Hello internet friends, and Merry Christmas to all of you! Just knowing you’re out there is a gift enough for me ^__^. Hope you’re having a great time wherever you are! Anyhoo, as usual we have our jet black christmas tree up in the 350 Broadway store.
This year, we enlisted some of our favorite artists to paint a bunch of wonderful and festive Christmas ornaments to decorate that bad boy. Kinda puts other trees to shame don’t it? Check out the lot of them after the jump!
I guess we knew they would have to slow down sometime, but barring the Kills mixtape we actually didn’t get a full length release from the Balearic duo of jj. Sad face. Luckily, they have just dropped a teaser for their new album, the song “VI.” Guess they decided to skip some numbers?
Anyway, the most interesting thing about this supposed “preview” (which is really just a song, right?) is that Elin Kastlander is actually singing in her native Swedish for once. One of the joys of jj was hearing her work her accent around english words, most notably rap lyrics, but this new look it pretty good too. No word on when the rest of this will be out.
Capping off a great year of releases, Fan Death Records has been kind enough to bequeath upon us loyal listeners a free compilation featuring songs from all of their releases this year, plus some unreleased stuff.
Joy to the world, the latest Zombie Rave is finally here! ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜof Mater Suspiria Vision has come out of Zombie Rave retirement for something truly special. The Zombie Rave X/Mass is almost two hours of primo drag straight from the depths of a candy-striped hell.
The mix is divided between “2011″ and “2012,” the first a cavalcade of hits and the seconds a journey into a face melting future where Lana Del Rey’s true cyborg origins have been revealed and choreographed machine gun dances are all the rage. Download it below, and check the full tracklist after the jump. But hurry because as always there are only 100 downloads made available… though we suspect you’ll be seeing some unauthorized copies floating around within the hour.
In 2011 we were lucky to bring Travis Egedy, who you probably know better as Pictureplane, on as a Bloglin contributor. In between work on his amazing album Thee Physical, Pictureplane wrote about all sorts of interesting things for us, whether it be his best-of for Psychic TV or his updates on the burgeoning #Seapunk movement.
For the end of the year, Travis has put together a list of ten things from all different spheres, whether it be music, art politics, or even geographical, that he considers to be the biggest cultural touchstones of 2011. Enjoy!
~Whole Milk
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10. Rebecca Black’s “Friday”
We all remember where we were when we saw it first: the hilariously dumb lyrics, the awkward singing, the cheesy effects, the non sensical and pointless rap verse; This was THE video of the year. It was also the public’s introduction into the weird weird world of Arc Music Factory. the un-ironic or self aware tween music company that was a never ending rabbit whole of WTF’s.
But it was “Friday” that stole the show, and with good reason. It was such an abomination on all fronts that it was somehow really endearing, and will go down in history as a classic of internet meme culture. Here’s to Rebecca Black and the Arc Music Factory, for making the world laugh, and drop their collective jaws in 2011. <3
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9. Ryan Tracartin’s “Any Ever” at MoMA PS1
I have written about my love and appreciation for Ryan’s work here numerous times. A futurist, he is truly becoming the voice of a disembodied generation. A generation that occupies a multidimensional digital landscape that is truly scitzophrenic, psychedelic, and hyperreal. Ryan Trecartin‘s work is a reflection of our post-post modern age in a way that feels very important and highly relevant in a way that most artists work is not. “Any Ever” was his big museum show this year (rare for any artist his age) and i flew out to New York just to see it.
I was able to meet him, and even ended up in a strip club with him later that night (right after I was almost arrested with my friends Ryder Ripps, and Cody Critcheloe from SSION, but thats another story). So, back to the art, consisting of 7 different videos in different rooms that were fully immersive environments, the show was fantastic and hugely inspiring. it is hard to think of any other artist really speaking as poetically about my generation like Trecartin. a true genius. i look forward to following his work for years to come.
