NFT's Interesting Albums of 2013

Some things sound the same... these aren't those things.

Clipping - Midcity (2013)

Clipping is hip-hop laced in harsh noise featuring members from True Neutral Crew. I thought I would like Midcity a lot more than a I did; not because I don't like the noise/anti-beats - that's actually what kept me listening - I just can't get passed the stereotypical rap lyrics. Still, it's a very interesting listen:

Last.fm

Hill/Cameron/Weiss - Drumgasm (2013)

Simply put, Drumgasm  is a 39 minute drum solo by Janet Weiss (Quasi, Wild Flag, Sleater-Kinney), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), and Zach Hall (a thousand other things). It's not an album for everyone, especially for anyone who doesn't like drumming, but it certainly deserves a spot on my most interesting albums of 2013 list. Drumgasm is also now a nice treat for myself since Zach Hill is so busy with Death Grips that he is not appearing in all sorts of supergroups and experimental tag team projects that he used to. Plus, this album is only drumming... so, we the listeners get to hear Hill's gloriously spastic drumming in full color.

Matt Cameron and Janet Weiss are great drummers in their own right, but let's be honest: if Zach Hill wasn't on this drum expose, there probably wouldn't be much to talk about.

Last.fm

Jungbluth - Part Ache (2013)

Politically fueled by the ghost of German communist and antifascist, Karl Jungbluth, this post-hiatus Alpinist side project is a crusty hardcore battle cry. I'm not a big follower of politics by any sense but I have noticed how powerful of a tool it can be when it comes to making art and music... and noise. 

All proceeds to Part Ache go to Anarchist Black Cross: Belarus - a group that supports anarchists and antiauthoritorian people (and other words I remember hearing in Amnesty club) that are imprisoned for their political beliefs and public activities.  

Last.fm

Kal Marks - Life Is Murder (2013)

Boston freak indie rock fueled by the ghost of Karl Marx.

Seriously though, Kal Marks is a classic last minute find from the always impressive record label, Exploding in Sound. No time like the present to get addicted to this stuff:



Did I mention the vocals are hauntingly freaky?

Last.fm

Botanist - IV: Mandragora (2013)

Probably my most interesting find this year has to be Botanist.

Botanist is plant-inspired black metal using only drums and a dulcimer. It's a one person effort by a man named Otrebor who plays this green metal of sorts from the perspective of The Botanist. The Botanist's mission in life is to return Earth back to its natural form before humanity moved in and destroyed everything. At first it sounds like a guy with an electrical voice box banging on metal and a marching snare drum, but it gets enjoyable in a weird way once you listen to it a few more times.

It's definitely something.

Last.fm

Monday XVI Breast of 2011 Part II

No chit-chat! Just getting right into it..

Here you go:

Nostalgia For Tomorrow's Favorite Albums of 2011




Defeater - Empty Days & Sleepless Nights (2011)

While I was pretty much settled with Travels and Lost Ground and could have moved on without anymore Defeater releases in my life, I could not but help wonder what it would sound like if their were more acoustic tracks other than the second half of Prophet In Plan Clothes from Travels. Well, Empty Days & Sleepless Nights is the answer. The first part of the album (Empty Days) features Defeater's classic romantic hardcore tunes with Dear Father, Empty Glass, Cemetery Walls and Warm Blood Rush and then delivers just what I was asking for at the end with four acoustic tracks to go along with the Defeater story (Sleepless Nights). The combination of spot on Defeater storytellingcore and super melancholy and personal acoustic tracks made this album an instant favorite of the year for me right away.

My only issue with this album is White Oak Doors. It would be one of - if not my favorite song of the year - if it wasn't a little over 17 minutes long. Before you go all Godspeed You! Black Emperor on me, I would like to explain that this song should only be 6 minutes. Not because I think they shorten it but because there is an 11 minute fade out! I have to wait 11 minutes before I can listen to the acoustic tracks. Eleven minutes of nothing for 11 minutes! That is not hardcore!

Last.fm
Topshelf Records
Bridge Nine

Fucked Up - David Comes To Life (2011)

Fucked Up has figured out how to sound hardcore but still look indie rock and aren't called post-hardcore! Will you look at that!

David Comes To Life is from 2011. I didn't know this until I saw people mentioning their favorite albums of the year so far. I honestly thought I was listening to something from the early 2000's rather than 2011! But you know what? I'm okay with that because I can put this in my favorites list for the year it came out and say that I listened to it in that same year! Great success!

About the Album: It's solid and you should listen to it. because we are all dying on the inside.

Last.fm


Giraffes? Giraffes! - Pink Magick (2011)

I am having a lot of trouble trying to figure out if 2011 was a good year for music or if people's favorite bands just happened to drop new albums.  I mean, it was a good year for that. There was a new Hella album and a new Giraffes? Giraffes! album out this year, so...

