Joy, Conflict, and Consumption: Nicholas’ 2015
Consuming records is a source of both joy and conflict: joy, where my undying love and obsession with music can be reified for physical engagement; conflict, where my uneasiness with consumption, desire for justice, and the crutches of hanging onto physical objects meet. Obviously, the former wins out over the latter in the vast majority of cases. So long as our reality is imperfect to begin with, any anxiety over this conflict melts into a basic feeling of necessity and comfort.
To write about music in terms of its physical releases, then, is often to swim in the vagaries of art and consumption. I don’t believe one is higher than the other: it’s impossible to solely abstract art from the consumption, for an artist can merge their vision with physical media in astonishing and beautiful ways. There’s not necessarily a need to abstract art from physical consumption, for physically consuming music can also serve as an introduction to other communities, relationships, and forms of expression. So it is that I swim away, and happily so.
Throughout 2015, I decided to engage more thoughtfully with my consumption of music: why I am I buying this? This is no small feat: in the past, I have purchased records from sources of anxiety or stress, sometimes aimlessly searching for music that might fill some void. Other times, I have been a shrewd trader, opening my collection to criticism and using each album as a potential gateway to another purchase. Not surprisingly, I made my biggest set of trades in 2015, emptying more than a fifth of my collection in order to repurpose it. 2015 was an odd year: after increasingly diving into jazz and electronic music, I found many of my previous favorites no longer represented my taste or itch to run the turntable. I traded out, and then had an odd journey, a move, and perhaps the most conscientious year of purchasing in my life. As a record consumer, I was more thoughtful and engaged this year, and many of the older albums I bought whetted my enthusiasm for new trends. So, following the vein of my 2014 Manifest Destiny column, I am crafting a year end list around my yearlong project of tracking my purchases. This is not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to find the intersection between my favorite 2015 works and my own physical consumption.
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January 8, 2015 (Reckless Records, 3126 N Broadway, Chicago). The Mallard, Finding Meaning in Deference (Used CD. Castle Face, 2013). Greer McGettrick’s outfit played the darker, unhinged foil to Thee Oh Sees’ perfected treble blitz in 2013, and unfortunately Finding Meaning in Deference marked the group’s end even prior to its release. As far as swan songs go, this album is one of the most scathing and successful, as The Mallard wildly and effectively pursue each whim. Raging closer “The Iceburg” is the perfect culmination of the album’s swooping basslines and effects-riddled vocals and instrumentation. Here, the fuzz is heavier, switching the terrain from some the more approachable, churning clean stabs that appear earlier (see “Math”) while still answering the robust pop writing established by the middle of the disc (“Out the Door”). I neglected to spend enough time with this record during a peak of Castle Face speculation buys, and the prohibitive secondary market made sleeping on this album even worse; when the dust settles, this album will contend as one of the very best of the Castle Face glory days. So, finding this CD to open the year was welcome, especially as equally powerful statements by Toupee, Melkbelly, and Helen straddled psychedelia, new wave, and punk lines.
2015 Favorites: Toupee (live at Elastic Arts & Empty Bottle; and on Moniker Records); A Place to Bury Strangers, Transfixiation (Dead Oceans).
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January, 2015: aQuarius Records, 1055 Valencia, San Francisco [Michael Beach, Golden Theft (New LP. Spectacular Commodity / Twin Lakes, 2013)] & Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific, Santa Cruz [Jerusalem and the Starbaskets, Dost (New LP. De Stijl, 2011)]. While visiting close friends out west, a trip to aQuarius Records was obligatory. My first trip to that mecca of outsider genres was daunting, as the walls of CDs, tape shelves, and LP racks were packed with quality picks that even surpassed what their famous mailing list promises. So, I am certain I missed tons of great buys, as my mind reeled to consider the best possible picks. Luckily, my friend picked out the phenomenal Michael Beach record, which pairs ramshackle guitars’n’drums and extended narrative lyrics. The album was a great pick alongside my purchase at the much more laid back Santa Cruz Streetlight, where I finally caught up to Jerusalem and the Starbaskets. For fans of CAVE’s Neverendless or Heater’s God and Hair, Jerusalem and the Starbaskets deliver a grungier, truncated version of the decade’s best motorik rock.
2015 Grit Rock Parallel: BBJR, I Did What I Could With What I Had (Captcha).
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February 20, 2015: (Permanent Records Chicago, 1914 W Chicago, Chicago). CAMERA, Remember I Was Carbon Dioxide (New LP & CD. Bureau B, 2014). Once a matter of financial necessity, trading records became a matter of taste and reconstructing my record collection in 2015. Early in the year, I felt restless and unhappy with my records: they simply no longer represented my taste, or even worse, where my interests and taste were headed. So, in February, I grouped together some of my previous pop / psych / garage / reissue favorites and double LP sets (along with some tapes, of course!) and made my largest trade to date from my modest-sized collection. Thankfully, friendly record clerks and close friends alike made consistent recommendations for the CAMERA records, so I quickly leapt into Bureau B and deeper into longform psych. The crisp and heavy multilayered performances by CAMERA not only foreshadowing the well-timed Harmonia boxed set, but also preceded eventual Trouble in Mind psych favorites (from the Hiiragi Fukuda reissue to the exceptional VERMA album), Warm Deltas, and a late year tour by The Dandy Warhols (a veritable shoegaze pop force in concert).
