best of 2013 by stephie c

TOP TEN LIVE BANDS I SAW IN 2013

1. LOS CRUDOS

2. VEXX

3. IN SCHOOL

4. 86 MENTALITY

5. BEHEAD THE PROPHET NO LORD SHALL LIVE

6. HOAX

7. NUDES

8. NUCLEAR SPRING

9. GAG

10. HEALTH PROBLEMS

TOP TEN RECORDS OF 2013

1. PUSHA T - My Name Is My Name

2. GUN OUTFIT - Hard Coming Down

3. VEXX - s/t

4. CAIRO PYTHIAN - Unity Mitford

5. HOODED HAGS - Mental Revenge CS

6. YOKO ONO AND PLASTIC ONO BAND - Take Me to the Land of Hell

7. HORNET LEG - Wrecking Ball

8. NEKO CASE - Worse Things Get

9. MOON - s/t CS

10. EARL SWEATSHIRT - Doris

SIX INSPIRING PROJECTS OF 2013

The People's House (Olympia)

The "Beyond Inversion" comp (DC)

POC Zine Project

Rock Camps for Girls/Queer Rock Camp (NW and worldwide!)

This Is Not a Step fest (Bay Area)

Nuts! Fanzine (NYC)

TOP TEN REISSUES/NEW OLD STUFF RELEASED IN 2013

1. The Human Expression - Love at a Psychedelic Velocity

2. Anonymous - Inside the Shadow

3. V/A - I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age in America 1950-1990

4. Urinals - Negative Capability...Check it Out!

5. Gene Clark - Here Tonight: The White Light Demos

6. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb

7. Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me OST

8. Unwound - Kid is Gone

9. Townes Van Zandt - Late Great/High, Low and In Between

10. Patrick Cowley - School Daze

TOP TEN RECORDS I LISTENED TO MOST IN 2013 THAT WEREN'T MADE IN 2013

1. Gene Clark - No Other

2. Royal Trux - Cats and Dogs

3. Big Star - Radio City

4. Cock Sparrer - Shock Troops

5. The Velvet Underground - third album

6. The Byrds - Notorious Byrd Brothers

7. Scott Walker - Scott 4

8. Dead Meadow - Feathers

9. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

10. The Scruffs - Wanna' Meet the Scruffs

SIX ANTICIPATED RELEASES OF 2014

The Mona Reels

Flesh World

In School

Spider and the Webs

Dirty Joe and the Brick Walls

Hysterics...

Best of 2011 by Adriana

10 MUSIC FAVORITES I HEARD IN 2011
 
1. Crude Thought --  demo
2. Broken Water – Peripheral Star ep/live
3. Mothercountry Motherfuckers - live
4. Weird TV – live/Brilliant Colors -- live
5. No Statik -- We All Die In The End LP
6. Pink Nightmare – self-titled ep (tape)/live
7. Grimace -- Mustard Gas and Roses ep (tape)
8. Sixes -- final tape/last Olympia set
9. Big Crux – Big Crux Is A Big Funk ep
10. Scary Man -- live

 
10 OTHER KEY FAVORITES IN 2011
 
1. the woods by my house
2. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa
3. the rapture of finally finishing my own bands’ releases: Hysterics – s/t (M’lady’s) Outlook - Vision tape + Our Time Is Now LP (out Feb), Dehumanized – Demo
4. Occupy
5. Chester
6. my nephew being born
7. meeting new and rediscovering old friends/Hysterics and Outlook tours
8. abundance$$$$$$/realizing sometimes it is possible to be taken care of
9. New Direction Fest/hanging out with Brigada Roja from Monterrey, MX
10. Nuts! Release Show #8/wet n’ wild times with some of music’s best RIP Red and Black   

Best of 2011 by Stephie

two things i'm not gonna forget from 2011:

1. nuts! #8 party
-as a teenager i would read book after book about the punk scenes of the 70s and 80s and it didn't take long to come to terms with the devastating idea that i would never experience an underground music made by members of my own generation that would move me at least as profoundly as our predecessors' music had. how very wrong i was...after freaking out over some of the best bands in the world (all of whom were from olympia), with a couple hundred friends and strangers in the pouring rain, i left feeling like i'd just been baptized or something...by the time sonskull played, it was dark, and the crowd was a mass of steaming bodies, losing our shit in this gutted warehouse. i remember milk music's two-song set really got to me. i'd seen almost all these bands before, but never in one place, and it was a magical combination of elements. someday rolling stone or an equally irrelevant publication will try to reflect on this period in music history and they will most likely completely overlook this biggest, best and most sacred secret. realest of the real. thank you ben trogdon.

2. outlook at aggression fest (eagle's hall basement, olympia)
-"aggression fest" was an all-day showcase of hardcore bands from around the northwest. i thought some of the show was a basketball-shorts-wearing snoozefest but it was for a great cause (proceeds went to G.I. coffeehouse COFFEE STRONG, owned by antiwar vets at fort lewis, to provide soldiers with information about their rights and resources) and it did have its highlights: Seattle band GRIMACE, for example, who channels bands like NEGATIVE APPROACH but with a kind of freshness, fury and authenticity that can't be faked. my band hysterics also played and had a great time, but what really made this show best-of-2011 material was the performance given by olympia hardcore band OUTLOOK. smart and sincere personal-is-political lyrics with scathing and relentless delivery, brain-rippingly tight riffs and crazy extraterrestrial-grade changes that move at such a breakneck pace, it doesn't give you a second to contemplate what the fuck it is they just did. in 2008, seeing the way adriana fronted this group was what inspired me to scrape up the guts to attempt the same thing the following year, and every outlook show thereafter has been equally inspiring...as soon as they hit the first chord at this show and the floor opened up, i flipped my wig and ended up sore for like four days. what a great group!

other stuff:
crude thought (!!!), dancing onstage with the sonics (not to mention james maeda with his mom and dad) at the capitol theater in the first moments of 2011, getting intercepted by jewish family i didn't even know i had at the opening of kitzel's deli (true story), the KISS cover band (five words: aaron larsen as gene simmons), going on the first hysterics tour, the new john maus LP, the broken water 12", brilliant colors/la la vasquez at grandma's house, and occupy wall street.

Hysterics!!!!

hysterics live in olympia, 2010

I still haven't seen them live, but the demo rules, thanks peter
I went by rainy day and phantom city to buy one to send to layla
but they were all sold out