REVENGE OF THE WRITERS: Best & Worst of 2011 (Pt. 2)
Dec 30, 2011
In which the folks who work in the trenches get in the last word. Hey, nothing's stopping you from doing your own list!
BY THE BLURT CRÜE
We continue with our Writers' lists for 2011. Go here for Part 1.
STEVE KLINGE
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Top 10 New Releases
Destroyer-Kaputt (Merge)
Fucked Up-David Comes To Life (Matador)
Booker T. Jones-The Road From Memphis (Anti)
Nick Lowe-The Old Magic (YepRoc)
M83-Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)
Tune-Yards-Whokill (4AD)
TV on the Radio-Nine Types of Light (Interscope)
M83-Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)
The War on Drugs-Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)
Wilco-The Whole Love (dBpm)
Archival/Reissues
Beach Boys, The Smile Sessions (Capitol)
Kate and Anna McGarrigle-Tell My Sister (Nonesuch)
Stephin Merritt-Obscurities (Merge)
Various-This May Be My Last Time Singing (Tompkins Square)
(And more...)
Top 10 Singles, Tracks or Downloads
Adele-"Rolling in the Deep" (XL / Columbia)
The Black Keys,-- "Lonely Boy" (Nonesuch)
Lana Del Ray-"Video Games" (self-released?)
The Decemberists-"Calamity Song" (Rough Trade)
Dum Dum Girls-"Bedroom Eyes" (SubPop)
PJ Harvey-"The Words That Maketh Murder" (Vagrant)
Jessica Lea Mayfield-"Our Hearts Are Wrong" (Anti)
The Joy Formidable-"Whirring" (Canvasback)
Lykke Li-"Get Some" (Atlantic)
Radiohead-"Separator" (self-released)
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ZACH BLOOM
OAKLAND, CA
Top 10 New Releases
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong (Slumberland)
Cut Copy - Zonoscope (Modular)
Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital (Sub Pop)
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
Beirut - The Rip Tide (Pompeii)
Moonface - Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped (Jagjaguwar)
Washed Out - Within and Without (Sub Pop)
Ssion - Bent (self-released)
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Vagrant)
Top 10 Singles, Tracks or Downloads
M83 - "Midnight City" (Mute)
Cut Copy - "Need You Now" (Modular)
Britney Spears - "Till The World Ends" (Jive)
The Vaccines - "If You Wanna" (Columbia)
St. Vincent - "Cruel" (4AD)
Cass McCombs - "County Line" (Domino)
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - "Belong" (Slumberland)
The Antlers - "I Don't Want Love" (Frenchkiss)
Charli XCX - "Nuclear Seasons" (This Is Music, Ltd.)
Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom Eyes" (Sub Pop)
Concerts
Moonface-The Independent-San Francisco
Ssion-Drom-New York City
Hold Steady-Treasure Island Music Festival-San Francisco
Psychic Friend-Rickshaw Stop-San Francisco
Handsome Furs-Slim's-San Francisco
Favorite story or review I wrote for BLURT
Nirvana retrospective. (Short, sweet, sentimental - my writing AND my manhood.)
http://blurt-online.com/features/view/982/
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LOGAN K. YOUNG
WASHINGTON, DC
Top 10 New Releases
Bon Iver, Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar)
Lou Reed & Metallica, Lulu (Warner Bros.)
