best of 2013 by billy karren

THe SPECIALS u.s.a west coast tour-amazing shows gents!-meeting the Specials!

Vexx - cool new band-great show at the pizzaria in a Oly Town...great fun kids! keep it going

The Punk Singer Movie--good film ,we looked so cute. a totally adorable film. BIKINI KILL

The Seattle Seahawks-for Winning the SUPER BOWL!!! i hope--dude's do it!

best of 2013 by marissa magic

I saw new bands more than I listened to new records this year so heres some bands that blew my mind:

Swarm - Stillsuit was in Philadelphia in a bike shop  when we played with this band that consisted of two drummers, a bassist, a main singer and then a chorus of three women dancing and singing back ups. It was exhilarating and emotional. I'm pretty sure I cried. After tour anytime anyone asked what bands were good this was a always at the top of my list.

Permanent Ruin - This band is one of those bands to me that i'm kind of like "yeah, they're a good band"  and then I see them and without fail my jaw drops. Non-stop rage, bass and drums unrelenting, a guitar that squeals into chaos constantly and a singer that runs from belting to growling to screaming to holding a note for so fucking long.

Vexx - Wet Drag played a bar in Chehalis that stuffed us with free food and was totally one of those instances of  the bands watch the bands, no one else really there. The atmosphere was a little awkward and Larsens bass kept cutting out but they still slated the shit out of everything. I've been a big fan of stuff that Maryjane does for awhile now and this definitely fed the obsession

Black Dog - This band is somewhere between total sleaze and the heaviest of the heavy. They are so absurd that every time I see them I spend the entire time head banging and laughing hysterically. Their singer consistently wears corpse paint and does push-ups and occasionally brings free weights. This year the line up stretched to include a bass and some general tape loop noise. Basically a bunch of noise freaks decided to start an over the top metal band and its pretty amazing

Daisyworld - Grunge at its best. Jaime is such a rad drummer, The guitar keeps a sickly trance, back and fourth boy/girl vocals. Defenitely another band that falls into the category where I like them and then I see them and my jaw drops.

Styrofoam Sanchez - These noise weirdos. They all dress in suits and build masks and monoliths out of styrofoam that are ripped to shreds by the end. Earsplitting and filled with doom, a wall full of static and bleeps and growls. I once caught a glance of a lyric sheet and it said something like "the toxic rivers run through your blood"

Condominium - This band lands in the space of hardcore that I love, the part that gets real freaky all of the time. They have this seven inch called Carl that jags through an entire intro and then falls in line in the most seasick sense. Everything is barked out in disgust. I saw them live they were wearing flannel.

Not new bands I saw favorites:

favorite summer of my adult life: 2013 - Basically Stillsuit put out our own record, Wet Drag put out a tape and a seven inch, both went on tour, all experiences were excellent.

Realizing I still have feelings and I can get lost in love and get my heart broken

Starting The Blues with Max Nordile and daring to play quiet

Reading The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone, getting pretty obsessed

Salami and Cheese snack packs

Moving into a room with a real window and door

Yogurt

Anything by Roky Erickson

Ok now I'm just rambling...

best of 2013 by justin trosper

Artist with most play time on my stereo regardless of the year it was released:

Alex Degrassi!

New records I bought AND liked:

Janelle Monae “The Electric Lady”

Daft Punk “RAM”

MIA “Matangi”

Queens of the Stone Age “Like Clockwork”

Congo Natty “Jungle Revolution”

Adrian Sherwood “Survival and Resistance”

Neko Case “The Worse Things get…”

...and the Reissued LPs:

PIL 1st ed. (Light in the Attic)

I Am The Center comp (Light in the Attic)

Chrome “Half Machine from the Sun: The Lost Chrome Tapes 79-80”

Bl’ast “Blood” (Southern Lord)

Rodan “Fifteen Quiet Years” (Touch and Go)

Iasos “Celestial Soul Portrait” (Numero)

Apochryphal Hymns comp (Numero)

William Onyeabor “Who is…” (Luaka Bop)

Live stuff I saw and liked:

