my top 5's of 2012

2012 was a year of mediocrity with a few highs here and there…at least for me….the excitement and shine wore off of some bands i loved, i felt shitty more often than not, some people weren’t who i thought they were and left my life, lots of bands toured, few played within driving distance of me…..i developed the worst sleep habits ever, thus fucking up my metabolism/bodyclock…….i started the year strong with my blog, but tailed off sharply  towards the end of the summer…updates are down to a trickle now………my energy level is in need of a serious tune up…..lost medicaid and have to get back on it……first governor snyder fucking the unions over with that “right to work” bullshit and then that little asshole shooting up the school in CT alternately pissed me off and had me on the attack against all the bubble brained soccermoms who are crying about more gun control because their little white angels bit it, not to mention making everyone with aspergers (a group which includes me) a target for fear and rdicule for the rest of our fucked up society…….im ending the year stressed, high strung, tired and emotionally jacked……..maybe getting a few things straightened out and exercising/sleeping more in January will lift this pall of emotional/physical bullshit off my shoulders at least a little bit.


anyways now that my rant is over, ill get right into my top 5's



top 5 records of the year:

5.

globsters: rock n roll misery "7

i didn't review this for whatever reason, but its a hell of a record! adam does it again! blown out punk jamz about whatever subject thats on adam's mind at the time.......loved it.

4.

panzram/shoppers split "7

the first record of the year that i was totally sold on......shoppers mean and meant alot to me and these songs were as great as anything else they recorded.....its just too bad it ended up being their unintended swansong as a band............panzram are a band i'd never heard before and suprised me with their abrasive rough style of hardcore that harkened back to the 90s.......

3.

ulises lima  - waiting for the summer

this  spanish band put out one of the best records of the year......great melodic hardcore as it hadn't been done in years......a nice breath of fresh air from most of the stuff i'd been hearing this year.

2.

cloud rat / republic of dreams split lp

this record was amazing.......both bands came hard, combining to make this masterpiece of a record.....cloud rat's cerebral diverse grind  vs  republic of dreams' noise slathered  reversal of man-esque emo bursts.......excellent all around.

1.

heemeyer s/t ep

record of 2012 for me.....just a monster of an album..........thick, dark, suffocating, everything a good hardcore record should be.  cant wait to see these dudes live.

top 5 live sets of 2012

5. two sunrises - merlot mansion, marquette, mi, 6/22/12

4. oily menace - the commons, sekoitus fest, marquette, mi, 7/13/12

3. shoppers - DAAC, grand rapids, mi, 1/28/12

2. tenement - loaf house, marquette, mi, 12/17/12

1. cloud rat - suicide garage,  michigan meltdown, grand rapids, mi, 7/18/12

hopefully 2013 will be better than 2012........looking forward to new experiences, new people, new bands and new friendships.

tenement/gray beast/redettes/sycamore smith show @ the loaf house, marquette, mi, 12/17/12

well its been a week and a half since this happened and ive been busy/tired since then, but im back........anyways this was the first show at the sugarloaf house, a new venue in marquette......not sure whats up with merlot mansion, anyways it took me a little while to find the place, overshot it a couple times, got talked to by a cop who apparently had talked to the dudes in tenement a little while before............anyways i found the house, went in, hung out for a while, talked to a few new kids (whose names ive forgotten) and then tenement started playing and the energy went through the roof......ive heard alot about these guys, and they delivered live and then some.....pure rock n roll fun, excellent dudes to boot.....kinda sucked that they only played 5 songs, but their drummer had to be at work at 5 the next morning......we were on the tail end of a  minitour  they did up to winnipeg and back.......next sycamore smith  did his weird singer songwriter folk punk thing........it was ok, but i wasn't really feeling it....then the grey beast played.....never heard or saw this band....it was members of redettes/witches tit/couchfort, ect.......musically they were kind of a more subdued version of tenement with a weird "folky" edge to it.........the same could be said of the redettes who were basically the same band as the grey beast but with a different drummer (the dude from sah if i'm not mistaken)........thus the sound was extremely similar for them too.....all in all it was a good night, tenement blew everyone away and the rest of the bands ruled as well.......nice way to start the life of a new showspace, one that will, hopefully continue to exist for years to come.........




tenement.

