2011 - The Year of the Grind

So, when I first thought about this list (and it's actually been quite a while since I've, you know, codified things like this), I couldn't think of much for my list that wasn't released by Grindcore Karaoke (and 3 of my top albums came from that label - and there were very nearly several more). But, when I dug more deeply, researched more thoroughly, I realised: well, sir: 2011 was a grand year for new music.

And what a year for grind, huh?! The aforementioned label, shit-tons (yup) of solid releases, news of a (I don't know quite the word for it, but let's go with: Memorial): Nasum Memorial Tour and probably a bunch of other cool shit.

Without further ado! My list of 13 releases 'cause why not? I actually ordered them this year, too!
(a caveat first: as all who know me know, I am, typically, notoriously bad at saying anything when I say things about music, but here goes)

1. Cloud Rat - s/t

Blistering, angry, vivid, intelligent, really well-executed grinding . Very effective and much more affective than pretty much all grind-related shit I've ever heard. It's like if you took some roiling mass of chaos and wrapped it tightly in palletwrap; the chaos seethes and surges and spits and snarls but it can't break free (palletwrap is a brilliant control mechanism, ya see).
Favourite tune: "Dwell"

2. Human Touch - s/t

As soon as I heard the yelling intro to demo opener "Youth Prison," I knew I'd found a winner. And gang shout choruses! From there things maintain the intensity in this wickedly tuneful, angry, engaged, engaging hardcore. And just wait for the if-you-don't-feel-like-shouting-along-with-it-check-your-PULSE! awesome title track. Full o' anthemic, fist-pumping catharsis.
Favourite tune: "Human Touch"

3. Autopsy - Macabre Eternal

Generally, my response to death metal is "meh," but I have this gaping, festering hole of a soft-spot for Autopsy and their grimy, filthy, slimy vomitus. It's the atmosphere and the feel and the Chris Reifert!
Favourite tune: "Always about to Die"

4. Lock Up - Necropolis Transparent

It's a total ripper. Just like you'd expect from Lock Up.
Favourite tune: "Unseen Enemy"

5. Rotten Sound - Cursed

Another throat-ripping grinder. Seriously good year for this shit. And such a thick sound.
Favourite tune: "Ritual"

6. Fen - Epoch

One of those post-black metal bands... It's so spacious, expansive, expressive.
Favourite tune: "A Waning Solace"

7. Punch - Nothing Lasts

Wicked hardcore again. Angry, engaging. And full of outstanding breakdowns. Holy moly!
Favourite tune: "Time Apart"

8. Brutal Truth - End Time

Brutal Truth! Rich Hoak! (anything involving Rich Hoak is kind of awesome - Total Fucking Destruction almost made this list, too). And any time I mention Rich Hoak is a wonderful excuse for this!:

Photo by Christian Misje
Favourite tune: "Killing Planet Earth"

9. Drugs of Faith - Corroded

Richard Johnson has a wicked shout. And shouts yells screams yowls rages in wicked grind bands.
Favourite tune: "Hidden Costs"

10. Circle of Ouroborus - Eleven Fingers

Another spacious post-black metal sort of thing. Really effective at an oxymoronic claustrophobic expansiveness.
Favourite tune: "Sigil of Suns"

11. Tasseomancy - Ulalume

The band formerly known as Ghost Bees are back with neo-folk which is sparse sparse sparse. Echoing, lonely, melancholic, eerie, spidery, enchanting.
Favourite tune: "Diana"

12. Death Grips - Exmilitary

Dark, esoteric, experimental hip hop (who would ever have expected those words on one of my year-end lists, huh?!). Challenging, full of great beats and huge vocals.
Favourite tune: "Beware"


Tom Waits - Bad as Me

This doesn't really count in my ordered list. Any album Tom Waits releases gets picked up in my year end list. It doesn't even matter. Some really good hiccuping rock 'n' roll on this one.
Favourite tune: "Get Lost"


Oh, and another one that would've made this list if I'd been certain of its release date: Soundtrack to the Life of a Car Nearly Driving Into the Pacific by Richard Laviolette. I'm not sure if this was a 2011 release or late-2010, so it's not on here. Just in case. But, as always, damn great stuff from Mr. Laviolette. "Bats" is my favourite from this one.


The full list of contenders (that made it past the final cuts, that is - there was actually a metric shit-tonne more releases that I heard this year. Almost all of which were released by the aforementioned GK):

Akitsa - Auprès de la mort, triomphant!
Altar of Plagues - Mammal
Autopsy - Macabre Eternal
Bestower - s/t
Bird - 2011 Demo
Brutal Truth - End Time
Circle of Ouroborus - Eleven Fingers
Cloud Rat - Fever Dreams
Cloud Rat - s/t
Craft - Void
Death Grips - Exmilitary
Despise You/Agoraphobic Nosebleed - And On and On...
Drugs of Faith - Corroded
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I
Fags Hate God - Viscera
Fen - Epoch
Hoglust - Support Hate
Human Touch - s/t
Inerds - Choice Cuts
Inerds - Stonewall
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Les Cowboys Fringants - Que du vent
Lock Up - Necropolis Transparent
Mournful Congregation - The Book of Kings
Of the Wand and the Moon - The Lone Descent
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Punch - Nothing Lasts
Rotten Sound - Cursed
Soror Dolorosa - Blind Scenes
Tasseomancy - Ulalume
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Total Fucking Destruction - Hater
Toxic Holocaust - Conjure and Command
Vintersorg - Jordpuls
Weekend Nachos - Worthless
Ygg - Ygg

And, as a final thought: this show - an amazing back-and-forth between Cloud Rat and Inerds:

MMXI

What better time to do this than while hungover on New Year's Day?

