Jammed-upon 2013

What I remember/music thoths

• I went to what felt like "no bad shows" this year?!?!
• Music listening largely felt "out of time" (i.e. "unrelated to contemporary reality, but happening in it"), comparable sorta to the way that living in new york often feels like "living on a space station" (i.e. profoundly inwardly-facing/unrelated to the rest of the world, but still located nearby, and still v. much in conversation w/ it).
• I felt I had "no idea" what was happening in the USA underground for much of the year. While I got patchy reports from touring friends, on the whole it seemed from my desk like it was pretty much the players playing on? Looking forward to catching the long tail as whatever actually happened this year gradually shakes out and makes its way to me.
• This was the first year I've ever had that felt strongly "singles"-based versus records-based or even mixes-based.
• I think youtube was my main music pipeline this year. In lieu of not being in the street and not getting handed new tapes, I listened to the audio from tons of videos = friends' gigs, tons of early house and current ghetto house room recordings, many stupid classic radio hits live (midnite toker, love train, riders on the storm, etc.), a deep bee-gees live two weeks, infinite live recordings from jamaican music events from all eras
• Stupid corollary = I deployed much of the year's listening on low bitrate streams of rips of various quality. Wondering as I write this if this contributed to why I experienced all of the live music I heard this year so positively!
• Sat next to Jeff (to whom "jammed upon" belongs) on computers five days per week most weeks. Feel like this sped up exchange/opened a lot of avenues of inquiry for me in a normal way, but it also fully enabled my command line tools usage in a way that majorly changed my offline youtube access (and thus my music listening broadly/generally).
• Listened to a lot of music especially in the spring through line six delay/amp reverb/amp overdrive setup (george harrison "krishna krishna... hare hare... guru brahma... guru vishnu..." loop in the apartment in an undulating chanting-hordes style for at least half an hour at least a couple times); listened to a lot of music in the late fall digitally pitched way down.
• Became aware that my hearing in my left ear is better than my hearing in my right ear. Feel as though this has always been the case but that I'm just now noticing it as a hearing issue, and not as a listening comfort preference.
• Not gonna provide a lot of links because I think this is gonna be a thick post but I'm confident that everything (including footage of mentioned gigs) is ~95% likely on youtube. If anyone has any recommendations (or music of their own) hit a doggie up = I 99% likely haven't heard it and will always listen!

