Saving the best for last, we’ve chosen our 51 favorite albums of 2013, pulled from the acclaimed and the unsung — some of the best as well as most boundary-pushing releases from rock and beyond.
Coliseum has spent a decade of existence wedged within a punk-rock Venn diagram, falling in the overlap of punk, hardcore, rock and roll, and all sorts of “post” subgenres. Here ringleader Ryan Patterson talks about its punishing new record and much more.
“I need some bad will,” repeats Ryan Patterson, guitarist/singer for hardcore-punk outfit Coliseum, at the climax of his band’s new video. Filmed at an impromptu outdoor performance that gets shut down, the black-and-white video concludes with Patterson being handcuffed and put in a cop car, but not before he expresses some major disdain:
“I hate your band. I hate your voice. I hate your words. I hate your fucking tattoos.
I hate your god. I hate your greed. I’ll hate anything you’ve got, and I hate your smirking face too.”
Rob Crow is one of those prolific (albeit underrated) songwriters who can dabble in any genre at any given time. Keeping busy with his many projects (including his solo singer/songwriter material as well as his heavy-metal outfit Goblin Cock), Crow is perhaps best known for his work with indie outfit Pinback.
Formerly one-half of experimental duo The Books, singer / multi-instrumentalist Nick Zammuto has gone the solo course, forming the aptly named Zammuto with a group of complementary musicians. Check out the multi-camera rehearsal piece for “The Shape of Things to Come,” complete with neck-bending perspectives.
In just one more trip around the sun, another swarm of immensely talented but under-recognized musicians has harnessed its collective talents and discharged its creations into the void. This list is but one fraction of those dedicated individuals who caught our ears with some serious jams.
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The newest album from Portland, Oregon-based instrumental-rock band Grails, Deep Politics, got a nod in a recent installment of This Week’s Best Albums. Mixing cinematic compositions with worldly sounds and a little ’60s psychedelia, it encapsulates, perhaps better than any of its other releases, what Grails is capable of as a band.
For its guest playlist, Grails made 11 picks based on a new, tongue-in-cheek method of determining a song’s quality.
The 11 Best Songs for OD-ing by Grails
Emil Amos: At a shitty party some years ago, a man was heard to have said in a drunken defense of the Eagles, “More people have shot up and died to this band than will ever hear ours!”
That man was me. After this rip in the logical fabric of the universe was torn, a new yardstick was introduced to the high-record-collector culture around the concept of “Can you OD to it, though?” And then the inevitable schools of thought naturally followed: “Is it a harsh track to OD to, or more mellow/inviting?”
See what you can get out of these, enjoy yourself, and don’t die!
Last week, guitar-heavy, instrumental-rock band Explosions in the Sky took its slow-moving, hard-rocking show to the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York. Attendees got a glimpse of new material from the Austin-based band; its new album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence, 4/26/11), comes out in a mere two weeks. Photographer Gavin Thomas was on hand to capture the action.
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More than ever, Louisville’s Young Widows is teaching listeners to appreciate the quietness in post-punk.
Consider, for contrast, the slobbering borderline silliness of Pissed Jeans, or any other band that draws on a ton of distortion. At first listen, Young Widows might seem to have something missing. The vocals lead the songs but aren’t panicked or even immediately catchy. The guitars often walk an eerie line between clean and dissonant. The rhythm section — though hardly crude, if you’re paying attention — often favors a ceremonial plod.
In between, there’s a roomy silence, occasionally breached with a wandering guitar echo or backing vocal. But soon it stops feeling incomplete. That lurking silence, and the unresolved feeling that it creates, becomes the hook.
Coliseum: Sister Faith (Temporary Residence, 4/30/13)
