCKED US UP AND TEN THINGS THAT DIDN'T IN 2013.

1. blowing our show at do ya hear we 
2. making out with other people
3. unpacking everything we own after 10 years
4. watching old movies we made in the 90's
5. booking a few shows with bookers
6. driving during a panic attack
7. top ten lists
 8. being in the middle of friends fighting
 9. fighting with a one man band in Greenville NC
10. touring "without" Justin Boemer, Josh Wolpert or Greg Rice Harvester

 1. Playing with Underground Railroad to Candyland
2. Recording green vapors with Screaming Females
3. Scum of the Earth (int)
4. Seeing Terry Johnson
5. releasing shellshag forever
6. hand making shellshag noize toys
7. Playing with Ted Leo
8. Playing Hawaii with some of the greatest people on earth
9. Awesome Fest
10. The Amputees

LAURA RUOCCO - Top Ten of 2013

   I don't see Laura often enough. We used to live in the same house and still never saw each other. Anyhow, Laura is awesome. She was part of the the collective, For The Birds, helps out with the Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls, plays in a band (info below) that I'm sure is great and has been a source of inspiration to me in different ways.

In no real order...

HYSTERICS // IN SCHOOL at death by audio

    this show was so fun!! both of these bands are so good!! in school is super tough, inspirational, smart hardcore. i wish they played more shows!!
   i am obsessed with hysterics, they are just the perfect band. super fucking angry but also HILARIOUS and so fun to watch. i feel like everyone around me was just beaming throughout their whole set. pure rage met with pure joy! so stoked for their new 7"!!

 HOT TEARS at 131 tompkins

   i first heard molly play these songs in the summer of 2012, and i was blown away by the beautiful, haunting songs she had written, and how full and powerful her voice was! since then i have listened to her EP like...so many times, sometimes on repeat for like hours. getting to see her play again (with erica on cello!) after developing a relationship with her songs was really amazing. i feel like her music, in this very visceral way, shines a light on challenging emotions that are often left hidden. it is opening but not in a way that feels too depressing, kind of more like meditative and inspiring. it makes me feel proud of the many things that punk can be! hot tears just put a bunch of new songs up their bandcamp as i was writing this, and they are so good!!!

 PUBLIC HEX first show at death by audio

   ok so whatever, this is my band. but i don't care! we had been practicing for over a year, so playing outside of our practice space felt like an accomplishment. we've all been friends for years and dont get to hang out much outside of practice, so we spent a lot of practice time this year hanging out, eating pizza, talking shit about work, making the best jokes. for a while i felt bad that we took so long to write songs and weren't more "productive" in practices, but like, i feel like that is some kind of brainwashed by capitalism bullshit. for sure, writing songs rules, but whats been more valuable to me has been getting to spend time doing a creative thing with some really smart and hilarious witchy punk babes. we don't have any anything on the internet to share, but here is maybe the only photo of us all together - being really in love with each other at jessy's wedding.

 AYE NAKO- UNLEASH YOURSELF

   i've seen joe and mars play music together in different bands and in different cities for like the last 7 years. this is the first LP one of their bands has put out and it felt really emotional the day the boxes of records showed up at joe's house this spring, knowing how much work they had all put into it. something i really love about watching this band is i feel like you can see a lot about each of them as people in the way that they play: angie is really creative, energetic and fiery, mars is like..an understated badass, joe is thoughtful and pretty, and jade is dreamy yet fierce, and it all really shines through watching them! their songs are super tender but also totally tough in the way that its tough to share your tender queer freak stories! plus they write about things i can relate to, like wasting time in california, sex dreams, shit years, confusion, and (probably?) dogs.

 NEVADA- IMOGEN BINNIE

   i found out about this book from always reading imogens column in mrr, and always being like omg who is this hilarious genius?! i read the book in like two days and immediately lent it to my roommate, and then like 5 other people, then read it again, then gave a copy to my sister. it's so good! for me, this was the perfect balance of "omg yes exactly that!!!!" moments when you read something that really perfectly articulates feelings or ideas you have had, and "woah i hadn't thought about that in that way before". there's a million things on the internet that describe more about the plot and stuff way better than i would, so i'm just gonna say for now that its about a queer punk trans girl living in brooklyn and dealing with heartbreak and a shitty job, and you get to be there for a bunch of her inner monolouging through boredom, neurotic freak outs, and drunken epiphanies. i can't remember how old maria, the main character, is supposed to be in the book, but she's probably going through her saturn return. the book talks about a lot of things specific to maria being a trans woman, but does not set out to explain transitioning or trans experiences to cis readers. there are a lot of really super smart reflections about gender and sexuality and all of that, but they are woven into the story in a way that depicts really clearly how those things actually come up in day to day life, without always being the point of the story. anyway, i think everyone should read this!! AND imogen also wrote a realllyyyyyy good article about trans misogyny in punk and queer "communities"(barf!), specifically talking about people worshiping kathleen hanna despite her being totally not there for trans women. read it!! 

