2011

Based on my iTunes count, the following presents a pretty accurate list of the songs released in 2011 that I listened to most:

1 "Separator" by Radiohead, from The King of Limbs

Say what you will about Radiohead's reigning status (since, oh, about 1997) as the lowest common denominator of middle-brow art rock, it is a huge pleasure to hear this band continue to evolve, if not pushing artistic boundaries at least becoming more and more comfortable in their own skins--even if the music itself remains as anxious as ever. The King of Limbs came out of nowhere and made my year, and this song's crisp rhythms and gorgeous spidery guitar melody are its crowning moment.

2 "Street Halo" by Burial, from Street Halo EP

Burial doesn't have to evolve to remain on the bleeding edge of international electronic music--Burial has been doing basically the same thing since 2006 and the rest of dubstep is still struggling to keep up. Quavering bass tones, shuffling tech beats, disembodied voices blending with evocative synth melodies--I could be describing any number of "atmospheric" dubstep tracks released in the last year, but then why does nothing else hit me right in the base of the brainstem quite like Burial does?

3 "Platetectonics" by United Waters, from Your First Ever River

New York free rock duo Mouthus will for me forever be one of the defining groups of the 2000s, the decade in which noise seemed poised to conquer the indie underground, before it all dissolved into pop nostalgia. With this solo project Mouthus guitarist Brian Sullivan pries open his former band's claustrophobic lo-fi drift, with layers of tranquil guitar and drum machine loops unfolding into hazy fractal vistas like some psychedelic nature documentary narrated by a murmuring loner folk auteur.

4 "Sixteen Years" by Pink Reason, from Shit in the Garden

This is the most consonant and driving song on Pink Reason's latest LP, a follow-up to the drudge-punk masterpiece Cleaning the Mirror from 2007. Like the mutant RIYL offspring of Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, and Einsturzende Neubauten.

5 "Light of the Light" by Six Organs of Admittance, from Alseep on the Floodplain

Six Organs mastermind Ben Chasny has been gathering momentum since the early 2000s, and his latest album returns to his roots as a disciple of the American Primitive school of acoustic guitar, with a batch of solo pieces that focus on his precise, heartfelt guitar compositions and ephemeral vocals.

6 "Continuing the Good Life" by Matt Valentine, from What I Became

Like Chasny, in 2011 MV released this stripped-down solo joint that highlights his ability to rip a stellar post-Crazy Horse guitar solo and at the same time develop an intensely personal vocabulary within the tradition of stoned folk rock. Like a mini "Day in the Life," this little gem of a ditty builds a whole world of emotion out of a heart-tugging fingerpicked figure, backmasked effects, plaintive hoots and harmonica.

7 "West Hartford" by 200 Years, from 200 Years

The unassuming side project of couple(?) Elisa Ambrogio (frontwoman of East Coast noise rockers Magick Markers) and Ben Chasny (see above @5), this album is probably most pleasurable for a fan of both artists' more recognized work. Ambrogio lets down her guard and assumes an intimate singer-songwriter pose that yields beautiful results like this lamentful hometown reminiscence, while Chasny's fluent and understated lead guitar work and backing vocals offer proof of the bond between the two players.

8 "Swerve... The reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)" by Shabazz Palaces, from Black Up

It may be that hip-hop was born deconstructed, but it still sounds like Shabazz was doing something all kinds of unprecedented on Black Up, nowhere so much as this track, an album-closing banger and lead single that doesn't really bang, with cold-ass beats and guest vocals from Thee Satisfaction that seem at once distant and immediate. But try not to let this sparse but highly detailed jam highjack your sense of time, space and rhythm.

9 "Viper's Fang" by Skullflower, from Fucked on a Pile of Corpses

While great, nothing from Celestial Lineage, the lastest album by eco-purist black metallists Wolves in the Throneroom, even cracked my top 150 tracks of the year. This odious, hissing dirge, however, went on an unstoppable rampage through my psyche. Matthew Bower has released literally days worth of harsh psychedelic guitar noise over the last three decades, but until this track he had barely played a recognizable riff since 2005. And what a riff this is, its primitive BM roar slammed home by molasses-heavy drums and a wall of corrupting static.

