Stripwax Top Ten Elpeez of 2012
Jeff Moody counts down the albums of the year for Stripwax, the world's only comic strip record review.
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10. Nervous Curtains – Fake Infinity
What I said about this elpee back in March: “Nervous Curtains have created a sound that is truly unique and unlike anything being made at the moment. If you require a reference point, think newer-wave, and think about this: Trent Reznor is at his special best when he seamlessly splices organics with synthetics and dischord, resulting in gorgeously qualmish music. Nervous Curtains are perfecting that same process.”
All true, and it only gets better with repeated listening.
9. Moon Eater – Moon Eater
Loud and proud punk n’ roll from Santa Cruz, Calif., that never lets up and never let’s you down if’n you like Hot Snakes and /or Night Marchers stuff.
8. Jack White – Blunderbuss
For an elpee featuring more than a dozen musicians, Blunderbuss stays pretty cohesive. Long and strong on melody, White shows us his broken heart from different angles, but nearly forgets to rawk. “Sixteen Saltines” does the trick, even though it’s a retread of The White Stripes superior stomper “The Hardest Button To Button,” but the cover of Little Willie John’s classic “I’m Shakin” suffers from bombast. “Love Interruption” missed my Top Ten Trax list by a whisker. It’s one of the most beautiful things to come out in 2012, and is one of White’s best compositions.
7. The Golden Boys – Dirty Fingernails
The sense of low-down desperation underpinning these straight ahead rockers made Dirty Fingernails as relevant as it is fun. The Golden Boys’ sound will be refreshing to young-ish fans of minimalist lo-fi garage, and will jog the memories of anyone old enough to remember The Standells. The Austin, Tex., band’s strength is an over-abundance of energy, a versatile use of electric keyboards, and relentless melody and guitar-hookery. “Curtains” is a fantastic track that uses feedback as a rhythmic device and changes course halfway through. Even the obvious throwaway “Daddy’s Horsewife” has a noisy charm that Future Of The Left’s Andy Falkous would appreciate.
Tilts are from St. Louis, Mo., which isn’t so far from Rockford, Ill., which is where my mind instantly went when I first laid ears upon this fantastic debut elpee. Yes, I’ve resisted saying it thus far, but here it is: If you love yer rock (and roll) served up larger than life and full of hooks Cheap Trick style, you’ll love Tilts.
Off! is a fight-back soundtrack that serves as a reminder that rebellion ain’t just for kids anymore. Kids today certainly have plenty to be pissed off about, but for the most part, they’re not. Older folks though, the working class who’ve been continuously backed into the corner by shrinking opportunities, austerity politics, an endless assault of media dumbness that most certainly is resulting in NATIONAL BRAIN DAMAGE and rules that change whenever they seem to be getting ahead of the game, they’re gonna relate to this big time.
4. Blackout Dates – Beverly
Hooks galore. Melodies that reverberate for days. Rockers, country stompers, even a hellacious Donna Summer cover. Guitarist Philip Schuldt, bassist Jim Kamp and drummer Matt Molenaar have put together one hell of a debut elpee, one that covers a wild range of styles, including gutbucket corner tavern rock awash in feedback and thunderous drums and honest-to-Christ country music that’s more country music than yer Mom’s country music. There’s an insistent banjo-fueled porch-stomper like “Lil’ Tiny,” a track that masks its existential resignation in buoyant melodies. The heart of Beverly though is in “False Starts.” It will break yer heart, just like they say in the chorus.
3. Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music
Easily the best hip-hop elpee of the year, this music hits you hard and feels as real as a gun going off next to yer head. It’s not a party in the Hamptons with Kanye and Kim Kardashian. Producer El-P brings simmering, Bomb Squad-style sound-scenery for Killer Mike to chew up and spit out in furious staccato rhymes. R.A.P. Music splits its time between NYC and Atlanta, chronicling the dangers of being black in both cities in such chilly, ominous tracks like “Untitled,” “Anywhere But Here.” He goes national with the epic track “Reagan,” noting the effects of Reaganomics on the black community by creating a contextual timeline from the late 80’s that continues right up to today. Killer Mike spares no one and nothing.
2. Police Teeth – Police Teeth
Police Teeth are still the best band in North America, and this record confirms it yet again. James Burns and Chris Rasmussen write topical, gut-punching lyrics around head-kicking riffs and Richy Boyer’s unstoppable beats. These songs are working class anthems written by working class guys. Their perspective is clear; their motives are pure. The record opens with “Bellingham Media Blackout,” and sets the tone with a stomp/march beat/rhythm as heavy and menacing as an unwanted home visit from the National Guard. “My V-4 Weighs A Ton” follows and might be a joking reference to the aforementioned insanity of setting up and tearing down, town after town for little appreciation and even less money. The line at the breakdown, “Their never gonna need you/As much as you need them” is devastating in that context. Other standout tracks include the pent-up tension of “Emmanuelle In Renton,” a song about a childhood neighbor’s house where the father had a room that neither the kids nor the mother was allowed into. “My Baby’s Got The Black Lung” is the flat-out punk track, lashing out at the helpless and hopelessness of the world’s finest healthcare system.
1. Future of The Left – The Plot Against Common Sense
Is this the best FOTL record yet? I’d say no. Track for track, Travels with Myself and Another was about as close to perfect as it gets, but this is—without a doubt—their most adventurous and diverse recording to date. I can’t think of a record I’ve enjoyed more this year. “Sheena Was A T-Shirt Salesman” burns the house down immediately, and the band builds it all back up in the tracks that follow. “Failed Olympic Bid” and “Beneath The Waves An Ocean” are both as unremitting as a low pressure system, with new bassist Julia Ruzicka unloading earth-moving low-end tones throughout. She brings the slinky hop to the goofy, spooky “Cosmo’s Ladder,” where Falkous obviously has a ball playing a very high-pitched synth. It’s the most danceable track about the shagginess of aging you’ve ever heard, and it’s the track that gives the elpee its initial kick into true, unflinching weirdness. “Polymers Are Forever” (the single holdover from the excellent eepee of the same name) has a very odd cadence, but the chant sticks. “Camp Cappuccino” starts off loud and spastic, with Falkous spouting off like Frank T.J. Makie on meth, before the track devolves into a bizarre chorus of ape-like sounds and well placed human howling. It’s insane and awesome, just like the entire record.
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