my top ten of 2011

well 2011 has been the year of my full re-engagement with DIY hardcore as it currently stands......going to shows, making new connections and capturing alot of it for posterity in the form of video and pictures......i feel re-energized about the scene and the people currently making the music/doing the zines or just doing whatever they can to support their friends and touring bands....the scene is vibrant right now, and although i cant really appreciate certain styles that have become popular within the past few years, there seems to be more than enough music made over 2011 to fit my taste and worldview........its also been a year of discovery of new sounds to addict me........so many bands/people i would never have known about if i hadn't checked out a bandcamp or went to someones basement/club/resteraunt to see.......im so glad that i was able to make the connections that i have over this past year and hopefully they will all stay with me for many years to come.....

anyways here are my top ten records for the year:

10.

one of my first surprises this year...excellent psychotic noise rock/sludge/hardcore from dearborn michigan....fans of today is the day and dystopia take notice.

9.

cynarae "s/t"

from seattle washington. this band plays huge crushing hardcore with a semicrusty edge....another excellent surprise of 2011

8.

degollado "dark of the day"

amazing, unique, indescribable, all terms accuratley applied to this band.....hypnotic post-sludge... a must listen

7.

judas iscariot - lost prophets

the most surprising record of the year,if only because the band has been dead for a decade.....still this record more than holds its own against anything released today..

6.

goddard  "bishop"

unfortunatly haven't had the chance to review this one here yet, but ive been jamming it for a couple months now(since jason sent me a copy) and it truely deserves  spot in my top ten....spacey math rock at its best...

5.

procession "fade" 

this was always a lock for my top 5.......amazing shoegaze from grand rapids (at least originally) one of the best things i've heard this year easily.......on tour now, so go see em! (also new album comming soon on forward records)

4.

black kites/convulsions split lp

two of the best bands in recent memory squaring off on one piece of vinyl....... unfortunately black kites have decided to call it a day...........the world will be less enriched with the loss of their presence.....

3.

cloud rat/oily menace/wolbachia 3 way split

cloud rat has been one of my absolute favorite bands since i first saw them a year and a half ago.....just amazing people playing amazing music.......oily menace play great straightforward grind and wolbachia are a canadian band that im still waiting to see.......together they made this record an unstoppable juggernaut of sonic brutality......and one of the highlights of the year.

2.

psychic blood "strain"

one of the absolute best things ive heard all year........noisy, dreamy, awesome stuff with a huge recording.....i cant wait to see this band!

1.

shoppers " silver year"

without a doubt, hands down, the BEST record of the year.........i cant say enough about this band's music or about them as people...........simply incredible on all accounts......im literally counting the days untill i see them again on january 28th......they will kickoff their nationwide tour tommorow night in syracuse.......do whatever you have to do to see them......bands like this come around maybe once every decade......and im so gad that i was able to make a connection with them........meredith/josh/kari, if your reading this, i love you guys and i always will.....

Cynarae @ The Stein House 12/23/2011

halo perfecto "hospitals in other countries" lp (2003)

this providence outfit featured members of  palatka and anton boardman (among others) and played  tuneful, catchy rockish stuff with some noisy twang...........kinda reminds me of a slightly calmer new brutalism......this was released on mountain collective in 2003 if your curious.........excellent stuff from a band that was here for a short time and then broke up and was quickly forgotten....

hospitals in other countries

countdown to putsch "handbook for planetary progress" (1999)

the debut record from this NYC band sporting members of judas iscariot, your adversary and  thats all she wrote..............the sound here is jerky, energetic hardcore with a definate jazz lean.......screamy vocals spit political lyrics and the music here is a combination of all the best parts of each member's former bands..........definatly one of the better bands to have existed in the late 90s/early 2000s and an all but forgotten  member of both the mountain collective and ebullition catalogs........if i remember right, this cd came packaged in a really elaborate booklet chock full of  song explanations and liner notes of a socio-political nature..........its been a loooong time since ive seen the whole package so i dont really remember what went where or how exactly the whole thing was packaged so im just going off memory here.......anyways an excellent band that produced innovative unique hardcore thats not been heard since.........

