Favorite Album of 2011
Thee Oh Sees – Castlemania: There are so many good things about
Thee Oh Sees: an insane rate of musical output, notorious live
performances, profoundly debauched aesthetics, and a propensity for
gradual innovation despite inherent stylistic simplicity. The group
started a decade or so ago as the artistic vehicle for
guitarist/vocalist/flutist John Dwyer. As the full group slowly
solidified, they became a wailing, garage-psych powerhouse, leveling
both the strongest of minds and the dingiest of dives. A
predominantly solo effort from Dwyer, Castlemania was only the first of two
full-lengths Thee Oh Sees released in 2011. But it reminded us that,
one: you don't have to be into grindcore to appreciate grotesque,
green monster album art motifs; and two: Dwyer can write some catchy,
bad-trip pop, even if the rest of the OCs aren't around.
Honorable Mention
The Found - III: I had wanted to avoid local shout-outs, because there are some dope local acts that could easily dominate this list. I really spent more time attending local shows and listening to Buffalo records this year than national ones, and among the many highlights was The Found's third record, released a few months back. Each member of this band might be the city's nastiest at their respective instruments, and this 17-track helping of funk-infused power prog is so head-bending... listening to it is like finding out Iron Butterfly is your real father. All the members. You know what I mean.
Favorite Song of 2011
“Witchhunt Suite for WWIII” by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti : I sorta feel like it's cheating to pick
“Witchhunt Suite” as my favorite “song” of 2011. For one, the
track is just a revisit of a 2006 basement tape. Second, it's more of
a sixteen-minute opus than a song. But even the artist's apex
release, 2010's Before Today, was primarily a full-band rehashing of
Pink's earlier solo recordings – even the single “Round and
Round” was just an updated treatment of the old demo “Frontman/
Hold On (I'm Calling).” “Witchhunt Suite” is an
allzu-Americana-impaired reflection on our post-9/11, collective
brain damage, framed within a disfiguring mirror of hyper-media
saturation in The West's Consumerist, Late 20th Century
Zenith. And how can you do that in under fifteen minutes? ...Call a
sitter right now and watch the video to see what I mean.
Honorable Mention
"Shut Up" by Jhameel: A fellow buffaBLOGGER brought this joint to my attention over the summer, and all of my mixtapes were forever changed. With its sturdy disco beat, catchy hooks, and that gnarly Jhameel scream, I haven't been able to find a body that won't start involuntarily dancing to this jam.
Favorite Show of 2011
Purity Ring, Love Scenes, Early Attic at Mohawk Place (August 23, 2011): I'd hated hard on this band for a while before the Mohawk Place show. With a half-million Soundcloud hits and a bevy of blog-love before they ever even performed, I figured Purity Ring was all hype and I planned to just sit this one out. But when they started their Mohawk Place set, I ate my own words. Heavy glitch beats, devastating lights, and banter that grounded the experience with an integral, saccharine innocence. Even if Corin Roddick's light-bulb-and-pipe “device” didn't actually generate sound – and was just for looks as I semi-suspect – it was still an impressive, compelling show. Support from local pop duo Love Scenes was an adept pairing, but I missed Early Attic's opening set, because, for once, a Buffalo show started on time.
Laughing Eye Weeping Eye, Cinnamon Aluminum, YesYes HeavenTongue at Soundlab (June 11, 2011): This show reminded me of why I first fell in love with Soundlab; suspiciously low turnouts, uncomfortably open-minded vibes, and deeply unsettling music projects make for a perfect hotbed of weirdness. LEWE stranged things up with their circuit-bending chant opera, followed by an acoustic set by rapid-fire poet YesYes, who was surrounded by a cult of vocal accompanists, and the night ended with the synth-jungle trio Cinnamon Aluminum, who were joined by friends for a rousing set of brain-scraping pop. Afterwards, I felt as though I'd beheld the maddening machinations of Nyarlathotep, and spilled, with a newfound schizophrenia, out into the yawning mouth of oblivion that is the Buffalo streets.
Moksha by YesYesMichaelErsing
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