There is Life

People can sometimes forget,, if they are to being of luckily :)

Best of 2015

Tim B 

The best release this year was a self titled 7" by Sheer Mag.  Everything else is, like, whatever, but here are eleven albums released in 2014 that I've heard and liked:

1.  Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right (downtrodden cynical smart ass post punk)

2.  Nots - We Are Nots (wild punk)
3.  Naomi Punk - Television Man (northwest heavy pop)
4.  Lenguas Largas - Come On In (weird garage punk)
5.  Reigning Sound - Shattered (rock and roll)
6.  Ex Hex - Rips (power pop + rock and roll)
7.  The #1's - The Number Ones (power pop)
8.  Jonly Bonly - Put Together (new wave + power pop)
9.  Gino and The Goons - Shake It! (fresh rock and roll + ramones worship)
10.  Chad VanGaalen - Shrink Dust (weird singer/songwriter)
11.  Brat Farrar - II (new wave + punk)

Here are the 10 best "new to me" albums of 2014:

1.  Richard Buckner - Devotion and Doubt

2.  David Bowie - Heroes

3.  Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

4. Gene Clark - White Light

5.  The Big Boys - Where's My Towel/Industry Standard

6.  Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets

7.  Cults - Self Titled

8.  Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

9.  Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque

10.  Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows

Ryan B 

1. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

2. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

3. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

4. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

5. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

6. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

7. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

8. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

9. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

10. Sepultura -- Beneath the Remains

Keith F

14 Books:

"​Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" - Samuel R. Delany

"For a New Novel" - Alain Robbe-Grillet

"Mary Cassatt: Painter of Modern Women" - Griselda Pollock

"Uncommon Places" - Stephen Shore

"Endgame" - Samuel Beckett

"Against Interpretation" - Susan Sontag

"On Photography" - Susan Sontag

"Selected Poems" - W. H. Auden

"Skreemer" - Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins, and Steve Dillon

"Battling Boy" - Paul Pope

"Cosplayers 1 & 2" - Dash Shaw

"Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" - Ben Katchor

"Burn Lake" - Carrie Fountain

"Holy Fire" - Bruce Sterling

14 Movies:

Frances Ha

Hard Boiled

Elephant (Alan Clarke)

Skammen

The Passion of Joan of Arc

A Field in England

Sonatine

Volver

Grand Budapest Hotel

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Boyhood

Sleepaway Camp

Hail Mary

Le Deuxieme Souffle

14 Musics:

"White Light" - Gene Clark

"Internal Logic" - Grass Widow

"Vehicle" - The Clean

"Get Up With It" - Miles Davis

"Observant Com El Mon Es Destrueix" - Una Bèstia Incontrolable

"Television Man" - Naomi Punk

"Demo" - Ritual Control

"All Things Must Pass" - George Harrison

"Crown Gall" - Deep Creeps

"Henge Beat" - Total Control

"Universal Consciousness" - Alice Coltrane

"Odessey and Oracle" The Zombies

"Violin Concerto in D Minor" - Jean Sibelius 

"Radioactivity" - Radioactivity

Kentaro M

This is what Kentaro was into 2014, in alphabetical order.

Alison’s Halo - Dozen/ Calendar 7”
Baby Blue - Promenade (2014)
Bass Drum of Death - Rip This (2014)
Christines - Almost Nil/ Maria Zoe Christo (2014)
The Clean - Vehicle
Dream Boys - s/t
The Fall - The Unutterable
Carl Hultgren - Tomorrow (2014)
Deep Creeps - Crown Gall (2014)
Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Popol Vuh - Aguerre
Ride - Nowhere
Snoy - Toronja (2014)
Spacemen 3 - Live at the New Morning, Geneva, Switzerland, 18.05.1989 (2014)
Boris Sujdovic - Desperate Girl
Teleg. - Demos (2014)
v/a - Native North America, Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985 (2014)

Tim Blood Stuff

http://controlforce.bandcamp.com/album/still-bleeding

Here's the final Tim Blood recording. Although I think I said that about the b-sides thing, this feels more final now that none of us are gonna be in Moscow. We gave away 27 burned cds with origami sleeves at the final show at Mikey's the other day. It was fun seeing everyone again, especially Kentaro who I hadn't seen in two years, and the show went better than I think any of us expected. It was cool playing with Nailbastard cause Ryan and I had been in every band together from 18 to 25, so it's cool seeing how he sounds with other people. I'm too sentimental.