10 "The Highwayman" by Arbouretum, from The Gathering

This song barely beat out Destroyer's Roxy Music simulacrum "Blue Eyes," probably because I was trying to figure out how to play it. Or maybe because in Arbouretum's hands this classic Jimmy Webb ballad (popularized by the eponymous country rock super group of Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson) is polished to a deep golden sheen and fired deep into the heart of the cosmos. Yeah, that's probably it.

Honorable mentions, including not released in 2011: Bob Dylan (had my belated Dylan phase in August, totally worth it), Richard & Linda Thompson, Fleetwood Mac, "Brain Champagne" by Thadwick Tristen Trevor III & Swan Coltrane, Stare Case, Prurient, Godflesh, Hummingbird of Death.

Best show of my entire life: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Seattle, February. Runners up for most fun shows of 2011: Seattle Halloween loveliness by Nod and the Hobgoblins, and Guate ragga jams by Fajaman.

Looking forward to 2012: The Glass Masses, the excellent debut album by my brother's band Rags & Ribbons; seeing Bloodsweep play live and sewing a backpatch on my jacket; maybe finally recording something myself?

Fund Rainy Dawg Radio

To: asuwpres@u.washington.edu

Dear ASUW President Madeline McKenna,

My name is Phil Neff, 2007 alumnus of the University of Washington. During my time as an undergraduate and graduate student at the UW, I served as a volunteer DJ with Rainy Dawg Radio for more than four years, and served as Music Director for the station during 2005-2007. I can state without exaggeration that my experience at Rainy Dawg provided some of the most memorable and enriching experiences of my time at the UW. I came to be close friends with knowledgeable and dedicated volunteers and staff members, worked with exciting upcoming and internationally-recognized artists, and had the opportunity to vastly expand and share my own knowledge of music, especially local music produced in the Pacific Northwest, to which I dedicated my long-running show Cascadia Now!

Although I do not currently work in the music industry, my experience as Music Director provided me with skills that have translated directly to my current work in Guatemala supporting local human rights organizations as part of the Network in Solidarity with People in Guatemala, including coordination of volunteers, facilitation of organizational meetings and strategy, and writing on a deadline. Many colleagues of mine from Rainy Dawg, however, have found their calling as artists and as members of the music community, including as radio DJs for KEXP and The End, as concert and band promoters, as writers and critics, and as locally and nationally renowned performers and producers. I have no doubt that many of them found their path into a career in music greatly facilitated by the contacts and direct experience provided by their association with Rainy Dawg.

University radio stations are a crucial part of the music community's life-cycle and ecosystem, training generations of students in the skills that make it possible for the rest of us to enjoy new, exciting, creative art every day. I urge you to continue to fund Rainy Dawg Radio and to reject cuts which would eliminate staff positions at the student-run station. These positions, in addition to nurturing individuals who are interested in careers in music, help support students' tuition and living costs, and are particularly critical during a time of rising tuition costs, economic difficulties, and skyrocketing student debt.

Thank you,

Phil Neff

B.A. English and Human Rights, University of Washington 2007

Music Director, Rainy Dawg Radio, 2005-2007

P.S. You can't kill rock!

Rangda and AFCGT: Seattle's premier avant-rock supergroups

Collaboration, in art as in other endeavors, leads to one of two ends: either the dilution of individual character and effort into collective slurry; or a communion of minds and bodies, blending singular egos into a fortified concoction that transcends the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, the rock "supergroup" is a recipe that too often yields bland, watered-down, or simply underwhelming results. This, luckily, is not the case of AFCGT and Rangda, two all-star combos which have recently gushed forth from Seattle's underground rock wellspring.

Of the two groups, Rangda probably enjoys the most international renown. A non-traditional power-trio, the band formed in late 2009 and features guitarists Rick Bishop and Ben Chasny alongside percussionist Chris Corsano. Bishop is a long-time luminary on the experimental rock scene, a member of seminal avant-garde tricksters Sun City Girls, and a prolific solo artist who has explored world folk and rock guitar styles under the name Sir Richard Bishop. Chasny, a recent Seattle transplant, is the main creative force behind the psychedelic folk/rock project Six Organs of Admittance. And Corsano is perhaps Earth’s greatest living free percussionist, collaborating with a laundry list of spectacular artists including Paul Flaherty, Jandek, Björk, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Nels Cline, and most of the members of Sonic Youth. While Chasny and Corsano previously played together on School of the Flower, one of Six Organs’ most expansive and contemplative releases, Rangda is to the best of my knowledge both artists’ first recorded meeting with Bishop. They debuted with a mind-melting live performance at The Sunset in Ballard in autumn of last year, and in May they released the album False Flag on the Drag City label.