2015 Deep Psych: VERMA, Mul.Apin (Trouble In Mind); Warm Deltas, Burning Paisley (Grabbing Clouds); Harmonia, Complete Works (Grönland) (!!!!!).
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April 10, 2015: (Reckless Records, now 1379 N Milwaukee, Chicago). HIDE, “Possession” (New Cassingle. 2014). I missed out on HIDE in 2014, but made up for that absence by seeking out their cassingle around town (and then seeing them live at the Empty Bottle). HIDE use black leather catharsis and hard synth darkness to entrance their listener. Heather Gabel fashions distant vocals against Seth Sher’s industrial beats, and the resulting brand of minimalism forms a striking audio and visual release. This may be an odd (or unnecessary) comparison, but in the context of contemporary dark shoegaze (or even heavier punk/shoegaze variations), Gabel and Sher manage to produce the intensity and sense of layered oblivion with electronics in a more effective way than many full, guitar-based bands. Incidentally, this tape may be the last thing I purchased at the “old” Milwaukee Ave. Reckless spot, after that location moved to a brighter and larger space just down the road.
2015 Beats: Diva, Divinity Within Thee (Stones Throw); Gel Set (!!!!!!), Human Salad (Moniker), one of my favorite and most-played of the year; Quicksails, Fleurs de la Lune (Captcha).
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June 2015: (Permanent Records Chicago). Weakwick, For Show (New Tape. Fashion Fingers, 2014). There’s this rowdy and ambitious “no wave” revival that defined many 2015 punk records, and did so in a way that was more confrontational and brutal than the originals. In the middle of the year, I missed Weakwick’s tour, but I snagged a copy of their 2014 blend of highly-refined noise and straightforward punk abandon. This is just perfect: for all the garbage published about millenials, they certainly grasp the tools to execute BLEAK sounds in two minute formats. Incidentally, the first no wave movement occurred in the midst of the seed of major American gentrification; may this latest instantiation be its death blow. More, please!
2015 PUNK!: The Sediment Club, Psychosimplastic (ChuChu); Tropical Trash, UFO Rot (Load / Riot Season); Drunken Sufis, Cotton Candy Cluster Bombs (Bad Friend); HOGG, Bury the Dog Deeper (Nihilist).
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Favorite “Classic” Albums:
While listening to the “big idea” albums, moving in the summer, working through a stressful fall, and finding new opportunities, some classic acquisitions held me up:
CCR, Chronicle (tape).
The Band, Music From Big Pink (Used LP).
Various Artists, Pebbles Volume 3: The Acid Gallery (Used LP).
White Noise, An Electric Storm (New LP reissue?).
Neil Young, On the Beach (Used LP).
Tangerine Dream, Phaedra (LP).
Bo Diddley, His Greatest Sides: Volume One (reissue LP).
Big’N, Discipline Through Sound (LP).
The Dandy Warhols, Rule OK (reissue 2xLP).
Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy (reissue LP).
Oh for goodness sake, Neil Young’s On the Beach must be the biggest and best bummer of all time. STRAIGHT TO SIDE B!. I am not sure if I played anything more than the CCR tape in 2015. For those scoffing on the Dandys:
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July & August 2015: Reckless Records Broadway [McCoy Tyner, Sahara (LP reissue. Milestone, 1972)] & Rogers Park Record Swap, Red Line Tap, 7006 N Glenwood, Chicago [Yusuf Lateef, Hush N Thunder (LP. Atlantic, 1973)] After moving to the far north lakefront (the only left-leaning north lakefront neighborhood, the only lakefront neighborhood that carried Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in the mayoral election), I shopped at Funk Trunk Records, a small-but-extremely-well-curated soul, jazz, funk, and electronic/hip hop store (sorry, I still don’t know my electronic genres very well). Funk Trunk turned me on to the Rogers Park record swap, and in general facilitated some of the big idea, conceptual-orchestral jazz that was the perfect summer soundtrack. Everything chilled out on the beach, so woodwinds and robust arrangements were a seamless transition. One of my favorite Reckless finds of the year was McCoy Tyner’s Sahara, which oscillates between solo performances and full-arrangement jazz. Yusuf Lateef’s big concept jazz also resonated with many of the ambitious sets and albums that continued to educate me about jazz and its outer reaches, potential in 2015.
2015 Favorites: Panoptic Prism-Price-Stephenson-Wildeman set at Elastic Arts (March 20); Bad Luck set at Elastic Arts (November 4); Spires That In The Sunset Rise, Beasts in the Garden (Alt.Vinyl); Stephen Haynes, Pomegranite (New Atlantis).
