Best of 2009

It's that time of year again, where I sit around for far too long and think about my favorite music of the year. Every single year I hear/read people saying things like "Oh nothing good came out this year" or "I can't make a list because nothing inspired me," crap like that. I bought less new music this year than years past (not having the most steady job in the world will do that to you) yet I still had to narrow down my initial LP list from the 30s down to its current 15, same with the EPs/7"s. If you think nothing good happened this year, it's your fault. So here we go.

LPs

1. Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans (Sub Pop)
If 2008 was the year of great anticipation and ultimately crushing disappointment (anticipating college graduation followed by the actual aftermath), 2009 was the year of apathy and shrugged shoulders, as summed up perfectly by the repeated mantra of "False Jesii Pt 2." "I don't bother/I don't bother" the line goes. This is life? Ok, I guess. Repeat ad nauseum. Lyrically and musically crushing, I can't believe that I used to write Pissed Jeans off.


2. Baroness - Blue Record (Relapse)
I shouldn't like this band nearly as much as I do but I just can't help it. Listening to any one song on this record out of context is not only awkward, it's fucking dumb. Every interlude, every tossed off guitar lick, every quasi-deep lyric has a place. When they rolled through town last month Reggie's was packed when the first opening band played. They're going to be rock stars soon and I couldn't be happier for them.


3. Wasted Time - Futility (Grave Mistake)
Remember all that apathy I was talking about with Pissed Jeans? For the 17 minutes that I listen to this LP all that apathy disappears, replaced by a boiling rage so intense that I want to go out and punch the first person I encounter in the head, steal their car and crash it straight through the front doors of the nearest bank. This album defines hardcore circa 2009.


4. No Slogan - Aversion Therapy (Residue)
For a small period of time I took No Slogan for granted, as weird as that may seem. They seemed to play every third show I went to, always played a solid set of mostly newer tunes, did their thing. After finally getting my hands on the full length, never again. Usually when people use the term "Chicago Punk" they limit their references to the big hitters like Raygun and Pegboy when they should be including No Slogan's arsenal of big riffs and woahs.


5. Desino Final - Atrapados (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Somehow the remaining Invasion members managed to simultaneously strip their sound down and increase the innate claustrophobia of the vocals. I'm going on record that I have had at least one confirmed hellish nightmare with Atrapados as the soundtrack.


6. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another (4AD)
Initially I wasn't that impressed with this album, but I kept feeling compelled to go back and listen. If I could somehow calculate the amount of time certain songs ended up stuck in my head then "Lapsed Catholics," "You Need Satan More Than He Needs You" and "Land of my Formers" would dominate 2009.


7. Punch - Punch (625 Thrash)
My tastes normally don't veer toward the general 625 catalogue, or fastcore or whatever inane microgenre name it has. That said, this album rules and actually makes an album with such a high number of breakdowns tolerable. Most paint scraping female vocals since Erika Daking of F-Minus.


8. Social Circkle - City Shock (No Way)
Being a super fan of Social Circkle actually ended up hurting this album's final numerical placement. How's that possible? Well from listening to the March 2008 Sessions cassette and their original 2006 demo religiously, I already had half the LP basically memorized for well over a year before it arrived on my doorstep. Kind of a bummer but the new tunes mix right in with the old ones for an LP that should make even the most jaded of old farts take notice.


9. Sacred Shock - You're Not With Us (Residue)
Restraintcore? What? There's a quality about this record that I still can't quite get my head wrapped around nine months later. Don't get me wrong it's hardcore punk rock but there's a restrained, almost subdued nature to it that differentiates Sacred Shock from the field of mindless thrashers. None of this is probably making much sense but keep that in mind on your next listen and you should get it.


10. Kylesa - Static Tensions (Prosthetic)
I might be the only person that can honestly say that Pitchfork turned me onto Kylesa. Sure I'd known them, heard stuff in the background at parties or whatever but never really gave a dedicated listen until Pitchfork hosted a stream of this LP. By the time the two drum intro of "Scapegoat" ended with a massive guitar riff I knew I was hooked. I've explored the back catalog a bit now but nothing touches this. True crossover without a single galloping palm muted riff.


