The Year in Heavy 2011 according to artists & friends (part 2)

Andy Nelson with Paint it Black at Fun Fun Fun Fest (more by BBG)

Mamiffer, Tombs, Locrian, Thou, Fuck The Facts, The Atlas Moth and many more contribute to the second part of our continuing series where we asked some of our favorite artists about their 2011 highlights. Part One HERE. Part Two below…

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Andy Nelson of Ceremony, Paint it Black, Blacklisted
BALACLAVAS – Snake People
DEAD LANGUAGE – s/t
JOHN MAUS – We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
LOW THREAT PROFILE – Product #2
MORPHOSIS – What Have We Learned
NICOLAS JAAR – Space Is Only Noise
ROYAL HEADACHE – s/t
TOTAL CONTROL – Henge Beat
THE VACCINES – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
VERONICA FALLS – s/t

EPs:
ANDY STOTT – Passed Me By + We Stay Together
BURIAL – Street Halo
FACTORY FLOOR – (R E A L L O V E) + Two Different Ways
GIVE – I Am Love + Petal Pushing + Flower Head
HOAX – 1st + 2nd EPs
HOLY OTHER – With U
THE ROPES – s/t
SHACKLETON – Deadman + Fireworks
//TENSE// – Escape
TROPIC OF CANCER – The Sorrow Of Two Blooms

—
Chris of Sulaco
10.Khann – Erode
9. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
8. Tombs – Path Of Totality
7. Russian Circles – Empros
6. KEN mode – Venerable
5. Glorior Belli – The Great Southern Darkness
4. explosions in the sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
3. Defeatist – Tyranny of Decay
2. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
1. Noisear – Subvert The Dominant Paradigm

—
David Hall

Top-Ten Dog Park Altercations
In 2011 I got a dog and made the mistake of taking him to the local dog park. I quickly learned the dog park is a wasteland of pee, poo, dog orgies and aggressive, asshole dog owners. Here are ten of my favourite encounters.
1. a lady rudely asks me to tell my dog to stop “humping” her dog. I tell her ‘he just takes after his daddy’ and wink. her boyfriend tries to fight me.
2. a massive dog fight breaks out over my dog’s poo: the night before he ate two rotisserie chickens I had left cooling on the kitchen counter.
3. six dogs, with my dog in the lead, running as fast as they can, charge into an obese woman wearing a white jumpsuit. she is literally flipped in the air and lands face down in the mud with her extra large hot chocolate upended all over her clothes.
4. a man’s dog refuses to come when called. he storms after it yelling “I’m going to be late for work you motherfucker!!!” when I laugh he tries to fight me.
5. a man tells me, with great details and sound effects, how earlier in the week, his dog “deep throated a German Shepard” – he tells me, sincerely, that he’s worried his dog is gay. I call him an idiot. he tries to fight me.
6. a dog bites a woman on the bum and literally rips the seat right out of her pants, revealing a bright red thong.
7. I witness a woman taking her dog’s temperature with a rectal thermometer. I ask her if she’ll check me next. Her husband tries to fight me.
8. A group of women confront me because they think I haven’t been picking up my dog’s poo (I always do!). I tell one of them she’s probably just smelling her own breath and assuming it’s dog shit. her husband tries to fight me.
9. A conga-line of male dogs breaks out – at least six of them all humping in a row. When I comment “at least they’re having fun” to another dog owner he asks me if I’m “queer.”
10. I question an owner when her dog insists on drinking my dog’s urine mid-stream. She angrily tells me “Lacie has a sodium deficiency, fresh urine is delicious to her.”

