Editor's note: For our best of 2012 coverage, we decided to reach out to some friends of the blog to get an idea of what made the year in music so great for them. For today's installment in the guest series, local musician and DJ Dan Corosa submitted his best of list. On Friday, Jan 4th, Dan will continue his monthly Hard Times with DJ Handsome Dan series at Allen St. Hardware.
My name is Dan, and most people know me as one of the
co-founders of the arts collaborative Sugar City, fronting a dumb band called
Mallwalkers, or spinning records under the moniker Handsome Dan. When Mac asked me to write a year-end “Best
Of” column, I balked a little bit. Normally, I feel like I’m a couple years behind the curve when it comes to new music, but
I’m going to throw caution to the wind and make a list that’s both very
obviously biased and local-centric.
Let’s do this!
Favorite Local Show
of 2012 – The Hive Dwellers, The Curious Mystery, Nicky Gordon and the Hall
of Fame, Mallwalkers @ Sugar City (April 13th)
So yeah, let’s just start this off with the most blatant of
homer picks. April 13th
marked the end of Sugar City’s run at 19 Wadsworth, our home since January of
2009. It also marked the day I got the
chance to play a show with one of my punk rock heroes, Calvin Johnson,
one-third of Beat Happening and co-founder of K Records. I think it’s safe to say that all of these
emotions have clouded my judgment in terms of show rankings, but it’s tough to
think of an event has meant more to me on a personal level. As for the show itself, Nicky and Hall of
Fame were predictably loaded with charm and hooks, we (Mallwalkers) did our
best not to bum anyone out too much, and The Curious Mystery’s space-rock lived
up to their esoteric name. Unsurprisingly, Calvin Johnson was the star of
the show, reveling in the capacity crowd and showing all in attendance how he
used his charisma to become a Northwest indie rock Svengali. Calvin’s set was loaded with crowd
participation, bizarre dance moves and even some white guy rapping, and was the
perfect way to say goodbye to 19 Wadsworth St.
Favorite Out-of-Town
Show of 2012 – Bruise Cruise 2012
When it comes to truly surreal music experiences, the Bruise
Cruise tops them all. The concept of the
second Bruise Cruise sounds just plain nutty:
book a bunch of the top punk and garage bands (plus comedians and
dancers and puppet operators) to play a cruise ship over the course of a
three-day journey from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas and back. Not only would the bands play on the cruise ship
itself throughout the journey, but while the ship was docked in Nassau, the
Bruise Cruise crew would take over Señor Frogs, the TGI Fridays of tourist
bars. It’s really hard to pick out
highlights, but here’s a quick list:
- Watching King Kahn getting frisked by customs before boarding
- Trying to contain my innermost fan boy when I finally got up the nerve to talk to Tom Scharpling
- Listening to Jello Biafra lecture a bunch of party animals about the importance of the Occupy Movement
- Witnessing Neil Hamburger trying his best to bait tourists at Señor Frogs by calling them "scum" and "moochers," and succeeding
Music-wise, the most surprising and jaw-dropping set was
supplied by Quintron, who, along with his partner Miss Pussycat, worked the
cruise ship crowd into a total frenzy with his unique brand of electrified
swamp rock. Considering the Cruise also
saw top notch sets from Thee Oh Sees, King Khan & the Shrines and the
Dirtbombs, I would qualify this as pretty high praise. Since I can’t seem to find any footage of
that set, here’s a video of Damian from Fucked Up crawling on the bar at Señor Frogs
half-naked.
Favorite Live Band of
2012 – Gas Chamber
There are hundreds of bands trying to do what Gas Chamber
does in a sonic sense. Blending elements
of hardcore (particularly from the much-maligned powerviolence sub-genre) and
improvisational noise to create a soundscape that’s both punishing and bleak
has become relatively commonplace. In my
eyes and ears, the word separates Gas Chamber from the rest of the field is
“believability”. My hang-up with many of
the lesser bands crafting such dark and heavy music is that I often can’t
totally buy into the live experience, and it comes off as a bit of a put on. By contrast, Gas Chamber in a live setting is
emotionally raw, compelling and honest.
This is serious art crafted by serious men, and is well worth your time
and emotional investment. Go witness
them in person at the Abusing the Word reunion show at the end of the month,
and be ready to be blown away.