11. Flipper - Love (MVD Audio)
By virtue of not sucking, this album gets on the list. Seriously. I love Flipper more than any so called "sane" man should so I feared the worst, especially when the first songs went up on myspace. Luckily in context they make sense and this album, while not an all time classic, does signify that there's still juice left in the old Flipper formula.


12. Converge - Axe to Fall (Epitaph)
For 11 songs and 30 minutes my head explodes from the manic, monstrous, mega riffs contained in this record. Even without Jacob Bannon's vocals I'd play the hell out of this. On my first listen to "Dark Horse" and "Axe To Fall" my jaw honestly dropped. Unfortunately the last two songs, which total 12 minutes, bore the living shit out of me.



13. Cult Ritual - LP (Youth Attack) & 14. Propagandhi - Supporting Caste (G7 Welcoming Committee/Smallman)
This is the tale of two LPs that didn't hold up well over time at all. I listened to both of them like crazy on first release and almost never after about a month. They're not bad records by any means but I just got too wrapped up initially to really listen too much later on. Oh well.


15. CoCoComa - Things Are Not Alright (Goner)
Sharing the same slot as Drunkdriver last year, I became obsessed with this album last week and only realized I really liked the band about a week before that. CoCoComa have been on the periphery of my interests for a few years but I never bothered to investigate. Luckily a clip of them "performing" on Chic-A-Go-Go came to my attention and next thing I know I'm listening to this LP twice a day for a week and a half right near putting this list together. I'll quote myself from last year's list "Time will tell if this is a smart or stupid choice driven by temporary infatuation."

Honorable Mentions
Mika Miko - We Be Xuxa (PPM). Government Warning - Paranoid Mess (Grave Mistake/No Way). Limp Wrist - one sided 12" (Limp Wrist). Marked Men - Ghosts (Dirtnap). Mi Ami - Watersports (Quarterstick).

Click here to listen to one song each from the top 15, courtesy of 8tracks.com. Everyone should use it.


EPs/7"s (no particular order or real write up because I'm kind of lazy)


No Age - Losing Feeling (Sub Pop)


Deep Sleep - Paranoid Futures (Grave Mistake)


Condominium - Barricades (Fashionable Idiots)


The Methadones - Gary Glitter (It's Alive)


Drunkdriver - Fire Sale (Fashionable Idiots)


Obliteration - This Is Tomorrow (Nita/Disposable)


Logic Problem - No Center (Grave Mistake)


Slices - Slices (Home Invasion)


Loser Life - Life Number 2 (Rock Bottom)


Disnihil - Future Cancers (Lifeline)


Classics of Love - Walking in Shadows (Asian Man)


Smart Cops - Smart Cops (Sorry State)


Crow - Flock of Beast (Prank)


Warcry - Nausea (Warcry)


Humanoids - Year of the Snake (Rock Bottom)

Best LP of 2008 That I Didn't Get Until 2009


Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours (Goner) & Nobunny - Love Visions (1-2-3-4 Go!)
Nobunny dominated the late winter/spring and Eddy Current Suppression Ring dominated the late summer/fall. Picking between the two is just about impossible so I'll officially call it a tie. I can't wait for both of them to release new stuff in 2010.

Best Singles Collection


Deep Sleep - Three Things At Once (Grave Mistake)
2009 was a weak year for singles collections. Off the top of my head and even after a little digging I can't really come up with too many good ones. Luckily there's this little compact disc, tracing Deep Sleep's trek from an above average hardcore band to a mind meltingly good technical pop punk monster.

Reissue of the Year

Death - ...For The Whole World To See (Drag City)
Clive Davis, I'm going to gouge your eyes out for making this sit unreleased for 34 years. Seriously, fuck you.

Demos of the Year

Manipulation


Raw Nerve


Neurons

So yeah, that's it for now. In a year I know I'll look back and this and see something I missed or placed too high but that's the joy of this, the snapshot effect.

Live on, Chuck Biscuits

I'm just as bad as everybody else that fell for the hoax.