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Mitch with Thou at ABC No Rio (more by BBG)

Benjamin “Mitch” Wells of Thou
Top 10 Favorite Things of 2011
1.Meeting my lady
2.Heat Dust’s ep
3.Meeting Annie Clarks
4.The Wire
5.Working with Andrew at L.A.M.P
6.Playing a show on a pier in Slovenia
7.Seeing Late Night with Jimmy Fallon live
8.The Justin Bailey show on Halloween
9.Eating pizza all over the world
10.The Game “Dream Zoo”

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André Foisy of Locrian
1. Vic Chesnutt “At The Cut” [not from this year, but something that I got into this year] (Constellation)
2. Jon Mueller “Alphabet of Movements” (Type)
3. Servile Sect “Trvth” (Handmade Birds)
4. Oikos “Ecotono” (Utech Records)
5. Ililta “New Ethiopian Dance Music” Compilation (Konkurrent)

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Scott Batiste of Saviours
Danava – Hemisphere of Shadows and live at Scoot Inn, Austin
Graveyard – Hisingen Blues
Saint Vitus live at Mezzanine, San Francisco
Reactory live at Schokoladen, Berlin
Yob – Atma and live in TX and CA
Neurosis weekend at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
Christian Mistress live at The Blvd, Los Angeles
Midnight – Satanic Royalty and live at Plan B, Portland
Motörhead – The World Is Yours and live at the Warfield, San Francisco
Pentagram – Last Rites and live in TX and CA

—
Dragged Into Sunlight
Good times 2011.
1. Touring Europe with Rwake, Soilent Green and Today is the Day.
2. Damnation Festival in November 2011 with 4 x full stacks.
3. Finishing guitar tracks for Widowmaker through an assortment of Matamps and Sunns, it sounds like the end of the world.
4. The realisation that when i’m drunk, my inner voice is Zippy from Rainbow.
5. Blut Aus Nord, Autopsy, Craft – new records.
6. Discovering that there are only 35 El Dugas left in the world and that I must eat one before I die.
7. Introducing new words to the dictionary – Meathing ‘to sweat like a plant whilst high’.
8. Finding a video of Treeman ‘the world’s angriest guitar player’ air drumming DIS. (here and here)
9. Fitting extreme adjectives into sentences – Visceral Repulsion ‘the feeling of total disgust’
10. Gravy from Rwake sets the standard on how to hold a guitar like a God.

—
Aaron Turner (photo by Faith Coloccia)

Aaron Turner of Mamiffer
Good stuff from 2011
Events: New and ongoing musical collaborations/projects with Mamiffer (recording and touring), Jodis, House of Low Culture, Split Cranium, William Fowler Collins, Circle, Locrian and others. The everyday pleasure and challenge being married. Facing up to hard truths about myself and the world. Cooking, hiking, succeeding, failing. Dogs, cats. Finnish adventuring. Cross country driving.

Records/music: Blut Aus Nord, Arvo Pärt, Aosoth, William Fowler Collins, Lawrence English, Pale Chalice, Thou, Lawrence English, Craft, Shivkumar Sharma, Early Graves, Krallice, Elodie, Tombs, Eleh, Daniel Menche, Aluk Todolo, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, and I haven’t heard the new Megadeth album yet, but I’m sure it’s awesome. Swans live. The honorable task of putting out awesome records by Helms Alee, Oakeater, Prurient, Gridlink, Pyramids and Horseback and many others.

Books and comics: The Chalice and the Blade, Empire of the Senseless, Irredeemable, Hellblazer, Alec: The Years Have Pants, The Invisibles, Weathercraft, The End of Manhood, Eye in the Sky, Toxic Parents, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence, The Crystal World.

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Mike Hill of Tombs at Rocks Off/BV-BBG (more by Greg Cristman)

Mike Hill of Tombs
Personal Top 10 Things from 2011 – No particular order, just a sort of stream-of-conciousness free jam

“Iron Man : My Journey Through Heaven and Hell” – Tony Iommi
Aside from Greg Ginn of Black Flag, Tony Iommi was a heavy influence on how I thought about the guitar. Between Ginn and Iommi, the guitar was transformed from a musical instrument into a weapon. When I saw this book was about to come out, I immediately pre-ordered it. “Iron Man” what a badass title for a biography. Unfortunately, I missed the book-signing event at St. Vitus; that would have been a trip!!

