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| Such Gold |
2012 was a great year for music. Old bands proved they've still got it; new bands made excellent first impressions, and a couple bands released records that will shape the future of music to come. I'm sure this is the first year any of that has ever happened, right?
This is the second part of my top 20 albums of 2012. Part one can be found here. Let's get this shit rollin'
10. Such Gold- Misadventures (Razor & Tie)
So, is it cool to call Such Gold a pop-punk band, or what? Ever since the wave of assclownery that swept in with the "Defend Pop-Punk movement" misappropriated any band who may have once owned a Lifetime CD into their ranks, (good) bands are exercising a bit more caution before openly embracing their pop tendencies. So it's with the utmost respect that I label Misadventures a pop-punk record -- not (entirely) because of lazy classification, but because it neatly ties together a decade and a half worth of the genre's highlights.
Musically, the album is a perfect blend of Through Being Cool and Today's Empires..., mixed with hardcore's chunky rhythms and a fair bit of modern emo noodling for something that -- while entirely familiar -- never sounds recycled. So as "tr00 pop-punk" ironically begins its tailspin into a metalcore-esque pit of self reference, Such Gold stand out by offering us something that really, truly has roots. It also doesn't hurt that Ben Kotin's lyrics are on point to an almost painful degree, as he carefully disassembles our narcissistic, persona-driven generation with honesty as his only weapon.
9. Every Time I Die- Ex Lives (Epitaph)
Leading up to the release of Ex Lives, Every Time I Die were touting the album as their best to date. I wasn't surprised by that statement; every band in the entire world thinks their newest shit is their best, especially when they've just recorded it. What I was surprised by, however, is the fact that ETID were actually right-- Ex Lives makes a pretty compelling case for the best album in the band's storied catalog. Compare and contrast: Gutter Phenomenon has some really sketchy moments, The Big Dirty gets boring after a while, and Hot Damn! hasn't aged all that gracefully. Ex Lives is, in my opinion, the most complete thing ETID's ever done.
Fueled by a(n apparently) much needed personnel change, the band dropped their twangy party-boy gimmickry for Ex Lives, in favour of a much more sober, straightforward approach and experimental songwriting. If that sounds boring to you, don't worry; despite singing the remorse of a life wasted in bars, the band hasn't sounded this energized on record since they were signed to Ferret. If that still sounds boring, kill yourself. Ex Lives is all the proof you need that sometimes, things do get better with age.
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| White Lung |
8. White Lung- Sorry (Deranged)
I can't say from personal experience, but I'd imagine getting your ass kicked by a girl would be a little reminiscent of listening to
Sorry. Nowhere on White Lung's sophomore effort does the band try to one-punch you and take you down with overt physicality; instead, you're left with a 19 minute endurance match that slowly but surely pummels you into the ground. Kenneth William's frenetic guitar playing creates the freak-out like sense of urgency while Anne-Marie Vassiliou's relentless kick-snare combos punch you in the chest until you can't breathe; all the while vocalist Mish Way is up in your face; taunting you, chiding you, begging you to hit back.
The thing is, you can't -- not because you won't -- but because
Sorry doesn't leave you any room to retaliate. Opener "Take the Mirror" gives you about eight seconds of nervous energy before blowing up in your face, and from there it's pretty much a race to the finish -- a race you won't win. There's no room for navel gazing. Even if you try your best to admire William's brilliant guitar work or wander around in Way's pop-friendly melodies, you won't stray a foot before the rhythm section firmly reminds you of the task at hand -- moving straight ahead as fast as possible. My advice for listening to this album: hold tight, breathe deep, and try your best to enjoy the ride.
Listen to "Glue"
7. Hot Water Music- Exister (Rise)
In the eight years between
The New What Next and
Exister, a countless number of bands have tried to emulate Hot Water Music's signature style of "really pissed off dad punk". The results have been varied -- a lot of those bands have been pretty forgettable; a few of them have been pretty good; yet as hard as they tried, not a single one of those bands could fill the chasm in our flannel-clad hearts. The reason why -- as this album so confidently reminds us -- is that none of those bands were Hot Water Music.
The biggest thing (aside from Jason Black) that separates HWM from their imitators is quite simple -- Hot Water Music have never tried to sound like Hot Water Music. For
Exister the band could have simply phoned in 12 "Trusty Chords" knock-offs, slapped a Sinc. piece on the cover, and hit the road to a packed house every night. But what's most endearing about this album is that it doesn't try to sound like HWM circa 2004 -- opting instead to sound like HWM circa 2012. Sure, these songs sound more like they belong in a Wrangler's commercial than a Punk-O-Rama comp, but if you've been keeping tabs on the band's extracurricular activities (let's face it, you probably have),
Exister makes perfect sense. That acute sense of self awareness, mixed with an outright indifference to any external expectations -- not just on this record, but throughout their entire career -- has cemented Hot Water Music's place as the best punk rock band of the last 20 years.
