2018 keeps on failing to deliver great new albums.

Since I'm off Twitter, I'll be summoning this site back to life for posting irregular updates about what I'm up to. Mostly music-related, I guess.

Best albums of 2017

  1. Big Thief - Capacity Listen to "Mythological Beauty" (YouTube)
  2. Aye Nako - Silver Haze Listen to "Particle Mace" (YouTube)
  3. Beaches - Second of Spring Listen to "Arrow" (YouTube)
  4. Katie Von Schleicher - Shitty Hits Listen to "Paranoia" (YouTube)
  5. Menace Beach - Lemon Memory Listen to "Suck It Out" (YouTube)
  6. Vagabon - Infinite Worlds Listen to "Cold Apartment" (YouTube)
  7. Sacred Paws - Strike a Match Listen to "Strike a Match" (YouTube)
  8. The Homesick - Youth Hunt Listen to "The Best Part of Being Young is Falling in Love with Jesus (Live)" (YouTube)
  9. Moon Duo - Occult Architecture Vol. 1 Listen to "Creepin'" (YouTube)
  10. Fits - All Belief Is Paradise Listen to "Mango" (BandCamp)

Best albums of 2016

  1. Amber Arcades - Fading Lines Listen to "Fading Lines" (YouTube)
  2. The Julie Ruin - Hit Reset Listen to "I Decide" (YouTube)
  3. Eleanor Friedberger - New View Listen to "Sweetest Girl" (YouTube)
  4. King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard - Nonagon Infinity Listen to "Robot Stop (Live)" (YouTube)
  5. Parquet Courts - Human Performance Listen to "Dust" (YouTube)
  6. The Goon Sax - Up to Anything Listen to "Sweaty Hands" (YouTube)
  7. Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing Listen to "I'm 20 (Live)" (YouTube)
  8. Angel Olsen - My Woman Listen to "Shut Up Kiss Me" (YouTube)
  9. Plaid - The Digging Remedy Listen to "Do Matter" (YouTube)
  10. September Girls - Age of Indignation Listen to "Ghost (Live)" (YouTube)

Best albums of 2014

  1. Fear of Men - Loom Listen to "Descent" (SoundCloud)
  2. September Girls - Cursing the Sea Listen to "Heartbeats" (YouTube)
  3. Death Vessel - Island Intervals Listen to "Ilsa Drown" (YouTube)
  4. Hookworms - The Hum Listen to "The Impasse" (YouTube)
  5. Clark - Clark Listen to "The Grit in the Pearl" (SoundCloud)
  6. Cold Beat - Over Me Listen to "Rumors" (YouTube)
  7. St. Vincent - St. Vincent Listen to "Digital Witness" (YouTube)
  8. Hospitality - Trouble Listen to "I Miss Your Bones" (YouTube)
  9. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Wig Out at Jagbags Listen to "Cinnamon and Lesbians" (YouTube)
  10. Ex Hex - Rips Listen to "New Kid" (YouTube)

Kurt Cobain died 20 years ago today

Seeing exactly this at my parents' house is how I found out about Kurt Cobain's death in April 1994. Although I was as shocked as anyone, I didn't know about the full story until years later, when I saw BBC's The Seven Ages of Rock. I've always known about it by and large - heroin addiction, unable to cope with the maelstrom of commercial success he so openly made a mockery of. But not until then did I hear about the terrifying bleakness of Cobain's addiction, his overdose and hospitalization in Rome just one month prior to his death and his insistence on their November 1993 MTV Unplugged session looking like a funeral. And also: the close friendship between Kurt Cobain and Michael Stipe, and Stipe's failed attempt to lure Cobain away from his downward spiral, faking a made-up collaboration project he wanted Cobain to join him on. It still remains a very tragic story. It's also in retrospect that I've come to realize the importance of Nirvana to the music I've so dearly loved since then. Of course Nirvana themselves today still sound every bit as vigorous and sincere as they did back then. But they opened the floodgates to many bands that are very important to me now. No, bloody fucking Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and a whole slew of other acts that went and ran with a counterfeit of Nirvana's legacy are not what I mean. What I do mean is that Nirvana chose to play "The Man Who Sold the World" right after "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" on their MTV Unplugged session, in one broad stroke making tiny little Glasgow band the Vaselines equally important in the Great Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as David Bowie. They invited another little unknown band up on stage, the Meat Puppets, to play no less than three of their songs with to a television audience of millions. They publicly spoke up for bands that influenced them and actively supported bands that sprang from the same lineage they themselves did. It's like Cobain realized he gained his immense success partly by just being lucky, something he wished upon his peers even more than upon himself. Kurt Cobain's influence on indie rock can't be overstated, not even as much musically as more so in spirit. He relentlessly supported his own folk - I mean, check out this picture of Cobain saluting both Sebadoh and K Records. It made me realize there had to be more below the surface than what I before had been exposed to - something to be very grateful for.