False Flag offers about what one would expect from a group of Rangda’s pedigree: assured, magisterial psychedelic and classic rock tropes delivered with searing improvisational energy. Structurally, the album alternates between noisy, free-form experiments and gorgeous, even restrained pieces that showcase each artist’s signature sounds. Both sides of the LP kick off with attention-grabbing blasts of razor-sharp guitar shredding and explosive thunder-peals from Corsano’s kit, on tracks appropriately titled “Waldorf Hysteria” and “Serrated Edges”. The entry-point for curious listeners should be the album’s second piece, “Bull Lore,” helpfully featured on the band’s MySpace page. Over an ominous foundation of spaghetti-western arpeggios and slashing outbursts of guitar and drums, Bishop lays down an acid-drenched lead that is at turns aggressive and mournful, especially when Chasny’s backing transitions into a major key during the middle of the song. As Corsano’s drumming becomes more martial in tone, Bishop ups the distortion for a fiery finale. Corsano’s limber, highly textural percussion occupies the foreground of “Fist Family” while strands of guitar noise twist in the wind. Meditative tracks close out each half of the album: “Sarcophagi” features the expressive, gentle side of Chasny’s take on pastoral psychedelic folk; while the epic “Plain of Jars” allows the trio to stretch out for a quarter hour, delicately circling around an anthemic riff that sounds like it could spiral off into eternity. Imagery of wind-sculpted sand dunes, meteor-streaked skies, ruined monuments to long-dead empires. In addition to satisfying fans of all three individual artists’ work, Rangda’s False Flag should also appeal to aficionados of the stoner-metal duo Om, world music-influenced post-rockers the Grails, and astral jazz icon Alice Coltrane.

While yielding an end result of equally high caliber, AFCGT’s collaboration is less recognizably a product of the individual brains and brawn behind the ruckus. AFCGT stands for A Frames/Climax Golden Twins, the two Seattle bands from which the band’s five members (three guitars, one bass, and percussion) are drawn. Erin Sullivan, Lars Finberg, and Min Yee of A Frames released three albums of scabrous, post-apocalyptic art-punk before temporarily going on hiatus during the later 00s (they’re back to playing live shows as of early 2010); Climax Golden Twins’ Jeffrey Taylor and Robert Millis traffic in displaced found-sound snippets, twisted Americana roots, and free improv sensibilities, as well as managing Wall of Sound, one of Seattle’s best indie record stores. The collective entity cryptically and hilariously describes its sound as “Drooling Hillbilly Metal, Sea Urchin Psychedelia, Yukon Freak Thrash, and Beatnik Swamp Drone.” They released a few appetizers (always self-titled, always on vinyl) on boutique labels like Uzu Audio and Dirty Knobby before transitioning to Sub Pop to release their first fully-realized long-player in 2010.

AFCGT is a beautiful-looking slab of ivory-colored vinyl accompanied by mysterious imagery and containing even more mysterious sounds. None of the pieces are easy to characterize, and describing the album’s general contours would require graduate-level experience in advanced topography. The churning, gut-wrenching “Black Mark” introduces the album, all atonal noise rock squall and blown out guitar leads, before segueing into the slow-burn psychedelia of “Two Legged Dog,” probably the album’s grooviest track. Wordless babbling vocals and Jeffrey Taylor’s bluesy slide guitar riffs simmer and sizzle atop a lumbering low end of galloping drums and wobbly bass courtesy Lars Finberg and Min Yee—think a country-fried Public Image Limited and you’ll be maybe half-way there. The album’s most formally compelling piece is “New Punk 27,” which in three short minutes cycles through movements of lo-fi noise punk jams, free-jazz freakouts, chaotic minimalist improvisations, slashing discordant riffage, and back again. The band’s weird sense of humor is epitomized by a brief moment at the end of the transitional track “New Punk,” where a deranged voice parrots some sort of Terrence McKenna-esque New Age snake oil about “major cycles” and the expectation of “a grand phase of destruction”. The only other recognizable vocals on the album are found on “Nacht,” which builds up a sinister atmosphere of gamelan-like cymbal tones and twisty guitar squiggles, over which a disembodied voice intones seemingly-random words in a series of languages—I recognize German, Spanish, at the very least. Even more unsettling is the horrific industrial drone of “Reasonably Nautical,” sounding like chopped-and-screwed Einsturzende Neubauten. After all the foregoing creative ferment, AFCGT makes the decision to close the album with “Slide 9,” an amorphous haze of queasy slide guitar, tinkling percussion, and what sounds like Sun Ra’s Atlantis­-period electronic organ noodling. It takes the album out on a typically obtuse note, leaving the listener sedate but disoriented.