We recorded it last week. I think it came out sounding really good. I feel more satisfied with it than any other release besides the "Summer of Our Discontent" album. Because we had to do it long distance we recorded to a metronome, which was strange. So I did the guitar on my practice amp in my room. Also, it was just Tim B., Ryan, and I, because of time constraints. But hardly any Tim Blood show or recording after the "Summer" album had the "original" lineup. I think I may be so satisfied with the recording because I didn't have to do anything except record the guitar. I think Tim's vocals sound better than any other recording except, again, maybe the "Summer" album.

Now I wanna start another "pop" band.

Mysterious Skin

http://mysteriousskin.bandcamp.com/releases
This is my new band.

Catch Up

Eight music releases from 2013 that I got into in 2014:

1. Framtid - Defeat of Civilization 
2. Dreamdecay - N V N V N V 
3. Una Béstia Incontrolable - Observant Com El Món Es Destrueix 
4. Wire - Change Becomes Us 
5. System Fucker - System Fucker 
6. Radioactivity - Radioactivity 
7. Lumpy and the Dumpers - Sex Pit 
8. Mind Spiders - Inhumanistic

Finally an update, and more of the same

Instead of another list, here's a very unprofessional update and three six item lists. I remember when no one but people I talked to regularly read this. And now no one does, haha.*

Ryan is in a new band called Nailbastard with Sol and Cole from Dislich, the singer from Behold, who I haven't met, and another guy I haven't met. I guess they recorded some songs at Spokane Falls Community College onto tape. I'm impressed! Maybe he'll post some pics. They've already played a couple shows.

Ian's in Olympia, and in some band called Vexx, and one called Dirty Joe. They've got recordings and play real shows and stuff. Who knows?

I'm (Keith is) in a new band called Mysterious Skin. The name absolutely comes from the Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie. We've been halfassedly practicing since November, and really got our shit together in the last couple months. We played our first show last Thursday with some band that had members of the Blood Brothers, Aiden, and Trial. Hillarious! It's me, Jen, Tyler, and this guy Mikey. Playing with new people is strange. Ian started the band and then quit sometime this winter. We still use three songs he helped write. I think we'll have a demo by July fourth. 

Final Temporary Top Six Favorite Albums In Order:

1. Wire - Pink Flag

2. This Heat - Deceit

3. Totalitär - Vi Är Eliten

4. The Kinks - Arthur

5. Repulsion - Horrified

6. Insect Warfare - World Extermination

The First Six Favorite Authors I've Read At Least Two Books By Who I Can Remember Without Looking At My Bookshelf:

1. Samuel R. Delany

2. William Gibson

3. Thomas M. Disch

4. Ursula K. Leguin

5. Kazuo Ishiguro

6. Fritz Leiber

Six Favorite New-To-Me Movies Seen So Far This Year, With Some Commentary (Also, In No Order):

1. Frances Ha (I've watched this four times, that's very unusual for me. The first couple times I was close to tears by the end.)

2. Sonatine (I've watched this twice; it's just really easy to put on. It's pretty much everything I want when I'm in the mood to just watch something.)

3. If... (A couple people told me I should watch this years ago. I was a lot more impressed with it than I thought I would be.)

4. A Field In England (Saw this in the theater. WOW!!)

5. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Took me a couple tries to get through this. The soundtrack the third time definitely helped. When I finally "got" it, I was completely enthralled in a very different way from other movies. It was a new way of watching for me. It was kinda similar to binging on rated R movies after high school, but less stupid.)

6. Le Deuxieme Souffle (I've been slowly watching all of Melville's films. This is my favorite black and white one I've seen so far.)

