J Mascis's Favorite Records of 2007
 

J MASCIS, DINOSAUR JR.
Om: Pilgrimage
Grinderman: Grinderman
EA 80: Reise
Thurston: Trees Outside the Academy
Pierced Arrows: "In My Brain" b/w "Caroline" 7"
Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
MV & EE With the Golden Road: Gettin' Gone
Kevin Drew: Spirit If...
Magik Markers: Boss
Earth: Hibernaculum

mv and ee is garbage, saw them support dino, so is that kevin drew alblum, besides the song "backed out on the..." which j plays on. that record cuda been awesome if it was all stoner rock anthemic stuff like that, instead of the broken social pretenious scene shit.

mv and ee release a ton of stuff, but they are not garbage by any stretch. have you listened to any Tower Recordings stuff?

mv and ee with the bummer road are hippie bullshit when they're bad, ok to plain good psych folk when they're good.

I agree. Kim, as we can see, picked them too. To be fair, I haven't listened to Green Blues or Gettin' Gone from this year in their entirety, but of what I heard, I was turned off by yet another band that cannot (let's get real) really compose songs or play together and so on and so forth. The result is cacophony borne of laziness, or at the very least, a degree of transparent lack of musical focus.

In my view, some of the material on Trees Outside the Academy falls into this same category and much of the corresponding live material from the tour bears that out, especially with Mascis not present. But on the Thurston Moore's album (as compared to MV & EE w/the GR), you've got his vocal and lyrical abilty to form an interesting juxtaposition and better players and better music in general as a saving grace. And also, some of the songs are, in fact, really, really good.

I actually like Be Your Own Pet's s/t from last year on Ecstatic Peace and ranked it highly, so try to distinguish my meaning, please. (I didn't listen to their ep this year; it appears the brothers Orrall are now out of the mix and focusing on their label.)

It's astonishing to me that every list that I read that ranks underground or experimental albums fairly highly does the reader the disservice to roundly ignore the 2005 The Original Silence concert released by Smalltown Superjazz this year. The First Original Silence is entirely performed live improvisationally. Music that finds its way to a release just doesn't get much more underground or experimental than this recording. Moreover, there is a genuine spirit to this document-in-sound that the discerning ear instantly recognizes.

And so arises a case (although I would have awarded the album a 9.0 and not an 8.0) where I agree with a Pitchfork review:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...iginal-silence

whatever dudes. so you barely listened to gettin' gone and green blues, but what about all those others??? some of those child of microtones cdrs are quite great, i've seen them 3 times and played with them once on the same bill, erika has a spectucular voice, and when they are on they are on i will say that. cool folks to talk to and hang out with.

I should hope that even a die-hard fan could admit that MV/EE are inconsistent live. I have seen several incarnations of that outfit, and one show was truly great, but not all of them by a long shot. A lot of my favorite groups (not to mention several of my own) are inconsistent live.

i kinda have opposite feelings on the be your own pet album and original silence. the BYOP are kinda boring to me, though they look like they are a fun live band, but musically they do little that grabs me. i prefer Awesome Color over them anytime right now. as for the Original Silence it definitely has its moments where its like "wow", but i also find that it has some messy spots and some of instruments are just too out front in the mix than others. i'd put the corsano/flaherty/shoup/moore quartet - roadhouse sessions vol. 1 in my top 10 of the year for sure.

Well, to each their own. I also ranked Awesome Color last year, but forgot to include them in the previous post which would have been relevant information in hindsight.

Oh look, J Mascis made a list of records his friends released this year.. whoopty fucking doo.

haha that list is kind of bad.

The BYOP album was one of my favourites from last year too. It has that wonderful, and all too rare, feeling of a band saying everything they have to say in a single short burst. Some bands take time to get it all out, some take time but actually have nothing to say. BYOP don't have much to say, so it's great that what they have, they managed to lever into a single album. They should just split now, comforted by the knowledge that they made their mark, however small.

I have to tend to agree, in the end, it might be the best way.

Although. I could also see them doing maybe three or four albums and some eps and growing a little, changing it up some each time. But, I can also see them perhaps inevitably getting flatter and duller too over time.


The opening words to Vanessa Briscoe Hay's history of Pylon:
On February 14, 1979 I auditioned to become the singer for the as yet unnamedPylon at the invitation of Randall Bewley, one of my friends from art school. He and his roommate Michael Lachowski, another friend from art school who also worked at Dupont had decided to create a band who would go to New York, play once, get written about in a magazine like New York Rocker and then disband.

For the whole story:
http://www.netnik.com/jollybeggars/pylon.html

So no mention to Black Francis "Bluefinger" ?

kinda sad that pitchfork's list is better...

seriously, what a cuntish thing for J to do.

mv.ee rule. There's a reason J and SY and so many other leathered ears like them. I've been following Matt's music for ten years now, he never lets me down.

But some of you just don't like hard free rock that doesn't sit in any defineable genre...you guys call him hippy like its a put down or something..each to their own, but mv/ee are living their own lives their way. And they work their asses off they tour the US twice a year and are headed back to Europa next month.

I have almost every COM release they've put out and my only criticism is I need a 48 hour day (and maybe a 3rd lobe) so I can enjoy the discs more...the Ringside Seat Nosebleed Tone disc (COM 31) has a really cool jam with Spencer Yeh. But many of you hate SY's free music, so it makes sense you wouldn't like mv.ee.

but who are the PIerced Arrows?