The success of both Rangda and AFCGT attests to the great fertility and potential for cross pollination within Seattle’s experimental rock community and beyond. Listeners inspired by either of these releases would do well to explore other local artists associated with the responsible parties: try looking up Master Musicians of Bukkake (featuring AFCGT producer Randall Dunn), Alan Bishop (brother of Sir Richard, fellow member of Sun City Girls, and curator of the world-renowned label Sublime Frequencies), Scott Colburn (producer of False Flag as well as Animal Collective’s Feels) and avant-punk acts like The Intelligence, Unnatural Helpers, and Walls, for starters.

Originally written for the Rainy Dawg Radio blog.

CN! is dead / Long live CN!

With our June 9 show, CN! is now officially off the air as UW's Rainy Dawg Radio goes on hiatus for the summer. Thanks to all who listened and made this a great year - we heard tons of amazing Cascadian music, and played songs by more than 175 individual bands from the greater Pacific Northwest. CN! won't be back next year, but please check out our extensive archive of podcasts and keep an eye on this blog for reviews and links relating to Cascadian music and culture.

CN! 06/02 playlist and podcast

CN! podcast

Part I - Part II

(click to download)

"Dead Moon Night" - Dead Moon, Echoes of the Past

"My Children Watch TV When I'm Happy / My Children Watch TV When I'm Sad" - Horse Grinder, How Your Actions Every Day Make You Guilty

"Hunter" - Hail Seizures, For the Ruin

"A Black Heart" - Dandelion Junk Queens, Black Hearts and Red Balloons

"Moonsong (Twinkle Monster)" - Slow Teeth, Slow Teeth

"TVA" - Junk Bones, Junk Bones

"Live Like We're Dying" - Tin Tree Factory, Admire the Mess

"Wallingford" - Damien Jurado, Saint Bartlett
"Reckless Burning" - Jessie Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Reckless Burning

"Full Moon in June" - Black Prairie, Feast of the Hunter

"The Pull" - The Microphones, It Was Hot We Stayed in the Water

"Mt. St. Helens" - Mirah, Advisory Committee

"Goin' Against Your Mind" - Built to Spill, You in Reverse

"Dance Yrself Clean" - LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening

"Ghost Rider" - Suicide, Suicide

"Nightclubbing" - Iggy Pop, The Idiot

"I Know I Got Religion" - Kurt Vile, Square Shells EP

"Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly)" - Phosphorescent, Here's To Taking It Easy

"Pieces" - Villagers, Becoming a Jackal

"Wild Orchids" - Jeremy Jay, Splash

"Do Your Thing" - The Clean, Modern Rock

"More of This" - Vetiver, Tight Knit
"So Long Supernova" - Comus, To Keep From Crying
"Surrounded" - Matador, The Taking

CN! 05/19 playlist and podcast

CN! podcast

Part I - Part II

(click to download)

"Garbage" - Student Nurse, As Seen On T.V.

