Luke Einsiedler plays guitar in the incredible noise rock crew (NEW ENGLAND) PATRIOTS, and also played guitar in now defunct Allston underground heros, ARVID NOE. His exploits whether show booking, house venue bullshit dealing with, record distroing and many whatever elses have played a big role in the continuing seismic shift in the Boston area toward awesome. One of Boston’s real deal DIY art and music heros (so stated with the utmost reverence and sincerity).
Bitchin’ Bajas – ” Krausened “ – Permanent Records
Guerilla Toss – “Gay Disco” – NNA Tapes
Keiji Haino/Jim O’Rourke/ Oren Ambarchi – “Now While It’s Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery” – Black Truffle / Medama Records
Sickoids – ” No Home ” – Sorry State / Grave Mistake
Toupee – “ Dinner Parties ” – Rotted Tooth Recordings
WHAT WOULD PROBABLY BE THE NEXT 5 :
Cellular Chaos – “S/T” – ugEXPLODE
Gag* – live at the Boiler Room / “This Punk Shit Is Cool But I Hope I Am Rob Zombie When I am 28” – Bedside Records
Melt Banana – “Fetch” – A-Zap Records
PC Worship* – seeing them live at Boston Hassle Fest / “Beat Punk” – New Images Ltd.
Sightings – ” Terribly Well ” – Dais Records
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*These two get special stars because my love of the albums is combined with two of the best live sets I’ve seen this year.
5 VERY THANKFUL VINYL REISSUES W/ SOME WORDS:
Brainbombs – “Singles Collection Vol. 2” + “Obey” – Armageddon Label
Insanely tasteless while being insanely tasteful, the Swedish Brainbombs have slowly infected my head and ears in a big way the past couple years. Thankfully, 2013 saw a bunch of their material get pressed to vinyl with an original double album on their homeland’s Skrammel Records and these two reissues of earlier material thanks to Boston/Providence’s Armageddon Shop that contain some of my favorite material from the noise-punk legends. In particular, Obey is a tremendous pinnacle of whatever dark and repetitive nightmare vision Brainbombs are trying to achieve. This shit just rocks. Genius and brutality. Taste and power.
Eskaton – “4 Visions ” – Soleil Zeuhl
It’s a shame that it took 34 years for this album to see life on vinyl for the first time, but hey, I guess dense and eccentric late-70s French experimental-progressive-rock isn’t the most popular of genres. Most easily described as a slightly more accessible version of Zeuhl-originaters Magma, Eskaton operate in the same peculiar realm of spiritually and cosmically-informed alien-sounding fusion-tinged progressive-rock, and there’s a lot to be taken from it, even decades after its initial release. I hope a lot of people actually buy this so maybe Soleil Zeuhl will be inspired to do some similar desperately needed re-issues from other sadly occluded french-prog acts.
Hoax – S/T Compilation – Adagio830
Pressed by the German label Adagio830 for Hoax’s European tour, this collection stands as a testament to why these well-designed punk heavy-weights became probably the most talked about hardcore band of the past two years. In addition to this compilation of 7 inches and ‘odds&ends’, it’s important to note Hoax also self-unleashed their immense looking and sounding debut full-length this year, but something tells me the infectious anthems that make up this “ignorant” sounding slab of wax will always be my favorite recordings from the now legendary act.
Koward – S/T 7inch’s “proper pressing” – Total Fucker Records
I’m not too sure the full timeline on this one but this killer 2010 recording from Boston d-beat wielders Koward became easily available (if there’s any still left…?) for your raw consumption for the second time (was it ever…? ) this fall thanks to Boston label Total Fucker with the release of a proclaimed “proper pressing”. Questions aside, all that matters is the “raw” and “uncompromising” Koward make tracks that totally “slay” and “rip” that hit the nail on the head for satisfying finicky and picky hardcore ears by sounding classic but not solely derivative. Boston is lucky to be home to such stellar punk acts, so don’t take it for granted.
U.S. Maple – “Long Hair In Three Stages” – Skin Graft Records
Finally, Skin Graft did the world a tremendous favor this year by re-issuing the hard to find and afford debut LP from this classic Chicago avant-deconstructive-brilliant outfit. I could gush about U.S. Maple all day (considering I view them as probably one of the best American rock bands of the last 20-30 years) but if you’re not already in love with these deliberate-nitwits and consider yourself to have any interest in stranger sounding music, just do yourself a favor by listening to this record and inevitably working through the rest of their awesome discography.