Demdike Stare, Tryptych (Modern Love)
John Maus, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (Ribbon Music/Upset The Rhythm)
Colin Stetson, New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation)
Nicholas Szczepanik, Please Stop Loving Me (Streamline)
Tim Hecker, Dropped Pianos (Kranky)
Zomby, Dedication (4AD)
Louis CK, Live at the Beacon Theater (self-released)
The Fall, Ersatz G.B. (Cherry Red)
Top 10 Archival/Reissues
Can - Tago Mago (Mute)
Angus MacLise - Dreamweapon I (Boo-Horay)
Father's Children - Father's Children (Numero Group)
Granddaddy - The Sophtware Slump (V2/Universal)
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (Industrial)
Einstürzende Neubauten - Silence Is Sexy (Potomak)
Morton Feldman & Samuel Beckett - Neither (Hat Hut)
Crass - Christ, The Album (Crassical Collection)
Harold Grosskopf - Synthesist (RVNG Intl)
Bob Dylan - In Concert: Brandeis University 1963 (Sony Legacy)
Top 10 Singles, Tracks or Downloads
Oneohtrix Point Never, "Replica"
Wye Oak, "Holy Holy"
Baby Dee, "Regifted Light"
Lana Del Ray, "Video Games"
Prurient, "A Meal Can Be Made"
U.S. Girls, "The Island Song"
Dum Dum Girls, "He Gets Me High"
Anne Pigalle, "Saint Orgasm"
James Blake, "Case Of You"
Gruff Rhys, "Slashed Wrists This Christmas"
Music Books
Simon Reynolds - Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to It's Own Past (Faber & Faber)
Byron Coley - C'est la guerre: Early Writings: 1978-1983(L'Oie de Cravan)
Lasse Marhaug - Sudden Infant: Noise in My Head: The Actionistic Music and Art of Joke Lanz (Marhaug Forlag Norway)
Justin Vivian Bond - Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press)
Logan K. Young - Mauricio Kagel: A Semic Life (T[W]E[L]V[E]!)
Music Videos
Cat Reacts to Lulu ‘The View'
Cat Reacts to Lulu ‘The View'
Cat Reacts to Lulu ‘The View'
Cat Reacts to Lulu ‘The View'
Cat Reacts to Lulu ‘The View'
Concerts
Haters (Sonic Circuits Festival, Silver Spring MD 9/16)
Dean & Britta (13 Most Beautiful: Songs from Andy Warhol's Screen Test, Washington DC 11/12)
Just Alap Ensemble (Dream House, New York NY 11/5)
Toro Y Moi (Indie Grits Festival, Columbia SC 4/16)
Selena Gomez (Maryland State Fair, Timonium MD 8/26)
Films
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
Blank City
The Skin I Live In
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (3D)
Best Record Label
The limited-run, cassette-only mail order you tried to KickStart with that burnout friend from your ol' college radio show
Best Music-related Website
In Memoriam: Most Lamented Death
In threes, in order (most recent, not importance): Hitch, Conrad Schnitzler, Zoogz Rift
Best New Artist
Any one of the many roving minstrels that were occupying Wall Street
Worst New Artist
From the Grammys: Skrillex
Dumbest Band Name
tUnE-yArDs...still
Sex Object of the Year
The stainless steel KISSTM speculum (limited edition, of course)
Asshole of the Year
Tyler, The Creator (or any editor who gave this knucklehead inches)
Best Hair or Facial Hair
Bradford Cox's new, impossibly fey Branca coif or SG/SF Michael Jordan's (No. 23) ‘stache from those bloomer adverts
2011 Release I Am Most Anticipating
Coolest Trend or Whatever
That Beefheart got a shout-out on the campaign trail, and Wolf Eyes got the same on The Office.
Most Fucked Up or Annoying Trend or Whatever
That Beefheart got a shout-out, from Huntsman, on the campaign trail...and that Wolf Eyes was on The Office.