Interviewing Henry Rollins
For most of my life, I have looked up to, been inspired by Henry Rollins. When the opportunity arose for me to interview him, I was simultaneously stoked and terrified. I’ve heard that he could be a difficult person to talk to if you weren’t prepared so I entered into one of the most intense research expeditions that I’ve ever attempted to make sure that I was ready to roll. I showed up for the interview with my notes, dialed into the call-in number and we kicked it. It was one of the most information-packed 30 minute periods of my life and definitely a high point of the year for me.

Danzig Legacy Show – Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC 10.29.2011
I try ot see Danzig play whenever he comes through town, but there was no way I was going to miss Glenn and black-clad heavy rock machine play songs from Misfits and Samhain along with a retrosptive of Danzig material. Doyle was also in the house to bash out some classics like “Skulls”,” Halloween”,” Death Comes Ripping”. The highlight for me was hearing “To walk the Night” but Samhain, my favoite of the Danzig-fronted bands.

“Beauty and da Beast Podcast”
If you don’t know who Joey “Coco” Diaz is, you’re really missing out. Don’t worry, you can check out his newly-launcedh podcast for some hilarious stories about show biz, general derelict-ism and commentary on this end-time society that we live in.

“The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor” – Jay Bonansinga / Robert Kirkman
If you’re a fan or the genre-defining comic book, this gives you the full background on probably one of the most intense villains of all-time. It was one of the quickest reads I’ve done in the past couple of years, totally compelling if you dig zombie horror.

“The Night Eternal” – Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan
The final chapter in The Strain Trilogy hit the streets in time for Halloween…barely. I’m bummed that I don’t have another installment to look forward to for 2012. I got on board with this when I read a feature about it in Rue Morgue magazine back in 2010 and became an instant fan of this new, unique take on the vampire legend.

“Doom of the Occult” – Necros Christos
One of the most brutal Black Death albums of the last ten years. I’m hoping that they come to the states soon.

“Asylum ” – Morne
I remember hearing the demo and being hooked on this band. It was like Tragedy but just a hair slower. Dark, bleak hardcore music featuring Jeff from Grief, probably the best band to come out of Boston since the original Wrecking Crew line up.

“Destroyers of All” – Ulcerate
When I first heard this record, the idea that Ulcerate are the future of death metal came into focus. Impossibly technical riffs fracture into expansive ambient soundscapes creating a bleak, moody, intense environment that is inviting and intimidating at the same time.

Tombs / The Secret European Tour – July – August 2011
The Secret are on of the best metallic hardcore bands in Europe at the moment. It was an honor to tour with them; they’re some of the best people I had the pleasure to meet this past year.

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Jesse Matthewson of KEN Mode at BV-BBG during SXSW (more by Jonathan McPhail)

Jesse Matthewson of KEN Mode
Cave In – White Silence
Deafheaven – Roads to Judah
Craft – Void
Arckanum – Helvitismyrkr
ÆGES – Roaches EP
Fuck the Facts – Die Miserable
Glorior Belli – The Great Southern Darkness
Trap Them – Darker Handcraft
Electro Quarterstaff – Aykroyd
Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

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Fuck The Facts

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Terence Hannum of Locrian

“This year in addition to LOCRIAN’s releases, I made a publication every other month, my final book came out via 5nakefork and already the gears are moving towards my plans for 2012. This year brought many books and zines across my hands. Here are a few (10 and some runners up) that really stood out to me.”

1. Alejandro Jodorowsky – 100 notes / 100 Thoughts
What a pleasant shocker to find this, it is some studies from a notebook for his work on the never realized film DUNE. Yes that DUNE! And, no surprise here, it has absolutely nothing (well some thing) to do with DUNE. Tarot cards, cut up and notated, swastikas, strange emblems, and no sandworms. Seriously some great esoteric thinking. “Art is not art if it is incapable of healing.”

