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Hey, remember the scene in The Karate Kid when Daniel Larusso bumbles his way into the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament? He's lost, he's scared, and he has no idea what to do next? Yeah, do you? Well, that's us in the year 2020. In the United States, our sensai (the electorate) made a really bad deal with an evil man (electing Donald Trump), which led us to this life or death karate tournament of a year.
Ok, so then do you remember that Daniel steps into his first match of the tournament, takes a few hits, gets chased off the mat, but ultimately...he calms down, we focuses, and he wins. He wins that match by listening to Mr. Miyagi when he says, "remember, you defense, points come, concentrate, focus power, remember balance make good fight". He listened to the experts. And the best part? We get to then hear the blazingly inspirational Joe Esposito ripper, "You're The Best" while we watch our hero Daniel systematically dismantle all opponents and advance through the early stages of the tournament in quite possibly the greatest movie montage of all time. It's a spectacular three minutes of cinema, honestly.
Well, here we are at the party end of a shittiest of years, and in taking stock of our situation, I am optimistic. Winning that first fight of the tournament, that was electing Joe Biden as President. Having a Coronavirus vaccine rolling out across the world, that was listening to Mr. Miyagi, the expert. And, if I'm being honest...I can't remember what happens that the end of Karate Kid...I generally fall asleep after orgasm, and that "You're The Best" sequence gets me at full staff every time. So, who knows if Daniel wins the tournament, or if he's stabbed by a fan, or if he gets his larynx punched out the back of his neck, or if he gets exposed as a fake black belt and disqualified...there's just no way to tell. But, I'm optimistic that society IS Daniel Larusso, and we WILL somehow fumble our way through this tournament of life to come through victorious in 2021. Or....maybe we too are exposed as karate frauds and laughed all the way back to our economy apartment in Reseda...but I hope not.
Either way, this list of bands right here, these and all the other great music we posted on our previous lists, this is your Joe Esposito soundtrack. This is what gets you through the bullshit and keeps you focusing your power. "...make good fight"!
30. Mummise Guns - Mummise Guns
Taking some of the heavier hitters of recently released fucked up English-based music (Dethscalator, Part Chimp, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Terminal Cheesecake, Ikara Colt, Luminous Bodies, Casual Nun, Black Shape, Ghold, and others) Mummise Guns came together in 2017 to record this lurching, ugly, malleating hulk of a six song album. Only for it to be shelved whilst their day jobs took away their attentions.
29. Chief Tail - Chief Tail
Very much in the Jesus Lizard school of noise rock (not an accredited university) with a minor in hardcore theory, alongside graduates Pissed Jeans, right down to being recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. You know what you’re getting, right? Then get it. It's great.
28. Trainer - Athletic Statics
A tightly coiled cluster of songs that defend themselves by striking quickly and aggressively at their attacker's face. They have made their nest in a den of classic Touch and Go styled noise rock warmth, but they spruced up the place with the comforts of a modern home. Loud, focused, and cantankerous. Approach with caution, and keep your hands away from their mouths.
27. Mammrock - Itch
I can safely say this is my favorite greek noise rock band of the year, as this is the only Greek noise rock band I think I’ve heard in…well over a year?
26. Mathis Hunter - Mood Lighting
Mathis Hunter wrote some of my favorite hardcore songs back in the middle 1990's, and then he wrote some of my favorite psych-rock jams at the turn of the century, and now he's got a few albums worth of my favorite...I don't know...rock songs? Mood Lighting continues to develop his penchant for taking Hacienda-era Brit Pop grooves and injecting them with some hazy, warped Americana dust, and some 70's stoned rock residue. Bueno.