Listen to "Paid in Full"
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| The Menzingers |
6. Title Fight- Floral Green (SideOneDummy)
In three short years, Title Fight have transformed from a gang of fresh-faced, unassuming high school kids with a lot of unpolished potential into arguably the biggest band in contemporary hardcore. But if the band's almost-meteoric rise to prominence has worn them down in any way, you wouldn't be able to tell by listening to
Floral Green. The album is bolder, more confident, and more focused than anything they've released to date, and while it may not be as important to me personally as
Shed was, there's no denying that objectively,
Floral Green is a better record.
While it may be more reminiscent of Slowdive than of Saves the Day, it's not entirely fair to call Floral Green a "departure record." Every strength Title Fight displayed on Shed has simply been cultivated further; the songs are more structured, the melodies are catchier, and the warm blankets of noise are used far more effectively. These songs are, for lack of a better term, a lot more patient than anything the band's done previously. Whereas Title Fight once seemed content with banging out two minute-long blasts of straightforward pop-punk energy, Floral Green finds the band a lot more confident and willing to explore both their songs and their ability as musicians. The result isn't as immediately gratifying, but it's certainly a lot more interesting. This album has proven why Title Fight receive accolades from both 16 year-old girls and the dudes who made the records they grew up on -- because they bloody well deserve it.
5. The Menzingers- On The Impossible Past (Epitaph)
Like their friends and former tour-mates in Title Fight, the Menzingers come from an area of Pennsylvania that has been particularly promising for punk music over the past couple years. Geographical proximity to both Philly and New York, along with a passionate local scene and a lack of anything else productive to do have turned the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area into a hotbed of new music. Many of the bands in that area are quick to champion their scene, but
On the Impossible Past takes it one step further, drawing much of it's lyrical content from time spent growing up there.
Fortunately for those of us who grew up elsewhere, Scranton, PA might as well be Santa Clara, CA or Scarborough, ON, or any other middle class suburb where kids don't have much to do except go to school and get in trouble. Greg Barnett and Tom May are both excellent story-tellers, spinning seemingly mundane moments of their youth into rallying points for beer soaked sing-alongs, simply by pouring themselves into every moment of the album. Many people enjoy music because it brings back the memories they associate with it; what I think made
OTIP resonate with so many people was it's uncanny ability to induce nostalgia without any context. There are countless moments on this album -- from car crashes to summer flings to drunken debauchery -- where I feel as if the Menzingers are telling my life story, not theirs. I could chalk that up to coincidence, but
OTIP's reception from the punk community makes a much stronger case for good songwriting.
Listen to "Nice Things"
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| Whirr |
4. Whirr- Pipe Dreams (Tee Pee)
Since I don't feel like a complete authority on shoegaze or dream-pop or whatever the hell you people call this music, I've been a bit hesitant to write a comprehensive endorsement of
Pipe Dreams. I mean, there's no way I'm gonna be able to geek out on this review, because most of what the album (supposedly) draws from doesn't interest me much at all. In retropsect, that's probably all the endorsement this album needs;
Pipe Dreams doesn't rely on history or context to impress you, it's just good -- really good -- on it's own merits.
If listening to music in 2012 was a meal,
Pipe Dreams can be considered a really tasty dessert. It's distinctly flavourful and rich in texture, yet always light on the pallette and never overbearing. It's melodies are sweet, but not annoyingly so. It's the perfect album to jam if you're on the bus home after blowing your eardrums out at a show, or passing out on a strange couch after a long night of substance induced revelry. It's somber, even dark at some points, but still somehow relaxing and uplifting. After a night of partying, lie down in a dark room and listen to "Wait" on your headphones. If you don't have goosebumps by the end of the song, there's a good chance you don't have a soul either.
Listen to "Junebouvier"
3. Teenage Bottlerocket- Freak Out! (Fat Wreck Chords)
It seems a bit odd that a band who writes songs about Top Gun and masochism would inspire a profound personal revalation in anyone, but that's exactly what happened when I went to see Teenage Bottlerocket this summer. Somewhere between watching a drunk girl lose her mind over Masked Intruder and jumping along with a room full of people while a dude in a grim reaper costume stood on stage with a sign that said "pogo party" during "Bottlerocket(?)", something occured to me; music doesn't necessarily have to be "serious" in order to be taken seriously. Exhibit A: TBR's latest release,
Freak Out!