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September 2015: (Permanent Records Chicago). Jenny Hval, Viscera (LP. Rune Grammofon, 2011). Jenny Hval’s surrealist synthesis of experimental sounds and probing lyrics was one of my obsessions throughout 2015, so much so that I ordered her debut album in an attempt to understand and enjoy her work. Adding Viscera to my listening rotation helped to define the radical nature of Apocalypse, Girl (Sacred Bones): Hval’s debut is near the edges of folk / “contemporary” rock music, even if her lyrics remain biting and full of wit. Hval explores the complex nature of the body throughout her work, and the depth of her imagery and storytelling makes each return listen valuable and, sometimes, breathtaking. Working through Hval’s albums was also an excellent counterpart for lyrical & vocal-based progressive albums from 2015.
2015 Parallels: Powerdove, Arrest (Murailles / Sickroom); Lisa Busby, Fingers in the Gloss; Circuit des Yeux, In Plain Speech (Thrill Jockey).
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September 21, 2015: (Funk Trunk Records, 6960 N. Sheridan, Chicago). The Temptations, “Ball of Confusion (That’s what the World is Today)” (7″. Gordy, 1970). It’s almost too easy to draw equations between political unrest, institutional / state-sourced injustices, growing political consciousness, and music with a social conscience. Where inequitable realities of largescale distribution, “hip” stances, or spoonfed lyrics or platforms stain pop music’s attempts to answer injustice, outsider music offers a legitimate chance at a more effectively subversive response. So it went in 2015, where three of my favorite artists (Algiers, Obnox, and ONO) pierced tensions of antiblack racism and the ever-present (not to mention authoritative) Grim Reaper in the Racist USA with empowering albums. I found myself working back through music and social consciousness throughout the year, loving Sly & The Family Stone (There’s a Riot Goin’ On is aces!) and finding grand surprises like the psychedelic Temptations at Funk Trunk.
Throwing aside the pristine innocence suggested by their classic and oft-cited singles, The Temptations dug deeper into disinvested Motown by broadening their sound and capturing sheer frustration on tape. It would be irresponsible to say The Temptations’ Detroit is ONO’s Chicago, Obnox’s Cleveland, or Algiers’ Atlanta, but it would be equally inaccurate to argue that the spectre of disinvestment and systematic racism does not define those cities. Filtering this sense through music produces a phenomenal lesson about the potential for learning and empowerment behind the facade of the familiar (such as The Temptations’ most-famous-sounds), and it is a lesson that rings as true on this very day as it did in 1970.
Absolutely Necessary Generational Music: Obnox, Know America (Ever / Never) and Boogalou Reed (12XU); Algiers, Algiers (Matador); ONO, Spooks 2xLP (Moniker). Black. Lives. Matter.
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November 2015: (Reckless Records Milwaukee). Sapropelic Pycnic, See Sun Think Shadow (LP. Perfect Wave, 2015). Following the thread of big concept jazz from earlier in the year, the debut effort by Sapropelic Pycnic provided an excellent demonstration of the power of a sole instrument and the forces of a lone player. At one piano, Kathleen Baird unleashes a narrative without words, as she contorts her acoustic instrument and allows those keys and ambiance to shine throughout the recording. Baird’s performance is progressive in her willingness to blend complicated techniques with returns to arpeggios and rumbling basslines. Performing with Taralie Peterson in Spires That In The Sunset Rise also associated Baird with one phenomenal jazz entry in 2015, and her work as Sapropelic Pycnic effectively complements and explains the group’s development on Beasts in the Garden. Since Baird drew See Sun Think Shadow from an older recording, it will be interesting to see whether these solo moves will reveal more about Spires That In The Sunset Rise’s deep turn into compositional jazz.
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December 20, 2015: (Permanent Records Chicago). Motion Sickness of Time Travel, The Perennials (LP. Boomkat Editions, 2013). After playing Matchess’s work nonstop for the end of the year, Motion Sickness of Time Travel was a welcome adventure in synthetic excursions. The power of this work is its organic feel, as beats and layers connect to drive the listener beyond the electronic imprint of the keys and effects. Motion Sickness of Time Travel produces meditative compositions that are not necessarily spacey or otherworldly, but certainly challenging the bounds of mind and body (or, seeking their convergence). Alongside Tangerine Dream and Matchess, among others, I found ruminative refuge in watery repetitions.
2015 Favorites: Matchess, Somnaphoria (Trouble In Mind); VCSR, Tape 4 (Permanent); Gardener, Slabs (self).
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THANK YOU! To Liz, Dwight, and Bobby for feeding me with amazing music and editorial direction all year long; to Angela Catalano and Travis Bird for continually upholding and advocating the merits of film; to Kelley Crawford for your noise messages and inquisitive journalism; to Ben Remsen for your Now Is Podcast; to Dave, Jamie, Jon, and Robert at Permanent Records Chicago for your amazing picks; to Quinn at Funk Trunk Records for the welcome into the neighborhood; to Notice Recordings, Moniker Records, Cinchel, Captcha Records, Trouble in Mind Records, Planted Tapes, Drag City, New Atlantis Records, Euth Coast, and Kranky for press, starting new partnerships, and, of course, continuing old ones; to new and old friends at Elastic Arts for amazing programming and getting me out of the house (seriously); to The Chicago Triangle, Horse Lords, ONO, Algiers, and Daniel Wyche for interviews and extended writing opportunities, thank you for your patience.
#ResignRahm!