2. Cathexis by Mark McCoy
Yes, THAT Mark McCoy. If you don’t know what he’s up to by now, then you probably are buying overpriced Charles Bronson LPs on eBay. Get with it and update what this guy has been doing. This is a hazy collection of ambiguous color photographs ranging from abstraction to eroticism. Gone are the blasted out xeroxes that typically adorn his design work for his label Youth Attack, and here is a sublime even ecstatic treatment. Get it.

3. Cell Tel Pix Vol. 1 by Grant Willing
Shot all on a cell phone camera this thick tome to the incidental is an excellent diary. Inspiring in its obsession.

4. Crass 1977-1984 by New York: PPP Editions, 2011
In the last few years there have been quite a few books on Crass, but very few deal with the actual printed matter that, to me at least, defined a large part of what set them apart and as a young zine maker even though I was removed from it by over a decade, I found inspiring. Full newsprint, like what would come with their LPs, housed in a wonderful static-free mylar ziplock envelope, this is a wonderful collection of their printed output. Acerbic, mournful and full of ideas.

5. k48
If you are not familiar with k48, you need to be. A collection of arresting images and audio (on a CD) this is the labor of love of Scott Hug, who compiles these thematic imprints in addition to making his own work. I picked it up to see some of my friend’s Scott Treleaven and Elijah Burgher’s work but was surprised by Nathan Bennet’s silver mylar pages reflecting its neighbors, Robert Bittenbender’s sliced veils of images all on top of each other and Tom Burr’s black overlapping wall of record sleeves added a wonderful surprise. AND a CD with Light Asylum, Salem and others. Total Immersion.

6. Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries by Jon Kristiansen
I recall once upon a metal record shop deciding on buying the issue of Slayer or some records. I bought records. Forgettable records and regret not throwing in the issue of SLAYER I was holding. Long have I sifted through digital copies of SLAYER, jpeg after jpeg. Only recently did I have a friend so graciously let me read his preserved copies. So I anticipated this collection very much. This is a wonderful collection, with excellent forwards. However in the end it is also a series of sad tales all set to an awesome sound track. Sad for those who were lost, got lost and an era that cannot be returned to. Very glad this is finally out.

7. Summoning Sickness by Adrienne Kammerer
Got turned onto this by the most excellent zine-maker Edie Fake at Quimby’s in Chicago. No words, just haunting esoteric magical drawings reproduced in a bleak sepia-tone.

8. Underground Music Fanzines from the late 1980s – early 1990s
It appears as if there is a theme of nostalgia running through a lot of art books and small-press printing. I think it is a good to look back. Zines dominated so much of my life in the 1990s, my pal Marc Fischer published a great fanzine from 1988 to 1991 and collected a ton of zines. Here he compiled those zines into an exhibition and, as most things go with Marc and his exhibitions, a publication. Great slice of what printed materials were being circulated in this era. Titled like Total Thrash, Suburban Death, and more kind of give you a sense of the time. Take a look.

9. Album Graphics by Nicolas Lobo
Nicolas Lobo is someone I have collaborated with and who has made a few publications. His hard to place work leaves many people stumped but completely intrigued. It is the intersection of a multitude of directions; pirate radio transmitters, cough syrup, 800% slower audio, etc. I love all of his references and how just when you nail it down he deflects you. This book is no different, a meandering muse on Washington DCs other famous music, no not hardcore, but Go-Go. Printed by the highly respectable [Name] Publications out of Miami.

10. X by Glen Cummings & Adam Michaels
Number Ten is “X” – fitting. A study of The X as a typographic development. Needless to say it covers a lot of straight edge hardcore and even some St. Andrew. Creative and almost comprehensive.

EXTRAS
1. Band of Bikers by Scott Zieher
I love things that are clandestine and come to light, they offer us so many surprises and a chance to reset our compass. The story behind the book is almost as interesting as the book itself, gallerist Scott Zieher found these photographs in the basement of an apartment building. It is either the greatest set up, a la Cannibal Holocaust, or perfection. I think it is a sense of perfection because Band of Bikers offers us an intimate glimpse into the gay leather biker culture of the 1970s post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS. Melancholic, informative and full of surprises.