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

huh. I can't think of anything really exceptional. Nothing standoutish. It was mostly a year of plodding along, scraping through, getting by, wrapping my head around the world.

OH!: drink Old Fashioneds. MAN! SO DELICIOUS!

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year I said: "Use more footnotes! Write more, create more. Be better, be less disappointing."

I used no footnotes.

I did write more, for a while. (Jürgen struggled , until the end of September, so so close to 60 000 words.)

I was no better.

I was no less disappointing.

For this year:

Again, write more.

Do more.

Be more.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

5. What countries did you visit?

Went to PEI for about a week in August. That was a wonderfully enjoyable temporary escape.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

A job that I enjoy on at least some level. You see, I do understand that I am fortunate to have a job that lets me afford food and shelter and have a little left over at the end of the day, but it would be nice to find something I enjoy, that is fulfilling, that means something more than a paycheque. But a paycheque is certainly appreciated.

At least one completed work of something I can genuinely say is Good - you know: writing, music - that sort of thing. Or, failing that (which is an inevitability), more and stronger work on Jürgen.

Being an all-around better fella'd be all right, too.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

June 17 - Jeanette Winterson's reading at the library. She's been my favourite writer since either the first time I read The Passion (there are no books I've read and re-read more) or the first time I re-opened Sexing the Cherry. She signed my copy of The Passion and it was, all-in-all, quite an exciting evening.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I wasn't, you know, replete with achievement, but I am quite happy with how some of what I added to Jürgen turned out.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not doing enough of what I feel makes me me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Maybe Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? It's pretty great. I can't really think of any other stand out purchases of the year.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

G.'s. Always and ever G.'s.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?


14. Where did most of your money go?

Rent, vet bills, food, booze.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

From most to least:
G.
Sam and Hailey.
Jeanette Winterson.
Darkthrone. (they had this big resurgence with me. I can't really explain it, but they just started hitting me again. And I LOVE IT!)

16. What songs will always remind you of 2011?

I can't really think of any specific songs. Maybe "Beware" by Death Grips.
Other than that, I think 2011 would mostly be remembered in bands: Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills and Cloud Rat

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Neither, really. 2011 was pretty level, I think. A bit more resigned, but keepin' on!
b) thinner or fatter? About the same, I'm pretty sure. A bit heavier, though, I believe.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer for a while—took some time to recover from more expensive rent coupled with heavy vet bills and a trip to PEI. But climbing back up!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Cool things.
Engaging.
Writing - I spend so much time sitting at my computer not writing. Why don't I turn some of that time into sitting at my computer writing?

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Complaining.
Being disappointing.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

Spent it at the apartment and had a nice surprise visit from the folks.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?

Every single day in endless turnings and spirallings

22. How many one-night stands?



23. What was your favourite TV program?

Breaking Bad and Mad Men and Downton Abbey and I don't think we watched much else?

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Don't think so.

25. What was the best book you read?

My favourite question! I keep a list of everything I read. In WORDPERFECT (BECAUSE I CAN)!

In the order in which I read them (the top 20 of the 77 I made it through):

Sheila Heti - How Should a Person Be?
Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
James Joyce - Ulysses
Günter Grass - The Box
Susan Orlean - The Orchid Thief
Nicholas Evans - The Loop
Anne Carson - Nox
Cathy Malkasian - Temperance
Leanne Shapton - Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry: Saturday, 14 February 2009, New York (Strachan & Quinn Auctioneers)
Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind
Werner Herzog - Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo
Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
Timothy Findley - Not Wanted on the Voyage
Adam Levin - The Instructions
Christopher Boucher - How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
John Sayles - A Moment in the Sun
Dani Couture - Algoma
Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Esi Edugyan - Half-Blood Blues

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Grindcore Karaoke

Holy shit. Thank you so much, Jay Randall.

Several of my top albums of 2011 came from this wicked label. That's a post for a later time, though—I'm still making cuts and rearranging.

27. What did you want and get?

There wasn't much that I was yearning for this year.

28. What did you want and not get?

An enjoyable job. Publication.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?

Well, I watched Fitzcarraldo again, so that one. Always that one.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Went out for brunch at Brunchworks and supper at Terroni. I turned 29.

Drank some boxwine at home afterward.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Yet again: healthy Sam.

More time to spend with G.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Lounge set.

33. What kept you sane?

G. and Sam and Hailey.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?



35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Toronto's municipal muddles.

36. Who did you miss?

Family. J&E

37. Who was the best new person you met?



38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011?