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8. AraabMuzik Live at Ghe20 Gh0th1k
AraabMuzik had quite the year, mainly by blowing a lot of peoples minds with the great Electronic Dream. But I was lucky enough to catch a live set by the producer in a small basement rave in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The party was one of the notorious and famed raves put on by the often imitated, but never duplicated Ghe20 G0th1k crew, and that night, AraabMuzik was a secret guest.
Teeing talent like AraabMuzik in a DIY punk style setting like that was nothing short of legendary, and his set melted the room. He just stands at his MPC, and beats at it like some sort of cyborg, seemingly un-human. It was a real game changing moment, for all of music. I feel like no one could believe what they were seeing, or hearing. That night AraabMuzik tore a hole in the fabric of reality, no joke.
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7. Teotihuacan
In April of this year, I was fortunate enough to travel down to Mexico City to do a performance with the dark lord Ritualz. The whole trip was incredible and I was also able to go to Monterrey and DJ tribal musica to local kids there alongside one of my favorite producers, 17 year old 3ball phenomenon, Erick Rincon. It was something I will never forget. But the most amazing and life altering experience came from visiting the ruins of the grand city of Teotihuacan.
Full disclosure, the experience of the ruins was enhanced through some high grade mexican LSD, but it wasnt the acid that made it special. Being in such a sacred ancient place that is architecturally sound with the earth, its environment, and the cosmos is nothing short of mind altering. no modern buildings have this effect. It was very powerful, and I couldnt help but wonder of course, just WHAT was the true purpose of these massive pyramids? Maybe one day humanity will remember our true past. Oh, and we also shot a music video while at the pyramids.
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6. Prurient’s Bermuda Drain LP
My album of the year. I feel I have already written in depth a few times about this record, but it is just flawless and epically beautiful.
A dark masterpiece of sound design and brutal emotion by the mighty noise god, Prurient. Noise purists were confused and angered by this release, what with the synths, and the drum machines! Heaven forbid. Respect.
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5. Snack the Planet
In July, an art event like no other I have been a part of occurred in downtown Manhattan. Inside the Museum of Art and Design was a room with a fully equipped flavored oxygen bar, energy drink shrimp cocktails and cyber snacks, the most fashionable of the contemporary New York underground, and a black-lit white carpeted chill out space with blue plastic blow up furniture.
This was Snack the Planet, an experimental party thrown by curators of the next age, Patrik Sandberg, and Lauren Devine, both affiliates of the always amazing DIS magazine. The idea was to somewhat re create the classic cyber-arcade hangout from the seminal 1995 movie, Hackers, but what ended up being created was a genuine Temporary Autonomous Zone. Lighting and “set design” was left up to genius design crew Thunderhorse Video who hand made the entire cyber bar from scratch.
Performances included the incredible queer-art rap poetry of Mykki Blanco with Physical Therapy as her DJ, supreme vibe controllers Teengirl Fantasy, and myself with full choreography by my two incredible dancers, Raw Acid. The event itself was just unbelievable. the energy was explosive because everyone was high on oxygen, life, and energy drinks.
During my performance, people were literally humping on the ground, blowing up condoms, molesting my dancers, and generally just freaking out. I honestly dont think a crowd has been that fanatical in uptight Manhattan since the early 80′s. it was a sight to behold, and that night, Snack the Planet was a cultural revolution. view incredible photos by Rez Avizzar of the whole night, here.
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4. James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual
The conceptual art statement of the year, Far Side Virtual was a revelation. From the genius merry prankster that is James Ferraro, the album was a psychedelic journey through our consumerist culture. As a statement regarding what it is like to be a human being living in a manufactured reality, where everything is designed to be simplified and consumed by a mass audience, this album hits that on the head better than any essay of cultural theory could.
Sounding like hitting the “demo” key on an old keyboard while shopping in a supermarket while riding an elevator in Starbucks all captured on a thrift store VHS cassette, nothing sounded like this this year. Yes, it is that fucked up. I don’t know how he did this. It is simply brilliant.