Western Hymn, Mira Billotte/White Magic, Nudity, Raw Geronimo, Darto, Screaming Females, Pinback, Hysterics, Obits, Octagrape, Streateaters, Hungry Ghost, Broken Water, Neko Case, Greys, Modest Mouse

Interesting stuff that I heard from people on the internet worth checking out:

Gregor Schellenbach Kompact mix on Soundcloud, Ben Lukas Boysen/HECQ, Fuck Buttons “Slow Focus”, The Knife “A Tooth for an Eye”, Darkside “Psychic”, Anciients “Heart of Oak” Death Grips “Government Plates”, Oozing Wound “Retrash”, Chelsea Wolfe “Pain is Beauty”, Julia Holter “Loud City Song”, Burial “Rival Dealer”, Jon Hopkins “Immunity” Tim Hecker “Virgins”, Gesaffelstein

Music related reading:

David Byrne “How Music Works” paperback

Morrissey “Autobiography” paperback

best of 2013 by nadia buyse (aka DUBAIS)

Best Performances of 2013

Maybe this is a gross generalization here, but 2013 was a year of division. The consensus from everyone I’ve talked to about their personal 2013 was an expressed duality; both the highest highs and the lowest lows, massive accomplishments and overwhelming defeat. The world at large felt separation, internal/exterior struggle, and then polarized this energy to turn grit into diamonds.... but perhaps I’m being too romantic.

I definitely felt a divide on how to approach this ‘best of’ list. Do I talk about my favorite albums of the year? Do I talk about my favorite bands this year? In the end I decided to make my list focus on the best performances I ” saw” in 2013. So here it is, in no particular order or fashion, the best performances of 2013 according to me!

1. MATTRESS (Portland, Or)

I decide to start with Mattress because Mattress is the band I have seen the most this year, not only because we toured, but because MATTRESS is literally one of my favorite Portland bands. Every show has ambience and sex appeal. MATTRESS is the music baby of Rex Marshall. Rex grew up in Las Vegas. Legend has it Rex started singing at the ripe age of 7 after getting a gig at the CIRCUS CIRCUS from his showgirl girlfriend. Since then he has perfected a post post minimalist lo fi lounge experimental persona that is undeniable. He is also the lead singer of the Vietnam vet core blues-rock band SLIM FORTUNE.

2. SKIING (Berlin, Germany)

Everett Darling is a pop genius and Berlin is lucky to have him. I first met Everett the day I moved to Olympia; we started our first band that day. After that we were in many bands together in Olympia (The Itch, Becky, Fierce Perm) and one this summer in Berlin (Business Lunch.) Fast forward years later, Everett is living in Berlin and has started the band Skiing. Skiing is pop gold, (think Michael Hurley if he was into shoe gaze and riot grrl.). I saw them play multiple times but every show was an inspiration. So, at this point I should say the Berlin ‘punk/indie/whatever the kids are calling it these days’ scene is a total boys town (not to be confused with the electronic/experimental/performance scene which is a feminist/ queer utopia. ... And more Brown people are coming around too.) Every time I saw Skiing play Everett would sing in falsetto and dress in drag or wear a t shirt that would say something like “ in this T shirt is the body of a gay man” or do something to get the attention of all the sadwhiteboys and make those queens DANCE.

3. BODY/HEAD (Portland, Or T: BA festival)

BODY/HEAD is the newest project by Kim Gordan. If you were a teenager in the 90’s I guarantee you LOVED Sonic Youth probably as much as I LOVED Sonic Youth. I, like most people, felt the loss after they disbanded but was more excited to see what Kim would do next. She has always been one of my favorite feminist icons and I knew whatever she did would be AMAZING. What I didn’t know was that I would be performing the Pop Opera I had been working on for the last year after BODY/HEAD’s first Portland show at the Time based Art festival. Their performance was incredible; an epic sonic drama enhanced with cinematic projections. (PICA really knows how to Program a show!)

