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Choice Cuts, 2017 Edition

These are my favorite records from the past year.

Ryan Adams “Prisoner” (Blue Note/Pax Am)

Strand of Oaks “Hard Love” (Dead Oceans)

The War on Drugs “A Deeper Understanding” (Atlantic)

Portugal the Man “Woodstock” (Atlantic)

Converge “The Dusk In Us” (Epitaph)

The National “Sleep Well Beast” (4AD)

Wear Your Wounds “Wear Your Wounds” (Deathwish)

Cloakroom “Time Well” (Relapse)

Julien Baker “Turn Out the Lights” (Matador)

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit “The Nashville Sound” (Southeastern)

Counterparts “You’re Not You Anymore” (Pure Noise)

Pallbearer “Heartless” (Profound Lore)

Chelsea Wolfe “Hiss Spun” (Sargent House)

Trapped Under Ice “Heatwave” (Pop Wig)

Honorable Mentions

Metz “Strange Peace” (Sub Pop)

Dead Heavens “Whatever Witch You Are” (Dine Alone)

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Lasting Impressions, Part Two

Part two of Johnny Hamlin’s challenge to list ten albums which made a lasting impression on me during my teenage years. Ten is tough challenge to meet, even with very little initial thought or worrying about “revisionist” history. Please, I was not even remotely cool as a teenager and I knew it. I am not trying to re-write history here -- just remembering the music that had the greatest impact on my life then...and how that has continued to this day. Here are those records from 1996-1998, my junior through senior years in high school.

SIXTEEN: ‘96-’97

Refused “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent” (released June 7, 1996) and Tiamat “Wildhoney” (released September 1, 1994). I have Aaron Heusel to thank for introducing me to both of these bands after the first week of our Radio/TV Production class at J. Everett Light Career Center. Refused were angry, fast, and loud - exactly what a 16-year old dude needed to hear at the time. A few weeks later, I was introduced to Gorilla Biscuits (yeah, didn’t know Walter from Quicksand was in that band until much later), Snapcase, Earth Crisis, and several more. ‘Rather be Dead’ and ‘Coup d’Etat’ were absolute bangers to begin this album. Tiamat were nothing particularly special, but they opened my ears to the Century Media Records and later, the Relapse Records catalogs. I can still get down with the song ‘Whatever That Hurts’ -- the piano outro leading right into the next track is killer. Receiving the Relapse and Century Media “catalogs” in the mail in late 1996 led to musical introductions of Neurosis, Brutal Truth, Napalm Death, Samael, Entombed, and scores of other bands I’d never have heard without this introduction. I don’t know what happened to Aaron, but thank you, man.

SEVENTEEN: ‘97-’98

Kiss it Goodbye “She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not” (released 1997) and Will Haven “el Diablo” (released 1997). Without meeting the members of Burn it Down in 1997 (Ryan J. Downey, John Zeps, Bob Fouts, Johnny Johnson), I might never have continued to expand my musical horizons. I had the honor of hosting Burn it Down on a cold Monday night in January 1998 on the radio show I produced hosted on on 89.3 WJEL. The guys from BID brought musical selections -- including these two bands -- and talked about their introduction to hardcore music, their band, and so much more. It was an education of sorts and I am thankful to have met these guys when I did. I was already a frequent shopper at Tracks (and later Vibes) when Zeps was basically running the place, but this also allowed me to meet excellent dudes Bob Peele, Aaron Klepfer, and Rik Henry -- further broadening my listening tastes. Unfortunately I never got to see KIG live before they broke up; I manage to see Will Haven open for Neurosis in July of 1999. Final note: Kiss it Goodbye and Will Haven obliterated most of the nu-metal I was listening to at the time. Unfortunately, some of it held on through first semester of college. Gross.

Converge “When Forever Comes Crashing” (released April 14, 1998). And here it is -  the final record from my teenage years to leave a lasting impression. I don’t remember if it was John Zeps or Bob Peele who handed me this CD during the summer of ‘98 but at this point it doesn’t matter. THIS was the record that made a lot of the embarrassing music I liked in high school disappear for good. The music was HEAVY, fast, and brutal, I could barely understand the screamed vocals, and I was both perplexed by and drawn to the layout of the CD booklet. Converge led to my discovery of Botch, Cave In, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Jesuit, Harvest, Grade, and so many more. Nearly twenty years later, Converge is still a part of my regular listening rotation -- and they continue to grow and push the boundaries of extreme music. 

