grooms-cold-beat-yumi-zouma
Cold Beat / Grooms / Yumi Zouma

Cold Beat, Grooms and Yumi Zouma tell us their Top 10s of 2017

Cold Beat / Grooms / Yumi Zouma
Cold Beat / Grooms / Yumi Zouma

A few more artist year-end lists from you. First is Cold Beat, the current group from onetime Grass Widow bassist Hannah Lew, who released their terrific third album, Chaos by Invitation, earlier this year. It was Cold Beat’s synthiest, warmest, most personal record to date (and I think their best). If you haven’t listened to that, you should, and you can stream it below. Hannah’s list is “Top 10 moments / things that allowed me respite In 2017” and features music, movies, hot beverages, once-in-a-lifetime astronomical experiences and more.

Secondly is Brooklyn’s Grooms who released Exit Index this year. Made with the same lineup as 2015’s great Comb the Feelings Through Your Hair, it’s a refinement of that album’s vibe: alien and unsettling with some Can-style drumming and sounds you can’t quite tell what made them. You can stream that below too. Like Hannah, Grooms frontman Travis Johnson offers up a list of things, mostly musical, but some not, including works by Protomartyr, David Lynch, and more. He offers commentary as well, and you can read that below.

Finally we have New Zealand band Yumi Zouma who released two records this year: their new studio album Willowbank, and a song-for-song cover of Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. You can stream both below. The band toured all over the world in 2017 and their year-end list reflects that: “Top 10 artists/tracks MADE in our top 10 places we played this year.” They pair a song to 10 cites, and you can check that out below. You can also check out Yumi Zouma on tour in 2018, including two nights at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on January 19 & 20 (tickets).

Hannah of Cold Beat – Top 10 moments / things that allowed me respite In 2017
1) Greenpeace Resist banner at the white house
2) Viewing the solar eclipse in its totality in the middle of a field in Oregon
3) nude swimming in the Yuba River
4) Mdou Moctar live in Chicago
5) Illuminated Arts Summer of Love light show at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park
6) sharing Chaos By Invitation with world
7) Bladerunner 2049
8)Switching from Coffee to Matcha
9) Cold Beat cross country tour
10) the Francis Lau Experience live at Contact Records 1 year anniversary party

Travis of Grooms’ Top 10 of 2017
In no order, here are 10 things, some of which were made this year, some of which weren’t.

  • Relatives in Descent by Protomartyr – It’s a mark of a lot of my favorite bands that they make a record that, at first, I have a harder time getting into, that maybe seems to be getting away from what they were really good at, but that later becomes my favorite. That was this one. Now my favorite Pro-mart record.
  • Eternal Recurrence by Deradoorian – For about a decade I’ve been inspired by Angel’s musical restlessness. She never stays in one place for long. We have a lot of the same influences and it’s really cool to see what she does with them here.
  • Arachnophobia – Saw this movie as a kid when I was deathly afraid of spiders. Saw it again this year. All the secondary characters are so good. John Goodman especially. Not that Jeff Daniels isn’t, but that wine cellar thing, come on.
  • War Bubble – Really exciting band started by a few of my friends.
  • My Face for the World to See by Alfred Hayes – Joe Casey from Protomartyr recommended this book to me and I loved it. You can read it in an afternoon.
  • Operator Music Band – I want to say that their full length came out this year? I know their new EP did. Both excellent.
  • Blast off Through the Wicker by Art Feynman – Suicide meets Arthur Russel meets Can. Insouciance meets gravitas.
  • “Summer Came Early” by Exploded View – A terrifying song. Years from now people from our generation will tear their grandkids, while sharing contaminated water, about how they should’ve been paying better attention.
  • Literally Show Me a Healthy Person by Darcie Wilder – I just realized that last night I had a dream that Darcie was mad at me and stopped playing drums in a band that we had formed. I hope that’s not the case. This book is excellent.
  • “What year is this?” / That scream.

Yumi Zouma – “Top 10 artists/tracks MADE in our top 10 places we played this year :)”
(In no particular order!!)

Tokyo – Hiroshi Yoshimura – Music For Nine Post Cards
London – Jai Paul – Str8 Out Of Mumbai
Montreal – Men I Trust – Tailwhip
Berlin – Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing
New York – Dinosaur L – Go Bang! (FRANCOIS K. MIX)
Portland – The Mint Chicks – Hot On Your Heels
Christchurch – Tiger Tones – Seventeen
Wellington – Beat Rhythm Fashion – Turning Of A Century
Stockholm – Axel Boman – Hello
Paris – Air – Sexy Boy