4. The Quaintrelles (Los Angelas, CA)

I should preface this by saying that this was the year I really felt a separation with punk scene/ punk music. Even if the music was good, (which often times it’s just regurgitated crap made by college kids who think being poor is cool) I was just hyper aware of the superficiality, exclusivity, and false hierarchy that exists at a lot of shows and in a lot of bands’ performance energy/presentation. It’s just kind of gross. But the Quaintrelles reminded me of the reasons I first fell in love with punk. The band couldn’t have been older than 20, two girls, two boys; all of which had made their own sharpie t-shirts. They did some covers (California Uber Alles) and originals (one song that was introduced as being about cheese and communism.) The music didn’t move me but the energy those kids had brought me back to be a young punk and just being so excited to play with my friends. You’ve never heard of this band, and you might not ever hear them… but all of those kids will continue to play music and be on some great bands I bet. The band was given their name by Taquila Mockingbird who is the main curator/ founder of the Punk Rock Museum.

5. Weird Fiction and the artificial empathy Machine (Portland, OR)

Weird Fiction is Weird… it’s not just a clever name. They played a show at Valentines with World Gang to pretty much no one. At this show they created the Artificial Empathy Machine, which the band played inside of. This machine had the ability to take your picture, fulfill your desires, and send sexy texts… I still don’t know how the machine got my phone number. PS. World gang was pretty great too, for the record.

. 6.Bahrain Music Camp for girls Showcase (Manama, Bahrain)

One of the most exciting things this year for me was getting the opportunity to go to Bahrain to start the Bahrain music camp for girls with my friends Beth and Sarah. Everyone who has been to a Rock Camp Show Case knows how awesome they are. This One was particularly special for me though, maybe it was the pre showcase epic dance party we had…. Also there were a lot more rappers than usual… I dig that.

7. Morgan and the Organ Donors (Olympia, WA) Just when I thought Morgan and the Organ Donors couldn’t get any better Olivia (from one of my favorite bands of all time C.O.C.O) joined the band… WTF!?

8. The Legend of Drake (Portland, Or)

So I’m pretty sure that one of the best things to happen to music this year was Drake’s album nothing was the same. It’s the best things that happened to R&B since Frank Ocean’s Orange Channel album last year, that’s for sure. Drake came to play Portland while on tour supporting his new album last month. I was so bummed because 1. I didn’t hear about it until the day of 2. I was DEATHLY sick, so naturally 3. I didn’t get to go. But I have to say that the ripple effect and ephemera of his time in Portland was magic. So first of all, Drake went to Black book after the show, which is the former Yes and No; a bar in downtown Portland that only a very small group of people cared existed until it closed and later re opened as Black book. The Instagram was all a buzz. The next days there were local news outfits telling stories of Drake visiting a homeless shelter in downtown and to give a large chuck of money to them for blankets and other necessities. Even though I didn’t get to see his show, the spectacle of his presence in my city was omnipresent.

9. The Germs (Los Angeles, CA)

The Germs were one of my favorite bands and I was pretty convinced it was impossible to see them live. The version I did see; consisting of original members Don Bolles and Pat Smear, was supplemented by Charlotte from the GoGos and Shane West, the guy who played Darby in What we do is Secret. I don’t think it was particularly the best show I’ve ever seen, I mean everyone playing nailed it and it sounded pretty good; but the fact that I was watching some dude, a Hollywood actor, do Darby Crash drag, was a weird experience. But good weird, It was like a flesh version of the 2 Pac hologram.

10. 48 hour performance art marathon at Month of Performance art Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

So last, but not least I got to give a shout out to the 48hour performance art marathon, which is the pinnacle of the Month of Performance art Berlin. It is my belief that Germany rolls DEEEEEEP in an art way. For anyone that has ever been to (d)OCUMENTA, Gallery Weekend, 48 hours Neukoilln, or any other German art party is my witness… Shit is cray cray. I mean, the UDK (Universitat der Kunst) open studios is like every dance party you’ve ever been to times 100 in the middle of mediocre student art (made even more mediocre by the European art school industrial complex.) Month of Performance Art was no different. The 48 hour Marathon took place in one building, every thirty minutes for two days someone would be doing a performance. The performances were varied but the real spectacle was watching VERY serious German artists essentially squatting in the gallery for two days, like sitting on the sidewalk slurping soup and brushing their teeth outside style.

best of 2013 by chris o'kane

2013 was a busy year for me with many highs and one prolonged and tedious low. I spent a third of it in England, a third of it in Berlin, and a month or so in Olympia; which was excellent. I spent much of the rest of it applying for jobs in Seattle; which has obviously been shit. What follows is an unranked list of my favourite bits in 2013.