25. J McNeight - Pinched Nerve
24. Moon Pussy - Moon Pussy
Well, chalk this one up as “another band who’s t-shirt I cannot wear in my parent’s presence”. Pretty sure I shouldn’t even be listening to this within a city block of their house! Super dirty, gnarled barrage of bad vibes. You will never find any lyrics from this record painted in fancy script on a piece of driftwood hanging in your mother’s kitchen. That I can assure you. Unless your mom is a total fucking dirtbag, which, it should go without saying but, you shouldn’t be eating anything coming out of that kitchen. Seems unsanitary at best.
23. Bruges - A Thread Of Light
Once, at a party (yes, I DO occasionally get asked to attend mixed social gatherings), a middle aged man (as am I) started our conversation with the question, “are you a grower, or a shower?” in an attempt to be funny(?), or shocking, or something. My response was, “are you asking me how long my dick is?”, and from that moment on I have hated that man (proud to say I still do!) for being a crass and unfunny try-hard. But, that nonsequitor was merely a set up to point out that this album is a “grower” (no judgment on the size or quality of the band’s bulges). Bruges like to take their time and let their songs unfold with a droning, sustained pound (or occasionally a hypnotic lull). The kind of malestrom that somehow you can get lost inside of. Maybe like Swans did, but not as percussive, or industrial. It’s heavy, but a slow burn kind of heavy. The kind of album that would definitely not inquire about the status if your bikini area in mixed company.
22. Xibalba - Anos De Infierno
Sometimes you just want a pummeling. And not in some BDSM type way (although, hey, whatever floats your boat…no judgement here), but just in a big, warm, rumbling, blanket of mangled chunks of riffs kind of way. Smothered in a doomy death metal beat down that I can only assume is celebrating the dark Mayan mythologies of the underworld. I can barely speak English, let alone Spanish as gurgled by Xibalba, so who really knows. I just know that a thunderous assailment such as this, is just what I want on certain days. Maybe I am into BDSM?
21. Thousandaire - Thousandaire
Andrew Wiggins of Hawks, Wymyns Prysyn, and a hundred other Atlanta bands, has returned with a new(ish) project. This time employing the proverbial power trio to dish out downcast, brawny, indie rock that could be mistaken for an overdriven, sludgy Silkworm. Maybe if you were familiar with the band Glands, you can imagine them, but with extra amplifier stacks pushing some fuzzed out versions of their self-aware pessimism. It's big and loud, but not engineered for good times, or any sort of "getting the party started" type things necessarily, but it will sound great in a car, blasted, getting the fuck out of town.
20. Hum - Inlet
Ummmm, did anyone know this was coming out? Cause I didn’t. And I certainly did not think that 22 after their last album, Hum was going to come out of the blue and pick up where they left off like nothing…but here we are. In the year of our Lord 2020, Hum has broken hibernation to resurrect their muscular take on shoegaze space rock. Well, maybe not EXACTLY where they left off, but pretty close. The ratio of “pretty” to ”chugging heaviness” is higher than on past releases, and the dynamics certainly don’t wallop you over the head like on ‘You’d Prefer An Astronaut’, but when the big, blanketing guitars do come in, it still feels really good. Familiar and warming.
*THE HIP HOP CORNER*
If we're being honest, one cannot exist on guitar-based music alone (be it noise rock, singer songwriter, death metal, or whatever in between), and for this one (me), hip hop has been a good 30% or so of my musical diet since the days of BET's Rap City (the OG version with mayor Donnie Simpson). So, to no one's surprise, my rap consumption is heavily weighted to the Golden Age of circa 1986-1995, give or take. Look, I have a 17 year old (currently) son who listened predominantly to hip hop, and as any good parent does, I try to "get down with the kids" and show an appreciation for whatever he's into. But what he's into, I'm out of. I just can't do the Travis Scott and Lil Yachty's of the world, it's noise to me. The mumbling, pop rap just doesn't speak to the older, refined listener, like myself (the kind with Anal Cunt records on his shelf). I am finally now in my father's shoes as I tried to explain to him that Circle Jerks were a legitimate band making important music! I do try though. Honest. I do try to find new artists making the kinds of sounds that appeal to someone who honestly thinks there will never be an MC to surpass Rakim. But, here's the Top (Lucky) Seven of what I heard this year that I listened to while taking power walks through the neighborhood.