Giraffes? Giraffes!

Last.fm
Bandcamp

La Dispute - Wildlife (2011)

2011 saw the likes of all three of the top powerhouses of the hardcore/post-hardcore/punk scene today; that being Defetaer, Touché Amouré and La Dispute. The only reason That TA is not on this list is that I never got around to picking it up Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me and thus it can only get the NFT honorable mention.

La Dispute's 2011 full release, Wildlife though was obviously going to be good. I do not think a band with the credentials of La Dispute can stray away from the signature sound they have created. I mean look at anytime you have a band that tries to pull of the poet singing song styles that Jordan Dreyer brings to the game. Even if the band is just talk singing they will probably be compared to La Dispute and/or have been influenced by LA. That being said though, I do always worry that a band with such a good thing going for them can easily just put out a filler of an album with basic instrumentation and zero emotion, slap their name on it and call it a day (or AOTY).

At first listen I was worried that was what had happen with Wildlife. I waited months for this album to come out to hear nothing I could hold on to and say, "wow, that is something new and exciting!" I just put it on and waited for it to impress me. Unfortunately, at first listen it did not do that. So, I put the thought of Wildlife in the back of my head and moved on with my year as if it was never released. I mean, they had already put out a really solid split with Koji months before, so it wasn't like 2011 was a total bust for the masters of post-hardcore hardcore.

It was not until my friend tipped me off about the track, "King Park" that I realized that not only did La Dispute put out a new album, they put out one of thee most emotional and hard to listen to songs of the year in my opinion. It is no new thing that La Dispute can tell a story as emotional and powerful that you soon start listening to the music with your heart. But Wildlife is probably the best example of this. In their other releases it seemed that all their stories and messages were works of fiction and fairy tales but in Wildlife, every story that is told sounds like a real life depiction if not theirs then someone else. Just as I could relate to those tales told in their previous work, I soon started to really get into the true life accounts and all the letter business. Where La Dispute's earlier work showed you stories of the sea and heartache, themes that are up there in my favorite, this release sees La Dispute exploring life struggles, sufferings and death. I think the opening track says it best "I know I never used to feel like this. I used to never think of death or hear voices. I used to feel like everything was perfectly in order - a 'normal' life - but I guess then came a departure."

That's all I have to say I guess.

Along with King Park, other standout tracks of Wildlife include: A Departure, Harder Harmonies, St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church Blues, The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit, I See Everything and You And I In Unison.

Last.fm
No Sleep Records
Official site

Death Grips - Exmilitary (2011)

If you think the hippest thing this year was chillwave leftovers, trillwave, that big lipped girl, anything with ghost, young or clams in it, blue slides, mainstream dubstep, bands that still think it's cool to add/drop/lowercase/uppercase/invent random letters to their name or understanding these references then you did not hear Zach Hill's rap project!

All jokes aside, Death Grips really is a rap project. It also really has Zach Hill in it. Don't believe me... Watch this:

While it may seem that Zach Hill would steal the show and it would just sound like Chll Pll or Diamond Watch Wrists or any other beat/electronic dominated Hill project, it is actually the most laid back I have ever heard Hill as a lot of the recorded stuff is redone by either a drum machine or mixed to sound more like one, I really do not know. Since the beats and FX are just right and just out of control, the rap part fits right over the noise. Fits. Noise. Thus, the unknown rapper is very much a big part of the sound and project as Zach Hill. And he's not repping that trill shit...

Don't get me wrong about the laid back part, though. Zach Hill does not know how to lay back... it is just not in him. I don't think he could play a simple AC/DC drum beat if he tried. BUT, I still wouldn't consider Death Grips a Math rap band.  This is really some dark and harsh hip-hop!

Last.fm
Third Worlds

And last but not least:

Metallica + Lou Reed - Lulu (2011)

That face says it all.

Hope Adele you guys had a great year.

Monday XV Beast of 2011 part 1

I hope everyone had a nice time on Jesus's  b-day yesterday.

As you all may know 2011 will soon be 86ing out of here, leaving 2012 to rear its ugly head onto our new cat calendars. What? You didn't get a cute little cat calendar for Christmas? Hey, guess you weren't good enough this year...

But these albums (in my eyes and ears) were...

Nostalgia For Tomorrow's Favorite Albums of 2011


Ramshackle Glory - Live the Dream (2011)

Ramshackle Glory is a new project by Pat the Bunny and friends. Pat the Bunny no longer sings about fucking shit up, pissing on politicians, killing his own baby or robbing banks like he did in his previous projects Wingnut Dishwashers Union and Johnny Hobo and The Freight Trains but still sings about death, friends, drugs and politicians. He just sings about them a little different now a days.

