2010 Favorites and My Outlook on a Grim Future

My laptop died, which means that all updates are from now on going to be done exclusively guerrilla style from work/the apple store/the library, entirely made up of STOLEN LINKS (hell yeah!).   Unfortunately this will result in no more volumes of hateful smile radio until i am again computerized.  This is all actually very good for me because of the dramatic increase in productivity which followed the demise of my laptop computer; I've got a couple cool short writings done and started on a novella. Awesome.  Turns out downloading comics and music while watching lots of graphic hardcore pornography really does waste a lot of time.

So given that this is the first update of 2011, I figured I should probably post a little something about good music that happened in 2010.  These links are all stolen, and I'll give credits where I can but mostly I just googled for the mediafire links...here are the albums that proved important to my year:




Nomos-Notes From the Acheron.  This is my favorite hardcore record of the year for sure, and after seeing them play on Saturday I can't wait to hear what they do next. I think this shit is like 13 minutes long or something, and a one-sided 12". Finishes off with a killer Swell Maps cover, and overall has a really in-your-face mix that makes this shit urgent as hell.  Guitar parts are weird and fast, their drummer is way more into blasting and rolls than d-beating, and a mean bass sound powers it all along throughout...radical.
I have hatred. I have alienation.

Envy-Recitation.  I already posted the link, browse a little harder and you'll find it.  There's even a review already. This album is fucking good.

Deafheaven-Demo.  In the last week of the year I gave in to the post-Deathwish-signing internet hype and checked out this demo, then saw them a week later.  While I'm still not sold on epic black metal that isn't evil, I am sold on the fact that these guys are some super good players, and their drummer will most likely end up in some big metal band within a couple years because he slays it hard as fuck...really cool cymbal work and suprisingly excellent double-kick playing.  These guys are probably just ultra into Wolves in the Throne Room but the overall music ends up lying somewhere in between Weakling, Envy, and Mogwai.  Definitely a clear screamo/post-rock influence, which is probably why they aren't evil. After this, I can't wait to hear whatever they end up putting out for their first Deathwish record.
AAAAAAAGGGGHGHHH

AEsahaettr-Demo. The first of a couple Canadian releases that made my list is a demo from lo-fi Quebequois Black Metal masters Aesahaettr (incorrect characters, but I'm lazy).  They're a side project from fellow media-tree sludgy cassetteers Ensorcelor(who are good, but less awesome than this shit is). This is some noisy and epic riffage under an overpowering wash of white noise, which yields a truly bleak sounding result.  This will one day be a classic.
Among Witches

Mess Folk-This is Mess Folk.  I think this may have come out in 09, but I didn't get up on it until September or October, and it's another lo-fi freakout session from Canada but quite different.  Mess Folk are from Nova Scotia and play heartfelt and out-of-tune love and hate songs into some shitty or busted recording gear to create a bunch of badly played garagey stompers that to me is absolutely perfect. Any budget rock enthusiasts should take note, this blows No Bunny and all his bullshit out of the damned water.
Give Me a Gun

The Black Lips-200 Million Thousand.  Another from 09 that's probably my favorite on this list. This was the first Black Lips album that really had a sound that I wanted to keep listening to; even though it's just beach boys/ccr/velvet underground worship throughout they hit this ultra timeless tone, and I was playing this on the j-box at work just about every day I worked once Mimi stuck it in there. Went with my boss to their tour on this album in January and met a beautiful awesome girl who I was totally crazy over and she didn't like that in the long run but this record will always hold a bunch of my favorite memories from this year embedded in the grooves. 
Take My Heart

Ceremony-Rohnert Park. When I was playing this at work, I got a few different "this is really Ceremony?" looks of astonishment.  Midtempo smashing with Ross sounding more pent-up than ever, and it really is their most enjoyable record.  I hope Ceremony makes music for a while, they're starting to get pretty fuckin' good at it.
Stuck in the Doldrums




Because I'm late for my getting-drunk, the list will be only seven long.  Other things which proved absolutely essential to the year include the following:

The song "Ballad of a Thin Man"
Tony's Pizza Napoletena- You the man, Tony Gemignani!
Also pizza related, the new Arizmendi bakery on 24th and Mission
Daredevil and his various incarnations under the authorship of Ed Brubaker and Frank Miller
Bourbon


So, you ask: what am I looking forward to in 2011?


Nothing.

It's imperative that you read what I here say.  The new Street Justice record is going to tear your eardrums and make you shit blood.  We found the brown note, and painted it with our violent and childish fantasies.

I'm especially proud that this is our first recording with no punched in riffs or overdubs or scratch tracks or any of that "fix your music in the studio" bullshit.  We only had to splice the last six seconds of drum track on one song, and as far as I can remember that's the only wizardry we needed.  Super proud of us for pulling that off, and getting six songs in an 8 hour session including setup and breakdown times.