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3. Matthew Stone’s Optimism As Cultural Rebellion at Hole Gallery
Matthew Stone is a british artist whom I have been a big fan of for some time. A few years ago in denver, I was hosting an art salon in a speakeasy bar once a month, where a small group of artists and thinkers would get together to discuss a topic. On one occasion, we chose to discuss the radical notion of optimism and its revolutionary power to change. I presented some of Matthew Stone’s essays on the idea of how optimism is extremely important and as a tactic in radicalism and the progression of culture and spirit.
So it was fantastic to be able to attend the opening for his American debut show dealing with that concept. There was a deep transcendent spirituality to the work in the show, which is one of Matthew’s gifts and strong points. Matthew’s photographic and sculptural work is extremely poetic and romantic and references classical painting, yet is overtly queer and contemporary. I feel a spiritual connection to Matthew as he fancies himself a bit of a shaman and shares a lot of the same conceptual outlooks on life and humanity that I do. His work shows the power in geometry and in the human form, the soul inside of the body. it was just sublime.
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2. American Indie Rap Getting its Groove Back
As an old school indie-rap head (um remember Anticon?) it was cool to see that 2011 was the year American underground rap broke out with a vengeance unseen since the days of Company Flow in the late 90′s. With the music industry in steady decline, mainstream artists were left scratching their heads, as their lyrics of money, cars, and clothes were becoming increasingly irrelevant. It seems like indie rap was everywhere this year, with the internet explosions of Odd Future (“Yonkers,”anyone?) and Kreayshawn, like it or not, teenagers on DIY budgets were making a loud splash.
This year we saw the breakout of some new stars climbing to the top from the underground. Artists like Danny Brown and A$AP Rocky both had incredible, and dare I say historical albums, and shit Das Racist were on the fucking cover of SPIN magazine. Rappers like Young L and SpaceGhostPurrp were putting out really dope mixtapes. And I saw the magician god himself, Lil B, give one of the weirdest and most avant guard performances I have ever seen with full on new age spoken word sermon during the Supermoon at the Fader Fort during SXSW to over 2000 people. that was some incredible fucking shit. ART RAP IS BACK!
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1. The #Occupy Movement and the Global Uprising
Watching 4am live stream on the internet from some dude’s cellphone of hundreds of riot police violently destroying and dismantling the #occupywallstreet protest center in Zucotti Park because of a media blackout was disgusting, enraging, and an event that shook the world.
Talk as much shit as you want on the occupiers, but this year they succeeded in snapping people out of their dark trance illusion that everything is fine and well in the world. It was the news story of the year, that was barely covered or taken seriously by the government owned mainstream media. As they say, you can’t arrest an idea, expect only more global conflict and revolution in 2012. Tear the shit down.
Blake Anderson, AKA the dude with the swaggery hair from Comedy Central‘s fantastic show Workaholics, has been a Мишка buddy for a minute now. Unfortunately, he was injured in the line of duty recently while trying valiantly to bring the internet laffz.
As you can see from the video, Blake was just trying to make a funny video by jumping off a roof at a party onto a beer pong table. Also Tyler was there. Fully acceptable decision. But, unfortunately, not all lolzy videos have lolzy endings, and Blake actually broke his back. Being a resilient gentleman, he’s already undergone surgery and should be back in action soon. Get better dude!
Queens hip hop crew World’s Fair (Children of the Night, Cody B. Ware, Prince SAMO and Jeff Donna) dropped the video for their posse cut “Company Fair” which has the crew flowing over Co Flo’s classic “8 Steps to Perfection.” These dudes are seriously one of New York’s best up and coming crews of emcees. Get to know them know before they all blow.
Like most of the Worlds Fair stuff, this song has a really great, kind of oldschool hip hop feel. In the video the dudes hang out in Queens. It’s a fun, laid back, simple video, but it’s dope. A good start would be my Interview with Nasty Nigel of Children of the Night. He’s a good man.