 LIMPWRIST at union pool

 limpwrist played two shows in new york this summer. both were amazing, but this one was way more tiny and intimate. obviously everyone knows limpwrist is awesome. they have been a band for over 10 years and are still super passionate and such a positive force!!!


THE BREEDERS at webster hall

   ok i said this about hysterics, but whatever, the breeders are ALSO the perfect band! i saw them twice this year, in may and december. they played all of last splash, and pod! the best music made by working class weirdo sisters. this song totally killed me both times:

 WITCH CAMP

  this is a performance by nath ann carrera and amber martin, in which they play witchy lovers both named isis black, who run a witch camp. i'm actually just going to paste their description because its perfect: Take a journey to WITCH CAMP where Amber Martin and Nath Ann Carrera transport you through drop-off, Learning Yurts, the pre-dawn camp favorite, "Morning Horses/Blood Sacrifice," and beyond, while ridding the room of chode intentions! Grab your baggie full of hair and your black latex glove and gather around the fireside for a battle cry against the patriarchal rape heads in this ONGOING inquisition!
   they play a bunch of covers, including this led zepplin song that is sooooo amazing, and i totally fucking hate led zepplin! the video is from a short piece they did at the heels on wheels open toe peepshow, but they have since made it into a full length performance complete with a naked broomstick riding scene.

 WILLIE MAE ROCK CAMP FOR GIRLS SHOWCASE 

 ok so rock camp showcases are always the best show of the year, but somehow this one was just like....on another level. it was a really emotional week with a lot of really intense stuff coming up with the campers i was working with, and coming out of it with a like totally fucking amazing showcase was like..such a victory. i cried like the whole time. this video is not the best quality, but seriously...this song rules..its by a band of 11-12 yr olds called HARSH CROWD (so punk!) who just went ahead and wrote a 8 minute song in one week of band practice. it starts out as this slow, quietish song with lyrics inspired by the Trayvon Martin tragedy, and in the middle they get all wild and come out with this song about rocking out. "i've got a bad attitude, and i don't care!". everyone kept describing the singer as getting all tina turner style, but i feel like the raspy vocals kept reminding me of soulful punk singers like gary floyd or something. plus the guitarist is wearing a penguin suit and the drummer has bunny ears. maybe they are all dressed like animals? i dunno. anyway, other highlights which are also on you tube are the band i coached, la luna, who were soooo awesome and supportive of each other, and another band that wrote a song about being the only watermelon in a canteloupe field, with a shouted chorus of "i will spit my seeds at you!!!"

 LISTENING TO PLANTS

   ok this is another weird personal thing, but i have been studying medicinal herbalism for the past few years, and i feel like i still have a really long way to go and will be still learning by the time i'm like 80, but this year some weird/cool stuff started happening! like i started having dreams about plants to give to people, and they would turn out to be totally a good fit! or like, i went on this trip upstate with some witchy queers and felt really pulled toward some of the plants out there that i had never seen before, and it turned out to be things that i was taking in a flower essence formula! it was really clearly this kind of communication that i haven't experienced before. i dunno what to tell you man, but it's real! this picture is of me with blue vervain, which is a good remedy for people who are intensely driven by ideals to the point of exhausting their bodies, and exhausting other people, which makes me think about activist burnout or if you are one of those people that's always putting themself in charge of a million projects. also indicated for people who feel an urge to "bathe in blood" the week before their period. woah.