"Dirty White Lies" - Neo Boys, Sub Pop Cassette Zine #5

"Job Club" - Jungle Nausea, Sub Pop Cassette Zine # 5

"Wake Up" - Climax Golden Twins, Imperial Household Orchestra

"We Bricklayers" - Bow + Arrow, Mathematics is the Study of History

"From Exile" - The Intima, Peril and Panic

"Never Too Late To Learn" - Meercaz, Never Too Late To Learn

"Unemployment Forever" - Meth Teeth, Everything Went Wrong

"Funny Disguises" - White Fang, What the Heck? Fest 2009

"Five Little Rooms" - Menomena, Mines

"For Revering the Gone and Dead" - 10-4 Rog

"FFunny Frends" - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

"Your Cells Are In Motion" - Jackie-O Mother Fucker, Fig. 5

"The Mermaid Parade" - Phosphorescent, Here's To Taking It Easy

"Bloodbuzz Ohio" - The National, High Violet

"Still Listening" - Mount Carmel, Mount Carmel

"The Antlers of the Midnight Sun" - Comets on Fire, Blue Cathedral

"Waiting" - X, Aspirations

"No God" - Germs, What We Do Is Secret

"Humor Me" - Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance

"O.F.Y.C. Showcase" - The Fall, Your Future Our Clutter

"Look Alive" - Indian Jewelry, Totaled

"Feels So Good" - Crazy Dreams Band, War Dream

"Troubles Will Be Gone" - The Tallest Man On Earth, The Wild Hunt

"Dark Noontide" - Six Organs of Admittance, Dark Noontide

CN! 05/12 playlist and podcast

CN! podcast

Part I - Part II

(click to download)

"Untitled I" - Daniel Menche, Beautiful Blood

"Insanity" - Nerveskade, Insanity/Forced to Live 7''

"Blood Spilt//No Guilt" - Asymmetric Warfare, Asymmetric Warfare

"Paralytic" - Silentist, The Tunnel

"Junk Existence" - Society Nurse, Junk Existence 7''

"Strong and Able First" - Walls, one-sided 12''

"Augwick Bill" - Lords of Light, Energy LP

"Politicians In My Eyes" - Death, For the Whole World to See

"Biblical Violence" - Hella, Hold Your Horse Is

"Ordinary People in Idaho" - Ruins, Hyderomastgroningem

"S.O.S." - Lightning Bolt, Earthly Delights

"Found Out" - Caribou, Swim

"Latin America" - Holy Fuck, Latin

"All I Want" - LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening

"Lovefingers" - Silver Apples, Silver Apples

"Lay in the Sun" - The Godz, Contact High

"Ah, Sunflower Weary of Time" - The Fugs, The Fugs

"Til the Sun Rips" - Woods, At Echo Lake

"We'll Be Here Soon" - Phosphorescent, Here's to Taking It

"Bitter Wild Rabbits/Builds the Bone" - Giant Skyflower Band, Blood of the Sunworm

CN! 05/05 playlist and podcast

CN! Podcast

Part I - Part II

(click to download)

"Lear in Love" - Frog Eyes, Paul's Tomb: A Triumph

"My Shepherd" - The New Pornographers, Together

"Elemental" - A.C. Newman, Get Guilty

"Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" - Neko Case, Middle Cyclone

"Don't Become the Thing You Hate" - Destroyer & Frog Eyes, Notorious Lightning and Other Works

"Bull Lore" - Rangda, False Flag
"Pantomime Magic" - Diminished Men, Shadow Instrumentals

"Schism Prism" - Master Musicians of Bukkake, Totem One

"Sev Acher" - Sun City Girls, Valentines from Matahari

"Litany Split" - ((speak)), ((speak))

"Indanthrone" - Doublends Vert, Doublends Vert

"Cascades" - Horse Feathers, Thistled Spring

"Mad Dog" - Cap Lori

"Apple On A Table, Green" - John Houx, Green Period

"Oh My Love" - Birds Fled From Me, Deeper Lurking

"Golden Pennies" - Dovekins

"Goodbye Sweet Dreams" - Roky Erickson with Okkervil River, True Love Cast Out All Evil

"With Cornstalks or Among Them" - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & the Cairo Gang, The Wonder Show of the World

"Aurora Borealis" - Meat Puppets, II

"Invisibility: Nonexistent" - Kurt Vile, Square Shells EP

"Hot Cake" - The Fall, Your Future Our Clutter

"Night Worship" - Balaclavas, Roman Holiday

"Can't I Know?" - Avi Buffalo, Avi Buffalo

"The Lung" - Dinosaur Jr., You're Living All Over Me

"Crooked Scene" - Male Bonding, Nothing Hurts

"Gila" - Beach House, Devotion