You can surely tell that this new outfit for Pat and gang is very much a recovery album now that he has cleaned himself up. You can really tell that this is a much more grown up album by Pat the Bunny and yet it is still very fun. I think the last song on this record really shows a great deal of Pat and his struggles along with his recovery and rehab.

This album did not really start to get to me until the lose of my friend Martin Smith. I can't listen to this album now without thinking about him and his journey around the country. The songs Bitter Old Man and Your Heart is a Muscle... get me the most.

Check it..

Last.fm
Official site
Other members' work


Hella - Tripper (2011)

Zach Hill and Spencer Seim are back and rocking that two piece shenanigans A.K.A. laying down that Hella good instrumental stuff (math rock) we have grown to love. The back to their roots Hella and "Tripper" fits right up there with Hold Your Horse is and The Devil Isn't Red as it is not super bogged down by electronics and vocals or excess members. It is still very much a head turner as anything Zach Hill touches is! Iz all good.

I'm not super digging the artwork however...

Last.fm
Bandcamp


Glass Fingers - "this" (2011)

To be very honest, "this" should have its very own post. Unfortunately I am lazy and a little behind on things. It's no biggie. So I will say a good word about this album here and maybe again on a future post of Glass Fingers (because I have tons more of those).

"this" by Glass Fingers is the epitome of all of Jesse Gertz (hands behind Glass Fingers) hard work and years of playing around with electronic music. Gertz and the music he birthed has come along way and 2011 was really good to it. Not only did he produce a super solid album that featured some of my favorite songs he has ever concocted but he also made quite a name for himself (or for Glass Finger's self) in the local scene. Along with many shows with fellow P-town acts, Glass Fingers also had the honor of playing with Thanksgiving, Pterodactyl and even Dan Deacon! That's saying a lot for a kid who used to play little shows in his own home or friends basements just for the hell of it, drawing crowds of 10 people to just him, my friend Higbone and I.

Now I don't think Jesse Gertz could ever let himself bet too famous but man oh man did 2011 look good for this ol' chap of mine. Glass Fingers' "this" was even ranked #1 on The University of Maine's Free Press' Top 5 Albums of the Year as well as making its way on to The Maine Campus's Top 25 Albums of 2011 list. The latter featuring "this" as the album by a local artist!

"this" is very special album to me as it is to most of my friends, including Jesse Gertz himself (whether he likes it or not). I can not listen to this album without thinking about Martin Smith either but in a much more personal way. Like me, most of these songs were Martin's favorites even before they were put on this release. The song Runaway was actually for Martin some time before his death.

RIP MPS

Last.fm
Official site

Stay tuned for part too! and lists of other peoples favorite albums of 2011!

Just for The LOL's

ZACH HILL

Zach Hill is a drummer. He's pretty good. 

Zach Hill - Astrological Straits (2008)

This will not be the last time you hear me ramble about Zach Hill. Hill drums to the beat of his own... well, drum. Spastic and noisy and, broken down, super technical is the way it sounds. Zach Hill has drummed for about a thousand bands and musicians such as Marnie Stern, Tim Kinsella, No Age, Wavves, That guy from Tera Melos, Rob Crow of Pinback, Les Claypool, and even friggin' Joanna Newsom in the straight up noise experiment known as Nervous Cop. But this, this is Astrological Straits, the first thing I ever heard from Zach Hill and even though he doesn't really like the term Math Rock, this is what got me started with the genre. Astrological Straits is probably Hill's most mainstream album as it was not only released by Mike Patton's Ipecac Records but also features artists such as Les Claypool and Marnie Stern (as I mentioned above), Chino Moreno of the Deftones (and Team Sleep which also had Zach Hill on drums), Tyler Pope of !!! and LCD Soundsystem and a key change more of kinda big name cats in the indie world I guess (if you count RX Bandits, The Advantages, The Flying Luttenbachers or No Age as big names). Well, whether or not it's got a big name and acts on the insert, it's still no radio friendly material. I remember finding this album listed in a skateboard magazine that had made a comment about how this isn't your mom's mini van music as she picks up the kids from soccer practice or something. It's lack of 4/4 was also mentioned of course. This album opened up a whole new world for me and got me really interested in Zach Hill's stuff as well as math rock and drumming in general. Hill released another solo album just this year called Face Tat and I am patiently waiting for my copy of the new Hella album Tripper in the mail right now as I write this. I'll talk more about Zach Hill and other projects related to this Sacramento, Californian that I may of missed or forgotten to mention soon enough. Anyways, here's Astrological Straits! Nuff said.

Similar acts/sounds: Hella, Tera Melos, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Marnie Stern, & other Zach Hill projects obviously

 

Bonus points for anyone who count how many times I wrote Zach Hill!