the redettes

the grey beast

heemeyer s/t (2012)

what you are seeing here is the album of the year.......fucking dark destructive smogcore from the depths of oklahoma..............bulldozer riffs over a busy rhythm section. simply the most crushing shit ive heard this year.....its got that "breather resist/louisville" feel to it, but with its own special twist.....dirty, ornery and savage, maybe with a little silver lining of emotional reflection poking through the clouds here and there......but mainly just a punishing almost mechanical throb.........the true sonic equivalent of their namesake's rampage through a small Colorado town......i need to hear more of this shit and i hope these dudes can make it up here on tour sometime.......12 out of 12 for me......goddamn this is great.......

heemeyer

cloud rat/yeung/bruxism/water torture/thedowngoing, grand rapids, michigan, 11/22/12, show review

hey! sorry ive been off and on on this thing for a while......just alot of shit im occupied with........anyways im gonna talk about seeing the cloud rat/downgoing/water torture tour kickoff show on thanksgiving night a couple weeks ago.........i was down in south bend visiting my sister and had planned on being at this show a while in advance.....it was at the new grenada rec center right nextdoor to bartertown cafe (where thunderdome used to be)  when i got into grand rapids, it was raining and i ended up waiting outside the venue for an hour before the doors opened with some drunk punk dude who kept asking me to drive him to the ATM so he could get money fro the bands...(i offered him $5 for the door but he refused to take it) anyways the doors finally opened and we sat milling around for another half hour before the dude (chris) in yeung set his stuff up and proceeded to rip through maybe 5 or 6 songs of him playing blastbeats and shouting over samples......one man sample grind....not bad, but not really my forte either, his set was short, maybe 5-10 minutes and then he moved his stuff to the back while bruxism set up........bruxism is a name ive seen on alot of flyers but had, until then, never experienced live....their set was decent, long rockin sludgy songs interspersed with shorter grindy ones.....they were decent, but IMO, nothing to write home about....maybe it was just that i was feeling shitty that night and i wasnt really "on" (meaning i wasn't feeling the energy like i usually am at shows) but their set just didn't catch me.......the drunk dude i talked about earlier seemed to be enjoying himself and was ambling around back n forth, sometimes shouting random things......that was kinda funny.........i think he might have been the one who puked all over the ground outside the door later.....not sure though.......anyways water torture was up next....talked to madison for the first time that night just before their set too....always love talking to madison.......anyways they added another bassist since the last time i saw them and their sound was alot fuller and more intense for it....they were much better as a band this time around and i was into their set......good stuff........the only way their set could have been better was if they did the song with madison on vocals..................anyways the aussies in the downgoing were up after WT and surprised the hell out of me with some burly dirty fucking tech grind ala early pig destroyer or discordance axis.......so much noise was produced it was hard to believe it was only two dudes makin all the racket.........first aussie band i'd ever laid eyes on too....good dudes to boot! hopefully they are enjoying their tour and selling as much merch and records as possible......a band everyone should watch out for in the future.........finally cloud rat set up to end the night with their patented brand of  spatial beautiful grind.......madison's fiery oratory combined with rorik's scorching chords and adrian's superb skin-pummeling is a sight to behold at all times......never a dull moment with cloud rat, even when i was feeling less than enthused much of the night, they injected me with a much needed energy boost and saved my night.....half a dozen times ive seen them and they NEVER let me down, even if the night starts out slow, just being with them means that it will end magnificently.......rorik asked me what song they should play to end the set, like a dumbass i got tongue-tied and came up with nothing... (they ended with powerlines) i made a promise to myself that next time, they will end the set with "sinkhole", hahaha! anyways their set was great, my night was saved, we talked for an hour or so after the show and i was re energized for the drive back to my sister's place in south bend.......cloud rat/downgoing are currently on tour together on the west coast, playing oakland tonight (for the second night in a row) to be precise...... they've already hit western canada and gone through the lions share of the west coast, but you can check the remaining dates here: http://cloudrat.blogspot.com/...............even though i got to see the kickoff show of this tour, im still jealous of everyone who will be seeing them on tour....... appreciate my friends people, seeing them live is almost a semi religious experience........easily the most excellent people i've had the pleasure of building relationships with in the last 5 or so years of my life.......