PHOTO POST

DEAD MOON - Crystal Ballroom - 2014 - Portland, OR - Photo by Alex Turner

DEAD MOON - Crystal Ballroom - 2014 - Portland, OR - Photo by Alex Turner

DEAD MOON - Crystal Ballroom - 2014 - Portland, OR - Photo by Greg Harvester

DRILLER KILLERS - Melita's Basement - 1998 - Dalton, GA - Photo by Greg Harvester

JACK PALANCE BAND - Heart Of Huntsville Mall - 1996 - Huntsville, AL - Photo by Blair Menace

THE GRUMPIES (switched instruments) - The Maxie Pad - 1998 - Maxie, MS - Photo by Frankie Chan

New Year's Day - Tennessee Ave House - 2001 - Chattanooga, TN - Photo by Greg Harvester

ERIK RUIN - Top Ten of 2013

Pic of Erik Ruin performing at St Stephen's Church in Washington DC. Photo by Katherine Fahey.

   I think I first met Erik Ruin when he lived in Detroit and my band showed up on his door step in 2003. Besides letting me print a hundred shirts in his basement, he also performed a stark, captivating shadow puppet show at Trumbellplex that night. Since then, I've run into him a bunch of different times and his art just keeps getting better and better, through the mediums of printmaking, papercuts and DIY publications. You can find his work at Just Seeds and on his web-thing. Here's Erik's top ten art-related experiences of 2013:

   1. Snob Haus Open Haus - This was one of my favorite shows that i've been to, much less performed at, in a long time. Hosted by Graham and Rozina at their house in Minneapolis, it was a night of folks doing projection-based performances accompanied by live music, all of it from stellar folks. Roger Peet did a slideshow of his travels in the Congo, soundtracked by Graham Baldwin (Thieves, Bloodwall, Visitor) and Jonathan Kaiser (Dark Dark Dark). I did an improvised shadow-set with Jonathan on cello and our pal Jackie Beckey (Bruteheart, Myrrh) on viola. Kristi Ternes showed off her bag of projector tricks accompanied by Graham and Andy Neubauer (Impractical Cockpit). Rozina cooked up an amazing spread, including the best ham i've ever tasted. A ton of old and new friends packed the living room, and my pal Rah even brought me a full glass of whiskey at the beginning of my set! A great night. You can see video of my set here---

....and Kristi's here---

2. Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr - OK, this actually came out in 2012, but it was still in the "New Arrivals" section of my public library when i found it this year, so i'm counting it. For those not familiar with Wojnarowicz's work, he made brilliant/beautiful paintings, writings, photographs, collages, films, etc. that bristled with transcendent rage at homophobia, hypocritical politicians, AIDS, capitalism and more, as well as a radiant empathy for the oppressed. His book Close to the Knives was huge for me as a disaffected youth. This book is huge, engrossing, inspiring. One of my favorite moments- Wojnarowicz talking to the artist Zoe Leonard, who was feeling conflicted between her activism (ACT-UP) and her art (at the time, a series of large-scale aerial photographs). He says to her, "Zoe, these are so beautiful, and that's what we're fighting for. We're being angry & complaining because we have to, but where we want to go is back to beauty. If you let go of that, we don't have anywhere to go."

 3. Whore Paint- One of my favorite local acts, this fiercely feminist band just rip, playing dark heavy ferocious noisy rock music that draws from no wave, punk and metal, even some dub and reggaeton touches. In addition, Reba, Hilary and Meredith are all great folks involved in a variety of good causes (Girls Rock Camp, Justseeds, etc). Their new lp Swallow My Bones on Load Records has become a favorite of mine to run on the treadmill to, because I'm middle-aged like that.

 4. Beth Nixon, Lava Fossil- I probably saw this one-person play/puppet show in various versions 9 or 10 times this year, having toured with it, been in test audiences, etc., but I still love it. Beth Nixon, who sometimes goes by the handle Ramshackle Enterprises, has been plying her unique brand of puppet-related performance, infused with surprising scientific facts, astute political insight and ridiculous outfits, for years now. Amongst a pretty consistently great track record, Lava Fossil stands out as her most personal and touching work, as she talks about the death of her father, hot-air balloons, the nature of empathy and memory, ocean grasses and more while pulling an amazing array of scenes out of various suitcases.