Favorite LP of 2012
– N/A
While I purchased a ton of LPs this year, upon sorting my
record collection I found only two were actually released in 2012, so I hardly
feel qualified to make any sort of judgment here. That being said, the two records I actually
picked up, Leaving Atlanta by Gentleman Jesse and En Yay Sah by Janka Nabay
and the Bubu Band are both worth your time and money for very different
reasons. Gentleman Jesse’s second full
length has hooks for days and some really great power pop songs in the vein of
early Elvis Costello or Nick Lowe. On
the hand, Janka Nabay’s new record (released on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label)
is an inspiring blend of centuries-old West African Bubu music and modern indie
dance rock, complete with both electronic and organic sounds.
Favorite EP of 2012
– Utah Jazz S/T
Coming off a ripper of a demo tape, I was pretty “jazzed”
about the potential of this slab of wax.
This band has long been a local favorite of mine, forgoing the
conventional rock band line-up by ditching the bass guitar and playing
wonderfully catchy and abrasive punk rock tunes that melt your brain and move your
feet. The Jazz has really stepped up
their game on this record, sounding as frantic as ever, re-recording the
spine-tingling finale of “Seeing the Eye Doctor”, and even incorporating a
flute on the recording of “Florida.” If
you like your punk rock weird and unrefined, do not pass on this record.
Favorite Single of
2012 – White Whale “No Solace” b/w “Waxing”
After seeing White Whale play live on countless occasions, I
had been waiting for them to record these two songs for a long time. “No Solace” is a total Marked Men-esque
ripper that’s catchy enough to get lodged in your brain for weeks. “Waxing” slows things down a bit, and is a
bit reminiscent of the more melodic songs in the Buzzcocks catalog, while still
sounding fresh and vital. Grab this
split release from Feral Kid and One Percent Press as soon as possible.
Favorite Demo of 2012
– Hells Cargo
Another blatantly biased selection, but the Hells Cargo tape
on Drug Party totally shocked me.
Featuring folks who have been in such top-notch Buffalo punk bands as
Brown Sugar and Skate Korpse, Hells Cargo played only one show in WNY before
their members scattered across the country.
Luckily for us, they recorded a handful of wonderfully off-kilter and
unconventional punk rock songs. This
tape is highly recommended for those who dig crusty punk rock that’s not
muddled with metal riffs and cookie monster vocals.
Favorite Record Find of
2012 – Yard Sale @ W. Utica and Richmond
Record hunting can be a tedious and frustrating endeavor. Sometimes you’ll drive an hour to an estate
sale in the middle of nowhere that sounded really promising on Craigslist and
find a pile of cool records that are moldy and scuffed beyond repair. Sometimes your girlfriend’s parents will
unearth of a “lot of great stuff” from a neighbor’s house and bring over a
giant box filled with Mitch Miller, Johnny Mathis, and multiple copies the
Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream. But once
in a great while you hit a jackpot, and it makes it all worthwhile.
On a Saturday in the middle of the summer, I
was hitting up some sales with my girlfriend Lisa and our friend Emma, and we
saw a yard sale at the corner of Richmond and W. Utica from what looked to be a
couple different households, so we decided to stop. While I was scrounging through a couple of
boxes of thrift store quality wax on the lawn, Lisa yelled on the other side of
the side walk “Hey, have you looked at these?” while holding a copy of the
self-titled Funkadelic record. It took
me a second to process what it was, then I quickly put back the pair offbeat-up
Abba LPs I had pulled from the other part of the sale, and started going through
the collection. The woman who was
selling the records was asking a buck a piece, and there were plenty of classic
60s and 70s soul and jazz records: Root
Down by Jimmy Smith, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, The Awakening by the
Ahmad Jamal Trio, Hold On, I’m Coming by Sam and Dave, the Harlem River
Drive LP, and tons of other incredible stuff that I didn’t even recognize at
the time, all original pressings , nearly all in fantastic shape.
Realizing what was in front of me, I asked
her for a price on the entire box. She
asked for $50 for the approximately 70 LPs, which was $10 more than I had on me
at the time. I quickly found Lisa
rummaging through a different part of the sale, told her “I really, really need
to borrow $10 and I’ll literally pay you back right after I buy these records.” She looked a little skeptical at the fact I
was spending $50 at a yard sale, but lent me the cash anyway so I could close
the deal. Following the transaction, I
immediately put the records in my car and drove them home to safety, still in
shock at my luck. After lugging the box
up the stairs, I put on Jimmy Smith’s Root Down (And Get It) on my stereo to
prove to myself that I wasn’t imagining things.
When the record began with the bass line sampled by the Beastie Boys on
their own version of “Root Down,” I thanked the baby Jesus for easily the best
record score of my life.
~Dan Carosa