* feel free to skim using the bolded words.

A Comics List

Twenty-Two Favorite Comics (off the top of my head):
Cola Madnes - Gary Panter
Twilight - Howard Chaykin & Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Blade (2007) - Mark Guggenheim & Howard Chaykin
Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Bodyworld - Dash Shaw
The Incal - Alejandro Jodorowsky & Moebius
One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry
Manhunter -Archie Goodwin & Walt Simonson
Dreadstar (1-26) - Jim Starlin
Ode to Kirihito - Osamu Tezuka
The Punisher: Kingdom Gone - Chuck Dixon & Jorge Zaffino
Kull the Conqueror (1982, 2-10) - John Buscema, Klaus Janson, & more
Nausicaa - Hayao Miyazaki
Wish You Were Here - Gipi
Maggots - Brian Chippendale
Daredevil - Anne Nocenti & John Romita Jr.
Enigma - Pete Milligan & Duncan Fegredo
Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld - Ernie Colon, Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn
Black Hole - Charles Burns
The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Frank Miller & Lynn Varley
Travel - Yuichi Yokoyama
Wet Moon - Ross Campbell

Two More Lists

Inspired by listening to Wire and the Ramones a lot.

Tentative Top Five Favorite Albums:

Wire - Pink Flag
This Heat - Deceit
Repulsion - Horrified
Totalitär - Vi Är Eliten

Insect Warfare - World Extermination

Best Band:

Ramones

3 Lists

With some prior thought and somewhat off the top of my head. 

26 Movies I Recall Referring to as a Favorite:
Kwaidan 
Heavy Traffic 
Coonskin 
Happy Together 
Walkabout 
Le Cercle Rouge 
Army of Shadows 
Seventh Seal
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
High and Low
Blade Runner
Brazil
Starship Troopers
Road Warrior
Alphaville 
Wizards 
Santa Sangre 
Heavenly Creatures 
Gomorrah 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 
A Prophet 
Subway 
Red Desert 
Henry Fool 
My Own Private Idaho 
Starman

Tentative Top 5:
Heavy Traffic
Heavenly Creatures
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Army of Shadows
Blade Runner

26 Albums I Recall Thinking of as Near Perfect or A Favorite (Post High School):
Converge - Jane Doe
Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood
Split Enz - Time and Tide
The Kinks - Arthur
Mogwai - Young Team
Totalitär - Vi Är Eliten
Wretched - Libero Di Vivere, Libero Di Morire
ELO - Out of the Blue
Repulsion - Horrified
Twelve Hour Turn - Perfect Progress, Perfect Destruction
Insect Warfare - World Extermination
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Fugazi - The Argument
This Heat - Deceit
The Knife - Silent Shout
Sepultura  - Arise
The Marked Men - Fix My Brain
The Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Prurient - Cocaine Death
Wire - Pink Flag
Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bastard - Wind of Pain
Discordance Axis - Inalienable Dreamless
Coil - Scatology
Rattus - WC räjähtää

Best of 2013

Kentaro

Best 13 of 2013.  In alphabetical order.

Acid Mothers Temple & Space Paranoid - Black Magic Satori
Akimbo - Live to Crush
Bass Drum of Death - s/t
Crocodiles - Crimes of Passion
The Darling Downs - In the Days When the World Was Wide
Dirty Beaches - Waterpark OST
Dream Boys - s/t
The Fall - Re-Mit
Fuxa - Dirty D
My Blood Valentine - mbv
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away 
No Joy - Wait to Pleasure
Watutsi Zombie - WZ

EPs, Singles, Splits, Tapes, Reissues

The Clean - Vehicle Reissue
The Fall - 5 Albums Beggar's Banquet Reissues (The Frenz Experiment, I Am Curious Oranj, Hit The North, Singles, Seminal Live)
The Fall - The Remainderer EP
KING BROTHERS - Blood & Soul Tour-only CD Single
Pink Playground - Amethyst Milk Tapes Vols. 1-3
Pink Playground/ Circle Hour split
Snoy EP 7" Reissue
V/A - Yellow Loveless

Keith

Top Eight New-To-Me Media of 2013

Because five is too little and ten is too many. I did more than just listen to music and read comics this year so there are multiple lists.