and now for the pictures:



yeung

bruxism

water torture

the downgoing

cloud rat

RIP sarah kirsch

punk lost a sizeable chunk of itself and the world as a whole got shittier yesterday when sarah (mike) kirsch passed.........she was a part of so many amazing bands that inspired me over the years, i cant even begin to explain how vital and important they all were......i saw torches to rome in 1996 with 400 years, seein red, palatka and los crudos and torches easily stole the show for me........the power and intensity blew me away........i was obsessed with her music ever since and it turned me on to the rest of the ebullition catalog as well (along with the mixtapes i was just beginning to get at that time too) without her my musical tastes would probably be vastly different and i also probably wouldn't have been turned on to the concept of "personal/political" ideology as it pertains to punk rock.....im endlessly thankful for everything she gave to us and i doubt we will see the likes of her again..........rest in power, sarah.......

hey!

sorry to everyone, but ive been preoccupied with stuff lately and i havent really had much time to update this........ill post some ore shit soon so dont worry......also try to resurrect more of the dead links too.......

ulises lima - waiting for the summer (2012)

sorry for being away so long, ive just been in sort of a funk lately concerning doing much of anything......i guess i needed some time off........anyways im back with what i consider to be the album of the year so far. ulises lima are a band from spain (madrid i think) who have been around for a few years.....they had a full length out (a thousand words) in 2010 and a "7 last year.....while their earlier work was good in its own right, this album pushes everything up several notches......the songs here are so catchy and awesome, these dudes capture something thats been missing in hardcore for the past decade or so. i cant really put my finger on exactly what it is, i just think they are doing melodic, indie rock-influenced hardcore the way it used to be done 12-14 years ago, the way it should be done.....their influences are older than alot of bands around nowadays tagging themselves as "melodic hardcore" (in other words, their not touche amore or la dispute...bands playing watered down "screamo" that  make thursday sound like moss icon) echoes of garden variety, burning airlines, even treepeople, but still maintaining a "modern" sheen over all of it.......i havent heard another record this year (with the exception of that shoppers/panzram split) that is more well balanced and without filler tracks......just totally rockin from first to last song.......really highly recommended and  hopefully these dudes will find the time to cross the pond and do their thing here soon.....

ulises ima - waiting for the summer

1066 "7 (1997)

hey, i know its been a while, but im back with a new post!  1066 were a band from austin texas who played what i consider to be the prototypical 90s mosh....a snapshot of everything awesome that this sound embodied......these guys were, IMO, a hugely underrated band that didn't get the attention they deserved for multiple reasons......the two biggest were probably that they were from texas, an area not known for its mosh bands, and that they were active in the late 90s when the style they played was starting to lose its steam, which was too bad really, because these guys absolutely nailed it....people rave about stuff like chokehold and unbroken, and thats perfectly well and good (im not a huge fan of either band) but i definately put these guys on the same plane as the aforementioned bands, as they are every bit as good or better..... its just that they got lost in the shuffle......thick, heavy danceable mosh that varies the pace enough that each of their songs remains fresh and attention-keeping, which is MUCH more than i can say for the vast majority of bands doing this stuff in the mid 90s (and thats saying alot because i still listen to a shitload of that stuff) extremely listenable and i encourage you to take a listen or three to this "7.........they had a split w/new year (whose "7 i found kinda boring) that i will definatly be tracking down in the near future......excellent excellent stuff......

1066 "7

songs for snakes - charcoal heather (2012)

so i got a link to this album in my gmail account.......i had no idea what to expect really (other than what this nice dude from the band, bill, told me.....i think husker du was mentioned once or twice..)...lo and behold, he was right! lots of husker do-isms throughout this album....along with quite a few other influences........i hear  bits of the replacements, bad religion, jawbreaker, squirrelbait, even cathrine wheel in the mix....also sometimes reminds me of this old detroit band called sponge, who gained a bit of radio fame in the 90s........infact its very 90s oriented punk/alt rock, a style that seems to be making somewhat of a comeback in certain circles....this is all very well recorded and produced, yet it retains enough little rough edges to retain its intensity....they have a record before this that i now have and will be listening to shortly.....from what ive heard so far, im diggin it......this band is from san francisco BTW and i do hope they tour soon.

charcoal and heather