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My 2016 in Music

I listened to more new music this year than I have in any previous year, thanks to a strict resolution (”listen to new music every day”) from around this time last year. As a listener, I typically fall into the habit of obsessively listening to one old album for weeks on end, missing a lot of new records in the process, so having such an expansive and current “to listen” list was very new for me. It forced me to be intentional and systematic - I created a spreadsheet logging all new records I hoped to hear, organized by release date, updating with notes when I managed to listen to them. Though I didn’t get to all 340 (!) records I hoped to take on this year, the experience of attempting to do so was nonetheless eye-opening; in 2017 I’ll be able to apply some focus to the habits and systems I developed in 2016 and listen to even more new music I really want to hear (while also carving out some more time to dig into good old stuff).

Here are my 40 favorite records from 2016: 

Hostium – The Bloodwine of Satan

Zeal and Ardor – Devil is Fine

Fatou Seidi Ghali & Alamnou Akrouni – Les Filles de Illeghedad

Dylan Carlson – Falling With 1000 Stars and Other Wonders From the House of Albion

Lacing – Honey Glow

Underworld – Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future

Michael Tanner – Suite for Psaltery and Dulcimer

G.L.O.S.S. – Trans Day of Revenge

Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows

Beyonce – Lemonade

Massive Attack – Ritual Spirit

Imperceptum – Collapse of Existence

Matmos – Ultimate Care II

UXO – Self-Titled

Lycus – Chasms

Ehnahre – Douve

Latitudes – Old Sunlight

Rihanna – Anti

Aluk Tudolo – VOIX

KING – We Are King

Dolly Parton – Pure and Simple

Orb – Birth

Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion Side B

Whores – Gold

Solange – A Seat at the Table

Eight Bells – Landless

Imperial Triumphant – Inceste

Ripper – Experiment of Existence

Skáphe – Skáphe2

Tweet – Charlene

Oransi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä

Dead Procession - Rituas e Mantras do Medo

Skuggsjá – Skuggsjá: A Piece for Mind and Mirror

Matthewdavid’s Mindflight – Trust the Guide and Glide

Michael Tanner – Four Stones for Montague Druitt

13th Chime – Noir

Sumac – What One Becomes

Ahpdegma – Seolfkwyllen

Ustalost – The Spoor of Vipers

A Tribe Called Quest – We Got it From Here, Thank You For Your Service

I’d also like to shout out these local (Richmond, VA) releases. All support to those holding it down in the RVA metal and experimental worlds:

Obscurae – Ensomhet

Gus Caldwell – Sigh Louder Scream Goodbye

Tavishi – Boundaries

Left Cross – Servants of Death

Left Cross – Hell is Hell

Anti-Christ Siege Machine - Demo

Voarm – Demo

Komodo – Demo

Odd Comp for Nationz – Still wanted to shout this compilation out (even though I’m on it lol) because 1. The other artists on it are all amazing and 2. Money from this comp goes to Nationz Foundation who are creating a safe house for LGBTQ+ people in Richmond, and I want to shout support for that venture from every rooftop.

My own shit:

I started making music by myself this year under the name Voile, and also began playing and scheming with the femme avant improv group/gang Womajich Dialysiez. You can hear both of us on the comp linked above in the local section. A lot more to come from both of these projects in the coming year, so stay tuned :)

After running a DIY venue for 6 years (and booking 50+ shows and hundreds of bands a year), I was more than down to take a break from that after moving to Richmond. Nonetheless, I did book one show just because I couldn’t resist: Bad Friends with Truman, Womajich Dialysiez and Human Apartments at 25 Watt. I will probably get back into booking a zillion shows at some point, but I gotta say, I feel beyond fortunate to live in a town where kickass shows happen every night of the week (often twice or three times in a night) and I don’t have to make them happen.

I also became Loud Music Director for WRIR (plz give me your metal, noise and punk CDs so I can put them on the radio), taught workshops about experimental music at (and coordinated) Knoxville Girls Rock Camp, started organizing with Girls Rock! RVA, and became a board member of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance.