Music:

1. Deathspell Omega - Kénôse & Paracletus

2. Split Enz - True Colours

3. João Gilberto (1973) - João Gilberto

4. Drexcia - Neptune's Lair

5. Big Star - Discography

6. Pete Swanson - Man With Potential

7. Expo 70 - Where Does Your Mind Go

8. Enya - Enya

Movies:

1. 1960s Trilogy (Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love & 2046) - Wong Kar-wai

2. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick

3. Nostalghia - Andrei Tarkovsky

4. Angst - Gerald Kargl

5. Red Desert - Michelangelo Antonioni

6. Bob the Gambler - Jean Pierre Melville

7. Mister Lonely & Spring Breakers - Harmony Korine 

8. Detropia - Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady

Novels:

1. 334 - Thomas M. Disch

2. Three Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

3. The Motion of Light in Water & Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany

4. V. - Thomas Pynchon

5. The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson

6. Crash & High Rise -  J. G. Ballard

7. Bridge Trilogy - William Gibson

8. When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

Comics:

1. Metabarons - Alejandro Jodorowsky & Juan Giménez  

2. Bread and Wine - Samuel R. Delany

3. Corto Maltese - Hugo Pratt

4. Megg and Mogg - Simon Hanselmann

5. Private Eye - Marcos Martin & Brian K. Vaughan

6. Pompeii - Frank Santoro

7. You Are There, It Was the War of the Trenches & West Coast Blues - Jacques Tardi

8. Grandville - Bryan Talbot

Tim B

Movies of 2013:

Upstream Color

Books of 2013:

My Struggle Volume Two, Karl Ove Knausgaard

Best Hummus of 2013:

Butternut Squash and Scallion 

Best Soup:

Red Lentil and Tamarind

Albums of 2013

Self Titled, Radioactivity
             
 I could have told you that this was my favorite album of the year without hearing it.  Jeff Burke writes songs that just do it for me. They are fast, poppy, clever, sappy, and introspective.

 Inhumanistic, Mind Spiders
              
This album relies more on synthesizers and drum machines than their past albums. It is also the most science fiction themed, and also the most rocking album they’ve made. Aesthetically, this band is perfect. They write smart, dark garage rock songs influenced by Devo and science fiction movies.

Embracism, Kirin J. Calinan

This album goes back and forth between kind of abrasive, industrial sounding songs, to synth-pop songs.  While I prefer the synth-pop songs this whole thing is great. Calinan’s voice is impressive and his lyrics are surprising.

Love In Arms, Gabriel Bruce

 I’m a sucker for pop music sung by dudes with deep voices. He sings like Leonard Cohen, or Nick Cave, but his jams are catchy and totes dancey.  Also, he’s got enviable dance moves.

MCII, Mikal Cronin
              
Based on his association with Ty Segall, I expected this to be a reverb drenched, rowdy garage rock album.  I did not expect a straight up power-pop album. It was a welcome surprise, and one I wish occurred more often.
  
True EP, Solange
              
This is only seven songs long, so I don’t know if it belongs on the list.  However, this is great pop music.

Cupid Deluxe,  Blood Orange

I don’t know, this dude reminds me of Prince. He combines a lot of different things, but maintains a distinct sound. The songs are relaxed and always satisfying. 

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, Neko Case
              
I don’t think this is Neko Case’s best album, and I don’t think she’s trying anything new. If someone asked me what album to listen to by Neko Case I would not say this album, but I’ve always liked her voice and lyrics and this album is great simply for providing me with more of both.

Floating Coffin, Thee Oh Sees

One weekend a friend and I went to see this band in Montana. We got lost, killed a raccoon drove for eight and one half hours, locked the keys in our car and missed all but the last song.  The song they played was “Minotaur” from this album. At the time I thought it the best Thee Oh Sees song I’d ever heard. Now I consider “Floating Coffin” the best Thee Oh Sees album I ever heard. 