5. Playing a show w/ Daniel Higgs- OK, this one feels maybe a little too close to just bragging. I will say in my defense that one of the things I love about sticking it out in the punk/DIY/weirdo scene for so long is finding that the distance between "hero" and "peer" is fairly short and easily bridged most of the time. Daniel Higgs has been an artistic hero of mine since I discovered his band Lungfish in the 90's, so sharing a stage with him (at 2640 space in Baltimore) this summer felt like a big deal. Dan played one long song on banjo, incorporating seemingly bum notes seamlessly, singing lyrics chosen as he went from a long sharpied scroll of paper. The whole thing felt like it had just been momentarily diverted from some endless river of song, and I could have listened to it forever. Plus he was a total sweetheart to deal with every step of the way.

 6. Rebecca Solnit's Faraway Nearby - I'm not really sure how to describe this book. It combines memoir and musings on death and loss, memory, fairy tales and the nature of narrative, all of it delivered poetically and perceptively. I recommend reading it back to back with WG Sebald's Vertigo (which I just finished) for the ultimate melancholic winter reading experience.

  7. Gabfestry gathering in Machias, Maine - A gathering of "creative dissenters" up in beautiful northern coastal Maine, this brought together a great variety of old head artists, earnest young activists and fellow travelers to share lessons learned, show off their work, and struggle through messy conversations about representation, infrastructure and racism together. There was just something so loving- even romantic- about the regard people showed toward each other and each others' work that it warmed even this bitter burnt-out old man's heart. Plus, you know, bonfires on a beach of green stones.

 8. Work/Death performance and radical history tour @ Slater Mill - This pairing was such a great idea. The evening began with a people's history-style tour of Slater Mill, according to their website "the first successful factory in the US," courtesy of Joey "Quits" DeFrancesco. The tour focused on the mechanization of time and labor in the transition to industrialism, as well as resistance to it on the part of the workers. One fascinating detail that stood out to me was how factory workers took up a collection to build their own clocktower after growing tired of the bosses docking their wages for supposed lateness! We also got to see all the machines running off of water power. This was followed by a performance from Providence's resident noise genius Scott Reber aka Work/Death. After a lengthy and moving preamble, wherein he discussed his personal history growing up in a bleak post-industrial town and how inspiring it was to learn stories of collective struggle, Scott played a powerful set, divided into two parts. The first used the sounds of Slater Mill's machinery as raw material, while the second explored the "The Great Textile Strike of 1934" in a sort of associative narrative piece that sounded overpowering, emotional, almost gothic to my ears.

 9. Assembly of Light Choir and What Cheer? Brigade collaborative performance @ the RISD Museum - Really a three-in-one- my two favorite local bands that contain more than a dozen members apiece performing at a really great event series. The curators of the Locally Made series of events at the RISD Museum here in Providence did a wonderful job of giving space to a great variety of local weirdos to do their thing, and wisely enlisted local curators to host their own series. Willa Van Nostrand wisely included the all-female, (pretty much) all-original choir Assembly of Light (maybe best known for their star turn at the beginning of that one Body record?), whose leader Chrissy invited the rowdy What Cheer? brass ensemble to join them. The result was something startling and new. You can see some video here-

 10. Bread & Puppet, A Birdcatcher In Hell - Kinda feels funny to cap a "best of 2013" list off with a revival of a play originally staged in 1971, but whatever. This play is on the starker/weirder/darker end of the B&P continuum, all the costumes and masks done in varying shades of red and black. It's based on a Japanese kyogen (Noh play), interlaced with texts referencing modern war crimes (a speech from Obama, the testimony of My Lai massacre participant Lt. Calley). From the moment, over a decade ago, that I saw the "King of Hell" mask in the B&P museum, with its massive demon face made up of many smaller demon faces, in a style reminiscent of 16th-century Italian Giuseppe Arcimboldo, I knew I had to see this play. Lucky for me, they revived in honor of the company's 50th anniversary, and I was able to see it.

BLAIR MENACE - Top Ten of 2013

   Well, it's that time of year again...now that 2014 has shown its face, it'd time to talk about the things that we all liked in 2013. I have chosen a wide array of friends to share their top ten lists with the world and I'll be rolling those out over the next couple of weeks. First up is Blair Menace (pictured above). Blair lives in the hills of North Carolina, plays in SWAMP APE and BLOOD SUMMER, steers the ship over at Menace and has been my friend longer than some of you have been alive. Here he is with his top ten of the year.

• Grails – Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 4, 5, & 6

  Here we have spooky, dubby, haunted house rock that oozes out of your speakers like ectoplasm.  Stinging spaghetti western guitars, detuned harpsichord, broken drum machines, and an ineffable aura of seasickness and regret tie together these disparate recordings pieced together from various releases over the last couple of years.  This doesn't feel like a compilation though, more like a transmission from another plane, crackling through time and space.

