Jordan's Best of 2008 (Picks by the Editor) Feature by Jordan A. Baker
Twenty-five releases, 296 songs, 22 different record labels. Get all of the songs, put them in a playlist. Hit shuffle. Enjoy.
25. LIPONA - Atlas (Self-Released) Merging together the traditional stylings of 90s Epi/Fat melodicore and the recent technical wizardly displayed by such bands as A WILHELM SCREAM and more melodically, RUFIO, LIPONA made an unabashed splash in 2008 with the release of Atlas. With no label backing, or the push of friends in high places, LIPONA turned heads solely through word of mouth, proving once again that great music has the ability to filter out on its own.
24. H2O - Nothing to Prove (Bridge Nine) Maybe this is a nostalgia pick, maybe not, but H2O's predictable return-to-form release is everything a long time fan of the band could ask for, minus maybe another six to eight minutes of music. Despite the 20 minute runtime, which is remarkable given the seven year absence of recorded material from the band, Nothing to Prove is the anthem-blasting melodic hardcore getaway release that we all slavishly hoped would surface. Cynicism be damned, H2O are still one of the best in keeping hardcore fun.
23. HOSTAGE CALM - Lens (Red Scroll) The latest band to carry the mantle of Connecticut hardcore is HOSTAGE CALM, a group that effortlessly bridges together the sharp intensity of Can I Say era DAG NASTY, with stomping ground heroes WITH HONOR and AMBITIONS. Lens maintains an energy level more appropriate for a Redbull injected hamster, and the dominating vocals of Chris Martin grip your ears like a vice. With the demise of bands like BETRAYED and THE FIRST STEP in the past couple of years, HOSTAGE CALM fills an obvious void.
22. DILLINGER FOUR - Civil War (Fat Wreck) Was the hype around Civil War centered around the band itself, or what was it rather an expression of frustration in how few power pop-punk bands are still kicking around? DILLINGER FOUR's notorious near-recluse status is the stuff of message board shenanigans, but it belittles the fact that their melodic punk sound is undeniably unique, and has substantially matured with every full-length release. DILLINGER FOUR may have lost a few paces on Civil War, and a marginal amount of aggression has been traded in for melodic convention, but the stinging social and personal lyrics leave no doubt about the band's prowess to provoke and explode.
21. UNEARTH - The March (Metal Blade) If a Honda is a vehicle that sells itself, UNEARTH is a metalcore band that roams the same sphere. With a kind of consistency that would make Japanese manufacturing production systems proud, UNEARTH are the model of efficient, bowel-loosening heaviness. From the titanic double-bass cluster bombing, to the snarling guitar leads and shout-along vocal theater, The March holds the line with UNEARTH greats, III: In the Eyes of Fire, and The Oncoming Storm.
20. LESS THAN JAKE - GNV FLA (Sleep it Off) Liberation. Freedom from the record contract. The idiot executive in the suit can die his own death. Few bands have been more excited about separating from their major label stints than LESS THAN JAKE, who have flirted with pop-culture stardom for nearly a dozen years, but never got very close to the sun. So with a recalibration in order, an appreciation for being a cult-favorite, and and a streak of inspiration that hasn't been as bright since Hello Rockview (Ska! Horns! Punk! Oh My!), LESS THAN JAKE zero in on what they do best and drop the shiny pop riptide that marred their last two releases. Welcome home boys, we're happy to have you around.
19. COLD WORLD - Dedicated to Babies Who Came Feet First (Deathwish) Like their city-mates in BLACKLISTED, there's little that is warm and cuddly about COLD WORLD. The group's groove-focused take on metallic hardcore tickles the ears as gently as a feather duster coated in drywall nails. Concrete slab guitar crunch, and defiant, 'you'll never take me down' lead vocals saw off the tip of the band's shotgun intimidation. Dedicated to Babies is an assist when you simply want to shut the world out.
18. ABLE BAKER FOX - Voices (Second Nature) With an ex-member line that includes SMALL BROWN BIKE and THE CASKET LOTTERY, ABLE BAKER FOX could have been just another frustrating tease of musical potential viewed through the scope of past glories. The group however, is the rare bird that lives up to its personnel highlights and then runs a little dance around expectations. Voices features richly textured post-hardcore with a blatant sense of midwestern austerity, and a nod to Dischord's beat friendly legends HOOVER and FUGAZI. An all-star cloaked in a trench coat of modesty is still an all-star.