Live

• noise nomads @ savage weekend
  This was the best set I saw this year. This was a "stationary" (seated?) NN set in a normal space with just table gear and no "props." His amp maybe had a black slayer tshirt hanging over the speaker? (Maybe the set was derived from a processed slayer recording?) The sound was blistering black wind, volume level "classic insane," but over the course of 10-15 minutes it achieved a super-peaceful/austere/gorgeous levitational/lucid-dream quality... I 100% seriously felt "truly stirred" / "deeply moved." I feel like Hartford's highly regarded and perhaps "best known" for his "wandering around" and "props" sets. these are just fine, but I say take special notice whenever he plays sitting down!
• lazy magnet @ savage weekend
  and this was the second best set I saw this year! juuuuust super beautiful monster mag "dance gems" style, fully deploying the club's very nice sound system. only set I saw this year I'd describe as 100% truly "killing it without remorse."
• vvaqrt @ savage weekend
  Was outside yacking with Sophie when this started. Went in and watched it from behind the stage... crowd going insane when "my cur" starts predicts the record playing relentlessly for the rest of the month in the house... really infected/obsessed by this one! All of these savage sets are on youtube(!) but this is the one I'll link
• richard youngs @ issue
  this fell on the "glad I live in new york" rarity spectrum = youngs/bower/campbell bands were primary in setting me on course ten years ago... very amazing to see youngs live after all that time! had no expectations for this and was thrilled/touched by it... similar quality to seeing jandek 2011... "just show up and watch"
• tsarlag @ silent barn
  I think I saw tsarlag three times this year. he finished with "in the street" at this one... opening transformation routine involved smashing an egg in his hand and then putting a glove on...
• carlos home movies night @ tomato house
  ...of course, carlos's unified project-world (including his recordings/performances as tsarlag, his comics, and his movies) continues to be extremely inspirational to me, operating at the sublime outer limits of "pure uncompromising total research." such an incredible "eye"/"ear" for the reptilian and stupefying qualities of the normal-seeming (yet melting) quadrants of above-ground reality... he ranges "ugly/desperate" -> "deep pathos" -> "super funny" so effortlessly... his "home movies" are probably his most obscure/insider-y format, but they may also be the purest distillation of his 3am/"back at my wage job again"/"born in the usa"/TV garbagio "vision" = this set featured providence regulars goofing/riffing maybe off of scripts? maybe not? with carlos as a primary character actor in each piece, and everyone else dialed deep into his slime-channel... @alexicontom and @fatherfinger were born for these roles... it was hot as fuck at this midsummer event... I drank I think two rolling rocks?
• thought broadcast @ st vitus
  as far as I can tell the best new usa underground band is THOUGHT BROADCAST... super personal primitive/claustrophobic/throbbing electronics at the edge of control, sounded like nothing else anyone is doing right now in the dance or electronic music fringes, sounded nothing like "a noise band." set was a vision!
• wolf eyes @ st vitus
  sounded good, like how you'd hope a rock band would sound in 2013 = driven past all standard "classic" rock and roll styles, but still totally just a rock band, up on stage rocking... I drank the shittiest single beer of the year at this gig, but still 100% enjoyed it (not a metaphor)... mostly this set was a head-nodder, but a lot of young-seeming dudes moshed when they played the single, titled "stabbed in the face," from the 2005(?) sub pop record - hilarious to see dudes mosh to this (on a complete "gimme a break" basis), though startling to hear that this hit still sounds amazing live... and the moshing dudes went completely back to standing and head-nodding when the set kept going! single from the new record "chattering lead" sounded just as good... in total found this gig super "relaxing" and left in a great mood! at a time when so much music feels "nostalgic" or "restrained" or "familiar" or just goofily otherwise "frameworked-out" or "about" something or "for" or "referencing" something, it felt good to see these guys driving a classically safe format (totally normal rock music) way off the worn road and into a relaxing/bizarro gray zone, with their backs apparently fully turned to whatever yardsticks lesser groups might immediately try to grab to measure up against - "industrial," "metal," "punk," "noise"...
• bill orcutt @ issue
  had been looking forward to seeing him for a few years, and sure enough the playing was stunning and emotional. I read that he has a computer job like mine, haha.
  Thought about seeing Jack Rose play "sun dogs" while watching this gig... got very drunk one night later in the week and asked Mike T if he'd encountered Jack anywhere on the usa punk trail before? when mike said jack once dissed him at terrastock, this registered to me as "a fond recollection of Jack"...

AND

• mighty crown @ sob's
  this was a fun but mega weird one... monday night super late club show, suuuuper loud and pro, rather old-seeming crowd, tons and tons of iphones and bigger camera rigs snapping/filming relentlessly... variously sounded great/horrendous... white dude in a fedora talked on the mic before mighty crown came out about how reggae events at this club "need to be supported" because the club was "part of a movement" to "bring reggae back to new york city"...
• all coney island reggae events
  organized by wkcr eastern standard time's president carter. went to three of these all-day coney island boardwalk sound system + many selector events (rode bikes twice) = as events, these were my favorite events of the year = all sounded amazing, all had a great mix of NYC styles and types present, true all-ages/all-heads... infinite pull-up... sat on the beach and listened to the gigantic bass and the ocean... true ecstatic summer events
• ashrae fax @ glasslands
  such a funny realization of an old love that feels so far away... went to this after jessica's opening at tomato house sorta with harris but lost track of him, talked to jp about lockwood incidents that'd gone down since I left... felt so unfortunate that this gig came about four years years too late for me = while it stirred a lot of memories of the house or whatever, it felt like it "didn't apply" to me anymore, though it sounded very good (in sorta obviously the same way that lockwood already wasn't "my house" in any way anymore at this gig either).
• saw pak and dungeon broads at least three times each this year, favorite pak set was at silent barn, favorite dungeon broads set was at savage, favorite hang-sesh was on the bench outside of the nyc house venue for like four hours waiting for it to be time for load-in, waiting for the prior "performance art" event to end/clean-up ("typical")... young male at silent barn was a very nice set to catch this year too, being a long-time fan of bootlegs of his live gigs... and separate from that, it was fun to watch him ascend to the higher echelons of underground dance music this year generally! = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-DbkAMtog... Raspberry Bulbs @ St Vitus... The Body @ Acheron very nice... Chip glared at a young moshing dude and a zillion people successively hugged him afterward... ironing @ savage weekend felt bowled directly down several of my areas of interest = mostly echoed/skipping/piled-up dancehall 45s and tapes, played "casually loud" with nice room reverb...