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Lasting Impressions, Part One

My old friend Johnny Hamlin recently posed the challenge to list ten albums that made a lasting impression on you as a teenager. The challenge? Try not to think too hard about the task at hand and list only one album per band/artist. Without further ado, here is part one of my list, covering ten albums I heard between 1993-1996 (eighth through tenth grades).

THIRTEEN: ‘93-’94

Pearl Jam “VS.” (released October 19, 1993). Though I was already familiar with PJ, having received their debut Ten on cassette in 1991, Vs. set afire an unbridled passion for this band that continues to this day. This set the record for the most copies of an album in its first week and was a huge step forward -- both musically and lyrically. I had a promo poster for this release with a negative space photo of Eddie Vedder performing live with the band -- it graced my wall in high school and college until it would hang no more; the borders long since eroded from years of hanging and re-hanging from paint to concrete block to bulletin board.

Dr. Dre “The Chronic” (released December 15, 1992). I only had this record because of my older brothers, one of whom was an avid listener of “gangster rap.” Oh the genres we assigned... This was a smack in the face -- the stories, language, and rhymes were unlike anything I had ever heard. My brothers liked it, so it had to be good! The ferocity of the language throughout this record is more than a little influential (for better or worse) on the more colorful “adult” language in my repertoire to this day. That is a direct result of listening to this album on headphones over and over. Besides, I cannot imagine my mom’s reaction had I listened to this over the speakers!

Helmet “Meantime” (released June 23, 1992). I didn’t hear this record until 8th grade and looking back, it was quite a kick in the teeth. I guess you could classify these New York stalwarts as “alternative metal” but that does not seem to do this masterpiece any justice. It is noisy, chunky, “heavy” music with a backbone that sounded nothing like the hair metal that dominated the radio airwaves in the early 90′s. The riffage on ‘In the Meantime’ is crucial. Page Hamilton (the only original member still involved with current-day Helmet) sounded so angry! There was some serious Black Sabbath worship when Page yelled “ironhead!” near the end of that second song. Though I didn’t know it at the time, this could have been my gateway to hardcore music, though Sick of it All and -- much later -- Refused opened my ears to many more awesome bands...

Sepultura “Chaos A.D.” (released October 19, 1993). I purchased this record solely on the strength of its cover. “What the hell is going on in that drawing?” I thought, as I strolled the small aisles of the only record store I knew at the time -- Karma. “I bet this is something I should not be listening to...” ...so I bought it. Karma Records was about a 20 minute bike ride down Union Street to Westfield Boulevard, then through Cool Creek Park to the Village Park Shopping Center. I made the ride at least once every two weeks to buy new music, which explains where all of the money went that I made from delivering newspapers. These guys were from Brazil! They had long hair, but didn’t play butt metal! The photos and the artwork inside were insidious and controversial (for an 8th grader). Look, the heaviest record I’d heard to this point was probably Metallica’s Ride the Lightning or And Justice For All, so to hear this Brazilian thrash metal was a whole new experience. These guys became a staple on a radio show I ran for two years later on in high school.

Soundgarden “Superunknown” (released March 8, 1994). I am confident my early love for all things Seattle and grunge had everything to do with Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and this band. Badmotorfinger (1992) was not exactly accessible to a middle-schooler, but this album, released about five months before I started high school, was all the rage thanks to the strength of lead single “Black Hole Sun,” whose video graced MTV’s 120 Minutes (thank you Lewis Largent, and later, Matt Pinfield) and Alternative Nation, later exploded into the daytime rotation. The tracks that resonate with me are still ‘My Wave’ and ‘Head Down.’ This is mid-90′s grunge at its finest.

FOURTEEN: ‘94-’95

Slayer “Divine Intervention” (released September 27, 1994). I admit I am not as crucial as many of my metal-head friends who cut their teeth on Reign in Blood, South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss, but Divine Intervention was my introduction to thrash metal kings SLAYER. Look at that cover! The giant PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT sticker probably stood out more so than did the weird skull and skeleton artwork. Rock Video Monthly featured the music video for the song ‘Dittohead’ and I bought the record shortly after burning up the rewind button on my VCR to watch the video over and over. This is not the best Slayer release, but it made the biggest impression at the time on a kid starting high school. I have yet to see Slayer perform live, still believing that even in my mid-30s I would die at one of their shows, this after hearing countless stories -- no doubt highly exaggerated -- about the brutality of the live crowds. If the crowds were anything like the video mentioned above, I should probably expect a lot of circle pits, chairs and hammers being thrown through panes of glass, and fists flying everywhere! Rest in Power, Jeff Hanneman.