7. Public Enemy - What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?
PE return to Def Jam, and return to their agitated boombastic sound. The remix of 'Fight The Power' alone is worth the price of admission, proving if anything, that we should have considered adopting the original version as our National Anthem all those many years ago.
6. Jorun Bombay & Phill Most Chill - Jorun PMC
Scratchy samples, boom bap beats, and an authoritative vocal delivery...it's got everything you want, no filler, no dumb skits. Video provided from a previous release, there is apparently no video evidence of the new album.
5. Action Bronson - Only For Dolphins
Yes, I know. I understand the baggage, but I also understand the head nodding appeal. What do you want me to do?!
4. Jahi & Configa - Forward Future
Grown folk flow, seasoned beats, throwback glory.
3. Marlowe - Marlowe 2
Dusty, cracked jazz samples that create a buzzing, banging, breakbeat backdrop for Solemn Brigham's relaxed rapid fire delivery.
2. Cut Beetlez - What Beetlez?
Full on Golden Age Of Hip Hop throwback. Turntablism, gritty samples, gritty rhymes, lots of rap classic chestnuts thrown in. Boom bap all day.
1. Run The Jewels - 4
Easily the record I listened to the most this year, but what choice was I given? El-P's beats are heavy as fuck, the lyrical interplay between him and Killer Mike is top tier, shit is un-fuckable-with.
*ok, back to the countdown*
19. The Avett Brothers - The Gleam III
Yeah, I know, this band has crossed over to a bigger, more khaki-clad audience, and their music has unfortunately gone as milquetoast as their fanbase. I get it. I haven’t paid attention to them since 2004’s ‘Mignonette’ album, but have been happy to see their success, as they rightfully have earned it.
In 2003 I was getting tattooed by a guy named Watson Atkinson (now a flat Earther and sexual abuser…not cool), and he was super hyped on The Avett Brothers. He played their music during our sessions, and made me a CD compilation of the first two albums (with cover drawn by Seth Avett himself…cool). Shortly thereafter, The Avett Brothers played the opening party for Watson’s new tattoo shop, and I got to see them in all their raging, stomping, folk-punk glory in a small club. They took those tender songs from the records and breathed fire into them. Truly incredible.
Fast forward to now, and all these many years later they have (temporarily?) jettisoned the full band, the Rick Rubin production, and the pop music sensibilities in favor of a return to the stripped down, acoustic simplicity and raw honesty of those first records. And as then, it is now incredible.
18. Narrow Head - 12th House Rock
I would 100% believe you if you said this record was written, performed, and recorded in 1994 by a group of guys who used to be in old NYHC bands, but the label fell through and the album was shelved for 26 years. This is post hardcore as informed by Quicksand, Hum, Smashing Pumpkins, and Slowdive; one part shoegaze, one part grunge, one part…well…hardcore. This is a band that I would have assumed to be touring with the aforementioned Quicksand, Shift, Handsome, maybe Orange 9mm. Bands that came out of the hardcore world, but had tuned their guitars to “bigger things”. Now I would see them opening for Deftones or something.
But this band is from Houston, Texas circa right now. And their big dynamics via skuzz approach is not some Civil War reenactment 90’s dress up, it’s the real deal. Narrow Head pack their influences (intentional or not) into a clenched fist and punch a hole through the drywall. If you’re my age, you will find the nostalgia of it all scratching a specific itch. If you’re younger than me, you will probably just think it’s exciting guitar rock. If you’re older than me…you are most likely dead by now.
17. Tenure - Sink
File this one under; “from out of the blue”. As far as I can tell, this album is the only thing Tenure has released, and the first real band the three members have been in. And I’m going out on a limb, but I’ll guess this record is the best music to come out of Whitesburg, Kentucky in…forever.