handbook for planetary progress

psychic blood "strain" "7 (2011)

i guess December is determined to pack in a few more musical surprises for me before the year is out.......i got this in my email early this month from a dude named jason, who i'm presuming is in the band.......not sure how i sat on this for the last two weeks without playing it...........anyways i  have and its a small (as in two songs), but sonically huge slice of wonderful ..........the volume on this is huge and is reminiscent of the overwhelming sound of the shopper's silver year lp from earlier this year...though the music isn't really the same at all.......its big  boisterous guitar rock with two faces, one facing the late 80s/early 90s world of  squirrelbait, treepeople and bitch magnet, and the other facing the modern scene of bands like condominium and  tenement........the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a Quonset hut, the guitars coloring over eachother and filling the space while the vocals kinda echo off in the distance and the rhythm section just chugging along........both songs are catchy, yet rough in a way that hits my sweetspot just the way i like it.......i think these dudes hail from somewhere on the east coast, but im not sure.........i just know that they made my top ten of the year with this record.........hopefully ill get to see them live in 2012......really good stuff and defiantely recommended........

psychic blood - strain

cloudburst "7 (1999)

another product of digging back through old records......this french band from the late 90s played  excellent energetic emotive mosh..... reminiscent of certain american bands, but with an edge all their own.......im not sure how long they were around but im pretty sure they were a dead band by 2002 or so......this came out on mosh bart records in 1999 and its still well worth a listen or 3 today......M.I. approved.

cloudburst

reblogging this because its fucking important

http://abortedsociety.com/2011/12/mixtapes-for-aceh/

We read the news about punks being apprehended and detained in the Aceh region of Indonesia recently, and like many of you, were extremely disturbed at the thought of the police sweeping these kids off the street, shaving their hair, and forcing them into some sort of bullshit military training to deprogram them.  We are privileged to live in a society where we are free to express ourselves as we wish, and while the US and other Western states have their fair share of police injustice, this incident is a harsh reminder to how good we really have it.  That is why we are starting a small initiative in solidarity with our friends overseas, to let them know that we stand behind them and fully support them.

The mixtape is a crucial part of our subculture, and is solely responsible for the spread of punk influence worldwide.  Mixtapes have introduced myself and many others to so many amazing bands, and the act of making them is one of the most sincere forms of friendship that exist in our world.  So, we are asking our friends, our community, and anyone else who remotely gives a shit to make and donate one mixtape cassette to the kids in Aceh who were forced into detention solely for being punk. It’s a small gesture, but it means a lot to people who need our support.  The content entirely of their choosing as long as it’s somewhat falling in the punk/hardcore/crust genre.  If you have an awesome tape you never listen to anymore, or would like to make a new one specifically for this endeavor, that would absolutely rule.  We are collecting these tapes to send out in early January, so your deadline to submit is December 30th, 2011.  We know that the post office is fucked right now with holiday shipping, but right after xmas it frees up largely, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Please try and pack as much music onto these tapes as possible, and try to avoid sending a short 10-min long demo cassette.  This is an out-of pocket initiative for me (Rob) personally, and I’d like to make what we send as substantial as possible.  And include your address in the tape, you might just make an international buddy out of the process!

 You can send your mixtapes to our label address:

Aborted Society Records
attn: Mixtapes for Aceh
1122 E. Pike Street #1377
Seattle, WA 98122-3934
USA

diavolo rosso - "groove down to the riot rock" (1999)

digging in my vaults i found this gem from a decade or so back.  fast pissed hardcore from germany........4 blistering ragers here.......great lyrics too....."listen asshole, this aint no fuckin tough guy bullshit"..........love it!  not all too dissimilar to their fellow pissed off countrymen like stack or asmodians leichenhaus......if you like it fast and fucked, this is your jam.........

diavolo rosso - groove down to the riot rock.

oily menace - modulistic terror demo (2009)

the demo from lansing's  oily menace.........this could almost be a full length to itself......the music this time around is more slow and paced than the stuff on the three way with cloud rat and wolbachia which sounded like these dudes had a limited amount of time in the studio and they had to blast em all out fast........its still grimey and nasty as fuck, but theres an extra dimension here.........if you like brutal pissed grind with great lyrics, oily menace should be right up your alley.....mid michigan is currently pretty active as far as punk/hardcore goes and this release is just another testament to that fact.....