2. Volkerlchau Melanie Bonajo
Printed as part of an exhibition, this is a brief and hallucenogenic aura reading of exotic mammals. Would make a great accompaniment to Alexander Binder’s photo publications.

3. NY ART BOOK FAIR MOMA PS1 09/30 – 10/02/2011
Ok not a book at all, but perhaps one of the best places to not only see some excellent books but meet some artists, publishers and others who appreciate printed matter from around the world. Keep your eyes on this for next year and attend, talk to people and pick up some wonderful publications.

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Stavros of The Atlas Moth at Union Pool (more by BBG)

Stavros Giannopoulos of The Atlas Moth
1. Will Haven – Voir Dire
2. Wolvhammer – The Obsidian Plains
3. Drake – Take Care
4. Austra – Feel It Break
5. Dj Quik – The Book Of David
6. Leviathan – True Traitor, True Whore
7. Active Child – You Are All I See
8. The Swan King – Eyes Like Knives
9. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
10. The Proselyte – Sunshine

Best EPs: Battlefields – Agassiz , Crosses – S/T
2010 releases I missed but listened the fuck out of this year: Twin Shadow – Forget; Hooray For Earth – True Loves; White Ring – everything

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Mitchell Luna (ex-Maruta)
10 most awesome things
1. Drunkenly getting lost in the Amsterdam red light district, and finding my way back to the hostel several hours later with the guidance of my smartphone with 3% battery life. Yeay for technology.
2. Hanging out with Balazs Pandi all night in Budapest.
3. Noisear : Subvert the Dominant Paradigm.
4. Playing Chicago/ Los Angeles with Gridlink for the first time, and Phobia for the 40-something-ish time. This weekend included mass consumption of beer and burgers, making new friends, seeing old friends, staying up late, watching Takafumi Matsubara shred, and giving Jon Chang a hard time.
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
6. Drunkenly walking over to the Eiffel Tower at 3 Am with PLF, and assorted characters from the Wormrot/Maruta tour crew.
7. Staying in Belgium. Drinking all the Belgian beer I could/couldn’t handle. Gulden Draak and Westmalle Trippel, you kicked my ass.
8. Playing Rotterdam alongside Bastard Noise, Wormrot, and Marousa… the turnout wasn’t huge or anything, but it was one of those shows that just “felt great”.
9. Czech Republic. wow. Amazing Country, amazing grind core scene, amazing looking women.
10. Cuban food, but this applies to my list every year. Until the end of time.

Ten most lame things
1. The death of Maruta
2. Hanging out with Balazs Pandi all night in Budapest.
3. Having to cancel a Maruta/Kill the client tour for reasons beyond my control, after I had booked 90% of the dates. (Sorry East Coast!)
4. My Playstation 3 got the yellow light of death for the 3rd time.
5. Being deprived of my carnivorous lust on tour, because I was too broke to feed myself, and 90% of promoters fed us Vegetarian food (Sorry Fred!).
6. Getting piss drunk at a Bar on south beach, then somehow thinking its a good idea to sing along to “Wonderwall” by Oasis alongside Jonathan Nunez (Torche), Henrik Ivarsson (Crowpath), and various others. If this was ever filmed and leaked to the internet, it would surely be the end of all of our “musical careers”. We all denied this ever happened the day after… until now.
7. Having my van Engine shit the bed, spending over 2 grand to fix it, to then have my band break up shortly after.
8. New Malignancy album still hasn’t been released. You bastards tracked drums for it in 2009. Hurry the fuck up!!!
9. Duke Nukem :Forever
10. Herman Cain (ok, I kinda lied… his “commercials” that are scattered all over youtube are probably one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I have ever witnessed)

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Jenks Miller of Horseback at The Studio of Webster Hall (more by Markus Shaffer)