I want to say that they have a post punk vibe, run through the sieve of country music, but ultimately I just think it sounds like Dax Riggs with a bit of the more recent Queens Of The Stone Age sound thrown in, maybe a hint of My Morning Jacket’s ebullience. It’s fantastic. The musicianship is deft and creative, the songs are memorable and compact, and the vocals give it a haunted presence. There’s some southern gothic haze over everything that is Tenure’s stamp. This is the kind of band you love to stumble upon. The kind of band that you’re excited to hear from again.
16. Blacklisters - Fantastic Man
Impenetrable dissonance levied against you for maximum castigation. Or maybe it just has to be, and with or without whatever it is I think, or you think, we are hearing exactly how they think. Squinting into the sun and slowly shaking their heads at the inefficacy of contemporary cultures' ability to process or reign in this free-fall into our own narcissism. Creating a harsh visage, an edifice of alien malformation, is the only defense. The only response to the increasing demands for documentation and self-importance.
15. Wailin' Storms - Rattle
Three albums in, and Wailin’ Storms has perfected their swamp boogie death rock stomp. Taking pieces and parts from The Cramps, Gun Club, Christian Death, and Bauhaus, they Dr. Frankenstein together a new monster that roams the night. Animated to life by a lightening bolt of rock-n-roll grit, they manage to create something exciting and forward looking while paying homage to the jet black hair of their forebears.
14. Bully - SUGAREGG
I’m forever a sucker for this kind of shouty, frenetic-but-vulnerable, blistering guitar rock. It may not reinvent the proverbial wheel, but, to quote another cliche, if it ain’t broke it’s worth two in the bush…I think. Something. Big hooks and a frayed punk sensibility take these songs of personal struggle (bipolar disorder if I’m not mistaken) and drill them deep into your ears. It has a lot of the hallmarks of early 90’s indie rock, but it’s not a nostalgia trip, it’s simply a continuation of rock-n-roll to get her (this album was a solo endeavor of Alicia Bognanno) point across. And she does it in a most compelling way. If you were smitten last year, as I was, by the last Mannequin Pussy album, then this one could get you to renew your vows.
13. Canyons - Stay Buried
I don’t know how old the members of this band are, but I would guess they were born in the very late 1990’s. Too young to understand in real time how the Hydra Head and Escape Artist rosters had thoroughly annihilated hardcore by shooting it up with metal, crust, and noise rock. Which of course was a full circle moment, since hardcore birthed noise rock and crust, and metal would have possibly never evolved off of the Sunset Strip without it (or the biker bar). There is a through line from Today Is The Day to Deadguy to the urgency and tumult of bands like Burn It Down, Coalesce (like Canyons, from Kansas City), and Jesuit, on to current bands like Bummer and Nerver (both of whom have shared members with Canyons), who approach their songs with a full throated roar. The run time on this record staying under 20 minutes means that the songs never overstay their welcome. They kick in the front door, help themselves to a cold Coors Light (without asking…naturally), make a joke about your mother, and then proceed out the back door to vomit in your rose bush all in a manageable two minutes (give or take). If they weren’t so goddamn rude, it would be downright considerate.
12. Human Impact - Human Impact + eps
Who doesn’t like a supergroup? Especially one made up of Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, and Swans personnel? Pretty legit pedigree, I’d say. But you knew that already (about the pedigree, not what I would say [unless you have the gift of clairvoyance]). And you probably already knew that this band sounds 80% like Cop Shoot Cop, 15% like Unsane, and maybe 5% like Swans (if even). Which, I’m fine with. I may not have been fine with it upon first listen, because I was hoping for more of Chris Spencer’s bludgeoning riffage, if I’m being honest (the best policy), but upon further listens I’ve settled into really enjoying this record for what it is. Which is all I can do. It’s just a record after all.
Sidebar: they have three additional eps out this year, which contain some of the more “heavy” tracks so far.