I'm totally taking the easy way out for this non-memorial post by dumping lots of YouTube links. Luckily Chuck was well documented with just about every band he spent time with. Punknews puts him being born in 1965 which means he was 12 when he started drumming with D.O.A. Fuck me, I thought I was cool learning to butcher Metallica songs on guitar at that age and this guy was drumming in D.O.A.!

D.O.A. - World War III


Black Flag - What Can You Believe/Slip It In 1982


Circle Jerks - Live @ RockPalast (one of the best videos on all of youtube)


Danzig - Am I Demon 1988


Run DMC - Mary, Mary (no seriously, Chuck did the drum tracks)


Social Distortion - Don't Drag Me Down/Untitled, 1997


Chuck Biscuits Cerealogy

Report Suspicious Activity/Baroness/Coliseum - November 15, 2008.

I uploaded these almost a year ago to my photobucket account but can't remember why I stopped short of actually posting them; laziness I guess. The all ages show was Baroness/Coliseum and Minsk with the late show being the mini-Articles of Faith reunion (covered here), Report Suspicious Activity and Pegboy at the Beat Kitchen. So here are the pictures I guess. Also, everybody pick up the new Baroness LP because it's fucking stellar

Minsk


Coliseum







Baroness











Report Suspicious Activity

Record reviews

I have a bunch of free time on my hands so I started writing record reviews again. These were all submitted to Punknews.org and so far the Drunkdriver one has been posted. We'll see about the others.

Raw Nerve – Teens In Heat 7” – Video Disease Records

Raw Nerve is the new successors to the Sex/Vid and Cult Ritual throne of ultra-hyped hardcore. Raw Nerve shares the “mysterious” aesthetic, the whole “immediate collector bait” shtick in regards to printing records and a general sound; noisy hardcore with huge Void and general Mark McCoy inflections.

“Stay Staid” (the lone holdover from their demo) and “You Live” make up the A-side. It’s 1:30 of chaotic hardcore where unless you’re giving the music your full attention you won’t notice the different songs. The b-side’s title track is actually the strongest of the four tunes, what with having a couple different parts (slow intro, buried vocals, thrash part, slow part that’s not a breakdown per se, etc) that don’t sound arbitrarily forced together. Though I’ve never enjoyed X-Ray Spex all that much themselves, the ending cover of “I’m A Cliché” is pretty goddamn fun, not a word you’d normally associate with this sort of thing.

Video Disease made up 300 copies of the record and all were sold over the course of one weekend in early October. Already these fuckers are fetching $40 on Ebay, if you can believe that. Do some investigating in distros to pay the intended price or go blog searching. Despite the inane amount of hype given, Raw Nerve delivers musically. The upcoming LP on Youth Attack (naturally) should be a doozy.

Drunkdriver – Fire Sale 7” – Fashionable Idiots

Though few probably expected it, the band Wives ended up spawning two of the more exciting rock bands around in 2009 in the form of No Age and Drunkdriver. While No Age’s progression has led them to indie rock stardom with softened noise and tight tunes, Drunkdriver decided to go the complete opposite direction, almost daring listeners to make it through full records. If you’ve watched blown out cell phone videos on YouTube you might recognize the trademark Drunkdriver sound, except they do it with just drums, guitar and vocals.

The A-side of Drunkdriver’s most recent single contains their most blatantly punkish song yet, “Fire Sale.” The barely two minute track pummels the listener with a repetitive four chord riff, pounding drums and up front yowls. As the song races on the volume of the music subtly increases until the end, by which time every new cymbal crash comes within striking distance of breaking an ear drum.

The b-side “It Never Happened” slows the approach down to a crawl, doubling the length of the title track whilst lurching forward with sporadic drumming and eye shaking feedback. Michael Berdan’s anguished vocals move into the spotlight for this song until the last 45 seconds, which could possibly be classified as grind if only you could hear individual instruments in the swirl of noise.

Since this is 2009 and vinyl is all the rage again, let’s speak of the packaging for a bit. The plain black record comes encased in a plain gray cardboard sleeve with an obviously photo copied sheet of paper glued on, both sides identical save for the song title; it’s ugly packaging for ugly music for ugly people. Perfect.