TV

I’m sort of embarrassed to admit that the time I spent watching TV in 2013 outranks all my other cultural pursuits. Since that is the case I thought I would put it first.

Justified. The best written, best paced, and most constantly entertaining show on TV.

Enlightened. A warm-hearted satire of the self-help industrial complex and the vacuous sort of progressive politics it promulgates.

Top of the Lake. A film noir about the patriarchy!

Rectify.A meditative small-scale drama about how a man, his family and a small southern town react when he is released from prison after spending two decades or so of his adult life on death row.

Eastbound and Down.Another satire that manages to be equally stupid, incisive and hilarious. In my opinion, it’s also far better at representing the decline of American hegemony and the obscene norms of American masculinity than Mad Men or Breaking Bad etc.

In the Thick of it. I finally got around to watching this, and it lives up to the hype.

Veep. Not as good as In the Thick, and not as much swearing, but its still good.

Archer. It makes me laugh. I also like that the USSR still exists in it.

Breaking Bad. The hype was tedious and the last episode was a let down, but it was still gripping.

Music

New

Big Business – Battlefields Forever.

Paysage D’hiver – Das Tor

Chelsea Light Moving – S/T.

Vexx - S/T.

Hornet Leg - Wrecking Ball.

Body/Head – Coming Apart.

Stillsuit – S/T.

Unwound – The Kid is Gone.

The Fat White Family – Champagne Holocaust.

The Rebel – S/T.

Old

Arthur Alexander – You Better Move On, Detroit City, Call Me Lonesome

The Fall -- up to and including I am Kurios Oranj

The Go-Betweens – Live in Vienna

Black Flag – The 1982 Demos

Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction

The Saints – Eternally Yours

The Country Teasers – Satan is Real, Destroy all Human Life

Thin Lizzy – The Peel Sessions

ZZ Top’s first three albums.

After ending up on the same plane as Mudhoney, and having Mark Arm flip shit at me, I decided to listen to them on a lark and got into Superfuzz Bigmuff, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and My Brother the Cow.

Reading

Endnotes 3

Viewpoint 3

Werner Bonefeld – Critical Theory and the Critique of Political Economy.

Roberto Bolano – Woes of the True Policeman.

Rachel Kushner – The Flamethrowers.

Ellen M. Wood – The Ellen Meiksins Wood Reader.

Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos et al. – A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis.

Ingo Stutzle et al. – Polylux Marx – A Capital workbook in Slides.

Ingo Elbe – Between Marx, Marxism and Marxisms—ways of reading Marx’s Theory.

Karl Marx – The 1861-1863 Manuscripts.

Louis Althusser – Essays in Self-criticism, The Humanist Controversy, Philosophy of the Encounter, The Future Lasts Forever.

Georgakas and Surkin – Detroit do I Mind Dying?

Films

Mike Kelley - Going West on Michigan Avenue from Downtown Detroit to Westland.

Mike Kelley - Going East on Michigan Avenue from Downtown Detroit to Westland.

Stewart Bird et al. -- Finally Got the News.

Chantal Ackerman – From the East.

John Carpenter – They Live.

Noah Baumbach – Frances Ha.

Hal Ashby – The Last Detail.

Bob Rafelson – The King of Marvin Gardens

Werner Herzog – Happy People: a year in the Taiga.

David C. Thomas -- Mc5: A True Testimonial.

Shows

David Hasslehoff at the Berlin Wall.

The Melvins playing Lysol, Egnogg and Stoner Witch.

M’lady’s Birthday Party with The Hysterics, Vexx, Ruby Pins and Nukular Aminals.

Melvins Lite/Big Business.

StillSuit/Death Drive etc.

The Witch/Hornet Leg/Western Hymn.

Joey Shithead/Movieland

Mudhoney at the Seattle Center.

Wet Drag

All the other times I saw Vexx, Big Business and The Hysterics.

New Year’s resolution: Communism.

Failing that; get a job, spend more time writing and less time applying to jobs, and watch more films and less TV.