11. Black Helium - The Wholly Other
What would happen if you took a Part Chimp album and a Black Angels album, and you cut each in half, then tapped them together? I’ll tell you; you would have ruined two perfectly good albums, and you would be left with a really stupid, unplayable experiment. Are you fucking stupid or something? You can’t tape an album together! It would never work!
Black Helium on the other hand, did manage to figure out how to successfully merge the sludge lunacy of Part Chimp with the psych drone of Black Angels to cobble together this wholly intriguing and highly listenable collection that errs mostly on the side of “big, expansive, heavy workouts”, but does offer contrast with some “gentle, shimmering, inner journeys”. If you like to party with a band like Hey Colossus, then this one will keep the festivities spirited.
*THE HARDCORE ROUNDUP*
Is it uncouth to be 46 years old and still listening to a steady diet of hardcore? Or has it now been long enough that it somehow has circled back around to somehow being "cool"? I'm assuming uncouth, but I'm hoooooooping...
Regardless of your opinion of me, here's a sampling of some of the best hardcore I stumbled across this year.
Constant Elevation - Freedom Beach
It's goddamn Sammy Seigler, so you can fuck right off.
Gag - Still Laughing
Abrasive, going-for-the-throat style attack, with shades of 80's Japanese bands, a bit of English D-Beat skuzz, and just general bad attitudes.
Big Cheese - Punishment Park
Straight ahead hardcore flurry that thrashes and chugs and makes you want to punch holes in the wall with a Killing Time kind of nudge. Do you see anything wrong with that?
Total Meltdown - Total Meltdown
NYHC circa now that has lots of the NYHC circa 1991 DNA in it's sound. Heavy and gruff, but with some groove keeping it moving ahead in an interesting direction.
Soul Glo - Songs To Yeet At The Sun
Fucking gnarly, pissed and wild. This band does what the best hardcore bands do; they get you moving, they get you thinking, and they get you fucking going!
Drain - California Cursed
With a nod to Slayer, this album launches into a brutal collection of head knockers that I imagine "get the pit started" with extreme prejudice. Hints of Cro-Mags metallic hardcore, but with a modern jolt of energy.
Rash - Hivemind
Nonstop assault that drops the hammer and keeps it down by way of a crusty, dark, speed bludgeoning. The kind that you could have very well discovered perusing a Profane Existence distro sheet circa 1993.
Year Of The Knife - Internal Incarceration
Fucking violent, the sound of being swarmed to death. Heavy duty beatdown minus the meathead bullshit.
BIB - Delux
Psychotic in the way Negative Approach were crazy. Nasty, mean shit.
Classics Of Love - World Of Burning Hate
Legit throwback to the sound and fury of a 1987 Gilman Street show. Maybe because these dudes were there, playing those shows? Sounds as vital and urgent as ever.
Bitter Branches - This May Hurt A Bit
As has been said a million times before in this space; if Tim Singer is involved, I'm buying it sight unseen. This one was especially welcome, as it brings some of the whirling chaos you want into shape with an undercurrent of something approximating melody, and then topped with that familiar roar. This record goddamn smokes.
*alright, let's get back to the list*
10. USA Nails - Character Stop
USA Nails have matched the tension and turbulence of 2020 by providing the soundtrack of our new borderline dystopian existence with this collection of terse, trenchant odes to global pandemic and the failures of our collective capitalist construct. Granted, these songs aren’t written about the specific particulars of the year 2020, but the uneasy agitation by which they are delivered most certainly echoes the prevail sentiment that this year can 100% eat shit.
9. ILS - Curse
The textbook definition of "burliness". Straight up mountain man, axe-swingin', drop-out-of-civilized-society type shit. This is the kind of band that murders their immediate family and burns their bloated corpses in an oil drum fire out back because they were "getting in the way of the mission". You have to respect that level of commitment to craft.