oily menace - modulistic terror

siamese twins demo (2011)

this is a new boston band featuring members of Libyans and ampere among others.  im not sure but i think there are two girls singing in this band.....anyways 6 songs of 80s goth/post punk ala bauhaus and other bands of their ilk.......even though i was never into the first wave of this stuff, its very good, and a change from all the throwback thrash/hardcore bands that seem to be overpopulating the american scene nowadays........they don't have a bandcamp or blog to my knowledge so i have no idea when/if they will tour............if they do i hope they come out here........good stuff



saimese twins demo-2011

catherer/laughing dog split lp (2000)

my introduction to both these bands was seeing them play back in 1999 at the 10 weston in grand rapids.... in fact it was only my second live exposure to grindcore (the first had been acrid/assuck in 1997).....it was a great show, (malakhai was on the bill too and kicked ass.........) and both bands brought it hard..............i talked to alex & joe of laughing dog after the show and found them to be incredibly nice chill dudes......they wanted me to write them but i promptly lost the tapejacket (the art above isnt the original album art BTW) with their contact info  =(.........the thing i remember the most about catheter was their sodom cover, otherwise its was pretty good straight ahead grind......laughing dog were much more technical and "blasty" (for lack of a better term) anyways on this split catherer do pretty much what they do live, harsh fast no-frills grind (yes, the sodom cover(outbreak of evil) is there too) while laughing dog play fast choppy tech grind like a crustier dischordance axis but mixed with some hiphop tracks that i can only describe as "amateur".......all in all its good, laughing dog comes out the victor on this record for me, even though the recording is kinda tinny and doesn't really capture their live intensity at all........im pretty sure alex & joe both ended up in noisear, or may have even been in that band when i saw laughing dog as i think both bands co-existed for a while........anyways cop this...........

laughing dog/catherer

BWAHAHAHAHAAHA!

im seriously wondering how many couches are burning in east landfill right now..........great game sparty, too bad #9 fucked you out of your first rose bowl appearance in 23 years....or, you know, any shot at the BCS whatsoever................




GO BLUE!

herr k cd (2005)

now for something more obscure.......herr k were a california band  that existed between 2000-2006 and played some energetic, clattering, spastic hardcore.....impassioned vocals and all........one of those bands that packaged their recordings inpeccably.......excellent on all counts......one more in a long procession of bands over the years that never really got any attention whatsoever....anyways check it out cause its fucking cool....members went on to silver daggers......

herr k

.......

yea, ive found that i dislike new zealand greatly over the past few hours.............

Sweep the leg johnny - Similarities

degollado - dark of the day (2011)

ive been waiting for this record for a while now..........this band is from strasburg virginia and play some amazing hypnotic post rock/sludge....3 long songs that alternate between wandering drone, tweaked grooving and outbursts of white hot noise...sometimes it reminds me of  conifer, at others, regulator watts....highly anticipated and well worth the wait........this was an automatic top ten of the year record for me....it really is that good......i cant wait for these two dudes to tour so i can see these songs unfold live.........a band that gets my 100% stamp of approval easily......YOU HAVE TO HEAR IT!

dark of the day

Gasp - Love For The Retarded Strands

skylark lp (2010)

its been made abundantly clear to me this year that i need to keep my ears open, because there is so much good new music out there.......including this band from london whose lp was yet another in a year of now-innumerable musical revelations for me  (even though this came out last year)........anyways they play some twinkly jagged, buoyant hardcore with pissy vocals (not a bad thing) reminds me alot of an old providence band from the 90s called jetpak........kind of a balancing act between shellac/jehu/guzzard abrasiveness and cap'n jazz/bells on trike twinkle....i could also draw ready comparisons to older german bands like craving/kurt/ENIAC....all in all this is a great record and hopefully the band will hit the states sometime soon......id like to hear more!