Crow – Flock of Beast 7” – Prank

Alright, as much as I claim to love just about all Japanese hardcore, early Crow records have always been weak areas for me. The only records from Crow I’m familiar with are their stellar 2005 LP Bloody Tear and their brand new 7”, Flock of Beast. The Crow that I know is a crusty metallic monster and the new EP doesn’t disappoint if you’re looking for more of that sort of thing. This EP has crossover appeal written all over it; it’s for the punks (not punx), thrashers, maybe even some noise fans and traditional metalheads.

Even though I haven’t heard Ride The Lightning in probably twelve years the mid-tempo, palm muted gallops of “Flock of Beast I” are bringing me straight back to my pre-teen Rock 103.5 FM (what’s up Chicago heshers!) days. Guitarist Tomy clocks in with some pretty wicked solo breaks and, fuck, there’s even a clean interlude that if you can believe it in a punk band in 2009, isn’t a complete Tragedy rip off. Of course you still get Crow’s inimitable vocals, which to borrow an old cliché, separate the old Japanese men from the wacky thrash hat wearing boys. The song is moody, suitably epic and actually pretty catchy in its own right.

Putting it lightly the b-side “Flock of Beast II” is a mindfuck. The intro practically demands leg drumming, steering wheel drumming or whatever-other-hard-surface-you-happen-to-be-near drumming. Soon the sinister descending riff that forms the early backbone of the tune comes into the foreground; “What a bitchin’, relatively simple thrash tune” you begin thinking to yourself. However, the exact instant before one gets comfortably into the rhythm enough to head bang Crow begins to fuck with you.

First you’ll observe the slightly muffled guitar solo in the background. After that you’ll notice the drumming pace picks up, ever so slightly at first until it becomes a flailing mess. Then swirls of guttural moans come into play and before you even know it “Flock of Beast II” has devolved into a virtual noise collage. Cue feedback drone, song ends, needle stops spinning and clicks off, right? Not this time friends, as the entire cycle repeats itself one more time, except this time the guttural moans never leave. Even though you’ve heard these parts before, the anticipation of the switches still leaves you guessing at what the hell is really going on. Only after a handful of listens will the structure of the tune come into full focus.

Chalk up another winner for Prank.

The Methadones – Gary Glitter b/w Over The Moon & I Believe b/w Exit 17 – It’s Alive Records/Underground Communiqué.

In late 2009 the members of The Methadones have become involved with so many other projects that I guess we’re lucky to get these four songs out of them. By my count the combined active family tree (let’s not even get into broken up bands of the past) includes at least six other bands. Luckily before everything went completely crazy they completed these four songs, split between two records and two record labels.

Despite coming from the same recording session, the two records feature wholly distinct personalities. If you’re the English major type that reads into every minute detail, even the record label names can give you clues. No, seriously!

“Gary Glitter” b/w “Over The Moon” came first, via It’s Alive Records. It makes sense that this one comes out on the label with “Alive” in the title as it features two energetic pop-punk rave ups. “Gary Glitter” was co-written by guitarist Mike Byrne and I’m willing to put down at least five bucks that the song emanated from one of his legendarily bad jokes. “Over The Moon” sounds like a never before recorded power-pop classic (along the lines of the 2006 re-workings from 21^st Century Power Pop Riot); lots of fat drunk guys will be singing along to this at future Meths shows.

“I Believe” b/w “Exit 17” is the melancholy one, from Underground Communiqué. Get it, it’s under, it’s down, all that type of thing? See, I told you it would make sense! “I Believe” is a full band version of formerly “Dan Schafer + acoustic guitar” tune off of This Won’t Hurt. The same glum feeling hangs over the song, with Dan giving one of his most restrained vocal performances on record. The addition of the full band honestly doesn’t add too much to the song though, as they just follow along with what we already knew from 2007. “Exit 17” shifts back to the acoustic realm, yet allows flourishes of drums and electric guitar bits to fill out the sound. However, coming straight after” I Believe” it sounds a bit like a re-tread and not very memorable.

Overall the two records compliment each other nicely when taken as a package but individually the edge goes to “Gary Glitter.” 7/10, then 4/10 leads to a solid 6/10.