Some singles I liked in 2016:

Abra - Sick Girl

Inti Wawa – Cantamos Fuerte

Charli XCX – Explode (single of the year/career imo)

Rihanna and Calvin Harris – This Is What You Came For

Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris – Hype

Hoops – Gemini

67 ft. Giggs – Let’s Lurk

Best shows/sets I saw in 2016:

Cough @ Hardywood

Prisoner @ Wax Moon

Carcass and Ghoul @ the Broadberry

1349 @ Strange Matter

Absu and Voarm @ Strange Matter

Dragged Into Sunlight @ Strange Matter

Wolves in the Throne Room @ Strange Matter

Bad Friends @ 25 Watt

Tavishi (every time)

Halloween @ Lovejail

Curse and Tombs in Baltimore during Deathfest 

Mayhem doing De Mysteriis @ Maryland Deathfest

Hex Girls @ the Girls Rock! RVA showcase 2016 (actually all the bands)

Beyond stoked and sharpening every available weapon in anticipation of the coming year.

(^See, I have bigger ears to listen to more shit in 2017 with)

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RRFP is a 100% volunteer-staffed organization that engages in grassroots advocacy and provides financial/practical support to people needing abortion services. This organization is an invaluable resource for people who might otherwise be unable to overcome financial and structural barriers to reproductive care, and I think they are amazing. Their annual fundraising Bowl-A-Thon is in full swing, and $ raised from this event enables RRFP to continue to do their incredible work.

My personal fundraising goal for the Bowl-A-Thon is $500 (increased from $200, a goal that was summarily smashed by y’all!), but I really hope to exceed it. If you would like to donate, click on the link at the top of this post, which will connect you to the fundraising page, donate, and respond to the confirmation email with my name. To sweeten the deal, I’m offering some rewards to donors. So, depending on how much you donate to my personal fundraising campaign, I’ll mail you a sweet handmade reward!

Donation rewards:

If you donate $25, I will send you a carefully curated mixtape (yes, an actual cassette) with handmade cover. Specify your choice of content: french black metal, 90s house, or golden age of Persian pop.  

If you donate $50, I will send you a silk-screened “I’d Rather Be Listening to En Vogue” t-shirt in the color of your choice. This shirt is available in a broad variety of sizes and colors and features the En Vogue logo alongside the Brutal Truth font. Click here for more info about/pictures of this shirt!

If you donate $100, I will mail you a hand-knit hood in the color of your choice! This cozy schmatte will make you feel like a (very fabulous) medieval serf. I use all-natural fibers and hand knit everything while mentally imbuing the fabric with my well-wishes for you, the recipient and eventual wearer. It’s charmed, y’all. [Note: if you would rather the hood be imbued with dark, destructive wishes, please specify this in your email.] Here is a pic of the first one I ever made:

If you donate $150 or more, I’ll send you all of these things! 

I will receive email confirmation of your donation as soon as you make it. However, to claim your prize, you must send an email to emilysue@gmail.com with your specifications (color, size, anything extra I might need to know) and physical address. I appreciate your willingness to help smash barriers to reproductive freedom SO MUCH!

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I'm suggesting a nation-wide moratorium on this shitty hardcore band from New Jersey - Blind Justice - who took advantage of a woman who helped them out; who stole private, nude photos of her from her phone and used them to harass and taunt her. (Hardcore has a particular reputation for not being inclusive - wonder how that got started?) Let's not book this band, give them a place to stay, add them to the rosters of our festivals, record them, distro them, advertise them, review them, interview them, go to their shows, buy their records, or support them in any other way. There is no room, especially in hardcore and other DIY scenes, for people who don't treat women like people. People who do things like this do other terrible things, and allowing this to go unchecked perpetuates an environment that is menacing to women.

This situation, especially the participants therein who continue to "give the benefit of the doubt" to Blind Justice (to say nothing of those casting irrelevant aspersions on the character of the accuser), brings to mind a thousand similar instances, some close to home, some not (gotta say, also on my mind is that fact that these two scenarios are being endowed with equal feasibility by white "film buff" dudes everywhere: 1. Woody Allen molested his daughter, and 2. His ex brainwashed her own child to believe she was raped by her father because she's a crazy, evil, and jealous woman, and the child is laboring under that delusion even today, poor thing). The narrative is always the same: A woman accuses a man of harassment or rape, people shun him in the immediate, dramatic wake of the accusation (or not at all)...then, as if nothing happened, everything goes back to normal. The accused man resumes his friendships and his life, and the woman - because we can't or won't believe that an actual rapist would walk among us as a friend, unchecked - is recast as crazy, or a liar. 