Now here's some nice friendly happy music!

I've always thought Planes Mistaken For Stars never quite got the credit they deserved for the level of composition and dynamics they incorporated into their sound, and I hope their EP's can help the uninitiated idiots who pass one of my favorite groups off as "another emo band" realize that they are in fact another beast altogether. The drummer smashes, the bass has a mean fuckin rumble, and the guitar work is as weird as it is heavy, with tons of harmonized shred attack parts, and a nasty unison sound during the rare times when they do coalesce onto the same riff all together. There's weirdo jams and spoken word and feedback and all the other freakout stoners-with-microphones shit you could want, in raging emotive sludgy-yet-fast punk rock songs.  Listen to this loud, on headphones, or both, then go buy the records.  Here's their last three ep's, Fucking Fight, Knife in the Marathon, and Spearheading the Sin Movement. 

WE RIDE TO FIGHT

Do you like positive hardcore? Me too!  Thats why I'm giving you a Youth of Today album, in itself a reason to get off your ass and go skateboarding or get into a fistfight with your friends just because it beats watching tv.  Ray Cappo (before the Shelter pop-punk days obviously) has one of the best nyhc voices, probably third only to JR or John Joseph;  it is my belief that Eric Ozenne's entire vocal style is built almost entirely upon Cappo's snarls and yaaaaooowwws. And that's a good thing.  Seriously, this guy has a fucking pepsi tattoo.  This is some legendary posi shit, all the weight of classic nyc hardcore with a fun vibe throughout.


We're Not In This Alone


Finally, some music which is in no way fun.  When you're just totally fucking miserable being alive and can't understand what girls want from you and drink enough that even your present reality has a weird eerie feeling of already being just a memory, Arab Strap are there to play beautiful and thoughtful compositions that were meant just for you over drum machines while a literary drunk talks in a Scottish accent.  Here's one of their earlier albums, which has scored many late night drunken stumbles with headphones for me.  I've probably cried while listening to this before. Fuck you, don't judge me.


Philophobia

Post-script:

I love comic books and you should too.  If you don't already have a .cbr reader, you should go get one (they're all open source and free, you cheap piece of shit) and then download the Trade Paperback of WHITE TRASH, a terrific book that was written by Gordon Rennie and drawn by the fantastically talented Martin Emonds (RIP).   This is some whacked out rock and roll gonzo weirdness, down to the Ralph Steadman-worship art and constant Metallica references.  Also, it's about Elvis as an armed robber on the Great American Road Trip with an Axl Rose type character.  AMAZING!

WHITE TRASH

One short and one long

I was in high school when Against Me! released Reinventing Axl Rose and totally took over the whole heartfelt punk rock thing from Hot Water Music et al...I think I probably had my first smoke and maybe my first beer too at a friend's house while we'd sit around and listen to them and sing along.  They were the first band to make me understand that folk is about people and togetherness and not fingerpicking some whimsy on a nylon string guitar while singing falsetto.  The Disco Before The Breakdown is my favorite of their releases, and instead of writing out how important this record is to me in my own words I'm going to steal a few lines from Stevie Pat Morrissey's immortal song about immortal songs, Rubber Ring.

Don't forget the songs that made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes you're older now and you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you.

The Disco Before The Breakdown

Now that the creepiest Medusa ever has the attention of all ye who came seeking darkness, here's the last full length from Thou, Summit.  I've heard the word "crushing" getting thrown around by a lot of people about this record and it must be acknowledged that Thou did indeed create a most crushing work of doom.  A very beautifully done recording, with a deep and heavy mix that allows for as much auditory suggestion from the buried riffs as actual audible melodies.  Their usage of extracurricular synth sounds seemed at first like superfluous Burzum worship, but when seen as independent movements within the song structures the parts gain a very horror-soundtrack unsettling type of vibe.  This is metal for people who like to feel dwarfed by music.


Thou - Summit

something to suck on you whores

Got some awesome shit for you.

First up: the last 108 album, 18:61. I'm glad that they aren't breaking up and hope they record another album because it kind of sucks that they recorded a shitty long acoustic closing track for this one, and it would be a pretty weak farewell.  Besides that ill-advised move, this is a killer hardcore record full of trapped-in-a-cage vocals and mad postpunk groove parts. I like the way this is mixed a lot better than "A New Beat From a Dead Heart" was, it sounds a lot less moshy and modern.  Hopefully that means Kurt Ballou is getting better at not making every band sound the fucking same.  I'm hearing a lot more 90s and a lot less deathwish sound in this shit, a lot of it reminds me of the Monorchid or Jesus Lizard, even Crimson Curse in spots.  If you want to hear noisy 90s style hc about some next-level spirits and shit, welcome to the next 23 minutes of your life.