• Raspberry Bulbs -  Deformed Worship

   The hilariously named Raspberry Bulbs play primitive, ugly cave punk that sounds fundamentally wrong to modern humans.  Imagine a race of underground-dwelling, eyeless albinos subsisting on Rudimentary Peni and Born Against records and licking glowing slime off of rocks.

• Chelsea Wolfe -  Love is Pain

    Moving mostly at a funereal plod, this hypnotic little beast of a record still makes my skin crawl.  I didn't like it at first, after the stark simplicity of her earlier stuff, but the suffocating atmosphere and thick, lazy pulse that beats beneath the surface of the album kept drawing me back.  This is music for watching the tide go out, waiting for something to slither up the shore.

• Ka – The Night's Gambit

    A man after my own heart, Ka produces, mixes, releases and sells his own music, makes his own videos, and exists entirely outside any scene or rap sub-genre.  I mean literally, you can find him on street corners, hawking his record next to the guys selling bootleg dvds and handbags.  The Night's Gambit is a low-key, bleary eyed album that sound all the more menacing and psychedelic in the absence of normal hip-hop bombast.  They say it's the quiet ones you need to watch.

• Oranssi Pazuzu – Valonielu

    Trippy, Lisa Frank space metal from Finland.  Oranssi Pazuzu (that's “Orange Wind Demon”) present a baffling, writhing mass of music that flails around wildly and never really settles in one place for long.  The guitar tones are some of the nastiest I've ever heard, and the vocals are gleefully repellant, but the real mind-bender is the black hole synth sound swirling at the center of it.  It's weird for music to be this intentionally ugly and impenetrable while also being so foppishly tongue-in-cheek, but that's what separates this band from its pretentious peers – a sort of end-of-the-world willingness to laugh it up while gravity fails and the lights go out.

• Forest Swords – Engravings

    I don't even know what the hell this kind of music is called: twisty, echoed guitars stabbing through layers of junk percussion and chopped-up vocal gibberish, warbling up out of nothing like a bad dream.  There's a sort of pastoral calm shot through with suppressed panic, like the first Suicide album, or perhaps if Springsteen's Nebraska was instead called Stonehenge and composed with a drum machine and bunch of scratchy classical records instead of a guitar.

 

• Summoning – Old Mornings Dawn

    There's literally no way for me to talk about Summoning without sounding like a huge nerd, so let's just lay the cards on the table.  This is an album of martial synth folk music from a two man black metal band that only sings about Lord of the Rings.  If you just want to stop reading here, I'll understand, but I genuinely love this band without a trace of irony.  Something about the timbre of the cheesy synth strings, the robotic timpanis, the raspy troll vocals, and the tinny guitars and flutes just speaks to my inner Beastmaster.  This is what I listen to when I stand shirtless on my porch on misty mornings, waving the broom around like a sword and basking in the rays of the rising sun. 

• Black Milk – No Poison, No Paradise

    Another year, another dark, window-rattling trip into Black Milk's tortured psyche and funky record collection.  Sample-based and old fashioned without sounding retro or corny, and brimming with bad vibes and hard times without being a bummer, Black Milk once again effortlessly juggles contradictions to produce something harder, meaner, and smarter than anybody else in the business. Plus the drums hit like cartoon anvils.

• Grouper – The Man Who Died in His Boat

My scientific endeavors in the world of reverb led me to a lot of weird places this year, including hollering into my own washing machine and purchasing slinkies in large quantities.  One thing I discovered in my explorations was this album, which is about 10% gently strummed acoustic guitar and murmured siren vocals, and 90% reverberation.  The whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a missile silo, or a tyrannosaurus skull.  Phasing between lucidity and abstraction, intimacy and distance, this album dominated the quieter moments this year.  It still rattles around in my head sometimes.

• Repo Man

    Here we are approaching 2014, and (arguably) the best and most important Punk Movie is now a part of the lofty Criterion Collection, with liner notes by Sam McPheeters and a blank white DVD labeled “Disc”.  Hopefully I don't need to elaborate too much on the righteousness of this film, but this is a beautiful looking remaster that reminded me of how much impact Repo Man had when I first saw it all those years ago.