Best of The Year: Dan Yemin (Paint it Black) and Joel Tannenbaum (Plow United)
Frank the Cat, is delighted to bring you the best of the year guest lists from Dan Yemin of Paint It Black and Joel Tannenbaum of Plow United. Enjoy!
You can click Read More for their picks.
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Dan Yemin is in Paint it Black, Lifetime, Armalite and Kid Dynamite. His list is in no particular order.
Permanent Ruin: Hell Is Real
Adelante Discos
All you need to know is this quote from the lyric sheet: "Permanent Ruin endorses a lifestyle free of bullshit posers." Made a believer out of me. Male-backed speed-freak brutality.
KA: The Night's Gambit
Iron Works
Some seriously dark, brooding and thoughtful shit from this Brooklyn MC. Ferocious, but in the most understated & elegant way. Dude makes all his own beats too.
Iron Lung: White Glove Test
#gamechanger. A two-piece that's heavier and faster than your five-piece, even on your best day. The accompanying noise LP was meant to be played simultaneously, and will ruin your head. Psychedelic.
El-P & Killer Mike: Run The Jewels
Fool's Gold Records
Makes the apocalypse sound like a party I'd want to be invited to. "Pan Africanist gangsta rap."
Stunning. Lovely. Haunting. Recorded at the same house where we wrote the Armalite LP.
Night Birds:
Born To Die In Suburbia
Grave Mistake Records
Like a time warp where you get to see "Group Sex"-era Circle Jerks blow up your face, but without having to deal with the wanton thuggery of the early '80s Hermosa Beach scene.
Swearin': Surfing Strange
Salinas Records
I'd crawl through manure to listen to this band play. Like the Muffs meets Nirvana but recorded in a Philadelphia basement and downshifted to the relative minor key. 2013 is the year the Crutchfield sisters took over, and it's a better world because of it. Musician crush on the drummer, who also gets the Aaron Cometbus style award for 2013.
Radiator Hospital: Something Wild
Salinas Records
Philadelphia owned this year. So proud. But please don't move here from Brooklyn and drive the rents up.
Savages: Silence Yourself
Reliving my adolescence with these highly stylized Siouxsie & the Bunnymen-esque tunes. Somber and thought provoking, while also being wildly energetic.
Def Jam
Just admit it, it's amazing. This LP full of Dälek rip-offs is a testament to what one can accomplish with unmitigated narcissism and an MPC.
Joel Tannenbaum is in Plow United. He said of his list:
Now that itâs all typed and edited, Iâm looking at this list and Iâm like "This is a good list." I like that there are two self-released records on it. I like that the biggest label represented on the list is freaking Recess Records. I like how different the records sound from each other. But just in general, I like this list because it tells me that the world might be a total mess and the music industry might as well have had a hydrogen bomb dropped on it, but, creatively anyway, people are making fucking awesome punk rock records and showing no sign of stopping. Also, 2013 is the year I got a PhD. Screw you guys. Love, Joel.
10
NONA: Through the Head
Mandible
Whatever happens, this is a really good record. Remember that in 2015 when you can buy a Nona shirt in Hot Topic.
9
Chumped: Chumped
Anchorless
Not pointing any fingers here, but pop-punk went through kind of a rough patch in the mid-2000s, and this exuberantly earnest record is a sign that the bad times are over. Phew.
8
Martin: The Worst Part
Square of Opposition
Apparently itâs grown-up time in West Chester, PA. Works for me.
7
White Night: Prophets ov Templum CDXX
Recess
These guys are high as fuck and itâs awesome.
6
Lipstick Homicide: Out Utero
Bloated Kat
Amazing record from amazing band with amazing future.
5
Goddamnit: How To Take The Burn
Creep
Three guitars of awesome.
Tie 3 & 4
Pity Party: Fine Young Animals and Worriers: Cruel Optimist
Psychic Volt and Don Giovanni
The Measure[SA] broke up in 2011 and that sucked, but the good news is two great bands came out of it, and they both released records this year. Youâve probably heard the Worriers record already, as you should have, but you probably havenât heard the Pity Party record, and you really ought to. And of course the punchline of all this is that Mikey Erg is in both bands.
2
Screaming Females/Tenement: Split 7
Recess
I love Tenement and bought this record for the Tenement side, but holy shit, the Screaming Females song will melt your face off like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I love this record, but I miss having a face.
1
Big Awesome: Birdfeeder
Self-Released
This record gives me chills. Thatâs why it wins.