Wow – interesting year, huh? No need to go down that rabbit hole, but I can say how depressing the music was this year. Not that I didn’t find a few gems, but those albums that I did enjoy were sadder than the usual stuff I gravitate towards. Sign of the times, anyone?
Crazy words. Crazy tunes.
Crazy times. Crazy world.
Time for this year’s POOP, then.
The World of Captain Beefheart featuring Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas, Ghetto Priest, Jeb Loy Nichols, Coldcut x On-U Sound, ALA.N, Ensemble Minisym,
Penguin Café, Laurel Hal, Behind the Counter with Max Richter, Frank Zappa
I’d be embarrassed to truly show you, if such a thing were at all possible, the extent to which the idea of “Top Ten” organizes how I think about what I enjoy, consume, and love. This is a post-High Fidelity culture junkie thing that I’m sure is common to a lot of us contributing here, and I for one have gotten pretty self-conscious about it. Invariably, when I sit down each year to do this Poop List, there’s an odd push/pull between the sincere eagerness I take in constructing these lists, my awareness of the vanity of this sort of exercise, and the reflex of embarrassment that inevitably comes knocking. The whole thing is pretty weird.
My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): In this year like none other before it, writing a list about fleeting things like music feels pretty trivial. Still I welcome the distraction it provides. Thinking about things that excite me is so much more agreeable than dwelling on the Trumpster Fire that currently is this nation. So, for what it’s worthless, I toss out my POOPlist to you like rolls of paper towels, knowing it will provide about the same amount of balm.
Khalid / Rostam / Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile / Spoon / Kevin Morby / (Sandy) Alex G / Fred Thomas / Bleachers / Ty Segall / Moses Sumney /
What else can be said about a shitcake of a year. I am done ranting about pop music. My focus is more on the current situation that is going on in our country and what we must do to resist. Anyway there is no rhyme or reason to what I like. But I will not bow to social pressure to like something I don’t think is very good. But anyway I am not here to criticize what I don’t like. It seems we don’t value critical thinking much these days. Anyway most of the best albums came from classic rock artists but being pop radio is ageist, they won’t get traction. But I made an effort to balance the old with the new. So anyway here’s what made my best of this year
In the year we lost Tom Petty (opiods, again!) and Greg Allman, I enjoyed going back to some favorite classic rock albums — part for nostalgia, part for comfort in some very weird times. It’s probably no coincidence then that, by far, my favorite album of the year was Dan Auerbach’s Waiting on a Song, a perfect collection of 70’s inspired soul-rock-blues. Even though something is lost forever when these bright lights of Rock are extinguished, there’s some solace that there are hugely talented young musicians always rising up the ranks to carry on the musical tradition. The King is Dead, Long Live the King as they say.
Jlin / Bicep / Four Tet / Saint Etienne / Slowdive / Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet / St. Vincent / Lorde / Stormzy / The xx / Sampha / Omar Souleyman / Peverelist
2017 – What a shitty year for the world and this country. Well at least there was lots of good music, an excellent Twin Peaks reboot, and the German Netflix series – Dark… Oh! and of course my joyous son. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes is like nothing I’ve ever experienced and gives some hope to a world that feels lost and in constant turmoil.
FIX’S ELEVEN FAVORITE ALBUMS of 2017 (Alphabetical)
Ryan Adams \\ All Them Witches \\ Brand New \\ The Horrors \\ Hurray For The Riff Raff \\ Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit \\ LCD Soundsystem \\ The National \\ Slowdive \\ St Vincent \\ Paul Weller \\
Say, what gives, McGillicuddy? Looking back on my ’16 list, I’ve realised that I barely got back around to some of those choices during ’17. Odd. I did really like that Car Seat Headrest record. Pinegrove too. Here’s what I discovered in ’17 that I hope will continue to excite me into ’18.
haruka nakamura PIANO ENSEMBLE,
Ben Lukas Boysen & Sebastian Plano,
Max Richter,
Jilk,
Throwing Snow,
Tom Hobden & Eliot James,
Páll Ragnar Pálsson,
Soundwalk Collective, Francisco López,
Valgeir Sigurðsson,
Zu,
fuck 17
I know we all know someone/love someone/hate someone who said
Wow! I’m glad that fuckin’ year’s over when 2017 finally broke.
But wasn’t it a prologue in many ways? A year older/closer/nearer the fire?
And who knew that fire was a bushland combustion,
devouring our time/our senses/our songs?
Who knew the forward rate of spread
would be so rapid? The department of this/the department of that
acting as accelerants, torching canopy and street. Leaping fire breaks
w/a single bound. An uncontrolled disaster. The coup behind
the theatrics. A smoldering transition scorching the air.
Great vertical differences you feel in your bed/your shower/your soul.
A stack effect, for sure, as air rises when it’s heated. Birthing new updrafts,
sucking the air from the baby’s room.
2017 done, dusted … and we’re still alive! We may be the laughingstock of the planet, but at least we’re still here to laugh. And at the end of these next four years (or less … hope springs eternal!) we may even have learned something valuable about ourselves as a nation. There is a feeling somewhere inside me that says this struggle we’re facing will make us a better people and a better nation. Don’t get me wrong, I still think most people don’t know what’s good for them, but I think enough people will realize that what we have…
Well, I gotta Pflug my own work first.
Bob Lukomski Höre CD (Earwaker Recordings)
Not that it’s the greatest thing out there, but I put good time and energy into this little 6 track CD of electronic epigrams. Old synths, new synths, borrowed synths, and yes, a blue synth. And I wasn’t even getting married. Kraftwerk meets David Axelrod in spots, lots of clean lines and simple electronic percussion. No vocals, you can get it local.
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile,
Grandaddy,
Happyness,
Kevin Morby,
Mogwai,
queens of the stone age,
Roger Waters,
The Feelies,
The Replacements,
The War on Drugs,
To the POmpous and OPinionated: You POOPin this year? If you’re getting one of these for the first time, POOP is our annual exercise in self-importance wherein we compile “Best Of 2017′ lists, to be published in a quaint ol’ print edition as well as online. This year will be our 31st annual exercise in swillification. A refresher about the rules and deadlines is in order: Limit yourself to what would be 2 sides of 8×11 paper. Leave a slight margin so your swill does not get lost in the binding of the hard copy. Any layout format that works…
Dear POOPster:
So . . . there seems to be some agreement that 2016 could have been a tad better. If I may speak for many of you here, fuck you 2016, fuck you for so many reasons. As we approach the end of the world as we know it, we will have to find strength in the little things, as trivial as they might seem right now. And what could be more trivial than the 30th Annual(!) POOPlist.
Where do I begin? Like so many of us, it all changed on Election Night 2016. As I sat and watched the deterioration of our home, I was thinking about how I truly live in a bubble in New York, and the confirmation of ignorance from the rest of our country was devastating. I’m trying to be hopeful, but with every office appointment, it keeps getting worse. Just like Seth Meyers said, “we gave him his chance.” Can’t really say I heard a lot of music that inspired me this year as well. Drumming up the strength to talk about…
Mourn – Catholic Gilrfriends – Car Seat Headrest – Exploded View – Pinegrove – DIIV – Angel Olsen – Ty Segall – Brian Eno – Radiohead