I sorta forgot that this creative space for my music and a few other rando braggadocios bits still exist. 2011 is almost over. I'm ready for 2012. In some of my older posts I followed the usual trend of listing best of's for stuff I liked throughout the year. Unfortunately I don't listen to much new music these days. I'm finding myself looking backwards to stuff I wasn't keen on/aware of. It's mostly reissues and now foreign music. My attention span and short term memory are far too short to really process the year. From a life perspective I found myself stomaching an awful shit cone for the better tail end of 2010 into most of 2011. Lessons were learned. Critical focus was re-adjusted. Happily and thankfully life is better. Working on a steady production gig and back in SF, my favorite city. I feel very thankful to be surrounded in such a positive environment of support and knowledge. And things could always be far worse. Looking back The only new thing that really got my interest this year was the Sister Ruby Band.
You can demo all tracks here audio player. Keeping it simple, or lazy, basically everything great about Black Rebel Motorcycle Club era Howl jams jacked up on a Jesus and Mary Chain guitar caffeine fuzz. It's everything I love about that genre of music. Just one guy, Johnny Ruby, throwing down all the sounds, one ep and one album which both can be bought online here and here
. The stuff 2011 gave me that I really loved included Obits' 2nd lp: "Moody, Standard and Poor", a slew of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds reissues, the Icarus Line's lp "Wildlife" (and really just falling back in love with the sounds of the Icarus Line, who I sorta forgot about for the last few years). Seriously "Wildlife" is a fucking great record. "Sick Man Blues" probably my favorite song of 2011. listen to on youtube. Buy that shit here. They also got some unreleased tracks they're selling to raise money for a new lp. The Partying Gifts debut "Strychnine Dandelion" and Earwolf Comedy Podcasts. Some other stuff I liked at points in the year include Girls' 2nd lp "Father Son Holy Ghost", Dum Dum Girls "Only in Dreams", a couple songs off Jay Masics' solo lp "Several Shades of Why" a couple songs off the Raveonettes lp "Raven in the Grave" and a mix cd of Deadmau5 music from a close friend. Thinking back I guess there is more but this is the shit that sticks out most in my mind. Thinking back to Obits and "Moody, Standard and Poor". Saw em' play with the Night Marchers back in August 2010. I should have written about it then but I was too busy witnessing Rock'n'Roll. One of the best shows I've ever seen. At the time the music was new stuff that would eventually turn up on on MSP and probably on-the-as-of yet unreleased Night Marchers live album. I was praying on pins and needles for a glorious Hot Snakes encore. It happened. Just not at Bottom of the Hill in SF where I was. But in SD a few nights later, which makes more sense. I fashioned my dorkus malorkus fan hat. Then cornered Rick and John for photos. I tried to wrangle Gar in on the fun but he somehow disappeared or smelled my fan desperation. Rick and John were both super cool. And yeah, I did have a Hot Snakes shirt underneath my other shirt. I was that asshole.
A truly awesome thing happened in 2011. Hot Snakes officially reformed after seven years apart. Taking a brief pause from the commitments of the Night Marchers and Obits. They performed at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Texas in November, ATP in the UK in December and a couple east coast dates sprinkled in. A long lost single which was supposed to be the B-side to Braintrust in 2004 also surfaced overseas as a limited 7'' called Do Not Resuscitate. Thankfully I was able to acquire it. It's ace, quite ace, I should say. However, the real treasure, and what I would consider the best holiday gift, was a full audio copy of their Fun Fun Fun Fest set surfacing recently. I had the show on a loop while walking around in the SF fog the other night. To quote Brian Birzer from Chunklet (which is a much better music site than this) "But then Hot Snakes reunite, deliver the best set of the Fest, and the pure power of rock-n-roll’s liberating glory courses through me. Rick Froberg’s voice was “holy fucking shit” unwavering and guitarist John Reis, bassist Gar Wood and both drummers Jason Kourkounis and Mario Rubalcaba are still tighter than bark on trees." The hairs on the back of my arms stood up the entire time while listening to "If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit". Rick breathes fire all over that song while the rest of the band's instruments ferociously pummeled everything in sight sorta like Billy Joel driving you home after a late night bender. This is the taper's site. Many Thank you's for sharing this gem. However the real credit goes to Tashi who did extensive work remastering and creating a matrix recording of all the varying sources of audio and video from the show date. For those who want to download the show here, a FLAC and video version are coming soon per Tashi here
The other big revelation 2011 brought me in terms of media is the collective comedy umbrella of Earwolf podcasts. Some of my favorite comedians like Paul F. Tompkins and Paul Sheer. All the podcasts are laughably brilliant in their own way. Paul Sheer's How Did This Get Made? Dissects shitty movies with a notable panel of hilarity. They sometimes get people from the movie they're dissecting to offer insight into the production process. Paul F Tompkins provides some of the best guest spots to Who Charted? and Comedy Bang Bang. Who Charted is hosted by Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack. You'll learn what's hot in music and movies. They rag on those charts with special guests and play games that provide insight into their guests. My new favorite podcast is Professor Blastoff. The show features comedians Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger. They discuss a central topic they find interesting and pepper it with excellent humor and sly commentary.
The top picture is from the first night of Outside Lands this past August in Golden Gate Park. Attended all three days. A great time. I got to spend three days with some of my closet friends in one of my favorite spots in SF. Notable memories: going waay off on the 1st day with Phish playing in the backround, seeing friends in the Stone Foxes kill on day 2, pleasantly surprised by the Black Keys (never really got into them), face hurting from laughing so hard during Paul F. Tompkins comedy set, ridiculing Muse fans and being mesmerized during DeadMau5's closing set on day 3. Icarus Line came through SF and got to see them crush it on a Sunday. Surprised at the sparse crowd. They killed for those lucky individuals who came around. Not many shows this year. Hopefully 2012 will be different. I just found out the Duke Spirit have new album out. I will need to purchase that when it comes out January. So I guess it's onto the next year. Cheers to anyone who actually reads this.
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