WKCR

wkcr constantly on in the apartment, or switched on immediately when driving back into nyc city limits, or even occasionally on at work... highlights:

• rapt in the schaap cut always but "pedro gomez"/"little suede shoes" era birdflight shined this year
• lester young birthday broadcast (and throughout the year, lester young 2 hour youtube playlist on repeat in the apartment, me and Shea'la drinking infinite bottles of wine in our kitchen)
• teddy wilson birthday broadcast and comparable playlist
• louie armstrong birthday broadcast jamming on Jeff & KW's roof on the fourth of july / in the car on the way back from sandy hook national park exhausted and covered in mosquito/fly bites, watching flashing lights of fireworks exploding behind the city
• eastern standard time every saturday
• taking a bath with the raga show playing in the other room
• wanting to murder someone whenever any of the kcr talk programs or fuuuuuucking columbia university sports shows were on

records / singles

the caretaker "an empty bliss beyond the world"
paysage d'hiver "nacht"
paysage d'hiver "einsamkeit"
harold budd "the white arcades"
vox populi "half dead ganja music"

• this record set played constantly during studio late night 2013. the paysage records were especially versatile = I took naps to them, listened to them at work, painted to them, AND got drunk to them all numerous times

vvaqrt "than on eother and you have 0 answers?" lp

• rules

lazy magnet discography boxsets
lazy magnet "minotaur"
lazy magnet "pure psychic zero"

• very enjoyed a correspondence with harris this year (what's up my dude!!!), very thankful that he provided so much material. feel like this was the lyrical material I quoted the most this year by far. crystal cassette still getting much play too! youtubes of savage weekend set were played maximum times.

legowelt memphis mix part 2

• probably the best mix I heard this year

raspberry bulbs live on wfmu, via mike t; esp. "tissue in the bloodstream" & "taken apart"

infinite early 80s ron hardy and farley funk mixes at gridface

• this was all I listened to in february/march. (via jeff)

tsarlag "gagged in boonesville" LP

• superb

monopoly child live on social harmony
interviewed @ bomb

• this totally good baroque/exotica soundcloud set capped a relatively quiet monopoly child year... the toucan YYYYEAHHHH sounds on this are definitive though! returned a few times to this inspirational/highly relatable interview with spencer at bomb this year too = exciting to strongly agree with someone whose extended body of music work I've been watching unfold for what's now a long time

daft punk live @ rex club 1997
bangalter in wisconsin 1996

• at a time when it's easy & correct to find daft punk extremely cheesy and annoying on musical, conceptual, and cultural bases alike, it's worth rewinding approximately 20 years to these two totally psychotic live sets. bangalter may as well be playing this wisconsin gig at 3am with your choice of contemporary hitters, all of whom are still basically trying to touch this rendition of "rollin and scratchin."

poirier "corruption proof" mix
larry levan "legends of the dance floor"
various blowing up the workshop mixes

• office-only repeated plays

infinite jamaican music 45s on youtube (not bothering listing; build your own black hole there)
zz top "manic mechanic" (via adam)
esplendor geometrico tracks (via mikey)
xamiga "wolfpack"
lb dub corp "roller"
dj joker "boy is mine"
blawan "getting me down" (via jules)
telex "my time" (commonly imagine this is lazy mag)
wolf eyes "chattering lead"
space "magic fly"
george harrison "my sweet lord"
bee gees "jive talking (live chicago)"
detroit in effect "r u married?" (via om source)
dj screw "june 27" (via jeff)
elton "benny and the jets (vocal)"
trash company "I don't mind" (via robert)
dome "cruel when complete" (via robert)
jeanne vomit-terror & ed sunspot "seat of same" (this just is robert)
richard simms "under your spell"
musical youth "pass the dutchie" ("is it pronounced doochie or dutchy")
george kranz "trommeltanz (din daa daa)" (farley extended version repeatedly)
gaznevada "ic love affair" (via jeff)
krayzie bone "murda mo"
mac demarco "rock n roll nightclub" (driving around LA in mikey's car)

• In zero order all of these singles got severe play; all of them are on youtube except the joker track (on soundcloud)
• pleasant returns to nobukazu takemura "icefall," k.a.b. "anjua (sneaky3)," don carlos "alone," and many covers/versions of aphex "fingerbib" on youtube in the morning before work

THANKS to everyone who recommended or pointed me in the direction of new music this year both represented on the bowl (@ed_sunspot, @meagersunlight, @wild_egg, @sarcofaggus, @saranrapjs, @z3j3z, @baropalma) and not (Mike Stoltz, Mike Taylor).

And of course huge thanks to THE ORIGINAL UPLOADER!!!!!!!