17. BRIDGE & TUNNEL - East/West (No Idea) No Idea might as well start selling a cologne named Eau de Basement in support of its cornering of fabulous punk rock bands that imbue themselves with the selfless basement show spirit. Punk rock as a cultural topic thrives when discussed in connection with No Idea, and especially its annual The Fest event. This year's capturing of "the No Idea" sound unequivocally goes to BRIDGE & TUNNEL's East/West. This band that takes its HOT WATER MUSIC influence seriously, and puts as much thought and relevance into its self-aware lyrics, striking a particular chord with the line "So please bear with me while I try to balance my professional posturing with my punk rock posturing." The shoe fits.
16. TERROR - The Damned, The Shamed (Century Media) Not only are TERROR one of the most influential bands in modern hardcore, but they are also a band that pushes itself to the limits on each recording, and usually with a make-shift line-up outside of a few mainstays. The Damned, The Shamed takes TERROR on a decidedly more metal and thrashy path, with quicker solos, feisty circle-pit encouraging action, and less pauses to mosh the shit out of something (though I suppose it's all relative). Like UNEARTH, TERROR are merely fine turning their monster, and the end result never disappoints.
15. RISE AGAINST - Appeal to Reason (DGC) I knocked Appeal to Reason earlier this year for being too much in RISE AGAINST's comfort zone, and for having an assembly-line feel, but over time, this full-length has showed its earworm strength. Vocalist Tim McIlrath has turned into one of the sharpest frontmen that melodic punk/hardcore has to offer, and Appeal to Reason pedestals his finest sounding recording to date. If FALL OUT BOY's Patrick Stump can sing his way out of a paper bag, McIllrath can do the same to a reusable knitted sack. Fast, slow, mid-tempo, it matters not, as McIllrath is a master in inflection manipulation.
14. TORCHE - Meanderthal (Hydra Head) TORCHE riddle the stoner rock genre with a hail of bullets on Meanderthal, proving that you can play this particular form of guitar-driven rock with a frisky tempo and the occasional Top 40 style vocal melody. Virtually every stoner rock stereotype gets hosed apart on this release as TORCHE dismantle their wall-of-sound approach from earlier releases and create some kind of atmospheric mortal combat. Hydra Head has been pushing the heavy-music envelope for years and this is their best release since CAVE IN's Jupiter.
13. MISERY SIGNALS - Controller (Ferret) With three full-lengths to their name, controlled-chaos, power-ambience metalcore act MISERY SIGNALS continue to impress. Sweeping soundscapes and jarring, technical hardcore collide mercilessly on Controller. Devin Townsend's engineering fingerprints have the band sounding exceptionally crisp, but the abrasiveness of the guitars and Karl Schubach's evolving gutteral vocals are the lasting qualities. Another big step forward for a band that already had a creativity advantage.
12. TIM BARRY - Manchester (Suburban Home) I would never take anything away from the importance that AVAIL has had on punk and hardcore over the years, but it was hardly a secret that lead singer and songwriter Tim Barry had musical skills that loomed far larger than what the punk rock umbrella could provide. On his second full-length, Manchester, Barry's Americana drenched country, rock, and folk speaks to the soul of anyone who has ever second-guessed a path in life, tried to fight their way out of a damning hardship, or believed in something that simply could not be understood by those less attached.
11. NO USE FOR A NAME - The Feel Good Record of the Year (Fat Wreck) Opening track, "Biggest Lie," is the melodicore circuit breaker that Leche Con Carne fans have been begging for from NO USE FOR A NAME for years. Sure, it's a bit misleading overall, as The Feel Good Record of the Year is the not the second coming of forbidden beat celebration, but it's a comforting nod to the fact that these guys can still do the speed and melody tandem better than just about anyone else. It's no wonder that NO USE FOR A NAME have survived to record a ninth full-length.
10. DEFEATER - Travels (Top Shelf) Like HOSTAGE CALM, Boston-based DEFEATER broke through the hardcore ranks this year with a debut full-length that had the word of mouth machine rolling in its favor, so much so that Bridge Nine signed the band (who feature popular producer Jay Maas), and will re-release Travels in 2009. DEFEATER understandably have their grounding in AMERICAN NIGHTMARE inspired hardcore, but unlike so many other bands who fail to move past what lit their fire, the band takes the basic AN framework and runs over it with standout musicianship, reckless energy, and a rich emotional context that is spelled in concept-swirling lyrics. Prepare to hear a lot more about this band in 2009.
9. GOJIRA - The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) French metal monsters GOJIRA live up to their Godzilla namesake with The Way of All Flesh, a monolithic progressive metal assault that is as longwinded as it is unpredictably explosive and expressively patient. GOJIRA play technical metal with the full-knowledge that their talents hold all of the cards and that the power of musical authority rests in their hands. You follow along to a GOJIRA song because you cannot pull your ears away from it, a tremendous feat for a band that routinely pushes tracks past the six minute mark.