Favorite story or review you wrote for BLURT
Salvaging a printable Q&A with Tom Smith from To Live And Shave In L.A. (in the current print edition of BLURT)
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DANNY R. PHILLIPS
KANSAS CITY, MO
www.facebook.com/danny.r.phillips
Top 10 New Releases
The Black Keys "El Camino" (Nonesuch)
Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" (RCA)
Radkey "Irrationally Yours" (self-released)
Arctic Monkeys "Suck It and See" (Domino)
The Joy Formidable "Big Roar" (Atlantic)
Wavves "Life Sux" (Ghost Ramp)
Wild Flag "Wild Flag" (Merge)
Lydia Loveless "Indestructible Machine" (Bloodshot)
Death "Spritual. Mental. Physical" (Drag City)
Holly Golightly and the Broke offs "No Help Coming" (Transdreamer)
Archival/Reissues
Nirvana "Nevermind 20th Anniversary Edition" (Geffen)
Queen "40 Limited Edition Collectors Box Set" (Hollywood)
Jimi Hendrix "Winterland" (Sony Legacy)
The Pixies "Minotaur Box Set" (Artists in Resistance)
Smashing Pumpkins "Gish" (Virgin)
Death "For The Whole World To See" (Drag City)
The Cure "Disintegration" (Rhino Records)
Singles, Tracks or Downloads
Black Keys "Little Black Submarines"
Wavves "I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl"
Dawes "A Little Bit of Everything"
Mumford and Sons "The Cave"
Foo Fighters "White Limo"
Cage The Elephant "Staring at the Sun"
Death Cab for Cutie "You Are A Tourist"
Music Books
Bob Mould "See a Little Light" (Little, Brown and Co.)
Chuck Klosterman "Eating The Dinosaur" (Scribner)
Jim DeRogatis "The Velvet Underground" (Voyageur Press)
Keith Richards "Life" (Little, Brown and Co.)
Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff "Neil Young: Long May You Run; The Illustrated History"
Best Record Label
Bloodshot Records
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STEVE PICK
ST. LOUIS
Top 10 Albums
The Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun (Model Music Group)
Joe Henry - Reverie (Anti)
k.d. lang & the Siss Boom Bang - Sing It Loud (Nonesuch)
Sarah Jarosz - Follow Me Down (Sugar Hill)
Amy Lavere - Stranger Me (Archer)
Shelby Lynne - Revelation Road (Everso)
Imelda May - Mayhem (Decca)
Meshell Ndegeocello - Weather (Naïve)
Willie Nile - The Innocent Ones (River House)
Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music)
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DAVE STEINFELD
NEW YORK, NY
Top 10 Albums
Fay Wolf - Spiders (Fay Wolf/Hermonica Music)
Mesmerizing debut from Connecticut-born,
California-based
singer-songwriter. Hard to categorize, impossible to resist.
Garland Jeffreys - The King of In Between (Luna
Park)
First album of new material in 13 years from this eclectic singer-songwriter
and proud New Yorker.
The Records Featuring John Wicks - Rotate (Fuel)
Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music)
It's Paul Simon; need I say more?
The Postelles (+1
Music)
Eagerly awaited debut from NYC "it band." Produced by Albert Hammond Jr. of The
Strokes - who this band resembles.
Sniff ‘n' the Tears - Downstream (Chapel Productions)
First disc in a decade by the band who brought us the classic hit "Driver's
Seat." An eclectic and impassioned album.
Vanessa Carlton - Rabbits on the Run (Razor & Tie)
Man Raze - Punkfunkrootsrock (Rocket Science)
Shawn Amos - Harlem (Unbreakable Records)
Christopher Cross - Doctor Faith (Eagle Rock)
Favorite story or review you wrote for BLURT
The Records: "Still Starry Eyed"
http://blurt-online.com/features/view/922
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DOMINIC UMILE
BROOKLYN, NY
http://twitter.com/dominicumile
Top 10 New Releases (in reverse order)
10. Falty DL - You Stand Uncertain (Planet Mu)
9. Machinedrum - Rooms (Planet Mu)
8. Washed Out - Within and Without (Domino)
7. J Rocc - Some Cold Rock Stuf (Stones Throw)
6. Charles Bradley - No Time for Dreaming (Dunham Records)
5. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
4. Martyn - Ghost People (Brainfeeder)
3. Papercuts - Fading Parade (Sub Pop)
2. Belong - Common Era (Kranky)
1. Tycho- Dive (Ghostly International)
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ROBERT FULTON,
LOS ANGELES, CA
Top 10 New Releases
My Morning Jacket - Circuital (ATO Records)
Radiohead - The King of Limbs (self-release)
Those Darlins - Screws Get Loose (Oh Wow Dang Records)
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (SupPop)
Deer Tick - Divine Providence (Partisan Records)
Adele - 21 (Columbia)
Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams (SubPop)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical (self)
Jay-Z & Kanye - Watch the Throne (Def Jam)
Wilco - The Whole Love (d8pm)
Music DVDs
Pearl Jam 20
The Other F Word
Concerts
Chris Cornel at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Washington, D.C.