skylark lp

cynarae ep (2011)

the musical suprises keep rolling in........ I've only just discovered this band myself and i can safely say after one listen this has made my top ten for the year......this band hails from seattle and recorded/released this over the summer (august) some thick ugly dirty hardcore here...like the DNA of his hero is gone/unruh/thoughts of ionesco/systral were spliced together to create a new devastating musical superbeast......it works REALLY well too as i havent heard anything this ugly and intense since the knelt rote lp sometime last year.. another plus is that these songs have great lyrics and after you download this record, youll find that they have full expanations of the meaning of each song also...keeping the DIY socio-political spirit alive in hardcore.......really fucking awesome.......heres to hoping these dudes come east sometime soon, i might even be willing to donate my basement for a night......A+ effort.

cynarae

the best kept musical secrets of 2011............

the following list is made up of bands that put out great records under the radar this year......(i left cloud rat and the shoppers off this list because  they seem to be getting the attention the rightly deserve and are popping up in alot of people's top ten lists already.....)

red forest hunter

degollado

onodrim

sex prisoner

procession

fell types

monkey (still holding out hope for the full length to be released before the end of the year)

sans aids

failed

skylark

all bands i wholeheartedly recommend

serotonin - "universal time constant" (2003)

ever have a record that you buy, not knowing exactly what you'll get and then have it surprise you in the most pleasant of ways? well that's the scenario that occurred when i bought this particular album back in 2003.........i knew this Murfreesboro Tennessee band  by reputation among friends who had seen them........"really intense complex stuff" i was told..........after one listen i concurred......it could be put in the "math rock" category, but its so much more than that...they play their music with more passion and heart than any math rock band i've heard............the color and emotion of this stuff explodes out of the framework and engages your ears/brain/heart directly.......that was the quality that keeps me listening to this band  several years since they called it quits.......some could draw comparisons to shit like cap'n jazz (especially their early stuff) but id say thats a bit off too, as  tim kinsella & co never touched the heights of complexity and emotion that serotonin routinely mined during their existence......anyways this record was one of their later releases and im pretty sure if you like music that makes you think AND feel, this is your bag........

universal time constant

marjan crash - the 434 sessions (1993-96?)

FUCK! thats all i have to say right now.......the theme of this year continues as ive unearthed yet another unknown gem......this shit blew me away......easily ties the shoppers as the best thing ive heard this year........i mean holy fuck, these songs are amazing!........i posted this band's "cruise dakota" cdep a year or so ago and i like that album, but these songs (especially the 4 or so songs they were recording for an lp) are VASTLY superior.......there are 7 tracks in all here......the first two recorded early in the band's carreer in 1993 with don fury in NYC....just huge burly hardcore that beats the living shit out of everything.........reminds me of the first threadbare "7 but tougher and much more bludgeoning........this shit is huge and scary......the next four songs are from what i've heard was an aborted attempt at an LP that i believe were recorded in 1996......i cant be sure of that though, so if your in the know (or better yet, in the band) let me know the deal.......anyways the band evolved radically away from their early sound, although the intensity and impact still remain in spades......those songs are flowing noisy works of fucking art.... noticeable shoegaze influence colliding with noisy hardcore that takes cues from both DC & san diego......i once compared the vocals to peter steele on a morphine drip...i still say thats still pretty much the case here (although the early vocals were much more shouty/screamy) and their still only half intelligible, buried in the songs themselves......this time i feel that the vocals somehow work better on these songs than on cruise dakota.....overall it seems to have a slightly "gothy" sheen to it........anyways amazing amazing shit..........something ill be jamming on the regular far into the future.......the last song  (ben sway bar) is from their demo (im guessing 1992-93-ish) is inline with the don fury sessions stuff, very tough and hard with thickass riffs busting your head open........daddy like! old forgotten tunes from a band that probably would have made quite the splash (deservedly so) if they had stuck together and finished the LP........as it stands, its only a glimpse of what they were capable of........ im pretty sure alot of you will dig this as much as i have...........

marjan crash - 434 sessions

Marjan Crash - Wide Ferrari

best song ive heard in a LOOOOONG TIME!

