Hubble
Hubble: Glass Napkin — 20 minutes of spacey, looped shredding.
Running — Amongst Chicago’s finest noisemakers.
Witch Hat
Baltimore is still producing a lot of rad shit
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Witch Hat http://www.myspace.com/witchhat
Brainiac - Vincent Come on Down (Promo VHS) (by trendysetghost)
2011
2011 — or the year that enough cool things happened to warrant making lists and sharing them with Internet friends who surely could care less.
2011 meant meeting a ton of cool new people, visiting cities I’d never been to, attending more (and better) shows than any year before and some other important things I will gloss over. My second year in Chicago began slowly with little to remember aside from some good shows at the start of the year (The Dismemberment Plan reunion, Thank You @ The Bottle…). Summer was without question the best I’ve had as an adult—perhaps ever. The final three months of the year were amazing (awesome travel, awesome shows, awesome funs) but could most accurately be described as “the most fun I’ve ever had while trying to avoid complete misery.”
These are the things that made 2011 so very rad.
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Favorite Albums (in no particular order)
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Future Islands, On the Water
Thee Oh Sees, Carrion Crawler/The Dream
The Skull Defekts, Peer Amid
Thank You, Golden Worry
Disappears, Guider
John Maus, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
Peaking Lights, 936
Moon Duo, Mazes
The Psychic Paramount, II
Total Control, Henge Beat
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Rats/Sermon EP
CAVE, Neverendless
Mi Ami, Dolphins
Parts and Labor, Constant Future
Young Widows, In and Out of Youth and Lightness
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Most Memorable Shows
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The Psychic Paramount @ The Empty Bottle [July 20th]
The Skull Defekts @ The Hideout [March 31st]
Double Dagger @ Treasure Town [October 15th]
Double Dagger’s final Chicago show from GONZO CHICAGO on Vimeo.
The Oh Sees w/ Total Control @ The Empty Bottle [November 23rd]
Hot Snakes @ FunFunFun Fest [November 5th]
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat and Future Islands @ Lincoln Hall [October 30th]
Bars of Gold @ Scrummage Vision, Detroit, MI [October 14th]
White Mystery Album Release w/ Loose Dudes @ Pancho’s followed immediately by Child Bite, Call Me Lightning and Parts & Labor @ The Empty Bottle [April 20th]
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Activities
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Playing with dogs: Norman, Tiger, Seamus, Clover, Banjo—you guys are great.
Remembering [… or attempting to remember] how to draw. Big thanks to the Doodle Day crew for being inspiring and amazingly talented.
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Internet Thing
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Rdio.
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LoLz
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Before it was a terrible Adult Swim show [pupils? WTF!?], China, IL was the funniest damned thing on the internet.
;
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Best time queued up outside a building in the rain.
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April 4th — After being a weiner and skipping their show in Logan Square the night before [I JUST saw them in October!!!, WAH], Lightning Bolt surprised Chicago and played a free show at the Empty Bottle. Acting as a responsible adult for the first time all year, I stayed a few minutes after work to check in with our freelance motion designer dude to make sure that he had what he needed to keep working and was not just doing bong hits at his desk. This uncharacteristic act of responsibility resulted in arriving fifteen people after the maximum capacity cut-off. The next hour-and-a-half was spent leaning against the building listening to the muffled sounds of Cacaw and Lightning Bolt through cracks in the door, trying to convince myself that the doorman’s claims that they were “at capacity and no one else would be let in” were false. That was not the case.
What I missed —
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Most Memorable Day
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[June 4th] — Garfield Park Conservatory, the Pullman Neighborhood, Vernon St…, Maria’s Packaged Goods, Falafel, Fulton Market photo adventure, walking until our feet were bloody stumps, porch beers, Quicksand/Cradlesnakes—three times, numb arms, sleepovers.
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Travel
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Austin.
Before Austin, I hadn’t flown in so long that I can’t actually remember my last trip. After years of driving-only trips and failed plans to visit more distant locales, it was time to get touch and embrace the solo trip.
Austin was near the top of my “places to visit” list and FunFunFun Fest a wonderful reason to go. I stayed with my friends Eric and Bridget (and their two cool dogs) who are old friends from Milwaukee. The first night we all attending a closing party for an art show that B&E had work in / Bridget helped curate. The following morning, Bridget and Eric went off to work and I took to exploring Austin by foot and borrowed Hasselbad camera. After photos, food trucks and coffee I hopped on Eric’s fixed gear polo bike and awkwardly peddalled down to the FFF festival grounds. Highlights from that first night include seeing Thee Oh Sees for the first time, Omar Souleyman’s Syrian yömz and my first encounter with Texas-style dust storms. The formula remained the same for the remaining two days; wake up, eat, explore, bike to FFF, jams, food trucks, exhaustion, bed. Other notable moments: Hot Snakes reunion show and the ultimate fanboy moment of my life; running into Hot Snakes at a bar on Saturday night and “OMG Rick Froberg, awesome set! It was SOOO COOL to finally see you play as Hot Snakes… I just saw you and Obits last Saturday and…” as the incredibly drunk head of Ric Froberg bobbed along in appreciation.
New York
I’d been trying unsuccessfully to make it to New York for well over a year. I had planned to waste the remainder of my vacation time sitting on my couch in Chicago. However, after being knocked out by the flu for an entire week beforehand I couldn’t stomach the idea of another second in my apartment so a last second impulse trip was thrown together. This was my first truly solo trip and all things considered it went amazing. I spent the majority of my time exploring different neighborhoods on foot and and snapping a few photos. I made trips to the Guggenheim, Museum of Art and Design, New Museum and MoMA. Played videogames at Barcade in Williamsburg with Mike Thompson. Ate a wild boar Cuban sandwich. Drank beers at a Wisconsin themed bar in the heart of Soho. Walked through Park Slope, Williamsburg, the Upper East Side, Central Park, The Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, The Bowery and Soho. Made an ill-advised late night trip to Times Square [only because I was in New York and… why not?] and had 20 of the most miserable minutes of my life. Ooooh, pretty lights! Gawkers! Hawkers! AMERICA! Caught up with my friend Nic at his apartment in Chinatown, ate amazing spicy noodles at the most legit of Chinese restaurants and filled my gut with beers.
And how could we forget St. Louis and to a lesser extent, Louisville, and to a much lesser extent… Indianapolis. Although that was highly memorable for rather nefarious reasons.
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Best trip to and back Detroit in the same day
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[October 14th] Knowing full well that their time on this earth is limited; Derek Dietrich-Muller, Anna Schabold and I hit the road to see Bars of Gold at ‘Scrummage Vision’ — a Mad Max style DIY venue space in the gnarliest of Detroit’s mostly abandoned neighborhoods.
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Most unexpected/awesome single minute of time
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Les Savy Fav @ Green Music Festival [June 26th]. Video speaks for itself—helped carry Tim Herrington of LSF through the crowd on a lawn chair. Tim raised his arms triumphantly. Confetti rained down. It was captured on video. Everything was perfect.
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Favorite Plants
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Plant, Agador, Spartacus. Yes, my plants have names
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Swill of Choice
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Schlitz
/ 2011 /
Ed Shrader is the best.
Poetry 365: How to Be Alone, Tanya Davis →
If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.
We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can…
Thank You - Pathetic Magic (by Thrill Jockey Records)
Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise (by Thrill Jockey Records)
Future Islands - Before the Bridge (by Thrill Jockey Records)