The Hunt Begins, The Hunt

Nearly every year when the weather starts to get cold I start listening to post-punk. Then one day I said to myself, I said, “I wish there was a post-punk band that sounded kind of like Interpol, but maybe with a little bit less production and a little bit more aggression.” Surely there are tons of bands that fit that description, but because it’s a genre, or sub-genre, or whatever that I’m not particularly familiar with, I didn’t know of any. Somehow that day I stumbled upon this band/album and it pretty satisfied my craving. The Interpol comparison might be unfavorable, uninformed, and unfair to The Hunt, but whatever. This album is, like, hella cool. 

Honeys, Pissed Jeans

Run Fast,  The Julie Ruin

Dogboss

1. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

2. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

3. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

4. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

5. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

6. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

7. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

8. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

9. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

10. Sepultura Beneath the Remains

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36RkDbQFlA

Cole

This list goes to 11:

1. Bongripper/Conan - Split

              http://bongripper.bandcamp.com/album/bongripper-conan-split

              http://thequietus.com/articles/11743-conan-bongripper-split

              One track from each artist, comprised of minimalist, heavy, ridiculously down-tuned doom.

2. Conan - Mount Wrath: Live at Roadburn 2012

              http://burningworldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/conan-mount-wrath-live-at-roadburn-2012

              Conan’s sets on two separate days at Roadburn Fest. The live tone and performance really sets this release apart from some of their others.

3. Spider Kitten - Cougar Club

              http://spiderkitten.bandcamp.com/album/cougar-club

              Psychedelic and heavy, with almost Bowie-esque vocals sometimes.

4. Light Bearer - Silver Tongue

              http://lightbearer.bandcamp.com/album/silver-tongue-2

              Just some more good atmospheric post metal from the UK.

5. MakingFuck - S/T

              http://makingfuck.bandcamp.com/

              Featuring members of (possibly-defunct) Nine Worlds from SLC. Slow and sludgy, with a cello in place of bass.

6. Nonsun - Sun Blind Me

              http://nonsun.bandcamp.com/album/sun-blind-me

              Slow, heavy doom and drone.

7. Oxtongue - Where the Light is Mute

              http://oxtongue.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-light-is-mute

              Minimal, crushing, angry, etc.

8. TENTACLE - Ingot Eye

              http://tentacle666.bandcamp.com/album/ingot-eye

              Sounds like some sort of procession sometimes. Fuzzed-out doom with distraught vocals the rest of the time.

9. Vestiges/Panopticon - Split

              http://wearevestiges.bandcamp.com/album/vestiges-panopticon-split

              Blackened/atmospheric/post/black metal all around.

10. Vit - The Dry Season

              http://vitmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-dry-season

              Black metal with bits of folk and deranged accordion interspersed.

11. Windhand - Soma

              http://windhandva.bandcamp.com/album/soma

              Some good traditional doom. Great tone, riffs, vocals. Just a good doom album.

 

Internet Comment

Violent Future

DISLICH on CVLT NATION

Het Dummy,

Dislich was being put on CVLT NATION becuz why not? They are smart for and are doing a The Misfits cover album. Album: Earth A.D.

We are Doing "Hell Hound" from that et al.

We are also doing another song for that, idiot. That one you can't know for yet. It the bon(er)us. Don't be stupid. You hear it.

Cvlt Nation also write one thing about us: http://www.cvltnation.com/dislich-stone-guardian-review/ and we are to think thatis the coolest. Thanks friend ones!

You will check this out. I will repost for you later. its Gonna have that link you know. This is one update.

Dislich is fast and approaching a mess, maybe a van, we hit a dear in Pullman. The radiator broke. We have some new songs, and our "set 2" is almost done and stuff. This means a new album. Our albums are our sets. The new album will have...: more d-beat. You don't like d-beating? Fuck you. We like it more. Don't push me.

My future is in an oblong box.

SCUZ anagram?: SUCZ thus, SCUZ SUCZ.