I was recently perusing GQ’s best menswear moments of 2011 when I stumbled upon a particularly humorous curiosity. It had to do with their choice for the “Best Dressed Real Dude of the Year,” AKA a supposedly random gentleman on the block.
While admiring the gentleman’s swagger I realized he was no real dude at all, but was in fact, completely unbeknownst to the GQ crew, super-drummer Roofeeo, he formerly of The Death Set and currently of TV On The Radio. Roofeeo you sly street style dog you. Congrats on having one writer’s “favorite look of the year.”
2011 has come and is almost gone. Musically, it was a personal journey into the world of bedroom producers and fly by night memes. In this current age of rapid fire trending, musical genres seem to sprout up and whither before one even gets the chance to catch on to them. It has become more than a full time job to keep up. So what does this say about the current stage of sonic conception? It is easy to assume that the music being created is as transient as the trends surrounding them. As more artists emerge on filesharing sites like Soundcloud and Bandcamp, the role of the independent label seems to be taking a back step to personal expression and promotion.
Are labels even necessary? Label heads like Ben Versluis and Carl Clandestine think so. In 2011, both men embarked on organizing the seemingly rag-tag group of artists hell bent on using spam tactics to profligate their own personal brand of cacophony. Although the two seem almost polar opposites when it comes to preferences, their philosophy is the same. Simply stated, their aim is to put out music that they like, an age old strategy that seems forgotten in an era that strives to choose sides. Take a look at both label’s catalogs; you will see a wide array of musical styles, cemented in a common bond of independent expression.
Founded in San Francisco, in Fall of 2010, Tundra Dubs Records has been committed to promoting what it feels is the best of the new breed of darker, beat oriented artists. As label head, Ben Versluis, has a knack for picking artists who mange to balance experimentation with a steady flow of bass and dynamics. Releasing artists such as GuMMy†Be▲R!, M△S▴C△RA , Funerals and I†† early on, he managed to not only capitalize on the trend of Witch House, but also help break it from its stigma as a useless internet sensation. One listen to any of his releases, and all questions are erased.
This isn’t just a 4Chan troll meme, there is some serious and seriously great music coming out of what many still consider an inside joke. Recent releases have been far more varied, featuring oddball outside synth purists Os Ovni, the dark experimental electronics of Textbeak and an upcoming release from cold wave artists Soft Riot. Still, he also manages to continue promoting the best of the beast, with dark and dragged releases by artists like Strange Powers and ∆AIMON. In Summer 2012 Ben plans on launching a sublabel called This is Not Your Home which focuses on the far-left side of techno and house.
Carl Clandestine & Ela Orleans of Clan Destine Records
Across the continent and over the Atlantic is Clan Destine Records. Pulling from roughly the same pool of artists as Tundra, Clan Destine manages to showcase an entirely different universe. Dwelling from a love of obscure and off kilter music, a blend of minimal electronics, crust punk, southern rap and black metal, Carl Clandestine runs his label as a showcase of the most outre and obtrusive artists emerging. With a range of artists that are as varied as the label heads tastes, Clan Destine is far from a scene label.
In fact, it is more of a scene in itself. There are no written manifestos, but there is an obvious and strict philosophy that runs through the labels releases. Issued on a variety of medium, but with a distinct love for cassette culture, Clan Destine has never ceased to surprise with the quality and variety of its output. This past year has seen releases from some of the greatest artists emerging at the moment, including the exquisite NEO-PI R by Ela Orleans (who now runs the label with Carl) which may be the album of the year.
Another shining example was the split lp between Portand synth punks ASSS and noisy Sheffield style electronics purveyors Meddicine. In fairness of full disclosure, I have released a few things on this label, but it is my respect for what the label represents that has led me to choose them as a vehicle to release my own decrepit work. Both Tundra and Clan Destine excel due to the integrity of what they do. Ben and Carl are not only men with good taste, but also people with a vision to see that all this is more than just a fly by night fashion that will be forgotten when next years’ line rolls in.