Nine Inch Nails “The Downward Spiral” (released March 8, 1994). “Head Like a Hole” from the first NIN full length release had been burning up alternative radio airwaves for nearly five years, and even though I already had that record, The Downward Spiral stuck in my mind as more influential. This was definitely another “headphones only” release, especially after hearing Trent Reznor scream “God is dead...and no one cares!” on the song ‘Heresy.’ Yeah, this was not one to play around the parents. The video of their live performance of ‘Closer’ at Woodstock ‘94 is, to me, still the stuff of nightmares  -- Reznor coated in mud, synthesizers being played to the point of destruction -- but for me the songs that packed the most punch were ‘March of the Pigs’ and ‘The Becoming.’ The whole album shifts and morphs from aggressive to haunting to beautiful, yet is buried under the foreboding weight of Reznor’s subconscious; it still holds up over twenty years later.

Sick Of It All “Scratch The Surface” (released 1994). For a city kid transplanted to the suburbs north of Indianapolis, getting access to underground music in the pre-”Internet in every home” era was a near impossible task. You had to hope for an older friend with a car or someone who knew of a cool record store or a show in a basement or garage where one could be exposed to new sounds, people, and experiences. It could have been worse -- I could have been born or raised in nowhere Kansas or upper North Dakota! Enter Rock Video Monthly. I have them to thank for a welcome introduction to many of the bands who eventually led to my introduction to punk and hardcore music. Sick of it All were -- at the time -- brutal, uncompromising, New York City hardcore. This release, while admittedly not their best, struck a chord with me. I finally got to see them in late 1999 when they headlined a show at the Emerson Theater in Indianapolis. Their set was incredible, it was my first time in a TRUE circle pit, and to date it remains one of my fondest live show memories.

FIFTEEN: ‘95-’96

Quicksand “Manic Compression” (released February 28, 1995). I did not pick this up until over a year after its release, well after the first single ‘Thorn in My Side’ received heavy airplay. I have no idea what the radio station plays now, but WRZX 103.3FM (X103) was THE alternative station for Indianapolis and surrounding areas. At least until they started playing Creed. Quicksand, a group of ex-hardcore stalwarts (Gorilla Biscuits, Bold, Beyond, Youth of Today) branched out from their previous bands with short, clipped songs held together by chunky bass and nearly torn apart by the abrupt, sharp guitar work. ‘Backward’ and ‘Delusional’ are personal favorites here. Quicksand were way ahead of their time on this dark, almost depressing, release and it is a shame they were not properly recognized during their heyday.

Deftones “Adrenaline” (released October 3, 1995). Don’t let me fool you; I listened to a lot of bad music in high school, too (read: nu-metal). Deftones were lumped into that genre -- which now seems unfair given their longevity and how their sound has evolved -- at the same time Korn was getting bigger. Adrenaline was raw and had little focus, even if you were patient to listen past the last track for the “hidden” song. I had this on CD and a dubbed cassette copy, which later became stuck in my car’s tape player. For three months (right before I upgraded to a CD changer) this played seemingly every time I got in the car. I can still remember Scott Bender exclaiming (jokingly) “Dude, can we listen to something OTHER than Deftones?!?!” I have stuck with this band for over twenty years. I can remember being genuinely disappointed I had to bail on a trip to Cleveland to see them at Warped Tour ‘98. Looking back, that was probably a good decision!

/End part one.

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Good reads from 2016

Here are some of the best works of fiction and non-fiction I read last year. Most of these were not published in 2016, but I have noted the *new* writing.

The Hike (Drew Magary, 2016) 

This is probably the best book I have read in the last five years -- the story of a whirlwind journey that begins with a hike and ends...well, my jaw was on the floor. I could re-read this multiple times and still have the same response. I love books that can provoke that sort of reaction.