show of bedlam - five songs (split w/jucifer) (2009)

i came accross this after one of the boneblack dudes responded to my post about their lp a little while back.........he said this was one of his other bands, so i checked it out and goddamn if it isnt fantastic! yet another musical  revelation for me this year.......weird sludgy stuff with dramatically sung female vocals.........noothgrush/grief with a side of bratmobile (vocally)? i also hear a tiny bit of commonality with a band like three mile pilot in certain songs...........i know the comparisons are weird, but its what my ears are telling me right now............it could all change when i listen to this a few months or years down the road, but for now, these are the best comparisons i can make......these five songs are from a split with jucifer....a band whose name ive heard tossed around alot but have never actually heard for myself.......i always thought they might be one of those scandi-rock bands like hellacopters or turbonegro, but who knows.......anyways this band is still active and this is a great introduction to a new-ish (for me) band that i havent heard before......hopefully youll like it as much as i have.....

show of bedlam (split w/jucifer)

EBAY FLAKE ALERT

scott miller (wavesofaethyr)








i bought two shirts from him....never got them.........emailed him several times, no response.......filed a paypal claim............fuck this cocksucker.........










AVOID THIS SCUMBAG PIECE OF SHIT RIPOFF ARTIST AT ALL COSTS!

national sunday law "the fifth ape" (2010)

now for another one of those bands that no one seems to have known or talked about, at least no one i knew/know........national Sunday law hailed from los angeles and played what i can only describe as two-man  prog-math hardcore......i dug the shit out of their demo and would listen to it many times a day for several months.........i couldn't get into their lp (la storia di cannabali) as much....kinda sounded like a halfassed tarantula hawk at times(not that that's a bad thing) and the lp art looked like a first draft for a baroness album cover......but this record redeems all that....ranging from drifting noise to back to basics straightforward (for them) hardcore/prog............"last flight of the dodo" is the centerpiece song here.........so fucking good.......its too bad these guys called it quits last year. if they would've kept going in this vein i could see them going places.....members went on to gravitron and some other bands...anyways enjoy!

the fifth ape

kwisatz haderach - 7 & split with encyclopedia of american traitors, (1998)

one of the first 10 or so records i ever bought........in fact im pretty sure i snatched this one up after a great review in an issue of heartattack in 99 or so.......i guess it had already been out for months or even a year by then.........anyways what we have here is some fucking intense, epic emotional hardcore from virginia in the union of uranus vein, but with a bit more melody and space.......i especially love it when this band slows down from the fast crushing stuff and does some interesting things riffwise.......lyrics are obscure and dune references are rife (as evidenced by the band's moniker/song titles themselves) one of those bands that kinds fell through the cracks even though they were superior to the heavy hitters of the time (orchid, yaphet kotto, im looking at both of you) members went on to virginia black lung and fighting dogs (and maybe onodrim?).....also includes the two songs from the split with EOAT (litany against fear and ya ha chouhada)....definatly recommended........

kwisatz haderach

boneblack lp (2011)

.this record/band took me by surprise (that's sorta been the theme of the year for me with music).......maybe the first band that i had to check out just from viewing a youtube video of them playing/bantering........i was actually looking for footage of wolbachia and these guys popped up in the cue.......anyways one thing led to another, i went to their blog and started gushing about how great they were and i downloaded their lp and listened to it for a couple hours straight......raging female vocalled crust with some gloomy ambiance from montreal.......i don't generally listen to much crust...mainly because IMO, there's a certain sameness with most of the bands in that genre and it all blurrs together for me......i guess maybe i should give it a chance more often because this band/record payed off in spades........unfortunately they seem to have broken up already (maybe already isn't the best word since they apparently had been around a few years) one of those bands i discover too late and never got a chance to have any personal contact with........all in all, a great record from seemingly great people..........check it out!

boneblack lp

cromwell discography (1995-2000?)

a discography of sorts from a detroit band of the 90s........comprises their "7 and splits with scout and thoughts of ionesco..........they evolved from a dischordant moshy hardcore band (with days of our lives samples!) at the outset, into a weird noisy almost pop punkish at times sound on the split with scout and finally into a heavy grooving noise monster on the late (ionesco split) material...........i remember they had a website way back in the day and had talked about recording a full length which was supposed to "come out soon" but apparently never did...........id love to hear it if it exists.......members can now be found in year of the pig.........all n all another forgotten page of detroit  hardcore history....

cromwell

honeywell discography (1989-1994?)

