10 favorite punk records, 2011

to be honest, my knowledge of punk is nowhere near encyclopedic. i can't name influences that'll help anyone pinpoint the band's sound, but i can tell you how these records made me feel. this list is of no use to anyone, really. reads like a parody of a pitchfork review. anyway:

if you take out the asterisked ones, these would have been the others in the top ten: title fight lp (side one dummy), brown sugar lp (feeble minds/feral kid), royal headache (rip society). i know that's 11.

10. rank/xerox - lp (yellow green red)
i don't know if this really happened or just because i went to art school, but like 5 years ago everyone was really into joy division and gang of four and there was was a lot of post-punk coming out, and at first some of the bands were alright, but then it just got really, really shitty, so much so that post-punk became a kind of pejorative to me. anyway now this was the record this year that most made me feel like it was okay to like post-punk again.
9. avon ladies - guns & gold 7" (katorga works)
when i listen to this record things get weird. when i listen to cyanide lactater the first image that comes to mind is me in a first person shooter game where i look kind of like chud and the only way i can score points is by getting people to dance with/throw up on me.
8. dead language - lp (iron lung)
it's everything i like about bands like iron lung, but better. the music itself is not confusing, it's almost perfect, evokes confusion and paranoia. listening to this record makes me feel like i've just found out that my nervous system is just a series of bugs and wiretaps.
7. hysterics - 7" (m'lady)
with the first two tracks of this e.p., hysterics does calling bullshit on image-punks and self-important liberalism better than anyone since the dead kennedys. fucking scathing. it's really rare that lyrics in a punk song are so good that they make me go all arsenio hall but there are points in this that manage to do exactly that. you can read the riot-grrrl lineage but sound-wise this is just a straight hardcore ripper.
*. culo - life is vile...and so are we (deranged)
it's no secret that this is my favorite band. it's a compilation of culo's released material to date--in cluded are their 3 EPs (#1s 1 and 2 on my list of best records of 2010, and #1 on my list of best records of 2011). i don't know where to put this since it's nothing new so just putting it in the middle somewhere. what i can tell you for sure is that at one point i re-arranged some things in my room so i could get drunk and "stage-dive" onto my bed while listening to the military trend ep, which is one of my favorite hc records of all time.
*. creamers - slow burn (secret beach)
this is going in the middle too because i don't want to put a number on a record i put out. maybe it's self promotion, but there were only a couple new releases this year that i listened to as much as i did this. really melodic and catchy but nasty at the same time. you know how i feel about it.
4. hoax - 7" (deranged/katorga works)
you hate me but i hate me more, and i hate you even more than that. riffs sound almost metal. a-side of this record is the side-to-side mosh inducer of the year, both live and in my room by myself at four in the morning. this record does that impossible thing where it takes you right to the point of over the top self-parody but never crosses over and the result is just a record that does what it wants to do flawlessly.
3. wiccans - skullduggery (katorga works)
at this point i've seen wiccans so many times that it's hard to separate how i feel about the record from how i feel about the shows. they are at the very least, my favorite live band in texas right now. intro song on this lp sums it up pretty well: at first it's catchy hardcore, then the vocals come in. not at all what i was expecting, almost existing in juxtaposition/contrast with the rest of the band, but as the album jumps around stylistically from song to song the vocals and the dynamic they create keep the whole thing together in a really unique way.
2. crazy spirit - i'm dead (mata la musica)
i'm running at the hype so hard i think i just saw it flinch. the drums have been described as a gallop. it's kind of like a gallop if the horse has four legs of all different lengths. i can't really say anything about this band that hasn't been said already, though.
1. white wards 7" (iron lung)
pretty sure this was what "mysterious guy hardcore" was all about. sounds like a bunch of our favorite hardcore bands trying to eat each other. devoid of faith, void. even some greg ginn esque guitar. i dunno. maybe it's not the best record, but it's the one i listened to most. listening to this record is like embracing the fact that you have rabies.

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SBR - 001: CREAMERS - Slow Burn EP

words usually used to describe creamers:

kbd, bloodstains, hardcore, kbd-style, snotty, garage.

what i like about creamers:

maybe the most impressive fact about this band is that two record labels have been spawned for the purpose of putting out the creamers' music. here's jolly dream's version of why they started a label to put out the first creamers 7". most of what i have to say is the same.

the first words of their first record..." no vote count could save today." there's no politics, and no booze--they're young skinny kids who don't party, mosh hard, and have like 5 tattoos between the four of them. it's not punk because it doesn't give a fuck, not punk because it does gives a fuck--just because it's mad as hell. it doesn't pretend to have the answers (no smash the state, no let's get wasted), it's raw and pissed-off and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. the music itself: starts/stops, hard mosh bits, mini-melodies and chant vocals. combines lots of classically punk/hardcore elements, but is totally unique. think the frantic guitars of black dots era bad brains with all over the place mini-melodies, vocals that manage to channel early american hardcore and chanty early oi at the same time. it's immediate and stripped down but not too predictable or familiar, and it's got some of the most cynical and overlooked lyrics in hardcore, period.

download here

and if you like it

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