Ghostwritten (David Mitchell, 1999)

From the author of Cloud Atlas, Number9dream, etc. Nine intertwined stories stretching from east to west across the globe. This was Mitchell’s first offering (published 1999) and it is an incredible debut. Mitchell does a great job tying each of the characters -- including a cult-controlled terrorist in Okinawa, a physicist in Ireland, a young jazz buff in Tokyo -- and their stories together, spanning centuries to a stunning ending.

The Dog Stars (Peter Heller, 2012)

The story of a loner pilot, his dog, and his tenuous relationship with a neighbor at an abandoned airstrip in Colorado after a flu-like epidemic has eradicated most of the U.S. population. A magnificent work of fiction. I cannot say enough good things about this novel -- it is definitely in my top five from the past five years.

Zeitoun (Dave Eggers, 2009)

I have been an Eggers fan since reading What Is The What on a trip to Peru many years ago. I followed that experience by reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity, and A Hologram for the King. However, Zeitoun (2009) might be my favorite. The story follows the adventures, trials and tribulations of a Muslim business owner (and U.S. citizen) in post-Katrina New Orleans after he encourages his wife and children to flee to safety and decides to defy evacuation orders to ride out the storm. 

I’d Walk With My Friends if I Could Find Them (Jesse Goolsby, 2015)

A powerful fictional account of Wintric Ellis, who joins the Army after graduating high school and finds himself deployed to Afghanistan, where he is taken under the wing of two veteran soldiers. The aftershocks of a joint decision the group makes while in battle continue long after all three return stateside.

How Did You Get This Number and I Was Told There’d Be Cake (Sloane Crosley, 2010 and 2008)

Two collections of essays from one of the most hilarious, thoughtful, and biting young writers around. While some essays are more “serious” than others, I often found myself laughing out loud at some of the predicaments in which Sloane found herself enmeshed. Best essays: her trip to Alaska for a wedding (Number) and ‘The Pony Problem,’ or ‘Bring Your Machete to Work Day’ (Cake).

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship (Robert Kurson, 2015)

A rip-roaring true adventure of John Chatterton and John Mattera’s search through the Caribbean for the Golden Fleece, which disappeared in the 17th century. I could not put this one down -- it is fast paced, suspenseful, and full of history and adventure.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (David Grann, 2010)

Grann (a staff writer at The New Yorker) delivers a thrilling collection of some of his best investigative reporting from the last fifteen years, covering the story of a Holmes collector/archivist who is murdered, a death row inmate who might be innocent, a city that fell in love with the mob, and other strange but true stories. Grann’s earlier work The Lost City of Z was also an excellent read and is now being made into a movie.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Sam Quinones, 2015)

A heartbreaking exploration of the opiate epidemic and the story of the “Jalisco boys” who perfected their drug dealing strategies by establishing “pizza delivery” cells in many major American cities -- and in particular -- many depressed small cities and towns in Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, where other industries have left taking jobs and lives with them.

Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere (Lucas Mann, 2013)

This book details one season of minor-league baseball in a small Iowa town and follows the players of the Clinton LumberKings and the townspeople who are obsessed with seeing these young men “make it big.”

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A few finds from last week @ Vibes Music back in Indy. Texas is the Reason s/t 7" (1995, Revelation) -- Garrison "24" 7" (1998, Espo) -- Barbaro "Feeding" 7" (1999, Hydrahead).

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Under the bridge.

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Reflection room.

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#tbt Choking on the past. Jim Fix on Valentine's Day 2002 at Rhino's (Bloomington, Ind) opening for Ultimate Fakebook and Red Hot Valentines. With compliments to @jimfix and @mattdriscoll81

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Close. #mubb

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"Never thought I would rather be in Dixie right now. This is what brings the South to a grinding halt. We are closed today and tomorrow because of the amount of snow you probably have on your windshield right now."

          -AB / Jan 29, 2014 / from Auburn, AL.

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Bossk - 'Pick Up Artist' b/w 'Albatross.' Cannot stop listening to this -- morning, noon, night. So so good. (Deathwish Records, 2014, transparent green/black smoke) "Atmospheric post-everything" from Ashford, Kent, England.

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Cormac McCarthy. "The Crossing." An incredible book.

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Vinyl party: Helmet 'Biscuits for Smut / Milquetoast' 12" EP (1994, United Kingdom edition).

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Bird is the word. January 2014.

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The second 8...musical favorites from 2013, loud edition.

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The first 8...2013 music favorites, non-abrasive edition.

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Blue skies, Indiana. #latergram #outdoors #windenergy