How should we react when someone within our scene - maybe even a friend, or a "brother" of ours - exhibits harmful, destructive, or just plain unfair behavior to another person? It's easy to say what we should do; that we'll shun someone who rapes or sexually harasses a woman, etc. - but in my experience, especially in tightly-knit scenes surrounding art- and music-makers, this is very rarely what happens. Sometimes friends of the accused start parroting comments they've rightfully derided in others for being fucked up - "Oh, that didn't happen - she's totally crazy," or "She's accused other people of that before." Even people who seemingly understand the social inequities that victims face (and the messed up nature of comments like those above) get caught up in their love for the person who's been accused of violence, making regrettable statements in support of them.

I think, more often than not, that this response results from a belief that rape is perpetuated by monsters whose lives are removed from ours - that rapists aren't people that we see and interact with, let alone people we befriend, and that we care about. People who are nice to us. Women that we know are being raped. Women that we know are being harassed. We need to face the fact that people who do terrible things to women are people that we know.

Secondly, we must always accept the testimony of survivors. Period. This is very basic and uncomplicated! When we cast doubt on survivors, we become part of a centuries-established cultural, social, and institutional behemoth that protects rapists and child molesters, and silences their victims.

Hold space for women in punk, metal, and hardcore. Hold space for victims everywhere. Duh.

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(My) 2013 in Music

It's been a busy year at our house. I listened to music constantly, but failed to make a conscious effort to listen to new stuff, always falling back on old/not-so-old faves (Les Thugs' Strike was never out of rotation, and I listened to Sofy Major's "DouxJesus666" far more than any other track - but it came out in 2010). I did, however, manage to love 12 albums released in 2013. Here they are, interspersed with other musical events from my year, in roughly chronological order:

Blockheads - This World is Dead.

Pissed Jeans - Honeys.

Beyoncé at the Superbowl.

Karl Hyde - Edgeland.

Spending 4/20 hanging out, playing music and talking about cats with Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Sunno))), Earth...).

Joseph Allred - Graceless and Mandorla Valley. 

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman.

Sofy Major - Idolize.

Starting my own booking/PR business.

Maryland Deathfest XIII: Watching Antaeus instead of Down. Carcass, Repulsion, Revenge, Vinterland. Meeting Bill Steer and Jeff Walker. Venom getting the plug pulled on them, and the ensuing semi-riot. 

Inter Arma - Sky Burial.

Carcass - Surgical Steel.

Baby Boy - 2013.

Recording and releasing this demo for Rudemas.

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories. 

Other Factors - Other Factors. Mission of Burma-esque post-punk with killer harmonies; sounds natural, unlike my description of it. 

Seeing the Breeders with my sisters.

Booking a 19-piece marching band at the World's Fair Park Amphitheater (and getting busted for walking in the water).

Antichrist (Sweden), Natur, Vomit Breath, & Rudemas at the Pilot Light.

(^Antichrist.)

Playing as the GoGos with some of my best girl friends to benefit the Pilot Light at their annual Halloween show (and playing electric guitar for the first time in public).

Releasing the Buddy System's Here It Is on cassette as a collaboration with Histories Research Institute.

Beyoncé - Beyoncé.

Local punk royals the Choreboys playing a benefit reunion show for my guinea pig.

Seeing John Pizzarelli play holiday tunes at the Tennessee Theater with my sweetheart.

Hosting 51 shows and 120 bands, from as far away as Denmark and Israel, at the Poison Lawn. I will remember our second annual Solofest (25 solo acts in 1 day), the return of Inter Arma, and the celebration of our 6th anniversary with Thou and Hell (the most well-attended show we've ever had) with particular fondness. The great bands and invaluable friendships are too numerous to mention. Thank you to everyone who played and attended.

And, all year long, making music with Argentinum Astrum and Blaine Band.