Some duelling thoughts about bands reuniting

The Pixies* are getting a lot of hostility over releasing a bunch of new, supposedly mediocre, if not downright terrible songs - I can’t judge, because I haven’t heard any of them:

"I'm reading a press release for EP2 and weeping at the downright awfulness of the legacy fucking parody act that is using the name of a band I used to love. Lazily writing songs with no heart. Like it never had heart." — Quoted from The 405
Hey, like every other indie rock nerd I’m in love with the Pixies. I’m also sensitive to a kind of transiency, which is why I don’t mind great bands disappearing forever. Because I know their music will always be around, and there will always be new bands that draw inspiration from them. Some will suck, some will be awesome. It’s an ambiguous feeling when a band I love decides to resurrect. Guided by Voices went back to cranking out release after release, most of which were OK at best. It was great seeing Pavement, the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. live, but their shows also had this uncomfortable feeling of misplaced nostalgia to it - like we all so much wanted it to be just like 1994 in a small basement, rather than admitting to standing in a big, clean and sold out rock & roll venue in 2010, seeing our old heroes from the past. I don’t really know what to make of these feelings of romanticism. I’m thrilled that in a couple of months I’ll be seeing Neutral Milk Hotel for the first time in my life, but on the other hand I want their legacy to remain forever unspoiled, and there’s this distressing feeling that it won’t be, once they’re back in the middle of everyone’s attention. Great new bands like Beirut and the Decemberists have built upon Neutral Milk Hotel’s heritage, as did shitty bands like Mumford & Sons, and that’s the way it should be. The greatest thing about Wild Flag was that they felt and sounded like an exciting new band, and didn’t carry any of Sleater-Kinney’s legacy with them even though Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein were in both bands. But the news of Wild Flag quitting and Sleater-Kinney possibly respawning causes the same feeling of ambivalence. Wouldn’t I rather see Wild Flag continue than Sleater-Kinney reunite? And goddamn this feeling anyway. How ungrateful can you be as a fan, to prefer the bands you love the most to stay gone forever?
*) Yes, I know the band is officially called 'Pixies', not 'The Pixies'. But when writing or talking about the band, this feels more right. Dave Grohl, David Bowie and even Kim Deal herself use it randomly.

Last year’s best albums

  1. Beaches - She Beats Listen to "Send Them Away" (YouTube)
  2. Scout Niblett - It's Up To Emma Listen to "Gun" (YouTube)
  3. Eefje de Visser - Het Is Listen to "Er Is" (Bandcamp)
  4. Yo La Tengo - Fade Listen to "Ohm" (YouTube)
  5. Phosphorescent - Muchacho Listen to "Song For Zula" (YouTube)
  6. Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana Listen to "Tiger Tank" (YouTube)
  7. Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest Listen to "Reach For The Dead" (YouTube)
  8. Deafheaven - Sunbather Listen to "Dream House" (Bandcamp)
  9. Daughter - If You Leave Listen to "Still" (YouTube)
  10. Golden Grrrls - Golden Grrrls Listen to "Take Your Time" (YouTube)

On resurgence

As you can see, this site has been revitalized with a pretty bland design. First thing was to get it back running, after which I'll maybe be gradually adding features. There's a lot I'm in the process of figuring out. Will there be commenting? Will it be in English of gewoon in het Nederlands? Will posts be around a tweet's length or will I be posting longer articles? We'll just see.