8. UNDEROATH - Lost in the Sound of Separation (Tooth and Nail) Generally, the rule of popularity and commercial success dictates a band's crawl towards more mainstream pastures as record sales soar. UNDEROATH has bucked that trend for their past two full-length's, 2006's Define the Great Line, and this year's Lost in the Sound of Separation. Moody, deadly serious in execution, and weighty in all the right places, like a plumped up, turbocharged version of FRODUS, UNDEROATH obliterate the pop remnants from the band's They're Only Chasing Safety days and provide the fitting soundtrack to an modern economic apocalypse.
7. THE HOLD STEADY - Stay Positive (Vagrant) It's a wonderful thing to have a band that always makes you smile. THE HOLD STEADY aren't the saviors of anything, be it indie rock, bar rock, border-line alcoholic rock, etc., but they are like having an ace in your back pocket. Stay Positive sticks to THE HOLD STEADY's party-line of social deconstruction lyrics, but the endgame is always a swath of brightness, pushed by revved up guitars and keys, and Craig Finn's signature warble. How can you go wrong with a band that openly states in their own lyrics that their songs are sing-along songs?
6. VERSE - Aggression (Bridge Nine) We didn't get a new BANE full-length this year. Rivalry Records has gone on a new-release hiatus. The 20 year anniversary of the Spirit of '88 didn't bring out another youth-crew revival, despite my fond hopes. Overall, it was not a banner year for traditional old-school hardcore, but there was most certainly a hot spot with VERSE's third full-length Aggression. Bolstered by a charged recording, an instant classic in the brainy song "Unlearn," and a culmination of finger-point frenzy and breakdown thunder, VERSE pick up a torch that was looking for a new hand with a firm grip.
5. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy) Have you listened to something that kept your foot tapping for more than 30 minutes straight? No let down... no wandering artistic posturing to slice apart the momentum - just pure rockin' fun? Much has been made of THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM's Bruce Springsteen infatuation and Brian Fallon's artfully crafted time-capsule lyrics, but what propels the whole force behind the band's ascension is its innocent reflection of youth's temptations, fault lines, and frustrations. A killer guitar sound and a handful of molten choruses don't do any harm either.
4. ALKALINE TRIO - Agony & Irony (Epic) ALKALINE TRIO found a way, found a way, found a way to finally make the big honkin' punk influenced pop-rock album of their careers with Agony & Irony. Sure - it lacks the unfiltered coarseness of Goddamnit, and the barely cloaked fiery misery of From Here to Infirmary, but the songwriting on Agony & Irony reaches the pinnacle of the band's discography. The maudlin excess of Crimson is trimmed while huge sing-alongs loom everywhere, making tracks like "Love, Love, Kiss, Kiss," and the closer "Into the Night," burn with a grin of bitter delight.
3. WAIT IN VAIN - Seasons (Think Fast!) In 2007, planetary alignment was disrupted with the release of a new LIFETIME full-length. This year lacked a big-deal comeback record like that, but it did feature the debut full-length of WAIT IN VAIN, who feature former TRIAL guitarist and chief songwriter Timm McIntosh. TRIAL's straight-edge hardcore legacy has only grown since the band's demise in 2000, and WAIT IN VAIN's successor-in-interest standing is worthy of comparison. Seasons is the defining metallic hardcore release of 2008 - a 10 song collection of dramatic, chugging guitars, double-bass leveling, and gang-vocal might, all knitted together by socially combative lyrics and McIntosh's throaty growl. What's old is new once again.
2. BLACKLISTED - Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God (Deathwish) The musical temerity of George Hirsch and the rest of BLACKLISTED hits like a violent car wreck within the first few minutes of Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier Than God. BLACKLISTED's brand of surging, twisting, mangled hardcore frames grimy guitar riffs with vocal outbursts, whiplash percussion, and the occasional eerie stillness of air after a lightning strike. Past endeavors by the band have tracked the line of music from AMERICAN NIGHTMARE and THE SUICIDE FILE, but this one has a SST Records stamp all over it, and that's a very, very good thing.
1. PAINT IT BLACK - New Lexicon (Jade Tree) You're not living in the real world It means nothing to you
The three PAINT IT BLACK full-lengths, starting with CVA and ending with New Lexicon provide a spectrum of political and social angst under the Bush Administration. In this bit of non-fiction, politicians put their best interests first and square off unsympathetically with an ignorant consumer-culture public whose scrutiny of public affairs occurs solely when it hits them in the pocketbook. New Lexicon caps off this trilogy with style points and them some, particularly in handing over mixing duties to hip-hop producer Oktopus. The end result is recording that takes PAINT IT BLACK's chaotic post youth-crew style hardcore and jacks it up with a bass explosion, bound to shatter glass at the right decibel level. What else should one except from Dan Yemin and friends?