currently my favorite band of the 90s.........these guys were the black flag/minor threat/negative approach of "emotional hardcore" and their lp is the benchmark to meet for all the bands that came later............unfortunatly none ever came close to touching the energy level or sheer pissed-off-ness of honeywell in their prime.....that was especially what i loved about this band.....they were pissed and you could  feel it in their music.......no sassy bullshit (which seems to have creeped into other bands of this style that came later) here,just genuine fucked up angry hardcore slathered in an acidic bath of noise and speed with the occasional erie, beautiful introspective part, (the last 4 minutes or so of "christ") political lyrics and the trademark ear peircing vocals that were another aspect of this band that i loved so much.......and they were doing this all starting in the late 80s when this style was practically unheard of as of yet........paving the way for  everything that would come later..........members went on to volume 11 (who were good, but infected somewhat with the sassy virus i talked about earlier) los cincos, one eyed richard and a bunch of other bands.......this is essential if your into 90s hardcore at all.....

honeywell discography

Longmont Potion Castle - Duckling Fantasy

<3

SENTIMENT AGREED!

hey 616 zine dudes/dudettes

hey!!  i apologize for not making this post sooner..........i hope i havnt kept you waiting too long on this........feel free to take any of my show pics you want (to put in the zine) 

this is what i have from the shoppers show a month and  a half back.......no shoppers pics unfortunatly..........i was too busy recording their set for posterity...........though i guess the royl space pics with josh in them might count as shoppers pics....lol

shattered badge

royl space.

currently trying to decide weather to go down to GR for the brown sugar show or not...........that band really isnt my cup of tea, but id love to see all my new grand rapids peoples again anyway.....and who knows, maybe BS are better live than they are recorded......or maybe i just need to listen to their LP excerpts again

Juliana Hatfield "What A Life"

LOVE

ENTROPY - NECROMANTIC

boston grind from the 90s. in a weird way cloud rat kinda sounds like them

Honeywell - Christ

the best hardcore band of all time......for me.........

onodrim - winter demo (2011)

this is a new-ish band from pittsburg featuring members of the sea like lead, belegost and virginia black lung.....kinda dark shimmering emoish stuff with slight shoegaze tendencies..........sometimes it kinda reminds me of the last crime or "as floods decrease" era brazen. at others it reminds me of  the sea like lead........its a nice full wall of sound theyve cooked up here..........really excellent stuff............hopefully theyll tour soon and ill be able to see the spectacle in person......best thing ive heard this month.........highly recommended....



onodrim - winter demo

HANDICAPPED PUNX

ive always wondered if people can continue to do bands/be involved in the scene if they have been paralyzed from the waist down or have suffered some other catastrophic injury………are there such things as  handicap-freindly DIY showspaces? have you ever seen a wheelchair ramp at a space? have you ever seen any punks in wheelchairs? this is something ive never seen or even heard about………no zines about handicapped punx (although it would be great if someone would start one or do a piece about them) this is important because any one of us could be put in a wheelchair or on those arm-brace crutches permenantly  at any given time and i wanna know if you could continue to play music/do shows/ continue life as a punk after such an injury……

Kendra live in Peterborough, NH — 4.27.07

one more!

Kendra - 'Afro Thunder'at Brilliant Corners Last Show

brilliant indeed.

Kendra at Armadillos - Has Not Rel

moar kendra!

Kendra - 'Pharmacokinetic' at Brilliant Corners Last Show

o

one can only mourn what has past............

kendra "mc fastbike" (2007)

ive been trying to hunt own this record for years! ive finally got it! (thanks jason!)  kendra were two people, danny kamps and kate hanlon, who both hailed from keene, NH. together they formed the mathiest  math rock and the postiest post rock duo on the planet......weird bubbly guitars soaring into echoing passages which in turn dive into sludgy dirges and back to the tweeked out mathiness again......they looked to be fucking dynamite live......both of them would trade instruments and keep the songs going seamlessly, something ive never seen from any other band....... i only wish that i didnt live 800 miles away from them........they also did a showspace called brilliant corners and had many a band pass through.......no less a personality than thurston moore himself touted these two as a band to watch.........i fully and wholeheartedly agree with his assessment..........but unfortunatly, they broke up 4 years ago.........huge fucking bummer because they were doing some truly unique and awesome shit........another record that is a MUST to own........

kendra - mc fastbike