Jenks Miller of Horseback, Mount Moriah
20 of my favorite non-metal records from 2011
Arbouretum – The Gathering
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Asva – Presences of Absences
Current 93 – Honeysuckle Aeons
Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow
Various Artists – Not the Spaces You Know, But Between Them
Barn Owl – Lost in the Glare
Ural Umbo – Delusion of Hope
Prurient – Bermuda Drain
My Disco – Little Joy
Locrian – The Clearing
Deaf Center – Owl Splinters
Charalambides – Exile
Low – C’Mon
Alva Noto – Univers
Lee “Scratch” Perry – The Return of Sound System Scratch
William Fowler Collins – The Resurrections Unseen
David S. Ware Quartet – Planetary Unknown
Mamiffer – Mare Decendrii
Loren Connors – Red Mars

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Reed Bruemmer of Speedwolf
Top Ten Releases of 2011
1) Motorhead- Overkill
2) Saxon- Denim and Leather
3) Rose Tattoo- S/T
4) Judas Priest- Sad Wings of Destiny
5) ZZ Top- Tejas
6) Bathory- S/T (only the yellow goat though, sounds a lot yellower, kvlt)
7) Venom- At War with Satan
8) Venom- Black Metal
9) Motorhead- Rock n’ Roll
10) Anything new that sounds like they listen to these records too much…

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Jamie Getz of Gods & Queens
1. EMA ß Past Life Martyr Saints ß 100% love this record. There isnt one bad song on here, and not one song I skip. I even paid to get into a show to watch them. I like this record that much.

2. Tombs ß Path Of Totality ß Mike Hill and I have a long history together from touring together in older bands to playing in a band together to booking each other shows. This record is the culmination of everything Mike has done up to this point. Perfected the craft on this one.

3. Storms ß We Are Storms ß From Moonlee Records, the band is from Croatia. Its got a Faraquet style to it, or something sort of like The Van Pelt. I listened to this a bunch since its release. Perfect for zoning out.

4. Young Widows ß In And Out Of Youth And Lightness ß Best bass tone by any band ever. This band cant do anything wrong by me. I wish Quarter Stick Records would put out a Gods And Queens / Rodan / Young Widows 3 way split.

5. Ume ß Phantoms ß Straight up this woman who plays guitar in this band is no fucking joke. The whole package on this, guitar, bass, drums and vocals. All in a line, all killer. Get this thing!

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Brad Boatright of From Ashes Rise at Red 7 (more by BBG)

Brad Boatright of From Ashes Rise
-Sarabante “Remnants” LP: This Greek band completely caught me off guard with this one. Perfect execution of heavy, dark, moody, metal influenced modern hardcore. Flawless from start to finish.
-Epiphone Explorers- The cheap, vintage 2007 Chinese made ones. While the quality varies, they can be had for next to nothing, and with Seymour Duncan JBs in the bridge I’m happy with the two that I aquired this year. Since I use metal picks, there’s no way I’d be able to keep an expensive guitar scratch-free. True usability.
-The Rat Out Of Hell custom distortion box, custom built to my specs by Joe at Braindead Audio Designs. A five position switch allows for more versatility than the standard Rats, and the sound is top notch.
-Sons Of Anarchy. It’s good enough to put here.
-Hopworks Urban Brewery and Secret Aardvark Hot Sauce, I love Portland.
-Victims- Live at This Is Hardcore in Philadelphia, PA. Seeing these guys yearly now, and they always top themselves.
-The Damned- Live at Fun Fun Fun in Austin, TX. Captain Sensible is at the top of the list when it comes to being a righteous dude. Only wish they’d played songs from the second LP.
-The ever-improving world of digital audio production, and the insurgence of affordable or free tools and plug-ins from companies like Variety Of Sound, Stillwell Audio, and Cockos. IK Multimedia’s mobile Amplitube software gets a mention here too.
-Trans Siberian Orchestra- Live in Portland. I’m a sucker for this stuff. It’s been three days since he show and I’m still blown away.
-And last but not least, here’s to another round of free spins in 2012. 2011 has been good in so many ways, from being given the opportunity to continue playing and writing music with From Ashes Rise and Lebanon, seeing a steady increase in studio and production work, and having such an amazing bunch of family and friends in my life. Being busy might make time fly, but it’s always important to stop, look around, and catch your breath, preferably with those around you.