Honorable Mentions:
ALL SHALL PERISH - Awaken The Dreamers (Nuclear Blast)
AMBUSH! - American Monster (Hotfoot)
ANTI-FLAG - The Bright Lights of America (RCA)
BANNER PILOT - Resignation Day (Go-Kart)
BAUMER - Were It Not For You (Eyeball)
BOB MOULD - District Line (Anti)
CANCER BATS - Hail Destroyer (Black Market)
CLOUDS - We Are Above You (Hydra Head)
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
DON THE READER - Humanesque (Deathcote)
DRAGONFORCE - Ultra Beatdown (Roadrunner)
EARLY GRAVES - We: The Guillotine (Ironclad)
ENERGY - Invasion of the Mind (Bridge Nine)
FUCKED UP - The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)
GRAVE MAKER - Bury Me At Sea (Think Fast!)
HAVE HEART - Songs to Scream at the Sun (Bridge Nine)
HUMAN HIGHWAY - Moody Motorcycle (Suicide Squeeze)
JR. JUGGERNAUT - Ghost Poison (Suburban Home)
LA DISPUTE - Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair (No Sleep)
LAGRECIA - On Parallels (Suburban Home)
LET ME RUN - Meet be at the Bottom (XOXO)
MESHUGGAH - ObZen (Nuclear Blast)
METALLICA - Death Magnetic (Warner)
MILES AWAY - Consequences (6131)
MILLENCOLIN - Machine 15 (Epitaph)
NO HARM DONE - Escape (Think Fast)
NORMA JEAN - The Anti-Mother (Solid State)
PENNYWISE - Reason to Believe (MySpace)
POLAR BEAR CLUB - Sometimes Things Just Disappear (Red Leader)
PROTEST THE HERO - Fortress (Vagrant)
PUNCHLINE - Just Say Yes (Modern Short Stories)
S.S.S. - Dividing Line (Earache)
SCREAM HELLO - Everything Is Always Still Happening (Red Leader)
SHAI HULUD - Misanthropy Pure (Metal Blade)
STATIC RADIO - An Evening of Bad Decisions (Black Numbers)
STICK TO YOUR GUNS - Comes from the Heart (Century Media)
SUICIDE NOTE - Empty Rooms (Hawthorne Street)
THE LOVED ONES - Build and Burn (Fat Wreck)
THE SWORD - Gods of the Earth (Kemado)
THIS IS HELL - Misfortunes (Trustkill)
THURSDAY/ENVY - Split CD (Temporary Residence)
TRANSIT - This Will Not Define Us (Barret)
TWO COW GARAGE - Speaking in Cursive (Suburban Home)
UNITED NATIONS - S/T (Eyeball)
UNREAL CITY - Ephemeral Subsistence (Double or Nothing)
WALLS OF JERICHO - The American Dream (Trustkill)
Seven Excellent Collections, Live Albums, and Reissues:
1. RANCID - B Sides and C Sides (Rancid Records)
2. GOOD RIDDANCE - Remain in Memory - The Final Show (Fat Wreck)
3. CRIME IN STEREO - Selective Wreckage (Bridge Nine)
4. THRICE - Live at the House of Blues (Vagrant)
5. BAD RELIGION - New Maps of Hell (Reissue with Bonus acoustic songs) (Epitaph)
6. SWINGIN' UTTERS - Hatest Grits: B-Sides and Bullshit (Fat Wreck)
7. DIE YOUNG - Through the Valleys In Between (Still Life)
Five Great EPs:
1. REIGN SUPREME - American Violence (Deathwish/Malfunction)
2. ALPHA & OMEGA - Devil's Bed (6131)
3. ONE DAY AS A LION - S/T (Anti)
4. TORCHBEARER - Demo EP (Self-Released)
5. THE HUNGER - Hope Against Hope (Shield)
I Can't Believe It's Been Ten Years Since I Bought...
STRUNG OUT - Twisted By Design (Fat Wreck)
Pros:
1. A baby boy!
2. eMusic landing the Revelation Records catalog and many of its distributed labels
3. "Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music"
4. Lala.com
5. Pastepunk celebrates its 10th Anniversary; we made some great coffee mugs too.
Cons:
1. Another Mets late-season collapse
2. Only one release from Jade Tree this year? None from Rivalry? What about Indecision Records? Thick Records?
3. The great back-up-not-used-as-a-back-up hard drive crash of September 2008.
4. SlotMusic - haha!
5. BROKENCYDE