Reading reviews of
Freak Out! when it dropped kind of bummed me out. A lot of people half wrote the album off by calling it "the record we all expected TBR to put out." While that's not entirely untrue (it's certainly not a departure by any stretch of the imagination), it doesn't really give this album the props it deserves either. Teenage Bottlerocket aren't concerned with being anyone but Teenage Bottlerocket, but that's because they're focused on being the best they possibly can be. Freak Out! is a definite new high for the band; the melodies are catchy as hell, the song structures are insanely well thought out, and the lyrics have never been funnier or more relatable. You can try and write TBR off as a one trick pony or a novelty act, but you'd be missing the point entirely. Sometimes you need to quit moping around at hardcore shows so you can pogo party with drunk weirdos and cute girls -- and nobody pogo parties harder than Teenage Bottlerocket.
Listen to "Headbanger"
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| Xerxes |
2. Violent Bullshit- Adult Problems (Violent Responsibility)
[Taken from my Punknews.org review]
At first glance, Adult Problems appears to be nothing more than old-school dudes playing older school hardcore for the hell of it; but upon closer inspection the album reveals itself to be a rather well thought-out artistic statement. Although its foundation rests upon a blend of Born Against style riffing, Bad Brains-esque stop and go rhythms, and all the noisy thrashing you'd expect from ex-members of Ebullition bands, the album maintains an infectious sense of melody and a youthful exuberance not usually associated with dudes in their mid-to-late 30's. But perhaps what's most impressive about the album is just how cleverly constructed the aforementioned foundation is. While most "____-revival" bands come up short by limiting themselves to one frame of reference, VBS have succeeded in weaving a tapestry of creative influence into something undeniably fresh but easily traced back to it's roots [...]
What I find most endearing (and given the album's title/lyrical themes, most fitting) about
Adult Problems is how invigorating scope and songwriting experience can be when injected into a genre that forgets most of it's heroes by the time they've turned 26. I'm not saying this is the best hardcore record ever, but you'd be hard-pressed to find something in today's scene that manages to be this on-point while still "staying true to its roots" so to speak [...]
TL;DR: the fact that the dudes in VBS have been listening to this kind of music since I was still in diapers probably has something to do with their ability to execute it so undeniably well. With that in mind, maybe it's time us "hardcore kids" recognize the adults could be onto something.
Listen to "Getaway"
1. Xerxes- Our Home is a Deathbed (No Sleep)
Every year I find one album that hits so close to home, I don't even really know how to describe it. I mean, I could throw adjectives at
Our Home is a Deathbed all day; the musical arrangements are orchestral, the dynamic changes are explosive, Calvin Philley's vocals are throat-shredding, Evan Peak's drumming is pulvarizing -- you get the point. Thing is, no group of adjectives I can string together will do my relationship with this album any justice.
Deathbed is simply flawless; from the eerie ocean harp-fueled build-up on "Wake" to the catharthic ringing chords of the title track/closer, there isn't a second of this album I don't absolutely love.
To be honest, I have no idea why this album didn't receive the attention it deserved in 2012. These guys take Touche Amore's musical concept and actually back it up with good musicianship and fresh ideas. The band is more challenging/dynamically interesting than the vast majority of their contemporaries, which you can probably credit to the fact that these guys met at a performing arts high school. I'm pretty sure Will Allard is some sort of musical protege who just happened upon hardcore and made it his personal mission to write the best music the genre's ever seen. This band is still very young, but if
Deathbed is any indication of what's to come, he (and his band) might do just that.
Listen to "Funeral Home"
Honorable Mentions:
Gaza-
No Absolutes in Human Suffering
Japandroids-
Celebration Rock
Ghostlimb-
Confluence
Tragedy-
Darker Days Ahead
Apollo Brown & Guilty Simpson-
Dice Game
Cattle Decapitation-
Monolith of Inhumanity
Joie De Vivre-
We're All Better Than This
Shit I Didn't Get to Jam Enough:
Cloud Nothings-
Attack on Memory (may have been AOTY had I not heard it for the first time last week.)
We Were Skeletons-
Blame and Aging
Pig Destroyer-
Book Burner
Dikembe-
Broad Shoulders
Mutilation Rites-
Empyrean
Kendrick Lamar-
Good Kid, m.A.A.d City
Xiabalba-
Hasta La Muerte
Gifts From Enola-
A Healthy Fear
Bison B.C.-
Lovelessness
Masked Intruder- S/T
Forgetters- S/T
P.O.S.-
We Don't Even Live Here
Strife-
Witness to a Rebirth
Birds in Row-
You, Me & the Violence