108 - 18:61

No other band embodies the spirit of Venom's "Black Metal" quite like Midnight does to me.  These guys play rock and roll the way its meant to be played:  Loud as hell, fast as hell, and about how stoked they are to be on the same team as Satan.  Here's a bunch of their demos and b-sides and live stuff, which isn't the most consistent batch of rockers on the planet but I'll take Midnight drunk and sloppy over any of that bullshit new indie rock with wussies who don't play loud.  TURN UP THE HELL!

Midnight - Berlin is Burning

Speaking of wussies who don't play loud, here's an album from the only guy on the planet who can play a pop show with just a classical guitar and still blow me away.  Jonathan Richman has matured so perfectly over the years from an attention-seeking young man into the most whimsical musician on the planet, and this is probably his late-career masterpiece.  Truly, if you've never felt like this then you might just be a sociopath.

I was waiting for affection, but I was looking in the wrong direction; what I needed was not so much to be loved, as to love

I can't leave you with such a nice mellow piece of music so here's a raging fuckin 6 song rager from Talk is Poison.  This is what hardcore is supposed to sound like.  If you ever catch one of their infrequent reunion sets you should probably do it, if you ever see one of their records you should probably buy it.  Fuck yeah for Talk is Poison.

RAGE TO INFINITY ep

KILLING YOU HARD

Here it is! The moment you never realized you were waiting for, the very first installment of Hateful Smile Radio,  KILLING YOU HARD!  No between song banter, no automatic sync with itunes, and separated tracks for maximum sound quality variation!   Without further ado, I present the tracklisting:

1. Archers of Loaf - Audiowhore
2. Arab Strap - Fucking Little Bastards
3. Planesmistakenforstars - Pillbox
4. Saviours - Rise To Pyramid Form
5. Skin Like Iron - No Legacy
6. Tragedy - Call To Arms
7. World Burns To Death - Here A Dream Dies Everyday
8. Dead Blue Sky - Holding Yesterday For Ransom
9. Planesmistakenforstars - To Spit A Sparrow
10. Acephalix - Ascetix
11. The Body - Song of Sarin, The Brave
12. Git Some - Lick, Lick, Lick
13. The Regulations - Laugh At Me (Ha Ha Ha)
14. Negative Approach - Pressure
15. Archers of Loaf - Smoking Pot in the Hot City
16. Nomos - A Witness
17. Ceremony - Twenty Four Hour Fever Watch
18. Ink & Dagger - The Bloodlust
19. American Nightmare - Farewell



HATEFUL SMILE I: Killing You Hard

postscript: In theory, you can just extract the folder, add everything to itunes, and you'll have a new playlist entitled "I" with all of these tracks in the proper order.  This is my first time trying this, so if it doesn't work that way let me know and I'll fix it to the best of my ability.

Intense, Epic Soundscapes!

I'm not generally big on stuff that sounds reliant on pedalboards to be awesome, but that type of wankery becomes acceptable in the right circumstances.  Considering Envy have been playing screamo since I was in grammar school, it seems they should probably get a pass and be allowed to do whatever they want.  Thankfully, what they want is to make really beautiful soundscapes and then shit screams and raging beats all over them.  I missed them last month, then slept on this out of spite.  Now that I have it, I've listened to it every day for the last four days and can say this album RULES.  There's one song that I forgot the name of that could maybe have been omitted due to it being a small brown bike/hot water music ripoff with screaming, but even that one will probably grow on me.  The production sounds amazing, the musicianship top-of-the-line, and through it all it is among their most fully conceived works.  It sounds like the last couple Envy records tonally speaking, but they only grow better at composition and arrangement and it shows.  This is good enough that I might even forgive them for that shit with Thursday. Maybe.





So here it is, Envy - Recitation (2010)

When you look for a God, but realize the sky is empty...

I always wanted to be a writer. Then I ran out of weed and started a blog. Most likely I'll just post (mostly stolen) links to music and art. In celebration of this momentous and historically significant occasion, I stole you a great link to download a terrific record by Cult of Youth, some New York hipster kids making Death in June style gothy folk awesome again.  It should of course be mentioned that this was in fact stolen from one of my favorite places to steal things from, the fantastic blog I Could Die Tomorrow.  This mostly sounds like death in june or some swans stuff, but also has a strong early bad seeds feel to it. If you love folk music and hate the idea of God, you should probably check this out.   I would have put up cover art, but...no, actually I wouldn't have.







Cult of Youth-A Stick to Bind, A Seed to Grow