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Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City
Favorite things of 2011
THIRTEEN RECORDS
Young Widows In And Out Of Youth And Lightness – No contest, my favorite of the year. This record is incredible. Songs, performances, tones, recording, everything.
True Widow As High As The Highest… & INO – Their first record dug a hole; these two crawled into it. I don’t know what that means but it sounds right. One of the few bands I hear and wish I was in that band.
Batillus Furnace – Watching these guys play most of this record every night for two weeks = great. Watching people get knocked on their ass by the start of that first song = really great.
ME & LP Chez Raymond – Super nice. I could listen to Lisa Papineau sing the dictionary.
Northless Clandestine Abuse – Fuck my face, this record is enormous and heavy and hooky and awesome.
Whores Ruiner – Perfect modern take on 90s drop-D riffage. Great recording too.
Paul McCartney Ram – How did I never hear this record before? How was this made in 1971?
Cellos Bomb Shelter – Am I just a sucker for Canadian noise rock? I stumbled on this on bandcamp a few weeks ago and I just keep listening to it.
Cartographer Hats, Capes, Dark Arts – I shouldn’t list this since I recorded it and they’re buddies, but I genuinely love this record. Shellac-inspired aluminum guitar smart-assery.
KEN Mode Venerable – I have loved KEN Mode for years. When this record is on, it is fucking ON. There is no other band doing what these guys do.

TEN THINGS
Total Fest
Yashicamat 124G
Sharkbite Studios, Oakland CA
Northern California camping
Finishing tour with “Hole in the Sky”, with Stavros from Atlas Moth on vox
Jon Howell
Every recording session I got to do this year
fastmail.fm
Peavey customer service
Ninkasi Brewing Company

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Mike Wohlberg, Visual Artist
tFk!’s “get over the fact that wittr didn’t make my top 10” top 10 of 2011 list:
1. tombs – “path of totality”
2. weekend nachos – “worthless”
3. wugazi – “the 13 chambers”
4. touche amore – “parting the sea between brightness and me”
5. rotten sound – “cursed”
6. harms way – “isolation”
7. pulling teeth – “funerary”
8. deafheaven – “roads to judah”
9. today is the day – “pain is a warning”
10. trap them – “darker handcraft”
runners up (no order)
wolves in the throne room “celestial lineage,” junius “reports from the threshold of death,” graf orlock “doombox,” wormrot “dirge,” all pigs must die “god is war”

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Dimitri of Argonauts at ABC No Rio (more by BBG)

Dimitri Minkanakis of Argonauts
01 MY GIRLS
02 JESUIT LIVE
03 PSYCHIC LIMB
04 ALL PIGS MUST DIE
05 PARTY SMASHER INC
06 NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO MY LIST
07 HELMS ALEE
08 DUSTING OFF VOCAL CHORDS
09 SCREEN PRINTING
10 UNICORNS

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Sanford Parker, producer, member of Buried at Sea/Minsk/Nachtmystium/The High Confessions/Circle of Animals
1. Skinny Puppy – Handover
2. Mastodon – The Hunter
3. Anatomy of Habit – s/t
4. Leviathan – True Traitor True Whore
5. Grails – Deep Politics
6. Rwake – Rest
7. Pharaoh Overlord – Out of Darkness
8. Craft – Void
9. Bloodiest – Descent
10. AAAmion – Amen

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Josh Rothenberger of Bloody Panda
THE MOST “METAL” NON-METAL SHOWS OF 2011

1. Swans – The El Rey, Los Angeles, CA. Okay maybe this is too easy. I don’t give a fuck. It’s the first time I had the chance to see one of my favorite bands of all time live. And it was every bit as kvlt as I knew it would be.