(It's been a long year with few live events)
Films
Money Ball
Ides of March
The Muppets
(I don't start watching the best 2011 films until Oscar season after the first of the year).
In Memoriam: Most Lamented Death
Music related - Clarence Clemons
Non-Music - Dan Wheldon
(NO, I'm not putting Steve Jobs or Amy Winehouse on this list).
Best New Artist
Nicki Minaj
Dumbest Band Name
LMFAO (no one should ever type LMFAO to express they are laughing their fucking ass off).
Sex Object of the Year
Pippa Middleton
Coolest Trend or Whatever
Bartenders who can make a good Old Fashioned
Most Fucked Up or Annoying Trend or Whatever
Stones reissues, Floyd reissues, whatever issues.
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DAVID ISKRA
NEW YORK, NY
Top 10 New Releases
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Vagrant)
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes (Atlantic)
The Kills - Blood Pressures (Domino)
R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros.)
Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys (Downtown Cooperative)
The Decemberists - The King is Dead (Capitol)
Peter Gabriel - New Blood (Real World)
Devotchka - 100 Lovers (Anti)
Wilco - The Whole Love (dbpm)
Beastie Boys- Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 (Capitol)
Top 10 Archival/Reissues
U2 - Achtung Baby (Island)
The Smiths Complete (Rhino)
R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant (Warner Brothers)
Nirvana - Nevermind (Geffen)
Sting 25 (A&M)
Kate Bush - Director's Cut (EMI)
Rolling Stones - Some Girls (Universal Republic)
This Mortal Coil (4AD)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (Virgin)
Top 10 Singles, Tracks or Downloads
All the Eastern Girls -Chapel Club
The Afterlife - Paul Simon
From a Friend to a Friend - Pajama Club
Love is Found - Sade
Immigrant Song - Karen O
Wetsuit - The Vaccines
You Were Never There - Diego Garcia
Crystalline - Bjork
Jejune Stars - Bright Eyes?
Calgary - Bon Iver
Music DVDs
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake, Twelve Short Films by Seamus Murphy
Peter Gabriel - New Blood Live
U2 - From the Sky Down
Pearl Jam 20
The Suburbs Spike Jonze/Arcade Fire
Music Books
Ticketmasters - Dean Budnick/Josh Baron (ECW Press)
Best of Music Writing 2011 - Alex Ross/Daphne Carr (Da Capo)
Pearl Jam 20 Pearl Jam & Cameron Crowe (Simon & Schuster)
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (Anchor)
Life - Keith Richards (Back Bay Books)
Music Videos
Bjork - Crystalline
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise
REM - uberlin
Immigrant Song - Karen O
Concerts
U2 Giants Stadium
Peter Gabriel Camden
Black Dub TLA
Lykke Li TLA
The Flaming Lips at the Tibet House Benefit/Carnegie Hall
Films
50/50
Moneyball
Hugo
X-Men First Class
Midnight In Paris
Best Record Label
What's that?
Best Music-related Website
http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/
In Memoriam: Most Lamented Death
Steve Jobs
Best New Artist
Of Monsters and Men
Worst New Artist
Foster the People
Dumbest Band Name
Foster the People
Sex Object of the Year
Lykke Li
Asshole of the Year
Everyone that used "It's the End of the World As We Know It" in relationship to R.E.M.'s breakup
Best Hair or Facial Hair
Daniel Lanois' new beard
2012 Release I Am Most Anticipating
METRIC
Coolest Trend or Whatever
Record Store Day
Most Fucked Up or Annoying Trend or Whatever
Anything related to Glee
Favorite story or review I wrote for BLURT
Black Dub: "Live In Philly"
http://blurt-online.com/news/view/5137
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