8. Heads. - Push
You like noise rock, but do you fuck with noir rock (patent pending)? You know, the dark, brooding, menacing sounds of a band like Heads.? Taking cues from the more ominous post-punk, proto-industrial, and death rock bands of the early 80s, and reanimating their corpses with pulsating brightness (must be a black light) that gives relief to the monochromatic fog that this style takes on in the hands of a lesser practitioner, Heads. create an album that sounds like a warning. Stay out of the shadows. Stay off the streets after dark. Keep your mouth shut.
Pro tip: if you’re going to attempt noir rock (patent pending), having a vocalist with an Australian accent really seals the deal.
7. Uniform - Shame
This band has steadily been putting out high quality records for the last few years, to which we (me) owe them a collective (singular) “thank you”. They continue to hone (sharpen) a borderline industrial, or at the very least a martial, approach to single-minded “fuck you” tunes. Nothing nice, nothing warm, just an angry letter left at your office desk to explain all the myriad ways you have failed, and why you should be shamed from now until ever. No signature, just a memorandum of your weaknesses, made exponentially worse when you realize the same letter has been photocopied and distributed to the desk of every single one of your coworkers, and left under the windshield wiper of every car in the parking lot downstairs.
6. Belk - Belk + Umpire eps
Only two eps (7 songs) available at this point, but yikes, those seven songs are coming correct! And there’s only two dudes making all this racket? And they DON’T sound like every other two man jam? Extra points. This duo makes a strangulated version of noise rock that does both; it’s noisy and it rocks. Isn’t that why we’re here?
5. Jeff Tweedy - Love Is The King
This guy just keeps the heat coming with these solo records one after another. And as long as he’s willing to put them out, I will listen unapologetically. Between Jeff Tweedy, Eric Bachmann, and Jeremy Enigk, it’s been an embarrassment of riches in the “sad bastard” musical category of late. Although, to be fair, this album is not “sad”, it’s just mellow, and mellow is fine by this fellow. Don’t be scared though, I think Jeff Tweedy’s time with Jim O’Rourke and Nels Cline has paid off with some strange chord progressions and discordant diversions to keep these songs from being total “dad rock” (that being said, your dad would probably enjoy this…stocking stuffer idea!).
4. Exhalants - Atonement
Slint begat Engine Kid and Engine Kid begat Exhalants’ new album. Or, at least a good chunk of it. Exhalants are also drawing influence from the bedrock Midwestern noise rock of the late 80’s, but I hear a lot of those big guitar moves that Engine Kid amplified Slint’s dynamism with. Their last full length had a more forthright melody in the songs, and this one eschews the niceties for a more ferocious approach. I mean, I’m sure there’s someone out there that finds these songs “pretty”…but that someone is a serial killer.
3. Pyrrhon - Abscess Time
Those who know me best (your mom) know that my death metal record collection is small (much like my genitals). But, when a band comes around that takes death metal to a place this unhinged, this punishing, and this fucked up…I’m in (your mom [sorry])!
2. Leeched - To Dull The Blades Of Your Abuse
My snow skiing career was limited to a few seasons in western NC in middle and high school, sliding down the icy “slopes” of Sugar, Beech, and Appalachian Mountains, trying my hardest to stem christy, but mostly just snow plowing. So, I’ve never been caught in an avalanche. Fortunately. But I imagine this record captures that feeling pretty accurately. Completely overwhelming. A dense, heavy, merciless bombardment of overdriven, downtuned animosity. Elements of noise, grind core, death metal, hardcore, and personal grievances. Imagine Iron Monkey, but without the sense of humor. I know I’m prone to hyperbole, but I’m telling you, the bass actually sounds like a series of distant explosions on this record.
1. Easy Prey - Relentless Struggle
For full tilt, foot through the floorboard, flailing, noisy hardcore, this one is top of the heap. Hell, it's just top of the heap period. It’s a bellowing roar across the intolerable mundane cruelty of this year. The sound of remorseless decimation. A ruinous hymn that revels in its ravaging calamity. Nuance is a dead end. Fuck yo couch.