2. Chelsea Wolfe – The Satellite, Los Angeles, CA. Chelsea Wolfe is as metal as non-metal gets. She’s covered Burzum, wears a funeral veil over her face when she performs live, and has the most necro scream of any woman on earth not named Yoshiko Ohara. Oh, and she’s the daughter of Lita Ford and Dario Argento (PSYCH!).

3. HTRK – The Echo, Los Angeles, CA. An Aussie no-wave band that recently lost their bassist to suicide. Some of the most used up, sex-addicted, substance-abusing music I’ve heard in a long time. I can’t decide if it makes me want to slit my wrists or organize an orgy. Sickness!

4. Thurston Moore – Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles, CA. This was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing Thurston minus his Sonic Youth compatriots. Moore achieved an incredibly rich, ritualistic, bowel-undulating sound – despite the fact the ensemble was composed solely of acoustic instruments. Brutal!

5. Cass McCombs – Eagle Rock Community Center, Los Angeles, CA. McCombs is well known for his battle with heroin. But on this night, his blackened history of substance abuse added a whole new texture to his music. Plagued by the desperate search for manic uplift, his true gift is the rare ability to see the otherworldly in the sobriety of everyday life. Now that’s a deep thought.

6. Zola Jesus – The Mondrian Hotel – Los Angeles, CA. Standing in the middle of a three million dollar outdoor hotel pool bar, surrounded by West Hollywood’s douchiest element, sporting nothing more than a white bed sheet wrapped around her 5 foot frame, she screamed her head off into like ninety delay pedals…and then some dude standing behind her pressed space bar on a lap top… and then the song started. And then…and then…it was pretty heavy.

7. Bestial Mouths – The Medusa Lounge, Los Angeles, CA – A relatively new band that combines elements of goth and industrial with ritualistic live wardrums. Banshee vocals invoke “Only Theatre of Pain”-era Christian Death. In the black recesses of the dingy Medusa Lounge, Bestial was at their most evyle. It almost made me want to get down with platinum lipstick.

8. White Magic – Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles, CA – Mira Billotte played a memorable, stripped-down solo set using nothing but a hand drum to accompany her spine-tingling vokills. The show appropriately took place in a sepulcher-turned-concert-space in the middle of a Hollywood cemetery.

9. Alex Turnquist – F House, Los Angeles, CA – A solo 12-string guitarist whose sound is every bit as glacial and lightless as it is lush and enchanting. I’d take the bare bones live version of his sound over the minimal (and at times distracting) accompaniment he employs in his recorded material any day. Dark!

10. Bow Ribbons – Zebulon, Brooklyn, NY – The first time I saw Bow Ribbons was when they threw together a pretty killer black Sabbath cover project. I guess that makes them metal enough for my non-metal best of. On this particular occasion the duo invited The Brooklyn Women’s Choir and Sondra Sun-Odeon (Silver Summit) to help buttress their sound, and the results slayed!

—
Marco Coslovich of The Secret
Best of 2011
– SXSW Festival
– Roadburn Festival
– Venice
– Meeting Dave Grohl
– Watching Foo Fighters on stage with my girlfriend playing in front of 40.000 people
– Sunn O))) + The Secret Live in Italy + Party after the show
– Earth live at Roadburn
– Screen Printing
– Touring with Tombs
– Touring with Kvelertak + Toxic Holocaust + Doomriders + Wolves Like Us
– Drinking Guinness in Ireland with Mr. Glyn Smyth
– Drinking Vodka everywhere with Mr. Carson D. James
– Drinking Wishky in Los Angeles with Mr. Ian Astbury
– Drinking everything everywhere with Mr. Greg Anderson
– Postojna Caves
– The beginning of the fall of Berlusconi
– Russian Circles – Empros
– Dave Bazan – Strange Negotiations
– Graveyard – Hisingen Blues
– Melancholia by Lars Von Trier
– Biutiful by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
– The Tree of Life by Terrence Malik
– Early Graves on stage. Again.
—
PART ONE HERE.
(part three on the way)